Beyond the Beyond: Update 70: Wanna Be Pirates (on the seas)

[ladyabaxa]

Beyond the Beyond: Update 70: Wanna Be Pirates (on the seas)

A decision has been looming and the kids have been putting it off. Well, a decision besides where they're going to go now that they're free to roam the world at their leisure searching for Shutat.

That decision is whether or not to take Domino along for the ride. If we take him that means someone currently in the party has to sit out.

Ahh, Finn. Need my skills? Shall I join your party?
Yeah. We talked this over and Edward says he's got stuff to do in Marion.
And the loyal bodyguard?
Against my better judgment I'm sticking around.
Somebody's gotta keep us out of trouble!

You're sure about this Edward?
Yes. I don't want to leave all the work of reorganizing Marion to Father.
You're sure you don't want us to drop you off in Marion?
*smiles* No thank you. I think I've got my Light Orb figured out.
Really? Well... what are you going to do with it?
Watch.

Edward concentrates on the orb for a moment before suddenly vanishing.

Whoa! What happened?
I think he teleported, Finn.
WHAT?! These things can do that? Then why have we been walking everywhere?
Because we had no idea how they work. In fact we still don't. The person who figured it out just left.
Arawn could have mentioned it. It would have saved us some time.
You kids needed the exercise.
Now Arawn's talking to us through your orb, Finn.
Great. Just great. Are they any other features you didn't mention?
You'll find out when the time is right.
We really should have guessed something like this would have happened.

Swapping party members is quick and straightforward. You pick the person to kick out (and can choose the character who would be joining if you decide you don't actually want them) then a list of places you've visited pops up. When you select the location the chosen character moves there automatically. How they do that is never explained in game and no one bats an eye at it. It just happens. This will be useful later on for fast travel but we need to explore with our new ship right now.

Outside of town I stop to check Domino's stats. For a pirate captain who somehow has been sailing around on his own he's actually pretty fragile. Two good hits and he'll be groggied. He's also got rather poor defense and speed right now. His attack power isn't too bad though. He's fully 8 levels behind the rest of the team (in rather typical fashion) so hopefully as he closes the experience gap he'll start catching up in stats.

Before heading out it occurs to me that I should make sure Domino's gear is up to date. It turns out it is! Then I use the Source of Growth that's been in Samson's inventory for what feels like ages to give Domino 2000 free experience points.

The Source of Courage comes next bumping Domino up to level 16. I might have done those in the wrong order if the Source of Courage adds +1 level straight out rather than awarding experience points but 2000 experience at this point in the game honestly isn't a whole lot. Domino gets another level to help him catch up and that's what's important.

Out to sea we go!

Where to now?
I don't know. I figured we'd sail around and see if Shutat's battleship has been sighted.
I guess that's as good a plan as any.

It doesn't take long for the first random encounter to begin. A Fire Giant and two Raises hop aboard the boat to attack.

The Fire Giant Fire 2's the team because I apparently wasn't meeting my "getting nuked" quota. Corrective action and all that.

This is going to hurt.
And here we were worried about the ghosts conjuring lightning.

I'd appreciate it if these damn things would stop trying to set my ship on fire!

Domino's armed with throwing knives making him the only ranged attacker in the party. This is good because he's rather fragile right now and can thus comfortably sit in the back row without hurting his damage output. If you're wondering why I kicked one of the mages to make room for him this is why. It was a question of "Tont or Edward?" and I decided Tont's Firedrake spells were better for grinding Domino some experience.

I'm sorry. Did I say grinding? I mean 'pleasant trip around the shorelines showing off monsters and the geography.' Yeah, that's it...

Ahem! As I said Domino has a ranged attack. Row alignment does matter for him but he doesn't get the penalty for being in the back row if that makes any sense. It will become clear later in the update.

I have no idea how the team would have gotten this far without Healing Rain. For one thing that would mean at least Annie was seriously underleveled. For another thing she'd blow through a third of her MP after every serious battle.

Prraa! Giving that magic a work out!
What would you do without me?
Steiner? He'd be fine since he never gets hurt.
Like I said, you've either got it or you don't!

On the other side of those mountains the team heads east.

Where are we going?
I wanna know what Pity Island is all about!
That's going to be difficult.
What do you mean?
You'll see. Finn just head east from here.

In terms of in-game travel time Pity Island is only a minute or two from Bandore. Of course that means it takes five times as long because of random encounters every few "steps". Here we've got a Basilisk and a Griffin. At least the Griffin flies making a plausible reason it can reach the boat.

We're being attacked by a giant blue chicken?
That's a basilisk, kid.
A what's it?
Basilisk. Can turn people to stone.
Oh. ...OH!

Don't worry, Finn. I'm here to save the day!
You mean your elven friend is here to save the day.
Same thing really.

Hmph, what flying pests!
So how much practice does it take to get that good with a knife?
I've got over ten years of hitting my marks.
Not bad, not bad. And how do you get the knives back?
Do you really think the knives I buy are ordinary?
I bet if Edward were here he could answer that question for you, Tont.
Hmm, I might just have to enlist his help then.
Ha! I knew there was a reason I liked you kids!

Eventually the ship comes within sight of a landmass walled off by shoals.

You wanted to know where Pity Island is. Well now you're staring at it.
There's no way we can get the ship through those rocks.
No joke.
Aye. No ship has been able to land on Pity in a long time. I doubt a human has set foot over there in many years.
There's an old guy in Isla who says he swam out here when he was young.
And that the island was full of monsters that scared him so he went back to Marion.
So what do you all think the odds are that we'll have to wade through said monsters eventually?
Oooohhh I bet they're weird and magical! That would be the best!
Sis why would we want to go to Pity? I doubt Shutat's over there. That battleship of his can't get through these rocks.
Eh, I'm just pessimistic about our chances of resolving this quickly.
What? Just because Arawn had us go through a convoluted series of steps just so he could tell us a simple message?
I'm betting on Annie in this one.
And if anything were to make me reconsider my opinion that is it.
Happy to help!

Moments later a Griffin and a Dark Elf board the boat to attack.

Tont here's your first taste of what the island may hold.
Or his first taste of former minions getting revenge on him.
Why would they want to do that? It's not like they're in any danger when I summon them.
If I were ripped across time and space against my will I'd be pretty pissy with whoever called me.

Well that elf apparently wants to kill Domino so they're not one of mine!
I'm sure that's of great comfort for Domino.

Domino returns fire dealing an equal amount of damage.

Oooohh, that was a nice hit!

The Dark Elf attacks a second time groggying our local pirate.

That was also a nice hit!

At least Domino got in a counter attack before losing all his VP. He recovers the same round (one of the few benefits of being the slowest person on the field) so he manages to break somewhat even.

The ship continues past the southern tip of Pity Island seeing nothing but more murderous shoals along its coastline.

Didn't this island used to be part of Marion?
Split off because of an earthquake I think.
One hell of an earthquake!

Moments later a Griffin and a Black Aerial appear. The Black Aerial is of most concern in this formation. Based on lots of fights with previous types of Aerials and Tont summoning this particular kind we know that a Wind 2 spell is probably headed our way if the battle lasts long enough.

Fortunately Finn's got other ideas. Those dual attacks are getting pretty beefy.

I really wish these things would leave us alone!
RAWR! Let's do this!

Don't worry though. A Siren Harpy picked up the slack a few encounters later.

Too bad about Pity.
Stand still Finn. I'm trying to concentrate.
Like I said no one's been able to get to that island in a long time.
So if the island's surrounded by all those rocks now what was it like before the earthquake?
Rough and sort of mountainous.
I wonder if anyone lived there when the earthquake hit.
Yes.
Well what happened to them?
Fled to the mainland.
Sooo it's all monsters now?
Probably.
Would that surprise you Finn?
Not really. I am wondering how monsters manage to get on and off the island.

A Bat and two Wyverns appear!

You mean like how monsters manage to get on and off our boat?
These things fly.
Hey there's even a bright, colorful bat!

Well I guess it's sort of EIFHJED!
What was that, Finn?
Ow! That hurt!

I want to know where bats go for boxing lessons.

Tont summons Firedrake. It is not particularly effective against these enemies since the Wyverns resist fire.

Be careful with that!
I never set anything on fire by accident.
Can't you just summon water spirits if that does happen?
Of course I can.

Samson attacks and is rebuffed by the Bat.

Deflecting an axe? They're really stepping up their game aren't they?
I wish they wouldn't!
Calm down, Finn. It's just a bat.
You didn't get punched by it!

The Bat then eats an herb to restore 14 VP for itself.

Hey no fair! You're not supposed to heal yourselves!
But we heal ourselves all the time.
We're not bound by the same rules.
What about the priests that we run into sometimes? Do they have different rules too?
Aargh!

Back to summoning elves, Tont?
I don't actually have any control over what that incantation summons. It's got a mind of its own.
I think you and it should have a long talk then.

I suspect that sometimes when the game calculates damage it applies the row modifier to our side but not to enemies. What I mean by that is if we attack an enemy in their back row our attacker gets a damage penalty. When the enemy does the same thing they don't. This makes combat a bit lopsided in favor of the enemy. For example we saw a Dark Elf two-shot Domino earlier. Now Tont summons a Dark Elf who shoots a Wyvern in the enemy back row and barely scratches it. We have LP though so it's not as bad as it could be.

Oh yeah and Wyverns can poison on critical. It's a small thing but that's damage each turn Annie doesn't need right now. She'll have to spend a turn curing it before she can return to attacking.

Notice though that the Bat has managed to survive a Firedrake and a barrage of attacks from the rest of the team. That's one tough bat.

It was only a matter of time though before it and the other monsters died.

So is this normal for you, Domino?
Monsters have always been a problem but not like this.
It's because Finn's running the ship now.
*grumbles something inaudible*
What was that? We couldn't hear you.
I said "they're hellbent on killing all of us."
Oh. So a normal day then. Good to know.

Where are we going?
Uh...
I think a better question is where are we?

Item > World Map > Use

That's why we have a map, Finn.

Using the World Map actually does call up on an in-game map as an overlay. It's translucent which makes it harder to read particularly on the sea which is where one needs a map the most. It does come with a blinking cursor showing the player's location which is even harder to see most of the time. I've circled it in red in the above screenshot.

A magical map! You have a lot of magical stuff, Domino.
Wouldn't you if you had the choice?
Definitely!
We're going to continue down the coast?
I guess we can head towards Luna.
Maybe one of the pirates has seen the battleship.
That's what I'm hoping.
I doubt we'll find any leads. Shutat's the kind of man to cover his tracks.
It can't hurt to try, right? Besides Discipline Island isn't far from Luna.
Us sailing into the harbor on this ship isn't going to cause problems is it?
Nah. I don't trust Luna's harbor. I always weight anchor down the coast.

As the kids continue their journey monsters continue to attack including this formation of three Bats. Given that sailing near Marion brings out formations with Small Bats it is easy to underestimate these enemies. After all their names and palettes are almost the same.

More freakin' bats!
I just noticed that these things are Steiner sized. Does that mean you can be friends with them, Steiner?
I'm not friends with monsters. Especially not monsters trying to kill my human friends.
Wow Steiner that's actually rather noble sounding.
I can't pull pranks on you if you're dead.
...I'll take what I can get.

I haven't shown Domino's spell list yet because it is rather sad looking. He knows Awaken 1, Illusion 1, Wind 2, and Slow 1. Of those Illusion is useless, Awaken slightly less useless (emphasis on the slightly), and the other two are marginal. We've seen Wind 2 plenty of times but have yet to run into a situation where Slow is a problem. Slow isn't a bad spell. It just has a chance to fail and since Domino acts last that means there's a full rotation of attacks ahead of him. It's like Confusion in that it doesn't become all that useful unless the battle is going to drag out.

Slow is even less useful when the enemies are faster than everyone but Annie. Does that and their damage output seem a bit... out of place given where they appear? It should.

Are we getting our asses kicked by bats?
Seems so.
I knew it! I friggin' knew it! AARGH!

Ha! For once the enemy is on the recieving end of the wind nukes!

What are you on about, kid?
A lifelong fear and hatred of bats.
I think both of those are perfectly justified.
It's a long story.

We're about done here if you want to fill me in.

Domino double attacks at a respectable rate. His individual attacks don't pack much of a punch against these Bats but then again they're tough little mammals.

Annie's MP is getting drained rather quickly. Travel by ship is more direct but arguably slower at this point because random encounters take so much longer. Also we're right on the western coast of southern Greenheim. It's always a relief knowing that death was always but ten feet away when revisiting prior areas of the overworld map. Good thing the Bats never thought to fly onto land, eh?

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the trip is that thus far the team has only had two groggies. Finn, Annie, and Tont haven't lost any LP yet.

Three seconds after that Healing Rain Annie gets the stuffing pummeled out of her. Good thing she healed herself or I'd have to revise my prior statement.

OW!
I told you it hurts.

At least Finn's finally got a use for those antidotes he's been carrying around for the entire game. Don't leave home without 'em!

After some more fighting Domino reaches level 17 and upgrades his Awaken spell to level 2. Oh boy now there's something I've been waiting for someone to learn... is something I'll never type with a straight face.

Domino's got another little quirk that doesn't come through easily in screenshots. He's the only member of the team who doesn't hop up and down at the end of combat. It's like if at the end of a classic Final Fantasy game one character refused to do the victory animation. I guess he thinks he's too cool for it. He's probably older than everyone but Samson though so I guess he might just have bad knees or something.

After much toil and struggle Luna is within sight and not a moment too soon. Annie's just about out of MP.

Let's all agree that cruises for the hell of it are a bad idea.
You didn't have fun?
Too much attempted murder for my tastes.
You know it's bad when Sir Samson is looking forward to entering Luna.
Does he have a new appreciation for pirates?
I have a new appreciation for our sheer stubbornness. Any person with their survival instinct still intact would have gone back to land after the first day full of monsters.
I'll take that as a compliment!
I guess that's why Arawn gave us this task. We're stupid enough to keep charging forward no matter how dangerous it gets.

Next time on Beyond the Beyond - Discipline Island!

Update Sixty-nine | Index | Update Seventy-one