Lali-ho!

Let's start with our, attempted, daily update on Namingway. We can find him in Agart, blocking a doorway to an empty house. He's stopped being a ladies' man and is only dating one girl now. The both of them have developed a taste for pudding, but there's one, in particular, he wants us to get for them: Rainbow Pudding. Rainbow Pudding is a painfully rare drop from various flans throughout the game. Last time I played, I got one from the Yellow Jellies in the Antlin's Nest, but it took twelve hours and 900 kills (where I gained 10 levels). I don't remember exactly what I killed, though. Regardless, you can skip ahead in the story and return to Namingway's quest, which is what I'll do. I'll, probably, be back later to finish his sidequest, but don't be surprised if I don't write about him for a while.

Elsewhere in Agart, we can meet an astronomer studying the moons. One is the moon, but the other seems to have life on it. Not only that, but it's glowing red. We can gaze into this telescope to see what he means, and it kinda looks red, yeah. All of the villagers seem to believe that they're descended from dwarves. In the middle of the town is a well that is the cornerstone of the place. As we get close, use the Magma Stone Kain gave us. It'll begin to glow red and get hot. Cid asks to see it, and it begins to burn his band. In his game of hot potatrock, he accidentally drops it down the well. The earth starts to shake, and we see the mountain range to the north explode in spectacular fashion! No one in the village seems phased.

Back on the world map and Enterprise, we can sail (is sail the right word) into the hole formed by the explosion. We descend into the lava filled chasm called the Underworld. As our ship is made of wood, we can only sail over the ground. There's only one path to follow, so the game does for us. As the team explores, we see the Red Wings in the distance. Tank on the group open fire and, rather than go around or wait, Cid flies us directly into the middle of a battle. As you'd expect, the Enterprise begins to take damage from both sides. Couple that with the overwhelming heat down here, and she begins to fall from the air. Cid manages to land, but the Enterprise won't be flying anytime soon. We're hoofing it from here.

Fortunately, a castle is nearby to the south. As we approach, we see dwarven guards, who invite us in with a welcoming "Lali-ho!". They have an understanding that all people are different and won't judge us based on one. Somehow, they know of Golbez... When we reach the King, Giott, we ask him questions about the crystal and Golbez. He informs us that Golbez has two of the Underworld crystals, but the one he (Giott)) has is safe. Yang then senses someone is eavesdropping. Someone has breached the walls and is in the crystal room. Giott seems totally fine with us poking around his crystal, so they let us in. Inside are dolls: talking, dancing, and fighting dolls.
 
Round one has us against three Calcas and three Brinnas. I don't know if it's possible to finish the fight here, but after I killed two Calcas, the third exploded on me. Despite the boy dolls being dead, they all form into one mega toy, Calcabrinna! Both versions have counter attacks, so be prepared to heal.
Round two is against a single doll, but it's not easier. Cast Slow on it to lower its DPS. Its counters are going to be enough of an issue, so make their normal moves less often. All of the damage comes from physical attacks, but I'm not sure Protect was useful. CB has two status effects that odes quite often. Hold, which is just a stun, and Glance, a charm spell. Yang seemed very susceptible to this move, which never ended well for the teammate he attacked. I've read you can cast Hold on them yourself for free damage.

After the battle, the Calca will regret that they could not take the crystal for Golbez, but they've opened the way for him. And on that cue, Golbez teleports in. As a reward for surviving the last encounter, Golbez lets us try to kill him. We only have one turn, but you can't win. Before our second round of attacks starts, Golbez will use Biting Cold to paralyze the party. He will next summon Shadow Dragon. SD will use a move that causes instant death on a target. Yang, Kain, and Rosa go down, but something happens before he killed Cecil. The camera will cut to a Myst Dragon that looks like the same dragon Cecil and Kain killed long ago. Its attack kills the Shadow Dragon and does max damage to Golbez. Cecil will be cured of his status ailment, and a woman with green hair will join the party.

Rydia has come back!

She can't use White Magic, but she knows more summons now. From here, the real battle against Golbez starts. I think he only uses magic attacks, so Shells up. I revived the rest of the team and used Cecil to cast Libra. Libra allows us to see the target's weaknesses, which we need to exploit to damage Golbez. At the start of the battle, he uses Barrier Shift that changes his elemental weakness. Rydia has a full assortment of elemental damage (except water) to exploit that. I went with Summon magic, and he died in two turns. In hindsight, maybe I should have kept Yang dead for maximum EXP gains.

Golbez falls before us and is, presumed, dead. Everyone is excited to see Rydia again and wonders how she grew up so fast. Leviathan brought her to the Land of Summons, where time flows differently. She grew ~ten years old and learned more summons magic than just Chocobo. Cecil still feels remorse about what he did and wonders why she'd help us. Rydia says the Queen of Summons informed her that there are pressing matters she must attend to. Golbez managed to meet the ire of the gods, it seems. As the party leaves the crystal room, they forget the body of Golbez there. As you'd expect, he claims that death can never take him, gets up, and teleports away...with the crystal...

Giott tells everyone that there's only one more crystal left, but it's behind a powerful barrier in the Sealed Cavern, so even Golbez can't reach it. He then comes up with a good idea. Golbez has been living in the Tower of Babel. Legend has it that that tower will open the path to the moon when all eight crystals are gathered. Most likely, all of the crystals are there. If Golbez is away, perhaps we can steal back the crystals? Cid leaves the party to oversee the reconstruction of the Enterprise. Afterwards, he'll return to the surface to refit her to withstand the Underworld's temperatures. Giott lets us have free reign of the castle, which I make use of. I upgrade gear, explore the Developer's Room, and make my way to the back exit of the keep. The dwarves are sure of themselves, but they're not stupid or reckless. Walking to the tower can be an adventure as the mobs down here and powerful and frequent. As we approach our destination, we see three tanks shooting at the Tower of Babel. These are the diversions that we'll use to sneak in. But I'll do that...

...tomorrow.

The Tower of Babel is long and not fun. It was so bad that it's the only location I didn't get 100% map completion five years ago. I'm gonna do it this time, so let's hope I get something to type tomorrow that isn't just rage!