I headed down to Dalan and, with the help of the Sunstone, I broke into the palace, then the treasury. As Vaan was rummaging through the treasury a statue opened up on it's own and revealed a glowing crystal. Vaan snagged it just as two other thieves entered the treasury too. They identified themselves as Fran and Baltheir, and said the stone was the Goddess' Magicite, and it was theirs for the taking. Vaan thought otherwise, but there was no time to argue as a commotion was stirring outside and it was time to bail.
We started to run and Vaan tried to break away from the other two but Fran cut him off on their hover bike, and they snagged Vaan.
On our way out of the keep though, there is something else going on. Apparently the old knight Vossler and a girl named Amalia (obviously the dead Ashe), along with a great deal of soldiers, have broken into the palace to kill the new Consul during his Fete (welcoming feast).
But the new consul Vayne obviously anticipated something of the sort and the great airship fighter Ifrit comes out in the night, just destroying the resistance members.
As the battle rages on, the hover craft gives out and we crash into the lower keep, finding ourselves somehow in the dungeon or under the palace. Fran and Baltheir decide to temporarily team up with Vaan to fight our way out. Along the way through the sewers of the palace, we find a girl cornered by many imperials and though she's killing them, she's greatly outnumbered. We aid her and take down the soldiers. She introduces herself as Amalia, one of the leaders of the resistance, but we tell her that her resistance is all dead upstairs. She joins the party as a Guest, to fight our way out.
So the party consists of three members once more. While the combat system only allows complete control of one character at a time, I can switch between characters whenever I want, as well as set "Gambits" which are like AI commands for battles. When Guests enter the party as they have since FFII, you have no real control over them, their equipment, or their actions, and they leave when the story line dictates.
Anyway, we continued on, and I was very glad I went to the magick shop before going into the castle because I was blowing through Cure like crazy. Near the end of the tunnels I had a showdown with a Fire Stallion of sorts and had to bust out all kinds of Potions, Phoenix Downs, Antidotes, and Eyedrops to survive. I'd forgotten that boss fights in this game are actually pretty tough. But fun stuff.
Eventually though, the imperials found us once more and there were just too many this time. Vayne was there, and took Amalia away while the others are thrown in the Nalbana prison. Which is like an underground desert where the inmates are free to kill themselves as they please. After a while in there, we come into contact with some asshole Bangas and have to kill them. The guards come down, and we're introduced to a Banga bounty hunter who's looking for Baltheir, and we also get to meet our first Judge. The Judges act as judge, jury, executioner and commanders of the Arcadian empire. This judge in particular has come down to interrogate "The Captain".
While still hiding from the bounty hunter, we trail the Judge to see where he's off to. Maybe a way out. The Judge goes through some deep underground secret passages and finally comes to a hanging cage over a bottomless wide well. Inside the cage is Basch, not very dead. The Judge asks a few questions then leaves. After the Judge leaves, Fran tells us that the way out is down the well. She can detect 'Mist' and knows these things apparently. The party ignores Basch and tries to find a way down. Basch pleads with them to let him out. Baltheir says he doesn't talk to dead traitors, and Vaan jumps on the cage and starts yelling at him, telling him that everything wrong with the world is his fault, that he killed his brother Reks. Baltheir calms him down.
Vaan was a little loud though and the guards are coming. The only way to quickly get down is to cut the chain and ride the cage down, which we do. After we've crashed at the bottom, the cage is broken and Basch is out. He wants to come with us, and Vaan is having none of that, he'd rather kill him, but Baltheir says they could use an extra sword arm. Basch joins as a guest.
After working our way through a good bit of tunnels, Basch finally tries to defend himself. He explains that when they broke into the castle to stop the king, his party was surrounded and he was abducted. Then he was held and forced to watch as his twin brother, dressed like him, killed the king and Reks. Basch was setup, to tear the kingdom apart. Baltheir buys it but Vaan is still skeptical.
Eventually we get out of the tunnel, fight our way across the desert and find ourselves back in Rabinastre. The party splits and we keep Vaan, and are told to lay low, especially Basch. But Basch thinks it's only a matter of time before the resistance finds him, they'll want answers and he wants to clear his name and fight the empire.
After all the fighting, I got to spend a few points on the license board but at this point I have just enough points to get some cures and some boxes to use the latest weapons and some armor. Hope to knock out a bunch more tonight.
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