As the scene begins, Lock narrowly evades being caught by one of the soldiers now blanketing the town. 1-21 "Under Martial Law" plays during the occupation.

It's possible to glitch through the soldier patroling this exit and thus skip the events in town, by moving Lock up while the soldier is moving down and entering the menu with proper timing, but I can't recommend it unless you want a challenge. Doing so skips recruiting an upcoming character, which leaves Lock to finish this scenario on his own, then leaves you stuck with Mogtan instead of that character for the rest of the game. Mogtan has no skills or spells and can't learn any. Worse, he (?) can't change equipment, even after a story event leaves the poor creature unequipped. It gets worse later on after the story makes the upcoming character play solo for a while, since you'll have to get through that part using nothing but a naked moogle with subpar stats that can't do much of anything in combat. This will also deprive an optional character of the skipped character's unique skill. It's still fairly amusing regardless, just not advisable.

Lock starts this scene with all his equipment removed. Make sure to give him some before doing any fighting!

Most of the town is blocked off by soldiers too tough to realistically beat. The only other passage across town is blocked by a boy who will only allow merchants through unless his grandfather says otherwise, and the grandfather won't talk about anything except the sake (booze) that hasn't come yet.

That NA version line is painful. Not only is it quite lacking in subtlety, it makes absolutely no sense for the kid to admit how easily he can be fooled, and even give you pointers on how to do it. And it's far from the only modified line that tries too hard to tell you what to do, either.

While you're here, consider getting in a fight with at least one of those mech riders. Lock by himself can't realistically beat the Heavy Armor he'll end up fighting, but running away or even losing is enough to make them appear on the Beast Plain later. And if you're lucky, you can also steal an Iron Helm from one, but more often than not, you'll just get a Potion. Even completionists can skip them for now, though, since they'll show up in a mass battle at Narshe later on.

Though if you do beat a Heavy Armor that's blocking a certain path, then take a hidden bridge over the river, it's apparently possible to skip all the costuming.

Realizing he needs a disguise to get anywhere, Lock sneaks around until...

The NA version took a bit of artistic license on this line, but I can't say it's not amusing...

They start fighting, and Lock steals from the Merchant, because, well, that's what he does. That's when things get entertaining...

This leaves the merchant, now dubbed Naked, understandably embarrassed:

...and he flees combat. Lock ends up disguised as a merchant, so he heads back to the boy.

Some inside information might help, but the soldiers won't talk to Lock. One townsperson gives him an idea, though.

Incidentally, that's the only hint about stealing a disguise in the Japanese version, other than the fact that Lock can and should try stealing regardless.

Sure enough, bored Junior Soldiers in several places are itching for a fight...

Lock, of course, takes advantage of the situation to steal a uniform, with similar theatrics.

Now that he's in an Imperial uniform, the soldiers, most of them drinking in the bar, will talk to Lock candidly.

I think he means there's no reason to stop drinking if he's already late anyway.

One soldier outside mistakes Lock for his relief and heads for the bar.

With more freedom to move about and information about a secret passage out of town, Lock sees a chance to escape. The news about the traitorous general could be important too. But first, he needs to change disguises to interact freely with the citizens. Fortunately, there's paranoid merchant who'll do just fine...

After the usual clothes-grabbing, Lock decides the sake will come in handy, and takes that too. That old man who was a servant at the northern mansion might know something, and this is more likely than anything to get him talking...

Talking to the kid downstairs...

It may take some trial and error, but by no great surprise, the correct answer is "courage".

The inclusion of "wild rose" is a shoutout to Final Fantasy II on the Famicom, where the anti-Imperial resistance uses it as a password.

The boy opens a secret door in the wall.

Lock goes through, emerging inside the northern mansion. The army seems to be using it as headquarters, but they leave Lock alone regardless of his outfit. Now that the Empire has actually invaded, the traitorous owner at least displays some remorse, but it's a bit late for that.

The secret passage out of town should be around somewhere, and it's likely that the renegade general is too. Exploring the house carefully, Lock finds a concealed staircase on the top floor that goes all the way to the basement. If he's still in disguise, he has the option of changing back to his usual outfit at this point:

Continue straight down into the wall to find another hidden staircase leading to a small treasure room with the Hermes's Shoes and Hyper Wrist accessories. Actually, you can (and should) collect these your first time through town earlier, but it fits better here plotwise.

Lock hears an odd noise from a side room, and carefully peers through an opening in the door...

Two soldiers stand inside the room. One is repeatedly striking the woman who was at Gastra's speech in Tina's flashback. She wears a green outfit and white cape. Her blond hair, bound only by a blue hairband around the back of her head, falls to about the middle of her back (fanart tends to prefer a normal cloth all-the-way-around headband, but both Amano's art and the in-game sprites and character portrait suggest something fancier that does not extend to the front of her head). Despite her situation, she maintains an air of dignity. The soldiers start gloating.

Interestingly, this introduction parallels Shadow's, with the mention of an unseen true self.

The cruel soldier laughs a cruel soldier laugh. He's got nothing on Cefca, though.

Celes is speaking with a somewhat masculine edge to her tone—her use of お前 (omae) rather than, say, あんた (anta) or even 貴様 (kisama) as a second-person pronoun particularly stands out—and she continues to do so for some time...

He hits her again, hard enough that she collapses.

The ranking guard exits. If disguised as an Imperial soldier, Lock stands by the door and salutes. Otherwise, he watches from a ceiling beam, then hops down when the coast is clear. Either way, he heads into the room, where the remaining guard has already dozed off. Lock checks on Celes and is faced with a choice:

Well...? You ARE going to release her, right?

Celes's line comes across as slightly odd, because she's suddenly talking more femininely. Maybe it's an oversight, maybe the sarcastic tone negates that, or maybe... Well, the above exchange is quite similar to the scene in which Luke meets Leia in Star Wars (though certainly not identical in either English or Japanese). Maybe coincidence, but probably not, especially given the various other references.

Lock cuts her off.

He winks at her, and walks toward the door.

The soldier is a fairly restless sleeper, and seems to be obsessed with food.

But a quick search turns up a key to wind clocks.

Celes, like Tina, has MP and can cast a few basic spells, though with a specialty in Ice rather than Flame, and in the long run she gets more in the way of status-affecting magic, in contrast with Tina's tendency toward more straightforward offensive and recovery spells. Other than that, and her special battle command (which I'll cover when the game does), she handles quite similarly in combat.

In the next room, there's an old clock that isn't running. Winding the clock reveals another secret passage. Equipment for Celes is scattered around the passage (though you should give her anything you have handy ahead of time). Imperial Commanders and Vector Hounds guard the area, though.

There's also yet another hidden treasure room somewhere around the middle of the area. Once inside, search the bottom of the room for a Ribbon, in addition to the more obvious items.

Fairly soon, they reach the far end, on the edge of town.

With that rather cryptic remark, they leave town.

"Under Martial Law" continues playing even on the world map, until they enter the cave that leads back towards Narshe, where "The Phantom Forest" plays as usual. The monsters have been replaced with stronger ones, and there's also a strange rumbling noise every so often...

Additionally, any chests not opened earlier have different contents if opened now. However, if you save them until after the Major Plot Spoiler, two of the three will improve their contents yet again, though the third doesn't change further.

Lock eventually feels the need to comment.

Just as they're about to go out the other exit, the rumbling gets worse, and closer.

You guessed it, it's another boss battle, with even more in-battle conversation...!

For those who hadn't guessed, Celes's combat ability is Magicseal Sword, which allows her to negate most magic (in short; see her character entry for details). Possibly the game's most situational ability, it comes in handy against the Dig Armor, which uses magic attacks more often than not. With Lock on offense, it should soon fall. Lock can steal an Air Knife (common) or Bio Blast (rare), and it drops an Elixir for your troubles.

Alternately, using the Thunder Rod found in one of the chests in the cave (if said chest wasn't opened earlier) will finish it off in one hit, guaranteed, except at abnormally low levels (under 8 for Lock or under 6 for Celes), though it may do more good later if attempting a low-level challenge.

The music fades out. Cut back to the black room, with the remaining scenarios, unless all are complete.