by marurun Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:41 am
Lewd Maru, Lazy Ack, Sexy Pidg, and Sharp Popo are still making trouble in the expanded area around Romaly. The King tasked them with returning his crown which was taken by Kandar, but they also know they need the Magic Key to open access to a portal in the west. Kandar may be hiding out in the Tower of Shanpane, but the Magic Key? That's another issue. In an effort to build experience and funds the crew roll around in the wilderness attracting monsters and beating them up. With some careful spending, Ack has become a tank. He doesn't have the strongest defense, but he has more HP than anyone else by far and hits like a truck. Pidg and Maru continue to be fast strikers, but fast doesn't mean weak, especially now that Maru has given up the whip for a sword. No more fun in the "dungeons", I guess. Popo continues to be mediocre as an attacker and absolutely essential as a healer. He burns through MP like mad, and he almost has enough of them to pull it off.
As part of this quest to get stronger and buy the best equipment available, the team expanded their explorations north and discovered the town of Kanave. Maru picked up a poison needle there, but nobody can use it, so the party is simply making due with spending money and hoping bigger numbers make for an easier adventure. Temporarily forgetting about their mission for the king and desperate to make fast cash, the goons continue to roam further afield, eventually stumbling into a frightening encounter with 4 BombCrag. They look like rocky bombs and merely sit and wait as Maru, Ack, Pidg, and Popo wail on them. They are incredibly durable and it takes quite a while, but the rewards are rich! (I'm pretty sure they're on a timer or something so I go to town and take down all 4 for massive XP and coin. I check online later and realize how foolish this was. They have massive hitpoints and explode to kill if they start their turn at 25% HP. I lucked out on that battle.) Eventually this band of buffoons discovers a town called Noaniels, where all except 1 villager are asleep where they stand. Maru and co. are tasked with returning the Dream Ruby to the Elves to lift this sleeping curse. Seems the elf princess ran off with one of the Noaniels yokels and took the ruby with her. The elves are pissed, first as losing their ruby and second because humans, yuck!
Still neglecting the Tower of Shanpane, Maru's merry band ventures into a cave in search of the ruby and successfully retrieve it. The elf king is thankful and gives you powdered energy drink (I kid) to wake Noaniels. The elves still won't sell you their cool stuff, though, because humans, yuck! In Noaniels you awaken the town to find that they all fell into their deep sleep the day after your father, the legendary Ortega, left to continue his mission to defeat Baramos. A 15 or so year sleep is quite a nap! The townspeople also tell you where you might find that pesky Magic Key: a place called, quite unfortunately, Assaram.
At this point the party remembers that whole king's crown thing and decide a back-tracking hustle may be in order.