Part 12: Branches and Boars

Back in the Standard History, our mission is to infiltrate the capital city of Granorg, where we'll meet with an agent who will give us our assignment.

Along the way we met a group of traveling entertainers and chose to accompany them to the city. Unfortunately, we were stopped at the border and told to prove that we are, in fact, entertainers.



(That sword dance Kiel taught me... I'll try that!) I am trained, sir, as a sword dancer. If I might ask you to stand over here?

Stocke draws his sword.

"Wh-Why? What're you gonna do?"
Shhh, sir... It's dangerous to move during the act...



"I'm... I'm not cut?"
"Wow!"

Music: Unending Clear Blue Sky

"I see... V-Very impressive! Okay, move along, all of you."
Thank you, sirs.
'Scuse us!



We cross the border and stop shortly afterwards.

Heheh... Did you see the look on that soldier's face? I nearly burst out laughing! You're full of surprises, Stocke! I didn't know you had such hidden talents!
Truly, it was a remarkable display of swordsmanship! Should you ever find yourself in need of employment, please consider joining our troupe.
Yeah!
...
Then again, I can't imagine one so skilled having any difficulty finding work. Now then... We should be going. We aim to head west a little towards an open area we always use for camping. Would you consider staying the night with us? We have superb tents. You'll sleep in perfect comfort.
Why not, Stocke? The job doesn't begin until tomorrow anyway.
Sounds good. I'm sorry if it puts you out, but we'll stay.

We head west for a bit then we turn south and arrive at the clearing.



We've arrived, everyone.
We're here!

Aht excitedly runs around the camp ground.

Hey! Keep running around like that and you'll fall and hurt yourself.
I'll be okay!
Haha, she's a spunky kid.
Liese and I shall prepare the tents. Would you mind hunting up something for our dinner? We'll need firewood as well, if you please.
Let's go on a scavenger hunt!
Sure. How much do you need?
Oh, about five should do.
Five good pieces of firewood... All right. We'll be back soon.
Aht! Stay out of their way, okay?
I will! Let's go, Stocke!

Alright, a fetch quest! We head north and are immediately struck with more dialog.



This place is bigger than I thought it'd be. Where do we start looking?
I'll show you! Stocke, can you come see a second?
?

Stocke steps closer to Aht, and she begins to glow and float.



Aht and Stocke both sparkle for a second, and...



Mana Sight is the ability to sense that which cannot be seen with the naked eye. By detecting faint changes in the flow of Mana, you can find hidden items. Be careful, however: You must be very close to hidden items in order to find them.

Can you see anything?



Stocke is referring to that faint sparkle behind Aht. It's more noticeable when it's animating.

I knew it!
You know, I've heard of this. Beastkind supposedly have strange powers that humans don't.
Huh? Really?
Yep! Stocke should be able to see little tiny movements in Mana now!
That's amazing! Could I learn to do it, too?
Hmm, I don't think so.
What? Why not?
My grampa said you need a special gift to be able to do this. I could tell that Stocke has the special gift!
I-I see... How disappointing. But your grandfather sounds like a very wise man.

Aht picks up the sparkling object.

Okay, Stocke! You gotta find more of these!

Obtained Withered Branch.

All right. I just need to look around using this power, right?

We've already unblocked the other timeline, but as usual, we're going to keep going until we hit another roadblock on this end before we go back. After this it's going to start taking a lot longer to unclear roadblocks, so there won't be quite as much jumping around as there is now.

Music: Beyond the Wilderness



I haven't shown it yet, but now that we've learned to sword dance, we can cut these plants down. Our second Withered Branch is on the ground behind them.



So it seems... Let's look elsewhere, then.

We get these messages every time we pick up the last Withered Branch in an area. It's just the game's way of telling you to go to the next screen and search there. It's nice of them to do this, since the branches are invisible until you walk over them, so it would take awhile to decide you've found them all.



At this point I took the time to fight until Aht hit level 13, so she would learn Greather Heal. For 6MP (twice the cost of Heal), it heals about three times as much as Heal does. This skill will be useful to us for most of the game, and learning it this early is one of the reasons Aht is such a great character.



After heading east, we turn north as if we're going to Granorg. Our third Withered Branch is underneath this bent tree.

Being made to collect five invisible items is kind of annoying, but at least they're all in fairly obvious locations. It really doesn't take as long to find them as you would expect.



A little further north, on the next screen, there's a little alcove with nothing but a couple of bushes. Our fourth Withered Branch is in this alcove.

I don't think there are any more around here.
So it seems... Let's look elsewhere, then.
Let's go towards the south hill.
The south hill?
I have a secret place there.
Is that so... All right, let's go.



If we just keep going south from where we found the fourth branch, we hit a cliff. There's an old grave (pictured above), and a couple of trees. Our final Withered Branch is underneath one of the trees, and cannot be found unless we've already collected the other four.

Music: Unending Clear Blue Sky



!

Aht walks closer to the edge of the cliff.



"We can't show it to you, but trust us on this one. This cliff has the most beautiful view you've ever seen. It's such a fantastic view our artists just couldn't do it justice."

I can see a wasteland out there. Whoa, it's pretty huge. I could swear there was more greenery when I saw this place last year.
I hear that a lot. People say the plant life is receding year after year... Alistel's in the same situation as Granorg when it comes to needing fertile land.
The Prophet Noah says that the desertification is because of Queen Protea's tyranny. He says the land goes bad when a ruler with an impure heart rules over it.
Yes, I've heard that too. Though it was from his mouthpiece, General Hugo. The slow drying up of livable land has everyone scared.
......

Aht notices something to the left of the screen.



Wow! Such a big piggy!
!
Wait, get back! That's a boar! It's dangerous!

Boss: Fumble
Music: Edge of Green
This boss isn't terribly interesting and my strategy is pretty repetitive. This video is mostly to showcase how overpowered Aht's traps are, so watch it if you're interested in that.



We're up against a giant boar and two mushrooms. If we destroy both of the mushrooms the boar will just call more, so I kill one and save the other for after the boar is dead.



My strategy was to lay a trap with Aht, then push the boar onto it and combo it. Since the boar takes up four spaces, pushing it down causes it to overlap with one of the mushrooms, letting us take it out while dealing significant damage to the boar at the same time.



The mushrooms spend most of their turns healing the enemy party. With only one mushroom the HP recovered is trivial, though, so it's not really a problem. Aht does twice that damage with a single Electric Trap.



The real threat in this battle is the boar, who hits hard. He likes to use this Stampede attack, which hits everyone five times for about 15-20 damage (a little more for Aht) with each hit. After we take out the boar, finishing off the last mushroom is trivial.

Someone in the thread asked me to show off the stuff you can steal from bosses. I'm used to not having Steal, so it completely slipped my mind this time and I forgot to do it. Fumble has a Sleep Wing, which is an item that may inflict sleep upon the target. The Rare Mushrooms have no items.

Music: Unending Clear Blue Sky



Obtained Fresh Meat

That was a really big piggy! You guys are so strong... When I grow up, I wanna be as strong as Stocke and his friends!
...... Raynie, why don't you take it from here.

Stocke turns away from the others.

Huh? Sure, fine with me. But aren't you being a little cold, Stocke?

Raynie turns to face Aht

Look, Aht! We're gonna stuff ourselves silly tonight!
Yaaaaay! I bet everyone's hungry back at the camp!

Now that we've got the meat and firewood, we can return to Vanoss and Liese, who should be done setting up the tents by now.



Here y'go.

You handed over the Withered Branches.
You handed over the Fresh Meat.

My, it looks like we'll be having quite a feast this night. Thank you for your hard work. You too, of course, Aht.
Heeheehee.
You seem to have been after some big game. Wasn't it dangerous for you to hunt?
Don't worry about it. It wasn't much.
Hey, mind if I pitch in on the cooking?
Not at all! We'd welcome your help.
And then, and then! Stocke was like...
Yes, yes. Why don't we chat after dinner's ready, Aht?
Uurgh, okay...
Hahaha...

...



See!? That's why Stocke's awesome!
I'm surprised you dealt so easily with such a vicious beast...
And that's after you saved us, too. You must be pretty strong.
Hey, Stocke...? I guess it's goodbye when we get to the city.
True enough.
I know! I'll give you a goodbye present!



Obtained White Page.

What's this? It seems very old...
It is! It's a page from a really old book! They say if you hold onto it, God will protect you.
Impressive. You're sure...?
Uh-huh! I want you to have it, Stocke... Besides... Only you can meet God anyways.
God...?
Also, um...
...
Nah, never mind!
?

Aht leaves and Vanoss approaches us.



Hm? Is something wrong? Ah! That's...
Aht gave it to me... Is it special somehow?
Aht did that? I see... Please look after it closely for her.
...Yeah. I will.
Well then, I'd say it's time we got some rest.

...



Morning, Stocke!
Good morning, everyone! Granorg lies just ahead. Liese and I will pack up the tents before heading there... Why don't the rest of you go on ahead with Aht?
Yeah! I wanna go with Stocke!
Aht! Don't cause any trouble, you hear?
I won't!
Granorg's north of here, right?
Indeed it is. It shouldn't be long before you arrive. Have a safe journey!

Music: Beyond the Wilderness

Granorg is to the north of where we found the third and fourth Withered Branches. As we approach, we notice something.




Look!
Is that...?



From the looks of the wounds, he ran afoul of a beast of some kind rather than bandits.
Man. That sucks.
Before the war, there were many more Granorg soldiers stationed around here. Their job was to protect the merchants who used this road... But now they're all reassigned to the battlefield. Things are bad in Alistel, but Granorg isn't having an easy time of it either.
You can say that again. Between Hugo and Protea, why isn't there a single decent ruler around!?
General Hugo's not a king, though. He's only a mouthpiece for the Prophet Noah's proclamations...
Doesn't matter! Hugo's still the one making things worse. It's all "Prophet this" and "Prophet that," but who knows what he's really thinking?
Well, I'll at least agree that General Hugo is a little creepy.
And speaking of the Prophet, has he shown himself even once these past few years? He's leaving everything in Hugo's hands, and Hugo's milking it for all he's worth.
Raynie... I think you've said enough.
O-Oh, right... Sorry.
...... It's okay. Don't be scared. I'll tell you where you should go.




When the light fades, the corpse is no longer there.

What was that...!?
Aht!
I sent him away.
You sent him? What're you talking about?
I have to take people who are done on earth to the heavens. It's my job.
Your job?
I've heard of this... Satyros shamans are holy ones who watch over the souls of all... They're central to the Satyros way of life. Are you a shaman, then, Aht?
A shaman? I don't know.
Wow. It looks like she doesn't really realize what she did.
????: That was...!



A woman and a hooded figure are walking by, but stop as they pass us.

Hm? Who's that?
???? (Hooded Figure): That power just now... I could swear that...
???? (Woman): M'lady, if we don't hurry...
???? (Hooded Figure): ...Of course. Thank you, Marie.

The two of them continue into Granorg.

There they go. I wonder what that was about. Well, whatever.
Let's hurry on ahead.



Continuing north brings us to the map. We can't go back to Alistel for now, our only option is Granorg.

Next time we'll enter the city and get our assignment.