-In this session, I want to use it to set the stage for the next major storylines I’ll work on now at level 60 with the Shadow Lord resting peacefully:
1)The next part of the Bastok storyline.
2)The next part of the Rhapsodies of Vana’diel storyline.
3)The response of Gilgamesh, Lion, and myself to the new antagonist we just met from the Rise of the Zilart storyline.
4)Start the dragoon artifact armor quests.
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Mission: Return of the Talekeeper (Bastok)
-Back in Bastok I speak with a guard for my next mission. He tells me that a new Talekeeper has appeared, according to the Galka! A key religious and cultural role, previously occupied by Raogrimm/The Shadow Lord.
-I head over to the Mines District to check it out.
-Medicine Eagle is the Galka guard I meet here. He relates the story in flashback.
-It’s a boy! The new Talekeeper is an (adorable) little Galka boy.
An older hooded Galka is with him. “I came across him in the Korroloka Tunnel. That is where I heard him recite two hundred years of our memories!”
Uh. You heard him recite two hundred years worth of memories? What would that sound like? (Probably just some select memories from across two hundred years.)
-The kid’s name is Povall. He says he set out on a journey of rebirth to the western edge of the Altepa Desert. He remember his previous life, and at Revelation Rock heard a voice from the heavens! It said:
“’Lead the stray sheep from the land of oppression.’ That is what I was told. Then the glowing Alepa moonpebble in my hand unlocked the two hundred years of Galkan memories in my head.”
So is this kid legit? I’m skeptical af. I wouldn’t be surprised if this were a power play by the guy presenting Povall to the townsfolk, Gabbot.
-Medicine Eagle himself is happy about this new Talekeeper, but skeptical. Thinks there’s more going on than meets the eye, and directs me to the Zeruhn Mines to speak with a Galka named Drake Fang about a possible party heading to the Altepa Desert to investigate the kid’s backstory.
-In the mines, Drake Fang and the high-ranking Mythril Musketeer named Iron Eater tell me to follow the new “Talekeeper’s” backtrail and see if his story is true.
-My first step is to try finding an Altepa moonpebble, the thing the kid said he got his hands on, and bring it to a guard in Bastok named Tall Mountain.
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The Ties That Bind (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-In Norg. I head into Gilgamesh’s room to regroup with Zeid, Gilgamesh, and Iroha. I don’t see Lion here yet.
-They heard about the victory over the Shadow Lord.
-Iroha (who again knows me from the future) tells me that apparently I eventually tell HER that “I felt the crystal resonate within” during the encounter with the Shadow Lord.
???: “Warrior of the Crystal – one who will become known as a Warrior of Light… You will travel across land, sea, and sky, bathed in light and stopping darkness wherever it threatens the living.”
-Basically, a beautiful giant crystal is giving me a pep talk about all the shit to come. And it seems to have a different interpretation of that creation poem than the Zilart Archduke. We might be the “Warriors of the Crystal” after all.
-Back in Gilgamesh’s room, Iroha mentions that in the future, I impress her father with my valor or something like that. She’s about to say who her father is, but we get interrupted first. So Iroha’s father will be an ongoing mystery.
-Two pirates burst into the door, telling Gilgamesh of trouble at Sea Serpent Grotto (one of the areas bordering Norg).
EUNSOO (the guard): “Boats are just turnin’ and turnin’ about! No boats are able to make it ta Norg at all! There was this infernal ringin’ noise an’ the boats are just spinnin’ in place!”
-Okay. I’ve played Final Fantasy I through Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission. If Leviathan isn’t the one responsible for this phenomenon, I’ll eat my stuffed moogle.
-oops lol. Looks like I’ll have to eat my stuffed moogle after all. Apparently it’s not Leviathan, but rather the hellish bell that seemed to possess Zeid briefly in that other world of Escha.
-Next stop is Sea Serpent Grotto to see what’s up. (I still think Leviathan will have some role in this.)
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Mission: The New Frontier (Rise of the Zilart)
-So at this point, the “Rhapsodies of Vana’diel” and “Rise of the Zilart” mission lines overlap a bit. Going to suspend disbelief, since in this Rise of the Zilart mission, I’m meeting Gilgamesh for the first time.
-Gilgamesh introduces himself as the leader of the pirates.
-Lion has been investigating Jeuno for months, since Gilgamesh has been suspicious of Jeuno.
-Lion relates to Gilgamesh everything he heard about the Rise of the Zilart, and how we are apparently the plague that the Warriors of the Crystal will purge. His response is pure Gilgamesh:
“’Cleanse the world?’ ‘Beginning of the end?’ That be a lot of fancy talk. But let’s see them say that in front of yours truly! I’m not runnin’ away from no fight!”
You never have. Gilgamesh, I love you.
-So how do we stop the Archduke Kam’lanaut and the Zilart? Gilgamesh plans to go to the Temple of Uggalepih, on this island beyond the Yuhtunga Jungle.
-When Gilgamesh was there hunting for booty (take that as you will), he came across a mystical old woman who said: “Are the ancient spirits still in slumber? Come again when the minions awake.”
Hm. Perhaps the ancient spirits are those Warriors of the Crystal. If so, they’re sure af awake now.
-Before I head to the Temple of Uggalepih to find this old woman, Gilgamesh tells me to travel to a Chieftainness in somewhere called Kazham for help.
-At this moment, thinking we’re on our own, Aldo arrives. Aldo is the leader of the Tenshodo that I met before, an underground group within Jeuno. He’s here because his sister, Verena, is missing.
-OH SHIT I JUST REMEMBERED – Kam’lanaut’s asshole little brother, Eald’narche, asked for Verena to be sent to him.
-Also goes back to Jeuno to search for clues, but will keep in touch with us.
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Quest: A Craftsman’s Work (Dragoon Artifact Armor)
-This next thing is something I learned existed only because a guildmate told me. Each job in FFXI has access to a series of mid-level quests for job-specific armor called Artifact Armor. Not sure how tough the quests are supposed to be, but I know they’re quests.
-The first one for the dragoon starts off at a random NPC in one of the starting cities, Miaux in Northern San d’Oria.
-Sadly, Miaux is an Elvaan. I was really hoping for a cat joke if Miaux were a Mithra.
-She wants a breastplate repaired at the Blacksmiths’ Guild, and asks me to come with him because she gets nervous. Huh.
-The smith tells her that the breastplate is too old to repair, and won’t help her.
-Outside the guild, an unaffiliated blacksmith named Ranchuriome approaches her, telling her he can help.
He needs an Altepa polishing stone from Eastern Altepa Desert to repair it. I guess I have a task ahead of me now.
-I check the map, and it looks like the Altepa Desert is on an island continent southwest of Bastok. I have to go through the Korroloka Tunnel to reach it. I head over to Selbina, buy maps for Korroloka Tunnel and the Kuzotz region (the island with Altepa Desert), and I’m good to go.
-The music in the Altepa Desert is what I can best describe as “mournful xylophone.”
-HOLA GRACIALSGC!!
I found my first cactuar in FFXI.
-Around the middle of the desert, I find a “???” that summons a special ant-fighter-type, an Antican, named “The Decurio I-III.” Not a tough fight at this point, and got the Altepa polishing stone from her after.
-I return to Miaux in Northern San d’Oria, give her the polishing stone, and get a Peregrine in return, a lance.
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Quest: Chasing Quotas (Dragoon Artifact Armor)
-The second artifact armor quest starts at a conversation between two Elvaan elsewhere in San d’Oria. The two are workers having trouble meeting a quota of gil for their boss. Salespeople perhaps.
-One of the workers, Ceraulian, just had a baby and so is a bit behind on gil. Babies are expensive af! He needs a bit more time to meet quota or he’ll be fired.
-I have to give him a gold hairpin. The item is craftable only. None are available on the auction house, so I buy a Gold Ingot and my linkshell-mate (guildmate) Avarii is kind enough to craft it for me.
-I give it to Ceraulia, and his quota is filled. The boss is satisfied.
-Someone runs in, telling the boss (Brugaire) that his father just died.
BRUGAIRE: “My father was just a foolish old man. I wanted to do anything but follow in his footsteps.”
His father worked constantly and still made almost no money. Brugaire hasn’t seen him for a while, but still plans to give him a funeral just “for decency’s sake.” I don’t want to judge too harshly since family situations are complicated, but it does kind of sound like Brugaire was kind of a dick.
-Brugaire walks off, and Ceraulian is feeling all of a sudden both sad and stressed about his own newborn. “I hope my child will be sad when I leave this world.”
-Some time passes in game. Brugaire returns from the funeral, saying that he was carrying his inheritance on the way back and was mugged of it. But I thought the father was poor?
Ah. “It was just some old armor that wasn’t of any real value to me, but there was this rich merchant who was interested in buying it for a high price. I hate to see a source of revenue get away from me like that.”
-I guess I’m off to find this asshole’s dad’s armor. Not sure where to start looking, but Ceraulian tells me to ask people nearby if they saw the thief.
-As soon as I walk outside the building, someone in a hurry and a thief mask runs by. A voice cries out “Stop, thief!”
-The thief is a delightful looking bandit who I want to team up with.
“Nobody can catch Esca the Swift! Haha!”
-I chase her through the streets of San d’Oria. I don’t actually see her, but I have to talk to guards and every once in a while someone will be like “The pickpocket went THAT WAY!”
RODAILLECE (a guard): “A pickpocket? Maybe is was that foul-mouthed woman just now. She called me a ‘spoony bard!’ Unthinkable!”
lololol that tellah callback
-I head out of the city. No more clues, but the road takes me to a tower off the path and I find Esca.
-…Bah. That’s what I get for trying to do this without a guide. She won’t talk to me.
I checked the guide, and apparently had to talk to a random dude in Northern Bastok San d’Oria first to get an earring? I really have no clue what the in-game clue for that was, but I’ve made that complaint before. No use getting riled up again.
-I talk to the woman in San d’Oria, Miaux. She tells me she attended the boss’s dad’s funeral, but was distracted by a woman among the mourners. (Esca!) She followed, and came across the unconscious boss after he was mugged. She helped heal him, and gave me a “shiny earring” as a clue that she found near the crime scene.
-The shiny earring’s description: “It looks fairly expensive, but without the other one, it is worthless.”
-The guide tells me that my next step is in the city of Bastok. Ok.
-I go to the …ah. The goldsmithing guild in Bastok. I could have guessed that, I suppose, but honestly I wouldn’t have gotten that clue for a while. The goldsmith Ardea says a customer came in just the other day asking for an earring because she lost one of her pair. That must’ve been Esca, and I’ll bet thatgiving her this extra earring is the trick to get her to talk to me.
-Earring in hand, I head back to Esca outside San d’Oria. She cheerily confesses her crime, saying she stole a piece of the armor “said to have been worn by the legendary last dragoon.” Aha!! So THAT’S why the armor is so special, even though the boss can’t see it.
-Her employer told her to bury the armor in exchange for me not telling Brugaire (the boss) that she was the thief. She was paid already, so she don’t give a fuck lol.
I LOVE THIS WOMAN.
-The armor is buried on a small island that I reach by going through the Eldieme Necropolis. There’s a monster guarding it. Got it.
-I head to the Eldieme Necropolis, but get stuck inside it. There’s a door that won’t open. Asked my linkshell about it, and they told me I can go back to the city of Windurst and buy a key. I do so and return…
-Heh. Fell down a pit trap and swift death. I gotta be careful in this place.
-Had to use invisibility and sneak or the last leg to get past a gauntlet of super high level enemies, but I did it. Now the final step: the monster.
-It’s a giant tree.
Ahtu.
Creepy af.
-It drops a key, and nearby I find a “???” …but the “???” doesn’t do anything?
-Back to the guide. Apparently, there’s ANOTHER invisible “???” on this island. I click it, and it spawns another big bad enemy: Sturmtiger.
-Tough-ish fight, but I win, and dig up “Ranchuriome’s Legacy.” Ranchuriome is the boss’s dad who died. Was he the legendary dragoon too? It didn’t sound like it.
-I die to teleport back home, and turn in the quest to Ceraulian and Brugaire.
-Ah. Ranchuriome was just a smith, hired to repair the armor by an adventurer (the legendary dragoon) who never returned.
-Rahal comes by… WAIT A SEC. Is CYRANUCE, the awesome character from the dragoon unlock quest, the one who owned this armor? And did he never come back because of that whole corruption plotline?
-So anyway. Rahal, one of the San d’Orian dragonslaying knights, come by. He’s annoyed at Brugaire for delivering shitty quality weapons to his knights. Even worse, he says that the weapons were especially shitty compared to the work of Brugaire’s father, Ranchuriome.
-Brugaire is stunned by this. He thought his father was worthless, but hearing this, hearing that his father’s work saved lives even if it didn’t make him wealthy, is new.
-Rahal leaves. Brugaire has much to think over.
-So the whole point of Brugaire getting his dad’s armor back was because he planned to sell it for a fortune to a collector. That collector now comes to meet Brugaire and complete the purchase, but Brugaire is hesitant.
-OH SHIT, BRUGAIRE REDEMPTION!! HE DOESN’T SELL THE ARMOR PIECE AFTER ALL!!
BRUGAIRE: “No, it’s not that [the price is too low, Felippe]. It’s a matter of conscience.” The deal is off.
-He is still gruff, but he gives me the dragoon armor piece. Thinks it’ll be of better use with me than with some random dude who’ll put it on his wall.
BRUGAIRE: “It seems I’ve gotten something more valuable in its place… My father used to say to me, ‘The pride that a craftsman takes in his work is reflected in the quality of his wares.’ I’ve never really thought about what that meant before…”
He walks off, leaving his employees stunned at this change in ethic and temperament.
“I’m just gonna go pay my respects to my father. Tell him that maybe his way of living wasn’t so bad after all.”
-I get the dragoon boots.
[Later edit: it only hit me when going over my notes that Ranchuriome from the first armor quest was the father who died in the second armor quest. I like how this series of quests is tied together.]
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Next time: continuing the dragoon artifact armor quests.
