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Mozart's #3 Dance Tune
Okay, we left off after shopping in Carwen. This time, we head off to North Mountain.
...as soon as I figure out where that is, exactly (North's kind of a vague term, not to mention "north relative to WHAT?"). I'm honestly feeling a little lost.
Found it. Apparently I tend to feel more lost than I actually am. Hope I won't need Gold Needles up there.
Speaking of which... (I also get a Phoenix Down in this first cave.)
The enemies here are really starting to hurt. Note to self: Run more often. Also: Don't bother with Headstones- their defense makes them a pain to kill.
: I'd probably like the view better if there was something to see besides forest.
: I hate mountains...
: Stop complaining already!
: Is there anything you DON'T hate?
: Yup. Towns, music, and spoons. We have none of those up here.
: Again with the spoons... 
I go slow here to keep myself from accidentally stepping on those flowers. Don't wanna get poisoned any more than I have to!
Shortly after this screenshot, I run into a Cockatrice, which scares me into running all the way back to town to buy Gold Needles.
When I get back to North Mountain after stocking up, I actually use one of those Tents I've been stockpiling before heading back in.
Huh. Hadn't realized I was THAT close to a save point last trip. Maybe I shouldn't've bothered going back to town yet.
: Hey Mozart. Guess what I figured out!
: Well, I don't have any objection to learning to dance myself, but, um...
: ...did you REALLY have to put Galuf in that, too?
: HA! I TOLD you I could do it!
: "It" being traumatizing anyone who sees you...
: At least this is less embarrassing than that dancer costume... but for some reason I was starting to like it...
: That's called Stockholm Syndrome.
: Or maybe she has the heart of a performer. Who knows?
Doing this to get Hide on Lenna and Faris, mainly. They've already learned Dance, so it's not like they lose much.
: Okay, that was a pretty good change of pace, but I prefer singing, to be honest.
: Ugh...
After grinding out a job level, I switch everyone back to their old jobs for the next boss fight. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I want them to know every ability available to them. Not like !Sing needs all that much, anyway.
On the other side of that... I'm not sure that qualifies as a cave, so I'll call it an overhang. Anyway, Lenna sees a fancy helmet lying around.
A helmet which used to belong to the King of Tycoon. It's mine now, though... for as long as it takes for me to get around to pawning it.
Lenna is shot with an arrow from a bow that will never be relevant again. Let's just assume the string broke or something.
Said arrow is poisoned, because Lenna can't get a break in this game.
: (If anyone from Tycoon finds out about this I am SO dead...)
Random landslide because why not.
: Great... poachers...
: We kinda need that drake, actually.
: Do I look like I care?
: Poachers who are also slavers... looks like we've got a real piece of work here. Faris?
: On it.
Faris jumps over the gratuitous hole in the ground...
...though she causes another chunk of ground to break off upon landing.
: Ha! Nice try, but it looks like you slipped!
: I wouldn't gloat just yet- I'm sure Faris is used to this sort of thing.
: You should really listen to Mozart when he tells you not to underestimate me! This is NOTHING compared to raiding ships!
: Okay, so you're a pirate. Why're you so mad at me for doing this then?
: Two reasons. First: She's working with us. Second: You pissed her off.
: Wait, that's a girl?
: I... will... stab... you... SO... MANY... TIMES...!
: Well... someone's in trouble.
Faris tosses a rope over to Mozart...
...who catches it, and they both tie them to stakes they... just happened to have handy? Anyway, said stakes are then hammered into the proven-unstable ground so the guys can cross.
: Move it, young'un.
: OW! Dammit, you stepped on my hand, Gramps!
Amazingly, this plan works without a hitch or further collapses.
: I'll get you for stepping on me later, Galuf.
: Heard it all before, but nobody's managed to follow through.
: Well said, Mozart!
And thus, the battle with Magissa begins. As implied by the cutscene, Lenna starts the battle poisoned. Anyway, Magissa here has one crippling weakness: She's heavily reliant on magic in combat, alternating between tier 1 black magic attacks and a 1/3 chance of Aero.
: Y'know, it's kinda too bad you're so determined to be an outlaw. You could've made a good dancer.
: Ha! Why should I when I can just TAKE what I want?
First thing to do is toss Lenna an Antidote.
Magissa's first action is to cast Blizzard on Faris.
: Wait, what the- Mozart, where're you going?!
: To get a snack!
: 
: Get back here and fight like a man!
: I never said I was a fighter!
: Wait, Galuf! Don't hurt him!
: No deal!
: 
I guess someone has to restrain him...
: ...What just happened?
Yup, this is the Bard strategy in a nutshell: Go hide and wait for the enemy to exhaust itself, then come back to kill it off. I'll spare you the tedium of watching the enemies flail uselessly when I use it and just skip to when they run out of MP.
That's my cue. This was pretty quick, but boss MP gets ridiculous in this game (thirty thousand on one enemy?! That takes forever!).
: Y'know, you really don't play fair, do you?
: No such thing as fair in a fight to the death.
: You'd make a pretty good pirate actually.
I make sure to heal up with potions before attacking, because...
...Magissa calls for help after a couple turns' worth of attacks.
Forza is incredibly predictable, but can't be cheesed the same way as Magissa: He's nothing but physical attacks of varying power. Normally, Magissa would cast Regen on him, but she doesn't have any MP due to Mozart's antics.
I'm sorry, did I say "varying power?" I meant he hits like a TRUCK. On top of which, he's fast enough that I have to forgo attacking a few times to make sure he doesn't kill anyone.
Jitterbug is a real boon in this fight when the dancers decide to use it. Stealing HP from him is a godsend in a damage race like this. Mozart and Galuf will be spending the rest of Forza's life on potion duty.
And now that the big guy's gone, it's just mop-up.
: ...You guys are assholes.
: Look who's talking.
Boss Deaths: 0
Total Boss Deaths: 0
And, since I feel like I'll end up using it at some point...
Other Deaths: 0
They drop items that this run considers vendor trash.
Lenna thanks Faris for... something.
: Hey! What about me?
: You were too busy chasing me to do anything worth thanking.
: That reminds me, I should smack you for ditching us like that.
: I'm a travelling musician, not a warrior. Escape skills and running away are kind of mandatory.
: Hey, at least he came back and helped with those two, right?
With that scene finished, Mozart's party is allowed to continue up the mountain. For the record, King Tycoon's helmet is a Mythril Helm, which should sell fairly well when I get to a town.
At the peak, we find the king's dragon. He's not doing too well, though.
So Lenna runs off and gets herself poisoned again.
Missing: One sense of self-preservation. If found, return to: Princess Lenna, Tycoon Castle.
She gets the Dragon Grass, but is thoroughly poisoned in the process.
So much so, in fact, that she can't even administer it herself before collapsing, instead handing it off to Faris.
Faris feeds the grass to the dragon...
...who repays the favor by curing Lenna's latest poisoning. How it does that by poking her with its nose, I'm not sure... well, unless dragon drool has healing properties, which is just disgusting.
When Galuf suggests immediately flying off, though, Mozart mentions yet another thing he hates.
: You wouldn't be laughing if you broke YOUR arm falling off a house!
: Oh... um...
: Yeah... that, uh...
: I feel terrible now...
: You'd better.
: How old were you, anyway?
: About five or so.
So now we have a dragon! Not shown: Lenna's steering, since Mozart has his eyes closed and is clinging on for dear life.
So, how does the dragon compare to our previous methods of transportation? Simple: Boko prevents random encounters and, though this is irrelevant until MUCH later on, can cross rivers. Ships (of which you get several) sail the oceans, as you might expect. The dragon, on the other hand, can cross everything except mountains. Bit ironic, that. The dragon needs a flat surface to serve as a landing spot, too, so you have to land somewhere else and hike to heavily-forested regions like this.
The Tycoon Meteor is no obstacle to a dragon! Well, beyond landing, anyway, but who'd wanna land on a meteor?
...That was supposed to be a rhetorical question. You can put your hands down, guys.
Considering how long she's been missing, I feel it's probably about time Lenna visited her home.
Welcome to Tycoon! There seems to be a bit of a self-preservation shortage here, if Lenna's any indication.
Talking to the guard opens the gate.
He also mentions that someone's looking for us.
So we head inside to get talked at.
Apparently that chancellor-looking guy from the Wind Shrine ACTUALLY WAS the chancellor! Which calls to mind the question of "who was running Tycoon while the royals were away," but I suppose that's answered by "they left Lenna in charge, but she skipped out." Lenna would make a terrible ruler.
Seriously though, you'd think the chancellor's job would be to stay behind and make sure things don't break down while the monarch's out, instead of delegating that to a princess who is (for all we know) completely untrained and unprepared for the role and running off after said monarch. It seems competence is in short supply here, too.
The chancellor tries to poach one of our dancers with the Dibs System...
...and guilt tripping.
Lenna's having none of it.
: But the kingdom needs you!
Denied. Again: Lenna would make a terrible ruler.
How do you know? That was a Force Ghost you saw in the Wind Shrine, and who knows how long that helmet was there on North Mountain.
Oh, so NOW you decide to do your job?
Again, that was a Force Ghost, you don't know for sure if the king's even still alive.
As a compromise, the chancellor shanghais us into staying overnight.
Lenna's having trouble sleeping.
So is Faris, though she's got the excuse of being a pirate, and thus not used to sleeping in a castle.
By some strange coincidence, they end up meeting on a balcony.
Get back in bed before Faris drags you there and ties you down!
...wait, what? Anyway, Faris is stunned at this, and doesn't say anything in response.
Lenna takes this as proof that they ARE related, though I'm not sure why- silence is just silence, except when it isn't, and right now it is. I mean, Faris could've just been too busy going 
to say anything.
Faris stutters a little, but still asserts that what Lenna said is patently ridiculous- and, to be fair, she's right; Faris is about as not-princess as it's possible to be while still being female.
Case in point: She even flubs her own gender.
Anyway, she tries to laugh off the idea, but something seems to be bugging her...
...and she runs inside through the door Lenna exited from.
It seems Lenna actually has some justification after all: While she said she didn't have a brother when Mozart suggested that they were related as an explanation for where Faris got her pendant, she apparently reconsidered the idea when her REAL gender was revealed.
The next day, Mozart is sleeping in.
...or trying to, until someone literally throws him out of bed.
: Agghh... When I find out who did that, I'm gonna...
: Wake up already! We're all ready to head out!
: If I don't get to sleep in, then neither do you.
Right, now then, looting!
Apparently the chancellor has something he wants to give us. Hopefully it doesn't involve slipping Lenna a sedative to MAKE her stay.
This'll be handy when I get enough HP to need that much healing. I also get two Ethers, two Elixirs, two Phoenix Downs, a Maiden's Kiss, a Cottage, an Ashura, and a Shuriken. I'll be selling the Ashura and Shuriken at some point, most likely.
I found where the king flew off from way back in the intro! There's nothing interesting up here, though, so I promptly climb back down.
Curses! Foiled again! 
: Who the heck is Sarisa?
: 
He gives us a Healing Staff, then leaves, letting us get at the chest for a Diamond Bell. Neither of these are useful to me. For the record, the top-right chest was open when I got here; maybe that's where the staff was until he decided he wanted me to have it? Anyway, now that I have all this stuff, I have no more use for Tycoon. Time to go somewhere else!
The castle to the left is the next Plot destination, but I'll stop by the town to get some shopping done first.
Walse is... well, it's probably wet, considering this is where the Water Crystal's kept. Anyway, first priority, as always, is looting, so...
Ugh... Touhou fandom flashbacks. 
These are unlikely to be helpful. This seems to be the only item lying around in town, too.
The weapon store still hasn't been updated, but I can grab these for my Dancers in the armor shop. I also sell some of the junk I've accumulated for 4035 gil. Turns out the helmet wasn't as lucrative as I expected, and the shuriken was damn near worthless.
Well, when I've got a surplus of money, it's time to buy supplies! I top off on Potions, then buy 11 Antidotes, 10 Eye Drops, 9 Maidens' Kisses, 20 Mallets, and 10 Gold Needles. I think I've got enough Tents for now, so I have about 600 gil left over.
Well, done towning, off to the castle! There's water EVERYWHERE here. I think they went overboard on that...
First thing on the agenda is to brave the basement...
...running from these guys along the way (this one one-shots Galuf, with the other four I meet each picking off another character- I have to use two Phoenix Downs just to survive long enough to get back upstairs)...
...to get this, along with 2000 gil and a spell I will never be able to use.
Touching the gates causes the inmates to ask you to let them out, but I don't do that, since presumably there's a REASON they're in there. Besides, one of them is Lone Wolf, and I feel like if I let HIM out I'll miss out on some treasure somewhere! I don't care enough about that pot back there to risk such a thing, and it's probably empty anyway.
Well, everyone asks to be released except for this guy, who just comments on how crimes are still punished here. Well, if nobody enforced the law then the law might as well not exist, right?
As for treasure in the castle proper, there's this, a Tent, and 490 gil.
Heading down this central hallway...
causes us to run into the local king.
After greeting him, Lenna gets down to business.
The king doesn't see a reason to turn the machine off, though.
Even this isn't enough to change his mind. Apparently he's never heard of burnout.
And the citizens don't give a damn as long as the king spoils them.
Mozart's about to suggest at least CHECKING the crystal to be sure it's holding up well...
...but OH GOD RANDOM METEOR FROM NOWHERE! (Redux) It lands right next to the tower where Walse keeps its crystal, too.
This, at least, gets the king's attention; he promptly assembles a team to help him check the crystal.
He pauses briefly to excuse himself before heading out. He's an NPC heading out on an Important Plot Quest, though, so I place his odds of survival at somewhere in the negatives.
Now, before I do anything else, I head back to the town and hit the inn to rest after my Jackanapes mishap and pick up a few Phoenix Downs.
There's nothing here for me, but I'm feeling gutsy.
Into the Watertower, where I will most likely get my ass kicked humiliatingly.
: This is a terrible idea, and if we all get killed, I'm blaming you guys.
: Shut up and challenge the ice goddess already.
Note: We end up running into a couple Ice Soldiers on the square next to that sparkly square, but since it was a preemptive they didn't get to do anything.
: I can't believe I let you talk me into this...
Say hello to Shiva and her lackies. First thing I do is run and hide, because Shiva likes to cast Blizzara, which would probably destroy me pretty fast. Combine that with the three guys playing bodyguard while ALSO hitting for like 100 each, that'd kill me real fast. In fact, I'm not even sure I could handle just the guards at level 12.
: Y'know, I'm starting to agree with you, Mozart... this was a terrible idea.
After a bit of waiting for Shiva to exhaust her MP, I come back, and... huh. Turns out Tempting Tango works on these guys. That'll help a lot. Anyway, the guys are on Potion duty, while the girls Dance at the guards to kill and/or confuse them. It seems that if one of the guards is Confused, he just stands there... works well enough for me!
Huh. Wasn't expecting things to work out this well. At this point, with the last guard confused and Shiva out of MP, the enemy is literally incapable of hurting me, so victory is only a matter of time.
And now I just have to smack Shiva until she gives up.
You WISH.
: Okay, how the HELL did we pull that off?
: Apparently the guards were too busy drooling over us to actually fight.
: 
: Yeah, you'd be surprised what you can beat when it doesn't fight back.
Boss Deaths: 0 
frown:?)
Total Boss Deaths: 0
Other Deaths: 0
Nothing I care about. One of these days I'm gonna have to check to see whether I can actually break rods without equipping them- that's not talked about online, from what I've seen.
Umm... yay? I'll never summon anything (at least not directly), so this doesn't really matter.
After embarrassing Shiva, I'm still in near-perfect condition, so I walk back down (because the only way you can have too much experience is in a low-level run). And since there's nothing left in the castle, I head off to where I'm SUPPOSED to go now.
Say hello to the Tower of Walse.
As soon as we step in, we're confronted with heavily-wounded soldiers. Talking to them reveals that something called a Garula, which is usually peaceful, suddenly went berserk and mauled them. Why they bothered bringing it along I'm not sure...
I tested the Frost Rod in the first encounter here, but it turns out I can't break them as a Bard. Oh, well, more cash, I guess.
Now do you believe me? 
I find a Maiden's Kiss upstairs near a save point, the latter of which probably means we're about to run into this Garula!
Oookay, guess I was wrong! Four floors later, I find this, which reminds me that I actually have accessories to equip. 
I throw the Elven Mantle on Mozart, the Armlet on Faris, the Silver Specs on Lenna, and some Leather Shoes on Galuf. Guess I'm using the glasses after all!
After going around to the other side of the floor, I get this, too. Maybe now I'm at Garula?
Who is "they" and what is that giant hairball you're talking to?
Said giant hairball tosses the knight aside effortlessly, though. They don't make knights like they used to, do they?
It then turns its attention to Mozart... wait, is that an elephant?
Yup, it's an elephant. 
Anyway, this is Garula. Its strategy is pretty much the same as Forza's: Hit REALLY hard, and that's all it ever does. It mixes it up a bit, though: Sometimes it'll attack twice in one turn.
: ...Lenna, what the hell're you doing?
:
: ...I don't wanna know.
: No accounting for taste, I guess.
Anyway, Lenna's first turn is used on a Flirt, primarily out of curiosity.
: 
: I REALLY don't wanna know.
Turns out it actually worked. 
Tempting Tango works just fine, too. This guy's open to so many status effects that it's a joke to call him a boss.
Boss Deaths: You're kidding, right?
Total Boss Deaths: 0
Other Deaths: 0
I'll probably need every consumable I can get my hands on, so this is quite welcome.
Unfortunately, we're a bit too late- by the time Garula's been chumped, the crystal's starting to crack.
And then proceeds to explode before our very eyes.
: Would it be too much if I blamed the king for this?
: Not now, Mozart! We've gotta get to the next crystal!
The knight groans, stands up...
...and staggers over to collapse on the stairs, while calling to... Galuf?
: Shoulda figured we'd run into SOMEONE who recognizes you eventually. What's this "Lord" business, though? 
: News to me too, kid.
The knight uses his last breath to attempt to apologize for his failure, while explaining a grand total of nothing about Galuf.
Once again, Lenna picks up the fragments, hoping the crystal can be repaired...
...though one piece landed out of reach.
After picking up all the pieces she could reach, the tower starts sinking because why not.
Okay, so "the tower" is a bit of an understatement- the WHOLE DAMN PENINSULA sinks into the water.
Apparently Mozart and company didn't get out quite fast enough...
Oh hey, look who showed up to bail us out!
: You better not swallow.
: It's disgusting in here!
Lenna starts drifting away, though, so Faris has to swim over to tow her into Syldra's mouth. Apparently she CAN swim!
: It's dark as crap in here!
: Meh. Dark's not so bad, really.
: Figures this would be the one thing you don't freak out about...
: Beats drowning.
Syldra thankfully does not swallow us, instead spitting us out on a beach.
While the others collapse in soggy, drool-covered piles, Faris turns around for a happy reunion.
But Syldra is too weak to respond.
In spite of Faris's protests...
...the dying Syldra is swept back out to sea.
And once again, Faris has to be restrained from diving in after her.
After that scene, you get dropped off here, where I will be leaving off because this is kinda dragging on. Beat three bosses, though, so I'd say I made good progress!
Next time: False accusations!