Return of the Twelve?

 

Dear Friends,

The verdict is in. Meteor comes. Comets and falling debris streak the skies above us. Strange sounds echo through the whispers of the wind, unusual auroras can be seen in the glow of the moon light. Somehow, even with the fall of the White Raven himself, Dalamud moves closer still. Today, I was called before Louisoux and this terrible truth was confirmed. Yet, there is a plan.

Remember all that strange talk some time ago about us common folk having the ability to "summon our own primals"? Well, it seems that was in reference to the Twelve gods of Eorzea. Such desperate times are these that I have been dispatched to visit the long forgotten holy shrines of the Twelve gods and pray for a miracle. Sounds almost ridiculous, does it not? Well friends, what if I told you that while undertaking this errand, I felt something... I swear I did. Each time I knelt my head in prayer I could actually feel the power of the gods shining over me. Could it be? Will the Twelve awaken at our request?

During this pilgrimage, I had quite a chilling encounter. Keeping my faith strong, I knelt in prayer next to one of the stones only to be encountered by the Legatus van Baelsar. He seemed genuinely impressed with the defeat of Darnus. But he warned that despite our victory, Darnus' followers in the Imperial VII'th legion remain committed to their fallen leader's legacy. He warned that a full-scale invasion was still planned and I would do well to inform my superiors to prepare for an all out war. When I questioned him, why he would divulge such information, and why he offered us previous intelligence on Darnus and his plans, he explained that it is his destiny to one day rule of Eorzea and it was not his desire to rule over a land scorched and worthless by the bands of a madman (referring to van Darnus). How nefarious! This fiend is no better! He's only offering us this intelligence so that HE will later have a prize to conquer in the name of the Empire.

As soon as he appeared, he vanished mysteriously. Yet his voice continued to taunt me from an airship high overhead. What manner of technical sorcery is this?!? I beseech the Twelve to answer our prayers. We will need their divine power to overcome the technical monstrosities the Garlean Empire is sure to unleash upon us.

Despite this grim outlook. I have faith. I am not alone. Many adventurers have undertaken the pilgrimage of prayer. Those of us who have been faithful and who have served the Eorzean Alliance have been official recognized. The number of heroes who can claim this this honor grows a bit larger with the passing of every day.  He was been rewarded with a symbol of our deed, a decorative horn at which in the center is mounted a glowing bit of stone from the fallen meteors. This Horn of Dalamud serves as a badge of honor as we prepare to step into the uncharted future, ready to do battles with the gods at our sides.

~Kiji

Coming Together

Dear Friends,

The rumors of the new imperial outpost in Mor Dhona are true. There can be no doubting their intentions now. They are preparing to strike Gridania. Kan-E-Senna has decided to proceed with her intentions of recreating the Eorzean Alliance. Today I was asked to officially deliver her request to the leaders of the other Grand Companies. I must admit, I didn't expect much of a warm reception. But it seems that my reputation has become quite an asset. Both leader's expressed concern for their own defenses, but promised to consider my request, pending the cooperation of all other parties. Something which seemed unlikely.

I arrived back in Gridania to advise Kan-E-Senna of my results only to be surprised by the immediate arrival of both grand company leaders. It seems my attempts to persuade them were a success! Sadly, our celebrations were short lived. The meeting was interrupted by a messenger, an Imperial airship has crashed in a remote area of Mor Dhona not far the the new Castrum Novum stronghold. As of this moment, the Imperials have not located the wreckage. This might be our chance to obtain some valuable intelligence.

Immediately, I raced to the crash site only to find I was a bit late, it was crawling with Imperial agents. I was able to combat them long enough to obtain some interesting effects from the crash site. As I was preparing to make my escape I was confronted by none other than Legatus Baelsar. I prepared for a battle like no other, but there was no need, he only wished to speak.

He seemed to suggest that the crash of this airship was no accident, rather he himself orchestrated the event. He lamented for a moment that his companion Legatus Darnus has gone completely mad. He says that the plan to control Dalamud was approved by the Emperor only due to the Darnus' deceit and trickery. He suspects that Darnus has ulterior intentions that are not in the best interest of the Empire.

If I did not know better, I'd say that Baelsar is almost hoping for that Darnus fails. He left me with an odd sense of confusion. I wonder how much of his words were lies?  I have a feeling, few if any.

I returned to Gridania and provided my intelligence to Cid Garlond. He became excited as he discovered valuable information regarding the operation of the magitek transmitter located in Castrum Novum stronghold. It is this transmitter that  seems to control Dalamud. Once we have had a chance to study it, we may be able to deal a lethal blow to the Empire's plans!

~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