Part 27: Chapter Twenty Seven: Crazy Flower

: Here’s the plan – we go underwater, I turn into the Big Fish and take everyone to the beach that leads to Gust.







: From here we head east, then north a bit until we reach Gust.

You may have noticed the suspicious plate embossed into the side of the mountain with a dragon’s head on it. We also encountered one near Auria, although I didn’t draw attention to it at the time. We can’t do anything with them yet, but rest assured we’ll be coming back here later on.

This part of the map contains a mish-mash of the same enemies we’ve been fighting up until now, with one important addition.



The Warlock. Warlocks are always accompanied by Zombies. They are horribly lethal enemies who like to spam lightning attacks that hit every party member for over 100 damage. They are quite rare but if you encounter one it’s important to take them down immediately before they introduce you to a world of pain.



To the east lies a copse of fruit trees. This is a good opportunity to demonstrate Ox’s field ability.



Ox can punch fruit trees and make Apples fall from them. Since they restore 100 HP it’s always a good idea to collect them whenever possible.





: Here it is – Gust. A tiny, windy, insignificant town.

: A tiny, windy insignificant town that until recently was producing enough black magic that I could feel it from dozens of miles away.



:…Be careful, everyone. There’s a hint of something on the air…something…unnatural.





: These people seem to have lost all reason.

: They dance and caper, as if they have gone mad…





: Yes. I can smell it much more clearly now. It is…not pleasant.



: That’s real tragic, mister, but I think you have bigger things to be worried about than a missed lunch! Your town is…full of…loons…urgh.

:…Karn, are you alright?

: Yeah. I just…get the feeling there’s somewhere I gotta be. It’s close by…



: In here, fearless leader. It’s in here.





: Box. It’s under the box. Must move the box.







As you can probably guess, this area houses another Fusion Priest. A fairly simple box-pushing puzzle separates the party from him.



: Visitors? Oh my, I –

:…

:…I see. A child of the blood has arrived.





: As I expected, you learned the spell.



And so, Karn learns the second fusion spell – Debo. Debo fuses Karn, Gobi and Ox together.



Unfortunately, it can only be used underwater. Since there’s no danger of battles underwater with the Big Fish in our possession, and since the underwater segment of the game is essentially over with anyway, there’s no point in ever using this form.

We’re about done in Gust, but before we leave it’s a good idea to check out the weapon shop.



Important things to buy here are a MoonBW for Bo, a FlameSH for Ox and two WorldML’s for both Ox and Bo. With that, we’re all set to continue northwards.





Walking around three spaces forwards from the exit leads the party into a new area.



: This flower is unnatural. Grown with black magic, most likely.

: The pollen from the flowers is blowing south, towards Gust. Could this be the cause of the villager’s madness?

: Most of the plant lies buried beneath the earth. I fear we lack the means to remove it just yet.



: The bridge is destroyed. Once again, our path is blocked.

:…What about the cave behind us?



: This is not a natural cavern. Someone built this place.

: I am certain now – this place is the source of the black magic I felt earlier.

: We cannot ignore this. Let’s go back outside and search for another entrance.



: Looks like this is it!



This is the Lab. The Lab is a sprawling area full of tight passageways and dead ends. Naturally there are a number of new enemies to take into account, and many of them are far more deadly than any we’ve seen before. This is the part where the game begins to take off the kiddy gloves in terms of random battles.



These red fly guys are Buzzers. They’re probably the weakest enemies here and mainly serve as fodder and damage-soaks for other, stronger enemies. They’re slow and die in one hit.



LancerX’s have now been downgraded to regular enemies. They’re fast, have high defense and attack for around 20 damage per hit. As seen above they often come in pairs. Still not too bad, but they’ll inevitably get some hits in before you can take them down.



Ah, the Mimic, one of the staples of jRPG’s and the bane of every item collector’s existence. They pack a real wallop despite being palette swaps of similar foes in Krypt. They can deal up to 40 damage per hit and have spells that can put party members to sleep. If that wasn’t bad enough they can also inflict the Curse status, which puts a character’s evasion through the floor. Their defense is also rather solid, so it’ll take at least three rounds of pounding before they go down. However, they give out 4000 GP when they finally die, which is a nice bonus.



But the other enemies all pale in comparison to this guy. This conflagrating eyeball is the Blaze, and he just loves to kick your party’s shit in. Blazes have powerful fire magic that can inflict 90+ damage to a single target, as well as a regular attack that does around 30. They also have a special Burn Out attack that hits everyone in the party for 50+ damage. Like Mimics, they have powerful defense and take several turns to kill with physical attacks. Thankfully they are also rather slow and have a weakness to frost magic.



: Look! Treasure chest!





: Because it can’t be said enough – you suck, fish man.



Oh god, it’s a Gremlin palette swap. Thankfully, Rogues are a total pushover. They have literally thousands of HP, but their defense is so low it makes no difference. Shin’s attacks were doing over 800 damage per hit, with Ryu not far behind. This fight ended before the enemy could even react. Rogues guard all the treasure chests in this dungeon, but it’s worth fighting them since they are so weak and give massive exp.





There are also some breakable walls at the back of some of the dead ends. These provide a nice shortcut through the Lab and mean the party doesn’t have to walk around a long corridor.





: Visitors? Oh my. I see that the Light Dragon child has found his way into my humble lab.

:…And you are?

: Ah, where are my manners? I am Cort, Chief Sorcerer of the Dark Dragons. Did you like my Madness Flower? One of my crowning achievements, I’m sure you’ll agree.

:…And I suppose you destroyed the bridge leading across the ravine, too.

: Well…yes. Yes, I did. Had to slow you down, you understand. Listen, I’d love to stop and chat, but I have an experiment to attend to. It’s so fortunate that some test subjects turned up right when I needed them.



: Let’s see how this new formula affects you.



: Ugh!

: *Cough* *Cough* What…did he do to us…?







: This…might be bad.

The party shrinks as Cort leaves the area. Thankfully it won’t be for long, but that’s a matter for the next update.