The Chaos Shrine
First impressions upon entering the shrine are that it has a maze vibe, and I decide to do a clockwise pass around the perimeter corridors. In a small room in the bottom left, I find some headgear, and decide to give it to Clair as a precaution - Rukus and Kaili seem fairly robust, so my instinct is to protect my healer next. I guess just some RPG party thinking? Clair and Glitz both seem quite fragile though, and as I work my way around this soon becomes apparent...
We run into a party of 7 wolves and Glitz takes one too many hits and he's down for the count. I'd tried to have Clair save him with a cure, but she's too late and just decides to heal someone else. I also at this point discover that auto-battle isn't auto attack, but rather auto-repeat-the-last-command, so Clair heals another member at seemingly random and I've got 1 member down and the other with next to no spells left.
Glitz has now fallen behind on EXP and continues to do so as I make a tactical retreat back to Cornelia. My instinct is to head to the Inn to fully heal, but the night passes, and Glitz still is laid out.
I look up the cost of a Phoenix Down and baulk at the 500 gil price, and decide to look round town some more, finding a church. I'm getting Dragon Quest vibes from this, but I'm not complaining - I guess they had to take inspiration on certain things when they were putting it together back in the day.
With Glitz back on his feet, I head for another night at the Inn, give Glitz the Leather Cap for a bit given he's now a level below the rest of the party and head back to the shrine. I'm really noticing these 4 vs 9 fights can be a bit dangerous, but we're being that bit more cautious, and we're getting there. I notice as Glitz catches up to level 6 he has a more even distribution of stats, which is both reassuring in some ways, and makes it difficult to predict what will increase.
I notice that we have a couple of doors locked here by a mystic key - I guess we probably need to come back here later. I head for what I initially assume is the upstairs, but no - it's just Garland with the princess who was right in front of us as we entered. Part of me feels like I've wasted some time and effort, but I'm here for a reason...