Eruyt Village
-There’s something sad about the Eruyt Village. It’s a bit like the elves near the end of the Lord of the Rings. Coming to the end of their time.
-Found another cockatrice here. And not just any cockatrice – it’s Chit! Chit is the main cockatrice I’ve been hunting for, the one the Rabanastre cockatrice was searching for before he’d return to Terra in the Giza nomad village.
-Chit lost her memories. I have to go around the village in a “Where’s Waldo” minigame, finding all the little sparkly gems she dropped.
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Hunt: Wild Malboro
-No. Just… No.
-This one starts in the Eruyt Village. Its odor overwhelmed the viera who tried to hunt it.
-I find it in the Feywood, with a swarm of little malboros all around it. It does standard malboro stuff like bad breath. Not too tough in this case.
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Hunt: Catoblepas
-A behemoth-type. I’ll prep against petrify attacks, assuming it’s like prior Catoblepases. (Catoblepi?)
-Catoblepas is another hunt mark that’s been built up. We’ve heard about before as some ultimate demon/challenge for the garif, and now it’s on our hunt list.
-War-chief Supinelu in Jahara is the petitioner. He will join us for the fight – and goes into it assuming he’ll die. Damn.
-I head down to Zertinian Caverns. Together, we take down Catoblepas. Nothing too memorable here. But at least Supinelu survives.
-There’s one area of Zertinian Caverns I haven’t been to yet. Or rather I went there but immediately died. I try heading back in. It’s filled with Archaeoaevis and some new type of cockatrice enemy, in the high 70s. I’m still in the mid-60s. But I don’t know if I’ll come back, so I do a quick sprint around here.
I found the map urn for the Caverns but not much else. I run.
-Back to Jahara. War-chief Supinelu tells me a story. When he and his brother were young, his brother was known as the stronger. To prove himself, Supinelu went to the caves alone to take on Catoblepas. He couldn’t defeat it. His brother saved him at the last second, sustaining a heavy wound.
The brother’s leg was permanently injured. He gave up his War-chief title… and Supinelu took it. God, he must’ve felt so guilty! I’m glad we were able to help him close this circle.
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Jahara
-Another cockatrice is here. I love the warrior’s message alerting me to this fact:
“A cockatrice has wandered into the village, and we are all quite concerned. Well, not that concerned, to tell the truth.”
-Everyone’s crowded around the cockatrice here. She came from Giza to see how others live. She still has that British accent.
[Later edit: OMG. I just got it. Cockatrices. Speaking. In. Cockney. It’s a TERRIBLE joke and I love it.]
-Btw, just got an odd new bazaar item: Nihopalaoa. It’s an accessory that reverses the effects of restorative items. So I might be able to use it to weaponize X-Potions.
-WAIT. WAIT WAIT. Geomancer Yugelu tells me about an ancient power sleeping within Henne Mines. He sends some garif to help light the way. This MUST be the Darkened Tunnel opening.
GEOMANCER YUGELU: “Perhaps you will find this power, and master it. Or perhaps you will fail, and die… this power is greater than anything you can imagine.”
Yeaaaaah this sounds like another Hell Wyrm-esque superboss. I’ll check it out, but I’m assuming this is not something I’m going to be able to deal with effectively on a blind run.
-I tell the garif chief about his visitor from the Giza Plains. He’s super welcoming, an gives the cockatrice visitor a gift for itself and the nomads. I want to do this for stray cats I see.
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Henne Mines – Darkened Cavern
-Yup. The Darkened Tunnel is now open. I’m legit nervous.
-Found a note from a miner here, that he stashed treasure “at the tip of the four.” Not sure what that means.
-Nice FFIX callback! There are dragon enemies here called Gizamaluks.
-This place is grueling. Filled with mid-high 60s enemies.
Swarmed by level 66 enemies.
-Got the Renew spell! Full group heal.
-Okay. Boss time. I’m expecting either Omega or Shinryu, and my goal is to see it at least.
-Uh. That’s not Omega. It’s not Shinryu either. It looks like a giant demon sperm chained to a horseshoe.
-HAHA IT’S ZODIARK??? THAT’S AWESOME! Partly because I met Zodiark in FFXIV and had no idea it was calling back to this guy. In FFXIV, he’s the one god of the Ascians.
-Got him down to half. He’s puts out some nasty dark damage, but on the plus side, he doesn’t have seven million health bars like Hell Wyrm.
-He keeps spamming huge damage on me, Darkja.
This is with Zodiark at like no health, but it feels like he’s machine gunning out spells. He also has a shifting magic barrier that I have to do my best to deal with.
-YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS OH GOD I DID IT
Zodiark, Keeper of Precepts. The strongest scion, kept a child. Fashions the laws governing all things and administers punishment. Who can use him best?
VAAN: Heavy Armor 9, 10, 11
BALTHIER: Renew
FRAN: nothing
BASCH: greatswords 1
ASHE: Ragnarok
PENELO: 1,000 Needles, Swords 9
Nothing super great, but I like the option of Renew. Balthier.
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Dalmasca Estersand
-Found a cockatrice in the river village in Dalmasca Estersand. Sassan. “I wanna see Torrie, but I ain’t goin’ nowhere near that bleedin’ Nathyl. I ain’t thick!”
So maybe I have to return Torrie to the pen, but hold off on returning Nathyl?
-Ruksel is a man here who wants to learn to fish. He needs a rod.
-There are two possible answers to this puzzle that jump out at me: a Rod or a Javelin. Both are low level weapons, and the specter bestiary I read a while back suggested a javelin for fishing.
Huh. Or not? I bring him a javelin and a rod but no change.
-OHO! Nathyl is a wolf. This is a bit like that riddle about having a sheep, a wolf, and a cabbage and needing to bring them all across the river. It takes some trial and error before I get it.
-lolol when we reach the other side, it’s apparently because the cockatrice wanted to hit on a human girl there.
They have an existing relationship. He wants to marry her. She’s human, he’s a cockatrice. They come from different worlds. COMING THIS SUMMER: “Love is the Thing with Feathers.”
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Nalbina Fortress
-Yay, progress with Jovy! Conversation. I’m his new hero.
-Four years ago, Jovy was falsely accused of stealing. Someone saved him. His original hero.
-That hero got wrapped up somehow in King Raminas’s assassination. He was killed.
And now, here I come along, clearing all the hunt marks posted by his friends here in Nalbina.
As he leaves: “Hey, hero! You know, you look a bit like the original hero.” LOL THE ORIGINAL HERO MUST BE HIS BROTHER REKS! What a cool payoff to everything we’ve seen about Jovy.
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Hunt: Behemoth King
-This hunt opened up after taking down Shadowseer. Another elite mark.
-The petitioner is Koqmihn, a refugee from Bur-Omisace. He heard of the legend of Behemoth King, sent by the gods to watch over its lesser brothers.
-In order to spawn it, I have to kill all the enemies in the two surrounding areas of the Feywood.
-It’s a huge, classic-looking behemoth. A more intimidating version of Fafnir.
-There are two core challenges in the fight. The first is the sheer variety fo damage types it does. Heavy physical, fire, dark, holy… lots. Plus slow, stop, and disease near the end. I don’t want to think about how many Chronos’ Tears and Phoenix Downs I blew through in this fight.
The second is his alternating shields. He’d go immune to magic for a while then immune to physical and vulnerable to magic. I had to frequently shift my gambits around to adjust for this.
But in the end, after… idk, 20 minutes? – he went down. WHEW HOLY SHIT.
-I turn the quest in. The person who sent me afterwards had a friend who sought Behemoth King and never returned. That friend told of a legend:
“And when the watcher of the deepwood should fall, its slayer shall look to the stone-hewn wyrm and know joy. Though cold stone shall never stir again, a blow struck true by slayer’s hand shall find warmth in the wyrm’s elation.”
So… I should look for a stone-wyrm? Ok.
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Next time: Hoo boy. These last couple of sessions have been draining. Lots of long, challenging fights, and long, challenging dungeons. The only remaining hunt in my log is Gilgamesh. I’ll do him next time.
