Hello everybody! Today, we're going to Air's Rock. I can already feel the dread from the Golden Sun fans in the audience.
We start outside the big purple rock, and come face to face with one of the main gimmicks; the Wind Stones. If you cast Whirlwind (or Gale, but we can't be Ninjas yet) on them, they send a huge tornado that can clear sand banks and the like.
We find a Mimic on the path. Too easy.
After one trick that involves using the same Wind Stone twice, we get a Cookie. Felix gets the PP boost.
We finally reach a giant purple Wind Stone. Casting Whirlwind on it wiped pretty much all the sand off of the rock, allowing us to climb it.
We are now further up the wall, and here there are statues that shoot whirlwinds that will move us to different places. This eventually takes us to the Storm Brand, which I give to Felix.
Felix reaches level 14 and learns Quake Sphere.
The next area is tricky. You have to climb the wall, but the wind statues try to knock us off. The area after that involves using statues in the ground to shoot us high into the sky. This takes us to a dead end, but we can Move open a path to use later.
As in right now, as we can now use it to go to another purple Wind Stone. This clears the fog from the top of the rock, allowing us to climb up there. Which we will first climb by going through the route that used to be a dead end.
On the way, Jenna reaches level 14 and learns Sleep.
At the top of Air's Rock, we find the Fujin Shield, which we give to Felix. Back to the path we were on a minute ago.
Another purple Wind Stone at the top gives us access to the interior of Air's Rock. Air's Rock is really confusing. There are dots on the ground that point out where you are: the number is what floor you are on (1 is the top, and it increases as you go down), and colour represents position (blue is left, yellow is centre and red is right). This is good for bearings, but is no help trying to figure out where to go. We start at 1 Yellow, and go down to 2 Yellow, which puts us in the main room.
The first puzzle we encounter (2 Red) involves Pound pillars and two Wind Stones. It takes us to a room (3 Red) with air vents that we can plug and redirect with pillars.
We proceed to 3 Blue, where we can use Wind Stones to rotate walls and climb through parts on ropes. We end up at 4 Blue, which is more of the same.
We end up back in the big room, and go down to the very bottom, which while unmarked, I think is floor 8. In the back, we encounter a Psynergy Stone in the form of a Final Fantasy-esque crystal. We also find another purple Wind Stone, which activates a lot of the statues inside the rock. A statue below us takes us back to 1 Yellow, where another purple Wind Stone activates the rest of the statues.
From here we head back to 3 Red. A Wind Stone we can now access lets us move a pillar into a place where we can use it to open an alternate path. It takes us to a summon tablet!
Felix can now summon Flora!
For 2 Jupiter and 1 Venus Djinn, Flora attacks at 80 Jupiter Power plus 9% of the target's HP, attempts to inflict Sleep on all targets, then increases the user's Jupiter Power by 30 and Venus Power by 10. Graphically, she shoots a ton of petals at the enemy.
We now backtrack a bit and go to 2 Blue. We can move a statue here and use it to get a Clarity Circlet, which we give to Sheba. We also unblock a vent to open a path to a different section of 3 Blue to where we were before. We follow some tightropes to get to 4 Blue.
The path leads further down to 5 Blue. Here, we have to Move a statue to stop it from blowing us off path. The path leads down to 6 Blue, where we can exit to the main room and let a statue take us to a big room in the centre of the rock.
Here, the platforms disappear when we jump on them, and it takes us to a tablet.
Wielder of Wind's might... Lay your hands upon this stone. We bestow upon thee the power to see the truth unclouded...
Sheba offers to touch the tablet, and it teaches her Reveal! It works the same as in the first game, and we use it right now to reveal the path back into the main room. We're now done here, so let's go back to Garoh.
Back in Garoh, we first use Reveal to open a path to the Hypnos' Sword, which we give to Sheba. We then follow the old werewolf from the last time we were here into the cave.
Inside, we find the young werewolf from earlier. Kraden scares him off, and we follow him. Hmm, dead end. But we can still hear the werewolf. We are about to look harder, when the old werewolf uses Reveal to come out of some rock with the kid and greets us.
Kraden: Tell me, who are you? How did you come to be here?
I should like to ask you the same question. Could it be? Do you outsiders possess the power to reveal the unseen?
Of course we do. The younger wolf does some growling, that supposedly means that we must've gotten through Air's Rock.
Jenna: Er... How come that kid doesn't talk, like you?
When we become werewolves, speaking the human tongue becomes more difficult.
Sheba: But you can... You must be someone special, then...
Hurh hurr hrrr... "Special"? Perhaps. Why don't you just call me Maha...
Maha inquires about our powers and we explain what Adepts are. This lot have been hiding from us as regular people have hunted and killed werewolves before as they are seen as abominations.
Maha brings up that it is too late to continue discussions, and we should go to bed. Kraden is upset that Maha might leave and there might be no more werewolves around, however Maha says that he will stay here, as learning Reveal left him permanently in his wolf form so this may as well be his home.
We even get to stay at the inn for free! But that's because it didn't actually restore my HP and PP. It's now morning, and everyone is back to human. We go visit Maha again. Kraden asks about the source of the lycanthrope's power, and he kind of annoys Maha by implying the power is unusual.
Maha: But surely changing one's shape is not really all that unusual.
Kraden: What are you getting at?
Maha: Think about the caterpillar for a moment. When the time is right, does it not transform into a beautiful butterfly?
Jenna: Well, yes. It's only natural...
Maha: And the pill bug and hedgehog? Do they not change their shapes to protect themselves?
Sheba: I have heard of those creatures, yes...
Maha: And many amphibians possess the power to change color at will, correct?
Okay, we get the message. Maha says that Kraden should have thought about it more.
Kraden: How insulting! I, sir... am a SCIENTIST!
Maha: Indeed! A scientist? That is impressive.
Well, that changed the topic fast. Maha has theorised that the transformation is just one way for humans to up their survivability. He then inquires more to the nature of Adepts, and Kraden brings up how their powers are (usually) from Mt. Aleph. Kraden says that most of the powers come from Psynergy Stones, and we use the crystal in Air's Rock as an example. We then theorise that the winds from Air's Rock carry particles of the Psynergy Stone into Garoh, causing all these powers.
Maha decides he must thank us for coming up with this theory, and gives us a Jupiter Djinn!
Felix found the Jupiter Djinni Ether!
Ether gives 8 HP, 4 PP, 3 Attack and 2 Luck. In battle, it restores 30% of a target Adept's PP.
We also get the Procne Summon. For 3 Jupiter Djinn, it attacks at 120 Jupiter Power plus 9% of the target's HP, then increases the user's Jupiter Power by 60.
OK, for now I have the Mars Djinn on Felix, making him a Ruffian, and the other two are in the same class.
Let's go, but first, I buy some Safety Boots to give Jenna some extra Defence. Next time, we go to see if Piers has been let out of jail.
Stats:
Felix: Lv 15 Ruffian HP:241 PP:63 Attack:170 Defence:104 Agility:85 Luck:2
Jenna: Lv 15 Illusionist (Mars) HP:201 PP:107 Attack:147 Defence:106 Agility:65 Luck:5
Sheba: Lv 14 Elder HP:138 PP:111 Attack:92 Defence:92 Agility:93 Luck:7
Djinn: 2 Venus, 2 Mars, 3 Jupiter, 2 Mercury
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