Let's finish up the forest part of the forest.
---
"Duren and I went down to the river to inspect the village. It looked even more majestic up close. As we were discussing the sights, it happened again. The whole town ran out to throw us in jail...
We eventually got our guard to tell us that I've been blamed for poisoning the river that the town relies on for food. I remembered meeting the leader of Selray, Ozma, and he was the one who told me about the Primal Lands on the giant pikkard, or what they called spardas. He even let me talk to them. And wouldn't you know it, Ozma paid us a visit. He was talking to everyone in town to let the three of us investigate the poisoning. Ozma, Duren, and I began to see if anyone knew anything.
It was scenes similar to Comodo: some trusted me, and others didn't. But we did discover that the event took place ten days ago, four days after the Comodo disappearances. The poison painted the entire river red, but no one died except the fish. A few fishermen got ill, but they've recovered. Not even the spardas were harmed. It has happened multiple times since, which is why no one's gone fishing. Lastly, it came from upriver, which village tradition dictates only Ozma can go to. And with everything we can know, Ozma suggested we get on a sparda and swim upriver. Duren couldn't handle the "thrashing," but I thought it was great! As we got to a certain point, the river turned red. And Ozma dropped some bombs.
Ozma knew I was innocent. A dirty secret he's been keeping is wild adult spardas spew poison when excited or scared. He's kept that secret because Ozma is the last person from a long line of animal husbandry practitioners. He's the last because his parents died trying to get more spardas, who live upriver in the Sacred Beasts Lair. Only a small group of select people can go there because their god instructed it. God taught them how to raise and tame wild spardas for their use in the roaring river. We returned to town and ventured into the Sacred Beasts Lair.
We entered and saw that the ruins were quickly falling apart. Years of dilapidation have allowed the water that flows over the structure to inundate, creating pools of water. But it turns out Ozma is well versed in destruction. His spear can make weak walls collapse, which can either empty the water or move it elsewhere, allowing us to swim across to higher ledges. The main part of the building is a tall pillar. To advance higher, we needed to drain three pools of water in side areas into the main room. It looked as though the staircases to the upper floors weren't meant to reach the bottom. Unless you had wings, how did the builders get up there?
Enemies inside were just lizard people. The pools had some fish inside, but there were a few electric plants that hung around at the bottom of a few places.
Once we filled up the first pool, we met a snake. Or should I say Vulnake!? Ozma made quick work of this guy, so I don't know what it did. But it did guard a strange relic called the Water Dragon's Scales. This allows us to breathe underwater and increases our swimming ability. We could now get deeper into the back of the Lair. To do so, we had to get up. We eventually were able to make a shortcut to the main hall, but the long way was the only way. After swimming through strong currents to break tiles, we reached a door with a similar lock as the Ancient Burrow. Duren found three broken slates through the dungeon, and placing them in the slot was just as easy.
Inside was a donut shaped room filled with water. A baby sparda swam up before something terrifying came behind it. It was a giant angler fish! We couldn't harm it, and being underwater gave it the movement advantage. We decided to kite it around the room because explosive things were also there. The fish head butted a few of them before running off. It made its own hole!
We went after it and saw the sparda again. Ozma noticed it was hurt, but we couldn't do anything because Angoraboras came back! We were on land this time, but I don't know if that helped us. The fish was largely immune to our attacks, and we could only harm the light dangling from its face. But it's very tall! In order for us to hurt it, he had to carefully dodge its worst attack: mastication. Yep. It tried to eat us. Duren called it the Gluttonous Tyrant. We managed to knock it down, and Ozma used his super move to defeat the angler once and for all.
We followed the wounded sparda to a back room, and Ozma healed it. But then the waters around us turned red? Four spardas way more massive than the ones in the village jumped out at us. Ozma revealed that taming spardas involves breaking a wild baby's horn and kidnapping it. Hmm... As the three of us prepared to break through the sacred beasts, the baby Ozam saved spoke up for us. Or, at least, I think it did. I don't speak sparda, but our would-be assailants left. As did the baby. And then a voice started laughing at us.
We were joined by Monster Tamer Gadis. He's the reason the spardas poisoned the water. Via vile methods he called "taming," he has been harming the beasts to listen to him. Ozma rebuked him, but Gadis may have a point in his rebuttal. Ozma mangles spardas to make them docile. How's that different than the pain Gadis was inflicting? Ozma tried to jump our new enemy, but Gadis uses an insect carapace as a weapon and easily shoved him away. Ozma wasn't strong enough to be a worthwhile kill, so he let us go. But I guess we saved the village?
We returned to Selray, and Ozma cleared my name. I tried to confront him about the secret nature and questionable methods of taming, but nothing happened. Ozma believed he should, but it'll have to come a different day.
As we left the village, Commander Leo and the Locals caught up. They're persistent! But they couldn't stay because a carrier pidgin and a soldier caught up. Something's happening in Casnan, and the commander needs to be there. If Sancho and Panzo didn't need the rest, they'd probably already be there. But Duren and I had a few odd jobs around Selray to do. I became a trader, which I excelled at, and we made some giant, violent spiders go extinct. Trust me, this is a good thing. We'll return to the city in the morning.
I wonder if Gadis and Bami are related?"
-Adol
---
Ozma isn't very fun to play. Tonight was way less exciting... But still pretty okay!
No comments:
Post a Comment