what
So Wadassia has exclusive dibs on the only unexplored territory left in the world, just in case the other nations were thinking about getting uppity. They’re just rubbing it in at this point. Why is the plot of this game not about burning Wadassia to the ground and salting the ashes? It would solve so much.
“This is the only method of departure from Wadassia, as private craft are not allowed.”
how do you enforce that
why would you even do that
…So apparently guilds aren’t private organizations, because ??? and Wadassia is Communist and hates private enterprises or something I don’t even know. Chapter 4 hasn’t even begun and already the worldbuilding fail is breaking my brain! We’re off to a great start.
“Thus, while sea travel is free, we are at the mercy of their departure schedules.”
So yeah, Wadassia is totally Communist even though the peasant revolution failed because that makes sense.
Ques: “You were able to acquire transport so soon, and for no cost? I… am impressed, Scribe.”
Why are you impressed he just said it was a public service you were the manager you should know about this stuff. But whatever, I guess now he’ll explain in more detail and we can finally get a grasp on Wadassia’s economics.
Zargos: “Wonder how th’ old coast is lookin’
Or not.
Zargos worked at the outpost when it was first being built a few years ago. Ques asks what they did and Santes says “Ohh, y’know. Zargos did all the heavy liftin’, and I got to watch the explorers’ kids,” because those gender stereotypes won’t enforce themselves.
Dehl, trying his best to keep this thing on topic, asks what the place is like and Zargos says it’s hot year ’round even though Fortifel is seasonal and it’s literally in the exact same latitude. That is not how biomes work, game! (He also says it’s “kind of like Wadassia” but also that it’s different – not sure on which side the tropical seasons fall. I mean, on the one had, apples, but on the other, Dehl apparently never saw snow before.) Zargos also mentions it’s dangerous, which excites Tehgonan because he’s suicidal.
And chapter 4 officially starts. I guess we were in an inter-chapter limbo state before this.
…Oh, actually, I remember this. Originally there was no limbo state and chapter 4 officially started back in Wadassia, but I didn’t notice it and was confused when it didn’t show up here, so I reported it as a bug and the developer moved it. I think. It’s been a while. Personally I think this works better, since the chapters are otherwise tied to the new locations.
HAHAHAHAHA
I love how he phrases this. He won’t even admit he personally just has poor endurance. No, the real problem is that everyone else has a special racial advantage and it’s so unfair you guys (says the person who has a special racial affinity for magic that grants him a privileged status in their society). The excuse doesn’t even make sense – everyone but Dehl is wearing shoes and they’re not complaining, so suck it up and deal, jerkface. Why would having claws even matter?
But it turns out Qualstio stopping the party so he could whine is actually good, because it allows Fero’s plot sense hearing to pick up something important. Even when he’s being a lazy whiner Qualstio is still the bestest most wonderfulest.
It’s Moke, because this game really needed more guys in its main cast. He tries blasting the bugs with magic but it doesn’t work. Qualstio recognizes him, so Dehl talks to him about his past but he won’t talk to Dehl about his. Wow.
My party’s preset for this, which is a little annoying, but these things are weaklings so I’m not that bothered. (There’s another instance of this later on that’s more problematic, but I’ll get to that in time.) Moke’s among the lineup, which is certainly a different way of introducing a character, but it’s also sort of annoying because it reminds me that even when dudes are damsels in distress, stories give them more autonomy than girls. He’s still pretty useless in this battle because he sucks. Has anyone actually used him effectively, really? Every time I’ve tried to use him I’ve been disappointed. Maybe that’s supposed to be the point, I dunno.
After the battle, Dehl immediately grills him about running off on his own. Qualstio flips into Nice Mode for this scene and plays good cop.
Tehgonan walks up to Moke and gets a whiff of his grossness, to which Dehl doesn’t react at all. No really, here’s the scene, I’m not cutting anything out:
Tehgonan: “*cough cough* What th-the hell? You’re RANK!”
Moke: “I… I did not mean…”
Dehl: “Why were you here, away from the path? Do you not know the dangers of the wilds?”
Dehl doesn’t even turn to face Tehgonan until after he dismisses Moke, and even then it’s just to ask how he feels, not scold him like he did when Tehgonan badmouthed Alito back in Fortifel. So yeah it seems Dehl has issues about Moke. If he blames himself so badly for just being the transmitter, he must despise Moke for being the source (but of course that’s bad Sikohlon behavior so that generates more self-hatred and…). His father’s dead so Moke’s the only outlet left if Dehl doesn’t want to shoulder all the blame himself.
Dehl launches into some exposition. Moke was a Sikohlon servant and passed into Dehl’s care when his father died, which is technically not a lie. Ques immediately asks if that makes him a thrall. I’m not sure if that’s OOC or not here; it’d be fitting for start-game Ques, who is basically snark embodied, but now he’s supposed to have grown more considerate. This seems a bit too pointed, but maybe he’s got an inkling of Dehl’s hypocrisy and wants to expose it because he thinks it’ll help him. He’s using his snark for good (maybe)!
Dehl has a very long pause before dodging the question with a wishy-washy rationalization: Moke’s too meek and introverted to face the world on his own, so “He needs protection, and supervision.” I’m sure Dehl makes sure of that. He also explains the scent: Moke has a medical condition that makes him ooze foul slime. He tried finding cures for it, but nothing worked (presumably it’s a magical effect that will be elaborated on in How Far). He became interested in natural poisons and noxious magic in the process and has learned to use the slime in his spells.
Ques: “He sacrificed his body for the sake of power? Why, that sounds like a Fortian solution.”
Not…really? He never found a cure so there was no better option to sacrifice. He just made the best out of a bad situation. What is it with Fortians and hamhanded attempts at deepness?
…Although now that I think about it, this makes me wish he was an actual body-oriented caster with most of his skills costing body points, maybe high health combined with low defenses. That would actually be sacrificing his body for power, and it’d be more interesting than just “shra who doesn’t have mind as a dump stat”.
Dehl says Moke’s too weak to come with the guild and he’ll be shipped back to Wadassia as soon as possible. Naturally, Moke takes this moment to come back from his gathering and hears all of it. Dehl awkwardly tries to explain he just wants to keep him safe. This is probably part of his bundle of issues too; even if the plague’s burned itself out, Dehl still associates Moke with it. He exposed him to the world once, and the consequences were disastrous, so he wants to keep him locked up where he can’t hurt anybody. Thus this “safety” rationalization – he is concerned about safety, just not Moke’s. Totally irrational of course, but creating and clinging to irrational associations is an understandable and human behavior.
So Qualstio tells Moke to join the guild because that’s their solution to everything. Once again, the intended reading is probably that Qualsio’s being a good person here: he recognizes all the issues going on here and thinks this will help. But, like with every other time the game’s tried that, his past behavior just makes it look whimsical and manipulative. Dehl objects, pointing out it flies in the face of everything he just said, but Qualstio steamrollers over him because when has he not. Moke’s a “fetormancer”. A reserved, shy old Shra with a sweet disposition and terrible hygiene, Moke wishes to explore his own unique talents and abilities. An unrivaled master of Noxious-type abilities, actually Fero’s better as well as poisoning and sickening those who threaten he and his friends.
So yeah, like I said, I haven’t gotten much use out of Moke. He’s weak, slow, and frail (seriously, look at that willpower score). His skills are pathetic; Repulsive Burst just inflicts status effects, Fetid Blast is a very weak AoE attack, and Toxic Shock is an okay single-target attack but its power generally lags behind other characters’ skills. Tainted Revolution deals pitiful soul damage to all noxious-enchanted squares, so it’s a pain to set up and not even worth it when you do. Aromatherapy is an okay healing spell, but it’s mind healing and mind damage isn’t very common (especially now that we’ve left Fortifel). Moke’s only real claim to fame is that he can inflict all three damage types, but his attacks are so weak that that doesn’t count for anything. Maybe I’m just using him wrong.
The guild heads to the camp and I have some downtime. I replace Dehl with Moke – not the best choice, but I figure I should get at least some use out of him before kicking him for another party member I’ll get soon.
Was there any evidence that the peasant revolt failed? I mean, the
royalty died because of that incident, but I don’t remember what form of
government was established in their place. Also, I kind of interpreted
the whole public transport thing as being only a Wadassia thing, not
that other cities didn’t have dibs on the outpost. But you’re right on
how they would enforce private crafts from not being allowed – maybe
being a Wadassian citizen means giving up the rights to own boats?
Come
to think of it, do Wadassians even have any reason to go anywhere else
outside of business or being tourists? Wadassia is pretty much the best
place to live in objectively, compared to the likes of Nal or Fortifel.
That would help explain why they’re okay with the lack of private
crafts, just a little bit.
Also, while I agree that Dehl has
issues with Moke, does Dehl even know that he was responsible for
bringing in Moke and thus the Blue Plague? I don’t remember it being
outright stated that Dehl acknowledges being responsible, just the
implications from that one line near the beginning when he told Tehgonan
not to joke about said plague, and even then, the implications are
still kind of ambiguous – for all we know, Dehl just has bad memories
regarding the Blue Plague. Maybe this was cleared up in The Drop, but
maybe that’s just me.
As for usage of Moke gameplay-wise, yeah,
he is rather hard to use. But for the few times I was forced to use him
during my no-upgrade run, he wasn’t all that bad. I found his debuffs
really useful for DoT damage, and that’s almost a godsend when almost no
one has the stats to do double-digit damage. And his Aromatherapy is
just so very good when majority of my party members relied on skills
that use up their Mind points. And yeah, his Willpower is crappy, but
for some reason, I recall him being really good at tanking Soul damage.
In fact, around the time I got Moke, Fero was quickly falling out of use
as my main tank because so many enemies in Chapter 4 use Piercing
attacks, which Fero was weak to, but Moke was strong against, oddly
enough. Or maybe that was just me misremembering stuff.
I talked with the developer a while ago; from what I can remember, he explicitly says the Nalian peasant revolt failed. It’s possible they succeeded in arsoning the royal family to death, but the remaining loyalists routed them or something. (Or possibly that was mentioned in a blog post, I forget.) It really should have been clearer, though. I believe the current form of government is a council or parliament; that’s mentioned either in the glossary or offhandedly somewhere, I think. So, somehow, even though the loyalists won, they instituted democracy (?) instead of reinstating the monarchy. It’s confusing.
And yes, Dehl is aware that he’s responsible for bringing the plague to the mainland. That was in the trivia blog post, I think. It’s very subtle though, I didn’t catch it until it was explicitly pointed out to me. Some of the lines in the final section make sense with it in mind, though – the references to Dehl seeking “atonement”, how he thinks Skint was wrong about being the plague-spreader, etc.
Chapter 4 really amps up the combat in general, I’m finding enemies way more difficult than before. Maybe that’s just because I’m changing my party up so much? There are a lot of piercing and mind attacks, yeah. I’m surprised that Moke of all things can tank, though? He has decent stamina but everything else is awful. Dehl also has light armor but has better stats as I recall. I guess if you need someone to tank piercing mind damage… but that’s only the na’hrin, who also have a divine mind attack that utterly destroys him.
Hmm, I guess that does make some sense, but yeah, I think some parts are just way too subtle, and thanks for the clarification and confirmation.
And crap, yeah, I just remembered the Na’Hrin. Even with the defend command, it still does way too much damage. And of course, Fero is Noxious as well. And Santes could tank that divine mind damage, but then she can’t tank body damage from the other enemies. I think the closest solution I had was just rotating tanks on the frontline and just basically micromanaging damage. It was also around this time that Lani shone greatly with her Phalanx Charge, since her damage does double digits to multiple enemies once they’re all ganged up on the frontline.
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