Wow! Now I could come and go from this place! I had been here before when Sailor Mercury brought me here to meet Pierce Stanson for my Grandmaster Artisan test and to use the Sun Magic device - I could now use Gargantuan - but now I was free to explore this place fully.
I inhaled the sea air and nearly choked on it. Careful there, Sierra! Last thing you want to do is choke to death halfway through your journey! You are young, enjoy life! ;)
"Uh... Sierra, could you hold off on adventure until I do an errand?" said Christina. "I'll be right back, I just have to go find Corusade."
I nodded, recalling how she was trying to learn how to summon Ra. "Go for it, we'll wait for you."
I greeted Pierce again. "Hi, I'm finally able to get here without help!"
"Good show!" said Pierce. "Any luck finding that lion guy?"
"No, but I sent a bird to Grace, she'll reply soon," I said, smiling. "She's from Zafaria. Anyways, I'm here on business now. Me and my friends need to find the parts to the submerman... er, whatever that is that I need to get into some dangerous sea currents."
"Oh, the submersible parts!" said Pierce. "I've bad news, then. It's been a relentless assault since we arrived on this world and now we're in a bit of a jam."
Mindy grinned. "Tell us! We're happy to help!"
"Some dastardly saboteur has untethered our dirigible, the SGS Explorer. We kept the supplies on the dirigible, including the submersible parts, to keep them from the Water-Moles..."
"Water-moles, eh?" I said. I recalled Grace telling me on one time she visited Skull Island to meet with her confidant, Clever Agnes Thatcher, the pirate who was hunting down the map of El Dorado, and she had seen a colony of humanoid platypi which Agnes called Water-Moles. She had even visited a place called Rapa Nui and seen such a creature wearing a mask! "My friend said they were friendly where she had been."
"Well, they aren't friendly here!" said Pierce, shaking his head. "Anyways, the dirigible's gone!"
"Oh great," said Mindy. "Out of the frying pan..." I glared at her to shut her up.
"Suspecting the worst," said Pierce. "We sent a search party after it... but the Sea-Spirits bedeviled us and kept us from searching further."
"Oh, that's not good," I said. "We'll be glad to help - I doubt Sea Spirits can stand up to our power."
"If you can help, you're my new best friend!" cried Pierce in happiness. "I'm tapped for resources and am so weary."
"You rest your feet, Mr. Stanson!" said Mindy, striking a pose. "Sailor V is on the case!"
"Yeah," I said, shaking my head. "We'll help."
"Can you go roust those blighters?" said the quartermaster. "Don't worry about hurting them... they're just animated water!"
We headed to the entrance and spotted the water elementals, giving them a good thrashing...
But after a few fights, I felt my head throb and collapsed...
I was in a familiar place... the Palace of Fire. I saw one of the Marleybone soldiers nearby... as well as Grace. "Another of those wacky visions?" asked Christina.
"Yeah," I said.
"As I said before, we are connected in heart," said Grace. "You must be ready to summon Ra."
"Yep," said Christina.
"I met Corusade, and he told me that a fire spirit called Helios had the Sun Shard I needed. Well... It was a tough battle. Whenever I put up a shield or blade, he threw a trap on me!"
"That samoorai I fought, he had the same gimmick, Mma," said Grace. "Rra Fairyfriend, beware. You might have another enemy who does the same." I nodded.
"I won, but only because a zebra warrior called Kameli Wintershield was passing by and heard me fighting and helped out."
"I see, another of my people," muttered Grace.
"He said that there was war in his world," said Christina. Grace was in distress. "I don't get it."
"It's okay, Grace, you'll be fine going home," I said.
I nodded. (This is the Balance "Fair Play" boss, and while it's not difficult for Christina to power through it, she is... not built for tanking, so I had to hire a Level 70 Ice Henchman to keep her alive while she spent the time up setting up a max-pip Judge to defeat the fire elemental. You have to keep blades and traps to a minimum in these battles.)
"Well, here goes everything!" said Christina, holding up a glowing yellow shard of crystal. This must have been the Sun Shard Helios gave her.
I tried to tell him to get back but he didn't hear me - I guess I wasn't really existing there.
He did tear out of there in horror when the THING came out. It was handsome and amazing. THIS had been a human like us?!
"Thanks," said Christina, grinning. "Just trying to do my part."
"I will give you the power to summon me in battle, Champion of Balance," said Ra. He turned to us. "You will keep balance even in the future, when you will join your friends as Children of Shadow and Light." I couldn't speak. "Sierra, I saw you in the Waterworks, when I defeated that demon. What I said before holds true today. Be prepared, your newest enemy makes Malistaire look like nothing, her evil is far greater. You will need to remain together if you want to save the Spiral again. Farewell."
I watched as he unleashed the heat of the Sun into the chamber and disappeared.
"What was that?" I gasped. Grace got a sad look in her eyes.
"Children of Light and Shadow?" said Christina. "Weird. I guess immortality and divinity makes you a little bit eccentric."
Grace was speechless but I sensed fear in her.
"Group hug!" I cried. We tried to hug but it was just not working...
"Sheesh!" cried Mindy, slapping me awake. "Are you sick or something? I mean, you just zonked out and I had to carry you back to the campsite!" I saw the familiar Sun Device, I was back in that camp Amy had taken me to a few times in the past.
Christina teleported in, showing off something. "Al told me to go see the Norns, and I went back to Wintertusk to get an egg, beat a mean raven for the egg, and it hatched."
"Judgement as a pet?" I asked. "Well, doesn't that beat all?"
(I didn't bother showing the Level 58 egg quest for Christina - she got her Judgement pet quest just before the final step of her Ra quest. You have to go back to Hrundle Fjord, speak to the Norns, and then go to Sudrilund and enter a cave near the Hero Tree to fight a tough raven boss; he didn't cheat but he has over 8400 HP and is Balance so it was a pain to fight him and he has a Gloomwing Darktalon, which is Fire and just as nasty. I hired the Level 75 Crab Shaman Life henchman and just pulled through with the skin of my teeth - Grignr LOVES spamming the tri-shields so you'll do bad damage with Spectral Blast or Hydra. I was spamming heals to keep Christina alive. In the end, a critical hit buffed Judgement took him out.)
(And it took 21 hours to hatch. However, since I was offline all day Saturday, it hatched offline... and got Unbalanced[Balance resist] for its teen talent. Well, it could have been a Selfish Talent and poor Christina sacrificed all of her Balance Resist. I may just have her craft some gear as she can't find anyone to help her through WW.)
With Christina back, we got back to work and defeated the rest of the Sea Spirits.
Pierce told us that the Water Moles placed sea crystals that came in from the shore onto an altar to the Storm Lord to calm the spirits, so we did that and the spirits vanished.
It's always something, isn't it? :(
We battled the leaders of the Jungleteeth wolves, Wildfang and Bristleclaw, but their Jungleteeth mooks kept smacking us with fire elephants. We lived, though. Fluffy ensured that.
"Hey, what's a book doing out here?" asked Christina. I checked it - it was the Hound Zodiac tome! I took notes for the journalist. Four down, eight to go! (One of the wolf leaders has this book in his lair. Don't miss it. I checked, there is no Lounge Lizard in the Floating Land.)
"I hope so," I grumbled. "Do you know why you can't make peace with the Water Moles?"
"If you could defeat a few of them, maybe then we could make peace with them," said Pierce. "They're as much a trouble to them as they are to us!"
Ugh! I hate these wild wolves. :(
Well, it has to be done.
Pierce told us to speak to a tribal shaman of the Water Moles called Tupa Tua.
We met him but the first thing he said? "Outsider, we have your Sky Captain!"
"Hey, you'd better let him go!" shouted Mindy. "Or else..."
"Stuff it," I whispered. I bowed. "Sorry, my friend chatters too much, ignore her."
"I will not talk to you Wizards, not without my magic stick," said Tupa Tua. "Magic stick protect me from Wizard Wards, but Water Lurker called Gahlwok stole it!"
"We'll get it back," I said.
You use that for breaking shells?
BREAK THIS.
"Okay," I said. No point arguing that I wasn't going to curse him. Water Moles are pretty weird. "Look, we need to find Sky Captain for special parts."
"You out of luck," said Tupa Tua. "Sky Fish fall from sky and break apart. We lost Water Mole idols, idol protect us from bad juju. You bring Water Mole idols back to us, we talk."
Again? UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH! :(
We did find out who was making the Jungleteeth rampage, a jungle treant called Tangleroot.
We pruned him, but not before his treant pal unleashed the Death Ninjas on Chris. Man, that sucks.
"Thanks," I said. "Is there anything else we can do to help?" I knew that helping these guys would really give us a lead to our investigation.
"Talk to our chief, Mah-Ke Moa," said the Water Mole shaman. "Be sure to show respects!"
We bowed before the tiki at the entrance to show our respect and the chief responded favorably.
We gathered food for the tribe which the Jungleteeth had stolen. I knew it was important to eat, so we made sure the food had not spoiled. Luckily, the sea air had kept it fresh.
"Thank you," said Mah-Ke. "Now help us further. Moles from tribe drink poisoned water, go crazy. They steal good spears from us and use them against us! We cannot lay a hand on our brothers, so please go and get the spears back."
It broke my heart to kill these people but we had no choice. We were giving them mercy killings.
"The water must have been polluted by the leakage from the crashed skyship," said Christina. "That poisoned them. We're lucky they went crazy and didn't die."
"They are still dead," I mumbled.
"Buck up!" said Mindy. "We saved them!"
"Maybe Coruscade the living waterfall can purify the water," said Christina. "I know where he is."
"Here's the cuplrit," said Mindy. I was shocked to see the wreckage of the skyship. It was a mess.
Christina saw the culprit - the engine was pouring its goo into the water. "Help me out, girls. We need to get this troublesome motor out of the water so it won't poison it."
We worked hard and I felt sore for days after that heavy lifting, but we managed to remove the motor and Christina sealed the broken valve.
"That should keep it from polluting anything else," said Christina. "Let's go."
 |
| Camera angle fail much? :p |
I was amazed to see a waterfall with a face. I waved. "Thank you for helping my friend, Christina!"
"Greeeeetings," said the waterfall. "Weeeelcome back to yoooou, Wizard of Baaaaalance. Whaaaat can I doooo for yoooou?"
"Can you purify the water for us, Coruscade?" said Christina. "We've removed the threat but the water is polluted."
"Yoooou will neeeed some sacred baaaark from the Junglethooorns and mossy rooocks from the Rubble Roooousers," said the waterfall.
I sighed. More defeat and collect. But we were able to take them out. I love getting the rush! (Sierra criticaled several times during this part and nobody blocked. Woot, overkill FTW!)
We spoke to Tupa Tua to make two sacred bowls, one for the Water Moles who had been recently poisoned to cure them and another to purify the water. Corusade filled the bowls with his 'heart-water' and we took moss from the rocks to create an antidote, which we gave to the Water Moles.
The chief told us to deal with an evil spirit which was causing the madness.
Careful...
DANG IT, MINDY! DO YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME? (I got rid of her Wayfinder's Helmet - we lose Ninja Pigs but it clashed with her outfit.)
The Pigs managed to finish this evil spirit off.
"Now to clean the water," said Christina.
We poured the other bowl's contents into the polluted lake and it magically cleared up. "Phew," I said. "Let's tell the chief what happened."
He was pleased. "Can you help us, please?" I asked. "We need to find Sky Fish Captain to save Celestia from evil witch!"
"We saw crew of sky fish deep in jungle," said Mah-Ke. "They should still be there."
We managed to find the crew. "Thank goodness!" said one of them. "This place is madness."
We directed them to the beach camp and they directed us to the ruins of the skyship, where Captain Fogg was presumed to be.
We had to deal with more Rubble Rousers... who began to spam Regenerate. :(
Too bad for them we could one-hit kill them. :p (I was in the area so I decided just to take out Fogg's side-quest.)
Captain Fogg was in the ruins, all right. "We're willing to help everyone who needs us, we're the Sailor---" Mindy began to say but a cold glare from me silenced her.
"Glad you're okay, Captain," said Christina. "We are looking for submersible parts."
"The submersible parts, you say?" said Fogg. "Well, look around! They were scattered all over the jungle when the ship crashed."
"Do you know how the ship got untethered?" I asked.
"I haven't the foggiest notion!" said Fogg. "I was sure that the tether was secure! I guess Murphy's Law never rests, ha!"
I shrugged a bit. "Well, we'll see if we can't at least let the base camp know you are all right. Thanks."
The parts were in crates which we lugged onto Christina's cart. "Time to go back under," I declared once we had all the parts loaded. "It was nice seeing the surface of Celestia but we need to get moving with our investigation - we need to locate the Lunarium."
We headed back to the elevator back to Base Camp.
"That's a Sailor Wizard for ya!" said Mindy, striking a pose. I sighed.
"So, we can head to Stormriven now?" I asked.
"Of course!" said Edith. "We'll get the submersible working for you in no time and you can head to Stormriven Hall once we're done. In the meantime, can you check up on Leland Hawkins for us? We lost contact with him a while back."
"Can do," I said. "Let's go, girls!"
"To Stormriven!"
[To be continued...]
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