Part 59: Episode 6: Part 2: Expositionary Party.

Episode 6: Part 2: Expositionary Party.

The track here is a sped up version of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEajTL9jiVM



I don't know if the lack of timer means it's impossible to drown.





What's this gunk? I can barely see Midian. Thanks a lot Lun. Great job.
Note: It's in one of the waterfalls.

Midian... Is this the Lost City?



Hm?

This is just one section. There's others too.

Well, do you know if Altair Manor is anywhere nearby?

You're trying to get to Altair Manor?

Yea.

Strange...

What?

Nothing.

I was thinking... Altair Manor... it's not too far.

Can you swim well?

Yea.

Well then, let's get going.

Alright.


So... The Way has added some more menu options...


So we can see our partymembers stats now.


And... they level up. Funny story here, when Episode 6 first publically released, I had no idea you could check partymembers actual levels and AR needed (or even that they were meant to level up at all) until I accidentally pressed z on this page one day well over halfway in the game. You might wonder 'didn't you notice them leveling up?'

Well, no. I didn't because they didn't level up for me until pretty late in the game. See, the release version had somehow gained a bug it didn't have in beta where the first level required an insane amount of AR. I only got it pretty late in the game and... after the party leveled up that one time? The AR required wrapped around to an absurdly low number in the negatives. So I only got that one level up I'm not even sure raised the parties strength at all.

I didn't quite realise this was a bug and kept on playing. I finished this game with all partymembers at their starting level of power. Surprisingly, I don't remember it being too hard, even with the hardest boss fights. Rhue pretty much carried the whole team. Fights probably took way longer than they needed too! Rhue was better than the rest put together.

The real funny part was this bug got fixed really quickly, but fearing spoilers, I'd not opened the site in days when I finished Episode 6.

Anyway, that note from Lun above is a reference to a strange note in an event located in the waterfall.

Note: They were sick of the splashing. No one wanted to get wet any more.
They felt relieved as the water drained into the ground, gathering on the bedrock.
I cranked the motor of the saw and split the ground in two.
Note: Carving rock and dirt until I was swallowed by my own displaced canyon.
My feet got wet, but I cut through the bedrock, right down to the core of the world which
was too dense and splintered my saw.
Note: I was cut.
Note: The water trickled down and boiled into a fierce steam which burned me as it billowed up
from the wound. My blood mixed with it and part of me was lost to the sky.
Note: They still don't want to get wet, but I go outside when it rains to drink from the sky.

I don't know.



Anyway, we have to swim some more to do this area properly. Contrary to what you might think, this spot isn't a dive spot. Just hold left and Rhue'll swim under the walkway. We'll see shortly there's arches sometimes that this is presumably one of.


The fights down here a pretty easy, though this thing is strong against prone.


So, Midian's an interesting character mechanically. He starts off unarmed and you select a Blade for him to equip that has various attributes. There's 7 Blades or something but right now he only has two. The other Blade he starts with is elemental. But that's not all. The concentrated assault and wide spread moves also give him different moves depending on if you want him to focus on a single target XLIFE or use hit-all XLIFE.
Anyway, either Blade increases his attack power a fair bit, so you're best off spending the first turn equipping a blade. If you think you need him using a particular fighting style, thats a second turn gone.



These things are almost harmless, and don't have all that much HP even.


The key is our objective for this whole area.



Uhm... okay.


I actually don't know what this switch does. I think it might open the waterway I'll swim through shortly.



That's Aquifer maxed... That means all our patterns are maxed out actually. We haven't gotten the transcendental category patterns yet though.


The guide says this chest contains a Heart Stone, but it's actually a Mend Stone. Must've been a post-beta change.







I absorb the Mend Stone from the shack and notch the one we just found.






There's something odd about this. Because I could already use Midian's Numb Ray. The new move is actually a single target attack called Mega Slash.


There's a secret down here, but only on the left side of these four bottom right tiles.






Helpful. Because we've already got a rather large supply of notch items, and this Episode will throw A LOT at us.


This switch opens a door, which'll let us walk around instead of swimming.





USE ON DOOR







We can't reach that switch due to the door being locked, so let's head outside.


And here we are, in The Lost City proper. It's damn dark down here too.


These two are harmless... unless they freeze you. Then it can turn nasty. Thankfully they're both susceptible to PRONE





Woo. I switch to Pandamaare.


Also if you reenter and leave the sewer house, all the enemies in this area respawn. So you could grind here if you cared to. But I just told you all story before that perfectly demonstrates why you don't need to grind.






Basically harmless but for freeze still.


Wait... grass?


Even more harmless because Midian's Oneness blade is strong enough that he kills these guys in three hits on his own, let alone with Rhue using Hurricane Blade.


Something for later. All the doors down here but for two, are locked (including the one we came through). This is the only one that has a message like this though.


Here's the other door.




... He doesn't seem to learn a new XLIFE this level. Maybe this'll put an end to this wonkiness.





Rhue's incredible jumping ability is no match for jumping down 30 centimetres. He has to use the stairs.

Anyway, this large store room has a collapsed tunnel leading north and a few locked doors to the east, so we can only go out the south tunnel which leads back out to the Lost City but on a lower level.





After heading south enough there's a T-intersection. The right path...


Just leads to an overlook that's mostly gaping hole The left path causes the music to stop and...



I heard a strange man has been inhabiting the place for awhile.

... Yea, let's be careful. I don't want to be caught off guard.


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



Trees?





There's nothing to do around the outside, so...



All the doors here are locked but for the ones that lead you on linear path.


Robbing fancy manors and exploring ruins... ahhh... COMPLETELY UNRELATED to what's been happening onscreen, but Thief Gold is one of my favourite games, and there's plenty of fantastic fanmissions for both it and Thief 2 that outdo even the official missions. It's not for nothing that I've considered LPing lots of FMs, and maybe even doing a LP of the official missions, where I dissect the whole trilogy and discuss why I think Thief 2 is inferior to Thief Gold in just about every way with the sole exception of the actual game mechanics. Which is a minority opinion pretty much everywhere but the biggest thief fan site. I'm not nearly so much of a maverick as you'd think.











https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oquad3rnZSI
Sigh. Lun's using the track he labeled SACRIFA yet again for scenes Sacrifa isn't even prese-


... nt in. Well. He has new duds.


Orrafagh basah mordah!
The creature roars or shrieks or something.

Maaga esher affah fuushtur!
The creature roars again.

Orrafagh!


The creature pushes Sacrifa back.






So, Sacrifa is our dedicated healer. I guess researching skin diseases pays off. Also being a church guy. And a Satanist. He also has a bunch of defensive buffs.


Like so. It increases resistance to all Elemental attributes. He has a Oneness field and a Transcendental field as well.

Then like similarly to Midians Blades, he has a move called Poison Filter. This raises his defense by 7 and gives him immunity from poison. He'll learn more auras and they all protect against different status effects. In addition, they all level up to 3rd level which increases the defense value.

His attack kind of sucks though and he has no offensive XLIFEs. The boss itself is unremakable and goes down pretty easily.


Woo!


... Pure Taint... Sure, Lun. Anyway, this isn't from the sword aura, this is from defeating the boss. So now we have the strongest category of Patterns to max out and they cost extra AR like the sword auras do.



"At the same time I'm curious as to why you are here."

I came here hoping to find someone.

Sorry, but I'm the only one here.



My business is my own.

I see.
Sacrifa backs up a bit.



Yes, but I know who you are.

You do?

You're Sacrifa, the leader of the Guided in Estrana. At least you were until the revolt. I even saw what happened to your... wife.



"That's not quite correct."

Hm?

You see, technically I was a part of the revolt.

(That's right... Gaius said something about that.)

Loyalist forces were responsible for the violence in Estrana and the death...

no, the MURDER of my wife!


Sacrifa punches the book shelf.

Burn them...

Why did you revolt?

Because I believe in truth.
Thus, I could not follow Tetzel. The truth is not in him. I doubt it ever was.

Tallgeese" post="502311345 posted:

You may also want to note that Sacrifa saying "the truth is not in him" when referring to Tetzel is a direct quote from 1 John 2:4, which is: "If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

Midian's getting bored.

I was told to do so in order to use it as a base of operations for future Guided operations.
Tetzel assured me it was the will of the Purpose and I had his blessing.

Maintaining control of the city was a difficult undertaking as the Vigilance Council was trying to move in and seize the city for themselves.
I quickly realized that if I succeeded in occupying the city, I would have time to search for a cure for Lilah.

So how was it that both Guided and Vigilante came to rule the city together?

It was the quickest and easiest solution I could find.
I made concessions to Zedicus in order to resolve the situation and free myself to pursue a cure.
Tetzel was not very pleased with me, but he was too busy with another project to do anything beyond scolding me through messengers.
As things settled down in the city, I began to work to find a cure for Lilah. A year passed and nothing I tried cured her.

I pleaded with the Purpose for help, but no answer came.
My heart was so grieved that I decided to seek help from another. The Lord of the Pits.
I tried to summon him, but I only succeeded in drawing up one of his lessers.
The lesser told me to dig a tunnel deep down into the Pits.
The Lord Below would only bargain with me face to face in his own domain.
And so I began to tunnel down into the Pits below Estrana in secret.

It wasn't very long before we found something very strange.
A discovery that would eventually change everything for me.

What was it?

This underground city, of course.
All evidence suggested the Guided had delved into the Pits prior to my arrival.
At about the same time I was ordered by Tetzel to begin circulating propaganda about a silent murderer called the Phantom Slasher.
There were many existing stories and I simply exaggerated them further.
Tetzel never gave me any explanation for this order, but it was obvious to me that he was trying to delay the masses for some reason.
I did as ordered and continued digging into the Pits, hoping to save my poor Lilah.

But somehow, someone found out about Lilah's disease and her connection to me.
R.I.P Stoyko, Sorya and Medmur.

After they slaughtered her, I summoned horrible beasts from the Pits. Estrana was devastated.

You did that?!

Yes, and then I left the city to join the rebel Guided against Tetzel at the End of the Way.
But something happened before I got there, and now I'm here...

The End of the Way... I still don't understand it.

That may be because it's something that Tetzel created.

What do you mean???

I can't quite explain... but there's more...

What's that?

The Purpose may very well be a creation of Tetzel as well.

What?!

The Way is not what it seems, that much is certain. The fact that we are here in this place is evidence enough of that.

What should we do?

I think the answer lies at the top of the Arm of Estrana, or the Phantom's Blade, as many people here call it.
And here's our main quest of the game.

Great, let's go there.

The problem is that the tower is sealed off by a shielding aura that I have not yet figured out how to bypass.

Wonderful...

But I know someone who might be able to help.

Who would that be?

His name is Jopaga. he is very knowledgeable about auras. If anyone can help us, he can.

I know who you are referring to, but is he even around here?

That's the problem, I don't know.





Don't know where he lives, haven't seen him in a long time, but he used to be a regular at "the Scene".

If anyone knows where to find him, it's a man named Dyson who works at the Scene.
I've heard he knows everything about everybody who frequents the Scene.

Good enough for me.

Then let's proceed.

You coming, Midian?

Yeah, I'll tag along for now.

Whew. That was a lot of typing and exposition. Anyway. Next time... we do... things!
the end