Project Clichéstorm: Day Two

With screenshots this time!

Here's the party. That's me, at the bottom. See, there's nothing girly about me!

Quest summary: Find seven more spirits, open a gate to the Holyland, ditch a fairy. (Which is actually spelled "Faerie." The fanciest way possible. Faerie made sure to correct me.)

Current goal: Get to Forcena.

We followed the yellow brick road back to Maia. Where we landed earlier? I forgot the name. The port here didn't wanna take us, so we had to ask around. Didn't have much luck, just a crazy inventor with a human cannon. By which I mean a cannon that shoots humans. As ammo. Which needs gunpowder. Time for another ask around party!

"Sure, dwarves use gunpowder all the time!" says a sailor man. "There's a cave in the Cleft of the Earth. Or so I heard."

So back to the Cleft. It didn't /look/ like we missed any sidepaths. And it was an awfully small cave, now that the bridge was out. I tried to use the save point when suddenly!

Doink! Ooh, an optimal illusion!

And it wasn't long before

Man, what a guy. His friends must yell at him all the time, "Stop being a stereotype!"

Aaand it turns out Watts, the Master of Gunpowders, is gone. Out in the tunnels or something. I didn't remember any other tunnels on the way in. But then, I did just run on in here.

A dwarf was happily chipping away at the wall with a pickaxe. Until he saw us coming. "Oh, someone needs to go through here! Let me just use this gunpowder to blast a hole through the wall."

"NO WAIT WE--"

DOOM.

Naptime!

How he resisted the bomb's dizzying effects, the world will never know.

We tracked down the little booger easily enough.

But this was ridiculous.

Unfortunately, before I had time to make any death threats, he was gone, yelling something about Gnome. Another plot coupon? How serendipitous. Okay, so we would track down the plot coupon, and then threaten up some gunpowder.

The caverns were... well, cavernous. Good thing there weren't any forks or anything in the road.

Okay, there goes my plan. 'Course, it's not like we couldn't do it in the reverse order.

Oh. Never mind.

BOSS FIGHT

VERSUS... JEWEL EATOR

A giant mole jumped dragged its way in from offscreen, spooking Urist McWatts into locking the door behind him. What a jerk.

Turns out the Mage who Knew No Spells actually figured something out with the help of that Wisp character. So she spammed Holy Ball while Duran and I did things the /right/ way and whacked it. I just can't respect standing across the room flinging spells while your friends are up close and personal.

This was no weakling like the Full Metal Hugger from yesterday's post, though. This guy could summon diamonds, and leap across the room!... Yeah, I joke. It was simplistic.

I think I detect a pattern, though. Right around the end, it cast a sparkly spell on itself. Would all the bosses be doing this kind of junk?

DANNNCE

And who should hop down from the ceiling but Gnome Macguffin himself! He made some unsubtle advances at Faerie. "Blah blah blah," he said, joining Wisp and Faerie in Brian-knows-where.

GNOME GET

Suddenly! Watts remembered our presence. "Golly golly! You saved Gnome! How can I repay you? How about free gunpowder!"

Aaand back to Maia and the cannon man!

WHAT.

What do you know, I finally got to use the death threat burning a hole in my... thing. He apologized profusely and promptly shot us out of his cannon. Ka-doom!

Duran: Hey, I can see my house from here!

Umm, we're not flying towards Forcena...

That cannon was /very/ experimental. There was absolutely no thought put into landing! Even if it were aimed properly, for frig's sake!

"Where are we?" I had barely gotten the words out of my mouth when the "Hey you're in the Molebear Highlands" box appeared. Well, now I thought about it, grass was a much softer landing than a castle. And there's nothing like a little level grinding!

Ohh, dead bodies everywhere. And I'm not talking about my killing spree, either. Forcena just got invaded again!

Thanks, exposition box! Couldn't have done it without you.

Ignoring the need to stock up on items (it's not like the shops weren't closed anyway), we clobbered our way to the throne room, where Duran saw another familiar face. "It's that wizard!"

A swing and a miss. The wizard in question voiped to the stained glass window. "Well, well, princess. Of all places to meet again."

"Don't call me that!"

"He was talking to me, dumb-A!" said Angela.

"And you. It's nice to see you again, too."

Growling, Duran rushed him, but to no avail. Wizardly man was gone. And with that, sounds of battle disappeared.

With things calmed down, Faerie popped out and explained the plot to King Kingson.

The real periodic table! Tell your friends.

"Yesh, the next shpirit should be around Rolante," said Kingson.

"Then we're on our way!"

"On our way" is a phrase which here means "farming and maybe talking to some townspeople first."

On our exploration of the city, Duran stopped us before entering one house. "It's mine... I vowed I would never return until my quest is done."

"Oh, that's too bad," said Angela. "But if you're trying to hide something, like your porn collection, I understand."

Angela: LOLOLOL