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Re: Maru, Son of Ortega: A Dragon Quest III Story

by marurun Fri Apr 23, 2021 4:03 pm

It's been a while since the last update, and believe me, shit has been going down in the meantime. The Maru Cru have been venturing around hearing about the Final Key and Popo just underwent a class change to Sage granting him access to all Priest and Wizard spells. After doing this and then grinding back up to a half-reasonable level the team ventures back out by ship in search of the Final Key and the orbs.

They hear about an island kingdom that snooty and won't let folks in, but they learn about an invisibility herb in Lancel called the Hide Herb. The team also discovers a town called Soo, and are told there is something called the Dry Vase that was taken to Castle Eginbear, which is on the island with the snooty folks. The Cru then heads to Castle Eginbear and uses the herb to sneak in past the guards. There they fine the Dry Vase. They are also asked by someone in a clearing on the coast not too far from Soo to find a Dealer to help create a new town. So after fetching the Dry Vase the Cru head back to Alihan to recruit a fresh face. The new Dealer, Dars, is taken to the site of the future NewTown where he will create a merchant paradise (presumably).

At this point Pidg started advocating for a crack at a class change, and switched to a Thief. This seems to have impacted their combat ability minimally and granted them some fun spells to help locate treasure. It is agreed that this is no problem at all. Ack decides he still really likes hitting things real hard, so no change there.

On getting more hints from Soo, Maru and co. find some shoals out in the ocean and use the Dry Vase, which dries out the shoals and allows access to a sunken shrine. There they find the Final Key. The Final Key prompts the team to revisit old haunts, looting jail cells, castle treasuries, and opening random doors to access Travel Gates. The team spends some more time leveling up with Pidg and Popo and then sails to Zipangu, where the residents are terrorized by Orochi, and only Himiko can keep Orochi at bay by sacrificing maidens. Yayoi is the next to go, and after meeting her Maru's Marauders decide to raid Orochi's cave. They find the dragon and beat the crap out of it only for it to escape through a portal which leads right back to Himiko's room. Himiko offers to let them go if they keep her secret, but who turns down a chance for another boss fight? Maru takes the Orochi Sword and the Purple Orb for their trouble.

A quick hop back to nearby Tedanki nabs the Green Orb. 2 orbs of 6! Booyah! They Cru pays a visit to Dars to discover the tiny NewTown slowly growing. Good work, Dars! While there, the team checks back in at Soo as well. The folks in Soo spoke not only of the Dry Vase, but also the Echo Flute, which helps locate orbs. The Cru decides to go exploring for it and in the process discover two things: a fountain with a fairy in it who will return Maru's weapon and give him a free stick (WFT?) if he is honest and doesn't lie to her, all while teasing him with a Demon Axe, and the town of Muor, where they LOVE Ortega and mistake Maru for him, leading ultimately for Maru reclaiming his father's helmet. Only one of these things was actually helpful. But they do eventually find the Tower of Arp and upon traipsing up and down the tower, they claim the Echo Flute.

Using the Echo Flute and some hints, the Cru learn an orb is in Gaia's Navel, a shrine you can enter from Lancel. Conquering this dungeon nets the Blue Orb.

Maru and company are halfway there, and Popo and Pidg are slowly catching back up in levels. What's next? Tune in next time to find out!
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Re: Maru, Son of Ortega: A Dragon Quest III Story

by Ack Sat Apr 24, 2021 10:40 am

marurun wrote:Ack decides he still really likes hitting things real hard, so no change there.

Truth.
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Re: Maru, Son of Ortega: A Dragon Quest III Story

by marurun Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:53 pm

Maru, Ack, Pidg, and Popo emerged from Gaia's Navel one orb the richer, but 3 orbs remain. Where on earth to find them? While wandering about, the adventurers stumble upon a large house. A nearby child tells them pirates hang here but only return at night. Dark lamp to the rescue! It magically becomes night and the pirates are teleported home! The pirate's turn out not to be cutthroat at all, and rather good-natured and Robin Hood-like. While exploring their hideout they find a Red Orb! The pirates need to get better at hiding their loot. The pirates also mention seeing a Ghost Ship and tell of a Thighbone which was then given to an old man up north. Their leader tells Maru that there's a curious island called Luzami. It's a lead, so Maru goes there and discovered a banished astronomer who predicts Maru will throw the Gaia Sword into a volcano. But since orbs are the business of the day Popo just files this away for later.

Maru sails up to visit the old man in the cold wilderness and he fesses up to having the Thighbone, but demands a Change Staff in trade. Sounds like more exploration is in order to find this staff. Ack suggests they should use that Final Key and start exploring Travel Gates, so they do and discover an area they hadn't explored before. And they stumble onto a castle called Samanoa. It's depressing in Samanoa. The king had a recent change of heart and now everyone caters to his whims or is cruelly killed. Upon meeting the king, Maru and Co are sent to prison. They escape their cell with the Final Key and meet the real king, who was imprisoned. The real king tells you to find a mirror to reveal the truth that the current king is in fact a monster. Maru easily escapes the prison and heads out to Samanoa Cave and mops up in order to find the LarMirror. The Cru sneak into the king's chamber at night and wake him up with the mirror, revealing the king to be a BossTroll. BossTroll is pretty darn tough, but not tougher than Ack. Maru claims the Change Staff, frees the real king and the town from tyranny, and ventures out to trade the staff for a Thighbone, but not before transmuting the team into Slimes so they can shop at the human-hating Elven glade they discovered what seems like ages ago.

The old man up north is delighted to have the Change Staff and tells Maru the ThighBone can help them find the Ghost Ship. Using the Bone actually provides the number of moves and directions to find the ship, which Maru eventually locates in an inland sea. After braving the monsters on board they find the spirit of Simon, the last known wielder of the Gaia Sword. He says the sword is with his body and mourns his lover, Olivia. The party is stuck on the Orb front so they check back in with Dars in NewTown. Dars has built a massive new theater with dancing girls and expensive drinks. All the townsfolk lament the overwork and high prices Dars has also built himself a lush manse Go Dars! Then off they go to find the Gaia Sword, for lack of a better plan. The party approaches Olivia's Promontory only to be blown back. Maru uses the memories of love given him by Simon's spirit to calm the winds, and Simon and Olivia's spirits are united. In a nearby shrine they retrieve the Gaia Sword and head off to find a volcano.

Maru locates a volcano, reportedly one Ortega also traversed, and tosses in the sword (he has nicer ones so it's no big loss). The volcano erupts and a river of lava billows forth and then cools to make a nice smooth road for our vehicle-less explorers. They venture onward until they discover Gondo Cave. Ack leads the charge (because who can stop him) and they mow their way through to Gondo Shrine, where Maru recovers the Silver Orb. That's too damn many orbs, and that last one was a PITA, but there's still one to go. Without a direction, the Maru Cru head back to visit Dars again to see if he's selling any cool new stuff at NewTown. They arrive to find Dars deposed. His expensive new theater was putting the residents into debt and overwork and so he's been overthrown. Maru visits him in jail and Dars laments that he was only trying to grow the town but now sees the error of his ways. Also, go look behind his throne for a Yellow Orb. Dars... *facepalm*
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Re: Maru, Son of Ortega: A Dragon Quest III Story

by marurun Fri Apr 30, 2021 10:44 am

When we last left our adventuring misfits, they had recovered the last orb from behind Dars's throne while he sat in prison. Maru and his friends had heard that the orbs were necessary to travel further than the ship would allow, and after much idle wandering around the map discovered a shrine. The two shrine maidens there watched over an egg. Maru placed the orbs around and out hatched a giant bird called Lamia. Before tracking down Baramos, Team Maru fly around the map a bit and discover the Dragon Queen, who gives them a Light Orb and reverts into an egg herself, exhausted. Satisfied that this adventure is nearing its end, despite not knowing at all what to do with this new orb, Lewd Maru and Lewd Ack, Sexy Pidg, and Sharp Popo head to face Baramos. After a difficult battle, Maru triumphs, succeeding where Ortega failed and winning peace for the world! Maru and his pals are welcomed home in Aliahan as heroes and are celebrating their victory as the king bestows praise upon them when a dark figure appears. It is Zoma, the Dark Lord, and Baramos was merely one of his minions! Zoma tells Aliahan the world will be destroyed. Quakes shake the world and Maru is now tasked with going to the Dark World to stop Zoma.

Maru and Co head for a deep, dark pit near Baramos castle and find it now accessible, and down they fall, into a world of eternal darkness, Alfregard (Alefgard). They land in a small port with a ship and a town and castle nearby called Tantagel . They learn that they need the Hero Shield, Hero Sword, and Hero Armor to stop Zoma, but they were stolen from the castle and scattered about. There's also rumors of a Sun Stone somewhere in the Castle, but nobody seems to know where it is or even if it is there. Ack finds it in a kitchen pantry while digging for some snacks for the journey. The Cru head north to a cave where they learn their magic is sealed. Good thing they have herbs! They eventually find the Hero Shield, which was clearly not well-hidden since it was within a short walk of the castle. The Maru Cru explore around that part of the world and discover a tiny town which is home to Garin and his parents. Garin is off somewhere and took his Shiny Harp with him, but Maru pokes around anywhere. While Maru digs around in an empty treasure chest Popo discovers that Garin did NOT take the harp with him, but instead left it under a pile of dirty sheets right next to the chest where it belongs. No wonder the Dark World is going to shit. Everyone loses stuff on the regular. Seriously.
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Re: Maru, Son of Ortega: A Dragon Quest III Story

by MrPopo Fri Apr 30, 2021 12:19 pm

GASP! Have you traveled into the past? As I recall Garin was dead for many years.
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Re: Maru, Son of Ortega: A Dragon Quest III Story

by marurun Sat May 29, 2021 7:35 pm

So I beat this game a couple weeks ago but haven't had time to drop in, so I'm going to do a condensed catch-up that's missing some of the details. Please forgive me. You deserve ALL the dirt on Maru and his feisty friends, but I hope this will suffice.

Maru, Ack, Pidg, and Popo adventure all around Alfregard (Alefgard for those in the know), the World of Darkness beneath the world above (a knock-off of our own) gathering up the bits they need, battling foes and grinding a bit, until they finally get to Zoma's castle. Thanks to some persistence at the Pachisi tracks they have a lot of strong gear for hitting multiple enemies and so do pretty well in most normal battles. In Zoma's Castle they encounter weird floor tiles that disorient them and risk sending them down to incorrect floors. Up just isn't acting like up. Why is it down, now? There are also "false" stairs. They're stairs alright, but they take them someplace pointless or circular that doesn't get them closer to Zoma. Finally, they see... Ortega! Ortega is fighting and falls to a creature, a villain! One of Zoma's hench-creatures! Maru gets to him too late, only enough life left to breathe a request to get word to his son. Were this not so tragic a moment there would be facepalms all around.

Maru charges forward and faces all three of Zoma's lieutenants and makes a run at Zoma but gets wiped out. More grinding is in order, and some role re-shuffling. The team found a stone that heals the party somewhat, and Popo has been using it, natural healer that he is. But that kept him from using his other spells. It is decided to forgo all that equipment that hits everyone and make sure Maru and Ack can hit one thing VERY hard. Pidge takes up the healing stone to use every turn, sacrificing their combat prowess and taking advantage, instead, of their insane defense (being agile has benefits) and early action priority. That frees Popo to cut loose with defensive and boosting spells, and to provide support healing when Zoma inevitably puts Pidg behind the damage curve. They return to the dungeon after an extra level or two and make really short work of Zoma's underlings. Then they take on Zoma. The new strategy works. First they use the mystical light orb given them by the Dragon Queen to change Zoma's form from an unbeatable being into a punching back (that admittedly hits back pretty hard). Zoma gets multiple attacks and can clear any boosting effects on the party. Too bad Popo now has all day to recast lots buffs. After being beefed up with TwinHits Maru and Ack hit like trucks. Pidg acts early in the turn order and is good at keeping baseline healing going. Popo is the real secret weapon keeping Maru and Ack buffed and filling in when Pidg's magic stone just can't keep up with what Zoma dishes out. Zoma falls surprisingly quickly, all things considered. Zoma promises the darkness will return someday, but for now the sky lightens, the hole through which Maru fell closes and disappears, and Alfregard is now a normal world, with day and night, and no connection to the other world. What does this mean for the future? I guess I'll have to play DQ1 and 2 to find out (hint: I probably won't).
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Re: Maru, Son of Ortega: A Dragon Quest III Story

by Ack Sun May 30, 2021 10:06 am

The important thing is that I still hit like a truck.
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Re: Maru, Son of Ortega: A Dragon Quest III Story

by marurun Sun May 30, 2021 12:28 pm

So anyone know why there’s a world under a world?
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Re: Maru, Son of Ortega: A Dragon Quest III Story

by Ack Sun May 30, 2021 2:34 pm

Hollow Earth Theory?
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Re: Maru, Son of Ortega: A Dragon Quest III Story

by marurun Sun May 30, 2021 7:47 pm

I was just wondering if any other DQ game sort of explains why this setup exists.
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