Part Seventeen: Boat Exploration (Home World)
Though it's the same ship run by the same man, the S.S. Zelbess is a very different vessel from the S.S. Invincible of Another World. It operates out in the open, for starters, and welcomes guests into its casino, as well as has the Magical Dreamers booked for a concert. Very secretive. You'll find the S.S. Zelbess docked off the northern coast of the central continent.
Head aboard and go belowdecks. You can find Miki, Nikki's fellow entertainer, standing in the restaurant, there's a wheel-spinning game in the room below the captain's quarters, you can sleep at an inn, and if you check out the first room on the right on the lower floor you'll find a magician, Sneff, who is plying his trade for a small audience.
Of most importance down here, however, is the storage room down the hall from the magician's show, where you'll meet a janitor who may look familiar. You can ask him about the Sage of Marbule, but he feigns ignorance and leaves. You'll then see him heading into a locked door to something called the Grand Slam - and, yes, he's the Sage of Marbule - though you can't follow him without permission.
Go up to Fargo's cabin on the upper floor. It's the door on the left with the crossbones. You'll see him speaking to a mermaid named Irenes who will leave after a tense conversation. Talk to Fargo after Irenes leaves and he'll challenge you to a gambling session for access to the Grand Slam. Follow him down into the casino and you will, every time, eventually lose. This forces you to remain on the S.S. Zelbess until you complete this sequence.
Go back downstairs after the game and check out the inn. You'll see the innkeeper coming down a set of stairs and acting suspicious, especially when a cat tries to go up the stairs. Go back to Sneff's magic show and agree to be turned into cats. Flee the room once you're transformed.
Now that your team is all feline you can access parts of the ship that were previously inaccessible. Go back to the inn to start. You can now walk under the desk and get to the stairs, and at the top you'll see a magnet mechanism that allows Fargo to cheat at gambling. Grab the Handle off of the machine.
Head back upstairs and use the cat door beside the locked kitchen door to get into the kitchen. You'll find a Frypan Ag47 in a chest inside. Speak to the cat roaming around in the kitchen for the Monster's Mouth Custom Frame. If you head to the deck you can climb the mast on the left side of the ship to find a rope that will take you to the Magical Dreamers' ship and see some more story, though this part isn't mandatory.
Return to the magic show. There's a cat door set into the right wall that will take you into Sneff's dressing room. Speak to him and he'll change the party back to normal. Go speak to Fargo again and you can challenge him to another round of gambling, and this time you'll win. Fargo will give you your boat back and grant you access to the Grand Slam.
The Sage of Marbule will be in the room just before the Grand Slam, moving back and forth between three gun ports. Keep following him through the gun ports and he'll eventually address you. Ask him about the Dead Sea, then say you'll use brute force. Battle time.
Sage
A White Innate combatant, the Sage largely uses physical attacks, and though they can sting they're not a big deal. If you use an Element on the Sage, however he'll use a Turn Color Element on the attacker and then immediately target them with that color's weakness. If he uses Turn White, for example, he'll use Gravitonne, or if he uses Turn Green he'll use Upheaval. The Turn Color variant he uses is almost always the same as the the color of the last Element used on him. If the battle takes long enough the Sage can use Weak-Minded (usually on Lynx) and Holy Light to inflict a ton of damage to everybody, and once the Sage is nearing the end of his health he can use Bat Eye / Carnivore or Weaken / Inferno. All three combos are problematic and painful.
The answer to the Sage's retaliatory approach is pretty simple: Don't use Elements. The Sage has plenty of health, but his defenses are on the lower side. Buff your attackers (likely Lynx and Harle) with Strengthen then just wallop the Sage, healing as necessary. He'll spend the majority of the fight hitting you back, and his hits just don't pack enough oomph to be a major threat. As the battle winds down you'll need to watch out for Carnivore and Inferno, but so long as you keep up on your healing they shouldn't be a huge problem.
You'll earn a Star Level, 634 g, and a Mythril Helmet for defeating the Sage. He'll also give you a Fiddler Crab once the battle is done, and will tell you about the entrance to the Dead Sea. Nikki will show up to ask the Sage about teaching him a song that can heal Marbule, and if you go back to Nikki's ship (to which you are now granted access) you'll learn more, though there's nothing you can do about the situation until Fargo changes his mind about a few things. That won't happen for a few more dungeons. You can nevertheless agree to help Nikki with his idea, which will unlock a boss battle a bit later. As the conversation winds down Irenes will offer to join the party, and since she's one of the better Blue Innate characters you should say yes.
Grand Slam
Before you leave the S.S. Zelbess there's one more place you can check, and that's the Grand Slam. A combat arena for monsters, the Grand Slam forces you to fight through three battles using three transformations from Sprigg's Doppelgang pool. This means that the more transformations you've taught Sprigg - and the more powerful those transformations are - the easier this section will be. You can only use each monster once during the Grand Slam's three rounds, so use them wisely.
Unless you're coming here during New Game+ your options for the Grand Slam are limited, especially if you haven't been working on Sprigg's Doppelgang Tech. Here are some monsters that can help you get through the Grand Slam:
- Lagoonate, Cat Burglar, SnibGoblin, SnobGoblin (default monster)
- Dodo (Fossil Valley)
- Taurminator and Hot Doggity (Mount Pyre)
- Cybot (Fort Dragonia)
- Airframe (Isle of the Damned)
- Fossicker (Earth Dragon Isle)
Note that if a round isn't going your way you can run and form a new party without losing your spot in the Grand Slam. You'll only need to start over from the first fight if you out-and-out lose.
Completing the first round will earn you a Stamina Belt, completing the second round will earn you a Resistance Belt, and completing the third round will earn you a Dreamer's Bandana. Completing the third round will also bring the Grand Slam to an end, and your opponent, Janice, will offer to join the party. She's a solid, if somewhat uninspired, Red Innate, and worth bringing along.