Sure, you could go straight to Troy, but you've got an airship, and there's a whole world out there to explore. If nothing else, Cid needs some equipment, right? Speaking of Cid, you may want to rearrange the group so that he's in the front row with Cecil and Yang, since he doesn't (normally) use long-ranged attacks.

First of all, Cid's daughter was worried about him, so it couldn't hurt to give her some peace of mind.

Rosa's mother, on the other hand, may be better off not hearing the full story for now.

In the basement of the east tower, which was previously blocked off by a mysterious force, Cecil finds a throne, oddly enough. And...

Although the usual NPCs are also back, few of them say anything particularly interesting. Mostly it's a mixture of shock at what happened to the king, shame at not preventing it or even really noticing that it happened, and looking to Cecil for leadership. While Golubaeser seems to have left, he's unfortunately taken the other airships with him, so Baron isn't going to be much help fighting him.

Despite the fire and landslide earlier, the village remains largely intact. A few villagers have interesting remarks.

Search inside the fireplace in one house to find some equipment, including an uncommon Gold Headdress (one of the best headgears for female characters) and a unique Transformation Rod (good stats and free pig magic). Do a little shopping before leaving, too. The Dancing Dagger will come in handy later, and Cecil can also use the item effect to help deal with pesky slime-type monsters. Also, the Bard's Clothes, though weak, give immunity to Silence status, so don't disregard them completely. On that note, the Prison Uniform Cid comes equipped with confers immunity to Sleep, so it's not entirely worthless either.

You could also come here through Mist Cave before going to Baron Castle if you wanted to. It just never seemed worth the trouble to me. On the other hand, Porom can wear the Gold Headdress, and Palom can use the Dancing Dagger's item effect for decent unreflectable damage... good against Beigan?

We should probably tell the elder what happened to the twins.

West of Mysidia and south of Baron lies a village by a mountain on a small island.

Don't bother with any of the equipment they sell in the stores, though. It's all outclassed by what you can buy elsewhere. For instance, Cain's original equipment from the very beginning of the game is all sold here, as are the weapons Rydia and Tella started with not long after.

A well is enshrined in the middle of the village.

There's also an observatory here.

Um, yeah, like the color of rubies. Because rubies are horribly ominous, you see.

West beyond Agart Village lies a small continent with a large tower poking up through a hole in the mountains. A ruined castle also sits by the shoreline. Explore the castle and its numerous hidden passages to find quite a bit of treasure, but be careful. The best of the treasures are guarded by powerful (for this point) monsters on top of being tricky to reach in most cases.

Since these are particularly dangerous monsters for when they first become accessible, I'll go into more detail here than I usually would.

A secret passage in the west tower ground floor leads to a chest containing a Steel Golem and four Skuldiers. The Steel Golem may inflict Sleep on attack, which is its only action. It counts as a Giant and is weak against Ice, and is vulnerable to certain status effects including Stone, Confusion, Sleep, Paralysis, and Curse. The Skuldiers may influct Curse on attack, which is normally their only action. However, they will switch to casting Thundara if alone. They are Undead as well as Very Weak against Flame and Holy, and are immune to status effects other than Stone. Winning awards the Slumber Sword.

A secret passage upstairs in the east tower leads to a chest containing a Lamia and two Coeurls. Although the Lamia normally just attacks, she counters physical attacks with Temptation. She counts as a Lizard, has no weaknesses or resistances, and is vulnerable to all status effects except Sleep and Paralysis. The Coeurls also thrive on counterattacks, retaliating with Blaster whenever damaged, despite using only normal attacks otherwise. While they have no race, weaknesses, or resistances, they are vulnerable to all status effects except Toad and Minikin. The Transformation Rod can turn all three into Pigs to disable their skills for a relatively easy victory, though their damage output may remain an issue. Winning awards the Blood Lance.

A suspiciously isolated chest in the basement contains three Berserk Ogres. These have no abilities other than attacking, which they do quite vigorously. They curiously count as Mage as well as Giant, have no weaknesses or resistances, and are vulnerable to all status effects except Pig and Toad. They also have unusually high magic defense. However, that only affects magic damage, not failure rate, and if you can just manage to get off a single successful Minimum spell, the battle instantly becomes a joke. Winning awards a Silver Apple, or an Elixir in the ET or NA versions.

Strategic use of Tella's magic, a few extra levels, and of course luck are all helpful if you're going to attempt this now, and don't forget that spellcasters get an accuracy bonus when they're in the middle slot. The castle isn't going anywhere, though, so feel free to come back later when better prepared.

The DS remake changes a few things around, naturally. On the one hand, the Skuldiers are reduced from four to two. On the other, Pig, Toad, and Minikin don't work on anything here, the enemies that have skills and spells may use them with no preconditions, and I also noticed the Lamia inflicting Confuse on hit. Break still works on everything, though, assuming you can keep Tella alive long enough, and his higher stats mean a greatly reduced risk of the spell failing. The status effects from Yang's Faerie Claw and Cecil's Sleep Blade (once I had it) also worked often enough to make a significant difference.

The DS remake also adds several hidden Ninja Sutra items. These are functionally the same as the infamous Lewd Magazine (now the Lustful Lali-Ho) found in the Development Room, which is to say that there's generally no point to using them. The connection between the two is more obvious in Japanese, where they have very similar phonetics as エッジのほん (EJJI no hon, literally "Edge's book"), and エッチなほん (ETCHI na hon, literally "lewd book").

North of Ordeal Mountain and south of Fabul lies another island village. This one is populated with pigs, toads, and Minikin. They don't have anything particularly interesting to say, beyond that they mine and process mithril silver, but I suppose the dancing group may be somewhat amusing.

First, search the tall grass for some free stuff. Then it's time to go shopping! The mithril equipment sold here is fairly powerful, and most carries a bonus against Spirit monsters as well. The Mithril Staff gets a bonus against Undead instead, gives a slight boost to spirit, and can be used as an item to cure Berserk, Confusion, Sleep, and Paralysis status. Consider getting something if you have the money, but note that Cid's hammers are two-handed, so he can't use a shield at the same time, and that Cecil's Paladin set is nearly as powerful as what they're selling anyway.

Also, don't sell your Wooden Hammer or other nonmetal equipment just yet...

In the DS remake, all weapons seem to be one-handed. At the very least, Cid can use a shield with his hammers, so absolutely get him one.

トロイア is the Japanese rendition of "Troy", as in the Trojan War (the alternate and more phonetically accurate spelling of "Troia" would also work). Though, considering some of the activities going on in the town, it's likely worth noting that, in Italian, troia (reportedly by way of Medieval Latin porcum de Troia, literally "hog of Troy", referring to the Trojan Horse) is one word for a female pig, and by extension also functions as a vulgar pejorative for a sexually promiscuous woman.

The town and neighboring castle nestle between a lake and a large forest northwest of Baron.

There's only one tile of open space to land in, which can make it frustrating to position the airship just right for landing. As an alternative, you can fly south from the town, land beyond the forest, walk north to an unusually-shaped Chocobo Forest, and catch a chocobo to ride across the river. Note that you'll need to catch another chocobo in the Chocobo Village some distance north of town to return, though. Landing is less trouble in the DS remake.

Speaking of metals, the there's a girl in the lake who says:

However, this is not an indication of whether anyone is actually equipped anything metal, as she'll say the same line regardless. A pity.

The local bar is unusually large. Most of the staff consists of scantily clad and very flirtatious young women, there are what seem to be "compensated dating" private rooms upstairs, and there's even a members-only area in the basement that takes a ridiculous 10,000 gil to access.

Don't bother buying a pass. There's not much of anything in the restricted area beyond a technically-impressive performance by numerous dancing girls that just seems to leave Cecil feeling awkward. Though that may be an amusing diversion, perhaps, it serves no gameplay purpose whatsoever.

The DS remake puts an augment in the dressing room down there to make a visit worth something, though it also tacks another zero onto the price.

The town also has a building where they raise rare black chocobos in the basement.

Also check the equipment shops before heading to the castle. Although most of what's available is nothing new, it might help to pick up a Greatbow and a decent stock of arrows in a variety of elements at the weapon shop. And it's significant that none of the equipment is metallic...

Since only Rosa can use bows in the DS remake, it removes the Greatbow and replaces the elemental arrows with the Fireshard, Frostshard, and Thundershard (in Japanese, these are called 炎の棒, 氷の棒, and 雷の棒, roughly "flame rod", "ice rod", and "thunder rod"; the rods for mages use ロッド rather than 棒). Though these function as non-metallic swords, they're so weak as to be barely worth bothering with despite their low price.