Water Crystal

But first, let's find a dragon.

Northeast of this village we'll never see again is the North Mountain. It's straightforward, and the only offshoots are at the start. Both lead to treasure. From here, we walk around, in, and up a mountain. At one point, you'll see flowers blooming in front of us. They look nice but don't walk over them. They will poison the entire team and damage you. I only had one antidote, but I did buy the spell. The encounter rate is super high, so take advantage of the save point. Just after that is the first round of plot here. Lenna sees her dad's helmet and goes to pick it up. As she does, an arrow flies from stage left. It hits our Princess, poisoning her and knocking her out. A gap between her and the rest of the tram forms as Magissa tells us her evil plan. It's something about making money off the dragon flowers in the area, I think. They're said to have incredible healing properties. But with Lenna in hand, she's gonna be eviler. Faris, though, cares about Lenna and leaps over the gap. She falls off the ledge but, out of stubborn tenancy, climbs back up. She throws Bartz a rope, and he and Galuf make their way across. Lenna wakes up on time for us to save her, and a boss fight starts.

Magissa can debuff us, but she isn't very strong. Her biggest trick is to summon Forza, who'll tank for her. When this happens, just ignore him. Magissa will try to support Forza, so keep focusing on her. A lone Forza is a simple task to take out. Don't be too hasty, though, as a blue mage can learn Aero from her. Wind magic is rare in FF, so it's worth getting this spell early. I didn't...
 
If you want to, return to the save point, but that's the worst you'll see up here. Just up another cliff is Tycoon's dragon. It's wounded, but Lenna knows how to heal him. Behind (one) two poison flower plants is a dragon's flower. Lenna walks through the poison to pick it up, nearly killing her in the process. Maybe Magissa's arrow did more than I thought? But the flower works, and the dragon is fine. It walks over to the sick Lenna...and...breathes on her. ...? Lenna wakes up, and we can now take to the skies. The background of this scene might be the best graphics on the SNES. Shout out to whoever drew the mountain valley

The dragon can't fly over tall mountains, but we can reach Tule, Tycoon, and the water crystal at Walz. Get new gear, and remember to heal up. A girl is playing with a Garula in the southeast, and the magic shop has summons for sale. Hmm... After, speak to the King. Lenna asks him to cease the water crystal machine, but the King says that would vastly disrupt his kingdom. Spoken like a true capitalist! The sky turns red as another chocolate chip cookie crashes near the water tower. The castle panics, and everyone goes to the crystal.

A knight tells us King Walz went up to confront Garula, a usually peaceful monster. This is a fun dungeon. There's only one path up, but there are a few secret paths on the ivy. You can also steal gear from the y burns and knights. Don't bother with the Richardmages, though. Mythril weaponry is always fun, but it's also needed... Walz is further up, but he's not well. He tells us an unknown knight is currently fighting Garula. Above Walz is the fight in question. The knight is losing, so we have to do it all.

Garula is not fun. It counters every attack, which I didn't realize until late into the fight. And the lower its HP, the more often it can counter. Its attacks also increase as time goes on and strikes twice in one turn. Its worst attack can sap the target's HP, making them bleed out fast. Halfway through, I ended up with only Bartz attacking while Lenna healed every turn. I should have brought some magic...

Despite our win, the crystal still breaks. The knight who failed gets up and asks "Lord Galuf" to protect the rest of the crystals as he dies. Did this man know Galuf? We have no time to ponder because the tower starts to shake. It's coming down. Collect the crystal fragments, and the door to the top opens up. But there was another crystal we couldn't get to! We did pick up berserker, time mage, summoner, spell blade, and red mage. The party is at the top, but we go down with the entire peninsula. As we're about the drown, Hydra shows up. He lives! Hydra proceeds to eat us and takes us back to shore. Lenna almost drifted off, but Faris managed to get her. Sadly, the reunion is short lived. Hydra used the last of his strength to save us, and he returns back to the ocean. Faris sees his best friend die again. This felt a bit ham fisted to me.

Back in Walz, the wounded King is in bed recuperating. He tells us about the fire crystal in Karmec and about a knight from there who is saying something about a meteor and teleportation. But I don't want to inspect it yet.

Tycoon doesn't have a leader at the moment. The chancellor, Chance..., wants Lenna to remain here to calm her people down. She is needed to save the world, so she can't stay to take the King's place yet. Chance agrees, but we spend the night here. Lenna can't sleep, so she goes to get air. She sees Faris outside, looking at her own pendant. Lenna calls Faris "sister," but Faris remains quiet and goes back to bed. There are a few treasures to be gotten before you leave. Apparently, Lenna is descended from ninjas and samurais. We also hear about Lenna's sister, Salsa, from the kitchen staff.

While in the area, how's Boko? We see his footprints leading into the pirate cave. When we reach their hideout, we overhear that a chocobo is resting in the barracks. Boko broke his leg and is being treated by a wizard. Lastly, I finished off the blue mage job. Or at least as far as I want to go. I still haven't learned any spells for it, so it's a bit of a waste to have. Galuf got it to level three and made it a secondary. He's now a red mage, and we'll look around the fire crystal...

...tomorrow!

Shiva kicked my ass.