Hi guys! Today, we're gonna continue with the plot! But first, we head back to Yallam, which takes ages, to forge the stuff I found last update. The Rusty Sword becomes the Pirate's Sabre, the Rusty Staff becomes the Goblin's Rod, the Dragon Skin becomes a pair of Dragon Boots (Great, I needed some boots to replace the Safety Boots) and the Star Dust becomes an Astral Circlet, which is already useless.
And now for the tedious trip back to Hesperia. I wish this ship was faster. This time, we dock on the northwestern beach of the continent. From here, we head southeast and find the Shaman Village Cave. There's a Mercury Djinn here, but we can't reach it, so we just head out the exit further towards the middle of the continent.
This takes us to the Shaman Village. Nobody will talk to us, and Mind Reading them says they hate outsiders. Maybe we can try the inn?
We try to talk to the inn keeper, but he just holds up a sign.
The card reads "Put 80 coins on the counter, and you can stay."
Well, I guess that's more practical than actually saying the whole Welcome to Corneria routine every time.
We head out the back of the inn and use Growth to reach the Spirit Gloves, which give a nice PP boost.
We try to enter the important looking building in the northwest corner, and some people come out. One of them introduces himself as Moapa.
Moapa: Who have we here? Strangers in Shaman Village? What is your purpose in coming here?
Hmm, when we approach him, the menu comes up, so he wants something. Well, for those of us who've seen the ending of the first game, we know that the Shaman's Rod, that staff that has been in Sheba's inventory this entire game, is actually called the Rod of Hesperia. Seeing that this is the Shaman's Village in the middle of Hesperia, that's probably what he wants.
Moapa and his lackeys notice the staff and explain it's origin. This staff used to belong to the Shaman Hobana, and he gave it to his friend, Yegelos from Contingo. In exchange, the Shaman's Village was given Contingo's greatest treasure, the Hover Jade. When the Rod of Hesperia was returned to Shaman's Village, they are to give the Hover Jade to the people who had the staff.
We claim that, yes, we came to collect the Hover Jade. Moapa gives us a look over.
Moapa: That's a shame. We'll never give the Hover Jade to you!
Well then screw you, man, we don't need Hover!
Moapa explains that we clearly do not look like people from Contingo, and the people who were supposed to have the Rod of Hesperia should be descendants of Yegelos.
Moapa decides he can give it to us, but only if we clear Trial Road.
We go to Trial Road, and Moapa tells us we must clear all the sand out of the way. There's a huge Wind Stone here. We use Gale (Ah, the benefits of having a Ninja), and everything clears out of the way. Despite the fact that Felix is the one with Gale, there's a small cut scene where Sheba activates the Wind Stone. Guess the dev team didn't expect that.
Moapa's group is surprised that we cleared out all the sand. After some sexism over how heroes in Shaman Village (i.e. the people who have cleared Trial Road) are always men, Moapa reveals that wasn't the test.
Moapa: This was just a test to see if you earned the right to take the test to earn the stone.
>:(
Fine, tell me this test.
Moapa: Listen Carefully. This cave provides you with an opportunity to practice your skills. Legends say that Yegelos and Habana once fought here. These columns commemorate this. They raced one another to the summit... And there, they fought with all their might on the peak of the mountain. In honor of their great battle, the leaders of Shaman created this trial. The rules are simple. The room is filled with traps and snares. Use the power of Contingo to avoid them. This road has four doors. To open them, you will need to place items in these chests.
Felix: Why?
HE CAN STILL TALK! :O
Moapa: The door is triggered only when the treasure chests are filled to the correct weight. Try putting heavier items, like weapons and tools, into the chests, or the doors won't open.
(i.e. For each chest you encounter, you have to give up one piece of equipment for the upcoming battle. It has to be equipped, too, equipment that isn't equipped is temporarily removed from your inventory for this fight. Can't use class changing items, rings or boots either, I've tried.)
Moapa: If you reach the door after your opponents do, you will be at a serious disadvantage. You see, it will take twice the weight to open the doors. Stand on the switch, and the number of chests you need to fill will open. If you are last to each of the four doors, you will lose eight items to the chests!
We can surrender at any time by pressing the red undo buttons near any door. Not that we'll need to.
We get to choose our path. I pick left, it's a bit easier.
First room, we use Sand to get to a bush we can Gale away for a shortcut to the first door.
Second room, we have a log pushing puzzle. Haven't seen one of these utterly tedious things in a while.
Third room, we have pillars we can move after loosening them with Gale. Not that hard.
Final room, there's some fountains we have to use as stepping stones. (You can Scoop open another fountain to create a shortcut, but I forgot about this. I had plenty of spare time anyway.)
I beat Moapa to each door with ease, so I only have to remove four items throughout the entire race. I choose everyone's hats/helmets.
We reach the top of the mountain, then Moapa and his two Knights show up.
Moapa: You were quite swift! You may prove a challenge yet! However, just because you're fast doesn't mean you're strong. Challenge or no, I will win. Let the battle begin!
Moapa and the Knights aren't very hard, but have enough HP to last a while. They also use a lot of items. The number of doors you beat them to changes their Defence, the Knights don't lose much, but Moapa loses nearly 100, so he's now quite vulnerable. Combine with the fact that they're non-Adepts, thus weak to everything, and even that high HP won't help much.
They eventually fall.
Moapa: All right, all right. You've proven your strength, and you are heroes indeed.
We then swap the Shaman's Rod for the Hover Jade. Hover lifts us up if we're standing on strange purple Psynergy things. It can also lift a few objects, and will probably become our most used spell after the next dungeon or so.
Net thing we know, we've just woken up from resting in the inn. And everyone's talking to us!
We walk around town and find a fortune teller. We ask him to tell us our fortune.
I can see it clearly... Your life is thick with danger... Ooo... Wow, that was a strong one... Listen, don't go south. Bad stuff down there. Wow. Oh, it's terrible! Awful beyond words! No more, no more!
Well, that quite obviously means we'll be going south shortly. We then find some Lucky Pepper in his hut. Piers gets the Luck boost.
We then climb up that area using a nearby house, Move a pillar in position, then go all the way around town, through Moapa's house and use Lash to open a path to a Jupiter Djinn!
Felix found the Jupiter Djinni Aroma!
Aroma gives 11 HP, 3 Agility and 2 Luck. In battle, it restores 10% of all Adepts PP. We give Aroma to Piers for the time being, making him a White Mage, but I'll probably change it next update.
Now I head back to Trial Road. This is so I can go through both sides and grab all the chests I skipped to save time. We also get a Hard Nut. We give Felix the Defence boost.
At the top of Trial Road is a pad we can use Hover on, but we don't have the spell needed to finish that part of the area. So let's just leave.
That's all for now. Next time, we'll be heading south. And it's gonna be big.
Stats:
Felix: Lv 32 Ninja HP:555 PP:194 Attack:439 Defence:225 Agility:246 Luck:6
Jenna: Lv 32 Templar HP:621 PP:184 Attack:411 Defence:271 Agility:183 Luck:23
Sheba: Lv 32 Ranger HP:469 PP:244 Attack:320 Defence:235 Agility:222 Luck:26
Piers: Lv 32 White Mage HP:541 PP:217 Attack:369 Defence:245 Agility:255 Luck:13
Djinn: 7 Venus, 8 Mars, 7 Jupiter, 8 Mercury
