A series of blog posts where I live up this shiny new "Lonely Explorer" title.<<< First | <<Previous | Next >>——————————————————————————————————————————————
As Dominique tidied up the level 56 Warrior job quest, I started thinking about armour. I imagine our hero was more busy pondering how the inner beast seems to be tamed through acts of heroic protection (to hear Broken Mountain say it, at least) but something in the act of watching Curious Gorge's pecs led me to a thought that it was time for a fashion shakeup. Fashion moreso than power — the item level 135 armour from Bahamut's final coil could probably carry Dominique all the way to level 60 what with the quirks of the item level mathematics. Previous experience had taught me such thoughts invoke a cascade of little unmarked sidequests, but I didn't suspect the magnitude of the ordeal I was about to embark myself upon.
The armour of choice was the level 56 Titanium crafted armour set. Why? It was spiky, neat, and lightly better than what I had! The boring solution would have been to just buy it off the market board. Heavensward has started rewarding high quality armour for quest progress and people are keen to sell their extras. Where's the fun in that, though? I wanted to add a personal touch. Thus, my quest was set: collect as many of the craft components as possible without buying them, then have Dominique forge it into shape.
What did we need, then? Grade 1 Vitality Dissolvent, Dragon Leather, Dhalmel Leather, Titanium Ingots, Hardsilver Ingots, plus the obligatory smattering of crystals. I already had the leathers tucked away in Oro's saddlebags, presumably from some desynthesis or as the excess from some other crafting project. I would have to buy the Dissolvent since I was not about to level an Alchemist from full and Dominique was not keen on returning to Ul'dah without a warrant to slay at least two Monetarists. So, only titanium and hardsilver remained!
You might be surprised to learn that titanium also makes for powerful yet lightweight plate armour in the real world as well. The material is not uncommon in buhurt and I dare say it would have been seen use by our predecessors if it was not such a pain in the arse to extract from its ore. We never found a viable process until 1910, although, in our defence, we were not working without magical energy crystals. Dominique's process required us to purify the ore into nuggets with grenade ash and iron (perhaps forming it into something like ilmenite) then purify it further into ingots with Cloud Mica (a magnesium-based mica for a Kroll process analogue?). Everything was easy to acquire except the mica, which didn't even show up in Dominique's gathering log. Time to level up some mining!
After some bargaining with Dominique, I had our reluctant hero do a quick visit to Ul'dah to help the Mining Guild help a crew of sellswords help House Fortemps with mining, where Dominique was helped to a nickname of "professor". Considering I just spent time speculating on how Final Fantasy might be simulating real life titanium processing, this is not undeserved, just slightly misaimed. Proper lads as the sellswords might have been, they were not enough to reach Cloud Mica levels of mining. We took on a level 54 levequest taking me to a region named "The Churning Mists." Now, how in the hells do we get there? I usually do not go far into detail on my adventures. However, this is my blog and I can do what I want, so behold a detailed account of Dominique Allard's quest for the Churning Mists.
A bout of intense map staring revealed that the path to the Mists lay in the northwest corner of the Dravanian Forelands. After some curses lobbed at path-obstructing cliffs, Dominique found me a way towards this part of the map through a river valley. Beyond it lay quite a sight.
What was this dwelling? It looked like something out of an 80s cartoon running its obligatory "pollution is bad" episode. I had to find out, so I bade Dominique to sneak in. We soon found ourselves in the home of the Gnath, which seem to be the local insectile beastmen. I found no apparent reasoning for the gas-spewing constructs, but I did see a beastman aetherite, a closed house at the end of a cavern, and funky background music. With nothing left to do but ogle the scenery, Dominique continued on the planned route only to get volunteered into a FATE by a non-hostile Vath while crossing a bridge. The fellow shared the look of the Gnath but not the violent inclinations. "You. Fleshling. Help me kill them. Come. We begin now." were their words, and how can you say no to that? Another sprout adventurer saw our Warrior mid-murder, stared in confusion for a few minutes, then proceeded along his merry way. I cannot blame him.
To get to the northwestern corner of the map, we would have to pass through an ominous dragon-topped tower overlooked by a yet more ominous floating boulder. The map named it "Anyx Trine" and it had an aetheryte marked on the map, so I expected some manner of a settlement, as always seemed to be the case. What I found was a desolate, uninhabited tower, a chocobo summoning stone, and a lot of stairs. Not a when you run everywhere you want to go, but the non-statue dragon at top of the stairs... was also not a problem.
"A child of man has come to Anyx Trine? Long has it been since your kind walked these lands. If only we could return to those peaceful times..." spoke Gullinkambi, as was the name of the dragon. They seemed quite content to let Dominique and Namingway sit for a short break before continuing onwards. Our adventures with Ysayle will explain some of the mystery here, but I somehow prefer it as obscure as it is. I realise the irony of saying this considering my theorising five paragraphs ago, but I like some things just existing in a world without explanation.
It turned out that taking the high path was not the right call here. I tried to make my way through the mountain passes in a vague northwards direction but found nothing but pretty sights and another sprout on their own adventure. It was rewarding in its own right, that feeling of navigating a narrow road for no real, firm reason, taking the sights in on my own pace. After I had my fill of the experience, I engaged in more intense map staring and reasoned out that the northwesterly path likely lay underground, through a cavern. Sure enough, the middle layer of the tower had an entrance.
Finally, the end of Dominique's journey approached! A quick trek through the lava caves, and there it was! A... dragon statue, that one sprout from earlier, another adventurer fishing in lava, a dungeon entrance marker, and no entrance to The Churning Mists. Curses! I was so frazzled I didn't even rememeber to take a screenshot. I looked it up on the wiki, and confirmed that I would need to go further through the Main Scenario Quests to unlock this passage.
No matter, I just took a lower level levequest! The mica showed up in my gathering log! I just needed to go to the... Churning Mists. The hardsilver was also there.
CURSES!Grumbling, Dominique went to the market board in Limsa Lominsa and acquired the materials the unsatisfying way, then made the pieces of the armour. The eagle eyed among you might have noticed something was missing still: pants. I can't have Dominique do all that running with outdated pants! For this reason, we took on a leatherworking quest.
For the first time, one of our Discliple of the Hand Heavensward quests began by
turning down a job. The Twelveswood could not sustain the demands of the newly-opened Ishgard market, but the local leatherworker Elde was not disappointed. All she needed was the insight of a skilled leatherworker, and to show why, she sent Dominique out to feel out the shops of the Pillars. We soon saw that the merchants of the Jeweled Crozier suffered from severe, chronic classism to the detriment of their profits. It goes without saying that Dominique is easily persuaded to aid any scheme that makes a mockery of merchants.
With the experience from this endeavour, the missing leather leggings were easily created and we had one full set of item level 139 armour! All it took was several hours of time, way more Gil than it would have cost to just buy the armour, and multiple diversions. Now, to let Dominique rest and then go with Ysayle to see what how Churning these Mists might be...
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As ever, thank you for reading. I will link no socials. I forgot my password and my security answer requires level 37 Alchemy.
