Monsters in the Fog

Fog is bad for sailing, and we want to sail, but we can't sail until we clear the fog, so let's clear the fog!

Inside the pub of Camdren,  the camera will zoom on a rowdy bunch of people. They stop their festivities for a moment to talk to us, and the woman in charge, Sandra, introduces herself. She is the best captain around, and other people in town can collaborate with that. She and Enda get into a pose off with Sandra's dog, which arouses the pedophiliacs in her crew, and makes their captain a bit jealous, too. With an instant connection made, we ask her for a ride to Auria, our home continent, and the festivities end. There's actually a record scratch. Despite being legendary, her crew refuses to sail in this thick fog. She's down, but her men are not. Asera gathers that the fog is being made from a particular plant in the north. If we dispose of them, we can set sail. Xero and Sandra agree on the deal, and we head out.

The Stained Forest is to the north, and I can't see a thing. It's kinda annoying. But our mission here is to dispose of five Gorger plants scattered about the ruins. They're the purple plants we find on the map. Blue plants are bulbs, which are okay, I guess. Make sure to explore around for treasure and to kill the last plant in a basement. After you defeat the fifth, we get a message saying the fog in the north has cleared. I don't know what this means since I went north last. Up there, we find a giant version of the guys we've been uprooting, and a boss fight breaks out.

Gouger King is really annoying. He summons more small gougers, which can be surprisingly tanky. It's weak to light, and the adds are vulnerable to fire, so good luck getting that in order. It also loves to spam status effects on us, affecting the whole team at once. Poison, blind, silence: the works. Between fighting off the adds, healing, curing, and harming the boss, this is a long and drawn out affair. My stat was to focus on the boss. If you can get AoE, use it hit multiple targets. Build up TP for summons and Links, and keep Edna in good health. Get the shard from the chest behind the guy and leave.

As you do, the whole world suddenly changes into a burnt out wasteland. Where once was a lush forest is now the aftermath of a fire. As we get closer to the sitar's down, though, it all changes back. Xero asks Enda what happened, and she says nothing. Confused, we return to town. Sandra, along with the entire town, is glad we fixed their problem. They uphold their end of the bargain. There is a bit more to do on this continent, but I suspect we'll be back. Head to the docks and ship off!

Onboard, we can talk to our party on the deck. Asera is suffering from seasickness, and Kira is laughing at her. Slash congratulates us on how much we've grown and wonders if he would have done the same thing as we did so save a comrade. "Probably not" is the answer...Enda is excited to be here. When we speak to Sandra, she'll say she heard a stowaway and asks if they're a friend of ours. We head down to the cargo bay to check it out. Get the crafting book as you head down. We'll see a peddler who asks us to buy something, so it's not a big deal. And then Slash comes in and throws us against the wall, takes out his hammer, and tries to smash the merchant's face in. It was a ruse! The man is Kail, a high ranking member of Barclyss' army. He does some magic mumbo jumbo and calls himself a summoner before teleporting away. He's gone, so we return to the deck.

Everyone is nervous because the seas are starting to move. We're nearing a legendary sea serpent's lair as is, and that guy didn't help anything. We keep moving until the monster raises from the sea, and we have to fight it. Sandra has some backstory with it, so she's forced into the party. I replaced her with Asera. She's not sick for this battle, but it makes sense for the narrative.

The first thing the serpent does is a massive water attack on the whole team. Sandra tells us about her magic drown ability, which locks magic for three turns. I use it, and then her defense drown skill because this guy is tanky. The rest of his stuff isn't too bad, so have Enda heal while everyone else attacks. It's not as hard as the plant we just killed. I think there's a turn limit, as well. The serpent occasionally attacks the ship, damaging it, so, I'd imagine, if it breaks that, we lose or something. Either way, I won, and, after a celebration and kuddos, we continue to Atlantia. As soon as we get there, Asera leaves the party. She wants to get back to her research. Sandra chooses her words better, and we part on much friendlier terms. If we need her help again, she's always down. So it's the four of us heading back to Blaze HQ. There's a new optional boss to the west, but I'm not doing that with Kira on my team. We can also return to The Spot for a quick but meaningless scene.

We can't skip through the north pass, but that's fine because there's stuff I missed the first time. I got the copper plate! Kira can also blow up a few boxes with her field skill to get another chest we couldn't reach before. But as we get closer to the entrance, everything changes again. The green fields turn into a warzone, and we're alone. Garin walks in and tells us to quit loafing around. Slash and Kira are behind him. Xero is confused and asks where Enda is, but our dad has no idea who our sister is. The three join our party at much higher levels than they should be, and we walk through the rest of the zone, fighting monsters until everything snaps back again. Well, that's not true. We appear in the black void again with the Guide talking to us. He warns us of the end of the world again and says the timelines are merging. He's lost control. Xero blows him off again and forces himself awake, which works. Xero vehemently hugs Enda and apologizes for disappearing, But she has no idea what's going on. Something is odd, and I want to find out what it is. But we'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Kira's really bad.