We can't go from the royal bedroom directly to the ground floor proper, so we have to jump off the roof and come through the main entrance.
: Ah, well, thank you.
: You were in a tough spot, I get it.
: You had better make things right with the townsfolk, though. Being rude to us was least among your complicities.
: You're welcome, Your Majesty.
Aaaand he's all business from here on out.
You might think that using the Staff of Change might make it difficult for people to recognize Zofia, but if she's transformed into any kind of human, elf or dwarf, everyone will just address her normally. If she's transformed into any kind of monster, however...
Similarly to people's reactions in DW2's ending, all characters with the same sprite share a specific reaction to being accosted by a monster. We'll get to everyone in Samanao as we investigate the state of affairs now that the king has returned, then we'll do some Returning to get to any sprites we may have missed.
: This is not actually quite as bad as I would have expected.
: I know, right? I'm feeling... light? It's like I'm made of smoothness.
: I get why they're smiling all the time!
: Ehhh, I just want to beat myself up for a gold coin.
: ...and that wasn't a dead giveaway before?
: Ah, of course. It's good to see you out and about.
: Thanks for saving me!
: We're glad we could help, princess.
: But now, it's time for us to extract our true payment! Mwahahahahaha!
: Reb, dial it back a bit, will you?
: That's a mean trick to play!
: It just goes to show you there's no point in losing hope.
: I'm just a Slime, buddy. Nobody's impressed, settle down.
: Your worst nightmare!
: That can't be true unless the Staff turns us into a couple dozen Hunter Flies.
: Sure thing, kid. Look!
: Don't you recog-
: Hut tut tut!
: Holy crap Reb.
: ...over the line?
: Yeah.
: Sorry, I'm not good at dealing with grief.
: There's the understatement of the century.
: The demon responsible for his death has been slain. He is certainly at peace now.
: ...well she cheered up right quick.
He answers "I thought you'd say that." either way. What an adaptable fellow.
There is basically nothing new at night, except for the king being asleep. The princess is nowhere to be found, though. It's probably an oversight.
We can almost afford a Silver Shield without doing a Vault run, so we get in a few fights outside. Isabel levels up then, for 1 Str, 4 Agi, 2 Vit, 3 Luc, 4 Int, 2 HP, and a delicious 10 MP.
Alright, the Shield takes Zofia's defense from 102 to 120. Not bad. She might be able to go through the Navel of the Earth soon.
This would usually be the point where we'd go back to the mirror cave to clean up the rest of those chests and complete our map, but I'm actually going to leave that job to Gonzalo, Leonor and Mercedes when they get here, just to make it more interesting for them (and for me). Besides, seeing as their equipment costs are so much higher than Zofia's crew's, they'll be needing the loot.
For now though, let's finish spooking all kinds of people around the world!
Four kings can be kind of scary, but we're not holding fragments of a lord's soul.
Aw, no special reaction from this skeleton.
: ...how could you tell?
: I just lost a bunch of weight. That's the adventuring life for ya!
: Do dwarves only ever see our skeletons?
: ...huh. I wonder.
: I'm a girl Slime! Isn't it obvious?
: Okay.
Welp, that's almost everyone. This seems pretty inconsequential, but if you're thorough and remember even places you visited for only a few moments early in your quest...
Good to see they're getting along in this world.
This shopkeep won't sell to monsters or humans (and the Staff of Change will never turn you into an animal or an elf), but she will sell to dwarves!
I think this is the only place you can ever buy Wizard's Rings at, so we pick up two of them just in case the one the Queen of Isis gave us breaks. As for the Angel's Robe, it offers 35 defense power (a bit more than Full Plate), and can be worn by Wizards, Pilgrims and Sages. It also reduces the base odds of falling victim to an instant death effect by half.
Pilgrims and Sages have better options, since they can wear Magic Armor. But in terms of defense power, the Angel Robe is the second best Wizard armor in the game. If Rebeca had typical Wizard HP, I'd let her stick with the +20 Cloak of Evasion, but since she can actually take a few good hits without falling over, she doesn't rely quite so much on the 20% evade chance to survive physical damage. I'm getting her one; it takes her defense from 45 to 60. I'll Vault her Cloak in case I change my mind later, though.
: I have to say, you sure clean up nice.
: Don't mess with me!
: She's got a point, Reb.
: Oh, ha, well, if you say so...
: ...
: Do pick your jaw up off the floor, Al.
: S-sorry. You're always lovely, Rebeca.
: ...thank you.
: Now if we could get you to do something about that hat-
: There's nothing wrong with my cool hat!
: All I'm saying is-
: Ahem. Well. On that note, I believe we have one more door to unlock.
: Right! In Tedanki!
: Holy crap, what a roundabout way to open a door that was.
: Considering we need to speak to a dead man, it could have been worse.
We can't Return directly to Tedanki, but the voyage there is uneventful.
: Reaching you was a lot of trouble, but I'm sure it's nothing compared to what you've endured. Can we help you in any way?
: ...!
: Thank you, sir. We are grateful.
: I don't suppose you know what we're supposed to do with it, do you?
: Oh! Well then.
: We can't possibly thank you enough for this.
: We'll find a way to free you from the Archfiend's curse.
: Just have a bit more patience.
: So, Liamland then. You think we should go?
: With only two Orbs?
: I'm thinking maybe we might find some information about where the others are. Or heck, maybe some of them are already there, who knows?
: It seems worth giving it a quick look.
: To the south, then!
Going straight south from the tip of South Africa...
...it's not long before we reach Antarctica.
: Wh-
: Is that an egg?
: Oh... Oh wow... This is...
These two elves must be speaking in unison.
: When the Six Orbs are placed on the Throne of the Golden Crown, the legendary phoenix, Ramia, will come back to life.
: The legendary phoenix...
: Traveling the world without a ship... Is that what the story meant?
: Fia, we have to find these Orbs.
: I know, we're looking-
: I mean, I want to find these Orbs. Zofia, if your quest to track down the Archfiend didn't involve these Orbs, I would set off on my own to find them. Traveling with you is probably the best thing that's happened to me in my entire life, but it's like... I've never really wanted something before. I've never wanted something like I want this.
: We'll find them together.
: Okay. I mean, okay. I mean, I prefer it this way too. Just... just saying.
: Reb, if it's that important to you, I'd set the Archfiend aside to help you out first.
: ...!
: As much as I appreciate the sentiment, no one has to put Baramos on the back burner. If we could fly on the phoenix's wings, finding the Necrogond and the Pit of Giaga would be a cinch.
: Right!
: Well that's neither here nor there. We still have four Orbs to find.
: And a continent to explore. I wonder how Pancho's doing. And we might as well see if we can get anything from that wizard in the north now that we have the Staff of Change. If nothing pans out there, well, we'll pick a coast and find what we can find.
: Dang, would you look at that!
Apparently our deeds in Samanao triggered some progress here!
: ...really?
: I suppose he earned it.
: This is the town that Pancho built.
: Yeah, we probably want to go back sooner or later.
: They say from there you can go to a cave where the Blue Orb is.
: ...!
: Oh we're definitely going back sooner than later then!
: Huh. So much for flying there, then.
: We'll have to find another way.
: But, to go there, you need the Sword of Gaia.
: We've heard about it before... but we don't know where it is, do we?
: We do not.
: Hmm.
The inn is now 15 per person instead of 2. That was predictable, I suppose.
Oh dang, Dragon Mail! Now I kinda regret blowing so much cash on Wizard Rings. Dragon Mail is +45 armor that Heroes and Soldiers can wear (Magic Armor is +40), and it reduces damage from fire breath by one third. That's a pretty big deal, though ice breath and fire damage from spells are not reduced.
: Oh hey, good to see you. How are things?
: Pancho has made people work too hard and I hear the townsfolk are rebelling.
: ...goddammit Pancho.
: We better have a word with him.
: Well I'll be.
: It is certainly a nice town, I'll give you that.
: Just don't... don't screw this up, okay? It's pretty big now, give the people a break.
: Now, I don't suppose you'll mind if we collect our fee for taking you all the way here from Aliahan, right?
The chests here contain 260 gold and a Luck Seed. It's hard to mess up your Luck too badly and it's not a huge deal if you do, so we give it to Zofia, since hers is the lowest. It increases by 2!
: You gotta do what you gotta do.
: Hopefully this is one budding tyrant problem that won't require heroic intervention.
That's a regular item shop.
: Everyone can dance. It's just a question of how well!
: Eh, it's... a little derivative.
: It's a new town, you can't expect them to have their own culture already.
: It-
: It was fine, thank you.
: ...the hell?
: Oh absolutely not. This amateur hour is barely worth 50 gold!
: This is outrageous!
: Pancho's gonna get an earful if we get into any kind of trouble here.
: Good grief, what a scam.
: ...hmm?
: Power to the people! Seize the means of production! Woooo!
: Your secrets are safe with us. Godspeed!
: Please let me pass!
: So... what's the word on assassination here?
: It's a shame it has come to this.
: If we just off him, it might make more of a mess than necessary. Besides, he barely has any support, I'm sure the people here can handle the problem.
: And it's not like there are monsters behind this nonsense. We don't need to get involved, this is just politics, and Pancho's just an asshole.
: Maybe we shouldn't have hired the first guy we ran into at Luisa's, eh?
: Well, it is a nice town. He might have been the right man for a limited situation.
: Get a load of this, old man!
: How about this. What if I trade you this Sailor's Thigh Bone for that Staff of Change?
: That sounds-
: Pfft, no way.
: Oh, not interested, huh? I thought as much.
: Reb, the staff is a tool of evil, and it squicks me out besides.
: I'm all for trading it away, but what are we supposed to do with some dude's bone?
: I heard a story about drowned men's bones having a mysterious power. I think it was when I was a young girl, with my parents on a trade ship coming back from Baharata. Or was it when we went to... or...
: Hmm! What did the story say, Isabel?
: ...
: ...
: ...
: ...
: ...well?
: I... Um... I forgot.
: ...really?
: That was over thirty years ago! And I... I might have fallen asleep halfway through the story. You know how sailors like to embellish!
: Okay... But, they have power, right?
: I'm almost definitely certain that they do. Possibly. According to that one sailor.
: Ugh, fine, I can tell where this is going. Here you go, old man. Where's that bone?
: Yeah, yeah.
: Oh, thanks! Heh, heh, heh!
That's a permanent trade. We are never getting the Staff of Change back. Better visit that elven shopkeep while you can!
: That sure is a bone. I hope you're happy.
: Do you get any kind of magic resonance from it? I mean, you could tell the Final Key was special, right?
: Well this is no Final Key, lemme tell you. But...
: Hmm?
: ...yeah. Yeah, there might be something.
: Ah-ha!
: I don't know how to... Hmm... wait.
: Whoa!
: It's a compass!
: But that's not the north.
: Alright everyone, back to the ship! On the double!
: East southeast.
: Glorious, hang tight.
: Right direction, keep going.
: This is the north coast of Portoga... Reb?
: Still east southeast.
: Might be somewhere around Romaly then.
: Why hello there. Not a lot of folk with the mettle to sail nowadays, is there?
: Is that where the bone is pointing?
: ...yep.
: Why?
: Only one way to find out.
Music: Phantom Ship: Oh my goodness, a real ghost ship! If only I had been so fortunate in my time...
: Glynn, your so-called good fortune would have required that an entire ship's worth of sailors meet a grisly fate and end up shackled to the mortal realm in perpetual imitation of the worst portions of their lives' backbreaking labor.
: Yes, well. Still, if there had been one, I would have liked to visit it.
: Ugh! This vile atmosphere!
: It's almost... like in the Pyramid.
: Can you still cast?
: Yeah, yeah, it's not the same. But this ship is...
: It's tainted by death.
: Do you think this might be Errol's ship?
: Oh, that Olivia chick's dude. Probably.
: I hope there isn't more than one of these ships around.
These are mid-tier sea monsters. If this is as bad as it gets in here, this shouldn't be too hard. Let's just hope no Hades' Condors show up. Alvaro levels up from this first fight, for 7 Agi, 4 Vit, 4 Luc, 1 Int, and 7 HP.
: Well... I guess that's true now.
: Can you take the helm, Zofia?
: I'm not sure that's a great idea. Where would I even take it, anyway? We better just have a look around.
Minidemons aren't too durable, but they're fairly strong, they can breathe a low-tier blizzard breath, and they have a high chance to cast Blazemore, with enough MP to do so four times. They're highly resistant to Stopspell and Beat, slightly to fire, Surround, Limbo and RobMagic, and not at all to ice, wind or lightning.
They also have a 1 in 128 chance to drop a +35 Unlucky Helmet, which Heroes and Soldiers can equip, and is in fact the best helmet in the game (other than the Noh Mask), but it is cursed.
We can easily take a single Minidemon out in one turn just with standard attacks (Alvaro and Isabel kill it before it gets to do anything), but they won't always show up alone.
: Wait, there's treasure too?
: It'd be nice to get something valuable out of here, but finding something that belonged to Errol is our first goal.
More sea monsters we've already seen. Considering the phantom ship doesn't appear until you've got your hands on the Sailor's Thigh Bone after going through the Samanao episode, this is easier than I expected. That said, Tentacles can be real bastards if you don't have Beat to get rid of them quickly.
: ...
: Spending eternity as a tormented ghost terrified of drowning... Is the archfiend responsible for this too?
: I hope so, because it would be nice to get rid of these sorts of curses all at once.
: It might just... be something that happens. There's a lot of suffering in the world that Baramos has nothing to do with.
: I wonder...
: I suppose we got what we came for.
: I can't walk away from this if it can be helped. Let's see if we can find the source of the evil here, just in case.
: Right.
Neither Alvaro nor Zofia are guaranteed to one-shot these guys, but using the Staff of Judgement and the Staff of Thunder together will always wipe out an entire group.
Let's see... First chest is a Full Moon Herb. Second...
: Aight, let's skip that one.
: You know, I think we should be able to take out Man-Eater Chests by now.
: Do you really want to try?
: Just to see how far we've gotten, you know?
: Alright, let's do it.
Whoops! That's not a Man-Eater Chest!
Mimics are very strong and fairly durable, but not nearly as much as Man-Eater Chests are. However, they get two actions per turn, and they can use RobMagic, Sleep, Blazemore, and Defeat, the latter of which is a group-targeting Beat effect. It can only cast it once on its limited 10 MP, but, well, RobMagic. They're immune to Stopspell and Chaos, highly resistant to fire, ice, Limbo, Beat, Expel and Sleep, slightly resistant to Sap, Surround and wind, and vulnerable to RobMagic and lightning. It's not a bad idea to have your Wizard cast Bounce to at least ensure you're not getting a party wipe, but draining their MP on the first turn will temporarily shut them down.
They also have a 1 in 256 chance to drop a Demon Axe, a +90 weapon that only Soldiers can equip. It's predictably cursed, coming with a 1 in 8 chance to miss entirely... but hits that do land have a 1 in 8 chance to roll a critical. That's the same as a level 32 Fighter!
We win the battle, but it takes two tries for Isabel to bring Zofia back.
: Whew, thanks.
: Maybe we should leave those red chests alone for the foreseeable future then.
: Good call.
The other chests contain 128 gold, 136 gold, and 144 gold.
: But the guy named Errol never committed any crime, as far as I know. Poor sucker.
: Damn it...
: I hope at least that somehow you find happiness.
: Man, that does not happen.
: Happiness is beyond her reach, but maybe we can help her find peace.
This is more the sort of opposition I expected; we can still handle it.
: So this is it, then. There's no great demon beast to slay, no supernatural evil from another world to banish. Just the misery and terror of a ship full of slaves and murderers lost to a storm.
: That's... nothing we can help with, is it?
: Not without turning back time.
: Better get out of here, then.
: Alright then, we should rest up in Romaly for tonight. We've got a long way to go to the Promontory of Olivia, and who knows what kind of creatures await us on that prison island?