Head to the port...

...where a brief scene would occur when trying to bring Gau onto the ship, except that he can't possibly be in the party. Maybe it's meant as a failsafe in case you left him on the Beast Plain earlier and went back for him, but you can't get there right now anyway. If you hack Gau into the party, the scene works perfectly well, though. He drops back, scratches his head, and runs off without a word.

The fact that it's Lock who suggests that Gau doesn't deal well with boats turns out to be ironic...

General Leo waits on the ship, talking with a generic soldier.

That seems a bit odd, frankly. Doesn't the Empire have a standing army? Why would they need to hire anyone, let alone some guy they ran into in town?

Two humans and a dog, all familiar, walk onto the ship.

Insert intro and naming screen.

Celes nods. Lock looks shocked.

Leo returns to his conversation. Tina walks over to Celes.

Lock approaches. Celes won't look straight at him, and runs away after a brief moment.

Leo just repeats his last line if spoken to at this point, but at least Shadow says something.

Head to the inn to continue.

Lock wakes up and wanders outside in the middle of the night. He soon runs into Celes, who flatly snubs him. 1-22 "Celes" plays, a poignant variation on her big opera solo.

She just looks the other way.

She takes a few steps away...

...then squeezes her eyes shut as though blinking back tears, before breaking into a run. Lock looks downcast.

Shadow has a line set up for him to use when standing with Interceptor on the dock below the ship, but I've never actually gotten them to appear there. The necessary event flag never seems to be set anywhere. From the line, I'd guess they were meant to be there at this point, after resting and before leaving.

Talk to Leo in the morning to set out.

The ship departs without further incident.

Tina and Lock nod, then leave, presumably to head below deck. That night finds Tina on deck with Leo nearby, so she tries talking to him. "Awakening" plays.

She nods. He takes a few steps away, then looks at her over his shoulder.

She takes a few steps, looks thoughtful, then turns toward him.

Leo walks off. Tina looks upset.

A noise, presumably a deliberate one, signals someone else's approach.

Tina starts to leave.

Tina exits. "??" starts as a very seasick Lock lurches into the scene.

He abruptly rushes to the railing and vomits overboard.

Shadow just walks away.

Lock's not feeling any better, though.

With the post-drama comic relief taken care of, morning comes, with everyone gathered on deck, though Tina can only reach some of them for conversation.

Lock barely glances at her before turning away.

Celes looks crushed. Tina hesitates, apparently sympathetic, but hurries to leave before she's left behind.

Hopefully you looted everything you wanted from the local monsters earlier, when your party could be larger and more flexible. Regardless, Shadow's earlier lack of availability ensures he'll be short on magic, though throwing pointy things always works out well for damage, so he doesn't have much need for offensive spells. Consider giving him some time with Seraphim and Zone Seeker to round out his options.

Thamasa has its own music, 2-18 "Strago", but isn't particularly welcoming. The people seem wary of outsiders, as previously noted, though they're a bit more cooperative now that this is an official visit, and the merchants are willing to do business now, too. However, the leadership remains unhelpful.

Remote village or not, it seems odd that they wouldn't have at least heard of magic. Maybe random villagers will prove more informative.

Let's pay this Stragus a visit. He's an old man with a red cloak, green and yellow robes, and a distinctive white mohawk.

Stragus has a tendency to end sentences with ゾイ (ZOI), a quirky variant of the assertive ぞ (zo) particle.

Stragus looks startled, but quickly recovers and denies everything.

They drop back to discuss, with Interceptor forming the fourth side of their huddle.

They're interrupted when 1-19 "Relm" starts playing, coupled with the sound of a door opening.

An excitable brown-haired girl, dressed in a red hat and cape and a green and yellow outfit in a style similar to Stragus, pushes past him and scrutinizes the visitors.

Poor Stragus. He only manages to get out a generic flustered あわわ (awawa) followed by the generic reprimand こら (kora).

As Stragus continues to panic, Relm takes a sudden interest in Interceptor.

Relm heads back upstairs, with Interceptor tagging along.

Relm comes back to the door long enough to taunt him...

...and shut it behind her. "Strago" resumes playing.

Lock confers with the others in an aside.

Relm comes back down with Interceptor, who seems oddly fond of her.

Explore, if you like, to see some suspicious activities around the edges of town. Let's start with the boy setting bushes on fire.

He runs off once he realizes he's been spotted, though.

Elsewhere are a mother and her young child.

Then she notices she's being watched. The party waves.

She hurries away, the child following but even more upset.

Very suspicious. Anyway,

He's right, though it's unclear why.

It should be obvious what they're supposed to do now. During the night, Stragus bursts into the inn in a panic, shoving Lock out of bed.

Tina and Interceptor react, but Shadow seems to be sleeping through this, in rather un-ninja-like fashion.

Stragus, Tina, and Interceptor leave. Lock hesistates and tries to wake Shadow...

...but he barely stirs. Then, after the others have left, Shadow finally gets up.

Outside, a large house burns furiously.

Part of the building collapses as the blaze intensifies.

Stragus runs up to the house and starts chanting.

With a sound similar to a Blizzard spell, blue light flies to the building and scatters over the flames, though it seems to have little effect.

The other villagers seem to agree with Stragus.

He, Stragus, and a group of other villagers get into formation, flinging spells at the building in turn. Unfortunately, the blaze is too far out of control, and just gets worse despite their efforts.

Bravely, if perhaps foolishly, they head inside.

As a new addition to the party, Stragus needs some quality time with Genjuu to learn any ordinary spells, but his special ability lets him cast a wide variety of unusual spell-like abilities, and he can learn more just by seeing them in action (refer to his character entry for details).

Things burn here. Running into the moving flames results in a battle against multiple Balloon enemies. Anything that inflicts Ice or Water damage works well, including the Aqua Breath skill that Stragus starts with. He also starts with Revenge Blast (largely worthless) and Stoning (which can confuse enemies in addition to inflicting damage).

Use the Icebrand and Ice Rod as weapons, or Blizzara and Aqua Rake against large groups, to make short work of the local enemies. Also, you can try confusing some Balloons to see them Self-Destruct, not that it's a very useful skill to learn.

Attempting to go through a certain door always results in an ambush, and it can never actually be entered. Explore elsewhere to find a Flame Rod and an Ice Rod. Deeper in the house is a conspicuous flame.

It's boss time! Unsurprisingly, Flame Eater has a Flame theme. Like the Balloons, it's weak against Ice, but unlike them, has no special vulnerability to Water, so mainly attack with Blizzara and the Icebrand and Ice Rod. Flame Eater also likes to summon groups of Balloons, and even a Grenade if the battle drags on.

There's not much real strategy here. Toss in a Slow spell since that's the only status effect it's vulnerable to, kill off the weaklings with multi-target attacks, and freeze away. Flame Eater has a chance to counter all attacks with Fira, and will use Protect and Reflect on itself after being hit six times, then bounce Fira and Figa spells off itself each turn as long as 'reflect' lasts. Be careful if that happens.

Alternately, Flame Eater is one of those enemies that dies of MP loss, so you could also attack with Raspil if 480 MP sounds easier to deal with than 8400 HP, but with such an easily exploited weakness, it's probably not worth the trouble. Also, it's level 26, so if Stragus is the same level, try casting Stoning for a massive damage bonus.

In trivia, Flame Eater is coded to counter Gravity and Graviga with a random choice of Graviga (67%) or Flare (33%), but its immunity to instant death (and to 'transparent', so no Vanish/Doom bug here either) means that neither spell can hit it in the first place, so yeah. Another trivia point is that, despite appearances, Bomb Bearer doesn't summon any monsters. It merely comes immediately before each summon in the monster script for display purposes. In fact, other than displaying its name and removing 'transparent' status (since it's coded as a multi-target magic attack), it has no effect at all!

You can also steal a Flametongue (common). No rare steal and no dropped items.

After the battle, Stragus hops around in an amazingly-energetic-for-his-age panic.

A familiar bark reveals Interceptor nearby, trying to drag Relm out of harm's way.

Unfortunately, the building remains on fire and collapsing. Debris rains down.

Fade in to see Interceptor trying to hold off the flames as the others lie unconscious. It's not going very well, but then Shadow drops in from above. He disposes of the attacking flames in a single dramatic move, then joins the others.

Okay, the house still burned down, but at least everyone's safe. Fade in to upstairs in Stragus's house. Relm slowly gets out of bed while the others watch, except Shadow, who stands by himself, with Interceptor, off to the side, looking... thoughtful?

"The Mines of Narshe" starts playing. Finally, some music.

Relm usually speaks in third person. This is normal for childish characters in Japanese, but not English, so it generally makes sense to avoid it in translation.

Shadow walks out as the next line begins, with Interceptor trailing after him.

Relm sulks in the corner as the others leave. Shadow stands outside, where "Shadow" plays. Stragus catches his attention, then bows in thanks.

Relm hurries outside to see Interceptor off.

The dog seems reluctant to leave her, but follows Shadow as he exits. Relm runs back inside to resume sulking, and the music returns to normal.

Stragus joins as a permanent character. Some of the villagers have some new lines, such as:

Carefully searching the nooks and crannies upstairs in Stragus's house turns up a Memento Ring, which confers immunity to anything that checks for protection against instant death. Too bad nobody can use it at the moment.