Let's fight...and farm! It's Rune Factory Frontier!

No. It's dangerous to do that sort of thing at night without your headlights on, anyway.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 54: The 300 Blows

In the midst of Raguna's normal dungeon run around Trampoli, he sees Uzuki outside in the cold, still practicing her naginata strokes as she's always done it. When he speaks to her, she complains that her spear skills might be weakening, because she's practiced-practiced-practiced and hasn't done so with a sparring partner yet. She asks Raguna to help her out by helping her spar. He is a bit surprised at first, but he agrees to do it. He even gets a little better with his own sword skills in the process, so they both come out winners.

Raguna spies some apples growing from the trees on the mountain, but he is far too tired to attempt to shake them from their branches. He has grown somewhat accustomed to using the new watering can, but is still a few levels away from being able to use it effectively.  ^*

Later on in the day, he runs into Uzuki again, taking a break from her training to do some fishing. "You must swing the naginata at least 300 times a day, or else your skills will wane. If you miss even one day, it will take 10 days to make up for the time you've lost", she says to him. (This might work wonders for a real warrior, but in the game world, it wouldn't be very feasible, given how much energy it takes to pick up and swing a sword effectively one time).

After spending most of his savings on cooking items from Rita (and doing his usual dungeon farming work), he goes home to cook his most spectacular and valuable dish yet: Spinach Rice!

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 55: Can They Survive Under There?

Midway into his Wednesday afternoon run-around, Raguna goes out to Lake Poli to attempt to catch some fish. He tries casting his pole, the lure never hits the water. Curious as to what happened, he moves in for a closer look, and notices that the lake is completely frozen over (the only body of water in town that has this sort of problem). He has no problem walking or running across it to the cornucopia of trees, so at least he is able to get some apples out of the deal. Uzuki, on the other hand, seems to be oblivious to this fact, and sits outside on the bridge happily with her fishing equipment. Raguna decides not to bother her, and continues on with his daily routine.

This also includes a stop at Iris' tower on Whale Island. She has finished one of the paintings that she had been working on, and shows it to Raguna. He thinks she's drawn the cutest Wooly he's ever seen...except it's not a Wooly...it's supposed to be the moon.

The first snowfall of the Winter arrives on the 5th. Since Raguna can't tend to the fields anyway, it doesn't cut into his gardening time. In fact, Raguna hits the jackpot with a major payday consisting of pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers and other food he has no business growing at this time of year.

When he goes back into the Green Ruins in the afternoon, he runs into chickens throwing explosive eggs. "I knew I forgot something!" he thinks to himself. He figures it's about time for Kross to add an extension to his barn so that he can make accomodations for his new Chicken friend.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 56: I Knew It!

On the sixth day, Raguna gets his barn expansion and his very own chicken (called a Clucky). He also takes a small step ahead in the Snow Ruins and realizes that he doesn't need to take it slow when he's on the ice (presumably, his boots get very good traction).

However, all that pages in comparison to the importance of the Quiz Show, hosted by the one and only Kanno (and his lovely young assistant, Candy). Before the quiz starts, Cinnamon tells him about the Cross Constellation, which can be found in the sky late at night during the winter. The rules to the quiz show are simple: Kanno and Candy ask multiple-choice questions, and the correct answer goes to the person (or persons) standing in the correct one of three numbered boxes when time runs out.

All questions are submitted by members of the village (including a few from some joker named "Br0d1k"). Mist spends the entire quiz second-guessing herself, often following Raguna around while swooning with hearts. She even manages to incorrectly answer a question specifically about her, by walking into a box that features her as one of the choices.

Midway through the contest, Ganesha stages a (mock?) commercial for her smithy, promoting her spears over basic, boring broadswords (order yours now, and Marco's allowance will pay for your interest!)

Raguna and Erik are tied for the lead with four points after the first half, while Mist and Cinnamon are tied behind them with two points. Raguna struggles through the next set of questions, and Cinnamon finds her groove, eventually taking sole possession of third place away from Mist.

The final question is presented as a Golden Snitch situation, being worth five points instead of one. Technically, it's a question Mist should have no trouble answering (before Pumpkins, what did villagers wear to the pumpkin festival?). She initially chose Turnip Head, but then decided to go with Turnip Lamp, which is the wrong answer. The final score: Raguna 11, Erik 10, Cinnamon 9, Mist 2. As a prize, Raguna gets all of the fruit and nut items used as win icons for the contestants (that's 11 cherries, 10 oranges, two chestnuts, and nine apples).

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Mist being clingy in public must be embarrassing for Raguna. I see you had some fun misleading her, though.

Oh Kanno, why must you taunt Raguna with intelligence vitamins for the runners-up and yet not actually give them to him when he loses?

The village secretly loves making Raguna suffer.

That's why he didn't get to eat any of the watermelon that he failed to bust open during the summer.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 57: The Sorceress' Apprentice and the Good Luck Charm

So, what's a newly-crowned quiz master to do? Continue farming, of course! Raguna puts away some of the cherries, oranges and other food he won from the quiz competition yesterday and puts it in the fridge to use for cooking. He sells the rest of it, on account of not being able to do so yesterday because of the festival.

After doing his daily run in the Green Ruins, he runs into the mysterious purple-haired girl who still won't give him her name, but considers him a friend anyway. While looking for Toy Herbs to place on the altar of the Church (wouldn't you know, Raguna had planted some fresh herbs just a little while ago), she found a four-leaf clover and wanted to share it with Raguna. The clover sells for a whopping 6,500 G, but the nameless girl suggests that Raguna hold onto it instead. (He makes a mental note to try to learn the girl's name before his journey is done.)

He goes to the church and shows it to Stella, who tells him that the clover could give its user good luck, and it's up to him whether or not he should keep it for himself or give it to someone else.

Even without the clover tucked away in the shipping box, Raguna stands to make a demigod-like sum of 28,000G with everything he has harvested from his dungeon farms today. (Luck, or coincidence? You be the judge!)

At the bath house, Melody informs Raguna that she tried talking to Cinnamon about learning magic, but she wouldn't bite because she hadn't practiced it in years. Melody thinks Cinnamon was making a lame excuse, and says that being able to teach magic shouldn't require one to actively practice it, as long as the knowledge is still there. She's now determined more than ever to become a wizard.

The next morning, Raguna goes back to his previous schedule of tending to his animals and then waiting for Anette to arrive, as he remembers a request from Bianca to bring her a strawberry. Luckily, he keeps a few spares cold in the fridge just for this occasion. While he is able to get some new ones every day or so due to the way he's been growing them, he remembers that he has to get some more seeds (carrots, onions, pumpkins, etc.) so that the strawberries aren't his only source of income.

He sees Cinnamon attempting to fish out on Lake Poli, but like Uzuki, she doesn't seem to realize that the whole thing's been frozen over. She doesn't want to talk about her conversation about Melody wanting to learn magic, either. Raguna leaves her alone, and goes to a spot near the center of the lake, where someone carved out a hole to use for ice fishing. He does a little fishing and catches a taimen, a rare member of the salmon family. Trampoli doesn't encourage catch-and-release, so Raguna keeps his new catch, hoping to find a good dish to make (and that he'll find something that would please the hard-edged Bianca).

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Bianca doesn't like anything. At all. Well, save for a good conversation, which money can't buy.

I LB Rune Factory 3

I figured. She rejects everything you try to give her in the original, too.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 58: We've Barely Managed To Avoid Freezing!

Raguna's new chicken is no spring chicken, but it's now started laying eggs right on time to be caught up with the rest of the beasts. Now, he's got all of his bases covered - steady income from dungeon food, and steady income from animal produce.

Tori has come back from her vacation to continue playing "pen pals", and asks Raguna if he likes traveling. Dungeon exploration for the purpose of farming counts, so he writes that as his response instead of mentioning "the beach" or "staying home doing nothing". If he were a full-time crafter like Ganesha, the last option would have worked, but for a daily dungeon diver like him? Wouldn't work.

With that in mind, Raguna goes on to Lara's to buy some Energy Drinks to combine into Energy Drink S...for when ordinary health potions just won't cut it. He sneaks past the room full of shadow panthers and into a room with more of those energy ball-spitting plants (wait, what?). They hit harder and faster than the ones he's faced before. He thinks that if he managed to tame one, he might be able to get some free autumn seeds from them. He also runs into some ice elementals and a larger variety of scorpion, and finds that shutting down the generator and defeating most of them does away with the lingering cold air, and it gives him a timely Level-Up Fill-Up, to boot. He takes the stairs to 2F, but is jumped soon after by a host of hostile ice elementals. He goes back home, wishing he hadn't discarded that Water Ring in favor of his Wing Ring.

The next day, he goes crawling back to Ganesha's workshop, because it's the only place he can reliably get Water Crystals. He also needs some silver, so he heads off to the Lava Ruins to mine for some while doing his daily gardening. With those in hand, he returns to his pad and crafts his Water Ring with those parts and some glue that he just happened to have laying around (the cap was still on, so it's all good). Was the minor sacrifice in defense to compensate for the added boost to water resistance? We'll see how big of a different four points makes next time!

edited 2nd Aug '10 5:01:55 AM by WillyFourEyes

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 59: Raguna Goes to the Big House

Raguna has his eyes set on an expansion for his house. Doing so would make his place the third-largest building in Trampoli, behind the clock tower and the library. He goes to chat with Kross about an estimate, and he is told that a new home would cost 75,000 gold and 900 lumber to build. With 1800+ piles of lumber, he has more than enough to actually get it built, but is still about 27,000G short. He decides not to buy any new energy drinks from Lara, instead choosing to rely on his own strength for his eventual run through the Snow Ruins. On his way to the ruins, he is stopped by Kanno, who asks for a moment of his time. Kanno says that he and Cinnamon's parents were magic scholars, and that she naturally got involved with magic because of it, becoming a child prodigy at the art. Raguna says that he hasn't seen Cinnamon use magic lately, but Kanno tells him the reason behind that is a story for another time.

In order to speed up the building process, he empties his pockets, his fridge, and parts of the other storage boxes, netting him over 31,000G in a single day. However, because the next day is a holiday, he doesn't get the opportunity to bug Kross about the expansion because he takes the day off to hang out at the church.

Curiously, Raguna sees Cinnamon hanging out at the Lava Ruins, looking for Magic Crystals. He gives her a Wind Crystal that he found off a Slime, which she accepts, but tells him that it's not what she's looking for.

Getting a closer look at the Snow Ruins, he sees that there are actually machines that spew out cold air at regular intervals. He originally thought that defeating all of the enemies would drive the cold away, but it was really the machines that were the culprit. He finds that the best way of dealing with them is copious use of the Spin Attack. Spin Attacks are also effective in dealing with the monsters down there.

Monday comes, and after his morning ritual of doing stuff vaguely related to farming, Raguna goes to Kross for his house expansion. He goes back to his house to find that his bed has been moved upstairs to a room by itself. It's rather bland at the moment, but he figures that next time he runs into Lute, he can get that fixed up in a jiffy. As that's the last house upgrade Raguna can get, he still has room (and time) to build up his barn one more time, but doubts that he'll catch that many monsters to necessitate building it in the first place. A second barn expansion will set him back 50,000G and 800 lumber, and will complete any sort of construction work Kross can do on his farm.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 60: Back for the First Time

With the month halfway over and still a few more days until Lute arrives with his furniture, Raguna sets his sights on making the Snow Ruins his personal playground. To do this, he plans on gathering as many herbs and grass clumps as possible for potion-making, so that he doesn't have to pay extravagant amounts of gold to Lara on basic energy drinks.

Tuesday is snowy, so he can easily slip out of the house and into the Green Ruins without anyone noticing. Rather than simply watering and harvesting his crops and letting that be all for the day, he pretends that he's going back into the ruins for the first time, snatching up anything and everything that may appear valuable - food, metal, raw materials - and placing it into his backpack for future consumption...at least, as much as his energy level will allow before his next scheduled bathhouse visit. Compared to the foes he's seen in other dungeons, the foes in the Green Ruins are too weak to be worthwhile, so the chance of getting his energy restored in time for another level-up is very slim. He sneaks into the Lava Ruins late at night, because it has more of the grass he needs to prepare potions.

A blizzard blows through Trampoli the next morning with little warning, but much fanfare. Raguna is quite grumpy, since this is normally the day when he checks on his monsters for collecting milk, eggs and other commodities. He still gets the feeling that he has more to collect, but he spends the snowy day inside working with the reagents and other items he's already saved up, for the sake of getting some much-needed crafting practice.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 61: You Say It's Your Birthday?

Raguna spends most of his time inside working in the lab during the blizzard, because it's the most logical item to work during such bad weather. During his experimentation, he completes a recipe for an item called Formuade, which grants decent HP recovery and restores all kinds of status ailments (naturally, since it's made from an Antidote Herb, a phial of Para-gone, some Cold Medicine and an Energy Drink). He wishes he had more time to gather herbs, but figures that he may have an opportunity to do so once the storm subsides.

His new gathering schedule is Mondays and Thursdays thanks to the storm. His monsters don't appear to be too disturbed by the inclement weather, because he's given them plenty of feed for the winter. Sure enough, there are plenty of black and white grass clumps and other assorted junk on the ground. Raguna ignores the stumps of wood and goes right for the grass. Tabatha stops by to check on the monsters, and she mentions to him that she has a craving for rice porridge. He doesn't know whether or not he has that recipe, but makes sure to think about cooking it.

For the first time since gaining access to the dungeons in town, Raguna decides not to explore them in favor of getting a bit closer to everyone in town. In doing so, he learns some interesting tidbits, such as Stella and Selphy's birthdays (Stella was born on the 27th day of summer, and Selphy was born on the 3rd of Autumn, which is the same birthday as the heroine of one of Selphy's favorite books), and the fact that Lara has a taste for chocolate cake and jam. Also, giving bell peppers to Marco is a no-no, as he hates it when Ganesha sneaks it into his food.

While Raguna is at the library visiting Selphy, he overhears Cinnamon mumbling to herself about "Master" and blushing. This makes him think she's finally got magic on the brain again, so he goes to the hot spring to chat with Melody, who then tells him exactly why she dresses up the way she does. It has more to do with her being a fan of wizards than magic, since she was saved by one when she was little.

Finally, Bianca tells Raguna that she'd like to taste something called "Bavarois". Raguna doesn't know whether or not his cooking skills will allow him to make it, but he'll try. (Not that it'll impress Bianca any...)

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 62: Like Homemade Apple Hotpot

Raguna checks his calendar and sees a notice for the Hotpot Convention that takes place on the 19th, where everyone in town brings an ingredient for one gigantic hotpot. It's a good thing Raguna's been stocking up. The problem, he thinks, comes from choosing exactly which ingredient to bring with him. He decides to resume his farming while he waits for a letter concerning the time and location of the festival. Tabatha sends a letter telling everyone to meet up at the Public Square. No time is set, so chances are good that it will last all day. After all of his work is done, Raguna checks his fridge and picks out a quality apple that he plucked from the "orchard of plenty" down by Lake Poli.

Raguna gets up early in the morning to meet Lute outside the church. Since he's flush with cash, he opts for the Royal Oven, completing his set of cooking tools. He also buys a Large Box and Giant Fridge for storage, and a Summer Ocean painting for...decoration. He's not exactly sure who he's showing it off to, since Mist is the only person to actually go inside his house. Lute is thankful that Raguna was the first one to purchase his artwork, and promises to bring him a new painting once he is finished.

Raguna then goes to Town Square to sneak an early peek at the hotpot, but no one else is there to help celebrate, so he walks around a bit until 9:00 to kill some time. He runs into Rosetta, Candy and Marco near Mist's house. None of them seems to be interested in putting anything into the hotpot. By the time Raguna makes it back to the square, it is only sparsely populated, with Turner, Rita, Eunice, Anette, Tabatha and Bianca standing watch. He hands his apple over to Eunice, and the young girls start cooking, while she sings a song (with a 10-second interlude). She invites Raguna to try some after it's finished. The apples give it a sort of crispy texture. Everyone in town thinks it's okay (even Kross liked it, and he doesn't really care that much for anything), but is lacking a certain "something".

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

The hotpot song being an instrumental tune With Lyrics would have been better if it was actually sung rather than text lyrics, but eh. They've got a lot programmed into the game as it is.

The lyrics to the song were rather silly-sounding (maybe a near-direct translation from the original Japanese?), so I don't think much was lost without Eunice actually "sing"-singing them.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 63: Magical Melody

After the hotpot festival, Raguna returns to work on his crops. He's gotten used to the Rainbow Watering Can and Mountain Axe, as they don't take up nearly as much energy as they did when he first crafted them. Even though he doesn't get to meet with Rosetta for the daily collection (because of the festival), he hopes to make another big payday with his current crop of vegetables. More than anything, he realizes that he needs plenty of blue, yellow, orange, and purple grass if he hopes to make enough bottles of Energy Drink S to survive the early going in the Snow Ruins. He checks his stock and finds that he only has enough to make one. Perhaps now would be a good time to ask Candy for another miracle of hers...

As much as he dislikes sucking up Runeys for fun and profit, they're the only way he knows to ensure the continued survival of his farm (and, of course, their farmer). When he goes to the Clock Tower to visit Candy, he sees Melody chatting at the table with Cinnamon. An unusual sight, but he still remembers that the bath house doesn't open until the afternoon. The reason Melody is visiting the clock tower is because she finally convinced Cinnamon to teach her magic. Melody is enthusiastic about finally being able to learn magic, and is quick to call Cinnamon her new "master". Cinnamon is somewhat embarrassed by this, but agrees to play along for the time being.

Later on in the day, Raguna eventually finds Candy in Marco's room (surprise, surprise), and hands over six Grass Runeys for her to use to make the miracle. He ignores the random Japanese text Candy says after she tells him the requirements (Bad translators! No biscuit!), as the Grass Runeys are enough for her to sing the song. There is hardly any grass in the Green Ruins, as the fields that Raguna has ignored until now have been overrun with weeds, tree stumps and rocks. Raguna clears a few of them in preparation for the coming miracle, all while exploring the dungeon and beating down as many enemies as he can for materials for his other...side projects.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 64: The Grass Isn't Always Greener

Candy's song didn't seem to do much to help Raguna's grass collection, as only a few bundles were able to grow on his farm. The song doesn't seem to have reached the ears of the underground...or above it. The fields were clogged with too many weeds for there to grow grass. Undeterred, Raguna goes back home to make as much as he can with the materials he has in his possession already.

After about a week or so without mail, Raguna gets a request from Eunice for some fresh fish. He gets out his best-quality Pond Smelt and gives it to Anette before she hurries off to deliver the mail to Mist and Rosetta. He also gets a response from Tori, who is notoriously slow with her mailings. She says she's developed a knack for knitting, and asks if he has any hobbies, to which he responds "cooking".

Raguna then takes a jog around the east side of the village, both to keep warm and to wait for Lara to open up the infirmary so that he can stock up on medicine and fix up some more potions. He also notices that she sells colored grass, and wonders how she's able to find the time to collect it when she spends most of her day looking after the church. While it would be more time-consuming for Raguna to make his potions using just the raw materials gathered from Lara (or Ma Nature), he would save money in the long run.

After wading his way through slippery slopes, ice generators and water-squirting elephants whose attacks really shouldn't be all that effecting in the freezing cold, Raguna makes it to the shortcut to B2 of the Snow Ruins, having made the decision to take a break from farming. As an added bonus, he's also gained two combat levels, pushing him past the 50 mark. He goes to sleep with a smile on his face, satisfied with the progress he's made for now.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 65a: The Case of the Missing Scriptures

Winter is coming close to an end, and Raguna is already looking ahead to spring so that he can get a new batch of monsters to help work for him. He prepares for the large influx of animals by buying about two dozen bundles of Grass seed from Erik (along with a side order of yam seeds, as he hears Roasted Yams are a hot commodity among young girls this time of year, and he expects to have some ready before the year is out). His field is still a great big mess, but he still has enough time and energy to flex his axe-wielding muscles and get rid of at least some of the larger tree stumps so that he'll have room to plant them. He wishes that all of the lumber he's stored up could be sold for profit.

A letter from Eunice arrived, thanking Raguna for the fish, and another from Marco, who says he's getting stronger thanks to his daily sword practice regimen.

Kanno reminds Raguna that the 8th of autumn is his birthday, and Erik says that his is on the 23rd of summer without any prompting at all.

A priest friend of Stella's wants her to send him "Scriptures". She asks Raguna to get them from Lara, and Lara tells him that she lent them to Selphy (Uh-oh.) Of course, they went "missing" in Selphy's sea of books.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 66: Wish Upon a Snowflake

Raguna is feeling somewhat burned out right now...he's spent so much work on his farm that he hasn't had time to chill with his friends. The Snow Ruins are still taunting him, daring him to come down. The stress is starting to get to him...every day for the past few seasons he's gone in and out of the dungeons, tending to his crops and mostly dodging the townspeople. He's still wearing the mask that he personally made for the Pumpkin festival not out of a desire to scare people. but because he doesn't have enough materials to make anything new or improved.

The mystery of the missing scriptures is put on hold for a while, as everyone seems to have taken the day off due to snow.

On the next day, the snow stops and the Runeys come out of hiding. Raguna has mostly forgotten by now when and how they need to be distributed to maintain balance in the town.

"If you write your wish on the snow and if no one finds it until spring, that wish will come true," say a few of the girls. Anette wants monsters to stop attacking her. Mist wants Raguna's fields to become cleaner. Lara wants everyone to be happy and healthy. Others, such as Cinnamon, Selphy and Bianca, are skeptical that it will work. Raguna, siding with the skeptics, goes home and uses the tried-and-true "do-it-yourself" method of making one's wishes come true...through the dual magic of cooking and alchemy, whipping up a dozen Energy Drinks and some food to help give him the strength for another dungeon run...he hopes.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 67: It's Going to Be a Long Way Down from Here, Isn't It?

Right on schedule, he takes a trip over to the Snow Ruins early the next morning, resuming his search from the second level. "A map would sure be handy right about now," he thinks to himself. He spends plenty of time navigating the dungeon as it is already, so he continues to run around blindly, fighting off scorpions, ice elementals and shadow panthers until he can find a way to reach the third level, occasionally stopping every so often to mine for gold.

He destroys an ice maker near the second floor stairs, allowing him to explore the western side of that part of the dungeon. It's no more or less treacherous than the areas he's already seen, but he is able to find the stairs to go down to the next level.

Upon reaching the third level, he is greeted by demons and malevolent unicorns (bloody unicorns!), which are highly resilient, and take a few spin attacks for him to defeat. He presses onward with authority, opening the nearest door, only to take an ice cannon hit to the face, which nearly knocks him out. Just for kicks, he heads down the stairs of the shortcut to see how deep he has to go before reaching the bottom (it's seven levels), and realizes that he may not see the bottom of this dungeon until early- to mid-spring of next year at the rate he is proceeding. He quietly halts his search for the time being, since he remembers that Selphy has one last book for sale at the library: a manual on making baby toys. Raguna doesn't have a family yet, but for completion's sake, he keeps the book with him.

Just two more days until the New Year's festival...

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 68: A Tale of Two Irises

Raguna is starting to worry. No one has sent him any mail in the last week or so. He wonders if they may be preparing something big for the end-of-year festival, and thus don't have time to send any sort of correspondence. The Runey population is beginning to dwindle again, so he seeks out Candy to see where his help is needed most. The Public Square is in trouble, and the Business District and Mountain Road are in danger of dying off. He gets his trusty Harvester out and begins to replenish the troubled areas with Runeys from his own farm and the areas near Mist's house, which always seem to be plentiful with Runey activity.

Instead of going to the Snow Ruins to continue his descent, he spends the rest of the day clearing the debris from his fields so that his monster friends don't have to do as much work. The gambit appears to be paying off, as his fields no longer look like a hedge maze.

Brodik mumbles something about Raguna being "destined to leave the village when the year ends", but as usual, Raguna pays him no mind.

Later on the next day, Raguna goes down to the Snow Ruins, only to find out that his path through B3 is blocked by a large door. Mist and Candy come down to help. They were led here by a voice asking them for help. Candy says that a lot of Spirits are inside this ruin, and thinks that they might be connected to Whale Island. After Raguna struggles to open the door, Mist steps forward, and the doors swiftly slide apart.

They walk forward to see a large cluster of negative spirit energy. Mist hears a song coming from the direction of the Rune cluster, which Candy recognizes as a Spirit Melody. It sounds just like the one that everyone is able to hear from the Town Square. Suddenly, a girl who looks like Iris appears before them. However, she's wearing black, and has mismatched eyes that are the opposite color of Iris. Candy says that the girl's song is drawing the runes in, and she has to be stopped before Whale Island loses its runes and crashes to the ground. Raguna tries to reason with the girl, but she says that song is all she has. Out of nowhere, Gelwein comes in (dun dun dunnnn! Big Bad alert! Big Bad alert!), telling her that she's worthless, and that she only needs to listen to him and keep singing. Gelwein recognizes Raguna as the boy who talked a lot with Iris "Blanche", and mocks him for not knowing the difference between Iris Blanche and Iris "Noire", the girl standing before them and singing. They're two separate entities, but the one on the island is not really Iris. There once was a girl who lived in Trampoli, and split in two because she wanted someone to talk to. She is the last of a vampire tribe who are closest to the Spirits in this world. She also knows how to communicate with them through Spirit Melodies. The two Irises supposedly kept the balance of the Spirits in check through their song. Gelwein's plan was to isolate Iris Blanche and stop her from singing while allowing Iris Noire to continue her song, thus drawing the spirits away from the Great Whale and deep underground, thus giving fruit to the Dark Rune. But what does Gelwein care of the Great Whale should crash and kill the villagers of Trampoli? They called him mad and cast him out! Raguna draws his sword and prepares to attack, but Gelwein sends Iris Noire after him.

Noire commands great magical power, pelting Raguna with fireballs, icicles, and dark energy. He can't get close enough to hit her, so he focuses his energy on the magical boxes surrounding the rune. He puts up a valiant fight, but one of the fireballs hits him, knocking him out. Lara manages to save him in time, but Raguna wakes up on the day of the Year-End festival with a nasty cold. Bummer.

edited 15th Nov '10 5:24:02 PM by WillyFourEyes

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 69: End Run

Raguna's cold prevents him from getting much work done. Any attempts to use tools threatens to tire him out much more quickly than normal. He tries to get Lara's help, but since the next two days are festival days, she will be out of her office, and Raguna will be unable to get a check-up. Not content to just sit and wait for her (and being unsure of how long the effects of his cold will last), he cooks up some cold medicine to make it go away.

He spends the day conversing with the other villagers, who all are standing around reminiscing of days gone by. Most of them plan to wake up early to see the first sunrise of the new year. When Raguna gets to Town Square, he notices that the eerie singing around the statue has stopped, probably due to his interference with Gelwein's plan. Turner and Rita don't notice it, but Rita gives Raguna a present in the form of a New Mochi rice cake, which is traditionally eaten during the New Year's Festival.

His first year with the village has drawn to a close, and Raguna feels mostly satisfied with his progress in town, having grown tremendously in body, mind, and skill. There are still a few things he feels that he has to worry about for the new year - finding the right materials to upgrade his tools, purchasing larger storage for his lab and forge, and putting a stop to Gelwein's plan to crush Trampoli with the Great Whale. But how will Iris Noire's defeat potentially affect Iris Blanche? Will she still speak kindly of Raguna if she finds out he defeated her as-of-now unknown other half? The answers to these questions and more will come after the first sunrise of the new year...

Raguna by the numbers:

Skill Levels

Overall Level: 53
Weapons: 70
Magic 34
Farming 57
Lumber 48
Hammer 40
Fish 29
Cook 73
Lab 38
Forging 36
Crafts 33

Relationship Levels with Marriage Candidates (first number = Friendship, second number = love)

Mist 6/2
Rosetta 7/6
Lara 4/1
Melody 6/5
Bianca 2/3
Tabatha 2/1
Eunice 4/2
Cinnamon 3/1
Anette 5/2
Selphy 6/3
Uzuki 5/2
Iris (Blanche) 2/0

Relationship Levels with Other Villagers

Turner 3
Rita 3
Erik 3
Kanno 4
Candy 2
Stella 4
Ganesha 3
Marco 2
Danny 3
Lute 2
Kross 3
Brodik 0
Nolan 3

edited 16th Nov '10 3:43:02 PM by WillyFourEyes

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 70: It's A New Dawn, It's A New Year

The bright morning sun shines over Trampoli as a new year dawns. He is excited that he gets to start working on his farm again, so he goes to order all of his work-capable monsters to resume with their duties beginning with the next day.

Lute is the first to greet Raguna upon the arrival of the new year. Raguna responds in kind by purchasing another one of his paintings, as well as spending additional money on sprucing up his homestead.

While at work on his garden, Raguna formulates a design plan - section one half of his garden off to grow lots of crops, while leaving the other side alone for gathering resources. The challenge for him lies in figuring out how much space he'll need to divide everything evenly for maximum aesthetic (and monetary) value.

With that finished, he goes around town wishing everyone else a happy New Year. At the town square, Uzuki offers to read his's yearly fortune for him. According to her divination, he is going to have the "best luck", and his harvests, adventures, and love life will be splendid. Turner invites him to split the "New Mochi" to officially celebrate the new year by placing it on top of a stand and smashing it with a hammer. Raguna goes back home to root through his belongings in search of the ingredients he needs to make this rice cake. Rice for making Mochi, some Green Grass, Quality Cloth for wrapping, and a Thick Stick...sounds like everything's in order, until he realizes that he forgot to buy Oranges. Too bad...

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

"Best luck"? I have envy. The two years I did that, I was told my fortunes would suck in some way.