Tales of Vesperia Post 19: Cavesploring
Mar. 1st, 2013 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xyzzysqrlLast time on Tales of Vesperia, Yuri entered a fighting tournament and discovered that "Regaey", the leader of a local guild, might not be all he appeared. Regaey stole a box containing a magic crystal that seems to attract monsters. And does he have a connection with "Yeager", leader of the guild Leviathan's Claw, infamous assassins and weapons-runners? Let's find out!
Regaey had charged off to the nearby mountain range, and so do we follow. Repede tracks his scent to the "Weasand of Cados", which Karol explains as the home of a powerful monster called Pteropus. This will naturally be the boss fight of the area, if I know my JRPGs. Still, it's a gorgeous cave lit by glowing green rocks, and I am a sucker for glowing green rocks. Repede perks his ears up, then rushes forward and drags a struggling Regaey out of a small rock alcove. Ah-ha!
Rita DEMANDS that he give back the case, and Regaey sighs. He has no choice now. He has to ... CALL IN HIS GUARDS! Out leap several Leviathan's Claw ninja-assassins, and of course it's battle time, and of course he escapes in the confusion. "What could Regaey be doing with the Red Eyes?" Karol wonders, baffled.
Rita's starting to work this out. Ruins' Gate helps out with excavations, then Leviathan's Claw sells the excavated blastia on the open market... Karol can't figure out how a guild as famous as Ruins' Gate would get away with doing that. Rita insists on chasing Regaey deeper into the cave, monster or no monster. Estelle agrees, and Rita ... disagrees with her agreement. Estelle should stay put so she doesn't get hurt! Well. If one of them goes, the whole group goes, Yuri decides. It's best that they stick together at times like this. Into the cave!
Togetherness and teamwork really is the best way to fend off the many monsters in the cave. Although some have trouble with it:
Estelle, Judith, Karol: "VICTORY POSE!" *stand straight, hand on hip, POSE*
Rita: *hide head in book* "Ugh. I can't. I just ... CAN'T."
The group narrowly misses Regaey as he sprints across a stone bridge, a thick field of aer seeping from the canyon below. Rita gets excited. This kind of output hints that there's an aer krene HERE, too! Yuri's prepared to charge after Regaey, but Estelle grabs him. Running through aer that thick would be extremely dangerous. The ground shakes as they try to figure out how to get at him.
A massive beast lands on the bridge and starts to suck up all the aer, glowing as it does. Karol admits, that isn't Pteropus. He has no idea WHAT that is. But it seems to be helping the party chase Regaey, so all they can do is thank it as it flies away. "Uh, what the hell just happened?" Raven wonders. "The monster just... stabilized the aer krene somehow." Rita explains. "But that would mean... it controls aer somehow? Like that GUY did with that sword back in Keiv Moc!" Rita has to figure it out. It's WHY she's a mage in the first place, understanding things like this!
Yuri just wants to get past and get after Regaey. Probably a good move. Rita sighs and abandons her studies to help. What a creepy monster, though...
Estelle: "It looked into my eyes for quite a long time, actually..."
Judith: "How nice for you. He must have thought you looked the tastiest."
...And then there's the matter of the undiscovered-until-now aer krene.
Rita: "It must not have been putting out enough aer until now for anyone to feel the effects."
Yuri: "Well, It sure picked the perfect time to start going crazy. That was a serious pain."
Rita: "Mmm. I was able to log a new discovery, so it all worked out in the end!"
Yuri: "Yeah. So glad you enjoyed yourself."
Partway through the cave I discover a giant enemy crab. This is entirely off the path, and clearly optional... heck, even when I encounter it Yuri gives a little speech about how sometimes it's okay to run away from a really hard fight. This is a Giganto Monster, one of those things Rich wants slain. ... I have no real reason to try this, but I do anyway. It's easily the toughest fight so far and the first to make me use multiple raise-dead items, but hey! I win! ... I kinda can barely believe it. The reward is a decent-sized hunk of money, so... uh, yay!
Deeper and deeper into the cave we go, until we find Regaey blocked off by a swarm of bats. He can't figure out how we got past the aer krene but that's not IMPORTANT right now. What's important is getting that box back. Repede shoulder-tackles Regaey and ass-swats the box out of his hands and back to Yuri. SUCCESS. Regaey declares it's now time to show us his TRUE POWER, and flashbombs into...
...anyone? Yeah. It's Yeager in disguise. I KNOW, I NEVER SAW IT COMING!!!
Karol is shocked, but the others are more baffled as to -why- Yeager would disguise himself that way. Judith shrugs. "Doesn't matter right now." They have to focus on Yeager... who snickers. Yes, it'd be terrible if he ended up like poor Ragou. Estelle is baffled. "What happened to him?"
Yeager cheerfully fills the party in on Ragou, that he was found floating downstream with a hole in his stomach back in Dahngrest. Estelle is taken off-guard. Why would he have died like that? Yuri slouches under his hat a bit. Oh well. Yeager sends Gauche and Droite, the least-creatively-named assassins alive... SERIOUSLY, does Yeager have a CREATIVITY BLOCK or something ...to clear out the swarm of bats so he can get through. "See you in the funny papers, liebchen!"
Naturally the second he's gone the assassins get blown over, leaving us with a big ol' swarm of pissed off bats, including giant bat-monster Pteropus, to fight. Thanks, Yeager. Thager. This battle is messy, since there's one leader-bat (beating it is a secret mission!) that's super-charged, and several other bats spamming magic and physical attacks like crazy. Getting the bastards to HOLD STILL long enough to be STABBED is a huge issue. Happily, I'm pretty good with Judith now.
Estelle runs off after the battle finishes to start healing Gauche and Droite. They are naturally sort of baffled about WTF she's doing, and the moment they can get up and run away they do. Following them to the mouth of the cave reveals the Sands of Kogorh. That's where they were headed, right? Well... Raven isn't real happy about it, but yes. That's where we were headed. Rita -still- can't believe this. This is a place where people come and DIE. Estelle shouldn't be in a place like this.
Judith explains that the desert has three 'regions'. Foothills, to the west. The hot center area. And massive mountain peaks to the east. There's a town tucked in the western foothills. They should stop there. Rita is a little surprised Judith knows so much about the region... but is happy she's not the only voice of reason in the party.
The group takes a moment to talk about the simple pleasures, like food. And abusing Raven.
They also ponder Regaey. What if...
Yuri: "This spells out the connection between Ruins' Gate and Leviathan's Claw pretty clearly. And that Yeager was the boss of both guilds."
Raven: "Isn't it kinda early ta say that for sure? It is possible that the Regaey we met was just Yeager puttin' on a show. Maybe the REAL Regaey's off in some ruins someplace, just diggin' away, happy as a clam."
Yuri: "We're gonna have a hell of a time if it's really THAT complicated."
Raven: "I dunno, maybe I’m just puzzlin' over it a little too hard."
Duke also shows up to tell Rita to stay away from aer krenes, -again-. He seems pissed. Yuri admits we stumbled on this one by accident, and he huffs. Then leave, and do not return! Rita dislikes his attitude enormously, though. Duke's ... kind of a jerk. Yuri thinks about things for a moment. Well... Duke said to "leave" but didn't say when, and if Rita can't come back, she'd better analyze the thing thoroughly while we're here.
...Rita doesn't want to take time away from Estelle's trip though. Besides, she WILL be back, dire warnings or not.
The town of Mantaic isn't hard to find. It's a sleepy little desert town tucked in the dunes. Karol's surprised to see Imperial Knights even this far away from the capital. The group splits up to do their own thing, which means it's time to run around talking to everyone again. Yuri stops to check on Repede, and Raven slouches up behind him.
Raven: "It's no easy thing, lookin' out for everybody else."
Yuri: "Yeah, well. I think we could all use a little time to think things over."
As long as Raven is here, we chat with him again. He's a little irritated about not being able to meet with Belius until the New Moon... but eh, what can you do? He'll travel with the group a little longer. If he misses his meeting... it's not like they'll RUN OUT of new moons, right?
Hum dum. Walk around town. Here's a watermelon in a soup pot. Wearing a chef's hat. ... ... Okay okay. HI WONDER CHEF. The Wonder Chef teaches us about curry, or at least curry as they do it in Japan which is weird and brown instead of weird and yellow. I have never met a curry I didn't like, and I'm sure I'd like Japanese-style curry too.
While I'm exploring, Yuri bumps into Judith. She had slipped out of town to scout the terrain and make sure there's no unexpected surprises.
Yuri: "How was it?"
Judith: "It was hot."
Thank you, Judith.
Next on the list is Estelle. She's worried that the desert really IS as dangerous as Rita keeps trying to convince her. Yuri points out that Rita's not the type to joke with a serious expression, and Estelle worries a bit harder that everyone's going to get upset with her... which Yuri puts a quick stop to. She should stop worrying about EVERYONE ELSE and just focus on herself. They're all doing what they want. She should too! If she doesn't want to risk it personally...
Yuri: "Estelle. You're our client. You tell us to go somewhere? We'll go there. You tell us to go FOR you, we'll find Phaeroh and drag him BACK HERE."
Well. Estelle has a lot to think about. The only person left outside is Karol... and Karol's having some moral issues. He can't believe Ruins' Gate was just a front for weapons dealers. It's tragic, in a way... Still, what can you do but live the way you wanna live?
Then there's Rita, who is sitting in the inn lobby and GLARING resolutely at the unopenable box. She can't open it. It messes with her magic. Yet... Estelle wants it returned to some town that may not exist, so that's what they'll do eventually. She just wishes she could STUDY the damn crystal. How does it do what it does?
Yuri: "Maybe there's a key in Yormgen?"
Rita: "I'd love to find that town... but I can't leave Estelle behind."
Yuri: "Sure you can. You could go right now."
Rita: "I'd like to leave her behind... but I just... can't. She'd just go alone into the desert. Leaving her isn't something I should even think about."
Naturally the second I step back outside the inn, I'm faced with Estelle trying to give Karol her blastia as payment for services rendered so she can go off into the desert alone. *SHAKE FIST* ESTELLE. "I won't have the rest of you caught up in my selfish quest!"
Yuri starts quoting guild laws. "Do justice and punish the unjust." Judith chips in that there's no JUSTICE in letting Estelle tromp into the heart of the desert by herself. Rita gives her opinion: NOBODY should go into the desert. It SUCKS in the desert. She asks Raven to back her up, but he's staying out of this entirely.
Rita: "OKAY OKAY you win. So we'll be going to the desert's center."
Estelle: "Huh?"
Rita: "I TRIED talking sense into you idiots."
Yuri: "You don't actually need to come, Rita..."
Rita: "If I don't keep an eye on you, there's no telling what you idiots will get into."
It is at this point that the group looks around and realizes they can't find Judith. She pokes her head out of the inn to note that she's arranged for travel supplies and rooming at the inn. Hopefully NOW people are DONE TRYING TO LEAVE THE GODDAMN PARTY.
Time to get some rest and prep for a long trip through the hot sands.
Regaey had charged off to the nearby mountain range, and so do we follow. Repede tracks his scent to the "Weasand of Cados", which Karol explains as the home of a powerful monster called Pteropus. This will naturally be the boss fight of the area, if I know my JRPGs. Still, it's a gorgeous cave lit by glowing green rocks, and I am a sucker for glowing green rocks. Repede perks his ears up, then rushes forward and drags a struggling Regaey out of a small rock alcove. Ah-ha!
Rita DEMANDS that he give back the case, and Regaey sighs. He has no choice now. He has to ... CALL IN HIS GUARDS! Out leap several Leviathan's Claw ninja-assassins, and of course it's battle time, and of course he escapes in the confusion. "What could Regaey be doing with the Red Eyes?" Karol wonders, baffled.
Rita's starting to work this out. Ruins' Gate helps out with excavations, then Leviathan's Claw sells the excavated blastia on the open market... Karol can't figure out how a guild as famous as Ruins' Gate would get away with doing that. Rita insists on chasing Regaey deeper into the cave, monster or no monster. Estelle agrees, and Rita ... disagrees with her agreement. Estelle should stay put so she doesn't get hurt! Well. If one of them goes, the whole group goes, Yuri decides. It's best that they stick together at times like this. Into the cave!
Togetherness and teamwork really is the best way to fend off the many monsters in the cave. Although some have trouble with it:
Estelle, Judith, Karol: "VICTORY POSE!" *stand straight, hand on hip, POSE*
Rita: *hide head in book* "Ugh. I can't. I just ... CAN'T."
The group narrowly misses Regaey as he sprints across a stone bridge, a thick field of aer seeping from the canyon below. Rita gets excited. This kind of output hints that there's an aer krene HERE, too! Yuri's prepared to charge after Regaey, but Estelle grabs him. Running through aer that thick would be extremely dangerous. The ground shakes as they try to figure out how to get at him.
A massive beast lands on the bridge and starts to suck up all the aer, glowing as it does. Karol admits, that isn't Pteropus. He has no idea WHAT that is. But it seems to be helping the party chase Regaey, so all they can do is thank it as it flies away. "Uh, what the hell just happened?" Raven wonders. "The monster just... stabilized the aer krene somehow." Rita explains. "But that would mean... it controls aer somehow? Like that GUY did with that sword back in Keiv Moc!" Rita has to figure it out. It's WHY she's a mage in the first place, understanding things like this!
Yuri just wants to get past and get after Regaey. Probably a good move. Rita sighs and abandons her studies to help. What a creepy monster, though...
Estelle: "It looked into my eyes for quite a long time, actually..."
Judith: "How nice for you. He must have thought you looked the tastiest."
...And then there's the matter of the undiscovered-until-now aer krene.
Rita: "It must not have been putting out enough aer until now for anyone to feel the effects."
Yuri: "Well, It sure picked the perfect time to start going crazy. That was a serious pain."
Rita: "Mmm. I was able to log a new discovery, so it all worked out in the end!"
Yuri: "Yeah. So glad you enjoyed yourself."
Partway through the cave I discover a giant enemy crab. This is entirely off the path, and clearly optional... heck, even when I encounter it Yuri gives a little speech about how sometimes it's okay to run away from a really hard fight. This is a Giganto Monster, one of those things Rich wants slain. ... I have no real reason to try this, but I do anyway. It's easily the toughest fight so far and the first to make me use multiple raise-dead items, but hey! I win! ... I kinda can barely believe it. The reward is a decent-sized hunk of money, so... uh, yay!
Deeper and deeper into the cave we go, until we find Regaey blocked off by a swarm of bats. He can't figure out how we got past the aer krene but that's not IMPORTANT right now. What's important is getting that box back. Repede shoulder-tackles Regaey and ass-swats the box out of his hands and back to Yuri. SUCCESS. Regaey declares it's now time to show us his TRUE POWER, and flashbombs into...
...anyone? Yeah. It's Yeager in disguise. I KNOW, I NEVER SAW IT COMING!!!
Karol is shocked, but the others are more baffled as to -why- Yeager would disguise himself that way. Judith shrugs. "Doesn't matter right now." They have to focus on Yeager... who snickers. Yes, it'd be terrible if he ended up like poor Ragou. Estelle is baffled. "What happened to him?"
Yeager cheerfully fills the party in on Ragou, that he was found floating downstream with a hole in his stomach back in Dahngrest. Estelle is taken off-guard. Why would he have died like that? Yuri slouches under his hat a bit. Oh well. Yeager sends Gauche and Droite, the least-creatively-named assassins alive... SERIOUSLY, does Yeager have a CREATIVITY BLOCK or something ...to clear out the swarm of bats so he can get through. "See you in the funny papers, liebchen!"
Naturally the second he's gone the assassins get blown over, leaving us with a big ol' swarm of pissed off bats, including giant bat-monster Pteropus, to fight. Thanks, Yeager. Thager. This battle is messy, since there's one leader-bat (beating it is a secret mission!) that's super-charged, and several other bats spamming magic and physical attacks like crazy. Getting the bastards to HOLD STILL long enough to be STABBED is a huge issue. Happily, I'm pretty good with Judith now.
Estelle runs off after the battle finishes to start healing Gauche and Droite. They are naturally sort of baffled about WTF she's doing, and the moment they can get up and run away they do. Following them to the mouth of the cave reveals the Sands of Kogorh. That's where they were headed, right? Well... Raven isn't real happy about it, but yes. That's where we were headed. Rita -still- can't believe this. This is a place where people come and DIE. Estelle shouldn't be in a place like this.
Judith explains that the desert has three 'regions'. Foothills, to the west. The hot center area. And massive mountain peaks to the east. There's a town tucked in the western foothills. They should stop there. Rita is a little surprised Judith knows so much about the region... but is happy she's not the only voice of reason in the party.
The group takes a moment to talk about the simple pleasures, like food. And abusing Raven.
They also ponder Regaey. What if...
Yuri: "This spells out the connection between Ruins' Gate and Leviathan's Claw pretty clearly. And that Yeager was the boss of both guilds."
Raven: "Isn't it kinda early ta say that for sure? It is possible that the Regaey we met was just Yeager puttin' on a show. Maybe the REAL Regaey's off in some ruins someplace, just diggin' away, happy as a clam."
Yuri: "We're gonna have a hell of a time if it's really THAT complicated."
Raven: "I dunno, maybe I’m just puzzlin' over it a little too hard."
Duke also shows up to tell Rita to stay away from aer krenes, -again-. He seems pissed. Yuri admits we stumbled on this one by accident, and he huffs. Then leave, and do not return! Rita dislikes his attitude enormously, though. Duke's ... kind of a jerk. Yuri thinks about things for a moment. Well... Duke said to "leave" but didn't say when, and if Rita can't come back, she'd better analyze the thing thoroughly while we're here.
...Rita doesn't want to take time away from Estelle's trip though. Besides, she WILL be back, dire warnings or not.
The town of Mantaic isn't hard to find. It's a sleepy little desert town tucked in the dunes. Karol's surprised to see Imperial Knights even this far away from the capital. The group splits up to do their own thing, which means it's time to run around talking to everyone again. Yuri stops to check on Repede, and Raven slouches up behind him.
Raven: "It's no easy thing, lookin' out for everybody else."
Yuri: "Yeah, well. I think we could all use a little time to think things over."
As long as Raven is here, we chat with him again. He's a little irritated about not being able to meet with Belius until the New Moon... but eh, what can you do? He'll travel with the group a little longer. If he misses his meeting... it's not like they'll RUN OUT of new moons, right?
Hum dum. Walk around town. Here's a watermelon in a soup pot. Wearing a chef's hat. ... ... Okay okay. HI WONDER CHEF. The Wonder Chef teaches us about curry, or at least curry as they do it in Japan which is weird and brown instead of weird and yellow. I have never met a curry I didn't like, and I'm sure I'd like Japanese-style curry too.
While I'm exploring, Yuri bumps into Judith. She had slipped out of town to scout the terrain and make sure there's no unexpected surprises.
Yuri: "How was it?"
Judith: "It was hot."
Thank you, Judith.
Next on the list is Estelle. She's worried that the desert really IS as dangerous as Rita keeps trying to convince her. Yuri points out that Rita's not the type to joke with a serious expression, and Estelle worries a bit harder that everyone's going to get upset with her... which Yuri puts a quick stop to. She should stop worrying about EVERYONE ELSE and just focus on herself. They're all doing what they want. She should too! If she doesn't want to risk it personally...
Yuri: "Estelle. You're our client. You tell us to go somewhere? We'll go there. You tell us to go FOR you, we'll find Phaeroh and drag him BACK HERE."
Well. Estelle has a lot to think about. The only person left outside is Karol... and Karol's having some moral issues. He can't believe Ruins' Gate was just a front for weapons dealers. It's tragic, in a way... Still, what can you do but live the way you wanna live?
Then there's Rita, who is sitting in the inn lobby and GLARING resolutely at the unopenable box. She can't open it. It messes with her magic. Yet... Estelle wants it returned to some town that may not exist, so that's what they'll do eventually. She just wishes she could STUDY the damn crystal. How does it do what it does?
Yuri: "Maybe there's a key in Yormgen?"
Rita: "I'd love to find that town... but I can't leave Estelle behind."
Yuri: "Sure you can. You could go right now."
Rita: "I'd like to leave her behind... but I just... can't. She'd just go alone into the desert. Leaving her isn't something I should even think about."
Naturally the second I step back outside the inn, I'm faced with Estelle trying to give Karol her blastia as payment for services rendered so she can go off into the desert alone. *SHAKE FIST* ESTELLE. "I won't have the rest of you caught up in my selfish quest!"
Yuri starts quoting guild laws. "Do justice and punish the unjust." Judith chips in that there's no JUSTICE in letting Estelle tromp into the heart of the desert by herself. Rita gives her opinion: NOBODY should go into the desert. It SUCKS in the desert. She asks Raven to back her up, but he's staying out of this entirely.
Rita: "OKAY OKAY you win. So we'll be going to the desert's center."
Estelle: "Huh?"
Rita: "I TRIED talking sense into you idiots."
Yuri: "You don't actually need to come, Rita..."
Rita: "If I don't keep an eye on you, there's no telling what you idiots will get into."
It is at this point that the group looks around and realizes they can't find Judith. She pokes her head out of the inn to note that she's arranged for travel supplies and rooming at the inn. Hopefully NOW people are DONE TRYING TO LEAVE THE GODDAMN PARTY.
Time to get some rest and prep for a long trip through the hot sands.
