Dragonmaster

We have to find the home of our new friends Tempest and Fresca. I don't know why, though...

To do that, we need to venture through the Lost Woods. At various points, the party talks about what we're in. We sense magic in the area, and there's a campfire, presumably, set up by the citizens of Pao. As we keep digging through the deep forest, we start to notice that we keep coming back to the campfire. Eventually, we come to a dead end, I decide we're lost, and the party wants to spend the night at the camp. During the night, some of our party members have a soliloquy while everyone else sleeps. Jessica starts talking to Kyle, but he passes out. Nash thinks about Mia and all the hardships they've gone through. And then all the stuff we still have to do...

In the morning, we're woken by two men. We all prepare for a fight, but then they notice Alex is wearing the symbol of Pao, the Black Dragon Necklace, that Tempest gave him. All is well, and the men offer to show up the path to Pao. This forest is magically inclined, and the only way to get through it is to say an incantation at a certain fork in the road. They do this for us, so don't worry about it. They open the way, and we can head into the city on the plains, Pao. Several townsfolk give us a clue that there's a sickness going on. Kyle ignores it and calls it a cold, so this didn't age well. Some suggest they can hear a song playing in the distance and think that might impetus for this suffering. When we meet up with Tempest in his tent, we begin to succumb to this illness. Mia collapses first, and then Jessica follows. Frasca enters and informs us that the song is coming from the Black Dragon Cave and passes out. After we've set our female party members to bed, Tempest runs out on his own some to get revenge and end this plague. We need the Elder's permission, as opposed to the chief, so head to her hut. She'll quickly give us the go ahead, so follow Tempest.

My goodness, new mobs! We're up against cursed floating skulls, types of lizards, and a new mage, the Corona Knight. Why does this word keep showing up all the time?! None of these guys are tough, and this entire zone is a battle of attrition. Without a healer or good mage, it's gonna be a bit of a slog. To make things worse, there are several trapped treasure chests. Nothing attacks or gives us a status ailment, but a purple mist will take our MP. I don't recall seeing traps like this, but I'm all for it. It's possibly debilitating, but it's pretty easy to manage. It's minor things like this that can give bland dungeons some oomph. We catch up with Tempest not too far in. He's glad we're here since even he's having some trouble. He'll join the party and is helpful enough, I guess. From here, this place becomes the hardest maze in the game. For starters, head north from where Tempest joins. It takes us to a dead end with treasure. From here, you're on your own because I had no idea where I was going.

But, eventually, we'll reach an area where a voice calls out to us. The spirit of the Black Dragon appears and tells us he's befallen the same fate as his brethren. His physical body still exists but is being controlled by Ghaleon. But he senses Alex has the power to save the world, so he rewards him with the Dragon Armor. He also tells us the Trial of the Black Dragon is to find the purity in his heart. He leaves us, and we continue on until we reach his sanctum. The body of the Black Dragon is there, but so is Luna?!

She's singing a song that's causing Pao to suffer. We all call out to her, but she doesn't respond. Ghaleon enters and tells us that Luna is the key to ruling the world, so he's brainwashed her. To prove that Luna is out of our hands, he has her sing another song. This song paralyzes us, leaving us defenseless for an attack by the Black Dragon. After a few turns, it ends. Tempest is upset because he wanted to kill Luna and be done with it, but there's no way we were going to let him kill our sister/girlfriend. Despite being beaten, Alex stands up and tries to reach Luna again. He starts to play his ocarina, which temporarily breaks the spell. Luna starts to come too, and this causes the armor set Alex is wearing to begin to shine. In an anime cutscene, everything he's wearing activates, and his sprite changes. Alex is now an official Dragonmaster. Despite such an event, Ghaleon still holds all the power, and he attacks us with the Black Dragon again.

But this time, we're functional. Start the game with your special arts, regain, and spam Blade Storm. Jessica has no attack magic, so make sure she heals every few turns. As every other boss, Black Dragon has no killing power. We'll win in time, but it doesn't mean much. Ghaleon is impressed we can beat a legendary beast, but he can reapply his spell to Luna, who then summons a new Black Dragon, somehow. The two of them climb onto it and leave. We didn't get Luna back, but we have a Dragonmater and might have saved Pao. We return to the village to see. Nash seems unhappy.

We enter Tempest's house and see all the girls preparing to go in after us. With our return, though, they don't need to, but it's nice to see such great friends. We inform them of what happened, but Laika enters because of course he does. He congratulates us on achieving our goal, but we don't feel too heroic. But we're not done fighting! Our party is back together, and we plan to head to the Vile Tribe's headquarters in the Frontier. We need to see if Myght is done with our airship. Before leaving, speak to Tempest again. He'll grant us Alex's best sword (I think), an heirloom for the Tribal Chief he doesn't use because he's an archer.

Mught isn't quite done, but he will be tomorrow. He tells us he can sleep here if we don't touch anything and the team breaks up. Jessica and Kyle almost tell the other they love each one another, but Kyle screws it up. You'd think Jessica would take the lead on this? Nash and Mia are discussing how hard the journey has been, but Mia is totally down for it. If she's to the next Guild Master, she should be involved in saving the world like her mother was. Nash, though, is uncertain. In the morning, Myght will wake us up because the airship is done. We'll all talk again, but Nash will step aside before we lift off. He reiterates that he cares for Mia and wishes that she didn't have to join us on this. He then "gimps" out (as Jessica will call it later) and summons lighting, targeting the airship. Royce, his old friend, will teleport in and tell him he did the right thing. We'll all argue, and Jessica and Kyle will want to kill Nash, but Royce will teleport Nash away. Nash only broke the engine, but that's no easy fix. Someone thinks we can use the balloon's engine, and we learn that the inventor (whose name I forgot) was once an apprentice of Myght. We last knew it was in was Raza, so he head there. The barkeeper tells us it's in the bazaar, but no one wants to buy it. We'll get it back for free, to head back to Myght, and he'll install it overnight.

Laika shows up again to ask why we're still here, and the usual explanation happens. The team will break up again as they did last night, and we'll be ready in the morning. Myght and Laika see us off, and Laika, as we're leaving, asks us to fix what he failed to do... Who really is Laika!?

We fly over the barren wasteland of the Frontier, which looks a lot like the moon. We approach a large tower, but there's a forcefield in the crater. Jessica lands the airship, and we have to find a tunnel to get inside. The Talon mines are the only thing we can access, and it's another maze. The first part is more of a town, and we can speak to many of the Vile Tribe members. They all think we're ugly monsters. Most of them, though, are slaves used for mining ore that Ghaleon needs. They seem cool with it, but they really wish things were better for them. They can't rest, get drunk, and I doubt they're getting paid. Many share their hatred for both Althena and the Ghaleon. Good luck navigating this part. The second section of the Mines is a normal dungeon filled with new mobs. The only ones worth talking about are the pink knights. They're immune to all physical attacks, so only Mia can harm them. I'm sure Nash could but screw him. Eventually, we'll come to a chamber filled with peaceful miners. Nothing happens, but as we enter the next room, we'll hear a collapse behind us. Kyle thinks we should keep going and leave our enemies to their own devices, but everyone else wants to see if they can help. I think the game will make you do it, so just go along with it. We'll see one of the miners burying under fallen rocks. No one else him out of fear of their lives, so we dig him out. As we do, pink nights show up to yell at us. We were instructed to never stop working no matter what. Failure to listen causes them to attack. They're not special, so good luck, Mia. After the fight, we'll contuse through the maze. Phacia teleports in and says something I didn't expect her to say.

Near the exit, we'll reach a graveyard with a Goddess Statue in it. Even out here, in hostile territory, the Vile Tribe still needs the Goddess' magic to live. We'll also see the guy we saved waiting here. He gives us some helpful warnings and goes back to work. A little deeper on, the room grows dark. When the light comes back on, Mia and Jessica will be trapped. Xenobia has taken our mages hostage and promises to kill them unless Kyle and Alex fight. Reluctantly, they do so. However, they both do 0 damage. This annoys Xenobia, but then Kyle suggests simply killing Jessica. He'd die for Mia, but the beast girl is annoying and hot headed. This caused Jessica to get mad, and then I got confused. Xenobia freed Jessica and Mia, but I didn't understand why. I think she expected Jessica to fight Kyle, but why did she release Mia? Either way, it turns out that lover's quarrel was an act. With all of us free, we take our sights on Xenobia. Before we can do anything, she attacks us with Shadow.

Shadow is largely resistant to magic, so Mia's best contribution is buffing Alex and Kyle's strength. Jessica will need to heal a lot because Shadow does a lot of AoE damage and can hit four people in one turn with its basic attacks. Our knights are doing nearly 1000 damage, and Jessica can outheal everything, so this is pretty easy. Return to the Statue to heal, and head out into the crater. We can go to the tower, Ruld, but I went to a strange place. It's a town, but it's filled with monsters who are stuck in cocoons. Someone suggests that they need to stay in there their whole life or else they'll die. Althena'a magic is what gives life to everything, and there just isn't enough of it out here. I'm starting to understand why the Vile Tribe hates Althena; this is torture... In the back of the area, we'll meet Phacia. She won't attack us, but she'll actually offer us aid. We're skeptical at first, but she says she's different from her sisters. She thinks the Vile Tribe should ask for forgiveness. He can choose not to trust her, but I might as well. She'll give us the password to the tower and leave. Should we trust her? We'll find out...

...tomorrow!

I never liked Nash, so I hope he stays away from my party again. Give me literally anyone else. I also went around and told my old friends and family I became a Dragonmaster. Doing so will have Dad teach us that Laika brought Luna to them fifteen years ago. The two bonded quickly, and even then, our parents knew their kids would bang. Whoops, ruined the game again...