Quest: Beneath the Mask (Wings of the Goddess)
-Last time, we learned an assassin in Bastok was an Ahriman disguised as a Galka, and Captain Klara tried to kill President Prien.
-The Mythril Musketeers have been disbanded, its members stuck in disciplinary units. The disciplinary Captain Herbert, tells us that Zeid deserted his unit! His commander is Sergeant Rainer in Beadeaux.
-Nicolaus and Five Moons know how loyal Zeid is to Captain Klara. Her behavior eats away at him. His desertion is probably related.
“They have always kept their lips tightly sealed. Almost as if… they have something to hide.” Zeid was pretty much unheard of before Klara recruited him.
-To learn more about the backstory, we head back to Bastok. There’s an enrollment roster there detailing all the Mythril Musketeers’ history.
-Captain Bartholomaus of the Iron Musketeers profited from the fall of the Mythril Musketeers. His Iron Musketeers ascended in stature. And now Bartholomaus guards the enrollment roster. He’ll only let us see it with the notoriously hard-assed Captain Herbert’s permission.
-Herbert is in the Eldieme Necropolis. To my surprise, he offers to help.
“I don’t trust the three of you as far as I can throw you. But I believe in justice, and the priority now is bringing in the deserter. Should his return shed any light on the investigation, so much the better.”
I like that he’s not a one-dimensional asshole.
-We return to Bastok and read the roster. An entry from six years ago shows that Captain Klara captured a Galka named War Cloud.
Six years ago, the Thirteenth Regiment of Bastok was dispatched for an unusually dangerous mission. The unit was comprised solely of Galka. No surprise they got such a shit assignment.
They fought bravely, and they all died. We head to the site of the massacre in Beaucedine Glacier.
-Zeid is there, surrounded by Gigas. Klara swoops in from out of nowhere and slays the Gigas.
“That’s one more you owe me, War Cloud.”
-Loyalty or not, Zeid wants answers from Klara.
KLARA: “The president is in league with the beastmen. Even now, he plots in the shadows for the Republic’s demise.” Well. Shit.
-But what about her pretending that Darksteel Hurricane wasn’t an Ahriman? Why play along? Would it have blown her cover to pretend she was onto the President?
-Zeid wants to trust her. Nicolaus is skeptical.
KLARA: “Zeid. Surely, you haven’t forgotten by whose good graces you stand here today. By whose charity the murderer became a Musketeer! I still believe in you. Your friends may have gone over to the darkness, but you shall remain true to the end.”
She leaves.
-Zeid removes his mask. His distinctive scar cannot lie. He is Darksteel Hurricane.
“The enemy came in great numbers. With the aid of a patrol unit stationed nearby, we could have withstood them. But no… Those accursed Humes came, gave but a single glance in our direction, and went on their way.
“And so we fought alone. To our deaths.”
-The Humes are so consistently AWFUL. Fully systemic violence against the Galka.
-That’s why Zeid became Darksteel Hurricane. Taking vengeance on the government that let him die. His distinctive scar is the mark of the Thirteenth Regiment.
-Flashback. Zeid surrounded by the corpses of his bretheren.
Carving the mark onto his forehead, vowing never to let the Humes who allowed this to happen forget the past. Never write over it, never whitewash it.
-Nicolaus is unimpressed, all “cool motive, still murder.”
-The Bastok military arrives to arrest Zeid. Disciplinary Sergeant Rainer thanks us for our hard work tracking down the deserter. We succeeded. Victory has never felt so hollow.
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Quest: What Price Loyalty (Wings of the Goddess)
-Zeid is in maximum security. Five Moons understands the roots of Zeid’s anger, but is still shocked that he turned that anger towards wanton murder.
-Volker still has faith. He’s asked that we keep Zeid’s identity as Darksteel Hurricane a secret.
-I go to Zeid’s prison to check on him. I’m not alone. Klara is there to, bringing the imprisoned Zeid his sword.
KLARA: “Prien’s dark plots have already cost the lives of many a brave Bastoker. His villainy cannot be allowed to continue unchecked.”
-I want to believe her. But I don’t. She just broke open Zeid’s cell with purple/black magic, which seems to be Lilith’s domain. Plus, she has given zero reasons for thinking Prien is evil. No evidence.
-Zeid pauses, then takes her hand.
“I will follow you. I remember as if it were yesterday. As I stood upon the precipice of despair, it was you who shined upon me a ray of hope… and saw me through to see another day.”
-I respect his loyalty to her, but I simply don’t believe this person is the real Captain Klara.
-The two of them strike out for Xarcabard, for the coming battle against the beastmen.
-I check in with Nicolaus and Five Moons. We’ve been summoned to the front lines in Xarcabard against the Beastman Confederate. We’ll probably see Zeid and “Captain Klara” there.
-Now I know why “Klara” is going to Xarcabard. President Prien himself is going to be there to lead the army’s advance.
-I THINK “Klara” is an impostor, but I’m not sure. She could be right. I just don’t know. The only way I can see Zeid surviving into the present at this point is if Klara is right, they strike down an impostor President Prien, and both are welcomed back to Bastok as heroes.
-Onto Xarcabard. The battle is underway.
-I find President Prien. Zeid approaches him, knocking his guard unconscious and moving in…
OH SHIT IT WASN’T PRIEN! IT WAS VOLKER IN PRIEN’S ARMOR!
“Are you truly so [ignorant] as to believe that… thing… is your captain? Open your eyes!”
-Zeid walks off. Shit. He’s still at large.
-The real President Prien returns from the battlefield. Captain Klara finds him and makes short work of his guards, and I show up.
KLARA: “Wait… that face. You were…? But why ask the name of one about to die? En garde!”
I’m convinced now that Klara isn’t an Ahriman. She’s really Klara. But she’s had her memory wiped by the Spitewardens or something like that. Or maybe is being possessed.
-We fight her and take her out.
KLARA: “Heh… heh… heh… so the pu-ny- mor-tal can put up a fight. No won-der this… wom-an… trusted you… heh… heh…”
…Is she Lilith herself?
-“Klara” lets out a blast of dark magic knocking all of us down. She moves in for the kill on President Prien.
YET AGAIN, ZEID STEPS IN TO STOP HER!!
WOOHOOO!!! He’s not buying your bullshit lady.
ZEID: “You are no captain, no friend of mine.”
-As reinforcements arrive to help us, “Klara” LITERALLY says “Curses! Foiled again!” She flees. The president is safe.
-Zeid thinks back to Klara’s last attack on the President. She said, “The next time we meet, it will not be me that stands before you.” She was still Captain Klara then. This person? Someone totally different.
“It was something… unholy.”
Where is the real Captain Klara? I think she’s possessed/corrupted.
-Zeid is about to return to Bastok to submit himself to a likely death sentence, but President Prien doesn’t let him.
“If you would atone for your heinous deeds, then do so with your actions. Rotting away in that gaol cell will not bring back those that died by your hand. The least you can do is devote the rest of your days to those who still need you.
“Is that not what Klara – the true Klara – would want of you?”
-He reinstates the Mythril Musketeers. Our new mission: to uncover the truth behind Klara Bester. Together.
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Next time: Returning to Lilisette’s storyline.
