Shipwrecked in Mysidia (FFIV, Day 48)

It was a day like any other, and the calm seas did not betray the monster that lurked beneath. #foreshadowing

True to the Fabul King's word, a ship awaited the party to take them to Baron. SQL's wife was there to see us off and we boarded to calm seas and a peaceful journey across the waves. Except that this is early in the Final Fantasy series and they're pretty fond of absolutely wrecking any and all forms of transportation.



Bon Voyage!

It started out innocently enough, with a slow meandering trek across the world map. Things went south quickly when the ship encountered a random whirlpool in its path though. There were a few clueless moments before all hell broke loose.

This is highly irregular. This needs more fiber in it's diet.

The deck hands and captain were all in a tizzy and started yelling something about a lord of the sea, and it wasn't even time to release the Kraken. No this guy is something bigger. Much bigger- you might even say it was a Leviathan! Um, because it was. It was Leviathan. That sounded more clever in my head. Oh well, moving on.

Up from the depths, 30 stories high,
breathing fire, his head in the sky!
Godzilla!... no wait.

So of course Leviathan is bad news for any puny ships that happen to be nearby, and the subsequent shakeup sent poor Ruby overboard. SQL gallantly dove in after her and disappeared. Meanwhile VBasic suffered the awful fate of... falling down. I was then treated to an unexpected 3D rendered cut scene where the ship swirled into the sea, dragged down by the monster. 

Seriously... Hasn't she been through enough?

An undetermined amount of time later, we join COBOL groaning on the beach as he comes to his senses, apparently the only survivor of the ship's run in with the sea beast.

Life's a beach

If you recall early in the game, COBOL and his Red Wings decimated a town called Mysidia to steal their crystal. Wouldn't you know, a twist of fate has washed our hero up on a shore whose closest civilization is, you guessed it, Mysidia. Understandably, they don't seem to like him there.

It's an interesting experience walking into Mysidia and experiencing various manifestations of the mages' hatred for COBOL. One mage you speak to turns you into a toad. The bartender in the pub poisons your drink. The dancing girl puts you to sleep and pulls a Circe on you - meaning you wake up as a pig.

A visit to the town elder is the only way to advance here, and upon learning that COBOL has repented, he sends him to the aptly named Mt. Ordeals to become a Paladin. That's where the child genius mages Palom and Porum come in to assist. Except in my play through they'll be CPlus+ and CSharp.

Candy mountain!

The trio journeys to the mountain and much like with Mt. Hobs, there is a barrier - only instead of ice, this one is fire. CPlus+ casts blizzard and then gets snarky about it, and CSharp proceeds to smack him over the head for it. Ah, siblings...

Csharp is basically Hermione.

Meanwhile...

meanwhile...

define 'interesting'

We're transported to Golbez's place, for a cut scene. Perl is tied up and guarded by Python. Golbez says some pretty villainy things and then decides that he can't allow COBOL to reach the top of Mt Ordeals. Because he's a troll like that.

Scarmo, baby! Let's rap about a job I gots for yas!

So now we get to meet the first of the four fiends. This one, (I'm not going to struggle to type his name. It's right there already.) is the fiend of earth and commands undead. Which could be a bit of a problem for our dark blade wielding hero. And poor Perl can't do anything about it.

Her schedule had her a little tied up at the time.
*Ba Dum Tish!*

When the scene ends, we're back with COBOL, CPlus+ and CSharp and continue the trek up the mountain. Here we run into a familiar face. It's Pascal! He's here looking for the ultimate magic, and agrees to join the party to help in the mission.

Pascal still want smash.

Shortly thereafter, I had to stop, and saved my progress at the save point right near the top of the mountain. We'll pick up next time and fight through the legion of undead to reach the top and get COBOL some fancy new powers.