Chapter 5: Lebkuchen
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The path through the rolling hills and auburn-leafed trees eventually takes you to Lebkuchen, a village that has an aura of staleness around it, like week-old bread. Vitae suggests you take a look around.
Farther into the village, you spot two women talking. Gina tells Laura to give her thanks to Laura's brother, Tristan, and then asks if they plan to stay in Lebkuchen. This place is almost a ghost town! Laura confirms that they plan to continue living in the village. Gina gives them her best wishes, and Laura thanks her in reply, but then talks to herself and says that she'll see there wasn't anything to worry about when Gina returns.
Start exploring the village, and you'll come across Larua's brother, Tristan. It's unusual for there to be visitors in Lebkuchen! As long as you're not here to do any funny business, you're welcome to stick around.
You and Vitae will discover a ruined outdoor oven in the western part of the town. Vitae recognizes it as a Harvest Sprite ruin! The hearth is missing its flame, so there's nothing you can do about it at the moment. While you look over the oven, Franz comes by to greet you. He's lived in Lebkuchen for all his life, and that hearth used to contain a mighty blaze! The fire would roar no matter the weather. It was so strong that the villagers used to take fire from the hearth and use it to heat their homes. But the hearth's flame extinguished a few years ago. What was once a bright fire slowly dwindled until it finally poof'd out. After that happened, the town's famous bread and cheese started dropping in quality, and villagers moved away. Franz wonders if the flame spirit left the hearth and returned to the northern mountain.
Head back to the bakery and greet Laura. She welcomes you to their villager of Lebkuchen. At the moment, they are all sold out of bread and cheese, but you're welcome to stop by tomorrow for more!
Return to the shop the next morning. Laura greets you again but believes that you're a new customer? You were just here yesterday! Tristan comes into the shop to check on his sister and recognizes you from the other day. At first, he accuses you of getting into mischief (which he previously warned you about) but then recalls how his sister told him the other day that you were a new customer. Speaking of customers, Laura wonders why their regular customer hasn't stopped by today. Tristan reminds her that Gina moved away from the village the day before.
Laura shows you their cheese inventory: goat cheese, semi-hard cheese, blue cheese, and so on. There is a lot of cheese! Suddenly there's another odd sound coming from your body. Another fart!? No, it's just your hungry tummy again. Laura invites you to join them for lunch.
At the meal, Laura explains that she made the cheese, and Tristan baked the bread. It isn't as tasty as it looks. After Tristan excuses himself from the table out of embarrassment, Laura explains they have been trying to craft world-class bread and cheese to return Lebkuchen to its former glory.
Return to the shop the next day. Tristan reintroduces you to his sister, but even though she fed you bread and cheese, Laura doesn't remember you at all. Instead, she asks about Gina again. Tristan reminds her that Gina moved away.
Another day, another visit! This time Laura is interacting with Helga, another villager from Lebkuchen. Helga insists that she's been here before, orders blue cheese and a baguette, and then leaves the shop. That's where you and Tristan overhear Helga complain that the food doesn't taste as good as it did when Laura and Tristan's father made the bread and cheese.
Tristan explains to you that they're having problems. Laura's strange forgetfulness affliction causes her to forget everything that occurred after a certain point. And he doesn't know what to do about their terrible bread and cheese. Talk to Tristan again and ask about the history of the town. He explains long ago, visitors from all over would come to Lebkuchen to buy their milk, cheese, and bread. Their father was the most incredible bread artisan in town, who taught him and Laura how to bake bread and manufacture cheese. But one day, their father became sick, and, well, now Tristan isn't in the mood to continue the conversation and asks to be left alone.
Vitae suggests talking to the other villagers, so head back to the hearth and chat with Franz. He explains that Laura didn't always suffer from daily memory loss. When their father passed away, Laura was in such a state of grief that she started forgetting everything that took place after the day of the funeral. Franz wants to help them, but he doesn't know how he can.
Head back to the main path and talk to another villager. She explains that while Laura acts the same as she always has, Tristan's personality changed after his sister started to lose her memory every day. He used to be much wilder! Now the stress from caring for his sister has worn him down. Despite that they make the cheese and bread using the same techniques as they always have, the quality has severely decreased.
Return to Tristan and ask him about the farm they use to grow the wheat and care for their goats. Their farm is just down the path from the Lebkuchen general store. Oh boy, it's a mess! Tristan admits that they have only been able to do the bare minimum since their father passed away. He knows they need to do better, but he doesn't know how. Tristan makes plans with Laura for farm care, but she forgets it all the next day. It then takes him all day to remind her. You volunteer to help fix the farm by repairing the broken livestock fence, cleaning up the fields, restoring the old well, and growing a fresh crop of wheat. Sounds like a plan! Tristan will work on fixing the fence while you look for wheat.
Go through the main center of Lebkuchen and then head northeast towards the volcano area. In a little nook along the path, you'll find 2 Wheat Seed wisps. There are 3 more Wheat Seed wisps in the large clearing on the road between Lebkuchen and the desert. You'll need to collect 8 seeds to complete this task.
Bring the 8 Wheat Seeds back to Tristan at his farm. The two of you work together to repair the broken fence, clear the stones and weeds from the fields, rebuild the water well, and plant the wheat. It looks amazing! The siblings are pleased with how everything turned out. The fresh grass will improve the milk output of the animals! Laura thanks you for all you've done. Though Laura anticipates that she'll forget about all of this tomorrow, she'll be surprised and joyful when she sees it again.
The next day, visit Laura and Tristan in their shop. Instead of happy faces, you see more trouble! Now the problem is they aren't able to light a fire for reasons unknown. Without fire, they can't make cheese or bread. Laura was looking forward to making cheese using milk from their now-healthy cows. Vitae suggests a visit to the outdoor hearth again.
Franz will be there with the siblings, as he cannot light a fire at his house either. It must be because nobody has visited the fire god in a while. Franz tells the story he heard from his grandma about a fire god that brought fire from the nearby volcano to the hearth in Lebkuchen. Every so often, the fickle god will return to the volcano and take the fire with him. The villagers would then pray to the volcano and convince the fire god to return the fire. It's a strange tale! Supposedly, the villagers would craft a unique lantern to carry the fire god back to the Lebkuchen hearth. Tristan is determined to return the fire and heads to the volcano.
Head through the lava fields to reach Tristan at the end of the path. Besides the baker, you also find a fiery fairy! Harvest Sprite Ignis explains that he's at the volcano to train his powers. He hasn't been as strong as he once was, so villagers have been moving away. Ignis hopes to work out at the volcano to regain his strength and, hopefully, save Lebkuchen from being completely abandoned. You and Vitae explain the weakened state of the town. Ignis had no idea! Though he would like to return, Ignis doesn't feel as though his training is complete. He needs to be in tip-top shape to save the town. Ignis requests that you fetch the special lantern and 10 Milk.
- Talk to Franz about the lantern from his grandma's story. He'll tell you that he found an old family heirloom lantern that would do the trick. He then gives you a Lantern.
- You can collect milk by raising cows on your farm. A cow costs 5000 G and takes about a season to mature. Alternatively, Braden offers repeatable task for Milk. He has one requesting 2 Sweet Potatoes for 10 Milk, and another for 2 Turnip for 5 Milk. A Sweet Potato wisp can be found in the apple orchard in Calisson, along the path that leads from the Calisson farm area to the chicken weathervane. Turnip wisps are plantiful in Calisson. Sweet Potatoes take 4 days to mature, and Turnips take 3 days to mature.
Bring the milk and lantern to Ignis. The Harvest Sprite will ignite the fire in the portable lantern and direct you to take the lantern to the hearth.
Talk to Franz at the sacred hearth to place the fire in the outdoor oven. Now everyone in the village can use the fire for their ovens again! Head back to Laura to tell her the good news. Now they can make their bread and cheese! They whip up another bread and cheese meal for you to try. This time the food tastes much better! Tristan says it is all thanks to the hard work you put into restoring their farm.
Helga will stop by the shop to buy her daily bread. She is glad to see the siblings are so happy, and even their products look amazing! Helga even buys twice as much bread and cheese as she usually would.
The siblings are ecstatic about the good fortunes, but Laura becomes sad. While things are great now, Laura knows she'll forget everything tomorrow. She does not want to forget today. Tristan admits that he used to be envious of his sister's condition to forget each day because he could never fix things. Tristan didn't realize how difficult it was for her to forget everything day after day. Laura feels terrible for putting her brother through this every day. Tristan reminds her that he'll always be there for her; besides, he will remember this day for them!
After Laura leaves to rest for a bit, Tristan tells you that Lebkuchen has changed so much since you arrived. He's going to work very hard so that people move back to their village.
Vitae reminds you that not everything is back to normal. You didn't receive the Medallion of Fire from Ignis! Head to the sacred hearth and talk to Ignis. The sprite has completed his training and returned to the town. As a reward, he gives you the Medallion of Fire.
The next morning, Tristan notices Laura looking out the window. She tells him that she's hoping to see you walk by the shop. Wait a second... did she remember who you are?! Sure enough, Laura has retained her memory of you from the day before. When you stop by their farm, they are both delighted to see you. Laura's smile is now genuine.