Curate of Curiosities

Where we last left off, Alicia and Miriam were joined by Lamar Arlington, a teacher at Atkinson Middle School. Together, they liberated the school from its evil principal and the Inner Evocation bonded to her, accidentally murdering quite a few of the school's student body in the process.

Our next goal is city hall, where the mayor is carrying out his evil plans. The good news is, all we have to do to get there is go through this sewer. The bad news is, we're going through a sewer.

But the two guys we met back up with five minutes ago, as well as someone we haven't met in a while, are coming with us.

And what's there to say about the place? It's dark, it's filthy, it's full of monsters, and there's a giant, fleshless vaguely humanoid creature watching us.

Good thing that Viola and Erick, the two-person RPG town, decide to accompany us a ways in. Sadie's there, too.

Another sewer? I think one is enough, thank you very much.

Also, possible reference to Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass?

The creature from before suddenly appears in the group's midst.

It knocks Sadie into the water, then gores both Vi and Erick, and then turns its sights towards us.

It's nice of the game to tell you that you can't win this battle at all.

As expected from his brutal maiming of Vi and Erick, he hits hard, so you should prioritize defense and healing.

After enough turns have passed, the monster reveals itself to be an ordinary human before fleeing. All of the humans-turned-abominations that we have encountered so far in the adventure have been forcibly and irreversibly transformed by Inner Evocations. But here, there seems to be no Inner Evocation in sight.

We barely have enough time to mourn our allies when their bodies suddenly vanish from sight. The ever-helpful Elothu chimes in that someone who has yet to reveal themselves is responsible.

As if the Evocations and their followers weren't bad enough, now there's someone else who is intimately following our adventure. To whoever this person or entity is, piss off! We've got enough on our plate already!

Meanwhile, in City Hall, Dottie has been brought before the mayor, who we now know is a flesh puppet for an Evocation.

I don't think she would have gotten the attention of the baddies if she didn't have some . Remember the intro? She was being stalked by these weird creatures before Alicia showed up.

I've played a lot of RPG Maker games, and have browsed enough to know about a lot more, such as Dreaming Mary, which this graffiti is referencing.

Anyways, the exit to downtown is right ahead.

Apparently, Evocations don't like the cold. But hey, I've been trudging through snow for the past eight hours, so it's nice to see some change in scenery.

The downtown area is pretty straightforwardly laid out. If you just keep going to the north, you'll easily reach City Hall. However there's just as much space in the path leading to the west, so let's check that out first.

Um... when was the last time that Polybius has been talked about? I feel like it's been more than a decade since gaming-related horror like this was relevant.

Huh? How did that get up there? Why is it up there? Does this have any significance whatsoever?

Near the very end of the western path, you find this well-hidden creature, who looks like the ones that take you to Fool's Spaces. I wonder where this one will lead us?

It's an area that I seem to have completely ignore from the first time I played. Even in this playthrough, it took me a good 20 minutes to find the entrance to this place.

You can get quizzed on the various characters you've met so far, and your reward is a plate featuring the Elvis.

This is your utimate reward for fully exploring the area. Seems appropriately mysterious, don't you think? Even though its use isn't immediately clear.

Another zener card, leading to another loredump. Xelanyel is dead, and the Inner Evocations are trying to bring her back. There, this purple freak just told us the villains' plans. But what exactly do they need Dottie for?

What's there to say, its two Delegates. Their entire purpose is being unremarkable minibosses. However, these two are trying something a little different; when one of them is defeated, the other's stats will be boosted, but will steadily lose HP each turn. They're still pretty easy regardless.

With its two guardians defeated, it's time at last to storm City Hall.

But before we can do that, let's see what's going on in the building proper.

The mayor and his goons are trying to get Dottie to cooperate with them on whatever they're planning to do to him.

Some stuff happens, and she's knocked into the magic circle.

And so begins her character interlude. As much as her aunt is hell-bent on rescuing her, it would be pretty embarrassing if she were at level 1 while the rest of the party is probably in the high teens.

But why wait when we can break out ourselves? It doesn't matter what this creepy doll says.

Okay, maybe it does

Then all of a sudden, she sets it on fire.

Not quite. She's more Esper Mami than Sailor Moon, to be honest.

A Polly Pocket, and a Mr. Bucket, of "put your balls in my mouth" fame.

Just then, she finds someone else calling for help.

It's... some kind of spider crab?

It's the first creature that Dottie's encountered that isn't trying to rip her guts out, so they decide that it would be much better for both of them if they stayed together.

As you can see, despite being only level 5, Amethyst is a lot hardier than Dottie, or even Alicia at that level.

Oh, yeah, there's one of the enemies I remember from my first playthrough: the demonically possessed Speak-and-Spell.

To follow up, we have the tryhard devil horns Lite-Brite.

Of course, like every other dungeon in this game so far, the playroom is built on a fragment of Vedim Space.

After some more of this, we cut back to city hall. The guy that murdered Vi and Erick is, in fact, in league with the mayor, who is ordering him to bring back Dottie dead or alive (preferably alive, so Phritotch can use her for whatever they have in store for her)

So it looks like he did, in fact, have an Evocation's power backing him up the whole time, even if one wasn't directly possessing him.

Back to the playroom where, to round out the evil toys theme, we have the Wicked Wand, better known as the Evilstick.

For those of you who don't immediately get it, there are a few things you need to know:

• Nancy, the mayor's daughter, was brought before the mayor before.
• What's more, we know that she knows Dottie, as she was shown bullying her in a flashback.
• This entire area was constructed to be a playground for her.

About half an hour of one way chutes and switch puzzles later, you end up in What? A visually out-of place area in the middle of a fragment of Vedim Space? That can only mean one thing...

We have reached the domain of the fourth and final Outer Evocation. Isanir the Eidolic, master of the eldritch, and thus far the haughtiest of the Evocations.

You know how there are three main elements, each represented by one of the first three party members? Well, Isanir's introduction introduces us to the game's fourth element: Eldritch. Not only does Dottie have access to spells from the three main elements, but she's the only party member capable of using this element.

Each turn during battle, Dottie's eldrich power will charge up. When it's full, the Eldritch Eye skill will become available. This skill damages a single enemy while healing the party for an amount proportional to the damage dealt, and usually it will bring the party to full health.

She's also gained the ablility to break the chess pieces that the rest of the party has picked up for buffs.

Oh right, looks like I forgot something. Among the various items that Alicia and pals have been scavenging are chess pieces that seem to serve no purpose and can't be sold. It's only here, about two-thirds of the way through the game, that we find out what their purpose is.

Unfortunately, our friend Amethyst is too agressive to stay with us (and is probably initimidated by the overgrown praying mantis that's attached itself to Dottie).

Next time, we'll rejoin Alicia and pals as they storm City Hall and try to bring down the mayor. Will they succeed?