03 - Bazaar Encounter
Quest 3 - Bazaar Encounter
Rewards:
Eventide Solais Lesson
1,000 Experience
1. Ask about the cloth issue at Harper-Galden Haberdashery.
If you are following along with the guide in order, then the party should be around level 6 or 7 before starting this quest. Cynthia, the Researcher recruited in Quest 1, is not necessary to complete this quest, but her assistance will make some of the rhetorical battles much easier!
To start the quest, go to the Ordolessian Trends store in south-west Ordolus. It is the store in front of the Seaside Inn and Suites building. Remember, you can check your map of Ordolus at any time from the MacGuffins section of the Item menu.
Ordolessian Trends is a clothing store run by Eventide Solais. She is behind the counter at point A. Point B is a special tuxedo that we will be ignoring for now since we are not quite up to handling the side quest that involves that piece of clothing.
Naturally, Exit 1 will lead back to the streets of Ordolus.
Let’s take a closer look at Eventide and the new pieces of clothing she can sell to us:
New Character!
Eventide Solais
Relationship:
Job:
Hobby:
Creator Commentary:
Flirtatious
Owner of Ordolessian Trends
Haggling
Eventide’s look is based on Halle Barry and her personality - especially using the term of endearment ‘honey’ - is based on the speech patterns of southern Texas and Louisiana. Ordolus itself is mostly inspired by Galveston, Texas.
As for her outfit, it requires an essay to explain. So, essay incoming!
Eventide has the distinction of being one of the two principal female characters, the other being Cynthia. Why not more female characters, you ask? Put simply, being a middle class white guy, I don’t think I have what it takes necessarily to write a good female character. What I know for sure is that the best female characters I can think of are good characters first that were written without any specific gender. The Ur example for this case would be Ripley from Alien.
Back to the original topic, why the stereotypically scantily-dressed and flirty persona for Eventide? I feel like there is a tendency to lump these traits together into a derisive package often labeled as ‘pandering’ or ‘fan service’. By ‘fan service’, I mean base appeal for men (as though there were no women that play video games - but that’s a different rant).
I find this conclusion is too narrow though and presupposes that these qualities in a character are undesirable innately, as if actual people in real life don’t or (in a more passively judgey way) shouldn’t have these traits. But people do exhibit these traits at times, so in order to create a more balanced and realistic character I thought it would be appropriate for Eventide to rely on her looks and charm not only as a reflection of her personality but as a conscious choice to expand her business. She is a saleswoman and aware of the tools she has to work with.
Hopefully, someone out there playing the game will be able to see the qualities in Eventide’s personality beyond her physical appearance and realize that, whether your first impression of her outfit is to groan or leer, both the exterior and interior of a person are integral parts of their identity and denying one to affirm the other exclusively leads to an incomplete caricature of the self.
Essay over! Now time to go shopping for a new vest and skirt!
Using the funds we acquired in the Forgotten Plantation (remember to sell the Mindscape items you’ve picked up), we can buy one of each of the things Eventide is selling. The Fringed Skirt for Cynthia represents the best buy though and improves a lot of her stats.
Finally, ask Eventide “How are you?” to officially activate the Bazaar Encounter quest.
She says she has two main problems, the first is that Epherus Maldais hasn’t delivered his new line of suits and the second is that her cloth supplier hasn’t delivered any new cloth. The first problem we’ll solve later when we meet Epherus. For now, we can follow Eve’s directions to find the Harper-Galden Haberdashery which is located in the Seaside Bazaar.
Head out the north-east exit of Ordolus to reach the Crossroads map from the beginning.
Take exit 3 which leads to a familiar seaside location. This area (also from the beginning cut scene) is called the Ordolessian Peninsula Outskirts, if you must know.
Exit 1 leads back to the Crossroads. Exit 2 and 3 both lead to Camp Courtesy which we will visit in another quest. Point A is a treasure chest containing a Big Book of Comebacks, but we can’t get that right now. Use Exit 4 to enter the Seaside Bazaar.
The Seaside Bazaar is swarming with merchants that want to sell you things. If you touch one of the hooded merchants they automatically talk to you and attempt to convince you to buy something from them. Refusing will start a rhetorical battle. This is the only time in the game where losing or winning will result in gaining or losing gold. If you don’t want to argue with the merchants, then be quick to run around them. Remember that holding the X button (on a controller) or the Shift key
will allow you to run!
There are a number of exits and points of interest on the Bazaar map. Exit 1 will return you to the Outskirts. Exits 6 and 7 will lead towards Camp Courtesy, but we’ll be going there in a later quest.
Exit 2 is the Harper-Galden Haberdashery. Exit 3 leads to Gammin’s Trinkets. Exit 4 leads to Nick’s Knacks. And Exit 5 leads to Kreutzfeld Rarities.
A - Treasure chest containing Coffee Beans
B - Treasure chest containing 200 gold pieces
We’re going to ignore the treasure chests for now and head right to our objective which is Exit 2. Since it is likely you will run into a merchant or two on the way, let’s take a look at how they fight.
New Enemy!
Ordolus Merchant
Willpower (WP):
Persuasion:
Elocution:
Experience:
AP:
1,500
175
10
150
1
Erudition (EP):
Confidence:
Resistance:
Gold:
Level:
70
3
10
Varies
4
Drop Rates:
AI Behaviors:
Creator Commentary:
Window of Opportunity (10%)
The merchants wear different colored hoods but can all use the Haggle skill and Second Wind.
Protip: The Merchants won’t fight you if you don’t have enough money to pay for what they’re selling.
The Ordolus Merchant is the Logomancer’s version of random battles from older JRPGs. It seemed appropriate to pay homage to the old style with pushy salesmen.
Although they fight similarly, the items and gold you can get from the merchants is dependent on the color of their hood.
After giving you 1,000 gold total, the green-hooded merchant won’t give you money anymore for beating him in a rhetorical battle. Most of the special items are just joke items or are present for flavor, but a few of them have particular uses.
Creator Commentary: The item description for the canoe is a reference to Final Fantasy 1 where the canoe was used to get to the Gurgu volcano.
Now that you know what you can get from the merchants that are running around, enter the Harper-Galden Haberdashery to continue the quest.
The man behind the counter is Josef Harper. He says his warehouse has been robbed. Ardus volunteers to look into the situation by interviewing the other store owners in the Bazaar.
2. Interview the other merchants.
The wandering merchants don’t have to questioned for this objective, just the other store owners. The first store next to Harper-Galden is Gammin’s Trinkets. Use Exit 3 and talk to Gammin.
Gammin tells Ardus that the hooligans wear black hoods and are excellent at making forgeries. He also asks for you to get his pocket watch back for him.
Next, leave Gammin’s shop and head to Exit 4, Nick’s Knacks. Talk to Nick for another clue.
Nick tells Ardus that the black-hooded thieves leader is a con man named Charles. He mentions that Charles likes long cons and that Josef helped save his business by buying oil and firewood chips from him.
Finally, leave Nick’s shop and head north to talk with Sudi in Kreutzfeld Rarities.
Sudi, the man running the book store, tells Ardus that the group of ne'er-do-wells are called the White Ravens. Now that we know who is causing the trouble, we can go about convincing them to leave the Bazaar merchants alone.
Creator Commentary: Kreutzfeld Rarities’ name and the shopkeeper, Sudi, come from characters in the TV Miniseries, The Lost Room. The second stack of books from the right on the rightmost bookshelf contains a book named “The Key, The Comb the Watch” which is a more direct reference to the show.
3. Convince the White Ravens to leave.
Once the objective to convince the White Ravens is active, the regular merchants will no longer be in the Bazaar. All that you need to do is convince the four White Ravens walking around to leave. It doesn't matter which order you choose to fight them in, since the last one will always be Charles, their leader.
New Enemy!
White Raven
Willpower (WP):
Persuasion:
Elocution:
Experience:
AP:
1,100
166
10
55
0
Erudition (EP):
Confidence:
Resistance:
Gold:
Level:
20
5
5
0
9
Drop Rates:
AI Behaviors:
Creator Commentary:
Semblance of Practice (100%)
The White Ravens are not much sturdier than regular merchants, but they do each have their own quirks.
At the beginning of the White Raven encounters, the various Raven members will have a random state applied to them based on their state of mind.
The increasing number of White Ravens was inspired by the nine pirate fight in the city of Provoka in Final Fantasy 1.
The first White Raven battle has only one Raven in it. At the start of the battle, he will randomly choose a state of mind: pathos, logos, or ethos. For best results, capitalize on his weakness. After he is defeated, you have to remember that he hates being called “kid” otherwise he will restore his WP and the fight will continue.
The second White Raven fight has three Ravens in it. At the start of the battle, they will choose one of three possible state configurations: 2x pathos; 2 logos and 1 pathos; or 1 pathos, 1 logos, and 1 ethos. If you have Cynthia with you, remember that her Interrogate skill deals ethos damage and raises the Research Level on the enemy it hits.
The third White Raven fight has eight (8!) Ravens in it. As before, they will choose one of three possible state configurations at the start of the battle: 2x pathos, 3x logos, and 1 ethos; 5x ethos, 1 pathos and 1 logos; or 4x pathos and 2x ethos. A good way to deal with the large number of opponents is to use multi-targeting skills such as John’s Aggravating Fist or Ardus’ Filibuster. Remember that verbal type damage will affect all of the Ravens evenly regardless of their current mental state.
The fourth and last White Raven is their leader, Charles the Charlatan.
New Boss!
Charles the Charlatan
Willpower (WP):
Persuasion:
Elocution:
Experience:
AP:
9,999
350
50
300
5
Erudition (EP):
Confidence:
Resistance:
Gold:
Level:
160
30
40
0
9
Drop Rates:
AI Behaviors:
Creator Commentary:
Essence of Practice (100%)
Charles does not fight any differently than his White Ravens, he is just sturdier.
He will occasionally use the Guarded skill which will greatly increase his Resistance stat for 3 turns.
Continuing with the theme of references to older Final Fantasy games, Charles’ WP is 9,999 - the traditional damage cap in Final Fantasy games.
Charles is not much tougher than the White Ravens. His only different tactic is to occasionally use the Resistance buffing skill Guarded. This is more to introduce the player to the fact that enemies and bosses will be using their own buffs from now on than to be a threat.
After Charles is defeated, he agrees to leave Ordolus and returns Gammin’s pocket watch. He says that he didn’t steal from Harper, but not for a lack of trying. The only thing he found in Harper’s warehouse was a contract for a massive amount of Valdonstek silver. How very interesting.
4. Return the stolen goods. (optional)
This objective is optional and, in fact, can be completed even after the quest is finished. Simply return to Gammin to hand over the watch that was stolen from him.
You can negotiate for a 300 or 400 gold reward or accept no money for returning the watch. If you want the 400 gold, simply ask Gammin about compensation and then inssit on the 400 gold figure.
If you refuse the reward money twice, Gammin will be much more fond of you which will manifest in a few different ways later on.
5. Confront Josef with your suspicions.
Now, head back to Harper-Galden and have a chat with Josef about the suspicious circumstances of his empty storehouse and silver contract. Ardus distrusts Josef, a fact Josef picks up almost immediately. The argument gets heated and eventually a rhetorical battle starts with Josef Harper.
New Boss!
Josef Harper
Willpower (WP):
Persuasion:
Elocution:
Experience:
AP:
14,000
250
250
200
5
Erudition (EP):
Confidence:
Resistance:
Gold:
Level:
140
75
15
0
11
Drop Rates:
AI Behaviors:
Creator Commentary:
Virtuosity of Practice (100%)
Josef is always in a pathos state. If you try to change his state of mind, he will counterattack with the Haggle skill.
He can also steal WP and EP by using the Exhaustion and EP Drain skills respectively.
Harper’s wayward silver deal was inspired by the intricate medieval economic focused plot of the anime Spice and Wolf.
Josef Harper is the true boss at the end of the Bazaar Encounter quest. His main weakness is that he is always angry and in a pathos state of mind. This means that he is always vulnerable to ethos damaging skills like Cynthia’s Interrogate and John’s Morality Play. If you try to change his state, he will counter with a Haggle skill that deals verbal damage to the whole party. Once his WP gets below 75% he can use Exhaustion to steal WP. When his EP gets below 50% he has a chance to use EP Drain to steal some back from a random party member.
After defeating Harper, he admits to the insurance fraud scheme he concocted to try and buy back his farmland from Powell-Mercer.
6. Return to Eventide.
Now that the sordid tale of the Seaside Bazaar is complete, report back to Eventide to finish the quest.
As a reward for helping her out, you can now learn lessons from Eventide Solais! She will also sell her Sunflower Plunge dress to Cynthia if you have the 900 gold to pay for it.
The previous part of the walkthrough was The Forgotten Chests, the next part is Doesn't Hurt to be Prepared