Part 29: Back to Wind City

29: Back to Wind City



How have you been, Azziz.
Enough small talk! The world is in peril!

Maya, the conjunction has come and gone...were you successful?
Doskias was there...He took the Key from me and communed with the Core.
What happened?
An angel appeared, and gave us a message.
So Doskias was granted the Kingdom of Heaven?
No, but we were all granted the clue to find it. The angel said, 'When the land shall rise and form the runes, we'll be judged and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven'.
It's a clue to obtaining the Gift of the Creator...it has to be our salvation from the doom which Doskias has wrought with his lenses. We must solve this riddle soon, before the world destroys itself.
You believe that the riddle of the Legacy can save the world?
'When the land shall rise and form the runes, the world shall be safe forevermore...' If we can solve this riddle, the world will be safe forever, as Marduk prophesized. But time is short. The world is spinning faster and faster. Eventually it will destroy itself.

At this point, the game kind of leaves you hanging. There's no indication of what you should do next. I don't know how I originally figured this out; probably I flew from shell to shell talking to every major NPC until I hit the right one.

As it happens, the right one is Layla. But before we talk to her, a bit of preparation.



Remember the book in the library that talked about crabs mating on shore during the Conjunction?



Well, here they are.



It's an easy fight. Even this attack that takes three turns to charge up for only does around 20 damage.

Your reward for killing them is an Aqua Guard, an accessory that reduces water damage, and a Kahli Shell - armour that is both stronger and lighter than anything we have so far. Unfortunately you only get one.



Next stop: Oasis.



No one may enter unless they are assigned to work duty!
You'd better let me through, you tin can!
Do not insult an officer of the people's army!
People's army? You're not a people, and you ain't no army!



This screenshot pretty much sums up the whole fight.



The junk pile contains two items that we absolutely must have for later.

It's a length of pipe.
This grappling hook might come in handy...

The pipe won't be useful for a while yet, but the grappling hook is immediately useful.





It's been pulled up to Lobo's ship.

One last stop: the mining ruins. Remember that diamond cutting wheel we found in the Ankaran laboratory?



Aye, a diamond wheel. That's a sight for sore eyes.
Can you use it?
You bet yer sweet ass, girl, but on what?

What about that shard of Corite we found after the lenses crashed?




That was pretty fun! I haven't had that good a time since daddy took me to the World Bazaar!
It's been made into a smooth lens...

Now that we have the Large Helgak Shell and the Corite Lens, it's time to advance the plot. Doing all of this now will save us a lot of aggravation and backtracking later.



It would seem you are a valuable ally to the other Chosen now. If they are Doskias's worst foes, you would do well to cultivate their trust.

I can't rest until Doskias is stopped.
This isn't turning into a personal vendetta, is it?

Has anyone got a good look at the Chosen ship over Wind City?
The monks believe it's alive.
Bioengineered. Like their soldiers' armor.

I'm from Ankara.
Maya tells me that your enemy, Jinam, now lies under our very feet.
You can thank my dad for that.

We can stand around trading small talk with her, but the key is mention Gunnar.

Doskias created giant lenses and made an artificial conjunction. But with the help of a Chosen Lord named Gunnar, we destroyed them.
This Chosen Lord is your ally?
He...was. There's been civil war on the upper shell. Doskias now controls the Chosen.
This explains why all their ships have left, save one. We must act before they can return. But first, we must find the last of the Holy Guard.
I'll find them. It's time we struck back at Doskias.
We have reports of one last group in the northern forest. The Chosen have locked off the Forest Gate to protect the power stations.
Power stations?
The great wind turbines that power the city. It may be possible to reach the forest by way of the city's reservoir, with a suitable craft. Here, take this key to the waterfront docks.
Leave it to me.

And just like that, we have the Reservoir Key.

You can actually do the entire liberation of wind city subplot before visiting the Core, and arguably you should, since the reward for freeing Wind City is very useful in the Core (and everywhere else). It's easy to miss, though; after visiting the Chosen capital, you have the Core Key in hand and Azziz is pushing you to visit the Core, so there's no real reason to put that on hold and run around looking for other quests.



For this part, we need Lobo. And since having Repair is handy when you have a robot in your party, I put Grubb in the third slot and we're off.





The city's reservoir. I can see a forest on the other side of the lake.
The water is collected and shipped to other world shells.
Water makes me rusty.



This is what we got the Helgak Shell for. Note that it's being lowered from Lobo's ship, raising the question why we can't just fly across the fucking lake.

We can use this to cross the lake.



The shell drifts away as soon as they arrive on the shores of the forest, so it looks like we can only leave by taking the long way.





In truth, the forest isn't so bad. It's large, but there aren't that many enemies in it, and the ones that are present are all palette swaps of existing ones with increased stats.



It's also crawling with Chosen troops. Grubb demonstrates why giving him enough hardware to boost his Core to 50 is a good idea.



Lobo also has something to show off: a new ability, TorsoBlast. It's really just a prettier, harder-hitting version of TorsoSpin, though.

The rest of the forest isn't really worth screenshotting. Go north, flip lever, circle clockwise to upper left to exit. Don't forget to pick up the Elixirs, Power Aegis, Fire Prism, and Armour Relic on the way - or not, since Elixirs can be bought and the other three items are nearly useless.



The exit to the northwest takes us here, from which our goal is the other exit in the northeast.



Layla has sent us to find you. Bowman is dead, and she gathers her forces to assault the city.
Layla! Hope still lives!
When do we start!?
When she has found the remnants of the guard, of which you are the last. What are you doing here?
We escaped the city during the invasion and hid here, only to find the Chosen had taken over the power stations as well.
We wait until the right moment to strike at the cable that connects the stations to Wind City, rendering the Chosen without power.
But how can we sever the cable?
We need to focus a powerful beam at it, creating enough heat to destroy the cable. A powerful lens and light source should do it. After we accomplish this mission, we will return to Layla.

Here's where the starts. Keep in mind, while reading that, that Lobo has not ever used a beam attack in battle (or anywhere else)

Lobo uses a beam of light in battle...maybe we could use that to sever the power cable in the forest.
But where are we going to get a lens powerful enough to focus the energy?
What do you plan to use to cut the power to Wind City?
We have no ideas.
A crystal lens or shard, perhaps of the Core, would be straight enough to focus an intense beam.
If it's a beam you need, I can generate a powerful one.
Like the one you use in battle?
Aye, I just need a lens to focus it to an intensified cutting beam.

If you have gotten through that with your brain intact...



You can examine the cable, but that just results in more "wtb beam pst" "l21 robot w/beam lfg" "how u mine for lens"





That should cut the power to Wind City.



We must return to Layla's side.
Good luck to you!
We should get back as well...

Getting back means leaving the cable, heading to the northwest exit, pulling two levers and exiting to the southwest, which takes us to...



...the forest next to Wind City.

Note that if we had forgotten either Lobo or the Corite Lens, we would have had to leave, get them, and then go all the way back to the cable. And then leave again.

Anyways, with the cable cut, it's time to report in.



Yes, it's time to strike their ship.
Their battleship?
Aye, it's moored above the capitol building. While the rebel Holy Guard are busy fighting the Chosen in the streets, a small party could get to the roof of the capitol building from the library, and infiltrate the ship. We could capture their general before he can use the ship against us.
I'll volunteer to lead that force.
Excellent! Assemble your team and go to the university library when you're ready.



This looks like an appropriate party, no?



The secret passage from SouthFarm gets us into the library, as usual.

Back again?
Layla is ready to strike.
She has sent word. Are you ready?
Ready as can be...
Then we shall signal Layla, and secret you into the city.




He lets us into the capitol building. The receptionist is no longer there, so we can walk in unhindered.

Unfortunately, this is the point where windows decided to silently unmount the drive I was saving screenshots to, so all of the shots of the capitol building never actually happened.



If this disappoints you, just imagine this room, and this fight, repeated for five or six pages. Throw in a few levers for good measure.



After three floors of bookshelves, levers, televisions, levers, chosen troops, and levers, we make it to the ship.



It's just a straight hallway full of enemies, with two side rooms.
Containing levers.

I had forgotten how awful most of the dungeon designs were in Septerra Core; most of them, no matter how visually interesting, boil down to "pull every lever, then exit stage right".



At the end of the hall is the bridge. Presumably there's a lot of ship other than the bridge and the hallway, but it gets skipped because it doesn't contain any levers.

Prepare to die!
Doskias will not be pleased that you're alive. Besides, you're ruining my plans!
Yield or die, Chosen heretic.
Balcaam yields to none!



Balcaam comes with two guards and really isn't a credible threat.



He'll open with Barrier All...



...and apart from that he mostly just summons ninja.



He'll also cast Slow occasionally.

Unfortunately for him, we have the Mirror card.



This means we can cast an expensive version of Haste to counter his Slow, and can use Barrier + Mirror to dispel his barrier. He might re-cast it eventually, but if so, he never lives that long.



Maya and Corgan do around 130 damage per attack. Selina can set him on fire for nearly 200. He has around 1000 hitpoints.

Yeah, this doesn't go well for him. I hesistate to even classify him as a boss.



No! I can't fail!
This is for my father!




Stop him, he'll get away!
No, let the scum return to tell Doskias of our triumph, so that he may fear us!
Doskias fears no one.
Nonsense. The celebration begins today!




Jubilant citizens take to the streets and set fireworks off over Wind City.

Where's Corgan?
With Layla.



Yes, but we're far from finished...We need to take the fight to Doskias.
You're being reckless - letting Balcaam go was a mistake.
He won't be back. He knows who he's dealing with.
I hope you're right, Layla. But I fear the worst times are ahead of us.
And you have to be there, don't you?
I can't stop once my own people are safe, Layla. If Doskias can't be stopped, they won't be safe forever.
I understand.



We still need to track down Doskias...but that can wait until morning.

Next Time: I go on a shopping spree, then talk to every NPC in Septerra (again) as I try to remember what to do next.