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Hells Open
-The assault on Specula Imperatoris is underway. (I’m not part of it.) The battle is gritty, smoky, a real fog of war situation. Pipin and Raubahn are kicking ass.
-Scene change to a control tower overlooking the fight. Fordola enters.
-The imperial in charge here reports in to her. The Alliance’s attack on the lower levels of Specula Imperatoris is succeeding. They’re moving on the main tower.
-Fordola orders cessation of any support. Uh… she’s just gonna let the imperials/Skulls fighting get finished off?
-This isn’t Fordola’s call. Zenos will use the main cannon to destroy Specula Imperatoris with the Alliance lured forward. Sort of like how we won in Doma by destroying our own castle.
-Even this random imperial soldier is horrified. Using the cannon will kill imperials too.
FORDOLA: “Wars are won on the backs of the dead. Theirs and ours. There is no truth but this. We must remain firm and resolute, and always, always, do our duty.”
-As the firing sequence starts, Fordola quietly mourns. “Ansfrid, Hrudolf, Emelin… For us. For our people. For our future.”
Fordola’s fascinating. She’s not simply a power-hungry opportunist. She thinks that working with the Empire is the best way to support her people. Even now, I don’t know if she honestly loves the Empire and aligns with it philosophically or just sees it as a means to an end. (I think the former.)
-The cannon fires, blowing apart the tower.
-Raubahn and Pipipin order a full retreat.
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Heavens Weep
-Alisaie and I head over to the ruins of the tower, helping wounded Alliance soldiers as we can.
-Pipin and Raubahn are okay. Conrad is not. He’s mortally wounded. Lyse is especially devastated.
-Conrad treats his final moments as a transfer of power of sorts, assuring Lyse that she’s ready to take over.
CONRAD: “You’ve got it in you, Lyse. Not because you’re Curtis’ daughter, or Yda’s sister, but because… because you’re you… Lead them to victory. To freedom.”
-Scene change, to Castrum Abania. Everyone’s scurrying about.
-Estinien (!!) stands above, looking down. “Come, Nidhogg. We are needed.”
He glows red. Does he have an Eye?
-He jumps up and slams back down, damaging the Castrum’s cannon heavily.
-Imperials below aim their gunblades and start firing. (Of course, they all miss.)
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For the Living and the Dead
-We regroup back in Ala Ghira. Taking a moment to mourn the fallen before all else.
-The next strategic step has to be dealing with Castrum Abania’s cannon.
-Pipin wonders why the Imperials didn’t keep firing. They could’ve obliterated us.
AH! That must be when Estinien attacked. He saved us.
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Above the Churning Waters
-We need a better look at the cannon before proceeding.
-Lyse and I head to an ancient ship stranded in the desert, Nyunkrepf’s Hope. The Sixth Umbral Era ended in a flood, and this ship was used to save folks. Noah’s Ark in XIV.
-She’s full of self-doubt. Can she ever be as good a leader as Conrad, or Hien, or her father Curtis?
“But I can be a friend to you all, and I can fight by your side.” That’s the way to do it. Shrink the scale of leadership to being a good and loyal person, and be that person as truly and authentically as you can.
-We catch sight of smoke rising from the cannon. Estinien’s handiwork. The time is ripe for an attack.
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Where Courage Endures
-There’s a path to the fortress through a new town of Rabiata. It’s an imperial-held down; we have to go a bit secret-agent to find our contact.
-Hee! One of the secret password options here is from FFII. They’ve used this before.
-Our contact is a rogaedyn woman named Stark Woad.
-Stark has heard that whatever the damage to the cannon, engineers are fixing it. We have to shut it down soon.
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The Price of Freedom
-The plan: Alphinaud, Alisaie, Lyse and I will all cause disruptions in various parts of Castrum Abania. We’ll meet up at the cannon control center.
-Castrum Abania is a 4-player dungeon. Very similar layout to other imperial facilities. Meh.
The bosses are pretty cool though! All are from FFVI’s Magitek Research Facility. I’m disappointed they didn’t remix “Devil’s Lab” for the soundtrack.
-The first boss is Magna Roader, who iirc was a regular enemy there.
The second is Number 024, complete with a barrier shift mechanic.
He summons multiple pillars around the room with different elements and goes immune to two of them. So if he goes immune to fire and wind, we go to the lightning pillar to “attune” to it an break past the immunity.
The final boss is “Inferno,” XIV’s take on the final boss when escaping the Facility in VI. I don’t think that was its name in VI.
-Our parties all come together afterwards and converge on the Control Center. Fordola awaits.
-She admits that she’s the one who gave the order to fire. The Skulls were about to surrender – HER troops – and she still killed them.
FORDOLA: “They died so that all Ala Mhigans could live free. That was all we ever wanted.”
Uhhhhh you’ve been working pretty hard for the Empire to stop them from living free.
FORDOLA: “We made a promise that we would do whatever it took so that one day the Imperials would learn to accept us. Service guarantees citizenship, but citizenship guarantees naught… You have to run faster, fight harder, kill more and more and more – only then will you be equal.”
Now it clicks. Fordola doesn’t have any special love for the Empire, but she sees them as the only real game in town. She wants the Ala Mhigans to have success within that framework.
-Lyse is having NONE of this. “Murderer! Butcher! Traitor!” She rushes Fordola.
-She rushes Fordola. Fordola’s right eye glows red and she’s moving now with superhuman speed.
AND SHE JUST SLASHED ALISAIE IN HALF! (Who am I kidding, this is XIV, she’s gonna be fine.)
-Even with the power boost, Fordola knows she’s outnumbered. She drops a smoke bomb and flees.
-Fordola hovers on an aircraft outside the window and gives some parting baddie talk:
“Hero! Lord Zenos invites you to join him for the royal hunt, to be hosted at the palace. You may bring your horde, if you like. All are welcome.”
-And of course, Alphinaud heals Alisaie with a heal spell.
-No sightings of Krile. I’m nervous. Specifically, I’m nervous that the Garleans will give turn her into a magitek-augmented, mind-controlled monstrosity.
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Liberty or Death
-Awww! Raubahn shows us his childhood home in the nearby village of Coldhearth.
-Most villagers became soldiers to watch the border with the Empire.
-Flashback time. Raubahn remembers Curtis (Lyse’s father) giving an inspiring speech urging villagers to rise up not against the old Ala Mhigan tyrant (pre-Empire), M** King Theodoric.
CURTIS: “Liberty is the chance to build something better. A stronger, more prosperous home for our people. It’s not quick or easy work, and it is never truly finished – but if you neglect it, then sooner or later, you look up to find you’ve traded one tyrant for another.”
”Liberty or death.”
That’s weighed heavily on the members of the Ala Mhigan resistance for a while now. They overcame King Theodoric only to find the Empire swoop into the vacuum.
-Hee! The Hamiton references continue.
CURTIS: “Dying is easy, lad. Living is harder.” Raubahn was Hamilton to Curtis’ Washington.
-Back to the present. Lyse swears by those same words: liberty or death. Not just for Ala Mhigans like her, but for the Fordolas of the world who hate her, and for the Ananta who fear her.
-Speaking of the Fordolas: some young villagers jump us on our way out of Coldhearth. These are kids who grew up under the occupation, only knowing the Imperial military as a path to success.
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The Lady in Red
-We bring Alisaie to Rhalgr’s Reach to help her recuperate.
-Lyse knows the end battle for Ala Mhigo is coming, so she changes her garb once more to a traditional Ala Mhigan costume, honoring her sister, Yda.
She looks SO GREAT! This is her dress from the intro to Stormblood, that video where she spars with a generic player character.
-That scene repeats now. Ququshu and Lyse spar in Rhalgr’s Reach, the same exact scene from the intro.
-We’re definitely approaching the end of the main pre-patch Stormblood story.
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Next time: continuing our push eastward.
