The Chronicles of Latcarf

While I was returning to my Mog House through Upper Jeuno on the way back from discovering the Cavernous Maws I noticed a small crowd gathered around a few folks that seemed to be, uh... well... dancing!?

There was a huge Galka who seemed to be as light as a feather on his feet. There was a lithe little Mithra whose moves made me think of something other than dancing... And there was a Hume women named Laila that seemed to watching, or even critiquing, the other's moves. When I spoke to the Galka, he mentioned that they were part of the dance troupe Brilioth.

That's not a name I'd heard before so I decided to talk to Laila, who seemed to be the leader. She asked me if I thought I could be a dancer. I was tired from my recent adventures and somehow I said I thought I could. She seemed to write me off but when I asked her about the dance troupe again, she thought I wanted to get into it. I must have come across as someone interested in dancing (I was tired, I'm not even sure what I said) and so she insisted that, if I wanted to learn from her and Troupe Brilioth, I'd better find her a stardust pebble. I had no idea what that was and so I figured I'd head off to the Mog House and call it a night.

Unfortunately, my curiosity got the better of me and that lithe Mithra caught my eye as I walked on. I decided to err... "chat" with her a second too. She told me if I had the guts to dance on stage at the Lion Springs Tavern in Southern San d'Oria, she'd tell me about the stone Laila was talking about. I thought, "what do I have to lose?" If I'm daring enough to jump into a Gothic Cavernous Maw, I can dance on stage in front of a few tipsy adventurers. I figured the next day when I went to San d'Oria, I'd see if the Lion Springs Tavern master would let me.

Things are changing in Vana'diel! We seem to be on the precipice of a drastic new potentials. In many places on the Quon and Mindartia continents adventurers (including myself) have noticed strange, Gothic, and hideous Cavernous Maws rising up from the ground!

The first one of these I'd seen I found in East Ronfaure (H-5 on the map) while fishing in the Cheval River. When I first saw it, I was hesitant to even come near it. As I approached, it seemed inanimate enough for me to take a closer look. From the dark depths of the maw came a peculiar smelling air, heavy around me with a distinct feeling of age. That's really the only way I can describe it. I tried to get into the maw but it seemed I could not get in - like something was preventing me.

Later that week, I was returning to Garlaige Citadel through Sauromugue Champaign to fight some more Hellmines. On my way, I spotted another Cavernous Maw (K-9 on the map)! This one was high atop a cliff and I knew the only way to get there was through the Citadel. I wasn't interested in that trek (banishing gates in the Citadel make solo travel there tough; as you need multiple people to open the gates). Instead, I turned back toward Jeuno and on a whim, went over to Rolanberry Fields.

It wasn't long until I found another Cavernous Maw there too (H-6 on the map)! I decided to dismount my Chocobo and investigate this one further, as I found a number of adventurers standing near it. After speaking with a few fellows who had looks of disbelief painted on their faces, I learned that some adventures had tried to look into the depths of the maw and a strong, swirling magic had pulled them in! As of my arrival, they had not yet returned from within the maw. The worried adventurers were too astonished and afraid to go looking themselves, so I decided I'd see if I could get in there too (well, you never know, it could be fun! ).

After battling bombs in Garlaige Citadel for a few days, I realized I wasn't getting any stronger. Then I remembered. Not too long ago I talked to Maat about how I could break my innate limitations and realize a better potential as a Beastmaster. He told me to retrieve three pieces of frigicite from Xarcabard and while I'd collected two after talking to him, I forgot to get the third!

So, with the help of Sparkkplug and Babygirllil, I set out to Xarcabard again to collect the third piece of frigicite: triangular frigicite. Babygirllil was kind enough to teleport us to the Vahzl telepoint crystal and from there we set out to find the Boreal Hound who was "guarding" the piece of frigicite (I use the term "guarding" here loosely as I'm sure the hound had no idea that's what it was doing).

It was pretty cold when our trio arrived in Xarcabard but fortunately we didn't arrive in blizzard conditions. Beaucedine Glacier and Xarcabard are tough to navigate in a white-out and I didn't need the extra headache today! We only encountered a few undead on our way to find the Boreal Hound but my strength had grown enough that I found these foes to be no problem - even less so with the help of Sparkk's ninjitsu.

Eventually, we found the cave where the frigicite might be found. Sure enough, the Boreal Hound was there to greet us. We quickly engaged the beast and I soon found my blows doing minimal, if any, damage. At this point I called out a Crab Familiar and set him on the Hound. My little crab started doing a bit more damage than I, but still we weren't fighting very effectively at all. When Sparkkplug started exercising some of his higher level ninjitsu on the Boreal Hound, the tables turned significantly in our favor. In short order, we'd defeated the Hound and I heard some blocks of ice moving in the back of the cave. I quickly ran to the rear of the cave where I found a piece of triangular frigicite.

Babygirllil, was again kind enough to warp me back to Jeuno where I returned to Maat and handed over the new piece of frigicite along with the other two pieces I'd found. With Maat's help, my innate limitation was lifted and I returned to Garlaige Citadel where, after defeating one more Hellmine, I felt my strength increase and was suddenly able to don my Beastmaster's Helm! Not only that, but now I found I had a much better ability to charm the Chamber Beetles in the Citadel basement! I'm going to have a much easier time of eradicating the Hellmine menace now!

Today was a day to don my Beastmaster garb and exercise those skills I've nearly forgotten from neglect of use. I decided it was high time I started adventuring again. Fishing is a great profession but it gets monotonous at times. Don't get me wrong, it can be harrowing and a risk to life and limb but it's got nothing (and I mean nothing) on fighting the evil hoards that populate Vana'diel's darkest corners.

One of those dark corners happens to be Garlaige Citadel in the Sauromugue Champaign. I've been there plenty of times before, but never have I been in the lowest level. Down there, where beetles crawl and bats flutter, you'll find plenty of the undead and a few nasty Hellmines. The latter is exactly what I was hunting for.

Out of Jeuno I met Sparkkplug in Neptune's Spire. He decided to accompany me to help out for a while. It was a good thing he did. I found myself a bit rusty in my skills as a Beastmaster and without his help to pick me up a few times when a Hellmine self-destructed and knocked me out, I'd probably still be laying face down on the cold, dead, ground of that dank dungeon basement.

When Sparkk needed to be on his way, I continued the fight alone for a while, relishing in the old feelings that stir when you're back in your element. I can't say my fighting was fun down there but I can say it was something I needed to do and something I'll need to pursue for a little while longer. I could seriously feel my strength surging from the adrenaline and pure rush of it all.

As I was tromping through Northern San d'Oria after returning from a fishing trip, I happened to talk to a Moogle who had many adventurers gathered 'round. It seems that Moogles from the three nations (San d'Oria, Bastok, and Windurst) are having an argument about which was the most instrumental nation fighting against the Beastmen during the Crystal War 20 years ago. It's silly to me that the Moogles are even arguing over this - but then again, you know how Moogles get!

To end their argument and decide once and for all which nation is the best, the Moogles decided to have a little competition. They're asking adventurers to infiltrate some of the Beastmen strongholds around Mindartia and steal shards of their crystal collections. Naturally, my San d'Orian pride wouldn't allow me to pass this opportunity up. So, after talking to some other adventurers, I found out the location of one of the crystal collections in the Orc stronghold of Davoi (E-8 on the Davoi map - the Screaming Pond).

I made a trip out there and upon arriving, I saw the crystal was guarded by one of the biggest, nastiest Orcs I'd seen in a long time: Warder Neckchopper! It certainly seemed like the Beastmen (or at least the Orcs) were on to our little game already. Shortly after I had arrived, one of the adventurers in the area decided to engage the huge Neckchopper. He quickly called for help and all us adventurers in the vicinity joined in the battle.

I called out Courier Carrie for some help and while my crab was actually doing the slightest bit of damage to Warder Neckchopper, I wasn't even making a scratch. This guy strength was truly impossible to gauge! With all of the adventurers attacking at once, we eventually had defeated the huge Orc - but it wasn't easy. The original adventurer ti engage it was already knocked out during the battle. After a kind White Mage raised the fallen San d'Orian, everyone collected a few more shards and returned to San d'Oria. I turned in six shards after that run and the Moogle gave me some dandy spectacles (cool sunglasses) for the effort.

With the Warder Neckchopper down, I decided to take the opportunity to collect as many more shards as I could. I made seven more runs between San d'Oria and Davoi over the next couple days and collected a total of 20 shards for San d'Orian honor! The Moogle gave me a pair of fancy spectacles in return for all the effort. Not only do the glasses make me look pretty cool, they really help my accuracy. Unfortunately they aren't any good at all at night.

It's quite a bit of work going back and forth between Davoi and San d'Oria (an exceptional amount of travel time), but I am happy to have been of service in keeping my country's honor. I'm sure San d'Oria will prove to be the best at the Moogles' little Crystal War revisited.