fadeaccompli

(From last night, when I may have stayed up a teensy bit too late again, because Tressa is awesome.)

Today, in Octopath Traveler, I try to decide if I'm able to deal with the accents in this hunting village while sober.

* "I haven't taken a day off from my training in ten moons! One day I'll be Master Z'aanta's number one apprentice. Just thou waiten!"

* NOPE.

* You know who sounds like they'll be fun? Tressa. Merchant girl who wants to sing the Moana song. Let's travel to her city and see how it goes.

* Aw, I'm almost out of summons of Elderly Woman. Maybe I should grab the cow guy again.

* As I leave the Flatlands, I wander into a coastal area that's got a bit more in the way of palm trees. I suppose that makes sense. Merchants gonna hang out near optimal sea routes.

* Am I fighting... rat angels? It's a little hard to tell with some of these designs, but according to the name on these odd winged creatures with bows, they're "Sea Birdian" creatures, which... okay.

* Aw, the old woman ran away. I guess it's just me and Cyrus now! At least for a while.

* The water effects are really quite pretty. All glittery and rippley and stuff.

* Many fireballed Sea Birdians later, we enter Rippletide. It seems like a nice coastal town. Charming. Mercantile.

* We walk in, and I immediately recruit Townsperson, whose special ability is Poison Arrow. "Oh! You were talking to me?" ...not sure how useful this guy is gonna be.

* Everyone I'm meeting has a 50% or lower Scrutinize chance. Oof. I'm not risking that reputation hit. I wonder if that goes up once I recruit Tressa. Heck, I wonder if there's a way to get it up in general.

* Ooo, screw leading Townsperson around, how about Merchant, whose skill is Befuddling Balm and whose Scrutinize results say he deals in mysterious items? Yes. Much better. ".........." he says. Eloquent.

* Boats, townspeople, fishermen, fishermen's widows... It seems a nice enough place. Quiet.

* Having scrutinized everyone with a greater than 50% chance of success, in town, I go to chat with Tressa, who seems to be angry at pirates. Tell me your backstory, kid!

* She "cuts deals and stocks shelves" for her family shop, but also "looks out upon the endless sea, and dreams of a wider world." Valid mood.

* Tressa has a very cute hat with a feather in it, and her first voiced line is, "WEll, the shop ain't gonna stock itself!" and I like her already.

* Wow, two living parents! Dad calls me "our number one employer" and uses phrases like "Hold your seahorses, little lady." I love him too. I hope he's sturdier than Ophilia's dad.

* The accent being used for the voice acting on her mother, Marina, is certainly a choice that someone made, all right.

* Just like dad always says, I'm following the guidelines for what a merchant should be: smiley, mannerly, and early! And thus I'm first to the pier to pick up fish for the shop.

* Also a sharp bargainer. Go, kid, go!

* Special ability: buy things from random townspeople. Yessss good.

* ...and the haggling that I unlocked via scrutinizing is giving me discounts. Niiiice.

* Tressa is proud of her skills! But a little forlorn about having her future already laid out before her this way.

* Ship interrupt! A dude in blue with dramatic blond hair shows up to call my town dreary. THOSE ARE FIGHTING WORDS, MAN. ...oh, but he's the captain of a trading ship, so we're cool.

* Oh no! Pirates hassling a street vendor! Mikk and Makk are beating up an old man. That is not on, guys. Tressa is ready to stop them.

* Which I admire, but kid, you're, like, fifteen, and your primary skill is haggling.

* Tressa uses Diplomacy! She rolls high, but the TN is very high on this one. Mikk uses Pick Pockets! And now our wine is gone.

* The trader captain, who has a posh accent, suggests that using diplomacy is not going to be enough in this case. Sadly, he does not follow this up by demonstrating great sword skills, just keeps Tressa from getting herself killed.

* Street Vendor wants to know why these pirates are hassling us instead of ships. They're supposed to rob ships! That's their job!

* Tressa decides to head to the pirate cave to confront them. Trader Captain clears his throat pointedly. Suggests she go in with more than haggling skill.

* I proceed to buy everything his shipmates are selling, but the plot critical one is Sleepweed. (Probably not so much Candy or Handkerchief.) We're gonna drug pirates! Woo!

* Why is the captain helping me? Ah, but he's rolled his Detect Protagonist skill.

* Now that she's back in the party, it's time for the three of us to roll this barrel of drugged wine into a cave full of pirates! I, uh, hope at least one of us has a fighting skill better than 'Hit it with a staff' now.

* Oh, thank goodness, she uses bows and spears. And I slap some Black Attire on her to increase her evasion, since she's the squishiest member of the party until she gets some levels on her.

* Her two spells are Collect, which gets money from a foe, and Tradewinds, which hits a foe for wind damage. Aheh.

* I was about to ask if there was anything here other than Sea Birdians when I met a tentacled giant slug and a flying shark. So I guess so.

* Ooo, Collect works better on wounded enemies. It's like catching pokemon!

* Tressa's approach to getting the wine into the pirates is to go "Oh, gosh, very sorry for ever trying to defy you, we're apologizing with this wine." These pirates are lucky there's sleepweed in there and not rat poison.

* One 'pirates are dumb' cutscene later, we enter the cave to find pirates who are sleeping. Little floating ZZZZzzz's so that we're sure Tressa's cheery chuckle was over drugging them, not murdering them. (So far.)

* "Well, that was easy. Ha! That's what they get for underestimating me!" Cool your roll a little, kid, there's a whole cave yet to get through.

* We're fighting pirates! They just start asleep. Ha.

* Also vipers, which do not, alas, start off asleep.

* I'm not actually trying to grind; I'm just really bad at navigating 3D environments from a fixed perspective.

* Anyway, several awkward moments behind a bit of scenery later, we have reached the dozing pirates. But... gasp! Mikk wakes up while Tressa is getting all the treasure together! He wakes up Makk! She fails her "I'm just picking up the empty cask" bluff check! BOSS FIGHT.

* "Oh, that boss fight was an actually reasonable length," I say, having finally beat down Mikk and Makk, when they declare they're calling in all the rest of the pirates.

* TRADER CAPTAIN INTERRUPT. I... kinda want to date him. I mean. He wasn't entirely wrong about my town. (Though also the only person in the group old enough to date him is Cyrus, who's mostly into books, so.)

* The pirates realize this is... gasp! Captain Leon Bastralle! The famous pirate! Who gave up pirating to merchant, apparently! "Here's a lesson for you lads, from a true man of the sea. Dead men tell no tales." Pointed. As is his famous blue spear. The pirates book it before they have to meet either at closer range.

* Aw, Leon is inviting us to see his ship! It's probably not a kidnapping ploy.

* It's not! He's so impressed by how protagonisty we are that he wants to offer us a treasure. Whichever of his many (stolen) treasures we want. Tressa is taken with a fancy portrait, but isn't sure how to describe why she's struck with its beauty, because she didn't put any points into Artistry.

* So basically Leon has the Mona Lisa on his ship, except with a tragic backstory and stuff. And he's super impressed at how good our Appraise skill is.

* Tressa picks something Leon thinks isn't worth much, but she feels it's calling to her. It's...a book! He sets sail, and she goes home to read.

* It's a diary of a traveler. Tressa is /really/ into it. And she goes to tell her parents that she's going to leave town and be a traveling merchant and be /awesome/ at it.

* "Traveling merchant? I won't have it! You're not even a stationary merchant yet!"

* But honestly the argument is brief and they agree it'll get her some good experience.

* Also, the journal is only half-filled, so she's gonna fill out the rest herself. Heh.

* ...on which note I should stop buying things from every person with a "..." over their head, and go to sleep.