I wanted to blend the battles and the story so that they felt a part of the game and not just random battles, and I think I got the balancing of normal just right now - I'm glad that came across!
For Farspeak, as a small easter egg, if you get Griselda to learn Farspeak (level 3 telepathy), she gets a choice of dialogue with interesting effects, instead of just being grumpy like Dianthus XD.