Part 10: Episode 9: Dust in the Wind
Oh so long ago when we left our fearless adventurers Shana had been horribly poisoned by a dragon. Happens to the best of us. Why do you think I haven't updated recently?
Welcome to Commercial City Lohan! No relation to crack whor*s. Quite a bit to do here but we need to take care of that pesky Shana and that whole dying thing first.
Shana: "It's true... If I were fine, it would be...fun..."
Dart: "You'll get well soon!"
Sanator: "I couldn't believe it was Dragon's poison until I saw it with my own
eyes. I have never seen such symptoms. There is nothing wrong with the
body...at least that's how it seems. But her consciousness has closed
inward after she arrived here. It seems the mind is poisoned, not the
body. I don't think the clinic can help her. I'm sorry, but in this
condition, it could be a week, if she is lucky."
Dart: "Can't you do something!?"
Sanator: "I'll do everything I can. What was a cute girl doing with a legendary
monster?"
Serdio continues to be a very progressive country. Although to be fair up until this point Rose and Shana are literally the only women we've seen fight.
Sanator: "Hold on. If we can get some Dragoni Plant, she may survive."
Dart: "Really!? Cause I'm pretty sure you are making that sh*t up. Have I
told you about my hobby of busting knee caps?"
Sanator: "I read it in a secret heirloom book. The problem is, as with Dragons,
Dragoni Plant exists only in legend. I cannot say for sure if it
really exists."
I want to imagine this guy as some sort of Mason doctor. Hording secret knowledge from ages past so only he will be prepared when the
winglies and dragons return.
Dart: "Even so.... We cannot wait like this, doing nothing! Let's go look for
Dragoni Plant on our own! We at least might be able to find something in
this town!"
Lavitz: "Lohan is a commercial town where everybody is welcome. There should be
some information here!"
Well I guess its time for that time honored tradition of aimless wandering town. Luckily I know where I'm going cause Lohan is a warren with a lot of dead ends and useless space. We'll head south on the bridge work then to the furthest east house. We have an old friend to meet here.
Dart: "Dabas!"
Lavitz: "It's the goofy merchant from the other day!"
And his music is back 
Dabas: "I'm glad you folks are here! Thanks for Villude, really! Now I can run
my business! So, what do you want!? You can find anything in Dabas'
Antiques.
Dart: "Do you carry herbs too?"
Dabas: "You got it! I have everything! From extremely rare medicine to secret
magical medicine!"
Dart: "Have you heard of the Dragoni Plant? I heard it is a very rare herb."
Dabas: "Oh! The Dragoni Plant!"
Dart: "You have it!?"
Dabas: "No."
Dart: "Dabas!!"
Dabas: "I remember hearing about it somewhere. Hold on a sec. Well, in this secret
notebook.... Yes! It's in here! It says, North of the poisoned forest.
Past the troublesome plant. Observed Dragoni Plant in back of the Shrine!"
Oh god Dabas is in on it too. They're everywhere. Alternately Commercial Town Lohan's economy actually runs on the buying and selling of plot devices.
Lavitz: "It reminds me.... I saw a strange plant in the back of the forest when
Shana took a rest."
Rose: "Oh, the one that became a monster because of the Dragon's poison.... But
you cannot get past it unless you purify it with something. I mean, we
could fly over it, light it on fire, then send the ashes to another dimension.
But I'm pretty sure that isn't in the script."
Lavitz: "How about the Spring Water underground!? That might help the plant."
Dart: "That's it! Thanks Dabas!"
Despite Dabas' bitching, you can't actually buy anything at his shop. If we head back an assistant at the desk and he just says he runs the joint while Dabas is off looking for crap. Jerks. Anyway. If we head back towards the entrance of town we run into a pushy salesman.
Dart: "That reminds me, we need something to carry the Spring Water. Let's
have a look."
Street Vendor: "That's my man! You have a sharp eye! I guarantee they are good
buys!"
Dart: "I want a bottle to put water in. Do you have one?"
Street Vendor: "Sure sure! This one's durable and the best quality you can get!
Dart: "How much?"
This guy is the worst salesman. The worst.
Lavitz: "Let's look somewhere else."
Street Vendor: "Hey, wait a minute! I was just kidding! Don't take me so
seriously."
Dart: "How much is the real price then?"
Street Vendor: "Yeah! It's about 3000G! Why don't ya buy it?"
We can haggle this guy down and he keeps getting increasingly desperate as we ask for markdowns. Eventually due to our manly prowess and angry scowls:
Dart: ...
Dart: "Well.... If you insist. I'll take it. Thanks!"
Alright. Now that we have a water skin(I can only assume we were near death from dehydration earlier), we can wander around town a bit. The doc said Shana had a week right? We totally have time to screw around here. There is four stardust and a few handy items to get.
Stardust #1 is right back near the entrance in a barrel.
Aaaand back to Dabas' place because I forgot some stuff there. Namely some armor for Shana that is presently useless to us since she's a useless sack at the moment. Angel Robe's main claim to fame is it has a chance to revive. Neat I guess.
Then we had inside. In thanks for his valuable info that could save our party members life we steal his stardust.
Now we'll head back to ground level and head east towards a tent that doesn't matter to us for the moment.
More importantly right across the road is Stardust #3.
I head upstairs and decide to stop in at the item and weapon shops. Item shop really has nothing of note. Some magic items but nothing that will really be useful to us now. The weapon shop is a whole different f*cking story
Why must you taunt me game. This guy is f*cking loaded up on good gear. 10k also gets you the Phantom Shield accessory that halves all damage or an Ultimate Wargod accessory that auto does Additions with full damage and SP. There is also a cheap version that does 1/2 damage and SP but that's a total turd. For 5k is the Dragon Shield and Angel Scarf which halves physical and magic damage respectively. We spend 60 gold on a cape for Rose and leave 
The last Stardust is in a bookshop to the left of the Inn. We need to pop open this secret door in the bookshelf. That gets us to ladder down to the fireplace/forge where the dust lies. Dart spends an awful lot of time shoving his hand in fires.
That knocks the major goodies out of our way and its time for some backtracking to the Dragon's jungle.
Lavitz: "Hmmm, according to Dabas, we have to get rid of that plant in order
to get to the shrine with Dragoni Plants." [Obtain: Life Water]
Dart: "Come on, let's go."
Dart: "The plant is wilting. We can go now!"
See that chest up there? Wanna know how many sh*ts I give about it? ZERO. Because every god damn chest in this place is empty. Shirley must be a huge jerk cause instead we get notes telling us to f*ck off. Not to mention notes on the wall saying we can kindly go screw ourselves and leave. The only chests that actually have loot are after the boss.
Rose: "That is...."
Dart: "What's up? A scuplture of a dragon?"
Lavitz: "Dragon.... I hope nothing bad will happen."
Rose: "Take out your Dragoon Spirits."
Dart: "They are resonating together."
Lavitz: "It means there is a Dragoon in there!?"
Rose: "Go see it with your own eyes."
Dart: "Let's move on."
As we head inside we have a few directions to go. Right ahead is a panel we can resonate with and heal ourselves with. Healing really isn't a huge issue here though. The fights are pretty weak outside of one quite rare enemy.
Most of the time we'll just run into these guys. They can do a mediocre physical attack or cast a dark spell. For some reason they loved doing it to Rose for almost no damage.
Step one in here is to run to the right exit just in front of the entrance.
Here we get our first clue for a really simple upcoming puzzle. We can also hop on those stones to get to another free heal spot. Why did they put two healing point? There is a kind of reason but its duuumb.
We'll head back inside then go out the door just above the healing panel. We have a nice little crank here which we turn. It opens up a door just below us. Which is actually the first healing panel. 
I have no clue why they made it a second panel instead of just a blank wall since we make it forever unreachable two minutes into the area.
And here is the second clue for the really easy puzzle through the now opened door. With that out of the way we can head straight north in the main room and up some stairs.
Lavitz: "There are three rotary plates, all with numbers from one to five. It
seems like a kind of apparatus with a numerical lock. You try, Dart."
Dart: "The first number is.... 5 The second number is.... 5 The
third number is... 1"
I shove a few random numbers in. I do not luck out on my 1 in 125 chance to skip a section.
Dart: "I guess it's wrong."
Lavitz: "I guess it doesn't work unless we use the correct numbers."
Lavitz. Master of deduction. Well that was useless I guess we'll keep going up.
Watch
Oh right I lied. There is one chest with something in it in this joint. 
Shhheeeerrlie! Jerk dumped us into a god damn mine cart ride. This can't end well.
Basically we go on a magical journey on all the rails we went past until now. Occasionally we ride under a sign with a number on it. I think you can see where this is going.
Sunday sunday sunday! Extreme mine cart action coming to an abandoned temple near you!
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu---
Dart: "Wh, what was that?"
And we find ourselves in the water back at the entrance. I am going to punch Shirley so hard when I find them.
On our way back I finally run into the other main enemy in the area. Strong men carry around giant columns. They beat you with them. Strangely these columns are also cannons. They'll fire out explosive rocks that hit your entire party for middling damage.
And now back through the level and to the lock. We have our numbers to actually put in and a ladder drops down so we can climb to the next area. My numbers were 352, but they are randomized so this won't do any of you jerks a lot of good.
Oh hey. Stairs with statues matching the earlier areas. Nothing suspicious here. Just climb to the top and--
God damn it, Shirley. You could hurt somebody like this. Once we finish getting a concussion we rotate the gold one forward and the silver one left. Now the stairs will not try to kill us.
Save point, open area. Boss fiiiiiight.
Watch
All that slogging through here and the welcome we get? Throwing knives. Badly aimed throwing knives, but the point stands.
Drake: "'Cuz I won't let you go further! Come on! Draw your sword!"
Dart: "Wait! We are just here to look for the Dragoni Plant! We don't want to
fight!"
Drake: "You want me to believe that!? You must be after the treasure, aren't
ya!?"
Dart: "That's not it!"
Drake: "You thieves!! Now you reveal your true selves!! Prepare yourselves!!"
Honestly Drake is a pretty damn easy boss fight. I didn't heal once the whole time.
His bread and butter attack is a knife throw. Does about 30-50 damage depending on the target. Not scary in the least. After a few attacks he decides to up it a bit.
Drake: I'll show you one of my best traps!
Cause his others until now were so scary.
Drake reaches into a magically appearing chest and heaves out a few bombs at us.
They slowly roll themselves towards us. I think Drake can kick them or something. You're dumb if you give them a chance though.
Giant rocks to the head are not good for Drake's health or his bombs.
Drake: Fine. But, how about this!
This one at least has a chance of doing something to you first time. If you try to attack Drake you get caught in wires and damaged. Luckily it has no HP and two attacks take it out. The battles basically done but the formalities at this point. Drake can heal himself for about 360 one time, but that's of no consequence.
Since all my party has full SP I can use the Special command. Basically all 3 of your Dragoons transform at once. This is pretty damn useful. A) they at least get one turn with the extra def even as a level 1 dragoon. B) you can use it to heal status effects. Transforming into dragoon clears them all. So even if they are stunned and you are out of status heal items you can get them back in the fight. C) the person that started it auto succeeds on full Dragoon Addition attacks. This is handy cause as anyone that has watched the vidos knows I blow at Dragoon Additions. Should have played more Shadow Hearts. D) While the person that started the Special stays in Dragoon mode their element is boosted and the opposing element is weakened.
Also the battlefield background switches to a color scheme matching the dragoon. A few more additions, some fireballs, and a bit of loving stabbing brings this to an end.
Shirley: "Drake...it's okay now. People with Dragoon Spirits. Why are you
disturbing my quiet moment?"
Lavitz: "What are you!?"
Dart: "We are not here for that! We are here to save our friend's life!"
Shirley: "Life of your friend?"
Rose: "Do you remember me?"
Shirley: "You are.... Rose, aren't you...?
So, sweet cheeks, just how long are we talking here? I mean, you don't look that old, Rose.
Rose: "You too, Shirley."
Dart: "Won't you spare me some Dragoni Plant!? Shana is suffering from
Dragon's poison!"
Shirley: "Dragon? Oh, they are still clinging to life. ...Unfortunately, I
don't have any Dragoni plant."
Dart: "Then, what about Shana?"
Shirley: "There is one way to save her."
Dart: "I'll try anything! Just tell me!"
Dart: "Dragoon Spirit!?"
Shirley: "A Dragon's poison can be removed with the Dragoon Spirit of a White
Silver Dragon, which is filled with healing magic. Now, I will
challenge you to see if you deserve this Dragoon Spirit. Shall we
begin? Try to overcome me. If you cannot do it, the girl's fate is to
die."
Technically this is a second boss battle, but definitely not really. In fact it will take far longer if you attack! Basically Shirley just wants to ask you a bunch of questions. Attacks will be immediately responded to with counters.
We can go with either answer here. It really doesn't matter. Basically it decides if she'll bug Dart or Lavitz first.
Shirley: Dart. Bare your heart to me."
Before her next set of questions she transforms into Shana. Our answers WILL matter on this.
Shirley: "Dart, I have been waiting. Why did you leave without
saying a word?"
Dart: "To pursue the Black Monster."
Shirley: "The Black Monster!? Dart, what are you going to do after you find
the Black Monster?"
Dart: "Of course, get revenge!"
Shirley: "Revenge!? Please, forget about revenge and be with me. The Black
Monster or me, Dart?"
Dart: "Shana."
Shirley: "Really? Dart, I'm so happy!"
With that she changes back into herself
Shirley: Lavitz, show me what you believe
This time she turns into King Albert.
Lavitz: "That's not like you!"
Shirley: "Are you disobeying my order? Lavitz! Are you disobeying my order?
Choosing one over many?"
Lavitz: "Shana needs me!"
Shirley: "Lavitz, well said. That's the renowned Knight of Serdio. Life is
precious whether it's one or many. Help out with Shana."
Once again our choices here don't matter. We just get a slightly different bit from Shirley.
Dart: "No matter what, I will go."
Shirley: "Brave young people, what you'll see is all the truth. Never gaze
away. Only total acceptance brings you to the way."
OR:
Dart: "I'll save Shana and go home."
Shirley: ""That is fine. There is no greater bliss than time spent with
loved ones. Rebuild your village, raise children, and weave your
future. Don't forget your feelings."
Lavitz: "Mother."
Shirley: "It's human to care about parents. You are human before being a
knight. Parents care for children and a child yearns for its
parent. The bonding makes a human strong. Don't forget you have
somebody waiting for you."
OR:
Lavitz: "Lordship."
Shirley: "A lord's role is to bring people together and give orers. A
knight's role is to serve, and to ensure peace and a safe place
for people. The times need you. Never rush to die."
Both choices here actually give us the same response. I find my choice to be the most appropriate though.
Rose: "Nothing but sacrifice."
Shirley: "Rose, I see the end of your agonizing journey. The young man
there will awaken the old you, and lead you to the future. Now,
illuminate the dark road with my White Silver Dragoon Spirit. The
new Dragoons!"
Shirley: "That was beautiful. Take this with you as I promised, but I have one
favor to ask. He has protected my peace from countless attempts by
bandits. He stood up to you for me. Please save Drake. I don't have
an entity so I cannot draw on the power of the spirit."
Dart: "But I don't feel any power holding it like this."
Rose: "Hold it up with the spirit of the Red-Eye Dragoon Spirit."
Dart: "This is!?"
Shirley: "Your Red-Eye Dragon draws the healing power of the White Silver
Dragoon Spirit."
Drake: "Ah... Ahhhh...."
Drake: "Am I...alive?"
Shirley: "Good."
Dart: "We can save her with this!"
Shirley: "Dart, gazing at the truth sometimes brings pain, but you will be
able to overcome it."
Shirley: "Farewell Rose. I am looking forward to the date our roads of fate
cross again."
Dart: "Shirley!?"
Rose: "She is headed to the place where she belongs."
Dart: "Let's go. Shana is waiting."
And after a lot of warm feelings and happy thoughts we have our fourth Dragoon Spirit. I'm sure NO ONE be using this for a while right?
We can no go in the building at the end of the path. All of the chests but 2 contain 20g each. There is also a healing wind and Rose's next weapon Demon Stiletto. It has five more attack and a chance to Fear enemies. Fear is pretty god damn brutal. You take 2x as much damage and do half as much.
And with that Shana should be on the road to recovery. You know what that means right? Fighting tourney. Of course. I'm pretty sure I read the next update in Dark Id's Xenogears thread...we'll just have to see now, won't we?
Bonus Art!
Drake
Shirley
