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Look to the Stars
-Our goals now is to open the doors to the Qitana Ravel and reach the Lightwarden. First, we have to restore magic flowing in northern Rak’tika and open the Qitana Ravel’s doors.
-We explore the Ronkan ruins nearby. They draw inspiration from civilizations like the Mayans and Incans, that pyramid structure.
Statues are nearby: serpent, opo-opo, wolf, coeurl, colibri, owl. We have to channel aether into one specific one.
Riddles atop the pyramids hint at which one:
“Come together, share despair,
Go thy ways, dread burdens bear,
Mark the crown, heed its call,
Avert thy gaze, forever fall.”
I have no frigging idea. A prior quest gave some clues about Ronkan animals that might help, but even then nothing jumps out as super obvious.
Guess #1: “Mark the crown, heed its call.” Serpents were at the top of the animal structure. Alas, that’s the wrong guess.
Guess #2: “Come together, share despair.” Ronkans saw wolves as pack animals, symbolic of community and sharing… nope, fail.
Poor Y’shtola. She channels aether into each statue and keeps getting zapped for my wrong guesses.
Guess #3: I’m kinda stuck. Going a different way, apart from the riddle. What animal doesn’t belong in this group? The owl. It wasn’t listed in the previous quest’s pantheon.
SUCCESS! It’s the owl. [Non-rhetorical question: Why? What in the riddle pointed to owl?]
-The Viis Cymet rushes to us in a panic. Eulmore’s army has entered Yx’Maja. Thancred and some others are trying to fend them off.
OH SHIT I JUST REMEMBERED! This must be that section of the trailer wheter the forest was on fire, and “Master Matoya” said something like, “Until they return, I will hold the line.” I’ll bet Ququshu will press on alone to the Qitana Ravel while Y’shtola/Matoya helps with the defense against Eulmore.
I’m still not sure whether I regret watching the trailers. It was fun building hype before the expansion with the rest of the XIV community, but it robs some moments of their surprise.
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Mi Casa, Toupasa
-Almet, Y’shtola and I head into the nearby pyramid, where the magic is still blocked from flowing. We have to return a small owl statue from elsewhere in the pyramid to the door.
-It’s a really fun mini-game. The rooms here have owl statues that face different directions, and when I run directly in front of them, they zap me and make me restart.
The trick is to map a path that carries the small owl statue through the room while avoiding the statues’ gaze.
I love that XIV is incorporating these mini-games! Riddles and puzzles and the like.
(Small plug: if you enjoy riddles in an MMO, I STRONGLY recommend trying “Secret World Legends.” It’s free!
It’s a phenomenal horror MMO set in the modern day, with some of the best atmosphere, dialogue, and puzzles in any game I’ve played.)
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Legend of the Not-So-Hidden Temple
-It’s hilarious just how ANNOYED Y’shtola is with all these puzzles. “Can we get this over with?” Well buckle up, Y’shtola. We got more ahead.
-First is a section with Ronkan stone guards. They patrol in different ways. Gotta watch and evade.
-Next, a series of directional buttons on the ground.
This was used to great effect in the Halicarnassus boss fight in Omega.
-Finally, a MOTHER FLIPPING INDIANA JONES-STYLE BOULDER CHASE. This place is the literal best.
-One more sealed door… and Ran’jit arrived ahead of us. Rematch.
-He’s just as nasty as before. Our Viis allies manage to tie him up while I rush past towards the ultimate treasure: the Heart of Toupasa. Grabbing this lets the magic flow, and shuts down the Ronkan constructs.
-Just in time. Ran’jit was kicking the Viis’ ass.
-A Eulmoran attendant accidentally destroys the floor around us trapping us here. He even tries to bargain for his life, with an antidote to a Eulmoran poison they’ve been using on Slitherbough.
-Not that Ran’jit’s having any of that. He kicks the attending into the pit, 300 style. The antidote too.
-Y’shtola jumps after the antidote, hurling it back to me and PLUMMETING DOWN WTF???
No, I literally don’t believe it. They won’t kill off a character like Y’shtola so unceremoniously. She’s fine.
-Something I love about this sacrifice – cause even if she’s alive, it’s a sacrifice – is that she didn’t do this to destroy the Lightwarden, or defeat the Ascians, or save the world. She did it to save some of the Night’s Blessed she came to care for these past few years.
It’s a smaller scope of victory and all the more powerful for it.
-It’s just me and Ran’jit up here now, until Minfilia, Thancred, and Urianger join. Thancred knocks Ran’jit into the pit, confirming for me that it’s not a Pit of Instant Death.
I believe that Ququshu and the others would think Ran’jit and Y’shtola are dead, but in a meta sense, no way. Ran’jit and Y’shtola are probably okay.
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The Aftermath
-Outside the pyramid. The pit seemed bottomless as far as they could tell.
-The Eulmorans and the Children have fled Yx’Maja. Some Blessed were poisoned in the fight.
-At least we have the antidote now.
Thanks, Y’shtola.
-Back to Fanow to deliver the antidote. Y’shtola’s fall hits the Blessed hard.
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In Good Faith
-The Viis capture an intruder in their woods. LOL HI EMET-SELCH.
-It cracks me up how casual he is around us now.
-Ququshu thinks back to Y’shtola’s fall and remembers a gust of wind from the pit. I don’t remember that myself, but it happened quickly.
-This reminds Thancred of something from the end of “A Realm Reborn.” When the Monetarists took power in Ul’dah and attacked the Scions, Y’shtola escaped by teleporting with “Flow.” It pushed her into the Lifestream.
That’s probably where she’s drifting now.
EMET-SELCH: “Oh… very well. I’ll go and fetch her.” Ascian ex machina. Wants to prove himself to us.
-We head out to the forest. He starts up a ritual, and… wow. He does it. Yanks her out of the Lifestream.
I was expecting a twist, like him yanking out the wrong person, but nope.
-THE RONSO RUNAR IS SO HAPPY HE PICKS HER UP
-Y’shtola’s defining characteristic isn’t “sweet.” She’s often acerbic and biting. But thanks God FFXIV realizes that our defining characteristics are far from our only characterstics.
I love so much seeing her receive these greetings happily and warmly.
-So… Emet-Selch. He’s clearly doing this for his own ends, and manipulating us in some way. Thanks and all, but I trust him no more now than I did before.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
An elite red sabotender:
The stone constructs guarding the Ronkan Ruins:
An owl who’s crotch is a human face:
I love when the game mocks the unvoiced protagonist:
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Next time: the Qitana Ravel.
The “riddle” is simple and also really stupid.
ReplyDelete“Come together, share despair” = don’t choose the statues that are looking at each other
“Go thy ways, dread burdens bear” = don’t choose the statue facing back toward the forest
“Mark the crown, heed its call”
= do choose the statue facing toward the pyramid
“Avert thy gaze, forever fall” = don’t choose the statues that are facing away from each other
The meta clue is that when you examine the statues, the only information you’re given is how they’re facing.
Actually, everything in the cinematic trailer (with the possible exception of WoL vs Forgiven Dissonance which seems to be a stylistic version of the fight against it in Holminster Switch) happens prior to the expansion. In fact, the scene in the trailer is mentioned prior to this iirc.
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