TW: brief mention of domestic abuse in a quest.
Odin
-My friends and I finally took on Odin! He’d been prowling the woods outside Gridania.
-I adore everything about his design. And the horse he rode in on .
-The fight was pretty tough. He summoned spears and launched area effect stuff at everyone, but then had the most Odin mechanic ever: Shin Zantetsuken. In his last 10% or something, he started a long cast timer. We had to kill him before it went off.
A heart-pounding end to the fight.
-Odin disappeared into the aether, but Zantetsuken remained.
-The mystery remaining here: how does Odin sustain himself? He doesn’t have “sundered” (brainwashed followers) currently to feed him crystals. Hm.
-Ruh-roh. While we were chatting, a random soldier stole his blade, Zantetsuken, and fled. I’ll bet this sets up the next mode of Odin, the next difficulty level.
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Weaving (level 50 finale)
-The weaving quest is kind of hilarious. The whole line has been focused on a client with the shittiest taste ever. He’s courting someone and is doing okay at it, but keeps putting together these motley wardrobes of, like, a smith’s pants, plate gauntlets, a fishing hat, etc.
-The customer, Wawarukka, is disheartened. The clothes look great, but he’s afraid he’s still “beneath” the woman he’s been courting.
-Level 50 quest time. I craft him a high quality set of slick duds.
-After turning in the quest, I get to watch him make his move. A major asshole has been courting his interest. And by “asshole” I mean “abuser.” He raises his hand at her, plans to “teach her a lesson.” Christ.
-Wawarukka intervenes. He takes the blow meant for the woman. He’s the first person to stand up to that guy in a while it seems, since the asshole backs down and leaves.
-That was… unusually disturbing. Like, this whole questline was about helping a goofus learn how to dress, and it turns into a raw scene of domestic violence.
-Whatever the case, Wawarukka found his confidence here. The clothes certainly didn’t hurt.
-I love my ultimate level 50 weaver tool!
I’m the short one.
It’s not as cool as Redolent Rose’s cactuar tool (he’s the guildmaster), but it’s still pretty spiffy.
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Alchemist (level 50 finale)
-I really like how the crafting job questlines have progressed. At the start, I was just learning the jobs, so the quests were things like restocking the guild’s supply of leather for the better crafters to work with.
The middle tier crafting quests were higher versions of that. An important client might have needed a bow and it was my job to craft a high-quality version of that.
Now, it’s more personal.
The alchemist guildmaster is one of those egotistical wacky-scientist types. But in the level 45 quest, something has him scared. He begs me for help in getting him high quality potions to boost his intellect, his mind, his strength. I’m actually feeling afraid for him.
-Turns out I was right to be afraid. He’s gathering up all of these in an attempt to resurrect his beloved, who died in the Calamity.
-To prepare for this HORRIFICALLY BAD IDEA of a ritual, he has me craft a replica of his beloved’s old weapon.
-Just before Severian can complete the ritual, his beloved’s sister arrives to stop him.
-As W’nahja is about to blast the shit out of Severian for daring to mess with her sister like this… THE BODY ON THE TABLE WAKES UP.
W’NAHJA: “Stop fighting… the both of you…”
IT WORKED.
-It’s just temporary. And perhaps most tragically of all, Severian KNEW it would be a short-lived revival. He worked so hard just to apologize to her for wasting their time together. Their relationship was apparently dominated by his work. (Not the most original story, but there it is.)
-But oddly enough, it turned out well. W’nahja didn’t seem to be in pain, and seemed happy to see Severian one last time and reassure him they she loved him for who he was. Severian got closure. W’nahja’s sister got a sort of closure too.
-And now, Severian can move on.
He reached the height of alchemy after a fashion, and now can move on.
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Fishing (level 50 finale)
-I CAN FISH IN SAND AND SKY NOW! “Skyfishing & Dunefishing.” That’s super cool.
Skyfishing off a snowy cliff.
-The final fishing quest starts when a sailor spots a sea serpent. Limsa Lominsa responds by suspending all local fishing for safety. Time for the fisherman to help out!
SISIPU: “Time to go fishing… for information!” lolol I love how consistently goofy these quests are.
-omg just noticed the level 50 quest name: “So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish” XD
-The way we’re gonna prove it’s not some legendary serpent come to swallow the world is by catching it. A big marlin.
-The task of catching is tricky, time-intensive. It requires a double-mooch, meaning I have to catch a high-quality fish, throw it back, catch ANOTHER high-quality fish, throw it back, and then get the marlin.
-Success! I catch a massive marlin and turn it in. How’d this whole nonsense about a sea serpent start anyway?
-lolol it’s a literal fish story. A big game of fishing telephone. One of the fishing guildmasters told an excitable boy (they all said) that he found a “monster of a fish” at sea. Rumor spread that it was a literal monster.
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Culinarian (level 50 finale)
-I’ve come a long way from making spare table salt for the guild. The sultana of Ul’dah is coming to town, and requested my cooking at her welcoming banquet.
-But TROUBLE STRIKES! Lord Lolorito (one of the sneaky, conniving dudes in Ul’dah) arranged this visit specifically to humiliate the culinary guild here. Not sure why. He’s always been a jerk.
So my first step is to infiltrate the sultana’s inner circle and try to find out what food she likes.
(I really like how relatively low-risk these quests are! Sure, some super dramatic like the alchemist quest, but this and the fishing ones are so delightfully silly.)
-Yay! Victory! I successfully satisfied the sultana and properly pissed off Lolorito.
-Much like the fishing quest, a fun and low-key quest.
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Random Stuff
-Tried a hard-mode dungeon with my friends. The dungeon was fun, and as I’ve mentioned before, the hard mode versions are totally different in story and enemies and content from the regular-mode dungeons.
But the thing I want to praise it for today is the music. IT’S SOOOO GREAT!! I’ve had it on repeat for a couple of hours as background music and it is so fucking intense and low-key motivating.
Just how hard-mode dungeon music should be!
-A woman riding a burning wolf:
-Awesome gear and cool particle effects on the weapons:
-An unusually creepy enemy:
-‘Tis the season:
-An adorable Gaelicat!
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Next time: finishing up the level 50 crafting quests.
