EarthBound high playthrough log part 6

Reading through more of the guide now...

I didn't notice that the dinosaur museum in Fourside was hinting at the next plot development, as they've been receiving fresh dinosaur bones from a place east of Fourside called "Scaraba".
But at least when you're on foot, Fourside is a dead end oceanside city... after you finish saving the Runaway five, defeating the evil statue, and saving Paula there's nowhere else to go except back across the desert to Threed, where your UFO is.. and that leads you to getting the 4th melody and taking the UFO to Summers. This part of the game is kinda cool cuz it's not very obvious where to go next unless you are paying attention.

- Summers/Toto -

Now at level 47, 36, and 37
Time to explore Summers... no idea what to do beyond that. There's a lot of expensive stuff to buy here.. I actually drained out my whole 50k savings

Some bird on the beach has a lot of random dialog if you keep talking to him...

Wake up in the morning, fall in love. Eat lunch, fall in love. And at night, fall in love. That is my dream life!

Are you from Eagleland? If you like adventure, this isn't your kind of place. You should travel across the sea to Scaraba from Toto, the port town.

To go to Scaraba, you need to cross the sea. However, a monster named Kraken lives in the open sea. He attacks ships that pass through. Are you scared?

The guy next to me is really bugging me. He keeps following me around.

Scaraba Cultural Museum... a lot of cool but useless stuff to see here... the curator mentions the Fourside museum curator called him..

Getting
some hints that Pokey has been to this place... at this point I'm pretty sure where ever that kid goes, something bad is sure to happen.

I saw a chubby kid about your age here. He looked awfully wealthy. He was being extravagant!

The room on the 2nd floor of the museum is blocked off by an old woman, says it's being remodeled..

I can't... well, I usually don't... show this room... Once you hit adulthood, you'll understand. I do, however, like jewelry. Perhaps a little, shall we say, "under the table deal" would be in order...

Hmm... i dunno what this is about... maybe that's where the pyramid hieroglyph that the kid outside the museum is talking about is...

Sign at the hospital:

Relax, take it easy! It's all in your head... A healthy mind is a healthy body!

Next I explore the beach... oh now I get it. that bird was just parroting what other NPCs on the beach are saying...

I wonder why such serious looking kids as you would come to this resort town... You guys are really spoiling the atmosphere...

lol this old man at the east side of Summers:

East of here is the port town of Toto. ...No, no... I'm not a billboard...

and a billboard above him has graffiti on it...

NESS can eat my shorts! For a neighbor, he's a loser!

Oh I think Toto is just in the same map as Summers.
A grave robber says he was too scared to go in the tomb in the pyramid, so instead he tells people he saw mummies.
Stoic Club in Summers... got the secret number to get into it from some random guy in Toto

The newspaper at this expensive hotel...

That's interesting.. I wonder what's going on at Jeff's school.

Suddenly, Jeff's friend Tony from Winters calls me and asks me (the player) to register my (the player's) name for a project he's doing... this is pretty cool

Don't put my friend JEFF in any dangerous situations, okay?

Talked to the sailor at the port, said no I don't want a boat ride... he tries to pretend not to be too scared of the Kraken to go out... and says his wife has been acting weird and neglecting her magic cake business ever since she started hanging out in a strange club...
...magic cake? I want some of that.

Found out how to get into the Stoic Club.... wtf, the dialog in this place is... something.

and other stuff like

You guys can't envision the final collapse of capitalism? Incredible!

and

I've finally awakened the inner me, the true self. The patrons of this club are able to stare into their own soul hard enough to burn a hole in their psyche. I'm now comfortable enough to stare at the real me, the true self, and burn the impression into my super-ego. I want to be in this comfort zone at any time, all the time or at no time. My id is telling me...

Someone tells me the magic cake woman is standing at the entrance... before rambling off about incoherent nonsense...

The show? It's already started. Everyone stares at the stone on stage and philosophizes... Doesn't it sound stupid?

The employee says he doesn't know what's going on here, but the patrons pay a lot of money for a glass of water while standing around staring at this rock on stage...
The magic cake woman is that "true self" woman... I talk to her again about the cake and she tells me to go meet her outside by a cart on the beach

The magic cake knocks us out... NESS has a very clear and very strange dream...

- Dalaam part 1 -

Dalaam, in the far east.. the palace of POO, the crown prince

Go to the place of emptiness and endure the final test.

POO is level 15
Poo gets a few things out of some palace chests before leaving... including a Brain stone, that lets him concentrate and use PSI powers

Some guy with a phone on his head... That's NESS's dad apparently...? lol that's why he's never around, he's training to be a monk.
Also this island we're on seems to be floating in the clouds... all the citizens of this land let me do whatever I want...

Statues of rabbits are blocking the only way out of here... it might lead down to the ground or something idk
The other way leads to Mu, the place of nothingness...
Some girl calls out to Poo, trying to get him to stop his training...

Hmm... i'm not sure.
Oh
Something's happening if I site here long enough... a ghost talks to me...

To complete your trial, I am going to break your legs. Do you accept this?

Next, I will tear your arms off. Do you mind?

Ah, Prince POO... Without legs and arms, you can only lie htere... Now, I'll cut your ears off. You don't mind my taking your hearing away, do you?

The sound literally stops after that...

By floating words through the air, I must ask you... Do you care if I take your eyes? Do you want to live in eternal darkness?

So, Prince POO. Now, I can only communicate directly with your mind. Your mind is all you have left... In the end, I will take your mind... Though you probably don't want to allow that.

So, you can't answer? You can't even move? Are you sad? Are you lonely? If you lose your mind, you also lose any feelings of sadness... Do you accept this?

The spirit of POO's ancestor possesses him...

You have now completed your training.

Woah... I feel like a monk now lol

POO goes back to his master... the master has a message from eternity...

The evil entity that controls all wickedness is preparing for the greatest struggle of all time... The only ones who can challenge that entity are three boys and one girl. One named NESS is the leader of the four. One of the boys is you, Prince POO.

Poo levels up to 18, and uses teleport to go to Summers...

I am a servant of NESS. I will fight by your side.

Well... that was a thing.

I see, now I have the jewelry needed to get into the heiroglyph exhibit.

POO read the heiroglyphs.. some major lore drops here...

To fight against the invaders, we built this pyramid fortress. However, our efforts were futile, and we lost. Nonetheless, our pyramid was protected by the gods of Scaraba. The invaders will be reborn every millennium and will attack again. Even now, the invaders hide beyond space and time and build their evil stronghold. A place out of time is beyond the Dark, and is even farther beyond the Lost Underworld. The Deep Darkness is shrouded, it is without light. Only one with the Hawk eye can pierce the dark. The Sphinx now watches over everything, waiting for the coming of a truly brave hero...
4 ... 3
2 5
Dance in front of the Sphinx!

The woman guarding this exhibit says some rich kid also gave her a lot of money to see this and took a picture of the hieroglyphs... oh and it's not a woman, it's a guy wearing a turban.
Before I leave the museum, I take a call from Mr. Spoon at the Fourside dinosaur museum, saying he found something interesting.

- Fourside part 4 -

I guessed at the same time I went to the hint guy, at this point you probably have to teleport back to Fourside and talk to the other museum guy directly.
the researcher here asks me to bring him Venus's autograph at Topolla.
The theatre manager:

Ok? don't forget, money is everything. money can buy you everything except love, money, and exp.

Watched Venus's show...

wtf, the researcher actually goes onto the stage during the performance to try to talk to Venus, and the guards come and kick him out... what a creep.
I talked to Venus after and got a signed banana. I give it to the researcher, and he lets me in on his extraordinary discovery that he found on the other side of a manhole...
That thing... I saw that sanctuary the first time I visited Fourside... wow it's cool how most of these sanctuary locations always happen to be in a strange, peaceful looking area that you can see a glimpse of way before you're supposed to go there...

Something about these sanctuary locations has a strange feel to it.. like the path leading to them always has no NPCs anywhere, and nothing but wildlife enemies that become tame and run away from you after you defeat the boss and become the new master of the sanctuary...

The fourside hotel butler accidentally gets the Fourside Star instead of the Fourside Post... it says

Lucky of the Runaway Five found to have been in state House of Representatives.

...that's gotta be a lie.

Oh yeah, POO's special thing is he can regain PP from drinking water... he's basically a white mage, with some of the black mage's (Paula's) strengths and NESS's healing powers...

The enemies in this Fourside sewer area are quite tough... the ghost thing doesn't do much damage to you, but it possesses you and slowly does damage to you constantly until you see a healer...
The rats hit hard though, and don't go down quickly...

Plague rat, the boss guarding the 5th sanctuary... I wonder if I'm ready now... NESS at level 50, PAULA at level 39ish, JEFF at level 40ish, POO at level 30ish...

Also I'm starting to really did the boss music in this game...
jeez... I'm noticing at this stage in the game, praying just doesn't usually work well, just makes everyone feel strange... One thing about being possessed by ghosts that kinda makes it harder is the ghosts add a lot more text to go through during each turn, which means you have a much lower chance of surviving with rolling HP.
Died once... got there again at a higher level and retried... I think I got this now... spamming PSI Freeze with Paula and Poo seems to be working great.. good thing I brought those revival items.

There... made it... NESS level 51, Paula level 41, Jeff level 41, Poo level 34...

NESS saw a baby's bottle, but just for an instant.
NESS's sound stone recorded the melody of Magnet Hill.

Also this sanctuary location has a carrot key... oh yeah, the bunny statues in Dalaam... I can teleport back there easily.
Looks like this Dalaam cave leads to more fighting/grinding stuff, so I guess I'll save that for next session...