Summary: Two dwarves from different tribes join in their love of engineering, competition, explosives, and alcohol.
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It’s Dwarfin’ Time!
-That quest name alone hypes me for this. I love Shadowbringer’s dwarves. Giott
-An
awkward but adorably friendly young dwarf, Ronitt, went off to the
Crystarium to find me. I’m basically his first friend, and so he wants
to hone his smithing and engineering skills to get on my world-saving
level.
-I also love Ronitt’s signature creation, a mechanical frog.
KATLISS (a local crafter): “It certainly is… imposing. In a way only a three-wheeled mechanical frog can be.”
It’s a goofy design in the same vein as the card mechs from FFXI, ones like the King of Hearts.
-The Crystarium will give Ronitt a space to create a forge. My favorite part of this may be the old, foul-mouthed engineer who owns the land. She seems like she’ll help advise Ronitt while intermittently threatening him for calling her old. XD
-For his big project, he wants to create… huh, a tank! Very similar to the goblin project back in Heavensward.
LOL, the name: the Rolling Tankard. Very dwarfy.
-Together, Ronitt and I build the new hub for the dwarf beast tribe quests: Watts’ Anvil. (Watts was a legendary old dwarven smith.)
-As we start, that old FFXIV trope comes up where someone watches us from a distance but disappears by the time I look over. I’m guessing that’s Watts.
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A Piss-up in a Brewery
-As the dwarves discuss an engineering issue with the tank’s weight, they sense they’re being watched.
-Hey! It’s that dwarf from before. I was half-right.
“I, Ozogg the Gogg, proud descendant of the great Watts, challenge you to a test of skill, with Watts’ hammer on the line!”
-She’s
kind of hilarious In her bluster. Ronitt wants to finish the tank
before the challenge, so Ozogg immediately offers to help. XD
-Yeah, she’s great. Her first order of business is to build a brewery so that they can get drunk on grog and think better.
“With
the majority of the workforce now blind drunk, the next logical step is
to begin producing large quantities of highly flammable fuel for their
experimental war machine.”
-The brewery doubles as an ethanol mill for the needed fuel. This is the dwarfiest engineering ever.
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I Heard You Like Tanks
-Time to build the cannon. Let’s make a BIG OL’ LASER.
-Lorathia (yay for more of her!) has experience with aether crystal cannons.
-Ronitt and I will have to sell the laser cannon tank idea to some
tradeswomen, and the way the game presents this is pretty hilarious.
-It’s basically a conversation mini-game, where I have to pick the least ridiculous options so they invest in our laser tank.
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Tanking is Hard
-They’re well on their way to making a Rollin’ Tankard. But what about mass production??
-…ruh roh. The chiefs of the two dwarf villages are here at the forge, and they’re pissed. Xamott is pissed that our friend Ronitt here stole Watts’ ancient tank design, and the other chief is pissed at Ozogg for helping non-Goggs.
I love the dwarves. They’re basically bearded Lalafells, so it makes sense. The way they shake their fists and stomp their feet is so wonderfully cartoony.
-Though I get their concerns. These two towns are not quite at war, but definitely hostile with each other. And here we are producing war machines.
Oh, and the more mundane concern: they can’t have these young dwarves producing shoddy craftsmanship and embarrassing the dwarves. So a test: produce five good-quality tanks by an upcoming festival.
-…the festival is Beardtide, when the chieftan gets their beard washed. I LOVE DWARVES.
-I also enjoy the developing chemistry between Ronitt and Ozogg. He’s still awkward but clearly starts to care about Ozogg, worried about whether her chief will punish her.
Meanwhile, Ozogg isn’t worried at all. She’s all pride and confidence. Doesn’t even intend to return to her home of Komra after this.
AWWW! She got to know Ronitt when they were both kids, playing around with inventions and designs and experiencing from temporary home escapes.
-That’s why she came to help here at his forge. To recapture that childhood experience of just BUILDING for JOY.
This conversation has turned her from comic relief into such a relatable character. Reminds me strongly of a more aggressive version of someone like Erina from Food Wars.
Put under so much pressure to achieve things in a set, specific way, and eventually seeking an outlet to express that skill for her own joy and creativity, not the expectations of others.
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Chief Concerns
-Beardtide is almost here. Ronitt’s nervous. He’s feeling the pressure, especially since he’s working in a team now rather than on his own.
But he’s got me, and Ozogg, and the rest of the team behind him.
-In a really neat touch, he admits that the main hammer he uses is not the ancestral Watts hammer he’s always talking about. His everyday hammer is… well, just a hammer.
It
always interests me when relics starts as regular tools and weapons.
The legend comes later. Maybe one day, some young dwarf will be hoisting
the legendary Hammer of Ronitt.
-The team works together, using the power of automation to finish off a fleet of Rollin’ Tankards.
“The hills are alive with the sound of… TANKS!” I’d DEFINITELY watch the Dwarven “Sound of Music.”
-Even at this moment of victory, the two Dwarf tribes squabble with each other.
Aha!
This was why Watts locked all his designs away. Apparently, they caused
a rift between the tribes. And the only reason Ronitt was able to
unlock those designs was with some heirloom coin kid!Ozogg gave him.
That’s
frigging adorable. And smart! They could only unlock Watts’ trove when
there were at least hints of dwarven reconciliation.
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Tanks for the Memory
-The Rollin’ Tankards are storming off the production line. Celebration time!
Btw, I know I do lots of shipping, but I def ship tf out of Ronit and Ozogg.
-Ozogg feels so freed now that she removes her helm and beard. This is her way to burn bridges, to ensure she CAN’T return to her town. What a badass.
I absolutely love XIV’s dwarves. They’re (appropriately) the Lalafells of the First and share the same potential for goofiness and sincerity. Giott and Ozogg stand out to me in raw awesomeness.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
My new flying tank mount, courtesy of the dwarves:
Nissan Maxima rides in style:
The description for my wind-up dwarf minion:
-Some great names I saw recently:
Splat Attack
Bunny Ghoul
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Next time: the Bozjan Southern Front.
