Time moves on

Far to the east of Castle Reinhardt is the bandit's cave. Inside, we see Papa Papas fighting mobs, but we can't reach him yet. Abel and Boro have to traverse the maze of a place to get to him. Along the way, we stumble upon a makeshift breakroom. Inside, we find three men talking about what the plan was. The Queen of Reinhardt paid off these bandits to kidnap Henry, the son of the first queen, so that her son, Dale, could become the heir. The rest of the cave is a string of fights that, while not hard, are constant. I'm starting to think Dragon Quest V isn't a hard game, but rather it's a game of attrition. Games made in '92 were no joke, man. I can see why Square made FFIV easy (despite me not finding it easy).

Eventually, we make it to Papas, and the game has an auto-battle for his victory. He then tells us how proud he is that we've grown so strong and joins the party as we continue deeper in. Shortly after, we find Prince Henry in the cells in the back. He's scared and wants to leave, so that's what we do. Unfortunately, we can't just walk out. We're jumped by three blobs, and Papas stays back to fight them and buy time for our escape. The three children find a boat and use that to circumvent a part of the dungeon. As we reach the exit, a man named Gema is waiting. We try to fight off Gema, who laughs at us every other turn, but Abel and Boro can't do anything. We quickly fall. But this is one of those necessary deaths...

Papas catches up to us and tries his hand. First at the weak secondaries of Gema, who are dispatched with ease, and then at Gema himself. Or, at least, that was the hope. Gema brings his scythe to Abel's neck and tells Gema to not fight back or else he'll kill us. The next too-long-of-a-timeframe has an auto-battle where the adds slowly whittle away Papas' HP. As he lies there dying, he informs his son that his mother is still alive somewhere. Gema and friends pick up Abel and Henry and carry them off while Boro is allowed to go free.

Ten years pass as the two boys become teens, stuck in slavery building a temple for their captors. Abel grows strong while Henry mellows out and stops being a brat. Someone teaches Able how to read, which was nice of them. After spending a day "working," a new female slave is brought into camp. We meet her when she's being beaten by two guards. Being the only people who still have hope in their eyes, Abel and Henry rush in. Well, Abel does. We have no items, so I just cast Gust a few times. It did more damage than punching them and hit both at the same time. We manage to succeed, but more guards storm in. The two of us are thrown into deeper jail to await further punishment. But that punishment never comes. One of the guards, Joshua, is the brother of the beaten slave girl, Maria. He frees us, but not the other guy chained up, and opens up a path for us, and Maria, to escape from. He gives us our ten-year-old equipment, as well. The canal leads to the ocean, where we float for a while until coming to land.

Abel is passed out but comes-to in an abbey. The Nun nursing Abel equipped the gear he had when he was six, and we set off to find Henry and Maria. Maria, a priestess before she became a slave, stays at the abbey, while Henry joins Abel on his quest to find his mom. The convent sees us off, and we head north. Our first stop is a town called Olivegarden. We learn about recruitable monsters and find a casino in the middle of town. I hate gambling, so I'm staying away. We also get some rumors of what's to come. North of Oliveharden is the path to Castle Reinhardt. The way is blocked by a guard, so we have to leave. But we know where we are, so I head home.

Santa Rosa is destroyed. A few of the remaining villagers say this was an act by Reinhardt. The official reports have it as retaliation for Papas kidnapping Henry. We can access more areas of the cave, but I lost more money than I gained when I went in there, so I'll come back once Henry doesn't suck. I also go to Alcapa to see how Bianca is. Her family left seven years ago, so there's nothing for us now. Sleep at the inn, though, to advance the plot. Henry is curious about what's going on in his homeland and wants to check it out. Return to the guard blocking our path, and Henry will know who he is. It's a man named Tom, who Henry tormented while they were kids. Knowing Henry lives brings an odd peace to Tom, who lets us through. He informs us that, while Dale is the king, it is the Empress who has all the power. The Empress, of course, being the woman who staged the kidnapping of Henry ten years ago...

Returning to the castle is a dead end. The real entrance is to take the boat beside the castle and enter the secret passage beneath the drawbridge. We then enter the catacombs, which eventually run into the jails. One of the cells is filled with a woman claiming to be the Empress, so what's going on? Entering the castle and heading to the throne room, we see Dale sitting next to the Chancellor. Henry talks to his little half-brother in a way only those two would understand and gets a personnel audience with the king. Dale is still a good kid and offers his help in fixing things. He tells us of a book in the storage room and a mirror that does something and gives us the key. The key also unlocks a door to three must have treasures on the first floor. Just [ower through the painful floor before venturing into storage. Read the book and take the stairwell down. Down there is a teleporter that takes us somewhere. Nearby is a tower that holds the mirror we seek. I forget how I learned this, but the abbey that saved us has the key, and it's just north of where we are. Return there, and Maria will become the key for us. Something about pure maiden souls, I think. With Maria apart of the team, I called it a night.

Henry sucks as a character. He dies a lot, and I don't have the funds to equip either character properly. I had some real struggles tonight. I took Boro for granted! Also, I like Pokemon, but I don't want to play Pokemon in Dragon Quest, so I may be ignoring the wagon for a while.