Magic City Aglis

My plan to knock-out all three of these dungeons in one night was derailed on account of them being long. Oh, dear.

As the party enters, they ponder the amount of magic needed to keep this place from drowning in the sea. I notice that it’s all very purple and alieny. The mobs down here are mostly blue, with the only difference being an orange minotaur. Many of them also like to use the Physical Attack Barrier spell that negates physical attacks. I could just off them with magic, but that’s wasteful, and I still need to grind Additions. I ended up getting Dart to his Master Addition, so there’s progress. Poor Miru is still waiting on her final learned one. In the meantime, I’m grinding Haschel and Kongol because I suck with Albert’s.

As we walk through the abundant teleport pods, we meet several quirky beings. They’re homunculi and run on the magical prowess of their master, Savan. They seem to know who Rose is, indicating Savan an ancient Wingly. They all have the odd/annoying tendency to say a part of their name when they talk. We carry through until we find Savan himself.

Savan has been down here, alone, creating the Ultimate Magic and a back-up to keep the Moon sealed. I’m already sick of hearing the phrase “Psychedelic Bomb, and Moot.” He almost gave up 7000 years ago until he met Rose, who inspired him to work harder. All that hard work will be fulfilled today. Moot is operational, helping LastKraken to protect one of the sigils sealing the Moon, the things Zieg is trying to destroy. And he only needs one more ingredient for the bomb. That ingredient is courage. To harvest that courage, he’s going to test us. Each party member goes into a separate pod and faces a trial from their past. There’s no combat and is only an answer the correct response thing.

Kongol faces against Dole, who says he’s abandoned his cause. Take the hit, and he remains absolute in defending his friends.
Miranda is questioned on who she fights for. Pick Theresa, and she remains unselfish.
Albert chooses between the world over his kingdom, beset by imaginary tribals from the east.
Miru needs to fight to “make amends” and overcome her past.
Haschel keeps the past in the past.
Rose has no choices but says she’s fighting for the future.
Dart must face the fact he may need to kill Shana to save the world. He’s the hero, so promise to save her no matter what.
After these scenes, the party comes back together and follows Savan to the bomb. If you answered all six correctly, you gain a multi-use attack magic item called the Psyche BombX. Otherwise, you get a one-time use attack item.

He then asks us to join him to see the Sigil and Moot. We follow through more telepads and come to the new Sigil, protected by LastKraken. As we prepare to settle down and wait for Zieg to attack, suddenly, LastKraken goes berserk. We hear the voice of Zieg, saying he’s possessed the octopus and intends to destroy the Sigil. Since we’re protecting that, we need to slay the noble beast.

He doesn’t really pose a threat. He lacks attack all spells, and his damage isn’t very good. In Dragoon form, they barely do 150 damage. He can summon adds, but they don't provide much help either. Apparently, Dragoons can crash the game on win, but I got lucky. Summon dragons, use the Psyche Bomb, see physical attacks are better, and hit him with stuff: that’s the go-to strat from now on.

After the battle, Moot begins to have a meltdown. The energy from our Dragoons caused it to malfunction. Savan does what he can but is unable to do anything. In order to save us, he teleports us out as the reactor blows. As we walk back through Aglis, we see the dying homunculi in their last moments. It’s really heartbreaking. We learn that these creatures have a mind of their own, complete with hopes and goals. One wanted to be friends with Miranda, and another just wanted to see the outside world. I’ve never been so close to tears over things I’ve spent so little time around.

We reach the entrance, but it’s blocked by water. The only way to go is through one last teleporter to the Law City Zenebatos. We take that are end up in a foggy/cloudy city far to the north. Albert is excited to see how other civilizations governed but knows there are more pressing matters. A robot flies at us and begins a warning clarion to the dead city, and a new, friendly, creature shows up. He’s a friend of Savan, who was contacted in his dying moments, and its name is Coolon. Coolon is our fast travel system. It’s limited, but so much better than walking.

We’ll tackle Zenebatos tomorrow.

Savan felt like this game's Balthazar, from Chrono Trigger. He’s an eccentric old man from an ancient civilization that has a fondness for magic, creation, and makes strange beings in his free time. I'm happily confused at my fondness for those homunculi. Why did they affect me so much despite finding them kinda annoying and ugly? Maybe I’m just a sucker for sacrifice and heartfelt farewells?