The Plot Begins

The Village of Lann is on the otherside of the bandits' pass. The citizenry inform us that the Dragonmaster has taken residence on a swamp filled island in the middle of the bay. It sounds like an ignoble place to live but stay with me. The people keep telling us that he's outlawed fishing, and, if anyone approaches the island, he shoots them with a fireball. Definitely noble...

Head to the elder's house, and we'll see a meeting. The locals are mixed on what to do, but there's a woman in white ready to lead the charge against the Dragonmaster. She introduces herself as Jessica, a healer from the Shrine of Althena. She's a very energetic girl. She joins the team, and we go procure passage to the island. There's a boatman who's afraid to let us have his livelihood, but Jessica manages to convince him.

It's raining when we reach the swamp, and it's filled with various new palette swaps. Monster variety in Lunar is really bad. Watch out for the dark areas of the map as that can harm you. It seems to be 1HP a second, so it's not too bad. There are several treasures that give you a strange effect. They can confuse you on the map, but you're just fine in combat. All it does is reverse your controls. It's strange, but I kinda dig it. After two screens, we'll reach a simple tent and a man calling himself Dragonmaster. He sincerely thinks he's got the legendary title, but Nall asks him an easy question to confirm it. "What are the colors of the legendary dragons?" DM, whose name I didn't bother to remember, starts strong but goes off in crazy colors at the end. He quickly summons his frog, which according to Chrono Cross, is a perfectly fine dragon.

This isn't a hard fight. All the Dragonmaster has is physical attacks, and we have two healers. Nash should use Bolt, and Alex should use Bladestorm. DM will usually use his basic attack command, which can hit up to three times for a combined 60 damage. He usually hits multiple characters, though. Otherwise, he can perform a Splash attack, which hits an AoE radius. He lacks killing power with one healer, let alone two. After the battle, he'll be alive and tell us why he's done it. He just wanted to be superior to the people in the small town. That's pretty much it. He learned magic and found a giant frog that let itself be commanded, and the rest is history. He runs off with the promise that he'll turn his life around.

Return to Lann, and we'll see that Phacia has come seeking the fabled Dragonmaster as well. She congratulates us on our job and returns to the Shine. Jessica asks who that is, and we tell her she's her boss. Jessica has no idea who this is, so she's going to do some digging. Se bids us farewell, wishes her drunk boyfriend could be more like us, and goes looking for who Phacia is. Despite us going the same way, we have to return to Vale. Before we leave, we learn the singer, who was near the Goddess Statue, has been kidnapped.
 
When we get to Vale, we have to follow Nash, who's prepared our meeting with Ghaleon. Nash has filled him in, but he's left out the part with Jessica. They didn't get along, so the arrogant mage pretended she didn't exist. Ghaleon thanks us but wants us to reiterate it to Lemia, as well. He goes to set up that meeting with Nash. Nash tells us not to see Mia, but we totally ignore him because he sucks. Mia prepares tea for us, and we fill her in on what happened. She's thrilled to hear such tails from her peers but then gets sad. We're all about the same age, but she's experienced very little of her life. Nash rushes in to let us know the meeting in the Grand Hall is ready. We finally met the last of the living four heros, but it's a rather abrupt ending. After we inform her of what we did, Lamia's tone changes. She accuses us of trying to overthrow the Mage Guild and puts us in prison. Luna is taken away, but Nall and Mia can get away. Mia later comes down to free us from our prison, and a strange woman takes our attention. She's muttering about some stuff because a Memory Wipe Cap has been placed on her head. The strange prisoner is wearing the same robes as Lamia and even has the same hairstyle and color... Mia's brought a Goddess' Mirror, which she plans to use. Mia believes something is possessing her mother.

Anyway, the four of us wonder where Luna could be. The only possible location is the Star Chamber. Lamia, Ghaleon, Phacia, and the fortune teller, Royce, all went there to do something with Luna. The door to the Star Chamber is near the prison, so Mia breaks the seal. She wouldn't normally do such things, but hearing us has given her the push she's needed to be a force of change. As we try to climb, we're stopped by a strange force and teleported outside. Mia forgot to mention that this is a place for mages only, and physical weapons can't be brought in. We'll have to unequip all of our weapons if we wish to proceed. The tower starts off being mostly straightforward, but it ends up splitting into three paths. The left one takes us nowhere, while the right one takes us to treasure, and the middle portion is to the top. Despite not having weapons, Mia and Nash can use magic, and Alex can still use his Firestrike. Mobs are pretty easy to AoE, so make use of the full restore on level up.

When we reach the top, Luna is singing Lamia, Ghaleon, Phacia, and Royce a song, and they're asking if "she's the one." We bust in to break it up, and Lamia and Mia have a chat about family. Mia's being scolded, and the woman we found in the prison starts to act. Mia uses the Mirror, but nothing happens. Suddenly, the prisoner steps forward, and the Mask she had on breaks to reveal that she's also Lamia! Gee, who could have seen this coming. Despite us being small and worthless, all the women in the room give up the charade. They transform into scantly clad members of the Vile Tribe, a group of people banished by Althena long ago. They tell us they'll get their revenge and teleport away. As a gift, they leave four gargoyles behind.

I think this is a boss fight? The gargoyles don't do any damage, so do what you will. I was still unarmed and low on MP, but there's no threat. Even Luna and Mia took 0 HP from their attacks. Re all return to Grand Hall to prepare for what's next. Firstly, Galeon apologizes for being so easy to manipulate. He then says we need more information, and the best place to start is to ask the dragons. We only know where Quark is, so we'll start there. Lamia is still loopy from the Mask, so Mia will have to be acting Guild Master in her steed, and Nash stays behind to assist. Everyone else will travel back to Burg.

We spend the night at Mel's and meet with Jessica. She acts like we've never met because she doesn't want her dad to know she's an adventurer. He sees so much of her mother in her, and Jessica doesn't want to break Mel's heart by acting more like him. But it turns out Phacia put a spell on everyone to get the head priestess job, but Jess skipped that day. We stay in her room that night, Luna has the same nightmare she's had before, and we set out to Burg. While on the boat, Galeon asks Alex why he's becoming a Dragonmaster. Alex says he wants to protect everyone. In response, Galeon asks if he'd be willing to sacrifice the one he loves the most to save everyone. Alex can't answer that, and Galeon says he understands. Alex isn't DM yet, so he doesn't need to have an answer. But it's something he should think about.

Saith is as it is, and we have to walk through the Ghido Forest. I tried to go to the cave, but Nall wanted to check in on Burg. We saw our parents and had a nice gathering at the spring. Alex and Luna simply reminisced, but Galeon said something comparing himself to Eifel, the masked man from the start of the game. If you go to Dyne's Alter, he gives us an idea that the two of them didn't get along...

White Dragon Cave is also the same as it's been. We walk to Quark, and he and the Hero talk for a brief moment. It's brief because Galeon immediately attacks him. Galeon reveals himself to be the Magic Emperor and traps Quark in some magic field before absorbing the dragon's power. Next, he kidnaps Luna because "she's the one the Goddess gave her power to." He tries to kill Alex and Nall, and the screen goes black.

We wake up in our bed at home. Our dad informs us that the man who "saved" us in the forest also saved us here. Laika is waiting for us near Dyne's Monument. Our savior is cagey, but he hands us something called Dragon's Wings. He asks us what we're gonna do, and I respond, "save Luna." He's glad, as is Nall. Nall was always going to try to save his friend, so Alex is happy he won't have to save both of them. Laika sets off to whatever he was doing, and I test out the Dragon Wings. They're a teleportation device that lets us return to any place we've already been! Fast travel this early is rad! But I assume we're heading back to the Mage Guild, which I'll do...

...tomorrow!

Who is Laika? What's the deal with Galeon? Why didn't we take off the cap from the real Lemia? Some of those questions are good, but mental gymnastics for stupid things are stupid.