Part 34: Update XXVII - Very Slow Progress

Update XXVII - Very Slow Progress



♪ BGM: Syrahs - field4.mid ♫

This time, we're dropped right in the middle of a conversation between our three main characters about their next plan of action. Which they're having in a pub for some reason, and not, like, in the castle.

And in order to get those, we need vampires!
That's insane, Asgar! We can't create new vampires! The situation will get completely out of control!
You don't seriously believe that this human vermin will be able to stand against the Elras? Those mercenaries are too weak!
You will invoke a new Holy Crusade! I can only repeat myself... you're playing with fire!
Nonsense. But vampires are the only way to undo everything. Without them, there's no stone tablet...
Valnar, say something, too!
Um... 1) ...you are absolutely right! - 2) ...I think Asgar's right!

There's no actual repercussions for this choice, just one raises humanity and the other lowers it, so we're taking the one that raises humanity.

See, Asgar! That's two against one!
As if I'm going to let such a wimp like Valnar confine me...
You're free to leave any time...
Are you threatening me?
Stop it! But Valnar is right, Asgar. If you're not sharing our opinion, you can leave!
Think about it, Valnar. Vampires are powerful. Mercs are scum. Our goals are the same, after all. I also just want our old world back!
Well...
Well?
But vampires really are stronger than mercenaries, Alaine.
Oh, you know that? Decide however you feel like. But don't say I didn't warn you in the end. Creating vampires is extremely dangerous!

Note: Not actually extremely dangerous. The drawbacks are clearly defined as 1) lose humanity and 2) lose tax income.

For now, we should focus on finding the thief in Mesdor!

Nope.

The Clan and the Elras surely are going to attack soon. Let's acquire some warriors for the defense of my... uh, OUR castle!

Yep, that's what we'll be doing. Asgar's not joking around, the moment this scene ends, you are on the clock, as the possibility of being attacked by the Elras or the Clan is unlocked. Now, I haven't dove into the code yet, but from what I can tell, both the Clan and the Elras are on a timer and are replenishing numbers, essentially. Once they replenish the numbers enough, they attack a random castle of yours - and in our case, that would be Asgar's castle. Now, what happens if we lose Asgar's castle? That depends on the difficulty. On Easy, your shit just gets looted, but Ronak fights off the invaders, so you keep the castle. You lose your treasury, and you lose something else we haven't seen yet. You don't lose the gold you have on you, though. On Normal, your shit gets looted, but Ronak fights off the invaders. However, he gets injured doing so. After three times fighting off the invaders, Ronak fails the fourth time, and it's game over. On Hard? Fuck you, game over. You get no second chances. That means that priority #1 is to not get ourselves into an unwinnable situation by saving in a spot where we can't get an army fast enough to fight off the first invasion.



But first, we've also unlocked something else with that scene, as you might have gathered. We can now turn people into vampires!



And of course, I said earlier that we already had a prime target for taking that for a spin! I save before this, and for good reason.



Alright, so, transforming humans. The video combined with the tutorial we read earlier sum it up pretty well, but here's a quick recap: You start sucking a human's blood, and you need to stop it by pressing the Enter key to transform them. All the while, the little skull on top of the meter keeps dancing around, and you want to stop it right where you want it. Blue is a warrior, yellow a mage, and red a lord. I want to go for the lord.



Alas, there's a slight delay between pressing Enter and actually stopping, so I got screwed the first time around. That's what I saved for - so let's try again.



The second one is just not even close. The tutorial told us there are some situations where you can't get exactly what you want, and it wasn't lying.



The third attempt was successful, howewer - hell, it basically started right where I wanted it.



And with that, we get a shiny new vampire lady! She gets dumped into Asgar's castle, but we'll want to add her to our party ASAP.



Good thing we have this handy spell now!



♪ BGM: Asgar's Castle - blood009.mid ♫

And it dumps us right into the center tower.



As we head down to pick our new party member up, we also get the paltry tax income that has accumulated so far.



Now, we finally get to use this door!



It dumps us into this menu. Here, we can just pick whatever party member we want - assuming we have one in stock, that is. So we of course pick the only one we have.



And there we go! We now have four party members instead of three!



Sooo... let's talk extra party members, shall we? WARNING: There will be charts!

To start off, what do we have for options for our extra party members? Well, there are three types. Vampires, mercenaries, and werewolves. We shouldn't know about the werewolves yet, but you've already seen them in the pictures of the castle conquering screen and the party member selection screen. It's not exactly a surprise anymore.

Secondly, if they're dead at the end of a battle, that's it, they're dead forever and removed from your party. This applies to all three types. They also cannot learn any spells from rune tablets.

For equipment, it works like this:

- Weapons: Valnar and the vampire warriors use swords. Asgar and the mercenary use sabres. Alaine uses claws. The mages use staves. The lord and lady use maces/clubs. The werewolf doesn't use anything - or rather, he has an item called "Werewolf Claws" that adds no stats and is cursed, so he can't remove it.
- Armor: Everybody except the werewolf can use all armor and helmets. Valnar, Asgar, the warriors, the lord and lady, and the mercenary can use shields. The werewolf can wear the Sailor Hat, for some reason.
- Accessories: Everybody can use all accessories.

Finally, how do they compare statwise? Well, this is where the charts come in, so strap in. These numbers are all at level 50, which is the middle point. The orders would be slightly different if it were at level 1 or level 99, but it's not noteworthy enough to really go into detail over.

HP:



This sets a general tone for the extra party members - they're generally inferior to our main characters. The werewolf is an unique case, as we'll see later.

BP:



Asgar is proving to be the least spell-focused of the main characters, whereas Alaine is the most spell-focused one. The warriors are massively lagging, and the mercenary and werewolf just don't play here at all, which makes sense, since these are blood points.

Attack:



Why, hello there, werewolf! Now, before you get all excited, remember: The werewolf can't equip weapons. So if we stick a mid-range sword on Valnar (+98 Attack), he goes up to slightly less than 350 Attack, which is a lot closer. The werewolf will always be ahead of the pack when it comes to Attack, but he pays for it by being completely unable to cast spells. He's purely physically focused. Alaine beating out Asgar in Attack is kind of weird, to be honest. She seems to be both the spellcaster and the glass cannon in one.

Defense:



Same stuff about the werewolf applies here. Alaine falls behind quite a bit here, though looking at the actual numbers, it's nothing major, and it can be counteracted by just giving her the best armor you have.

Intelligence:



One thing you might be noticing is that the lord and lady are actually competing with the worse one of our main characters in most stats. Overall, they're the most well-rounded characters, and I think they're the best addition to the party, which is why I got one of them.

Agility:



Again, lord and lady are hanging with Asgar, whereas the others are further back - with the werewolf taking a special spot again.

Also, a note on skills:

- The male warrior is more defensively focused than the female one. He gets skills that boosts Defense, whereas she gets skills that boost Attack.
- Strangely, the male mage is more offensively focused than the female one. He gets more attack spells, whereas she gets healing spells as well.
- The lord and lady are largely the same. The most noteworthy thing seems to be that the lady gets a spell that heals Petrified and Paralyzed, whereas the lord gets a spell that can inflict some status effects.

So, that'll be it for our extra party members for now. They're not great, but hey, it's better than not having them. Moving on!



We use Retreat to head back to Syrahs, because we have some stuff we need to do there.



♪ BGM: Syrahs - field4.mid ♫

Primarily, that is selling stuff. We're going to need a lot of cash.



However, we also get a club for our lady. She's already lagging in the Attack department, so let's not make it worse. We also pick up a helmet, a shield and armor for her to help her out in the Defense department. Then, I go back and sell some more stuff. We end up with about 15000 Filar, which will be coming in very handy soon.



♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid ♫

Next, we head out of town to search for the mercenaries. We're going to need them. We were told they were somewhere in a forest north of Syrahs.



Well, there's one forest close to Syrahs to the north, so there we find what we're looking for!



♪ BGM: Swords For Hire - Islands2.mid ♫

Gotta love that blood text.



Anyway, the mercenary forest isn't exactly a complicated place. Some side paths with some stuff, but nothing major.



We get into combat with our shiny new party member for the first time.



Even with the equipment we bought for her, she's not exactly pulling her weight compared to the other three, but whatever, it's an extra attack.



We make it to the second part of the forest with no further incident.



There's not a lot of complexity here as well, however, there will be some impediments to our progress coming up.



Just some hungry wanderers...
Stop this nonsense, Asgar!
We're here to speak with the leader of the mercenaries...
What do you want from him?
We need his help.
So?
We have plenty of Filar with us!



What are they whispering?
What? You can't hear it? What kind of vampire are you, Valnar?
No, sadly not. My woeful life as a vampire has gifted me other powers, it seems.
Pity...
...*whisper*...
Hey, you there! We have plenty of Filar! We want to see your boss!
And why shouldn't we just slaughter you and then take your Filar!?

...because that's a really shitty business practice for mercenaries? "Oh, yeah, there's some mercenaries out in the forest, but nobody's ever come back after going to hire them, so you should probably look elsewhere."

You are free to try!
Hehe, as you wish...
What a splendid presentation of masterful diplomacy, Asgar! Truly fantasically done... now we have to kill more humans once again...
No, we'll just give them a beating!
Oh, just stop it already... you are real buzzkills...
Give us your Filar!



So, you might think these mercenaries are minibosses of some type, but not really. They have a decent amount of HP (400), but their skills aren't impressive - in fact, they don't have any. They can attack, defend, and Observe Battle (which, as you might remember from Behind The Fangs, does fuck-all).



Pretty early into the battle, we hit both of them with the Bleeding status, so they're constantly losing HP. With that, they don't last long. Valnar and Alaine level up to level 3 with that fight.



Fine... you want to see Derbor? Please, go to him...
Why didn't we do it like this in the first place!? Let's go.



And we get let through. With that, we make it into the mercenaries' camp, so we have some people to talk to.



But for weeks, no one has given us any jobs. If this keeps going, we no longer will be mercenaries, but ordinary robbers...

Well, blame the two outlaws out in the front there.

Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have good use for you, as well.
Well, I certainly hope so!

Hm, perhaps I should just steal the treasure of the boss and then retire?



We'll settle this with your boss.
Hurry up, I'm hungry!
Speaking of hungry...
Asgar, not now!
Am I the only one here who's starving, or what!?
We still need them, so hold yourself back.
*grumble*

For some reason, this guy here keeps staring at me weirdly. I'd better stay away from thick bushes. There are weird people everywhere. And one of them stands before me...



Thanks, but we don't have time for that.
Damn it, no one ever wants to hear my story!
(Really surprising...)

Hey, I bet I could tell them that I have slain a giant bear all on my own! Okay, so it was actually just a brown hare, but no one knows about that, hehehe...



Well, we'll see about that...

Oh no, why did I screw up like that during our last mission. The boss is definitely going to kick me out soon. But where am I going to live? And how am I supposed to earn money? Maybe I should lick the boots of the boss a little again. That should appease him.



jobs. But nobody's had any need for us for weeks.
Well, we're here.
You have work for us!? What a great day!
Valnar, the knight in shining armor...

Oh, how am I supposed to go on vacation with my beloved Marry if I don't have any money!? And where did I even put her amulet!?

I smell a quest, but this'll probably have to wait for a bit.



He's already killed hundreds of people!
Reminds me of myself.
1) Absolutely right... - 2) Oh, nonsense...

Once more, we get a choice, one raising humanity, one lowering it. Free humanity, always welcome.

You always were a brutal murderer...
Hehe, thanks for the compliment!

Just one wrong move and I will give these guys a thorough thrashing! Then the boss will be thankful to me, and he will give me a little more Filar next time. And then one day, I'm going to be his second in command...



Don't worry, we're not looking for trouble with you mercenaries.
That's the spirit. We are not to be trifled with!

Hey, I would love to get a taste of that redhead...
(One wrong move and he is dead...)



Somehow, I'm slowly getting tired of hearing that line...

Hm, what's the boss always doing over there with the big rock? Could he be hiding something there?

This also will come back to us with a quest, but we actually won't be doing anything with that big rock for reasons that will become apparent later.



I am Valnar, this here is Alaine, and the one over here is Asgar. We need your help.
Well, well. And who says that I'm going to help you?
Our Filar.
Oh, you have Filar with you? Why didn't you just say so? How may I help you?
Well, we could use a few capable warriors.
What do you think we are? Wusses!? We ARE capable warriors!
No one questioned that: We will pay you if you fight for us.
That's our business. We've been fighting a lot of people. For money, we will fight for anyone against anyone.
Well, you won't be fighting just against humans.
When I look at the way you stand before me, I figured as much. But if the money's right, we'll fight even against the biggest dragons.
Oh, a dragon isn't even a problem...
Stop talking big. We're getting 500 Filar in advance, or we won't move even one muscle.
500 Filar!? Say what!?
500 Filar. Not a single Filar less. If you can't pay, then I'd suggest you come back when you have the money.
That's all right. What else do you want?
Well, obviously, it's going to cost something, as well, if you want us to be in attendance.
Fine. But in return, we demand unconditional loyalty.
Hehe, of course...
Great, then we are in agreement.
Then hand over the Filar!



Hm. I think we can afford this, or what do you think? Yeah, I think we can.

Wonderful! You can now hire as many mercs from me as you want.
Why don't you come to my castle? Then it will be easy for us to recruit your men...
Hm, sounds reasonable... I hope it'll be worthwhile for us.
It is the castle east from here, across the bridge.
Good, I'll be waiting there for your assignments... I am now going to quickly instruct my men.

Alright, and with that, we've gotten the mercenaries on our side. Next time, The Secret Plan will finally be unleashed! ...kinda.