Through the floor

We came upon a room with a couple of chests and a stone plate. The stone plate seemed to be not nice.



What's that odd feeling that something like this has happened before? Is that deja vu?

But we had a hunch that in this case the old adage of "music sooths the savage beast" would hold true. We looked in our packs to see if we had anything that would help us.



Of course, the Lute! I didn't mention it at the time as it seemed such a stupid gift for the service we had rendered. But when we rescued Princess Sarah she gave us her prized lute as a thank you. Amazingly enough that insignificant gift turned out to be one of the most important events in our quest. Thank you Princess Sarah, thank you.


So we played the apparently magical lute...



...and the stone disappeared and revealed a ladder to the lower dungeons.



Spooky!
Soon after that we gained another level, this time it was 28.



And not long after that we gained level 29. This dungeon was almost as lucrative than that power leveling peninsula so long ago.

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Made it!

One more out of character post. I finally beat it last night! I had forgotten about the "memo" saving option as I was playing before, which would have eased much pain. So this time through I saved in a number of places as I progressed through the Temple of Chaos. Though, of course, it turns out I didn't need to this time as I never died. No matter, I finally made it through and will have the rest of the posts up soon. And then it is on to completely uncharted waters...Final Fantasy II!

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Stupid...rassa frassa

Alright, a little out of character post here. I was pushing on through the final dungeon and taking pictures and getting ready to put up all of the last posts and start Final Fantasy II. It was not to be! I didn't take a certain boss seriously enough and all of a sudden Pinky, my White Wizard, was dead. That pretty much meant the party was dead. I had no healing power and more importantly no way to raise anyone from the dead. So Pinky was dead and Inky soon followed. That wasn't going to get me very far. I kept plodding on to see what was ahead. Blinky went down next and Clyde fought valiently on but didn't last too long. So I have to start the whole final dungeon again. Rrrr. I'll get back to it and hopefully get through so I can post the whole thing soon.

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Fights in the past

We quickly arrived in a temple that looked much newer than the one we left in the present.



A giant group of huge golems stomped up to us on our way.




An ewwy-gooey group of dark flan tried to overwhelm us.



A flight of green dragons decended upon us with intent to kill.



Level 27, such a high number, I like it.



Okay, then there was this group. This group really scared us. Somehow we defeated them

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Let's do the Time Warp!

There was nothing to do now but go to where all of the elemental energy was flowing--the Temple of Chaos. Though we had been there and defeated Garland ages ago, we'd better check it out.

We went in and walked straight ahead to Garland's chambers. There was nothing there except for a few bats and a crystal sphere.



We stepped up to the crystal and held up our own crystals. That seems to be the main way to get crystals to activate.





The bats then spoke to us and narrated what was happening.







Then the black crystal floated in the air...



...and exploded with a flash of light.



Time to do the time warp.

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A sweet new sword

So we took our newly found Adamantite to the Dwarf town and plopped it on the smith's forge.



Smyth was astounded.





He was so happy to just work with the metal that he made us an offer we couldn't refuse.



A couple of hammers later and the marvelous sword was done.





I'm sorry, the sword is "magnificent".



We made this old man's day.



And we were now holding Excalibur.

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Activate the last crystal

So we brought out our little crystal to ignite the big crystal.



And it lit up. Hooray! That's all four.





All we have to do now is walk back to that transporter and get out of here...Oh no! On the way to the transport we were ambushed by a super deadly group of Clay Golems and Mindflayers. Do you remember the last time we fought Mindflayers?



Luckily, they weren't as much trouble in our advanced state and were able to get out of there. Where to next?

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The final fiend

As expected, as we approached the orb, it spoke to us in ominous tones.



A being started coming into view.




And in front of us appeared a multi headed dragon! Which of course couldn't resist telling us about our impending doom.



We stepped forward and the battle was joined!



But we were able to achieve victory over our fearsome foe. Becoming invisible tends to help.



Level 26. Never hurts, never hurts.

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Up to the last fiend

On our way to find the last elemental fiend a Vampire Lord tried to turn us into his thrawls.



We finally came upon a long narrow bridge. It swayed in the gusting atmosphere and tested our nerves just walking. But the real fear lied in what could possibly be lurking in front of us. This was a bridge out of Lore--a foe rumored to be more formidable than any other now living patrolled it's span.





The WARMECH!

A hulking, fearsome, mechanical terror. Wielder of an ancient power called "Nuclear". Immune to fire, to cold, to lightning. It's automatic systems repaired some of the damage it received after every round of fighting. Truly a dangerous fight was on our hands.



We wished we had more pictures from the fight itself but we were too busy staying alive by the thinnest of tendrils. The fight was intense, but the rewards were great.



After dispatching this foe we stepped up to the Crystal Chamber to meet the last elemental fiend.

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Into the Looking Glass

We stepped up and what should we see?




We could peer out over the entire world! I bet there are very few alive that have had this view.



The elements started at each shrine we had visited and cross at the Temple of Chaos, where we defeated Garland. How very curious. I'm thinking we should venture back there once we are done with the Sky Castle.

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Fighting through the Castle

It didn't take long for the denizens of the Sky Castle to happen upon us and join in battle.

A group of Earth Medusas tried to turn us to stone with every gaze.



Then a Doom Knight, even darker and deadlier than the Death Knight, challenged us.




We were struck with vertigo whenever we had to venture near the outermost ramparts. The clouds were beneath us! Who would have been able to imagine such a structure before starting this adventure?



A serpentine Spirit Naga and an elemental of air called an Aeros leaped at the chance to test our mettle.



The joy of gaining Level 25 left us speechless.



What an odd looking stone!




Adamantite! Why, this is the legendary metal that the dwarven smith, Smyth, had spoken of. That seems like ages ago.



A friendly robot informed us of the handy use of this looking glass.



Unfortunately a less friendly Guardian and Soldier were guarding it closer.



We had to but step up and peer in...

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