T w e n t y S i d e d

I made it half-way through the current Galactic Season in Star Wars The Old Republic this week. I was thinking it’s only been a month since it started, but after checking some dates it’s actually been…about six weeks. Pretty sure I’m on track to finish Season 8 in about the same time as Season 7. I *have* been a bit lucky having at least two weeks in the last three giving enough objectives that I can do with pick-up groups or alone to finish the weekly objective counter. There is one short daily that is the same every time: get 25,000 Conquest Points (simple). The weekly list is seven items, of which I can usually do five without taking extra steps. This past week had four World Bosses. The lowest level-bosses can be two-personed, and some claim they have or at least seen someone solo them. I’ve been part of groups of four and six that beat these World Bosses with no particular problem; so while *I* probably couldn’t do with less I’m sure it’s possible. Since I typically don’t group and I’m not a member of a guild, I usually just camp the World Boss until another group shows up and then I join in. Occasionally enough players playing solo arrive over time to enable taking out a world boss. (I have rarely tried objectives that are PvP-adjacant, and this method can work, too. Like attacking the guards of the enemy faction’s base, etc.)

I have also, for the record, just about had it with my nearest Sonic (the fast food drive-in, just to be clear). I don’t know if they all get ingredients from the same source; some franchises have more control over this then others. But our nearest, local one changed all their chicken products for cheaper, lower-quality options a couple of years ago. This took them from the “decent” realm of fast-food chicken strips and patties to the “yucky” tier. They started implementing their “Smash” burgers several months ago, which I find inferior to their previous burgers. Their “Groovy” fries are of lower quality than the previous offering. And the other night I ordered one of their “toaster” burgers and was thoroughly unimpressed with the tastelessness. I just don’t see a point to eating there any more. Half the ordering screens are damaged and/or removed. I was made aware that someone “somehow” rammed into the side of the building recently, as there is a new hole about pickup-bumper height (makes sense for this region). I somehow doubt it was an accident.

Back in Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster, I return to the Earth Cave and make my way *all the way* back down to the end of the third floor. This isn’t hard exactly, but my intention to not use spells goes out the window pretty quickly. Since I would have to sail to another continent to replenish items, I’m getting low and make my way through the potions (restores up to 50hp health) quickly. Also, honestly; that 50hp just doesn’t do as much as it used to. It’s more of a stop-gap at this point.

In the Vampire’s room there is a door that leads to a new section of cave with a stone slab in the back. This stone slab was previously un-openable, but now that we have the Earth Rod we…open it? Smash it? Make it relocate to another dimension? This is not clear but a new set of stairs appears. This takes the party down to the FOURTH floor. The fourth floor has two loot locations in opposite corners filled with chests, and the chests are all (but one) protected by the same group of monsters: two Hyenadons and three Ogres. The Ogres sometimes have an Ogre Chief and sometimes an Ogre Mage. While the Hyenadons, Ogres, and Ogre Chiefs just have many Hit Points and can attack for a lot of damage (mainly against your Thief and Black Mage), the Ogre Mage can cast Blizzara, also known as Ice 2 in some releases. Since this hits the entire party for dozens of damage (at this point) it is one of the most powerful “regular” attacks we’ve run into. Most of the loot items found add up to thousands of Gil (very useful soon) but I also find a Mythril Shield, the most powerful shield item yet that can be equipped on the Warrior. His Iron Shield can’t be passed to the Thief (or anyone else, obviously) but an upgraded Buckler in another chest does up the Thief’s defense. With his high speed and the Coral Sword, the Thief is now the top physical damage dealer, but he’s also the second-weakest character. The Warrior can soak up hits all day long but just can’t hit for the same damage any more. The Black Mage, of course, does the most damage of all but you have to be careful where you use those spell slots.

After looting the fourth floor we head across the screen and descend to the fifth floor. There is no loot here; in fact the entire right side of the screen has nothing of use to us. As with the third floor, the room we want is visible in another tunnel from the starting location. Essentially we just have to head up, left, then back down until we reach the door in that room.

Inside that room is a glowing sphere blocking the way to the Earth Crystal. We can’t reach the Earth Crystal without going through the Glowing Sphere, so we talk to it. Because that’s worked out so well so far.

Ah. So there *is* a Lich after all. I thought the whole Vampire/Lich thing was just translation hi-jinks, but when Sadda said the Vampire was a servant, he really did mean the Vampire was a servant *of the Lich*. Well, we beat the Vampire no problem, and we gained *another* level just trying to get to this point.

So just as before, the Warrior and the Thief charge in while the White Mage prepares her most powerful attack against the undead and the Black Mage prepares her most powerful Fireball. UNLIKE the Vampire, the physical attacks do almost nothing. We might as well be whacking him with Nerf bats. The third level (5th Tier) Diaga (hurts undead) and Firaga (hadoken) spells do about 300hp of damage each, though. Both hit; the Lich doesn’t die. The Lich tries to “Hold (paralyze)” one of my mages but misses. Another round of attacks; surely this time we’ve got ’em. The physical attacks do much more damage this time, and both magic attacks hit; but it still doesn’t kill the Lich. I’m worried now because I only had two 5th-Tier slots left for my White Mage. The Lich tries a physical attack and does about 100 points of damage. This is problematic for my Thief and Black Mage, but I’m not really down in this fight yet. I trigger another round of physical attacks, another Firaga from the Black Mage, and have the White Mage cast an Invis spell on the BM to raise Evasion. The physical attacks do only moderate damage, the White Mage protects the Black Mage, and this time the Black Mage’s Fire attack takes down the Lich. That could have been a *lot* worse.

With the Lich gone, the Warriors of Light approach the Earth Crystal, do something, and the crystal is re-lit and shiny.

You can’t really see it without the animation. I mean, you can’t tell what they *do* anyway, but the Earth Crystal is glow-y and shiny now, and moving. Just as you can’t really see, and I forgot to mention, that the entire cave is filled with blowing dirt. Again, you can’t see it in a still image, but until we fixed the Earth Crystal there was a reasonable subtle effect of dirt blowing across the screen the whole time we’ve been down here. From the beginning; not just on the fifth floor.

We’re not prompted, but if you check the mini-map it shows the way forward is the circle on the floor on the other side of the Earth Crystal. This is a portal to just outside the Earth Cave. We use the portal, return to Melmond where a couple of people do notice that we fixed everything, and *one* person mentions that we probably need to go to Crescent Lake. Now, we’ve had multiple references to airships so far, but this is the first time someone has mentioned this new location. Thankfully, while the airship isn’t on the map; a city in the middle of a crescent-shaped lake *is*. You may have even noticed it while sailing because it is near one of only two harbors available to us that give access to new locations. I make a few stops around the “known” world to re-stock supplies and check that I have every spell that I would like now that I’m starting to see options not currently available. I also go looking for something a reader mentioned recently (it’s in Elfheim City, which makes perfect sense):

The harbor we’re now looking for is “on the other side of the world,” but as the map is a projection of a round world, we can just sale West to get there. It’s about the same distance as crossing the Aldean Sea, which we’ve done many times now.

This harbor isn’t right next to the city but a short hike (and one random encounter) West gives us our first view:

It’s obvious we’ll have to travel around through the forest to the entrance, but at the moment the random encounter level is about the same as what we just left. But that also means that when we do the next dungeon the difficulty will increase…so we may need to level a bit. We are now at Level 25 just from doing what we needed to do, but no more. *Another* indicator that we may actually be back to an appropriate level or even under-leveled. Inside Crescent Lake City I am able to upgrade a couple of defensive and offensive pieces, but not by much. Several available items are actually a downgrade. We have about 100,000 Gil available and we use about 80,000 of it buying six new spells at 6th-Tier. A couple of which aren’t available for any of my current magic users. There’s an upgraded Teleport spell like I mentioned was unavailable in Melmond; this one will get me out of a dungeon *entirely.* Again, I would love this spell, but I can’t buy it yet. While it could be available to a promoted character, maybe I should look up if an alternative base class could use it…

The last stop in Crescent Lake City is the Circle of Sages next to the town. I wonder who I should talk to…

The fancy guy is Lukahn. Luchan. Lukehan. Whatever. You remember him; the King of Corneria talked about him like we were on our way to find him just down the road. Well, here he is; and he just kind of says some prophetic gobbledygook at us. For the record, the Sages in Elfheim were still waiting for inspiration and the dancing girl had no advice before coming here; I checked.

But *the other* twelve guys finally tell us a better version of the backstory:

This world is based on Four Elements: Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind. Those elements are accessed via Four Shrines scattered around the World. But now Four Three Chaos Fiends feed off the power and keep it from flowing out into the world. This caused the Four Crystals to stop glowing. The Four Fiends want to RULE THE WORLD (of course) both past and present, which doesn’t make much sense at the moment and could mean any one of a few different things. Our job is to defeat the Fiends one-by-one and take the crystals we each carry back to the Elemental Crystal altar in the shrine, which should cause the darkened crystal to “regain its brilliance.” We did that by defeating the Lich and starting up the Earth Crystal, so I guess that’s what we did that wasn’t very clear at the time.

Anyway, the Fiend of Wind showed up 400 years ago followed by the Fiend of Water 200 years ago. Those two destroyed the “Northern” Civilization. That may be why there are no harbors in the North. Or it could be because as the game told us in the beginning, the Air Crystal people lived in the sky and used airships, while the Water Crystal people lived under the ocean, or something like that. We just defeated the Lich, who was the Earth Fiend. The Lich must be fairly recent, because defeating him caused the Fire Fiend to awaken 200 years early. So, you know; 400 years ago, 200 years ago, now, 200 years in the future. Once we defeat all the Chaos Fiends and re-light the Elemental Crystals, we can come back to Crescent Lake City to learn…the rest of the story (drink).

Oh, and the Fire Fiend is in the volcano Mt. Gulg just to the West of here, we can reach Mt. Gulg by canoe, here’s the canoe kthanx gdluck.

Ok. At least now we know what we’re supposed to do next.

That’s it for now, see you next week!

Paige Francis He/him