PrinceWatercress plays Chrono Trigger (Super NES) - Part 35 of 70

In this entry, we get overpowered and captured by Dalton, and we have to break out and get all our stuff back.

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12,000 B.C. (World Map) (by Rick Bruns)

Before you do anything, put Ayla in your party. It doesn't matter which position she is in as long as you put her in there.

The middle of the three huts is a shop. At first, it will have just healing items, but it will have other stuff later on.

When you head to the Commons, which is the area in the forest, you can talk to people, but you'll advance the plot if you talk to the Elder. When you do that, Dalton returns with two of his flunkies and decimates your party before holding you prisoner.

Blackbird (Flying) Map (by Rick Bruns)

You'll be locked in a room with a save point. Your weapons and armor, items and money will all be gone and taken away from you. The only ways out are a door (which is guarded and locked), and a ladder. You'll want to use the ladder first. When you do, you'll find out that you are on Belthasar's flying ship: the Blackbird.

Go back through the door and go back down the ladder. One of your party members will notice that there is an air vent, as there is a ladder that is barely peeking out to the left of the one that took you outside. (Fun fact: I have never noticed that ladder until I wrote this blog, and it's the one hint that tells you there's something there. You can barely see it.) If you stand beneath the ladder and press A, you'll jump into the air vent. 

This is one thing you can do. From here, you can also knock on the door. When you're given the option, pretend to be sick. This will cause a guard to show up only to get knocked out. From there, you can go through the door, but if you get caught or seen by any of the enemies moving about, you'll be thrown back into the room and you won't be able to do this again.

This is where having Ayla in the party comes in. Since her fists are her weapon, those cannot be taken away from her, and if you have her in the party, she will be able to defend herself. This makes things a lot easier.

The air vents, on the other hand, make it a little easier to get to where you need to go...if you know what to do. You can press A at any of the grates on the ground to look down below and see what is below you, and the ladders will take you to other areas without having to go through the halls of the Blackbird.

At the south end of the air vents, you can find Dalton with the Epoch. It appears that he has taken that, too.

There is one room near the northwest corner of the air vent maze that can only be reached via the air vents. You'll be able to which one it is, as it's the one in that general direction with the air vent directly south of the ladder. If you look into the vent and see a guy sleeping near the chest, that's the one you want to go to first. Go down that ladder, then open the chest to get the weapons and armor for your party leader. While you could put Ayla in the first position, you can also put Ayla in the second or third position and give yourself two fighters, even if one doesn't have armor.

From here, you can go through all of the doors and open up the other four chests. There are five: three for the weapons and armor of your party members, one for your money and one for all your items. You'll want to open all five and get everything back before you go through the southwest door in the upper section of the ship and head up to the west wing of the ship, although you can do that without getting everything. If you try to do that, the game will remind you that you haven't found everything yet, but you will still have the choice to continue anyway.

Speaking of getting all of your stuff back, if you do just that, get back into the air vents and head to the northeastern-most point, you'll find a Magic Tab at the dead end. It won't be there until you get everything back, though.

The enemies here are not that bad. The two enemies you'll see on the ship are the Lashers - purple masked guys with rods - and Bytes, which are weaker versions of the Bits from the Guardian battle at the early stages of the game. They are easily beatable.

At the west wing of the ship, you can face the Turrets. The Turrets are just the Rubbles from Mt. Woe that can shoot weak lasers. They can cast Lock All to keep you from using Techs and items and can only be hit by physical attacks that manage to get past their high evade, and you'll be able to get 100 Tech Points for beating one, too.

When you reach the southwest corner of the west wing, you'll face the Golem Boss. The Golem Boss will count down, but when he goes down to zero, he will not be able to do anything because he is afraid of heights. He will eventually disappear if you leave him alone long enough after that, but if you actually defeat him, you will get some extra experience and Tech points.

After the battle, you'll see Dalton, who is now piloting the Epoch...which now has wings! After re-christening the Epoch "The Dalton Aero-Imperial," he will fly around and fire lasers at you. Somehow, for reasons never explained, everyone jumps off the Blackbird and lands on the now-flying Epoch to fight Dalton.

Dalton is now Dalton Plus, but there's nothing "plus" about him. You can still Charm him for a Power Meal like last time, but his attacks outside of the Iron Orb are a lot weaker and you can easily beat him up as long as you heal up that Iron Orb damage. Once you beat him, your party will try to figure out how the Epoch works again. When you just see the Epoch on-screen with no message box after someone asks what a lever does, press Y. This will allow you to fire the laser. You'll then be told to press the X button. Press the X button after the message box disappears, and the Blackbird will go down from all the laser fire from the Epoch, and the people below will celebrate.

From here, you'll land the Epoch in a last-ditch effort to find Crono in and around the survivor's village. You won't be able to use the Epoch again until you advance the plot.

If you head back to the shop in the central hut, you'll be able to get any weapons you may have missed in the Ocean Palace as well as more Aeon Suits and Aeon Helms if you need them. You'll also see a scythe weapon in the shop called the Hurricane. Now who do we know who uses a scythe? Hmmm...