LogFAQs > #962290342

I get up to 35 Odorless Fluids pretty quickly, and that's what I'm going to leave it at for now.

Eizen had the Bloodwings spread rumors about the gang's plan to raid an Abbey compound a long ways away, so the Abbey will hopefully not have much presence here. We then see an Abbey ship putting out a distress signal, and seafarers have a code that a ship in distress has neither allies nor enemies. Pirates, however, strip 'em of everything they got as a reward. They wouldn't be pirates otherwise! Anyway, the Abbey goons on board are dyin' and despite the helmets and armor, they can gauge that it's the corsair's scourge. And then their, er, "captain" approaches, and it's Villain Teresa, who's also not looking so good. She... wanted to meet up with us? She hijacked the ship and the goons aboard... and proceeds to spill everything that happened. Her brother, Melchior's arte, and that it amplifies malak artes far beyond their normal limits at potential risk of the wielder's life. Velvet asks why she's blabbing. She offers us a deal: Take her hostage, "negotiate" with Oscar, snatch the therion, and make an escape. That way, we get the therion, and no harm befalls Oscar, since Teresa is still being the overprotective big sister. Even if it interferes with his goals, she's all about protecting his life. That's quite nice of her. She also recognizes that we can't trust her, so she refuses medicine. Velvet forces her to take it anyway.

Eleanor says Teresa is the Dragonia patriarch's bastard child, so that's a juicy bit of info. Teresa confirms this, saying after her mother died she became a maid for the Dragonias so she could live with them, and Oscar was the only one to embrace her as family. He's all she feels she has. She also says that the earthpulse point is in some ancient ruins on the other side of Baird Marsh and informs us that Number One was confiscated by Artorius, so she's of no threat to us. One more thing: malevolence has caused civilization to rise and fall on this island many times, so the Abbey put a therion out here because of the lost spirits still restless. It's rife with the stuff and far out of the way, so troublemakers like us couldn't cause troubles... except that we're, you know, us.

Teresa (she has a skit image!!) asks Eleanor why she betrayed the Abbey, and Eleanor tries changing the subject before Teresa reveals that Oscar gave Eleanor her role, a role for which he was already appointed, because he was naive and... probably had a boner. Teresa very much holds this against Eleanor since this caused Oscar to be stationed on Titania instead, where he got his eye ripped out by Velvet... whom Eleanor now accompanies. I don't blame our Villain Teresa. Eleanor tries to defuse it by saying that her path diverged from the Abbey's, and as I anticipated, Teresa finds that answer insufficient.

After some battles (a couple close calls) and equipment management, I stop for the night outside the encampment. The party keeps saying these are strong monsters and they certainly feel like they're built of sturdier stuff than the lackeys in more recent memory... but they still go down easily unless they're a Dire Foe (same thing as in Eastgand? Huh.) or a chain encounter.

I should play more tomorrow.