✶ imeeji: memory
Apr. 9th, 2021 02:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scattershot➤ Part 1 | Part 2
What sort of twisted monster would consider a ritual focus a work of art, knowing full well how it was made? And we call them beastmen.
The Beast That Mourned at the Heart of the Mountain
Summary
✶ Searching for a beastman infiltrator at the Maelstrom's Camp Overlook, the Warrior of Light, accompanied by Alphinaud and Alisaie, come across a Kobold child. The child, who introduces himself as Ga Bu, claims that he came not to steal the camp's supply of crystals but to talk, only to be scared off by the soldiers' weapons.
✶ When Alisaie reassures him that he is safe, Ga Bu tells her that the Kobold Patriarch is planning to summon Titan again. When others, including Ga Bu's parents, spoke out against this, the Patriarch had them taken away, stating that they would serve as 'coke for the furnace'. Alisaie fears that this might mean he planned to use them to create a 'ritual focus', using their bones to help summon more powerful incarnations of their Gods. Unable to find any help amongst the Kobolds, sheer desperation has seen Ga Bu turning to the soldiers, in the hope that his parents can be saved and the summoning stopped.
✶ In the hope the summoning can be stopped, the three Scions, accompanied by Ga Bu, infiltrate the Kobold camp and steal the caches of crystals the tribe hope to serve as catalysts in Titan's summoning. In the process, Alphinaud notices something strange - the crystals have, as he suspected, come from Ishgard, but the Kobolds have no reason to have travelled so far, or to attempt to remove the shipping labels on their crates. He suspects a greater plan to be at work, presumably by the Ascians or their thralls.
✶ The group are unable to find the last cache of crystals Ga Bu saw. Alphinaud realizes they must already be within the O'Ghomoro Mines. Ga Bu is terrified to realize the summoning is so imminent, and begs the Scions to help save his family and their friends. Alisaie calms him - the Patriarch has yet to call for the crystals they stole, so they should still have time.
✶ With Alphinaud staying behind to deliver the crystals to Camp Overlook, Alphinaud, Alisaie and Ga Bu make their way into the O'Ghomoro Mines. Locating an aetheryte deep within the complex, they await Alphinaud's arrival before traveling to the heart of the mountain, the Bowl of Embers, where the Warrior of Light did battle with Titan once before.
[OKAY I'LL MAKE THIS LOOK GOOD LATER AS NO TIME. THE GIST:
[✶ Twins and Ga Bu arrive to discover that the Patriarch has already murdered Ga Bu's parents.
[✶ Everyone is horrified. Ga Bu, in a state of shock, approaches his parents' bodies and begs them to speak to him.
[✶ With circumstances exactly right for summoning the Primal (crystals for catalysts + desperate worshipper) Ga Bu inadvertently summons Titan. Twins make a break for it to avoid being tempered by the Primal's influence. This version of Titan is not the raging rock monster players will remember but a frightened child calling out for his parents.
[✶ Warrior of Light has to put down confused child Titan, it's awful, I cried, this fight is emotionally compromising.
[✶ Twins and Ga Bu have escaped back to Camp Overlook, where the WoL rejoins them. Alisaie has obviously been fretting because Alphinaud's first words are essentially 'I told you they'd be okay'. Ga Bu is alive but silent and unresponsive, and the Scions worry that he may have been tempered after all.
[✶ The Alliance policy is that tempered thralls be put to death. Nobody likes this.]
Notes
✶ This is one of Alisaie's defining moments and why I decided to write it up as a rush job I do not know.
✶ The player-character Warrior of Light, who accompanies the group, is seen as a humanoid shape made up of blinding white light surrounded by a rainbow corona, of indeterminate age, race and gender. None of their individual features are discernible, and though they can be seen to be speaking their voice cannot be made out.
✶ Alisaie mentions that there are people out there who see Ritual Foci as collector's items, a practice she rightly finds monstrous. Now... a Ritual Focus is an item the player can obtain after fighting a Primal, and then trade with the NPC Rowena in Mor Dhona for cool gear. Feels good, doesn't it?
✶ Ga Bu is not put to death. He is instead taken in by Maelstrom Command in Limsa Lominsa and cared for there, though the last Alisaie knows of it he is still not responsive.
What sort of twisted monster would consider a ritual focus a work of art, knowing full well how it was made? And we call them beastmen.
The Beast That Mourned at the Heart of the Mountain
Summary
✶ Searching for a beastman infiltrator at the Maelstrom's Camp Overlook, the Warrior of Light, accompanied by Alphinaud and Alisaie, come across a Kobold child. The child, who introduces himself as Ga Bu, claims that he came not to steal the camp's supply of crystals but to talk, only to be scared off by the soldiers' weapons.
✶ When Alisaie reassures him that he is safe, Ga Bu tells her that the Kobold Patriarch is planning to summon Titan again. When others, including Ga Bu's parents, spoke out against this, the Patriarch had them taken away, stating that they would serve as 'coke for the furnace'. Alisaie fears that this might mean he planned to use them to create a 'ritual focus', using their bones to help summon more powerful incarnations of their Gods. Unable to find any help amongst the Kobolds, sheer desperation has seen Ga Bu turning to the soldiers, in the hope that his parents can be saved and the summoning stopped.
✶ In the hope the summoning can be stopped, the three Scions, accompanied by Ga Bu, infiltrate the Kobold camp and steal the caches of crystals the tribe hope to serve as catalysts in Titan's summoning. In the process, Alphinaud notices something strange - the crystals have, as he suspected, come from Ishgard, but the Kobolds have no reason to have travelled so far, or to attempt to remove the shipping labels on their crates. He suspects a greater plan to be at work, presumably by the Ascians or their thralls.
✶ The group are unable to find the last cache of crystals Ga Bu saw. Alphinaud realizes they must already be within the O'Ghomoro Mines. Ga Bu is terrified to realize the summoning is so imminent, and begs the Scions to help save his family and their friends. Alisaie calms him - the Patriarch has yet to call for the crystals they stole, so they should still have time.
✶ With Alphinaud staying behind to deliver the crystals to Camp Overlook, Alphinaud, Alisaie and Ga Bu make their way into the O'Ghomoro Mines. Locating an aetheryte deep within the complex, they await Alphinaud's arrival before traveling to the heart of the mountain, the Bowl of Embers, where the Warrior of Light did battle with Titan once before.
[OKAY I'LL MAKE THIS LOOK GOOD LATER AS NO TIME. THE GIST:
[✶ Twins and Ga Bu arrive to discover that the Patriarch has already murdered Ga Bu's parents.
[✶ Everyone is horrified. Ga Bu, in a state of shock, approaches his parents' bodies and begs them to speak to him.
[✶ With circumstances exactly right for summoning the Primal (crystals for catalysts + desperate worshipper) Ga Bu inadvertently summons Titan. Twins make a break for it to avoid being tempered by the Primal's influence. This version of Titan is not the raging rock monster players will remember but a frightened child calling out for his parents.
[✶ Warrior of Light has to put down confused child Titan, it's awful, I cried, this fight is emotionally compromising.
[✶ Twins and Ga Bu have escaped back to Camp Overlook, where the WoL rejoins them. Alisaie has obviously been fretting because Alphinaud's first words are essentially 'I told you they'd be okay'. Ga Bu is alive but silent and unresponsive, and the Scions worry that he may have been tempered after all.
[✶ The Alliance policy is that tempered thralls be put to death. Nobody likes this.]
Notes
✶ This is one of Alisaie's defining moments and why I decided to write it up as a rush job I do not know.
✶ The player-character Warrior of Light, who accompanies the group, is seen as a humanoid shape made up of blinding white light surrounded by a rainbow corona, of indeterminate age, race and gender. None of their individual features are discernible, and though they can be seen to be speaking their voice cannot be made out.
✶ Alisaie mentions that there are people out there who see Ritual Foci as collector's items, a practice she rightly finds monstrous. Now... a Ritual Focus is an item the player can obtain after fighting a Primal, and then trade with the NPC Rowena in Mor Dhona for cool gear. Feels good, doesn't it?
✶ Ga Bu is not put to death. He is instead taken in by Maelstrom Command in Limsa Lominsa and cared for there, though the last Alisaie knows of it he is still not responsive.