The second step in H'aanit's journey takes her to Stonegard, a mountainous city in the east of Orsterra. Stonegard is located in the same general mountain range as Cobbleston, though a fair bit further east. You can reach it by heading south of the North Cobbleston Gap to the North Stonegard Pass. The lower, eastbound pathway will bring you to Stonegard.
It's possible you've come through Stonegard as Cyrus. If not, however, there's plenty to see and do in the city before you get down to business:
- The Inn is right at the entrance of the city. There's a Townsperson standing to the left of the Inn with a Tough Nut (M) that you can Purchase / Steal. This same woman can be Inquired / Scrutinized for a Discount at the Inn.
- Just north of the Inn is the Tavern. Out front is a chest containing an Inspiriting Plum.
- East of the entrance you'll find a set of stairs with a Townsperson nearby. Inquire / Scrutinize him and you'll reveal a hidden Silver-filled Pouch near the Tavern.
- To the right of the aforementioned stairs is a house with a Neighborly Grandpa inside. You can Steal / Purchase a Tower Shield from him.
- On the east side of town you'll find another house. The Townsperson standing outside has the Smarter Bartering info that you can Inquire / Scrutinize.
Stonegard Valleys
To the east you'll find Stonegard Valleys, another, lower section of town. There's plenty to see here, as well:
- The Townsperson right at the entrance has a Shadow Bow you can Purchase / Steal.
- There's a Papermaker out front of the Provisioner. You can Purchase / Steal a Falcon Garb from him. Next door is the Armorer, and the Townsperson out front has a powerful Forbidden Blade for you to Purchase. If you Scrutinize / Inquire him you'll reveal a Bastard Sword nearby.
- Down the stairs to the south and on your right is a small church. Beside it is a Patrician Youth who has a Dazzling Artwork that you can Purchase / Steal, though Stealing it is quite difficult. You can get 15,000 leaves if you manage to snag and sell this item. The Cleric in the church has three Rings that are worth grabbing, if you want to Steal / Purchase them.
- Down the stairs to the west of the church are two houses. The first house is guarded by a powerful Townsperson who requires a level 60 Challenge / Provoke before he can be fought. He has a small chance of dropping a Seraphim Spear when defeated. Inside the house is a townsperson with the New Weapons for Sale in Inquired / Scrutinized.
- The last house in Stonegard Valleys has a Ruffian Lackey out front with a Rock Cleaver to Steal / Purchase, and the Ruffian next to him has a Protective Earring and a Wind Amulet on him. Challenging / Provoking the Ruffian is part of a side story given by the nearby Elderly Shopowner, who himself has a Mighty Belt, an Elemental Augmentor, and a Curious Antique on him.
Stonegard Heights
The final area to check is Stonegard Heights, up the northern stairs from either of the previous two sections. The rich people up here have the following on them:
- The Townsperson on the stairs leading back down to Stonegard Valleys has a Fortifying Nut (M) to Purchase / Steal. She also has the Guide with Ease info if you Scrutinize / Inquire her.
- The Hunter on the east side of Stonegard Heights has an Unerring Bracelet and an Arcane Bow to Steal / Purchase. The Townsperson up the stairs from the Hunter has a Sharp Nut (M) on him. These two men stand near the entrance to the Spectrewood Path, which will take you to a dungeon if you're so inclined.
- Near the eastern exit from the city is a mansion. There's nothing inside, but snugged against the outside left wall is a chest containing a Healing Grape (M).
- In the middle of Stonegard Heights is a fountain. The Erstwhile Bodyguard on the right side has The Fall of House Lander info to Scrutinize / Inquire - it's part of a Side Story - while the Inquiring Youth in front of the fountain has an Inspiriting Plum Basket.
- The Townsperson standing on the stairs back to the first section of Stonegard has a Marksman's Longbow to Purchase / Steal. Scrutinize / Inquire him and you'll find a Soldier's Longbow outside a house to the west.
- Speaking of that house, there's a Townsperson out front of it who's carrying a Heavy Coin Pouch to Steal / Purchase. Challenge / Provoke him - he's quite strong, so be careful - and if you win you'll find another Townsperson, his sister, inside. She has a Knight's Sword, a Moonblade, an Inferno Axe, and an Imperial Armor to Purchase / Steal. All are good pieces of equipment if you're here in the mid-to-late 20s, level-wise.
- In the northwest corner is a small house with a Bookbinder inside. This man will give you a Side Story if you speak to him. Steal / Purchase from him and you'll find an Elemental Shield and an Elemental Robe on his person.
H'aanit's Chapter
H'aanit arrives in Stonegard on the trail of Z'aanta, her missing master, whom she really hopes is just up to his ears in gambling debts or something. Alas, given that he was on the trail of a beast named Redeye, that's probably not the case. She decides to check out the 'alehouse' for more information.
Head to the Tavern and the Tavern Keeper will point H'aanit to a house on the edge of the city. Z'aanta's wolf companion Hägen will notice something before you can do anything else, however, and you'll need to give chase. Follow Hägen a short way east and he'll be stopped by the bodyguard of someone named Nathan, who is busy talking to Natalia, Z'aanta's potential paramour.
Provoke and defeat Nathan's Bodyguard - Polearms and Daggers work well against him - and you'll drive Nathan away. Unfortunately Natalia doesn't know where Z'aanta is, other than knowing that he was headed out into the Spectrewood. Sounds like as good a place as any to search for the man.
(Though before you leave Stonegard, have one more look around. Nathan's home is the mansion near the Spectrewood Path exit, and he has a Guardian Amulet for Purchase / Stealing.)
Spectrewood Path
Located in the northeast of Stonegard, the Spectrewood Path feels more or less like the pass that brought you to Stonegard in the first place. You'll run into the following monsters on your way to the Spectrewood:
- Highland Ratkin IV - Weak to Sword, Bow, Wind, and Light. Standard melee enemy.
- Highland Ratkin V - Weak to Sword, Bow, Wind, and Light. Can silence your characters, but otherwise just likes melee attacks.
- Highland Ratkin VI - Weak to Polearm, Axe, and Dark. Hits very hard with its Desperation attack. Only has one shield, so prioritize quickly stunning these things into oblivion.
- Highland Ratking I - Weak to Polearm, Staff, Lightning, and Light. Hits hard and can debuff your team. Worth stunning.
- Mountain Goat - Weak to Sword, Polearm, and Light. Hefty foe that can do a lot of damage. Stun it and handle lesser threats first if you don't think you can manage a quick kill.
- Highland Goat - Weak to Sword, Polearm, and Light. Pretty similar to the Mountain Goat, just not quite as hardy.
- Shaggy Aurochs - Weak to Polearm, Axe, and Fire. Can use Silencing Strike to silence a character, otherwise just hit relatively hard. Dangerous, but not awful. (Though they do look a little too much like a certain dog-girl from a certain anime for this writer's tastes.)
- Wild Weasel - Weak to Axe, Ice, and Lightning. Hits often and hard, and can wipe a weaker party with The Ripper. Can also boost the critical rate of itself and other enemies. Absolutely an enemy that you should target first.
- Dread Falcon - Weak to Polearm, Dagger, Bow, Wind, and Dark. A powerful enemy at lower levels, the Dread Falcon is nothing by the time you reach the Spectrewood. Blow them away with some decent magic.
Trek down the path until you hit a save point. Just before it there's a small gap in the rocks that will lead you north to a chest containing 5,000 leaves. There's seemingly nothing to the south of the save point, so keep heading east. You'll soon hit a cut point, and discover that a rockfall has blocked the path. It looks like H'aanit could easily get past here, but, whatever. Backtrack and the party will discover that the bend to the south at the save point is the way forward. Provoke the clump of trees on the right and you'll discover that it was a monster all along.
Weakness: Sword, Dagger, Axe, Fire, Light or Sword, Polearm, Bow, Ice, Wind
Eesh, ugly. The Ancient One isn't that big a roadblock, though if you don't spend much time Capturing monsters it can be a little annoying. Aside from its ability to poison H'aanit or inflict unconsciousness the Ancient One mainly just attacks. It can go into Boost mode and use Rampage if not stopped, but you can always use Linde to get past this. Collect a nice assortment of monsters from the Spectrewood Path and wear the thing down, holding off on knocking it into stunned status until just before it flutters its leaves ominously. So long as you can reliably hit a few weak points and have a way to heal this fight shouldn't be that bad. Give H'aanit some status ailment protection, as well, since being poisoned for too long can put a hamper on the battle.
You'll get a Refreshing Jam for defeating the Ancient One, and its demise will open the path to the east. Trek that way, making a quick stop for a Fool's Gold Ore in a chest to the north and an Herb of Clamor in another, better-hidden chest further east and north, amid the rocks. The entrance to the Spectrewood is dead ahead from here.
Ahh, your destination. You'll run into the following beasties while you explore the spooky confines of the Spectrewood:
- Mutant Mushroom - Weak to Dagger and Fire. Can use Soporific Sting to put party members to sleep. A nuisance that's worth stunning quickly, if you can target its weaknesses.
- Rampant Weed - Weak to Sword, Axe, and Fire. Can use Silencing Sting to silence a single party member. Not a massive threat, but still annoying.
- Shambling Weed - Weak to Sword, Axe, and Fire. Similar to the Rampant Weed, but puts people to sleep rather than silencing them.
- Creeping Treant - Weak to Axe and Fire. Can use Silencing Sting to silence a party member, which is quite annoying given its few weaknesses. Try to break defenses before your Skills are locked off.
- Skulking Fungoid - Weak to Polearm and Ice.
- Demon Deer - Weak to Polearm, Axe, Lightning, and Dark. Buffs itself, then uses a series of physical Skills. Dangerous, but pretty straightforward.
The Spectrewood is a series of intertwining paths, and they all lead generally north in the end. From this point on we'll just provide some general directions to treasure chests until you reach the save point that's just barely visible at the other end of the forest:
- Check along the southern paths and you'll see a purple chest sitting in a little clearing by itself, amid some rocks. Look on the right side of these rocks to find the path to the chest. It contains a Fire Amulet.
- There are two chests down the path to the north of the save point by the entrance. Down the first, which curves west, you'll find a Refreshing Jam, while down the second further to the north you'll find a chest containing 6,000 leaves.
- In the northwest of the area is a side path that will take you to a chest containing a Copper-filled Pouch.
Head to the northeast and use the save point, then travel east. You'll hit a cut scene, and H'aanit will be stopped in her tracks by the Lord of the Forest. Looks like she'll have to calm the thing... one way or another.
Weakness: Sword, Axe, Fire, Light or Polearm, Dagger, Axe, Fire, Dark or Axe, Staff, Fire, Wind
Weakness (Weeping Treant): Axe, Fire, Lightning
Weakness (Toxic Spore): Dagger, Fire, Wind
Weakness (Flitting Fungoid): Polearm, Ice, Dark
Lengthy battle, this. The Lord of the Forest is truly the master of the Spectrewood, and assuming you don't go hog-wild on the Lord itself from the start it will summon three groups of enemies to come help it, a different group each time (and getting progressively more difficult over the course of the battle). It will only stop once you've defeated all three enemy types. The Lord of the Forest itself is also a capable fighter, and can inflict silence and unconsciousness on the party, as well as hit everyone with Lightning damage via its Boost move, Forest Ire. It can also draw health from its summoned minions, and whenever you break the Lord past the halfway point of the battle it will use Consume Life on one of your characters, reducing them to a single hit point and restoring itself. Whenever it uses Consume Life the Lord of the Forest will gain one more defensive shield to its total, and it will cycle through one of three sets of weaknesses, listed above.
The fight against the Lord of the Forest sounds tougher than it is, though it's still not easy. If you want to take a safer route you can hold off on hitting the Lord itself too much and wait for it to summon its minions. Build up Boosts, then absolutely demolish the Treants, Spores, and Fungoids once they show up. Fire is almost always a weakness in this fight, so having Cyrus - or a character with the Scholar job - will make things easier. Once you've wiped out the three waves of foes you can go for the Lord of the Forest. Alternately, you can focus the majority of your attacks on the Lord of the Forest and just try to get in as much damage as possible before it recovers and uses Consume Life on your party members. Debuffing it before breaking its defenses is recommended if you take this approach, as is stunning the mooks (even if you don't actually kill them). The Lord of the Forest will do a lot to eliminate its minions for you if you're inflicting enough damage. Once again, Fire is highly recommended.
You'll earn an Olive of Life (L) for defeating the Lord of the Forest. Shortly thereafter H'aanit will find her master, though he has been petrified. In his final moments Z'aanta managed to write a (sizable) note, directing anyone who finds his body to Stillsnow, looking for a seer named Susanna. Sounds like H'aanit's next destination, no? Speak to Natalia - she lives next to the Armorer - then head out of Stonegard. Natalia will hand over a Healing Grape (M), an Inspiriting Plum (M), and an Energizing Pomegranate (M) just before you leave.