Yesterday, I left off outside the Cavern of Earth. I continue my Final Fantasy Marathon by heading west to visit a Sage someone in the town mentioned.

Bribing the giant

I enter a cave where a giant is blocking my path. He tells me he will let me pass if I give him the Star Ruby I got from the Vampire.

I give him the ruby. He eats it and moves out of the way. This character always reminds me of the Rock Eater from The Neverending Story, though hopefully he wouldn’t extort me for rocks.

In the southern part of the cave, I find a few chests. They contain a Great Axe and Mythril Helm, which are upgrades for my warrior.

Getting the Sage’s rod

I make my way out of the giant’s cave, cross a little grassy area and enter another cave. Here, I find the Sage Sadda.

Sadda tells me that there is another power behind the evil that is rotting the earth. He gives me the earth rod and tells me to use it to get past the slab in the room behind where I defeated the Vampire.

Return to the Cavern of Earth

Since Melmond has no item shop, I return to the Cavern of Earth and use a cottage to heal up. I make my way back to the slab and use the earth rod to reveal a stairway.

The stairway leads to some additional floors that have a handful of monster-in-a-box encounters. None of them produce any notable treasure.

The bottom floor has only a room where Lich, the Fiend of Earth, awaits. The Earth Fiend attacks.

My physical attackers do only moderate damage, but my black mage hits him hard with his firaga spells. Lich goes down in just a few rounds.

After the Fiend dies, the Earth Crystal regains its light, and our quest is 25% finished. Mercifully, there is a warp point to take us out of the cavern, so we don’t have to walk back out again.

Crescent City

I returned to Melmond to rest at the Inn and then hopped on my ship and sailed around the southern continent until I reached a crescent-shaped island. Inside the town, I purchased the Stona spell for my white mage and the Thundaga spell for my Black Mage.

I also bought a Mythril Axe and Mythril Gloves for my warrior and a Buckler for my Thief. The main attraction in the town is a circle of sages.

Talking to them reveals bits and pieces of the story behind the elemental fiends. One of the sages tells me that my defeat of Lich caused the Fire Fiend, Maralith, to wake 200 years ahead of schedule.

He gives me a canoe and tells me to use it to get to Mt. Gulag to take her down. I leave the town and use the canoe to travel on the river.

Journey to Mt. Gulag

Some of the enemies on the river hit pretty hard, but they are weak to thunder spells. Eventually, I reach the small island where Mt. Gulag is.

This dungeon is the largest so far. It has many treasure boxes that don’t contain many worthwhile treasures.

Some of the boxes have monster-in-a-box encounters with Fire Elementals, which are like the Earth Elementals, but fiery. Many of the pathways are covered in lava which saps my party’s HP with every step.

On the second-to-last floor, I pick up the Ice Brand, which is a nice weapon upgrade for my warrior. I also get the flame shield, which also goes to my warrior.

On the bottom floor, the only notable treasure is the Flame Mail, which is in the middle left room. It also goes to my warrior.

Several of the rooms are empty on this floor, so it pays to check your map. If you’re not a loot goblin, like me, you can probably skip most of the rooms.

The bottom left room contains the boss fight with Maralith. Maralith is a bit tougher than Lich, mostly because she is not as weak to my Black Mage’s spells as Lich was.

However, Blizzara does a decent amount of damage and between spamming that spell and hitting her with physical attacks, I take her down in a few rounds. Though she seems to have some weakness to cold, since Blizzara does more damage than Thundaga, my warrior’s ice brand performed rather disappointingly against her.

Maralith’s death returns the light to the Fire Crystal, making our quest 50% complete. I warp out of Mt. Gulag and decide to call it a night. I am now 4:40 minutes in.

Tomorrow, I will return to Crescent to rest up before heading to my next destination.