Heeding Bronwen the Bold’s advice, Shaw headed to Northern Liurnia in search of a spooky manor she mentioned. Along the road, she ran into a friendly troll, by the name of Iji.
How refreshing to meet a troll who seemed more interested in blacksmithing and reading his book than aggressively attempting to pulverize Shaw. He did feel the need to emphasize their size disparity. Was this a veiled threat?
Not long after leaving Iji behind, a nonstop slew of giant magic blue arrows started raining from the sky. Shaw raced to the gates of the manor and rested at the site of grace. The courtyard beyond the gate seemingly calm and devoid of foes, Shaw ventured in, only to be absolutely messed up by enormous hand spiders. Think of Thing from the Addams Family, if he had extra digits, and had the size and homicidal ferocity of a hippopotamus. Unfortunately, no pictures were captured, as Shaw was otherwise preoccupied with not dying. I did manage to snap a picture of the aftermath: a frazzled Shaw, covered in spider hand gore, staring at the hypnotic blue flame of a nearby candle.
The rest of Shaw’s journey through the Caria Manor (that’s what the spooky place is called) followed much the same pattern, but without the hand spiders, so at least 35% better. No more pictures were captured until Shaw defeated Royal Knight Loretta, albeit just barely (see: leftover potion count, bottom left, and health bar, top left).
Exiting the manor, Shaw found herself in a place called Three Sisters, so named for a medium roast blend of fair trade coffee from Vancouver. The place had 3 towers, 2 of them were locked, so she entered the third, Ranni’s Rise. Shaw remembered Ranni as the one who gave her 3 wolves (see Update #6) and this tower was guarded by 3 wolves (a nice callback). I say was, but also still is, as Shaw could not bring herself to kill the creatures. Inside she found Ranni herself, who was obviously (probably? maybe?) flirting with her, but maybe Shaw just has a thing for big blue hats.
Oh interesting, Ranni knows Blaidd, Iji, and some other dude.
Walking back down, Shaw thought this was a good shot of the dragon lurking in the mist below.
Hi Iji! It seems that Ranni’s followers have a power akin to astral projection, or they have access to holo-projection technology.
It was nice to see Blaidd again.
Shaw didn’t know this guy, but he seemed like an arrogant prick.
Confirmed.
He also requested Shaw give her friend Nepheli (see Update #37) a mysterious potion. I’m sure this weirdo has no sinister motives. While climbing down a ladder, a great opportunity for a close-up shot came up.
End of update.
