Trails in the Sky #14 - Steel Hearts

RECAP: Those Meddling Kids

Inside the Lighthouse, the team is greeted by none other than the Raven members. Perplexed by this development, Agate tries to ask his former compatriots why they seized control of the lighthouse, but none of the members answer, and one despondently attacks him with unnatural strength. Realizing that the members are clearly not themselves, the bracers engage and incapacitate the now formidable gang members. Injuries aside, the team continues to ascend up the lighthouse, knocking out any and all Ravens along the way. Joshua astutely determines that they are being controlled via a crazy cocktail of strength augmenting drugs with a side effect of hypnotic suggestion, however no one has any idea of who might be pulling their strings, or to what end.

Gilbert was a valedictorian at Bond Villain Academy

 On the top floor, however, rather than more super criminals they find an unconscious Vogt, scheming Steward Gilbert, and two hooded “black-clad” assailants. Gilbert helpfully exposits like the Saturday morning Cartoon villain/bastard he is that the Mayor hired the assailants to burn the orphanage down so that he could build a series of upscale vacation homes to sell off to wealthy donors (like Duke Dunan, which is why the toad is visiting Ruan at this particular moment). Of course, the reason Gilbert is being so helpful is because he doesn’t expect the bracers to live to see another sunrise. Thus he orders the black-clad men to eliminate the team. The assailants, like the Ravens before them, pose a surprisingly difficult challenge, but the team emerges victorious nonetheless.

Recognizing that they cannot defeat the bracers in a physical engagement, the assailants use Steward

THERE'S BLOOD IN THIS GAME?!?!

Gilbert and Vogt as hostages to escape. Gilbert is astonished by this development and attempts to reign in the assailants, but they apparently read the fine print on their contract, declare that Mayor Dalmore is their actual employer, and shoot the Steward in the leg to demonstrate the sincerity of their threat. Refusing to let more blood be spilled, the bracers begrudgingly comply and let the assailants escape via a rope near the lighthouse beacon. The black-clad men leave the stolen Orphanage funds behind, but Estelle still wants to give chase. Agate and Joshua talk her out of this, and instead split up so that Agate will chase the assailants while Estelle, Joshua, and Kloe bring the mayor to justice.

Nah, just child labor profits from big corporations

Day breaks as the junior bracers make their way back to Manoria. They drop off the funds and consider how they are going to catch the mayor when bracers have a non-interference policy with government affairs. Puzzled they, decide to ask Jean for help in Ruan. But, before they reach the city, Kloe stops suddenly, lying saying that she has to tell the Dean at Jenis what is happening and will rendezvous with the junior bracers at Dalmore’s residence. In actuality, she sends a letter to an unknown party via Sieg. So, the group bifurcates yet again, and the bracers visit Jean.

He informs the bracers that they will need to catch the mayor in a compromising position, and suggests that they buy time interrogating the mayor while he calls the Royal Army to issue a formal arrest. Ten minutes later, an out of breath Kloe runs through the guild door. The pair explains their plan and prepares to put it into action.

At the mayor’s residence, the bracers (read: Joshua) smooth talk their way into the Mayor’s meeting

Topical!

room to find him negotiating a real estate contract with a drunk Duke Dunan (oh and Philip is there, regretting his life decisions). They accuse the mayor of arson among other things. Fortunately, while denying the accusation, he manages to implicate himself by mentioning specific information (like black-clad men) that the bracers withheld. He retorts by asking for what purpose he would do such heinous acts, yet it is Nial who emerges from the double doors with the answer: he has a mountain of gambling debts to pay off. He goes on to explain that the mayor’s mysterious (yet, not-so-secret) trips to the Calvard Republic were the lead he was trying to follow up on. Unable to deny his guilt any further, Dalmore hits a switch on the wall revealing a secret passage way to outside.

THERE ARE GUNS IN THIS GAME TOO???
WHAT AM I EVEN PLAYING?!?!

To the inside of the passage he calls for two very large and imposing monsters to kill off the bracers. Alas, despite their appearances, the monsters go down faster than a pair of Magpies in Spring, thwarting the mayor’s nefarious escape plan…or so they think. Just as the bracers move to restrain Dalmore he pulls out an artifact, which he calls the Chronos Rod, and psychically freezes the bracers in place. As the bracers (and Phillip & Nial!) are hopelessly frozen in place, Dalmore also draws a firearm and prepares to end the teens’ lives. But before he can carry out the dark deed, the black orbment in Estelle’s pocket (from WAY back at the end of Chapter 1) begins to glow. For unknown reasons, the light nullifies and shatters the Chronos Rod. Bewildered and desperate, Dalmore retreats through the secret passage way. The bracers (and Nial) give chase.

After winding around through some underground tunnels, the team emerges at the docks near the hotel. Dalmore just barely beat them to his Yacht and is already escaping via the sea. 

Noticing that there is still another motorboat in the harbor, Joshua, Estelle, and Kloe commandeer the vessel and continue their endeavor (much to Nial’s dismay). 

Superman ain't got nothing on this

The game of cat and mouse takes several exciting turns, and just as the mayor finally seems capable of pulling away, a ship appears from out of the sky and stops directly in his path to end the chase.

Curiously, the emblem on the airship is not that of the Royal Army, but her majesty’s Royal Guard. The mayor, perhaps out of cripplingly surreal failure, loses consciousness.

One more mystery to add to the list...

When he regains consciousness, just like the Capua family boss, he claims that he cannot remember the events from the last few months. Regardless the head of the Royal Guard forces, Lieutenant Julia Schwarz, thanks the bracers for their fine work and resolves to continue questioning Dalmore at another location. At the same time, Royal Army forces led by Colonel Richard arrive on the scene and question just how the Royal Guard managed to beat them to the arrest. The Royal Guard remain tightlipped and Richard levels a glance at Kloe, but the query is dropped and the bracers return to the guild to file the paperwork of their mission. Jean is pleased, but informs them that Agate was ambushed and has yet to return. He also adds that Agate had been chasing the black-clad men for a long time under Cassius’ order, and that the only reason he’s a bracer in the first place is because of Cassius’ insistence. So he’s committed to seeing his mission through.

The bracers also tell Jean about the black orbment and express their curiosity towards its origins. He unfortunately doesn’t know where the orbment came from, but informs them that Zeiss is the manufacturing center of orbments and they may find someone with the answer there. And finally, Jean concludes their visit by endowing the bracers with recommendations from the Ruan guild so that they can continue their cross-country journey.

Consistency is Key

Whew! What an exciting finish! This chapter on the whole felt more like playing through a television drama than the previous one, what with its strict adherence to the exposition, rising action, climax, dénouement format for each major story development. However, the formula’s execution was so flawless I didn’t even notice it when I originally completed the session several months ago. Unfortunately, the vast gulf in time since I last played has also dulled my memory of what I originally wanted to talk about, so I’m likely not going to be able to offer the same amount of insight as usual.

So to start, I appreciate that the secret lead Nial’s mentioned way back near the beginning of this

The EIC would be proud

chapter was revealed in such a timely and grandiose fashion. Rereading all of these journal summaries emphasized the fact that there are many things about this plot that we still don’t know ANYTHING about, and only a few of them (mainly the Black Orbment and Cassius’ disappearance) are now at the fore of our characters’ interest. So having one of these points of interests cleared up this quickly helps keep the narrative focused and gave this chapter a bombastic ending.

However, I don’t think that we’ll actually wrap up any of the game’s mysteries or fully understand the black orbment in the next chapter. With the way that these past two chapters are gone, it seems more likely that the bracers will have to deal with some domestic issue in Zeiss, and in doing so will tangentially learn more about the larger mysteries, but not everything.

Well, the game definitely knows how to build intrigue

And speaking of things we know little about, what is up with Kloe? The game strongly implied that she is secretly working for the queen’s royal guard, but hasn’t yet informed Estelle (or any non-royal guard that we know of) why her identity must remain secret. One would assume that this will eventually become a point of contention between Kloe and Est– well, everyone. But considering that this game is on the happy end of the sliding scale of idealism and cynicism, the developers may have revealed this to players in order to avoid a deus ex machina with the airship (just like in chapter 1). There’s not much more to say about this yet, other than that I appreciate the “edge” it gives Kloe; an intelligent épee fencer with a loyal falcon companion and a secret identity is all kinds of badass in my book.

From a gameplay perspective, I’m still shocked by how effective my characters are in combat, despite my skipping almost every standard battle in this chapter. According to the SomethingAwful Let’s Play my characters are still slightly over-levelled, but I’m fairly certain that the reason we’re doing so well is because I have a decent grasp of the orbment system and how to abuse turn order delays (thank you Final Fantasy X). A part of me wishes I had to strain myself a bit more, but I appreciate that my prudency and planning are being rewarded in some way.

Anyway, this is unfortunately all I can comment on at the moment due to the hiatus. I am still behind one play session where I actually started Chapter 3, so I will be leaning heavily on SomethingAwful to jog my memory. However, I’m not touching that this week. Next time, I’ll instead be going over the in-game book series Carnelia and discussing how it ties into the story thus far - assuming it does at all. And since I’ve never read any of it before, I’ll be seeing it with fresh eyes and youthful snark.

Also, since there were understandably, no treasure chests to open in this session, here’s another delightful moment that I couldn’t fit into the summary.

NPCs: Still the best thing about this game