Part 52: Episode 5: Part 8: Rhue's outta control.

Episode 5: Part 8: Rhue's outta control.


Not exactly a guest suite is it?

BLOOD LYN: I'm sure you'll manage. It isn't that bad, and you'll only be held here for tonight.
Consider it a form of house arrest.
In the morning you'll be released if you are as harmless as you seem to be.

I'm not harmless. I'm just not harmful to you all, yet.
Hopefully whoever is in charge here is smart enough not to make an enemy of me.
Not helping your case jackass.

BLOOD LYN: Everything will be sorted out in the morning.



BLOOD LYN: Relax, it has been put into a secure chest outside this room.
We understand the importance of such an item to all Lyn. Trust me, no one will lay a finger on it.

(Wonderful...)

BLOOD LYN: Get some sleep, we will be back for you at that time.


Otherwise...

(I need my sword!)
Rhue and his unhealthy attachment to his sword...

...






Huh?

Who's there?

VOICE: A sssympathetic ear. Tell me, whatsss the matter?

It's my boyfriend... my handsome hero... he's been so nasty to me lately and... *sniff*

VOICE: And?
Lyrra begins pacing as she speaks.


VOICE: Sssome one prettier?

Yes... *Sob*

VOICE: Thatsss how men are, hon.

Not all of them! I've heard stories about men who are brave, gallant, honorable, chivalrous, and courageous!

VOICE: Ssstories aren't real. They're jusst a fanciful recreation of that which isss real.
The romantic, ssself sssacrificing man isss a fraud. Don't you sssee?

A fraud? But who's going to be my one true love? Where is my happy ending?

VOICE: Any ssstory with a happy ending isss jussst wisshful thinking. There isss no happily ever after.

What? No... that can't be right!

VOICE: Ssstop ssseeking fufillment (SIC) through othersss. It's jussst a wasste of time.
Don't cry anymore dear girl. Your boy isssn't worth your tearsss.

He said he loved me...

VOICE: He isss a man. A man! Don't be a fool!

But... it's my story...

VOICE: Iss it?
Then, this is said very slowly.
Isss it really?





Note: Music still needed...

There's a crashing sound as the Phantom Slasher bursts through Rhue's door. It quickly retreats.

Note: Rhue may question later why Phantom Slasher
busted down his door. Was it to save him?
Was it looking for someone?

Bolded comments are notes from Lun left in the code. This comment actually technically comes before the One Hour Later message but I didn't want to ruin the surprise, and it merely goes over what Rhue already thinks immediately after. Anyway, there wont be too many of these notes... for now.


Was it looking for someone? Was it helping me?
The door is open... I think I'll be leaving now.







Sure am, heh.

Good.

Your voice... it's familiar... Have we met before?

...



Hello Rhue.

Why are you here?

Perssonal bussinesss.

(I should pay her back for what she did to me at Jopaga's place.)

Trying to make up your mind about ssssomething hon?

I'm thinking about whether I should kill you...

Isss that ssso?

...

Can't we be friendsss for jusst a little while? I promissse I'll let you try to kill me after we leave thisss place.

(What a freak.)

Your choice.

(I don't trust her, but...)

Fine.





You were captured? AGAIN?

...

Yes, I was. Why do you think I'm here? Now help me out!

Wait a second.

You said that after I got you out of Estrana you'd tell me everything you knew about Serena. So spill it.

Get me out of here and I'll tell you everything!

...

No.

What?!

This time you're going to help me first.

Please Rhue, it will take too long to explain here! We don't have that kind of time!

...

Rhue?

...

...

Burn you... Traziun was right about you....
You don't know anything...

I'm out of here.

Rhue!? RHUE!?



...



I'm... I'm Serena.



But your hair is... not the same...

I dyed it Rhue!

But why would you pretend not to know me?

It's complicated Rhue...

Shockingly complicated?
He WANTS to fall for this.

I'm so sorry, I guess I have a lot to explain.

All right, I'll let you out. But I want you to answer some questions I have later.
(Can this be true?)

This is mighty fine! Now we have a fiercesome foursome!

Thisss is disstasteful to me. Flower girl will only bring usss trouble.

Mind your own business Scatha!

And Rhue opens the cell door...








So here's our four new Transcendental Weapon Auras. They're all... very powerful. And you learn new XLIFEs from them from word Go.


Meanwhile for patterns, we got the full set of elemental patterns all at once.






Dust Bowl is the only really great one there, I think.

Also uhh. I'm going to quote a very annoying and stupid thing straight from the walkthrough.

quote:

NEW CHARACTER - SCATHA
All of Scatha's moves should be familiar from Episode 3 except for The Woman Within. When Scatha
uses this, she will lose the skills Disconcert, Poisoned Blade, and Death Blow. She will instead
gain Moderate Mend, Moderate Mass Mend, X-Life Transfer, and Revive. So basically you get to
choose whether Scatha is a fighter or a healer. Scatha's attacks have the attribute Weapon:
Ripping and Oneness: Flesh and have a 5% chance of causing instantaneous death. Scatha is immune
to poison. When Scatha shifts her Aura to "Woman Within", there is a 1 in 49 chance that you
will receive a HEART STONE. This is a very annoying Heart Stone to obtain.* Note that you'll
have Scatha for 55 battles, and that after the Carsavoran there will be exactly 49 battles. If
you use The Woman Within once in every battle, you should pick up the Heart Stone. Luck could go
either way though.

*At the time of writing (January 22, 2005), there are a few bugs with obtaining this Heart Stone.
Firstly, when fighting the Carsavoran, there is a 1 in 21 chance of success instead of a 1 in 49
chance. Secondly, there are some battles where, if you successfully obtain the correct random
number, you will get the message saying you have received the Heart Stone, but you won't actually
receive it. If this happens, you will be unable to obtain the stone because the game thinks you
have already gotten it. These battles are any battles that include one or more of the following
enemies: Lapizua, Slaughterbug, Payutac, Hack Jaw, and Forest Fang.

THANKS LUN. Well. 3 HP isn't that much at this point.




We blender our way through a bunch of these fights.

Before:



After:

And that's Soul Glow maxed out, so lets start on the Elemental patterns. I go with Dust Bowl since Prone is the single most annoying status affect. At least Stun and Numbness usually wear off quickly. Prone usually errs on the side of needing 4+ turns.



The men leave.



...



...
You aren't the girl Rhue has been looking for.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMxcOblRc4k



Eshk, the truth is alwaysss troublesssome for liarsss.

How dare you... what gives you the right to...

I KNEW the girl that Rhue isss sssearching for!

...

You aren't her.

...

You're jussst ussing her memory to get what you want from Rhue.
You know sssomething, yet you continue to withhold it from him... You're sssick.

That's not it at all! I'm just... afraid. I'm afraid of what Rhue might do if he found out the truth.

He'd ssstop caring about you.

...

When did flower girl develop a sssoft ssside?
Have you enjoyed hiss relentlesss pursssuit of you? How romantic it mussst have ssseemed.

...

But I know you too well. I think you're faking all thisss. The sssad face, everything.
You don't care about anyone except yourssself.
But...

???

I never noticssst before, but you do have her pendant. If you're really a changed person, why don't you tell me where you got it.

... I found it washed up on a river bank... it... uh... *sigh*

Sssomething more?

Yes... I've always been haunted by this memory...
You see, when I found the pendant... there was...
Dirk and Rhue return with perfect timing, but I bet you can roughly guess what Cetsa is implying.



It's dead end that way. We'll have to take the stairs.

...

(Interesting.)
The music switches back to a generic dungeon theme and we continue on.



Woo. Anyway that door on the right takes us to...









This is probably one of the harder boss fights in the series, one of the longer ones too. It's not that hard, but I lost my first attempt due some bad luck AND trying to get Scatha's Heart Stone. The second try I won easily. Still didn't get the Heart Stone though.
It has a flame breath that inflicts burning, a move called Dragon Eyes that paralyzes a single target and a move called Ground Stomp that hits everyone and inflicts PRONE!!!! Also it's Tail Swing is nasty. The best tactic is to get Dirk to use Dust Devil to keep it blinded as much as possible, while Rhue uses Hurricane Blade or w.e it's called to inflict prone as much as possible. Also Scatha on healing duty.


Dust Bowls Prone defense would've been really handy, if I'd thought to equip it beforehand. Oops.


"Killing... Such is the way of evil... but also of justice."
Don't you even fucking start guy.

Sssuch is life, you fool.

No fool am I, masked one. I am Kalmar.
And mighty Kalmar also once lacked a faceset.

You're doing an awful lot of talking. Tired of fighting already?

I have devoured many. Never do I tire of the "cleansing". Rather, I pursue it.
However, the Blana Sera have instructed me to offer you a deal.
If the four of you battle it out amongst yourselves, the lone survivor will be allowed to leave this Battle Grounds.

Ashkt! Why would they allow that? Do you take us for foolsss?

I never lie.

The Blana Sera are here?

Yes boy, they are with us presently.
As I said, the lone survivor can leave.
Otherwise you will all die rather pointless deaths.
Now do as you will. I will be back in the morning to check on your "progress".
Let it be known, if any Blood Lyn harms these people, without just cause, they will be put to death.
Kalmar leaves.



Cetsssa.



I've ssseen what lengthsss you go to in order to sssurvive.
Murdering usss in our sssleep would not be below you!

You're the one I'm worried about! You've got no ties to any of us!

...



"You work this out amongst yourselves, heh."

...

...



Scatha paces back and forth all night. And you can see Cetsa's eyes are open.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUkgnLzQcY8




Sorry.

Did you just get here?
I honestly can't remember for -sure- if this woman had her faceset in older versions or not. I think she did, unbelievably enough.

Uh, yea.

I was waiting for someone, but I don't think they'll be coming...

Since you're new here you probably don't know about the teleporters, huh?

Tele-what?


"This one goes to the Shadow Inn."

No way! That's crazy!

Give it a try sometime!

Maybe I will...


It functions as promised.



MAN: Yea, I heard you were looking for information to help you find a certain someone?

Correct.

MAN: I overheard this guy named Jed talking about some stuff that you had mentioned to me.

(Jed??? Lyrra's father?)

MAN: He might have some information that would prove to be useful to you.

Where can I find him?

MAN: On the other side of town. He has a shack just east of "the Scene".
It's up right near the southeast corner of the city wall.

Thanks, I'll pay you later if that's okay.

MAN: No problem.



Hmm, it's you... What do ya want?

I've got some business with Jed as well... Mind if I tag along?

Do you think I'm you personal tour guide or something? Heheh.

Jed is a friend of mine, I think he might be more inclined to talk to you if I were around.

That makes a suprising (SIC) bit of sense. Well then, let the tour begin.




The city's still completely fucked up and on fire.


VOICE: Who is it?

It's Rhue. I've come to see you along with a friend of mine.

VOICE: Rhue?! Come on in!



Hah, thanks for the compliment!
It's good to see you again, Rhue!

Jed, how did you get here?

Oh, I've been here so long that I don't remember.

But didn't I... didn't I...

Didn't you what?

(Kill you?)
Nevermind.

I'm glad that you came by Rhue. I was wondering if you had run into Lyrra recently.

Not recently, but the last time I was with her she was with a real... she's safe.

Oh good, I'm relieved to hear that. I worry about her.
She had a pretty tragic past you know.
She's the only known survivor of the Landorin massacre.
Why can Lun consistently spell survivor correctly but has misspelt surprise like 90% of the time?

What?!

It's true. She saw it with her own eyes. She never could speak about it though. It was very traumatic.

The bodies of all the other children were never found. That includes her brother, Jeruh.
... My son... I'm sorry, it's hard to talk about.
From that day on she began to become a little storyteller.
She's quite the dreamer.
But that's okay as long as it protects her from those awful memories she must carry.

Lyrra saw it all happen huh?

That's what she told me.

And she never said what killed the children?

Well, that's not entirely true...

What do you mean?

She later told a story about how some wild beasts were responsible.
It was a good story, and many people circulated it as the truth, but...

...

But I think she just made that up.

...

There were no tracks. At least not of the beasts she described.
There were footprints, and lots of blood, but following them led to nothing.
It was awful. I don't think we'll ever know the truth of what took place that stormy night.
Did you have any other questions Rhue?

No, I think I'll be on my way now.

Take care of yourself.
Rhue gets up and leaves, but...




...

The Message of Darkness remix plays here...

Note: Scatha - Pacing.
Note: Dirk - Asleep
Rhue - Asleep
Cetsa -Lying down, but awake.
Not sure why this note is -here-. Would've made sense earlier.






"Don't any of you value your life enough to fight for it?"

Go screw yourself jackrat!
We're not as dumb as you might think.

Thank you, you've just volunteered to be the first vicitm (SIC) of my blade!




Kalmar leaps down and Rhue intercepts him in the blink of an eye.

(Kill him... Kill HIM!)


Rhue starts flashing blue again, and then nails Kalmar with what looks like an arc of electricity. Kalmar hits the wall.


There was always a lot of debate about just what this word is. And there still is.



Kalmar jumps right back out of the pit. lol.

Kill them! The Blana Sera are watching!



... Rhue... just jumped out too.



No. I'm going to kill every last one of you!

Then your end has come. Take care of him Dark!


Kalmar turns to flee and Rhue starts killing.



As Kalmar WAAAAALKS up to this building and into a door, we can hear the clashing of swords, lots of stabbing and slashing sounds as Rhue goes completely fucking apeshit slaughtering Blood Lyn. The camera keeps panning up even after he heads inside though...



I think literally our entire surviving main cast except Gaius and Kloe are in this one Battle Grounds right now.
Anyway, in the beta versions of this episode, this event had this note in it.

Note: -
-
Note: I thought about killing Rhue here and ending the game. Just because
I'm feeling so sick and I don't think I'll be able to finish with the real ending...
Lun
Note: -
-

the end