Part 5: Third Person Singular

"Are you sure we should eliminate it? Can't you just maybe open it for a second to let us go through and then close it again?"

"That sounds like a lot of work. What's the worst that could happen?"

"OK! The barrier is gone!"



The Cave of Waterfalls is our first real "dungeon" although right now we're just passing through. We'll be back shortly, however.



The trap roulette returns from Secret of Mana. Basically the ring here spins at a high speed and you have to stop it with the action button and see what it lands on.



In this case a smoke trap, which does a minor but not negligible amount of damage to the entire party.




Another option is the Spike trap, which amazingly does not result in Lise's bloody and impaled corpse dangling above the ground. I'm outside at this point because I realized I was only level 2 and decided to do something about it. So began the great Rabite massacre of 08.



"I hope that's not the way to Wendel, or we're pretty well screwed."



"I think they'd keep the path in better condition than that. I'm just glad neither of us fell from that little ledge."



There are a few rooms in the Waterfall Cave and other dungeons that pull this kind of nonsense, but the solution is pretty simple.



"When in doubt, just kill everything in sight!"



"Holy crap, is that a child?"

"YES! Help!"



"Are you sure we should? I know that when baby birds fall out of a nest you're not supposed to touch them.."

"Children are different than baby birds. Now give me a hand."

"Hurry, hurry!!"



"Young lady! You shouldn't be in a dangerous place like this!"

"Carlie had to! See, it's like this.."

"Oh no, not again.."



"What happened to your parents?"



"Carlie remembers playing with them in a meadow and then they just moved straight backwards so fast that she couldn't keep up."

"That's kind of weird."

"Carlie might also have been having a grief-induced hallucination because her parents died. Take your pick."



"Carlie falls down stairs and runs into doors a LOT."



"Ah, Heath. What about my granddaughter?"



"And with her confused elven heritage.. I think she may be having some difficulty."

"Also, I'm worried about her continual running into inanimate objects. I don't know what's up with that."



"They've been crying tears of blood. And what about that light that appeared over the lake…"



"I do not know, but it may have been related to the disturbances in the mana…"

"That certainly is creepy, but what do you want me to do about it?"



"There's no way that could have ended well, yes."



"So that's when it happened. This all must have been very recently."



"Your favorite Heath? Do you have a couple other Heaths who you like slightly less?"

"That is Carlie's secret, that she will never tell because a woman has to have secrets."



"At first Carlie had no idea what to do.."



"And the people in the Palace of Light weren't much help."



"Mick is Carlie's go-to person for sneaking around and getting in and out of places she shouldn't."



"Wait a second, 15?"

"Yep! Carlie looks younger than her age because she's a half-elf."

"I'd have guessed maybe 8.. so you're 15 and you haven't been able to figure out the first person singular?"

"Listen bud. If I don't talk in a way that matches how I look, it tends to freak people out or get attention of the worst kind. Last time I had a slip up I had a 70 year old priest following me for three weeks."

"…oh."



"Carlie threatened Mick with a spanking and he decided that it was in his best interest to help. But before going through with it, she wanted to talk to her Grandpa first."



"Be a good girl and stay in the temple today, alright?"



"That worked out pretty well."



"He even put guards on the doors to keep me from leaving! Carlie had no choice but to get out the sneaky way."




"That's what those are called? I found one, but it didn't do anything but boost me up in the air."



"It could be that Lise is too heavy and didn't get caught by the wind like Carlie did."

"You know, now that I know you're not actually a child I'm more than willing to beat you if you give me too much lip."



"You might have to back up a second on that one."



"As opposed to Beastmen not from the Beast Kingdom?"



"Carlie tried to defuse the situation, but it didn't help."




"Heath took care of the beastmen while Carlie provided a distraction. It's a classic trick."




"Then Heath got blindsided by a psychotic clown as we were getting ready to leave."




"I think that just caused part of my brain to shut down out of self-preservation."




"Wait, you just walked right in behind us?"

"Yep, it was easy!"

"That's definitely not good."



"And then you came!"



"Oh my.. Well, I was going to Wendel anyway, so I'll take you there."



"So maybe saving Carlie will give you good luck!"

"At the very least it'll give us an in. But seriously, could you knock off the third person?"

"You're no fun at all. Alright, I'll quit it. Let's keep going. I think we're right next to the exit."



More vindication for having secondary characters join at level 4. Carlie's not terribly useful in a fight yet, but she does throw in a bit of extra damage at this point and provides that all important extra target for enemies.



From here, the real story begins. Next time the plot continues and we have our first boss fight.