For these warriors, Gurgu Volcano would come first. Zeus Gauntlet? Hey, that's a shiny piece of metal. Heal Staff? Might as well be a treble staff.

Well, we had a minor difficulty in Gurgu when one Fighter got SQUINTed, then a BB died to a trio of FIR2 casts. After a hike back to Crescent Lake and the clinic, onward.

Red D launched a BLAZE for mondo damage but no kills and my party gibbed him on round one. This fight cost me 23 heal potions, sending my total to about 50 remaining overall. Here on the last floor of the dungeon, that's no worry, but does raise on the horizon the specter of an empty tank.

So here's KARY, which is usually the first tough fight in the game besides Astos and maybe the Wizards. This might be the first real challenge for the Brawlers. Without FAST, AFIR, or any RUSEing, will plain brute force be enough? And with KARY's Absorb of 40, I'll only be doing about 20 damage per strike, other than criticals.

Well, this fight turned out pretty easy anyway. KARY died on round four, after one FIR2 and two physical attacks on me, and no real threat to deplete anyone's HP. The fighting classes are so powerful not just because of their damage capability, but also in taking a beating with large pools of life.

We may as well do Castle Ordeal next. Mostly for the second Ice Sword, to remove any temptation to go for the sucker's Flame Sword in Ice Cave. And the Gold Bracelet will help a BB as well.

Of course, no trip to Castle Ordeal is complete without a scary batch of SORCERERs. Running is on the table, but this group hasn't run from a single fight yet, so I'm going to take them on. They may pack their infamous instant death attacks, but an attack from a Brawler is pretty much the same thing for the other side...

  

Warriors 5, Sorcerers 2. A winning score, but lost a couple players with season-ending injuries. Well, I did make it through to the famed pushover boss of the castle, the ZombieDs...

... who didn't get the memo, stunning my warriors with paralyzation and the kill!

Well, try two at Castle Ordeal proceeded without incident. This time I got smart chicken prudent, and ran from a pack of SORCERERs. No further incidents, and the boss posed no problem with a full roster.

No need for the Zeus Gauntlet - at 6 absorb in the hand armor slot, it's clearly inferior to ProRings and even the Opal Gauntlet.

Attempt one at Ice Cave, where the Berserkers skated through...

   

met an almost identical fate to attempt one at Castle Ordeal. Two Warriors fell to instant-death attacks, and then the other two lost to a pack of stunning undead.

Try two then brought one of the most unlikely encounter experiences I've ever seen in FF1. My party ran into four MAGEs who got a surprise round. I started reaching for the reset button already, watching all four MAGEs fire RUBs, but all four missed! The Brawlers cleaned that up with sword and fist (and some healing potions after also eating a round of LIT3s.)

I went for the Ice Armor, for the first time in this run of FF games. On the way I had to run from three SORCERERs. Good thing this game doesn't have a Brave Blade. :)

Gotta face the EYE, and I put the BBs up front to eat an XXXX if necessary, since the fighters are still stronger attackers. The EYE only tried GLANCE, which missed. Then Kick got mad at that slight, scoffed at the notion of the fighters being stronger, and bonked out the EYE in one blow.

Now in the Waterfall and Sea Shrine is where this game's variant really starts. I'll break that out onto a new page.