While crossing a mandatory bridge in chapter 3’s area, Murecum, the player comes across a group of the kingdom’s knights, who have been sent by the party leader’s brother in order to help the party on their quest. They inform the party that a group of nagas sneaked into the kingdom. After some dialogue that reinforces the idea that the party leader has a less than amicable relationship with her brother, she sends the knights away and decides to deal with the nagas with just her party.
If the player wishes to continue the quest, they must travel to the Miasmic Caves, to the northwest. Once there, the party members point out that the caves are filled with a dangerous miasma and promptly begin coughing. Mechanically, the miasma weakens the party members, severely increasing all damage that they take. However, the player can find “Pure Sprigs,” in the caves. Pure Sprigs are a consumable item that grants immunity from the miasma for a certain number of steps. This mechanic puts the player on a timer of sorts. More specifically, it limits movement to a certain amount of steps in this dungeon, as Pure Sprigs are finite. The amount of steps needed by no means comes close to the amount of Pure Sprigs available, but a certain enemy in the area is able to dispel the immunity to the miasma.
A short way through the caves, the player comes across a barrier that was set up by the nagas. (The barrier is positioned at the location of the red box above.) The party members figure out that something in the cave must be powering the barrier. And so, the player must destroy the two barrier orbs, one in each of the caves at either end of the fork in the road (marked by the yellow boxes).
The rooms with the orbs are set up in a maze-like structure with simple boulder-pushing puzzles. If the player begins moving without thinking about where he is going, then he could easily mess up one of the puzzles and waste some of his finite Pure Sprigs.
Once both orbs are destroyed, the barrier in the central room is dispelled, and the player can continue on, eventually reaching the boss of the quest.
Enemies:
Naga Mind Mage – The Naga Mind Mage is a simple spellcaster that can cast dark and psychic magic. It can also apply “Confusion” to the player party. Confusion can be especially dangerous when coupled with the Naga Water Mage’s “Purge Purity” (described below.)
Naga Fire Mage – The Naga Fire Mage is a simple spellcaster that can cast wind magic and both single target and AoE fire magic.
Naga Water Mage – The Naga Water Mage is a spellcaster, and it is a little more dangerous than the other nagas. In addition to being able to cast water, cold, and lightning magic, the Naga Water Mage is able to cast “Purge Purity,” which dispels the immunity to the miasma granted by the Pure Sprigs. As the miasma effect attempts to reapply each turn of combat, this would force the player to stop in combat to reapply Pure Sprigs if he does not wish for the party members to be vulnerable to high amounts of damage.
Guardian Serpent – The Guardian Serpent is a warrior-like enemy that can taunt, has a skill that has a chance to stun, and a bite that has a chance to poison the target. Also, it is able to cast a party-wide magic resistance buff, slowing down combat if it is not focused down.
Boss – Exalted Naga Commander:
To assert that the Exalted Naga Commander is a cut above all the other nagas, it is able to cast spells of every element. It is also able to apply “bleeding” with a physical attack, and reduce the party’s magical resistance. To sum it up, the Exalted Naga Commander is a jack of all trades type of enemy. It is known that these types of users of all, but masters of none fighting styles usually don’t have high fire power in exchange for their utility. So, one might ask, “How would the Exalted Naga Commander deal threatening damage?” The answer is through dispelling the Pure Sprigs on the party and trying to take advantage of the miasma debuff. This boss has a low chance to cast “Purge Purity” on any turn, and at the end of every few turns, it will cast “Purge Purity” as an additional action. If the player does not stay on top of reapplying Pure Sprigs, or burns through them too quickly in the dungeon, the boss will easily be able to shred through the player party.
At 66% HP remaining, the boss summons a Naga Mind Mage, which provides additional damage against the party and may apply confusion to the party.
At 40% HP remaining, the boss summons a Guardian Serpent, which can cast taunt or stun the party members to disrupt combat further.
The time between the summoning of these two additional enemies is completely dependent on the player’s damage output on the boss. If the players choose to ignore the first add, combat could get a little out of control with a second, tank-like additional enemy. As the gap between the add spawns is only 26% HP, the player could easily be punished by trying to focus down the boss and not switching to the first additional enemy.
Hard Mode Additions – Aside from the damage differences inherent in the game’s hard mode (all player stats reduced), this fight has a few hard mode additions.
Like all hard mode bosses, this fight has a turn limit. If the player exceeds 25 turns, the boss casts “Malicious Release” and gains an absurdly high stat buff designed to wipe the player in a turn or two.
The boss’ skill “Disrupt Resistance” has an increased chance to apply its magical resistance debuff to the party, and the debuff is more potent.
When the boss casts “Purge Purity” as an additional action, the boss will immediately cast it again on another random target. Since there are 3 party members in the player’s party, this is effectively a 66% chance to successfully dispel another Pure Sprig if all party members are alive and have their Pure Sprig buffs. Designing this spell upgrade this way also decreases the chance that it will snowball out of control if the player is already disadvantaged. With each party member death or failure to use a Pure Sprig when needed, the chances for this second cast to make an impact decreases.