Part 11: A Rocky Start

Last time, on Tales of Eternia



We arrived in the town of Imen, where Meredy sort-of grew up. We get settled in for a moment before deciding to meet Galenos, the sage who sent Meredy to Inferia.



We reach the train station, and the conductor is demanding we give him fuel. Also drive the train. What a loser. We take the train to Luishka, where Galenos lives.



We are shocked to see Luishka in ruins, but Meredy is not so surprised. Apparently, it's been this way for a while. This former-town was subject to the devestating power of the Aurora Arte.



Galenos explains fibrill, which is a divine power, and he also explains how Balir's fibrill allowed him to use the Aurora's power to devestate Luishka and bring about the Grand Fall. It seemed hopeless when he sent Meredy on her journey, but she was able to succeed in bringing back the Inferian Craymels, as well as a warrior with an unknown fibrill. Sorry Reid, it's you. Bet'cha wished you stayed in bed, eh?



After running some tests on Reid and getting some blood samples, Galenos tells us to find the port town of Peruti. There, we may be able to find some information about Balir.

Which leads us to...



[YOUTUBE] (~33 minutes)

In order to reach Peruti, we have to take the train through the Abandoned Mine station. We make our way through the mine, briefly stopping to play a card game along the way. Lots of earth-element enemies down here, I wonder what THAT means??

There totally isn't a natural path through this mine to Peruti, come on writers wake up! What, was Galenos that desperate to get rid of Meredy? Sending her to space didn't work, so you're sending her to the center of the Earth?

Recipes Found: Fart (random effect)
Lens Found: 29

Bonus: Gnome live



Boss Time



Gnome is a quick frustrating little shit who everyone forgets about until they wind up fighting him again. Even though I know he's coming, I forget what it's like to fight him EVERY TIME.

Gnome's HP count isn't as high as Efreet's, but he still has plenty of defenses to keep him ticking for a while. He's quick and pretty easy to lift off the ground, but has a decent evade stat to keep you from landing all the clean blows that you'd like to. If you picked up the Arc Wind or Assault Dagger from Sylph Cave, this is the time to use it - the Assault dagger for landing more solid shots, and the Arc Wind for sheer power (provided you stick with thrust attacks). Spell-wise, Gnome moves far too quickly to predict what will and will not hit. Close-up, Air Thrust does a lot of damage, whereas far away you're better off using Eruption and setting Reid up for jump-attacks. Problem is, by the time the spell is ready to cast he may very well have moved.

Summon Friends is his most dangerous attack. When he shouts "EVERYONE! CHARGE!" a whole bunch of mini-gnomes will rush across the arena from right to left. This will hit everyone on the field, and he can use this over and over. On hardcore mode, he loves to do this a whole bunch of times in a row. You can jump over them, but since there is no way to cancel spells once you've started to cast, and since spells can't go off until a current spell finishes, this means your casters are going to get hit by this thing pretty much every time.

His other dangerous attack is Snout Flare. He'll rush up to his target and smash them with his nose over and over, outright killing anyone who is in need of an HP refill. Even if you're topped off, this thing does a load of damage. If you're stacked together, he can Snout Flare everyone in that spot! And since it's not a spell effect, he can do it any time he wants. Brutal.

His other attacks aren't so scary. The little guys in the back will poorly toss rocks at you. He can turn his nose into Grave and use that at any time. He can turn huge and slide across the arena for a pithy amount of damage. He can also cast Stalagmite, which threatens anyone who isn't mobile. He does not possess Ground Dasher, so you don't have to worry about that kind of nonsense.

Once you defeat Gnome, you get Summon Gnome which does a bunch of of damage to everyone and also has a chance to inflict Poison. He's about as strong as Sylph, I think.

Aaaaaand what kind of spells will he give you? What happens when we fringe a Celestian craymel with the Inferian ones?

The first spell he'll give you is Stalagmite. It has a bit of a delay between when the spell casts and the damage starts, so it's dodgeable if the target is fast. It has three phases - Wide pointy rocks that cover a large area, some larger rocks inside those ones (that cover a smaller area), and then the giant spike in the center that hits a whole bunch of times as it skewers the target. If the enemy is caught at the edge of the spell area, they'll only be hit once or twice, whereas if the enemy is in the center then it will be forced to eat the worst of it. The enemy can be knocked around by the fighters during this, so if Stalagmite is a bit off-the-mark, you can knock them toward the center. Similarly, you can knock them OUT of the center, so back off if the caster hits the bullseye.

10 5 Undine and Gnome can fringe to create the Water spell, Acid Rain. If it works, it will lower the defense of all enemies on the field. It's not useful enough to sacrifice other spells for, but ehh, it's alright. I don't usually use it.

5 10 Gnome and Sylph will create Mental Charge. It is a passive effect that gives you 1% more TP at the end of battle. This marks the first passive spell in the game, which will always help you as long as it's around.

12 9 Efreet and Gnome will give you the Fire spell, Flame Wall. Some people claim that this spell is useless, but it's actually really handy, especially against mobile opponents. Flame Wall hits a single point in the field and does a decent enough amount of damage on its own. If it misses, it will leave a little flame trap behind that, when touched, will go off and hit the enemy for full damage. This is exceptionally useful against the Ice Craymel, which is very mobile. Fast enemies, despite usually moving out of the way, will almost always run right into it. This spell is less useful as you get more powerful ones later, but in the short-term it's kickin' rad.