Chapter 22: Desert Palace & Mt. Gulug

 When we left off, our heroes had narrowly escaped Kuja’s Floor of Death with the help of Froggy-Cid. It’s time to work our way through the palace and confront the jerk. From the Hourglass Room, go left a screen. Next screen, go all the way and up the stairs. This place is a real puzzle I should warn you. In this first room, with the two angel statues, there is a candle right in front of the left angel. When you step in front of it, you will get the ! symbol. Lighting the candle will cause an orb across the way to glow. Step in front of it and take the item from it (Promist Ring). Continue north to the next room. Walk all the way right then all the way left like you’re going to leave to reveal a staircase. Go up and light the candle on the far right side of the balcony. Go back down. In this room now, on the fair right, is a chest (Fairy Earrings). Now, exit to the left.

We are now in the most complicated room of the palace. I have a map here, borrowed from gamefaqs.com. First light candles A and B to reveal a door. Run through the door and around to the other side of the room. Next light D. Run back around light C. In the middle section, light G and H. Back to the other side, light E and F. Finally light I to make the bloodstone in front of the angel glow. Remove it for an Anklet. Light Candle I also revealed the door on the right side of the room. This room, to be honest, really gives me a headache, each time.

In the next room, you can see two angels. One is lit, one is not. The candle is in front of the unlit angel. Light it to light up the bloodstone. Take the Shield Armor from it and go around and the bottom of the stairway is towards you in the glass, so hit down and then right to go up.

Right at the top is another candle. Light it. Walk all the way around. You’ll see the bloodstone out of reach on another balcony. We can’t reach it right away so continue into the next room, the library. You want to light the candle on the floor on the left side. Go up the stairs created to light the candle on the third floor. Go through the door revealed by the the staircase. Take the N-Kai Armlet from the bloodstone we couldn’t reach before and return to the library. Light the candle on the second floor to move the staircase up. Go through this new doorway and up the stairs. Light the candle on the first landing and continue up to light the second. Return to the library. Finally light the last candle to reveal yet another door. Light the candle out this door and go back. You can now proceed to the left. You’ll see a moogle waiting for you. Save, Tent, Mognet. This is the ideal place to grind for AP at this time. Again, teach all the low AP abilities (Low being under 150). When you’re ready to move on, save again and go past the moogle.

In this room, light the first two candles. Claim the Black Hood from the bloodstone and unlight the left candle. Proceed through the door and around the balcony and back into the same room except the other side. Light all three candles here and claim the Venetia Shield. Unlight the left candle on this side now. A translucent staircase should appear. Return to the moogle and tent and save one last time. Go back and up this new flight of stairs and into the final chamber of this area. Try to light the candle at the top of the stairs to trigger the next boss fight with...

Because you lit all the candles and took all the treasures, this thing doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance. Since I did not recommend learning Auto-Reflect in previous chapters (I still don’t this is the only battle where it MIGHT come in handy and there’s no point in wasting all that time for one battle), go ahead and have Quina knock out it’s MP instead.

After kicking this thing into next week, remove everyone’s equipment and light the candle and proceed to the lit platform and hit X.

Zidane and his party is back from the Forgotten Continent at last and we now have control over them. Equip them for the walk back to Kuja’s teleporter. Take the teleporter and go into Kuja’s chambers. You once again get the chance to change party members after the events are done. Here’s a hint. Vivi will go with you to the next area whether you like it or not. Dagger will appear in the next, whether you take her or not and you will have to use her to fight. And the next area has new blue magic to learn. So go ahead and save time. Vivi, Dagger and Quina are the ones you want. Equip the three mages with Magus Hat and give Zidane the Rosetta Ring to protect against fire elementals. Be sure to also give the others equipment that either absorbs or neutralizes fire. If you taught Vivi the Magic Elem Null, equip this ability.

Look around Kuja’s room and find a Namingway Card on the table with the papers and books on it . Return to the teleport pad that we arrived on and take it to the Hilde Garde 1. Oh no! Kuja’s already escaped! Take the path past the dock and on the next screen, you’ll find a lever to a ladder off the cliff. Climb down and just follow the cliffs down and around to exit left.

We get a scene of the Blue Narciss chasing the airship (god, that’s a slow airship). We get another pointless “Change Your Party” section, since we already know who we want and we just changed our party minutes ago. Oh well, Vivi, Dagger, and Quina and let’s go. Be absolutely positive that you have Body Temp equipped. Antibody wouldn’t go amiss either.

Before moving on, go back around to the Qu’s Marshes we can currently reach to get more frogs.

Once you’ve gotten back from the frog hunt, enter the structure built just outside the mountains to the left. Be careful outside the veranda, Kuja left some Garudas to impede our progress. Walk in and trigger another short scene. We learn that Kuja did indeed come through with his flanks of Black Mages and an unconscious little girl. Before going out the exit, turn right at the gold lights to enter the Shop. If you run counterclockwise until you’re on the other side of the desk, you can find a Wing Edge.

Shopping List
2 Zorlin Shapes
1 Flame Saber
1 Heavy Lance
1 Scissor Fangs
1 Asura’s Rod
1 Hamelin
1 Octagon Rod
4 Red Hats
3 Black Hoods
5 N-Kai Armlets
20+ Vaccines

Be absolutely sure you buy everything on this list, especially the Vaccines and Octagon Rod. Almost everything here is a last-chance purchase. Octagon Rod will teach the –aga spells to Vivi. Again I advise equipping items on Zidane and Quina that will either reduce or absorb Fire elemental. Give one of them the Rosetta Ring and give the other the Adaman Vest and the Black Hood to cover this. Give Dagger and Vivi the Magus’ Hats and Adaman Vests (remember how I always advise don’t SELL anything, this is another reason I do that, beyond Synthesizing needs). If you haven’t taught Dagger the Shiva Summon yet, equip her with the Opal now and begin work on that (although you should have that taken care of by now). Yes, I know Dagger will have issues because of her muteness but she’s still an awesome asset and Shiva will be a God-send in this upcoming dungeon.

Return to the first room of this small town and exit up the stairs ahead. We could have come here earlier and picked up Mythril Equipment, but there was no need because had enough and that’s all we could have done here aside from getting that Wing Edge.

Talk to the moogle on the next screen. Save, Tent and Mognet twice. If you go up the stairs behind the moogle and stand on that little pier, you can get a look at a very prettiful glacial island. Go right at the moogle instead and keep on going straight to enter...

MT. GULUG
 

Welcome to Mt. Gulug, which is also a reference to the Gurgu Volcano from Final Fantasy Classic. We have two pathways right now. Left or right.

We’re going to start by going to the left.

The first thing we find in this place, at the bottom right corner is a stash of 9693 gil for the taking. On the second floor, among the debris is an Ether. Run left out the door to the next screen. Climb down this ladder and search for a Red Hat. Return to the first fork in the road and this time turn right. As we cross through this next room, a shadow will fly over us. I wonder what that could be. Oh well, can’t possibly be important so move on and run around the well until you’re beneath the remains of a path. Jump up. Run through the door at the end of the path. In this room, a Golden Hairpin waits for you in a chest before you return to the well. Slide down the well’s chain and hop off. Turn right and meet Moolan the Moogle. Save, Tent and Mognet. Give her the letter we got a while back and get a letter to give to the next moogle in the sequence. In the right hand bottom corner of this house we’ll find a Wing Edge. Exit through the right hand door. Go through the door at the end of this next path. In this house walk up the stairs and around out through the top tier. At the dead end is a Gaia Gear. Head back towards the well. We are encountered by a pair of Red Dragons before we can make it out of the house. Try to eat one to learn the Twister spell. If you can’t do it the first time, we still have two more battles with these guys coming up. Make sure to save and tent on the way back to the well. Back at the well, take the left fork. Go into the house and get the Demon’s Mail. Exit and take the path directly next to this house. Make sure you heal. Mogtaka waits for her letter, so save, tent and mognet a couple of times. Go up the stairs and into the next house. As we move to claim the Elixir, we are confronted by the Red Dragon Team a second time. If you didn’t get Twister last time, here’s chance #2 today. Head back to the well again. This time interact with the lever on the left side and pull the lever down 3 times to drop the chain to the third level.

We are attacked for the last time by a pair of Red Dragons. This is the last chance for Quina to make a meal of one of them too. After beating the Red Dragons for the last time, it’s time to prep. Make sure you equip Dagger, Quina and Zidane with Antibody. It doesn’t matter how Vivi’s equipped now because he won’t be there for the boss fight. However, Eiko will be which is why we kept her equipped after Oeilvert. Also, if you hadn’t brought Dagger in the beginning, we’d be getting her now. Like I said, she was joining us whether we liked it or not.

After some story, we learn that Mog is not really a moogle at all, she’s an Eidolon named Madeen (mistranslated FFVI reference). Madeen wanted to be near Eiko and protect her and now the time has come for her to become merely another summon which we’ll rarely use. Although to be fair, Madeen is pretty awesome powerwise. When she gives Eiko the Ribbon accessory (remember the Ribbon from near the end of disc 2), we enter into an auto-battle with Zorn and Thorn. It’s just Eiko but we auto-summon Madeen and wipe the floor with them. So this has to be the end of the area right? We beat the boss? NOPE! Vivi at this time leaves the party and Eiko joins us just in time for Kuja to reveal Zorn and Thorn’s true nature and return them to their primal form, Meltegemini. BOSS TIME!

Watch out, watch out, watch OUT for that Viral Smoke attack. Heal it after being afflicted without delay. If you leave it go, you will not get any AP for the battle. That would be bad. After the battle, we get more story and we wake up back in Lindblum’s Guest Room. Mognet and Save at the moogle.

We will end this chapter here. Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you all again next time. Comments appreciated.

Next: More Sidequests