Scuffing their feet and hitting the nettles with sticks, the rest of the team follow unenthusiastically.
"Yes, just down this valley! Oops! Excuse me Mr Krondir!"
"Oh for pities sake!"
A fight ensues and Hoff is slain. But Tom explains that it's not worth resting yet and that they may as well drag him along because he's SURE this path will lead them somewhere interesting.
"Don't you have the map Tom?" asks dirr.
"The map? Oh I had it, but for some reason I threw it in a creek... But I'm SURE it's this way..."
Eventually they reach the coast and, heading north, it briefly seems that Tom will turn out to have been right! A huge door is visible in the cliff face with a small fence outside and a couple of attendants stood welcomingly along side it.
"Look! You see! I bet these people will have a way to get us to move on to the next continent!" cries Tom running on ahead, dragging Hoff by the ankle.
Walking along behind, the rest of the team mutter - "Thank eff! I can't believe we've been wandering around for days since we averted that war an NO ONE cares..."
"You'd've thought people would be falling over themselves to suggest ways to progress from here after all we did! I mean, yeah, we didn't prevent that murder. But we probably stopped a LOT of other killings!"
"Yeah. And one murder's a drop in the ocean really. I mean, it's not a big deal just ONE person getting killed is it?"
"Well... Yes, Sira. I'd say it IS a big deal that someone did a murder..."
"Yeah, but come on... For real? You'd really hold that against someone?"
"Sira. I'm a police officer! Of COURSE I'd hold that against someone!" (this from Dirr)
"oh... Right..."
Just then there is shouting up ahead. Tom, smiling and self-assured, had tried to open the little gate in the fence and had his eye blacked by one of the attendants.
The words "...AND YOU CAN TELL THE REST OF YOUR FRIENDS TO GET LOST TOO!" echo across the scrubland and Tom staggers back to the gang.
"OI! YOU FORGOT THIS!" shouts the other attendant, throwing Hoff after him like a scrumpled up forged note excusing a child from having to do P.E. today.
"Oh this is ridiculous. Let's go back to town and ask around some more. SOMEONE must know something!"
This cliff-face door was apparently the lair of the Kenget Kamulos - but I was surprised that you simply couldn't get in at all! Considering that I've heard they're both a league of assassins AND (I think - although I guess I could be getting mixed up) the only people in the world who're allowed to mine the planet without the Goddess badding them out, so I'd've thought that they'd be involved in the plot some way. Why would they be mentioned all over the place if they weren't going to do anything? Unless it's just a nice little detail in the world - I've witnessed a Kenget Kamulos assassination (back on the first island) so it's neat to be able to come and find the killer's HQ. Mind you, it's a bit of a trek to get here considering that there's nothing to do.
The team's pretty disillusioned now. They gave their all (in various fights and - admittedly unwittingly - in a couple of tough dungeons) and were pivotal in averting a war and slaying a manipulative mad-scientist cult leader. But the world's not very grateful and they've been left with no leads to follow up to progress. Indeed, this is the first time (as I expect I mentioned last time round) that I've been left with no idea where to go to progress. I'm just wandering aimlessly around looking for a boat or house or town that I might've missed. Having found the Kenget Kamulos base but been immediately disappointed to find that wasn't the way forwards, I go back Srimalinar and try some retail therapy to cheer me up. In the magicians' guild I buy "Fungification" and "Blinding Storm" for Sira since they sound pretty awesome. I also check out the Iskai weapons (some of which seem to be incredibly tough, although they don't have the funky names that human weapons do. Presumably humans love to romanticise swords and call them "Danu's light" or whatever - but the more down-to-earth Iskai just call their best killing stick an "Iskai Spear"...)
Retail therapy. Doesn't really work in games. Sure, I can go out and kill more and more krondirs with my new spells, but I'll never earn enough for an Iskai spear from selling slabs of meat, Warniak spheres and the Trii-like face-gems that can be plucked out of the heads of some of my fallen enemies.
It's a little annoying actually that the new monsters introduced on this island don't come with their own "useless except as a money spinner" by-products. Doesn't ANYONE want to buy giant rabbit meat? I LOVE rabbit! It's delicious! Not so sure about dust-buster-faced beetle chops, but maybe their protective shells might've been of value?
Actually, everyone's a little cross about their situation now. It's not right that they should (voluntarily) have saved an entire continent from an interracial war (which had already resulted in demons being released into the world!) and yet the most anyone can say is a casual thanks.
It's not right and it's not on. That's it! We quit! No more do-gooding and arbitrary nice deeds from us. The rest of the world can go hang for all we care! We're going to find the Toronto and get out of here (in ten years time when it's eaten the world and fired it home in little podules).
Oh wait, actually it WON'T be mining the planet (according to Tom and Hoff) because it'll be studying it instead. What a gyp. We'll be stuck here for ever!
Stop the alien world! We want to get off!!!
Just then (well, as we step into the pub for some quitters' fuel) a familiar face turns up!
"Ah! I've been tracking you for some time..." It's Frill! Frill the historian from the first island... Apparently he's been following us since the start - secretly! But why?
"I see there's a war you need to avert..."
(aparently Frill's dialogue wasn't designed to cope with the fact I might not come into this pub until AFTER I've already solved the situation)
"Um... Seriously? You've been following us? But you've not noticed that actually we already solved the war?"
"Oh... of course you have... You 'quit' didn't you. I didn't... notice... mwo ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hahaha hahaha ha!"
"What's so funny?"
"Funny? Oh nothing. Just... chortling at my own forgetfulness... Ah ha. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ah ha ha HA HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHA. AHHHH HAH HAH AHAHAAAHAAAAAHAAAHAAAAA"
Arching his fingers and staring boggly-eyed at Tom, Frill laughed manically for some time - drooling a little and shaking his head with his tongue lolling around.
Meanwhile Sira taps Tom on the shoulder.
"Um Tom... Can I have a word..."
"Yeah?"
"Well. It's nothing to do with the mysterious death of my father that I was definitely not involved with. You remember, we proved that he murdered himself? Well it's nothing to do with that (and being subsequently tracked across the globe in secret). BUT - me and Mell are off..."
"Off?"
"Yeah. We've decided we're going to have a little break from adventuring and are just popping off to Srimalinar for a while... maybe forever..."
"Oh but... I thought you wanted to see the world?"
"Yeah... Yeah I DID want that" Sira eyes the still laughing Frill "but I think I've found the bit I like the best and we're off to live there together forever now. I won't bother the team by saying buy and you needn't trouble Frill telling him about all this so err... byeeee!!!"
At which point Sira skips out of the inn, grabbing Mell by the arm as she goes (he was still waiting expectantly for Frill to get to the point and didn't appear to have heard about this plan up to this point...) never to be seen again!
Wait WHAT? She's ditched the team? I just spent a load of money buying her new spells the bitch and she's been using us to help find her a hide-out! Thankfully the game gives me the chance to grab any critical items out of her and Mell's inventories before they slip off; an opertunity I abuse horribly by taking all their belongings including Mell's stupid writing equiptment. That ought to shut him up. All I leave the loving couple is a boiler suit and an old bucket from the Druid's town to remind them of their time with us.
"HA HA HA HA HAAAAA -- ahem. Now Tom... I want you to meet some people who're interested to know why you quit..."
"that's none of your business!"
"Come come Tom. Now you've reached a certain level - you know certain THINGS. You want to quit? People are bound to ask questions... Their bound to want to know what's going through your mind!"
"I'm a free man!"
"AH HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"
At this point the team are gassed, bounced on by weather balloons and bundled into a ship!!!
When they wake up an unspecified time later, they're on a mysterious, lavishly decked out island dotted with weird architecture. The ship they've been turfed off is silently sailing away into the mist surrounding the island - it's silent crew staring eerily back at them. Frill, now dressed in a sports jacket and holding a rainbow coloured umbrella and a "number 2" badge is stood in front of the still-woozy gang.
"AH HA HA HA HA HA HA. Welcome my friend!" (addressing Tom) "Welcome... To THE ISLAND"
!!!!!!!!!
Hah, I love that discussion about whether it is bad to kill a _single_ person :D
ReplyDeleteOI! YOU FORGOT THIS! Awesome!
The Kenget Kamulos are NOT the people who can mine the planet. Just fighters/assassins. Hence the bad attitude ;)
Seriously? You went shopping for magic and didn't take the biggest of the snow/ice spells? Well, you do keep it interesting.
> the Trii-like face-gems
Those are actual Krondir triis. Makes you wonder what an Iskai would experience holding his own against a live one.
> (aparently Frill's dialogue wasn't designed to cope with the fact I might not come into this pub until AFTER I've already solved the situation)
You can't meet him before the war has been averted - apparently the translators botched it up again. Or it was part of that patch... I didn't tell you about that before because it's nigh-impossible to find now (Also, I forgot about it.), but yeah, there's a patch which fixes, among other things, parts of the dialogue.
Wow, Sira's exit actually fits your theory that she's the murderer. I'm impressed :)
And your reaction is hilarious. Taking away Mell's writing stuff is just perfect.
"THE ISLAND", hm? Reminds me of Lost. Maybe there's a mysterious magical light at the center of it!
So... who is it that can mine for stuff? I bet it's Dji Cantos isn't it...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was aiming more for The Prisoner than Lost, but at the last minute I forgot that he got trapped in "the village" not the island so you're right.
Interestingly the only other bug I've found so far (knowingly) was when I spoke to an Iskai in Srimalinar and picked one of the topics availalbe only to have him say "LINE NUMBER INVALID" to me. I really wish I'd remembered that when I was doing the main part of the blog as it would've tied quite cleanly into the whole The Prisoner / Lost angle! Never mind.
It's mad how much stuff was on that last continent that never seemed to get used! Not just the Kenget Kamulos but all the stuff in the city that the game tells you about - "This is where goods get inspected" that kind of stuff!
I guess that's SORT of background info. Y'know how we were saying the scrimped on it on this island? Maybe they didn't, but they just did it in a different way (perhaps they thought people just telling you the back story was too blatant?)
> So... who is it that can mine for stuff? I bet it's Dji Cantos isn't it...
ReplyDeleteNope, apparently not even them. I would tell you who it is, but I forgot their name. Anyway, you'll soon get to know them.
Hehe, "LINE NUMBER INVALID". I never saw anything like that in this game :)
> Not just the Kenget Kamulos
*cough*
> but all the stuff in the city that the game tells you about
Yeah, I guess they really did put some effort into such stuff. Maybe they just spoiled me a little with the amazing culture on the first island/continent ;)
I expect they spoiled EVERYONE with the first continent. With so much interesting stuff to learn and such a weird town to explore, the first island makes you want to wander around just to see what's there. Plus the dungeon on that island was mental! Roof tentacles? Mouths in the floor!?!!?
ReplyDeleteAfter that the game's gone quite normal - which is a real shame. In a world where we know there are such bonkers things as people who turn themselves into building to achieve immortality, human environments are much much harder to enjoy. I wish they'd been able to maintain the tone from that first section - but I guess it might've made the game almost incomprehensibly weird.
It's a shame because the rest of the game so far has been quite an entertaining fantasy RPG with cool touches all over the place. But because it was SO ace in that first section, it's hard to feel like it's progressing. It feels like it's just establishing all the other locations at great length before it can get on with the plot.
Still, this island I've been taken to now seems like it's going to be pretty cool! I'm expecting stuff to start kicking off since Frill's come back into the plot - returning characters are usually a good sign that you've finished setting up the world and now you can finally get on with it!
Yeah, I agree with pretty much all that you've said :)
ReplyDeleteThe new island is cool but there's little to do unfortunately. Anyway, the remaining plot will start revealing itself now, you're right about that as well :)
Sira and Mell haven't left permanently! Just go back to Srimalinar and you'll find them. Their spells are just too good to leave them (friendly hint: use Mell's anti-demon spells every time you get the chance, to make them powerful enough).
ReplyDeleteRead a good part of this blog so far - I found it just after I completed the game ;)
Alright, at least this time it wasn't me who spoiled it ;)
ReplyDeleteStrangely enough, there's an official(!) walkthrough for the game that recommends not picking them up again. I never understood why they thought this was a good idea, though.
BTW, you say "every time you get the chance" - that's basically always the case, you can train those spells against non-demons as well. As Peter seems determined to make it through the game without any such grinding he should just go on as before until the demons become too much of a problem.
Hello Davide! It's great to have another reader-turned-commenter! :D I hope you enjoy the bits of the blog you've yet to catch up on!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what I'd do if I stumbled upon Sira and Mell again (in their filthy deserter's love-nest). I take your point that it would make sense from a beating-the-game-easier point of view to get them back - but a big part of what I want to record with this blog is how I'd experience the game naturally.
That's what's behind (as Onety-three points out) the fact that I'm not interested in grinding. I've never ground a game in my life so even if I miss stuff or unwittingly make life hard for myself down the line it's important to me that I meet it all just like I would've in the days before GameFAQ's :D
As such, since she's untrustworthy and he's an idiot, I reckon I'd probably take the chance to make new friends from else-where (should there be any) or just become a tighter-knit foursome!
I got them back because, wandering for a while, I went back to Srimalinar and found them, so it was natural for me to end their retirement and go on with the journey. I'm afraid you might need more grinding at some point to compensate for the absence of their excellent spells, but I won't "interfere" further. My last recommendation is just to get some easy fights to use the other characters' spells as many as possibile - I like that their strenght is linked not to the character's strenght or level, but to the experience in using them. You might be at level 40 but still have a puny fireball if you never use it just to hold back your MP and spend less on potions. After all, it's also stupid to accumulate a lot of money here, since it has its weight.
ReplyDeleteThe "Sira was behind her father's murder" idea is crazy awesome, however :D
[Just a note to let you know that I've got another post's worth of stuff I need to write up - but it's taking me a while to work out exactly what of the HUGE amount of stuff that happens next I need to go into detail about!!! This island is crazy!]
ReplyDeleteRemember when I said that there's one island with so much mythology and stories that you might not even want to listen to it all? There it is :)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean! I just spent another AGES writing and I'm probably only half way through still. I think I'm doing a pretty good job of cutting down the unnecessary bumph...
ReplyDelete