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Let's see. Where did I leave off with Octopath Traveler?
Ah, yes, the snake that sounds like a cocktail.
* A moment of awkwardness ensues until I realize the Switch is telling me that I didn't get the left controller to activate properly. Oh right.
* Back to fighting giant frogs!
* After vaporizing three giant frogs at once, Ophilia murmurs, "I was not made for such things." Evidence kinda differs, kid.
* Our first encounter in the cave are those traditional allies, snakes and bats. Or, more specifically, blood vipers and black bats. Fiendish!
* Oh, the black bloods drink blood to regain health. Of course they do.
* "I honor thee, my foe," H'aanit says solemnly, after flinging a giant net over a viper so that it'll spit fireballs on her behalf in the future.
* We're fighting a slug? A motley slug? I mean, yeah, it's pretty big, but it's a... slug.
* I've returned the Great Condor to the wild to try to capture the motley slug. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
* The giant slug is caught and it can... restore health? Okay I don't care what the text says, I'm not letting this thing touch me.
* I am spending a /lot/ of time having Alfyn slap seeds together with noxroot to cure poison.
* Have only just realized I can use battle points to buff H'aanit's summons in battle, as well as her capture attempts. Linde the kitty is /terrifying/ when at Max.
* Okay, let's go see if Alfyn wants to talk down this viper before he gets into a boss fight with it.
* He sits down in a patch of waterblooms. "Not just a pretty sight--makes good bitters, too. No wonder it's Zeph's favorite." Aw, I wish we could take his cocktail-making friend along.
* But seriously, if two little girls got all the way into this cave with only one of them getting poisoned, they must have /amazing/ levels on them. It took us a party of four.
* Giant! Snake!
* Alfyn makes jokes as the snake attacks, which is rather nice.
* I spend 800 on summoning a pack of bandits who show up to axe everyone once. Okay, I guess Tressa /will/ demonstratively work with thieves on occasion.
* The blotted viper is vulnerable to staff attacks, which is rather surprising.
* Venom extracted, we cut back to Zeph and Nina, who have complete faith in Alfyn, and are thus expositing about their own backstories.
* They lost a father. Alfyn lost a mother. All appear to be orphans. Whole lot of parental death going around, here.
* Alfyn hands over the venom! Zeph can take it from there! Alfyn's gonna go home and sleep well! ...uh-oh.
* Cut to: middle of the night, and Alfyn's thinking of Zeph. And his quest to become the best apothecary ever, "Just like you-know-who." And how his village is tiny and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. But he knows everyone, and he'd better stay!
* SUDDEN ZEPH.
* Oh, Nina's getting better. Not sudden tragedy. There we go!
* They have a joint flashback to the Great Pestilence, so I guess we got the Black Death in this pseudo-Europe too.
* But "a traveler came to town bearing an elixir the likes of which we'd never seen," and it /wasn't/ snake oil.
* Or maybe it was snake oil? I mean, Alfyn just oiled a snake.
* The mysterious wandering apothecary saved penniless Alfyn's life, because "I saw someone in a bind, and I helped him out. Simple as that." It's not a bad role model to base your life on, really.
* Zeph points out that he can tell Alfyn really wants to ditch Podunk--not for adventure, but to save small children from death, rather than just helping out some dude's cough.
* It is time for Alfyn to set out! And see the world! Gotta talk to Mom's grave first, though.
* Aww, Zeph even wants us to take his satchel, so that he'll be with us even on the road. Is... is Zeph actually our boyfriend?
* This just turned into a satchel exchange. I think we may be engaged now.
* Okay, his chapter one is cleared! Time to pick up sidequests, check out townsfolk, and--holy heck, this old woman is hiding out in the village to wait until the waters cleanse her of a lifetime of sin: "of banditry, of murder, of worse." Whatever you did, lady, I hope you will now be a summonable for Ophilia.
* I need to be level 60 to guide Elderly Woman. Holy. Heck.
* We talk to a kid called Meryl, who found a letter in a bottle talking about having to send her away, from her mother, but she already has parents in the village! ...is everyone in this village a secret orphan?
* Meanwhile, I solve the fish scarcity issue in the river by giving a man Saucy Prawns.
* Yeah. I don't know either.
* Back to Meryl, having investigated with her father to discover that she's adopted. Her parents show up to say they got her as a baby nineteen years ago, from a mysterious woman, and they were delighted to have a kid, and maybe should've mentioned this before.
* Meryl heads out to find her long-lost mother, who is apparently pitching bottles in the river for her. I guess there's a part two to this sidequest!
* I was going to use Therion to pick up some useful components from the townsfolk, so I put him in his party, but if you can swipe plums from a Lonely Grandchild, you've a steelier heart than I.
* I think that makes it time to head off and recruit another PC! Six down, two to go!
* Down by the river, I find a giant egg. Wait! Right back to Bolderfall! Someone /wants/ this egg!
* Egg-Seeking Girl, here is your egg. Your prophetic dream about dragons is probably just a dream, but I gotta wonder. Good luck finding the egg-hatching expert in Quarrycrest! Thanks for the quest reward of cash and a light nut!
* Okay, I don't want to deal with Primrose's plot yet, so I'm off to recruit Olberic.
* ...but first I have to convince a woman who's turned down a dude ten times that she actually wants to marry him by getting beat up with him, because apparently the problem was that she thought he was too weak-willed, which beating up H'aanit resolved? I just don't understand some people.
* Holy heck Tressa's parents (I'm swinging through to say high) have a Beastly Scarf for sale, which restores HP after /every action/. And a Dragon's Scarf, same for SP. I can just barely afford one. Oh. Oh no.
* DRAGON SCARF ON THE CLERIC IT IS.
* 6 SP a round, oh gosh. Ophilia is no longer going to be smacking things with her staff when she has nothing better to do so.
* New enemy is a giant rocky tortoise, called 'Rock Tortoise', so that's a name that makes sense.
* It is /really tough/ but once it's asleep, beat down, and H'aanit can put three BP into a Capture, it becomes mine! At least temporarily.
* The gold coast has some /serious/ glitter effect on its beaches.
* Away from the beach at last, we're in rocky (but not western or tropical or coastal or snowy) cliffs, fighting... Dread Falcons, Highland Ratkins, and, uh, Highland Goats. Okay.
* Ophilia pummels a ratkin into vapor with her staff, and as combat ends, she says sweetly, "I hope there are no more of them." Gosh. I'll bet they hope there's only one of you, too.
* I have reached Cobblestone! It is quaint and made of stone. Maybe I will save here, and deal with the actual recruitment of Olberic next time.
Ah, yes, the snake that sounds like a cocktail.
* A moment of awkwardness ensues until I realize the Switch is telling me that I didn't get the left controller to activate properly. Oh right.
* Back to fighting giant frogs!
* After vaporizing three giant frogs at once, Ophilia murmurs, "I was not made for such things." Evidence kinda differs, kid.
* Our first encounter in the cave are those traditional allies, snakes and bats. Or, more specifically, blood vipers and black bats. Fiendish!
* Oh, the black bloods drink blood to regain health. Of course they do.
* "I honor thee, my foe," H'aanit says solemnly, after flinging a giant net over a viper so that it'll spit fireballs on her behalf in the future.
* We're fighting a slug? A motley slug? I mean, yeah, it's pretty big, but it's a... slug.
* I've returned the Great Condor to the wild to try to capture the motley slug. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
* The giant slug is caught and it can... restore health? Okay I don't care what the text says, I'm not letting this thing touch me.
* I am spending a /lot/ of time having Alfyn slap seeds together with noxroot to cure poison.
* Have only just realized I can use battle points to buff H'aanit's summons in battle, as well as her capture attempts. Linde the kitty is /terrifying/ when at Max.
* Okay, let's go see if Alfyn wants to talk down this viper before he gets into a boss fight with it.
* He sits down in a patch of waterblooms. "Not just a pretty sight--makes good bitters, too. No wonder it's Zeph's favorite." Aw, I wish we could take his cocktail-making friend along.
* But seriously, if two little girls got all the way into this cave with only one of them getting poisoned, they must have /amazing/ levels on them. It took us a party of four.
* Giant! Snake!
* Alfyn makes jokes as the snake attacks, which is rather nice.
* I spend 800 on summoning a pack of bandits who show up to axe everyone once. Okay, I guess Tressa /will/ demonstratively work with thieves on occasion.
* The blotted viper is vulnerable to staff attacks, which is rather surprising.
* Venom extracted, we cut back to Zeph and Nina, who have complete faith in Alfyn, and are thus expositing about their own backstories.
* They lost a father. Alfyn lost a mother. All appear to be orphans. Whole lot of parental death going around, here.
* Alfyn hands over the venom! Zeph can take it from there! Alfyn's gonna go home and sleep well! ...uh-oh.
* Cut to: middle of the night, and Alfyn's thinking of Zeph. And his quest to become the best apothecary ever, "Just like you-know-who." And how his village is tiny and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. But he knows everyone, and he'd better stay!
* SUDDEN ZEPH.
* Oh, Nina's getting better. Not sudden tragedy. There we go!
* They have a joint flashback to the Great Pestilence, so I guess we got the Black Death in this pseudo-Europe too.
* But "a traveler came to town bearing an elixir the likes of which we'd never seen," and it /wasn't/ snake oil.
* Or maybe it was snake oil? I mean, Alfyn just oiled a snake.
* The mysterious wandering apothecary saved penniless Alfyn's life, because "I saw someone in a bind, and I helped him out. Simple as that." It's not a bad role model to base your life on, really.
* Zeph points out that he can tell Alfyn really wants to ditch Podunk--not for adventure, but to save small children from death, rather than just helping out some dude's cough.
* It is time for Alfyn to set out! And see the world! Gotta talk to Mom's grave first, though.
* Aww, Zeph even wants us to take his satchel, so that he'll be with us even on the road. Is... is Zeph actually our boyfriend?
* This just turned into a satchel exchange. I think we may be engaged now.
* Okay, his chapter one is cleared! Time to pick up sidequests, check out townsfolk, and--holy heck, this old woman is hiding out in the village to wait until the waters cleanse her of a lifetime of sin: "of banditry, of murder, of worse." Whatever you did, lady, I hope you will now be a summonable for Ophilia.
* I need to be level 60 to guide Elderly Woman. Holy. Heck.
* We talk to a kid called Meryl, who found a letter in a bottle talking about having to send her away, from her mother, but she already has parents in the village! ...is everyone in this village a secret orphan?
* Meanwhile, I solve the fish scarcity issue in the river by giving a man Saucy Prawns.
* Yeah. I don't know either.
* Back to Meryl, having investigated with her father to discover that she's adopted. Her parents show up to say they got her as a baby nineteen years ago, from a mysterious woman, and they were delighted to have a kid, and maybe should've mentioned this before.
* Meryl heads out to find her long-lost mother, who is apparently pitching bottles in the river for her. I guess there's a part two to this sidequest!
* I was going to use Therion to pick up some useful components from the townsfolk, so I put him in his party, but if you can swipe plums from a Lonely Grandchild, you've a steelier heart than I.
* I think that makes it time to head off and recruit another PC! Six down, two to go!
* Down by the river, I find a giant egg. Wait! Right back to Bolderfall! Someone /wants/ this egg!
* Egg-Seeking Girl, here is your egg. Your prophetic dream about dragons is probably just a dream, but I gotta wonder. Good luck finding the egg-hatching expert in Quarrycrest! Thanks for the quest reward of cash and a light nut!
* Okay, I don't want to deal with Primrose's plot yet, so I'm off to recruit Olberic.
* ...but first I have to convince a woman who's turned down a dude ten times that she actually wants to marry him by getting beat up with him, because apparently the problem was that she thought he was too weak-willed, which beating up H'aanit resolved? I just don't understand some people.
* Holy heck Tressa's parents (I'm swinging through to say high) have a Beastly Scarf for sale, which restores HP after /every action/. And a Dragon's Scarf, same for SP. I can just barely afford one. Oh. Oh no.
* DRAGON SCARF ON THE CLERIC IT IS.
* 6 SP a round, oh gosh. Ophilia is no longer going to be smacking things with her staff when she has nothing better to do so.
* New enemy is a giant rocky tortoise, called 'Rock Tortoise', so that's a name that makes sense.
* It is /really tough/ but once it's asleep, beat down, and H'aanit can put three BP into a Capture, it becomes mine! At least temporarily.
* The gold coast has some /serious/ glitter effect on its beaches.
* Away from the beach at last, we're in rocky (but not western or tropical or coastal or snowy) cliffs, fighting... Dread Falcons, Highland Ratkins, and, uh, Highland Goats. Okay.
* Ophilia pummels a ratkin into vapor with her staff, and as combat ends, she says sweetly, "I hope there are no more of them." Gosh. I'll bet they hope there's only one of you, too.
* I have reached Cobblestone! It is quaint and made of stone. Maybe I will save here, and deal with the actual recruitment of Olberic next time.
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