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I was house sitting for Mister Byte while he was away from Lavender Beds for a while. He had a couple rules, but I don’t really remember exactly what they were. On the bright side he had a lot of tasty taiyaki in his cupboard. 

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The Magic of Painting!

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It’s not to feel particularly satisfied holding a weapon of pure Aether. The amount of research that must have gone into being able to do something like this must have been outstanding. But in pure lazy fashion I just asked a friendly Padjal in Quarrymill to do it. I mean, I guess I had to work to gather all the aether, but after doing all the work to slowly put together relics with a ton of study this just felt easy. 

I’m happy with it though, its a particularly strong weapon with a very cute glow. It’s hard not to stand out while using it. I feel bad walking near people who are just sitting there trying to enjoy a drink when suddenly they are blinded by the aether. I haven’t tested to see if the bright lights spook chocobos yet. I feel if I stood near the stables as people tried to trot by it produce some interesting results. Maybe I’ll go try that.

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Palace of the Dead 5

We were almost to the end we could feel it for sure. It was the most delightful if not a bit spooky set of floors we had traveled so far. Our renewed vigor carried onto the final leg of our journey and I couldn’t help but take a bunch of pictures on the way. Some of the most amazing sights we’d seen in all the Palace were to be found here. 

The floor glowed an eerie red light. lit by many candles throughout. It seemed rather familiar. There was something that seemed almost deja vu about the experience; the many red candles, the feeling of being watched, and many alters with cryptic words written all over them. The hanging feeling of discomfort was palpable in the air and even with the many pictures we felt like taking we all seemed a bit hurried to hopefully find the end.

It wasn’t long before we stumbled upon an old friend; A face we hadn’t seen in such a long time. I wish the end didn’t have to come to something like this, but it became us or her. No matter how many times I am asked the question I’d give the same answer. It was time for the Mokos to put to rest the spirit that followed us and haunted Eorzea. The fight was hard but quick with blood spilled on both sides and an incredibly dissatisfying end. No one wants a surprise like that after such a long difficult journey, but we did what we had to and prevailed. 

With no further floors apparent in front of us we headed back to the surface a job well done. Eager for our next adventure to begin we put this one behind us and moved forward.

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Palace of the Dead Part 4

We took a much needed rest after the last dozen or so floors. It gave us time to recollect ourselves and get our heads back on straight. It worked great too, because after we ran into almost no problems that we couldn’t easily handle. It gave us time to appreciate the surrounding environment so much more. There were a lot of beautiful sights this deep into the dungeon. Sometimes you wonder how they got here in the first place. Who would have thought to make a city this way? I can’t begin to believe it was more simple than making one on the surface. Though perhaps the surface had been so terrible then that the ground was the only safe place. 

We came across the most comforting sight we’d seen since we started down into the Palace; The sigil of the twin adders. I began to wonder what it was doing down here as these ruins predate Gridania. Perhaps the twin adder company is older than I was lead to believe? Or perhaps the crest of the best was inspired by this old symbol. I’ll have to look into it some more one day. 

Anyway we threw off a grand company salute and made our way further down.

It’s not often I find that the strongest worries of a dungeon are the monsters that roam the halls rather than the ones protecting the treasure at the end. It seems to be a reoccurring theme throughout the Palace. Maybe these dreadful monsters were once more powerful and have gotten weak sitting down here for so long. Or maybe they are just normal monsters themselves that we have built up to be terrible in our own minds. Who knows, but victory came quick and we headed deeper. 

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I’d lost count of the many floors we’d spiraled down through. At this point I wasn’t even sure if there was a bottom level. The red crystaline formations around us didn’t look any different than the turquoise. Or were they always red and I had just forgotten at this point? 

This was the first place we’d turned to that posed a real challenge. We were tired sore and not thinking at our best. Everyone was on edge and tension was at its highest it had been in all the floor before it. Arguments didn’t have time to be settled though as minotaur roamed the hallways looking for prey, which just so happened to be us. We were panicked and even Gaellin seemed lost as we doubled back on places I was sure we’d seen before and Pome wasn’t afraid to point out. 

The worst happened when we’d heard this chirping lullaby that made our eyelids so heavy and hard to keep up that I found myself dozing off in the middle of combat. The only reason we’d managed to survive was Pome grew into a big succubus when all hope was lost and destroyed the monsters around us. She claimed to have not remembered what happened and sometimes I’m not even sure I know what I saw.

In a final sprint to the end we managed to slay a giant Chimera just as the magic of the floors almost sealed us in forever. We escaped by the tips of our pigtails jumping through the portal as the growing voices of the dead whispered behind us. 

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Palace of the Dead Part 2

By the time we reached a dozen or so floors down we really got to see the floors transform into something a bit more eye catching. After wandering aimlessly through so many similar looking corridors it gave our eyes some nice respite seeing something new. At this point we could definitely feel our aether power growing. Our weapons and armor shined a bit brighter and felt a bit sturdier. 

We stumbled upon a gorgeous spring somewhere 14 or so floors down. It was nice to be able to wash some of the beast blood from our hands and clothes. The area glowed with an enchanting green aura and it took a lot to be able to leave to continue upon our journey. 

Its fascinating really; the way Gaellin is able to navigate the halls as if he’d been there before. He never seems to feel lost no matter how many twists and turns we take. Sometimes I see him pause and mutter things to himself before moving onward. Things did get a bit troubling for him though. Every time he sees treasure he feels compelled to run up and open it. One time he grabbed the latch, it bit back and his mortal enemy mimics started popping up every where. He hasn’t quite been the same since as for the first time ever we see him hesitating before opening the chests anyway.

When we got another 10 or so floors down we ran into another monster that felt the need to oppose us. It stood still for a while as we argued whether it was flora or fauna, Before we really settled on an answer vines shot out to silence us and we went into combat. with the enemy felled we headed further into the depths.

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But seriously I need these. I don’t care what it takes or what I have to do.

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Palace of the Dead Part 1

We had heard a mysterious portal had opened up in Issom-Har. It’s been a place I’ve wanted to explore for a while, but I couldn’t quite get the permit to do so on my own accord before. So whats a better excuse than a potentially haunted living breathing dungeon. 

We’d barely stepped out of our door in Lavender Beds before we’d realized how ill dressed we were for something as rare as a haunted dungeon. So after a quick wardrobe change we were completely ready to face the challenges ahead. 

We were warned ahead of time that weapons and armor were not having the same effect inside of what we have for some reason named the Palace of the dead. It has thus far taken us a while to get used to this new form of combat, but the feeling of holding a weapon entirely made out of aether is quite exciting. The top floors of the palace held little to no challenge for us at all, as expected. Monsters fell before us in droves. Even with the inability to access all my magic I can’t see how this will be any trouble at all.

We found these strange aether emitting orbs that helped us go deeper into the dungeon with each cleared floor. After we traveled a couple floors down there was a rather large monster waiting for us. We dispatched it rather quickly with our new aether weapons and even Calenst never found himself in any trouble. I really can’t wait to see what interesting challenges and discoveries wait the deeper we go.

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I can’t help but feel how strange it is to go cloud fishing in Coerthas, but lake fishing in the Sea of Clouds. These were considered popular fishing spots so maybe the different fishers of Eorzea appreciate a little bit of irony. At least the different locations were pretty to look around at while the lure was waiting in the shallows for dinner.

It’s been a long time since I pulled out my fishing rod and attached bait to hook, but it was easier than I remembered. Seems there are a lot of places yet to cast line to as well as different species of sea monsters to put in the log.

I didn’t catch anything significant though, just some small fish. To my disappointment none of these fish ended up on the dinner plate as Pome quickly took and desynthesized them. Oh well, gone are the dreams of grilled cloud fish marinated with some La Noscean sun lemon and mist dill on a bed of grilled wild onions.

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I have definitely seen these boxes before and been to this small balcony as well. I couldn’t quite imagine why this balcony was here in the first place. There are no doors or any kind of path to get up here. In fact the only way to arrive here at all is stumbling and falling down dangerously onto this ledge. 

I’m sure I am not the first Lalafell to wonder what the point is of this ledge. But then I got to wondering. Perhaps the ledge isn’t the most mysterious thing about this location at all. That could easily have been just too many hands working on constructing Mor Dhona. Especially with all the refugees joining the project so late. But why are these boxes here? And what are they full of?

They have been sitting here for so long I can’t help but feel that they were forgotten. All the curiosity in the world couldn’t help my little Lala fingers pry open the lid. Mister Byte chimed in thinking that maybe they were pieces to a weapon of some sort, but I highly doubt it. The smell didn’t seem all to overpowering to be rotting food either. 

Its not all even a matter of what is inside the box, but also as to why it is there in the first place. Why would someone feel these 3 boxes needed to be stacked here? Are they hiding something? Perhaps it’s part of some illegal black market trade. What better place to hide something illegal than right out in the open?

Probably anywhere. Anywhere else would be better. I don’t think we are dealing with very intelligent crooks.

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Recently there was a lot of new housing development around Lavender Beds. The bidding was fierce and many tears were shed unto the beautiful grassy plots. While us at Moko Manor had no interest in Ward War 3 we did have many friends whom picked up their gil coated arms and went to battle.

Many spirits were broken and I am sure some lives were lost, but most of my friends came out on top with new small homes around different neighborhoods of Lavender Beds. I’ll probably show some pictures when they are completely furnished.

But of all our friends the one who truly triumphed was Fin Fodder. With speed that can only be described as a well bred chocobo on illegal substances; Fin managed to lay his gil on the line and get a top of the line mansion. I can’t wait to see what he does with the inside.

We are hoping he still has money for cleaning services though. As us at Mini Moko Manor don’t exactly have a lot of gil ourselves.

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While I may have taken a hiatus from updating my adventurers notes, do not fret! I was still adventuring and taking many pictures throughout. I will be starting to write some more now that I have a little bit more time again. Or at least I will find the time to do so anyway. Happy to be back.

We were incredibly lucky to have found these cute new outfits in the moogle post this morning. It seems that Calenst had ordered some for his cafe, but they came in the wrong size. He was going to send them back to purchase large sized Miqo’te ones, but much to his dismay we had already torn ravenously into the packaging and claimed the outfits for ourselves.

Thanks anyway Calenst.

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Quick drawing I did of a new linkshell friend. Amelia welcome to the LS!

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Forever and always a Moko.

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Taverns; Nothing good comes from them, or at least nothing good that is not digested. Gaellin doesn’t have the strongest stomach for ale, but what he does ingest goes straight to his head. I almost don’t blame the men for laughing. A lalafell of his size claiming he was the strongest man in this tavern would seem almost ridiculous. While I believe the claims of him being the best hunter to be false it didn’t stop him from making them. 

And that was all it took a pint of ale and strongly said words and Gaellin had bet the rest of our paltry sum of gil on a race. The race was to track and slay the mighty Monarch Ogrefly. It was said to be the biggest Damselfly in the entirety of the Black Shroud. I am not quite sure how I got wrapped up in all this, but it was my gil.

We gathered some information and heard that the Ogrefly was recently seen near some cliff sides deep in the Southern Shroud and that often it only came out at night. So we set up camp and ate bad dry food and waited tracked the monarch for days. I was ready to give up and lose my gil, Gaellin was determined to prove his honor of the bet he hardly remembered making at that point. 

One night slightly past when the moon was in the middle of the sky we spotted our prey. I jumped for joy and the loud noise of my excitement spooked the fly into attacking us. It actually wasn’t too much trouble as we had caught it off guard. We quickly dispatched of it and Gaellin made his way back to the tavern with his trophy. The men apologized that they’d spent their side of the betting gil on hunting the thing in the first place. 

That was that, all of our time wasted and not a gil to fill our coffers for it. I tried to explain to Gaellin it was what he deserved for running his mouth, but my words fell of deft ears. He had a new fire in his eyes and he said “Do you think there are more Beasts for us to hunt out there?”

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The Hatching tides festival is finally upon us! Us here at Red Moko Grass haven’t gone to see the festivities yet, but we plan on it soon. Our previous years together running beautifully colored eggs past the crafty spriggans were loads of fun. The decorations are always cute and colorful with great music playing in the town squares.

I hope the decorations are as good as the previous years! Also chocolate I want lots of hatching tides chocolate.