Part 33: Beelzebub: Gluttony
In which we revisit Urbeth, the town of misery, and save the day again.
Previously on this LP, we rode the legendary fishie Cetus to defeat another fishie, Leviathan, and save Liberte, the town of art and, uhm, artists. It's time to be moving on now, and our next destination is Urbeth, the place of the Tower to the Sky and the four merchant lords, Mylion, Bylion, Trylion, and Thauzand. Yay!
We exit Liberte, summon the little dragon, and fly north to Urbeth.
Since we're in the past now, Urbeth is still a city of faith, not of merchants, it seems:
A terrible plague?
What have you against animals, sis?
You're so perceptive, SMA.
Remember Thauzand, the merchant lord who helped us a lot
in the past in the future? Well, it looks like his daughter has fallen ill, no doubt to the plague.
And her names is Elith, apparently:
Diseased NPCs are lying on the ground all around Urbeth, unable to utter a word:
First we visit Mylion, the owner of the local armour shop:
Oh yeah, sure, just like the Tower of Babel.
Well, what can I say? You're pretty stupid, folks.
Mylion doesn't take kindly to animals, by the way:
Shoo-shoo yourself!
I have a bad feeling about that.
People just don't learn from their mistakes, do they?
It looks like someone's trying to profit from the pestilence:
We should pay that greedy bastard a visit, I guess. As you may remember, "down this lane" is right where we met the sorcerer who unleashed the demon attack on Urbeth and ran away with our Black Cat.
What? We ain't no thieves. We'll kick the evil bastard's ass instead!
A traveling sheep?
Anyway, duly noted.
Inside the sorcerer's house, we find not the sorcerer but ... an Apothecary!
Screw you.
Nothing else happens right now though, so we better revisit this place later as the plot unfolds. Let's talk to NPCs some more!
Beelzebub's curse, you say? :twisted:
You don't say.
O RLY?
Doncha worry, bro, the heroes of light don't catch no diseases!
No one here finds us adorable, alas. :/
Not human, you say?
The point is, it's another fetch quest, yay!
Yeah, it's been pretty useless, it seems. But ... what if WE are the answer to your prayers, eh?
Suspicious!
Sure thing, especially if the animal in question is our pretty princess, Volly the white cat!
What does Beelzebub have to do with plagues and curses, you wonder? I will explain that below.
Merchants, merchants never change.
O RLY?
Nope, he's pathetic.
Finally a kind soul.
of NPCs.
Hey, we're right in front of you!
Merchants, merchants never change indeed. :/
Nope, we're going to cure it instead.
Egoistic much, dawg? I am disappoint.
Oh, I'm pretty sure we will.
BRO suggests we pay a visit to Thauzand:
So we do just that.
As we enter Thauzand's store, we see him standing at the bed of his daughter Elith.
We've come to act, not just pray.
Thauzand: There's a merchant in town selling medicine that would help, but he wants a fortune for it.
Yup, dear readers, that's the beginning of Thauzand's path to becoming a greedy merchant lord. And we're here to prevent that!
Oh-kay, I think it's finally time to revisit the evil and totally non-human Apothecary.
This time we're given a "choice". We choose "Yes".
Apothecary: Well, too bad. I'm sold out. I doubt you could afford it anyway.
Hehe. Maybe we should follow you there.
We exit Urbeth, summon our dragon and fly to the south, to the Hunting Caves:
This is another already familiar and totally explored area. Long story short, we need to make it to the last level, B4.
Some new enemies along the way: three
Orc Lords:
There aren't much of a trouble. The only interesting moment in this battle, is when BRO the Shaman uses Hex + Break:
I thought the Break spell would only petrify the Orcs, but it insta-killed them instead.
Volly and Codexer level up.
Volly -> level 29: HP +4, INT +1.
Codexer -> level 29: HP +5, STR +1, SPT +2.
And so we make it to B4:
The Apothecary is already here, right in the bushes, yay!
Yep!
:twisted:
He changes into a single Orc Lord. Meh, that's easy.
And the Apothecary disappears. We find a Hi-Elixir hidden in the bushes:
And then return to Thauzand:
Yup, we're altruistic like that.
Thauzand: I'm overwhelmed... I don't know what to say.
A simple "thank you" should suffice.
Thauzand uses the elixir, and it seems to have some effect on Elith:
Elith: Ah...
Thauzand: Thank you, my generous friends. Please, won't you stay at the town inn tonight? I would love to talk to you again.
Yeah, it's rest-at-the-inn-to-advance-the-plot time again!
Our heroes are hopeful:
We should head to the inn, I guess.
In the morning, we head back to Thauzand.
But something's wrong.
So the medicine we brought hasn't cured her.
Thuazand: Elith!
But Elith seems to be in some kind of trance.
The goddess?
Thauzand: Can it be?
Ominous indeed.
"We priests"? ...
...
[Intelligence] So the merchant lords of Urbeth were formerly the local priests?
With this, Thauzand leaves. We won't be waiting here, however, we'll follow him and the other priests to the tower!
O RLY?
Codexer, you are slow.
It's time to change our party set-up to the one you, dear readers, suggested. There were 6 suggestions in total, so I'll do three of them today, in the battle against Beelzebub, and 3 next time, against another archdemon boss. These are the three we'll be doing this time:
Jaedar's: Black Mage (Volly), Salve-maker (Codexer), Spell Fencer (SMA), Elementalist (BRO)
Kz3r0's: Elementalist (Volly), Salve-maker (Codexer), Spell Fencer (SMA), Fighter (BRO)
Also, Cenobyte suggested using the Party Host crown, so I'll do just that, adding three other crowns of my own choosing and making it an all-animal party!
Cenobyte's + Bee's set-up: Party Host (Volly), Salve-maker (Codexer), Beastmaster (SMA), Merchant (BRO).
This will also allow us to try out Merchant's combat abilities.
I had to go gem-hunting, and wasted quite a lot of time on that but finally managed to collect enough gems to upgrade the crowns as needed. I may do a separate mini-update on harvesting gems later. But now let's switch to Jaedar's party.
As usual, Codexer will be our healer:
We upgrade his Salve-maker crown twice:
Poison Pill lets you change a recovery item into a poison/bomb.
Healthcare makes recovery items work on the whole party. And
Dispensary allows the Salve-maker to not consume items when he uses them.
SMA will be our Spell Fencer:
We upgrade her crown twice:
Then we make BRO into an Elementalist:
Volly will remain a Black mage, of course, but we upgrade her crown to get access to Black mage's most powerful ability,
Magic Might -- a powerful magic attack targeting all the foes at once.
We need to requip our party now. We need to have the weapons, accessories, and spell books for all the three set-ups at once, as I'm not going to climb up the tower for each of them separately. Truth be told, I prepared our party for all the
six set-ups, just in case. Here's what my plan was initially like:
EQUIPMENT
Volly -> Black mage, Elementalist, Party Host
Weapon: Sacred Tree Staff +2, Fresh Meat? (Attack +10); Shield: Great Tree Shield; Armour: Scholar Gown +1 (possible replacement: Spell Fencer Armor); Accessory: Soul of Thamasa
Other: Cure Tome, Fira Tome, Leafaga Tome, Banishra Tome, Hi-Potion, Phoenix Down, Dragon Wing
Codexer -> White Mage, Salve-maker, Ranger
Weapon: Ranger Bow +2; Shield: Shield of Light; Armour: Armor of Light; Accessory: Spirit Ring, Giant’s Ring.
Other: Cure Tome, Raise Tome, Berserk Tome, Hi-Potion x2, Hi-Ether, Phoenix Down, Echo Herbs, Remedy.
SMA -> Spell Fencer, Hero, Scholar, Beastmaster
Weapon: Mythril Hammer +1, Book of Dryad +1; Shield: Great Tree Shield; Armour: Spell Fencer Armor; Accessory: Power Ring, Intellect Ring.
Other: Lux Tome, Berserk Tome, Cure Tome, Raise Tome, Shell tome (for BRO!), Hi-Potion, Phoenix Down.
BRO -> Elementalist, Fighter, Shaman, Black Mage, Merchant.
Weapon: Magic Staff +3; Shield: Great Tree Shield; Armour: Scholar Gown; Accessory: Intellect Ring, Power Ring.
Other: Cura Tome, Raise Tome, Silence Tome, Break Tome, Sleep Tome, Leafra Tome, Fira Tome, Shell, Hi-Potion, Phoenix Down.
But then I decided it'd be too boring to do the same boss six times, so I settled for the three set-ups I mentioned. But yeah, above are the things I carried atop of the tower.
As you can see from the list, I decided to upgrade some of the equipment: the Mythril Hammer, the Book of Dryad, the Magic Staff, the Scholar Gown, and the Sacred Tree Staff. I didn't know anything about Beelzebub's elemental affinities, so I chose neutral weapons and shields for the whole party. And here are the abilities I equipped:
We save our game and enter the Tower to the Sky.
Again, this is an already explored dungeon. The objective is to get to 10F. 10 floors of crawling, yay!
New enemies abound here. First there are
Evil Knights:
Just like Gargoyles, only blue-ish and stronger.
We have new tricks now -- lo and behold:
Then Volly does it again in an encounter against a Nue and a Lilith:
of our pretty princess.
Another new enemy is
Iron Golem:
Let's test SMA the Spell Fencer's new ability, Magic Infuse:
of SMA as well.
For Codexer the Salve-maker to be able to heal up everyone in our party, he should first use Dispensary...
...and then Healthcare + Hi-Potion:
Lo and behold, we are healed...
...and yet the Hi-Potion is preserved, yay.
BRO levels up, by the way, going to level 29: HP +4, STR +2, SPT +2, INT +1.
On 9F we save our game...
...as well as create a save slot with our Desmume. Why? Because I want only to redo the Beelzebub battle, not make it through the whole tower again. But I'm repeating myself.
We're on 10F.
We see the four priests/merchant lords here, as well as the evil Apothecary!
Now who does that remind me of? Ah yes, Thauzand himself ... in the future.
We approach the Apothecary.
Sure. Thought we'd just let you work your evil, eh?
With that, the Apothecary transforms into...
...a hideous octopus!
The Japanese sure love their tentacle thingies.
This is none other than Beelzebub, folks!
I've even managed to find a little piece of concept art for you:
Beelzebub –
Baal Zevuv (“Baal of the Flies”) or
Baal Zevul (“Lord of Dung”) – was originally a Philistine deity. As the Lord of the Flies, Beelzebub had it in his power to send or prevent plagues or curses of flies and vermin, of which there are several instances in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the Pharisees accuse none other than Jesus of being aided or even possessed by Beelzebub: “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons” (Matt 12.24); “He is possessed by Beelzebub, and by the prince of demons he casts out the demons” (Mark 3.22). That Jesus was a magician possessed by demons, was the most frequent accusation against him – as well as again John the Baptist – in rabbinic writings: “Yeshu practiced sorcery and led Israel astray”. (Compare Origen’s dictum that “those who invoke Beelzebub are magicians”; hence this game’s figure of an Apothecary, I guess.) It is no coincidence that Beelzebul means also “the lord of the heavenly abode” and – yes, a rival of God himself. In the
Paradise Lost Beelzebub is the prince of demons and the chief lieutenant of Satan. In Marlowe’s
History of Doctor Faustus Faustus proclaims himself to “despaire in God, and trust in Belsabub”: “To him I’ll build an altar and a church, / And offer luke warm blood of new borne babes.”
Beelzebub is also associated, in the
targumim, with the building of … the Temple of Solomon, the place of worship – just as the Tower to the Sky is in this game (which combines the Temple and the Tower of Babel motifs). Solomon used a magic ring inscribed with the tetragrammaton to call up the demons, of which the chief was Beelzebub, the “prince of all the demons”, who tells Solomon that he alone survived the Fall of Angels – which is also the name of Beelzebub’s most powerful attack in this game as we are soon to see – and rules over all the lesser demons. Interestingly, according to this legend, Beelzebub calls his demonic servants to aid Solomon in building the Temple. I haven’t been able to find the source of the identification of Beelzebub with Octopus in this game, but this seems pretty natural given the three things associated with him: dung (related to the octupus' "shapeless" shape), gluttony, and the many-headed (many-tentacled) curses and plagues he sends. Also, Octopus is traditionally one of the chief devil fishies, so yeah, that's that.
Again, I hope that Kuroneko-sensei will share her knowledge with us!
Now onto the battle itself.
Party 1: Black Mage, Salve-maker, Spell Fencer, Elementalist
Volly's low on AP, so she starts by boosting. BRO the Elementalist uses Mysterio to protect us against Beelzebub's magic attacks:
Codexer uses Dispensary, and SMA casts Lux:
I chose to give the Lux spell to SMA since she's an offensive party member who can waste the first turn without any harm or trade-off.
Beelzebub attacks melee:
This demon boss gets to attack only twice per turn. This shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Beelzebub can cast Firaga:
But thanks to BRO's Mysterio we are totally safe.
The bad news is, Beelzebub is resistant to all the elements:
That's why BRO's third-tier ability,
Elemental -- an all-element attack -- fails to do any significant damage to him. :/
Volly's Magic Might does work, though:
Good.
Volly's Spell Focus + Leafaga is less efficient than her Magic Might ability, however:
SMA's Magic Infuse deals some damage too:
Beelzebub's regular attacks can inflict all kinds of status ailments on us:
Apart from Poison, we can be cursed, silenced, blinded, and whatnot:
Codexer the Salve-maker tries his new ability, Poison Pill -- he makes a harmful item out of a Hi-Potion:
Agian, thanks to Dispensary the potion isn't consumed.
Beelzebub casts Fira, but thanks to Mysterio we're good:
SMA can also use Magic Thwart to make herself immune to magic for a few turns:
While the Magic Thwart effect is active, SMA takes no damage from Beelzebub's spells:
The nasty phase begins once Beelzebub soars into the air:
If we don't attack him for two consecutive turns, the demon unleashes his full power on us:
"Fall of Angels". What a fitting name.
But yeah, that hurts. The funny thing is, as you can see from the above screenshot, Beelzebub hurts himself for 676 hp when he falls back on the ground. A fall that hurts the fallen: "Fall of Angels" indeed.
But thanks to Codexer's Healthcare we survive.
Volly uses Magic Might again:
And then again when Beelzebub rises into the air:
Victory, yay! Black mage is indeed a very powerful class in this game.
to Jaedar's choice of classes. They all have served us well.
Party 2: Elementalist, Salve-maker, Spell Fencer, Fighter
We reload the save state...
...and now it's time for Kz3r0's party. We change Volly from Black mage to Elementalist:
SMA remains the Spell Fencer, but we add Leafra to her arsenal of abilities:
And BRO is a Fighter now:
Good. We disequip the Magic Staff, of course, since a Fighter fights bare-handed.
And it's battle time again!
BRO uses Chakra:
Then SMA uses Lux, and BRO's max HP goes up to 489. With this much health, BRO is nigh invincible. Volly uses Mysterio.
SMA still attacks with Magic Infuse:
BRO uses Frenzy-fu:
Truth be told, I expected more damage.
BRO's Jugular doesn't deal much damage either:
of BRO. Apparently, Beelzebub is resistant to melee attacks. So this party set-up is less efficient that the previous one in this battle.
Still, when Beelzebub rises into the air this time, we manage to deal enough damage -- with Jugular, Magic Infuse and Poison Pill + Remedy, which is more powerful than Poison Pill + Hi-Potion -- to cancel his deadly Fall of Angels attack:
A "Broken!" message appears, and Beelzebub falls onto the ground...
...dealing a whole lot of damage to himself again:
This battle goes slower, but finally BRO slays the demon:
Nice, yay! But melee is not the way to go with Beelzebub.
Party 3: Party Host, Salve-maker, Beastmaster, Merchant
Now it's time for Cenobyte's favourite class, Party Host, and my own favourite, Beastmaster. Plus a Merchant and a Salve-maker. Kewl.
Volly will be the Party Host:
She's our pretty princess, after all!
Charm psychs up one ally, and
Rouse, the whole party.
Pot Luck is one weird ability.
SMA will be the Beastmaster:
The only ability we're going to need is Combat:
Of course we change our party into an all-furry one.
And then we make BRO into a Merchant:
Money Talks is his most powerful ability -- the more money we have, the more damage it deals. We've got a whole lotta money, so let's see if it will indeed be worth it.
We equip a powerful dagger, Fresh Meat (lol), on BRO:
Now back to action!
Oh-kay. Volly uses Rouse to psych our heroes up:
Codexer uses Dispensary, and SMA casts Lux.
Since BRO's a Merchant, we can as well steal an additional gem from Beelzebub:
A Diamond, yay! Diamonds are only obtainable from bosses, so this is nice.
Let's try BRO's Money Talks out now:
Pretty good!
of BRO.
Volly uses Pot Luck -- a random status effect:
Now that we haven't got an Elementalist in our party, Beelzebub's spells do more damage:
Volly's next Pot Luck is a success:
It's high time for SMA to issue a Command:
Thanks to Volly all our hits are criticals. The damage isn't high, but still nice.
BRO uses Money Talks again:
Beelzebub rises into the air, but Rouse + two Commands in a row...
...bring him back to the ground:
And then another Money Talks finishes him off:
A total victory, yay!
We obtain 759 exp. Volly, Codexer and SMA level up:
Volly -> level 30: HP +3, STR +1, SPT +2.
Codexer -> level 30: HP +6, SPT +2, INT +1.
SMA -> level 29: HP +5, STR +2, INT +2.
Beelzebub is butthurt:
He vanishes into thin air, everything goes next-gen -- and the Crystal appears!
Crystal: O, Heroes of Light!
Crystal: Kindness and generosity again fill people's hearts.
And we are presented with a new crown,
Alchemist:
Crystal: Go forth with courage, Heroes of Light, go forth!
The priests/merchant lords thank us:
One could wish.
Well, Beelzebub is one tricky bastard.
I guess we should check on her!
But first it's time for some party banter.
Yeah, you're a true BRO.
What is this multikult bullshit?
Yeah!
:D
And we teleport back to Urbeth.
As if that wasn't obvious, duh.
O RLY?
Yeah, Beelzebub is famous for his curses, you know.
It's coming to ... the Apocalypse!
Of course we are!
Nope. Acts are more important than words and all that.
And we enter Thauzand's shop.
I hope too!
As right as ... a new penny?
And he hands us...
...the Cape of Light!
Indeed:
Thanks, Thauzand! A thauzand thanks to you!
Wee mites?
Next time: we'll be trying out spekkio's, Black Cat's and lightbane's party set-ups!
EDIT.
Black Cat said:
Yay!
Black Cat said:
Just like girls! Who are greedy and thus tempt them and esnare them to steal all of their hard earned money, then laught at them in front of all their friends and go spend it with some hot stud.
Grrrr.
Black Cat said:
Crooked Bee said:
She's on vacation, yay. Just like our local RPGCodex kuroneko is with her LPs. :rolls:
Missed you too.
I'm SO much in awe of your occult knowledge, Kuroneko-sensei!
Neko-chan said:
Here's my party suggestion:
