Part 14: Second Verse, Same As the First

So, last time, we explored two cities, did some sidequests, and did nothing else of importance. This time, we explore two cities, do some sidequests, and do nothing else of importance, but we do it in different locales! Variety!



Our first stop is Esrik, the second wintery town.



Woman: What brings you to our house?
We just wanted to ask if something happened in the last few days.
Woman: Here in Esrik? Sorry to disappoint, but nothing ever happens here.
Alright, we'll just have a look around then.
Woman: Please don't touch anything!



Blonde Girl: Oh, hello!
Hello, young lady!
Blonde Girl: You're not going to take mommy away from me, are you?
What gives you that idea?
Blonde Girl: Well, a long time ago, my daddy ran away from home because he didn't love mommy anymore. And now I'm scared that mommy might leave because she doesn't love me anymore.
Um... 1) ...your mommy doesn't love you. 2) ...your mommy does love you!

Let it not be said that Vampires Dawn doesn't give you opportunities to be cartoonishly evil. Of course, we're not going to do that.

Blonde Girl: Are you sure?
Very sure!
Blonde Girl: MOMMY LOVES ME! MOMMY LOVES ME! LALALA...
(Young and innocent... her blood must be so pure!)



Guard: Don't cause any trouble, or you'll be in it!
Don't worry, we'll behave!
Guard: Alright then. But don't forget, I'm ALWAYS keeping an eye on you!



Man: What brings you to Esrik? It can't be the cold weather, right?
No, not really. We're on the search for better equipment.
Man: Better equipment? Well, in Esrik, there are two stores for you to buy things in. But you'll still only find the best stuff while you're out adventuring. Makes me think back to my time as a great adventurer... yeah, everything was better back then. Though I do have a wonderful family now.
So you should be happy now, or?
Man: I am, but still, I could go for a little adventure every now and then, like exploring the hidden cave in the mountains south of Esrik.
A hidden cave?
Man: Oops, looks like I've said too much. Better forget what I've said...
Oh well, see you later then, maybe.
Man: Sure.



Blonde Woman: It's a good thing we have such a great fireplace, or we'd be freezing to death in this place!
Yeah, the climate here is quite uncomfortable.
Blonde Woman: But at least you can live pretty peacefully in this town. There's hardly any problems here.
Well, that's good.
Blonde Woman: Definitely!



Young Man: Hello!
Hello! Say, why are you running around with a sword?
Young Man: Oh, I'm just practicing so I can become a strong adventurer like my father.
(A strong adventurer like his father? HARHAR! He should be practicing crawling in the gutter for that!)



Young Woman: Brrrrrrr! I really should get myself a thick coat! I feel like it's getting colder from day to day!
Why haven't you gotten one yet?
Young Woman: Well, my parents say that I should buy it with my own money, but I've already spent that on various things.
On what?
Young Woman: Um... I'd rather not talk about that!
Tsk, tsk, must be something quite terrible!
Young Woman: Er... I need to leave!

Call this another situation where I'm not getting the implication. And yes, I'm still around too.



Man With Coat: You look like you come from here, but I haven't seen you here before!
What am I supposed to gather from that?
Man With Coat: Well, you're even paler than most people here in Esrik...
Must be the air.
Man With Coat: Could be.



Woman: Hm, you don't happen to have seen the bartender, right?
No, why?
Woman: He went out to get some fresh air about two hours ago, but he's still gone...
Well, we haven't seen him.
Woman: Could you maybe look for him?
Why did he leave, anyway? Shouldn't he be taking care of his guests?
Woman: Yeah, but just look around, there's not a lot going on right now anyway. So, would you maybe look for him?
Um... 1) ...sure! 2) ...no, we won't!

Sidequests!

Woman: Good, good! He shouldn't have gone far from the town... shouldn't!
We'll go and take a look!
Woman: Thank you! He's a good friend, and I don't want something to happen to him!



We head out of town and go just one bit north...



...and immediately find the place! Red skull... eh, fuck it, I saved. For the record, we're exactly one level below the recommended one here.



We engage the snakes that are attacking the barkeeper.

What a big snake!
That's a snow viper. Pretty dangerous.
But it doesn't scare us!



So, snow vipers. Are they dangerous? No, not really. We kill it in two turns, because it's got like no defense. 220 Attack, 220 Defense, 300 HP... really, kind of pathetic. Sometimes, the red skull of death isn't quite a red skull of death. However, generally, it is still very smart to err on the side of caution.



Stupid reptile!



And dead it is.



Come here, you miserable snake!
Pretty big specimen!
Let's slice it up!

This one doesn't fare much better.



Now, let's let it bleed out!



And that's that!



Barkeeper: Oh, thank you! If it wasn't for you, those snakes would have surely killed me! Accursed snow vipers!
A woman from your pub told us that you went missing.
Barkeeper: A woman? Ophelia! Thank God! And I thank you as well! I'll be heading back, then - come and drop by my pub again!



And there he goes. Well, let's do that then!



Woman: Thank you for saving him! Take this as a reward for your troubles!
"Obtained 1 Crystal Claws and 300 EXP!"
Thanks!

Well, the claws are completely pointless, but experience is always welcome.



Barkeeper: Thank you so much! Here, take this money as a token of my appreciation!
"Obtained 1500 Filar!"
Thanks!
Barkeeper: That's nothing in comparison to my life!

That's practically pointless at this juncture as well. D'oh well. That's pretty much it for Esrik, so time to move on.



Next stop, Lombar. We've heard a few things about Lombar before, and now it's time to see those things for ourselves.



The town, as you might expect, is quite deserty, though it still has that same style of architecture because getting many different tilesets is hard.



Man: Hey, you're foreigners, right?
Right.
Man: I could tell right away because of your skin color. Somebody as pale as that can't be from the desert!
Tsk...



Hm, here's an interesting book about the lifestyle of the people living in Lombar. According to this book, the men are the breadwinners of the family. The women have nothing to say and are only responsible for the kitchen and the bed.
Barbaric!

To note, I considered putting some sort of political jab in here and going all HAW HAW POLITICAL HUMOR, but decided against it. Lombar makes an easy target. I'll just largely be quiet throughout this part and let the town speak for itself.



Woman: Sorry, but I need to cook, or I'll get in trouble with my husband again.
Are all the women here so submissive?
Woman: Submissive? Yes. Out of love for my husband.



Guard: Welcome to Lombar!
Thanks! Say, is there anything unusual around here?
Guard: Well, there's one small thing... in the desert, there's a pretty... big sandworm that regularly attacks the city. Nobody's died so far, but it would be nice if this sandworm stopped existing.
Um... 1) ...we'll take care of that! 2) ...well, that's bad for you!

Yeah, sure, more sidequests, bring 'em on.

Guard: Good luck. Sadly, nobody knows where exactly it is, but maybe you'll just run into it.
I'm sure we'll get it somehow.



Woman: Sorry, but I need to cook, or I'll get in trouble with my husband again.
Women have nothing to say here, it seems?
Woman: No, not really. But I don't care about that! I live only for my husband!



Man: Hm... you look like you could maybe help me!
With what?
Man: I need some rare herbs for a very great lunch. Without them, my wife can't make this delicious special meal. The herbs are very rarely found in the desert.
Um... 1) ...I'll look for them! 2) ...I'm not your servant!

More sidequests for the sidequest god!

Man: Thank you so much! Sadly, I don't know where exactly you can find the herbs, but I'm sure you'll get lucky!
We'll see.



Hm, there's a diary in this bookshelf... "I had to beat my wife again today! Her kitchen work really has been getting worse and worse! She simply can't use spices right... my noble palate demands the best food in the world, but my wife just isn't good enough at cooking. Not to mention I'm angry again because I have still not tasted that rare desert herb! I'm going to go insane!"
That poor woman... what man has the right to hit a woman?



Young Woman: What are you doing down here?
What are you doing here?
Young Woman: I live here!
And I wanted to visit you!
Young Woman: Huh? Why that?
I just felt like it. Does there have to be a reason?
Young Woman: Oh, just leave me alone!



Hello!
Man: Hello.
Could it be that there's hardly any women here?
Man: Oh, there are, but of course they're not allowed to walk around the city! They're either standing in front of the stove at home and cook, or they're cleaning, or they're laying naked in bed. Depends on what the man needs the most right now.
What the MAN needs the MOST RIGHT NOW? What kind of a barbaric city is this?
Man: Hey, woman, did I tell you to talk?
This is getting close to being the last straw! We should wipe out this entire city!
Pssssst... come on, Alaine, we're leaving!
Man: Seems like your woman needs to be properly disciplined again!
AAAAAAARGH!



Welcome to Lombar! You look like you could use a coat to protect yourself against the sun. The desert is relentless! Only 300 Filar a piece!

These are somewhat useful - they're a miscellaneous item we can equip, and they protect us from taking damage while walking in the desert on the overworld. Given that we're going to need to do that to solve the sidequests and they're just 300 bucks a pop, we buy three.



Oh, what's this then?



There you are again!
Thief: WHAT? YOU AGAIN? LEAVE ME ALONE!
Only if you tell us...
Thief: Grumble, grumble... only in the shadows of high walls from now on...



And there he goes again. That guy really doesn't like us following him, it seems.

Why does he keep running away?



Hello!
Man: Hello, can I help you?
Pretty hot here, isn't it?
Man: That's normal for the desert. You don't really want to talk about the weather, do you?
Um, not really.
Man: Well, excuse me, I'm going to go back to what I've been doing.
What's that?
Man: Um... I need to take are of my yak!

Chalk this one up as another one where I don't know whether there's supposed to be some sort of implication here or not.



Pub Owner: Hello! Can I offer you something to drink?
Hm, no, thanks! We're not thirsty right now.
(At least not for the brew that you're offering!)



Man: Hey!
Hello! Doesn't seem like there's a lot of guests here.
Man: Well, it seems like nobody's really interested in alcoholic beverages right now. No idea why. I could definitely go for another beer!
Have fun.



Man: Oh, welcome to Lombar, strangers! The city of the hot winds.
Lombar... pretty hot here.
Man: Well, the desert has the hottest temperatures in the world, after all.
Honestly, I don't like warm temperatures like this.
Man: You get used to it pretty quickly, and if not, well, then you have to leave again.
Anything interesting happen recently?
Man: No, not really. We just kind of live along with nothing much happening...
Alright. Thanks anyway!



Woman: Excuse me, but I'm not allowed to talk to strangers. Orders from my husband!
What kind of a way of life is this here?



Hm, there's a current book about the history of Lombar here. For some reason, King Gerald of Castle Tranak recently started buying his weapons from Lombar, bringing a great economic boom and constantly raising the standards of living in the city...

We've heard this story before, still no clues as to what exactly the reason behind it is, though.



Man: What are you doing in my house?
We just wanted to have a nice conversation...
Man: Oh, excuse me. It's quite rare that somebody just enters my house and wants to have a nice conversation with me...
I can imagine.
Man: Well, since you're such a nice guy, I'll tell you a secret! My father told me... there's supposed to be a magical, secret place in the desert. Sadly, I've never found it, but maybe you can get lucky. My father told me to first seek the northmost mountain in the desert. From there, I should walk 400 meters north, then 700 meters east. Or was it 400 meters east, then 700 meters north? Or 400 meters west, then 700 meters south? Damnit... well, now you know why I've never found this place.
Thanks anyway!
Man: No problem.

Well, I went and checked - the correct path is 400 mters north, then 700 meters east, with 100 meters being equivalent to one square on the world map. The place actually turns out to be the light shrine, but as long as we don't have any white stones to use there, it's useless. Oh, and if we talk to him again...

Man: Now I need to deal with my wife again. She didn't cook well yesterday, so I'll have to give her a whipping again.
Barbaric!
Man: Yes, you're absolutely right. Something as barbaric as yesterday's dinner simply can't happen again.

Anyway, the next thing in my footage...



...is me filling up the mines we currently have because Asgar hit level 30 fighting the sand worm. Yeah, turns out I was a bit sloppy in pausing and restarting the recording while I was doing some other stuff, and I ran into the sand worm, killed it, and found the herbs I was supposed to find and brought them back too.

The thing is that the sandworm is actually an invisible event on the world map that slowly moves towards the party, meaning that it kind of seems like a random encounter, but it's really not, you could get it from just standing around.

Thankfully, you didn't actually miss anything. Here's the Cliff's Notes version:

- The sand worm is weak and dies pretty easily. It's got about double the HP of the snow vipers, but is otherwise similar in stats. Seems imposing, but isn't.
- The reward for that quest was another Ring of Agility. Useful, I guess. I'm kind of getting overloaded with miscellaneous items, and with only three party members to equip them.
- Finding the herbs means finding a particular square on the world map, getting to a place that has pretty much nothing but the herbs, getting them, and bringing them back.
- The reward for that quest were 800 EXP, 1000 Filar and, for some reason, a +1 to Humanity.

So that's it for Lombar, and I think that's a good place to cut the update. Next time, we're going to be doing some more mining, and will be finishing up those sidequests we picked up in Limm way back when. But before that...

Super Duper Exciting Vote Time!

So, throughout this LP, I've been seeing a certain sentiment pop up regularly - a sentiment I agree with - that being that between Valnar's whinyness and Asgar's sociopathy, Alaine seems to be the reasonable one of our three protagonists.


...hm. Well, what do you think, thread?

What should we do with Lombar?

A) Wipe the town off the map!

Hey, we're vampires. Vampires don't send messages by subtly influencing societies and pushing for social change. Vampires fucking kill people. We've got enough Humanity to eat the evil points for wiping an entire city off the map and still come off as relatively good, so we could totally do this. And really, it's not a Vampires Dawn playthrough if you haven't turned at least one town into a ghost town.

B) Eh, we probably shouldn't.

I mean, we are playing a good vampire here, and I've been roleplaying this to the point of not sucking blood from regular humans and only choosing light spells. Wiping an entire town off the map seems like a wee bit overdoing it. And it's not like killing everybody in Lombar is actually going to accomplish something, it's just going to maybe make us feel good. Then again, maybe the same could be said of all video games.

So, go ahead and vote! The vote will run for quite some time, largely because I've got like two to three hours of footage to go through before I'm going to play the game again. Can you tell that I only had the idea to hold this vote in post?