Yikes. One post in about ten days. Very sorry for the delay. I reinstalled Oblivion on my PC about ten days ago, modded it up, and thought I would mess around with it a “little” bit. Four days later I was behind in work, behind in this blog, and behind in sleep. Egad. I finally caught up this afternoon, but now I have to leave town until Tuesday.

Short end of it: I may be able to make a couple of posts from the road, but the next post will more than likely be on Tuesday of next week, at which time life should be settled down.

Thanks for the patience, and sorry for disappearing here for a bit.

Yikes. So much talking. I am completely confused. I’ve been wandering around talking to everyone in Salonia, which is a huge city. Everyone is saying new things. Many are thanking us for bringing order to the town, but many are also giving us hints as to what to do next. It’s like trying to figure out a story but getting all the pages in a mixed up order. There is also a library that has some books with even more information. I’m overloaded.

This is what I’ve figured out so far, but keep in mind that I am likely completely wrong with this. First, there is a lot of talk about a powerful ship, the Nautilus, that can go very fast in the air, but also may have some sort of power to travel below the sea. The problem is that no one is telling me how to get it. Second, there is some sort of all-powerful wizard, Noah, who is either dead or not dead, depending on who you talk to. From the extent of the conversation, it seems he is/was a good person. For some reason this guy split up his power over three disciples, and they are apparently all over the place. One of his disciples lives in the large continent to the south. I have no idea why, but I take it we are supposed to go find him, and then in turn find the other disciples. Apparently we need the Nautilus to get to the continent because it’s surrounded by fierce winds, and only a strong airship could penetrate them.

This is all good and well, if we could just figure out what to do to get the Nautilus. There is talk of a secret underground passage that leads to the sea, but I can’t find that. I did check out some shops in town, and we found some treasure chests in some side rooms on the first floor of the Solania castle, but we still can’t go anywhere until we get some air transportation.

Status: A Bit Confused

Finally! We beat Garuda! The extra level and the extra Dragoon made all the difference. After a few rounds, Garuda fell to some mighty hits from our jumps. The fight still could have gone either way, as we had to revive three characters after lightning attacks fried them up, but in the end we did it. Finally!

In case it helps others, we went into the battle with two dragoons, a white mage, and a geomancer. All members were level 31. While the offensive power of the dragoons was a key, I’m not sure we could have made it without the white mage, as we lost three party members in the fight, and the revivals helped a ton.
I’m glad to hear that Garuda is one of the tougher Final Fantasy III bosses. This was a tough, fun fight, but I’m ready to move on!

After the fight, Prince Alus mentions that he will likely ascend to the throne to replace his dead father as king of Salonia. Tomorrow, we’ll explore the town a bit to see what’s changed.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose

But no more.

For the third time, the damn Garuda bird ripped us apart. However, we almost made it this time, as our jumping Dragoon was doing some serious damage. However, once Garuda starts dropping lightning around like some freak thunderstorm, we go down for the count. One hit with chain lightning is ripping us apart for 400+ hit points on each of our four characters. Since he gets two attacks per turn, it doesn’t take much for our 900-hit-point party members to be lying around dead.

Normally I’d take the advice of one of my favorite Despair.com posters, which says: “Winners never quit and quitters never win. But those that never win and never quit are morons.” Point is, it’s time to run away and come back later. But I’m stuck in this damn town: the gates are locked and the Enterprise is in pieces. To get out of here, we’ve got to take down Garuda Badass.

I’ll try adding another Dragoon, and I’ll take the party back to the Tower for some leveling up. Surely with two Dragoons and another level of experience, we can take this guy out. Tomorrow, yes, tomorrow is the day. It better be, as I’m running out of Garuda photos.

Status: Getting our Butts Kicked

Photo Credit: devittj

On a positive note, we lasted about ten rounds against Garuda this time. On a negative note, once it blasts us with chain lightning, we are in a world of hurt. That lightning kills one or two of our party, and severely wounds the rest. We simply can’t revive and heal ourselves fast enough.

To be totally honest, I was just plain stupid here. I had wanted to change one of my party members over to a dragoon, but for some inane reason, I thought the dragoon job option wasn’t open to me yet. But after this this battle, it dawned on me that “dragon rider” was the Japanese equivalent, and yes, that job option is available. D’oh! I think it’s high time I switched a party member or two over to Dragoons, so as to be able to jump and attack the Garuda.

We’ll try that plan of attack tomorrow. First, I’ll probably grind for a couple of levels in order to get the Dragoon’s job level up a bit.

Status: Stuck at the Garuda

Photo Credit: Dust Mason