MSQ: Crag
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MSQ Lore | |||
CRAGLittle progress is made on the Ascians before Limsa Lominsa requests the Scions’ aid as the Kobold have moved to resummon Titan. With little time to prepare for the battle, Y'shtola advises that they seek out members of the Company of Heroes, a band of mercenaries once famous the realm over for their defeat of the primals of Vylbrand, Titan and Leviathan. Precious time is lost to a masquerading marauder eager to ready those who would battle the dread primal Tidus, such the man is quickly proved to be a fraud. Thankfully, he is able to reveal the location of a true Company of Heroes member working at Costa del Sol. Despite Y’shtola’s desperate warnings that the enemy is at the gates, Wheiskaet will not lend assistance before the adventurer’s worth can be judged at an upcoming banquet. Before the Company of Heroes was disbanded, countless good men and women went to their deaths to see the primals felled, and Wheiskaet refuses to send a single soul into the depths of the Kobold’s mines unconvinced that they stand a chance. Earning Wheiskate’s faith requires traveling a good deal of the realm, speaking with various former members of the Company and helping them with numerous difficult, but seemingly irrelevant tasks. One particular assignment to the Goblin settlement run by Brayflox goes particularly awry when scalekin overrun the Longstop and the adventurer is forced to assist the goblins in battle, though Brayflox asks for nothing further. In the end, it is revealed that the banquet preparations were little more than an excuse for the Company’s remnants to gauge the adventurer’s potential for themselves – and with none of the five finding them lacking, the banquet serves as a celebration before the coming hardship, giving all that remains of the Company of Heroes a moment of comfort and hope.  The Company reveals that they reached Titan’s sanctum, the Navel, not by fighting through the labyrinth of enemies and traps within the Kobold mines, but by utilizing the beastmens’ aetherytes with the assistance of an old scholar, a feat he claimed “any Sharlayan worth her salt could manage.” Y’shtola, possibly recognizing Louisoix's unique humor and foresight, pieces out a potential solution – using her own energies to amplify the beastmens’ aetheryte and use it to seek out other anchors. Though the plan succeeds in sending the adventurer deep into the mountain tunnels, Y’shtola herself is delayed. As soon as the Kobold spy the intruder, they begin the summoning, crying out to the Great Father for salvation and promising to avenge the overdwellers’ transgressions against their kind. The summoning is successful, but the hastily prepared ritual leaves the primal without sufficient power to overcome the adventurer, strengthened by three Crystals of Light and immune to his influence. The Kobold scatter, promising that the Lominsans will never know peace so long as they violate their covenant and encroach on O’Ghomoro.  Y’shtola arrives, finding herself on a ledge overlooking the Navel, ducking behind a rock when she realizes Garleans are nearby. Mere fulms away, Nero discusses his readings of Titan’s power with fellow tribunus Rhitahtyn sas Arvina, pleased with the results. Rhitahtyn, however, remains skeptical that Nero’s “curiosity” will considerably advance their war effort. Lahabrea manifests, assuring the tribuni that no greater power has ever existed but that which they possess, and teleports them out of the caves, taking a moment before his own departure to study the adventurer, who reaches down to acquire a fourth Crystal of Light, left among Titan’s rapidly dissolving aetherial remains. Y’shtola is left confused as to what common goal the Ascians and Garleans could possibly share, but sets the thought aside and teleports them to safety. 
MOURNING Minfilia bids the adventurer expect a hero’s welcome upon return to the Waking Sands, but in the time it takes them to arrive in Thanalan, something has gone horribly wrong. What lanterns are unbroken have gone dark, and the bodies of dozens from among the Scion ranks litter the floor. Noraxia lies dying on the floor of the Solar as the adventurer enters. The Echo resonates with the Sylph's attempts to communicate, drawing them into a vision. With the aid of Ascian magicks, a unit of Garleans appear within the Waking Sands. While Livia sas Junius loudly demands the slayer of Ifrit and Titan be turned over, Minfilia tells Noraxia to hide and imparts a message for the adventurer. She then surrenders herself to the Empire on the condition that the innocents be spared, but Livia orders the slaughter of all within and Minfilia bound. Noraxia moves to protect her, but is violently kicked into the wall by the tribunus and left for dead as the unit takes their leave. As the vision fades, Noraxia tells the adventurer to seek shelter at the church in Eastern Thanalan and, at peace having survived long enough to pass along this message, releases her hold on life. The priest of the church at Drybone, a friend to the Scions, grants them sanctuary and bids Marques, who earlier assisted in the search for kidnappers in Thanalan, help them in any way he can. As funeral rites are prepared for those who died at the Waking Sands, Marques comes across an object possessed by one of the fallen that seems familiar to him, causing him further frustration that the trauma he sustained in the Calamity has robbed him of most of his memory. More confusing to him is the fact that he can repair the object, considering it’s revealed to be a Garlean device possessed by a possible traitor. Noraxia’s body is returned to Little Solace, and though the Elder finds peace in tales of Noraxia’s bravery, others vow in rage that when the time comes, they will aid in the fight against the Empire.  At the church in Drybone, Alphinaud, one of the young Elezen twins from the remembrance ceremony, arrives claiming to have deduced that Marques is none other than Cid Garlond, the Ironworks’ missing head engineer. Alphinaud reveals that the Ixal have summoned the primal Garuda, and that the city-states are wholly unprepared to face her, having left the primals to the Scions since the Calamity. Furthermore, he reveals that as the grandson of the late Louisoix Leveilleur, he refuses to stand by as the realm’s hope is extinguished. His plan is to circumvent Garuda’s tempest using Cid’s airship, and with her defeat send a message to the realm and its beast tribes that the Scions of the Seventh Dawn remain to counter the primal threat. Though the tale stirs no memory in Marques, he agrees to accompany Alphinaud on his search for the lost airship, the Enterprise. | ||||
This concludes the story for level 30-40, read on here.
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