166: Owie. But not as bad as I thought.

One of said bossfights was against Lost Garmond, which made me so sad. Garmond and Zaza are friendly warriors that you run into throughout the story and just across the world, and he's cannonically like an old knight (Zaza is his 'steed', if you will), and I remember the last interaction I had with him Hornet (the player character) expresses concern for him in this newly dangerous world (Everything gets harder and corrupted going into act 3), and him saying something along the lines of "while you're still out here fighting, I can't just be sitting idly by", which is hero behavior, and I genuinely loved running into him.

There was distress call pinned to what is essentially the mission board, and it didn't say who it was for, just that a bug had been heard crying out near this one location, so I go, because saving other bugs is maybe my favorite type of quest tbh, and it's just Zaza there, doing whatever the equivalent of bug yelling is. My stomach dropped as soon as I saw it was Zaza, because not a single time before then had Garmond and Zaza been separated, but I assumed that it meant Garmond was in serious trouble, and I needed to save him (and would love to save him, he's a friend, in-game).

We get to where Zaza was leading me, though, and Garmond was corrupted by "the void" (evil black corrupting goop that's been unleashed). Zaza stops just at the entrance of the room, and then as soon as you walk forward and get the boss entry card (because of course he's a boss, and you have to fight him), Zaza hides behind a rock in the background, and it made me so sad.

I dropped everything else I was doing and finished that fight then and there, because I was really hoping to be able to save Garmond, but it was a really hard fight, because his attacks are fast and it's a pretty small room, but after landing the final blow, the corruption dispels and there are like two lines of dialogue, and I genuinely almost cried. Garmond says something like "come here Zaza, let's just rest a while before we head out", and then Hornet apologizes profusely, because it was the only way to maybe save him, and he says something along the lines of "Nonono, you did what you had to do, you've grown so strong!" and then he stops moving, and Zaza goes and sits by his side, presumably permanently. 😭

It was genuinely a heartbreaking moment. Like of course there are risks, this is a game with lots of death in it, but not Garmond and Zaza! They were so special to me, and lore-wise Garmond and Zaza are the only two remaining members of a village that was wiped out by the corruption at the beginning of the story, and when he passes away at the end of the fight Garmond gives you the "Hero's Momento", which is a medal he was given by his now-gone village for his efforts, and it made me so sad.