DAY ONE
Come, Jamrock-san, let's head out with our heads held high!
GT: Come on, Jam Rock-san, let's go home!
Yeah, we should.
Okay, let's depart!
The dirt road extends straight towards north, surrounded by fences.
As can be expected from people making a living from grazing animals, the tranquil landscape extends before us.
This is the village of Clinacle we were told about...
Anyway, we should pay a visit to this woman called Karikai.
Yeah, that's right.
--------------
In every town, there seems to be someone ready to blabber something in the first square we move into.
Weren't you ... one of my students in the dojo?
Oh my, travellers in this remote village, how rare.
Oh, and a miko-sama from the temple, too. What on earth happened?
Oh, good. We are looking for a claw woman by the name Karikai. Do you happen to know where she would live?
Oh, Karikai's house, that's straight north on this road. It's not far away.
I see. Thank you.
No need, just happy to help.
Uh-oh, if I keep lazing around here like this, Mummy's going to shout at me again. So bye!
So, I go straight north and find the house.
This should be Karikai's house if I am to believe the villagers...
Anyway, we should find her.
I knocked on the door, but got no response back.
...........
Maybe she's out?
I guess so...
I tried the handle, but the door seemed to be locked.
Probably out.
Do you have business with Karikai?
As I was wondering what to do now, an old man spoke to us.
Yeah, that's right, but it seems she's out right now...
She should be at the feeding lot around this time.
Feeding lot?
~~
Yeah, go back this road and ... go either round right, or round left, the road forms a loop anyway, and the feeding lot's in the north.
She should be working there.
Got it. Thanks, old man.
No need, it was my pleasure. Bye now.
Quite a bit of help from a friendly passer-by, no?
Yeah, that's right.
Anyway, I guess we should head for the feeding lot now.
In a random encounter, we meet bounty hunters who look somehow familiar. Let's see how Kalderina fares in combat. (Whole combat reproduced below.)
Ha-ha! Found you, Jamrock!
What?
We'll just capture you and get our reward!
Combat, round one:
Jamrock attacks the Master Bounty Hunter!
Master Bounty Hunter gets hit for 24 damage!
Kalderina attacks the Bounty Hunter!
Bounty Hunter gets hit for 8 damage!
Bounty Hunter attacks Jamrock with Rope Throwing Capture!
Jamrock gets hit for 2 damage!
The rope tightens and deals extra 7 damage!
Master Bounty Hunter attacks Kalderina with Sword!
Kalderina gets hit for 16 damage!
Jamrock's icon got a zig-zag stitch to indicate he's stunned.
Combat, round two:
Jamrock is stunned and cannot attack.
Jamrock takes a defensive pose!
Kalderina attacks the Bounty Hunter!
Bounty Hunter gets hit for 13 damage!
Bounty Hunter attacks Jamrock with Rope Throwing Capture!
Master Bounty Hunter attacks Kalderina with Rope Throwing Capture!
Combat, round three:
Jamrock is stunned and cannot attack.
Jamrock takes a defensive pose!
Kalderina attacks the Bounty Hunter!
Bounty Hunter gets hit for 12 damage! The Bounty Hunter collapses!
Master Bounty Hunter attacks Jamrock with Rope Throwing Capture!
Combat, round four:
Stun wears off now.
Jamrock attacks the Master Bounty Hunter!
Master Bounty Hunter gets hit for 27 damage! The Master Bounty Hunter collapses!
Kalderina receives 1 activity point! (1 Star = 2 activity points)
Everyone not knocked out in the party gets healed back to full health!
Kalderina wasn't bad, dealt a bit more damage than I expected.
I do not understand what this activity point thing is or why they're measured in stars.
Also, I guess hitpoints at zero means a knock-out and the party member is disabled for the rest of the day. I have yet to actually /get/ a party member knocked out though so I'm not sure.
There's also a random encounter with some wild dogs later on. Kalderina receives 1 activity point from that.
---------------------
So we find the feeding lot or whatever it was called.
On the fenced squarelike open space, chickens and goats had been set loose.
It seems this was the place the old man spoke of.
It seems the villagers were jointly looking after the animals here. The square was not big, but it was the way these villagers made a living and it was built conscientiously.
As I look through the feeding lot, I saw a claw woman tending the chickens.
Might that person be Karikai-san?
I guess so...
I decided to speak to her.
Excuse me. Are you the one known as Karikai?
...? Yes ... that is me?
She had a slight Claw accent.
Kalderina looked probingly at me for a while, and then asked her:
We are from the Zeinhad temple. We understand that you have previously consulted the church temple and ...
...!
As she started to talk, I saw shock in this woman's ... Karikai's expression.
...?
Ah, er, do ... you ...
No, we would just like to ask you a few questions about that.
I ... I do not have anything to talk about with you! Er ... that time ... was a bit ... so ... never mind ...
She was trying to gloss over something or other in a language she wasn't fully accustomed to, and the end result was indecipherable. ~~~
So ... please leave! I ...
...?
I noticed her body shivering.
The shivers reveal that she holds something. ~~~
What happened to this woman, I wonder?
But, even though she's asking us to leave, this is not the time for that.
- Try to talk with her
- Implore her
- Threaten her
I generally try to be reasonable. Number One.
I tried to say something to her.
But, before, at the church ...
Please leave! What happened earlier was not important. I am grateful that they let me stay here, but ...
A sudden improvement in communications skills.
She tried to cut off the conversation.
Anyway, I will leave now.
She hastily turned around.
チダイダン。 (Wait.)
She was surprised by the sudden claw people's words, she turned back.
Can you speak ... our language?
シ (Yeah...)
.........
Please listen to me for a bit.
I spoke to her in her own language, told her that Minvi had been kidnapped, that it was done by the claw people, and that a large-scale rebellion was related to these things.
Karikai was still slightly shivering, but she did manage to listen to me until the end.
..........
We currently have no information on these things. Please, if you have anything at all, can you tell us?
...........
...All right...
After thinking for a while, she spoke with human words.
I do not know how much what I can tell you will help, but...
If you come to my house, later, I will tell you as much as I can.
Thank you.
I felt some discomfort on how quickly Karikai agreed to speak with us.
But beggars can't be choosers. If she's willing to speak to us, we don't have a reason to turn her down either.
My house is...
Oh, we visited the place before we came here.
Oh. If so, I will go ahead and prepare a bit, so please take your time.
All right.
Then ... good-bye.
I guess we should head over to her house...
-------------------
We explore the village a bit, talk to people, knock on doors, ask around.
*knock knock*
As I knock, I hear heavy footsteps and then the door opens.
Oh, is there something wrong?
I'd like to ask some things about Karikai.
Hmm ... that claw woman ...
Well, she has quite a bit of mystery surrounding her.
Hmm?
Well, how should I put it ... She just stumbled into this village in the middle of the night, her first words being 'Help me!'.
............
Well, back then she couldn't speak other than her own language, so she said that in Claw...
When I asked my drinking buddy [who lives next door and is a claw person] what she meant, that's how he translated it to me.
And then, we thought something needed to be done so we brought her to the local temple church, and got her shelter there.
~~
She sometimes looks like she's scared of something, and she's been keeping quiet of her past ... but she does work hard so...
So nobody ever bothers asking her of her past.
I see...
Well, that's how it is. That's why the people here don't really know her that well.
You told us quite a bit. Thank you.
No worries. Well, I'll be off now.
Elsewhere, we learn that this village consists of about 70 % humans, 30 % claw people, whereas most other places in Altia have 90 % or more of humans (and in some places, the claw people even get deported)...
I also learn that Kalderina is pretty good dealing with children...
As a random encounter, we run into a soldier with dogs.
I think there's roughly a 1/10 chance of getting a random enemy encounter on every move.
You're Jamrock, wanted for questioning, right? Nowhere to run for you now!
Damn, they found me!?
There's a fight, but I use my Persuasion skill on the first turn to convince them that this is all in error.
Besides, wasn't the church supposed to send a letter to absolve me?
------------------------
We finally reach Karikai's house.
Karikai was waiting in front of the house.
Here, come in.
Once she made sure it was us, she opened the door and invited us in.
............
She somehow appeared restless, and was shifting her eyes all over the room.
.........
Err ... I will make tea for you...
Oh, please, no need to...
..............
Still acting unnaturally, she went deeper into the house and disappeared from our sight.
............
I felt some strange discomfort with Karikai's behaviour ... Not about her past that she wishes not to delve into, but more like that she is being menaced by something...
...!!
Watch out!
The next instant, I thrust Kalderina away.
Wha!?
The moment she let out that sound, she was falling out of her chair and onto the floor.
What's wrong, Jamrock-san!? Why in the world...
The next moment, claw marks, made with overwhelming strength, run over the table we were just sitting at.
...!
They were wearing masks and I could not see their facial features.
But, from the way they held their bodies, it was clear that they had been trained for combat. That, plus the bloodlust in the air signalled to me that we were in danger.
GT: However, the body, body, and murder of obviously battle-trained exercises had told me the dangers of danger.
I drew my sword, almost as if a reflex.
I shall summarise the ensuing battle here. It's not a difficult one but we do get a bit low on HP.
Three religious assassins again. They do around 5 damage per round, but they sometimes poison us (the green icon on Jamrock in the screenshot), which deals 10 damage for (I think) three rounds.
I get to try out Kalderina's healing skill. Heals about 25 hp. Not great, but better than nothing.
Incidentally, these enemies can heal themselves too. Discounting that, it takes 2-3 hits to kill one of them with regular attacks.
In the end, the combat ends with 65/150 hitpoints on Jamrock's side, and 61/100 on Kalderina's. Both have 86 work points left.
Kalderina received two activity points from the combat.
..........
The room now had a pile of corpses.
I peeled off their masks just in case, but none of them were faces I recognise.
Where is Karikai?
Ah!
We hurried to the corner of the house where she disappeared.
Ah!!
Don't kill me! I ... I ...!!
W-Wait a bit. We don't intend to ...
It took almost half a koku until she looked somewhat calm again.
............
But now she was silent, not speaking a single word.
In her state of stupor, we were not even sure whether she saw us at all.
GT: It is a suspicious self-destructed body and it is even doubtful whether he can see this thing.
............
But ... we can't wait like this forever.
- Ask about her past
- Ask why she divulged our presence to outsiders
- Threaten her to get information
Number two seems most reasonable.
Did you tell them of us?
..........
Why? Do you have something you want to hide so bad?
My words faded out towards the end. If the situation was indeed like that, we shouldn't pry into it.
...that's not it...
...?
At last she spoke, but it was not coherent yet. ~~~~
I ... I was just ... scared ...
...Wait a bit. Can you start from the beginning?
Yes...
Me and ... my husband ... were part of a claw organisation...
The name of that organisation was 'Order of Dark, Blood, and Claw'. They aimed to fight for the rights of the claw people...
I ... I wasn't so deep in the organisation as my husband was, so I don't know for sure but...
Under the leader, Timirtos, and his shaman granddaughter, they were apparently scheming for something terrifying, or so my husband ... Raderoim told me.
Raderoim was probably what her husband was called.
I and Raderoim decided to run away from the organisation.
But ... the Order did not let us go.
Before we reached this village, Raderoim was caught by the pursuers...
I ran for my dear life and somehow escaped, barely reaching this village's temple church.
But, the words of the pursuers from the Order who sank their claws into Raderoim's back, have stuck to my mind ever since.
"If you speak of the Order, you're next..."
I was so terrified by those words that I told no one of Raderoim, nor of the Order.
The people of the temple church didn't pry into it more than necessary, and arranged me a place to stay in this village.
But, about half a year ago...
Someone from the Order came by for a visit...
I first thought they came to kill me...
But I was wrong.
"Before long, a human investigating the Order may come to this village."
"If they come to you, direct them to your house, and let us take care of the rest for you."
And then...
And then, you told them of us?
Yes ... I'm very sorry...
You don't have to worry about that, but ...
Are you fine? Speaking of this after having stayed silent for this long...
~~~
No, I owe you at least this much...
The frightened expression she had back when we met was gone, and she now looked like as if she had come to understand something... ~~~
But...
We can't leave her here alone. She'll just get killed.
Er, Jamrock-san?
Hm?
The temple church of Clinacle could perhaps offer shelter to Karikai.
Indeed...
It's not a bad move. Even if someone from the Order of Dark, Blood, and Claw comes here, they shouldn't reach inside the temple church...
But, if they want it enough, they can do it.
They probably wouldn't spend that much effort solely for your sake.
...........
We have the letter from the head priest of the royal temple to back us up, so the people at the temple church should handle the situation with some gravity.
I understand. Please ask them, then.
We get the movement interface back. We can still talk to her, but what she says is quite uninteresting:
Aren't you going to the church yet?
No, I was thinking of packing a bit first...
But it might be dangerous if you wait until sundown...
If that happens, I will ask my neighbours to accompany me.
I guess that's OK then.
Thank you very much for what you did. I do not know how to thank you enough.
No, thank you too. You told us quite a bit.
Oh... I was hoping I could be of some more assistance...
No, you were of plenty help.
Oh.
Let's leave the house.
Well then... Thank you for your hospitality.
No, thank you. I caused you a lot of trouble and owe you everything.
No worries.
Yeah, I hate translating Japanese thank-yous...
We exited Karikai's house.
OK, this turned rather long so I'm splitting this update into two posts.
Here's the completed minimap of Clinacle: