Broken Sword

I don't know what that random fork in the road was, but it wasn't the haunted forest. That's the Wychwood!

The Wychwood is, as far as I can tell, a straight path. It's through a thick forest that eventually opens across a ravine. And as we cross... Nina disappears! We (the player) see that she actually shrinks, but the characters don't see anything. Ershin knows she didn't fall off the cliff, though. Nina isn't sure what happened either. But there's no time to think because a bird picks her up and carries her off! The others leave to find clues, and they quickly hear strange voices. Lights flash over the ravine, and they turn into fairies! They plan other nefarious things they want to do to us, but then they notice we're looking at them. We're not supposed to know they're here, but *someone* has the Dragon's Eye. Knowing they're found, they come clean. They shrunk Nina. She'll grow again later on, but she's at the mercy of the avians for now. So everyone is off to find her.

Ershin can bash trees through the area, and the ficus we're seeking is just after a jump. But before we find that, we see Nina be treated like a baby bird. Her wings confused the bird, and now it's trying to feed her a caterpillar. She isn't fond of eating bugs, so a battle begins. The parent bird tries to scold its child, leaving Nina in the driver's seat of this fight. By the time it's over, Ershin headbutts the tree, and Nina falls out. She begins to change size just in time to provocatively land on Ryu. With the group back together, we go to the actual capital of the woren, Worent.

The elders live in the back of town, and they're prepared to go to war with Ludia for imprisoning their chief. Fortunately, one of the three has just enough of a brain to know that's a bad idea. A better idea would be to find the wife of the previous chief, Taryn. This is Cray's mom. She's a nomad now and lives in the Golden Plains. She's wise and can figure out a better plan than murder. We'll need a horse first...

As we leave, an old friend appears. Marcel's guard, Kahn, is here to train for his revenge against us. And now's the time! His first act is a powerful technique. His second act is learning he doesn't have enough AP to use it again. From here, it's a standard battle. His new mentor comes out to scold us because Kahn isn't as strong as he thinks he is, and we're picking on him. She settles the situation, and we go our separate ways. If we return, we learn Kahn is gone, and his mentor can be our master.

Let's go look for a horse! None of us know how to ride, but a nearby snail has taken a liking to Ryu. Ershin joins in its dance. This floating whelk will be our horse even though it can only look backwards.

Ryu has to go alone, so everyone wishes him luck. He promptly falls off the snail. As our blue haired MC leaves, Scias shows some personality. He asks why we're doing all this if the odds of success are so low? Nina will always fight for her friends!

The Golden Plains is a precursor to modern world maps. It's a far too vast area of emptiness. All the mobs are hard to hit, but magic works well. There was a guy who knew how to find Taryn, but his advice didn't work for me. I don't know how I found her, so maybe find the rock in the middle of the area and go north. North East brings you to the Shrine. Taryn's camp can be spotted by the smoke.

Ryu tells mama Taryn about the situation. It's late, though, so we go to bed. We, for some reason, see a part of Cray's pretrial, and it seems everyone is more upset he lost the Sword of Kings, the weapon we broke over the imperial soldier. The sword represents the Alliance, so it's very important. Ryu gives this information to Taryn, and she suggests finding a new version of it from the guy who lives in Mt. Glom. We return to our camp to reconnect with the rest of the party. They suggested returning to town, but their advice is how to find the volcano. Find the rock again and go directly south. For some reason, the snail is gone, and we're walking it. This undermines the whole point of the horses!

Glom is an active volcano in a JRPG. I'm sure you already know that means lava floors. There are a few you can jump over and an interesting gimmick in the third room. To advance, you'll need to fight battles. Doing so will cause havoc in the area, and several platforms will move. This creates a bridge to the area we need to reach, but there's a second hidden room with a great weapon for Ershin in it. There's a house in the correct area that contains a dwarf looking fella who's a blacksmith. We tell him about the Sword of Kings, and he knows what it is. He's the one who made it! He offers to reforge it, but we'll need to obtain a mythical Fairy Drop that can only be found in the Faelands. Take the secret exit from his basement to return to the world map, and we'll look for the fairies again...

...tomorrow!

Glom has a fun monster to fight. If you run into a tree, set it on fire. The wyd will transform and give more exp on defeat. It's a rad mechanic!