Summary:
My first attempts at the brilliant Cloud of Darkness encounter.
Uncovering mysteries in Adoulin with an exorcist and a not!vampire.
Mission: Iroha in Distress (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-The crystal in Reisenjima is now fully enveloped by gross, pulsing Cloud tentacles.
-They attack Tenzen, preparing for a killing blow.
FHDJKLSFHDJKLSFHDJKLSFH LION COMES FROM OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE AND SAVES HIM
I MISSED YOU SO MUCH.
-PRISHE TOO – AND NASHMEIRA – AND LILISETTE – AND ARCIELA – HOW???
[Later edit: I think that Altana somehow empowered me to summon all these as alter-egos.]
-It hits me that Tenzen is basically the only dude here. The NPC party from throughout FFXI fighting the Cloud of Darkness is almost all lady, and it’s awesome.
-LILI HURLS PRISHE AT THE CLOUD IN A FASTBALL SPECIAL
-LION RIPS UP THE TENTACLES SUPPORTED BY ARCIELA’S FIREPOWER
-Tenzen rushes in with his Phoenix blade to finish things off. Best combat cutscene in all FF.
-We’ve pushed the Cloud back inside the crystal and move inside to pursue.
---
Mission: Absolute Trust (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-The inside of the crystal is now a shadowy arena. Selh’teus is wounded, Iroha enveloped by the Cloud.
-I send the avatar-powered Reisenjima Orb to free Iroha. It’s awesome. It revives Phoenix fully, and revives Iroha.
She becomes Phoenix’s avatar, free. Fiery orange hair.
-THAT’S FUCKING TERRIFYING - THE FORM OF THE CLOUD OF DARKNESS RISES UP FROM THE GROUND BELOW US, TAKES SHAPE
-The mask we saw on Volto Oscuro/The Disjoined One is at the heart of her design.
-Phoenix’s power has made the Cloud manifest. I started this questline over 100 sessions ago when I first met Iroha. Time to bring it home and take out the Cloud.
---
Mission: The Orb’s Radiance (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-The fight is brutal. She hits hard, and has a phase where she absorbs attacks and turns that damage to healing, so I have to be really careful with the trust NPCs I use.
-Phoenix-powered Iroha helps me out. Whenever I die, she resurrects me – but I get a weakness debuff for five minutes so I have to sit and wait for that to wear off before I can charge in again.
-I cannot beat her. I try about five separate times, and don’t get all that close. Going to wait for a linkshell-mate to help.
Mission: Iroha in Distress (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-The crystal in Reisenjima is now fully enveloped by gross, pulsing Cloud tentacles.
-They attack Tenzen, preparing for a killing blow.
FHDJKLSFHDJKLSFHDJKLSFH LION COMES FROM OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE AND SAVES HIM
I MISSED YOU SO MUCH.
-PRISHE TOO – AND NASHMEIRA – AND LILISETTE – AND ARCIELA – HOW???
[Later edit: I think that Altana somehow empowered me to summon all these as alter-egos.]
-It hits me that Tenzen is basically the only dude here. The NPC party from throughout FFXI fighting the Cloud of Darkness is almost all lady, and it’s awesome.
-LILI HURLS PRISHE AT THE CLOUD IN A FASTBALL SPECIAL
-LION RIPS UP THE TENTACLES SUPPORTED BY ARCIELA’S FIREPOWER
-Tenzen rushes in with his Phoenix blade to finish things off. Best combat cutscene in all FF.
-We’ve pushed the Cloud back inside the crystal and move inside to pursue.
---
Mission: Absolute Trust (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-The inside of the crystal is now a shadowy arena. Selh’teus is wounded, Iroha enveloped by the Cloud.
-I send the avatar-powered Reisenjima Orb to free Iroha. It’s awesome. It revives Phoenix fully, and revives Iroha.
She becomes Phoenix’s avatar, free. Fiery orange hair.
-THAT’S FUCKING TERRIFYING - THE FORM OF THE CLOUD OF DARKNESS RISES UP FROM THE GROUND BELOW US, TAKES SHAPE
-The mask we saw on Volto Oscuro/The Disjoined One is at the heart of her design.
-Phoenix’s power has made the Cloud manifest. I started this questline over 100 sessions ago when I first met Iroha. Time to bring it home and take out the Cloud.
---
Mission: The Orb’s Radiance (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-The fight is brutal. She hits hard, and has a phase where she absorbs attacks and turns that damage to healing, so I have to be really careful with the trust NPCs I use.
-Phoenix-powered Iroha helps me out. Whenever I die, she resurrects me – but I get a weakness debuff for five minutes so I have to sit and wait for that to wear off before I can charge in again.
-I cannot beat her. I try about five separate times, and don’t get all that close. Going to wait for a linkshell-mate to help.
-But the combat isn’t the important thing. This is one of my favorite fights already (even before I kill her) for two reasons.
1) The music. It’s not intense. It’s beautiful. This is meant to be the final story fight in all of FFXI, and it has this calm and mournful quality to it. It ignores the horror of the Cloud of Darkness, and makes me reflect on all the wonder and beauty she’s trying to erase.
2) The boss arena. At the start, the walls of the boss arena are just empty clouds. But as the fight goes on, I see a shifting slide show that keeps showing scenes from throughout FFXI. Prishe looking determined. The Shadow Lord. Lion. Promathia. Cities and zones from across the expansions.
It’s incredible. This fight is a homage to this massive, wonderful game.
Everything about this fight hits me right in the feels. Hopefully I’ll beat it soon.
---
Mission: The Return of the Exorcist (Seekers of Adoulin)
-I can finally move on with this storyline. I completed whatever hidden requirements the game asked of me. Moving on.
-We’ve asked the help of an Adoulin exorcist to cure Ygnas’s curse.
-Exorcists sound awesome. They’re white mages who focus on “smiting the wicked with divine fury.” I hope that’s an FFXIV job.
-The high exorcist is Vortimere. We’re using his student, Ingrid. She’s known as abrasive, “Ingrid the Merciless.”
-I meet her at the airship docks. She’s proud of the “merciless” moniker.
“Why should any mercy be shown to those who have turned their backs to the Goddess? I am merciless through and through! All who face my judgment shall not even have one speck of ash left!”
-FFXI spoils me. I’m not used to games filling the story with awesome women, and yet? FFXI.
-She’s not anti-colonization as I expected. She believes it’s up to them to solve the city’s messes, and sees a chance in the colonization efforts to shine as an exorcist.
-Several centuries after the founder king’s first foray was the Great Expedition, a new colonization effort amidst political turmoil. Monsters and demons arose in the wild, and the new exorcists – the Order of Witherspoon - did their thing.
---
Mission: The Merciless One (Seekers of Adoulin)
-We arrive at the castle. Ingrid checks out Leafkin!Ygnas, and confirms that it’s a curse. She thinks it has nothing to do with the founder king.
YGNAS: “(She’s… wro… b…but I cannot… put… words.)” So it DOES have something to do with the founder king! Ygnas’s telepathy is going away as he becomes more leafkinny.
-Ingrid wants to perform a grand exorcism on Ygnas. Arciela and I will gather the materials.
1) The music. It’s not intense. It’s beautiful. This is meant to be the final story fight in all of FFXI, and it has this calm and mournful quality to it. It ignores the horror of the Cloud of Darkness, and makes me reflect on all the wonder and beauty she’s trying to erase.
2) The boss arena. At the start, the walls of the boss arena are just empty clouds. But as the fight goes on, I see a shifting slide show that keeps showing scenes from throughout FFXI. Prishe looking determined. The Shadow Lord. Lion. Promathia. Cities and zones from across the expansions.
It’s incredible. This fight is a homage to this massive, wonderful game.
Everything about this fight hits me right in the feels. Hopefully I’ll beat it soon.
---
Mission: The Return of the Exorcist (Seekers of Adoulin)
-I can finally move on with this storyline. I completed whatever hidden requirements the game asked of me. Moving on.
-We’ve asked the help of an Adoulin exorcist to cure Ygnas’s curse.
-Exorcists sound awesome. They’re white mages who focus on “smiting the wicked with divine fury.” I hope that’s an FFXIV job.
-The high exorcist is Vortimere. We’re using his student, Ingrid. She’s known as abrasive, “Ingrid the Merciless.”
-I meet her at the airship docks. She’s proud of the “merciless” moniker.
“Why should any mercy be shown to those who have turned their backs to the Goddess? I am merciless through and through! All who face my judgment shall not even have one speck of ash left!”
-FFXI spoils me. I’m not used to games filling the story with awesome women, and yet? FFXI.
-She’s not anti-colonization as I expected. She believes it’s up to them to solve the city’s messes, and sees a chance in the colonization efforts to shine as an exorcist.
-Several centuries after the founder king’s first foray was the Great Expedition, a new colonization effort amidst political turmoil. Monsters and demons arose in the wild, and the new exorcists – the Order of Witherspoon - did their thing.
---
Mission: The Merciless One (Seekers of Adoulin)
-We arrive at the castle. Ingrid checks out Leafkin!Ygnas, and confirms that it’s a curse. She thinks it has nothing to do with the founder king.
YGNAS: “(She’s… wro… b…but I cannot… put… words.)” So it DOES have something to do with the founder king! Ygnas’s telepathy is going away as he becomes more leafkinny.
-Ingrid wants to perform a grand exorcism on Ygnas. Arciela and I will gather the materials.
---
Mission: The Purgation (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Collecting the items is a scavenger hunt – for maybe the first time in FFXI, it’s well-hinted at in game.
-Ingrid takes the items and attempts to cure Ygnas.
The spell backfires. She’s shocked. She's not used to failing.
-She goes to talk to the leader of her order, Vortimere. “You need not be sorry. This is the perfect opportunity, Ingrid. The more rituals we conduct, the more our influence grows.”
-I do not trust this guy AT ALL. He yearns for the days when exorcists were more respected, in more demand. The Great Expedition. And he talks about Arciela as “getting in his way.” I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s partly behind any otherworldly shenanigans in this story.
-Back in Ygnas’s room, Ygnas pleads that we not break the curse. “(Something dread… ing this way.”) My current theory is that if we break the curse, we somehow release Hades.
-His final words, before his voice fades, urge Arciela to be the key. Whatever that means.
---
Mission: The Key (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Arciela goes to the library. She’s really shaken by this whole “you are the key” thing. Does he want her to stop colonization? Or keep pushing into Ulbuka?
What if she makes the wrong choice and civil war breaks out?
-And yet, as I explore town, people like Arciela. They trust her. She should trust herself.
---
Mission: The Smallest of Favors (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Scene change, outside the city. A woman is stumbling towards the jungle in a trance – when that Dracula-looking dude Teodor stops her, catches her. HIDE YOUR NECK LADY
“This damsel must have been summoned by the spirits of the forest.” How does he know?
-Arciela communicated with those Heartwings back in the first SoA mission. She might know.
-Teodor would help me, but his duties lie elsewhere. He walks into the jungle to tend to them, where he’ll no doubt turn into a bat. (SORRY, HE LOOKS LIKE A FRIGGING VAMPIRE.)
-I return to Arciela in the library. When she sees me, she hides the book she was looking at. Hm.
-She’s been researching the appearance of evil spirits in the city. A woman who speaks in tongues, who keeps trying to leave the city. Nyline – the girl we saw.
Mission: The Purgation (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Collecting the items is a scavenger hunt – for maybe the first time in FFXI, it’s well-hinted at in game.
-Ingrid takes the items and attempts to cure Ygnas.
The spell backfires. She’s shocked. She's not used to failing.
-She goes to talk to the leader of her order, Vortimere. “You need not be sorry. This is the perfect opportunity, Ingrid. The more rituals we conduct, the more our influence grows.”
-I do not trust this guy AT ALL. He yearns for the days when exorcists were more respected, in more demand. The Great Expedition. And he talks about Arciela as “getting in his way.” I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s partly behind any otherworldly shenanigans in this story.
-Back in Ygnas’s room, Ygnas pleads that we not break the curse. “(Something dread… ing this way.”) My current theory is that if we break the curse, we somehow release Hades.
-His final words, before his voice fades, urge Arciela to be the key. Whatever that means.
---
Mission: The Key (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Arciela goes to the library. She’s really shaken by this whole “you are the key” thing. Does he want her to stop colonization? Or keep pushing into Ulbuka?
What if she makes the wrong choice and civil war breaks out?
-And yet, as I explore town, people like Arciela. They trust her. She should trust herself.
---
Mission: The Smallest of Favors (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Scene change, outside the city. A woman is stumbling towards the jungle in a trance – when that Dracula-looking dude Teodor stops her, catches her. HIDE YOUR NECK LADY
“This damsel must have been summoned by the spirits of the forest.” How does he know?
-Arciela communicated with those Heartwings back in the first SoA mission. She might know.
-Teodor would help me, but his duties lie elsewhere. He walks into the jungle to tend to them, where he’ll no doubt turn into a bat. (SORRY, HE LOOKS LIKE A FRIGGING VAMPIRE.)
-I return to Arciela in the library. When she sees me, she hides the book she was looking at. Hm.
-She’s been researching the appearance of evil spirits in the city. A woman who speaks in tongues, who keeps trying to leave the city. Nyline – the girl we saw.
---
Mission: Evil Entities (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Nyline, was brought to a boarding house in Eastern Adoulin.
-Ingrid is already at this house, talking to the girl’s father. She thinks Nyline’s condition, a curse, is due to witches.
-There used to be a coven called the Dark Lilies. Their successors, the Blackthorn Coven, now skulk about.
-So is it “forest sprites,” as Teodor thought? Or the Blackthorn Coven?
-Merciful Altana. Nyline’s father basically says, “By the way, I did happen to buy a mysterious jewel from a mysterious merchant the other day.”
MY DUDE. HAVEN’T YOU SEEN ANY HORROR MOVIE EVER?
“In fact, the stone in question is said to have previously been worshipped as a vessel of transcendental power. The merchant who added that it could be very well have been crafted for communion with a creator deity. He was not so forthcoming with a name of which one, but I am certain it must be important.”
”Do you like my gem? Isn’t it pretty? It raises the dead!” *sigh* Adoulinians.
-Nyline is gone. She fled out the window for the forest.
---
Mission: The Disappearance of Nyline (Seekers of Adoulin)
-We find her deep in the forest with two Heartwing spirits. She’s holding the gem.
-A Heartwing who was trapped within the gem escapes. Fly free, lil friend! Nyline is free.
-This wasn’t so bad, but it may herald something worse. Nyline could hear the forest spirits as a collective entity while she was possessed! Maybe that’ll help us with Ygnas’s curse.
-We take Nyline back home. Ingrid is annoyed that she was wrong. Mutters “(Dammit.)”
-So Teodor is in the know. Let’s ask him about Ygnas.
-Quick scene change to Ingrid. She’s enraged that we made her look bad (by being right). Nobody will care about what I say, but she sees Arciela as a serious threat to the exorcists’ resurgence.
“Mark my words, Arciela V. Adoulin. Soon enough, you shall regret ever having cross ‘Ingrid the Merciless.’”
-Again, I really dig her character. She’s dedicated to her order to the point of vengeance, single-minded, zealous, flawed. I don’t think she’ll end up as a full-on villain.
---
Next time: Talking to Teodor the Impaler to pursue a cure to Ygnas’s curse.
Mission: Evil Entities (Seekers of Adoulin)
-Nyline, was brought to a boarding house in Eastern Adoulin.
-Ingrid is already at this house, talking to the girl’s father. She thinks Nyline’s condition, a curse, is due to witches.
-There used to be a coven called the Dark Lilies. Their successors, the Blackthorn Coven, now skulk about.
-So is it “forest sprites,” as Teodor thought? Or the Blackthorn Coven?
-Merciful Altana. Nyline’s father basically says, “By the way, I did happen to buy a mysterious jewel from a mysterious merchant the other day.”
MY DUDE. HAVEN’T YOU SEEN ANY HORROR MOVIE EVER?
“In fact, the stone in question is said to have previously been worshipped as a vessel of transcendental power. The merchant who added that it could be very well have been crafted for communion with a creator deity. He was not so forthcoming with a name of which one, but I am certain it must be important.”
”Do you like my gem? Isn’t it pretty? It raises the dead!” *sigh* Adoulinians.
-Nyline is gone. She fled out the window for the forest.
---
Mission: The Disappearance of Nyline (Seekers of Adoulin)
-We find her deep in the forest with two Heartwing spirits. She’s holding the gem.
-A Heartwing who was trapped within the gem escapes. Fly free, lil friend! Nyline is free.
-This wasn’t so bad, but it may herald something worse. Nyline could hear the forest spirits as a collective entity while she was possessed! Maybe that’ll help us with Ygnas’s curse.
-We take Nyline back home. Ingrid is annoyed that she was wrong. Mutters “(Dammit.)”
-So Teodor is in the know. Let’s ask him about Ygnas.
-Quick scene change to Ingrid. She’s enraged that we made her look bad (by being right). Nobody will care about what I say, but she sees Arciela as a serious threat to the exorcists’ resurgence.
“Mark my words, Arciela V. Adoulin. Soon enough, you shall regret ever having cross ‘Ingrid the Merciless.’”
-Again, I really dig her character. She’s dedicated to her order to the point of vengeance, single-minded, zealous, flawed. I don’t think she’ll end up as a full-on villain.
---
Next time: Talking to Teodor the Impaler to pursue a cure to Ygnas’s curse.
