When morning arrived the following day, the entire atmosphere seemed to change. It was a brand new day, and Tressa was more than happy to embrace it as such. She knew it would be a long time before she was truly able to abandon her thoughts of the events that she had seen beneath the grounds of Quarrycrest, assuming she was able to at all, but she didn't care. She was going to make the day her own. Tressa was tired of being caught up in her own fears about the world around her, and putting one foot in front of the other was the best way to fix it. She owed herself this much.
The travelers were all on high alert, readying themselves for whatever difficulties were going to face them as they planned their impromptu revolution. Tressa still couldn't believe they were doing something so massive, but she knew that this was what they were meant to do. She couldn't just leave town after everything she had seen happen because of Morlock's lack of care. She was going to try and help those who had suffered under his rule, and even though she was determined to not think of the day before if she could help it, she refused to abandon those who had suffered under his heel.
The first step of making a difference was finding the funds to start all of this in the first place. Money was what pushed the world ever forward, and Tressa was all too aware of that as a merchant. She was the one in charge of gathering the leaves necessary for the next step of this journey, and it was a duty she did not intend on taking lightly. Quarrycrest was filled with opportunity, and she would make her aspirations into a reality as soon as she possibly could.
Midmorning had arrived, and Tressa was walking through the streets of Quarrycrest with her journal in her hand. She knew quite a bit about Quarrycrest from the last day, but she wanted to pursue as much knowledge as she could before starting her operations. The nameless traveler who dropped the journal previously had been through Quarrycrest, and Tressa could only hope that he would be able to provide her with a little bit of information about what she should have been trying to do while in town.
Every journey is a vast sea of opportunities, but none are quite so precious as our encounters with others. Sharing a connection with someone new, for however brief a time, is unforgettable. For it is a chance to learn more about others and yourself. I'll rest here tonight in Quarrycrest. Rumor is there's gold in these hills, and many a prospector has set their eye on it. I wonder what encounters might await me here?
Tressa clapped the journal shut and tucked it away in her bag. She certainly hoped there was gold here as the rumors had claimed, though she supposed only time would be able to tell. Tressa assumed the whispers were credible though, because if they were false, Morlock wouldn't have claimed such an iron grip over the city to begin with. He wanted the gold to be found in the bluffs of the area, and he would do anything to get his hands on it. That was the root of the problem.
He wasn't the only one searching for beauty here though, and as Tressa wandered deeper into the streets of Quarrycrest, she realized just how many miners there really were. She could only assume that most people had come to Quarrycrest with hopes of getting their hands on gold and riches beyond their wildest dreams, but instead, they had been drafted to work under Morlock. The entire city seemed a little bit more sinister with that in mind.
The mining platforms that lined the edge of the city were as terrifying as they were impressive, and for a few moments, all Tressa could do was stare as she craned her neck back to try and take in the full scale of the structures. Countless men were digging away at the bluffs, desperately searching for even the slightest traces of something that glimmered. Their determination was admirable, but Tressa's stomach twisted at the idea that it would probably all go into another man's pockets. The more she thought about it, the more she hated Morlock, a man she had never met but would no doubt cross paths with soon. As long as he was destroying so many lives with his desire for capital, it was just a matter of time.
"Gold! I've struck gold!"
Tressa's gaze immediately shifted across the beams to where a man had pulled out a single nugget of shining metal. He held it up to the sky triumphantly to show off his accomplishment to the rest of the world. His excitement was contagious, and Tressa found herself smiling as soon as his cheerful laughter reached her ears. This was the reason he had come here. He wanted to find something new, and just as he had hoped, there it was.
"Now this is somethin' to write home about!" the man continued as he examined the gold piece in full. It was hefty, much larger than Tressa would have expected. Something like that could have fed the entirety of Rippletide for at least a month if it was sold to the right buyer, and Tressa couldn't help the way her jaw dropped the longer she stared at it.
Another one of the laborers immediately scrambled to return to his work, his hands practically shaking from anticipation. "Where there's one, there's more! And I'll find 'em all!" he declared.
The other men around him seemed to share the sentiment, all of them diving right back to their work a moment later. The person directly beside him shook his head before starting to pick at the rocks himself. "Not if I find 'em first!" he challenged.
Tressa watched with wide eyes as the men returned to their previous working endeavors, a small smile reaching her face after a few beats of silence. There really was gold to be found in Quarrycrest, and that was surely the reason Morlock had set up here to begin with. If a gold nugget that large had been discovered within the mountains, then there had to be more, and that was why so many people had traveled there. Prospectors set their sights on profits, moving their families out to the crowded city in the red cliffs with hopes of finding something that would change their lives forever.
Tressa couldn't keep herself smiling about the idea forever though. She knew that the people of Quarrycrest weren't going to see anywhere near as much hope as they would have liked, not as long as people like Morlock were still around. This was the reason there was such a stark divide between the rich and the poor in Quarrycrest too-there were the people who mined with hopes of riches and those who worked under their command. Tressa somehow doubted the man who found the impressive gold piece was going to be able to keep it for long, and it was just a matter of time before everything came crashing down around him. It was a cynical train of thought, but given that she had seen people dead on the ground because of human experimentation the day before, it was relatively tame for what her grim worries could have been.
If nothing else though, she had been right about this being the perfect place for her to pull funds together for their uprising. She was going to have to be sneaky, but she didn't work for anyone, so she would be able to keep her findings if she was lucky enough to dig something up. Sure, a lot of this plan involved ridiculous amounts of chance, but it was the best idea Tressa had. It would all be worth it to stop Morlock.
Before Tressa could determine what her next move was meant to be, she heard one of the laborers cry out in shock. "Stay your hands! It's Mr. Morlock!" he exclaimed as he looked out over the path below.
Tressa didn't have time to register the words at all before all of the laborers clustered together in a small crowd, each of them waiting to see the master of the town. Tressa froze on the spot as two men came walking into view, and the world seemed to fall still as she stared at them. The first was on the taller side, his face large and set in a perpetual frown. His black hair was tied at the base of his neck, his body covered in armor from head to toe. A tunic sat atop the steel, the fabric green and white with golden trim. The man held an axe that was as expensive as it was massive, everything about it the embodiment of power. He was the fighter of the two, and Tressa could sense his raw strength from a mile away.
The other man was smaller and stouter, and he wore all white. His clothing was lined with jewels that dazzled in the overhead sunshine. His features were unreadable, but Tressa could feel the stench of judgement a mile away. A turban masked his head from the sun, and his beard was so well-kept that it almost felt statuesque. The truth of his wealth seemed to drip off him, the stones lining his body a small indicator of just how many privileges the world had given him.
And Tressa already knew exactly who he was.
In some ways, it was almost hilarious just how pathetic Morlock looked when he was actually standing before her. Ophilia's words from Bartolo had painted the picture of a warmonger, but he looked like little more than a capitalist. He was extraordinarily rich, yes, but he wasn't the terrifying man that Tressa had painted a picture of in her mind. She was sure that she could have knocked him over with a basic wind spell, though given how many jewels he was wearing, the heaviness of the stones could have kept him from falling over. Either way, Tressa knew that if it came to combat, she would be able to take him, and with the other travelers, they would be able to defeat his bodyguard too.
But Tressa was alone for the time being, and she froze at the sight of him, not sure of what to do. She had heard before that the chances of her running into him were slim at best, but it seemed as if the universe had other plans. Her heart was screaming in her chest that this wasn't the plan, that she was supposed to have all of the others at her back when she finally faced him, but she tried to stay outwardly calm. The last thing she needed was to draw unnecessary attention.
Morlock took a few steps forward, the gemstones lining his outfit jingling and jostling all the while. "Good to see you all toiling so earnestly," he told the miners, his eyes glossing over all of them without really seeing the men for what they were: individual people. That familiar rage began to blossom in Tressa's stomach again, but she refused to let the fire out, instead simply biting down on the inside of her lip in a desperate urge to stay quiet.
The man who had found the gold piece from before dashed to the front of the crowd, and he showed the nugget to Morlock. "Look, sir! Real gold! How much do ya reckon it's worth?" he asked eagerly, his eyes alight with excitement.
"Let me see that beautiful nugget," Morlock said as he took the piece into his hands. He examined it thoroughly with hands that understood the value of the metal all too well. He certainly was a merchant, and a powerful one at that. Everyone else around him seemed to know it too. "I'd be happy to take it off your hands for a reasonable sum."
Chattering spread throughout the nearby crowd, and Tressa glanced around at them, trying to glean their opinions of Morlock from what limited phrases she could hear. Morlock himself looked to his bodyguard before frowning at the conversations around him. "Omar," Morlock said simply.
The man beside Morlock, Omar, raised his axe into the air before slamming the hilt of it against the ground. He understood well what was being asked of him, and the echoing clap of his axe against the ground immediately brought the mine to silence. Every eye in the mine shifted in his direction, and the man took advantage of the attention to speak.
"I'll say it once more, so listen well!" Omar declared. "This mine and all the land surrounding it is the sole property of the esteemed Mr. Morlock Clarke. As such, any and all gold discovered here is his by right! But fortunately for you, Mr. Morlock is a generous man. He'll buy the gold off anyone who finds it. So keep digging, and you may find yourself with riches beyond measure!"
The laborers let out cries of joy at that, and Tressa couldn't help but stare slack-jawed at it all. That was how this town worked then. Morlock ran the mines, and anyone with the hopes of getting rich could come there and work to pull the gold from the cliffs. All the gold went right back into Morlock's pockets though, all under the guise of generosity from compensation. Being paid shouldn't have been considered generous as far as Tressa was concerned; it was simply part of working. This was all a trap that Morlock had set to trap young workers into doing everything for him while he could sit at the top. His money shielded him from everything the same way it had kept him afloat when he waged war against Saintsbridge.
This was the reason Bartolo had grown so upset with him to begin with. Bartolo had seen that something was amiss with the way that Morlock was treating his workers, and that was when everything began to fall apart. The war between Quarrycrest and Saintsbridge was a direct result of that concern, and it tore apart Creek and the people from both of the warring settlements. It was enough to make Tressa sick, and all she could do was stand there and shake, her hands clenched into fists.
She wasn't going to be able to get her hands on any gold here. That much she could say with certainty. Morlock was going to find out, and that would only expose her endeavors much sooner than she would have liked. She was going to have to try a different approach to gathering the money of the Quarrycrest elite for the sake of this revolution. She was certain there had to be some other opportunity out there for her though. Omar had only stated that all gold in the mines would go back to Morlock, so if she could get her hands on something else, then perhaps she would be able to find a loophole and run with it just long enough to change things for the better in Quarrycrest. It seemed to be her best option as long as the gold would all flow right back into Morlock's greedy palm.
The miners had all dispersed and returned to work by the time that Morlock began to retreat. Tressa was so caught up in glaring at him that she didn't even notice when H'aanit came up behind her, a frown etched across her lips. "That muste be him," H'aanit began simply.
Tressa just about jumped out of her skin from shock, and she slammed one hand against her chest to try and calm her rapid breathing. She hadn't realized just how still she had been until after she glanced over her shoulder and realized H'aanit was the one who had approached her. "You don't need to scare me like that!" Tressa yelped.
The merchant took a few moments to breathe as H'aanit frowned ever so slightly. "Thou hast mine apologies."
Tressa let out a definitive exhale as she looked over in the direction Morlock had gone. He was already out of sight, but Tressa couldn't help wanting to glare at him some more, almost praying that perhaps her hatred toward him would take care of their need for a revolution for them. "Yeah... That is him," Tressa murmured. "He has complete control over this entire mine. He's using these workers to do all of his labor and then paying them for the gold they dig up, but..."
"Thou dost not believen he is doing so fairly," H'aanit finished for her, and Tressa nodded. "Thou wouldst knowen best thanketh to thine profession. If he truly is not compensating his workers the way he ought to be..."
"Then we're doing the right thing by... You know," Tressa said, not wanting to risk stating their purpose out loud. She didn't know who might have been listening in the bustling streets of Quarrycrest, but she didn't want to take the chance. "I don't know how anyone can sleep at night knowing that they're exploiting people who are doing their best to work for them. It's so vile and cruel, and... He just doesn't care about it at all!"
"Some people aren filled with the hearts of devils," H'aanit frowned somberly. "Greed is a powerful thing, and it can warpen even the finest of men into shadows of their former selves."
"I know," Tressa murmured, but she absolutely hated having to admit it. "Morlock only sees everyone here as a proxy for his own funds. That's not what being a merchant is about. If that's all he takes from this, then... He doesn't deserve any of the power he's given."
"All lessons are delivered in due time," H'aanit assured Tressa. "The time hath arrived for Morlock to understanden the depth of his folly, and we willen be the ones bringing him the truth."
Tressa nodded at that before looking up to H'aanit again. "What about the others? Is everyone planning things out well enough for our... Adventure?" she asked, once again opting to not speak in specifics in case anyone unsavory just so happened to be listening in.
H'aanit nodded. "I imaginen they will finishen gathering information soon," she replied. "Cyrus intendeth to inciten the miners to rise up and do something as a full group. Morlock may possessen the power to put down a small faction of rebels, but if there are too many for his forces to outlast, then we shalt succeed."
"And there's going to be too many for him to withstand," Tressa said firmly. "There have to be. Look at all of the miners here in this mine. We're going to get as many of them on our side as possible, and everything is going to change for the better when we do. He's been underestimating the people for way too long, and it's high time that changes."
"Then perhaps we should turnen our attention to gathering the funds we requiren," H'aanit suggested. "Doth thou have a plan for collecting the necessary leaves?"
Tressa thought about it before she glanced up to the mines. "Not yet... But there has to be something in those mines that we could use," she answered simply. "Morlock only said that all of the gold in Quarrycrest belongs to him, and I'm going to find something that gets around that. If there's gold in these hills, then there's got to be something else important here too that we could use to our advantage. All we have to do is find it."
H'aanit nodded with a small smile. "I believen in thy skills," she assured Tressa, and the merchant beamed up at her. Linde purred her agreement from near H'aanit's feet and Tressa knew the snow leopard believed in her too.
Tressa offered a brief stroke down the top of the snow leopard's head before she started off toward the mines once again. "Let's go and see what we can find then. There's bound to be something around here, and I'm going to make sure we track it down."
H'aanit continued to follow Tressa as the merchant dashed up the wooden scaffolding lining the edge of the cliffs. Tressa glanced around at the countless men working tirelessly, most of them spurred to put even more effort after Morlock's generous offer of trade that morning. Excitement over the idea of gold was still buzzing in the air, a constant source of inspiration and a reason to keep going.
She soon caught a glimpse of someone who wasn't trying as hard as the others though, exhaustion clearly settling deep into his bones. The man appeared to be from somewhere up north, perhaps from the Flatlands or Coastlands. He rubbed one hand across the top of his head, pulling away sweat along the way. "I dig and dig and dig and still can't find any gold..." he muttered to himself. He looked down at the pickaxe in his hand, something bitter finding a home in his eyes. "Curse my bad luck! I thought this would be my chance to turn it all around!" His voice cracked before he dropped the pickaxe to the ground, each new word lined with hopelessness and desperation. "How can I ever face my wife again...?"
Tressa's face slipped into a frown at that, and she wished there was something she could do to help. She looked at the man and the area surrounding him, trying to find even a glimpse of the extraordinary. In the end, her eyes settled on a small pile of rocks that rested near the man's feet. Even though much of the rock of the Cliftlands was the color of rust, these stones were obsidian black, though they were nothing remarkable. They were a strange color, but that by itself didn't mean anything. Tressa could tell there was more to it than met the eye though, and the longer she stared at the rocks, the more convinced she was that she had found the way she was going to make the money needed for this revolution.
"Excuse me, sir," Tressa began as she approached the man. He looked up at her quizzically, seemingly surprised that he was being addressed at all, and Tressa returned his confusion with a bright smile to lighten his day and his spirits. "I'll buy these stones from you."
The man's eyes went wide. "You will?!" he yelped, relief flooding through his features like a tidal wave. He looked down at the stones, picking one up and examining it thoroughly. Immediately, his excitement at the idea of leaves fell apart. "I can't sell these to you in good conscience, miss. They're just lousy rocks.
"I insist!" Tressa told him. "I'm a merchant, and I feel like there's more to these than meets the eye!" She grinned as she looked at the rocks a little bit closer, hoping that smile would help her to sell it a little bit more.
The man's face broke out into a grin with her words, and he let out a jubilant laugh. "In that case, they're all yours! Thank you kindly!" He gladly passed the stones to her as Tressa handed him the money.
"Of course!" Tressa beamed to him. With that, she turned on her heel and walked back down the scaffolding, finding a place in the shadows of a building where she could tinker with her new find.
"What dost thou think thou will finden?" H'aanit questioned of Tressa. Linde sniffed curiously at the rocks before sitting down, her tail flicking behind her gently.
"I'm not sure, but something tells me these are going to be important," Tressa replied. She reached into her bag and pulled out a small bottle of polishing fluid and a corresponding cloth. Once she had gotten the cloth wet, she started to rub away at one of the rocks, setting the others at her feet while she got to work. H'aanit watched her silently as Tressa's expression pinched with solemnity and concentration.
It didn't take long for the truth of the rocks to reveal itself, and the black exterior of the stone began to peel away. Instead, Tressa was left with a small bright green gem that glittered excitedly in the overhead sunshine. "Aha! I knew it!" she exclaimed. "Underneath that grimy exterior was a beautiful gem just waiting to be discovered!
"You've got quite the eye, young lady."
Tressa went still, fearing for a brief flicker of a moment that she had been caught, that all of them had. She only managed to calm herself down again when she reminded herself that nobody could have possibly known what they were up to. Whoever this new person was, they couldn't have had a clue what the travelers were planning. Still, the moment of fear settled in Tressa's stomach like a lead weight. "Pardon...?" was all she could choke out in her anxiety.
Tressa glanced up and saw a young man no more than a few years older than her standing a few feet away. His skin was tanned, his hair a deep brown color so dark it bordered on black. He wore a red hat with a feather sticking out one side, and his attire was red and light blue. He had a similar pack on his back to what Tressa wore as part of her merchant work, and she couldn't help wondering if perhaps they were in the same profession.
Before she had the chance to ask though, she realized what he was holding. It was another one of the green gemstones she had piled up at her feet, and it shone proudly from its place in his palm. The stones seemed to be more common in this area than Tressa had thought.
"Those are the same stones I bought!" Tressa whispered, unable to hold back her surprise. She took a few steps closer to examine the other merchant's haul, looking carefully at the pile of gems he held in a bag. They all seemed to glow, and Tressa could only assume that he had gotten a head start on making everything glitter the way it should have.
"Right you are," the young man confirmed. He looked at Tressa from head to toe, seemingly picking up on the minor cues of her appearance. "I'm a traveling merchant. Ali's the name."
"Tressa. I'm a traveling merchant too," Tressa replied with a smile. "I've never seen stones that glow quite like these. They look just like ordinary rocks at first, but it'll take more than that to fool me!"
Ali's head tilted to the side in slight confusion. "You have no idea what you bought, do you?" he questioned carefully.
Tressa returned his confused gesture. "Should I?"
"These are skystones. They're rare, but you can find them if you know where to look," Ali explained. "At first, they're perfectly unremarkable rocks, but if you apply some quality elbow grease..." He flashed the jewel in front of his face. "And you have yourself a gorgeous gemstone."
"I had no idea!" Tressa admitted with a smile.
Ali's eyes dropped to the pile of rocks that had accumulated at Tressa's feet, something like doubt and nostalgia overcoming his gaze. "And you still bought all of those stones? Heck of a green pea, you are."
Tressa staggered back, her face growing hot from embarrassment and offense. "Green pea?!" she guffawed, trying to come up with something to say in response. Unfortunately, since she was still flustered from earlier run-in with Morlock, she couldn't find the words, and all she could do was glare at Ali with a pathetic and noticeable lack of passion.
Ali either didn't notice that she was offended or simply chose to not acknowledge it. "Well, keep up the good work. See you around, Green Pea!" he chimed after her. He waved nonchalantly as he began to walk away, and all Tressa could do was stare.
It wasn't until Ali was out of view that Tressa snorted and crossed her arms. "Green pea? Well, he's just a mean pea," she muttered. She glanced down to the pile of unpolished skystones at her feet before she picked another one up and prepared to apply her previous method of shining it once again. "But I don't have time for that now. I have stones that need selling!"
Tressa immediately got to work, and H'aanit began to follow her lead. Linde's tail flicked back and forth as she looked out over the bazaar below, and Tressa frowned to herself. She wasn't sure how she was going to set up shop as long as the bazaar was so busy, but she would have to figure something out. The entire idea of the group's revolution was hinging on it.
They were getting close to something special, and Tressa could feel it. Her insides still felt like a knotted mess ever since her encounter with Morlock earlier in the day, but she wasn't going to let that hold her back forever. Everything was going to be fine. Soon enough, all of the travelers would be back together, and she could tell them what she knew about the man. He wasn't going to be able to get away with treating people so poorly for much longer, not as long as they had anything to say about it.
And it all started with the skystones. Tressa was glad that her instincts about the rocks had been correct since they were going to rocket the group into the success they needed to finish this fight that Morlock had started so long ago. If the skystones were really as rare as Ali made it sound, then Tressa was going to be able to sell the rocks easily and be finished with the leaves gathering segment of the plan in the blink of an eye. From there, it was all about execution, and she was ready.
Quarrycrest certainly hadn't been built in a day, but Tressa was going to make sure it fell in one.
Okay. Let me get the first obvious point out of the way here: HOLY SHIT, OCTOPATH IS GETTING A SEQUEL AT THE START OF NEXT YEAR! HOLY FUCK! THIS IS THE BEST THING TO HAPPEN EVER!
Ahem. I'm a little bit excited about this. Just a little bit. I've been thinking about it constantly ever since the trailer came out, and I'm probably going to keep thinking about the game over the course of the 162 days that remain before its release. Wow. I'm so excited.
My hype aside, let's talk about this chapter. First off, I really like the complete change of context for the plot of this chapter, and I think it's already working well. I like Tressa's chapter two in the base game, but this is something else new, and I'm in love with it. I changed her and H'aanit's travel banter to fit this new context, and I think it's all turning out great. I'm excited to see where this goes in the future, and things are only going to ramp up from here.
Next time around, we'll press on with Tressa's chapter two and kick it off with her travel banter with Cyrus. Also, I'll probably scream about Octopath's sequel a little bit more. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital