[Dang]

So the Staff of Death can hurt Cet? Do you have to place it in the black fire? I don't think I tried it. Another funny story, I pretty much knew what the staff was from the time I got it, but it took me ages to get the gold to ID it (and Babar the Oomphaz was never a good enough artificer (?) to ID it himself.

Tiger was my Whiskas (yeah, I know, how imaginative!) Warrior turned Samurai. I'm not sure why initially, but he seemed to get attacked a lot, even though his presence was about the lowest in the party (I don't think it ever rose above 8) and he made have had a leadership of 1, but Narinia, the Warrior/Ranger/Paladin, and finally Valkyrie, had a much higher leadership and presence and hardly ever got attacked.

Well, to make matters worse, I foolishly decided to have Tiger get the Oath of Swords. This was a nuisance, but wasn't too bad for some time. The only death I'd had so far (because of reloading) was Ratzy the Ratling Thief, when I confronted the Highland Rogue Chief & Friends as I mentioned in my first thread. So no deaths that I felt it wasn't worth reloading for since the very beginning of the game.

So I get to the final island, I'm moving along quietly, and I run into the 3 headed hydra. I remember something about dropping rocks on it, but it's late, so I decide to see if I can kill it in hand-to-hand. I'm getting torn up, so I quit and go to bed. The next day I decide to give it another go, after casting every "buff" spell I have on the party. I'm about to go towards where I found the hydra when I get flamed from above. There's a red dragon attacking, so I start throwing spells at him. Ratzy is a Ninja at this point and hits him with Frost Breath. The dragon is paralyzed and fall on top of us. Somebody hits the dragon, it rises back into the sky, then Babar gazes with the Evil Eye. The dragon turns to stone and plummets to earth again.

Well, them there red dragons is worth some points, but I've never been able to damage a stone-d creature with weapons, just magic. So my guys fire their plentiful spells of all sorts until the dragon is shattered into millions of tiny pebbles. Yay! We took hardly any damage.

I proceed to attack the Hydra, who isn't that far off. He (or she, or it) has lots of hp, but we're getting some solid hits. No evil eye stoning, of course. Well, like any creature that uses magic, it automatically detects that Tiger is vulnerable to its attacks (but considering his luck, it might just have hit him anyway) and starts burning away his health. Now Babar can't try the evil eye or anything else because he's got to heal Tiger. And it takes him a really long time to recover to cast another spell, so Narinia decides she better heal Tiger, but just as I've switched from weapon to Great Heal (or Restore Health), too late! Tiger is dead. Well, I didn't save after defeating the dragon, and I don't see how I'm going to get through this fight, even reloading, without Tiger dying at least once. So when Babar's turn finally comes up, I figure I'll try this fancy schmancy "Rebirth" spell that I got just in case I might actually ever need it. Yay! Tiger lives again. And before the Hydra is dead, dies again, lives again, dies again, and lives again just in time to reap the xp rewards of the hydra's demise.

Tiger died and was reborn a few more times (as far as I can tell, the game doesn't keep track), but ironically, he was the one who survived Cet's fiery inferno and landed the killing blow. He gladly relinquished the Mavin; I guess he figured one curse ("Oath," indeed!) was enough!