As I search for the FLOATER, I head north where I learn I can take my canoe right off the ship and
into a river (This gives me two types of places where I can dock-ports and
rivers!). I head into the northern section of the channel of rivers and I see a
sight that makes me really want to make it to subsequent Final Fantasy games!
 |
| Peekaboo; Arek sees you! Doesn't this look like a chocobo forest to you too? |
Finding nothing else of interest
in the northern channels, I move to the port nearby and explore on foot. I head
northwest and find Pravoka, the second town I came across in the beginning of
the game. After checking up on them I get back into my ship and head north.
 |
| I'll show you! |
Then, after some clever maneuvering, I find a river in the north, just like when I found the river to dock at just a few minutes before.
 |
| HA! With the canoe, I make my own ports! I just hope I anchored my ship before exploring. |
After showing the man from Pravoka
who’s boss, I canoe my way to a castle on the north continent, where I fight
some difficult cat men who poison me and beat up Vic. I sleep outside in a
cabin and enter the castle.
 |
| Looks like a safe place to sleep. |
The Abandoned Castle
Inside of this castle, I show my
CROWN to the old man, who tells me I must test my courage. I walk over to a
throne and am whisked away to an odd maze where I teleport from wall to wall
every time I touch a pillar. At first it’s straightforward, but as I progress,
I have to choose different pillars to go through, and I realize after a little
while there is only one correct path. Many of the pillars knock me back to
earlier parts of the castle, and the enemies in here are tough. Among the
enemies I fight are the Medusas, which can poison me with a physical attack and
turn me to stone with the GLANCE attack. As a trade-off, I get excellent
experience points and money here.
Once I find what I think is the
correct pillar to leave the screen, a pack of six red gargoyles ambushes me and
almost kills the entire party with FIR2! With a stroke of good luck, Arek finds
an opening for the party to run away. Then my good luck turns to garbage when
the game crashes on me!
Knowing what to do right off the
bat this time, I go in a second time, guns blazing! When I reach the second
floor, I get the drop on some red gargoyles, but I learned my lesson and ran
for it. After crossing a straight path (thankfully without any more
teleporting), I encounter the Nightmare.
 |
| I thought unicorns were friendly! |
After taking out the ferocious
Nightmare, I run to the chest and get a heal staff. As I cross the entrance to
get to the other side of the room, the same spot triggers two more of those demonic horses! I
guess instead of monster-in-a-boxes, there are spots that are guaranteed random
encounters, just like the Hall of Giants and when I fight monsters in front of
chests.
 |
| Really? That's gross! Whose tail is that?! |
Right before I can make it to the
throne, several MENCAT attack me. Even though I have a solid game plan, they
prove me wrong by killing Jule. So much for a nice, leisurely stay at the
abandoned castle!
 |
| Why didn't I take that one second to heal? |
The Zombie Dragon is graceful and
attacks Lee instead of killing Vic, giving me enough time to kill it in one
round. Now without any more steps to the throne, I high tail it out of there
and sail back to Coneria to revive, buy healing potions, and save at the inn
before continuing my search for the FLOATER.
 |
What’s with all of these weird
holes in the ground? More importantly, how do I reach them?
|
In the abandoned castle, I find the
Zeus gauntlets (which Arek can’t equip for some reason), heal staff (which lets
me cast HEAL on my party for free!), gold bracelet, another ice sword, iron
gauntlets, house, 1455G, 7340G, and TAIL.
Unable to find any more spots to
land my boat in the northern continents, I head back to the river channel area,
convinced I missed something. I keep thinking back to what the villager in Elf
Land told me about the FLOATER. He said I needed to go to the north of the
volcano, so I return to the river channel area, and sure enough, I missed a
turn earlier that takes me into a cave. I save with a cabin and continue my journey.
The Ice Cave
The cave is covered in ice and
only goes in one direction, so I walk to the right, where I encounter several
wizards. Thankfully by this point, wizards are finally pushovers, and I take
them down without any effort. It’s so rewarding to see progress!
In the second level of the ice
cave, I can move left or down, so I more left to see what is around me. I am
surrounded by wraiths and images, so I let Jule do the heavy lifting with HRM2.
When I see another staircase at the bottom left, I walk around and see that it
circles around without any treasures. On my way back to the bottom left, I
encounter a frost giant and frost wolf. When Arek attacks the frost giant, I realize
that I still have the ice sword equipped, but it still does 173 damage to him.
How strong is the concept of elemental strength and weakness? I also remember
it not doing that much more damage against Kary.
On the third level, I find a
staircase leading back up, which takes me to a treasure room with suspicious
circles that I expect will break and knock me a floor below.
 |
| Step lightly. |
As I approach the first chest, I
encounter a mage who looks just like Astos, and like the jerk he resembles, he
casts RUB and kills Jule on the spot! During the first round of combat, he also
casts LIT3 and takes out Vic. All that for a cloth! I don’t like the feeling I get here. Now I’m left
with just Arek and Lee, but at least I still have my healing potions! Once I go
for the third chest, which is completely covered in holes, I fall into a room
where I am ambushed by nine undead enemies. Lee escapes with barely any life
left, and after healing, I explore my new surroundings and find pools of what I’ll
call “icy lava” with the same effect as the lava in the volcano. To the left I
find another treasure room, this time without holes but with frost dragons
instead! Lee critical hits both dragons before Arek even gets a chance to draw
his new flame sword.
 |
| Not again! If only there were a float spell. |
Once I exit the treasure room, I
look across and see the right side has no treasure room, so I skip crossing
that patch of icy lava and move downward to find a room with six chests in the
southwest corner. Happy to know that just one chest gave me more than enough to
refill all my healing potions, I move to the southeast corner, where I
encounter another mage who uses RUB to kill Lee before he has a chance to fight
back. Now it’s just Arek!
 |
| Go Arek! Think of all the experience you will have for yourself!! |
Arek makes it for a little while
and even kills a big eye (who misses with the XXXX instant kill spell) to get the
FLOATER in the chest that I couldn’t reach earlier, but during the return trip,
I encounter two sorcerers who take him out with one shot. Disappointing, but it’s
nothing a break can’t fix.
Subsequent Attempts to Conquer the Ice Cave
The second time around, I take
some extra precautions. First, I have Jule on strict HEAL duty with the healing
staff as an item in combat (While it doesn't restore much HP per round, there's nothing wrong with free). Second, I pass over the chest that I know is a
cloth so I don’t risk another early case of instant death. Third, I use the
information that I had already written down from my previous journey to move
straight to the treasure chests and plan accordingly. Despite my careful
approach, I encounter three mages who strike down Arek and Jule! Now it’s up to
Lee and Vic to make it out safely, but then Lee and Vic die horrible deaths.
What annoys me about this area is
that my characters are strong enough to beat it, but the enemies have so many
chances to instantly kill me that I am not getting the chance I need. Determined,
I give it a fourth try (Let’s not even mention the third try, when three
sorcerers kill two of my party members outright that leads me to reset without
wasting my time!). To make things easier, whenever I see a sorcerer, I have Vic and
Jule attempt to run in case things go haywire.
Then I drop down and face the Eye.
Judgment time! The Eye attempts to cast XXXX on Lee and fails, giving me the
opening I’ve needed. Lee fights back and hits critical, and Vic goes in for the
kill with FIR3 before Arek can raise his sword (Oh get over it, Tankie; we survived
as a full party for once!). Now I can finally claim my prize.
 |
| Finally! It's the talk of the town! |
Before I can leave (another time I
wish I could learn EXIT), I have to drop into a hole and repeat the last couple
levels, so I cross my fingers and hope I can tough it out. Then I run into
three sorcerers and freak out, but when they go for the TRANCE/STUN instead of
the one hit kill, I successfully flee with everybody still alive. As I approach
the final staircase, I encounter three cockatrices and three mummies, which Vic
fries to a crisp with FIR3. Thinking the coast is clear, I run into the same
exact encounter, but this time the cockatrices turn Vic into stone while Arek makes
the escape. Free at last!!
In the ice cave I find a cloth
(guarded by that pesky Mage. If I die here, I am NOT getting that chest), flame
sword (which I immediately equip), silver gauntlets, ice mail (which I also
immediately equip—again with what I’ll call the Mega Man rule), 7900G, 9900G, 5450G,
5000G, 180G, 12350G, heal, 10000
G, 9500G, tent, ice shield (I drop the worthless cloth to hold it), and FLOATER.
G, 9500G, tent, ice shield (I drop the worthless cloth to hold it), and FLOATER.
Coming next time! The Stuff of Legends!
Thanks for reading, and leave your comments below!
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