Burning down the house.

Chocolate chip warp technology is my favorite part of Final Fantasy V.

The party inspects the fallen Walz meteor and finds a way inside it. At the bottom is a strange fractal. As we step on it, Bartz disappears. Everyone looks at each other, and Lenna goes in first, followed by Faris. Galuf feels like he's been here and wishes he could have spoken to that unknown soldier while having an existential crisis. He comes to and follows the others. Back on the world map, I see we're on the otherside of the mountains from Tule. How do trade and news travel in this world if sci-fi tech is the only way to leave the north sea?

It's a long walk to Karnak, but at least the gil rewards are good. It's mostly dogs, but you might run into a zuu. Eventually, we'll reach the town of Karnak. It's on fire, but the citizens seem thrilled with it. Some of them tell us how cool Cid is for making the machines that empower the crystals. There's also a werewolf on the loose... But I'm more interested in new gear. It's good stuff, and it's so cheap. As I try to participate in the art of capitalism, we're suddenly stopped. A soldier enters the building and calls us monsters. We were seen exiting the meteor, which has gotten the kingdom in a tussle. We're hauled off to jail without defending ourselves.

We bumble around a bit before a man in the next cell blasts his way in. This is Cid, and he used the last of his gunpowder just to find another cell. The party finds this funny. Despite being on the otherside of an impassable mountain range, Cid leaned that the wind and water crystals broke. He tried to stop Queen Karnak from breaking the fire crystal, but she threw him in jail instead. A soldier enters and tries to take Cid to the Fire Ship. It's acting up... Cid wants us freed as well, but the soldier says no. Cid refuses, causing the soldier to acquiesce. We can explore the castle, but it's casually on fire. The werewolf attacks the castle as we leave, but the knights scare him off with gunpowder. Before going to the Fire Ship, upgrade your gear. It's gonna be a while...

The Fire Ship is home to the fire crystal. It's a thing of technological wonder and a maze we have to get through. It's filled with alternate paths to treasure, air ducts, and several conveyor belt puzzles. Does everyone have to walk through air ducts to reach the crystal? At one point, you'll come to an area with three elevators on the north and four ducts to the south. The ducts are backtracks, but there's treasure on the way. Most of it is great for a thief. I got a bad vibe from the second one, though. I also got confused how the elevators worked... After a lever controlled moving floor puzzle, we reach an empty room with Queen Karnak in it.

She states that "my time of revival is at hand." What a strange thing to say. The boss fight is against a sentient flame. I only had Galuf, my red mage, use Ice 2 the whole fight. Bartz and Faris did nothing. Liquid Flame counters everything, and it'll always hurt. After every round, it'll change form. The hand form is immune to ice, so you'll have to have Bartz attack then. It's a long and boring fight, but this is a safe way to do it.

The Queen will collapse and regain her senses. She'll ask us to protect the crystal behind her. It's fine, but the werewolf breaks his way in. He's peaceful and knows Galuf? Like the unknown knight before, though, we can't get any information out of him. Another soldier sneaks in behind us and ramps the power of the machine up. He says more stuff about a revival before a green magic aura surrounds him. The ducts around the crystal connect to the main base, but the werewolf tries to stop them. He urges us to flee before the ship and castle explode. Despite that, Lenna wants to help him. Sadly, the floor begins to break. Werewolf dies, and the crystal explodes. We check the damage before everything starts to crash.

We have ten minutes to get out of Karnak Castle. With the loss of the crystal, all the fire is gone, opening the way to a lot of treasure. Make as much use of the ten minutes as possible to find 10k gil, many elixirs, a ribbon, an elf mantle, a hunting knife, a thunder scroll, and the Esna magic spell. I also stole a mage masher from a wizard. Esna is right near the entrance, which is worth getting. The ribbon is on your way to the main foyer, and the elf mantle is on the left side. The hunting knife isn't worth it. It's also worth noting that you can learn Aero and Aero 2 from the Gigas' in the monster chests. Oh, yeah. Most of the treasure is well guarded... Make sure you have plenty of time left because there's a boss as we exit.

It starts as a normal fight against a commander and her three dogs. But, when she's alone, she reveals herself as the bounty hunter, Iron Claw. Iron Claw isn't too hard! He uses the blue mage spell Coom Claw to paralyze a target and rip their HP to a single digit. Fortunately, he's kinda slow and can only attack one person a round. I spammed Fire 2 while Lenna used Cure 2 on the whole party. Go hard and fast, and you can win. Just keep track of time. I had to do this whole thing twice because I killed him as the timer ran out. Had I only had five more seconds...

The castle explodes, taking the western wall with it. The Queen is alive but in a fugue state. Cid is on the ship, wishing he was never born. He blames himself for the destruction of the crystals and leaves. All the prices in the weapons and armor shop are three times the price now, and you can find a fire rod on the city ramparts. It seems Cid went to the Ancient Library to the west, so we'll go after him...

... tomorrow!

We also got three new jobs after the castle went up, geomancer, ninja, and beast master! I might go blue mage hunting tomorrow. Some good stuff is coming up.