A Whole New World (FFIII, Day 29)

Instead of immediately re-attempting the Molten Cave, I started my adventure last night by sailing to Gysahl Village. If I was going to spend time grinding, I was determined to make it somewhat constructive. After that, I sailed back to the dwarf cave island and readied for round two.

I think one of my big problems with the first attempt had to do with how little healing I had left by the time I reached the boss. This time, I decided I'd run it twice. My first run was solely to collect all the treasure. Then, I teleported out, ran back to the inn, rested and bought more potions, and then went right back in.The dungeon is actually pretty small once you know which way to go, especially if you're no longer worried about treasure.

Nya Nya Nya!

I pretty much ran a straight shot through, fleeing from most battles and spending as little time as possible standing in lava. There was the occasional battle that I couldn't flee from, but that's not something you worry too much about when you bring an Ice Staff to a fire dungeon.

This time Gutsco/Salamander didn't kill my party before they utterly destroyed him and took his stuff. The battle went so much better this time around! Honestly, in some cases, you don't even even need to level up to take the stress out of a boss fight. Sometimes all you need is a little  more luck with the random number generator.


Bless this mess

Shortly after I beat my own odds and failed at being a terrible player, we had another conversational crystal on our hands. The Fire Crystal gave us the obligatory inspiring speech and then reminded us that the fate of the entire world was in our hands. You know. No pressure or anything, right? Once the thing was done talking, I had several shiny new classes to choose from, so I wasted no time in trying things out. My first instinct was to change Lack Sidetable to a Knight, Hemnes Bookcase to a Scholar, and Po'Ang Chair to a Ranger. Ektorp Sofa stayed a Warrior for the time being. I ended up not being too happy with this arrangement.  By the time I was on my way back to the dwarves, I'd changed my mind a few times. Ektorp went from Warrior to Ranger before I decided to just make him a Red Mage. Po'Ang was switched to a Geomancer then back to White Mage, and ultimately I just started training her up as a Thief. 

Alas! I die! URR *dramatic pause* RRRRK!

Despite being bogged down in indecision, I headed back to the dwarves to return their stolen goods. They gave my party what turned out to be a pretty awesome reward. Once they opened their vault, I got quite a few new weapons and some sweet armor. This prompted some more indecision regarding class choices, but I'd had enough switching for the moment. I stocked up, rested, and got moving. I really didn't have much of an idea where I was headed but then a man at the exit of the Dwarves' cave decided to just die and progress the story. For once, I didn't even have to consult my walk-through.

 I did as the man requested and went to Tokkul to offer my assistance so the corrupted soldiers there wouldn't raze the village to the ground. Upon arrival though, my party was captured and promptly blacked out. Once I regained my senses, the four warriors of the light were in a strange looking  prison cell. As a side note, Lack Sidetable is an incredible detective. Look at his vast powers of observation. 

His superhero name will be... Captain Obvious!

It becomes apparent that we're inside the Final Fantasy equivalent of the Great Deku Tree. We're trapped because some guy named Hein decided to betray King Argus, and corrupted his soldiers and the magic tree with darkness. He even named the thing after himself as he's started calling it Castle Hein. I mean... wow. Dude has issues. Anyway, as with basically everything, it falls to the Warriors of the Light to fix things, so off I went sneaking out of the cell and navigating the tree dungeon.

"I have great style and an aggressive skin care regimen."

It was not fun. With everyone having new jobs, I struggled quite a bit. After a few battles that went horribly, I gave in and switched some jobs up again. I settled on having Ektorp as the Knight, and Lack and Po'Ang as Red Mages so they could still use the Fire and Ice Staffs that have been my saving grace up to this point. I would have changed Hemnes too, but I was under the impression that I needed the Scholar to defeat the boss. That turned out to be somewhat incorrect. With new classes, I reached Hein. I think I can safely say that Kefka inherited his flamboyant fashion sense - I'd bet they would have been BFFs.

The battle was rough at first, but I shrugged and started throwing damage dealing items at him. Once I did that, the battle was over in just a few rounds. With Hein defeated, and his corrupt influence ceased, everything about the situation quickly improved. First off the tree did something totally and completely shocking by starting to talk to the party. Imagine that! Inanimate objects talking in this game?! That never happens! Lack, in his infinite wisdom, was quick to point out this absurdity.

Don't Worry! Captain Obvious is on top of things!

I... Am... Groot...

At the end of it, the tree went back to the magic forest, and took a thousand year nap. At least it had the decency to drop off all the imprisoned townsfolk and royal guardsmen before it did so. I watched a short scene in the woods where the tree once again thanked the party and gave them another fang item, and I honestly can't remember which it was. I wanna say it was the Fang of Wind, but don't quote me on that. 

Young ones? Why not Yuengling? 

My next stop was Castle Argus where the King similarly thanked the party and gave us a a very important quest advancing item. It just so happens that this is the very thing we need for Cid to build us another airship. Which we'll definitely need so we can go to the surface world beyond the floating continent and dispel the darkness that covers it. Aha. So just as I suspected, the current world map was only a fraction of what I'm dealing with. Oddly enough, I wrote the storyline for a TableTop FFRPG game that my husband once ran. I must have been channeling this game somehow.

Thanks, but we don't really have time to read such an extensive collection of fantasy novels.

 

I took the Wheel of Time and hurried back to Canaan to give it to Cid.  He proceeded to fix up the ship and then lay some revelations on us about the world below the floating continent. The four main characters were actually from there, and were apparently the only survivors of an airship crash other than Cid. Cool. He in turn hurried off to make the Enterprise fly because let's be honest, that was something that desperately needed to happen.

Make it so.

Finally, it was time to sail off into the great blue yonder and descend to the surface world. It was a bit anticlimactic when I broke through the cloud of darkness, mainly because there's basically nothing there. Towards the east of the map, there were a few specks of islands so I headed towards those and stopped at the southern set first.

There was a temple with a protected crystal shard and a cave with a sealed door here, and since I couldn't do a thing in either, I tried the northern island. The only thing there was a wrecked ship. As soon as I boarded the ship though, I had to smile. Even though I am still quite unfamiliar with 3's story, I recognized Aria's theme immediately. You see, I'm an unapologetic fangirl when it comes to Final Fantasy music. I've known the song longer than I've known which game it came from. It's a good song, is all I'm saying.

This little Light of Mine...

Now poor Aria was in a bit of distress when we found her, and a worried old man was trying to take care of her. Luckily we were able to patch her up with a well timed Antidote, at which point she joined the party so we could all go retrieve the shard of the water crystal together. Having accomplished that fairly easily and without a single battle being fought, I proceeded to the cave that was north of the temple and  Aria once again helped out by taking us to the sealed door to the dungeon and praying until it opened. At this point I'm about to wander inside to see just how badly everything inside wants me dead. 

Lack Sidetable is impressed.