Alright, so since a super mega post is in order, let's do this thing.
Our story begins with the fall of Velius. Knowing of what is to come, Cyril gives a mighty MEH and changes nothing. Fargus becomes some kind of speedy doom archer, but doesn't change much. Meanwhile, Jasmin goes over every variable, considering the different status effects of the katanas, the impact of each different speed she might have, the values of specific HP ranges and comes up with the perfect setup for the upcoming battle. As for Shaker, he wants to hunt some big game, and tricks out every aspect of the system he can to squeeze out as much physical damage as possible, aiming to be half the offensive might of the party in a build known only as the Evisceraptor.
Naturally, Fargus and Cyril kill Lede before anyone else, and especially the two that spent half an hour prepping for the battle, can get a turn.
And so begins Chapter 4, also known as the Chapter of surprisingly little Revival. With Chemist being mostly done, Fargus decides to get himself a better movement ability. This involving unlocking Bard so he can get Move +3. Thanks to Jasmin, he has the Summoner Pre-Reqs, but he doesn't have Mediator unlocked, so it's off to Oracle for him. Notably, thanks to Poison Rod, Martial Arts, and Punch Art, it's off to Physical Oracle of Doom! Jasmin and Cyril can generally be assumed to be their default classes for this session (Summoning Samurai for Jasmin, Death Calc for Cyril) while Shaker jumps around a fair bit without actually changing at all (two weapon Thief/Ninja/Knight/Monk/Geo).
At this point, we decide to ignore the main plot for Bervennia Volcano. I mean, we are right there, and Cyril has Move-Find Item. One Teleport 2 later, and we've gained Materia Blade X 1. The rest of the battle was fairly easy outside of the one Look of Devil which whiffed before the ahriman in question got poached. Though, this did lead to the interesting conundrum of a Death Calc facing a bunch of Reflected, Death Immune, or Aegis Shielded foes.
Alright, now we hit the valley of Chapter 4 Start. Also known as, the first battle where Death starts reliably hitting. Shaker takes down two enemies on the top, while Jasmin does some hurting on the guys in the middle with Bahamut, and Cyril picks a couple of folks off with Death. Fargus anchors the team, as an Item Mediator, and that's that for a fairly routine battle. Big thing of note, Cyril manages to get most of the White Magic Skillset he didn't already have from a crystal near the end. God bless Teleport 2.
Meliadoul is somewhat less routine. Our first attempt, well... let's start with what went right. Namely, CK is a girl. Specifically, a girly girl what cannot resist Shaker's manly charms and kills a summoner for us. Oh, and we got lucky and the AI foiled it's own attempt to knock CK out of charm. Well, that was quick. What went wrong started with a critical hit on Shaker, knocking him and the Fire 2 aimed at him back, so it now one shotted Jasmin instead of knocking CK out of Charm, and left Shaker hurt badly enough that the archers could pick him off easily. Also, the Short Charge Summoner managed to hit both Fargus and Cyril, notably hitting Cyril before he could move and one shotting him. Fargus, with his Auto Potion fared better, but once he was alone with only one summoner down and CK back in the game, it was over.
Meliadoul Tk 2. Cyril is the only drastically different setup this time, having considered White Magic Knight (Paladin Setup) before realizing there would be no robes. So he was a White Magic Geomancer instead, with the Materia Blade and Maintenance to protect against basically the entire enemy force. Another setup change involved Shaker starting one panel further back to lure CK to a panel where we could side attack, and Jasmin with a Heaven's Cloud instead of a Muramasa.
Battle starts with the left summoner Hasting Meliadoul while Shaker kills CK. Cyril then pulls out Reraise while taking position to try and stall Meliadoul. At this point a Windslash Archer downs Jasmin, but Shaker can run up and take down a summoner before getting downed himself by an instacast Leviathan. He gets Raised and takes down an archer before Meliadoul Shellbust Stabs him. another Raise comes, and he retreats to join Fargus and Jasmin who've wiped out the rest of Meliadoul's support and are huddling out of her reach while Cyril plugs the hole Melia needs to get up from ground level. After regrouping and getting some good CT timing, the party surges forward, killing Melia fairly quickly in spite of her Protect/PDU/MDU setup.
Finath River was against 5 Yellow Chocobos.
Zalmo was interesting. It started with an accurate Silence Song on Jasmin, who decided it would be a good idea to Kiyomori instead of having a 13% of her summon failing. Unfortunatly, this involved a bit of oversight involving walking next to Cyril, the other person using Magic (although, by this point he has Exp 3 unlocked). So, complete lockdown. Cyril busts out Poison for the JP and then moves to where Stigma Magic can help him, only to have one of the Samurai pull out Heaven's Cloud, killing Cyril (but not getting status for anyone else). None of us prepped revival, so we are now on a timer. A Calc based timer, in a party with a TwoFist Accumumonk, a Samurai, and a Charge Bard. Oh, and Delita. By the time Delita remembered he had Wish, most of the enemy force had been reduced to a fine red mist after having come in contact with the party. Leaving only a Charging Zalmo with 31 HP and 40MP, as well as an Oracle in critical status. The pace did not change from that point on.
At this point we're out of Asuras and decide to go and stock up on some more, meaning a trip to Dorter is in order. The random encounter at Finath gets steamrolled, in large part thanks to Salamander being that good against Chocobos. The random at Doguola also involves steamrolling of the only three PC actions sort. Jasmin never gets a turn, Shaker's first move is while charmed (we didn't need Fargus anyways), and Cyril is kinda useless.
Trip to Dorter take 2. This time our random encounter is at Grog, and easily dispatched. We reach Dorter, do some buying, and then head back to the plot. This time the Doguola battle is much easier and easily handled with our insane amounts of offense. In fact, this is a good time to look at the party since we're all offensive units, with different specialties.
Shaker is your traditional range 1 evadable splattermonkey what kills things if he does hit.
Fargus is a quick glass cannon the plays the ninja game well, and between Auto-Potion and Bloody Strings has no HP setting between full and dead (and with 160 Max HP, Dead is a viable option).
Jasmin has the accurate AoEs with range and evasion ignoring properties.
And Cyril is slow, but between Teleport 2, Range 8 Death, and his growing competancy with Math Skill, will always have a move, and is quite a good sniper.
One last trip to Zalmoville for an Icebrand gets us a random encounter at Finath. Notably, a random encouter with a swarm of Piscodemons a couple of cats, and a Treant. Despite our best efforts, halfway through the fight, Shaker and Jasmin are down, with Cyril having no methods of revival, and Fargus being in the thick of the fighting. It is at this point that Cyril manages to MS Haste onto himself and Fargus, and the Piscodemons Berserk the bard. And so while Fargus SMASHED PUNY SQUID THINGS WITH MUSIC!!!! Cyril took out the retreating Squid that counter flooded Shaker to death, and the timer was avoided. This battle really was notable for driving home the fact that bards now out ninja the ninja.
We now reach Balk. Cyril pulls out a Flame Shield here, meanwhile a few of the enemies are dumb enough to have good compatability and good faith. So, we get our opening Kiyomori before having Shaker walk up and kill something, and having Cyril snipe an archer. At this point, Balk gets a turn and I foolishly invite Balk and his Fire Gun to attack me. Ooops, Arm Aim is go! Wait, despite taunting the universe he missed! His next turn he tries it again, but this time Fargus had run forward to kill the summoner, and he got hit instead. This prompts a Height Prime Esuna, getting rid of Poison and Don't Act. After this, giant dragon torches foes, and Shaker/Fargus get their beat on on Balk, ending the battle.
North Wall of Bethla comes next. Our first attempt goes poorly. Between all of Cyril's status attempts (one death, two slows) failing horribly, the Lancers all managing to have their pick of Jump targets, the monk not only having Earth Slash, but also being oddly evasive, and the Summoner just being good in spite of 50 Faith. We failed to do much in the way of damage before being crushed.
Second attempt started with a different setup, and a few differences. Namely, new setup meant that Cyril was now exactly 3 Panels away from the archer on the wall, which left him in critical. Also, the monk lacked Earth Slash. One Kiyomori later, as well as one summon from the enemies, the party surged forth, with Shaker and Jasmin, supported by Fargus, taking out Soppy and his buddy before starting to make their way up the battlements. Meanwhile, Cyril opens up by pointing at the Summoner, killing her outright. Then becoming the main target for both archers and the monk, taking an arrow and the the monk got behind him with a Repeating Fist. Fortunatly, it was only a glancing blow as the crossbow archer retreated to the top of the ramparts for safety. Cyril then pointed at the monk and he keeled over, dead. At this point, the longbow archer fired at Cyril again, landing another hit. The archer celebrated as knocking Cyril into critical caused him to disappear. Sadly, this was no retreat, but Critical Quick activating, turning joy to dismay as the vanished Cyril popped out from behind his buddy's ear, stick first. He fired another shot at Cyril, but it was shielded. And as the rest of the party closed in, Cyril warped space in order to deliver the final blow after Fargus had softened him up.
And it is here that our tale ends. Tune in next week, Same Calc Time! Same Calc Channel!
