Streams

We went to Shadis because that's where the sand boats are. But they're, apparently, way out of our tax bracket. But Cray had one, and Nina's royalty. But, oh well. We're humble. So the next plan is made by Ursula. Just as a sandflier passes through the gate, she and Scias jump onto it. We hear cries of "pirates" and "brigands" from the owners, so everyone else gives chase.

It's Marlok! Nina and Cray humbly beg for aid in reaching the Empire again, but Marlok can't spare the time. But he does help us in his own way. He hands us a bond, an IOU, which we can return to the flier seller. Later on, we (the player) see a scene where Marlok explains his actions. A good merchant knows where history is made, and he expects good things from us. When we're at the top, he'll come to collect our debt. We now have a boat! To reach the gateway again, we have to go through a new minigame that's actually pretty fun! We have to navigate the sandflier through a small maze with hills and narrow canyons. We can ramp off the hill to skip areas or reach new entrances, which I'll get to in a moment. Before leaving, though, speak to the kid on top of the boat merchant's house. He'll teach us how to fast travel between locations. We'll have to walk back over them on the map, but it's probably worth it!

The party lands at a familiar site: the teleporter gate we went through before. But it's broken... Our battle with Rasso's summon knocked it out of commission. Ursula is shocked and annoyed that we caused this, but there's another way to get around...

Before doing so, I went back to where we saw that strange woman and her shamisen. There's a kobold fella there now, and it's the mud dragon. Ryu is now stronger. I also spent time digging in the sands where we found the flier parts before. I was looking for two iron parts because the Sword of Kings blacksmith can make armor for Ershin. Three irons make the mithril rig, which is their strongest armor in terms of pure defense. There are more specialized stuff to make, but the efficiency in getting a tank was just too easy to pass up.

To reach the new area, we'll talk to a thief/merchant just before our boat. He'll tell us about Shikk. There's another boat race maze to get there, but we'll reach the destination in time. Our new friend can walk ahead as we make camp, and we should return to Kyojin. There's a different map to get back, and there's an unconnected area at the bottom. There's a hill we can jump off to reach it, and it takes us to another dragon. The Grass Dragon is a jet engine. Why is the Grass Dragon in the desert?

To reach Shikk, we need to pass through Mt. Gigas. There's no real puzzle here, but the gondolas and stuck camera are the closest we get. There's a dragon crystal here, as well.

There's a Chkpnt in our way, but it's closed. Ludia is causing trouble for us again, and Cray is a wanted man. He can't pass through the gate, and he's attacked by guards. To get past this, he needs to push the carts. Leave the one closest to the inn where it is, but push the one next to it into the guards. Shove one across from it into where it was and then climb to the roof. Physics be damned, our party trampolines across and over the guards, and we can reach Shikk.

But stop at the question mark and turn off in the area. This takes us to the Tree Dragon.

Shikk is important because it's the only seaport in the game! Everything else is mud. There's a ship here, and we'll need to make use of it. The captain is in the bar, but he hates us. He refuses to take us because we lack the Blessing of the Sea God. So we need to find that! The area of Fane is to the north, and I suspect the fake god is there. Which we'll do...

...tomorrow!

Does the time mean anything? The kid who taught us fast travel seemed to indicate the minigames power up Ryu's dragon breath, but how?