HOME | DD

Description
  If anyone's been following Paper Mario: Double Darkness for a while, they might remember that at one point, I had actually gotten all of the general information about the game completely finished and up-to-date. Since I pretty much didn't post anything other than PM2D art back then, I decided to start filling in all the details for each chapter. Instead of starting at the beginning, I decided (for no particular reason) to choose one randomly, and that's why Chapter 4 was the first I really finished writing.
  Most of the original content from that chapter focus is still in my Chapter 4 folder, so it's easy to tell what's changed. Originally, players would be able to choose between World 4-1 and 4-2, but since six levels isn't a whole lot to begin with, I decided to mess with the first half of the chapter so all of them would be mandatory. So now, as simply as I can put it, those levels were merged into a single 4-1, and most of 4-3 has been relabeled as 4-2, with only Chester's peak and the last part of the level leading up to it remaining 4-3. As for the second half of the chapter, Bombastica and Shelley were redesigned and the stadium in Blastburg was changed to look less like Sunblast Arena from the last chapter.
    An interesting side note: I have no idea what's going on with the light in this drawing. According to the shadestone crystals there's a light source in the upper-left, except there clearly isn't. I just drew it that way because it looks nicer.
  From here on out is the description for Chapter 4. WARNING: Really, really, absurdly high levels of reading ahead.

Characters (from left to right):
Bombastica: A super-bubbly Bob-omb girl from Blastburg University and another one of Infinnah T.’s friends. Can help Mario acquire VIP passes for the upcoming fuseball game. Has something between a crush and an obsession for Bombarbell.
Bombarbell: The proud star of Blastburg’s fuseball team. As much as he is considered a sports hero by his town, he also has a reputation for being a violent loose-cannon type. But he really only acts that way on the field, thanks to his huge competitive drive. As Mario’s fifth partner, he can explode to hit switches and demolish some walls and other structures.
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.
Chester: By spending most of his life in silent contemplation on top of Cannonball Peak, this old wise Goomba has learned practically everything to know about the Combustion Crags area. Despite all his useful knowledge, however, he’s amazingly boring in person.
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.
Shelley: The secretive and selfish boss of the Combustion Caves shadestone-trafficking operation and of Chapter 4. Hopes to blow up the Shadestone Tree and claim its magical shards for herself. Her little sister Bomberyl is also Bombastica’s roommate.

--CHAPTER 3 / CHAPTER 4 TRANSITION--
    Previously, in Chapter 3, Mario and friends found the Power Stones hidden in Sunblast Desert, unlocked the arena, bested the Stone Pokey in battle, and were rewarded with the fourth Portal Piece. Specteira finds it a bit odd that the Stone Pokey didn’t seem to recognize her- after all, the last it heard, she was the empress of the Nox- but at the moment they’re too busy to worry about a 5,000-year-old ruin’s magic not working exactly right. For now, they head back to the Mt. Mushroom Observatory.
    With the help of the newest Portal Piece, the Force Engine, Infinnah T. upgrades the scanning power of the Celestial Cannon and finds a new Portal Piece in the mountains to the west. The world map zooms in on them and peels a section off, uncovering two huge caves. The one in front fills with multiple buildings, as well as what looks like a very state-of-the-art sports field. The cave behind it, except for the Portal Piece icon, remains blank.
    Infinnah T. confesses that they may already have all the more obvious Portal Pieces; from here on out, they could be a lot harder to find. Although the next piece is evidently somewhere in the Combustion Caves, the intricate system of tunnels under the Combustion Crags, it’s too far underground to pinpoint the location, so Mario will have to do some investigating. The best place to do so: the underground town of Blastburg. Originally a Bob-omb mining outpost for a magic mineral unique to the Caves, it has since grown into the largest town in the Mushroom Frontier. And it’s even more famous for fuseball, the latest sports craze in the Mushroom Kingdom (especially among Bob-ombs). In fact, one of the biggest games of the year is being held there, and Infinnah T. has recently been making plans to visit one of her friends there and watch it. Anyway, Mario should get to Blastburg first, and they can worry about the Portal Piece from there.
    Unfortunately, because of the annoying wild magic that’s been messing up the Mushroom Frontier all over the place, the bridge which normally leads to Blastburg now only brings Mario into a darkened Nox temple on the Shadow Spire dig site. The good news is that, once Mario uses Sunshine’s fire ability to light the torches in the room, he finds that the room contains a treasure chest holding an Ancient Key, and an inscription on the wall describes a secret path beneath the desert “where the great Pokey never lays its eyes”.
    The clue points to the underground room in World 3-1, where Mario can find a secret door directly behind the Stone Pokey statue. This door takes him through some old tunnels back above ground, and onto an ancient path up the mountains.

--CHAPTER 4--
    The alternate route up the Combustion Crags that Mario has discovered is called the Forgotten Trail (World 4-1). Most of the long-neglected Nox mountain path is relatively straightforward, involving battles against Buzzy Beetles, Pale Piranhas, Mountain Moles, and every variety of Hyper Goomba, some minor platforming, and dangerous boulder hazards. But as Mario comes up on the end of the level, his progress is impeded by the same magic that blocked the original bridge to Blastburg. To reach the Star Sphere and complete the level, he must find his way through a maze of paths and tunnels that don’t lead to where they should.
    When Mario arrives at the Combustion Crags (World 4-2), a nearby generic Bob- omb informs him that the tunnel to Blastburg is just ahead. But when they get there, they find that Kammy Koopa has just magically sealed up the tunnel to ruin Mario’s plans- partly to win favor as Bowser’s favorite minion, and partly as revenge for her defeat in Chapter 2. Now that Mario’s here, though, she’s happy to have a rematch.
    Mario beats her with no trouble, but there’s still the matter of the tunnel being gone. The Bob-omb in the last area recommends that he try climbing to Gunpowder Peak, where a wise man lives and might be able to help. Mario and crew change course and set out across the vast mountain range, repeatedly winding underground and aboveground, avoiding land mines, and using cannons to blast around the level to ultimately reach the Star Sphere.
    Gunpowder Peak (World 4-3), despite being very tall, is actually a pretty short level. At the far end, another cannon shoots Mario and friends straight onto the wise man’s house. He seems surprised to have strangers falling on his front porch, but in a good way, as he doesn’t get many visitors. He introduces himself as Chester, and invites them inside. After he spends several hours telling them pointless stories over tea, Mario wakes up and asks about how he can reach Blastburg. As expected, Chester is shocked to hear that the tunnel has vanished, and promises to meet the party there and help. In order that Mario can get down, Chester also teaches Mario a Paper Parachute move that allows him to fall slowly.
    Back in 4-2, Chester decides to put an old cache of explosives that he recalled was left just above the cliff face to blow up the rock barrier placed by Kammy Koopa. Aside from being underground, the second route out of this level isn’t too different from the first. Just before the end of the level, Specteira notices pink crystals on the wall of the cave and recognizes them right away as shadestone. She recounts for the rest of the party that the Nox created a magical Shadestone Tree deep in the Combustion Caves long ago that created the shadestone, so that it could be used for building and smithing. It must be the magic mineral that Infinnah T. said was mined here. She’s pleased to see the Nox’s innovation still being made useful 5,000 years later.
    Finally, Mario makes it to Blastburg (World 4-4). The underground mining metropolis, mostly populated by Bob-ombs, has an altogether rather urban atmosphere. It includes the usual inn and item store, an arcade where Mario can replay minigames from other chapters, a small rock shop/museum, and most notably, the sports nut’s paradise known as the Blastburg Fuseball Stadium.
    There’s so much to see, in fact, that Mario is a bit at a loss for where to start. Luckily, he soon runs into Infinnah T, accompanied by Bombastica, an archaeology student at Blastburg University and the friend she’s seeing the fuseball game with. They all continue through Blastburg together. While Mario’s there, Infinnah T. figures she should tell them that she’s discovered where the Portal Piece is: Right where the shadestone ore is most densely concentrated. Bombastica has hypothesized that it would most likely be the legendary Shadestone Tree, and Specteira agrees. On the world map, mine tracks and shadestone crystals pop up in the second cave around the Portal Piece icon.
    Their tour of Blastburg ends at Bombastica’s dorm as she invites Mario inside. Her half of the room is decked out in bright colors and fuseball posters, especially of one green athlete with a headband. Her roommate, a dark purple Bob-omb named Bomberyl who is as blase and emo as Bombastica is peppy, is also there. Bombastica explains that she’s well-known in the Blastburg sports community and wants to surprise Infinnah T. by getting the party tickets for the game, even though they’ve long since been sold out. Mario’s happy to go along.
    Bombastica heads back outside (if you can call a huge cave outside) to Infinnah T, leaving the party alone with Bomberyl. She recognizes Mario, and although she clearly doesn’t care for conversation, she knows she needs help. She walks up and quietly, but still urgently, explains that on her trips to the mines for her geology class, she has discovered that the reserves of shadestone are disappearing! What’s more, she has reason to believe that it’s due to illicit activity. If this goes on, the industry of Blastburg and the natural order of the caves could be at stake. She asks Mario to head south to the residential district, find a stalactite next to the cave wall, hit it three times, wait a moment, then four more times. She has seen shady-looking Bob-ombs use this code to enter a secret tunnel, and expects that the answers she’s looking for are there.
    Whether or not Mario wants to take on the mission, Specteira insists on it, so they find the stalactite, whack it as instructed, and find their way into a hidden warehouse filled with crates of shadestone. They have to fight off some Bob-omb criminals that get suspicious, but they manage to make off with a piece. Specteira can sense that something is weird about it and suggests that they take it to an expert. The Bob-omb miner at the mine entrance and the employees of the rock shop can both provide the party with the information that the crystal contains an innate Nox magic that is particular to the area around the Shadestone Tree- and that mining such crystals happens to be illegal.
    If the Shadestone Tree is in danger, so could the Portal Piece, so it’s definitely in Mario’s best interest to cooperate with Bomberyl now. Upon hearing this information, she agrees that they should go into the mines to stop it, but they’re off-limits without special permission, so they’ll have to wait for the right opportunity. And they might as well, because Bombastica returns then with fuseball tickets for Mario and company- VIP tickets at that. Considering this, would they be willing to do her a favor in return? She’s always wanted to meet Bombarbell, the merciless point-scoring star of Blastburg’s fuseball team and her greatest hero. And with those tickets, she finally has a chance.
    With that, Mario makes his way with Bombastica to the Blastburg Fuseball Stadium, which people are just starting to arrive at for the game. Inside the home team’s locker room is Bombarbell. Unfortunately, barely after they can exchange introductions, Bombastica comes out of nowhere and tries to bear hug Bombarbell, who instinctively delivers a fuseball-pro-strength kick to her face and knocks her out cold. Immediately he starts apologizing over and over, calls over the team’s doctor to take a look at Bombastica, and even manages to get her and Infinnah two more VIP passes. He explains that some people think he’s a violent nut because that’s how he looks on the field, but really, he’s pretty nice. With the game starting in only a few minutes, Bombarbell says goodbye to his new friends and promises to win for them.
    After the party and a still-slightly-shaken Bombastica meet up with Infinnah T. and settle into their front row seats, the player takes control of Bombarbell during the fuseball match. The object of this minigame is to kick the fuseball into the opposing team’s target. The closer to the center it hits, the more points his team gets. The fuseball explodes once every minute, and teams lose points for each player caught in the blast. Bombarbell’s CPU teammates can pick up some slack, but he’ll have to perform well to win (if he doesn’t, he can try again from the beginning).
    The sports hero meets up with Mario and friends again after he finishes the game and thanks them for being forgiving and giving him the drive to win. He asks what brings them to Blastburg, and once Mario has filled him in about their adventure, he volunteers to help them save the Combustion Caves and becomes Mario’s fifth partner. Not only can he explode to break walls and set off switches, the Bob-omb guarding the mines is more than willing to let the party through with a local celebrity to vouch for them.
    Mario is now free to travel into the Combustion Caves (World 4-5), a largely unexplored network of tunnels under the control of the Bob-omb criminals responsible for mining the magic shadestone crystals. It includes vertical shafts that require Mario’s Paper Parachute move to navigate, tunnels where the lanterns have gone out and must be relit by Sunshine’s fire powers, and a couple Donkey Kong Country-style minecart segments.
    Mario works his way deeper and deeper underground until he at last finds himself inside the Shadestone Core (4-6). This combination of natural tunnels and Nox mine shafts, both absolutely packed with shadestone, is the Bob-omb black market’s secret base, which Mario finds out when he encounters two goons delivering a report to a dark maroon Bob-omb wearing a mask, apparently the boss. Their ultimate goal is indeed the Shadestone Tree: they plan to to blow it up and harvest the shards to create an infinite supply of shadestone! The good news: they haven’t found it yet. The big Bob-omb is clearly annoyed, but her reaction is even worse when she hears someone has tipped off the authorities about the storehouse in Blastburg. She guesses (correctly) that it was Bomberyl, and goes on a rant about how disappointing it is that her sister refuses to enter the family business.
    Despite this disturbing information, the party is running out of time to reach the Shadestone Tree. The final level of Chapter 4 is rigged with various traps set by the Bob-ombs, as well as jagged shadestone patches and battles against Bob-ombs, Swoopers, and Crystal Clefts. The whole place is a maze too, but Mario can easily find his way by following the paths with the most shadestone.
    This strategy eventually takes him to an ancient, shadestone-studded Nox minecart station where they catch up to the Bob-omb boss. She introduces herself as Shelley, and explains that she deduced the path to the Shadestone Tree the same way they did. But, she adds as she boards the nearest minecart, they got here too late, and now nothing will stand in the way of her fortune! At least, that’s what she thinks, but Mario hops into the minecart at the last second as well, and as they ride off into the shaft, the boss battle begins.
SHELLEY
Tattle Entry #90
That’s Shelley, the leader of the Bob-omb black market, and the one behind the plot to destroy the Crystal Tree! What’s WRONG with her?! That’s Nox property! Hands off! Maximum HP is 70, Attack is 7, and Defense is 0. She might jump on you or throw shadestone, but for the most part she just calls in Bomb Goons to attack for her. Hey, when you run a crime syndicate, that must be what you think of as fighting. By the way, I guess Bomberyl is actually Shelley’s younger sister? That would explain why they both seem to want to ruin the other’s ambitions. Talk about sibling rivalry!
    After being trounced by Mario, Shelley turns to her last resort: exploding. The blast knocks the minecart off its tracks and sends Mario falling to the cave floor below. But when he picks himself up, he finds himself in a room made entirely of glowing shadestone, and realizes that the Shadestone Tree must be nearby! Sure enough, only a couple screens later, he reaches the cavern where the magical, tree-shaped crystal was made 5,000 years ago, and when he climbs to the top of it he finds his treasure...
*** YOU FOUND A PORTAL PIECE! ***

--LUIGI INTERLUDE--
    Since Mario’s off adventuring in the Mushroom Frontier, it falls to Luigi to rescue the princess this time. After following the road from Frostfell Woods south for a while, he reaches a river. The bridge is out, and there is no other apparent way across. Although the area near the river is foggy, Luigi can make out a spooky-looking village to his left. He decides to suck it up and investigate.
    Walking along the river eventually takes him to Silhou Valley, the site of an old-timey ghost town- literally. The fog that perpetually covers this area keeps it cool and dark even in the daytime, making it the perfect home for Boos. This, of course, is well out of Luigi’s comfort zone, but it’s his only chance of getting across the river, so he enters the village anyway. The Boos, while not particularly friendly, are willing to point him to a dock where a ferryman can take him across Creepy Creek (which is apparently the name of the river). But the ferryman refuses to until Luigi brings him three Bone Shards as payment.
    Asking the Boos directly about what, exactly, Bone Shards are only freaks them out, so Luigi must figure out what he’s looking for in some other way. He eventually finds some information about them in the town’s library: It turns out that they’re stake-like objects made from bone that can be used as weapons against Boos even when they’re invisible. They can be found in an abandoned graveyard farther out in Silhou Valley, where many of the town’s residents were buried. Luigi navigates through the fog, finds the graveyard, and defeats some Dry Bones to collect the Bone Shards from them, but on his way back a Boo notices that he’s carrying the deadly stakes and rallies his friends to stop him. Now Luigi must flee from a wave of angry Boos and get to the dock. As the ferryman takes off, Luigi puts Silhou Valley behind him- much to his relief.
    Meanwhile, at Bowser’s Castle, Bowser has noticed that he hasn’t seen much of Kammy Koopa or Bowser Jr. lately. He asks a nearby Koopatrol if he has any idea what they’ve been up to. He replies that they’ve regularly been taking off toward the ocean in the direction of the Mushroom Frontier, but isn’t sure what they do there. After hearing this, Bowser resolves to start looking into the matter...

Description
  If anyone's been following Paper Mario: Double Darkness for a while, they might remember that at one point, I had actually gotten all of the general information about the game completely finished and up-to-date. Since I pretty much didn't post anything other than PM2D art back then, I decided to start filling in all the details for each chapter. Instead of starting at the beginning, I decided (for no particular reason) to choose one randomly, and that's why Chapter 4 was the first I really finished writing.
  Most of the original content from that chapter focus is still in my Chapter 4 folder, so it's easy to tell what's changed. Originally, players would be able to choose between World 4-1 and 4-2, but since six levels isn't a whole lot to begin with, I decided to mess with the first half of the chapter so all of them would be mandatory. So now, as simply as I can put it, those levels were merged into a single 4-1, and most of 4-3 has been relabeled as 4-2, with only Chester's peak and the last part of the level leading up to it remaining 4-3. As for the second half of the chapter, Bombastica and Shelley were redesigned and the stadium in Blastburg was changed to look less like Sunblast Arena from the last chapter.
    An interesting side note: I have no idea what's going on with the light in this drawing. According to the shadestone crystals there's a light source in the upper-left, except there clearly isn't. I just drew it that way because it looks nicer.
  From here on out is the description for Chapter 4. WARNING: Really, really, absurdly high levels of reading ahead.

Characters (from left to right):
Bombastica: A super-bubbly Bob-omb girl from Blastburg University and another one of Infinnah T.’s friends. Can help Mario acquire VIP passes for the upcoming fuseball game. Has something between a crush and an obsession for Bombarbell.
Bombarbell: The proud star of Blastburg’s fuseball team. As much as he is considered a sports hero by his town, he also has a reputation for being a violent loose-cannon type. But he really only acts that way on the field, thanks to his huge competitive drive. As Mario’s fifth partner, he can explode to hit switches and demolish some walls and other structures.
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.
Chester: By spending most of his life in silent contemplation on top of Cannonball Peak, this old wise Goomba has learned practically everything to know about the Combustion Crags area. Despite all his useful knowledge, however, he’s amazingly boring in person.
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.
Shelley: The secretive and selfish boss of the Combustion Caves shadestone-trafficking operation and of Chapter 4. Hopes to blow up the Shadestone Tree and claim its magical shards for herself. Her little sister Bomberyl is also Bombastica’s roommate.

--CHAPTER 3 / CHAPTER 4 TRANSITION--
    Previously, in Chapter 3, Mario and friends found the Power Stones hidden in Sunblast Desert, unlocked the arena, bested the Stone Pokey in battle, and were rewarded with the fourth Portal Piece. Specteira finds it a bit odd that the Stone Pokey didn’t seem to recognize her- after all, the last it heard, she was the empress of the Nox- but at the moment they’re too busy to worry about a 5,000-year-old ruin’s magic not working exactly right. For now, they head back to the Mt. Mushroom Observatory.
    With the help of the newest Portal Piece, the Force Engine, Infinnah T. upgrades the scanning power of the Celestial Cannon and finds a new Portal Piece in the mountains to the west. The world map zooms in on them and peels a section off, uncovering two huge caves. The one in front fills with multiple buildings, as well as what looks like a very state-of-the-art sports field. The cave behind it, except for the Portal Piece icon, remains blank.
    Infinnah T. confesses that they may already have all the more obvious Portal Pieces; from here on out, they could be a lot harder to find. Although the next piece is evidently somewhere in the Combustion Caves, the intricate system of tunnels under the Combustion Crags, it’s too far underground to pinpoint the location, so Mario will have to do some investigating. The best place to do so: the underground town of Blastburg. Originally a Bob-omb mining outpost for a magic mineral unique to the Caves, it has since grown into the largest town in the Mushroom Frontier. And it’s even more famous for fuseball, the latest sports craze in the Mushroom Kingdom (especially among Bob-ombs). In fact, one of the biggest games of the year is being held there, and Infinnah T. has recently been making plans to visit one of her friends there and watch it. Anyway, Mario should get to Blastburg first, and they can worry about the Portal Piece from there.
    Unfortunately, because of the annoying wild magic that’s been messing up the Mushroom Frontier all over the place, the bridge which normally leads to Blastburg now only brings Mario into a darkened Nox temple on the Shadow Spire dig site. The good news is that, once Mario uses Sunshine’s fire ability to light the torches in the room, he finds that the room contains a treasure chest holding an Ancient Key, and an inscription on the wall describes a secret path beneath the desert “where the great Pokey never lays its eyes”.
    The clue points to the underground room in World 3-1, where Mario can find a secret door directly behind the Stone Pokey statue. This door takes him through some old tunnels back above ground, and onto an ancient path up the mountains.

--CHAPTER 4--
    The alternate route up the Combustion Crags that Mario has discovered is called the Forgotten Trail (World 4-1). Most of the long-neglected Nox mountain path is relatively straightforward, involving battles against Buzzy Beetles, Pale Piranhas, Mountain Moles, and every variety of Hyper Goomba, some minor platforming, and dangerous boulder hazards. But as Mario comes up on the end of the level, his progress is impeded by the same magic that blocked the original bridge to Blastburg. To reach the Star Sphere and complete the level, he must find his way through a maze of paths and tunnels that don’t lead to where they should.
    When Mario arrives at the Combustion Crags (World 4-2), a nearby generic Bob- omb informs him that the tunnel to Blastburg is just ahead. But when they get there, they find that Kammy Koopa has just magically sealed up the tunnel to ruin Mario’s plans- partly to win favor as Bowser’s favorite minion, and partly as revenge for her defeat in Chapter 2. Now that Mario’s here, though, she’s happy to have a rematch.
    Mario beats her with no trouble, but there’s still the matter of the tunnel being gone. The Bob-omb in the last area recommends that he try climbing to Gunpowder Peak, where a wise man lives and might be able to help. Mario and crew change course and set out across the vast mountain range, repeatedly winding underground and aboveground, avoiding land mines, and using cannons to blast around the level to ultimately reach the Star Sphere.
    Gunpowder Peak (World 4-3), despite being very tall, is actually a pretty short level. At the far end, another cannon shoots Mario and friends straight onto the wise man’s house. He seems surprised to have strangers falling on his front porch, but in a good way, as he doesn’t get many visitors. He introduces himself as Chester, and invites them inside. After he spends several hours telling them pointless stories over tea, Mario wakes up and asks about how he can reach Blastburg. As expected, Chester is shocked to hear that the tunnel has vanished, and promises to meet the party there and help. In order that Mario can get down, Chester also teaches Mario a Paper Parachute move that allows him to fall slowly.
    Back in 4-2, Chester decides to put an old cache of explosives that he recalled was left just above the cliff face to blow up the rock barrier placed by Kammy Koopa. Aside from being underground, the second route out of this level isn’t too different from the first. Just before the end of the level, Specteira notices pink crystals on the wall of the cave and recognizes them right away as shadestone. She recounts for the rest of the party that the Nox created a magical Shadestone Tree deep in the Combustion Caves long ago that created the shadestone, so that it could be used for building and smithing. It must be the magic mineral that Infinnah T. said was mined here. She’s pleased to see the Nox’s innovation still being made useful 5,000 years later.
    Finally, Mario makes it to Blastburg (World 4-4). The underground mining metropolis, mostly populated by Bob-ombs, has an altogether rather urban atmosphere. It includes the usual inn and item store, an arcade where Mario can replay minigames from other chapters, a small rock shop/museum, and most notably, the sports nut’s paradise known as the Blastburg Fuseball Stadium.
    There’s so much to see, in fact, that Mario is a bit at a loss for where to start. Luckily, he soon runs into Infinnah T, accompanied by Bombastica, an archaeology student at Blastburg University and the friend she’s seeing the fuseball game with. They all continue through Blastburg together. While Mario’s there, Infinnah T. figures she should tell them that she’s discovered where the Portal Piece is: Right where the shadestone ore is most densely concentrated. Bombastica has hypothesized that it would most likely be the legendary Shadestone Tree, and Specteira agrees. On the world map, mine tracks and shadestone crystals pop up in the second cave around the Portal Piece icon.
    Their tour of Blastburg ends at Bombastica’s dorm as she invites Mario inside. Her half of the room is decked out in bright colors and fuseball posters, especially of one green athlete with a headband. Her roommate, a dark purple Bob-omb named Bomberyl who is as blase and emo as Bombastica is peppy, is also there. Bombastica explains that she’s well-known in the Blastburg sports community and wants to surprise Infinnah T. by getting the party tickets for the game, even though they’ve long since been sold out. Mario’s happy to go along.
    Bombastica heads back outside (if you can call a huge cave outside) to Infinnah T, leaving the party alone with Bomberyl. She recognizes Mario, and although she clearly doesn’t care for conversation, she knows she needs help. She walks up and quietly, but still urgently, explains that on her trips to the mines for her geology class, she has discovered that the reserves of shadestone are disappearing! What’s more, she has reason to believe that it’s due to illicit activity. If this goes on, the industry of Blastburg and the natural order of the caves could be at stake. She asks Mario to head south to the residential district, find a stalactite next to the cave wall, hit it three times, wait a moment, then four more times. She has seen shady-looking Bob-ombs use this code to enter a secret tunnel, and expects that the answers she’s looking for are there.
    Whether or not Mario wants to take on the mission, Specteira insists on it, so they find the stalactite, whack it as instructed, and find their way into a hidden warehouse filled with crates of shadestone. They have to fight off some Bob-omb criminals that get suspicious, but they manage to make off with a piece. Specteira can sense that something is weird about it and suggests that they take it to an expert. The Bob-omb miner at the mine entrance and the employees of the rock shop can both provide the party with the information that the crystal contains an innate Nox magic that is particular to the area around the Shadestone Tree- and that mining such crystals happens to be illegal.
    If the Shadestone Tree is in danger, so could the Portal Piece, so it’s definitely in Mario’s best interest to cooperate with Bomberyl now. Upon hearing this information, she agrees that they should go into the mines to stop it, but they’re off-limits without special permission, so they’ll have to wait for the right opportunity. And they might as well, because Bombastica returns then with fuseball tickets for Mario and company- VIP tickets at that. Considering this, would they be willing to do her a favor in return? She’s always wanted to meet Bombarbell, the merciless point-scoring star of Blastburg’s fuseball team and her greatest hero. And with those tickets, she finally has a chance.
    With that, Mario makes his way with Bombastica to the Blastburg Fuseball Stadium, which people are just starting to arrive at for the game. Inside the home team’s locker room is Bombarbell. Unfortunately, barely after they can exchange introductions, Bombastica comes out of nowhere and tries to bear hug Bombarbell, who instinctively delivers a fuseball-pro-strength kick to her face and knocks her out cold. Immediately he starts apologizing over and over, calls over the team’s doctor to take a look at Bombastica, and even manages to get her and Infinnah two more VIP passes. He explains that some people think he’s a violent nut because that’s how he looks on the field, but really, he’s pretty nice. With the game starting in only a few minutes, Bombarbell says goodbye to his new friends and promises to win for them.
    After the party and a still-slightly-shaken Bombastica meet up with Infinnah T. and settle into their front row seats, the player takes control of Bombarbell during the fuseball match. The object of this minigame is to kick the fuseball into the opposing team’s target. The closer to the center it hits, the more points his team gets. The fuseball explodes once every minute, and teams lose points for each player caught in the blast. Bombarbell’s CPU teammates can pick up some slack, but he’ll have to perform well to win (if he doesn’t, he can try again from the beginning).
    The sports hero meets up with Mario and friends again after he finishes the game and thanks them for being forgiving and giving him the drive to win. He asks what brings them to Blastburg, and once Mario has filled him in about their adventure, he volunteers to help them save the Combustion Caves and becomes Mario’s fifth partner. Not only can he explode to break walls and set off switches, the Bob-omb guarding the mines is more than willing to let the party through with a local celebrity to vouch for them.
    Mario is now free to travel into the Combustion Caves (World 4-5), a largely unexplored network of tunnels under the control of the Bob-omb criminals responsible for mining the magic shadestone crystals. It includes vertical shafts that require Mario’s Paper Parachute move to navigate, tunnels where the lanterns have gone out and must be relit by Sunshine’s fire powers, and a couple Donkey Kong Country-style minecart segments.
    Mario works his way deeper and deeper underground until he at last finds himself inside the Shadestone Core (4-6). This combination of natural tunnels and Nox mine shafts, both absolutely packed with shadestone, is the Bob-omb black market’s secret base, which Mario finds out when he encounters two goons delivering a report to a dark maroon Bob-omb wearing a mask, apparently the boss. Their ultimate goal is indeed the Shadestone Tree: they plan to to blow it up and harvest the shards to create an infinite supply of shadestone! The good news: they haven’t found it yet. The big Bob-omb is clearly annoyed, but her reaction is even worse when she hears someone has tipped off the authorities about the storehouse in Blastburg. She guesses (correctly) that it was Bomberyl, and goes on a rant about how disappointing it is that her sister refuses to enter the family business.
    Despite this disturbing information, the party is running out of time to reach the Shadestone Tree. The final level of Chapter 4 is rigged with various traps set by the Bob-ombs, as well as jagged shadestone patches and battles against Bob-ombs, Swoopers, and Crystal Clefts. The whole place is a maze too, but Mario can easily find his way by following the paths with the most shadestone.
    This strategy eventually takes him to an ancient, shadestone-studded Nox minecart station where they catch up to the Bob-omb boss. She introduces herself as Shelley, and explains that she deduced the path to the Shadestone Tree the same way they did. But, she adds as she boards the nearest minecart, they got here too late, and now nothing will stand in the way of her fortune! At least, that’s what she thinks, but Mario hops into the minecart at the last second as well, and as they ride off into the shaft, the boss battle begins.
SHELLEY
Tattle Entry #90
That’s Shelley, the leader of the Bob-omb black market, and the one behind the plot to destroy the Crystal Tree! What’s WRONG with her?! That’s Nox property! Hands off! Maximum HP is 70, Attack is 7, and Defense is 0. She might jump on you or throw shadestone, but for the most part she just calls in Bomb Goons to attack for her. Hey, when you run a crime syndicate, that must be what you think of as fighting. By the way, I guess Bomberyl is actually Shelley’s younger sister? That would explain why they both seem to want to ruin the other’s ambitions. Talk about sibling rivalry!
    After being trounced by Mario, Shelley turns to her last resort: exploding. The blast knocks the minecart off its tracks and sends Mario falling to the cave floor below. But when he picks himself up, he finds himself in a room made entirely of glowing shadestone, and realizes that the Shadestone Tree must be nearby! Sure enough, only a couple screens later, he reaches the cavern where the magical, tree-shaped crystal was made 5,000 years ago, and when he climbs to the top of it he finds his treasure...
*** YOU FOUND A PORTAL PIECE! ***

--LUIGI INTERLUDE--
    Since Mario’s off adventuring in the Mushroom Frontier, it falls to Luigi to rescue the princess this time. After following the road from Frostfell Woods south for a while, he reaches a river. The bridge is out, and there is no other apparent way across. Although the area near the river is foggy, Luigi can make out a spooky-looking village to his left. He decides to suck it up and investigate.
    Walking along the river eventually takes him to Silhou Valley, the site of an old-timey ghost town- literally. The fog that perpetually covers this area keeps it cool and dark even in the daytime, making it the perfect home for Boos. This, of course, is well out of Luigi’s comfort zone, but it’s his only chance of getting across the river, so he enters the village anyway. The Boos, while not particularly friendly, are willing to point him to a dock where a ferryman can take him across Creepy Creek (which is apparently the name of the river). But the ferryman refuses to until Luigi brings him three Bone Shards as payment.
    Asking the Boos directly about what, exactly, Bone Shards are only freaks them out, so Luigi must figure out what he’s looking for in some other way. He eventually finds some information about them in the town’s library: It turns out that they’re stake-like objects made from bone that can be used as weapons against Boos even when they’re invisible. They can be found in an abandoned graveyard farther out in Silhou Valley, where many of the town’s residents were buried. Luigi navigates through the fog, finds the graveyard, and defeats some Dry Bones to collect the Bone Shards from them, but on his way back a Boo notices that he’s carrying the deadly stakes and rallies his friends to stop him. Now Luigi must flee from a wave of angry Boos and get to the dock. As the ferryman takes off, Luigi puts Silhou Valley behind him- much to his relief.
    Meanwhile, at Bowser’s Castle, Bowser has noticed that he hasn’t seen much of Kammy Koopa or Bowser Jr. lately. He asks a nearby Koopatrol if he has any idea what they’ve been up to. He replies that they’ve regularly been taking off toward the ocean in the direction of the Mushroom Frontier, but isn’t sure what they do there. After hearing this, Bowser resolves to start looking into the matter...