Saving the Earth Crystal

Ah, the Dwarves. So trusting. They actually kip quite a lot o' treasure oot in tha oopen, which is good news for me. Of course, they also do some creative restructuring of the world, but you have to take the good with the bad. With a hole blown into the countryside (just what WAS in that nitro powder?), I can finally escape the confines of the world!






.... enough to reach a town in desperate need of Queer Eye for the Sprite Guy. Times are tough in this town, and the prices show. 36000 Gil for armor? 4000 a pop for spells? You have to be joking.

Since I can't afford as much of that magic as I'd like, I might as well carry on with my journey. It seriously feels like I've been fighting the same monsters over and over for the past two hours, so it's nice to have a change of pace and enter the Cavern of Earth. The first chest I find contains 1975 gil, half the cost of a spell.

Fabulous.

Levels, whether I want them to or not, come fast and furious in this place too. Fortunately, after a VERY short time, I'm up to 18000 gil again. That's not quite enough for all the magic, but Sylar's out of juice, so I really can't risk staying around.

The trip back to town pushes me right over the brink, so I stock up on way, way too much magic, and head back to kill the Vampire that's polluting the earth. He rewards me with a ruby, and a dead end, so I head back to yet *another* cave where a golem offers me passage to the other side of the continent if he can eat my gem. Hmm.

I'd rather fight him for the Gil and XP, but since that wasn't an option, I reluctantly gave up my precious gem and made my way to the infamous Sage who congratulates me on killing the Vampire, but apologizes, as I have to now kill yet ANOTHER beastie to really really save the Earth Crystal. Really.

So, back to the cave AGAIN. My financial problems are forevermore solved, as I'm floating at around 50,000 gil from just random encounters. A long, monster infested walk leads me back to the dead-end I hit earlier, and the earth rod makes the mysterious tablet vanish.

Some more treasure (yay!) and more windy passages lead to the first crystal, and the Fiend Of Earth! (TM). Thanks to Nul(Element) and Haste, he falls suprisingly quickly. Sylar, Matola, and Fiturr were all doing 300 damage a round, which, as you can imagine, adds up quickly.

The lich dies, the crystal glows again, and we teleport out in search of the next crystal to save.