North northwest of Arcbolt is their in-process Northern Passage. Its purpose is to link Arcbolt to the North Village. The North Village has five people, so good on Arcbolt for caring about these three huts!
But first, we need to beat their monster problem. The first few floors are safe and filled with NPCs: workers and guards. Behind the wall of guards are two monsters just chillin'. They get upset when you approach and attack.
The key is to hope they don't use their teamwide magic ability at the same time. Barb won't gain HP when she levels, so I'm beginning to think about leaving her behind. Back-up characters still gain Class EXP, so it just makes sense. As for the battle at hand, defeat the tiger guy on the right. Two turns should do it, and the remaining guy lacks any real oomph. If you leave the dungeon, these guys respond, so let's get deep into the cave. The place can be short, and I suggest you make it through as quickly as possible. The stairway down to the second floor is in the northwest. The next stairwell is to the southwest. Lastly, go straight up. The paths are a bit windy and mazelike, but you should be able to navigate them. On the bottom floor, it may be worth examining one of the eggs for your imaginary bestiary, but otherwise, just get to business. We see the Blue Swordsman, who isn't Brast, who we saw carting the coffin as we entered Arcbolt Castle, stand before a dinosaur. He doesn't let us fight as a great action scene (for the SNES) takes place, where Terry easily defeats the upset mama lizard. He takes its corpse and returns to the castle while we walk out a loser, again. Hassan beat us, Terry beat us, Amos hates us; are we the hero? Anyway, the random encounters down here are gone, so explore and find the two chests I skipped over.
We return to the castle only to be told how great Terry is and for him to wave his new Thunder Sword in our face. Go back to the tunnel, and it's now open to the North Island. There are only a few small huts there but travel east and then south from them. We see the very odd sight of a staircase on the world map. Take those stairs, and you come to the other world. Travel around for a while, enter a cave that takes you under the mountain range, and we come to the desert city of Calcenda. The citizens will mention a great place called the Land of Happiness and the boat that takes people there every full moon. Some people wonder about loved ones who went, and others are more interested in staying here to fix the dried well. But wouldn't you know it, tonight is a full moon? Enter the church and leave, and it'll be dark. The "ship" to the Land of Happiness is rumored to be on the west peninsula. Something odd is defiantly there.
It's a small island that can be piloted like a boat. A few of the townsfolk are already onboard, being entertained by the crew. The bartender gives Rek a drink. And then another because underage drinking is looked well upon in this place. We go to sleep and are woken up later that night by something terrible.
Two blue monsters are kicking at us to get up. We comply, and they take us to the nearby castle. There we see an army of monsters worshiping a giant bird named Jamiras. He claims to be the next Mudo. The people we saw on the boat have been turned to stone and are behind us. We, however, are to be sacrificed! For some reason, they let us keep our equipment.
Jamiras occasionally acts twice. As long as he doesn't spam his teamwide breath attack, he isn't too bad. He's susceptible to Sap and Defense, so get his Defense to 0. Cast Increase a few times on your guys. Don't be afraid to have Hassan be the only attacker for a few rounds. Jamiras can do a lot of damage in a short time, so it's all about staying alive. Really, if this guy wasn't so fast, I'd call him easy.
When he dies, all the monsters will die (?) with him. The people we saw on the boat will be turned back to normal, and the souls of those who came here long ago will return to their old selves. We all return to the town, but we get to keep the boat. Interestingly, one of the saved citizenries will ask who will take the place of the monster who took the place of Mudo. That's deep, man. One of those we saved from Jamiras was the Medal King, but I can't find him yet. We can explore quite a lot on our ugly boat, but most of these places will end up with us getting our butt kicked. Instead, swap worlds and return to that sleeping guard in the south gate. It turns out his dream was one that got caught up in the Land of Happiness mess, and he's now awake. The gateway through is also opened, so let's explore the next kingdom.
We'll come to the village of Holcutta first. There's not much here, but everyone tells us about the rowdy Prince, Holse. The castle we're looking for is a bit to the west. Explore around a while and eventually talk to the King. He tells us that the heir to the throne is supposed to be baptized at age 15, which Holse currently is. Unfortunately, the path to the font is infested with monsters. Being the adventurous type, he asks us to take his kid down there. The chancellor goes to get the heir, who's gone missing! We now have to play hide-and-seek. In his room, an aide will tell us about how he (the aide) hid in a barrel once, impressing the kid. Checking the room of barrels, he's in there. We go to the King, he tells his son what's to happen, and Holse joins the party. Down the stairs we go, and Holse tricks us into letting him escape. We find him on the ledge outside the escape tunnels, and he joins proper. Our goal is to the south of Holcutta, but I'll do that...
...tomorrow!
Why do I feel so aimless right now? I want a big evil to slay, but all I've got now is busy work. I mean, I like killing monsters who deserve it, but why do I feel so empty. I'm walking around with no goal, which is what real world me has been doing for years, and I'm not into it.
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