Last time my party was read to set out on foot across a bunch of desert to reach King Raithwall's Tomb. About this time I decided to split my party into two groups and identify what the roles would be. Or rather, how I'd dish out the damage. Stripping everyone of all gear, and being around the same level I could see by stats who would be the best at what.
Vaan had good strength and the best speed, only Fran comes close in speed. So since daggers have a speed modifier, that's what I'm going with for him. And since Fran started with a bow, and bows also have a speed modifier, she'll stick with that. The strongest weapons in the game seem to hammers, axes and spears. Now spears have a straight strength mod, so Basch took those as he has the highest strength. Axes and hammers have a vitality mod, and I was surprised to find that Baltheir had the highest vitality, so he got those. Lastly, Ashe had the highest magick power, followed by Penelo. So Penelo will be my pure white mage, and Ashe my pure black mage. And I'll probably dish arcane and time magic to some other people.
Fun stuff, I spent about an hour figuring that all out and getting the right gear setups and license points distributed. Never have I had to put that much thought into gearing my people in a FF title. I like that part though, lot of fun.
Continuing on through the desert I took my first squad of Basch, Vaan, and Ashe almost all the way to the tomb. I've implemented a rule of no more than two levels of separation, so once those three were level 17, my other party of Baltheir, Fran, and Penelo stepped up from level 15. I played them through the tombs and until they were level 19, then swapped again. You get the idea. Only during boss fights do I break this and play whoever is going to win for me. Along the way I had to fight through the inhabitants of the Sand-Sea. You know the Sand-Sea people, or the 'sandpeople' as I like to call the for short (is George Lucas part of Enix...?).
Once I got to the tomb, I had to beat some phoenix like monster named Garuda (nice) just to get inside. And once inside, I was attacked by the classic demon wall. Kill it before I get smashed. I got smashed... I think my guys were a little under level so I had to go again. No dice. I finally realized that it was an optional fight to get the Demonsbane sword so I passed it up, beat the other demon wall and continued. When we finally got to the end of the dungeon, we find that we have to fight a demon. Well... an Esper. Once we beat Belias, he joined us as a summon, I gave him to Baltheir to get his first Mist going. While down there we also picked up the Dawn Shard and headed back to the surface. But before heading up, Ashe saw a ghost of her late husband Rasler before the Dawn Shard. No one else in the group saw it except for Vaan. What's going on there...?
Anyway, when we got topside, we were greeted with the entire 8th fleet of the imperial army. Damn Judge Ghis. Being out of his clutches only temporarily we found ourselves on another capital ship, the Shiva, prisoners once more.
This time however, we strike a bargain. Or rather, Vossler strikes a bargain. He has traded the Dawn Shard without Ashe's permission for the throne (for Ashe) and for Dalmasca to be free of the empire. I can see why he'd do it, sounds like a pretty sweet deal. But when someone is willing to give so much, the thing they want is always worth much, much more. Ashe is not too happy with Vossler for betraying them. Vossler says he did it for Dalmasca but we're in chains and he's free as we're escorted aboard the Shiva.
Back on the Leviathan, Judge Ghis wants to test this new nethicite to see if it is deifacted nethicite (authentic) or synthetic. They smartly put it in their drive system for the ship to test it out. Of course the tests prove that it's authentic. A little too authentic. It starts to pull in the power of the ship, something's wrong.
Back on the Shiva, Fran with her deep connection to the Mist can sense the nethicite going into some kind of overload. She starts flipping out, going berserk. She breaks her chains, and kills three guards before anyone knows what's happening. Vossler draws his sword. He will not let my party ruin the chances for Dalmasca's future. We have to put him down. As he's dying, he apologizes to her, to Basch, and asks Basch to watch after her for him now.
The Leviathan drives reach their breaking point and finally blow, triggering the nethicite in something like a nuclear reaction. The ship goes and take the entire fleet with it. The party barely escapes on their own shuttle as everyone else gets toasted.
When it's all said and done, Penelo with her eagle vision sees the nethicite floating at the epicenter of the blast. We go in and retrieve it then head back to town.
Back in Archadia, a meeting of the Senate has convened. They decide that Vayne has overstepped himself. His actions have led to the destruction of the 8th fleet while their rival, Rozzario, is building it's military for some kind of action soon. They're in a bad spot now, defensively. Vayne must pay. The emperor doesn't like it but they remind him it's not the first time he's had to put down his sons. They hint that he's killed his two oldest sons in the past when they went too far. The senate wants Larsa to become the next Emperor. They sign the death certificate for Vayne.
Back in Rabanastre, Basch recalls a seeing a similar reaction during the fall of Nalbina with Rasler. Ashe and Basch conclude that it must have been the Midlight nethicite going off. All this, all those people so Vayne can get his hands on the three deifacted nethicite. Now he has the Midlight Shard from Nalbina, the Dusk Shard from Dalmasca, and he wants Ashe's Dawn Shard which we just acquired from the Tomb.
Ashe wont let that happen, she will use the power of the Dawn Shard against Vayne. But she needs to know how to use it first. Fran tells us that the people of Garif know of such things, so that's where we're headed next. But first it was time for a little grinding, and shopping!
After a fun time doing that I finally got a Kotetsu for Ashe. I love this combo. The katanas in this game base damage off of magick power. She's the strongest magick user in the game. I equip her with a katana and mage gear, now I've got a stong ass black mage who can cut enemies to pieces with a sword. She does more damage then anyone else because the katanas strike multiple times. So while she, Vaan and Basch are all hitting for about 330 damage, she will sometimes hit for that two to five times in quick succession. Good times!
With that on it's way I headed across the Giza Plains to Garif. Once there we talked to the head chief but didn't really learn much. They don't really know much about the stones either. In fact what the chief tells us is that way back when, the Gods gave the stones to his people. But not knowing how to use the stones at all, the Gods eventually took the stones back and gave them to the Humes (humans) instead. The King Raithwall figured out the power of the stones and used them to become the first Dynast King. He used his power to bring a great time of peace and prosperity to his people. This is Ashe's descendant. He also tells us though that the stone she has, the Dawn Shard has been used up. It holds no more power, instead it only craves to suck up power, to regain it, it's a magick sink.
While there, we find out that another Hume has been around asking the same questions. And eventually we find Larsa in the camp. Larsa thinks that Ashe should come with him to meet with some big shots and reclaim her throne. Not sure really who these guys are that can just tell Archadia to stop and they will, but ok... Larsa knows that the Marquis is building an army to fight the empire. He knows that he does this for Ashe and Dalmasca. He wants him to stop. Ashe of course is not buying this, she wants her kingdom back. But Larsa explains. The Marquis Halim will be successful in gathering his troops. And the country of Rozzario will help him do so. Dalmasca will be theirs once more. But then what? Rozzario will attack Archadia, and Dalmasca being in the middle will be the battlefield between two much greater nations for who knows how long. The people of Dalmasca will be obliterated. It is her kingdom that will suffer in the end. The kid makes sense. Smart little bugger. Ashe reconsiders things when he puts it in that light. She tells him that she will follow him for the time being; she is yet undecided though.
Before setting out though she sees the ghost of Rasler once more while alone. But Vaan comes along and Rasler disappears. She realizes that Vaan can see him too, but neither of them know why. Vaan makes a commitment to Ashe, to follow her through to the end of this. I thought Penelo was his girl but it seems like they're slowly steering Vaan in Ashe's direction. We'll see, he's like seventeen. Until next time.
Peace.
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