PM2D- Chapter 7

    Man, if you thought the last title card was way more detailed than necessary... Seriously. This one was INSANE. It makes the first few look like I wasn't even trying. I actually had to go back and erase some of the detail because it looked so over-the-top.
    With every chapter, I've been going over what's changed since I started working on Paper Mario: Double Darkness, and what hasn't. For this one, I'd have to say, respectively, pretty much everything and pretty much nothing. The first Chapter 7 took place on Meltii Island, a jungle/volcano world which wasn't interesting, had nothing to do with the Nox, and most importantly, was really cliché. So I replaced it with the enchanted tropical rainforest Mario finds himself in here. Other changes include the partner, the boss, the NPCs, the story... you get the idea. Pretty much all that's left is the fire-themed last level, the Obsidian Temple. And even then, my idea when I designed it was to have it be to fire what the Crystal Palace in Paper Mario 64 was to ice. That is, it's got a fiery atmosphere, but it really focuses more on tricks and puzzles than jumping over lava pits.
    The full description for Chapter 7 begins here. WARNING: Really, really, absurdly high levels of reading ahead.

Characters (from left to right):

Dawn: The deposed elder of Arcana Village. She went into hiding after being framed for the recent kidnappings. As possibly the greatest wizard in the Mushroom Frontier, she was doing a lot to keep the effects of the wild magic in Arcana Jungle down, and her disappearance has made it even worse.

Mario: If you don’t know who this guy is already, I recommend you go and play some Paper Mario games before you continue reading this.

Sage: A potion brewer from Arcana Village. Very outgoing, she gets along with everyone pretty well, although she does have a habit of asking them to test her potions. An optional partner for Mario, with the ability to put nearby enemies to sleep so Mario doesn’t have to fight them.

Specteira: The ruler of the Nox Empire. After being dumped into the present by the portal in the Shadow Spire, she joins Mario’s quest to recover all of the portal pieces in hopes of making it home and saving her empire from Darkblot. She acts as the game’s tattle, and can cast spells in battle which work more or less like special moves.

Cawter: A member of the team of archaeologists trying to explore Arcana Jungle. He is fascinated by the culture of the indigenous people, and tries to learn as much as possible about them, to the point of being a little annoying. Mario met his brother Cawlin in Sunblast Desert.

Sprout: An innocent Dayzee kid and Javros’ most recent victim. Entirely unaware that her life is in danger. No matter how much Javros tries to intimidate her, she thinks of him as some kind of babysitter, much to his annoyance.

Javros: The last surviving member of a forgotten tribe that once lived in the Obsidian Temple and the boss of Chapter 7. Aims to reincarnate his lost brethren inside the bodies of the residents of Arcana Village. Has a very depressing personality.

--CHAPTER 6 / CHAPTER 7 TRANSITION--

    Previously, in Chapter 6, Mario snuck into Koop Labs, Bowser’s research and development complex, teamed up with the AI system, defeated Meckoopa in the Space Base, and recovered the seventh Portal Piece. Now that Dr. Kook is gone, Digit has volunteered to run the place until Bowser names an official replacement, and it hopes to make the employees finally feel appreciated. Mario wishes it good luck and heads back to the observatory.

    Using her Celestial Cannon and the Dimensional Radar, the Portal Piece Mario took from Dr. Kook, Infinnah T. figures out that the next piece is in the rainforest to the southeast. On the world map, bushes and vines sprout and glowing cyan orbs start floating around. On a peninsula at the edge of the island, a dark, old castle appears, and a clearing farther inland is filled with wooden huts, a fire pit, and the Portal Piece icon.

    Infinnah T. isn’t too surprised that the next Portal Piece is in Arcana Jungle, a tropical rainforest with the highest levels of magic in the Mushroom Frontier-- another remnant of the Nox Empire, who used the trees to store extra dark energy. However, while Mario was at Koop Labs, the magic levels suddenly exploded, so obviously something was up. To investigate what, and to collect the Portal Piece, Mario should head to Arcana Village via Supersurf Shore. Infinnah T. then tries to call up Dawn, the village elder and another one of her friends, to alert her to Mario’s mission. Dawn listens to her, but seems busy. Maybe whatever’s going on in the jungle has affected her too.

    When Mario arrives back at Outlook Gulf, the easternmost part of Supersurf Shore, he runs into some Toad archaeologists. They’re searching for the leader of their expedition to Arcana Jungle, who said he needed a break a while ago and they haven’t heard from since. Based on their accounts of what he likes, Mario locates the missing archaeologist, a ruddy Craw named Cawter, at the Supersurf Shanty Bar and Grill.

    When Mario asks why he ditched the expedition, Cawter laments that it’s hopeless. Not only have outsiders never before reached the Obsidian Temple, but with the wild magic getting worse, it’s simply too dangerous. Maybe he and his brother aren’t cut out to be archaeologists. At that moment, Mario remembers that back in Chapter 3, Cawlin asked Mario to deliver a letter about his discoveries to his brother, and that just might be this guy. After reading it, Cawter decides that if his brother can open up unexplored ruins, he sure can. His sense of adventure restored, he and Mario return to Overlook Gulf, and then into the jungle.

--CHAPTER 7--

    Cawter leads Mario to the Jungle Edge (World 7-1). This is where his camp is set up, since the wild magic has kept him from getting much farther. Mario can skip most of this level for now. But first, Cawter points out a carved wooden totem with a fractured crystal sphere on top. He mentions that these are all over Arcana Jungle. Specteira identifies it as a magic-inhibiting device, but not of Nox construction. Someone else must have built them at some point. In any case, this one is clearly broken and not of any use to them.

    Mario heads through what little of the level he needs to at this time and enters Viney Glade (World 7-2). Here, Mario will fight Putrid Piranhas, Green Fuzzies, and Flower Fuzzies and chop through dense vegetation with the help of Blooty. He also comes across more magic totems, many of which are also broken. Specteira theorizes that the jump in magic activity in Arcana Jungle was because the totems stopped working... but why?

    Soon, the party meets a little Dayzee playing in a clearing. She introduces herself as Sprout and, being extremely friendly, volunteers to lead the party back to Arcana Village. But in the next screen, a shady figure jumps out of the bushes and snatches Sprout! A minigame starts where Mario chases them through the jungle, dodging trees and Piranha Plants and aiming for coins and glowing berries that grant a temporary speed boost. When Mario catches up, he doesn’t get Sprout back (she seems to be having fun, actually), but her kidnapper does drop a mysterious pendant made of dark rock.

    Mario turns back onto the trail and follows it to Arcana Village (World 7-3). This magical but primitive settlement of Crayzee Dayzees, the last major town in the game before the Nox Empire, includes the standard shop and inn, a Yoshi nursery where Mario can take on platforming challenges, and is the home of Sage, a brewer who joins Mario’s party if he takes a side quest and brings her rare herbs from Worlds 1-2, 2-6, and 3-3. Here, Mario hopes to learn about the wild magic, find leads on the kidnapper, and get the Portal Piece.

    Arcana Village isn’t well connected with the rest of the Mushroom Frontier but is surprisingly accommodating, and its residents are happy to fill Mario in on recent events. First of all, they’re already aware that a kidnapper is loose, as they have struck several times before. They believe that the same person is sabotaging the antimagic totems, because they get smashed just before someone is abducted in the same area, evidently in order to make it too dangerous to investigate.

    What about suspects? In a community of wizards, it could really be anyone, but the current theory is: Their own village elder, Dawn! Their reasoning comes from the fact that the totems are practically invulnerable to everything but powerful magic. As the greatest wizard of all of them, plus the one who built the totems in the first place, she probably has the best shot at smashing them. Of course, they still lack a motive or hard evidence.

    Last, Mario asks about the pendant. The Dayzees recognize it as an artifact from the Obsidian Temple, originally a Nox magic power plant, and after that the home of a hunter-gatherer tribe that their own tribe wiped out in a feud centuries ago. Actually, they are surprised to see the artifact, as they thought no one had been there since. When Mario replies that, actually, he found it on the kidnapper, everyone freaks out. If Mario wasn’t in the Obsidian Temple, the pendant could only have come from when Arcana Village first raided it. Since then, all the treasure has been handed down between generations of elders... right up to Dawn.

    Word about Mario’s evidence gets out fast, and soon a mob forms and goes after Dawn. However, when they barge in on her hut and confront her, she panics and flees. The villagers, still worried about their safety, ask Mario to find her and bring her to justice. Mario investigates the room, and eventually discovers that she has a hidden hideout to the east of Arcana Village.

    Mario rushes to Dawn’s Outpost (World 7-4), expecting to find some kind of prison full of kidnapped Dayzees guarded by an evil witch. Instead, he simply finds Dawn sitting alone inside a hollowed-out tree whittling some more totems to replace the broken ones. Upon being confronted, she claims to have nothing to do with the kidnapping. She keeps up her story even after Mario instigates a mini-boss fight, pleading for a chance to explain herself the whole time. Finally, Mario agrees to listen to her.

    Once Mario has explained the case against her, Dawn presents her argument. She props up one of her totems, pulls out a glowing spear from her stash of Obsidian Temple treasure... and uses it to shatter the totem’s crystal ball in one clean pierce. She explains that anyone who could get to the Obsidian Temple would not only have access to these magic spears, and could thus break the totems, but could very well have stolen a pendant too. Besides, she has no reason to kidnap her citizens and destroy the totems she worked so hard to put up. Dawn knows it’s not enough to clear her as a suspect, but Mario is willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

    In order to see if Dawn is right, it looks like the party will have to visit the Obsidian Temple. But if they hope to get through the deeper reaches of Arcana Jungle, they’ll probably need a guide. Mario suggests that they recruit Cawter. Before he takes off, Dawn teaches Mario a Paper Pontoon move that lets him travel by water, which he’ll need to get farther into the jungle, and gives them some working antimagic totems, in case they want to help put them back up. (If Mario does replace them all, Dawn rewards him with a rare Flower Saver badge.)

    While he’s there, Mario asks if Dawn knows anything about the Portal Piece. Actually, she says she was the one who found it! It’s currently in her private study back in Arcana Village. But she won’t be able to reach it as long as the people there are after her. She agrees to give it to Mario as a reward if he can clear her name.

    Mario returns to World 7-1 and talks to Cawter, but he’s still too intimidated by the wild magic. To convince him to join the expedition, Mario goes through the whole level this time, searching for and replacing broken totems. Once all of the new ones have been placed, the wild magic slows down, and Cawter thanks Mario for his help and runs off down the path toward the village.

    Next, Mario uses his Paper Pontoon to cross a lake in Arcana Village and join Cawter at Canopy Trail (World 7-5), and they all set out to the southeast. Soon, the party hears a crash, and they follow it to a newly destroyed antimagic totem. Investigation of the area turns up one of the magic spears from the Obsidian Temple. Oddly it appears to have been thrown from the direction of the temple- Dawn’s theory is starting to look plausible. Mario moves on, climbing across treetops and rope bridges, with some aid from Yoshi, to the end of the level.

    After Canopy Trail, the path forks once again. Rush River (World 7-6) is a water level where Mario must jump between rafts, dodge branches, and fight angry Sea Koopas on his way upstream. It’s also a good chance for him to work on his new Paper Pontoon ability. To the northeast of that is the Overgrown Ruins (World 7-7), an old Nox power-storage complex that has been taken over by the trees it once used as batteries. Mario must manipulate the flow of dark energy to get through the level.

    Either level will unlock a path to the Obsidian Temple (World 7-8). This dark, overgrown building was created as a Nox magic generator and power station. After they were conquered by the Mushroom Kingdom, it shut down and a primitive tribe living nearby moved in for several millennia. Then, only a couple hundred years ago, they fell into bad terms with Arcana Village and were wiped out, and the place has been abandoned ever since.

    ... Or so everyone thought. On the contrary, the place is full of Dayzees from Arcana Village. Sprout even peeks over the battlements and waves to Mario, before someone snatches her off and tells her to keep it down. Mario rushes for the entrance. But he soon discovers that Sprout is the only one still acting like herself. In fact, the others are outright hostile, demanding that Mario stay away from their home. He ends up having to fight his way through.

    Inside the Obsidian Temple, Mario sets out to figure out what happened to the Dayzees, who kidnapped Sprout, and why. Luckily, they quickly notice Sprout on a balcony being carried  by a hooded figure. She’s still enjoying the ordeal, although her captor is annoyed at her refusal to be scared. They enter a door, and Mario follows. As an ancient magic generator, the dungeon is packed with bizarre, reality-breaking magic effects, including walls that aren’t really there, blocks that connect to other blocks, lava pools that appear and disappear, entire rooms swapping places, and so on. There are also some tougher enemies such as Chain Chomps and brainwashed Crayzee Dayzees.

    Mario tails them all the way to the top of the central tower. The kidnapper, a shady creature in tribal clothes holding a deadly-looking spear, dumps Sprout onto an altar in front of a tank of glowing spirits that look like him, flips a switch that turns on the magic power in the temple, and starts chanting. Sprout (who still apparently thinks it’s all some kind of game) begins to glow. Deciding that he’s seen enough, Mario steps in and interrupts the ritual.

    The furious kidnapper calls a horde of Dayzees to block the exits. He then introduces himself to Mario as Javros. What no one in Arcana Village realized was, when they raided the Obsidian Temple and killed off the tribe inside, one survived. He spent centuries eking out a living alone. But when the wild magic surges in the Mushroom Frontier began, the long-unused magic-conducting capabilities of the temple returned, and Javros realized he had a chance for revenge.

    Using his knowledge of dark magic, he rounded up the souls of his friends and family and brought them to this tank. Then, he set out for Arcana Village, and brought some vessels back. The antimagic totems were a minor complication, as they dulled the magic of the temple, but his spear proved stronger. Then, he conducted his ritual to release the souls of the villagers from their bodies and replace them with his tribe’s! That’s why the Dayzees here are acting so odd. Sprout was just about to meet the same fate, until Mario intervened. But no matter-- once Javros has dealt with him, he’ll just become another of them!

JAVROS
Tattle Entry #126
That’s Javros! He’s a merciless hunter from a tribe that the Arcana Village folk exterminated centuries ago. After discovering the true potential of Arcana Jungle’s ambient magic, he now hopes to bring his friends and family back and take revenge on Arcana Village in one huge, terrifying plan! Maximum HP is 100, Attack is 9, and Defense is 0.  We’ve already seen how powerful those magic spears are, so I think it goes without saying that his attacks will be based around it. Not only will he jab and throw it, but he can use it to summon magical spear storms, fireballs, lightning, and countless other effects. He can even deflect some of our own attacks with it. Pay close attention to how he points it to tell which attacks he’ll counter!

    Despite his amazing spear skills, Javros finds he’s no match for Mario. Worried that he might join the rest of his tribe, he begins to back away... forgetting that he’s right at the top of a tower. Before he knows it, he’s hanging off the side for his life. But before Mario can finish the job, none other than Sprout appears.

    The little Dayzee, who has finally pieced together what was going on, begs Mario not to hurt Javros. Her tribe is to blame for his misfortune, and she understands why he hates her so much. But after experiencing how he took care of her on the way here, she knows Javros could be a good person if he and Arcana Village gave each other another chance. When she helps Javros back up, he’s left speechless by her unconditional kindness. He reluctantly admits that he may have assumed the worst of Arcana Village. He mutters an apology about the whole plot, returns all the souls, and lets Mario and company go free. He then sits down in front of the tank of souls, saying that he has a lot to think about.

    Back at the entrance of the Obsidian Temple, Mario runs into Cawter and Dawn once again. Dawn thanks the party for proving her innocence. Once Cawter brought the incriminating spear back to the village, she regained her position as elder, and came here as quickly as she could. And she’s even more pleased that they rescued the rest of the village. Once again extending her gratitude on behalf of Arcana Village, Dawn hands Mario his well-earned reward...

***YOU FOUND A PORTAL PIECE!***

--LUIGI INTERLUDE--

    After crossing the Mushroom Kingdom in pursuit of Princess Peach, Luigi has finally made it to Bowser’s Castle. He flashes his stolen Bowser Badge to the guard and enters. But when he gets to Bowser’s throne room, Luigi sees no sign of Bowser (who is already en route to the Mushroom Frontier). He starts to explore the rest of the castle for clues to his and Peach’s whereabouts.

    Eventually, he finds Bowser Jr. and Kammy Koopa scrubbing the castle floors and griping about how they should be out helping Bowser on his mission, not being punished like this. When they notice Luigi, they’re too upset to fight him; instead, they complain about how terrible his brother is. Luigi listens to their story, and then suggests they really don’t have any reason to fight. They both want the same thing for the same reason, after all. This perks them up. They agree to go to the Mushroom Frontier, beat up Mario together, and BOTH be Bowser’s favorite! As they drop their cleaning supplies and run off, Luigi realizes he probably shouldn’t have said anything. Well, it’s his problem now. He follows them to the clown car dock, jumps in the car next to theirs, and sets off after them...