Part 21: The Red Dragon Cave

So Damon didn't really illuminate anything for us and we still have no idea how to get to the damn Red Dragon Cave.

But we can get there if we just sit and think about it. You see the turtle we rode in on? Do you wonder why it decided to park there?



So we can use it as a stepping stone, of course. And it'll never move. Ever. So if we need to leave and come back we can.

If you recall from our disastrous balloon ride, we did see the volcano to the west. So perhaps this new unexplored piece of land will lead there?




The sudden and drastic change in landscape is heartening.



As is the sudden and drastic change of enemies.

These are Skull Fish. They have little HP, but they make up for it with three fucking attacks. They don't do a lot with each attack, but three attacks add up. They're not susceptible to magic, either.



Just Scorpion? No "Death Scorpion" or cheesy portmanteau? How bland...

They have more HP than the Skull Fish, but they only have one attack. And they have little anti-magic. And they poison sometimes. Woo.

But we won't be fighting either enemy very much.



Because we just found our destination. The MP shrine (that pointy thing to the left) is especially nice, since there are no warpable locations nearby. So if you have to leave the cave to heal up, you can just walk over there instead of warping to big Althena's Shrine and then walking back from Damon's Spire.



As soon as we enter the volcano we are greeted with our first obstacle. How do we cross that pit of lava?


: Alex! Look! Whew, that make it cool in here!

I haven't finished testing it out yet, but I'm not actually 100% sure if it's possible to get to this point without the Rain Cloud. It's certainly not likely, as you have to talk to Laike to progress, and Laike gives you a pretty broad hint to find the Rain Cloud.

Oh, and in the remake the Rain Cloud is entirely taken out. Can't say it really changes anything.




But now we're in the Red Dragon Cave proper.

The Red Dragon Cave is kind of hard to navigate. Not because the floors themselves are large or labyrinthine, but because there multiple staircases on each floor, and the branching paths converge and split at odd points.

In the remakes, the Red Dragon Cave is easy enough to navigate, but it's draining on the resources because of the dungeon's gimmick: flames! As in, flames that drain HP and you have to run through. Fun.



From the start, head right. This staircase takes you to the top part of the second floor, which has a treasure chest but doesn't diverge. Just continue to the third floor.



On the third floor, take the southern most staircase. This leads you to the second floor again, but to the bottom half.



Take the stairs down. From here just keep going until you reach the fourth floor, which is a dead end.



But a profitable dead end. Make sure you get this! You can't buy Sage's Clothes, and they're a huge upgrade to your mages' defenses. I put it on Jessica. Once you get the Sage's Clothes, go back the second floor, and from there go back to the third floor the way you came.



Basically, go back here. From here go up and to the right. It should lead you to the fourth floor.



On the fourth floor, head northwest. You can go southwest for some treasure. At the end of that path there's a Jewel, but the 1000 silver you get for selling it doesn't really cut it anymore.

From here it's fairly easy to make it to the end. There's only one more branching path, and it just goes up a floor and leads to shitty treasure. There is, however, one more treasure of note.



Another one of these babies!

With all the navigation issues, I haven't even mentioned the enemies!



The Hermit Crabs (the spiky things) are, again, not really notable. But the Earth Elementals are another sack of HP. They have almost twice(!) the HP of the Rufus's, although unlike the Rufus's, they don't have much anti-magic. This makes magic a good choice, especially since they get three attacks too! Thankfully they can't actually move.



Finally, we have the Wasteoids. They're pretty flimsy, but they've got one irritating trick up their sleeves.



More sleep spells. Yay. But since the Earth Elementals can't move, and Wasteoids don't usually appear in large formations, it's not very dangerous.

That about covers the enemies. So what spells did we get out the trip?



Tornado is another single-target attack spell. Unfortunately Mia doesn't get another multi target attack spell for a while, but it's still nice to have. Mental Litany cures confusion. Confusion does exist, we haven't seen it yet, but it's pretty rare. Nasty, but thankfully rare. Sidestep increases Kyle's defense. You probably will never use it.

Well, enough of that. Let's finish the dungeon.





Yeah, that's it. No boss! That's not true of the remakes, as the remakes have you fight... the Bronze Dogs of all things.



I think we've seen that before. But where was the lair for the Red Dragon itself? Unless the Dragon's here, but I'd think we would have seen it already.


"...my spirit is... fading! But... never... here, take my... power..."

Oh.

Ghaleon beat us here. That's... that's not good. At this point all we've got left are the Blue Dragon and the Black Dragon, and the Black Dragon famously went insane. It's getting imperative that we really hurry up.

Before we leave, let's receive the spoils of the journey.









Our new Dragon Spell, like every other Dragon spell in the game, is a extremely powerful target-all attack spell. The main downside is that it costs buttloads of MP, although Alex is starting to get lot of MP himself. He has as much Mia now.

From the event experience, Jessica gets a new spell. Tempter freezes enemies for a round.

There's nothing else to do here. But it should have been long enough that the bridge in Meyrod has been fixed.


"Meryod's got a new bridge to crow 'bout now!"



Well what do you know? It's almost like I've played this game before or something. Since we can cross the bridge now, what's on the other side?


"Lies tha frunteer. But ya can't git in there 'cuz it's surrounded by mounteens..."
: But if Xenobia got out, there must be a way to get in! We just have to find it...

The Frontier is a little farther away than he implies, but we're getting there! But considering that up until now Althena did a pretty good job keeping the Vile Tribe in the Frontier, it falls to reason that the Frontier is also hard to get into. However as the unusually enthusiastic Nash notes, there's got to be a way. It's not like Xenobia can just teleport...

We'll find a way.

You almost might have noticed the weapon shop there. Well let's go check it out.





It doesn't get any better. The Dark Sword right next to it costs 12000 silver. The Flail and the Boomerang are "only" 7300 silver and 5200 silver respectively.

So there's no way I can afford all of that. So it comes down to who do I want to get a weapon upgrade? The Flail and Boomerang are for Jessica and Nash, and since they're both just back-up attackers they get eliminated. So it leaves the Samurai Blade for Alex or the Dark Sword for Kyle. Would I rather have Alex do about Kyle's level of damage, or Kyle to get even more awesome? It's a hard question. In the end, I'd rather have two solid attackers than one great attacker and a mediocre one. Samurai Blade it is!



Now with my new shiny sword, it's time to take on another new area!