Auracite and the Yarhi – Fane of Gucuma Qul (2-2)
-The Fane of Gucuma Qul is a temple enshrining auracite, a sacred stone on Lemures. (I’m also dealing with in FFXIV.)
-Enemy sky-pirates here that have Yarhi (espers) with them.
-There are multiple summoning gates for me to capture.
-Victory! A slow march with my big army across the map.
-“The Eternal” is the god of Lemures. He gave the aegyl auracite to summon espers from the realm of illusion.
I feel better about this, that espers aren’t being used against their will – or so I assume.
The Cache of Glabados from the start of the game must be auracite.
-Ilyud is confused. Why is auracite in an underworld ruin? Good point. It’s supposed to be on Lemures.
-One of the sky pirates we took out dropped a piece of auracite. I can use it to forge pacts with the Yarhi.
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Ring of Pacts
-I now have access to the “Ring of Pacts.” It’s sort of like a license board where I can build my esper roster.
-The Ring of Pacts is divided into four quadrants: fire, ice, earth, and water espers.
-I can now make pacts with three new espers. My options:
-Aquarius: flying, water nature/resist, weak to lightning
-White Hare: ranged, healing nature
-Quetzalcoatl: ranged, lightning nature/resist, weak to earth
-Bomb: flying, fire nature/resistance, weak to water
-Cactoid (hola, gracialsgc!): earth nature/resist, weak to fire
Again, these portraits are ADORABLE.
I love this art deeply, along with some of the flavor text.
I sign pacts with White Hare for healing, and two in the earth-section of the ring, the Cactoid and Goblin.
-Once I pick the new espers, I assign them to a troupe.
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Reinforcements – Way to the Auracite (2-3)
-This next part of the Fane introduces a switch mechanic. Switches open up certain doors.
The series has used switches before in multi-party scenarios, such as FFVI’s Dragon’s Den. Makes sense when you have multiple leaders/groups on the map that they’d revisit it here.
-Hee! There’s a trio of enemy sky pirates I fight with flavorful names such as “Well-Bred Sky Pirate” and “Jaunty Sky Pirate.”
-We get through most of the zone when some sneaky pirates close the door to the final room on us. BOSS TIME! Titan.
-No espers available to me for this fight.
-We seem to be doing okay…
-Ba’Gamnan enters? Dangit Tomaj, I thought you had him tied up!
-This music is so dang goofy lolol
-He rushes us in a rage when Tomaj shows up and stuns him with some lightning.
-OH SHIT, TOMAJ PUT SOME KIND OF CONTROL MUZZLE ON BA’GAMNAN
TOMAJ: “I call it Ba’Gamnan’s Bane. Just a little something I threw together.”
-With Ba’Gamnan’s help (sorta?) we finish off Titan.
-Vaan is laughing and whistling as he forces Ba’Gamnan to do his bidding with the stun collar.
I get tying him up for safety’s sake, but this is legit uncomfortable.
VAAN: “We use espers to fight for us. Why not him?”
BECAUSE YOU MADE A PACT WITH ESPERS AND SUPPOSEDLY THEY CONSENT TO HELPING YOU AND THIS IS CLEARLY NOT THE SAME??? Look. Ba’Gamnan is a big bag of dicks. He’s trying to kill you, so keep him in prison. But making him your unwilling servant feels really off.
-lololol this “soandso has joined the party” message is awesome:
“Ba’Gamnan ‘joins’ the party?”
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Ship Stop
-I try to check in at the ship after most missions since there’s often new flavor dialogue. It also gives me chance to upgrade gear.
-Llyud tells me that I have to obey the holy law of summoning Yarhi, to not summon one above my ability.
-lolol Ba’Gamnan’s gear is all named after him XD
Really digging this game’s goofy sense of humor.
-New primer entries!
-Higher-ranked espers cost more affinity. So I can swarm the field with little espers or bring a smaller number of big ones.
-Some espers only become available “once certain conditions are met.” Maybe I can only unlock some higher espers after passing tests or challenges. Reasonable to expect, given how often the series makes you do things like defeat Odin to be able to summon him.
-Soul crystals can revive fallen group leaders. If I see one I should destroy it ASAP.
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’Neath Darkened Wings – Dais of the Auracite (2-4)
-The heart of the Fane. Enemy sky pirates are here, led by a bangaa named Togi the Treasure Hunter.
[Later on: Revenant Wings has solved one of the more annoying parts of Final Fantasy Tactics. This Fane dungeon is a three-part dungeon, but after completing each part I can return to the ship and wander around or level up before moving on. I don’t get locked to the dungeon until all parts are complete.]
-The enemy leaders are level 9 while my party is mostly level 6. If this fight doesn’t work out, I’ll probably grind up a bit.
-Togi has Atomos with him, a rank 2 earth spirit.
-Worked my way up to there. The enemies are getting more aggressive now, trying to steal my summoning gate.
-Argh! I destroyed the summoning crystal but meant to attack the rest of the enemies.
I didn’t know destroying the enemy soul crystal would end the fight. Didn’t get to take out Atomos.
-We corner Togi afterward. He says he’s working for someone else. So we set Ba’Gamnan on Togi to make him talk.
That’s our Vaan, with his signature coercion and torture. What a scamp!
-At least Ba’Gamnan seems more into this particular task.
-It works! Togi confesses that he got the auracite from a shady dude called “Judge of Wings.” And the Judge of Wings may not be from the Empire at all. They have wings on their back, whoever they are.
FFVIII CROSSOVER INCOMING, RINOA IS THE JUDGE OF WINGS
(I mean, no, but I’d be down for that)
-The Judge of Wings broke the barrier protecting Lemures and now plans to invade Ivalice.
TOGI: “She sits in judgment of all life… and death.”
Creepy. No way it’s a coincidence that here at the heart of the Fane here is a giant bird statue.
Sounds like we’ve got ourselves a Big Bad.
-Togi was looking for a giant piece of auracite called an auralith.
-Aaaaand he scoots away. We suck as jailors. No doubt we’ll deal with Togi down the line.
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Back to the Ship
-Llyud’s familiar with the auraliths. There are three such crystals. They sustain the world.
I wonder if the crystals in FFTA’s Dreamvalice may have been modeled on these auraliths.
-A story. Thousands of years ago, Feolthanos the Eternal made Lemures. An immediately concerning name since thanos is a Greek word associated with death. But I don’t know what feol’s root is, so maybe it means something more positive.
Feolthanos still lives apparently, sheltering Lemures. The Judge of Wings may be looking to take Feolthanos the Eternal’s role.
VAAN: “Anybody trying to become a god’s got his armor on too tight, if you ask me.” Well said.
-Llyud knows where one auralith is located. That’s our next stop. The island to the west.
-Chapter 2 complete!
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Next time to the first auralith.
