Now that the in-app purchases work again, the adventure continues.
We open in a very snowy region, with an airship traveling up the coast. Aboard the airship is group of soldiers, led by a man with an impressive mustache named Commander Cid. (Cid? On an airship? Whodda thunk?) They are apparently traveling to Harmonia, which Cid thinks is an ironic name given it's in a frozen wasteland.
Add Cid to the list of people who have no idea what irony is.
There's also a blue-haired girl in his cargo hold who will probably be important later.
Harmonia would probably be a very nice hamlet if it weren't for the soldiers forcing people to work out in the snow, or kicking a guy who collapsed. Cut to inside one of the houses, where we see a pigtailed blonde who was with the group that burst in on us in the Crystal Chamber. There's also someone with teal hair sleeping in one of the beds.
As pre-emptive karma, a soldier bursts in on her, demanding she get to work. She refuses, and he's just about to attack her for it when Cid comes in and demands her name. What a great lead-in for her introduction screen!
A young woman trapped in the cold northlands. Has a quick wit, but can be a bit flighty.
Her name, BTW, is Alba. Cid finds this name to be rather common, which pisses Alba off.
They then roust the teal-haired person out of bed, who turns out to be the leader of the group from earlier.
A young man held in Harmonia. Lost his parents in the war. A man of few words and no emotion.
Sounds like a real gem. His name is Nacht. Wonder who he's the opposite of?
There's apparently supposed to be a third person here, Alba's brother. She says he's off building a snowman, but it seems he's actually surreptitiously contacting someone.
Alba's twin. The exact opposite of his sister, he seems to be holding a secret...
No shit. He's a long-haired pretty boy (I actually thought he was a girl when we saw him back in the prologue) named Dusk. Alba means sunrise, so their Polar Opposite Twins Theme Naming is complete. Unlike his brash sister, he's very polite to Cid.
Cid tells us he'll meet us onboard, and we're free to explore Harmonia, which is indeed an ironic name, but not for the reasons Cid suggests.
Alba has black magic (making her a textbook Black Magician Girl if I ever saw one) and Dusk has white magic. Nacht comes with the extremely useless ability Flee. Yay?
None of my new heroes have weapons or much in the way of armor. I'd like to do something about that, but there's no weapon or armor store here. Talking to the NP Cs reveals that the Empire is quite literally working these people to death. Nice folks.
Well, nothing we can do here, sadly, so it's off to meet that Jerkass Cid at his airship. The sentry takes us to the cargo hold to wait, where we meet the blue-haired girl we saw earlier.
An uncanny young woman held prisoner on the airship. She is both quiet and elegant.
It's Sarah. Wonder if she's a princess? She reveals that Nacht is actually pretty badly injured. A mystery!
Talking to everyone progresses the plot. The soldiers are quite unpleasant, by the by. Cid comes down to brief us and informs us that if we complete this mission, we'll win our freedom. He also gives us a chest full of free equipment, which was awfully pragmatic of him.
He then dumps us off in the middle of nowhere and tells us we need to go beyond the mountains to a temple (wonder what that is, eh?). Dusk surmises that they're going to steal Lux's Crystal. Smart boy. This is apparently in violation of the Empire's treaty with Lux.
Cid refuses to answer any more questions, and we are on our own.
Sarah has no innate abilities. Huh. Given her name and that she starts with a whip, I was expecting summons. She's also level 2 while the rest of the party is 8-9. I'm quite certain that she's hiding some gamebreaking power for Cid to saddle us with her, but she's going to take a lot of babysitting for a while.
Nacht is left-handed, making him a great example for my Left Handed Mirror trope in YKTTW.
Next update - Mt. Lux!
