Distracted by both in-story sidetracks and my two alts (at 35 and 15 in MSQ, respectively). I've split reactions up into two updates. Spoiler: MSQ 57-59ish, Idyllshire and beyond We're going to see an old sage named Matoya who refused to leave Sharlayan when everyone else fled to get away from the Garleans. Good on her. Place looks pretty nifty. Ruins, but recent ruins-y. There's some goblins around. Oh dear, we can't use this bridge, we'll have to take a very small detour through that island over there and OOOPS GOBLINS They live here now! Good for them. ... I guess Y'shtola and Alphineaud were both raised here so it would pain them to see their home in ruins, but whatevs. Now, how long do I have to spend earning the trust of these goblins before I can move on to meet Sage Matoya so I can learn how to build an aetheric ram so I can get into Azys Lla so I can confront the Elfpope? ...not long at all. Huh! PSYCHE JUST KIDDING YOU HAVE TO BE LEVEL 59 FOR THE NEXT PART, ENJOY SIDEQUESTING (Or I guess I could roulette it but fuck that, sidequests give guaranteed gear) ...okay, I am finally 59. Geez, it takes forever this close to level cap. Down the river and into some caves and past the large frogs walking like men and wielding conjurer staves we go. Y'shtola goes into a sass-off with her old sass-master. Awww, you can feel the love. "Oh, is that Louisoix's granddaughter?" "...grandson." "Whatever. you two always looked alike." "...yes, on account of the 'twins' thing." She's known them since they were wee babbys? Does she have pictures? What do you mean Sharlayan doesn't have a tradition of embarrassing young people in front of friends with their old pictures from when they were babies...?! Barbarians. Getting to the point! She can tell us how to build an aetheric ram so we can get into Azys Lla so I can confront the Elfpope! But we'll need a book from the nearby library. I have seen enough of FFV to know where this is going. Time to hit the books. *one dungeon later* "Yes, this is indeed the right book." "I could tell on account of how plot-relevant it looked!" "But what are you going to do for power?" "..." "...oh! We have a dragon eye!" "Can you even use that?" "Yes, a friend of ours is the Azure Dragoon." "I don't keep up with all the newfangled fads the kids are into these days." "Oh, Shtola. Since when have you been blind?" "Since I invoked ancient forbidden magics to teleport via Lifesteam?" "There's a *reason* those are forbidden." "I didn't have many non-death options at the time." Well, back to Ishgard to report to Ser Aym- shitshitshit, my glamours are all wrong with this new stuff! Should I change my hair...? Oh, whatever, let's just go. We've got everything we need! Cid gets to work while we go say goodbye to people. Aymeric and Lucia, pelase be okay. Tataru, yes, I'll take care of everyone, don't worry. Hilda, I'll give the Elfpope some arrows for you. Lord Edmont... gives me his son's broken shield. I'm gonna need a moment. :( Spoiler: Trip to Azys Lla Y'Shtola is sassing Estinien. "I will consume the Eye ere I let it consume me!" ...but it's bigger than your head. *Never* consume an energy source bigger than your head, Estinien. Haha, a random passerby skitters out of his way, that's a cute touch. Urianger! He found some spare power crystal laying around. And asks that we Do It For Her. What can I say to that except *quiet, solemn nod*? Raising Heart Exelion Enterprise Excelsior, standby ready! Triumphant airship theme, go! (Oh Tataru. Please don't look so worried, I might cry.) Okay we're here, Estinien do the thing. His Eye is the drill that will pierce... this barrier? (Cid why are you yelling) ...shit, the Garleans are here. I can hear their theme music. "They're shooting at us! Everyone hold on to something!" "Can't! We have no 'holding on to things' animations!" "Then just stagger around a whole lot!" (In my head, this was totally me with my smol elfson during that whole sequence: http://keyofnik.jetwolf.com/2014/02/12/keyofnik-yes-yes-perfect/attachment/30968/ ) Ysayle to the rescue! "Sir, we have Giant Woman, dead ahead!" "What the fuck, Eorzea. Seriously." ...yeah, she wasn't going to make it even if they didn't manage to hit her. That was a last hurrah sort of thing. I'm tired of people sacrificing themselves for me. :((( (Ysayle, falling, singing softly to herself: "And if it were me.... I think I'd want to be... a giant woman...") Estinien with the reluctant respect. :((( And Alphinaud and Y'Shtola posthumously declaring her a Scion. We've landed, trying to get our bearings, aaaaand Wedge has wandered off. "Fool of a Lalafel!" I see what you did there, localizers. Lost Technology reactivated! Lost Technology asks me to accept the EULA. Okay guys, seems there's a risk of injury, dismemberment or death, so I'll take point. Estinien, Y'shtola, you're with me. Alphinaud... invites himself along. Fine. Oh look, this is where that Chimera thing in Cutter's Cry came from. Agallans were apparently total dicks. (At this point a discussion occurs in FC chat about how every era on Hydaelyn seems to have at least one civilization who are total dicks, and we get Garlemand. Since I already know they copied a bunch of their technology from Agallan left overs, this leads me to the mental image of a Garlean archaeologist shouting "At last we've found it! The most important cornerstone of Agallan science and philosophy upon which their might was based!" and it's a tomestone with the title "HOW TO BE A TOTAL DICK".) A couple teleports later we run into Garleans. It was too much to hope for they'd all die in a crash, I know. Regula van Hydrus: Show me your power, Champions of Eorzea! Y'shtola and Estinien: We'll take care of the minions! Me: Yes, have the armored guy with the spear go after the minions and leave the girl with the bow to fight the heavily armored guy one-on-one. That's a brilliant strategem. Me: *flails around dodging poorly-telegraphed attacks and trying to guess which of the AoEs are Alphinaud's and which are enemy bombardment* Me: ALPHINAUD, HEALPLZ Regula van Hydrus: Ah yes. Now that I have experienced your strength, van Baelsar's defeat seems less inexplicable. Me: There's no need to be that sarcastic. Regula van Hydrus: Anyway, gotta go. Men! Keep them busy. Y'Shtola: Right, you go on ahead, we'll take care of these guys. Me: I am having a sudden unpleasant feeling of deja vu. Estinien: Here, have the dragon eye. Me: Thank you, I will add it to my stash of Plot Coupons. *one teleport later* Me: And now I'm all alone. Tiny Midgardsormr: I'm still here. Me: Yup. All alone, in the middle of an ancient flying fortress, nobody to help me. Tiny Midgardsormr: Look, just... can we go over there, we can talk to my daughter. Tiamat: Agallans killed Bahamut, then the Ascians offered to bring him back for me. But it was just a construct made of pure aether that was only vaguely like him. And they also gave the Agallans technology to imprison that construct. So, not super happy with the whole thing. I'm just gonna sit here in these fetters until the world ends or whatever. Tiny Midgardsormr: Okay, so I thought you were just coasting on Hydaelyn's gift, but hanging out with you I can see you're actually pretty heroic even without it. Sorry about the whole "sealing your protective power away" thing. I'll let you ride on my back to the final dungeon. And now I have to be 60 for the next part. I'll try to make that and get to the finale this weekend.
Discussion and reactions has moved to Discord but I would justlike to note that I FINISHED THE HW MSQ and I'm fully ready for Stormblood early start, yaaay!
The MSQ has brought me to Forgotten Springs and tbh it may be my favorite place. Hot Miqo'te all around. @Enzel yo how do I get in on this Discord action
@Socratease sent you the link! There are several different channels for spoilers throughout the course of the story so feel free to mute notifs on those.
Oh, I just want it on record here before SB drops: If the story kills off Aymerick, and does not give me at least one plausible moment where the PC could've banged him, I am straight up dropping this game. Not even slightly joking. Canceling my sub, uninstalling everything, I'm *done*. If Aymerick lives through the story, all's fine. If I get at least one moment where we're having dinner and we're not interrupted and there's a prompt that goes "> go home > stay a while longer" and after picking the second it fades to next morning, everything's fine too. (You've put in at least two heavily implied sexual assaults, SE, it won't kill you to imply some consensual sex for once.) If neither of those things happen, that is a deal-breaker.
shows up wearing a 'i survived the balmung queue only to get dc'd within 5 minutes of logging on' t-shirt welcome to early access!!! i'm transferring to mateus.
I'd say come to Adamantoise but even we had a login queue and I think we're moving toward mid-high pop soon... Apparently this happened at HW launch but there are like 4x as many players now than there were then. :(
balmung queues are around 3k :( i have an alt on cactuar which is mid-high pop and even that server was only like 800 queue or so. ngl most of the reason i'm going to mateus is it's free to transfer there from balmung or gilgamesh for now lol. it seems like people want to make it another 'unofficial rp server' as well.
ANYONE ELSE DONE THE STORMBLOOD DARK KNIGHT QUESTLINE & CAN TELL ME WHAT TO DO WITH THESE FEELS PLS?? -collapses under all this Emotions-
Also I read some Grynewaht meta last night, of all things, that's given me some major Feelings and Thoughts & now my heart hurts.
You develop backstory on how your character came to the place they are to have done the drk quests in the first place and how they continue to struggle with their emotional trauma, of course, and make yourself even more sad. It's great! :D Spoiler: Did you notice... It's obvious that Myste has Fray's surname and Ysayle's hair, but he has Haurchefant's coloring. Idealism struggling under crushing guilt. I'll never not be upset over that poor asshole. (if you discord you should join us on discord)
Well it's this new app that allows for text and voice chat and setting up your own custom servers, but that's not important right now.
Whoof, over a year since this thread was posted in? That surprises me with how popular this MMO is/was. Whoever decided FFXIV's mail system can seemingly only send to friends is both immensely wise in their spam prevention methods and frustrating. Let me send unnecessary wind-up Leviathans as apology for stealing mobs, damn it.
I think most (or possibly all?) of us kintsugijin currently playing are hanging out in Enzel's ffxiv discord channel, so all of our discussions live there. I'm sure you're welcome if you want to join us!
