Octopath Traveler: Session 12

Time for Alfyn's Chapter 2!  I left myself in Stonegard at the end of last session, so the first order of business was getting to Goldshore.

Alfyn arrives in Goldshore noticing that there's a sickness going around, but also that there's an apothecary already in town by the name of Vanessa that's treating it.  He introduces himself, they have a nice chat, everything seems fine, but this Vanessa just has a dark vibe to her that I can't ignore.  Maybe it's just the way she turned Alfyn's request to learn a thing or two about medicine away with some diatribe about "trade secrets", I dunno.

Anyway, as Alfyn peruses the village, he notices that everyone that Vanessa has cured is now suddenly coming down with symptoms of a whooping cough from a far-off land.  Vanessa's intentions are made reasonably clear when he sees her selling a remedy for the cough to nobles at an exorbitant price, and refusing to come down on her price for a commoner, claiming rarity of the primary reagent.  Alfyn goes to treat the commoner's child and discovers what's going on: Vanessa's offering a free cure for the original sickness that involves an ingredient that causes a cough much like that whooping cough as a side effect, and then she's bilking people out of their money for the remedy to the cough.  I can't sympathize too much with the plight of the nobles, but her intentions are clearly not on the honorable side.

Alfyn asks around and finds that the primary reagent for the cough remedy, a glowing moss, happens to be found in a nearby cave, so he heads there to find it, and most likely Vanessa as well.

Said cave is fairly short and to the point, however filled with random encounters it may be.  Sure enough, at the end of the cave, Alfyn sees Vanessa, and she is indeed 100% in it for the profit, like most medical professionals in the real world.  Alfyn makes his presence known, and it's party time.

I must be getting to the point where they want me to know about this mechanic, because it's suddenly popping up everywhere: Vanessa has two sellsword guards, and as long as they're alive, her guard can't be weakned.  Predictably, she spends the fight throwing various concoctions at you, and using others to buff her guards.  Poison is a particularly nasty status effect in this game, left unchecked it will drain a lot of HP, and she throws it out every few turns.  H'aanit with the Patience support ability is especially vulnerable, since she takes poison damage at the end of her regular turn, and then again at the end of her Patience turn.  Anyway, once the status effects had been dealt with, I had also managed to kill her guards, so I broke her guard and hit her in the face with all kinds of Divine skills and the like until she'd been beaten senseless.

Alfyn uses a sleep concoction on her to ensure she'll still be in the cave when the guards come to get her, takes some of the moss for himself, and heads back to town to make the remedy and give it to the commoner that needed it.  Satisfied with his visit to Goldshore and having helped its people, he leaves, declaring the next stop on his journey to be Saintsbridge.

The next stop on my journey, though, is Noblecourt, for Therion's Chapter 2, and thus to wrap up Chapter 2 for everyone.  I don't yet have the ability to fast travel there, but Atlasdam makes for a suitable staging area for the journey, so I fast travelled there instead.

The journey from Atlasdam to Noblecourt was rather uneventful.  Therion immediately overhears people talking about a crazy scholar by the name of Orlick who's locked himself inside his mansion doing research, and decides that's the guy with the ruby dragonstone he's looking for.  As it turns out, not only has he locked himself in there, he has guards to keep people out, and the only way in is the front door, and thus in plain view of the guards.  An alternate approach would be necessary to gain entry.

Consulting the powers of eavesdropping on other people's conversations at the tavern, he hears a couple guys talking about Orlick.  He joins in and offers them a drink if they'll tell him what they know, and he ends up finding the name of Orlick's old research partner, Barham.  Barham happens to live on the south end of town, so he heads there to see what he can find out.  As it turns out, Barham is more than willing to cooperate in Therion's removal of the ruby dragonstone from Orlick's possession, only because the two used to be friends before Orlick's research consumed him.  Therion just has to procure some stuff from local merchants, and he'll get the password to give the guards so he can get into Orlick's mansion.

The stuff Barham had Therion obtain ends up being components he uses to make a key, that Therion needs to get into Orlick's lab.  Therion takes the key, bluffs the guards with a story about an urgent delivery, gives the password, and walks right in the front door.  After wading through random encounters, I finally reached Orlick's lab.  As per usual, Therion's just about to grab the dragonstone when Orlick comes in with the guards from out front.  He's really crazy about that research thing, and given that Therion refuses to back down, the fight begins.

At this point, the "two guards preventing the boss' weaknesses from being exploited" thing is a mainstay of the boss battles, it seems.  Regardless, the same strategy as before worked well, mostly thanks to me being overlevelled, no doubt.  Beat up the guards, weaken the boss, unload Divine skills, win.

Having defeated Orlick, Therion takes the ruby dragonstone and heads back to Bolderfall to turn it in and procure the location of the next one.  As it turns out, the emerald dragonstone is reportedly on the black market in Wellspring, so that's where Therion is off to next.

And with that, Chapter 2 comes to a close.  Throughout Chapter 2, I skipped over a lot of the purple chests that only Therion can open, so I'm going to go back and grab them, as well as finishing up whatever side quests I can, and perhaps getting some exploration in the direction of the third town in each region done before beginning Chapter 3.