Mission: The Four Musketeers (Bastok)
-Beadeaux looks… complex. And I have kind of a low tolerance for wandering and getting lost in unmapped areas. So I backtrack quickly, teleporting over to Selbina to buy a map.
[Non-rhetorical question for y’all: so the game has a currency called “tabs” which you get from completing repeatable training regimens. They can be used at floating books called Survival Guides, and it used to cost me 50 tabs iirc to teleport between Survival Guides. However, now it only costs me 10 tabs, which is WONDERFUL.
The question is – what happened? What did I do that lowered the cost so dramatically?]
-Bought the map for 3,000 gil and hopped back over to Beadeaux. Summoned my four NPC trust party members, and ready to kill the 20 Copper Quadavs.
-There’s no tracker. I have to keep track myself of when I hit 20.
-Found a note on the gate to Beadeaux. It says “The cellkey is the Quadav charm,” backwards. “No sound means no Quadav.” Hm.
-What the heck is that?? I fought deeper into this place, and came across a machine that make me “feel cold,” and “extremely numb.”
-The machine is called “The Afflictor.”
-I’m gonna do something foolish. I’m gonna run up to it.
-It cursed me. Not sure what that does, but it’s probably bad.
-I get through the 20 Copper Quadavs and head back out to regroup. Naji is missing. Rescue time?
-lol nope, he’s just late. He was bored being on guard duty so often, so he went overboard and killed more than he needed to. Ayame is pissed that he went off mission. They leave.
-The remaining two Mythril Musketeers are Hani and Dalzakk. They note how both Ayame and Naji are young, but still great warriors. Dalzakk in particular thinks this mission was just to test us. I agree.
Mission complete.
-Back in town, I trade in some of the conquest points I earned for new armor.
Looks pretty badass imo.
-I could choose to pick up a new mission for the Bastok mission chain… but not yet. Why? Because I’m level 33. At level 30, many if not all of the extra jobs beyond the initial six opened up to me, if I do the quests for them. That means it’s JOB TIME!!!
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JOB CHANGE!
-When I first created this character, Detolilla, I decided I would randomize her job. I rolled a random number on random.org, each number representing one of the six jobs available to me at the time. I’m glad I did that.
-But now, I’ve hit level 30. And just like in the very first Final Fantasy, I feel it’s time for a change. (Even though I’m sure each job is more or less as good as the others.) So how do I go about deciding?
I… I don’t know. There are so many cool ones!
The only jobs I absolutely do NOT want are ones that require gil and consumables to use. sorka42 on the MarkSpoils forum was kind enough to answer this question for me. The ones I want to stay away from are apparently Beastmaster, Ranger, Ninja, Corsair, and Puppetmaster.
So how do I pick which should be my primary one? If I were in FFXI for the long haul, I’d try out a lot of them to a medium level and see which fit best for my goals in the game, but as is, I kind of want to pick one main one and move on with the story.
But I don’t have to pick yet. First, I want to DO the job quests. If one jumps out at me and really hooks me, awesome. If not, at least I’ll see the quests that give me the jobs.
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Job Quest: Puppetmaster
-The first quest to try is one that’s right here in Bastok. I’ve seen this dude in the market square with his creepy fucking puppet dancing in front of him. Now he talks to me.
-The guy is Shamarhaan, and his puppet is Valkeng. His dress/garb is so amazing that I’m almost willing to overlook the fact that his puppet gives me nightmares.
THE PUPPET HAS NO FACE.
-While Shamarhaan can’t teach me to be a puppetmaster, he tells me to find his pupil, Iruki-Waraki, in Aht Urhgan Whitegate. I haven’t been there yet, but I think it’s only a boat ride away from a city I have been to. Sure. Let’s do this.
-Again, I have no interest in actually being a puppetmaster since it uses components and consumables and stuff, but I want to see the quest still.
-I head to Mhaura, and after some confusion, find the ship that goes to Aht Urhgan. Au revoir.
-WAIT WTF
After I got on the ship, and the ship departed, I got a message: “You do not possess a boarding permit. You were not permitted to board the ship.” THEN TELL ME THAT BEFORE I ACTUALLY BOARDED THE SHIP AND LEFT HARBOR. Urk. I guess there’s a breadcrumbs quest for Aht Urhgan I need first. I’ll come back to this.
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Job Quest: Dark Knight
-This one starts in the Bastok Mines.
-The questgiver is… huh, it’s a kid. A Galka kid. He tells us about how Captain Volker (who we’ve seen before) came to speak about Zeid.
-Volker came here to talk to Werei, a Galka I heard about. He’s missing or dead, on a “mission of rebirth” iirc.
-The person in discussion, Zeid, apparently should be leading the Mythril Musketeers, not Volker. This is according to Volker himself.
-Volker has an uncle who’s an asshole apparently, and Volker doesn’t want to be like him.
-A dark knight was sighted in the Palborough Mines. Werei doesn’t say more than that, but there are less dark knights since Zeid disappeared… AHA! So Zeid is a dark knight, and it’s possible he’s in the Palborough Mines.
WEREI: “It is said that only the few who can tame the dark flames that burn within their soul, feeding their sorrow and hatred… are chosen.” Edgy af
-Thanks, kid! I’m off to Palborough Mines.
*a loooong time later*
-Again. I give up. I’ve searched the Palborough Mines high and low, and see no sign of Zeid or any similar dark knight. So I give up, and I’m looking up the next step.
-…really? I had to go to the Palborough Mines only to leave. I have take the boat the LEAVE the Palborough Mines back for Bastok. Then something happens. I mean. Okay. I guess.
-I take the boat, it disembarks at the Zeruhn Mines by Bastok, and Zeid is here waiting for me.
-He looks about as awesome as you’d expected a Dark Knight to look.
ZEID: “It’s unfortunate what happened to Werei, but I see Volker has not changed.” Still not quite sure what happened to Werei.
-He gives me Chaosbringer, a sword. Tells me to use it to sate the sword’s hunger, and return to him when the hunger is sated. Huh????
-GOD I HATE THIS, I have literally no idea what he’s talking about. Kill with it I guess. How much? Who? Do I have to land a certain number of hits, or kills, or participate in kills? (I have to assume it’s the latter.) Some people are charmed by how vague old MMO quests like this can be. I am not among that group.
-To make matters worse, it SUCKS. Chaosbringer has damage of 3 and delay of 666. As a point of comparison, my current dagger has 10 damage and 178 delay. The Chaosbringer is both three times weaker than this dagger and four times as slow. Ugh.
I also need to swap to a Warrior to even use it, since it’s a Great Sword.
-After I “sate that sword’s hunger,” I have to go meet him in Beadeaux.
-I swap to warrior. The weapon looks cool, which is something I guess.
-Back to the Mines… oh good lord. This weapon takes 11 seconds between swings. ELEVEN.
-Yay! I killed a few monsters. Is that enough? No clue.
-Again, I’m cheating. I’m looking up what I’m supposed to do.
-……
-………………………..
-are you kidding me are you KIDDING ME??? WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA FOR A DARK KNIGHT JOB UNLOCKING QUEST??
-So here’s what I have to do apparently. I have to land 100 killing blows with this shitty weapon. One hundred. And if someone else gets the killing blow, I don’t get credit, so no trust NPCs to help speed this along.
I have a long way to go in FFXI, and many things to discover, but I’m reasonably sure this is the worst quest in any video game I’ve ever played. I’d rather play the NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles water level where I have to disarm all the bombs beneath the dam.
[Later edit: I’m now remembering EverQuest’s epic quests that required 20+ hour “camping,” killing a placeholder monster over and over and over until the rare enemy you needed for your quest happened to spawn. This is nowhere near as bad as that. FFXI, I apologize.]
-All right. I’m committed. Let’s do this.
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Bats, Crabs, and Podcasts
-I’m ready to go. Sure I have to kill low level enemies, but the real enemy I have to kill is boredom, and I’m well-equipped. I’ve got my podcast playlist set up, and a little piece of scratch paper in front of me to tally each kill since the game doesn’t provide a method to track the 100 kills. (I swear I NEVER would have known this is what I had to do if I didn’t look up the answer.)
Rinse, repeat. Repeat. Repeat…
-First up as I kill Dingbat #1 in the Zeruhn Mines is the last 9 minutes of an episode of “The Angry Chicken,” a podcast about Hearthstone. There’s a new expansion coming to Hearthstone, but this particular episode is about the arena changes.
-Podcast ends. Good discussion between Dills, the regular host, and Merps, an arena-mode specialist guest! Eight kills down.
-Next up is the new “Welcome to Night Vale” episode called “Ash Beach.” 27 minutes.
-Lol I love this show. “We make money the old fashioned way. We convert lead into gold.”
-This show constantly surprises me with not just its humor and creepiness, but it’s emotion and kindness.
-WTNV has a musical segment each week, and this is particularly good. “Fated,” by POS.
From 16:28 to 20:18 in this video.
-38 kills down. Next podcast up is the NPR show Code Switch, “In Search of Puerto Rican Identity in Small-Town America.” 23 minutes.
-Whoa! There are one million more Puerto Ricans on the continental US than on the island. Holyoke, MA is home to the highest per-capita number of Puerto Ricans in the continental US!
-lol - The term “the tofu curtain” refers to the barrier between Puerto Ricans and the wealthier white college town areas of Holyoke.
-What an emotionally charged episode this is… AND A HAMILTON SONG!! HOLY SHIT THIS IS GREAT!
-60 kills down. Next episode is from a design podcast called “99% Invisible,” which took me by surprise because I never had any interest in design issues before this. 31 minutes for this one.
-This episode is about El Salvadoran refugees who crossed into the US in the 80s, and about churches that provided “sanctuary.” The whole origin of the sanctuary movement (which I didn’t know was a movement!).
-97 kills down. Almost there. Three to go. For my final burst, going to reward myself with the appropriately themed “Wait for It” from the Hamilton soundtrack. What a gem.
-100 kills. Done. The bats and crabs of Zeruhn Mines have learned to fear my rage. Rawr.
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Becoming a Dark Knight
-My next step is to head back to the Quadav fort of Beadeaux and try to find Zeid the Dark Knight, turning in my no-longer-thirsty Chaosbringer.
-One upside of this whole boring stretch is that I found something that seems kind of important: job abilities and job traits. I don’t just get stat boosts from primary and sub jobs. I get these passive and active traits too! Like, my monk support job gives me the trait Martial Arts that increases hand-to-hand speed.
-I really hope Zeid isn’t super hard to find. Teleporting into Beadeaux, then running out and back in in case I get a zone in cutscene
-Oh nm, porting in I found him.
ZEID: “Your training to become a dark knight is already complete… As long as your blade craves for the souls of your enemies, our paths may cross again. Until then, farewell.”
-Whew. Simple. I’m glad. I was a bit afraid I’d have needed to fight him or something.
-but seriously. FUCK THIS QUEST. How can you decide the process to become a motherfucking DARK KNIGHT should be so boring? It should be epic, and yet… this.
If I find other job quests to be this tedious and mind-numbing, I may just pick one and leave the rest alone.
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Next time: Testing the waters with other job unlocking quests. However, I’m flexible. If I find them either too tough or super boring, I may choose to ignore them or simply come back when I’m higher level to do them.
