Mini-challenge! (FFIII, Day 27)

After stocking up on healing items, particularly gold needles, I took another stab at the Dragons Peak dungeon. It was far less terrifying that I remembered from the night before when I'd quit to go to bed. With a clear head, I swiftly cleared it, coming face to face with the place's namesake. A dragon. The thing somehow grabbed my whole party and dropped us off in its nest. That's where we met Desch who advised us to make a hasty retreat. So when Bahamut returned, I followed the in game advice and ran. I found it particularly funny that when he was telling us to flee Desch phrased it as "Run Away! Run Away!" as if to reference a certain famous Monty Python scene.
 

Look at the bones!

Having fled successfully, I found myself wandering around an entirely new area, cut off from Canaan. I stumbled upon a Healing Copse and got a spare Mini spell from the Gnome that was hanging around. I cast Mini on my party so I could enter the Gnome village and proceeded to spend 20 minutes walking around the woods so I could find the exact spot where Tozus was located. Let me also mention that I did not enjoy having to fight battles while still in Mini form.

Finally I discovered the nearly invisible requisite pixel, and I wandered around Tozus until I found the doctor, who was sick. I gave him an antidote to counteract the fact that he was apparently walking around eating random things in the woods. Once I got him back on his feet, he opened up a secret door and I went on my way to the next area. Again, Mini fights are the worst.

After that little adventure, I wasted absolutely no time in returning to normal size. My next destination was a cave where a bunch of Vikings were holed up, lamenting the loss of their ships to the maw of a great sea dragon. I met with their leader who promised me a ship if I got rid of the thing, so off I went to the Nepto Temple to figure out the problem.

Turns out the idol in the temple was missing an eye, and there was a passage in the stone dragon's mouth. Couldn't be normal sized to explore it though. Another Mini dungeon... It was at this point though, that I realized Mini affects weapon damage but not magic. To make this discovery even better, I had a fire rod handy. From that point on, all enemies were laid to burnination.
 

You no take candle!

After a short jaunt through the tunnels, I came upon a talking rat and the statue's eye. He wasn't going to give it up without a fight, but hey, that's why I brought my fire stick. I'm still not sure why he's called a giant rat. I mean, if my party is Mini then I'm inclined to believe he's a just normal sized rat, and not a gigantic one. It doesn't really matter, I guess. He ded, and I took his precious shiny thing.
 

Go away, you're cutting into my beauty sleep.

The eye of the dragon was restored, the statue started being all talky about how we just saved its soul, and gave us a present called the Fang of Water. Then it passed out for a nice long nap while the party headed back to talk to the Viking leader.



True to his word, the head Viking gave us the ship we'd been promised. Maybe not the best business move since it was their last one, but hey, I'll never turn down a free ship. Especially when it's called the Enterprise. Captain's log: Take a good hard look 'cause I'm standing on a boat!

 

Beam me up?

Now free to explore the ocean, I took the advice of an FAQ to go check out a few points of interest around the map before advancing the main quest. One of which was a town razed and pillaged by soldiers, and the other was the so called village of the Ancients. My last act before logging off for the night was to accept a random kid's challenge to ride a chocobo around the rim of the continent. That was fun, and I discovered that the continent I'm on is actually in the sky, so that's neat. What's not as neat is that it probably means the world map is a lot bigger than it seems at the moment. I have a feeling I've got quite a long way to go to finish this game.