The flying cliff.

Last night, we were given the task of finding two rare and ancient stones to power up Valeria’s EMMA Engine. What’s an EMMA Engine? No clue! Regardless, the first place I went to tonight was the Raline Observatory.

What were they observing? I imagine it would be stars, but I didn't see any star watching instruments. What we did see were sentient lizards. After we hear a scream in the first room, the party considers if this is a trap and is worth leaving. On the off chance it isn’t, they reluctantly proceed further in. We see two lizardmen, literally, being stomped on by a giant mucus guy from those Mucen X commercials. After tugging on our heartstrings, we jump in. Like most fights, Undines offers no counter to us. As his name would imply, he’s weak to lightning,

Once felled, we meet the funny lizard men, Liz and Ard. Liz speaks in overly flowery poetic metaphors, and Ard can only say his name. They’re fun at first, but they get grading fast. To advance in the dungeon, we deal with their eccentrics to switch levels, open doors, and activate switches. It’s a pretty long dungeon that doesn’t have many battles to distract me, so I hated it. At the bottom of it all, we find the Geranium that we were looking for. And then the twist! Liz and Ard were looking for it, as well, to create Liz’ new monster! Since we saved them at the entrance from his other creation-run-amuck, Liz lets us keep it. It’s nice to see him noble. And then the new twist! Liz and Ard work for Odessa. Another boss fight happens, but we’re just fine. Liz poisons Ard, for some reason, which helps us.

Back out of the observatory, we take the other path in the Life Reflector and end up in more badlands. This planet has a strange climate. We walk around for a while until we come to the town of Holst. It’s a mining town that mines the stuff we’re looking for. If we go down now, we’re stopped by four boulders and can go no deeper in. Return to the town, talk to the people, and we learn a mad bomber visited recently. He left some of his bombs in the inn, so we go pick them up. Brad has his second tool that destroys rocks. Use them to get down into the dungeon. The gimmick here is there are a lot of ambush fights. The most common one contains a monster called a leprechaun. They’re blue, for some reason. The thing to watch out for is they have a move that can make the whole party berserk/confused. It wears off in a turn or two but can leave your party a bit weak at the end. They're not fond of fire, so exploit that if you can. Use the bombs to turn on the drill, use a lot to blow up the bookshelf, use four to activate the switches, and reach the Aguelite at the bottom. There are no bosses down here, so leave and return to the Chateau.

Valeria and Merievl will begin work on the EMMA Engine, and we’re given time off. Ashley, of course, heads home to talk to Marina. Alas, as he enters the walls, he sees the boys being chased by full grown men. Ashley chases them off, and we cut to Odessa in their ship above the town. Valeria calls us, telling us an air battle is about to commence, and we should return! We do so, just in time to see the Chateau turn into a giant airship! It is hideous. It's a giant rock with a house on top of it. Aesthetics aside, it flies us over Meria, and we do battle with Alphael, which is, unsurprising, easy to kill. It’s weak to Break.

Back on the ground, the boys wonder why the men were trying to kidnap them again. Ashley and crew show up and say it’s because Tim has magical powers. His ability to use Mediums, the stone his mom gave him, is indicative of that. This whole thing feels like something that just pops into the story. We saw it in the Life Reflector but never discussed it. Did I miss a scene? How did we know the men were after Tim, especially at this moment?

Valeria invites Tim into ARMS to talk to the Guardians, another new McGuffin, which I’ll do tomorrow!  There's a scene where the other boys have stowed away on the airship, as support!

I spent the next while flying the Chateau around the world. This is an enormous planet! There are more biomes than I’ve seen thus far and what to go exploring. The airship has limited landing spots, so I can only find two right now. One is near the city of Baskar, our destination tomorrow, and the other is in the middle of nowhere. Exploring the Wind Tiger Cavern, with Lillia lighting timed scones, rewards us with a new Guard/Medium that allowed us to steal. Fun stuff!

Tonight wasn’t the best of nights. Liz and Ard are annoying, Tim and the Guardians came from nowhere, and I’ve never longed for a hard mode in a game before tonight. I like my games on the easy side, but even I think this is too much. I wouldn’t mind if the story wasn’t so rushed.