Summary: Solving mystery of the Tarutaru Trio’s father. Nag’molada’s plans move forward. Prishe falls ill. Cardinal Mildaurion’s identity revealed (maybe).
Mission: Comedy of Errors, Act II (continued) (Chains of Promathia, ch.3)
-My mini-quest right now is to fix the Mimeo Mirror, which the Tarutaru in Windurst will use to prove whether or not they fathered the Tavnazian trio. To fix this, I have to head to Attohwa Chasm and get a Mimeo Jewel and some Mimeo Feathers.
-I twist my way through the winding ravines in this zone, Attohwa Chasm, and eventually reach some loose sand that spawns a named Antlion.
Hi, FFIV enemy!
-Killing it gets me the Mimeo Jewel.
-This next part, I hate with the heat of a nova. I have to wend my way up a narrow series of paths, up this mountainside. There are forking paths and misleading paths and it’s SUPER easy to fall off and have to start over.
There are even these black smoke barriers, and the only way to tell if they’re temporary or permanent is to run into them for like 30-40 seconds. If I pass through, it’s temporary. If I don’t, it’s permanent.
The worst part of this FFXI platforming mini-game? A time limit. I have 30 minutes from the time I first take the jewel to reach the top of this mountain, Parradamo Tor. If I don’t reach the summit in time, I have to go back to the bottom, get the jewel again from the antlion nest, and restart.
UHGGGHHH.
-Eventually I get it. Phew. I throw the jewel into a nook at the top of this thing, the Cradle of Rebirth.
I toss in the Mimeo Jewel, and three Mimeo Feathers rise out of the crater and into my inventory.
-I head back to Yoran-Oran in Windurst. I’m really anxious to know the truth about the Tarutaru trio’s dad. I’m expecting it to be someone who isn’t wealthy, famous, powerful, or important, and I just hope the trio accepts it without too much disappointment if that’s the case.
-I give him the mirror. He sets to fixing it, and tells me to find the “three troublemakers” asap.
-By the way – I have to say at this point how much I love FFXI wiki. (ffxiclopedia.wikia.com) It’s not just that it tells me where to go. That’s expected. It’s that it doesn’t tell more than I need to progress to the next stage of the mission.
That’s it. The story bits are hidden mostly behind spoiler walls.. Basically, it makes FFXI questing a bit like WoW or literally any other modern MMO’s questing by telling me where to go without saying what’ll happen there. I really appreciate it.
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Mission: Exit Stage Left (Chains of Promathia, ch.3)
-The next person I have to talk to is Yujuju. She’s new… OMG. She’s a newspaper vendor. The next issue is about the three Tarutaru lolol
-We cut to the three of them sitting at the airport, watching airships (which they’d never seen before) go by.
-What are they to do? Go home? Maybe, but if they go home then they’ll be in big trouble with Prishe.
MAKKI-CHEBUKKI: “Prishe is never lazy with her punishments, either.”
Why am I not surprised that they’ve had ample opportunity to see her punishments?
-They all now admit that the wealthy trader was probably not their father.
-This kind of hurts. It’s not that they are now accepting that their dad might not be all that much – it’s that he’s WAY better than those two.
“Yeah! Our daddy would have to be a super-duper, double-whammy, extra-wizzy wizard.”
-They run off, yelling “Daddy! Dad!” to harass some other poor random Tarutaru. XD
-Their next target is a magical researcher, Tosuka-Porika. He has just as little idea as the others who these kids are. And worse, neither he (nor his daughter, since he’s on the older side) have been to Tavnazia.
-One of the kids says they heard their father was the Minister of the Optistery – which I guess is the name of the magical library in Windurst. Are they bullshitting, or did they really hear that?
OH SHIT they have an actual name: Karaha-Baruha. A bigwig in Windurst. Why the hell didn’t they just say that name to begin with?
-Tosuka-Porika ponders this. He does remember hearing that Karaha-Baruha went to Tavnazia, and mentioned an “encounter that would change the history of Vana’diel’s people.” But I kind of doubt Karaha-Baruha meant that his pairing with their mother was that encounter.
-Oh, right! Karaha-Baruha died 20 years ago. He was the one who we saw a while back that used some major-league summoning magic to save Windurst.
-The trio is distraught to hear this. Mostly because they were hoping for a big inheritance I think, but probably more than that too. Tosuka-Porika says he’ll help them however he can. He’s not especially wealthy or powerful, but he knows a lot.
-The trio’s first question: who are the Kuluu? The Zilart? Bahamut? He replies that all three are ancients who no longer exist in our time. Lol sorry grandpa
-hahahaha
MAKKI-CHEBUKKI: “Amazing!”
KUKKI-CHEBUKKI: “You managed to get every question wrong!”
This naturally shocks Tosuka-Porika, but the kids kind of ignore him.
-Their last question: who was Nag’molada? A Jeunoan diplomat.
And just like that, the trio is off for Jeuno to see Nag’molada again.
[Later edit: I don’t know what I think of this whole thing. The Tarutaru kids are funny with how reckless they are, and how they talk in sync, and flail and jump for joy at different points. But the whole “searching for their real dad” thing seems like a bit of a waste of time if they knew their dad’s name the whole time.
And I’m also not sure what’s up with them immediately turning their attention from finding their dad back to the issues of the Kuluu and Zilart and Bahamut. Why do they care about that? Did Nag’molada promise them some reward, or are they just that afraid of Prishe’s vengeance for them insulting her that the Tarutaru feel they can’t go back? Idk. We’ll see.]
-My last stop before leaving this Tarutaru-infested city is to check in again with Yoran-Oran about the mirror.
-lolol the mirror didn’t even matter. The kids learned about Karaha-Baruha, so Yoran-Oran can rest easy. NOW – back to why I initially came here: to learn about the allied expedition to the Northlands.
-The Expedition wasn’t that successful. The only real outcome Yoran-Oran knows about is that two musketeers from Bastok failed to return. That must be Cornelia and Raogrimm.
-There’s a terrible power in that land, but nobody really figured out what it is. Just that the suspicious actions of Bastok (namely: Ulrich secretly murdering Cornelia and pushing Raogrimm to become the Shadow Lord) stopped the expedition in its tracks.
-With that knowledge, it’s time to revisit Cid in Bastok.
-Cid feels guilty about this whole thing. He was the one who pressured the Bastok government into sending a party north. Why though?
-Thirty years ago, a man brought a strange stone to him. About as big as his fist, and you could feel power flowing from it. The man said it was a fragment of a crystal from the Northlands, and Cid wanted to follow-up on that lead in hopes of finding a great energy source for Bastok.
-Cid now thinks that the crystal’s power might have been enough to power the crystal propulsion unit that the pale and mysterious Jeuno scientists were working on.
-The man who sold him the stone called it “magicite” – HI FFVI CALLBACK! It was brought from Tavnazia, part of a larger gem called the Star of Tavnazia.
I wonder if that’s what Prishe wears around her neck.
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Mission: Tending Aged Wounds (Chains of Promathia, ch.3)
-Now I have a lead to follow. Heading to Jeuno to follow-up on this lead.
-I get a cutscene. Nag’molada is here, meeting with Wolfgang. The airships are ready for departure. Where’s he going? Tavnazia?
NAG’MOLADA: “I will be traveling on a separate vessel. If ‘he’ appears before I arrive, prevent him from escaping, but do not attack.”
Who is ‘he?’ The Keeper of the Apocalypse? Because if so, ‘he’ left Vana’diel and y’all have had zero luck preventing him from doing anything before.
-omg the Tarutaru trio!! They run up to Nag’molada, and are clearly working for him as he speaks plainly around them.
NAG’MOLADA: “It is all working as planned. Now, I will finally retrieve what is mine.”
I don’t know whether this is a good thing or not, but I still have almost no clue what Nag’molada’s goal is right now.
-I head to the Tenshodo HQ, to Aldo.
-Ulmia is here. She’s back here to regroup, but hasn’t seen Prishe.
-I ask Ulmia about that magicite dealer in Tavnazia, and the “Star of Tavnazia.” She heard stories of it, but never saw it herself.
-Aldo heard of it too, and a bit more. That it’s a gem kept in the Tavnazian Cathedral. And perhaps related to other magicite around the world…
OH RIGHT!! I forgot that we’ve seen magicite before in FFXI. There were huge chunks of magicite in the Orc, Quadav, and Yagudo strongholds.
So perhaps the magicite was already there, and the Beastmen flocked to it and guarded it. So magicite in the Beastman-riddled Northlands is likely now.
-What about Prishe though? We can’t embark on any magicite-hunting expedition without her!
-One of the Tenshodo busts in, saying that Prishe has been taken to Doctor Monbereaux’s. She visited the Temple of the Goddess and was attacked.
-Again, I’m concerned about this. I wrote last time that Prishe was called “the abhorrent one.” Was she attacked by Volto Oscuro, or was she attacked by a holy person?
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Mission: Darkness Named (Chains of Promathia, ch.3)
-Ulmia and I arrive at Monbereaux’s clinic. Prishe is in unstable condition, and is in pain. Noooo!!
-Tenzen is here too. He’s the one who brough Prishe in.
-Prishe speaks: “…Keeper… of the… Apocalypse…”
-Well. Shit. She hears the Keeper “calling” her. LEAVE PRISHE ALONE
-Tenzen’s sword, the one imbued with the holy Phoenix soul, starts to shiver and ring out.
-OH SHIT HER AMULET IS GONE – that amulet she always carried, that was given to her by the blond woman working with Nag’molada.
-Ulmia asks me for my amulet – the one that appears to be Prishe’s twin – and use it to save her. It seems to put Prishe into a deep sleep.
-Ulmia says that Prishe’s amulet was given to her by Cardinal Mildaurion, founder of the Tavnazian church. I don’t think I knew that before…
OH FDHSFJKLDSHFHFKLDS –
A few things:
1)Prishe says she got her amulet from “a tall blond chick.”
2)The game strongly hinted that the Zilart woman who attacked Bahamut was that person.
3)Ulmia now says the mythical Cardinal Mildaurion (who is missing, and now we know is NOT dead) gave Prishe her amulet.
-So Cardinal Mildaurion must be that blond woman working with Nag’molada.
-Prishe was injured a while back, and the Cardinal gave Prishe the amulet apparently to protect her. She’s worn it ever since. That same amulet that the Pale Kid, potential Keeper of the Apocalypse, gave to me.
-Monbereaux’s next words chill me to my core. He heard the Pale Kid was spotted in Pso’Xja. I poked my head down there once earlier in the game, saw some Tonberries, and fled.
Pso’Xja. Tonberry Country. FHDJKLSFHS
-That’s where the fourth crystal lies. The Tenshodo apparently control those ruins too, so I’ll have to check in with them.
-I talk to the front-woman for the Tenshodo, a Mithra. She tells me that while most of Pso’Xja is open to anyone, we’ll need to give the Tenshodo a little payment to get access to the deeper parts of one of the central towers. I have to go to one of the side-towers of Pso’Xja and get them a chipped jewel sighted there.
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Next time: Pso’Xja and the fourth crystal.
