Chasing Shadows/Plot Details

===Cutscenes===
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===Game Script===
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Chasing Shadows (pt.1)- Southern San d'Oria [S]
Rongelouts: You would waste my time with such claptrap!? Do you take me for a fool!?
Paulyvan: F-forgive me, Captain, sir, but eyewitness accounts had grown too numerous to disregard. Despite my own skepticism, I judged it best you were informed.
Paulyvan: The occurrences have stirred disquiet among even the Cardinal Stags' most seasoned veterans, to say naught of fresh recruits.
Rongelouts: Utterly absurd! You expect me to believe that Count Aurchiat has returned from the dead?
I shall personally set straight any cowards in my ranks found clattering teeth at ghost stories!
Rongelouts: Hm? Oh, it's you, Player name.
Rongelouts: You. See that the discussed matter is kept private, lest you provoke unwarranted alarm among our men. Dismissed!
Paulyvan: Sir!
Rongelouts: Player name. You were present for the bulk of that exchange, yes?
Rongelouts: The Cardinal Stags are instrumental in the Allied campaign against Castle Zvahl.
It would serve us ill to have them falling prey to their own minds.
Rongelouts: Make haste to Xarcabard, Player name, to the Cardinal Stags' encampment.
Dubious rumors aside, I would know the soundness of their morale.
Chasing Shadows (pt.1)- Xarcabard [S]
Bistillot: Waaait! I'm not the enemy!
Bistillot: It-it's me, Bistillot!
Bistillot: Phew... For a moment, the vision of my body lying broken within the wreck of this warmachine flashed before my eyes.
Bistillot: If I might ask, Player name, what errand brings you so deep within the heart of enemy territory?
Bistillot: So the rumor of Count Aurchiat's sighting has already reached the Kingdom...
Bistillot: For now, I suggest we rejoin the others. Follow me!
Bistillot: Hmmm. According to the map, this should be the right direction...
Bistillot: What? We've been going in circles, you say?
Th-the nondescript terrain has you confused, surely!
Bistillot: The elaborate controls of this warmachine keep me from navigating effectively.
Bistillot: So, if you would care to take the lead, Player name, I shall be trailing close behind.
Bistillot: You posses a map of Xarcabard, I trust?
The Cardinal Stag encampment lies at the tapering western edge of the area.
Chasing Shadows (pt.2)- Xarcabard [S]
Bistillot: Ah!
Bistillot: We've arrived, Player name!
Bistillot: Hallooo!
Cyranuce: Look! Bistillot has returned!
Rahal: Bistillot, what took you so long?
We've all been sick with worry!
Bistillot: My apologies. My patrolling was delayed by a lump of snow that had found its way into a vital part of the warmachine's propulsion mechanism.
Excenmille: It gives me heart to see you here, Player name.
Excenmille: Jayramus.
Jayramus: My lord.
Excenmille: Brief Player name fully on the present situation.
Jayramus: At once, my lord.
Jayramus: This may not be news to you, but there have been sightings in these parts of a man bearing an uncanny resemblance to the recently departed Count Aurchiat.
Jayramus: The first sighting was reported some days ago, followed by many more.
As word spread among the knights, those known to have been most loyal to the late count grew increasingly restless.
Jayramus: Paying no heed to he young count's orders, they struck out in the midst of a snowstorm in search of their former commander. None have been seen since.
Jayramus: Our numbers diminished as they are, we've been unable to do little save send forth undermanned search parties, all the while praying that no ill has befallen those gone missing. The timing of your appearance is most opportune indeed.
Excenmille: Jayramus. We shall conduct the search with Player name 's assistance.
Excenmille: Bistillot, Player name, and I shall sweep the southern stretch of Xarcabard.
Excenmille: Rahal and Cyranuce. Join Jayramus and his team and focus your search on the western region.
Cyranuce: Yes, sir!
Rahal: Understood.
Excenmille: Let us be off. May the Goddess guide our way.
Chasing Shadows (pt.3)- Xarcabard [S]
Bistillot: We've yet to comb through this area. How shall we tackle this, Excenmille?
Excenmille: Let us split up and search for signs of the men.
Mind you don't wander too far away, and report back to this location afterwards.
Chasing Shadows (pt.4)- Xarcabard [S]
Enguerrand: Mi...milord...
Excenmille: Enguerrand!
Excenmille: In sweet Altana's name, what befell you!?
Enguerrand: For...forgive us, milord...
The men...th-they... Your father...he...he... <Gasp>
Excenmille: Be strong, man!
Excenmille: Enguerrand!!!
Excenmille: F-Father?
Excenmille: Father! Waaait!
Excenmille: Wh-where did he go?
Excenmille: Father!
Excenmille: Father!!!
Excenmille: Player name. You saw him too, right?
That was no phantom--no figment of my imagination?
Excenmille: Hm? What's this here?
Excenmille: A map of Batallia Downs...
Could Father have dropped this before he vanished?
Excenmille: It's been marked. Why, I know this place...
Excenmille: 'Tis where that hideously misshapen creature resides.
But...what business could Father have at such a foreboding place?
Excenmille: Player name, I must go there.
I know not what awaits, but I must discover the truth.
Excenmille: In the meantime, you must take word of this back to Bistillot and the others. Make all haste, Player name!
Chasing Shadows (pt.5)- Xarcabard [S]
Chasing Shadows (pt.1)- Batallia Downs [S]
Excenmille: My eyes tell me you're made of flesh and blood.
But is it truly you, Father?
Alphonimile: Excenmille. How it warms the heart to see you again.
Alphonimile: Your father has cheated death's voracious jaws!
Come, my son and heir. Come with me, and together let us journey to a future untouched by strife and suffering.
Excenmille: What? Journey...to the future?
Excenmille: You're making no sense, Father.
Alphonimile: 'Tis possible if we wield the power of the cavernous maw.
We but require the presence of a single man/woman--the one in whom you place to trust.
Excenmille: The man/woman? Player name...?
Chasing Shadows (pt.2)- Batallia Downs [S]
Chasing Shadows (pt.3)- Batallia Downs [S]
???: Grrroooaaargh...
Excenmille: Hmph, a sorry technological "marvel" that was.
Excenmille: Uwaaah!
Zogbog: Gahaha! And you were sooo tantalizingly close to victory!
Cyranuce: Jayramus! Over yonder!
Jayramus: That there...!
Jayramus: The count!
Cyranuce: Excenmille!
Zogbog: So the cavalry arrives. How insufferable trite.
Zogbog: Stay where you are!
Zogbog: Take one more step, and I'll snap this little rabbit's neck!
Cyranuce: Zogbog, you devious fiend!
Zogbog: Oh, you children do smother me with praise!
But let's not stand on ceremony.
Zogbog: Player name! Heed well my demands, or your play friend's life is forfeit!
Zogbog: Take me back to the future--nay, the present, rather.
Cyranuce: ...!?
Zogbog: Oho! Judging from that telltale reaction, it appears I've surmised correctly.
I know you can travel freely between eras, by way of these cavernous maws.
Zogbog: It might interest you to learn that I, too, have come to the past in the same manner.
But that's where our similarities end. For unlike you, I have no means of returning whence I came.
Excenmille: Player name, no...
Excenmille: You mustn't give in...to his demands...
Zogbog: You speak out of turn, hostage! As a matter of fact, hostages have no turn to speak!
Zogbog: Your choice is remarkably simple, Player name. Refuse my request, and your feisty friend here will have his neck bent beyond repair. Even a halfwit would know the correct answer.
Zogbog: <Gasp>! It...it's reacting?
Zogbog: Oho, I see now. That feather you possess acts as a key to activating the portal.
Zogbog: I shall be taking that off your hands. And be kindly reminded that none is permitted to move a single ilm.
Zogbog: A-another rabbit!? Curses!
Excenmille: Zogbog!
Jayramus: Th-they've vanished...
Cyranuce: Excenmille! Rahal! Player name!
???: Player name.
Excenmille: How fare you, Player name?
Excenmille: I've scoured the vicinity for the others, but they're nowhere to be seen.
Excenmille: The accursed cavernous maw has turned into stone.
Was it because of that blinding flash of light?
Excenmille: Even the landscape seems to have undergone a change of sorts.
Whatever could be the explanation for all this?
Excenmille: Oh, and Player name. I believe this belongs to you.
I managed to retrieve it in the midst of the scuffle.
???: Lord Excenmille and Player name, I presume.
Excenmille: And you are...?
Bostillette: I am Bostillette, an engineer in the service of the Knights of the Iron Ram.
'Tis both and honor and a delight to make your acquaintance.
Excenmille: An engineer of the Iron Rams? Then you must know Bistillot!
Bostillette: Truly I have that pleasure, for it was at Bistillot's behest that I come here to entreat your aid.
Excenmille: Bistillot send you, you say!?
How fare my comrades? Are they unharmed?
Bostillette: On this subject, too, Bistillot wished it conveyed that you may rest assured. Your friends are safe and well.
Excenmille: That knowledge puts my mind at ease. You have my thanks.
Now, regarding the matter of aid, what would you have us do?
Bostillette: We humbly beseech your assistance in a forthcoming strategy.
Bostillette: If you would agree to help us, please accompany me to Jugner Forest, where my unit's base of operation has been established. We shall brief you regarding the detials upon arrival.
Bostillette: Oh, it nigh escaped my mind.
Bostillette: Player name. Bistillot bade me give this to you.
A belated token of gratitude for your assistance twenty years prior, I'm made to understand.
Excenmille: Twenty years prior? She's an odd one, that Bostillette...