Curate of Curiosities

Previously on The Reconstruction, the guild unknowingly aided the slave trade, and then helped to uncover uncharted territory full of more Shra to enslave.

But more importantly, it gained quite a few ranks, so now it's eligible to take on some more sidequests, one in each of the settlements that we've visited so far.

In Nal, we can take on Sirush's quest, "Stalker."

Now what was the first walking sim to make it big? Dear Esther? When did that come out? In 2012, even though it prototype came out in 2008. Wow, this game really was ahead of its time!

So the whole thing about this quest is that he's freaking out in Nal's in and hallucinating the assassins' guild coming to get him for accidentally killing his wife. Except his wife isn't actually dead.

Back in chapter three, there was only one quest that took place in Fortifel before the team had to set off to Sanctifel, so it's nice to see this map getting some use.

It's called "Put My Mind To It," and revolves around Tehgonan wanting to apply to Fortian school, even though the reason that he joined up with the guild is that he didn't want to go to school.

As difficult as this test is hyped up to be, it's not really that hard if you've been paying any attention during the game, or even took a look at the glossary. It's easier than the trivia room in Falitza's quest, at any rate.

Obviously, he's too young to be a proper Fortian, but he's definitely on their radar. But then, someone calls for him.

Now who do we know who's incredibly racist against Shra? Okay, quite a few people in fact, but can you think of any named characters who might bear a grudge against them? Any who might have fought along side them up until they got depressed over their dead girlfriend?

It doesn't really matter, as it's his mom who's come calling for him. But Ques manages to talk her into keeping him with them.

Next stop is Wadassia, where Falitza has her own quest, "The Cure For Nothing."

Damn, Qualstio really is a celebrity over in Fortifel

So this is Falitza's brother, Hunio. He's pissed that his sister's been carted off by a gang of randos, and I don't really blame him. Since her mind's broken beyond repair, he tries to drag her off to a physical therapist.

Sadly, she needs a stamina stat of 70 to start the therapy, and at the moment, hers stands at just 56, so that will have to wait.

In the Berylbrine Outpost, it's Kidra who has a quest for us, "I Wanna Believe". She hasn't been in the active party since she joined, so any opportunity for her is welcome.

Interact with her in the outpost, and you'll find that there's something in the jungle that she seems particularly interesting. Yet for her to investigate, she'll need to lead a party consisting of charismatic individuals, that is to say, not shra.

Most of my active party qualified, so Dehl was the only one I had to switch out.

It's a drug bust. As if the slave traders weren't bad enough, now we have drug dealers.

The gimmick is that most of the smugglers here can be distracted so as not to disturb Kidra's search for the drugs.

Heheh, it's funny because her intro scene had her coming on to Dehl like this, and now this Shra is doing the same to her.

After distracting, or failing to distract, enough people, she can reach the tent on the far eastern side of the smugglers' camp, which, surprise surprise, is where the drugs are being held!

She decides to set the whole thing on fire in full view of the smugglers, because anything else would make too much sense.

It's a miniboss, but due to Kidra's smooth talking, it's barely even worth the trouble of recording. As far as optional bosses go, the Cryomancer put up more of a fight (as well as had an interesting gimmick).

Kidra's an undercover cop working to keep both the Nal-Guard and Nalian officers in check, because the latter seems to have been involved in the drug trade. That's...something, time to put you back in the reserve.

It's another quest where you go through a hallway just like before, and at the end, we find the biggest Shra we've ever seen, which the hunters immediately tie down and leave in the outpost for the slavers.

You know what, I've had it with being complicit. Time to break him out.

So if he really is at death's door, then he should have had much more trouble breaking out.

So, the goal is to find Kulkumatz a place to die, as mentioned in the screenshot above. For that, we need to go through another battle gauntlet, except there isn't even any exploration, just cutscenes.

It's been three chapters and 11 hours of gameplay, but we've finally found out what the title refers to! Something that happened centuries before the events of the game, and is only mentioned in an optional sidequest!

And even better, Falitza's enemy scanning spell finally works!

So remember how we were sending him off to die? Well, after we're done with the quest, Kulkumatz changes his mind and decides to go along with us.

And for the first time since chapter 1, someone makes notice of the incredibly upbeat fanfare that plays when we get a new party member.

Before we move on with the plot, let's check on Brenetto once more. Sadly, this is the last we'll see of him, as he has to ship off back to Fortifel to share his findings. Okay, just as long as you don't try to pick fights against the councillords and smash shit up.

For this next mission, I told Qualstio to take five and put Kulkumatz in his place. Not that it really mattered.

You start the next quest by talking to Aryn, who you might recognize as Skint's partner. She doesn't say anything, nor does she do anything over the course of this quest. So I wonder what her purpose is in this game other than looking creepy and mysterious.

It's been a while since we saw you last, Skint. There had better be a good reason for your being here.

As it turns out, there is. There's something deep in the jungle that he wants the guild to find, preferably before the humans that work in the area do.

I was wondering why we haven't seen any female shra this entire game. If it wasn't already bad enough that the whole species is a prime target for slavers, a good half of them in total (assuming equal sex distribution) have to deal with this! What purpose does this serve?

But that's not what we're looking for, and the party splits up. And of course, each of the sub-groups has to face a group of the enemy Shra that we've already been well acquainted with. But a good half the party is underleveled, so things got a bit hairy.

It turns out that there were more than two different factions fighting in the rebellion, and whoever made Skint's and Zargos' armor was selling to all sides. So there's his subplot taken care of.

So now we have a clear shot of our destination, an enormous, monolitic building with no visible ways in or out, where all the Shra are bred before being thrust out into the wilds.

And given that they're confined, there's basically no chance of this breeding being consensual on their part. Yes, the Shra capital, the thing that the human explorers are searching for, is essentially a rape dungeon.

So this makes it the second RPG Maker game I've showcased on this site to feature rape (even if it's just implied here). And the first time, it was done by the game's villain, who's killed immediately after the player finds out what they did.

To Skint, however, the building where this is happening represents the pinnacle of what the Shra species is capable of, that's being held back by their propensity for being enslaved.

So, remember when we had to round up a couple runaway Shra back in chapter 2? He's the one responsible. The guild is understandably shocked, but then he offers them a proposal: he plans to imprint himself upon the Shra as their alpha, because they have the biological instinct to submit to whoever they perceive as stronger than them, and he asks for the guild's aid in doing so. Between this and the forced breeding, I wonder if this is all some sort of fetish thing.

How disappointing. It's perfectly in character for Dehl, who's been striving to act within the letter of the law all this time, but still, I thought that he'd have a tiny bit more consideration for his own people.

So is this a "devil you know" sort of deal, or are you just afraid of Skint getting any sort of real power? Afraid that whatever he does will prove your clan's pacifist philosophy wrong? Or are you simply concerned that his plan will not work?

Skint gathers a few Shra to himself, and prepares to show you just how their submissiveness will work in his favor.

Except not, because appropriately to Dehl's firmly established lawfulness and pacifistic upbringing, he refuses to let any ideological differences force them to come to blows.

Speaking of the runaway Shra, you might remember that Qualstio expressed actual sympathy towards them, to they point were we had the option to have him misdirect a slave catcher. So this is what "quelling your inner fire" means. Being okay with slavery.

Hey, it's Havan again. Looks like he's getting bothered by Fell too. And he's just as annoyed about it as I am, so he decides to hang with Six Stars for a bit so that he may "bask in their glory."

Bask in our glory? And you're wondering why Fell isn't choosing you guys.

Yeah, there had better be a major twist coming up soon. I don't buy that this subversive RPG is going to make our party the super-special chosen ones.

Speaking of, Fell tells us that our next mission is to check on Yacatec. Something tells me she and her sons haven't been watching us as well as they should have, otherwise they would already know that we are already under his employ.

It's been raining ever since the last quest we did, but it's showing no signs of letting up, and he's worried that it will literally drown out his business.

Yep, magically poisoned water. It's not actually poisonous, but it's still bad news for Yacatec and his goons.

Yacatec deduces that the rainstorm must be the work of the Si'Shra. You know, the mysterious Shra faction that we haven't seen hide nor tail of since the prologue.

So it's on to the Si'Shra Holyland, a wasteland in the midst of the lush jungle. There the Si'Shra, led by their positively enormous warden, gather. So it looks like for the first time in this game, there's no dungeon for us to go through before the chapter boss.

I guess it's time to explain who this Tezkhra that he mentions is. As well as the Si'Shra, since this scene and the one preceding serve as a proper introduction to them. They are a separate group of Shra characterized by their violence, immense appetites compared to ordinary Shra, affinity for defiling themselves, and devotion to a being known as Tezkhra, who blasted the land with magic millenia ago, rendering it the barren wasteland that you see. So if they have such huge appetites, hanging out in a blasted wasteland seems counterintuitive.

Now, on to the boss fight. Most of the field is covered in physical-enchanted squares. As you might guess, the Warden's signature move, God's Gift, is of that very same element. It hits hard-- about 20 soul damage provided the target takes neutral damage on a non-enchanted tile, which is enough to put most of our guild members on the ropes. Meanwhile, his minions are the same Na'Hrin and Tu'Nuok we faced earlier, just with different names.

There is a mechanic that's unique to this fight, though. As you know, the warden was responsible for the rain that threatened to flush the guild out, and is most certainly able of wielding it against you. From time to time, it will have a variety of effects on the party, such as inflicting damage-over-time effects, but if you're really lucky, it can lower the warden's stats instead. Of course, it can also generate more physical-enchanted tiles, making God's Gift hit even harder,

The plus side is that he has no multi target attacks, so once the minions are dealt with, God's Gift is really the only thing you have to worry about. At least he's not one of those bosses that can just kill the party out of nowhere, like Asarik.

And this is the reason that I brought Kulkumatz along. He can tank God's Gift, and comes with a spell that provides body regeneration to the party. And it's nice to know that despite how gimmicky Falitza is, she can at least contribute some damage.

Upon defeat, the warden is placed in a state of "un-life," according to Moke. How'd this game manage to predict TikTok self-censorship?

Then some more Si'Shra arrive and mourn the loss of their leader, as one does, and lament that Tezkhra has abandoned them, before setting their sights on the party. So if what Skint said was true, then if someone made a show of force towards them, then they would have no choice but to submit. And that's exactly what Havan does!

So I guess Havan's the new leader of the Si'Shra now. So he has managed something concrete after all. He doesn't need Fell, and neither do we.

Yacatec has a human wife and two kids. I'm not even going to ask how they managed to...

Whatever, the reason that they're here is that war is about to break out in the homeland of the Fih'jik (the only one of this game's proprietary races that hasn't been in the spotlight yet). Dehl suddenly remembers that part of the game blurb about ridding the world of turmoil, and volunteers to send the guild over there.

So you don't care about Shra liberation, yet you'll stick your neck out for two settlements you barely know about?

So yeah, now we're heading to an open war zone. And here I was thinking that Santes would be the one to get the party senselessly killed...