Final Fantasy I: Dawn of Souls (Part 2)

Sail out to the east, back to the dock south of Cornelia, then go south until you hit land again. Go east and dock, then walk to the town south of here - this is Elfheim.

Right near the entrance of the town you will find the inn (100g), weapon shop, black magic shop, and white magic shop.

Weapon Shop
Iron Nunchaku - 160g
Dagger - 140g
Crosier - 160g
Saber - 360g

Black Magic Shop
Fira - 1000g
Hold - 1000g
Thundara - 1000g
Focara - 1000g

White Magic Shop
Cura - 1000g
Diara - 1000g
NulBlaze - 1000g
Heal - 1000g

This time I recommend leaving out Focara for Black Magic. For the White Magic, I recommend getting Diara for now, but you may want to swap it out for NulBlaze after we light the first crystal.

Northwest of the White Magic shop you will find two more magic shops, these ones for level 4 magic.

White Magic Shop
Poisona - 2500g
Fear - 2500g
Nulfrost - 2500g
Vox - 2500g

Black Magic Shop
Sleepra - 2500g
Haste - 2500g
Confuse - 2500g
Blizzara - 2500g

For the level 4 spells, I recommend leaving out Fear and Confuse. There aren't many situations where it is practical to use them, and often the situations you do want them for they don't work in anyway. Sleepra is very handy for an optional boss later on.

South of here (and a bit to the east) is the item shop.

Item Shop
Potion - 40g
Antidote - 50g
Gold Needle - 500g
Echo Grass - 50g
Tent - 160g

Then finally, further south is the armor shop.

Arnor Shop
Iron Armor - 640g
Copper Armlet - 800g
Iron Shield - 80g
Leather Cap - 65g
Helm - 80g

If you go to the castle (or talk to certain people in town) you will learn that the elf prince has been cursed into a deep slumber by Astos, the king of the dark elves. Naturally, we're going to have to go an do something about that, but not quite yet. Leave the town and go west, around some mountains, and then south. 

You should find what appears to be a pit in the ground - this is actually a dungeon, the Marsh Cave. Go inside. Save often as you go through this dungeon. The enemies hit hard, and a couple of them can inflict status conditions such as Stone, which results in an instant game over if all your party members are effected. It can be cured by the Gold Needles sold in town, but they don't come cheap.

First take the north path and go down the stairs at the end. On the lower floor, go into the room on your right and open the chest for a Dagger. Go left to another room and open the chest for 680 Gil.

South of here is another room, this one with a Broadsword and 620 Gil. That's it for here, so go back to the stairs and up, then take the south path (ignore the branch leading to the east, it's a dead end). Enter the room you find at the bottom and take a ladder down.

This dungeon is evil, by the way. Absolutely awful. Anyway, if you got the treasure from all the rooms before, all the chests here will be empty (they contained the same items). There are three doors out of the room you are currently in, take the one furthest to the left. Go all the way south and then all the way east and enter the other room here. Exit through the door on the right and go down the stairs.

This chamber contains 4 rows of four rooms. The bottom row are all locked for now, but here is what the
others contain;

Phoenix Down - Empty - Empty - 295 Gil
Copper Armlet - Cottage & Phoenix Down - Empty - Empty
Empty - Crown - 385 Gil - Phoenix Down

Note that for chests with duplicate items, once you get one the other will be empty. If you're going for all the items, I recommend going in a V pattern - Phoenix Down, Copper Armlet, Cottage,  Crown, 385 Gil, 295 Gil. What we want here most of all is the Crown, however.  Save before you enter the room.

Piscodemon x2 ~ 9
HP: 84
P.Def: 16
M.Def: 98
Weakness: None
Resistance: Fire, Ice, Stone, Paralysis, Poison, Darkness, Sleep, Silence, Confusion, Mind
Treasure: None

Feel free to reset if you get more than 2 or 3, because these guys aren't fooling around. I was level 15 with the best available armor and they were hitting me for 85 hp each. Note that pretty much the only thing they are not resistant to is Lightning, so use Thundara if you have it (and your black mage can survive long enough).

That's all we can do with this for now, so skeedaddle out of the Marsh Cave. Go north from the cave for quite a while and you will come across a castle. If you have the Tent or Cottage still, use one of those and save outside before you enter. If not you will have to heal with potions or magic, or return to town and use the inn.

When you enter, you will see that the place is in ruins, and there are bats flying around. Hmmm. Seems familiar. Go into the center room and talk to the king to start a battle.

Astos
HP: 420
P.Def: 18
M.Def: 170
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Treasure: Mythril Sword

Astos has a few nasty spells up his sleeve, so if you have a white mage that knows Silence try to stick it on him asap. He'll usually use his first turn (or close to first) casting Death on one of your characters. I usually just reset if it succeeds, I like everyone to remain consistent with exp and don't want to use up all my Phoenix Downs. 

For winning we get the Crystal Eye. Yay! Return to your ship and sail north to Cornelia. Rest at the inn, and then continue north across the bridge. Go northwest around the continent until you find a clump of mountains with a cave at their base. Go inside.

This talking broom tells you how to view the world map (push the B button and Select) though I'm not sure why it was necessary to put it backwards. Head into the main room for a small scene. All of the brooms in here say the same thing as the one outside, so don't bother talking to them. Inspect the chests on the left for an Antidote and two Potions. Talk to the witch to return her Crystal Eye, and get the Jolt Tonic in exchange. Now we have to sail back to Elfheim and enter the castle.

You'll find the prince's room over on the left. Talk to the healer to have them use the Jolt Tonic and the prince will awaken. He will give you the Mystic Key for your troubles as well. Go back toward the entrance of the castle but don't exit yet. Walk north along the outside of the castle's eastern wall and you will come to a store room that was previously locked. It contains a Mythril Hammer, 800 Gil, 700 Gil, and Bronze Gloves. Now exit the castle.

Return to the Western Keep. Once inside, go right and make your way around the inside perimeter to a room that contains  a Power Staff, Falchion, and Steel Gloves. These are all guarded (only at the front) by groups of four Mummies or Wraiths. Now return to B3 of the Marsh Cave.

There are four rooms along the southern wall that were all locked before. Three of these contain a treasure chest which are all guarded as well. The left-most room has a Silver Armlet, which is guarded by Anacondas (also if you step on the space two paces left of the chest you will have to fight more piscodemons). The second has an Antidote, the third has nothing, and the fourth has 1020 Gil - both of these ones are guarded by Piscodemons. Exit the cave, and thank whatever benevolent force you wish that we are done with the Marsh Cave forever.

Sail back to Cornelia once again (sigh) and enter the castle. Go around to the northern exit and then go down, right, and down to reach two more store rooms with an old man outside. The one on the left has Iron Armor, a Tent, and Nitro Powder. On the right you'll find a Cottage, a Saber, and a Mythril Knife. Next make your way to the Chaos Shrine. The southeast room contains a Rune Blade guarded by Gargoyles. The northeastern room has a Werebuster and a Gold Needle.

Head back to your ship once more and sail west of Cornelia, along the edge of the continent until you find another white port to dock in. This is where I'll wrap up part 2, so see you in the next chapter!

Go to part 3 -->

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