As we battle our way up the Tower of Zot, we stumble onto quite a few chests. For the first time in a while, these actually hold weapons and armor that are improvements over our existing gear. Cecil finds a new sword and shield. The sword in particular is a big upgrade. Cecil has actually been the weakest of our three melee fighters, as he was doing only about a third that of Yang and Cid. Now, with his new sword, he’s doing equal or better damage than the other two. This puts a big extra kick into our party’s power. Tellah gets a robe, and Cid finds a great new hammer.

Although we’re having a relatively easy time with the fighting, the Tower of Zot is a confusing jumble of passages and random encounters are incredibly frequent. By the time we get to Level 5, we’ve exhausted all but eight of our 99 potions, and are down to 40 of our stronger potions.

As we head up to Level 6 however, things change dramatically. Three bizarre sisters block our way, and after some perfunctory babble, they attack us. With our new weapons, the fight goes fairly well. After a dozen or so rounds, the three sisters lie dead on the floor, and the passage up to the sixth level is clear. Before we head up, we locate a side room that has a save point in it. We pitch our tents, rest up, and look forward to the next day’s fighting.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose
Levels: High Twenties
Time: About 16 hours

Well, we bring the crystal back to Troia, its proper guardians. They allow us to borrow it for a bit, and we set back out to the Enterprise to trade it with Kain for Rosa.

For a second there, I was at a loss as to how exactly we would find Kain, but it was simpler than I thought. As soon as we boarded the Enterprise, Kain showed up. Of course a scumbag like Kain isn’t going to keep his word, and sure enough, he doesn’t.

The Enterprise is lifted skyward to a place called the Tower of Zot, which belongs to Golbez. There, Golbez himself challenges us to fight our way through the monsters that inhabit the tower in order to reach him and Rosa at the top. We’ve been had!

With little choice, we begin smashing our way through the confusing maze of passages that make up the tower. The early fighting is surprisingly smooth. We’re often fighting these bizarre puppets, and they fall quickly. Nevertheless, the puppets dish out some damage, and we’re chugging potions at a frantic rate.

After a bit, we find the door up to the second level and continue our ascent….

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose.

Armed with a pile of high potions, boatloads of arrows, and more determination, we begin our third foray into the Cave of the Dark Elf. We now know the fastest routes through the place, and make great time. High potions are a big help, and we clear the save point with ample potions and arrows left.
After a bit more exploring, we come to the Dark Elf. It doesn’t take long for us to start mixing it up with him, but the fight unfortunately doesn’t last long at all. The Dark Elf wipes us out in two quick rounds. Argh.

But…tricky Final Fantasy IV! Just when I figured that I’d have to do some serious grinding to level up my party, we get a cut scene back to Edward at the castle in Troia. Somehow, he has sensed our predicament and gets out of bed to help. He goes over and plays his magical harp, which somehow connects with the grass thing he gave us when we visited him. This magical connection allows Edward’s music to fill the Dark Elf’s hall, and this breaks the spell that prevented us from using metal weapons! What a deal! Even better, we’re all alive again and at full strength.

Our party scrambles to equip themselves with their best armor and weapons, and once again we start fighting with the Dark Elf. This time things go much better. We hit for massive damage, and the Dark Elf’s spells only do a fraction of the damage they were doing before. Fairly quickly, the Dark Elf falls and the Earth Crystal is ours!

Rather than teleport out, we fight our way back out of the cave. Getting out is cake compared to getting in, as we can still use our best weapons. We rip through our enemies in short order, and start back for the castle in Troia.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose

Resupplied with potions and more arrows for Cecil’s bow, we head back to the Cave of the Dark Elf. This time we clear the first level with relative ease, and surprisingly the fighting on the second level is easier. We hack our way to the third level, where we find a save point! Nice.

Still, by this time our potion supply is exhausted once again, and Cecil’s arrow supply is badly diminished. Once again, we pull out of the cave for resupply.

The shop in Troia doesn’t have the High Potions, or strong healing potions. Instead of making do with the wimpy healing potions, we head off in the Enterprise to see if we can find a batch of the stronger version. Sure enough, after a while, we find a store that sells the things. We load up with 99 of them, which will give us a lot more healing power in the cave. We also get Cecil a huge stack of arrows. Resupplied, we head back to the Cave of the Elf.

As an aside, when we were flying around in the Enterprise, we circled a huge tower system sitting in a circle of black earth. Ominous looking place.
We’ll make a big push tomorrow to finish this damn cave tomorrow. I feel like I’ve been stuck here forever.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose

Argh. This could be tricky. Without the use of metal weapons and armor, we are at a distinct disadvantage. On the first level of the Cave of the Dark Elf, porcupine thingies attack us and rip us to shreds. They seem to have a defensive reaction that attacks us every time we hit them, which means they are firing off attacks like crazy. We can win the fight readily enough, but it takes gobs of potions for us to get back to full strength after each fight. In our first two fights alone, we burn through more than 20 potions to replenish our strength.

Another tricky element here is the relative cost of magic spells. Tellah only has 90 magic points at his current level, and it takes10 or more magic points for him to cast a spell that does significant damage. This means that I really have to conserve his magic potential, at least until I can find a save point in here.

After a bit, we find the exit down to the second level, but by this time our potion supply is badly depleted, and I’ve used all of Cecil’s arrows. We exit the cave and head back to town to replenish our supplies.

The nice thing about all this, however, is that by the time we’re done with this, we should have picked up some substantial level increases.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose