SPOILER culpit liveblogs fruma (complete)

Actually, this is the quest where it's revealed that it's the Nasin family amulet that lets him revive.

 

He says he overclocks it here but I was assuming it was just a battery. I mean, Sovereigns are nominally immortal and it's much more interesting if they all have the resurrective immortality Zhiraok displays twice, because it means it's more of a puzzle to kill them. Even if you deal a fatal wound to their body, they're more comatose than anything and will get back up... so how do you kill a Sovereign? How did anyone kill Selium, and how do we deal with the Sovereigns now who're impossible to persuade to our side (Zhiraok, Majin, presumably Oru, presumably not the Spymaster)? It's a better narrative. (I'll be disappointed if the others are just durable but die when killed...)

 

Briefly exposed to spoiler radiation today. All I got was:

• My suspicion that Gikyo was going to be a major character was correct. (I was very certain.)
• The Queen is the physical embodiment of... something.
• Something about the Queen's later characterisation can be humorously misread as polyamorous inclinations, for meme purposes.

Poly is jolly. God knows what's going on here.

I'm not a big fan of the Mistwoods not being gated like the Roughworks. I think that's a mistake. Diegetic justification for getting access to it might be weaker, but it's very confusing to stumble into it before you're supposed to be there, and it can misfire narratives, like when I met Gikyo while he was trying to save his monster friend from being burnt alive in a wicker man, rather than however I was supposed to learn about him.

 

It is gated, there is a guarded wall and gate to the east of Timasca. The gate is just open for gameplay purposes & for repeat playthroughs if I had to guess, as I feel like around level 110 is where the XP curve got wild.

 

No, that's just ThePurpleEmerald being goofy.

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That's more of a failure of First Wicker's Spark (which I believe is what you found cause I haven't) than the Mistwoods themselves being open.

 

The problem is, you can't gain XP in the Mistwoods because everything is level-locked. I found First Wicker's Spark but I was several levels too early to gain anything. (Why is it in particular later-level?) And it breaks the pacing and narrative. It's just confusing.

Anyhow, encountered Aldwell. No introduction, and no idea where the Leaves went because I'm too low-level to continue the quest. This location is deeply strange, especially the fact that it has elves in. (I'm surprised Adasaurs aren't Highland things.) Why is it so vertical? Why are we introduced to a sprawling town in a region with extremely limited visibility? Why does everything turn red when I put my head at the right angle? How on earth do these people have such a large and visible settlement if nobody is allowed to live in the Mistwoods? How am I supposed to get the XP from this location's SD if I have no introduction to it? Am I supposed to comb through every building to find one that could have a library inside?

 

The Library is questlocked sadly. You may need to pay a visit to the batcave. (Auburn Grindspot)

 

Unbelievable.

I prefer to avoid grindspots, so I guess I'll have to... prose sigh... DO MORE TNA RAIDS. (I swear Fruma just deleted a bunch of XP I got from TNA, because I started it at level 106 0% and I was at least 40% through to 2.1 106.)

 

I ended up running into the writer of Scarred Springs on Discord and gave my elaborate thoughts (at request, I think) on it, to which I received the response of "A. my first quest and B. we don't change quests immediately after release". Which is entirely sensible. A critical eye such as mine would probably have done well in the beta, but I deliberately avoided it because I wanted a Pure Fruma Release. Alas.

 

what

On the beta I had no idea that the Mistwoods was supposed to be empty because Off the Rails was added in the second week and so were all other mentions of an empty Mistwoods. It's something of a plothole.

No, I did it without Burning Bonds?? Or any other Mistwoods quest? It's questlocked by Revelations in Fall, but Culpit has obviously done that??? What???

 

Spoiler: Quest sorta kinda

I couldn't begin it until I had the medallion from Burning Bonds on my first class.

Also, aside from some dialogue from Sui, I think that the existence (and remaining secrecy to the public) of the Mistwoods settlement is explained well enough in later content. The town is not visible from the Highlands or the Roughworks, and the perpetual mist hides pretty much anything too far away from view unless you're in the treetops.

 

Spoiler: why

the first conversation yields nothing, but if you talk to him again after the conversation changes and he says something along the lines of: I don't trust you but bring me flowers and I will!

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Eh. I guess. I just find it weird that there's a discrepancy and it never gets addressed.

 

Roaming the Mistwoods right now looking for SDs. And caves, I guess. I had a hunch there were three Petals after finding the first two, and indeed I found a third... but there's four powder types in vanilla, and I don't have any idea where I use these. My only suspicion is that if I collect all of them it opens Aldwell's library, because one is in Aldwell... but, let me check the names of the SDs. Yeah, it's just this and Light and Shadow, I've already found Wicker. So... ????

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One of the annoying things in Aldwell is that on one of the trees, there's a red carpet parkour path, but it doesn't go anywhere. It terminates in an empty branch.

 

Spoiler: Trying to be courteous

After completed burning bonds speaking to the library keeper will cause them to request your help in reaching the flowers, and tell you where they are. I'd assumed that the first dialogue option I found originally was the only one, so I didn't try again until I got the medallion.

 

While observing a chat in Wynntheory discord I had to run off due to realising spoilers, but not before I picked up that:

• The third boon set in Wartorn Palace debuffs you diegetically due to Corruption.
• You apparently receive some sort of megadose of Corruption at some point during the game (I initially assumed Anni but it's likely also WTP - I mean, wartorn), which would've been enough to completely overwhelm anybody except the player because we have plot armor.

And consequently inferring:

• The final boss of Wartorn Palace is a major Corrupted.

My guess as to WTP's boss was the Queen. Given that her eyes are Light and Dark, becoming Corrupted seems quite plausible (maybe Cosmic stuff delays it and that's why she's got all that crystal magic?) for her. But maybe it's this Anathema thing instead?? Idk?? No spoilers please??

 

WARNING FOR DEFINITELY TRUE SPOILERS:

Spoiler

The queen gets eaten by Annihilation and morph-sets into Anathema, final form of Corruption. It's absolute cinema.

 

most assuredly factual indeed

 

Seems Azael and Gikyo are "changelings". I've just now noticed that Gikyo has epaulettes. What a glorious thing. It feels like a juicy, perfectly cooked steak. I would like to devour it, and incorporate it into my nature. Its voice, its limbs, its eyes...

...Hopefully, at level 114 I shouldn't need to grind again for the remainder of Fruma.

 

...

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I'm really sorry but the quests don't give enough to level you on their own.

 

I do the other content too!