Summary: Doman shinobi train Ququshu to help hunt down a delightfully eccentric traitor.
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Peasants by Day, Ninjas by Night
-Some sketchy folks were seen skulking about Limsa recently. I head to Wineport to check what’s up.
-I
find a “milkmaid” (0% chance she’s a milkmaid) standing over three
unconscious people. She claims that they tried to rob her and then
stopped when she didn’t have any money.
DYING MAN: “I have… failed. I beg of you… return this to Master Oboro… to Lady… Tsubame.” Must be a ninja soul crystal.
-I track down the maid and find her standing atop another group of bodies.
An “Eccentric Easterner” – clearly a ninja, and likely an antagonist – swoops in to attack her.
“She didn’t really think she could fool me with those silly rags, did she?”
Is there some memory loss stuff going on…?
-Nope, just a disguise. The “maid” switches into ninja mode, joined by a defender from the trees.
-She’s Tsubame. Oboro is her defender and Karasu the antagonist. The outnumbered (and incredibly flamboyant) Karasu vanishes in a puff of smoke.
Karasu.
-All are Doman shinobi. (This is pre-Stormblood, with Doma as an imperial province.) Karasu is a traitor they’re set to kill, and the bodies were their allies that Karasu defeated in the attempt.
-The fallen ninja’s soul stone binds to me, a sign that they should train me as an ally. Ninja unlocked!
-Hee! The passwords to access ninja HQ here are “Ayame” and “Kaede.” “Ayame and Kaede” is the name of the FFXI quest that unlocked the ninja job: https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Ayame_and_Ka...
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Once Upon a Time in Doma
-Ninja adds mystical elements to the rogue’s pure bladework.
-I use “mudras” – ten (heaven), chi (earth), and jin (man) – to cast ninjutsu. Fire, lightning, etc. I feel like Edge from FFIV.
This sounds potentially complex, like Lord of the Rings Online’s warden class. That job gave you three building block abilities that combined in different ways. Nice idea, but it got… complicated: http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/lotro/chart/0.68/warden_gam...
-Oboro takes me to meditate beneath a waterfall for training. Alas, Karasu follows us.
He’s
still SUPER goofy and mocking, but beneath the mockery seems a sincere
disdain for the shinobi like Oboro as too tied to tradition.
-In
the subsequent fight, Karasu could clearly kill but just acts
didactically. He’s consciously teaching me to use my attacks well. Is he
a secret good guy?
-When Doma fell to the empire, there was a traitor. Seems like it was Karasu.
OBORO:
“Someone had betrayed our homeland, sold our secrets to the enemy.
Looking upon my friends as their bodies lay broken and bleeding. I saw a
figure flee into the hills… It was Karasu.”
It especially frustrates Oboro because he doesn’t really understand why Karasu did what he did.
I’ll bet he has an understandable reason – in a “cool motive, still murder” sort of way.
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Pirates versus Ninjas
-Captain Grymuil is a
Lominsan known to prey upon the Garlean ships. Team Karasu has
(understandably) been trying to assassinate him, so it’s up to us to
stop them.
-I also get a new ability here, “Shukuchi” – a
short-range teleport. I heard of that word once before. A tennis player
In Danganronpa V3 used a “Shukuchi Method” to be super elusive.
-There’s a nice fish-out-of-water element to this story, seeing these Domans do their best to fit in.
-Finally
– FINALLY – we get the jump on Karasu and stop his assassination
attempt. It seemed like he was always two steps ahead of us until now.
-Scene change to Karasu talking to an unnamed superior, pissed at his failure.
Karasu
tries his jokey “lol mb m8.” It doesn’t work at all. I assume this
bearded dude is the super villain who’s going to be, like, the 50-60
antagonist.
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Tough Guys
-Awww! Oboro wants to bequeath some sweet ninja gear unto my Lalafell ass.
-I go pick it up… and frigging Karasu interrupts me.
-Again, he’s trying to test me, not kill me. I have to defeat his minions to prove I’m worth of the gear.
-I
like how much mileage this story line gets out of the trope where you
look away briefly and when you look back, A NINJA THING HAPPENED.
Someone left or appeared or took something or left something.
-Karasu
then does his best to provoke Orobo, even capturing and torturing
Tsubame. He wants to draw out Orobo’s rage, make him fight with passion.
(Even now, this seems didactic.)
-At the fight’s end, Karasu fesses up: he wasn’t the traitor… oh shit, their Master Gekkai was the traitor?
Apparently Gekkai faked his death years ago and was the traitor all along. That must be the bearded dude Karasu reported to.
DOUBLE
SHIT, KARASU FRIGGING BLOWS HIMSELF UP! What an end to a strange,
amoral character. (Assuming this wasn’t a trick.) Cackling in a midair
flip as he explodes.
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Master and Student
-Oboro
claims he’s ready to return to Doma, mission accomplished. But he’s
uneasy. What if Karasu was telling the truth? (And I really, really
assume he was telling the truth this time.)
-Yeah, he runs off
on his own to confront Gekkai. Not like he’ll ACTUALLY be alone. Tsubame
and I will swoop into help no doubt.
-Gekkai’s design is fantastic! Screams “I’m an evil traitor.” Scar, beard, sneer, eyepatch.
-He
claims he turned traitor to save his village from the Empire, but
that’s only half true. He also enjoys Garlemald’s “might makes right”
thing.
-Hee! I get my badass ninja moment where I jump out of nowhere to join the fray.
-The
fight itself is pretty fun, taking out Gekkai and his minions. Midway
through, he uses a SURPRISE FOURTH MUDRA, but it doesn’t really do much
in the end.
-LOLOL OF COURSE KURASU IS STILL ALIVE. Theatrical as ever. Came back to give me my final gear piece.
Black mask gone.
-Some interesting depth here too, as Karasu accepts blame for his role in things.
KARASU: “I was not the traitor, no, but I did follow him. That makes me just as much a traitor, at least in [our village’s] eyes.”
-He
gives Oboro his ninja soul crystal as proof of “death.” This’ll let
Oboro let him off safely, and Karasu gets to be the free weirdo he wants
to be.
Oboro was fine, but Karasu was the all-star of this quest. Major Nero vibes. I hope we see him again.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
One of the greatest background NPCs in all of video games is this dancing pirate:
The level 50 ninja gear set is one of my favorites:
I love the goofy lore they give to the cosmetic minions:
5.4’s main story quest continues in the background of all this…:
-Some great player names I’ve seen recently:
W’holota L’ove
Flick Dabean
Stolen Thunder
Meatball Sandwich
Enchilada Night
Anime Cliché
Floor Tanker
Chuckle Butt
Milk Tea
Je Zeus
Dong-dong Never-die
Emberlyn Izunia
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Next time: the ninja 50-60 quest line.
