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Freedom for Our Skies
-After recuperating, Radlia emerges. She’s the only survivor of their trip to Mhach. Jesus.
-Radlia was following leads from an ancient Mhachian tome.
“With that ship under my command and the mysteries of Mhach in my possession, I had thought to crown myself queen of the skies…”
-She’s given up on that. She’s devastated – can’t even keep her own crew alive – and vengeful.
“That hells-spawned shite-gobbler killed my crew! If he were here right now, I’d gouge out his eyes and choke him to death with my bare, bloody hands!”
-Sounds like it’s time for a team-up.
-…or not. She’s ready to give up. “I’ve lost my taste for glory. You can have the cursed book. Just be sure to make that bastard pay.”
-No way this is permanent. She’ll get her groove back before long.
-Scene change to Diabolos swooping towards Mhach.
Diabolos and Ferdiad.
“The power of the Shadow Queen waxeth full! Soon, mine ardent desire shall pass from dream into dark reality!”
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Where Shadows Reign
-Some time later, Cait Sith has been studying Radlia’s tome.
-Diabolos taught the voidmages much, including how to summon Scathach. All of it was a long con.
-Now Cait Sith has mastered the Nullstone. He plans to erase Diabolos.
-Suddenly, Redbill HQ starts to rock. Who’s attacking, Radlia?
-Nope! It’s Diabolos. He steals the Nullstone from Cait Sith and winds up to blast us when someone fires at him. RADLIA’S BACK!
-Diabolos flits away into the void.
-Leofard is injured. We’re pursuing Diabolos with just Radlia.
-Off to the final Heavensward raid, “Dun Scaith.”
-We start our journey Radlia’s airship, “The Lady Radlia.” And it’s an FFVI boss to start – Deathgaze Hollow.
I really like the medley route this raid, drawing on a bunch of different games on top of its own created bosses.
-The ship lands, and the city of Dun Scaith is SO COOL! It was created as the Void Ark’s destination, where it would take Mhach’s survivors to restart. It’s never been inhabited.
-The second boss is Ferdiad Hollow. He’s brutal. His main mechanic confuses tf out of me, summoning various Atomoses with a wormhole effect. Like, he’ll throw a ball into two Atomoses that come out at two different Atomoses, and you have to react to where they’ll be at Point B.
-The giant coffin from the Void Ark sits right behind Ferdiad’s arena. It’s split in half.
-The area behind the coffin has been transformed. It looks like a faerie castle, complete with a rose garden lining the path. A herald of the next boss: Queen Scathach herself.
It really surprises me – I assumed she’d be the final boss, and that Diabolos would be before.
[Later edit: To be clear, I watched the boss videos beforehand, since joining a pick-up raid with 23 other players who know the fights means I’m expected to know them beforehand too. This is more “I’m surprised at the make-up of the raid rather than this being an in-the-moment surprise.]
-The boss’s design is super cool, really leaning into the “evil faerie” thing. There are pink heart windows on her evil castle, and during a phase shift they become crude shadow puppets.
-Oh and she summons CHIMERAS MADE OF STUFFED ANIMALS
-Scaith’s platform rises up like an elevator towards the final boss, Diabolos.
-The game gets a lot of mileage in this fight out the image of Diabolos flying up in front of the moon.
-The fight’s first phase is relatively straight forward. Things get much trickier in the second phase.
He consumes Scaith’s spirit to power up. That explains why he was so keen on breaking her out of the Void Ark! Not to worship her or support her, but to drink her like a power shake.
-The visuals of the phase transition are incredible. Diabolos soars up in the sky and hurls one of those void balls towards our group. We have to keep damaging a “lifegate” to push it back towards him.
A bit like that Harry Potter/Voldemort wand battle.
-Holy crap that was a tough raid! Died way more than any prior raid, including the Stormblood raids.
-Oops, he’s not dead. (Just like the Cloud.) We only dispersed him temporarily. He’s back.
FAMILIAR VOICE: “This ain’t eh time for nappin’, furball! You’ve still got a job to do!”
-Leofard returns! He recovered from his injury enough to swoop in with the save and knock the relic (now in hammer form) out of Diabolos’ grasp to Cait Sith.
CAIT SITH: “In Cessair’s name, I unmake thee, Diabolos! MY master’s will be done!” Woohoo kitty with the hero moment!
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A Redbill Farewell
-The world is safe. Now Leofard and Radlia can go back to hating each other as equals.
-Leofard still seems a bit down. Maybe because his ship was destroyed when attacking Diabolos.
-Stacia has some insight. Leofard’s adoptive mother was kind, quiet, and ill. She couldn’t go outside, so she read a lot. Stories of far away lands. He stood by her side until she died.
Awwww! That’s the woman whose portrait hangs in his ship!
“She wrung from him one single promise: that he escape the conformity she had always endured, and live his life as free as a bird.”
Her name is Raimille. That’s Leofard’s ship’s name. No wonder he’s mourning the ship’s loss.
-Hee! Cait Sith lost his red cape in the fight, so Leofard gives him a Redbill scarf to replace it.
He’s gonna stay on with this crew longer term.
-The Redbills fly off into the sunset, and that’s the end! That’s the “Shadows of Mhach” 24-player raids from Heavensward.
These were solid. I like that it didn’t pull purely from a single prior FF game. The spooky/darker tone gave it some great flavor, and the mechanics were challenging even for our overgeared group.
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Next time: Returning to the main story quests.
