Part 17: What A Terrible Night To Have A Curse

Alternate title: HUBRIS! (shoutout to Fargle and the Robot Wars LP, and no, I see no issue with pimping other LPs I'm in, why do you ask?)



Alright, so last time, we largely dealt with most of the sidequests available and are now starting to get ready to continue the main plot again. I say "starting", because we're still going to be fucking around a bit beforehand. First, I've grinded some normal souls out and have raised Valnar's Intelligence further - the goal is somewhere in the 180~190 range, that will open the red chests that we want to open.



Next, I decide to get a bit froggy and make my way to the optional dungeon.



The old pyramid is a bonus dungeon of sorts, albeit not an endgame dungeon. Well, I guess it's kind of an endgame dungeon - but you can make it through without being endgame-ready, I think. It'll definitely be rough, though. However, the loot at the end of it will have made it worth it by a long shot.



Now, the pyramid consists of nine levels, each getting bigger as you make your way down into the pyramid. So as the dungeon goes on, things are going to get more complicated.



The first few levels aren't anything exciting.



The enemies around here, mummies and scorpions, are strong enough to give us somewhat of a challenge, but they're not plentiful enough yet. Of course, as we continue to go down, the enemies will become more plentiful, so that's going to be an issue.



This level has an interesting thing going on...



...these slots in the ground spit fire every once in a while, and if you run into it, you take some damage. However, they give you a lot of time to dash through, so no problems here.



Level four is when problems start to kick in. At this point, the dungeon requires you to find secret passages to progress, and that's never a good thing.



We also run into a new set of enemies, "king vipers". However, they're not that much more scary than the other enemies here - in fact, the mummies are the scariest. Why are the mummies the scariest?



It's because of this. They have a spell that can cause the Curse status effect. Remember that one? The one that just straight up halves your attributes? Yeah, that's quite nasty. However, there's one particular problem that comes with curses.

I can't heal them.

Yeah. After ending this battle, I spend ten minutes paging through menus, and then through RPG Maker - there is nothing for me to heal this. As far as I can tell, there are two, count 'em, two ways for the player to actually heal the Curse status. Number one is something we passed on quite a while back.


Turns out that I was right in thinking curses are a bitch to get rid of, but I forgot just how much. Number two is a spell Alaine can get at level 40, which gets rid of all status effects. That one has now become a definite must-get, because as it stands, we have one option to get rid of this, and that's letting Alaine die and reviving her, which clears out status effects.

And that puts our exploration of the pyramid on hold, because I don't want to be at the mercy of random numbers deciding whether our characters will become useless or not. Actually, let's crunch some quick numbers on just what our chances are here, assuming one round of combat with one mummy.

Base chance for a mummy to cast Curse: 1/6.
Base chance for Curse to affect a character: 30% for Asgar and Alaine, 25% for Valnar.
Added resistance for Valnar and Asgar from the magic shield: 70%.
Chance for a mummy to pick any of our party members in particular: 1/3.

Put the three together and we have the following chances:

Valnar: 1/6 * 25% * 30% * 1/3 = ~0.4167%
Asgar: 1/6 * 30% * 30% * 1/3 = 0.5%
Alaine: 1/6 * 30% * 1/3 = ~1.6667%

And in total, that means that for every round of combat with a single mummy, we have about a 2.5833% chance of getting hit with Curse and having to kill one of our characters off intentionally. Of course, this goes up to 5.1667% with two mummies, and 7.75% with three mummies, which does happen on the deeper levels. I don't like those odds.

Oh well. Refuge, get me out of here!



Instead, we're going to be going back to Castle Tranak to wipe out some loose ends.



We spend some time wiping out these castle guards that were left, and Alaine drops sometime in the process, allowing us to get rid of that annoying curse.



Eventually, we clear out the group, but it turns out that not all guards were turned hostile when we started out by murdering the head of the knights. The guards that were doing rounds around the outer rim of the castle are still just going on their merry way, as is Father Josch. Of course, we can't have that.







So I decide to clean house a bit. After all, it's not evil if we're killing the evil tyrant's army! Well, that, and it really annoys me when things are left half-way. So now everybody in Castle Tranak has to die. Don't worry, we've got the Humanity to take that, wiping out everybody in Lombar, and killing everybody at one other particular location as well, and still come out as good. Distilling good vs. evil to a simple number is fun!



Next, we're going to explore the top floor of the castle. Nothing much going on outside, just a whole bunch of barrels, some of which have some garbage in them, most of which are empty. No fun. The corner towers are also mostly empty, with the exception of the one to the top right.



That one has a ghost! And this one is a special ghost!

A ghost!
Ghost: Ahhhh... finally... I'm tired of my existence... no more joy... finally, somebody has come whom I can give my powers...
Umm...
Ghost: I used to be a guard in this castle... a long, long, time ago... but one day, I was deceived by a back-stabbing priest in this very tower... he loved my wife, and nobody could know of it... but I caught them in bed together... my heart broke in two! I went to this tower and took my life... but that was a mistake! I can't find peace until I have had revenge!
But the priest has to be long dead by now, right?
Ghost: Yes, for that it is too late. But maybe, the death of his fosterling will bring me peace...
I'm supposed to kill his son? Did he even have one?
Ghost: Yes, he did... with my wife! She was already pregnant when I killed myself... of course, nobody could find out that it was the priest's child. And so he told the people that it was my child, but that he would take care of it in the name of the church, since I had "neglected my responsibilities as a father through my death"! Oh, how I HATE that bastard! Him and his son! Kill his son, he's the priest in this castle. His name is Father Josch!

Oh, THAT guy? That guy that I'm now carrying in my inventory in the form of ten holy sands that I'll never use? Guess that's done with then!

Ghost: If you'll help me, I'll give you my power...
Hm... 1) ...alright! 2) ...no, I won't do something like that.

Well, no reason not to do this, since we've already done it and all.

Ghost: Oh, thank you so much! Come back when you've killed him!

So we come back. Right away.



Ghost: Ahhh... I feel that you've done it! HARHARHAR! Revenge is mine! Finally! Thank you so much. Take my power as a reward!

And what do we get? Ten more seconds for the wolf transformation. Blah.



Next stop, the center room on the top floor.



Looks like some sort of jail, albeit a bit sparsely populated.



Hello!
Young Warrior: Please, don't disturb me, I'm on my post.
What are you doing?
Young Warrior: Can't you tell? I'm guarding the prisoners... and now let me continue doing that!
Hm...

You know, I think I want to talk to that guy in the cell. But...



Locked... but I doubt that we want to talk with the scum locked up in there...

Let me be the judge of that, would you? Anyway, we need a key. One way to solve that problem!





And there we go, stealing a key made easy!



Do you really want to go in there?
Um... 1) ...yes, I think so. 2) ...no, of course not!

Come on, what's going to happen? The guy inside is going to jump us and murder us all?

I changed my mind. Maybe the prisoners could turn out to be quite useful...
Of course they are...
Try thinking about something besides eating for once!



Hey, you're free!
Man: What? Say that again!
You're FREE!
Man: I... I can't believe it! You've freed me!
Looks like it...
Man: But where should I go now? I've been locked up here for so long.
Back to your family?
Man: I don't have a family... I've been an orphan since I was young. I made ends meet by stealing until I got caught. And since then I've been rotting in this jail!
Why don't you try starting over in Shannar?
Man: Shannar? Starting over? Do you think that could work?
Why not? Shannar's a really nice city... no problems at all... at least not since recently...
Man: Well, I really do need to start over... I guess I'll see what I can do. Anyway, I'll start out by taking a look around Shannar! Thanks for the tip.
You're just going to walk out of the castle now?
Man: Don't worry, I'll manage. And then I'll sneak on a ship to Shannar...



And there he goes. Not that sneaking out of the castle is going to be difficult when everybody's dead. We really do find people to get to Shannar in the strangest places.



Now, the last place we need to check up here that actually has something kind of interesting in it.



Another warehouse, but this one is actually guarded. Let's try and steal something.



Guard: Hey! Don't touch that! That's all the king's property!
Pardon me!

Hm. Let's keep touching it.



Guard: Can't you listen? DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!

Nah.



Guard: I've had about enough of you now! When I say "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING", it means "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING"! I'm warning you! This is the last time I'm going to tell you this!

And then... nothing. We keep touching the stuff, but nothing. Huh. Clearly, something has gone wrong here. To the RPG Maker!



Alright, everything seems to be in order here. Not sure why Marlex went with a variable instead of switches for dialogue here, but whatever. Every time you touch something, the variable "guard-anger" goes up and you get a new piece of dialogue.



Ah, here's the problem. We get to the "had about enough" part of the chain with the anger value set to 2, it raises the value to 3, and then we get to the next part... by having the value set to 2. And since there's no case for 3 now, nothing happens. Normally, we were supposed to get into a fight with the guy, kill him, and then loot with impunity. Guess there's only one way to solve this:



There we go. And then it turns out that there's nothing really interesting in the chests. I mean, there's a white stone in one of them, which could be useful, but meh, I'm starting to feel that I just can't be arsed finding the shrines. All in all, the boosts would be kind of nice, but they're also kind of minor. And there's also something else that will come later that will make them even more pointless, though I didn't know of that when I made the decision of "eh, fuck those shrines". That was largely just laziness.



Though I was half lying when I said there's nothing really interesting in these chests, because we find this weird thing (though we find it in a barrel - technically still correct!).

Hm, there's a strange device in here...
"Obtained 1 Measuring Device!"

What's it for? I don't know (well, I do know now, since I've finished the game now, but at the time I didn't know)! But it's marked as a quest item, so it'll probably be important for some side quest later.



So that's it for exploring Castle Tranak - well, apart from that one thing, the boss. I would be getting quite froggy if I tried taking them on, and the last time I got froggy, I regretted it. ...eh, fuck it. I saved. Nothing can go wrong.



So, we blaze into the throne room and make our presence felt.

HALT! What do you want?
Um, we're looking for Sir Esthir!
Sir Esthir? We've been looking for him for a while now.
So he was one of your knights?
Why "was"? He is! Wait! You know something...
Exactly! You know something!
And you sent him to Castle "Aldaines"?
How do you know that? You were in the castle too, weren't you?
Exactly! You were there!
Thanks, that's all I wanted to know.
Just one moment... just WHAT do you know about Sir Esthir?
Well, I know that you'll be meeting him soon...
What?
Lady Aires! Is there a problem?
Yes, my lord. These people seem to be coming from Castle "Aldaines".
What do they know?
We'll find out eventually.
Let them pass! I want to talk to them!
But... I don't think that's a good idea. These people look dangerous.
Let them pass! That's an order!
As you wish. You have the honor of speaking to our king. But I'll be paying attention!
Oh, you BETTER be paying attention for this!



Now tell me what you know about the whereabouts of Sir Esthir!
He's dead...
Oh no... what tragic news! But how do you know this?
He was snooping around Castle "Aldaines".
Yes, that was his task. He was supposed to check if everything was in order and collect the taxes while he was there.
He failed... but you can be glad that I'm here!
Why is that?
I'm bringing you the taxes...
Ah, VERY good! Give them to me!
...in the form of my blade!
AHHHHHHHHH!
AHHHHHHHHH!
Take him out!
Damn... this won't be easy!



Now you will be killed for your outrageous behavior!
Exactly! You will now be killed!
We'll see just who's going to be killing who here. But parrots die early.
We'll feed your corpses to the wolves!
Exactly! Feed them to the wolves!
Now, you've missed one small detail! I'M the wolf!

Alright, so now, it's time for the first of two fights of a boss battle we really shouldn't be going into. Let's see what we're dealing with.

Johanna Aires:

HP: 900
Attack: 380
Defense: 350
Intelligence: 180
Agility: 200

Attacks: Normal attack. That's it.

Melissa Iray:

HP: 1100
Attack: 362
Defense: 300
Intelligence: 170
Agility: 140

Attacks: Normal attack (40% chance), strong healing spell (20% chance), all-party attack spell that can cause Poison (20% chance), all-party spell that can cause Confusion and Paralysis (20% chance).

Well, this isn't TOO much of a problem. Why? Because these two are actually somewhat vulnerable to status effects and magic. So for instance, Iray gets nailed with both Poison and Paralysis from Asgar's first spell, which pretty much takes away most of this duo's potential to cause us problems. Then Alaine blinds Aires with a flame ray in the second round, and everything has gone completely to shit for them. At that point, we just wail on them with spells until they die, taking barely any damage in the process.



And pretty soon, they're both dead.



You damn women!

And then, without a break, we're thrown into the real meat of the fight.



How dare you! As punishment, you'll be impaled, whipped and then burned!
That's harmless compared to what we're going to be doing to YOU!

Sadly, Asgar's boast will be nothing but empty words, because we're about to get murdered. Let's take a roll call for our murderers-to-be!

Advisor (the guy with the ball and chain to the left):

HP: 700
Attack: 350
Defense: 350
Intelligence: 160
Agility: 200

Attacks: Normal attack (80% chance), all-party spell that can cause Confusion and Paralysis (20% chance).

King of the Ring:

HP: 1400
Attack: 330
Defense: 380
Intelligence: 170
Agility: 160

Attacks: Normal attack (66% chance), strong all-party ice attack spell (33% chance).

Queen Clara:

HP: 1100
Attack: 310
Defense: 300
Intelligence: 190
Agility: 160

Attacks: Normal attack (66% chance), strong all-party fire attack spell that can also cause Blind (33% chance).

Court Mage (the old fart on the right):

HP: 500
Attack: 300
Defense: 270
Intelligence: 170
Agility: 140

Attacks: Normal attack (33% chance), strong healing spell (33% chance), all-party spell that can cause Sleep (33% chance).

Now, these guys don't seem all that more difficult. But it's multiple factors that come together.

1) There's four of them now. More enemies is always bad.
2) They all have party-wide attacks of some kind.
3) They can inflict a wider variety of status effects.
4) Their resistances.

Oh, right, I didn't mention their resistances. This is where the real fun begins. Aires and Iray were still babycakes when it came to resistances, and our capability to inflict status effect allowed us to make quick work of them. Now, what kind of resistances do these four boast? First, the spell resistances:

The advisor is immune to fire and ice, resistant to poison, light and death spells (albeit not the death status effect), and weak to shadow spells, of which we have none.

The court mage is immune to all magic.

The queen is immune to ice and resistant to all other spells.

The king is immune to all magic.

So we've got two that we can't scratch with any sort of spells, and two that we can kind of hurt with particular spells, but we don't really have a lot of them. Valnar has a lot of light spells, but they're not for damage dealing. Asgar has ice, poison, and ice/poison spells. In this case, dual-typing is bad, because if the opponent is resistant to one, the 0% modifier applies and you get no damage. Ice is useless because everybody resists it, so we have poison as our only real option here. Finally, Alaine has fire, which can deal damage to the queen only. Welp. Now, what about status effects? Maybe these can help out?

The advisor is resistant to Confusion, Paralysis and Sickness, neutral towards Bleeding and Poison, and weak to Sleep and Berserk. He's immune to anything else.

The court mage is resistant to Curse, Mute, Paralysis and Poison, neutral towards Blind, Berserk, Sleep and Bleeding, and weak to Sickness and Confusion. He's immune to Stasis/Death.

Well, that's pretty nice. What's next?

The queen is weak to Poison. She's immune to anything else.

The king is resistant to Bleeding. He's immune to anything else.

Ah. That's where the problem comes in. Right.



So things are going to get interesting rather quick. Alaine fires off a flame ray, and it deals about 60 damage to the queen and blinds the mage. Valnar starts casting White Power to boost resistance against magic. Asgar casts the poisonous ice rain that does fuck-all except poison the queen. This is going to be a long slog.



However, after a round of assault from the enemies, we're starting to look a bit worse for wear. So now Alaine and Asgar need to start healing, while Valnar throws out the Holy Storm and does pretty much nothing except turning the mage Berserk, and using the Holy Sand on the next turn also turns the advisor Berserk. Taking those two out of the fight for a while helps, but still, the king and queen can deal some big damage with their spells, and the other two will get knocked out of their Berserk state eventually.



After some more slogging, the queen goes down, which should make things easier.



However, the advisor leaves Alaine both Paralyzed and Confused, which basically knocks her the fuck out, because I can't heal Paralysis. And even if I could, Alaine would be the one that could heal it, and she can't heal herself! By the way, this whole "only one character gets status effect healing magic" thing is a pain in the neck.

With Alaine out, only Asgar can heal, and he can't keep up with focused fire, so we need to get fucking lucky just to survive at this point. Then Valnar gets hit with Confusion, which doesn't help matters. The advisor drops after an attack from the Berserked mage, but then a few rounds later, the mage manages to hit the entire party with Sleep, and everything goes completely to shit.



WELP. This seems about as good a time as any to quit. Next time, maybe we'll actually continue the story? I'm not sure, I have a habit of getting sidetracked with things.