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Beyond the Beyond: Update 12: Wherein There Are Complications Marion - Zalagoon Borderlands)
Having escaped Marion thanks to the loyalty of his bodyguard Samson and a sacrifice made by Percy, Prince Edward faces the task of making the dangerous journey through the wildlands separating Marion from Zalagoon. It is the first time any of the kids has ever set foot outside of their home country and with Bandore dangerously close behind it is also the first time they are truly on their own.
Since we've left Marion an updated mini-map is in order. I've taken the liberty of outlining Zalagoon's borders since this part of the map was right on the book's spine and is blurry. I've also photoshopped out the Land of Spoilers to the south that we won't be able to visit until much later. We start at that little blue square on the map over on the west side which roughly correlates to where we exited Marion and where the border inn stands.
It has been three days since we arrived at this remote mountain inn and still I am thankful that there is no sign of pursuit. The first night I awoke in the middle of the night to find that Finn and Annie had snuck out on their own. I was surprised to find that the little dragon constantly at Finn's side had been left behind. The two of them returned shortly before dawn weary and disappointed. When I asked them where they had gone Annie said nothing but Finn whispered that they couldn't rest unless they knew if the gate down in the tunnel was still closed.
Apparently whoever was sent to find us has not yet fixed the gate. Has Bandore just given up? I hope so.
Brother Thomas has been gracious of our presence and is quite knowledgeable of the area but there is nothing he can do for Sir Samson. When I told him what we've been through he suggested I keep a record of what we experience and gave me what he could spare of his writing supplies. In light of the situation I think it would be wise. While I still can I shall record my thoughts and experiences about this journey.
I find my traveling companions of two minds. Finn and Annie are still troubled by Percy's actions and I can see in their demeanor a desire to return to Marion to look for him. If it were up to me I'd let them go but the path back to Marion is now barred to us. In contrast is Sir Samson. I know he would never abandon me. Sir Samson has been a constant figure for as long as I can remember. These last few days though I have thought... No, perhaps I should not jump to hasty conclusions. I shall wait and see for at least a few more days before I entertain any such notions.
On the day we arrived we spoke with Brother Thomas about possible routes to Zalagoon and the innkeeper warned us that the caves and slopes to our north were long ago held sacred by the dragons. There is an old growth forest to the east and through it is the oldest, best-known route to Zalagoon. What is there to worry about? We set out the next day to find a path through the forest.
I must confess that I had never personally partaken in battle before. My education has been more theory then practice. We ran into giant rabbits and flying frogs out on the grassy hills east of the inn which were hostile to our presence. Battle wasn't anything like I expected. There seemed to be no glory in butchering animals going about their lives. Is this a taste of things to come?
While out grinding scouting the area Finn has the misfortune to be paralyzed by a flying frog's critical counter attack. These enemies are weak so this isn't much of an issue but with Annie also paralyzed this could have been bad if the enemy were an actual threat. I might as well go over the game's status effects now and get another Game Mechanics 101 section out of the way. Most of this stuff is pretty standard for RPGs.
Effects are grouped into two categories: temporary and permanent.
Temporary effects are as follows. Note that unless specified these wear off after 3 actions. This is important - actions, not rounds - and they expire at the end of a character's turn.
- Paralysis - character can't take any action
- Stone - this doesn't wear off until cured or the battle ends but otherwise is the same as paralysis
- Silence - character cannot cast spells
- Sleep - this is another effect that means a character can't do anything but with the added bonus of playing a loud sleeping sound effect constantly, however this status effect might fade before the 3 actions are up so it's usually not so bad
- Illusion - I'm not sure this actually does anything since it seems to have no impact on hit rate
- Confusion - character may attack allies
- Boost - character's speed and defense temporarily increase
- Attack Up - character's attack power temporary increases
- Slow - the inverse of Boost, Slow reduces the target's speed and defense
Although stone would be a dangerous condition because it can only be cured in battle by items enemies that can inflict it are so rare, the effect they use is single target, and it's resistable so we might never even see it in this playthrough. Status effects that prevent a character from acting are also good about preventing them from blocking and counterattacking unlike in the Shining Force series. (Shining Force is very silly and buggy in how it handles status.)
I'm not sure how much of a stat change stuff like Boost and Slow really are but it's probably percentage based since it seems to scale as the game goes on.
Permanent effects are:
- Poison - the afflicted character takes damage after every action and periodically while walking around
- Cursed - we'll cover what this does soon
Brother Thomas mentioned an old tale concerning the forest to our northeast. He didn't know all the details but said that when a curse was laid down long ago the forest seemed to gain a certain malevolent character and could not be trusted to lead travelers truthfully. Honestly I am a little worried but we cannot delay in setting out for Zalagoon. The longer we tarry here the more the people of Marion suffer.
It wasn't long after we entered the woods that monsters attacked again. I was surprised by how swift Annie and Finn were at cutting them down! Sir Samson and myself barely had a chance to do anything. I guess I shouldn't be so shocked that the children of two of Marion's finest knights are themselves quite proficient in battle. Already they do much to make this journey bearable.
We did eventually find tracks that Sir Samson said were probably made by kobolds. Those vermin live up in the mountains far from humans. The official histories of Marion contain records of kobold raids and incursions in centuries past but after the knights put their invading hordes to the sword and drove them out of Marion they have left the kingdom in peace. I'm not even sure when they last incursion they made was but it must have been many years ago.
We did not encounter any kobolds but Brother Thomas' warning about a strange enchantment on the forest seems to have some truth to it. There were no roads or trails for us to follow and time and again we succeeded only in returning to the point at which we entered the forest. With the sun setting and no leads we returned to the inn for the night.
Well we made it out of Marion in one piece and all that training my dad put me through is finally paying off. I wouldn't mind a better sword, though.
Pryaa. I guess Sir Galahad didn't think you were ready for anything better. Well this was the only sword in the basement.
Then where does Sir Galahad keep his weapon?
...You know, I have no idea.
I don't pretend to understand how this ribbon I'm wearing provides protection comparable to the shield Finn has.
Magic?
I guess. Whatever. That means I can use both hands for whacking things.
*grumbles something incomprehensible*
My clothes do not afford me much protection but I am not a trained warrior like Finn or Sir Samson.
Nobody taught you how to fight?
Err, well, I have been schooled in basic self defense but my education has been more of an intellectual nature.
I'm reordering the team and bumping Samson up to the front row in slot 3 because I have A PLAN.
This morning Sir Samson mentioned that there was another path to reach Zalagoon. When we first arrived in the valley I glimpsed a cave entrance to the north but thought nothing of it. Zalagoon lies to our east after all. What good could a cave leading north be to us? Imagine my surprise when Sir Samson said the cave had an old but dangerous route that eventually leads east across the mountains. When I pressed him for more information he was tight lipped but grumbled that it might be our only option.
With seemingly no path through the forest we headed into the cave. When we got to there we soon found it wasn't as deserted as we had believed. Monsters lived there as expected for they seem to live everywhere these days. Taking the eastern path as Sir Samson instructed we came upon something far more dangerous!
A huge dragon, its thick scales all brilliant gold, sleeps there. Never would I have imagined that a dragon of such immense size was living so close to Marion! Perhaps these mountains truly are sacred to them. Despite the clamor we made it didn't stir a muscle.
Even more surprising was that enormous scorpions attacked us as we approached. The monsters living here apparently think nothing of the danger in being near this dragon for they two burrowed right out of the ground at our feet.
Although their pincers could inflict terrible wounds Sir Samson easily brushed them off.
I did notice, though, that he seemed to be in quite a lot of pain as he struck back.
So, cursed... it's like the Camelot devs realized pretty much nobody ever uses the cursed equipment in Shining in the Darkness or Shining Force unless they could game the system to their own benefit then had a meeting where they decided on how best to stick it to their fanbase. The result is Samson albeit with a caveat since (based on multiple playthroughs, not looking at the game's code) it seems his curse doesn't fully kick in until he hits level 5.
Every time a cursed character takes an action there's approximately a 1 in 3 chance their body will go numb and they can't do anything. If they do get to attack there's a chance if they hurt their target they'll then suffer damage themselves - an amount based on the damage inflicted to the enemy. If this all sounds familiar then I presume you've played Shining Force 2 because it essentially functions the same way there.
In Beyond the Beyond curses are more dangerous because, as we will see, Samson's stat growth is generally pretty terrible and without savescumming level ups he becomes overshadowed by other characters in the late game. I have been and will continue to savescum his level ups, however, to keep him competitive with everyone else. Incoming damage + curse damage can groggy Samson pretty quickly with his slow VP growth. (Unfortunately as we will see over and over in the game, balancing stats and building a good difficulty curve seem to have been low priority for the devs. It will show. A lot.)
I have, however, given the situation careful thought. This is all part of THE PLAN I mentioned earlier. I noticed on earlier runs through the game that when you have a full party of 5 characters enemy target selection isn't fair and anyone in slot 3 gets targeted more often then anyone else. We don't have 5 characters yet but there's no reason for me to not get things set up for that situation.
Defending is the one action any cursed character can take that cannot be interrupted by numbing. Beyond the Beyond is the sort of game that applies defense modifiers when you select the command, not when the character's turn comes. Defending halves all damage that character takes so this means Samson, despite his poor VP and LP, can make a nice damage sponge when we need one by defending over and over again. We'll lose his damage output but it's so erratic anyway I consider any damage Samson deals right now as a bonus, not part of any strategy. I'm not quite at a point where he's on the defensive constantly but that will gradually change.
Anyway that's enough of this digression. Let's let Edward continue.
When we dispatched the scorpions we looked up to find the dragon was still asleep. What a heavy sleeper! Finn asked Steiner if perhaps the little dragon could speak to the adult barring our path but Steiner shook his head and said there was no getting through the dragon's slumber for it was of a magical nature. Since the water was too deep for us to risk swimming through - a suggestion Finn and Annie balked at with a puzzling level of terror - and Sir Samson thought it was too risky to try climbing over its twitching tail we had no choice but to turn back.
As we headed out Steiner pointed north and said he could see a ledge and a tunnel entrance that looked promising so we resolved to look for it.
Back in the front chamber we found a staircase hewn out of the rock. Who made it?
Alas we found the ledge Steiner had spotted but it was of little help to us other then a small chest containing some old herbs. Any chance of climbing further was met with the badly eroded rocks slipping out from under us. With that dragon in the way we would never reach Zalagoon through the tunnels.
That little depression to the left of the chest is actually a one-way drop that lets us get around the dragon but only when coming from the other direction.
Also, there were zombies. They can poison us on a critical hit or leap in the air for a comical variation to their normal attacks. They are otherwise just more fodder for the sibling duo to tear through.
These caves have such a bizarre ecosystem. The living dead roam around but they posed little threat to us. They are easily dispatched by my humble fire spells. As for the floating molds I don't know what to make of them. They did nothing to us but we destroyed them anyway just to be safe.
Once more we returned to the inn in defeat. This is becoming worrisome. It seems that no matter which way we turn we find our path barred for reasons that are not our fault.
I asked Brother Thomas if perhaps there was another route but he only shook his head and said he only knew of old hiking trails that lead back to Marion. It seems that enchanted forest is our only option. We spent the rest of that day in rest listening to the tales Brother Thomas and the innkeeper had to tell. Perhaps when this is all over I shall return and record them.
The next morning I awoke at first light to find Sir Samson already awake. He sat by the window lost in thought. I started to get up and he didn't notice me. That was when I realized he must have gotten little sleep for he rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes. Although I didn't mean to he startled when I moved and the bed under me creaked. I asked what was wrong but again, I was met with another protest that all is well. I know it's not true. He doesn't have to lie.
Sir Samson said he could not sleep and had spent much of the night out by the forest's edge. Then he told me he had found some old kobold or goblin trails that might be of use. Odd we did not find them earlier but I suppose when you have no leads you have to grasp at whatever presents itself.
The trails were winding and looping and it was only through sheer dogged persistence that we managed to follow them as they vanished again and again in the underbrush. From time to time we could see sunlight glimmering through the forest canopy and by it I guessed we must be heading east by northeast.
(As an aside this forest is seriously weird in game. No matter where you go you eventually get warped to the following screen. Finn is about to step over the line of warp points in the screenshot above.)
Weary after many hours of walking we finally found ourselves at the base of an ancient tree that dwarfed the surrounding forest. An entrance had been cut from its base. Situated on a fractured cliff the tree was the end of the path but when we looked up we could see that it was possible to reach an adjacent tree just as massive and ancient via what seemed to be a ropeway hung among the upper branches.
Once inside it was immediately obvious someone or something had deliberately carved out the interior for some unknown reason. It seemed the tree was still alive though. I tried not to think about it as we hurried past an enormous nut lying on the floor up a wooden staircase to the next floor.
This forest was one baffling event after another and the next floor only added to the mystery. We rounded a corner to find our path blocked by another huge nut and, several feet from it, barring our path, was a smooth bored hole in the floor.
So here's the gimmick for this, uh, dungeon. There are pits blocking the path. We have to make bridges using the enormous but featherweight nuts. It's not terribly complicated.
With some effort we found the nut plugged the hole quite nicely and was firm under our feet as we crossed. I don't profess to know why whoever carved out this tree went to all this trouble but it really is a bother.
The path splits here but first we want to head west. (Yes I know Finn is heading east but I chose this screenshot since it shows both paths.)
Tucked into a dead end we found a chest. Inside the old box was a suit of equally old but well preserved steel mail. It was too large and heavy for young Finn but the right sort of thing for Sir Samson. He wasted no time in donning it.
Note that Finn (and Percy) only wear plate. Samson only wears mail. The Steel Mail gives Samson a few badly needed points of defense and then he shoves his old mail into his backpack because that's what soldiers do when they're cursed with paralysis and strength loss. Also note that the nut we'll need to push around for this floor's puzzle is visible here.
To my alarm just a few minutes later as we were heading back downstairs we ran into a lone kobold. The brute snarled at us and seemed about to attack but it was all a show about nothing.
To solve: right one, up one, right three, down one, right two.
On the next floor a slightly more complex puzzle presents itself.
First: south.
Second: east.
Third: south. Then you just walk around and push it west into the hole.
Each floor we climbed up we found a slightly more complicated puzzle waiting for us. Who made this? How is it that when we had to double back at one point we found that a nut we had previously moved was back in its original position?
No matter where I go there are always bats!
Don't worry, Finn! I've got it covered! KYAAAA!
Was that really necessary?
YES!
The final floor of this tree presents the most intricate puzzle it has to offer.
First: circle around and push our soon-to-be-bridge east to this intersection.
As if the tree hadn't already produced enough surprises for one day on the top floor we ran into a goblin. As with the lone kobold earlier the goblin made some threatening gestures and seemed poised to attack us over nothing. In the struggle that followed I was alarmed to discover the beast easily shrugged off my fire spells but nonetheless Finn and Annie slew it while Sir Samson kept the ferocious bats attracted to the fight at bay.
Second: walk around and push the nut north.
Third: walk around the barriers again so you can push it east in preparation for heading south.
I was amazed to find that orks also inhabit this forest. They don't usually get along with kobolds or goblins as those three races have a long history of violence against one another. I wonder if this forest is where their nations border each other. I guess that would explain why we've only seen one of each thus far.
Fourth: now push the nut south careful not to get overzealous and push it into the wall.
Fifth: push it west until it is one tile north of the pit we wish to cross.
Sixth: Then you walk around the barriers (fighting off random encounters the entire time) and administer the last shove you require.
Once we made it outside we found ourselves in the forest canopy. All around us were trees of equal height and many that towered over us. I knew this was an old growth forest but to reach such heights these must have been here for centuries. We climbed down thick vines coiled around one another in a natural rope to a ledge below.
Are we really going to keep every piece of junk we find out here? My pack is already full to bursting as it is.
Aww, come on it's a jewel. It's shiny! We might be able to sell this for a nice bit of cash when we reach civilization.
That's perhaps the most sensible thing you've said yet, Finn.
See?
Well then you get to carry it.
The counter jewel increases one character's counter attack rate when used on them in battle. I'm not sure if it's temporary or permanent but I'm leaning towards temporary.
Although vines crisscrossed the trees there was only one sturdy enough to carry our group forward. Cautiously we walked across a length stretched tight between two trees and found ourselves staring at a gaping hole large enough for a human to walk through.
SPECIAL NOTE: Just inside this tree is a Point of No Return (for a long time) so if you're playing along and haven't saved in awhile or aren't sure your party is ready to handle what is still a long walk now might be a good time to turn back.
Next time on Beyond the Beyond - we climb down this tree and try to avoid the bloodthirsty hordes of goblins, orks, kobolds, and other critters that roam these lands in search of a sign of civilization!
