Part 78: Chapter LXIX - I eat danger for breakfast
I eat danger for breakfast -OR- Seeker of the Ancient Path, Part 1
To get the first of two bonus quests started, head over to Melphina’s tavern. There’s a Yama with a red bubble.Music: A Friendly Ear
Nope.
The Imperator was rumored to have his hands on the art. Evidence of this was found even at some ruins. But just as we were about to discover the truth, the soldiers I hired to protect me began getting slaughtered one by one.
I don’t think I like where this conversation is going. I was able to save myself, but not before I laid eyes on a hideous monster.
Sorry, I like being alive. Ahh… I figured as much. Don’t worry. I don’t spread rumors of you being chicken or anything. I eat danger for breakfast! *sigh* Thank you. The area I speak of is Siebenbur’s First Path. Good luck to you.
Accepted quest: Seeker of the Ancient Path
Music: Labyrinth
Yuniver wants me to investigate some mystic something. It was too confusing to understand. All I know is that it's dangerous. Yet another one of the Path dungeons. They are generally pretty similar, which is why I avoid showing them off unless a quest is associated. 
I’ll just go ahead and spoil it. We need to find three points of interest in this dungeon. 
And here they are. So let’s go find them. It’s simplest to take them in counter-clockwise order starting at the upper right.
Altering unions at least once per update is getting to be a thing. Allan is back in, and I’ve switched Irina to join Jager’s union, which turned out to be a mistake. Glenys continues to be the leader of one union, because I still have not yet figured out that she can’t cast Rejuvenating Water under these circumstances.By the way, I think I mentioned that Irina was immune to Instakill? Irina starts out as a Scholar, which is a Mystic class which has Item/Mystics balance, and starts out with the “No Instakill” skill. So, mystery solved.
That’s not something you see every day.
- BOSS Video: The Tested (Spiritlords)
A gift that transcends fear… It is all I have, and everything that is.Music: Beat the Odds
Mission: Defeat the enemy!
Naturally, each one of these points of interest is a mini-boss battle versus something called The Tested. This is going to be a rough quest. This first group is Spiritlords. They start out at a base of BR 83 (to our 50), and between 124,000 and 144,000 HP. EACH. 
This is literally a 30 minute long battle. So I won’t blame you if you want to just skip watching it.
Also, these are Spiritlords and look at what commands I’ve given my unions. Or, in other words:
Hey guys, watch me do a stupid!
I know size isn’t everything, but…
This may even be fun! THAT went well. I do not know what I was thinking except to say “I wasn’t”. This fight is hard enough without me screwing myself.
You’re all right now that I’m here! Wait, somebody took me out?! Great use of an art by the Botched Darien, especially because Blocter’s Wonder Bangle cleared the Curse status.
Kate and Pagus go down.
Sometimes the battle commands just aren’t cooperating. I’m not getting “Cure them even if it kills them on anyone.” Glenys can’t do that of course, and Kate’s union is botched so they can’t either.
This means that they are getting ready to use some powerful attacks.
I continue to reap the rewards of my winning strategy!
Thanks, Dave. You’re a peach.
And so, the spamming of powerful AoE attacks begins. This is going to be obnoxious. This one only did a little damage, but each Tested can do one to every union deadlocked with it. So that could be up to five of those a turn.
I am the awesomest at this game!
Sure, pile on some damage, why not? The only good news is that was the end of Turn 3, which means the curse has worn off. The fight has barely begun.
And I had just brought Torgal back, too. 
Next, David brings Jager back.
That’s now two unions dead. It’s vitally important to not let dead unions build up. One dead union is a problem, two is dangerous, three is the start of a Death Spiral.
Rhagoh…
You must be just askin’ for it, huh? Over 3000 damage. Two of my unions don’t have that much at full HP. Because each one of these Tested can do so much damn damage, it’s hard to keep your party members alive, and that in turn lowers your morale, which makes it harder to keep party members alive, which lowers your morale…
I died in a previous attempt at this fight. I decided that was in large part because these enemies and their AoE attacks built up. So my new plan for this fight was to try and pile onto one of the Tested and kill it as fast as I can.The fucking problem is that they’re so fast that they can intercept my unions, which lowers my morale and doesn’t help me at all.
Yay.
I was confused about why Glenys’s Group was not getting the “Bring them back!” command. Well, funny story there. Back up top, I swapped Irina into Jager’s union. But Irina was the only one who had the ability to resurrect anyone. So my strategy of forcing a reassessment when going to revive a dead union just won’t work at all!Anyway, I have no choice except to send two of my three unions to revive a dead union, because it’s pretty much an auto-loss once your dead unions outnumber your living ones.
That wasn’t necessary. Now everyone is back on their feet and healthy, but I’m certain to eat a couple Raidlocks. Fortunately, they turned out to be normal attacks.
Check this out! These guys have a lot of HP, but 21,000 damage puts a noticeable dent in that health bar. Too bad I have to keep healing constantly.Music: Struggle Eternal
We’ve pushed the morale bar to the middle, and the music changes to show that. I’ll try Talisman’s gift for the defense boost, although I’m not sure if it will help at all versus these types of attacks. Glenys will be on healing duty, Pagus will be casting Orphic Ward in hopes that will be effective versus these assholes, Jager will be keeping his HP up, while Torgal tries to Bluff the enemy into moving the morale bar.
Nice!
Hang in there, okay?
Torgal’s Bluff helped a lot at getting our morale up. Let’s try and keep it that way… as best we can with two unions in critical and two more at half health.
I’ll stop you here!
Correction: Four unions in critical. (At least Emmy heals Glenys’s group back up to full with Revitalize.)
Ten turns in and ONE of them is finally in critical health.
Bastard…
How dare you?!Music: Beat the Odds
Things are not looking good. We’ve lost the high morale song, and two of our unions are a sneeze away from joining Jager’s Sect in death. Rush is going to attempt to reach and revive Jager, since he is in the best shape to take a hit. Glenys will stay engaged with union A and keep her HP up. Kate’s union will ignore their near-death state and attack union A at full power, because I want that bird out of my sky yesterday. Torgal isn’t engaged with anyone, so they’ll try to heal themselves.
You won’t take us without a fight! If Glenys hadn’t healed the union just before that, her union’s health would be in low double digits right now.
Mmm… I feel a lot better! Keep it together!
Ohhhhhh! Another blessing! That restored a much-needed 2340 HP to Torgal’s squad.
And there it goes again. Fuck this fight.
You can only take advantage of the Ranger and Ninja bonus commands if you are not deadlocked with that union, but someone else is. I definitely need something to change here, so I’m sending Rush to do a rear assault. I’m not sure that it’ll still be one by the time he gets there, though. If Torgal’s squad breaks or dies, it’ll become a Raidlock instead. Actually, I know it will, since Torgal’s squad is the only one I can spare to bring Kate’s Pack back. Jager is otherwise occupied trying to eliminate Tested A.
I’ve gotten pretty good at making sure wounded unions are taken care of. It’s practically automatic now, I forget I’m even doing it.
This isn’t going to do damage of note even on normal enemies.
Hold still so I can tear you apart! Nothing much happened on Turn 13 except that Rush used Bluff to boost morale, and Gabriel used a herb to heal Torgal’s union back to nearly full.Music: Struggle Eternal
Strong. No shit, Paris, that was FOURTEEN turns, and I was trying to kill that one first. Argh. What a fight.
That took so long that the second union immediately goes into critical from all the damage built up.
This flesh may fail… but the soul… still… burns…
Get out. Rush will use Omnistrike, Glenys will pile onto union B, Jager will go revive Kate.
I have concluded that the formation which reduces the power of the leader is CRAP.
Stop being a dick! Seriously, my morale is on the very high end of the spectrum, and that hurt like crazy anyway!Music: Turn the Tide
Now we’ve got the high morale music for the first time. Please, let this damn fight end.
About time. Now I should be able to consistently rotate my unions to avoid more deaths.
Well, once they get above 1000 HP, that is. I spend the next turn doing a full attack, because I believe that Glenys can still go revive someone.
Please, just let me say “screw this” and go for the kill already. Glenys will stay engaged, while the other two unions will be bringing back the dead guys.
FINALLY. However, that fight was not without benefits. Just look at all the numbers!
learned 
Restorative Tincture! learned Restorative Tincture II! learned 
Revitalize II!
learned Restore IV! learned 
Stealth! learned Restore IV!
learned Vivification Herb! learned Restore IV! learned 
Mighty Dragon’s Flight II! learned 
Knee Splitter II! learned Restorative Tincture III! It’s only at this point that I realize that Glenys might not have actually had the qualifications, so I looked it up and discovered my error. I did a couple more future test runs after this, without being able to get Rejuvenating Water to trigger before I realized the second part of my mistake: No one in Glenys’s union could revive. So I swapped Paris to Rush’s Troop, and Darien to Glenys’s Group. 
It took me another couple of attempts before I realized I had to disable all of Darien’s healing except Restore, or else he would prioritize those arts above the one he needed. But I didn’t start recording until after I sorted that out, so I can begin again. Our next stop is the yellow dot in the middle.
Found some mystic circle thing, but it just disappeared along with some weird gibberish. I wonder what it was trying to point us to... - BOSS Video: The Tested (Demon)
Dim as starlight… Its beauty is the light that cuts through misty seas. Mission: Defeat the enemy!Music: Beat the Odds
Yes, even after that hideously long first battle, I’m still doing a second one in this update. The reason is simple: This quest has FOUR battles in it, and trying to wedge three into another update would be worse.The good news is that the hardest one is done. This next battle is a lot easier, mostly because it doesn’t have three assholes spamming high-damage AoE’s 3-5 times a turn. In fact, the battle doesn’t even last ten minutes.
This is pretty damaging, but already a lot better just because it’s single-union-only.
This isn’t, but the range is very limited.
Attacks which hit each member of a union hurt a lot more for Kate’s five-member union than they do for Jager’s three-member union.
Damnit! You’ll pay for this with your lives!
Good god, what do you think you’re doing? Torgal’s squad is free to bounce back to Tested A, since all the unions are deadlocked (or have acted).
Okay, Glenys, can we finally try for that Arcana now?
Miracle rarely seems to be that helpful in saving the lives of a badly wounded union.
Okay, that didn’t work and I don’t know why. I would have thought she’d have gone to see Jager’s squad, who is injured and who is fighting Tested B.
This fight is also made easier by the fact that these Demons don’t have a billion health. Two are in critical on Turn 4.
But I probably should do something about my low morale.
Come on, we’ve caught ‘em with their pants down!
Correction, one is dead on turn 4.Music: Struggle Eternal
I think my last attempt failed because there were not enough units below full health to make Glenys’s AI decide to heal, so this time I’m only sending two to go revive the fallen union. Jager’s union should still be the fastest, which means they will get to Torgal first.
David learns Blue Streak, which I will disable (or hopefully, remember to disable) after this fight.
The last union is now in critical.
Jager revives Torgal ahead of Glenys, just as planned…
That took so long to get done. I wasn’t just doing it for kicks, either. Glenys will be the leader of a union for a future sidequest, one which is likely to have a LOT of combat. Giving her this is a very helpful tool to have for that part. Which reminds me that I should get around to encouraging Rush to learn Fatal Eclipse.
With Rejuvenating Water learned, I have accomplished my objective for this fight. Let’s finish it quickly.
That was refreshingly quick. learned Second Chance! learned 
Rejuvenating Water! class changed to Lordly Druid! learned 
Dispirit IV! learned Blue Streak Irina already knows this, I think, but Second Chance is the ultimate Remedy art. It’s a massive heal, plus it clears all status elements, INCLUDING KO, so it can revive a dead union. 
New Arts Summary
learned Restorative Tincture! learned Restorative Tincture II! learned:- Revitalize II!
- Rejuvenating Water!
learned Restore IV! learned Stealth! learned Restore IV! learned Vivification Herb! learned:- Restore IV!
- Blue Streak
learned Mighty Dragon’s Flight II! learned Knee Splitter II! learned Restorative Tincture III! learned Second Chance! class changed to Lordly Druid! learned Dispirit IV!
BOSS: The Tested (Spiritlords)
BOSS: The Tested (Demon)
Next Time: The order of the world must not be changed…