Because he's County Line Gaming's
resident Black Mage.
I'm sure a few of those out there who
read this will notice that I didn't put in my usual link to the CLG
website above the jump this time. As it happens, the site is down at
the moment, and has been for awhile now, as of this writing. Or,
that's what my research and efforts have told me. I've got a few
theories and such about that, but they'll be the subject of at least
one other post to come later. With all that in mind, I figured I'd
just forgo the link this time, if only because all the broken and
dead links that have shown up in these things over the last five
years or so are almost as much a hallmark of the series as my
half-assed attempts at humor.
In the meantime, there's an actual
storyline to this game to talk about here. The first thing we've
gotta do is get into the Black Mage Village. I left off at the
entrance to that particular area last time. When we get into the
place, we see the Black Mage who made like Sonic the Hedgehog out of
Conde Pettie heading in just ahead of the party. There's a right
path and a left path. Zidane says we're getting close because it
looks like we're in a place where no owls are likely to want to live.
It kind of obscures where Sonic the Black Mage goes, but it is
somewhat possible to see him go down the right path. It takes a
quick eye and a little foreknowledge to see it, but it's there.
Also there are three owls sitting on
some branches above the right path as well. That's the one we want
to go down, since that's where all the clues seem to be leading us.
I'm sure there's an easier way to do this than the way I do it, but
the way I did this time, and the way I usually do, as I recall, is to
go down the right path twice, then down the left once, and then the
right again. This is because the path kind of loops around to the
left after the second time, and the Black Mage we're following comes
back to see if we're still following when we go left. Each time, one
of the three owls flies away, and when all three are gone, we're
finally treated to the real entrance to the village we're looking
for.
Gotta say, this makes better use of the
whole magical cloaking holo-filter fence thingamajigger that was
surrounding the whole Eshtar area in Final Fantasy 8. If we're to
believe the story in FF8, the characters knew that both the continent
and the city of Eshtar were there the whole time, and yet we didn't
get to see any of that technology or magic or whatever in use until
we needed to go there for the plot and have it all decloak in front
of the party as needed. In this case, when we're ready to hit the
village, the party sees the Black Mage cast a spell that seems to
make reality ripple and warp as the tragically dead-looking forest
changes to one that's very much alive for just long enough for the
mage and the party to make it through to the village before
everything goes back to the way it was before.
Once the party catches up to the mage
they were following, his friends who were waiting for him at the
entrance to the town freak the hell out and run away, screaming about
how the humans have finally come for them. The party splits up to
explore. Vivi runs in first, because he wants to talk to others of
his kind who have become conscious in hopes they can help him
understand what it all means. The ones he catches up to are at the
village burial grounds paying their respects to the handful of
residents who have passed since the founding of the village. They do
know a few things Vivi didn't know before, and between conversations
with Vivi and Zidane, we find that the Mages all call themselves
“mister” whatever their unit numbers were when they were made,
and that they can and do seem to die of natural causes more or less a
year after they were first activated.
When Zidane gets his share of this
information, it's because he asked the mage who knew about it how he
attained consciousness and sentience, and the mage explains that it
was similar to Zidane's own perspective on being born in that it just
seemed to happen one day without any real explanation. When it
happened to this particular mage, there was a dead human in close
proximity, and the mage had this uncontrollable urge to get the hell
out of Dodge, as it were, now that he was aware of things, and the
village is where he felt compelled to go.
Meanwhile, Garnet is trying to explain
to the mages that she, Vivi, and Zidane, at any rate, are there to
try to put right what Alexandria was doing wrong to the mages and the
rest of the world. Naturally, the mages she's trying to explain all
this to are having trouble believing her for all the crap that's been
done to them thus far. When Zidane catches up to her, she's almost
got them convinced, and Zidane helps get them that last little bit to
at least get them to help them with the main quest a little bit.
Once Vivi learned that not only could
he actually die, but that there was a very real chance of him doing
it soon regardless of if he wanted to, he ran off to the Inn to think
things over. Garnet went to see how he was doing while Zidane looked
around some more. In the course of this looking around, I found the
synth shop and the items shop. Could have sworn there was a weapons
shop there as well, but it seems I was wrong.
While all this is going on, Quina's
still looking around for his precious noms in the village. Quina
finds a pair of Black Mages who are trying to hatch a Chocobo egg and
tries to hork the damned thing from them so s/he can eat it. The
mages do everything they can to keep that from happening, and manage
to pull it off for long enough for Zidane to come along and convince
Quina to go looking elsewhere for the new fudz they're supposed to
try.
Once all that's done, it's time to call
it a night at the Inn. In the middle of the night, Vivi goes out to
talk to the other mages again, and Zidane explains why that might be
a good thing by telling her part of his backstory. It seems that
Zidane doesn't remember his biological parents and went looking for
them soon as he could, but in the process, he learned that having a
place to call home may be the more important thing in all of this.
His reasoning is that when he went back to his adoptive home with
Tantalus, Baku beat the crap out of him before accepting him back
into the group with open arms and a smile. He thinks that Vivi may
be learning the same thing here.
In the morning, the Black Mages tell
the party they saw Kuja heading to a place in the northeastern part
of the continent after overhearing something about a place called the
Sanctuary. The jumping off point for that quest is actually going to
be Conde Pettie, which is fine, because there's some stuff there I'm
gong to need to get before I go on with the main story anyway. I'd
complain about the need to hike back there, but I need the gold, XP
and AP anyhow.
I don't know if I'll include that in
the next issue or not, since it's probably not going to be that big a
deal either way. Until then, though, stay safe, have fun, keep
gaming, and DFTBA!
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