MARDEK Chapter 2: A New Hero

MARDEK Chapter 2: A New Hero
Information
Genre	RPG
Setting	Astrostles Galaxy
Status	Released 2 November, 2007 (Original) 6 July, 2010 (Re-release)

MARDEK Chapter 2: A New Hero is the second chapter of the MARDEK series. It is longer than its predecessor, MARDEK Chapter 1: A Fallen Star, and features more playable characters and sidequests.

Characters

• Mardek is the main character, and is of class Recruit.
• Deugan is another significant character, again of class Recruit.
• Emela is another playable character, joining the party after you defeat Muriance in the mines. She is of class Elemancer, the only primarily magic character which is playable in this chapter.
• Zach is an optional member of your party. He can be hired at the Canonia inn for 1000 generic gold coins.
• Vehrn is a Yalortian paladin, and joins the party when you talk to him in the Tainted Grotto.

Plot Synopsis

Introduction

After creating a new game (or loading from chapter 1), the player gets a synopsis of Chapter 1 and the events of the next 8 years. Mardek and Deugan have joined as recruits for the Royal Guard, a police organization of sorts. The game starts with a scene involving Mardek being awoken by Deugan before their first real mission. As the two talk, we find out that Emela, an attractive young woman supposedly from the Canonia region, is the duo's love interest, and that all of the guard recruits dislike Steele, a rather brutish and cruel man, who treats women like objects, and is eager to kill things. After a while, the two head out to receive their mission, along with Steele, Emela, Donovan, and Sharla. They are sent to save the miners at the Gem Mine from a group of bandits. If they successfully complete the mission, they'll all become official guards.

Mission in the Mines

After the mission briefing, the recruts split into 3 parties: Donovan and Sharla, Emela and Steele, and Mardek and Deugan. Emela is displeased about who she's stuck with, but she goes along with it to get the mission done. After arriving at the Gem Mine, the group splits up. Mardek and Deugan free the hostages, and are given the choice to kill a bandit named Gope (which is left up to the player). Shortly afterwards, two out of the three parties regroup, to defeat the Bandit Chief Muriance, who is searching for the Elemental Crystals. Steele attempts to take on Muriance on his own, then Emela runs and joins in, and then Mardek and Deugan join the fray. After Muriance is defeated, and has sworn to renounce his bandit ways, Steele continues attacking him. Emela attempts to stop Steele at that point, and hits him with a lightning bolt, accidentally "killing" him. Muriance meanwhile makes a hasty retreat. Emela is distraught; she hated Steele, but never intended to kill him. The group decides to lie at Jacques that Steele died in the hands of the bandits. After returning to the castle, and telling Jacques their story, all of the remaining recruits are made Royal Guards by the King. After that, the group has a conversation about the morality of killing; Emela is still distraught. After everyone has returned to their dorms, Rohoph speaks up. He says he might have sensed another member of the Governance de Magi in the gem mines, and says that if there is another member on Belfan, they've probably come to destroy him. He quickly dismisses it when Mardek and Deugan get worried, saying it was probably just all of the magic crystals in the mine.

Missing Shaman

The next day, Deugan receives a mission to find the missing Shaman of Canonia, because there is increased monster activity in that region. He decides to take Mardek with him, and then Emela joins, after some pleading. The group must pass through the Eastern Glens to reach Canonia.

The Lake Hag

On the way to Canonia, the party must pass Lake Qur. Around the perimeter of the lake, the heroes notice strange glass-like statues of people, appearently in great fear of something. A crying girl on the other side of the lake, Elwyen, says that they statues are actually people who were petrified by the Lake Hag, among them being her parents. The party decides to help the girl, and possibly remove the curse, by heading underwater and defeating the Lake Hag (accomplished with the help of Emela's suspiciously convenient Aqualung spell). According to Emela, it was strange of the Lake Hag to attack anybody. When the trio return to the surface, the people are still petrified, meaning the curse wasn't lifted when the Lake Hag died. Elwyen asks if she can travel with the party, but Deugan won't allow it, since it might be dangerous. Instead, he suggests she stays with some friends of hers, who will be able to take better care of her.

Missing Shaman (Cont.)

When the party arrive in Canonia, they encounter a paladin, Vehrn, who assures them that he can take care of the problem, and tells them to go home. After that, Mardek and Deugan suggest they go and visit Emela's family, friends, or old house, but she says they've all moved away, and their house been knocked down. Instead, they head straight to the barracks, and receive the last known whereabouts of the shaman. The party first heads to the nearby forest, and then a dungeon inside the forest. In the entrance to the dungeon, the party encounter Vehrn again, slumped on the floor, wounded. He agrees to join the party (or rather, the party agrees that letting him join wouldn't hinder them). Further inside, the party meets a group who calls themselves the World's Saviours. They're a group of "heroes" who seek the crystals. Emela mentions how they're in the wrong dungeon for the Water Crystal, at which the Saviours attack the party. After defeating them, the Royal Guards continue to hunt for, and eventually find, the Canonia Shaman. When they find her, she has zombified and is now evil, claiming to have gotten powers from "The Reaper". She reveals that she is the one making the monsters act like they are now. After defeating her, Rohoph says that this "Reaper" that the Shaman was talking about was actually a member of the Governance de Magi, Moric. He explains that the power-hungry Moric is probably using his mission as an excuse for taking over Belfan. Rohoph surmises that Moric used Canonia's Shaman to control that region, and will probably target Goznor next. The group hastily makes their way there.

Save Goznor!

When Mardek and company arrive at Goznor, it is already overrun by zombies. All of the residents have fortunately locked themselves safely in their own homes. The Royal Guards encounter Gallovar, though he initially thinks that they are zombies who have broken into the Yalortian monastery. When Mardek volunteers to save the town himself, Gallovar gives him the key to the deeper levels of the sewers, which lead to the catacombs. He tells them that that is most likely where all the zombies are coming from. The group fights their way through the sewers and the catacombs, past scores of zombies, including a powerful zombie locksmith and two zombie warriors, before finding Moric, who has been raising all the dead. After some talk of the past between Rohoph and Moric, they fight. The party eventually defeats Moric, and heads back to the castle, where they are rewarded for completing their mission, and for saving Goznor. Once everybody has returned to their dorms, Rohoph speaks up once again, warning Mardek and Deugan that Moric may have possesed one of the many corpses in the catacombs.

Save Canonia!

As it turns out, the body Moric takes control of is that of the late Social Fox. Moric's mind has been damaged by the Soul Transfer, so he boards his battleship and attacks another city, this time Canonia. Mardek and his friends search for a way to get up into Moric's battleship, before finding the Goznor Shaman in the Zombieproof Cave of Canonia, who came to help protect the town. The shaman agrees to teleport the party into the battleship, although he warns that he won't be able to get them out again. Inside the battleship, the party fights some security barriers, and Moric's personal guard, a mechanised and zombified Dracelon. After defeating it, Mardek and the others kill Moric again, this time sealing his soul. Rohoph believes he can use the battleship to help destroy the rest of the GdM, but Moric had other ideas, triggering the ship's self-destruct sequence before his soul was sealed. Then the heroes make it to the escape pod chamber, but Moric's Dracelon guard is back again, trying to destroy the intruders. This creates a problem; the group does not have enough time to fight it, but if they simply try to leave, the Dracelon will destroy the pods before they can escape. As a result, Deugan decides to stay behind and distract the beast, allowing the others to escape. He does not manage to leave the ship with them however, and is presumed by everyone to be dead.

Epilogue

Mardek and Emela both return to Castle Goznor, the death of their friend weighing on their hearts. The King of Goznor promotes them both to Royal Knights, but Emela rejects the promotion, instead choosing to leave the Royal Guard for some unexplained reason, leaving Mardek on his own.

Chapter 2 ends with the Governance de Magi revealing that Qualna will be next in line to try and destroy Rohoph, as well as mentioning that their plans were "going well".

Trivia

• Mastered skills in chapter 1 do not import to chapter 2.
• In the first level of the lake, on the very leftmost side, there is a small passage which leads to the Water Temple. If you attempt to enter, Emela stops you saying that you are on two missions and should not go into random temples. A moment later, she denies that she knows about any temples under the lake, does not matter if you are not with her and have aqualung, game will still block you from entering there.
• In the deepest part of the Gem Mine there is a large body of water with a broken off bridge/pier that is very similar to the one at the lake. If you press X here on the bridge/pier, it says that it looks like this is how Muriance escaped.
• If you cast Aqualung before exiting Moric's battleship, head to Lake Qur, and try to enter the water you get a message: Oh, there's no reason you need to go down there. Yes, I know you set up Aqualung all cleverly specifically for this, but I assure you, there are no temples worth exploring down there. Really.
• Amusingly, if you try to enter the water without setting up Aqualung, you get a different message: No Mardek! I know the things have been harsh lately, but you've still got so much to live for!!

See also

• MARDEK (Series)
• MARDEK Chapter 1: A Fallen Star
• MARDEK Chapter 3: Keystones

External links

• MARDEK chapter 2 on Fig Hunter