Part 12: Episode 11: A Fortress in Shadow
So it’s been a while since I updated so have a quick recap! Last time saw our heroes we had punched a dragon, met an original dragoon, stole her spirit, and saved the
Oh Hellena Prison. It was far too soon since we last saw you. I wonder if they still left that chucklefuck Fruegel in charge here? Seriously who would trust that clown to guard the most valuable prisoner in the country. A couple level 3s busted out of his joint.
Dart: "The bridge is being raised!!"
That punch to the gut from Haschel really did not do much to slow down his enthusiasm for getting Albert back.
Lavitz immediately helps our stealth infiltration by loudly murdering a few guards on the other side.
Meanwhile at the Imperial Suite:
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Fruegel: "Hee hee hee hee! It will be dawn soon! I am such a nice guy aren't
I? Letting you see the sun before you die! Say something!!"
Oh good. Our favorite fat fuck is still alive and well. I was really hoping that our mysterious robed man was going to take care of that problem for us and had gutted him off screen.
Hellena Warden: "Bu, but the order says leave him alive."
Fruegel: "Shut up!! When the sun rises!! This guy will be...mine from that
moment!! Say something, huh!? King!!"
Albert: "I don't have a means to speak with vulgar men. however I assure you that in the name of drama I’m going to do it any way"
Fruegel: "And you will be killed by that 'vulgar' man!! Well at least you are
not alone. Those guys from Bale, will come after you soon!!"
Albert: "How...how villanous! What about the promise not to hurt people!? I
didn't know Doel had become so ruthless!!"
Hellena Warden (2): "Intruders are here!! They are coming this way headed by
Lavitz and a man in red armor!!
Albert: "Lavitz!!"
Fruegel: "The head of the knights and the red one!!! That's interesting. They
might be the saving stars for you, but you won't have a chance to see
them. Both the stars and you will be gone when the sun rises!! Hee
hee hee hee!!!!"
He seems awful excited to see two guys that just seriously kicked his ass within the last week or so.
And so we find ourselves right back where we started last time we busted into the prison. Luckily our shop keep friend is unperturbed why the corpse Lavitz stacked like firewood just off screen and will still sell us stuff.
On that note of Lavitz: He is a required party member in this section. Not really surprising given he’s kind of the head knight of Serdio. For our third party member I’m rolling with Haschel. Cause he’s a boss.
He’s the fastest of our Male characters at 60 speed. He’ll definitely double up turns on Lavitz and Dart once in a while. He also hits reasonably hard and has decent HP. Also as a Thunder affinity he has no elemental strength or weakness.
Once again this area is a non-random encounter zone. The only thing we’ll run into is a guard paired with a senior warden, the double sword dudes from the Fruegel boss fight. Nothing worth mentioning cause they all die when I look at them funny.
That broken elevator from our first trip here is now all well and good. Its going to lead us to a kind of dumb series of elevator “puzzles.”
Basically we have a bunch of doors and the previously used magically powered elevators that go up and down about 3 levels. It’s not really that hard and worth checking out all the areas. We can pick up some armor for Shana, some consumables, but most importantly the Therapy Ring. It’s a fantastic little accessory that regens 10% of the wearers life every turn. I shove this onto Lavitz cause he’s going to be taking the most damage in the upcoming boss fights.
We also get one more important little piece. A satchet is a consumable item that can put enemies to sleep. This will have a point soon enough!
Oh hey its the area where Fruegel always stands around bitching and heaving underlings over the side. I wonder how many workers have died from him having a bad mood. I’m beginning to think being a warden here is probably about as bad as being a prisoner.
Eventually we take the back road up to the area where we picked up the keys to Shana’s cell. I think this is the warden break room. There’s always 20 of the guys in here ducking out from the wind.
Lavitz: "An ambush, huh? Take us to King Albert!! Or it'll be your last
breath!!"
Hellena Warden: "Hmm. Brave, brave. You still don't know who you are and
where you are."
Dart: "I don't want to have a needless battle! Shut up and get out of our
way!"
Hellena Warden: "We know how strong you are. But it doesn't make any
difference because you are still just feed!!"
I give these guys credit for knowing they’ll get their asses handed to them. That’s slightly better than most mooks.
Dart and the crew should have watched Return of the Jedi before attempting this scheme. Don’t they know you never stand on a grate over a mysteriously deep holes?
Dart: "Shoot!!"
Dart, Haschel, Rose, and Lavitz have all managed to land on their feet. Thanks to years of training in the Serdian 82nd Airborne division they know how to tuck and roll. Shana landed on her back and fractured her spine.
Dart: "Everybody alright!?
Shana: "I'm fine."
Lavitz: "This is not even a problem."
Haschel: "Sandora is such a coward. Making a trap like that without
fighting..."
Have I mentioned I liked Rose? She can admit when someone got the better of them due to cut scene idiocy.
Haschel: "You are harsh."
Shana starts eyeballing the wall and Dart comes over and joins her.
Dart: "It's true. The draft is coming from here!"
Lavitz: "Then, if we move the rock there should be a way out!!"
What you don’t get to hear is the most girlish roar from a creature ever.
Rose: "Well, we are supposed to be feed. We have everything we need."
I have no idea what the hell Rose means by “We have everything we need” Is she referring to they have all they need to get out? To be eating by some horrible beast?
Dart: "Coming!!"
Way too much information there, buddy.
Welcome to boss fight #1 of this run at the prison, the
Earlier when we first came to the prison a guy told us that a Satchet would put Jiango to sleep. Dart also seems to randomly know this whether you talk to the dude or not.
Daww. Look at the little monster taking a nap. Now, you probably don’t remember at this point but waaaaay back in the capital I bought a pretty good pile of wind items to use. That’s cause Jiango is earth based and is going to take a face pounding from them.
It’s not quite as punishing as some of our earlier item poundings cause I don’t have a good magic attack person in my party right now, but its still over 1/10 of his HP.
And a looot more than most of my physical attacks. To be fair Haschel is still using his base addition with a minimum of levels on it.
Finally Jiango wakes up and gets an attack in on us. He grabs a party member and slams them into the ground for about 50 damage. Not really scary.
Oooon the other hand: this one is. Jiango slams the ground and stalactites come raining down over the entire party. 60-80 depending on the character. This HAS to be a physical attack because despite being weak to it Lavitz takes the least damage of the party by a fair deal.
To add to the fun Jiango is actually really damn fast and/or just cheats. He’ll usually get a slam followed immediately by a rock fall. Keep your party above 150 HP if you don’t want bad luck to end them.
Lavitz has had enough of this bullshit and transforms and starts dropping Wing Blasters.
It hits for mid 70s. A bit better than his standard attack but nothing to write home about.
Unfortunately for us this effect is a lot like patting a baby on the back to make it burp.
And this baby has been eating something fuuuuunky. So funky in fact Dart becomes horribly confused. Haschel does not like the hungry look and barbeque sauce his ally is holding and throws a Mind Purifier on him to keep him from turning to cannibalism.
Beyond that its just a whole bunch more stabbing before the Rancor rip off meets his end. I think this makes us more bad ass than a Jedi. He just cheated and dropped a gate on its head. We had to stab it in the face.
As a nice reward everyone levels up. And we get one more Satchet. How exciting. Lavitz also hits Dragoon level 2 and picks up Blossom Storm. Some people swear by Blossom Storm, some say its a waste of a turn. It can be handy though. Basically for 3 turns all your party members gain a 50% resistance to all damage.
Dart: "There is no enemy in front of us!"
Lavitz: "Yeah!!"
Haschel: "Look at that! The monster fell and the rock collapsed!"
Lavitz: "Let's go!!"
Lavitz, Dart, and Rose run off leaving the miraculously recovered Shana alone with Haschel. Dart better watch himself or someone triple his age is going to be stealing his woman.
Shana: "Men can have a great friendship."
Haschel: "It's about Dart and Lavitz, isn't it."
Haschel: "What about with Dart?"
Shana: "I...still don't know yet. He seems to have been thinking about me as
his 'sister'. which is honestly kind of creepy"
Shana: "No! Nothing! I'm coming!"
The now open path leads to a hallway with a few more Wardens that get rolled over on our way back to the break room.
Hellena Warden B: It cannot be!
Hellena Warden A: How are they still alive!?
Hellena Warden B: No way! They beat that monster?
And sooo we murder 2 more guards. Yaaaawn.
Actually strangely its one Warden and an upgraded Assassin Cock. Sure, why not? Still dies in about 3 seconds.
And so we get to the top of the most precarious prison in all the realms. Our immediate reward? 20g and two starting weapons.
Oh hey here’s our favorite fat ass and our unfortunate king.
Fruegel: "The sun is rising. It's good for you! You die and the war ends! That
was your wish wasn't it? You want to end the war don't you? I'll make
your dream come true very soon. Hee hee hee hee!!"
Albert: "Agh, I am vexed!!"
I’m also vexed on this localization choice once again. “Argh I’m going to get executed and my friends killed! I AM VEXED”
I finally found a good selling point for Shana: She hates monologuing.
Freugel: "UURRGHH!!"
Lavitz: "King Albert!!! I won't forgive you!!!"
Fruegel: "Tut. Those rats came on time. It doesn't matter. I'll get you all
before Albert!!"
Boooossss fight. Once again Fruegel is too much of a loser to get into a fight on his own. This time his buddies are Guftas a dark elemental dog and Rodriguez, a wind oriented bird. Guftas is pretty inoffensive. He has a 40 damage bite attack. Nooot too scary. Also one of his abilities appears to be to make walls appear where they were not before. I’M ON TO YOU GAME.
Rodriguez’s first attack is firing feathers at you or something. It doesn’t hurt too bad. I mean, they’re feathers.
My main goal initially is to take out Fruegel’s pets. So my opening hits will be my all enemy swings. Haschel throws a Thunderbolt out doing about a quarter of the puppies health and a about 60 to the other two.
Fruegel puts on his rape face and powers up again.
Dart is getting in on the area of effect action and transforms. Right now he has Burning Rush as his addition so he’s not hitting hard at all in human form. However he gains SP pretty nicely. He’s the only one that gets a second transform in this fight. Although, when slow ass Lavitz is your competition it’s not saying much.
Ka-booooom.
Lavitz transforms but to bust out a Blossom Storm.
strangely he says Rose Storm when doing the attack. This is first of many said vs. written oopses in attack names. Eithe way, it’s useful here since Fruegel is jacked up on roids. 
Rodriguez’s second attack involves them grabbing the opponent, dragging them into the air
And powerbombing them into the ground. Now this is all fine and dandy vs. a standard human. But against a magical half-dragon thing that can move at like 90 miles an hour and weighs twice as much it seems a little sillier.
Fruegel himself finally joins the fray proper and clubs someone in the face. He’s still got his rock attack but my camera angle kept it from showing up as anything but a jagged blob covering half the screen.
In vengeance Haschel punches fatties dog to death.
His other attack is he grabs the character by the neck, gives them five fingers to the face
Does some sort of double judo chop to the neck and then kicks them in the balls.
It kinda hurts. That is definitely after Blossom Storm wore off.
Lavitz is kind of terrified of this and uses his spear to support his weight so he can drop a deuce. (That’s actually most of the way through Gust of Wind Dance which is by far our most powerful normal attack right now)
Dart on the other hand is busting out his fat dance moves on Fruegel. I think the head warden just got served.
Elemental Affinity+Good Addition=niiiice hits. Fruegel only has about 1000 HP so thats a pretty damn hard blow. And more than Lavitz can drop with magic. And in fact the killing blow.
EAT A DICK FAT ASS. I never feel the least bad about ending him.
From off screen Albert lets out a cry of pain.
Oh damn it. I knew I shouldn’t have hired that guy that wore a robe and never let anyone see his face.
In a continuing trend of ripping off movies with Harrison Ford, the Hooded Man reaches into the King’s back to rummage around for goodies.
Albert is pushed forward, strangely without a hole in the back. Hooded Man has a soft touch.
I think Albert might be thankful he had that pulled out. That CAN’T be healthy.
Dart tries his hand at impersonating Solid Snake again.
Lavitz however has had enough of this shit.
He’s got his serious face on. It’s staaabbin time.
Mr. Mysterious reaches into his cape and grabs hold of something that starts glowing
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. NOOOOOO. Laviiiiiitz.
Dart: Why is it a cut scene. WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE A CUT SCENE
Dart: Who will help me with women
Rose: Who cares about that Lavitz dude, I mean look at the awesome sword
The Hooded Man turns out to be Lloyd. Not only did that bastard punch us in the balls, he just stabbed Dart’s best friend in the chest with what is probably some legendary sword.
I could HOPE this is Lloyd jumping to his death after stabbing one of my favorite characters but I suspect we aren’t that lucky.
This...is not looking particularly good.
You know, with a little editing this scene could have a very different outcome
Lavitz: "I see. I can entrust you with everything."
(this is actually dart saying it)
Dart: "Lavitz...? You son of a bitch. You can’t be dead. I owe you a drink still damn it. you can’t die until I buy you a drink.”
Well. At least we have a replacement dragoon. Small consolation that is.
Well that was a fucking downer.
BONUS CONTENT:
Lavitz and Dart admit their true feelings. You should definitely watch this.
Bonus art! Lloyd and the way cooler version of his sword.
