FFXIV – Part 236: The Hidden Mudra [Ninja 60-80]

Summary: An old clan rivalry emerges as ninjas vie for secret magic. Karasu continues to be the best.

Note: I accidentally deleted most of the images I’d saved for the quest. I found some footage online of the quests to re-screenshot, so all credit to Okamoza on YouTube. Check out their channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFgumAXTyWM0OUyk...

---

Search for the Stolen Scroll

-New mission from Jacke for me and Oboro in the rogues’ guild. Some Domans were caught thieving a particular scroll.

-Tracking them down isn’t immediately fruitful. A masked “black marketeer” says the scroll has made its way to the east, and this guy SURE AS HECK sounds like Karasu.

Yeah, and I’m glad they don’t wait to reveal it until the end.

-He stops by, taunts Oboro a bit, then ninja-smokes his way away. What an asshole. Welcome back :D

---

Ninja Bathin’ Redux

Off to Kugane! Oboro has learned that an infamous outlaw band – the Garnet League - is behind the theft.

-I eavesdrop on some of their members. Sounds like Karasu is an instigator here. Zakuro is the leader.

-The plot to steal the scroll back from Zakuro is delightfully ridiculous. The rogues distract her while I sprinkle bird poop on her head from above, forcing her to the bathhouse.

And in the bathhouse, Oboro and Jacke use their masculine wiles to distract her. XD

-The scroll turns out to be “the forbidden mudra of summoning.” If the ninja using it has their focus wane for even a moment, a ferocious beast comes forth and eats them. The scroll was lost in the chaos of the Garlean invasion.

Zakuro was stealing it on someone’s behalf. Who wanted it? Who even knew about it?

Also, wtf does it even do if your attention DOESN’T wane? Summon the beast under your control?

-Karasu reappears. (Hi, buddy.) He’s now working for the person who wants the scroll.

-Well. Crap. He kidnapped our rogue/ninja friends to as leverage to get the scroll back. Jerk.

---

A Game of Life and Death

-Yuki’s joining us to help with our rescue mission!

-Karasu’s game: if we defeat the Garnet League, he’ll let our friends go and forget all about the scroll.

…Oboro. What are you doing. Why are you remotely for a second believing this???

-Anyway, we go along, storm Garnet League HQ and free our friends.

-…Most of them. Karasu gets Tsubame at knifepoint. Trade the scroll or else. Goodness, he went back on his word, I’m shocked, help me pick my jaw off the floor. (I still love you karasu)

-When we make the exchange, some new shinobi peppers the Garnet League leader – who’s had the world’s worst day – with shuriken, killing her. This must be the master. 

-Yup! The guy’s name is Lord Hanzo. Karasu is super excited to get to learning this awesome new ninjutsu when Hanzo ROASTS HIS ASS IN A BALL OF NINJA FIRE.



Not that I’m believing for the smallest instant that Karasu is really dead. Fool me once, etc.

-Hanzo seems to be from some super pureblood ninja clan and looks down on all other shinobi, especially our line.

-We still are in the game at least. Apparently, the scroll only contains half the magic. The other half is in Oboro’s home village.

---

True Enlightenment

-Oboro is feeling guilty. His village greeted him as a hero for having “slain” the evil Karasu, when he didn’t slay him and know’s that Karasu is not the traitorous leader.

-Jacke BRILLIANTLY relates this to the rogue 1-30 storyline. Milala the Yellowjacket took the credit for what we did, because that was her role. Just as it’s Oboro’s role now, bad and false as it feels.

-Anyway, he’s been researching the father of their tree of ninjutsu, Master Sasuke – whom Lord Hanzo hates. We seek out one of his heirs, a Master Kamui. A helpful, if perverted, old man.



-He shares a story. The original Lord Hanzo held that summoning power and kept it purely for defense. Later, he learned Doma was under a tyrant’s thumb (pre-Garlemald). He sent Sasuke with the secret mudra to free Doma.

It worked. Sasuke did as asked and destroyed the tyrant’s armies. He stayed on in Doma, founding this village and the ninjutsu branch.

Our Hanzo may have just misunderstood the situation and thought Sasuke stole the power for himself rather than fulfilling a mission on Hanzo #1’s behalf.

-Our session is interrupted with word of an impending Hanzo attack on this village. Is this just gonna be about talking it out? Can’t be that easy.

---

When Clans Collide

-Hanzo’s army advances on Yanxia, but no sign of Hanzo himself. Is he just using the army as a distraction?

-Yup. The “army” is in reality just a few shinobi using a mirroring ninjutsu to appear larger. I meet Hanzo on his way out of the village, the complete scroll in hand.

That’s a pretty frigging cool way to show the scrolls joining. Summon time.

-LOLOL IT’S A SWARM OF MYSIDIAN RABBITS – that’s what comes when you fuck up your combos.



These must be a reference to FFV. When you summoned a random animal as a ranger, sometimes it would fizzle and one of these assholes would show up just to mock you. I love their return as the Ninja Fizzle in FFXIV.

-Karasu busts in (alive, of course). He replaced the scrolls with a fake. GET REKT BY GOOD GUY KARASU

-And now I get to team up with Karasu to take down Hanzo. This is everything I wanted.

-The fight itself is just as awesome. Hanzo uses all manner of illusions, including splitting into mirrored versions, turning giant, and even turning into a huge ice blue tiger.

-So… the scroll’s still at large. Or not. Karasu has it, and that’s as safe as I could want.  

---

Oboro’s Big Idea [Rogue 80]

-Oboro has tracked down Karasu. I guess that’s what he’s been up to for Shadowbringers.

-The plan here is for Oboro to distract Karasu in a hot spring while I sneak into the house he’s been staying at to find the scroll.



Some of these scrolls are fantastic. One is “The Wandering Minstrel’s Greatest Mysteries Revealed,” which I SUPER wish I could read. Isn’t the Minstrel basically the avatar for Yoshi-P within XIV?

Also, lol at “Oboro’s Dullest and Most Dim-witted Moments, as Chronicled by Karasu Redbeak.”

-I actually find the scroll under the bed, but I’d be shocked if this isn’t another trick.

-Oboro buys us a victory feast in Limsa, and with every smug proclamation, I’m more certain that he’s not as winning as he thinks he is.

-LOLOL THIS IS AMAZING. A NEAR-NAKED OBORO RUNS TO US IN A PANIC BECAUSE APPARENTLY THE OBORO WE LEFT WITH FROM THE HOT SPRING WAS JUST KARASU IN DISGUISE



-I even get to pick which is the right one. XD

-What a perfect ending to the ninja quests. It’s not even a bad one for Oboro. What Batman be without his Joker?

I like ninja a lot! Not my favorite DPS job mechanically – red mage is still far and away the top, with dancer a distant but clear second – but still quite fun and dynamic.

---

Random Stuff Around Eorzea

-The epic Shinryu fight:


-Got a follow-up to the role quests where the different role NPCs learned that their bartender was secretly the Shadowkeeper. The quest was awesome and we got to forgive and accept her, but my favorite part was Giott’s dawning horror at what was CLEARLY the Shadowkeeper’s evil magic:




-Cat pirate:


-A fascinating theory on the nature of Garlean souls:


-Some great player names I’ve seen recently:

Wind-up Shinryu
Utter Disappointment
Trash Manure
Donna Flowerbeauty
Hugh-g Richard
Chimken Temder
Cheezus Chrust (sporting the “Lord Creator” title)
Heather Dawnborne
Carrie Phisher
Candi Barr
Funk Boy
Cursed Universe
Gilly Gamesh
Pepperoni Dogfart

---

Next time: aside from new 5.45 story content whenever that drops, I’ll next work on gladiator/paladin and ixali beast tribe quests. I’m also working slowly on Eureka. Currently going in to clear my challenge logs each week and gain a few levels, but please lmk if you know of a better way to level through there.