Are we the baddies?

Day four:

Nothing happened. Merche followed a rumor about diamond rain, but it was just normal rain.


Day five:

The Roda Volcano is showing signs of an imminent eruption. Rather than send actual researchers to investigate, the castle asks randos like us to do it. Everything looks fine until a seam in time and space opens up. Marche is taken to another immaculate room, but there's no totem this time. Several smaller crystals appear, and we have to break them. This is a dumb fight. The crystals don't move, but they like to inflict charm from afar. So we'll have to deal with our own characters killing each other. There's no other way to cure charm except by violence. There's still no totem afterwards, but Marche figures out these guys represent each race in Ivalice, and this one represents the nu nou.

There's a side mission here to save Ritz and Shera, but it doesn't seem to lead to anything. Besides this, Kolingswood has an illegal lumbering operation. We have to stop that because the wood is magic. Speaking of magic, our opponents have a lot of it. The summoner is the scariest, so take care of her first. I had Montblanc use the moggle totem because I had issues.

The Salika Keep is next. The castle recently ended their investigation, so it's open to the public. Despite that, they're still here. Babus, the court mage, asks us why we're here, and Marche dumbly gets too specific with his vague reasoning about going home. Babus warns us that someone is harming the prince with their crystal hunting, and he assumes we're it. The goal is to kill a fragile black mage who runs into danger, so it's pretty easy. Babus teleports home.

We'll see him again at Nargai Cave. It's inhabited by ghosts who'll lead us to a familiar room if you've played Final Fantasy Tactics. This looks like the room we squared off against Marquis Elmdoor. And just like that battle, we're against the totem Adremalech. This is a very tough battle. Adrem usually uses a move that strikes in a line forward, doing massive fire damage. It was affected by the law, but three yellow cards didn't slow him down. The three distractions are massive tanks with AoE damage, so this isn't fun. My mages got one shot, so there's not much healing or reviving. I only had a single human fighter alive at the end. We'll return to the cave with another totem and a deeper understanding of the universe thread. Meeting us there is Babus, still upset. He asks for more details about our universe, but he doesn't believe us. Suddenly, an aftershock seam appears, which changes him slightly. Another warp thing happens where we see Mewt crying. His memories from the real world are returning, and he's remembered his mom is dead. Babus quickly goes home to keep the kid company. Marche begins to realize that going home will mean destroying his friend's dreams.

Away in Baguba Port is Montblanc's brother, Nono. Marche connects with him because he reminds him of Doned. Nono's problem is someone stole his airship. Marche offers to retrieve it, but there's a problem. The thief took it to the jagds, an area without laws. Marche is thrilled to be out of that nonsense, but our moogle friend tells us this is dangerous. You see, several of my party members have fallen in battle, but none have died. This is because of the judges and laws. Our party members can actually die in the jagds and be removed from our party. But I'll worry about that

... tomorrow!

I've stopped doing so many missions. It's because there are fewer of them now, but I keep failing the dispatch missions... Also, the way enemy levels ate calculated is awful. They're based on tour entire clan's average level, but I'm only using six. So the other twenty nerds are at level four, making my opponents weaker. I think, at least. This was a problem I remember from twenty years ago, too.