We set off on the hovercraft to go around the tunnel leading to Damcyan, and explore the wilderness around Damcyan. We searching for some sort of passage to the north, I think. After a bit, we come to an Ice Wall blocking the entrance to a cave. Aha! This appears to be the place.

Rydia, after a bit of reluctance, melts the ice wall and we continue on our way into the cave. This looks to be the passage to Fabul after all. The fighting is moderately easy. After a while, we run into yet another character, a monk called Yang. He is fighting some fire balls. We hear his story and join forces to help him fight back to Fabul. The first fight against the fireballs is actually quite tricky, but our numbers prove to be the key, and we overcome the enemy after a few rounds.

A little while later, we clear the tunnel and can see Fabul in the distance. We cover the short distance and enter Fabul…

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose

Fighting our way out of the Antlion’s Lair, we get ambushed from behind by a large party of fairly strong enemies. I started hyperventilating here, and got all confused in the heat of the battle. Before I knew it, two party members were dead, the remaining three were at half strength, and we had only taken down one enemy. For a moment, I thought I was going to lose everyone.

Fortunately, Cecil started putting on a offensive show, I started issuing more sensible commands, and the enemies started to drop. After another minute or so, we had won and averted a disaster. Whew.

After exiting the lair without any more close calls, we boarded the hovercraft we got in Damcyan and scooted back to Kaipo, in the middle of the desert. The Desert Shininess cured Rosa well enough, and she joined our party. She brings some helpful white magic to our group. I seem to play much better when I have a dedicated healer in my party, so she is a welcome addition.

After a bit of talking, it seems that we have to go north to Fabul, in order to try and save the next crystal before the King of Baron can get it. We’ll fight our way up there tomorrow. Driving on!

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose

Image Credit: Fortune City: Liquid Phire

We fight on in Antlion’s Cave. After a short while, we come to a round amphitheater that looks important. Sure enough, there are some things sticking out of the ground in the middle. After a bit of silliness, we start the fight with Antlion.

This battle is easier than the battle with Octomammoth. Antlion doesn’t hit particularly hard, and all three of our party members do decent damage on the creature. After just a few easy rounds, Antlion does the purple shaky dance and vanishes to oblivion.

We grab the “Desert Shininess” (Sand Ruby in English, apparently), which is the cure for Rosa’s sickness. We start to fight our way back to the desert town of Kaipo. We’ll try to make that journey tomorrow.

As an aside, I never would have guessed that “Antlions” were real creatures. In looking for images for this post, I learned that antlions actually exist. The photo to the right is an image of one.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose

We wander to the east, find a cave, and enter. This is the lair of Antlion, who has a rather ominous name. We start to fight our way into the cave. The fighting here is a bit tougher than we’ve experienced to date. The monsters can hit for decent damage. There are jellies that are impervious to physical attacks, which takes Cecil (our heaviest hitter) and Edward (apparently jellies can’t hear music) out of the combat. Rydia can fry them up with her spells, but it’s burning through her magic points, and we only have three potions to replenish her magic strength. Even the regular monsters wear us down relatively quickly, which is pushing us into our healing potion supply. We could be in trouble here if this place is particularly big.

We fight for about a half hour, when we stumble onto a save point. Nice. We’ll continue on tomorrow, but this place could be a bit above us.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose.

Technorati Tags: Final Fantasy IV, Antlion, Cecil, Edward, Antlion’s Cave

We head out of the cave and quickly spot the castle of Damcyan. As we approach it, the kingdom of Baron attacks the place from the air, destroying the castle and stealing the crystal that was there. Once we enter, we witness a soap opera of character interaction. I’m not sure how interesting this will be so here are two versions, the long and the short. Read whichever one you prefer…

Short Version
Tellah finds his daughter, but she dies from wounds sustained in the attack. Tellah is so pissed that he leaves our party to go kill the King of Baron by himself. Prince Edward, Tellah’s daughter’s lover, joins our party to replace Tellah.

Long Version
We head inside, where Tellah finds his daughter Anna and his daughter’s love. Anna, however, is badly hurt from the attack, and promptly dies. This pisses off Tellah so much that he tries to kill his daughter’s lover. After a bit, Tellah calms down enough that the fight stops. Anna’s lover turns out to be Prince Edward of Damcyan. Tellah is still enraged enough at the King of Baron that he abandons the group and sets off on his own to kill the King. Prince Edward is so depressed that Anna has died that he is contemplating death. Cecil convinces Edward that life is worth living, and that he should help by joining the search for Rosa’s medicine. Edward agrees, and the soap opera interlude ends. Whew!

And back together….

With that, Cecil, Prince Edward, and Rydia head off to the east, to find the cure for Rosa. Interestingly, Edward is a bard, who fights by playing music at his opponents. He must be an awful musician.

We’ll get busy getting that cure for Rosa tomorrow.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose