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Well Eel Be Damned
-Bless fishing puns.
-A Ronso named Frithrik leads the fishers. Not a lot of variety being caught in the First.
-The fishers who work under him resent him. They take his desire for variety as an indictment of their own abilities.
MERVYL (employee): “He wouldn’t even be in charge if it weren’t for that one spell of good luck.”
He’s got them chasing myths. Interesting – that’s the gist of the Facet of Gathering quests so far too. (I’ve done the first two quests only for Gathering as I write this, investigating the samiel.)
-Frithrik is kind of a bookworm. He’s found fishing success by reading up on long-forgotten lore.
-Whoever catches the most fish is in charge of the Facet for the following season. What an interesting way to do it! Great respect for seasonal knowledge and recency.
-But Frithrik is young. The more experienced fishers reject his advice.
-The Crystarium has seen a rash of sickness recently. Frithrik’s study makes him think they’re not getting the right nutrients. That’s the reason he wants more variety! Not JUST for flavor, but for health.
-For example, eating eighteyes eels apparently cures shadow-blindness, the ability to see well in the dark (which because of the main story has become a thing again recently).
-I head out to Lakeland to fish up a batch of these and return.
-Shadow blindness was a problem even before I started killing Lightwarden. Old books are best preserved out of the light, so shadow blind scholars who couldn’t read in a dimly lit room had problems.
-Frithrik takes my catch and feeds them to some of the afflicted.
-Success! Some of the scholars can even read in the dark now. EEL POWA
-The other fisherman are still not on board, but the medics are interested.
-Patients have complained recently of rashes, which often hit those who lack meat and dairy.
(The patients have resorted to trying such home remedies as eating paper and coal. I gotta plug a great podcast on weird medical history called “Sawbones.” Highly recommended!)
-He can’t fish up meat or dairy, but he thinks zinc is the key. Oysters can be a good substitute.
-Some oyster fishing later, and the patients are doing much better.
-Frithrik is gaining quite a rep, if not yet among the other fishers.
-The surgeons are now seeing dizziness accompanied by heart palpitations. Frithrik is on the case.
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-He’s learned that Longmirror Clams are the answer, though they come from Il Mheg. No worries my dude. I’m besties with King Titania.
Pixiebuster!
-The clams I fish up do help. One patient here had been unable to stand until now even.
-The chirugeons are so happy that one wants to help with the discontent among the fishing ranks. A great suggestion: why not treat a fisherman’s ailment?
-They also suggest not just using these foods after-the-fact. Treat it as a public health issue, and try to get healthy people to include the foods in their diet preventatively.
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Fishing for Confidence
-A young woman has been hit by dizzy spells like what the clams cured, but she also has jaundiced eyes.
-That fisher Mervyl comes upon us doing some research. He’s still pissed we’re spending time on this.
Ah!! Starvation used to be a major issue, so older fishermen who remember those times are wary of any changes that may lead to a smaller yield, even if it adds more variety. That makes sense.
-We need to impress them some other way. Perhaps by catching something especially rare/elusive to show Frithrik’s skills. A calico trout.
Il Mheg fishing.
-We both catch a beaut – Frithrik even fighting through his fear of pixies to fish in Il Mheg.
-Hopefully this’ll win some over people over. In the meanwhile (until I hit level 78 anyway), Frithrik will research that woman’s condition.
-Some time passes, and he finds a cure in some desert monkfish. Another nutritional gap-filler.
-I collect them, and it helps. The jaundice goes down, but she’s still a bit weaker. She’s got “crysteosis,”
a disease that affects only those who live near the Crystarium.
-Whelp. Turns out the patient is Mervyl’s daughter. Wouldn’t that make him LESS reticent to help Frithrik? Or maybe he sees Frithrik as a flimsy scientist, not someone serious.
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Morsel of the Deep
-Ancient records speak of “Noble’s Rot,” which is similar to these symptoms. But it only affected those who lived in luxury. We head to Eulmore for more details.
-HEE! One of the poor fishermen in the area refers to Noble’s Rot as “Rich Bastard’s Comeuppance.” Something resulting from their rich diet. They cure it with prospero eel.
-Again, thank you to the internet for helping me find this eel. It’s in a little pool at the bottom of the Tempest. (Gorgeous fishing grounds, btw. I love that zone, now that I have flying.)
-Frithrik cooks it up and it seems to work. This wins Mervyl over as an ally.
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I’m still a bit confused on the whole “crysteosis” thing. I don’t get why the thing that used to affect the wealthy now affects the considerably non-wealthy Crystarium residents. Maybe just a coincidence of nutritional habits, idk.
Still a fun little quest. Not what I expected for fishing. Kind of a funny take to have it be basically a healer quest line, and I like Frithrik. He’s so earnest and sincere!
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
A colorful Au’ra:
A pink-dressed viera:
A demonic-themed free company:
BABY IFRIT!
A fierce-looking bow:
Some great player names:
Strong Point
Pizza Delivery
Viewinq Cutscene
Chill Penguin
Dmitry Shostakovich
Kissme Nobb
Tango Cash
Colonel Sweetums
Sophie Bell
Happy Circle
Vengeful Shoe
Bell Pepper
And then, an immediate Name Hall of Fame entry:
Cindy-the Tvs-leaking
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Next time: starting the 5.2 main story quests. It looks like the new trials required me to get better gear, so that’ll take a bit of time.
