Tidings from Gyr Albania
-Tataru asks me to meet her in a secluded room. Three strangers are waiting for me.
TATARU: “No squirming now! Oh, and you might want to close your eyes…”
Uhhhhhhh. Is… is our relationship about to change? I mean I’m not against it but still.
-lolol she just took my measurements. She won’t say why. Maybe she’s making me a special Scion uniform.
-Alphinaud summons the Scions for a meeting. He suggests electing a successor to Minfilia to coordinate the various Scion operations. I like it. Nobody wants to step up though.
-Tataru interrupts, yelling for help from the other room. Someone wandered in wounded.
-Yda knows the person. M’Naago, from the Ala Mhigan Resistance.
-She warns us about the Griffin. He intends to assault “Baelsar’s Wall to spread war to Eorzea, and to do that needs to control the border between Gridania and Imperial territory.
-I head to Ishgard to see if they can help.
-They will. Aymeric will send an envoy to a council in Gridania about the Ala Mhigo situation.
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An Envoy for Ishgard
-We check in at Camp Dragonhead. Emmanellain has taken over commanding the camp for Lord Haurchefant.
-He’s taking things seriously. Trying to honor his legacy.
-Off to Gridania for the council.
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An Allied Decision
-All the Eorzean leaders are here. Yugiri too!
-Kan-E-Senna starts the meeting. The Griffin wants to take Baelsar’s Wall and hold it against the Empire.
-I don’t know how much we can help. The Empire has overwhelming force, and it’s been all we could do to hold them at bay. Can we keep things at status quo?
-Maybe with Ishgard, things will be different. Aymeric apologizes for his nation’s past inaction.
-Yugiri’s Domans will also help.
Yugiri has one of my favorite character designs in the game.
-Still, all we’re planning is to bolster the border, not retake Ala Mhigo. Makes sense, but feels like we’re not addressing the Resistance’s legitimate grievances. But if we don’t have the power to do so, what can we do?
-Alphinaud feels like we’re missing something. I agree. There’s no way the Griffin is aiming to just “make a point” with a brief sortie with the Empire.
Of course, our characters don’t know he has the Eyes of Nidhogg.
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Griffin, Griffin on the Wall
-Our party heads to a watchtower outside Baelsar’s Wall.
-We spy an attack underway at the wall. What’s weird is that the attackers are wearing Grand Company colors. The Resistance must be trying to spark war by dressing as the Eorzean Alliance, making the Empire think it’s a full-fledged invasion.
-Scene change to the Griffin doing exactly what I thought. Leading his Resistance dressed in Eorzean Alliance colors.
GRIFFIN: “Let this victory be the first step in the liberation of our homeland!”
We have two objectives. First, we’re worried that the Alliance scouts we sent ahead will make it look like a second wave of an invasion to the Empire, so Alphinaud will pursue them to pull them back.
Second, my party will scale Baelsar’s Wall and confront the Griffin directly.
-“Baelsar’s Wall” is a standard four-person dungeon. It’s full of Imperial troops and mechs. I won’t rehash this too much, but the Imperial zones and units blend together for me.
Still, I like that they draw strongly from the FFVI Gestahlian Empire. The magitek armor suits are especially cool.
-We reach the top of the Wall where the true Griffin waits. He removes his mask.
WAIT HE’S FUCKING ILBERD???
-Ilberd is the Ala Mhigan who betrayed Raubahn at the end of “A Realm Reborn” and lambasted him for not focusing enough on the freeing of Ala Mhigo. How did I not see this coming?!
-So we beat Ilberd, but his plan still worked. The fake Eorzean Alliance soldiers went in full-force against the Imperials. The Empire will think it’s an invasion.
-Who is Laurentius? He’s looking sadly down on the chaos below and summons some imperial mechs to smash the Resistance.
[Later edit: oh right! He’s someone we found out as a corrupt Gridanian guard, then recruited into the Crystal Braves only to be betrayed at the end of A Realm Reborn.]
Holy CRAP the Imperial response just wipes out all the resistance. It’s bloody, brutal, and fast.
-So if Laurentius was working for Ilberd, and Laurentius called the Empire to crush his own troops, then that means it’s part of Ilberd’s plan.
DYING RESISTANCE SOLDIER: “Gods help us… What were we thinking? The Empire’s too big… Too powerful… Mighty Rhalgr… Grant us… the strength… to crush… our…”
-Ilberd now pulls out the Eyes of Nidhogg.
-Ilberd is sympathetic to some degree. He’s doing anything he can to save his home. He sees everyone in both Ul’dah and Little Ala Mhigo mouthing platitudes like “free Ala Mhigo!” but not sacrificing for it, not doing what’s necessary.
”You say no mortal should wield these eyes? Then I shall become a demon! I will suckle on the souls of the hopeless, and liberate the homeland they no longer deserve!”
He’s forcing things.
-He plans to summon a primal, or something worse. A deity “more terrible than the black wyrm of Calamity.” Something worse than Bahamut.
-Ilberd jumps. He leaps off this cliff and plummets to his death amidst the corpses of his Resistance fighters.
But the Eyes of Nidhogg still glow. He sacrificed all these lives, including his own, for this summoning.
Ilberd, his work complete.
-The lifeforce and dying prayers of the Resistance converge on Nidhogg’s eyes. The whole area is suffused with a bright red light.
PAPALYMO: “His death completed the ritual. The primal is taking shape.” Who’s the primal? Rhalgr?
-Papalymo wants to replicate what Louisoix did and contain this primal with a spell of sealing. He wants to use the broken Tupsimati.
”Now, let us see how good a student I truly was.”
-The airship carrying Yugiri and the others settles down, offering to bear us away. I have the choice to stay behind with Papalymo or to take the airship and trust that he knows what he’s doing.
I take the airship, even knowing that the ritual will probably kill Papalymo.
-Papalymo completes the ritual. He conjures a giant orb in the sky, spears of light…
Wow. He created a new Dalamud to contain whatever being Ilberd just summoned.
-Yda was Papalymo’s mentee. She’s broken, devastated.
-That’s SO COOL! After the quest, we see that new Dalamud in the sky.
And you just KNOW that at some point, that prison is going to crack open and unleash whatever Papalymo sealed.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
-An artist visits FFXIV:
-So does a mischievous cat:
-Ququshu peeking out from behind her nuclear ghost mount:
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Next time: a brief break from main story for a seasonal event and side stuff.
