Trails in the Sky #7 The Ballad of a Fishing Goddess

RECAP: “Pulling Your Strings, Justice Is Done”

I was literally laughing for a solid minute

The gang arrives at Valleria Lake, taken aback by the soothing seaside atmosphere. They decide that their first order of business should be to ask around the lakeside inn and find the senile fisherman’s partner. The inn proprietor says the man is probably at the south, pier and low-and-behold there he is. Olivier does something unspeakable to the man's ear to get his attention. The presumptuous fisherman then tells the gang that he saw a strange “couple” of ghosts leaving the lake at nightfall. Schera and Joshua work out that the two probably didn’t want to be seen leaving, and will probably return at nightfall as well. So the group decides to rent a room, split up, and spend the rest of the afternoon at the lake.

That's surprisingly eloquent of her

Schera and Olivier get drunk off their asses (much to the clown’s chagrin), Joshua cracks open a book on the Hundred Years War, and Estelle decides to satisfy her long suppressed passion for fishing. After catching nine surprisingly large fish (and a spiteful pair of Holey Boots), Estelle stops fishing and decides to go check up on Joshua, who is out staring at the water from the edge of a pier. The two talk about their time growing up together and shed some light on why we still received exposition on Joshua and Estelle in Rolent when they should have already known each other for 5 freaking years Joshua is still somewhat of a mystery to Estelle; she promised not to ask about his past. They eventually conclude their illuminating conversation with another song from Joshua’s harmonica and return to the inn to prepare for the stakeout.

Come nightfall, Olivier is absolutely incapacitated, squiggly eyes and all, but Schera is absolutely fine (thanks to her third liver), so the three bracers decide to watch the town entrance from the second floor balcony of the inn. As if on cue Josette and Kyle enter the village and start muttering about . The two then head over to the south pier. The gang follows suit and hides behind a nearby fence so that they can eavesdrop on their conversation. Josette mentions that their boss hasn’t been the same since “he” showed up and is feeling antsy about their most recent escapades, but Kyle tries to reassure her just as a ship with some suspicious characters who, naturally, speak entirely in pronouns and vague language arrive to relay some more info to the two.

Have my children <3

Estelle wants to pounce on the gang of crooks, but Schera astutely infers that their airship must be nearby and suggests disabling it, so that they can’t escape for a third time. So, the bracers leave town, and luckily find the airship just outside of Amberl tower (which because of the warning sign that Alba stupidly ignored no one thought to look there). Unfortunately, the ship is surrounded by several dozen Capua soldiers which are a few too many for three bracers to handle. As the gang tries working out a plan, Olivier appears out of the darkness (yes he managed to somehow stand up and follow the bracers when they left town) and suggests that they stow away on the airship and deal with the Capua’s at their hideout. This way the group theoretically has nowhere else to run to and can be easily cornered. So they do just that and eventually arrive at the Capua hideout.

Inside of the strange lair (littered with unholy monsters for some reason) the gang snakes their way through the mazelike corridors, eventually finding a jeweled ring and small black book hidden inside of vacuum (trust me, this is important and brilliant AND hilarious). They also find the passengers of

Way to take one for the team?

the Linde, minus one Cassius Bright (of course -_-). The captain of the ship says informs the increasingly irate Estelle that Cassius got off of the Linde, just before it took off, so they didn’t have time to update the ledger before they were kidnapped. Regardless of their personal frustrations, the gang orders the hostages to sit tight and wait for them to finish off the Capuas. The group continues to work their way through the hideout, finding an exit into the Nibel Valley and eventually the Capua boss’ lair (though they don’t escort the hostages out yet, for logically explained reasons).

Inside they learn that the Capua boss, Don (I shit you not), is an absolute sociopath, wields a freaking canon like it’s made of Lego, and isn’t opposed to killing the hostages or hurting his two siblings. Estelle and co. steps in, delivers some more one-liners then beat the blue-haired asses off the Capuas. Oddly enough, after the beating Don starts acting like a normal human being completely oblivious to the crimes he committed. Before anyone can start figuring out what’s what however, Kyle deploys yet another smoke bomb, as predicted, and the three scamper off. But this time, their only exit is at the top of the hideout, so the bracers chase after them as swiftly as they can. Alas, all of the other bandits decide to band together for one last ditch attempt to stop the bracers. It doesn’t work. At all.

Just as the gang finally reaches the top of the fort, they are surprised to find that the military has already apprehended the three Capuas and brought Nial and Dorothy along to take pictures. Colonel Richard explains that he piggybacked off of your efforts to locate the hideout and mobilize his forces. He also tries to convince General Morgan that this is proof that the Bracers and military can work together. Unable to argue with the evidence he scowls and retreats to their ship. With a job well done and more mysteries abound, the group returns to the Bose bracers guild to go over their progress.

You just keep laying out the yarn Falcom...

At the guild, they receive a message from Cassius (which was originally sent to Rolent and just now delivered to Bose) saying that he won’t be home for a while and that the two should perhaps try to travel and become Senior Bracers while he is away. They also receive a package addressed to Cassius which at first they resist opening, but Olivier tempts Estelle to do so anyway. Inside they find a cryptic letter and equally mysterious black artifact that perplexingly seems as though it was recently built. With mysteries mounting and no direction established, Joshua of all people suggests that he and Estelle continue their journey across the kingdom to become Senior Bracers in the hopes that they might simultaneously find Cassius. Estelle happily complies. Later on, the young bracers bid Schera and Olivier goodbye as they head back to Rolent and prepare to say there farewells to Bose as well.

Contextually Brilliant

The conversation between Estelle and Joshua at Lake Valleria was one of the most brilliant moments I’ve seen in this game thus far. Throughout my time in Rolent I was deeply appreciative of Falcom’s use of NPCs as a delivery system for exposition & character establishment. However, I was also actively trying to suspend my disbelief that the background info they shared should already have been known by the characters. So, I was impressed both by how natural this conversation emerged as well as the way it directly addressed my suspension of disbelief.

Joshua is looking out at a sunset on a pier. Estelle notices that he has put down his book, implying
that he is not merely staring, but thinking about something. She tries to ask him about it, but he deflects with a polite comment. She catches him doing this because a.) she has asked him to be more forthcoming twice during the game and b.) she has lived with him for 5 years. He then spills that he doesn’t understand why she hasn’t asked him about his past yet. Considering that the last book he was reading was titled “The Hundred Days War,” and that thus far we’ve journeyed through a handful of towns all providing more background info on this ominous war, it would also follow that his mysterious past is linked with the war in some way.

Which also highlights that she has
noticed his deflections as well

Of course it, also follows that Estelle’s promise not to question him is an excuse to have some sort of big reveal that shocks everyone later down the road. But, considering how neatly Falcom has woven this acceptance of secrets into Estelle’s backstory with Cassius’ own wealth of secrets and evasive attitude, it all ends up feeling like a natural extension of her particular upbringing. Collectively, I’m just reveling in the irony that the slack I thought I was cutting the game was actually part of a major plot point. Again, it’s just more evidence of how poorly conceived so many JRPGs are.

Now, for this session I actually ended up replaying the entirety of Act 1 after learning that I skipped Chapter 3 of the Carnellia book series (more on this several entries from now). This slightly annoying and extremely time consuming little foray boldly highlighted the importance of paying attention to NPC dialogue, which I’ll coincidentally be expanding upon in the next update. So, in the meantime, here’s some more snarky empty chest text. No, they haven’t stopped, nor repeated a single line of text yet, and it’s kind of amazing.

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