Part 15: Episode 2 Finale: Turnway and Murder

Episode 2 Finale: Turnway and Murder



The game drops us on on a rather bare trail with nothing to do but head forward to the next screen. So I do that.





"Usually that means they have something worth protecting inside. Time to make a little stop I guess."



GODDAMMIT

...

Rhue blacks out.



HEADHUNTER: He is a Blue Scarve. Look how much blue he has on.

They aren't called Blue Scarves cause (sic) they dress in blue. They wear blue scarves into battle.
We searched him and he doesn't even have a blue scarve on him!

HEADHUNTER: That's because he's a Blue Scarve spy. Now I want my promised pay.

A spy? Sorry, I'm not buying that.

Looks like he's awake so I guess I'll ask him.
Hey you, are you with the Blue Scarves? Don't try to lie, I'll see right through it.



Did you hear me? Should I repeat the question?

(People... they're always barking at me. Where am I? What happened?)

(I was hit from behind, I think I remember.)

Are you deaf little man?!

I'm just a wanderer! Rhue of... Nelin. Where is my sword?! I want it back right now!

Easy there, no need to freak out.
All that is yours will be returned to you.
You're obviously not a Blue Scarve.
Anyway, welcome to Turnway, I am Forewoman Hill. I run the show here.

Hill walks back to the Headhunter.


"I knew we wouldn't be able to count on a selfish headhunter to get the job done."

HEADHUNTER: After this little brown haired twerp turns on you, I will come back and collect my pay.
That is, if the the (error!!!) Blue Scarves don't kill you all first.

The Headhunter leaves and Hill instructs the guards to return Rhues things to him. She then tells him he can feel free to look around town.


If you want to leave town, you can. We're expecting an attack from the Blue Scarves sometime soon.

Wonderful. Will you be able to fend them off?

With my leadership and our new secret weapon it shouldn't be too hard.

Secret weapon?

She tells Rhue to meet her at the workshop in the centre of town if he wants to know about it, and then she and her guards leave.



Should always check both sides of bookshelves in The Way, though none of the ones thus far have anything interesting. Anyway, I'm sure you're all familiar with this story, so I wont type it out.














Here's some of the more interesting titles.



So, in the settlement proper, there's not much of interest. A recreation building is being built and uhh, a guard says no one wants to be the one to use the secret weapon, but doesn't say why.

Also this guy:


My name is Rhue.

Are you going to fight the Blue Scarves?

I don't know. I haven't decided yet.

I don't want to. I'm too weak to wear proper armor or even swing a sword the right way.

So what are you going to do?

Forewoman Hill said she had something in mind for me. Right now I'm just a messenger boy.

Lucky you.



Another building, except we can't do anything in this one.



Some time has to pass before this guy'll let you in. Thankfully, it's not too long.



Upstairs...





A bottle of blue stuff?
Rhue's not very impressed with blue flavour.

We call it flame water.
If I were to violently shake this bottle, this room would soon be engulfed in flames.
This liquid is unlike anything you've probably ever seen.

With this, I'm going to defeat the Blue Scarves and catch their leader, Dancing Violet.

It seems like a lot of people are after her.

Yes, everybody wants to be the person responsible for apprehending her.

Why?

Why do you think? Catching an infamous bandit like Dancing Violet would insantly bring you fame and respect.

You just want to catch her in order to become famous?

What else is there?

Most wanderers wander The Way in near obscurity. Most will never be known by more than a select few.
A small percentage are like me. People like me are known well in a small region, but not much beyond that.
Then you have people like Dancing Violet. She's known across several regions and her fame is still spreading.
She might even become a legend if she can avoid getting caught for long enough.
To become a legend should be the ultimate goal of any wanderer.
For then you will live forever in the minds of all who hear of your greatness.

And what about people who never become a legend?

If a wanderer doesn't leave their mark on The Way, then how does anyone really know they ever existed?

...

I need you to do something for Turnway today Rhue. This flame water is really only one half of our secret weapon.
Do you see these hollow husks?



"Why don't we go have a look at it?"





Kind of dark in here.

We can't risk having an open flame in here.
The little contraption I was talking about earlier is in the room behind me.
I think you'll find that it's pretty easy to use.

I have one question.

What?

Why would you trust a total stranger to use your secret weapon?

I'm a great judge of character. Believe me, there is no one else I'd rather have doing this than you.
Don't you want to be remembered as the wanderer who helped Turnway fight off the Blue Scarve horde using a special secret weapon?

I only want one person to remember me.

Huh?



lol. Now's not the time Rhue!!!



Excellent. This is the perfect time to tell you about your new job then.
Great, what do you want me to do?

You get to help Rhue here with the secret weapon. You'll reload it while he fires it.

But ma'am, I thought we weren't going to use the secret weapon because...

The previous problem has been solved. Not another word out of you now.
May the Purpose guide both of you.

Nuts...
You heard her, we've got a job to do.

Brinton heads into the launcher room, and Rhue taks a step forward...



haha



I probably shouldn't say this...

What?

This weapon has had problems in the past.

What kind of problems?

Um... uh... You know, it just sometimes misfires. Nothing big really.

Misfires? What does that mean?

Here they come!



You know them?

Sort of.

Give up now and no blood will be shed!!!



"I'm sorry, but we're not giving anything up without a fight."
I'll see you in battle!

Then let the battle begin.



There's a REALLY loud roar of cheering.

CHARGE!!!



At this point, Brinton tells us how to shoot the weapon. The key point here is you have to HODL down the action button for a second rather than mashing it. And you have to press up to start the charge for the power level of the shot you make before you even do that. Until you get the hang of it, it makes this minigame very tricky.
The flame water husk also doesn't hit immediately and there's no sort of crosshair. You have to do it entirely by eye. Thankfully, the explosion is a few tiles wide and its generous in determining if it hits a Blue Scarve or not. You can even take our 2 or 3 at once if they're close enough. The minigame lasts a couple minutes and theres plenty of targets. If you could somehow get all of them (probably impossible to even get 75% of them) you'd probably kill like 70.


So, you can see the cannon at the bottom left there. Curiously, because of its placement, the further right you aim, the easier it is th aim for close targets. if you shoot directly ahead, then even at the minimum power you'll probably shoot halfway across the screen. I think the power calculation works by number of tiles traversed or something. Never checked.

Anyway, depending on how many kills you get, Hill is more and more pelased with you. At 20 kills you get a piece of Focite. At 31 kills you get a piece of stricite in addition to the focite.

Uhm. On my first try, I only get 10 kills and I think thats literally the worst I've ever done at this. The second try I shoot up to 33 before...



What did you say? Quick get out of the room!!!



That entire room disappears.



It always happens after awhile. Several people have been killed using our secret weapon during trial runs.

So that's why Forewoman Hill said there was no one else she'd rather have manning it.

That witch... When I find her...

I'm going to go find her right now!



Rhue runs through the battlefield.



Hey Cetsa! You owe Traziun a lot of seru!
... Blue Scarves retreat!!!
Cetsa flees to the south.



A few Blue Scarves flee Turnway, followed by the Turnway militia.



Hill conveniently runs out of the workshop at this moment.



You were incredible with that weapon Rhue!!!
This will be my greatest triumph! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Here are two little rewards!





I've got to go finish the job now. Bye!



Here's Rhue screaming "Hey, come back here!!! I'm mad at you!" while shaking his arms.

I'm going to go after her. But maybe I should take a look around first.
Yes, Rhue IS looting the place.













This probably the single best Step 1 Blade Art. 1d6 extra damage is really good now, and nothing to sneeze at even in Episode 6. Only Ray of light is comparable and it has a 20% chance of adding adding 1-4 more damage to all your damage rolls (but every damage roll from then on). 1-6 hp healed from Cool Wind becomes extremely shitty. Critical Eye doesnt increase crit chance enough but it's fine I guess... New High raises your DT which is really good but only 30% chance. You'd be much better off with many other things.

Anyway, that's the only loot in Turnway, so we follow everyone...







Gah!



Thankfully, there's a helpful ladder nearby.



Not close enough.



But we find a good spot.

No more army of little blue scarved felons to protect you.
This just hasn't been your day.
You know, you aren't nearly as great as the rumors projected you to be.

You're pretty brave when you have two of your own men around to protect you.

If you'd like to go on on one then I'll show you how great I can be.

Sorry flower girl, there won't be any of that today.

When I kill you, I want lots of people to be around to witness the event.
Every witness will unwittingly become an agent for spreading my name across The Way.

If you think you're going to use me as a stepping stone to fame, then you're more stupid then (SIC) I thought.
You're just a boring little wench with a penchant for power trips.

Hill steps forward and hits Cetsa, making her slump and revealing something shining on her chest. And this is it. This is finally what gets the plot moving from Rhue just wandering aimlessly.



"more impressive."


(Wait a minute... is that the pendant I gave to Serena?)
(I have to know...)





I need to ask Dancing Violet a question.

Well, I'm sorry, but no one gets to speak to her but me.

Please, it's really important to me.

I said NO!!! I'm the one who caught her! No one is going to steal any part of my victory from me!

(She's talking about Cetsa like she is some kind of prize object)

She will talk to me and no one else.

Why? So you can lie about what really happened here to make yourself sound bigger and greater than you are?

I don't need to lie about anything. My leadership was what defeated the Blue Scarves today.

How can you say that? I myself killed at least 33 Blue Scarves with that secret weapon of yours.
And all the while you knew that the weapon would probably malfunction and blow up right in my face!
You dirty witch! You used me, and now you're trying to take the credit for everything!

None of that matters. But I'm warning you, if you stick around much longer I'll have you locked up!

...

Now get out of here!







Rhue hits Hill, and then...



... impales the two guards with his sword.



Cetsa immediately takes off without a word.



Rhue goes to follow and then there's a POW sound.

You...



GODDAMMIT RHUE
"You're a bad, bad man, Rhue!"

(She doesn't understand.)





"I remember when I first gave Serena that special pendant."

The Ys-Feena track starts playing again.


"There were usually jobs available at the various settlements my family stopped at along The Way."



WOMAN'S VOICE: Don't I get a kiss goodbye at least?

CHILD RHUE: I love you mommy!

WOMAN'S VOICE: And I love you Rhue.

MAN'S VOICE: You go get them son!

CHILD RHUE: Yes sir!

Child Rhue leaves.

WOMAN'S VOICE: I don't know if I like this. Why does he want to work?

MAN'S VOICE: Who knows, maybe he's finally developed some ambition. I think it's good that he wants to do something for himself.

WOMAN'S VOICE: Oh, I just worry about him. He's my baby boy.



"Even so, I had to save for the longest time before I could afford something nice."



BOSS: Don't worry my little friend, just a couple more buckets to fill. Heh heh heh.





Serena jumps up and down excitedly.








And then we fade to black, and Rhue comes to in a cell.



Where's my sword?!
The sword is always the first thing Rhue thinks of upon waking, huh.

It's still lying on the ground right where I took you out. That's the least of your worries though.
I won't be staying for your execution, but knowing you has taught me something.

... What's that?

Selfishness.

Huh? I don't understand.

Typical.
Kloe leaves now.

(Typical? What's her problem?)
Why did she even bother saying anything?
... Stupid hag.

That pendant Cetsa had looked exactly like the one I gave to Serena.
Could Cetsa be Serena? The hair color doesn't match, but I don't know...
If you decided Serena had red hair back when, then he actually says the hair color matches up here.

I can't let them kill me. I've searched so long...
This, is what I've been looking for!

I need my sword...











And that's Episode 2. Now that we finally have Rhue picking up on a plot thread, the story will get started proper. But first we have to get through probably the slowest and dullest episode. Thankfully, it's short and it DOES have some good parts still. On the whole it leaves much to desired, but so do Episode 1 and 2. I've always felt 2 is a bit overrated. It's definitely the best of the first three episodes though... Really, the first half of the series is kind of meh overall when you realise things like the plunge and all that are style over substance. It's no surprise the series didn't really seem to take off until Episode 4, since thats the first Episode I really like.


the end