Kaleidoscopic Voyager

Originally published July 18th, 2017 It was finally time for me to accomplish my mission. Everything was ready, and all the items I needed were in my bag. So I left the duchy of Jeuno behind as I first marched to Davoi, an orc-occupied fortress set in the middle of Jugner Forest.

The entrance to Davoi

My party and I took little time to fight through the lines of orcs who dared to stand against us and our mission. One by one, they were cut down. The battle was waged until finally, we reached the cave and chamber within where the Magicite was held.

The Davoi Magicite

At first I was rather stunned at how strange it looked to me, but I remained vigilant in my mission. I did not forget what I came here for. For what reason beastmen blood was shed today. There was a small Magicite crystal laying at the base of this structure, and so I took it; however, then something strange happened!

We see Ulrich, a member of an expeditionary group that Raogrimm was also sent on to Xarcabard, an ice-covered land littered with ruins. Ulrich, maddened with some sort of hatred for the Galka, attempts to take Raogrimm's life.

There was so much more to the vision, but I fear that I cannot recount all of it here. But these visions did not stop here. After all, I had two more Magicite to claim at both Beadeaux and Castle Oztroja. Thus, my party escaped Davoi intact and traveled onwards back to the Pashhow Marshlands, where the Quadav fortified themselves in their fortress of Beadeaux.

Thus, we found ourselves in Beadeaux once again. This time around the Quadav hardly engaged us, and we managed to swiftly charge our way into the inner sanctum of their fortress: a place they call the Qulun Dome. It is there we found the second Magicite, and the moment I touched it, yet another vision came to me.

The Beadeaux Magicite

A vision. Dead Quadav laying around?

We see Raogrimm, a Galka, saddened by the endless killing of beastmen. He notes how the Quadav who were killed here, were simply trying to defend their eggs. What were these visions? Of betrayal? Of slaughter? Why am I seeing this? Many question popped into my mind, as my party ran out of Beadeaux, with Magicite in hand, and turned onward toward our last destination: Castle Oztroja, which was situated in the Meriphataud Mountains.

Inside Castle Oztroja, we found it heavily gaurded by the Yagudo, a group of sentient bird-like beastmen. Castle Oztroja was enormous, with its twisting hallways, multiple floors and stairways. It took a while before we finally made it to where the Magicite laid. On our way there, we were badly injured by two skilled Yagudo spellcasters, as well as accidentally going into the wrong room.

Oh by gods! Really? We seriously entered the wrong room!? We mostly snuck around the castle, by using Prism Powder, an item that allowed us to be harder to see. But after an arduous time of being lost and getting our behinds handed to us, we found the Altar Room. There we were met by Fickblix, the goblin we saw in Jeuno who was friends with Verena. He seemed to have been gravely injured. Then, out of nowhere, Verena appeared. Had she been following us?

Verena kneeled beside Fickblix in his final moments. Verena had asked Fickblix who had done this to them, but he simply begged her that it was no one, and that she ought not hate them. With his final breath, he told Verena, “Thank...you...”. His small body went limp and his life faded away. I continued on to the last Magicite. After all, I was on a mission from the archduke of Jeuno. I have come too far to turn back, even if this will bring about more death to their kind, but even then I still felt that I wished that there was another way.

There it was. The final Magicite.

I touched the Magicite, and saw a vision of some Taru Taru in Windurst. It seemed that they wished to summon something, but then it shifted to an image of Yagudo fighting amongst themselves, then I saw a Taru Taru trying to find out from them why their lands were being drained of resources, but the Yagudo proclaim that they only had themselves to blame. That it was Windurst, that went inside one of the towers and attempted something. What was it that they tried to do? I do not know, but then I saw a Taru Taru from the first image. From what I gathered, she was referred to as “Star Sibyl” and she was calling out to something as if she were summoning it. Was this all the past? What did they do? More questions pounded from within the recesses of my mind, but then I found myself in front of Oztroja's Magicite again. Then an image appeared in the corner of the room. Proclaiming its return to the living was the Shadowlord, the late leader of the beastmen who was presumed dead. It seems that the beastmen were trying to bring him back after all. I took the Magicite, and swiftly hurried back to Jeuno.

The Archduke of Jeuno. I presented him with the Magicite. Do I really trust him? After giving the Magicite to Archduke Kam'lanaut, I was presented with an Airship pass, which allowed me unlimited use of airships in Jeuno. As great as that boon was, I thought to myself if it was all worth it? I returned to the Bastok embassy in Jeuno, and, yet again, was sent on a mission to Bastok. It seems that the three nations of San d'Oria, Windurst, and Bastok were attacked simultaneously. Presumably the attackers were after some sort of “key”, that each nation held. Did these “keys” have to do something with the Shadowlord's imminent return? I took the next airship back to Bastok, with my mind screaming at itself, demanding answers for what was happening.

Thus I took the next airship back to Bastok...

Wee! I'm on an airship! Look at the view! Goodness me! I ought to travel by airship more often!

Goodness me! I'm finally making a lot of progress in the story of FFXI, and it's turning up a few knots. I'm following it pretty well, but there are a lot of things that I want to know more. Like “How the hell did Verena and Fickblix get into the Altar Room? Was Verena flippin' following me the entire time!?”. But plot-related questions aside, I'm enjoying this game very much, even for how old it is. Despite the game being on its last legs, I still hope that I can keep enjoying it for as long as possible. Anyway, I'll most likely be grinding my character to level 50, then do the quest to raise the level cap to 55, and grind to 55 before I take on the next mission. Maybe I'll make a post, maybe not. We'll see. But anyway, for whoever is reading this, thank you very much and I hope you have a good day. Until next time, farewell!