Ocean Floor

(Windows updates, amirite?)
 

Dear, Diary,

"This is the Kingdom of Saronia, a sprawling metropolis that consists of four separate districts. Each town has its own little eccentricities, but they're, ultimately, definitely a part of the same place. For some reason, most of the shops are locked up. More annoyingly, the famous, or so I'm told, library is also sealed. I'll leave out what makes each location unique and skip to the good bits. There's a tower in this city called Dragon Spire. It's infested with mobs, and we wanted to get some aggression out for being shot down. We climbed it and found a good assortment of items for a dragoon, one of the jobs the Water Crystal granted us. I've always thought Dragoons was rad, so I put down my fancy hat and picked up a spear. Triton, wanting to try out as many tank type classes as he could, also choose one. We had an extra spear, so even Xander joined us. Not wanting to be left out, Drew learned how to wield a weapon. The spears, themselves, though, were lacking. The only open weapons shop in the towns sells something better, so we sold the spoils and bought new stuff.

The last of the four towns contains a pretty large tavern. Inside, we heard a commotion between a regal looking kid and three gold knights. The kid was about to get roughed up, but Xander came to his rescue. Drew thinks he took a liking to him because he's smaller than he is. Xander dragged us into a fight, but it was a piece of cake. Afterwards, the kid introduced himself as Prince Alus, the heir to Sarona. His dad exiled him a while back, and he's been trying to get through to him ever since. The knights guarding the castle, though, are on order not to let him return. For some reason, we think we can make this reunion work, so we head to the castle, still dressed as noble dragoons.

Surprisingly, the knights let us in! They inform us the King is busy until tomorrow, but they let us stay the night there. All five of us find a place to sleep, but something unfortunate happened. In the middle of the night, King Gorn came down to us. We were all asleep, though, I woke up when I heard Gorn scream, and I saw Alus kneeling beside his dad. Gorn had stabbed himself. Nearby was Gilgameth, the advisor of the King, who was upset. He said that his plan was for Alus to die, not Gorn, but it didn't matter as he'd finish the job. Not wanting any more tragedy, we lept into battle.

And then we lept out of battle, and then we lept back into battle. It's because we're dragoons, remember? It's kinda what we do. Our falling spear attack did pretty well. But with only four of us, it was hard to heal. Even if I stayed a healer, I'd just leave me toast and unable to restore my party members in the air. Garuda died in a few rounds, so I'm told, but he took me out with him. Why did Triton and I have to switch places for this fight! Party slot three remains unbeaten!

A dying Gorn informed us that Gilgameth placed a spell on him and has been controlling him ever since. It was Gilgameth who called for the civil war just to destabilize the nation. Gilgameth even brainwashed Gorn to kill his own son, hence the dagger, but seeing his only child managed to bring some sense back to him. Some soldiers, later on, tell us the giant bird often spoke about the power of darkness. Gorn's last words were to his son, "I love you." I don't fully understand the Crystals, multiple worlds, or the power of darkness, but anything that causes this needs to be stopped.

Alus immediately took over as King and stabilized the nation. Soldiers on both sides accepted him and were happy to no longer need to kill their brothers. All of the shops were reopened, as was the library. But there was something new in the castle. As an apology for destroying the Enterprise, the four engineers gave us the Nautilus, a super fast ship capable of flying headlong into the strongest of high winds. Winds like we'd find on the southern continent of Dalv. This was what the old dream lady told us about. We stopped by the library for a moment and learned some things about Noah, airships, and that 1000 years ago, four adventurers from another universe went on the same journey as we are now. Also, I think Cid's from here...

There wasn't much new to be reached with this new airship, so we made our way to the south. We easily bypassed the winds on this thing and came to Doga's Manor. After being ambushed by moogles, Doga appeared before us. He's a friend of our dream old lady, which sounds weird to write, and fills us in on what's going on. Long ago, the great sage, Noah, died. He left his three followers with his power: Unei, the dream lady, got the power of the Dream World, Doga got domain over magic the third guy, Xande, became mortal. I'd feel screwed if I were him. And, wouldn't you know it, he got mad. The power to die sounds dumb! Not wanting to die, Xande froze time ten years ago, which explains the state of the planet when we got down here. I can kinda understand, honestly. Regardless, Doga asks us to follow him to the Circle, whatever that is. We walk through a moogle infested mansion, which is adorable, and reach a rat's hole. We Mini ourselves and walk through a small garden. Doga knows Flare. Why he didn't come here before because Flare makes short work of everything. When we finally reach The Circle, Doga prays, and the Nautilus can now become a submarine. He floats off into space to find the entrance to Eureka, home of the strongest weapons in the world, while he teleports us out. He says our goal is to find Noah's Lute in the Temple of Time. It's the only thing that can wake up Unei!

But, look, we're adventurers. Who knows what's under the sea? A lot of good stuff, for starters. To the east of Doga's house is a cave. Inside are monsters that can easily taken care of with a strong knight and a monk. There's also some really good loot! Like, hot mama, an Aegis Shield! Some really rad weapons for people who aren't me, as well! Not only that, but under Sarona is another cave! It's a long tube filled with slightly stronger mobs but with slightly worse rewards. We had to Teleport out before we got the end, so remind me to return soon. We did get me an Aegis Shield down there.

South of the western continent is a bay. In that bay is the Temple of Time. It's a pretty place that our new weapons wreak havoc in. I think Drew can punch the air and kill fragile things in a two mile radius of us now. Watch out for the behemoths, though. Those guys are terrifying! A lot of the rooms are locked, but Xander went back to being a thief and bypassed them with ease. It's mostly new armor, but anything diamond is nice! We also got a new sword for me! The Defender is a bit large, but since it can be used to cast Protect (on one person), we decided I should get it. The moogles at Doga's sell new magic I can use. They're really tiring to cast, though... With little to nothing standing in our way, we got the Lute. Disembodied fingers started playing it, and it sounds pretty good. I think it's making Xander want to try being a bard again!

We went to Unei's Cave as fast as we could and placed the auto playing Lute near her. It began to strum until she woke up. After she stretched her legs, we finally spoke in person. Formal introductions weren't important because she knows everything. Being able to navigate the Dream World will do that, I suppose. She next told us we should head to the Cave of the Ancients. The Invincible is there, and it's so big and powerful that we can fly over any mountain with it!

Is now a bad time to tell everyone I get motion sick?"


Drew hit for max damage tonight, but I have a good chunk of the game still to go. Oh boy!