Pirates Ahoy!
It's the town of Pravoka, whose name I recognise now I've seen it again, someone in Cornelia had mentioned it being taken over by pirates. Oh joy. Heading in, the first member of the town's populace has a clear message - "Please help us!". Here we go again.
Speaking to another town member who looks a bit like a punk himself, he tells us that the pirates are "running around looting and pillaging like they own the place". I'm not an expert, but I'm guessing this is going to rapidly become an "us" problem. I head into the inn, and pay the 50 gil for a night's rest. I figure I could do with the HP and spells back if I'm going to have to deal with some nonsense.
Heading to the west of the town I notice some very pirate-y looking fellows, and decide to have a chat with them. Apparently I have "cannonballs of steel" to address the great pirate Bikke, and he sets his "boys" on us. It's a 4 vs 9 situation, but I still don't have any multi target attacks, so I just go for the auto-battle approach, seeing as I've just rolled out of bed at the inn. Turns out there's not much to worry about though, even Clair is one-hitting some of them with her hammer, and they don't pack much of a punch.
Without his boys, Bikke is suddenly a picture of contrition, and just offers me a boat. That was remarkably easy - I feel like this might be a difficulty shift from the original because it felt like that was way too simple. In the meantime, Bikke's decided to "buckle down and be the hardest worker in town". We'll be back to check if he makes good on his word.
Walking around town we hear stories of an elf prince across the seas who's fallen into a deep sleep and hasn't woken up. I'm guessing there might be a key in it to sort that out when we get there. Also I bump into a wizardly looking man who fled here from Melmond - a town far to the west, apparently the earth rots there and monsters attack in the night. I guess that's a stop on our world tour too. Particularly given he just asks us "Is there nothing you can do to help?". Sir, you've just met us.
Otherwise though, the townsfolk are happy the pirates have been dealt with, and some have moved on to warning us about the sea. I pop into the local stores for some upgrades and find costs have shot up in comparison to Cornelia. 450 gil for a new Broadsword for Rukus, and 160 gil for a Scimitar for Kaili. I pick up Blizzard for Glitz to complete the main 3 elementals I'd typically use.
A trip to the armour shop also offers options for all the party, and I buy a set of leather gloves all round for a total of 200 gil, and a set of Iron Armour for Rukus that near enough clears out our gil reserves.