Octopath Traveler: Session 17

Between last session and this one, a quick Twitter interaction led me to test what stat the healing spells are linked to.  As it turns out, it's Elem. Def., so Ophilia now has armor that boosts that.  My heals are back up to being useful again.  With that done, I fast travelled to Victors Hollow and started Tressa's Chapter 3.

Upon arrival, she starts looking for something that she can sell at the Merchants' Fair in Grandport.  A map at a local merchant catches her eye, that the merchant seems willing to let go of for cheap, but she makes the mistake of letting the merchant know it actually has some value, so just like that, price jacked up to unreasonable levels.  She also comes across Leon, the pirate-turned-merchant she encountered earlier in her journey.  As it turns out, the map belonged to a pirate friend of his, named Baltazar.  Tressa decides to get the one and only thing that the merchant was willing to trade for the map, a stupidly huge shield.  Having successfully traded an incredibly valuable shield for a treasure map, she takes it to Leon.  Back story ensues, but basically he ends up telling her to keep the map and to find the treasure herself.

So she goes and does precisely that.  Guarding the treasure is a beast with venomous claws, so to battle we go.  Because of my equipment, I'm going to stop rating battle difficulty until it catches up to me again.  However, this beast didn't seem to have a big attack to be wary of, it was just the standard "increases its guard when it recovers from being broken" mechanic.  With the beast dealt with, Tressa claims the treasure, a stone called Eldrite that is apparently the only one of its kind in the entire world.  Also in the chest is a letter from Baltazar to Leon, so Tressa takes that back to Leon.

More back story ensues, and in the end, Leon leaves Tressa with the Eldrite.  She now has something to sell at the Merchants' Fair, so her next destination is none other than Grandport itself.

Shifting gears a bit to a much darker story, I fast travelled over to Noblecourt to start Primrose's Chapter 3.  As you may recall, she'd just killed one of the three men responsible for the death of her father, and has returned home to Noblecourt seeking the truth.  Will she be able to handle the truth?

Upon arrival, there's a commotion in the main square as someone's apparently dying in public.  Primrose notes that nothing about that event or the way the city handled it would have happened if her father was still around.  Shortly thereafter she starts getting recognized by people who last saw her when she was a child, including a gardener from her house way back when who also used to write poetry and comfort her periodically.  She also meets the former Captain of the city watch, who tells her that a group called "The Obsidians" basically runs everything in town, and takes her to the entrance to their lair.  Another of the men she needs to kill in order to avenge her father happens to be in charge of things there, so it seems fairly straightforward.  Run in, exchange pleasantries, casual fight to the death.  You know.  The usual.

Instead of having his two minions who prevent his weaknesses from being exploited straight away, the Right-Hand Man summons them a few turns into the fight.  I had to deal with him being two lousy hits away from being broken while I figured out the minions' weaknesses and took them out.  He was annoyingly applying Blind a bit too often for my liking, but with Ophilia spreading the Rehabilitate around, I offed the minions and went back to work.  A few turns later, and he too was down for the count.  Fittingly, Primrose dealt the killing blow.

After the fight, the gardener she met earlier suddenly appears in an oh shit moment, because surprise he's the last person she needs to kill.  Except that he stabs her.  You know, for good measure.  Unfortunately for him, he didn't stab her good enough, and she recovers after a few days.  The ex-city watch guy tells her that he went to Everhold, so that's where Primrose is headed next.

Up next, Cyrus and Olberic.  Side note: I really wish that out-of-party characters would get a percentage of XP, just like in Chrono Trigger.  I wouldn't have all my out-of-party people being 20-30 levels behind like they are right now if that were the case.  I think the intent was for the player to be shuffling their party around a lot more often...