Bartz' plot relevance.

I did some grinding, so here are my new jobs!
Reina: Summoner
Bartz: Dragoon
Galuf: Spellblade
Faris: Ninja

The gates of Castle Val are locked, so we need to be let out. Galuf's soldiers are reluctant to sacrifice their King and let monsters in, but they let us through. They lock it afterwards, so I don't know if we can come back. As we leave, another Abductor attacks.

North of the castle is the tiny village of Kelb. The only inhabitants ate three sheep, but the back gate is locked. We can only go inside one house, and it's an ambush. Three werewolves surround us as a fourth comes to command them. Galuf seems to know him, but the wolf thinks we're X-Death's minions and pushes Galuf aside. He then challenges Bartz to a duel. Faris and Reina try to get involved, but Bartz asks them to step aside. The werewolf, Kelga, tells us he's attacking with his special move, Pine Attack. Kelga moves so fast around the room that we see afterimages while he occasionally attacks Bartz. But Bartz concentrates and manages to see the real Kelga, who blasts into the next room.

We skip ahead with the old dog in bed. Kelga is one of the warriors Galuf sealed X-Death with. He compliments Bartz for being able to counter Pine Attack, and Bartz says he's seen it before. His dad, Dorgan, used it. This name shocks the Dawn Warriors because Dorgan was another X-D sealer. He was against sealing X-D on a foreign planet and almost let him get away as the Dawn Warriors defeated him. But he went along with it, staying on the planet to protect the crystals as a way to alleviate his guilt. When Bartz says his dad died of an illness three years ago, everyone is sad. But we have to save a dragon. Kelga lets us through, and the town comes to life. We can make use of the shops and bring a strange wizard in a well a frog for 10000 gil.

Drakenvale is straightforward. We'll fight a lot of easy mobs, especially with Faris duel wielding twin lances. She can attack four times a round, doing about 2000 damage. Two undead dinosaurs roam the area. More interesting, there's a strange rock man who occasionally shows up to kill Galuf before running away. Eventually, we'll have the option to save him. This is Golem, and dinosaurs don't like him. If we defeat them without harming Golem, we can use him as a summon. It's very good! In the same area, inspect one of the fossils for a stupid armor. Find the secret pitfall in the cave just after this.

We'll find a dragon flower growing in a field. As Faris and Reina pick it up, it transforms into a monster. This is why all the dragons are extinct!

The Dragon Flower doesn't actually harm you. Instead, it'll summon bulbs to do the dirty work. The damage is negligible, but they infect various status effects, muddle being the most painful. Doom Claw works on DF, but I didn't want to cheese it. Have a monk to kick every turn, one shotting the bulbs. If the bulbs never act, this is an easy ten ABP. We'll pick up a pure flower and leave. Use the time mage's teleport to make this easier.

Back at Val, Galuf has to use the secret entrance to get home. There's a regal cutlass if you go the other way. As we pass Krille, we see she's very sick. A sage named Gill is trying to talk to her, asking us to visit him, but we need to save our dragon. It's afraid of the grass because a mutant version killed its race. In response, Reina eats some of it to prove it's safe. It works, and the dragon eats the rest of the plant, which is very toxic to humans! Reina collapses again. Luckily, Krille comes onto the balcony with a cure, so everything is fine. We'll see Gill...

... tomorrow!

There's a lot of deus ex nonsense in FFV that kinda kills the impact of a lot of scenes. Hydra being revived to save us, Reina almost dying twice to the same thing, and a few more things in the future. But at least Bartz is relevant to the story now. He's the only non royal on the team, by the way.