Summary: In Rhapsodies, an old Big Bad is revealed. In Adoulin, factions clash. Grand Chancellor Leafkin.
Mission: Darkness Beckons (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-Last time: http://coldrungaming.blogspot.com/2017/06/ffxi-pa...
-A mothercrystal warps me over to Reisenjima! This is the beautiful bamboo forest where Iroha went, and where Selh’teus put his new mothercrystal.
-The monsters here are enormously powerful. I sneak/invis to reach Iroha.
-She’s behind an etched rock. Happy to hear I’m alive. She’s been recovering here, and asks me to take out three enemies that stalk her. I love the look of these monsters!
-After some armor upgrades, I clear them away and head into Reisenjima Sanctorium.
-Selh’teus’s mothercrystal helps against the Emptiness, but it won’t be enough. It didn’t save Iroha’s future.
-We’ve been filling Iroha’s orb with light to help save things. The Ambassador though infused me with a flood of darkness in the last quest, which might hurt.
-We head to Adoulin.
---
Mission: The Crucible (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
“Ah, I suppose you expected me to exit, stage left?”
-FUCKING BALAMOR. I arrive outside Adoulin to find Iroha lying on the ground with that demon jester hovering above.
-He claims he didn’t hurt her. Iroha confirms this.
-She confronted Volto Oscuro to try to force him to purge the darkness he shoved inside me. She failed. The Ambassador said: “When the orb is filled with light… the Reckoning will be at hand.”
Iroha recounts the utter despair in her future, how she had to watch me leave her, Selh’teus’s spirit leave her… everyone. She was left alone in an Empty world.
“All I could do was wait for the end. For the cloud to engulf me.” Hi, FFIII reference! [Later edit: lol little did I know.]
Then, a voice called to her: “You must reverse the Reckoning. Even at the cost of Vana’diel herself.” She reached out to that light, and it dropped her here.
-With that, Iroha fades into thin air. She keeps dying here, keeps blinking out of existence to recover.
-Balamor has spent most of this time going full MST3K on us with snarky commentary. He swipes my Reisenjima orb and steals some of the light from it, just because he can. What a dick.
---
Mission: What He Left Behind (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-There are rumors in Adoulin of strange black butterflies beneath the city. Sounds like a sign of Balamor.
-Arciela agrees to help me search for him. We find him in the city waterway.
BALAMOR: “I’ve decided to stop trying to create a new world and save this one instead. Of course, I still plan to make myself the protagonist.” He wants me to join him.
-Hm. He seems a bit like Spike at the end of season 2. Not a good guy, but not necessarily interested in the apocalypse.
-Balamor offers to help us, and add his light back to the orb plus some
of his own, if we bring him one of the founder King Adoulin’s orbs.
-The founder king’s orb is nearby, and I bring it to Balamor.
“It began with a stone. A many-colored light banishing the darkness. But neither of us really thinks that the ‘darkness’ is the Emptiness, hmm? It’s the Void. And what threatens your lovely friend’s future isn’t the Emptiness either. Once again – it’s the Void.”
- I get that the darkness banished by the first crystal was a neutral emptiness. But I’m not sure about the difference between the Void and the Emptiness.
-Balamor says that the first king banished a being named Hades to Tartarus, Balamor’s world.
BALAMOR: “We referred to the Void as the ‘Cloud of Darkness.’” Hah! They’re not just referencing the FFIII final boss in passing.
“It eats away at light and darkness, halting all life and making it as if it never existed to begin with.”
-He returns the light he “borrowed” to my orb. I can’t believe he’s become a sort of ally.
---
Mission: Solemnity (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-Arciela has been researching the Cloud of Darkness. It has something to do with Li’Telor.
-I arrive to the Hall of the Gods in Li’Telor, and see Esha’ntarl here. We head deeper in.
-The Dawnmaiden Yve’noile, servant of Altana, is here. She’s familiar with the Cloud of Darkness.
It’s fated to descend on Vana’diel after the five mothercrystals have turned to dust. How do we stop it?
YVE’NOILE: “If we cannot stop it while mortal, then we must walk the path of the gods.” God!Detolilla.
-Before Yve’noile can give details, the Ambassador/Disjoined One arrives and takes her out.
“In this world, there can be no light without darkness. Are you truly so arrogant as to believe this world needs no darkness to thrive?”
This was a core theme of FFIII – the balance of light and dark. Light could spin out of control destructively just as much as darkness. The Ambassador worries that I’ll replace the Cloud of Darkness if I become a god.
---
Mission: Become Something More (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-I return to Reisenjima Sanctorium to consult with Selh’teus, who may know about this godhood thing.
-Iroha is inside the crystal, recovering. Her life is almost expended – Phoenix can’t revive her more.
-In order to become a goddess of light and fight the Cloud of Darkness, I must use the power of this Reisenjima crystal. I have to break the crystal, use the souls inside for power. Detolilla Von Hohenheim.
-But I can’t do it yet, flooded with the Disjoined One’s darkness.
-Selh’teus tells me of a god of darkness in a parallel dimension.
A coiled dragon god. It will absorb my darkness to power itself, which I can then destroy.
-The founder king’s orb is nearby, and I bring it to Balamor.
“It began with a stone. A many-colored light banishing the darkness. But neither of us really thinks that the ‘darkness’ is the Emptiness, hmm? It’s the Void. And what threatens your lovely friend’s future isn’t the Emptiness either. Once again – it’s the Void.”
- I get that the darkness banished by the first crystal was a neutral emptiness. But I’m not sure about the difference between the Void and the Emptiness.
-Balamor says that the first king banished a being named Hades to Tartarus, Balamor’s world.
BALAMOR: “We referred to the Void as the ‘Cloud of Darkness.’” Hah! They’re not just referencing the FFIII final boss in passing.
“It eats away at light and darkness, halting all life and making it as if it never existed to begin with.”
-He returns the light he “borrowed” to my orb. I can’t believe he’s become a sort of ally.
---
Mission: Solemnity (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-Arciela has been researching the Cloud of Darkness. It has something to do with Li’Telor.
-I arrive to the Hall of the Gods in Li’Telor, and see Esha’ntarl here. We head deeper in.
-The Dawnmaiden Yve’noile, servant of Altana, is here. She’s familiar with the Cloud of Darkness.
It’s fated to descend on Vana’diel after the five mothercrystals have turned to dust. How do we stop it?
YVE’NOILE: “If we cannot stop it while mortal, then we must walk the path of the gods.” God!Detolilla.
-Before Yve’noile can give details, the Ambassador/Disjoined One arrives and takes her out.
“In this world, there can be no light without darkness. Are you truly so arrogant as to believe this world needs no darkness to thrive?”
This was a core theme of FFIII – the balance of light and dark. Light could spin out of control destructively just as much as darkness. The Ambassador worries that I’ll replace the Cloud of Darkness if I become a god.
---
Mission: Become Something More (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-I return to Reisenjima Sanctorium to consult with Selh’teus, who may know about this godhood thing.
-Iroha is inside the crystal, recovering. Her life is almost expended – Phoenix can’t revive her more.
-In order to become a goddess of light and fight the Cloud of Darkness, I must use the power of this Reisenjima crystal. I have to break the crystal, use the souls inside for power. Detolilla Von Hohenheim.
-But I can’t do it yet, flooded with the Disjoined One’s darkness.
-Selh’teus tells me of a god of darkness in a parallel dimension.
A coiled dragon god. It will absorb my darkness to power itself, which I can then destroy.
---
Mission: The Twin World Trees (Seekers of Adoulin)
-I’ll swap back for now to “Seekers of Adoulin.”
-Rosulatia left me with a mysterious hint to see the king. I return to the city to investigate.
-There’s trouble in the city. Fighting between some pro- and anti-colonization citizens.
-Apparently, the method for settling such disputes is in an officially sanctioned arena in the sewers.
---
Mission: The Watergarden Coliseum (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Arciela meets me down here. The duelists are a geomancer and a rune fencer.
-Both fight with real hatred for the other. The geomancer wants Adoulin to listen to the woods, heed the old king’s request, and leave the forest alone. The rune fencer (an inventor) wants to explore the forests to increase production and reduce hunger. Both are reasonable.
-Arciela steps in before any killing blows. She hates seeing Adouliners fight in this way.
-The geomancer is especially angry that Grand Chancellor Ygnas, who restarted colonization, has stopped going to council meetings. Is it cowardice? Fear?
-Arciela uncertainly promises to try getting him to attend the next meeting.
I find myself empathizing more with the anti-colonists, but pro-colonists are reasonable too. It’s not like they just want MORE PROFIT – their efforts will help reduce starvation, really improve the city.
---
Mission: For Whom Do We Toll? (Seekers of Adoulin)
-I research these two sides in the library. Ygnas’s colonization was widely supported in the leadership council, with only four opposed.
-Hearing rumors to investigate of anti-colonist activists beneath the city to investigate.
-I arrive at the meeting in the waterway disguised as an activist.
“[The pioneering initiative’s] supporters disguise it as the herald of agrarian prrrosperity. In reality, it’s naught but an excuse to justify [destroying] the land!”
-They’ve seen Arciela’s sympathy to their cause. They want to kill Ygnas and replace him with Arciela.
---
Mission: Aiming for Ygnas (Seekers of Adoulin)
-I report this to Arciela. As I do, we hear a scream – the assassin!
-The assassin is in Ygnas’s chamber. I can’t tell if she killed him – his body seems unresponsive. Is it a dummy Ygnas?
-The assassin disappears. Arciela and I pursue in the waterway.
-Pretty tough fight the assassin and her three companions from the meeting. Takes me two tries to get it down, and the Peacekeepers arrive to make arrests.
---
Mission: The Leafkin Monarch (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Leadership meeting at the castle. We need to see Ygnas, but Arciela is STILL hesitant. WTF is going on with Grand Chancellor Ygnas? Is he kidnapped?
-No. We hear an eerie moan come from Ygnas.
HOLY SHIT – his body flops over on his bed, and his blank face and black eyes scare the shit out of me.
Is he possessed? A mannequin?
-Uh… a leafkin crawls atop his body.
-THIS IS SOME FFIX REGENT CID STUFF GOING ON! Ygnas has been turned into a leafkin.
-This all started after Ygnas began recruiting adventurers for pioneering. He’s been cursed.
-Suddently, Rosalutia’s pome – the leafkin queen’s gift – starts glowing. I hear a voice in my head. It’s Ygnas Adoulin, communicating with me as a leafkin.
YGNAS: “(There is no time for beating around the bush – so to speak.)”
BLESS THIS GAME.
-Huh. He orders me under no circumstances to cease colonization, and to not worry about him for now.
“(I have transmogrified into a piece of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Yggdrasil’s powers are dwindling even as we speak. A disturbance has appeared in the heart of Ulbuka. Darkness gushes forth as if from some forbidden spring.)”
Whatever that darkness is, we have to stop it. Maybe without the pioneering, it’s just been allowed to fester and grow.
-Only Arciela and I can hear Grand Chancellor Leafkin. The other leaders are of course skeptical that we’re telling the truth, and still want to focus on returning Ygnas to human form.
---
Next time: Researching the Cloud of Darkness for Rhapsodies, and researching Ygnas’s un-leafkining for Adoulin.
Mission: The Leafkin Monarch (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Leadership meeting at the castle. We need to see Ygnas, but Arciela is STILL hesitant. WTF is going on with Grand Chancellor Ygnas? Is he kidnapped?
-No. We hear an eerie moan come from Ygnas.
HOLY SHIT – his body flops over on his bed, and his blank face and black eyes scare the shit out of me.
Is he possessed? A mannequin?
-Uh… a leafkin crawls atop his body.
-THIS IS SOME FFIX REGENT CID STUFF GOING ON! Ygnas has been turned into a leafkin.
-This all started after Ygnas began recruiting adventurers for pioneering. He’s been cursed.
-Suddently, Rosalutia’s pome – the leafkin queen’s gift – starts glowing. I hear a voice in my head. It’s Ygnas Adoulin, communicating with me as a leafkin.
YGNAS: “(There is no time for beating around the bush – so to speak.)”
BLESS THIS GAME.
-Huh. He orders me under no circumstances to cease colonization, and to not worry about him for now.
“(I have transmogrified into a piece of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Yggdrasil’s powers are dwindling even as we speak. A disturbance has appeared in the heart of Ulbuka. Darkness gushes forth as if from some forbidden spring.)”
Whatever that darkness is, we have to stop it. Maybe without the pioneering, it’s just been allowed to fester and grow.
-Only Arciela and I can hear Grand Chancellor Leafkin. The other leaders are of course skeptical that we’re telling the truth, and still want to focus on returning Ygnas to human form.
---
Next time: Researching the Cloud of Darkness for Rhapsodies, and researching Ygnas’s un-leafkining for Adoulin.
