Doldrums to Developments

On Saturday, I went to Lake Erie with friends. Now, I honestly intended to play while I was lounging on the beaches of Presque Isle. I ran into resistance though, because the relentless day star we call our sun made it quite impossible to see the screen of my little Gameboy advance. It was not a day devoid of Final Fantasy, as I had at least booted it up before we left to do some inventory management, but I had time for little else. At least Pokémon Go was able to fill some gaps in my mostly gameless day.

Sunday was not much different in terms of chances to play FF, but there was plenty of gaming otherwise. Before brunch with family, I booted up the game for a few minutes to get a little bit of self inflicted damage grinding in. Then in the afternoon, I went to my bi-weekly Pathfinder Society game. Our GM is great, even if he does like to let us learn 'the hard way' from our mistakes. It was an entertaining session that ran late because we started late. I don't mind that, considering we played even after a rather tragic occurrence turned the GM's schedule on it's head. I faced a Monday morning with less sleep that I would have liked, but I enjoyed myself enough to not really mind.

That brings me to yesterday. I finally made some leeway, and quite a bit of it. So the long update today can be pennance for my low progress days. Now, where were we?

So the Dreadnaught had just taken off to rain destruction down on the nearby villages. As I made my way back to Altair, I passed through several destroyed towns. Altair was in bad shape too, and then I got stuck for a while, unsure what I was to do next. I knew I needed to get the sunfire, but I went back and forth between Poft and Altair a few times before breaking down and looking up what I'd missed. I needed to talk to Cid to get the keyword 'sunfire' and then talk to the princess about it to trigger the next events. I then needed to get Josef to take me on his snowcraft to the cave where the Goddess Bell resided.

I made that journey, and eventually found myself in a den of beavers in the middle of a cave. Weird. "Chit Chit Snook" they said. Also weird. There was a language barrier to be sure, but it's okay because:


Squeak Squeaker Squeakin'

hmm...

With Poe as our expert beaver interpreter, we found where the Goddess Bell was hidden. As we tried to leave the cave we were stopped by our old buddy Borghen. After his defeat, he unleashed an Indiana Jones style trap on us and Josef met his end to protect the rest of the party. For those keeping count, that's death number two for named characters. With the bell in hand, we travelled to Kashuan Keep. We had to obtain the torch that would allow us to take the sunfire so we could use it to blow up the death star... I mean... the Dreadnaught.

We met and were joined by Prince Gordon inside. That would be the deceased Prince Scott's brother who finally got over his hesitation and started believing in himself. It was fairly easy to retrieve the torch - once I gave up trying to find it myself and looked up a map. The red soul guarding it was pretty challenging for me, especially because I've been rushing through the game. I usually never bother to touch my items, but I felt it necessary to use a cottage once I teleported out of there. Have I mentioned how much I like the Teleport spell? It's extremely helpful.

Next was a looooonnng walk north to find where the Dreadnaught was resupplying. Because I somehow neglected to pick up the boarding pass hidden in the cave in Bafsk, I had to 'sneak' aboard the hard way - by beating the stuffing out of the captain guarding the entrance. This fight was also more challenging than I remember. I stepped back outside to use another expensive Cottage once I'd defeated him.

The dreadnaught itself wasn't too bad, but let me tell you, the Hill Gigas in this area are brutal. They hit very hard, and take me several rounds to defeat, so my characters were chugging potions like crazy to get through it because I was also trying to conserve my MP. After considerable effort, the princess was rescued, and the engine of the Dreadnaught went boom.

It was a quick flight back to Altair on Cid's Airship, and once there, Hilda's father, the king, started doling out tasks on his deathbed. He then immediately took the death toll of named characters to three. Gordon at least left the party without dying, and our next mission was to seek the aid of the Dragoons. To that end, the party went to Paloom to charter a vessel to Deist Castle. Leila the pirate was a suspiciously convenient option. It wasn't much of a surprise when she had her crew try to jump the party while at sea. They got REKT.

Instead of punishing her, Finn and Rey asked Leila to join them against the empire. So now I have Leila the Pirate in my party, and the navigation of the ship was handed over. Great... I proceeded to cluelessly wander the ocean until I remembered where the heck Deist was. Once there, I ventured into the castle and met with the last remaining living souls - a woman and her son who were watching over the last Wyvern. The empire had poisoned the water supply and tragedy ensued. No one could talk to the wyvern without a magic pendant, so of course it was up to us to go find one. As luck would have it, we easily found it in the wyvern cave.

Now able to communicate with the wyvern we returned to be given the last wyvern egg and tasked with taking it deeper into the wyvern cave to the lifespring or some such. Suffice to say, the deeper parts of the cave are not nearly as straightforward. That's where I had to save and quit, so you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be hopelessly lost when I boot up the game again.

Leila, I think Eric Clapton may want a word with you.