Mission: The Four Musketeers (Bastok)
-The Mythril Musketeers are planning an offensive against the Quadav.
-I have to talk to a Galka named Iron Eater, one of the Mythril Musketeers that Ayame and Naji are part of. He even mentions the Trust Initiative, so perhaps I can eventually get him for a trust.
-Time for a briefing.
-OH HI! It’s Cornelia!
She’s on her way to the Mines. As usual, since we often see her trying to help the Galka in various ways.
-Iron Eater wants to chaperone her, but she runs off alone. I guess the Mines District is supposed to be dangerous – or Cornelia is (as I expect) a princess or someone like that.
-Interesting. Naji who was stationed outside the building was put there to stop Cornelia from running off. Best guess currently: she’s the president’s daughter.
-The whole team of Mythril Musketeers is here. Ayame, Naji, Iron Eater, Volker. Each has a rank and number. For instance, Naji is number five. Ayame is Number Four, and she’s in charge of this mission.
-The mission is to go to the Quadav stronghold in Beadeaux. We have to kill 20 Copper Quadav on the perimeter, then regroup at the entrance.
NAJI: “Don’t forget, the rendezvous point is right inside Beadeaux! Nobody get lost now!”
IRON EATER: “You should talk. You’d even get lost in your own Mog House.”
-I should probably feel bad for Naji, but I can’t help but be amused by everyone constantly giving him shit. XD
-So far, Ayame and Naji are both warriors in my trust. [Later edit: though after seeing Ayame fight more, I think she’s a samurai.] I wonder if I’ll eventually get healers or casters.
---
Mission: Drenched! It Began with a Raindrop (A Moogle Kupo d’Etat)
-But before I go to that, I want to finish this up. I have to collect Yagudo caulk from near Windurst, Giddeus probably, and a Quadav scale, from Palborough Mines probably.
-I’m about to leave Bastok but noticed something is different. The trees are in bloom. Big beautiful cherry trees.
This must be a seasonal change in game.
-I head over to Palborough Mines, to the deeper section with low-20s Quadavs, and start killing.
-Neat! Apparently, my trust members have different dialogue depending on the order I summon them in. If I summon Ayame first and Naji second, I get:
AYAME: “Refining one’s technique requires one to be their own harshest critic.” Ayame absolutely seems like the disciplined perfectionist of the group.
NAJI: “Ayame, once this is all over, I… have something to tell you…” Ayame and Naji, sitting in a tree…
-Before too long I have the Quadav Backscale. Next up is the block of Yagudo caulk.
-CRAP I ACCIDENTALLY PULLED A NAMED QUADAV, NO’MHO CRIMSONARMOR
-Whew. Beat him. I got two party members, so makes sense.
-He’s guarding a room full of Quadav eggs.
Hm. I can target one, but can’t interact with it.
-At this point, I left and went back to Bastok to clear my inventory a bit. I also took two ciphers I picked up in Windurst and San d’Oria on that emissary mission over to Clarion Star, the trust guy in Port Bastok. I traded them to him… and now I have access to Halver and Semih Lafihna! Both are NPCs I met along the way.
-When I check my trust window, I see that Naji and Ayame both have a blue sword next to them, Halver has a red sword, and Semih Lafihna has a green bow. This must mean that Naji and Ayame are tanks, Halver is a melee dps, and Semih is a ranged dps.
-The more I see my play taking shape as one member of a party rather than a soloer, the more a support role starts to appeal to me. Something like White Mage or Bard or something.
-Went back to Giddeus, killed some birdies, and got the caulk. Ready to turn this all in to my “handymoogle.” (Never gonna be over my Mog House moogle calling themselves that. XD)
-OH LORD MY HANDYMOOGLE IS SO HAPPY WHEN I GIVE THEM THE MATERIALS TO FIX MY ROOF!
-They go to town and I get a really cartoony cutscene as they working on the roof, knocking out rats, screws, making noise, knocking out Castlevania-style pork chops that were lodged in there, whatever.
-The job’s done. Thanks, Handymoogle!
-They tell me that apparently there’s been trouble in a “rent-a-room” in Jeuno. It’s off to Jeuno I guess.
-oh. My. God.
-I just got an expansion title screen.
”A Moogle Kupo d’Etat: Evil in Small Doses”
“Little did anyone suspect that this would prove to be only the beginning of a harrowing nightmare unheard of in the annals of mooglekind…”
-Sadly though, I’m not yet up to Jeuno. That city is a bit farther away. I’ll return to this mission later. You bet your ASS I’ll return to this mission.
---
Mission: The Path Untraveled (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-Now that I’m rank 3, I can continue with Rhapsodies of Vana’diel.
-My next step is to meet Gilgamesh’s daughter, Lion, at the Crag of Dem to investigate the possible origins of the Emptiness that Iroha (the woman from the future) told me about.
-I arrive at the crag, click a shattered telepoint that was previously useless… fade to black.
-A message: “What you seek lies only a few steps ahead…”
-OHHHH!!! That giant crystal from the intro cinematic to Rhapsodies of Vana’diel? It’s INSIDE HERE! I got teleported inside the huge structure.
-Lion is in here. As she was waiting for me, this giant crystal spoke to her.
-It showed her a vision. People trying to escape the “cloud of darkness” (hello, Final Fantasy III final boss!)
-Lion calls this crystal in front of us the “mothercrystal.” She says it protects Vana’diel with its benevolence.
-The technologies that made this place, the Crag of Dem, are extremely advanced – but Lion’s not even saying that they created the mothercrystal (which I think is the source of the Vana’diel creation myth).
LION: “Those who came before doubtlessly created this facility to shelter the crystal from harm.”
-In Lion’s vision, “an infernal gloom” obscured the mothercrystal.
-She says that this mothercrystal isn’t the only one. The other Crags (there are three of them I know of) must each contain one.
-When I tell her about my vision, Iroha’s life, Lion is convinced that Iroha came from the future where this cloud of darkness became reality. I’m convinced too.
-Interesting – the Beastmen, the more traditional threat – are not the cause. So what’s behind this Emptiness?
-Lion wants two things next:
1)Find Iroha to get more answers. No idea how we get to her, if she’s even still alive. I mean, of course she’s alive, but the version of her that went through the Emptiness and came back seemed liked it passed out of existence. The version of her we’re likely to meet hasn’t been through all that yet.
2)Find the place in Lion’s vision. Where the Emptiness started to rise up. Somewhere near Jeuno. She gives me three options for where the vision took place – Lower Jeuno, Delkfutt’s Tower, or Qufim Island. Uh. I have no idea? I’ve never been any of those places. I’ll just say Lower Jeuno.
Oh. Lol. I guessed Lower Jeuno, and she said “I’m not so sure.” Then I said “Delkfutt’s Tower,” and she said “I’m not so sure.” Then I finally guessed the last choice, Qufim Island, and… “That’s it! It’s so clear to me now!”
Qufim Island it is then. I’m nervous, because I thought that was the high level place I go for the Shantotto Ascenscion content.
-In any case, that’s where she’s heading. Qufim Island.
---
Mission: The Four Musketeers (Bastok)
-I head north from my meeting with Lion in the Konschtat Highlands to the Pashnow Marshlands in the northeast. That’s supposedly where the Quadav encampment is.
-I find a suspicious hume – like, that’s not my judgment, that’s his name, “Suspicious Hume” – standing by a portal.
-I talk to him because I guess Detolilla never learned about stranger-danger. He asks if my soul constantly yearns for greener pastures or whatever.
SUSPICIOUS HUME: “Yet what if there were a method by which [your soul] could escape its confines and begin life anew?” Sure! Sign me up, buddy! Sounds risk-free.
-If I want to get with his whatever, I have to procure for one of his brethren a rabbit hide, a lizard tail, or a two-leaf mandragora bud. Ok.
-I don’t know what this is all about, but it creeps me out. Even creepier is that the quest’s name is “Monstrosity.” Do I really want to give this guy a lizard tail so that he can free my soul from its shackles?
-Anyway.
-MOTHER OF GOD
-IT’S A MALBORO
-Do I…? Fuck it. I got a party of NPCs with me.
-It hits hard. No way it’s a normal monster. But we take it out. It doesn’t use Bad Breath.
-I cross the Pashnow Marshlands eastward. I dislike the place. Not just the gross Malboros and funguars and leeches, but the SOUNDS. As I walk, I hear the squelching of feet in watery marsh.
I swear this monster was cute until it opened its mouth and showed three rows of teeth.
-Made it to the zoneline, into Beadeaux. barely outrunning a named enemy that had me on death’s door.
-The Mythril Musketeers are here. We split up to take out Copper Quadavs, but they make it sounds as if I have to do that solo. We’ll see. NEXT TIME!
---
Next time: The Four Musketeers mission. I also just hit level 30, so I can start unlocking different jobs to try supporting my red mage.
