Quest: An Empty Vessel (Blue Mage)
-The blue mage questgiver is Waoud in Aht Urhgan. He’s a streetside fortune teller.
-Lots of questions. “What is destiny?” That sort of thing. Multiple choice. Eventually he says, “This sign heralds a turning point in your destiny. A time will come when you must choose one of two paths. The road you walk will be entirely up to you…”
-In payment for his time, would I mind getting him a precious stone for his dear, sick mother? Something only found in Dangruf Wadi.
-It’s only found in a high-level part of the zone, and only available when the weather is sunny. I get it and bring it back.
“To be perfectly honest, it was the mother of a colleague who wished to gaze upon this treasure…”
-What the hell is up with this guy? He’s sketchy af. I have to bring this stone to his “colleague” in the Aydeewa Subterrane.
-I travel out to the caves where a blue mage greets me. Yasfel of the Immortals.
“Ah. The new potential.”
-The stone was just a test. Waoud asked something totally unreasonable of me – bring back a random stone from across the world – and I did it. Going to outrageous lengths for power is the core of this job. Do I want it? Hell yes.
“Your life now belongs to the Empress and the Empire.”
-Scene change. The palace in Aht Urhgan. They did… something to me. Some kind of magical surgery that put me near death, altering my “cobalt levels.” Hollows me out.
-Ok, this is fucking awesome. These are the blue mages in private, behind the veils. They are like cyborgs in a way. The monsters they draw power from alter them physically. Like, one of these guys has an Ahriman lens instead of a left eye.
RAUBHAN: “Welcome to the ranks of the blue mages. However, at this moment, you are but an empty vessel – a base creature, weaker than the most ordinary mortal. A blue mage must wrest her strength and vitality from her enemies. Show me your hunger for unrivaled power!”
-Later, I return to Waoud, the street diviner. He offers to read my destiny again. And as he does so, I see a glint of an Ahriman lens in his eye.
-I get a vision of speaking to Raubahn, the blue mage who initiated me, again. He urgest me to grow in strength until I become no longer an empty vessel, but a body that can hold the power I desire.
“If you can uncover the strength within you to rival my insight… But I have said too much. Detolilla, go forth and devour the essence of your foes.”
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Mount Up!
-I didn’t track this too specifically, but it finally happen. After over 13 days played, I finally – FINALLY – got a mount license.
-Let me tell you: I don’t know WHAT the fuck I was doing, not finding this quest earlier. Mount speed makes the game’s plentiful travel so much faster!
-The quest involved feeding a chocobo, and then racing a raptor around a zone.
-Strangely enough, I still don’t have a chocobo. I have two mounts: a velociraptor and – this is my favorite – an orcish warmachine.
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Mission: Dancers in Distress (Wings of the Goddess)
-The Bastok story pauses, so I return to San d’Oria. Lilisette and Portia have been visiting Sir Ragelise regularly. I go to the palace.
-Sir Ragelise looks good and active! Until his wound flares up and he gets dizzy. (Much like Captain Klara, back in Bastok…)
-He begs me not to tell anyone about his wound. He worries his knights will lose faith at a crucial time.
-Portia (one of the other dancers) keeps exchanging looks with Ragelise. Many looks. I wonder if Portia is Lilisette’s mother.
-As Portia begins to weep, I get two options: “leave her” or “comfort her.” I go with the latter, and I can’t help but laugh as I see this blocky animation of my character slapping her arm “comfortingly” on Portia’s shoulder.
-Portia asks me to take care of Lilisette. She may be the “Moonshade Wolverine,” but Portia knows how much solitude Lilisette had to endure since her parents died.
-Lilisette went off to Jugner Forest to chase Cait Sith.
-I arrive in Jugner Forest, and the troupe of dancers SPRING UPON ME. They were hoping I was Cait Sith.
OMG THIS DEJECTED LOOK ON CAMOFLAGED LILISETTE’S FACE
-Her dancers leave, and Lili checks that I’m still in on the “capture Cait Sith and save Ragelise” plan.
LILISETTE: “After which, we make our long-awaited intercontinental debut as the professional tag-team duo, ‘Future Fabulous’?”
WHY IS THAT NOT AN ADD-ON PACK TO FFXI. It can join “Bartz has fun adventures with Gilgamesh after the events of FFV” on the queue.
-Lili’s plan to catch Cait Sith is so direct it’s brilliant: use a dead fish as bait. It’s not working.
-Lili asks me a series of questions to help devise a better bait. Is Cait Sith cute or savage? Does she like high places or food more? Etc. This is amazing.
-Even better, a phantasmal Cait Sith (invisible to us) is watching this conversation. When Lili says she’ll go with a slice of lynx meat as bait, we see Cait Sith stretch and purr in excitement this is SO GREAT.
I’m delighted that the game chose to make Cait Sith basically into… well, a cat.
-I grab the lynx meat and return. We set the trap. And wait. Lilisette looks adorably grumpy and bored.
-CAIT SITH APPEARS. A different Cait Sith than our own.
-Lili drops the barrel and catches herself a cat.
-Cait Sith Coig can’t answer Lili’s questions, so Lili SHAKES HER BY THE EARS until CS Coig remembers her conversations with CS Naoi (our Cait Sith).
They “opened Atomos,” but for their own reasons. Not to strike out at Sir Ragelise.
-This doesn’t assuage Lilisette. She insists that Cait Sith find a way to use her time powers to save Ragelise. After all, he’s supposed to be the hero in the pivotal Battle of Jeuno!
-Aaaaand then it starts raining cats. Literally. Cait Siths pour from the sky and surround us. What a weird expansion.
-The caits debate what to do. Their tone is detached, strategic. Should they keep Ragelise as a piece on their side of the chessboard? (I think the other side of the chessboard is Lilith, but idk for sure.)
-They decide to take a half-measure and help Sir Ragelise indirectly, telling us about a medicine from a nearby lake.
???: “Impressive! I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. Don’t mind me, folks. Carry on.”
-IT’S AQUILA, THAT SERVANT OF LILITH
-The caits freak out, fleeing as fast as possible. Aquila kills one with his magic.
AQUILA: “Easy, now. I may not look it, but I’m actually an avid cat enthusiast. Honest!” So yes, he killed a cat, but idc because he’s the best villain.
-OMG THE BESTTTTT VILLAIN. WHY? BECAUSE HE PICKED UP A FLEEING CAIT AND LITERALLY IS SNUGGLING HER
“Such adorable little creatures… makes it all the harder to dispose of you all as Haudrale commanded.”
-Aquila offers this Cait Sith her life if she’ll agree to be his pet. She says no, and he zaps her with a finger-gun motion.
Christ, I’ve never felt so conflicted about a villain! He’s hilarious and goofy, and loves cats. But he killed two of them! But he let most of them go! (I'm still assuming he's a sidekick, but I've been wrong about that sort of thing before. See also: Kefka.)
Like, he’s definitely a villain and awful, but… he snuggled a cat.
-He notices us here, enraged that we killed his pet shadow dragon last time. About to attack us when he hears Haudrale calling to him and teleports away.
-At least now Lilisette knows that the Cait Siths are NOT in league with those who attacked her father.
-We have a next step: the medicine the Cait Siths mentioned. Lili and I will head back to the future, to present day San d’Oria to talk with Sir Ragelise’s old doctor.
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Mission: Daughter of a Knight (Wings of the Goddess)
-The doctor is Amaura, an old Elvaan woman. She and Lili know each other.
AMAURA: “[Your dress] looks mighty familiar, like somethin’ your mother used to wear.” I KNEW IT! Portia must be her mom.
-Amaura knows the medicine to make, but the ingredient no longer exists. We can go back to the past when the materials were available.
LILI: “Even extinction is no match for this tag-team duo! Whatever the task, and no matter the odds, Future Fabulous shall prevail!”
-I get the item – a Cernunnos bulb – from the past and return to her. Alas, we need a mature tree. It’ll take about 10-20 years from the time we plant the bulb until the tree matures enough to collect resin.
-So I have to plant the bulb in the past, return to the present and collect the matured tree resin.
This expansion is basically “Final Fantasy XI: Chrono Trigger.”
-I do all that but don’t see a tree in the present. Christ, was that all for nothing?
LOL NEVER MIND, NOTHING WAS THERE BECAUSE THE BIG-ASS TREE IS ALIVE AND HAD WALKED AWAY
-I take out the tree and get its resin. We return to Amaura and the medicine is soon ready.
-It’s not a perfect solution. The medicine relieves pain and makes it easier to function, but it won’t cure the wound. Lili accepts this. At least Sir Ragelise will continue to command his knights and manage his pain.
-After Lilisetta leaves, Amaura echoes Portia’s words from before: she’s happy I’m here with Lili. That Lili isn’t alone anymore.
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Next time: delivering the medicine to Sir Ragelise.
