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-Back to the present, more puppets warp in and attack. Something’s controlling them.
-The rift goes full vacuum-mode. It sucks in Doga, then Unei.
NERO: “Without them, there’s no way to master the darkness – that power’s mine!” Of COURSE that’s why Nero is here lol. He wanted some of that sweet sweet void power. It sucks him in too.
-The Cloud of Darkness announces her presence from inside the rift before it closes. Well crap.
-We regroup at camp. Nobody has gone into the World of Darkness before.
-G’raha Tia’s Allagan eye is bothering him. Some key memory is locked within. Hm.
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The World of Darkness
-The Tower has continued to act on the deal, drawing power to open another voidgate. Only Unei and Doga can cancel that. We have to rescue them.
-G’raha shares a memory of Allag. Warriors fought against Xande. In desperation, he drained the sun’s power stored in Dalamud to the Crystal Tower, an eruption of energy that caused the Fourth Umbral Calamity.
-He can’t remember where he learned all this. Gotta be some communal memory from his eye.
-We open the tear successfully to the way to the World of Darkness.
-Before I enter, G’raha pulls me aside. His eye has been bothering him. The more he learns about the Crystal Tower, the less he feels like himself. He’s joining me inside the Rift to explore further.
-The FFIII version of this zone was surreal. A series of interconnected dark crystalline platforms amidst a void.
And XIV nails it! The WoD is a series of ascending platforms and temples, all leading up towards what looks at first look a giant moon but is likely the Cloud of Darkness itself.
-First boss is… huh, it’s an Ahriman just like in FFIII, but it’s called Angra Mainyu, like the X-2 superboss.
-Afterwards is a Two-Headed dragon (from FFIII) but only as a mini-boss. The next actual boss is a Five-Headed Dragon, with each had providing a different elemental mechanic.
-Atomos Prime is next, but more of a mini-boss/big trash pack than a full boss itself.
-Cerberus is my favorite WoD boss mechanically. He’s giant three-headed pupper. Some players get hit by “Mini,” then get EATEN by Cerberus and attack him from his belly.
Becoming a snack in 3… 2… 1…
-The final boss is Cloud of Darkness. REVENGE! I never beat her in FFXI.
http://coldrungaming.blogspot.com/2017/07/ffxi-pa...
-The Cloud dissipates and fades in a blast of dark lightning.
-Doga, Unei, and Nero are safe. Mostly? Nero looks all purple and void-touched.
DOGA: “We would be dead had Nero not defended us so valiantly.” He did it for his own reasons, but still. Sorta Good Guy Nero.
-Oops, the Cloud’s still alive. It can’t be killed here, only weakened.
-It attacks, and G’raha protects us. His eye’s Allagan royalty guards him and us. HE can sever the pact in place of Unei and Doga.
-Unei and Doga transfer their power to G’raha. They’ll guard our escape, passing their mission and purpose to G’raha. He’ll sever the pact and break the Tower’s purpose.
-We flee, barely outrunning the Cloud’s attacks.
-Nero is fading. And frustrated that he didn’t manage to master the power of Darkness as he wanted.
“I am Nero tol Scaeva, the man who’ll yet outdo Allag and Garlond!”
-He dives for the closing gap, is about to miss it, but Cid raches a hand in to pull him through at the last second.
-Unei and Doga must have perished in the World of Darkness. They gave us the chance to survive and helped sever the World’s ties to Eorzea.
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The Light of Hope
-G’raha hasn’t come back to camp yet. Instead, we have researchers who fled the Crystal Tower, saying he forced them away.
-We meet him at the edge of the Tower.
G’RAHA: “Just as Unei and Doga fulfilled their destiny, so too must I fulfill mine. My blood has awakened me to this fact.”
Both eyes now red.
-Some survived Xande’s calamity. Survivors searched for the Crystal Tower and couldn’t find it amid Allag’s ruins. Still, they wished for the Tower to rise once more and become a beacon of hope.
Allag’s Princess Salina was the only royal survivor. Moved by the people’s wish, she used technology to transfer her blood and memories to a trusted man, G’raha’s forebear.
G’raha will stay behind to fulfill that long-ago made wish. He’ll make like Amon and put the Tower to sleep. When technology rivals that of Allag and can use the tower well, he’ll be there to greet them.
-The tower doors slam shut. See ya. I wonder if G’raha will return in a future XIV expansion.
-We get a dramatic montage of the Crystal Tower. And we see Nero, watching.
“The Crystal Tower slumbers again, then. ‘Tis too quiet for my taste.” He’ll have to find his overwhelming power elsewhere.
The power of love dude! Cid’s right there!
And that’s the Crystal Tower raid. A neat bit of history, incorporating the FFIII story into the fall of Allag, and XIV’s first attempt at 24-player content.
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Next time: The Bahamut raids.
