---
Fires Fade/Bereft of Hearth and Home
-Meffrid’s still dead. I take a charm from his body to bring to Conrad.
-Conrad’s devastated. He paints a picture of Meffrid as a man deeply concerned for his cause and for his troops’ lives. No small amount of survivor’s guilt here.
-The Imperials left for now, but Rhalgr’s Reach isn’t safe. We’ll move to Castrum Oriens, to the Wall.
---
Divide and Conquer
-Raubahn wonders: why did Zenos leave us alive? A good question.
-At the Wall, Lyse is still reeling from the fact that an Ala Mhigan, not a Garlean, killed Meffrid.
-Raubahn holds a meeting. Conrad feels broken. “Our fight is over.”
Conrad’s especially angry about the Skulls.
“Crania Lupi. The Black Wolf’s legacy and our shame. A unit made up of children born to Ala Mhigan dignitaries who came of age during the occupation. Sons and daughters of Gyr Abania raised to be proud citizens of the Empire.”
Fighting the Empire means fighting their own children.
-M’naago’s pissed that Conrad’s giving up. What would all the sacrifice just now be for?
M’naago.
-Conversation turns to Zeno’s unbelievable strength. Apparently, before succeeding Gaius van Baelsar as Ala Mhigo’s viceroy, he crushed a rebellion in Doma. Doma is still part of his purview.
-Ah, that’s the answer! That’s how Doma enters into this. Ala Mhigo can’t do this on its own, so we’re gonna try to rekindle revolution in Doma.
-We’ll head east. Conrad will try to hold down the fort here and rebuild as best he can.
---
Lies, Damn Lies, and Pirates
-Doma is far away, in a region called Othard.
-Krile will stay behind to watch over the wounded here in Ala Mhigo. Alphinaud tried to be all round-about in asking her to stay and she’s not having it.
I LOVE her snark in XIV.
-Alphinaud, Alisaie, Lyse, and Ququshu will head east.
-We go back to the port city of Limsa Lominsa first. The journey is too far by air, and too dangerous for an Eorzean ship to charge into Imperial waters.
-Tataru – wonderful, glorious, radiant Tataru – found us an altenative. Pirates!
Captain Carvallain.
(The dialogue strongly implies that she’s blackmailing the pirate too. I love her so much.)
-The Captain can only deliver us as far as Kugane, not all the way to Doma.
---
Tales from the Far East
-I head to Mor Dhona to prepare for the trip. The Doman refugees there might have some useful info.
-The Garleans took Doma 25 years ago.
-These refugees rebelled against the Empire. Zenos’s XIIth Legion shut it down fast.
“The thought of that witch and her sycophants claiming it for their own fills me with unspeakable anger.” I LOVE WITCHES! Who’s this Garlean witch?
A random dude in Mor Dhona on a fiery bird mount.
---
Not Without Incident
-Back to Limsa Lominsa. The party is ready to depart.
TATARU: “A surfeit of sumptuous foods, wondrous sundries, plenty of clean undergarments… Yes, I do believe we have everything we need for a lengthy voyage!”
-Oh. Great. The ship’s name is The Misery.
-Urianger’s here to see us off!
“Look ye where the sun doth rise, see crimson embers, dark’ning skies…
Look ye where the sun doth fall, see azure lost amidst the squall.”
Uh. Thanks? Some Far Eastern prophecy.
-He also gives Alisaie a parting gift, an aetherial rapier.
What a ladies’ man.
-We set sail.
The Misery.
-Some time passes. Smooth sailing, until the boat begins to rock. The wind dies down, the waters still, and we’re being dragged off course.
If it’s something from prior in the series, I’d expect Karlabos or Leviathan, but we dealt with both already. Ooh, or what about the Kraken? A recurring dungeon boss that I’m not sure we’ve ever fully destroyed.
-The sailors have seen “things.” The souls of deceased women said to lure sailors to their deaths.
A dungeon unlocks. The Sirensong Sea.
---
The Sirensong Sea
-What a wonderfully atmospheric place! It’s essentially the Ship Graveyard from FFV, a connected series of wrecked ships and rocky shoals.
The haunted beauty of the Sirensong Sea.
-It’s full of undead, sailors that were lured here and fared worse than us.
-The second boss is “The Governor,” a Venom-looking creature that splits every so and spews out what my friend calls “ghost oil.” (Ew.)
The Governor.
-The final boss is a spirit called Lorelei. Not quite a siren, but not NOT a siren. Some alluring entity.
Lorelei.
-She drops damaging circles called “Virgin Tears” through the rom and periodically makes us walk forward or backward. Before those forced walks, we have to angle ourselves away from the Tears.
Finding a clear path amidst the Virgin Tears.
-We take her out, repair the Misery, and finish our journey to the port city of Kugane, west of Doma.
-HOLY SHIT IT’S BEAUUUUUTIFUL!
[Non-rhetorical question: is it mostly Japanese-influenced, or does it draw from wider influences like China or Korea?]
---
The Man From Ul’dah
-Our next step is to find a way to get to Doma.
-We head to a tavern when someone recognizes as the Scions. Hancock, of the East Aldenard Trading Company. An employee of Lord Lolorito, that super shady Ul’dah oligarch.
Hancock.
-Alphinaud is immediately suspicious and hostile. Right there with ya.
-However, Hancock convinces us to hear him out elsewhere, away from Imperial spies.
---
Where the Streets are Paved with Koban
-Hancock leads us on a tour of Kugane.
-Kugane is an ancient Hingan (the name for this region) word for gold.
-We meet a tall Roegadyn named Master Keiten.
He runs Kugane’s markets.
-Foreigners live in the “Ijin-gai” district. I’m guessing this is a play on or variant of gaikokujin.
-Foreigners of all backgrounds, including Garleans, live here. Fighting is strictly prohibited. The samurai order, the Sekiseigumi, execute any who violate this.
-The guards at the Garlean embassy have some sweeeeet gear.
---
By the Grace of Lord Lolorito
-We arrive at the company offices for our meeting.
-Hancock claims we can use this office without any obligation to him or Lolorito. It’s “an expression of [Lolorito’s] heartfelt contrition for the bloody banquet and the unpleasantness which followed.”
He’s talking about the end of A Realm Reborn, where Lolorito orchestrated what seemed like a coup that ousted the Scions and nearly killed the Sultana. Yeeeaahhh I’m not forgiving him that easily.
-JESUS these guys are well-informed! They already know we’re here to aid the Doman resistance.
-Hancock offers up that both Yugiri and Gosetsu have come to Kugane. They have not yet been able to find passage through the Red Sea, east to Doma.
The problem is that neither Doma nor Hingashi controls the Ruby Sea. A third party does, the Confederacy. They demand “the Ruby Tithe” of all who pass.
From top left, counterclockwise: Imperial-held Doma, the Confederacy, and Hingashi.
-Garlemald conquered Doma 25 years ago and saw no need to take over the Ruby Sea. They leave the Confederacy be.
-The new viceroy changed that policy, declaring the Confederacy enemies of the Empire.
Btw, Hancock refers to the viceroy as “she” rather than “he.” Either there’s general confusion about Zenos yae Galvus’ gender, or perhaps they’re gender-fluid, cause I’m dead certain someone called Zenos “he” last session.
-The upshot of all this is that passage through the Red Sea is tougher than ever, we’ll have to deal with the Confederacy, and hopefully we can connect with Yugiri and Gosetsu and travel together.
Of course, Hancock claims to have even more information to help us.
I TRUST THIS GUY PRECISELY ZERO PERCENT.
---
Next time: searching for Yugiri and Gosetsu, aiming to head for Doma.
