When we last saw Benjamin, he and Reuben had decided to go to Fireburg, acting on the assumption that Reuben's father Arion knew about "Thunder Rock".
After walking through the World Map, the Focus Tower, and the World Map again, we finally got (back) to Fireburg.
"Yes, Thunder Rock is the name of the band that plays at the inn every night. I am a huge fan and have a poster of them beside my bed, see?"
Arion then rolls over and proceeds to do something which, I can only hope, is searching his pockets, or the side of the bed, for the rock.
Arion: Here, take it.
I must admit, I didn't actually expect him to have it. I expected to have to go to some dungeon situated a million miles away, then do something completely irrelevant, like stab a giant moth, before he'd turn around and tell us that he leant it to his friend in somewhere-no-one-should-be-able-to-get-to-ville.
After a walk back through the World Map, Focus Tower and World Map again, we finally make it (back) to Windia.
"Yes. Arion had some just lying around. It doesn't seem all that rare to be honest."
And, after a familiar noise that sounds suspiciously like thunder, which is somewhat justified what with it using Thunder Rock and all...
Yep. That's it. The "Thunder Rock" situation was a fetch quest consisting entirely of "Go somewhere else then come back". No monsters, no puzzles, nothing.
Fun stuff.
But anyway, now we have to go to Spencer's Place.
The Rainbow Road simply appears out the top of Pazuzu's Tower's Island. Maybe we wouldn't have needed to power up the machine if he just turned off the road to the Tower and had one road?
One step in and Reuben's already blowing stuff up. The Mega Grenade explodes, and the screen shakes a bit.
We cut to outside, supposedly to see Mac's Ship float over to an island, but actually...
...so they wouldn't have to show Spencer's Place changing as a result of the bomb. Those lazy, lazy people.
NO.
There is important stuff here. Specifically, the NOT QUITE INFINITY Mobius Crest.
On the other side of the stepping stone, there's a Mobius tile, and an up-blowable door.
Beyond the door is a Gemini tile.
Beyond the tile is a tunnel.
Through the tunnel is a dead end. I am one square above the door, and stuck because apparently you can only blow up doors from the front.
So we backtrack back to the Mobius tile, and head on round where there's nothing.
I'd imagine that Mobius tile connects to the one we've already encountered, but without the Crest, it's not useful.
So we backtrack back to the front door and head upwards instead.
And we can climb down into the water. Path around the top left leads to a dead end, so we'll head down and left.
And just around the corner is a platform we can climb up and, from there, we can bomb the door.
So we do that, then go all the way back to the door again, then go through it.
And just past the Mobius Tile is the Mobius Crest! Now let's go talk to Kaeli!
Kaeli: Thanks. I'll head there now.
Benjamin: But the ship's full of monsters. Let us go first.
Kaeli: Give this Captain Cap to Dad when you find him. Then he'll know I'm coming.
The Captain Cap does not seem particularly special but...
It is the final item in the game. There is nothing more satisfying than a full inventory. I'm almost certain that filling your inventory is the sole reason that the Thunder Rock and Captain Cap exist. Also, I find it a bit weird that we still have the Elixir, Wakewater and Thunder Rock despite the first two already being used and the last actually currently being in use to power the Rainbow Road.
Whatever.
Now that we have the Mobius Crest, we can answer one of the game's big questions. The one that's been bugging us Chapter 9: "Just what is in that tree in the Alive Forest?"
I know the answer to this question, and it is something so huge, it might just blow your mind.
Scroll down at your own risk.
...
Exciting stuff.
Of course, now that we have the Mobius Crest, we can solve another problem. One that's been bugging us for even longer: Captain Mac.
Remember that guy with a warp to the Ship Dock in his basement? Now we're going to go through it.
Mac's Ship always looks the exact same size regardless of how far away it is, with one notable exception.
That exception, of course, being when you're actually on board. The inside of the ship is pretty big, but depending on how far away you are, the outside can be either bigger or smaller than the inside.
Mac's Ship is, in essence, a quantum TARDIS.
We'll start at the front of the ship and work our way back.
At the front, we have two sets of stairs which clearly lead to the same place, and a flight leading down a floor. Let's take the Chimera and stairs on the right.
At the front of the ship, we have a cluster of enemies guarding a treasure box. To get to it, we need to fight Naga, Chimera and Thanatos. Which Naga we fight is irrelevant, we can still get to the box, and the Explosives within.
What confuses me is the fact that Mac's figurehead has been made so very scary when he's, presumably, one of the good guys. It's a commonly accepted fact that good things do not have glowing eyes. I am worried.
We'll head back up, and down to the next floor.
We'll head left, and take the Chimera and Gargoyle, before heading up and through the door guarded by another Gargoyle.
You may have noticed that we are yet to encounter a new enemy in this dungeon. That does not happen at all in this dungeon, so if you were expecting yet another crazy re-skin rant, you must be OH SO DISAPPOINTED.
You may also have noticed that this dungeon's gimmick is... well... making sense. The rooms on each floor fit within the shape of the ship and everything's sort of symmetrical. It's all very... reasonable. I don't like it.
It is possible to fall down these holes and those cracked bits of floor collapse the moment you set foot on them, so they may as well be holes themselves.
The stairs take us back to the top floor. Just off-screen to the right is the start point. There's a Thanatos guarding the steering wheel of the ship. Killing it allows you to do bugger all, because the wheel has no function.
We'll head back down, kill the Naga, and head through into the next room.
What looks like a dead end is, to the person who spent ten minutes staring at a space wide gap, easy to get around.
So we jump over, and shoot our claw over to the peg on the far right.
Oh no! It doesn't reach! Presumably we'll have to get it...
...ANOTHER WAY.
So yeah we'll kill the Gargoyle and head through.
Ah well this is easier. We shoot over, kill the Chimera, and get the treasure box.
It turns out to contain Cure Potions.
"Hey, how are you going to get back?"
...
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
So we completely intentionally drop down onto the next floor down.
An empty room, with nothing but some Gargolyes to kill, which we do. The path leads to a big room with a flight of stairs which take us back up.
There's a Gargoyle blocking the door out of the room. Is that the treasure box and peg in the bottom left the same treasure box and peg we couldn't reach earlier? Yes, it is.
It's got Cure Potions in it, and that handy peg below let's us scoot right back over here so we can head down into the next room.
Not so fast! There's a Naga to kill!
A flight of stairs going upwards is revealed, but we skip it for now and head down. Notice the three Gargoyles and the stairs leading upwards at the bottom right? Yep, this is the other side of where we came in, so we'll just leave it, and head up the stairs we've got.
And hey, we're pretty much right back where we've started! In the time we've been on this ship, we've moved a total of four tiles. Hooray for us.
For the sake of exploration, we'll head back downstairs.
A bit paradoxical to go somewhere we've already cleared out for exploration's sake? Well, between that last Naga and the stairs up, there were a few pits. Obviously, since we're in such a different place, we won't land in the same room, so let's jump down.
And here we are. You can't see past the B2 marker but there's a Gargoyle guarding the other door as well. We'll head left again.
And beyond the door, there's basically the same thing. Take note of the room with the treasure box in it.
The door beyond that Thanatos leads to it. It's got Explosives in it.
And here the symmetry can be seen. Down the stairs, through the Gargoyle, through the other Gargoyle, up the stairs and through the door that the Thanatos is guarding is another box of explosives.
And hey, around the corner, there's another Thanatos.
Here's a Gargoyle, guarding the room we started the floor in. How convenient.
Since we're still on the right hand side, let's head up the path on the right, and through a little door.
There's a Thanatos. I'd kill it, but I'd rather head up the right hand side to confirm that...
...he is, in fact, guarding a completely empty room. For some reason.
Back on the left hand side, and heading up the path to the left of where the Gargoyle was, we find that the Thanatos is, instead, guarding the little door.
Still the same thing on the other side though: A Thanatos guarding an empty room.
OR IS IT?
Rather surprisingly, no. The boxes contain Heal Potions, and yet more Explosives. Unfortunately...
...we can't carry any more. Boo hoo.
The clever ones among you will realise how you can move these pots to get out the side. So we'll do that, kill the Thanatos and head through the door.
Wait, what?
Yes, it turns out that room my stupidity forced us into earlier had another way out. Specifically, how I just got in.
So, with nowhere to go on B2, we head back up to B1, and with nowhere to go there either, we head up to the Deck.
In the middle of the Deck, there's a walled off area. There are three ways in. All of them involve the killing of at least one monster. We're taking the Chimera.
We could, if we wanted to, have headed around the back and killed a Naga to get in instead. We didn't want to. We do, however, need to kill this Thanatos, and move the pot out of the way to get into the very middle bit.
That treasure box contains Heal Potions.
You may be asking, "What now?" and that is a very good question to be asking.
The answer is really rather obscure.
You climb the mast. Unlike every other climbable surface in the game, this one does not have the little square stones on it. Unlike every other climbable surface in the game, you don't need to use the claw to climb it. And unlike every other climbable surface in the game, you don't need to hold any button to stay attached to it.
You are, essentially, walking with the climbing sprite.
Now what?
Now you climb this rope, which is connected to the mast, obviously.
And then you climb down the mast at the other side, kill a Thanatos, get the Heal Potions from the treasure box...
...and head down the small set of stairs.
Then go down more stairs.
Down on the second floor basement, we walk down a very thin path, kill a Thanatos blocking the way, then head up some stairs.
On the first floor basement, the path splits in two. We can fight these three enemies for whatever's in that treasure box, but honestly, I don't really care.
At the end of this path are more stairs leading back down.
Second floor basement, and we're back to a complete lack of free will and fighting Gargoyles.
And here are the stairs going up to the first floor basement. We've worked our way back to the very front of the ship.
Wait a minute... First floor basement never had the rounded bit at the front... It just had a flat wall at the front.
But that means that these stairs...
...go to a different room! A room with treasure!
And just what does this do? Well, it increases the Noble Armor's defense power from 12 to 15, and it grants us immunity to Sleep, and strength against Wind.
And at the very front of the Ship...
"It's a Captain Cap, how the hell do we know it's yours?"
Benjamin: Kaeli asked us to give it to you. Are you okay?"
Mac is surprised by the arrival of someone. No crazy music, so it's not Tristam...
What the fuck? "Give the Captain Cap to Dad so he'll know I'm coming", she says. You arrived so god damn quickly that he didn't even have enough time to realise you were coming! He figured out you were coming after you'd arrived. How did you manage to get here so fast? You can't possibly have ran all the way from Windia to here in fifteen seconds, so what? Were you just stalking us around the ship the entire time? Because that's the only explanation I can think of!
You freak.
Mac: The Dark King... Prophecy...
Dark King? Oh no.
Kaeli: Dad, tell us about the Prophecy later! Let's cure your wounds in Windia first.
Mac: But...
Kaeli then proceeds to drag Mac off to Windia, kicking and screaming.
Reuben is somehow still hurt from that fall that didn't hurt him.
Benjamin: Reuben! Let's go to Windia and put you to bed!
Seconds later...
Yes, I'm just as confused as you are.
And where's that stupid music coming from?
Oh here we go...
Benjamin: Spencer! Phoebe's been looking for you!
Spencer: I met her at the Inn in Windia, and now she wants to see you?
Wait, what? WINDIA? When Phoebe wanted to find you after blowing up your tunnel, she was no more than sixty seconds behind you! What the hell happened? Did you and Tristam literally run off together? Did Phoebe have a sudden personality switch and lock herself in her room in a depression for a week? How the fuck did you manage to not cross paths until you got to Windia?
I do believe that this segment of this game is the biggest display of off-screen teleportation in the history of this game.
Tristam: Right! See you again kid!
Spencer and Tristam then both leave, and Benjamin somehow manages to not find this whole thing confusing.
Back in Windia...
Benjamin then proceeds to demonstrate this by dropping him on the ground. No, seriously.
Reuben then gets up in an attempt to not look like a complete ass.
Reuben then proceeds to leave both the table and the party, before falling over and recovering himself again, then heading upstairs to the inn.
AW.
HELL.
NO.