I started the first session of this one
out by grinding until I had just shy of 10,000 gold because there's
some stuff I wanted to buy in the town we'll be exploring here. In
the process, I ran into another of the game's “friendly monster”
encounters that I probably should have saved until after I'd upgraded
everybody's equipment, but it was still worth taking it a little
early. In this case, it was with a little red squirrel thing,
although not of the Hyper
sort. Now that I think of it, I may have to check his section on the
CLG Forums to
see if there's news about where he's been lately. The fuzzy little
guy in the game says he wants a chunk of the ore that the party's
been getting from monsters for awhile now. Give it to him, he'll
thank the party and ask them to say hi to Mr. Ghost before chittering
off back into the woods to do what he do.
The reason I wanted to wait for that is
because the squirrel gives ten free Ability Points, or AP for short,
for the lump of rock, and that would have come in handy after the
equipment upgrade, since the equipment has abilities for the
characters, and those are what we need to learn them. But there'll
be plenty of other shots at that, and I'm sure I'll be grinding more
along the way anyhow.
In the Village of Dali, which is
notably lacking in llamas, the first place the party goes is to the
Inn, where the dude at the desk wakes up from a nap and starts
getting an idea when he sees Vivi. Zidane mistakenly thinks the
dude, who turns out to be called Hal, is checking out Dagger instead.
Hal gives the party a free night in his establishment because his
plan is to have Vivi kidnapped the next day, which will at least get
him the money he needs to keep his business from going under, if
nothing else.
At first, Steiner and Zidane argue
about what to do next, but when they see that Vivi's pretty much
crashed on one of the beds, they decide to get some shuteye
themselves and deal with it in the morning. When said morning does
come, Zidane's the last to get up when he hears Dagger singing.
After some ATEs where we see Vivi confused by the behavior of the
local kids and Dagger learning to talk like the locals, we see Hal's
plan revealed. Not long after, there's a brief cutscene between
Zidane and Vivi, about how Zidane's always after the girls, where
they hear a Chocobo someplace but can't see any around. This is
concluded with Vivi getting nabbed by some rando from the village.
One place we can't really go yet is the
mayor's house and the attached mill. We're allowed to see just
enough in the first part of this to get the sense that something
fishy is going on, but it's hard to say just what yet.
In the weapons shop, Dagger's going for
a second round of language skills when a kid comes in to tell the
lady behind the counter about seeing Vivi getting grabbed, but this
fades to Zidane before he really says anything. When Zidane can go
in as well, he messes with Dagger for a bit before we can buy the
armor we need, if we hadn't before. The major things I bought here
were three Feathered Hats for Zidane, Vivi, and Dager, and a Leather
Wrist and a Silk Shirt for Zidane, I believe, since he still needed
those for some reason. There wasn't much for Steiner, but that's
because we got a lot of that in the Evil Forest.
Speaking of Steiner, he's looking for a
way to get back to Alexandria Castle. His apparent only stop was the
item shop, where the girl at the counter tells him about a guy named
Morrid, who runs the control tower for the local airfield. It's
located on a nearby hill. Either way, we'll go there to learn about
these airships in Dali and what cargo they've got as they go between
here and the castle. There's also a side quest about getting coffee
from all over the world for Morrid, but we'll deal with that when we
get there.
Back at the Inn, Zidane and Dagger
realize that Vivi's been gone too long and decide to go looking for
him, which is where the second session started.
When the pair begins their search,
Zidane remembers seeing Vivi over by a stable area of some sort with
a ventilation pipe sticking out of the ground, and that they could
hear Chocobos but not see any of the birds around. This time, he and
Dagger can hear somebody crying in the same area. It turns out to be
their little black mage friend who's been taken underground somehow.
As it turns out, there's a hatch in the
mill that leads down into a factory of some sort, and the guys who
took Vivi have him there. As Dagger and Zidane watch all this from
behind a convenient barrel, Dagger notices a large emblem painted on
the side of said barrel. When Zidane tries to go rescue Vivi, Dagger
pulls him aside first and explains having seen the same emblem in the
castle at Alexandria, but thinking nothing of it until now. The two
agree to explore more and not start anything until they get their
friend out unless absolutely necessary. From there, they get Vivi
out of the box he'd been put in for shipment and do a little more
exploring. There are a couple ways to go from here. One follows an
assembly line sort of thing where other black mages are being made,
the other goes through a door with Mist leaking out of it. I know
there are differences for which way the party goes, but I can't
recall exactly what they are. The way I usually go is along the
assembly line because I think it's neat, and that's the way I went
this time. I might do a “half issue” on the other route next
time, just to refresh my memory.
What I'm pretty sure I do remember is
that both routes lead to pretty much the same place, and the party
has to take cover when Zidane realizes they've been heard. The
downside to this is that they wind up getting pulled into one of the
machines as a result.
Meanwhile, Steiner's up on the hill,
trying to get the guy there to tell him something about the cargo
ship that's supposed to be coming. The guy remains tight lipped
until he gets back into the guard house at the bottom of the hill.
When he does start talking, all he really says is that his name's
Morrid; he really likes his coffee, which I can relate to; and that
the cargo ship is already there and is being loaded. With that,
Steiner goes running off, almost forgetting to say thank you.
Back at the ship, Steiner, as well as
the rest of us, finds that Zidane and the others have been boxed up
and put into one of the barrels for shipment. Because he only sees
the barrel they're in moving around and making noise at first, he
doesn't quite know what to do. The choice to be made is to either
stab the barrel or watch it some more. I'm about fifty-fifty on what
I do here, but this time I chose to watch, which leads to the barrel
landing on Steiner when the others get themselves out.
Shortly thereafter, the second of the
three Black Waltzes shows up, saying that he's there to take the
princess back to Alexandria. The others won't have it for their own
reasons, Zidane because he wants to help her escape and Steiner
because he thinks it's his job. This one goes down relatively easy
this time, too, which is kind of unfortunate, because he had a piece
of armor I wanted to hork from him, but at least I got the Steepled
Hat for Vivi this time.
After the fight, we're given the option
to either go right on from there or go back to the inn and rest.
It's a good idea to rest up and save first, just because of what's
coming. I had also wanted to see if I could go back down the hatch
in the mill and see if I could go down the loop I passed on before,
but that's not an option.
From here, I think I might just do that
half issue thing about the other loop before I move on, just so I
know what's through the door with the Mist coming out of it. I'm
pretty sure there are fights that way, but what else there is, I'm
not sure. Until then, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA!
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