WLC 2.D: The Shadow Queen
WLC 2.D: The Shadow Queen
A few hours after having entered the tower, Ling realizes that her split party never established an exit strategy, nor a means of communication. For a wizard, this is an embarrassing oversight.
Getting her things together, Ling attempts to sneak through the dark halls, but is quickly grabbed by a shadow and dragged into a new location.
Ling now stands in a decently decorated throne room. Crystal sconces and chandelier shine faint light. A lovely carpet stretches from the large door behind her to the cushioned throne ahead. Barely visible to Ling, sits the Shadow Queen; an usually pale busty elf-like being in a black slit dress with opera gloves. Her long curly hair is intricately woven.
"G'day," says Ling, "Mind giving a light?"
"Why are you in my house?" ask the Shadow Queen as the darkness in the room thickens, "Explain yourself."
"Ya got it," says Ling, leaning her body slightly, "I'm a scholar and I came to propose a business venture to ya."
"And you came alone?"
"...No," says Ling, "Had a friend, a priestess of Vanessa."
"Just one?" The Shadow Queen rocks back and forth, "Don't lie to me."
"I'm not lying."
Claws take form amongst the darkness and lunge at Ling. She skitters away. She rolls and hops about away from the constant barrage. Ling pulls rock from her bag and charms it to shine brightly. The shadows recede and the Shadow Queen growls.
J: We know her name's Melandria; stop calling her the Shadow Queen.
"You think that parlor trick will save you," she yells as the shadow limbs long steel polearms and bows and arrows. The solid weapons are unimpeded by Ling's light and force her to continue dodging.
As she dodges, Ling gets a better look at the elf-esque being. Her ears are small and round. If her hair wasn't black, Ling would assume she was albino.
"Who does your hair?" asks Ling, skittering up the wall desperately avoiding arrows... or at least, looking desperate. "Is it dyed?"
L: Obviously, I cast a wind shield as soon as I had seen the bows.
"What? Yes, but- No one, I d-" Melandria stops herself, "Stop talking to me, you, weird lizard."
"Gecko, actually," says Ling jumping into Melandria's face, "So what are you?"
The woman on the throne pauses, as do her weapons. The gecko's eyes are fixated on something just under her eyes. "What are you doing?"
"Got to be blunt, mate," Ling shakes her head, "You look sick."
"It's a skin condition," says Melandria, "I'm al-"
"Albino, I figured," says Ling, "But that's not it. Ya're malnourished, starving even." She grabs Melandria's hand. "What have ya been eating?"
Melandria pulls her hand away and conjures a piece of bread. "I have plenty of food. I'm strong enough to feed myself."
Ling pulls a potato out from her pouch. "Eat this."
Melandria balks at the tuber.
"I'm a doctor," says Ling before Melandria can speak, "If ya've only been eating mana manna, ya're going to rot away inside out."
Melandria warms the potato and rips it open. With a conjured fork, she begins eating.
"First saw this back at wiz school during the Great War," says Ling, "Spellies eating their own mana's no healthier than eating their own skin. And that's true even for one's that know healthy eating." Ling watches Melandria shovel food into her mouth. "Which most don't."
"Name's Melandria and I'm human," she says in between bites of food, "Since you asked."
"From the surface, eh?" Ling smiles. "My mum's from there."
More Posts from Cleelczipsybane and Others
Thanks for Looking at My Blorbo
This has been the first, and only, Mikado Monday. I don't think any other character is going to get this much love from me, but I'm thinking of who to post about next.
Mikado has taken back the Yugiri.
It can be hard to tell, since it's a palette-swapped nodachi, but if you look close, you can see the hilt is red.
Violence in the Tatara Shrine
This stage is the Tatara Shrine, where the Last Descendant of the Kagami Family, Kagami Izuna, is kept, hidden away from the Shainto who seek to kill her. (Izuna is not to be confused with the young priestess Suzuka, who gives the players their weapons in the first game. Common misconception on the English net.)
While this is the final boss stage for the Shainto, it is also the stage you'd fight Mikado in the Vs CPU gauntlet mode. You normally cannot select the stage, but I'm a dirty little hacker.
Normal jumping while your opponent is down automatically does an attack in BB2.
Multiple attacks can connect at once. Getting hit in the legs is far less dangerous in the second game, since it only slows you down instead of breaking your leg (which makes combat nigh impossible).
Notice how her legs are shaking in her victory pose, that's because she got hit.
WLC 3.8: Children with Knives
J: Let's not forget whose story this is.
The training room is much larger than Jevoi had been expecting. Numerous training targets of various sizes stand around the spacious chamber. Along the walls, several weapons (swords, axes, polearms) are kept sorted in stands. A few grindstones sit next to shelves of materials and a small forge in the corner.
Jevoi's eyes dart across the room; scanning the weapons, she finds her target: knives, daggers. Little blades that can fit in little hands. Her hands. She rushes to them and begins testing their handles. Forward, backward, reverse-grip. She has to find one that fits.
"Oh, ya're into this," says Gank with a smile, "Anything clicking?"
Jevoi stops, holding one sleek dagger in her hand. "YES," she exhales, swinging the runic blade a few times, listening to it sing as it cuts through the air, "Perfect."
"D'ya think?" asks Gank, she points to a humanoid dummy, "Go on, then. Give it a whirl."
The little gecko walks around the dummy and slices at it. The blade cleanly cuts through its soft plant-like material. Jevoi coos at the damage, but the gasps in realization.
"Don't worry," says Gank, as the dummy stitches itself back together, "Nobody'll see nothing."
Jevoi licks her eyes and stabs the dummy as many times as she can, as fast as she can. She twists the blade and begins slashing wildly into it, desperate to outpace the regeneration.
"Okay, slow down," laughs Gank as she walks up to another one, "Let me ya how the big girls do it!" Gank unfurls her claws dramatically and swipes at the dummy in a practiced concert of blows. Her four arms tear, rip, and shred it that it flops about as if it were alive. She throws in a few twirling slashes and kicks as well.
"That's not fair," says Jevoi, "You've got four arms."
"Sorry," says Gank, her tongue hanging from her mouth, "But that's why I'm a warrior and ya're just a rogue."
"Oh yeah?" says Jevoi, running back to the daggers, "I'll show you." She grabs another and racing toward another dummy.
Gank's slit eyes widen. "Woah, kid, wait, no," she steps in front of Jevoi, "If ya get hurt, I'm getting in trouble. Put that one back."
"You don't get to call me a kid," says Jevoi, she looks at her weapons, then up at Gank, "Try and take them!"
L: Trouble from day one.
The developing rational part of Gank's brain attempts to conjure a means of handling this situation. Unfortunately, the emotional threat to her ego prevents the teenager from having any ideas more complicated than, 'Take them.' Some may also claim that her species, hard-wired for a short life of constant violence, may also be a factor in this spur-of-the-moment decision, but that hypothesis's largely irrelevant when faced with the far more accepted theory:
L: Kids are so f*****g stupid.
Gank suddenly lunges at Jevoi, who reflexively holds the blades in front of her. Gank grabs onto Jevoi's wrists, but the gecko squirms and the weapons come dangerously close to the charda's face.
"Let go!" yells Gank.
"Make me!" yells Jevoi. She kicks Gank in the groin. Both girls gasp in pain and Jevoi almost loses balance.
"Why would'ya do that?" says Gank, she then kicks Jevoi right back, "How d'ya like it?"
Jevoi emits a long squeak, but continues struggling to pull her hands out of Gank's claws. Blood begins dripping down both of their arms.
Gank bends her empty hands inward and uses the back of her wrists to slap Jevoi's face and punch her in the gut. "LET!" Hit. "GO!" Slap. "OF!" Knee. "THE!" Clunk. "KNIVES!" Punch.
"Noooo," squeals Jevoi weakly. One blade hits the floor, but she her grip on the other. She shoves her bloody hand into Gank's face, feebly slapping her. "Let me go."
The last thing Jevoi hears before passing out is Gank's desperate voice repeating, "Oh s***e!"
WLC 2.2: Marble Labyrinth Zone
The town of Rankedge's only shrine serves most gods, but the town's main patron, the smallgoblin war (and fire) god Shooty-quickly, is one of the few to have a statue. His depiction as a spry warrior stands atop the marble pyramid facing toward the hole into the Underdank. His drawn arrow's flame endures in any weather and serves as a beacon from anywhere in town. The other gods are depicted on stained glass windows on every tier of the structure, all with their own altar rooms. The structure is seven stories tall with two sets of doors on each and the grand stairway up them is flanked by ramps.
Ling leads Maraja up and into the complex's third floor and around a corner and around another corner and then, just to be different around a third corner.
L: I hadn't really been to the shrine before, so...
"Do you even know where you're going?" asks the bitter paladin as they pass the door she suspects they originally entered.
"Do ya?" snipes back the wizard, her attention stuck on the window of another open room they pass.
"I don't live here!" whisper-shouts Maraja, glancing about for parishioners.
L: It took a bit.
After wandering blindly for half an hour, the two finally meet a priestess who is reaffirming the magic runes giving the marble corridors their soft lighting.
L: The nagi was stretching herself to the ceiling so far that her tunic weren't covering those golden scales on her tail end. Her elven-esque skin was the same seductive shade too and that long braid of hair... oh, it was shaped like a smaller snake.
D: Was she one of your sleep friends, too? L: That's no- J: Sleep friends? You really haven't changed. L: That's not what it sounds like. We can talk about that later. J: Dalini, do Nana Ling's sleep friends ever sound like they're in pain? L: TALK! 👏 'BOUT! 👏 LATER!
"Hey, would ya know where the love room is?" asks Ling.
"She means the altar of Vanessa," quickly corrects Maraja.
"You're on the wrong floor, dearss," says the priestess, "Let me shhow you to the sstairss."
J: Why are you talking like that? Racist. L: It's how she talked. It's not racist, it's a lisp. J: Then, why are mocking her lisp?
The priestess leads them down around a corner and slithers up a ramp next to the stairs in the stairwell in the center of the shrine. The duo follow her up as quietly as they can with Maraja's armor clanking every step.
"The goddesss Vanesssa'ss altar iss on the fifthh floor," says the priestess gently, "Nexx time, you shhould enter from thhere."
"I'll be sure to remember that," says Maraja, "Sister...?"
"Kalyani," answers the nagi, "Priesstesss of Vanesssa, in fact."
"Sounds like I should be converting," mutters Ling to herself from behind the faithful as Maraja introduces them.
WLC 6.5: Weapon Identification
"To what end are you traveling, Loomy and Bacon?" asks the radiant lady of the pond, looming above the water, staring down at them. The two speak over each other.
"Visiting my bunica," says Loomy.
"Searching for danger," says Bacon.
"Both of these things?" Ms. Aurocor tilts her head, "And nothing more?"
The duo look at each other for a moment, understanding the risky nature of their situation, then Loomy says, "Some kids are missing. Have you seen any come by?"
"No, I have not," says Ms. Aurocor, "But, alas, I have been here nary a week." She sits in midair, crossing her legs. "And of that time, my focus has been inward. Only these discarded blades have stolen my attention, cast into me by parties unknown."
"Can we see them?" asks Bacon.
"Verily," says the lady diving into the lake, "Mayhaps, you can identify their owners." She emerges four swords held awkwardly in her arms.
The iron sword is a straight short-sword with a typical elven hilt, somewhat fancy, but not overly so. This could belong to anyone who could afford a blade.
D: What's a short-sword? L: A big knife. A: Technically, not wrong. They're usually no longer than sixty centimeters and are built to be used with one hand.
The steel sword is a great-sword with a dwarven-style hilt, a weapon for a true warrior. Unfortunately, warriors are common to Rankedge, but someone who lost a blade this well-crafted would surely be searching for it.
D: What's a great-sword? L: Bigger sword. A: Unhelpful, but still not wrong. It'd would be longer than you are tall, Dalini.
Held carefully between the other weapons, so as to avoid direct contact with Ms. Aurocor, the silver sword is a horrifyingly serrated bastard-sword of crude goblin-make; more an instrument of torture than anything else. It is stained with hardened blood. The girls cannot identify its owner, nor would they care to meet them. Yet, still, this may prove useful.
D: What's a bastard-sword? L: It's a b*****d's sword. J: Mum, don't say that. L: What? This bloody bastard-sword belonged to a b****y b*****d. A: It's just a weapon of a very specific size; longer and heavier than one-handed weapons, but shorter and lighter than two-handers.
Finally, the gold sword is a not a sword at all. It is a wave-bladed dagger with an upturned spiked hilt. This weapon is easily recognizable.
A: Silver, I understand, but why gold? L: Gold's a good conductor. Mages are creative.
"That's the sheriff's Tei Zing dagger," says Bacon, "Who could have taken that?"
"Whose to say she didn't drop it?" asks Ms. Aurocor.
"No way the sheriff would've thrown his favorite weapon away," says Loomy.
"Oh, 'his'?" says the lady of the pond, "Then it can't have been; I've only heard two fellows around here. One I know is not your sheriff, and the other I should hope isn't."
"Who are these blokes?" asks Loomy.
"My friend has business around here; he's an educator, of sorts," says Ms. Aurocor, "The other is a svelte ne'er-do-'ell who comes forth, looming around at night. He leaves strange notes and letters on trees. Avoid him."
"Is he dangerous?" asks Bacon, "That sounds important."
"No, he's just... annoying," says the lady of the pond, she retreats, blade in tow, back into her aquatic home, "Good luck, honest travelers."
As a big fan of Bushido Blade (1 and 2), how is it that I only found out about the secret Versus mode inside of the Story mode today?
The Good, the Bad, and Their Little Cat Too
is this for anyone? or just me lol
Character Select Face
On the right here, is the game's Story mode icon, which itself is a frame from the game's intro movie. Left to right: Gengoro, Jo, Kaun, Tatsumi, Mikado, Kannuki. Below are the Vs sprites for those five.
Due to a few characters' asymmetrical designs, they get two different vs screen sprites.
That smartphone is too weak for him. Get that man a Nokia.
Elena... what is Based?
Mikado Fan Art
I don't feel comfortable posting other people's fan art, especially without their permission, and most of it is obviously from Japan. So, I'm linking to the other sites. If any of the artists want me to remove these, I will.
This second link is actually three pictures of increasing realism. The artist also has a few Bushido Blade comics, including the next link.
This artist's blog includes a cute chibi Mikado (in which she is identified by another role her voice actress performed "Currypanman"): http://okirakustudio2.web.fc2.com/analogue/a_022.htm
The also did a cute valentine's picture of the four ladies: http://okirakujuraku.blog97.fc2.com/blog-entry-2353.html
Old enough to remember the NES. Pathfinder 2E DM. Fascinated by folklore, religion, mythology, and occultism. World's biggest Bushido Blade 2 fan. Really liking what's happening with indie animation lately.
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