Imperial Peril

Dear Friends,

The situation with the resistance came to a boil today. Reports of Imperial activity in northern Mor Dhona have been come frequent and the resistance leader revealed his plan to storm an Imperial encampment in attempt to steal an airship. The plan is then to navigate the airship to Ala Mhigo and use it liberate the occupied city. As courageous as that plan may sound, it is indeed very risky. Not to mention an act of vengeance. I have been asked by the resistance leader to join the operation. Lady Minfilla advised the the choice was mine alone.

To be honest, I personally felt that the whole idea was poorly devised. I was about to announce my intentions to stay out of it until Aery rushed off to join them. The damned girl... I couldn't leave her alone to face such a dangerous situation so I too made my way for camp Revenant's Toll in Mor Dhona. The gathering point for the operation.

Upon my arrival, I find the camp under siege by the Garlean Empire. However, just as I was preparing to join the battle, the Imperial party flees for the mountains. I pursue them on foot and manage to catch them (thanks to my trusty Herme's Sandals)! However, it seems to be ambush... I follow the Imperials into a clearing where a flying Imperial Juggernaught swoops down from the sky and aims it's guns right for me! Oh dear!

I manage to escape it's payload just in the nick of time. It's attack falling on two of the Imperial soldiers instead. The Twelve, thank you for these quick shoes!! It is at this very moment that I catch sight of Aerylia and the resistance leader. We have little time to celebrate as we are approached by none other than Legatus Baelsar!  Just as menacing as he was in my visions, he declares his intention to destroy us once and for all.

Just then, those two mysterious characters, Papalymo and Yda (the ones that crashed into the hedge on my very first day in Gridania) appear with two other strangers. Together, the begin an assault on the Legatus. Everything happened so fast I can barely remember it... There was gunfire, flashes of magic... next, Baelsar seems to call a blast of fire down from the sky, resulting in the largest explosion I have ever seen...

Everything goes black. When I awake, I find myself in a cave. Everything seems so surreal. I see a group of neglected looking children huddled together. I try speaking to them, but they seem to be lost in their own little worlds. They mumble statements of malice toward Eorzea, and praise for the Empire. Before I can speak with them further, I hear approaching footsteps. I hide in the shadows and watch. An Imperial officer speaks to the children and fills their young minds with vile propaganda. It's a terrible sight... But apparently it was all a dream or a vision... The next thing I remember is hearing the sound of my name being called, and I wake up to find Aery leaning over me. She is elated to see that I am alive.

Papalymo stands next to her, as mysterious as always. It seems that he was able to stave off the Imperial Legatus with the help of his strange friends. He explains that this should be a lesson to me. He suggests that I am not yet ready to do battle against the Empire. His advice to wait until the proper time. This angers Aerylia. She lashes back at him claiming that we cannot simply sit by and do nothing. Through her emotions, the truth is finally revealed. She is from Ala Mhigo. Her hatred towards the empire was forged to an edge when her city was invaded as a yong child. It all makes sense now.Her rage is amplified by the admission of failure stated by the resistance. They have decided that what little rewards they have gained through their operations has been overshadowed by the loss of life they have suffered. There is talk of disbanding their organization. It is a sad moment of clarity... the Empire seems to be nearly unstoppable.

Papalymo tells us that we are blessed with a power we do not yet understand. And until the time that we do, we should exercise caution and patience. As Papalymo leaves, Aery and I decide to head back to the Merchant Wards to advise Minfillia of what we have learned.

Minfillia shared his assessment of the situation. She feels that until the nations of Erozea are able to match the strength of the Empire, we should suspend all offensive operations. (Thank god the Grand Companies get stronger by the day). She still feels that if we could align ourselves with the beast-tribes, we would have a fighting chance, but even that is not looking so good these days....

Friends. I hate to sound so grim. But I truly feels that an part of my life has just come to a conclusion. As we stand today. We are no match for the Garlean Empire.

That being said, From this day forward, I commit myself to the Grand Company of the Twin Adders. With the sole purpose of doing all I can to make Erozea stronger and ready to tackle the dark days ahead. Regardless of the what the Empire may throw at us, be it soldiers, Magitek, or even Meteor. I will do all in my power to uphold the honor and defense of Erozea.

~Kiji

Article of Interest

Dear Friends,

Enclosed with this brief letter is an article that was just published in the Mythril Eye newspaper.
It found it to be a bit interesting.

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/company/immortalflames/news/num06.html


~Kiji

Montage V

Dear Friends,

After the Meteor revelation, I've been very busy training and preparing for the battles that I know lie ahead. I pray that you are all well, and know that my companions and I are doing everything in our power to defend you all from the threats of the Empire.

~Kiji

Meteor Revealed.

Dear Friends,

A terrible truth has come to light. It is with much fear and sadness that I write this letter. The mystery of "Meteor" has been uncovered.

Today, I was assigned a task by the Twin Adders to locate and assist a team of Grand Company brothers. The team was sent into the shroud to meet with an Ala Mhigan spy. However, reports have reached HQ that they were ambushed by Imperial forces and have suffered a terrible defeat. I was ordered to make haste to their location to lend any assistance possible.

Upon my arrival I found the entire party holed up in a cave, defeated, but still clinging to life. It seems the Imperials attacked them with some type of poison gas. The attack left them nearly defenseless. The Ala Mhigan spy was in the worse shape of them all. Barely clinging to life and fading in and out of consciousness.

One of the Adder officiers, also a protege' of Cid Garlond, offered me a device of his design that he believed will ward off the gas attack. Without the benefits of poison gas, I should be able to overtake the Imperial team stationed nearby.

Indeed, his device worked. No sooner had I too been ambushed by the lethal attack, the mist emitted from the device cleared the air around me allowing me to make quick work of the Imperial team.

Upon returning, the informant was near death. He was rambling incoherently about curses, the ancients, and Meteor. Figuring there was never a better time, I used the power of the echo to achieve some insight into what he was trying to explain.

What I saw, chilled me to the bone.

Hidden behind a large boulder, our informant spied upon a meeting between two Imperial Legati. One of them Van Darnus, who I had the "pleasure" of meeting previously, and another equally imposing character, Gaius van Baelsar.

The two were arguing. Baelsar agreed that the nations of Erozea needed to be brought to their knees. However, he disagreed with Darnus's plan of attack. Rather than fight an extended ground war against the three nations, Nael van Darnus intends to use a long forgotten magic to pull the lesser moon from the sky and crash it into the planet. Thus destroying nearly everything in Eorzea! This is the terror known as Meteor. The recent change of color and size of the moon implies he has already put his plan into motion.

Baelsar expressed  concern over the ability of controlling such magic. It seems that thousands of years ago, the ancient civilization that created such magic was also destroyed by their own inability to effectively wield it.

Darnus explains that the recent discovery of ancient tablets has provided him with the knowledge needed to not only bring about the attack known as Meteor, but also to control with 100% efficiency. More than once he mentioned the "Allag".

The Allag are rumored to be an ancient race of people that once lived in Erozea long before the current age. All that is known about them was gleaned from the scant ruins they left behind. It must be that the Empire has uncovered some ancient Allag magic... This is terrible news.

I continued to listen, and learned that while the plan has already been put into motion, more research still needs to be done, more of these "tomestones" need to be found before the moon of Dalamud can fully be controlled. On top of that, the Legatus expressed his desire to pummel the nations of Erozea with crippling attacks before simply crushing them out of existence. Perhaps this will buy us the time we need to come up with a defense or even a counter attack... Oh, I hope so! Twelve be good!

I returned to Gridania with a full report of all I have learned. As one might expect, Cid Garlond was disturbed by the news. He explained the the Empire has been experimenting with "meteor" magic for many years. In fact, a botched experiment ten years ago destroyed an entire Imperial citadel. Never did he imagine they would attempt to use the magic to do something as heinous as crashing the moon into the planet itself.

Cid thanked me for my report and stated that both the Grand Companies and the Garlond Ironworks would act quickly on the information.

I was rewarded for my efforts. In this mission, in fact, I was promoted to First Class! Sad to say, I did not find much celebration in this promotion. I can only hope a plan is devised to prevent this terrible plan of the Empire's from coming to light.

~Kiji

Gauis van Baelsar

The Resistance

Dear Friends,

Some interesting developments. Today a distress signal was heard over the Path of the Twelve linkpearl. What's even stranger is that Lady Minfilia had no idea who may have sent the signal. At the time it was recieved, there were no operations ongoing. She was able to trace the signal to a particular portion of the Black Shroud. I was tasked with investigating the distress call.

I met up with Aerylia at Camp Nine Ives, in the Eastern Twelveswood. It seems that she had already identified the source of the SOS. She was surrounded by a group of Ala Mhigan resistance members.The resistance has taken to patroling parts of forest where Imperial activity has been confirmed. One of the scouts became seperated from the patrol and was pursued by Imperial forces. To make matters worse, the scout was carrying information vital to the resistance. I don't need to mention what might happen if such intelligence were to fall into Imperial hands...

Luckily, Aerylia and I were able to locate the scout and ward off a handful of Imperial attack dogs that were sent to track her down.

After everythign was said and done, the party was taken to Path of Twelve for recovery and debriefing. The concerning thing about this whole situation is that they were acting outside of official orders from Minfilia. Not to mention that Aerylia seems to have some kind of quiet comradery with the resistance captain. I suspect that my companion is involving herself much deeper into the affairs of this struggle than was originally revealed.


~Kiji

Valentiones Day! Again!

Dear Friends,

It's that time again! The Valentione's celebration is in full swing! What a difference a year makes. This time last year, we were ringing bells and exchanging chocolates. But it was all quite boring. This year, the adventurer's guild is involved in the celebration and there is much more to to!

I had secret plans to ask my blue-tailed friend Ariadne to be my Valentione this year. But lately she has been nowhere to be seen.... I certainly hope she is ok.

Despite that disappointment, I am pleased to state that I participated in the contests this year and earned several lovely pendants. I teamed up with my lovely friend Tabby (a member of my Linkshell), and together we registered as a couple. The contests took us to all three nations but in the end it was worth it. Everyone involved had a great time.

No before you start judging me, remember, all work and no play make Kiji grumpy!

~Kiji