With that whole pesky "Teo McDohl" problem taken care of, it looks as though the Liberation Army has the Imperials on the run. Lots of tiny rebel factions are starting to pop up all over the place, and the Imperials have had to spread their numbers pretty thin to deal with the issue. Lepant therefore suggests we begin uniting these rebels underneath the Liberation Army's banner. And what better way to do that than with another decisive military victory? Let's see what we have on tap.


Perfect.


○×∆□☆ gives the order to advance and all the troops dress up in their fanciest gear to put on a good show down at the Fortress of Lorimar. I'm excited!


...except, when we get there, nobody's home. Seriously, ○×∆□☆ knocked like all morning. "Helloooo? Imperials? Come out and get some death! We're here to Liberate the crap out of you guys." But no answer. Either the Imperials are screwing with us, or something else is amiss.



Kasumi vaults himself over the fortress wall. Show off.


With no imperials to pick on, the day looks to be pretty much shot. Still, the gang decides to split up and take a look around just in case they're only hiding or something.


Eugh, pretty gruesome. Either the Imperials were busy digging their own graves (you know, to save us the trouble) then decided running away would be a more useful tactic, or somebody's been collecting corpses for his own nefarious purposes.

I'm sure it's the first thing. Nothing to worry about.


Mathiu sends ○×∆□☆ out to collect some info on what's been going on in the Lorimar region. Viktor and Cleo decide to muscle in because, apparently, only wanton carnage can quell the demons within their tragic, tortured souls. That leaves three empty slots, which I'll fill up off the voting list when the time is right*.

*Note: the time is not yet right.


Hanging out in the cemetary is Kirke the executioner. Since it doesn't look like business is booming around here anymore, ○×∆□☆ offers him a job. Surely we've got a few people back at Eureka's Castle we can make shorter at the neck, right?


078/108: Kirke
Hmm... he's a combat character, that much I know, but I can't say he's ever made his way into my party. As a bit of story fluff, he apparently hooks up with Lorelai back at the castle for some offscreen romancin' and, when she shows up in Suikoden 2 she is carrying his weapon: a scythe named Death.

Countdown to Quincy: 2 Stars of Destiny!


Here's a map of the Lorimar region: just three locations of note. The double dots ○×∆□☆ is standing next to are, of course, the entrances to the Fortress. South of him is the Warrior's Village (our next stop). Far west of the village is Qlon Temple, the monastery inexplicably named after an 11-year-old boy, and far south is some guy's castle. Opposite the river you can see Soniere Prison and Rikon, and Liukan's hovel is way down south along the banks.



No sooner do we step foot in Warrior's Village to we walk smack into a lover's quarrel. Except, uh, I think in this case I'd have to go with the guy who doesn't want his girlfriend to be eaten. (Or maybe that's what they're fighting about in the first place -- hey-o!)


Actually, no, it turns out that this Neclord guy is the not-so-friendly local vampire who demands fresh girls to be delivered to his castle as brides/h'our dourves. Zorak here, whose eye looks to have exploded and is currently leaking all over his face, understandably doesn't want his hapless daughter to be married off to the loathsome undead and believes locking her up in a log cabin is going to keep the vampire at bay.


Suddenly Viktor flips the fluck out! He hears the name "Neclord" and goes ABSOLUTELY NUTS, demanding all the information he can get.


Viktor is no stranger to young Hix who... uh... apparently climbed up the wall and watched us fight Milich back in the day. Hix's deal is, he's kind of a pansy, so I have to wonder if he'd still mention this if Milich were in my group. "Wow, bear-man! I totally watched you kick Milich's ass when-- oh, oh my god, sir I didn't see you standing there sorry sir please don't pollenate me sir."


Zorak invites us over for dinner and, as we all know, the game won't continue until we accept. First though, we've to go see some guys about some things.


Window wears a top hat, a bowtie, and is apparently a mime of some kind. Gee, I wonder why he doesn't really fit in here at the Warrior's Village. Like Melodye, he won't sign up until we bring him a unique rune; unlike Melodye, the rune he wants is actually pretty deviously hidden, and not laying out in plain sight. In any case we can't get at it yet, so moving on.


Yep, time to get our next blacksmith already. At the moment the three spare slots in my team are filled up with Maas, Meese and Mose because, otherwise, Moose wouldn't want to be seen with us. Because, you know, the best way to convince a blacksmith you need his services are to show him that you've already got an abundance of fucking blacksmiths on hand.


079/108: Moose
Moose is as good as it gets if you suck like I did and screw yourself out of being able to get the final blacksmith. "Screwed" in this case actually isn't too bad, since he can bring our weapons all the way up to L15; just one level shy of their maximum potential.

Countdown to Quincy: 1 Star of Destiny!


It's our old pal Marco, the walking ATM! What's up, buddy? Somehow it made its way from Rockland all the way out here to Warrior's Village. Say, let's see if ○×∆□☆'s old PIN still works!


Yep, still good! After a quick withdrawal at the First National Bank of Marco, we decide to just go ahead and install it in Eureka's Castle for easy access.


080/108: Marco
The ol' ATM sets up shop in the castle, allowing us to play the cup game whenever we want. This would actually be an insanely great source of infinite bits except, you know, Gaspar is in the same castle, so...

Countdown to Quincy: 0 Stars of Destiny! Oh man you guys! I'm excited! Are you excited?


Finally we-- wait, what? What!?

Um, did I miscount somewhere? I should have exactly 80 stars. I... man, I hope I didn't screw up somewhere. I'll just assume Quincy is a goddamn liar and leave him here for now. Yes, apparently Quincy is male. Coulda fooled me!


Not to worry, I have a trick up my sleeve. First a quick trip back to Eureka's Castle to stock up on flower seeds...


Quick field trip over to Qlon Temple. Will Hugo the be-glasses-ed librarian be just the key Quincy needs to see we're going to win this war? No, no, apparently he's misplaced some damn book and, instead of looking for it, is putting his time to good use moping.


How about you, blind-martial-arts-guy Morgan? Want to join the Liberation Army?


081/108: Morgan
There's no blind status effect in Suikoden. The functional equivalent is having a bucket dropped on your head. I'm not sure whether or not that affects Morgan, who is completely blind anyway. In battle he's pretty much just a palette swap of Pahn, which hey, is totally workable in any group. Two other interesting morsels about Morgan: first, he has what is my favorite line in the game when you speak to him at the castle. Second, his "I was born blind!" story was retconned in Suiko5 where it's revealed he was a gladiator in a country across the world whose eyes had to be put out because he was too good. Brutal.

Countdown to Quincy: -1 Stars of Destiny!



Bringing flower seeds to Zen is exactly the incentive he needs to leave his flowers and come along with us. I'll be honest though, I'm just recruiting him for his great hat.


082/108: Zen
Zen... uh... has no function at all that I'm aware of. He can't be put in the party. He's just a talkin'-to Star of Destiny.

Countdown to Quincy: -2 Stars of Destiny!


Huzzah! That... that's pretty anti-climactic actually. I was kind of expecting fireworks and a parade or something. Hrm.


083/108: Quincy
After all that buildup I... I, uh, have never used Quincy. I'm not sure I want to! I'm also not entirely convinced he isn't a chick.

Hey peanut gallery!
Next up, SUPER LONG STORY POST and another dungeon. Last call to get votes in before I play the next stage of the game tomorrow. I'm pretty sure we don't need any more votes for GIANT WOMAN seeing as how she's already out in the lead by aproximately the population of Finland.

Here's your master list.

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