Tales of Love and Stealth

Last night we reached Foan? Why? I dunno.

We go to see the King of Foan, Foan, who's staring into a mirror. But not just any mirror, a cursed mirror with a Princess trapped in it! After finding him, he asks if we know about the Mirror of Ra. Not only do we know of it, but we have it on our fifth party member I never use. He uses Ra on the cursed, and we see a demon behind the Princess trapped therein. Foan informs us of a legend about an evil magician who lived in a tall tower in the desert. The chancellor tells us to use Identify to open the door. However, the tower isn't there in this world. In its location is an old dude who also tells us about the tower. Switch worlds and heading to the place takes us to the Magician's Tower.

Floor One has us simply finding the correct stairwell up. It's the lower left one.
Floor Two has us walking on the outside of the tower. Don't fall off, or you have to start the climb again.
Floor Flour has us climbing a long staircase. There is no gimmick.
At the top of the tower is Miralgo, cooking some food. He's upset we're here but tells us why we trapped the Princess anyway. She said no to his marriage proposal. Female autonomy, am I right!? Anyway, we fight.

So, I've spent about two or so hours powerleveling my classes. By now, I'm on class three or four for my characters. Rek and Hassan are both fighters with access to a move called Swordline. This move attacks five times. The first hit is a strong, basic attack, and the other four are at half damage. The trick is, though, it's random who they hit. If there's only one target, though... Miralgo summons aid from time to time, but they're only slightly scarier than the average random encounter. I had Muriel casting Increase, and Barbara was relegated to utility. Miralgo wasn't affected by Sap, and he cast Bounce on himself, so I didn't try again. I had no problems with this guy but watch out for his teamwide magic attacks.

As he dies, he'll free Erica, and we should return to Foan. Foan is waiting for us, and we all head down to the mirror. He chants an incantation, and the cursed Princess is cursed no more. Because love is strange, he asks her to marry him, and they go do their King and Queen thing. Foan gives us a Watergate Key as thanks, which allows our ship access to the south sea.

I take my sweet time and explore around. I find a Style Shop I won't care to use and a few more locations, but I'll only talk about one right now. Far to the west is the fishing village of Pescani. The fishing sucks because monsters have taken everything. One villager even says the monsters are taking tribute. Most talk about Rob, who was injured one day at sea and now hides in the back of the cave in town. They think something is fishy, but I think he's back there to be one with nature, if ya get my drift. Talk to everyone, then talk to the Fishmonger. He'll say how he's sick of waiting and head for Rob's house. They'll have a talk, and then Fishy will leave. As we leave, Rob exits as well. Follow him like a ninja! This is a stealth mission, you see. Do not talk or walk in front of him and hide behind corners. It's actually pretty well done for a SNES game. If he catches you, you have to do this whole thing over again from Fishy's House. After he discreetly presses a button to open a secret cave, we can follow him in.
 
As we enter, we see Rob talking to a mermaid. The mermaid hides, and we have a conversation with Rob. Answer No and then Yes, I think, and we can advance. Rob doesn't want us telling others about the mermaid that saved his life, but he does want her to return to the rest of her people. The monsters that roam the seas would kill Denae, so she can't just go home. Return to your ship and enter the (world map) cave north of town. One of the squares will trigger a conversation between us and Rob, where we volunteer to take Denae home. Denae doesn't want to leave as that would make Rod sad, but he talks her into joining us. She gives him a kiss and says they'll meet again. Take Denae over to the Mermaid Reef north of San Marino. Most of the mermaids there will flee, but one will notice Denae. This is Dina. She'll be overjoyed her sister isn't dead and rewards us with the Mermaid's Harp. The Harp allows us to turn our ship into a submarine. It looks likes I'll be trying to avoid the bends...

...tomorrow!

During my travels, I found the castle of Gangerlo. It has a confusing history with Kings, Queens, and Empresses. Some are around, some are old, but there's one still hiding. One generation killed women, while the current one seems cool. There's also some evil mob boss. I don't know if he's a mob, but the name sounds Italian, so, ya know, racial stereotypes. After talking to a man in the church confessing his sins, he proceeds to the mob's HQ. He tries to discuss the release of one of the prisoners, which he's responsible for. Women haven't been jailed in years, so everyone calls him a loon. Return to his house, and he'll utter "Muri" in his sleep. In the castle is a dungeon that used to house women to be killed by a jealous Empress, who's still around. Someone mentions a girl who escaped with her flute... This didn't go anywhere, but Muriel is involved, so I wish it had. Give me some plot damn it!

Also, apparently, Iria and Gina died and have been reincarnated as kids. The translation team who worked on this kinda gave up a few days ago on tertiary and secondary dislodge, so I'm not sure what happened. I think I stumbled upon it online. All I got was cell numbers when I returned to Amuro. I also got the Shield of Sufida while I was nearby, so Rek has the best shield in the game already. Gonna help speedhacking through the rest of this mess.

I Don't Like Kids

So we need to get the kid baptized, but he doesn't want to be baptized. As someone who has been baptized and later wished he hadn't, why am I doing this? To show off the new jobs I'm using because I mastered round one!

We take young Holse down to the baptism cave...and he runs away. You'll find him back in town, not the castle, in the northwest house. Return to the cave, and we'll have to do deal with three trials.
Trial One has us killing ourselves. His entire shtick is casting Confuse on the whole party. Dancers, which Muriel is, seem immune to this spell, but her DPS isn't very high. I'd like to give a strategy here, but there isn't any. Make everyone a dancer, maybe? After the fight, Holse ran off again. He's still in the cave near the treasure chest on the first floor.
Trial Two tends to put party members to sleep. Sadly, he doesn't spam this and will actually hurt you. Treat this guy as a long random encounter. Holse will have ran off, again, and can be found just north of the stair we took to get to this floor, but down the staircase in the area.
Trial Three gets two attacks a turn, but one will always be Defense, which, ironically, lowers the entire team's defense. I had Rek and Hassan attack the whole time while Muriel and Barbara were casting Increase. Muriel and Rek healed from time to time, but I always had one character canceling out Three's Defense spell.

At the bottom of this cave is a priest. How did he get down here? Regardless, he tells Holse to stand under the waterfall for a while until he's been suitably baptized. There was no real need for him to even be here. A cold Holse asks to be taken home, which we do. A party is thrown in his honor, and he seems a lot more mature than he was before. As a reward, we get the Magic Key. Like the Thief's Key, it opens doors throughout the world. Specifically, red doors. One such door is to the southwest.

Behind the door is a well guarded by a mimic. Defeat the creature and go down the free well. As we have before, we'll have switched worlds. Travel east for a while, and we'll come to the town of Clear Veil. Clear Veil is known for its flying bed, but no one seems 100 percent sure it's real. Several people seem to be weirdly in love. Anyway, there's nothing here, so exit town, then head west until you find another out-of-place stairwell on the world map. Climb them and walk east again until you get to whatever world this is' Clear Veil. The citizens are morning the death of a ten-year-old boy named John. His parents are in the church trying to get something out of the priest and having an understandably rough time right now. Follow them back to the house in the north. In the first Clear Veil, this was locked but is open now. They'll discuss some stuff, and another man in the weapons shop will talk about the Badge of Courage and where to find the stone for it. It was something John really wanted, and his parents want to fulfill their kid's dream.

Far to the north of Clear Veil is the location for the rock, the Wall of Destiny. It's a sheer cliff! You can enter the safe room on the bottom, but everywhere else are random encounters. Climb on the various rock hold paths (I don't know rock climbing) to find chests. You should notice a random hole in the wall with no path to it. That's the place we're looking for. Fall from the path above it, hold up on the controller, and you'll latch to the outcropping just below the hole. Climb in, and you'll find the Golden Pickaxe. You can now clear several walls in the dungeon. Some will open areas to treasure, and others will take you to the top of the wall. At the top is a large rock. Use the pickaxe on it, and you'll get the Fragment of Courage, which can be turned in the badge. Return to Clear Veil and talk to the mourning mother. She'll turn the rock into the badge, and the dad will thank you by letting you spend the night there. For some macabre reason, he's letting you use his dead son's bed.

All four party members hop into the child's bed. At some point, the colors get strange, and the bed begins to lift up and rise from the floor. As we're warping about, we see the spirit of John hang out for a moment to thanks us. As a reward, he lets us use his flying bed. This functions like the Magic Carpet in DQV, except we can't deploy it wherever we want. In that sense, it's like a terrible airship.

I spend the next hour looking around the world, finding new towns, stairs/wells between worlds, and future dungeons. I made very little plot progress. To finish tonight, I found the castle of Foan. This is important for two reasons. 1.) The Princess is cursed, and 2.), the King has a waterway key. The waterway is keeping my boat from traveling out of the inner ocean on one of the worlds, so I'd very much like to open it.

But I'll do this tomorrow.

I'm getting bored. There's no plot, no depth, no nothing. What am I doing? Why do I care about finding another Rek? This part of the game is really falling apart with all the unconnected events. I'm beginning to reach Trials in the Sky levels of apathy. There's no casual pedophilia, so I probably won't be dropping DQVI, but when's something fun gonna happen?

The Northern Island of (not very) Happiness

North northwest of Arcbolt is their in-process Northern Passage. Its purpose is to link Arcbolt to the North Village. The North Village has five people, so good on Arcbolt for caring about these three huts!

But first, we need to beat their monster problem. The first few floors are safe and filled with NPCs: workers and guards. Behind the wall of guards are two monsters just chillin'. They get upset when you approach and attack.

The key is to hope they don't use their teamwide magic ability at the same time. Barb won't gain HP when she levels, so I'm beginning to think about leaving her behind. Back-up characters still gain Class EXP, so it just makes sense. As for the battle at hand, defeat the tiger guy on the right. Two turns should do it, and the remaining guy lacks any real oomph. If you leave the dungeon, these guys respond, so let's get deep into the cave. The place can be short, and I suggest you make it through as quickly as possible. The stairway down to the second floor is in the northwest. The next stairwell is to the southwest. Lastly, go straight up. The paths are a bit windy and mazelike, but you should be able to navigate them. On the bottom floor, it may be worth examining one of the eggs for your imaginary bestiary, but otherwise, just get to business. We see the Blue Swordsman, who isn't Brast, who we saw carting the coffin as we entered Arcbolt Castle, stand before a dinosaur. He doesn't let us fight as a great action scene (for the SNES) takes place, where Terry easily defeats the upset mama lizard. He takes its corpse and returns to the castle while we walk out a loser, again. Hassan beat us, Terry beat us, Amos hates us; are we the hero? Anyway, the random encounters down here are gone, so explore and find the two chests I skipped over.

We return to the castle only to be told how great Terry is and for him to wave his new Thunder Sword in our face. Go back to the tunnel, and it's now open to the North Island. There are only a few small huts there but travel east and then south from them. We see the very odd sight of a staircase on the world map. Take those stairs, and you come to the other world. Travel around for a while, enter a cave that takes you under the mountain range, and we come to the desert city of Calcenda. The citizens will mention a great place called the Land of Happiness and the boat that takes people there every full moon. Some people wonder about loved ones who went, and others are more interested in staying here to fix the dried well. But wouldn't you know it, tonight is a full moon? Enter the church and leave, and it'll be dark. The "ship" to the Land of Happiness is rumored to be on the west peninsula. Something odd is defiantly there.

It's a small island that can be piloted like a boat. A few of the townsfolk are already onboard, being entertained by the crew. The bartender gives Rek a drink. And then another because underage drinking is looked well upon in this place. We go to sleep and are woken up later that night by something terrible.

Two blue monsters are kicking at us to get up. We comply, and they take us to the nearby castle. There we see an army of monsters worshiping a giant bird named Jamiras. He claims to be the next Mudo. The people we saw on the boat have been turned to stone and are behind us. We, however, are to be sacrificed! For some reason, they let us keep our equipment.

Jamiras occasionally acts twice. As long as he doesn't spam his teamwide breath attack, he isn't too bad. He's susceptible to Sap and Defense, so get his Defense to 0. Cast Increase a few times on your guys. Don't be afraid to have Hassan be the only attacker for a few rounds. Jamiras can do a lot of damage in a short time, so it's all about staying alive. Really, if this guy wasn't so fast, I'd call him easy.

When he dies, all the monsters will die (?) with him. The people we saw on the boat will be turned back to normal, and the souls of those who came here long ago will return to their old selves. We all return to the town, but we get to keep the boat. Interestingly, one of the saved citizenries will ask who will take the place of the monster who took the place of Mudo. That's deep, man. One of those we saved from Jamiras was the Medal King, but I can't find him yet. We can explore quite a lot on our ugly boat, but most of these places will end up with us getting our butt kicked. Instead, swap worlds and return to that sleeping guard in the south gate. It turns out his dream was one that got caught up in the Land of Happiness mess, and he's now awake. The gateway through is also opened, so let's explore the next kingdom.

We'll come to the village of Holcutta first. There's not much here, but everyone tells us about the rowdy Prince, Holse. The castle we're looking for is a bit to the west. Explore around a while and eventually talk to the King. He tells us that the heir to the throne is supposed to be baptized at age 15, which Holse currently is. Unfortunately, the path to the font is infested with monsters. Being the adventurous type, he asks us to take his kid down there. The chancellor goes to get the heir, who's gone missing! We now have to play hide-and-seek. In his room, an aide will tell us about how he (the aide) hid in a barrel once, impressing the kid. Checking the room of barrels, he's in there. We go to the King, he tells his son what's to happen, and Holse joins the party. Down the stairs we go, and Holse tricks us into letting him escape. We find him on the ledge outside the escape tunnels, and he joins proper. Our goal is to the south of Holcutta, but I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Why do I feel so aimless right now? I want a big evil to slay, but all I've got now is busy work. I mean, I like killing monsters who deserve it, but why do I feel so empty. I'm walking around with no goal, which is what real world me has been doing for years, and I'm not into it.

Peace Time is Boring Time

So, I'll let ya in on a little secret. I didn't do anything today. I tried, but I had no idea where to go.

After finding the rebuilt Temple of Dharma, I got my characters new classes. Rek and Hassan are soldiers, Muriel and Chan are priests, and Barb is a wizard. A very, very fragile wizard. I know it's basic and boring, but it's early on. I'll throw in some diversity when they've mastered class one. After I left the Temple, though, I walked around aimlessly for two and half hours. Everyone kept telling me about the Temple. Even Grandmaz built up some special dinner, twice, to inform me about it. Because of that, I teleported from town to town.

In Lifecod, Tania is happy I'm home for a little bit, as is everyone else.
Shiena is extending the Bazzar to celebrate world peace.
Our Reidlock still has Sheba as the acting King, trying to make sure everything is still peaceful. She also threw Golad in jail despite him not doing anything in this world.
The citizens of Gent are healing people left and right.
San Marino's mayor has left the job, and the town is looking for a new leader. Joe is around but is too preoccupied with Sandy, I guess. Hassan does tell his parents that he's home, but his dad doesn't seem to care.
Gina and Iria are hanging out in the church basement, and I never checked the other Amaru.
Everything else I found tonight seems like it's important, but we won't know for sure until later.
South of other Reidlock is a gate, but the guard is sleeping and hid the key "to the north," The island north in his world is inaccessible.
North of San Marino is a mermaid reef, but they all hide when our ship approaches.
I did find something of interest but messed it all up.

North of Mudo's castle is the town of Monasterio. It's home to Amos, the local hero. Ever since he was bitten, he's turned into a monster every night. The townsfolk try to protect him, but I told him all about his ailment. I went to help him out by finding the Seed of Reasoning, but when I got back, he was gone. Who knows if I'll see him again, but don't tell him he's a monster if you want a sixth party member!

Out of places to go, I went looking for a guide. East of Monasterio is the castle of Arcbolt. They've been having some monster problems in their north cave and are looking for capable soldiers. We see a man pulling a coffin as we enter, so we talk to the guard. They let us in, but the next one challenges us to a fight.

Don't bring Barb in here. She has less than 50 HP, so is likely to just be one shot. Not only that, but Garcia seems to have a high crit chance. He can't handle Rek and Hassan being cured by Muriel, so it's a fairly simple fight.

Walk deeper into the castle and explore if you'd like. The next guards we have to beat up are just before the throne room. Scott and Holidy are a combination of what we just fought and that Biggs and Smok fight from Torukka. Beat up on Holuday, as he can defend Scott and is likely to die first regardless, so we're just gonna push things faster. Once again, poor Barb dies. We can now talk to the King of Arcbolt, who confirms the happenings. There's a monster in the northern cave, which seems to be an important project for the kingdom. The monster is incredibly strong and killed a whole squad who went to defeat it. The only survivor is the blue swordsman and captain of the guard, Brast. Brast will fight us to see if we're worthy of entering.

He can be a bit of a problem. He likes to spam teamwide physical attacks, so leave poor Barb out of this again. Fortunately, unlike the other guards, he is susceptible to Sap. Muri should keep casting Increase if need be, while Rek and Hassan wale on him. Muri didn't survive the battle for me, but Brast didn't do much damage to Hassan outside of his special moves.
After he loses, the King allows us to hunt the monster plaguing his kingdom. He gives us a blue coffin to hold the proof that we won, and we'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Man, I hope this is plot relevant. Most of tonight had me thinking happily-ever-after is a terrible game mechanic. A ray of light in tonight's waste of time was I got my first classes nearly halfway mastered. And I hope Amos didn't have a personality!

The Worst Battle Ever!

As we return to ...real Reidlock, we don't see The King, Queen, or Soldi. I'm also getting quite confused about what world we're in. Where did we begin? Where are we now? Am I the Muffin Man? Maybe I am a bowling ball dreaming I'm a plate of sashimi!?

Everyone is confused, so we wait around for a day. We get tired of waiting, so someone tells us to go find him. As we leave the castle, Barbara suggests that the King meant HIS castle in the other world. We follow up on her assumption and learn she's correct. But first, we get thrown in jail. The soldiers are dumb and think the King hates us, but the situation is quickly fixed, and I wonder what the point of it was, to begin with. The Queen still has no idea how she became King in our world, but we'll talk about that later. Everyone talks about the Dream World, where Rek started, and its connections to the real world. The King then tells us of how he came to be Mudo. He was sailing to the island where Mudo was, as even then, they were at war when a bright light shone above him. When he "woke up," he was Super Kami Guru in the seat where we beat him. The next thing he remembers is what we just did to him.

We all go outside, where the King continues to tell us that real Mudo is still out there and waiting to conquer the world. The only way to reach him is by ship, which the kingdom lacks now. However, far to the north is the village of Gent. They have a magic ship that the King requests. Before we leave, speak to some of the townsfolk, and they'll tell you General Tom was executed before Geban left town. Does this explain Soldi's disappearance? Heading to Gent takes us to another city with magical healing properties. Don't upgrade Barbara's equipment here! Head to the Elder's House, and he'll decline the King's request because there's no one around to captain the ship. As we go to leave, his grandson pops in and gets informed of who we are. Another flash of light appears above the boy, Chamoro, that tells him to travel with us. I like when gods have plans for their subjects and actively try to help them out. We all experience this, so it's an easy sell. Chamoro takes us to the boat dock, sealed with magic, and unlocks everything for us. The party then heads to an island in the bay to the south. Barbara stays on the ship, which is why I said not to equip her.
 
We see a beached ship nearby, but there's nothing there. Cross the poison fields and get ready for the lava floors because this dungeon is a doozy. I'd suggest finding a map because there's some good stuff in the chests soft locked behind lava. There are also a few mimics. If you need to leave, you can return to the ship south of Gent on the world map, so it's not a big deal. There are only two floors of lava, and the dungeon eventually gives way to a quiet cave. Keep heading north, and we come to something that looks familiar.

Remember the first scene of the game? We're back! The only difference is we're confused, and there's a priest here now. Chamoro really ruins the nostalgia vibe. Hassan scales down the rock cliffs, we walk up to a ledge, Muriel plays the ocarina, a dragon flies us to the depths of a castle, and we're in the same room as before. We can open a door we couldn't, which has some good stuff, but otherwise, same thing (featuring Chamoro).

Unlike before, we can now explore the entirety of Mudo's Castle. I kinda wish I didn't. There are plenty of treasures, a mid-boss, and EXP and gold, sure, but the boss, man... Feel free to follow the same path as you did before, but I explored around. There are several dragon statues you can fight, which are probably the easiest fights down here. One way leads us to the jail cells. There's something in one of the cells, but we can't interact. The other way takes us to a tea party with one of Mudo's commanders. He's not very hard. Everything is so draining, though. The mimics, the demon pots, the constant battles: I scream. Regardless of how you do it, you eventually find a statue of Hassan. Both figures begin to illuminate, and we see the two combine after our Hassan has a moment of philosophical inquiry. Now fused, Hassan knows everything that's happened. We HAVE been here before, and he IS the son of those two in San, not El, Marino. The dream world Hassan and the real one have merged! He also learns a new Skill called Spirit Fist that kinda sucks.
Keep on keeping on until we have another psyche-up moment before the door of Mudo's throne. We enter, and the same exact thing happens! We're tosses around and exploded, but this time, Rek has the Mirror of Ra. I'm so glad that McGuffin has more than one scene of relevancy. He falls to the floor of his house in LIfecod as he did when the game began proper, but Tania has the Mirror. She says she looks funny, and Rek looks into it. A flash of light engulfs them, and we're all transplanted back into Mudo's throne! A fight breaks out.

Round one, yes, round one, is tough. Mudo has two friends, which can be as deadly as he is. Defeat them as best you can because they hurt, Mudo will waste a turn summoning more, and they're fragile. One Berserk from Hassan can finish them off. On subsequent summons, they're grouped together in that strange battle form Dragon Quest does. As for Mudo himself, he likes to breathe fire. I had Hassan continue to use Berserk while Muriel and Chamoro healed. I should have used Chamoro's weapon, the Gent Cane, a lot since it heals. Sadly, I have in the sack... While not fun, he is doable. His second form, though...

He beat him, and he gets upset. The gloves come off, and I'm no longer having fun. Muriel and Chamoro are out of MP and can't heal. Rek only knows basic Heal, returning 30 HP, and isn't good enough. I can't buff myself, Mudo is immune to debuffs, and I hate this game! I saved scummed every turn that went well for me, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Maybe if they let us leave at some point in the dungeon, I wouldn't have done this, but nope! We're stuck here after TWO challenging dungeons. Mudo is alone but loves his debuffs. He can put a character to sleep and make several dizzy, making them more likely to miss their attacks. He's added an Ice Breath AND the ability to summon lightning to his repertoire! AND HE CAN ACT TWICE IN THE SAME TURN!!!! Like I said, no shame! I did what I needed to do. Have Hassan attack normally, with the Fire Claw equipped. If Muriel and Chamoro are out of MP, have them parry the whole fight. They're oddly good at tanking that way and more valuable than doing one damage. Rek should attack, but don't be afraid to use Heal when need me. Chamoro had just enough MP for five Healmores, so I tried to use them when necessary. Muriel got off one Upper, on Hassan, and went to defend. I tried to absorb the dizziness and save stated every turn when I had enough HP. After an hour of scumming, I somehow had everyone survive. I was willing to sacrifice the mages, but I'll take my win. I won't brag or be proud, but I will let everyone have their peace. Mudo wonder's how he could be beaten (by cheating) and explodes.

Everyone return to Reidlock, where the King thanks us for saving the world. He still wants to know where his son, his Rek, is, and he asks us to keep searching. I'm curious myself, so I take on the task. Gent allows us to use the boat, which means we have sea travel now. The only clue as to where to go now is the Temple of Dharma seems to have been restored. We travel to San Marino and walk to the Temple, but it's still destroyed. But what about the other world? Its rebuilt. I find the nearest preacher, save, and get ready to plan the whole reason I wanted to play Dragon Quest VI: the Job System. But what classes will I assign my team? Find out...

...tomorrow!

I want to swear so badly, but I also want to keep this blog suitable-ish for all ages. Instead of making old Mormon me weep, I'll just say that I really really really hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate this. And by this, I mean that fight, but I copy/pasted the wrong tense and don't care enough to fix it. Let's hope the game returns to its enjoyable self tomorrow.

Dream World?

We were halfway, hopefully, through finding the Mirror of Ra for the King of Reidlock. And then we came back to the town of Reidlock, but everything was different. Before, the King never slept, but here the King AND Queen are always sleeping. And the Prince is missing?

And to make things odder, Rek looks just like the Prince? Or at least with the correct clothing. Buy the Royal Clothes in the armor shop. They're pretty good, so you won't feel like you're wasting gold. A soldier will mention your resemblance and send you to the castle gate. The guard there will be pleased that the Prince has returned, as will the commander above him. Walk to where the King is, and we’ll see him asleep. General Tom, but not Soldi, will escort us. The Queen mutters something about a mirror, and her worst half is snoring. The acting ruler of Reidlock, Geben, will then enter the room and demand to know who we are. He sees through our "disguise" and asks us who our long dead sister is. I answered Tania, but that was the wrong answer. We’re immediately kicked out of the castle, and Tom has to suffer for allowing us in.

Out of anywhere to go, we keep heading east. Eventually, we run into the town of Amoru. The claim to fame of this isolated place is the water, which, if boiled, can cure any disease. The inn is full, and the church is inaccessible, but otherwise, nothing is here. On the first take, I thought I had spoken to everyone, and nothing advanced. I opted to get lost and walk around the world. Returning to Lifecod, our home, we talk to Tanis, who is doing well. She says she had a dream that she and Rek lived together but weren’t siblings. Everyone else in town congratulates us on becoming a soldier. Judy, not Julie, says she's given up on Rand and is in love with Rek. She asks him to marry her. The Bazaar is nearing its end, so stock on up on Medical Herbs while you can. And then I remember that first town I went to when I first became translucent. I went back to ??? and found those creepy thieves had kidnapped the mayor’s daughter, Eliza. They took her to the well to the north and are demanding a 5000 gold ransom. The mayor can’t pay it, but I head up anyway to see if I can do anything. The party pretends to be emissaries from the mayor and wants to trade the 5000 for Eliza. We don’t have that much, so they get mad, and we do battle.

Biggs and Smok aren’t anything to worry about. Biggs can guard Smok, taking all damage for him. He can also heal if need be. Cast Sap a few times and hope Rek’s Bladed Boomerang hits the poor boy twice because of his guarding maneuver. Neither man hits very hard, but Smok can do a Tower Guard wind up, so prepare accordingly. They go down, and we save the day. Eliza and the Mayor thank us, and we get a Seed of Life that raises the HP of whoever ate it. You can also get 5000 gold from him if we say we’re with the bandits, but who’d want to be confused with them? Biggs and Smok ran away, so I suspect we might see them again later.

Once again, out of places to go, I return to Amoru. It turns out I missed someone who mentioned that a woman named Gina lives in the basement of the church. Talking to him triggers our allowed entry to said church. The priest and Gina say we can sleep there tonight, as the inn is still full. And then we fall through a hole…sorta. We wake up in a room that looks similar, but a dude is outside who had no idea we were here. Gina is gone, too. When we exit the church, it looks like Amura, but before we can investigate, the river that flows through town turns blood red. Everyone panics, and we go to look into that.

The cave north of town is now opened up, and we see a pink haired woman leaking something red into the river. Like, a lot of it. She’s muttering to herself that she can’t wash it off. This is Gina, but a lot younger! She elaborates that she killed her friend, Iria. We can go deeper into the cave just north of her. There is nothing down here to wary about. Who knew getting lost and grinding could make one so strong? The cave is a long maze of various staircases and a few floating log rafts that we need to navigate through to reach the bottom. There’s good money to be had down here, as well as treasure. At the bottom is a man looking on as an injured man is dueling a monster!

The Horror Beast looks bad but isn’t too scary at this point. Two Saps and a Surround makes him fragile. The only thing to watch out for is Confusion Dance. I had no way to cure the status ailment, so hope the confused character doesn’t hit too hard. The man who was fighting him was Iria. The Horror Beast popped out of the chest sitting on the pedestal, and Gina struck him, Iria, in the battle. We all walk back to the top and ease the mind of poor Gina. Somehow, her mind got befuddled, Probably from the Confusion Dance HB cast, now that I think about it. As confusion is want to do to someone, Gina started panicking. As thanks for helping, we get a Speed Ring, which increases the agility of a character. Any time a stat is doubled is great! Return to the church bed and hit the hey. We’ll wind up in the other Amoru, and a man named Iria will talk to our old Gina. The two will reunite, and Gina will feel like we had something to do with this, so she hands us the Mirror Key, which is said to unlock the tower of mirrors. Weren’t we looking for a mirror?

North of fake Reidlock is a tower. The key we got opens it, and we now have to fight our way up. It’s a lot harder than the last dungeon! On the first floor, we have to find the way up. One of those mirrors isn’t a good mirror but, rather, a door. We have to fight three poison zombies.

This is not fun. The three are tanky, can heal, and infect our characters with poison. Have Hassan attack the whole fight, and Murial should be ready for an Antidote while Rek attacks. Have him heal if need be. Once one goes down, they begin to cascade, but those three are pretty touch-and-go early on.

Head into the right tower and go up the maze of stairwells. There are only two to choose from, but one leads to a dead end. At one point, we’ll meet a girl who can’t see her reflection. I thought she’d be a vampire boss later on, but I was wrong. At least, for now. This is Barbara, and she’s in the same position as Rek and Hassan were before they met Muriel. She’ll tag along as we’re the only people she’s spoken to in ages. She almost forgot her name. Further up, there will be a switch to trigger that, I think, opens the other tower. Don’t head there yet, as we need to knock out a Tesla Coil. At the top of the spire are two black orbs that generate some energy. Move them out of view of the mirror they’re in front of, and they’ll break. As they do, the room they’re holding up will weaken. Do this for both orbs, and then head to the left tower. Find the secret stairwell using the mirror, and do the same. A room will fall to the second story, so take the quick jump down because fall damage doesn’t exist in Dragon Quest!

Enter it and pick up the Mirror of Ra. We’ll also turn Barbera human again, and she joins us as the fourth member of the battle team. I think she’s a Black Mage type character, but she’s too low level to be of use now. Outside out, Return to real Reidlock, and talk to the King.

That night, we’ll plan our attack on Mudo. In the middle of discussions, the King will fall ill. Commander Soldi, who is not Tom, senses something is amiss and asks us to use the Mirror of Ra on the King. Something flashes and the King turns into the Queen. We let her rest and talk to her in the morning. This is Shera, and she thinks the real King may be Mudo. We’re all confused, so she joins us as we take our planned attack on Mudo to the southeast. How long has she been reigning?

If we return to fake Reidlock, she doesn’t join us, so nothing advances. We’re still locked out. So make your way to the poison fields to the south of Reidlock! We see the two soldiers guarding the gate are dead, and we get the chance to save at a wandering priest. The dungeon proper is another cavern maze. The monsters aren’t bad, but there are plenty of them. I hope you’re good for an attrition dungeon. We eventually come to a gated part of the place where the real gimmick happens. We have to navigate a dark room. To get through, just fall. This will lead to two golden plates that we need to stand on. That will trigger grates above the darkroom to open, allowing for light to venture in. We can see where we’re going now. Do this twice more later on and follow the darkroom as far as you can to open the fifth. Loop back to the first light and head up the stairs to the throne room of Mudo.

He’s definitely hard, but oddly easy for a great and powerful evil. Cast Sap twice and get ready. Mudo casts a lot of fire spells, including a teamwide attack. Muriel will probably be healing the whole fight, so, hopefully, you have Healmore. Barb’s attacks somehow did more damage than her magic. I don’t remember any status effects, so I guess the attrition dungeon gets an attrition boss.

When the dust settles, use the Mirror of Ra on Mudo to reveal that he was the King. But the King has no idea how he got here, and he seems to know Shera. The plot thickens, so we all return to real Reidlock to figure out what’s going on. But I’ll do that…

…tomorrow!

I have to type a lot because a lot happens. But a lot only happens because I want to keep playing. I wanted to call it a night before fighting Mudo, but I really wanted to fight Mudo. I really wanted to keep playing to find out who Shera is, but I really wanted ice cream. Good games are good!

We are Sekhmet?

The King of Reidlock gave Rek and Hassan a mission: Find the Mirror of Ra. The only clue of its whereabouts is it's to the northeast. It's a terrible clue, but what can ya do?

Traveling past the gate, the party eventually comes to a church. It's just a church, but there's a guy who was with us when the King gave the order. Cool? South of this place is a lone man looking to build a second house. For reasons not explained, Rek tries to help the man after a convoluted conversation. Hassan reminds Rek that they have more important things to do, like save the world, and sits this one out. Sadly for the two construction workers, they have no idea where to even begin. This upsets our Beefy Boi, who then offers help. And by offers, I mean he does the whole thing in a matter of minutes. Hassan thinks there's a future for himself in this. As thanks for building the second house, the guy we helped offers us a whole lot of nothing. For reasons not explained...

He does give us a clue about some ancient temple that might aid us. The Temple of Dharma is said to be across the river to the east. The man went in search of it but never found it. Perhaps we can succeed? Entering a tunnel system hidden in the desert nestled between the forest to the east, we come to another hole in the world. Falling into it takes us to the outskirts of a ruined temple. And we're incorporeal again... Inside the temple is a lone bandit who has pillaged all the chests. The only thing we can find is the Magic Map, which shows us our location on the world map. It works very strangely when we're physical, though.

Far to the west of this temple is the town of El Marino. Once again, we can't interact with anyone, but we can pay to sleep at the inn. At the docks are two star-crossed lovers, Sandy and Joseph. Sandy is the mayor's daughter, and Joe is some dude, as far as I could tell. There's also an upset third party in this triangle, Amanda, who doesn't want them to be together. Meet these three people and head to the mayor's house. He loves his dog so much that he asks his daughter to bake it a proper dinner. Sandy does this but steps out at one point, allowing Amanda to sneak in and mess with the food. When Sandy returns and gives the dog its food, we learn Amanda poisoned it! The priest is able to save poor Pero, the dog, but the mayor throws Sandy in jail. There's also a house with two parents awaiting the return of their child, Hassan. Our Hassan says it isn't him, but cogs begin to turn in my head. Doing this triggers the next important plot advancement.

Head to the docks and find the ferry to Reidlock. But we reached this place by falling through a hole. How could a boat travel to Reidlock? One of the people in the waiting room can interact with us. She was one of the party members in the opening scene and is named Muriel. She offers her aid in becoming visible again, and we follow her to Grandmaz' house. Grandmaz, being old and seeing no reason to hurry, will help us in the morning. The next day, she sends us off to a cave in the south to find an item that will make us tangible again. Before you leave, search the cabinets for the Star Fragment. It'll help soon.

RPGClassics calls it the Cave of Dream-Seeding, but I couldn't find an actual name in the game. The cave is a quick romp down with monsters not terribly scary. Maybe it's because I was walking around for a while, trying to make gold and become too strong, but I had no problems down here. I'm not saying it's a breeze, but I had no difficulties getting to the bottom. Getting out was something else, but I'll get to that in a moment. Muriel tags along but doesn't do anything. At the bottom of the cave is a monster guarding its sweet nectar. It won't let us take some, so it attacks.

Bloody Paw is a simple fight. Rek and Hassan can straight attack it, with Rek casting Sap whenever Paw casts Upper. I tried to lower its defense, but it would always just restore it. I'd rather save the MP for healing, so I gave up that pursuit. Alternatively, use the Star Fragment you got in Grannmaz' house. It'll confuse the monster, which causes it to either do nothing or attack itself for three terns. You can Sap it then with less fear of repercussions. The Star Fragment remains in your inventory after use, so I plan to use it on future bosses. The battle left me weak and vulnerable, so getting out was a bit harder than getting down. Rek had no MP, so the typical mob worried me. After only one save state scum, I managed to exit, and Wyvern Winged my way back.

Once again, Grandmaz had little concern for us and said she'd help us tomorrow. At dawn, we talk to her, and she prepares the item Bloody Paw was guarding. Something happens, and we regain our physical selves again. Muriel was once in our position before she was helped by Grandmaz in the same fashion. But she won't tell us how she spoke to her in the first place for some mysterious reasons known only to an old lady. Muriel decides to join the team, and we return to El Marino. We learn Sandy has made bail and joined a traveling merchant. We also inform the mayor that we saw Amanda poison Pero, and while he does believe us, we see him take no actions against her. He does feel terrible about Sandy, though. If we tell Joe this, he sets off to find his love. We, on the other hand, board the boat to the mysterious Reidlock Castle. And we'll try to figure out this castle's connection to our starting point...

...tomorrow!

Yep, everything is expensive, and gold is rare. I'm gonna have to figure out what to buy and skip soon. All while trying to figure out the questions I need to be answered about this world!