May you ever walk in the Light of the Crystal! Let's Play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

[TyrMcDohl]

Another Sea Wolf, huh?

Satznswys is being called away, and very much does give Thancred one of her patented stoic nods.

Seems it might be related to the aside that we saw with Urianger and the mysterious shrouded woman?

Arriving in Vesper Bay, Alphinaud brings Satznswys up to speed with the political situation on the eastern continent of Othard: basically, it sucks. All the nations out that way are vassal states to Garlemald. He surmises that these Domans who arrived recently are under dire circumstances. Apparently, the Domans were directed to Ul'dah, to speak with the Sultana. Though with all the red tape involved with getting around the upper echelon of Ul'dahn society, they're likely caught up in it. And if they're being followed by Imperials, better to have someone like Satznswys on hand to deal with the problem.

Well, this is a sticky wicket.

Smooth, kid. Real smooth. But he makes the practical truth of the matter: there are few in Ul'dah to call allies, and you need some to get in good with the upper echelon. He invites her and her associates to the Quicksand for a pint and a story.

Introductions having apparently been made off-camera, this Yugiri lays it out for the two of them: Doma under Imperial control. When the war of succession broke out in Garlemald, they sought to use the upheval to try and force the Empire from their lands. They met with failure, and so Yugiri gathered what few Doman people she could rescue, and made for Eorzea, hopefully beyond the Empire's reach.

Yeah, first Eorzea's heard of it, it seems.

That's a downer, yeah...would that our heroes could've been there to fight back against it.

Many were complicit in the rebellion, or family thereof. They're staying anchored near Vesper Bay until Yugiri gives the all-clear. However, not being able to get in to approach Ul'dah diplomatically, they're sort of stuck.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Yeah, they suck. But there is a humanitarian crisis stewing out there: their supplies dwindle, and their youth are in need of medical attention. However, Yugiri has seen the tent cities outside of Ul'dah's walls, and notes that things seem fairly grim.

Alphinaud volunteers to put in a word on Yugiri's behalf to make their case.

...Okay, I'm going to give a little bit of the game away early here: Yugiri is an Au Ra, the dragonkin race of Hydaelyn. The reason why she is concealing herself thusly is that the developers had not completely finished the design of the Au Ra for her appearance, and, as such, are using a heavily modified version of the female Mi'qote model to represent her.

She has an aversion to begging, but the Domans back on her vessel grow desperate.

How...coincidental.

Thanks! Nobody asked you your opinion, lady.

Nor you, jerk.

Good work, Alphinaud.

Back up to the Royal Promenade!

Nanamo bids Yugiri reitirate her plight for all those assembled.

Yugiri's own ship has 200 refugees aboard, but there are still more ships in their flotilla.

Raubahn prompts the members of the Syndicate's opinion.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Teledji seems on board with it.

Alphinaud mutters this to Satznswys under his breath.

Lolorito dissents. He brings up the opposing view: the streets are filled with the displaced victims of the Calamity, and with the refugees from Ala Mhigo. They live hand-to-mouth, living primarily on relief aid from the Immortal Flames, a cost that he sees as unsustainable.

...I really need to not make any jokes or references to today's political climate in the real world...

Alphinaud, again, in a quiet aside to Satznswys.

Needless to say, I really want Satznswys to slap Lolorito.

At least Raubahn agrees with me.

Raubahn calls an end to the debate and calls the vote.

Ooof. Yeah, that's rough guys.

It's plain on her face that this weighs heavily on the Sultana's conscience.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Lolorito has been the most vocal about his dissent.

The whole gang heads to the Hall of Flames.

Ul'dah ain't gonna cut it. Alphinaud feels that Limsa Lominsa and Gridania will present similar roadblocks as well.

HMM. IF ONLY SUCH A PLACE EXISTED, ALPHINAUD.

Yep.

Raubahn and Teledji agree that it is the best solution, given the circumstances.

Unrelated to any of the current events, but this is a slice of server culture instead. This is Bear Hugs, or to be more specifically, this is an alternate character for Bear Hugs. Bear Hugs is a Roegadyn on the Sargatanas server who stands in this exact spot, outside of Ul'dah's Adventurer's Guild. It's very rare that you won't see him standing here. Seems today, he's a Hrothgar.

Alphinaud has worked it out with Momodi to temporarily house the Domans until they're ready to make for Mor Dhona.

Unfortunately, transport can't be a thing the Immortal Flames can provide, since moving that many people would be seen by the Monetarists, and that exceeds their mandate.

Teledji volunteers to foot the bill for private transport.

Satznswys heads out that way to see to the arrangements.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Seems one of his best drivers is in his cups at the Coffer and Coffin. Great.

Zoomin' around running errands.

Slapping some thugs around...Y'know, maybe I'm starting to regret pushing to get all this on paper before the ARR revamp.

Alphinaud sends Satznswys to Vesper Bay and see to any of the Domans' needs before they start their journey.

Lots of things, apparently!

And rounding up children!

And dousing chocobos with perfume.

Finally, time to go!

Satznswys patrols the road to Ul'dah, seeing as the Brass Blades are super-busy with their crystal theft investigation.

They all look up to Yugiri, for sure.

And the kiddos are more than excited to meet a for-real adventurer.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Finally, they arrive at Ul'dah.

Let's just skip all that travel, eh?

So things seem to be off to a good start. The introductions made, Slafborn tells Satznswys that Minfilia wanted to meet them in person.

Naturally, the Rising Stones is abuzz with the new Doman residents.

The Students of Baldesion are still out of commission it seems, save for our friend working the Crystal Tower Project, G'raha Tia.

Minfilia wonders if Satznswys has an issue with helping refugees while the whole primal and crystal thing is still outstanding. Not really, though. It's the Scions' job to help people, and that's what she's doing.

Minfilia is willing to help Yugiri find a place for everyone.

F'lamminn asks Satznswys to add in some bottles of wine from her own special stock as a gift to the Domans to make them feel more welcome.

And Alys's got a small project to help keep the refugees safe, since there's children, the elderly, and infirm to consider now.

Stab stab stab!

Uh oh, hope it's not something dire.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

And Y'shtola finally returns.

Since it's been a while since we last heard from the Serpent Reavers, if you'll recall, they were the band of pirates that took up residence in Sastasha Seagrot near Aleport.

Uh oh. But, yeah, figures they were due at some point.

Both Satznswys and Minfilia get the Echo ping.

Y'shtola is spying on a band of Sahagin.

Curious indeed. Maybe the Ascians are at play, as well?

Yeah, makes sense.

Minfilia's coming.

So's Yugiri! Nice.

Off they go to speak with Admiral Merlwyb.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Unfortunately, the Serpent Reavers, thralls of Leviathan, didn't factor into their intelligence, and so Leviathan is probably all but summoned.

All this being hashed out, down to business.

Once the recon forces return to Camp Skull Valley, Satznswys should be there to receive whatever they were able to gather, and then work from there.

Thancred feels melancholy about these lands, being much different five years ago.

Blowing stuff up is a fun job!

Hopefully they haven't fallen in battle.

Uh oh.

Satznswys transports the bodies back to Falkbryda.

She's distressed at the torture these men received before they died, and resolves to be ready when the Admiral sounds the charge.

The Sahagin have tightened defenses around the spawning grounds, so a frontal assault would be difficult to pull off.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

For Satznswys's part, she and Y'shtola will make for the site of the summoning ritual.

Here we go!

So Y'shtola and Satznswys split up to make infiltration a little easier.

Seems Y'shtola took a scratch, but is none the worse for wear.

Uh oh.

Consider this cutscene a bit of a teaser for the Ninja job, which was coming out in the next major patch.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Up to this point, Thancred had been fighting as a Gladiator, but, here, he switches to a rogue's fighting style.

Yugiri and Thancred cover Satznswys and Y'shtola's approach to the aetheryte.

The Admiral is pretty awesome, you guys.

This is...ominous.

Merlwyb guns him down.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Well, this sucks.

THat's what you get for listening to Ascians, guy.

Suffice to say, the sea support they were counting on is pretty well decimated.

Yeah, that'd probably play havoc on Limsa.

For the time being, the group returns to Limsa Lominsa to come up with a new strategy.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

And so that's why the Sapsa Spawning Grounds are where they are now.

Leviathan is pretty much in a state where He could attack any ship set against him and destroy it.

The Storm Marshal suggests trickery, as the Company of Heroes did back then, such as a device that could weaken the primal's hold on the elemental water. Satznswys has used such a device before, when she, Cid, and Alphinaud made for the Howling Eye aboard the Enterprise.

Do they have a ship large enough to carry enough corrupted crystals to pull this off?

Well, there's some outside-the-box thinking!

We'll leave the logistics to you, Marshal.

Yugiri talks about her homeland and the similarity of gods there.

Well, there's some good news!

The Admiral asks Satznswys to question this individual, if only to spare her the torment of waiting idly by while all the preparation work is underway.

...I really don't like where this is going.

I'm reasonably sure that if Satznswys told the Admiral what's going on here, she could have you keelhauled, Trachtoum.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

...fuck.

So, about three ilms, give or take?

...alright, this was kinda worth it.

Minfilia, you have the patience of a saint. She's called up to let her know that the dual-ship is ready to go, at Moraby Drydocks.

You certainly have a way with words, Admiral.

So everyone has their places.

----------------------------------------------

I'm not going to do a voice over for the video here, because it's rather short, and I'd rather have a bit of space to explain the mechanics of the fight. The head and tail each have their separate aggro table, but both pull from the same HP pool. If one tank aggros both head and tail, then the damage might be too much for the healers to keep on top of. When Leviathan dives under the water, there will be a geyser that springs out near one of the four corners of the arena. When you identify where that geyser is, position yourself on the opposite side of the arena, as he's about to strike the Whorleater with his whole body, tilting it severely. This isn't much of a danger now, but should serve as a warning for the Extreme version of this fight, where he will strike the arena similarly, but there won't be guard rails in place to keep your character from sliding off into the drink and out of the fight until a wipe or a clear.

The tail reflects magic damage, and the head reflects ranged physical damage, so Bards, Machinists, and Dancers want to attack the tail, casters should attack the head, and the tail has a positional ring, so melee attackers should go for the tail as well, unless you're a tank maintaining threat.

Generally speaking, killing adds ASAP is important, and even moreso in Extreme. The Spume bubbles will drain energy from the aether shield converter in the center, which you'll need to survive his Tsunami attack, and the sahagin adds with the staves, called Wavetooth Sahagin, have the ability to inflict Hysteria, a status effect that will cause your character to stop attacking and run in random directions. Given that this fight in Extreme will have no guard rails, that'll mean a long walk off a short pier.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

...wow, not just the Admiral, but EVERYONE just poofed back off to Limsa.

Slow your roll there, sergeant.

Predictably, Satznswys's friends in the Scions are impressed at her ability to keep being impressive.

Yugiri is a bit overwhelmed at the display.

Merlwyb counted the Scions of the Seventh Dawn as her ally before, and this merely cements that relationship.

Mistbeard was a pirate of Vylbrand of some renown before he just up and disappeared one day, when the Marshal came into Merlwyb's service.

Yugiri wants to be of help while she's a refugee. Obviously, she's a solid fighter in the Far Eastern arts of ninjitsu, and while its skills may seem outlandish, she would be pleased to teach some people here.

This is a bit of a continuity snarl, as Satznswys could very well have been standing here in a ninja's garb, rocking them daggers, and poofing all around making silly hand gestures to cast magic. And it was clear that such arts had not made their way to Eorzea's shores prior to this. The devs just kinda...wallpaper over it here.

I mean, it's fine to make Thancred sweat, of course. If you can do that, Yugiri, by all means, you're welcome anywhere in Eorzea.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

The Admiral turns to Yugiri's plight. She regrets that there is little room in Limsa Lominsa for refugees. However, it is within her power to see that Revenant's Toll is gifted with supplies to aid in its relief effort for the Domans.

Later, Y'shtola calls Merlwyb aside.

Though they are not alone. Y'shtola thought it better to not spoil the festive mood.

Y'shtola isn't worried about what brought about this conflict, but is more interested in how it ends. Think back to her harsh words to the Admiral when she and Satznswys were working to defeat Titan.

Merlwyb will not budge.

Does Y'shtola note Yugiri's eavesdropping? Who's to say? Is she likely to care? Probably not.

The Admiral reflects in solitude. "When hopes of coexistence founder, strength must determine who has the greater right to live." Eorzea is a complex mixture of ideals and people, like all places and people of the world.

Oh, I'm sure this'll go down fabulously. Yugiri confesses her dubiousness at their organization.

At least you have the tact to apologize when you're making innuendo, accidental or otherwise. Unlike a certain mutual friend...

 

[TyrMcDohl]

I dunno, maybe in the next major patch or two!

She asks Minfilia to thank her in her stead, and heads off to begin training the rogue's guild.

Back at the Rising Stones, things have gotten considerably more active.

Coultenet, a newer recruit, speaks with some Domans about the nature of adventurers in Eorzea.

Tataru is gleefully making friends with Hozan.

Y'shtola is tutoring one of the children that Satznswys met on their way to Revenant's Toll.

Thancred is hitting on F'lhaminn, who's having none of it.

Checking in with Minfilia, she wants to talk with Satznswys about what all went down in La Noscea these past few days.

While she can't explain HOW it happened, the end result was the elder becoming immortal. When the Admiral shot him down, his spirit left his body, and moved to a minion's body, as easily as putting on a glove.

This is what Elidibus was talking about. An existence which knows neither cessation or oblivion. However, the elder sahagin was immortal, by no means was he invulnerable, demonstrated by Leviathan devouring his soul.

Perhaps! There are still so many questions on this front, that will take time and hard work to divine the answers.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Speak of the devil!

News of the Students of Baldesion: the isle of Val, their home, is completely gone.

Meanwhile, the Syndicate convenes in Ul'dah. Notably, the Sultana is absent.

The lights are dim, indicating some time has passed?

Oh dear. Is Teledji up to no good?

And with that achievement, that brings us to the end of the 2.2 MSQ! There are many questions that remain unanswered, as is how these things go!

That's gonna do it for today's update! Next time, Satznswys returns to team NOAH to continue the expedition into the Crystal Tower.

The votes for Satznswsys's Job for Heavensward remain unchanged!

1 - Summoner, 5 votes
2 - Dark Knight, 3 votes
3 - Ninja, 2.5 votes

 

[TyrMcDohl]

It occurs to me that I never actually posted the blurbs for the Heavensward Jobs, so I guess I should give you those to give you an idea of what they're all about. I'll also add them to the job post as well.

Dark Knight - Tank
Every light casts a shadow, and a person's heart is no different. A Dark Knight walks a razor's edge between order and chaos, utilizing the darkness within to grant strength to protect what is most important to them. It is important to note that light and dark are not synonymous with good and evil.

Astrologian - Healer
Alphinaud and Satznswys briefly met the astrologians of Ishgard during their search for the wreckage of the Enterprise. They utilize the power of the movement of the heavens to heal allies and damage their foes. In addition to their healing abilities, they draw cards from a deck to cast fortunes on their allies to increase their damage capability. The Astrologian, in many ways, is analogous to the time mages of previous entries in the Final Fantasy series.

Machinist - Ranged DPS
The march of technology moves ever onward, and new discoveries and breakthroughs are always being made at the Skysteel Manufactory in Ishgard. One such breakthrough is the firearm, a weapon that propels a small ball of iron at high speeds by means of controlled explosive kinetic force. The Manufactory has many other discoveries within its doors for tinkerers and improvisation, though the power of machines does give the nobility of Ishgard pause…

 

[Mightyblue]

A note about the Machinist (MCH) lore - More specifically, it was in the creation of a way to operate firearms without the use of chemical explosives that was the spur behind the job's creation. In setting, MCH is completely new with the player WoL serving as a trailblazer for all those follow.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

It has been so long since I went through the Machinist storyline on Reynn. And that was back in Stormblood when the job was significantly different from what it is now!

 

[Mightyblue]

Yeah, it's probably important to note that the job was completely reworked with Shadowbringers; the job having changed from juggling the heat levels of your firearm to maintain a set rotation into a much simplified format of using aetherically powered tools (think FFVI Edgar) to supplement the basic gun rotation carried forward. So the lore is still internally consistent but the playstyle is quite a bit different in the details.

 

[Cadenza]

Unrelated to any of the current events, but this is a slice of server culture instead. This is Bear Hugs, or to be more specifically, this is an alternate character for Bear Hugs. Bear Hugs is a Roegadyn on the Sargatanas server who stands in this exact spot, outside of Ul'dah's Adventurer's Guild. It's very rare that you won't see him standing here. Seems today, he's a Hrothgar.

Please tell me he lives up to his username

 

[TyrMcDohl]

I think I saw Bear Hugs running around the relic quest hub for Shadowbringers once. I did not receive a bear hug from him, but he was in a queue for a thing, and vanished shortly after I gave him a wave.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Oop, I missed the update before this one, I'm slacking!

Having only recently finally defeated Nael it was interesting to get clarification on her appearance, I was also confused the male/female thing. Funny it just turned out to be a quirk of the localization.

Nael is one of those fights that remains hard to solo even at Lv80. Lots of mechanics that just kill you outright. I was able to solo every fight in the Binding Coil raids except her, my best attempt got her down to about 8% though.

I love how MCH gradually evolved to be basically Edgar from FF6. Still waiting for that Chain Saw though.

 

[Alixsar]

My favorite bit of server culture is the The Manglers in Gridania, but I'm just now seeing this thread so 1) maybe it was already mentioned and 2) I won't spoil it in case it ever comes up.

Also you're an absolute madman for LPing this, ganbare! I don't know where you vote for jobs but drop SMN; as someone who took SMN to 50 back when that was the max, and now is sorta playing it again since I'm essentially maining Scholar these days and I splash in Summoner every once and a while... go Dark Knight! Dark Knight is stupid fun, I wish more classes had as many oGCD options as it does. Pushing buttons feels good so hit ALL THE BUTTONS

 

[TyrMcDohl]

You just need to comment here for your votes.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

I'm working on the next update, and, I'll be honest, Alixsar is super-correct. This has been an absolutely massive undertaking, and I bit of a lot more than I could chew. Though, I will be clear and say that the pandemic drained a lot of my energy to keep this thing moving. There were days over the last year that I just kinda stared at my work folder and felt really bad about things. It also didn't help that people who initially expressed interest in helping out in commentary for some of the raid content I never experienced at the time interrupted my work flow, and caused my initial stoppage. I'm really sorry about that, everyone. Bottom line, I'm blaming the pandemic that this LP isn't going to be what I originally envisioned it to be.

That being said, I do have desire to finish this, and to move on to the much more exciting pastures of Heavensward and beyond. So, for at least the remainder of this portion of the LP, I'm going to be dropping the voiceover commentary on videos, except for the video covering Final Coil of Bahamut when we get to that.

I haven't locked anything in, and Satznswys is sitting and waiting to go into Heavensward, once I can get off my butt and get the rest of this LP in the can. So, please, by all means, keep talking and voting on her job to carry her from level 50 to 60 in the 3.0 Heavensward patch. I'm not giving up, and hopefully the recent activity in this thread is proof of that! One day, I might do something with this level 50 dungeons footage I've recorded.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Hello, all, and welcome back to the Let's Play. I've been putting off a little something that I realize I should've done much sooner. Slafborn here's got a bit of a problem.

Inside the workshop, we find a woman dressed in Ironworks garb. She introduces herself as Jessie, the Ironworks' deputy president. This is a clear reference to the third of Barrett Wallace's trio of co-conspirators in AVALANCHE, the other two being Biggs and Wedge. She says that "deputy president" is little more than a fancy title, that she's an engineer first and foremost, and with Cid rocking around working on the Crystal Tower project, and saving the realm from ancient Allagan giant robots, there wasn't anyone left behind to actually run the business at the Ironworks.

So that's why she's here. Making stuff like plasma lamps and chronometers (the Eorzean equivalent of table lamps and clocks), but she's out to make something amazing, that'll get the clients to say "shut up and take my money!"

She wants to analyze Maggie.

She discovers Wedge's replacement servomechanism, which, if you'll recall is the heart of a mammet.

Uh, not quite, Jessie. Had to burn that out blowing a hole in a cermet-sealed bulkhead.

She says to go collect some parts from Castrum Centri to repair Maggie's weapons systems.

Easy enough!

Jessie's happy enough to work on the weapons systems, though it's not likely to have any kind of stopping power anymore.

This adds two emotes to your Magitek Armor mount, corresponding with the missile launcher and photon blaster attacks you used in the Praetorium while riding Maggie. It's just a silly little thing you can do, and it deals no damage.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Like this goobbue mount you can get for befriending the sylphs of East Shroud, and its absolutely disgusting sneeze animation.

Anyway, on to business for today: checking back in with NOAH and the Crystal Tower expedition!

Seems that they haven't made much headway. The Sons of Saint Coinach are going through the Labyrinth of the Ancients with a fine-tooth comb, and coming up empty. As for gaining access to the Crystal Tower itself, that's turned out to be a non-starter.

The main spire, called Syrcus Tower, is guarded by some highly advanced technology. They've thrown all kinds of spaghetti at the wall, and nothing has stuck.

Welp, looks like it was a short update today, guys! See you next time!

Oh?

The Students of Baldesion do not just work out of the one location, at least, as is inferred. It would seem that it is just their headquarters that has gone silent.

Rammmbroes is skeptical, as he received no word of their coming, and, in fact, brings up the disappearance of Val, that the Students likely have more important things on their plate.

...okay, this is all starting to get a little ominous.

Apparently, this is a hereditary trait of G'raha's, and that only one child in a generation is born with it. To see not just one, but two other people with the Allagan Eye is a miracle, and he asks to know more.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

And Doga speaks in riddles.

Uh, last time, wasn't Cid going wild with thoughts of reducing this tower to rubble to prevent Allag's dangerous secrets from escaping? And you want to let these two randos just come in and help out?

This...seems dangerous, guys.

Canny readers who have played Final Fantasy III will know that Doga and Unei are not names chosen out of a hat. In that game, those two formed a trio of immortal students under a great wizard. Upon the completion of their training, this wizard gave each a gift. To Doga and Unei, even greater magical power. To the third, Xande, this wizard granted him mortality. This infuriated him, and he did a lot of awful, nasty things. Oh, that wizard's name? Noah.

At the Eight Sentinels, Biggs and Wedge are analyzing the rubble.

They find Cid, in silent contemplation of the door that bars their entry.

Who these royalty are, nobody knows. This could actually be the door, or just a very elaborate decoration. It seems unlikely, with this long hallway beyond the Labyrinth.