Trials of Mana/Part 4: Follow the Golden Brick Road

You will arrive in Maia, the Free City. Your new destination is Forcena, where King Richard can tell you everything you need to know about Mana Stones. It will take you three chapters to get there, so let's get going!

Buy everybody their new hats. Also, make sure you stock up on Round Drops and Angel Grails, but don't buy too many Angel Grails because you will need some money to buy some nice dwarven equipment soon. Now, leave the city to the west. A sailor will stop you and tell you that the Priest of Light has fallen ill while erecting the barrier. This is bad. Leave Maia and you will be on the Golden Road.

The Golden Road is a simple path filled with Porons and Assassin Bugs. It connects Maia to Merchant City Byzel, which will become very important in the second part of the game. For now, the three invasions that the beastmen, ninjas, and wizards are carrying out has caused them to close the city to foreigners. That doesn't matter.

(need to put a quick tutorial on switching characters and abilities)

Three screens away from Byzel, on the Golden Road, there is a cave that leads to the Cleft of the Earth, a giant snakelike trench running across the continent, which seperates Forcena and the Molebear Highlands from Byzel and Maia. There is a bridge going across it. This is where you need to go.

The entrance to the cave holds a Silver Statue. Save. The next screen is the Cleft and bridge. Walk onto the bridge and you will be greeted by some Altenians and their Machine Golems.

Boss: Two Machine Golems
Machine Golems are strong, but these two aren't too tough. They don't counter your magic attacks, so feel free to use Holy Ball if you have Angela. Carlie should know Heal Light by now, but if you don't have her, just keep your HP decently high. The Machine Golems' have an attack called Drill Punch that you can dodge by staying out of their line of sight whenever they glow red. Their most powerful attack is Rocket Launcher which can do around 80 or 90 damage to one character. This means death for any character that is not at or very close to full life. Sometimes they won't use this attack at all, but sometimes they cast it several times during the fight. Just be ready to open up your item menu if you see them cast it. If you were fortunate enough to pick up any Assassin Bug Eyes earlier, use them; they do about 90 HP of damage. Keep at it and they'll die soon enough.

However, one of the Golems self-destructs, blowing up the bridge. Obviously, you need to get to Forcena another way. How? Go back to Maia.