A series of blog posts about chasing an old dude with a questionable sense of fashion.<<< First | <<Previous | Next >>——————————————————————————————————————————————
Dear readers, we are chasing shadows. The Ascians throw a shadow named Lahabrea, and Lahabrea himself leaves only shadows of his actions. Thus, Dominique on the ground and I behind the screen are left clutching at second-stage simulacra in a manner that would make Baudrillard chuckle in glee. Even with the aetheryte network, Eorzea is simply too big. The weather is as sombre as our thoughts as Oro the chocobo carries us onwards to our first breadcrumb.
Alas, the breadcrumb is already moldy and rain-sodden by the time we find it. There is no sign of Lahabrea, but there is talk of Ala Mhigo. Context clues gathered from what worldbuilding Dominique could fetch for me tell me that they are a victim of the Garleans and a people left without a nation. What little I can find from an abortive ambush tells me that they have been in contact with Lahabrea. This is not as surprising as one might think. I cannot imagine regular folks are too keen on cavorting with a man evil enough to have his very own villanous theme music, but steal a man's home and you will cultivate the kind of festering rage that gives common morality a degree of flexibility.
Well, that, or it could be spooky mind control. I'd give the game more credit than that.
Now, where to find Ala Mhigans than Little Ala Mhigo? It's a scenic refugee camp whose central aetheryte crystal is more expensive than all the dwellings of the camp combined. Sun's rays squeeze twixt stones as Gundobald, the musclebound leader of the locals, tells Dominique to bugger off. His stance is firm, even paying the warrior 1515 gil as a quest "reward" so that he may minimise the time breathing the same air as that masked weirdo. Clearly, a different tack is required. We require a token Ala Mhigan.
A bit of prodding directed at Minfilia directs me to the secret clubhouse withih the Scion secret clubhouse, where a warehouse holds entirely too many Scions. Among them is a friendly Ala Mhigan who proceeds to send us to Gridania to make it up through three tiers of Ala Mhigan trust. We save an injured warrior from the indifference of the locals and his own admirable, but unnecessary, self-sacrificial instincts. I wonder if a White Mage could just hit him with a Cure and bypass about three quests and a return to the moonshine bartender? Probably not, but my thoughts lie elsewhere.
It is a simple tale, but it somehow finds its way into my body and onto my heartstrings. I will not pretend that this is peak storytelling. I feel for the Ala Mhigans, ran out of hearth and home to fuel an imperial machine, only to find no respite in nations that ought be friendly. Yet, they persist. Back to Little Ala Mhigo with fresh good guy credentials, both Dominique and myself seethe because we know how this story goes. A rage-filled youth diverts us to a location out of town promising intelligence about our pursuit, and executes Eorzea's most predicable and pathetic ambush in the name of his masked "patron." You see, he gave them a dream. Snatch some aether crystals from the local lizardfolk and you will be able to call forth the power of your destroyer god, he says. And then, get your revenge served sweet and cold, just like ice cream. Lies? Perhaps not, but there would have been no good end to that tale.
Before Dominique has a chance to put the fear of other gods into the firebrands, they are on their merry way to bungle their secret plot. A quick jaunt to the local encampment, and we save what can be saved, all the while a village of other Amalj'aa not so keen on the prospect of getting brainwashed by a primal looks down on us. The day is saved, for a given value of the word, but Dominique returns back to the Scions empty-handed. It is difficult to grab a shadow and catch the man who throws it, after all. Not that I could have expected otherwise. Level 27 is far too inauspicious of a level to throw away a big villain at.
It isn't even a round number.Fortunately for us, Lahabrea has been messy with his bread. There are yet more crumbs to follow, these much fresher, with but a bare few specs of fungal growth. There have been murders in the Twelveswood, and we are to investigate... BUT NEVER MIND ALL THAT SEASONAL EVENT WOO YEAR GRIDANIA IS FULL OF LOVE~
Okay, okay, I jest. Well, more so than usual. The seasonal event is a quick, comfy distraction, even if the proprietors are woefully underdressed. Formalwear? Bah. Any clothing that cannot stand up to a swipe from Bahamut has no business being called formal. How do they expect it to maintain its form?
Social faux pas aside, who'd have thunk it would be so fun to build a cake along with like-minded individuals while running from little robots? I'd love to do it again, but Dominique scolds me. We have bought a full set of outfits that will never be worn and there is still so much of the chocolate-based commodity currency left in the inventory screen. Browbeaten, I set our course onwards, but not before grabbing a bite of that cake.
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OPEN QUESTIONSThe truth keeps playing coy with me, and I can only fantasise of what will happen when we finally catch up.
WHAT IS LAHABREA'S PLAN? In spite of this entire session being focused on his wake, it is difficult to tell, and he's not one for telling.
WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THOSE SMALL CRYSTALS?WHY WERE THE WARRIORS OF LIGHT FORGOTTEN?WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE ECHO? WHAT WAS THE GARLEANS' OBJECTIVE? CRACKPOT THEORIESHeroism requires boldness more than logic and I'm feeling like Superman today.
Lahabrea wants to temper as many people as he can. I doubt he expected the Ala Mhigans to succeed. Dominique fought some tempered non-lizards back when saving the Ala Mhigan firebrands, and it's safe to assume that would have been their fate as well. Assuming that the Ascians seek to destroy the world or something thereabouts, more tempered means more power to the primals, and more powerful primals mean all the aether gets devoured.
Lahabrea is hidden deep in the Garlean ranks. What good is a mask if you can't use it for something? Helps that the Garleans already wear face-covering helmets as a matter of course. Now, you might ask: why? This could be coincidence because the Garleans are everywhere, but the results of Lahabrea's deeds and the Garlean interests seem to overlap in that they weaken the Eorzean natives. Now, there is the point of the primals and the Garlean apparent disdain for them which would conflict with my earlier theory, but for all I know, this could be some kind of a higher dimensional chess sort of deal. The Garleans could be yet another convenient pawn... or the other way around. There could also be another Ascian, similar to the nerd that tried to summon a creature at Dominique and failed miserably way back in Limsa Lominsa.
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Coming next up, Dominique plays detective? No matter what, we'll know that I'm grateful to you for reading this. I will link no social media in solidarity with Ala Mhigo. The Garleans didn't even leave them with a Myspace page...
