Part 22: Emotional Blackmail By Way of Goon

Emotional Blackmail By Way of Goon

Last time, we went back in time to...you know what, I'm not recapping that garbage. We decided to lock in our final party by goon vote, and I'm seriously regretting it already.



Anyway, we're in Matkina's hobo hole. The thread voted to take Matkina (and dump Callistege), so now I have to go through and dump our highest-level character and most capable fighter.



: We need to part ways.

: She sighs.

: Well then. Farewell. For now. You won't be gone long.



Well, that went well. We can get her back later, but we can't keep her on the XP train. She'll be back for a very special (read: stupid) plot reveal, at the very least.



How much is wrong with this? We didn't enter the room, and our brush with death gets a throwaway line. Oh well.

: What's the story with you and the other castoffs?

Yea, we're going here.



: Would you travel with me?



: Who's the First? The First Castoff?



: What can you tell me about the Changing God?



He sounds like a more interesting protagonist, as some people in the thread have pointed out.

: How many castoffs are there, anyway?



: What can you tell me about this place?

: This is the Cave of Last Words. It was a thieves' hole until the tunnel leading in collapsed. Five, six hundred years ago, it was where the scum of the city would slip away from the city guard. Before there were levies, before the Slave Families, the truly desperate lawbreakers fled here when they had no other options.

Who decided we needed this much backstory about a hobo cave?





: How did you find this place?



: Thank you, Matkina. Let's go.


If you go out of the cave, there's a cliff you can jump off of and a cliff to climb.



Matkina gets us up the cliff.





If you fuck around with this energy dome, it reveals a machine that lets you teleport around Sagus Cliffs. This is completely pointless because Sagus Cliffs is like four screens and is incredibly small.



I accidentally click on Rhin and she does a little bow.

I'm skipping me fucking with the machine because it doesn't get anywhere and it's a lot of screenshots that just...aren't interesting. There's a puzzle around symbols to bring it back online which can be brute forced, and quite frankly you will never use this thing,



Now I go back to the mirror hideout and grab the bronze sphere. This can be used to summon party members who aren't in the active party. It's completely possible to miss this and be locked into the same 3 characters for the entire game, I did in my playthrough. It also has another limitation we'll see shortly.



So you have to press each of the sigils before you can summon that party member. Let's see what they're up to, shall we?









REALLY? REALLY?

This is why no one voted for you, Tybir.

Anyway, offscreen resting at the altar of the Changing God. Get ready, we are about to be blackmailed super hard!



: I think it's best we part.

Cue waterworks in three...two...



: [Raises Gold Tide] It's more dangerous for you than I thought it would be. The places I need to go...they aren't safe.

This is 100% true.



I don't think there's a single bush in this town? Whatever.

: I'm sorry. It's better this way, you'll see.



Jesus Christ! How many "are you sure" screens do you need, game?

: [Lowers Gold Tide] No, Rhin. Now go!

So, to recap:
-Taking Rhin to the slavers raises Gold Tide.
-Convincing Tranquility to help Omahdon stalk poor Perseia because he has a claim on her life and deserves to get his dick wet also raises Gold Tide.
-Telling Rhin she can't come on your adventure where you are being hunted by some kind of unstoppable murder monster called "The Sorrow" makes you an awful bad person.

Fuck this game. Oh, it gets worse.



Very little in the game is voice acted. They literally recorded a crying child actor here to guilt you into reloading to keep Rhin in the party.

Now, my guess is that every "leaving the party" scene is voice acted - Cal's was earlier. This is absurd, there are four screens asking if we're sure we want Rhin to leave as she gets more and more sad and starts blubbering all over the place.


Ok, so we can get her back, right? We have the magic sphere?



: Press the tree sigil.



So, uh, yea. Rhin is gone from the party forever and we can never get her back. Ever.



Meanwhile, you guys made me take Erritis. I hate Erritis.



: [Raises Blue, Silver Tides] That is possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You'll die.

We gave up Rhin for this?



: Sure. Let's go!

Incidentally, if you bring Matkina with you when you first meet Erritis, he starts yammering about "a love interest" and she freaks out.



There was a sidequest dispensing NPC here, but the sticha collapsed her house and now we can steal her shit. She drops a set of beads you can use to mentally connect with kids she midwifed. It also sells for 180 shins, and you bet your bippy that's what I'm using it for.

Anyway, one last sidequest.



I think this is supposed to be funny?



: [Raises Red Tide] You look tough. Why haven't you dealt with him?

I still can't decide whether I dislike this game's Tides system or Pathfinder: Kingmaker's alignment system.



We caused a riot to free a traitor and they didn't do shit. It's things like this that make me think the writers really didn't talk to each other, and why you have some characters describing Sagus Cliffs as being a horribly powerful draconian state and the game itself portraying it as an ineptly run oligarchy.



: Why is it worse that your levy is following you?





: All right. I'll talk to your levy.



This, at least, is consistent. The levies don't come to Cliff's Edge because that's where the poors are, which seems kind of stupid because there's a cyborg lab that can install arm blades that deal unresistable damage and a bunch of angry poor people. I see nothing that could possibly go wrong with this combination.



: I still don't understand why you think your levy wants to murder you.



Here we see the perils of not letting your dialogue speak for itself.



: What is normal behavior for a levy anyway?





: How did they create your levy?



: Farewell.


Let's talk to the levy.



So...he's traumatized, got it.



: Finzen sent me to find out why you're following him.





This is a moderately intriguing concept that, as you all may have guessed, will be reduced to the trolley problem.

: What kind of year do you want from Finzen?



: Hold on, I'll speak with Finzen.



: I've spoken to the levy. He mentioned something about a 'Gillem Manor job.'

I want to point out that this game touches on predestination and responsibility before ignoring it for trolleys. It does have abandonment though, that got whoever wrote it two more words of approval from Colin McComb.



I don't think we've seen a single manor in this whole city.



: The levy is seeing what would have happened if you did the... job. He wants another year from you.



: [Raises Blue Tide] Based on what he said, it sounds like becoming a citizen saved your life.





: [Persuasion][Raises Gold, Indigo Tides] Give the levy another year of your life. You started fresh. He should get the same chance.



: [Raises Indigo Tide] You started a fire that killed a lot of people.





Wow, what a hero.


Anyway, we run to the Order of Truth and pay the head guy 60 shins (and rest for a day) to get a cipher. I'm not transcribing it because it's not interesting.



He does, however, recognize us as the Changing God. We tell him we're not. He does, however, tell us that Divaticu the fishman castoff found the machine behind him that takes a year of life from every citizen and thus the Order of Truth, not the Slave Families, creates the military forces of Sagus Cliffs.

Seriously, nothing about this city makes any sense.



Anyway, we get this thing and take it back to those two idiots.



: Finzin is willing to give you a year of his life, but i have more work to do before it can happen.

You talk to Finzin, as I discover. Oops!



: What are you holding there?



: That bird represents your shame?



Now, I'm pretty sure that this is the toy of a child who burned in the fire. The game doesn't come out and say this, and that's a good thing! Whoever submitted this quest had a decent amount of respect for the player's intellect, unlike the rest of the trolley quests that assume the reader is a stupid idiot who needed to be beaten over the head.



: I've brought a device that will transfer a year from you to your levy.





We get a short cutscene where Finzen gets lasered and the levy walks away happily having received green particle effects.



Riveting.



: Are you feeling all right?



: Do you regret helping the levy?








Alright. That is the last sidequest I can think of in Sagus Cliffs, let's get out of here! We are going to Caravanserai to get an airship to go to Part 2 and do all kinds of wacky misadventures!





: He breaks off when he sees Erritis standing near you. "Him! That's the thief!"

Again, yet another example of the Sagus Cliffs government being incompetent. Erritis was doofily standing near the crashed airship the whole time.





Now, we can turn in Erritis, offer to pay, or make the Cult of the Changing God work for this guy, but I'm sick of Sagus Cliffs and it just isn't interesting, so...

: [Intimidation, Deception] Let's be blunt. Erritis can't be held responsible for his actions. I mean, look at him.



Fuuuuuuck right off!



: I need to fly to the Valley of Dead Heroes.

: "Excellent timing," he says, bowing. "My vessel will be departing shortly. Board at your leisure."



Oh, yes, one little thing. You can't ever go back to Sagus Cliffs once you leave. Sure hope you finished up the jenkem quest!

: I'm ready. Let's depart.

: He smiles broadly, and the tension seems to drain from him. "My favorite words."

Master Rennio: All here, then? The wind is right for us. Let's sail, friends.





We get a short cutscene of the airship pulling away.




It's like a less original cut of those statues in the Lord of the Rings.



So the airship drops us here for free and then leaves, and I'm not sure why? Isn't this his livelihood? Is he a trader with cargo to unload? I don't know, and neither do the writers.



Oh look, death cultists. At this point, I realized I fucked up and missed Oom's quest. Oops.







And on this exciting note, I'm ending the update.

Decisions Lie Before Us!

So in last update's vote, I honestly thought we could get Rhin back with the sphere.

Do I reload and bring Rhin back into the party? If yes, who does she replace?
Do I reload and do Oom's quest?
Are we siding with the 'Memorialists' or the Death Cultists?

Choose wisely!