Dali
-There are three things I want to do:
1)Find Steiner.
2)Reach the treasure by the scarecrow blocked by the old woman.
3)Stop the windmill to get the two treasure chests.
Can’t seem to manage any of those right now, so going to go back to the inn.
-Dagger seems to be enjoying the town, but wonders where the adults are. Huh. Good question. I never even thought of that. The shopkeepers and everyone except the inn-keeper are all pretty young. Didn’t get a sense of the Mayor’s age.
-Zidane’s plan for sneaking past the South Gate consists of just hiding Dagger. After all, they’re not looking for Zidane and Vivi, RIGHT? (lol no way it’s that easy)
---
Queen Brahne’s Steiner
-ATE time. I was right! Steiner is helping the Dutiful Daughter Slai with chores. I think he literally can’t help but help.
-Pretty goofy music here. Dignified, but goofy.
-Steiner asks where her dad is, and she says he’ll be back at nightfall. The adults don’t come out during the day. VAMPIRE TOWN CONFIRMED.
-Steiner still wants to get Dagger back to the castle. Slai tells him he can get there by going to the observatory and asking Morrid to ride in his cargo ship.
-I really like Steiner. He’s so… polite and dutiful! Even though what he now wants goes against what Dagger wants. After all, he’s Queen Brahne’s Steiner.
---
Dali
-We return to the inn, where Zidane is relating a tale of stealing from Kings in a mansion or something.
-Thankfully, Dagger mentions her worry for Vivi, that he’s taking too long. Steiner isn’t back either, but he can handle himself. Vivi’s just a kid.
-Ok, seriously, wtf is going on. We ask after Vivi and the kids claim to not have seen him.
-A girl, Bratty Marin, says “the only boys I know are the ones running over there.” WTF GIVE ME MY VIVI
-We go near where Vivi was standing and hearing a chocobo.
AND WE HEAR A BOY CRYING, NOOOOO
-Found him! He’s being held underground. A hatch opens in the windmill.
---
Beneath Dali
-Expansive place down here. A storage cellar of some kind.
-We overhear two people talking. Can see Vivi through the house. Saying that the mayor’s brother found “it” again. New guess: black mages, or maybe even Vivi specifically, keep some kind of magical power thingy that the mayor wanted to capture, but he can’t separate it from Vivi without it losing its value or power.
-There are two factions in play. The people here say that the innkeeper capturing Vivi means that now he’s on the mayor’s side, not “the old lady’s.” Brahne? That’d be weird. Brahne seems several magnitudes above the mayor of this village. Maybe the old woman in by the scarecrow.
-The evil folk here (whatever, anyone who captures Vivi is evil and I’m comfortable judging them harshly) are working with the castle. With Alexandria. This town is just “in charge of production.” Something relating to the experiment the Queen talked about maybe.
-Zidane finds the insignia on a nearby barrel interesting. A green circle with a white star in the middle.
-The guards march Vivi away. Zidane is me right now, flailing about and ready to fight, but Dagger holds him back. She may think there are too many of them.
-Dagger says she saw that insignia on the barrel at the castle. This sounds like a revelation, so it’s probably not the official seal of Alexandria. She wants to see this play out to get more information, but Zidane sets the rule that if Vivi look like he’s gonna be in immediate danger, they step in.
-There’s a chocobo down here. He’s kwehing up a storm and really cute.
-We move deeper in. There are things shaped like coffins. Creepy.
-Found Kumop the moogle. He wants us to deliver a message to Mogki.
-Lots of treasure down here.
-THE FUCKERS PACKED VIVI INTO ONE OF THOSE WOODEN COFFINS. They thought Vivi was one of their mages and went rogue, packing him into the box.
-Zidane’s trying to teach Vivi to scream out for help if that happens, to yell out.
I’ll reiterate what I said last time: Big Brother Zidane is my favorite Zidane.
-There’s a machine nearby spitting out what look to be large soccer balls.
-Zidane says that the machine has “Mist” coming out of it, despite not being a Mist engine. Maybe they’re making Mistborn monsters here for some secret experimental army for Alexandria.
-A nearby door has Mist pouring out beneath it. We open it up and combat time.
-Ghosts pop out. The bastards use Osmose. All on Vivi, draining 45 mp total.
-There’s like a waterfall of Mist in here!
Creepy af.
-A machine in here is channeling the Mist to the egg-making machine just outside.
-There are three empty coffins lying around. This makes me think that our next move will be to hop inside and see where they take us.
-A chocobo is powering this conveyor belt. The whole thing is weird.
-Another machine here is like the Mist engine on the theater ship.
-Both Dagger and Vivi are pretty poor melee attackers, so I’m hesitant to use Zidane’s turns for Stealing.
-Zidane tries looking inside the machine where the eggs go, but can’t quite see. Oh god, I’m not gonna like what they hatch into, am I?
-UHHHHHHHH
-UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
-IS VIVI A DOLL??? Maybe????
Wait, no. He mentioned having a grandfather outside of the Ice Cavern and hearing stories growing up, and I don’t think he was lying to cover up. This is why they think Vivi is an “it.” They thought Vivi was one of these Black Waltzes rather than an actual mage.
Now we know that they’re creating an army of… I dunno, doll mages? Mist mages? Not sure what the term is yet. Not even sure whether they’re organic or inorganic. They came from a machine, but we don’t know a lot yet about what came out. My guess is that they’re Mist-infused programmable mage dolls, but they mentioned a factory so hard to say.
-The group dives into the boxes being shipped out to hide.
---
Atop Observatory Mountain
-Steiner and Morrid. Steiner’s asking when the cargo ship next leaves for the castle. DUDE. YOU HAVE BIGGER PROBLEMS. Your princess is in a box.
-(Though I suppose we’ll meet up again when the “cargo” arrives up here with the Princess in i.)
-Morrid just ignores Steiner.
-lol Morrid gives no fucks and keeps ignoring Steiner’s threats.
Why does he feel so comfortable ignoring a fairly big deal like Steiner?
-Morrid gives him some crap about being a bad interrogator. Steiner at least has his principles, but Morrid laughs at even that, saying that right and wrong aren’t as easy to make out as Steiner thinks. Probably true.
-He finally says that the cargo ship should be arriving soon. Not here yet though.
-I’ve run up and down the mountain a few times but no luck. Maybe I have to head to town.
-Found it! Just outside the observatory.
Or… you could, you know, NOT betray her trust…
-Steiner sees something emerging from the ground, and the music turns suspenseful…
---
Cargo Ship
-The workers say they made a factory full of those Black Waltzes.
LOLOL
MAN: “H-Hey, is that scary guy in armor running towards US?”
-They scatter as Steiner arrives.
-omg he sees the barrel move (probably with the party members inside) and gets the option to “poke it with a sword.” DO IT.
-hahahah Zidane freaks out and Steiner is flailing about with that stony grimace still on his face
-Steiner tries to act casually like the airship is going to Lindblum to trick the group into getting on it when he knows it’s going to Alexandria.
-Good news: the ruse doesn’t work. Bad news: it doesn’t work because we’re assaulted by a flying black mage.
-Crap. This is Black Waltz #2. Sent from Alexandria to retrieve Garnet.
-This guy knows some serious magic. Fira.
-Stole a Steepled Hat. I’d probably do well to just attack with Zidane, but I really want to see what else I can steal from him… aw, he died before I could steal whatever the second thing was. (Kept trying to steal but it said “Couldn’t steal” not “Nothing to steal,” so there was probably something else.)
-After the fight, Dagger worries that she was drawing attention to herself, but Zidane quite rightly says it’s more likely Steiner’s fault than anything.
Dagger was doing a great job blending in!
-We head back to town. Can’t get into the windmill or the scarecrow treasure or the mayor’s house still, so we rest and save. And refrain from killing the innkeeper because the party hasn’t yet put together that he was behind the kidnapping.
---
Next time: aboard the airship. Maybe. I’m still hoping Steiner will not try to trick the party into going back to Alexandria and will trust them instead, or that Morrid was screwing with Steiner and that the cargo ship really does go to Lindblum.
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