Summary: Completing the dragoon questline. Starting the archer job. Finding an Imperial spy. Opening the path to Saint Shiva.
Double Dragoon (Dragoon)
-The corrupted thief dragoon, Estinien, wants to meet me and my teacher, Alberic.
Estinien.
-Estinien claims he wasn’t corrupted. He got a vision: that if his power gem, the Eye, were taken to a remote land far from Ishgard, then the destruction of Ishgard would be spared.
Estinien seems sincere in his desire to help. He wants to fight the awakening Nidhogg.
-I first must finish my dragoon training. The Trials of the Azure will net me a set of drachen armor. Awesome! The drachen set was my primary set in FFXI.
-The trials are mostly meh, taking out random monsters around the area. The last one is better. I get to take out an old “friend” from FFV.
Archaeoaevis.
-Alberic shares that he voluntarily gave up the Azure Dragoon power. He felt himself falling, getting corrupted by it. He bailed before going full evil.
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Into the Dragon’s Maw (Dragoon)
-Estinien’s ready to meet up. Nidhogg is moving.
-We find Estinien in a rage. His Dragon’s Eye gem went full Palantir on him, showing him the worst parts of Alberic’s past. Showing him the “cowardice” of forsaking the power, not the bravery in that choice.
-Estinien attacks. We duel. I take him out.
-And then, the voice of the Eye starts to speak to me.
“Feeble creature… dost thou desire power? Look to thine anger. It is there thou shalt find it.”
I turn away, shaking my head. Not falling for it.
-The defeated Estinien is now fully corrupted. He openly prays to Nidhogg for power from Nidhogg. The sky opens. A blast of energy empowers Estinien... but he’s not the only one going through changes.
The blessings of the Azure Dragoon transform me into someone else. A totally different person. Some ancient dragoon spirit possesses me.
The new Ququshu looks at Estinien, leaps into the air, and slams down. The shockwave of the jump attack obliterates him.
-Alberic and I regroup at the hub town in Coerthas. He says the person I became was “Haldrath the Dragonseye,” the first dragoon.
Ququshu in full drachen armor. An awesome set, except for the inexplicable belly window.
-It surprised me that we didn’t fight the reawakened Nidhogg himself in this questline. That must be coming when the questline continues in the coming expansions.
Double Dragoon (Dragoon)
-The corrupted thief dragoon, Estinien, wants to meet me and my teacher, Alberic.
Estinien.
-Estinien claims he wasn’t corrupted. He got a vision: that if his power gem, the Eye, were taken to a remote land far from Ishgard, then the destruction of Ishgard would be spared.
Estinien seems sincere in his desire to help. He wants to fight the awakening Nidhogg.
-I first must finish my dragoon training. The Trials of the Azure will net me a set of drachen armor. Awesome! The drachen set was my primary set in FFXI.
-The trials are mostly meh, taking out random monsters around the area. The last one is better. I get to take out an old “friend” from FFV.
Archaeoaevis.
-Alberic shares that he voluntarily gave up the Azure Dragoon power. He felt himself falling, getting corrupted by it. He bailed before going full evil.
---
Into the Dragon’s Maw (Dragoon)
-Estinien’s ready to meet up. Nidhogg is moving.
-We find Estinien in a rage. His Dragon’s Eye gem went full Palantir on him, showing him the worst parts of Alberic’s past. Showing him the “cowardice” of forsaking the power, not the bravery in that choice.
-Estinien attacks. We duel. I take him out.
-And then, the voice of the Eye starts to speak to me.
“Feeble creature… dost thou desire power? Look to thine anger. It is there thou shalt find it.”
I turn away, shaking my head. Not falling for it.
-The defeated Estinien is now fully corrupted. He openly prays to Nidhogg for power from Nidhogg. The sky opens. A blast of energy empowers Estinien... but he’s not the only one going through changes.
The blessings of the Azure Dragoon transform me into someone else. A totally different person. Some ancient dragoon spirit possesses me.
The new Ququshu looks at Estinien, leaps into the air, and slams down. The shockwave of the jump attack obliterates him.
-Alberic and I regroup at the hub town in Coerthas. He says the person I became was “Haldrath the Dragonseye,” the first dragoon.
Ququshu in full drachen armor. An awesome set, except for the inexplicable belly window.
-It surprised me that we didn’t fight the reawakened Nidhogg himself in this questline. That must be coming when the questline continues in the coming expansions.
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A New Job
-I hit level 50 on my dragoon, leveling up from 30 when I started the grindy Yo-kai Watch event. That’s maxed, but I’m still doing Yo-kai stuff and want to use it to level up a new job.
I’ve tried two roles: ranged magic DPS (black mage) and melee physical DPS (dragoon). That leaves tank, healer, and ranged physical DPS.
I’m curious about healer and tank, but in groups. The Yo-kai Watch grind is a largely solo affair. Going with the last DPS role: ranged physical DPS. Machinist and archer are the two ranged physical DPS jobs, and machinist only comes with the next expansion.
Archer it is!
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Stringing the Bow (Archer)
-The archer’s guild is in the wooded Gridania.
-The archers’ role is similarly practical to the lancers’. Hunting, war, protection. Clothe and feed the city.
-The modern form of archery used in the Archers’ Guild combines two earlier bowmanship styles: the Elezen longbow and Miqo’te shortbow.
-My favorite Archers’ Guild NPC is a Miqo’te woman, Leih Aliapoh.
This must be a callback to FFXI’s Mithra (cat person) white mage, Mihli Aliapoh.
-She has a rival in guild, the constantly critical Elezen archer Silvairre. The ancient archery rivalry continues even today.
-The dynamic of these two defines the early archer quests. Leih is a far more likeable person, but I appreciate that Silvairre isn’t a villain. Both are skilled archers with strong cultural, philosophical, and temperamental differences from each other.
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Uprooting the Ivy
-Last session, we learned of a Garlean spy high in the ranks of the Immortal Flames. “The Ivy.” We got a lead on her, that she’s embedded within Flame General Raubahn’s inner circle.
-We take this new info to an Alliance meeting high command meeting of the Alliance’s high command.
-The big news is that the Garlean Empire’s war of succession is over.
-Solus zos Galvus was the old emperor. His successor is Emperor Varis. A militaristic, expansionistic man.
The new Emperor Varis.
-We see an image of him We see a quick image of the new emperor, spitting on his predecessor’s tomb. Emperor Varis. No reformer, this. Highly militaristic, set on Eorzean annexation.
-Later, Ilberd of the Crystal Braves tells me the Ivy is Flame Marshal Eline Roaille, Raubahn’s second in command. He found her in Gridania during this high command meeting despite no reason to be there.
-The Ivy is in disguise. She’s tough to track, but we pursue her and stop her from meeting with her Garlean masters.
The Ivy, Eline Roaile.
-We trap her in the forest, though not red handed. She claims innocence and goes quietly. I doubt we’ve seen the end of Eline Roaile.
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Hot on an Icy Trail
-Lady Yugiri – our mysterious Doman ninja ally – joins our hunt for Lady Iceheart.
-We need help to track Lady Iceheart, and get it from a scholar named Moenbryda.
I love LITERALLY EVERYTHING about her design.
-Moenbryda is especially friendly with Urianger. An old relationship perhaps that she loves busting his chops about.
-Urianger is a bit like the Scions’ Cyan. Hyper formal, prone to embarrassment. He’s a great straight man for Moenbryda.
-The challenge in tracking Lady Iceheart is that she teleported from one aetheryte stone to a secret one where she’ll summon Saint Shiva. She then destroyed the second aetheryte so we couldn’t follow.
-Moenbryda is an expert on aetheryte.
She finds a way around this problem, and opens the way to Lady Iceheart.
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Random Stuff from Eorzea
An AMAZING mount!
I’m no expert on native American rep, but I feel comfortable thinking this costume was a bad call for FFXIV.
Ququshu in her new black mage tutu.
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Next time: Lady Iceheart and Saint Shiva. Continuing to level my archer.
