2Chapter 3: Desert Peril
The Outlanders were once again at the pub.
This time, Marche volunteered to find a mission.
"What can I do for you, eh lad?" the bartender asked.
"Got any missions?"
"Yeah, I got lots of 'em. Anything specific you lookin' for?"
"How about any missions that a beginner clan can handle?"
"Hmmm...How about this mission for a criminal? Black Mage Dolce is wanted for dangerous magic use, among some other minor infractions."
"Dangerous magic use? I don't think we can handle that...anything else?"
"Well, there's been a rash of attacks by crazed monsters in the Eluut Sands area recently. The guy who posted the mission wants you to eliminate the threats."
"I'll take that one, thanks."
Walking back to his clanmates, Marche informed them of their new mission for today.
As they left the city of Cyril, Montblanc wondered, "I wonder what's making them crazy, kupo."
"You mean this doesn't happen often?" Ramza asked.
"No, not at all, kupo. Monsters are usually calm, unless they're attacked first! It's only been recently that these reports of crazed monsters have surfaced, kupo. I wonder what's causing this strange phenomenon?"
Ramza shrugged. "I guess we'll just find out when we get to Eluut."
Like the mission at Giza Plains, the march to Eluut Sands took three days, although they had to travel east, not south.
The march there was pretty uneventful. Each time they stopped to set up camp, they would first train their skills before sitting down to eat their dinner. It wasn't long until they arrived at the desert.
Searching for the monsters that were causing the attacks, though, was a different matter. They were too well hidden!
"So...How are we going to find them?" Vaan spoke up.
"Look for any signs that the monsters have been around here, kupo. You might find the bones of some unfortunate travelers, or maybe even the remains of their clothes."
"What?!" Marche asked, disgusted at the notion.
"Well, yeah, I know you may not be used to this idea, but here in this world, sometimes people die because they don't have engagement cards, or they end up in jagds, kupo."
"Jagds?"
"Yeah! Lawless places where judges cannot enter. It's horrible," Montblanc said, shuddering. "You should hope to never enter such a place."
A scream suddenly pierced the air, and all four Outlanders jumped at the sound.
Running ahead, Vaan spotted a group of creatures attacking a caravan. Calling back, he shouted, "There's some kind of jello thingy, a bug like the ones we fought yesterday, and three panthers!
The other three caught up to Vaan, and when Montblanc saw them, he correctly named the monsters present. "That flan is a Cream, that's an Antlion, and it's two Red Panthers and one Coeurl."
"Whatever. Now let's go! We gotta go help them!" Vaan shouted.
Charging ahead, Vaan delivered a battle cry. It wasn't a brilliant idea, but...whatever,
Montblanc sighed, before following Vaan with Ramza and Marche. As the moogle ran, he threw a card into the air. "I declare an engagement!"
A judge appeared then, and if the minds of any of the Outlanders wasn't focused on the battle, they would have wondered about how the judge could possibly survive in a desert wearing a full suit of armor.
"An engagement has been declared. Laws for this match: none. Battle begin!"
"Leave the Cream to me! Physical attacks don't do anything to it, kupo!" Montblanc shouted to his friends as he charged up magic for a Fire spell.
The other three, nodding at Montblanc's shout, branched off to fight different enemies.
"Boost!" Marche fired a powerful arrow at the Antlion. The bug managed to avoid getting hit in a vital spot, but the arrow still sunk into its armor. Shrieking, the creature turned its head away from the merchant it was terrorizing and charged at the Archer.
The bug was surprisingly fast, so Marche had no time to use another Boost. Instead, he opted to fire regular arrows at the attacking Antlion. Some pierced its armor, while some glanced off and fell off to the side. With another shriek, the Antlion was in attacking range of Marche. It snapped its powerful jaws at the boy, almost bisecting him. Using his bow as a blunt weapon, Marche smashed it into the bug's head, giving it major headache and damaging his Longbow. It would still work, but it would no longer allow its user to use the bow to its full potential.
Marche jumped back several times to create some distance between him and his target, before shouting again, "Boost!"
Due to the bow being damaged, the attack was on par with a regular attack from an unblemished bow. The bug, still dizzy from Marche's bow smashing into its head, did not dodge the weaker Boost attack and was struck in the head, killing it.
As soon as the adrenaline from fighting the Antlion wore off, Marche suddenly felt a weird sensation. Searching his mind, he realized it was because he finally mastered the Boost attack. It was a good thing too, because the bow would have to be replaced soon.
He was interrupted from his musings from a roar from a charging Red Panther. Turning to the incoming feline, he was scared for a moment since he did not believe that his weapon could last long enough to defeat this monster. Luckily, or unluckily for the panther, a bolt of lightning smashed into the creature, sending it skidding along the ground, fried to a crisp.
Marche looked back to find Montblanc with his new Firewheel Rod aimed at where the creature had just been. The yellow flan lay in a puddle behind him, obviously dead.
Ramza, who had been poisoned by the other Red Panther's Poison Claw, stumbled back, large claw marks across the front of his armor. It seemed that the panther's claws managed to bite through Ramza's armor and pierce his skin, inflicting him with poison. The panther approached Ramza with a triumphant gleam in its eye, but as soon as it was close enough to the Soldier, Ramza swung his Shortsword as best as he could in his poisoned state, managing to decapitate it.
Quickly raising his sword above his head, although it hurt him to do so, he shouted, "First Aid!"
The gash across his chest started to sizzle, before the wound stopped bleeding and managed to close. The poison was also flushed out of his system. It was times like these where he felt thankful for the technique. Suddenly, an influx of power seemed to flow through him. He questioned himself silently as to the reason for this surge, before he understood that it was due to him mastering the First Aid technique!
Grinning to himself at his success, he quickly looked around, scanning the area with his eyes for any remaining monsters. He spotted one: the blue Coeurl, which Vaan was fighting.
Charging ahead, Vaan had headed towards the blue panther, determined to take this one on by himself. The Coeurl growled at him menacingly for interrupting its meal, one of the merchants of the caravan.
Grimacing at the rag of cloth hanging from the beast's teeth, Vaan watched the Coeurl cautiously, waiting for it to make the first move.
The Coeurl obliged by roaring and taking a giant leap towards the Thief. With its powerful hind legs, it closed the distance between boy and beast quickly. It lifted up a paw and swatted at Vaan, who did not manage to react in time to the fast attack. He was sent sailing to the side, where he hit the sand and ended up rolling for several yards. Getting up with a groan, Vaan held the area where the Coeurl had scratched, which was bleeding slightly.
Ignoring the pain, he ducked under a paw and rolled forwards, right into the panther's guard. He swiped its chest twice before he had to back away from the panther's jaws.
Now they were even.
However, the Coeurl did not have a good grip on its emotions, evident by the angry roar it let loose. Taking another huge leap, the panther aimed to eviscerate Vaan.
The white-haired Thief had already experienced this once, and was not willing to do so again, so he moved quickly. He ran forward so that the monster would overjump, landing behind him. Spinning around, Vaan swiped at the creature's hind side before he was again swatted to the side, this time by the creature's tail.
Groaning once more, Vaan got to his feet shakily. Being a Thief meant that he was not exactly physically strong. Added to the fact that daggers did not do much when swiping a giant creature, Vaan was dismayed that he only had one thing to do: stab it in the heart. That, however, required getting really close to the Coeurl. Close enough, in fact, that he would be able to feel its breath on him.
And that was not a pleasant thought.
He could distinctly hear the sounds of battle stopping around him, proving to him that he still hadn't dealt with the monster he chose to face off with.
Determination filled him up again, and he took a deep breath.
The Coeurl continued to circle him like a predator.
A sudden leap by Vaan took the feline creature off guard, and in that moment, Vaan managed to stab his Jack Knife deeply into the Coeurl's chest. It grunted once, before falling over, apparently dead.
Vaan pulled his knife out and cheered.
"Winner: Clan Outlander!" The judge waved his hand, and all injuries were healed.
The rips in Ramza's undershirt were healed too, but the big hole in his cuirass didn't.
"Guess it means that I have to get a new one," he muttered to himself.
"You may start looting," the judge announced.
Marche quickly hurried to the Antlion he killed, and using an arrow that was impaled in the bug, he opened the bug up to find...a black bow. Pulling it out, he then tied his old Longbow to his back and held the black bow in his hand. He'd ask Montblanc later about what the weapon was called.
Ramza cut open his kill with his Shortsword, hoping to find a new piece of armor, but alas, his luck was not so good. Instead he found a red feather, which he knew was a phoenix down. He stored the item in his pack before pulling out the Silver Sword that they were given from the previous mission. Now that First Aid was mastered, it was time to learn a new skill. He put the Shortsword away.
Vaan used his Jack Knife to cut open the Coeurl. Inside was some gil, which he gladly removed from the beast's stomach. "How the heck did the gil even get into the thing's stomach?" he asked himself.
Montblanc, after finding nothing in the Cream and the Red Panther he killed, was approached by the merchants they saved.
"Thank you so much for helping," one man said.
"No problem, kupo!" Montblanc replied cheerfully.
"Here's a small gift for helping us. It's not much..." another offered.
Montblanc gratefully received the gil and weapon they gave him, before turning back to join his clan.
"Hey, kupo, the merchants gave us some gil and this Scramasax," the moogle told his friends. He handed the knife to Vaan, who took it with a smile on his face.
"Are we done with the mission then?" Marche asked.
"Yup! Let's head back, kupo."
"Alright! I can't wait until we get back so that I can try out my new knife!" Vaan cheered. "Oh wait, I still have to master Steal: Gil..."
"And I cannot wait to try my new bow, since I have mastered Boost. Speaking of which, Montblanc, do you know what this is called?" Marche questioned.
"Yeah, I think it's a Char Bow, kupo," Montblanc answered.
Ramza decided to speak up too. "You are not the only one to have mastered your technique. I have mastered First Aid, so I'm going to be using my Silver Sword now."
"Aw man, you guys mastered your moves already! No fair!" Vaan protested.
"It's because they use their moves in battle," Montblanc informed the Thief. "Your skill is only useful against those who carry gil on them, not in them, kupo."
Vaan groaned again. "I hope we fight some people who do have gil then," he said, wiping off some of the accumulating sweat on his eyebrow.
Ramza and Marche both sunk into the meditative state that comes with accessing new abilities.
Montblanc and Vaan watched on, waiting for the two to return to reality.
Taking the time to play with his Jack Knife, Vaan started to throw the knife around. Without a break in his little performance, Vaan took the knife and chucked it at the closest tree, sinking the blade of the knife several inches into the tree's bark.
The walk back to Cyril was a quick one, due to the excitement of two of the four members of trying out new abilities. They had hurried to the clearing as soon as they made it into Cyril.
"Come on, what's taking so long?" Vaan asked impatiently.
Marche immediately opened his eyes and fired an arrow. However, this arrow was not made of wood and metal. This arrow was made of some black substance.
"Ah!" Vaan shouted in surprise as the arrow hit him. He was blind! He couldn't see anything!
The Archer explained to his friend, "It's called Blackout. It takes away the target's sight for a few minutes."
"Make it stop! Make it stop!" Vaan howled.
Montblanc, pitying his friend, gave him an eyedrop. The item was applied to Vaan's eyes, and the darkness was suddenly lifted.
"Whew!" Vaan sighed. Turning to Marche, he shouted, "That was not funny!"
"Speedbreak!" a voice from behind shouted. Vaan tried to turn around, but he found that he was moving too slowly.
"Speedbreak," Ramza commented. "It reduces your speed drastically."
"Why do you two keep testing your moves on me?!" Vaan whined. "I'm going to get you back! I swear!"
The three laughed as Vaan comically tried to run at Ramza, but due to the Speedbreak, he was moving at a child's speed.
"Let's go get our reward for the mission now, kupo," Montblanc said.
"You guys mind if I head to the shop first? I need some new armor," Ramza stated, pointing to the gash in his Cuirass.
Montblanc gave him 1500 gil to use, which Ramza gratefully accepted before breaking off from his friends.
The three Outlanders stood in front of the bartender.
"So you stopped the crazed monsters already? I knew you guys could do it. Your reward is...hmmm...let me check. A Bronze Shield and this bag of gil."
"Thanks, kupo!" Montblanc said.
"Come back soon. I got some more missions for you guys to take!" the bartender replied.
The trio left with a wave to the bartender.
"So...now what?" Vaan asked.
"Let's take a day off, kupo!" Montblanc suggested.
"A day off?"
"Yeah, well, we've been training really hard recently, so I thought we should have a day to just relax, kupo."
"Alright then!" Vaan cheered. "A day off!"
"But first, we should probably go look for Ramza," Marche butted in.
After breaking away from his clanmates, Ramza headed to the Ramsen Armory, where he planned on getting new armor to replace his Cuirass.
The moment he opened the door, a loud jingling attracted his attention, and he looked up, seeing the bell hung above the door. The Armory was a clean place, if a bit dark, and it was crammed pack with weapons adorning every inch of the walls. He wandered in in awe, looking around curiously with big eyes.
"Hello! My name's Delia! How can I help you?" a voice called out from behind Ramza.
He spun around quickly, startled at the voice. What he saw was a young girl standing behind the counter. She had two elbows planted on the top and her face in her hands, while she leaned forward, giving her a look of cute innocence.
"Hi, My name's Ramza," the Soldier started awkwardly. "I'm, uh, here for some new armor. My current one got damaged real bad," he told her, pointing at the hole in the Cuirass.
"Ooh, that looks nasty! What job are you?"
"Soldier."
"Alright...follow me!" Delia came around the counter and started to walk off in a random direction, or so it seemed to Ramza. "Hmmm...nope. Not this. Nah. I don't think so...Maybe this? Nah," the girl continued to mutter to herself as she picked and replaced several pieces of armor.
Just as she picked up an expensive looking piece of armor, Ramza hastily said, "Sorry, but I don't have too much money. I just started a clan with three friends of mine."
"Ah. Well then," she said, walking over to a piece of armor left to the side. "How about this Bronze Armor?" She lifted up a large and brown piece of armor that looked to be in really bad shape. "It's not really one of our best items, but for a beginner it should do good against any weaker attacks, and it's really cheap too! It's just 600 gil!"
"Is there anything better?" Ramza asked, not too keen on wearing something that looked that nasty.
Scratching her head in a look of deep thought, Delia suddenly snapped her fingers. "I got it! I was going to see if there was anything else that was on the same level as the Bronze Armor, but I think an Iron Armor would suit you better."
"Iron?"
"Yeah! It's a stronger type of metal than bronze, so the armor will be more durable and can provide you with a better defense against anyone who tries to stab you or slash you. However, I should warn you that it is heavier, so it might take some time to get use to. I suggest wearing it for a week or so before joining any real battles. Oh, and the Iron Armor is 1200 gil."
Handing over the necessary gil, he took the Iron Armor from her and slipped it on after removing the damaged Cuirass.
"Hey, I'll buy that Cuirass off you!" Delia suggested to Ramza after he carelessly dropped it on the ground.
"Really? Why would you do that? It's not really useful after taking that much damage..." Ramza trailed off.
"Well, it could be easily fixed. And think of it this way. You are technically getting a discount on your Iron Armor for trading in something you don't need anymore!"
"If you put it that way, then can I trade in my Shortsword too?" Ramza asked, pulling out the weapon from his pack.
"Sure, but just so you know, since you can get the Cuirass and Shortsword free at any Clan Building, they're not really worth that much. The only people who would want to buy it would be people who want to start over with a new job."
Shrugging, Ramza just handed over his things to her, and she gave him 50 gil back.
"Thanks for the business!" Delia chirped at Ramza.
The Soldier smiled at her and thanked her for helping. With a small wave, he left the shop, ready to return to his friends.
Ramza headed towards their little clearing, where he was sure they would be. He was right, but he expected them to be doing some sort of training. He was wrong in that aspect, as the three boys were lounging about, waiting for Ramza's arrival.
"Hey guys," he greeted. "Why aren't you training?"
"We decided to take a break from training, but we had to come here first to tell you," Vaan informed him.
"Hey Ramza, you didn't buy a shield did you?" Montblanc asked.
Ramza slapped his hand to his head. He had planned on buying a shield at the shop but he forgot all about it!
Seeing Ramza's response, Montblanc said, "Don't worry, we got a Bronze Shield as a reward for the mission, kupo. Here. Nice armor by the way."
Ramza took the shield from the moogle and kept it in his left hand.
"You should see if it has any abilities, kupo," Montblanc said with a twinkle in his eyes.
As Ramza did as suggested, Marche asked Montblanc, "Wait, armor can have abilities too?"
"Yeah, kupo! That's how you get support and reaction abilities. You remember those, right, kupo? You learned about them in that book I showed you the day we met."
"Oh yeah."
"Shieldbearer," Ramza suddenly announced.
"What?"
"That's the name of my ability. Shieldbearer. It allows me to use a shield, regardless of my job," he informed his clanmates.
"Cool," Vaan said with a grin. "Now that we're all together again, let's go have some fun!"
List of all the places in FF Tactics Advance:
Cyril: Busy town. The monster bank is on its outskirts. Ramsen Armory, The Prancing Chocobo
Sphrom: Bangaa mountain town. Home to the prison.
Bervenia Palace: Capital of Ivalice.
Muscadet: Mainly viera town hidden deep in the woods.
Cadoan: Nu mou town. The seat of knowledge and alchemy.
Baguba Port: Moogle town with a large mercantile airship port.
Nubswood: Deep, dark forest. Popular hideout for thieves.
Giza Plains: Rolling grassy plains. Muscmaloi grows here.
Kudik Peaks: Towering peaks. Home to an endangered tiger.
Uladon Bog: Deep and dangerous bogland dotted with islands.
Jeraw Sands: Hot sands blow in this largest desert in Ivalce
Lutia Pass: Much-traveled pass, with the occasional roadshop.
Koringwood: Refreshing wood filled with ambient pure magic.
Ulei River: Largest River in Ivalice. Winds through swamplands.
Aisenfield: Plains where the thirteen knights of legend fought.
Roda Volcano: Volcano asleep for 300 years. Recently active.
Eluut Sands: Dangerous desert home to many fiends and treasure.
Nargal Cave: A cool wind blows from inside this cave. An ancient city is said to sleep in its depths.
Salikawood: The chirping of birds can always be heard here. An abandoned keep stands in the middle of the wood.
Delia Dunes: Desert area famous for its barking sands. Said to be formed from a celestial beast's bones.
Gotor Sands: Desert famous for its mirages and red chocobos.
Ozmonfield: Gently rolling plains with occasional insect plagues.
Deti Plains: Flatlands of yellow sand and red earth. Amber can often be found here among the rocks.
Siena Gorge: Deep valley. A source of amber, like Deti Plains.
Materiwood: Lush green forest famous for its materite ore.
Tubola Cave: These caves were once mined for their mythril.
Jagd Dorsa: Lawless jagd. A deserted town.
Jagd Helje: Lawless jagd where ghostly voices are heard.
Jagd Ahli: Lawless jagd destroyed by its own wild magic.
Ambervale: Beautiful valley where rocks glow amber. The kings of Ivalice had a summer palace here.