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Quelb
- After getting kicked out of the Castle of Bal, head north. The mountain ranges quickly force you towards a small town. Enter the town and you’ll find it completely abandoned, with locked doors; you can remedy this by entering the large two-segment home in the middle of town, the only one that’s open. This will trigger a long series of cut scenes which will allow you to continue northward from Quelb, through the rear gate.
- Once the cut scenes are done you’ll be allowed to wander ‘round Quelb properly, as all of the homes will now open. In the northeast of town you’ll find three circling werewolves; speak to them and one will teach you the Requiem song.
- Quelb’s inn features a minor curiosity. In the rear room is a werewolf who will ask you to sit down. Do so and he’ll not only restore your health for free, but give you eight Potions. This seems to make the inn itself useless… except that you can only do this three times. Each time a sheep in the town will disappear, too. Hum.
- In the southwest there’s a well, and if you check it an odd man will hop out and ask for a frog. Change someone into a Beastmaster and Catch a Kornago, one of the hefty toads outside town, then return to the man. In exchange for the Kornago and 10,000 gil he’ll give you a Kornago Gourd, a handy item that increases the health limit when trying to Catch a monster.
- There’s one last thing to know about this area. East of Quelb is a small cave that leads to the Big Bridge. The cave itself is no big deal, but if you wander around in it you can find a small passage leading south. Near the end of this passage you’ll start picking up gil, and if you proceed too far in, you’ll get into a battle with a Gil Turtle. Don’t do this right now. The Gil Turtle is fiendishly strong, and your attacks won’t do jack against the thing. Come back later, near the end of the game, when your level is around twice what it is now.
- Head north of Quelb. There’s a cluster of rocks directly north; you can enter it from the south.
Drakenvale
- Head north up the trail. There are two caves ahead. The right contains 5,000 gil; the left leads onward. As you’re wandering through here you’ll keep running into a single enemy that will smack you once and run off, and there’s not much you can do about it. Don’t worry, it’ll come up later.
- You’re forced along a single pathway for a while. There’s a Cottage along the way. Eventually you’ll wind up in a small chamber that’s seemingly a dead end, albeit with a closed, secret doorway; walk around the area to the right of the door and you’ll find a hole in the floor that will drop you into a lower room. There’s 7,000 gil in a chest beside you, and through the door to the left is the switch you could see in the previous room. This creates a path outside. Use the northern doorway to reach the secret door and leave.
- The next cave leads to a split hallway. Go left and you can find a hidden pathway leading to a Hypno Crown and a Wind Slash. Go right and, through another hidden pathway, you’ll find a Phoenix Down and more passage. Directly south is a small room with a save point; to the left is the outdoors. Keep following this path southeast until you see a clearing to the south. Approaching it will trigger a boss.
Dragon Pod
This battle’s a piece of cake as long as you have a single all-hitting attack of even reasonable strength, such as Fira. Dragon Pod has only one move, and that’s to drop Dragon Flowers. Dragon Flowers will inflict a series of status ailments on your party when attacking, which, if allowed to happen, get annoying really quickly. Dragon Flowers are really weak, though, and anything that strikes all of your opponents will almost certainly kill the lot. Do this, then focus your attacks on the Dragon Pod until it goes down. You’ll get an Elixir for besting the beast, as well as the Dragon Grass you came for.
- While you’re wandering around outside in the latter half of Drakenvale you’ll start running into Golem, the mystery creature from before, accompanied by a Bone Dragon and a Zombie Dragon. Golem won’t attack anymore - but it’ll get attacked by the two Dragons. Kill them before they can take down Golem and, in appreciation, he’ll become one of your summons. (Mind that you actually need to use the Golem item in your inventory before this happens.) Don’t worry if Golem dies - he’ll continue to appear in random battles until you succeed.
- Make your way out of Drakenvale and back to the Castle of Bal. Enter through the moat (button on the left side), then make your way to the roof. After an overly-long cut scene you’ll gain access to another wind drake, allowing you to fly around the world as you please.