Part 3: Episode 3: Tonight There's Gonna Be a Jailbreak Part II

Tonight there's gonna be a breakout
Into the city zones
Don't you dare to try and stop us
No one could for long


Searchlight on my trail
Tonight's the night all systems fail
Hey you good lookin' female
Come here!

Last we saw our noble hero we had just arrived at an engineering disaster waiting to happen.

"Well, how can I sneak in?"

Like any good member of Fox-Hound we're going to jump into the back of a truck!


Dart cathches up and follows right behind the wagon as it heads towards the gate.

Gatekeeper of Hellena: "...I see. Good meat and fish. Sir Freugel will be happy."

Merchant: "You bought a lot recently. Is there something going on?"


Merchant: "Okay, okay. Sorry."

Gatekeeper of Hellena: "I'll inspect the load!"


With the speed of a ninja, the stealth of ghost, the grace of antelope, Dart walks two feet to the left and apparently turns invisible. The guards here took their training from Genome Soldiers.

Gatekeeper of Hellena: "It seems to be okay. Lower the bridge!"

(Now!)

After walking around to the back and not even making a full circuit he has the bridge brought down and Dart hops on the back.


(I made it.)

Dart being the master infiltrator he is walks up to the merchant who immediately narcs him out to the guards. We all know where that leads

Merchant: "Who, who are you!?"

(I'm discovered!)

Voice: "This way!!"


Welcome to the only enemy you'll be seeing in this area except for the boss fight. Really not much to say about the bondage jail guards. They'll either club you over the head with their spiky ball on a stick or throw either a Burn Out or Spark Web on you. Even in groups these guys just aren't dangerous.


Merchant: "He, Help me! I am just a delivery man."

"Be quiet. I am not going to kill you."

Merchant: "O, Okay. I won't make a noise."

In appreciation for us not stabbing him in the face we now have our next shop. We can pick up some healing potions, revives, or a Spark Web. These guys drop quite a few magic items though so I'm not going to bother. This also seems like good time to mention: GOD DAMN YOUR 32 ITEM LIMIT. We can carry approximately sixteen tons of weapons, armor, and accessories. But we can carry a wopping 32 "battle" items. So things like healing potions, attack items, and whatever other random crap we acrue.

We'll head to the northwest of this room to pick up a Burn Out. We also get taunted by an item we can't grab until a later trip to the prison.


Just to be different this area actually doesn't have random battles. The guards just stand around like our good friend here. They only see about 3 feet however and like to turn around a lot. You can avoid them if you really want, but what's the fun in that. Once they spot you they chase in your direction. Some rooms they'll follow you into and others they don't. Their training and motivation seems to be hit or miss. So this guy takes a sword to the face before we move on. We could head to the west, but right now all that's there is a broken elevator that will be fixed by our next trip.


Heading east takes outside to a series of elevators that either magically work or are run by the world's dumbest guards. Before we head upstairs we save and pick up our first gear upgrade.


For beating up or running past about 6 guards we can pick up a revive, 50g, and armor for a character we don't even have yet. Thank's a bunch game! That damn jacket sat in my inventory for quite a while before I remembered I had it. Luckily for us its time for the second biggest badass in the game to show up.


Watch

"?!"



Prisoner: "Argh!"

Hellena Warden: *laughs* "You have such bad luck! You will regret not being killed on the battlefield!"

Knight of Basil: "What do you mean!?"

Hellena Warden: "You really believe you can live comfortably in the jail? The head warden, Fruegel will feed you to the monster!"

One of the hobbled knights tries to run off but that doesn't work too well when you have your hands tied and your opponent is holding a weapon to your chest.

Hellena Warden: "Oops?!"


Hellena Warden: "Oh, feisty feisty. It's the worst kind of POW, but the best kind of feed."

Being gratuitously evil just because: Still going strong

Knight of Basil: "If you want to kill me, kill me now!!"

Voice: "I won't let him!"


From stage left an armored knight with a spear busts onto the scene to save everyone.

Knight of Basil: "Sir Lavitz!!!"

Hellena Warden: "You, you bastard!! You broke out of the jail!? Silly guy!! You think you can escape from here alone!?"

Lavitz: "I'll take care of this!! Survive and go back to Indels Castle alive!! Tell King Albert...!"


Once again the knights try to hoof it. Once again they learn a valuable lesson in prison breaking.

Guard: "I won't let you!!"


Guard: "I took care of those guys!"

Gravity kill count: 3

Dart decides that since Lavitz has already killed half the guards on his own without breaking a sweat its a good time to show up. All the credit, half the effort!

"Is this civil war!?


Guard: "You! Who are you!? Are you a dog of Basil too!?"

Lavitz is onto his little experience stealing scheme though.


Lavitz: "Who are you?"

"I am Dart! I am not your enemy!"

Lavitz: "I am Lavitz Slambert! I am the head of the First Knighthood of the Kingdom of Basil! Well, it seems we don't have time for introductions!"

"No we don't!"


After that it's just a matter of mopping up 3 guards. Even with my addition failure power it's not difficult in the least.


Lavitz: "I will carry out your wish." Lavitz stands up and turns to Dart, "You said, Dart. I cannot imagine there is somebody who intentionally comes to Hellena. What are you up to?"

"I am here to rescue someone important to me. Do you know anything about her!? Her name is Shana!"

Lavitz: "I am sorry, but...."

"I'll look elsewhere."

Lavitz: "Wait! I'll go with you."

"I thought you had to go back to the castle as soon as possible?"

Lavitz: "She's important, this girl you are looking for?"


Lavitz: "I don't know what brought you here but Hellena is not that easy to go through alone."

"..."

Lavitz: "That goes for me too. But, I can break out from here, together with you! Of course with the girl."

"How come you trust me? We've just met."

Lavitz: "The raid you made was quite impressive. I trusted you to guard my back. That's the way I think."

"All right. Let's go together."

And now we have our first party member Now that we actually have a point of comparison we can talk about our stats a bit more. Dart is a little above average in just about everything but he really doesn't have any huge stats. He is the fastest of our heavy armor fighters though. He also comes with more additions than anyone else. Lavitz is a fair bit slower, but he's also got a lot more defense and a lot more attack. On the other hand, he's also a fair deal weaker than Dart on magic attack and defense. Not cripplingly so though, and his higher HP pool usually makes up for that.

Ok. Now that we got our bro Lavitz its time to move onto bigger and better things. If we check around the other cells on this level we'll pick up some gold, a spark net, and a hint that Shana's in the second tower from the scared shitless guys in here.


So we had upstairs and shockingly find the door locked. With the gross incompetence and mismanagement of this prison I'm surprised anything is done ri-


Lavitz: "This room is extra tightly guarded."

I mean, they had a door and a ceiling. How could anyone get past that?

"!? What about this key?"

Lavitz: "Take it with us. We'll need it if the girl called Shana is under confinement. But why only that girl?"

"I intend to ask that directly to the head warden. But that's after we rescue Shana.

So uh, yep. Key to a high priority prisoner just laying on the ground. Also, do you want to know what I walked right by to get it?


With that madness out of the way we can finally go pick up the third wheel of our party. Three guard stand in our way, but, uh. Yeah they don't last very long.


Dart: Lavitz! Get'em before they make a noise!


Watch

"That voice!! Is that Shana!? It's me!!"

Voice: "Dart!? Is that you Dart!?"

"Yes it is me!! I'm here to rescue you!!"

Lavitz: "Hurry up!! The guard is coming!!"


Shana: "Dart...."

"I'm here to rescue you."

Shana: "..."

"You haven't forgotten about me even though we haven't seen each other in five years?"

Shana: "How could I forget? Show me your face."

"I haven't changed much."

Shana: "Yes, you have. You look much stronger, much stronger than the Dart I knew."

Lavitz: "Hurry up!! The guards are coming back!!"


Shana gives the cell the finger before making a hasty exit for freedom.

Guard: "The girl is breaking out!!"

Guard 2: "I won't let her!!"

Another wave of guards. Another 3 corpses to heave over the railing to join the heaping pile forming down there.


"Are you hurt?"

Shana: "I am fine."

Lavitz: "You can celebrate later. We are still deep in the belly of the enemy. Besides, it's too damp to have a party, isn't it?"

"Let's go, Shana. Follow me okay?"

Shana: "Dart, I'm 18 years old now."


Considering she was knocked unconscious in the middle of a surprise assault, I'm pretty sure that bow isn't hers. In fact, if I had to guess, I'd say this is the first she's ever picked one up. The fact she hits anything is merely beginners luck.

"Shana...."

Lavitz: "She grew up. She was alone in such a hell like place. If she was a regular woman, she wouldn't have been able to survive. Of course, there are not that many fools who would come here to save her."

"But, the Shana of my memory hasn't changed a bit."

Lavitz: "Let's talk about that after we get out of here."

Lavitz is already not looking forward to explaining the facts of life to young Dart here.

And third party member is goooo. Quite frankly Shana is of minimal use to us right now. Until we level about twice or so she can do low, but acceptable damage with her bow. Part of the reason the damage is so awful is that she has no additions. What you got is what you got. She will come into her own eventually, and with generous use of attack items early on she's not a total slouch. You won't use them on any fight, but you can drop some serious burst damage on bosses. She's the second fastest character in the game and has the highest magic attack in the game. On the other hand she has abysmal strength and defense. She actually has the Highest HP of our three female characters though and absurd magic defense. Eventually with the right equipment we'll be over to overcome the worst of her flaws and make her a usable character. She's definitely the worst of our 3 for now though.


Hellena Warden: "Well, well, the Knight from Basil broke out of the jail!! I am sorry!!"

"I am not talking about that rat!! After that!!"

Hellena Warden: "The girl from Seles was taken by the red guy."

"What!? What did you say!?"

Hellena Warden: "The girl was taken away by the guy with red armor!!"


Hellena Prison: the last job you'll ever need! Gravity kill count: 4

"You bastard! Don't let them out alive!! Wait!! I almost forgot the most important thing, don't kill the girl. IT's an order from His Majesty Doel!"

Hellena Warden: "Aye, aye sir!!"

"If you fail, I will behead all of you!!"

At Fruegel Corp, job satisfaction is priority one. If you aren't happy in your department, we'll immediately transfer you to one of our many openings in Monster Feeding or Terminal Velocity Testing.

"The red one!? I'll get you!! I might as well dye everything else red with your blood!!"


Watch

"So, you are the red one acting like a prince!!"

"Then what!?"

"There is one answer!! You and the leader of the knights are feed for the pet!! After I mince you up!!"

Someone watched Return of the Jedi. So he has one positive mark on his competent villain roster. Never mind the uncountable number of negative marks.

"Lavitz, is this the head warden?"

Lavitz: "His name is Fruegel. He is so bad, even the people of his own country are afraid of him."

"You have such a calm face, or are you paralyzed from fear!?"

"You attacked Seles didn't you!?"

"No. I just gave them the order."

"Why did you have Shana taken away!?"

"I don't know. Emperor Doel said to just bring that girl back. The order was so trivial that I added the new one of annihilating Seles!!"

"Fruegel! Unforgivable!!"


Alright boys and girls, we got ourselves a boss fight. And now that we have ourselves a full squad and a few different enemy types I can bring up elements. Every character and most enemies have an innate elemental affinity. On the whole the elements are paired together. So we have Fire/Water, Wind/Earth, Light/Darkness, and on its own is Lightning. A character both deals more damage to and takes more damage from its opposing element. Characters will also resist their own element.

Our squad is rocking out with Fire, Wind, and Light. Friend Fruegal is Earth Based and his two lackeys are fire. Frankly the resistance isn't going to matter that much this battle except when I throw out a fire item on a guard to prove how even Shana's high magic can't really punch through.


Our first order of business is to knock out the two scrubs. A few attacks and a Shock Web to the face makes quick work of them. Like all good leaders Fruegal calls his lackeys useless.


Unfortunately for us he was prepared for just such an occasion.


The Senior Wardens are quite a bit beefier than their bondage suit counterparts. If you really drag your heals taking them out they'll use Power Up and take half damage from attacks and hit harder. It's not a world ending disaster, but it will certainly slow things down. Fruegal can use Power Up as well, but I've only ever seen it when going glacially slow.


The bastards also have a fire attack that hits everyone for 15-25 damage when they keel over. Rather uncalled for if you ask me.


Around this time Fruegal finally decides to show off what he can do. His first attack is using his massive size to pick a character up and slam them into the ground doing 15-25 damage.


He can also decide to chuck a huge rock at your head while showing off his fabulous geometry. This is definitely the more dangerous attack and can really take a chunk out of Shana and Lavitz. Matching element+low magic defense=bring on the hurt. Really though, its pretty easy as most early boss fights are and he goes down quick despite a few dumb attack choices.


Celebrate good times, come on!

"AGHHH!"


"Let's get out of here, Shana!"

Lavitz: "Get on the horse!! Hurry!!"

"Bastard!! Keep them from going even if it costs you your life!!"

Voice: "Raise the bridge!! Jail break!!"

Shana: "Lavitz!"


Shana and Dart ride off like normal people. Lavitz needs to show off how awesome he is and launches his horse from fifteen feet into the air. In another life, he'd be Steve McQueen.

Lavitz: "Whoa!!"

Lavitz does a wheelie on his horse while we cut back to poor Fruegal on the inside.

"Bring her back here!! Or you will be dead!!"


"Y, You!! When did you sneak in!?"

"Should we report this to His Majesty Doel?"

"Wait! I'll bring back the girl!"

"Otherwise, you would be dead by now."

Fruegel turns to a warden nearby.

"You go too, bastard!!"

Fruegel walks off.

"It doesn't matter. Everything is going just as I planned. Yes.... They don't know they are in the palm of my hand."



Bonus Art! Lavitz and Shana concepts.