The Annals of the Revelation

Once we arrived on the shoes of Sharlayan, our ship was escorted to dock and once the Coast Guard figured out what we were there for, they helped Sara navigate the ship to a spot it can remain for our stay. We were soon allowed access to the docks, and allowed to travel through the Worldly Affairs Customs. Everyone who had already visited Sharlayan or were natives were given a relatively standard greeting and exchange of information with the short, stocky Worldly Affairs Official, but everyone else was given an interview of sorts. Now Sharlayan wasn’t just going to be okay with a small army arriving on their shores, so everyone had to be a little coy with their reasons for being there. They were asked questions ranging from stating their full name, to declaring how much money they carried, to presenting any and all weapons they were carrying to the official. All pretty routine things. There were a few pain points across the different members of the Revelation, but the Worldly Affairs official managed to maintain his composure, and the Revelation managed to be convincing enough to be granted access to the city with no one left behind. Though some did only have lodging on the ship, luckily they weren’t going to have to go through customs every time.

Now that everyone was actually allowed in the city, we had the issue of navigation to contend with. For most this was going to be their first time in the City of Scholars, so I was granted the opportunity to give a tour of the city for those that were interested. After dealing with the obvious questions like ‘Where is the Library’ and ‘Where can I eat?’ We ventured up to the Aetheryte Plaza. There, we were stopped by the Sharlayan Peacekeepers because Saralotte and a handful of the other members of the Revelation didn’t seem to understand that walking around the city with weapons was suspicious at best and not exactly a great way to avoid having the intentions of the Revelation discovered. Luckily, the peacekeepers didn’t do much more than give Saralotte a warning, which was less than what Ana did once they left. I walked a few others to the Studium and Noumenon.

We had a few days off to acclimate to the city, and in that time Anakritis had been busy learning about Labyrinthos and making friends with Gleaners. Having proved successful in that endeavor, she had scheduled a rendezvous with a few of them inside Labyrinthos, and even though they could sneak her in with them, the rest of the Revelation needed to enter Labyrinthos through more official means.

This led us down past the Rostra to the official entrance to Labyrinthos where we met Vrandiraz. She was an overworked Viera by the looks of it, and she had doubts about our alibi from the beginning. She insisted that the responsibility of explaining our purpose for visiting Labyrinthos to individual members of the Revelation to see if everyone was on the same page. Everyone was not on the same page, and after threats against Vrandiraz’s job that didn’t seem to work, I had to take personal responsibility for anything that the group was going to do inside Labyrinthos. Without any other options I had to accept.

Once inside Labyrinthos, we got to work and set up camp. The Gleaner Ana was working with led us to a box of supplies. It was lucky that there was a box of confiscated weapons, and the Gleaners allowed us to pick from them as we needed to help them on their search. One of the Gleaners in the group Anakritis befriended had gone missing, and we were given the information about the job they were going to complete, allowing us to help track their position down. We left the Upper Acrinthos and followed what little information we had, luckily discovering a small campsite that had been abandoned. Nearby there were some tracks in the mud, and following those led us to some manner of wildlife. In the distance we found a giant fuzzy… thing.

Littered around the giant fuzzy thing was some of the possessions of the Gleaner, and we heard a voice calling for help. The giant fuzzy creature turned around, and revealed himself to be a troll who was attempting to eat the food the Gleaner had. When he realized we were there, he stood up and fought with us to defend his catch. Yazvelinia insisted we didn’t kill the troll, and once he was subdued, a researcher came running up the hill, thanking us for not killing “Roger” and leading the troll back to wherever he escaped from. We brought the Gleaner back to the others, earning a little more trust along with it.

After the time we spent with the Gleaners, we had managed to earn their trust, but no one else in Labyrinthos really trusted us. Thus, when the Gleaners were told they had a new job in the middle circle of Labyrinthos, we weren’t allowed to use the elevators to go with them. They were “critical” to the completion of that project, but we were not. They had a work around for us though and directed us to a recently created cave that hasn’t been developed yet. They warned us of a colony of mushrooms that liked to punch but didn’t have much more time to explain what they meant.

Traveling through the tunnels, we did in fact encounter mushrooms. We did our best to avoid them at first, but a small mushroom was blocking our path. After a small fight with the mushrooms, and after several punches had been delivered by both sides, we managed to meet up with the Gleaners on the middle circle of Labyrinthos, and settle down just outside of a Sharlayan Hamlet.

Issue with Labyrinthos

We met a mechanic name Borajmir who was working with some of the Gleaners. We were introduced to him after the Gleaners told us they were doing their yearly maintenance on the Artifical Sun in Labyrinthos. He said that they needed new Elemental Cores tempered with heat. We were given the cores and told to go antagonize the Anala that were being cultivated nearby to get them to cast their flames upon the cores. After that was successful, it was a mad dash to deliver the cores back to Borajmir so that he could install them properly. 

The Gleaners had a day off and that meant we did too. Ana decided that it would be best to provide some entertainment, and we held our monthly Grand Championship for their viewing leisure. There isn’t much to report for the tournament, outside Saralotte claiming the Grand Champion title this month.

Borajmir found us again, and told us that we needed to gather new cooling materials to help the artificial sun operate more efficiently. He led us to a field of Ice Golems and explained that they cultivate the golems for exclusive use in keeping the artificial sun’s temperature in check. We had a rather simple mission of killing a few of the golems and harvesting their cores. We carried the cores into one of the control rooms for the artificial sun, and under Borajmir’s watch, adjusted the settings that controlled the sun and applied the cooling of the Golem Cores to keep the sun’s temperature in check. We must have been successful as the sun was still operational. 

After our several days of working within Labyrinthos, even though we had been joined by Gleaners and contributed to Labyrinthos repairs, our presence had been noticed. We woke up in camp one morning to find a member of the Forum in the distance, discussing our presence with one or two Gleaners he no doubt questioned to find our location. It seemed as if he was going to come over to us and banish us from the island when someone else approached our camp. A tall Hyur man with a fuzzy mustache, looking frazzled even though his dress was formal. He looked like he simply began to march through Labyrinthos as soon as he heard about our presence. It was my Dad. Winsor Rosemore. 

He told us that he didn’t know why we were in Labyrinthos, but he did have an idea what we were looking for. He requested that we pack up camp and make our way to the LHA campus back in Sharlayan to get the whole explanation. 

Once there, the Revelation piled into a classroom, being the most well behaved I have seen them yet. Windsor explained how the Magic LHA pioneered worked, and then used an explanation of it to share with us some important information. He used a notebook that belonged to an LHA agent in Thavnair and pulled from it the Aetheric Remnants of a memory that happened not too long ago. It showed us pictures of chaos and death. People falling prey to some manner of afflictions that would twist their bodies and turn them into monstrosities. We made the decision to set off for Thavnair to confront these monsters.  

Leaving Sharlayan for Thavnair

Aboard the Morgova, the skies began to take on a blood-red hue. We didn’t really know what to expect as it only seemed to get worse as we approached, but it was a grim omen for what we’d find in Thavnair. Our arrival was still some time off, and we began to catch glimpses of beasts in the clouds. It was all hands on deck for everyone to defend the ship if necessary, the glimpses of the monsters we were shown didn’t really prepare us for anything. A great spine covered monster eventually approached, landing on the deck of the Morgova. It was covered head to toe in spikes. Fighting it was bad enough, but it soon shrouded the entire deck of the ship in a black smoke that tricked the eye and gave everyone hallucinations. When it was defeated and repelled from the ship, it did not leave behind a corpse. It vanished into a white ash that was carried off by the wind. At this point I think we had even less of an idea of what to expect.

The next day we made it close enough to Thavnair to land. With the Morgova keeping its distance and dealing with flying monstrosities, we’re dispatched to Thavnair through the Morgova’s Manacutters. We fly together, not having to fly for long before we could see the beaches of the island nation full of the monsters. We didn’t even manage to make it to the shore before a massive creature burst out from the water. The Manacutters weren’t really outfitted with weaponry needed to engage something that large so it wasn’t until intervention from a cannon aboard the Morgova to take the monster out. The large creature disintegrated into dust, teaching us a grim lesson about the defeat of these monsters. 

We landed on the island, on the beach near a town, and it seemed like immediately we were surrounded. We were directed to the town, dashing as quickly as we could to reach its safety, though we came across a resident of Thavnair, an Arkasodara man and his son. The man was overcome with panic, and seemed so certain that nothing was going to keep him and his son safe. Before our very eyes like in the memory we had witnessed previously, the father transformed into a beast to join all the others. We collected the small Arkasodara child and rushed for the town named Yedlihmad. I didn’t know what we were to expect upon our arrival in the city, but it certainly wasn’t another Arkasodara warrior with a mustache and two large scimitars defending the city. He had seen our arrival and took us to a safe house within the village where other survivors had been taken.  

We had remained in the Yedlihmad Safe house for a day or two, assisting the heroic Arkasodara man we learned was named Hannibal, and his small team of deputized civilians defending the town. Hannibal had taken great pains to trick the beasts into thinking Yedlihmad was empty, but that ruse didn’t last for long, and he warned us of a large hoard of those creatures heading our direction. We’d have to fight. 

Hannibal’s men took the north entrance into the town, we were tasked with defending the west. At first the fighting seemed to be holding back the tide of monsters with their bodies fading into dust each time one fell, but more and more showed up, each being an even more unusual twisted visage than the last. We were pushed in from the gates to the center of town, and soon heard the sound of a horn from the northern edge of the city. A call to retreat from Hannibal. Things weren’t really looking good. Eventually we were able to fully push back the attack, but several defenders and several citizens had been turned to beasts by whatever affliction was happening. 

Though the attack had been defended, Hannibal seemed to think too many defenders had been lost, and we decided that another attack such as that wouldn’t be able to be defended. Hannibal had heard that Palaka’s Stand, another village further north, had been faring better. The Citizens who managed to survive carried everything they could on their backs, and we were told that it was going to be a long road to Palaka’s Stand. We were determined to see everyone to safety.

It didn’t take long for the monsters to find us once we were on the road, and immediately, many of the civilians wished to simply return back to the refuge in Yedlihmad where they felt safe. We had learned in our time in Thavnair, that one of the first signs of someone being transformed into those beasts were due to despair, with dark clouds starting to swirl around them. Many of the civilians held these feelings and became surrounded by these clouds. After some more walking, we spotted some movement further down the road we were traveling, and being unsure of if it was friend or foe, decided to try and sneak through the Thavnairian forests to avoid another confrontation. 

Hannibal spoke fondly of these lands while we walked, and admitted that the path he was taking us was an old shortcut he used to take when he was a younger man. The ‘shortcut’ he led us to was about a forty fulm sheer drop off a cliff. He admitted it looked shorter when he was younger. Through various methods with various forms of success, we all made it down the cliff face, and from there we could practically see Palaka’s stand. The people there were not much better off than Yedlihmad we left behind, but in such times they did not turn us away. They welcomed us with open arms to share anything they could with us. 

Things were dreadful in the city. A wave of uncertainty in survival washed over everyone. Medical supplies were being gathered and rationed. Drugs were being distributed to the defenders. At some point we decided to use Palaka’s Stand as an evacuation site, but the Morgova was tied up in dealing with skyborne horrors and couldn’t come to our rescue for a short while. Hannibal joined us, and we set up defenses wherever we could and waited. All manner of beast emerged from the forest. Monsters made of man, made of alligator, made of fish. They might have looked comical if the situation wasn’t so dire, instead they shared the same diseased looking exterior all the other monsters carried.

The fighting was immediate and intense as everyone did their best to drive off the monstrous attackers. It had been several days since we met Hannibal, and not once had I seen him rest, and he was caked in the ash of the slain monsters. The swiftness that we time and time again overwhelmed by the beasts began to take their toll on the poor Arkosadara, and the telltale signs of the black clouds of smoke began to swirl around him. Some rallying cries and encouraging words were called out to Hannibal, and his spirits seemed to raise again. He charged into the fighting with renewed ferocity. A stampede of local Gaja ran from the west, and it seemed like they’d be on a collision course with some of the monsters we still fought. What at first I thought was a miracle swiftly turned into danger as the collective stampede of Gaja transformed into a monstrosity before our very eyes. A wild twisting wheel of trunk and tusk that barreled through our lines into the very center of Palaka’s Stand. It was around this time that the Morgova arrived, and the cannons aboard the ship were able to lay down cover fire for our retreat. The citizens were all allowed aboard first, and once everyone was aboard, the ship pulled away from the village. We were safe for now, though the looks on the faces of the rescued were somber and traumatized. 

The events of this campaign started off a bit more lively and calm than our missions usually do. The objective of the Garlemald campaign was to create an independant outpost based on a Ceruleum mining facility that was sitting isolated in the frozen wastes of Garlemald. Because the establishment of the facility was meant to be long-term, Ana hired a cadre of mercenaries to handle the resurrection and operation of the facility. (I know the idea of a Free Company hiring Mercenaries sounds strange, but seeing as fighting was not the primary specialization of the majority of the group members, it seems more apt to call the specialists). The plan was to travel with the Specialists to Garlemald aboard the Morgova, get the facility operational and leave to allow them to do what they do best. As such, the first day was to intermingle the two groups as much as possible, with a meet and greet in the basement of the Estate. The personality and uniqueness of each member is too much information to portray in this chronicle of the events, Dossiers on each member will be available upon request to the Judicator. The only two I feel necessary to point our are ZiemechAkveta and Galerius Majus, who were a handpicked leader of the ragtag group, and a Garlean National who helped fund the expedition. Needless to say the meeting went well, though I suspect some members of the Revelations might have harbored discomfort at some of the Specialists.

Things moved rather quickly once everyone was assembled. The Specialists were given lodging aboard the Morgova while we spent the last day or two preparing, but we set off before too long. The ship was a little crowded with all the people, but the first part of the trip wasn’t too bad. Just around when things started to get colder, Ana called us all onto the deck to line up so she could explain a few things about the landing when we arrived. Not everyone was present, either from the Revelation or the Specialist Troupe, but enough were present for Ana to make the speech. A big emphasis was on the generators provided by Galerius’s portion of the contribution to the project. 

Before too much of the information was dispensed, a heavy explosion rocked the Morgova and sent most of the people on the deck flying off their feet. It took a moment for everyone to get their bearings as we weren’t expecting any hostility as we weren’t even in Garlemald airspace yet. It didn’t take long to realize that one of the Garlemald Troupe was missing, and accusations that he was thrown overboard by a Roegadyn named “Big Body” were quickly raised, as he had been standing next to himprio to the explosion. 

Big Body was held in the Morgova Brig overnight while we figured out what to do, and it was decided that a trail would be held to determine the outcome of the accusations. Though there was no hard evidence that the Revelation had or wished to have access to… the trial proceeded as a series of questions. Most of the relegated to Big Body to explain what he witnessed as well as various questions to try to determine a motive. This was made somewhat more difficult by Big Body’s attitude towards Faustus, whom he seemed happy the man had perished, but was adamant he was not the cause. Sheila was also under suspicion and was called to the stand to answer various questions about whatever magic she was using to propel the sound of her violin, but the line of questioning ultimately fizzled out. 

At the end of the trial, the official stance of the Revelation was that both Big Body and Sheila could not be directly implicated in the death of Faustus. However, no one seemed actually comfortable to clear Big Body of the crime. Having heard all the evidence Anakritis, who had until then done little more than moderate the discussion to remain neutral, deferred judgment to Saralotte as the supposed crime had occurred aboard the Morgova. Saralotte, with no evidence, promptly made the decision to allow everyone present to vote on whether to convict Big Body anyway, and sentence him to death. 

It was at this point that I attempted to intervene, and present the memory of the moment interred in my notebook as evidence to Big Body’s innocence. Actual evidence. Evidence that didn’t end up mattering as the vote was almost unanimous to spare Big Body, but the fact that a vote was even called did not sit well with me. Though it is not my place to comment. I hope in the future perhaps we can have more well established proceedings if we wish to try someone for murder. Faustus jumped off the ship on his own accord, but we’re still unsure what could have caused the explosion or the damage to the Morgova.

Our arrival in Garlemald happened not too long after. The chill had long since begun to invade the ship, and the air was all but frozen upon the deck. Just like the first time it almost hurt to breathe. As stated before, a large portion of the success of the mission was going to be based on the Generators provided by Galerius. These Generators were on the MOrgova and needed to be dropped down to the base of the facility and then installed to bring some of the basic aspects of the facility like lighting and temperature control to function until the facility itself can begin generating its own power. 

To get the generators to the facility as well as turn them on, we were going to split into three teams. Our transportation would be Parachutes as the weather was making it impossible for the Morgova or even smaller craft to land. Largely, our individual descents were successful, but most importantly the descents of the specialists carrying the Generators were done so without issue. As there were three groups and I was only in one of them, I can report that the Generator being carried by Furia and Eldoux was installed successfully. Our presence roused a nest of Zoblyns, only a few at first, but there soon gathered enough of them that we ran from the generator to lead them away from it, as they had shown a tendency to explode. I am told one of the other groups sustained a casualty. One of the Lalafel brothers known colloquially as “The Seven” had died in the struggle to defend their generator. 

With the Generators up and running and the facility able to operate on at least the most basic of its functions, it didn’t take long for a leak to be identified in the large pipeline that connected it somewhere further towards the city. Again, the weather made it difficult to spot the damage to the pipeline from the facility itself, so we were sent out to investigate. We began walking alongside the pipeline, visually inspecting it for damage. It wasn’t long before we were able to find the damaged section, which had a massive shard of metal embedded into it. Our combined efforts were able to remove the shard, but the immediate problem was how we would fix it. Ceruleum was known to be violently reactive to fire, so traditional methods of welding or forging were not an option. Eventually, after floating a few ideas, we settled on rivets to form some scrap metal that was brought along into a temporary repair. 

Throughout the journey alongside the pipeline and the repairs, a few people had claimed to see something stalking us deep in the fog. Only when the repairs to the pipeline had been made did it finally reveal itself. A large reptilian appendage burst out of the ice, shattering the surface of the glacier and sending a spray of water into the air, which froze into sharp spikes. Horatia was knocked off the pipeline into one of the pools of water, she was prone to freeze any moment. With the pipeline repaired, we decided to make a quick retreat. Horatia was pulled from the water, and we made a quick retreat, running along the pipeline as the ice of the glacier was dangerously unstable. 

The following day, we realized the lingering threat of… whatever we encountered the few days prior could prove seriously dangerous to the long term survival of the Facility. The Revelation along with Big Body set off to lay a trap to find the dragon and dispatch it. Big Body was carrying a heavy canister of Ceruleum. We thought it was either something it was consuming or something that irritated it. Sure enough once he set it on the ground and began to bleed the Ceruleum into the air, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped just like it had along the pipeline. 

The creature soon appeared, fully formed this time, starting with the familiar worm-like head that we encountered previously, but then soon forming a draconic visage with a large bony set of wings and a peculiar Ice core. It was an Ice Dragon! The temperature surrounding the Dragon was even colder than most nights in Garlemald, giving rise to plenty of injuries from the cold alone, let alone the dragon’s attempts to fight back. He was quite talkative, as most dragons seem to be based on all the writings of them. His words seemed to imply he had been ‘resting’ in Ilsabard for a long time and that he was proving difficult even to the Garleans when they built the facility. Perhaps he’s the reason why this facility was abandoned or not yet reclaimed. After a long fight, we all seemed to realize how unprepared to actually handle the dragon we were, and support from the Morgova was called in. A few Manacutters managed to get the Dragon’s attention, allowing us to retreat back into the facility. 

After our run in with the Ice Dragon, it seemed like Sara’s top priority was going to be setting up some more comprehensive defenses aboard the Facility. Luckily Septimus had been doing his due diligence to scout around the outskirts around the facility, and he found something that piqued Sara’s interest. So we set off, leaving a few people behind in case the dragon reappeared, and marched through the icy glacier until we reached the edge of the glacier and had to trudge through snow. Septimus kept reassuring us that there was something worthwhile out there, and sure enough we eventually found an overturned train! The train itself was not what Septimus wished to show it, it was one of the lone cars still resting upon the tracks. There it housed an impressively large artillery cannon. Those of us with the know-how to remove it, began to operate on the Cannon, while everyone else was soon confronted by a contingent of mechanized Garlean Troops. They were unusual, something I had never seen before, modeled after men riding some manner of horse. It’s bizarre to me that Garlemald would find use for these. Whatever the reasoning behind their construction, they saw our requisition of the old Garlean artillery as thievery, and began to ride towards us. However, it didn’t take much effort for the Revelation to dispatch them, and soon enough we were calling in the Morgova to haul the weapon back to the facility. 

It took a day or two to get the massive gun fitted to the top of the Cerleum Drilling Facility. It looked even more out of place there than it did on the rail car, but Sara and especially Ana seemed happy with its placement. So happy in fact that we had all been called to assemble atop the facility. Once there, Ana rather excitedly explained that a few more barrels of Ceruleum had been set up in the field, and the cannon had been zeroed in on its location. She seemed rather confident that the cannon would incinerate the dragon with one shot, and I was not confident that it would do much of anything. She offered to give me the honors of shooting the barrel, which I would have taken, had it not been handed to Wurston at the last moment. 

The gun was fired and the barrels began to leak Ceruleum, which caused the wind begin to freeze over the area surrounding the barrel which was, thankfully, half a malm away. Once the dragon was visible, the shot of the cannon echoed through the facility and shook the whole thing something fierce. An instant later an explosion rocked the area the dragon once stood, and the smoke cleared to reveal that Ana’s suspicions were correct. The Dragon was not to be seen. 

A few members of the specialists had gone inside a few minutes prior to the cannon being fired, and shortly after the celebration of the dragon’s defeat had concluded, Septimus returned in a rush. They said that another specialist had been injured. We all filtered into the facility to see what was wrong, and found Oshi hunched over her desk bleeding profusely. Septimus was doing what he could to stop her bleeding, but she said Eldoux’s name and that we “Please don’t let him…” do something. Taberius said he saw Eldoux down beneath the facility, so we filtered back out of the room to go find him, presuming he was responsible. Once we reached the door beneath the facility, Big Body immediately grabbed hold of Eldoux, seeming like he was going to rip him apart despite the orders to simply detain him. Only once Big Body was calmed down did Taberius come down to report that Oshi had succumbed to her wounds. 

Everyone seemed to have an idea how we should handle the situation. There were accusations of murder ringing through the group again and no one had a real idea how things were going to be handled, or how they should be handled. When questioned about what happened to Oshi when we left, Taberius began to explain what happened… and from the doorway behind him a gunshot rang out, and he dropped to the ground, dead. Behind the gun was a very distraught looking Septimus who ordered us all to stand away from Taberius’ body. Septimus was quickly disarmed, and he explained to us that… something had been controlling Taberius. As if on cue, a dark tendril began to grow from Taberius’ body and pierced Big Body, Septimus, and Eldoux. The specialists who weren’t up for a fight retreated inside, but several remained outside to fight. 

The Tendrils connected to Septimus and Eldoux were sliced in half, but the one connected to Big Body seemed to complete its infection of him, moving inside of him and disappearing. There was another entity skulking around the area, making itself known by jumping down to ambush members of the Revelation. The six remaining members of the Seven recognized it immediately as mimicking their deceased member. There was a lot of fighting, both combating the dark infection and between each other. Eventually, when order was established again, and the dust settled, the body of the ‘seventh’ Lalafel was little more than a puddle. The issue now was Big Body. He was struggling with whatever the infection had done to him, and there was no consensus on whether to kill him to cauterize the infection or to try to cure him. The infection was not going to wait for us, and exploded in an attempt to find  more hosts. Again, there was much shouting and disagreement over what to do. Ultimately, the pain of the infection within him, Big Body agreed the only solution was to kill him and the infection with him. Through various means we were able to determine the infection was dead for good, and cleared everyone else from being infected. 

We’re still trying to figure out exactly what occurred.

A gravesite was set up a ways away from the facility for Oshi, Big Body, Taberius, the Deceased member of the Seven (Popoleyi Laleliyei), and Faustus.

 It had been a long time coming, but after what must have been months of preparation, we finally had enough information to embark on a journey to rescue the Patron of the Moreaux household, Jerard. He had gone missing in a sailing accident a long while ago and Joyette and Kaldea have been scrambling for every shred of information regarding his disappearance against the better wishes of some of the competitors in the family. During one of our monthly meetings, they unveiled all they knew to us and we planned to go searching for him.

To begin, a map had been purchased of a distance archipelago of islands far off the Eorzean Shores. The islands usually go largely undocumented on most contemporary maps because of their distance from the continent as well as their small size, but a few older maps were kicking around. Jerard’s last journey took his ship close to the islands, so if there was any chance he yet lived, it was determined that he would be there. We were informed a ship had been chartered but details at the meeting still seemed shaky at best. Airships were out of the question due to its distance from our shores, and the benefactor of the mission, one Vallois Moreaux, had been tricked into believing the mission was strictly a profit seeking one. The real intention of the mission would have to remain hidden as he was one of the opponents to seeking out the missing Moreaux Company head. 

It wasn’t long before we were set to sail, and were instructed to meet at Aleport to board the ship and meet the crew of the SDPS Wailing Whalaqee. After forming up outside, we were greeted by an officer who left almost immediately to fetch the captain, who turned out to be Vallois himself, keen on seeing to the profits of the mission personally. This came as a bit of a shock, tricking him would be a little more difficult, but we didn’t let him into our plan, and everything seemed to progress smoothly enough. He waxed lyrical about the ship for a while, boasting about the number of Marines and the fact that he staffed a doctor. 

The sailing took a few days, and there was little in the way of excitement to help pass the time. There was a little excitement on the second day when another ship was spotted off the starboard side of the ship. It drew the attention of all the ship’s Officers, who all in unison pulled out telescopes to look at it, but the ship swiftly disappeared over the horizon. It would be a few more days before we spotted the islands, and when we did the ship was abuzz with activity for hours, offloading whatever equipment was necessary for us to make camp. The crew largely remained on the ship, docked a short distance from the beach, while the Revelation went ashore to explore. 

We made camp on the beach itself, the jungle which started a few fulms away from the water was dense and impassible. From the ship, the mountains of the island revealed some intricate shapes cut into the stone, marking an obvious objective for our first day of exploration. We remained camped for a few days though, growing acclimated to the island and doing some light exploration around the beach. If Jerard was here, it was clear that he and anyone else with him had to be here for a while as there were no signs of camps that we could see. Moving through the jungle was slow and tedious, with the jungle Flora and Fauna resisting our advance, but eventually we were able to reach the top of the plateau, finding the intricately carved stonework we saw from the ship. They didn’t seem to be written in any language that we understood, so they weren’t a cry for help. What they did seem to be was purely decorative, and they continued into a tunnel that fed inside the mountain of the island we climbed. With any luck there would be something inside the tunnel that would encourage Vallois of the expedition’s potential. 

We remained outside the tunnel for a few hours, waiting for others of the Revelation to follow in our footsteps and catch up. When we inevitably ventured inside, we found much more than any of us expected. No riches, not immediately, but a small marvel of man-made structures and paths, and crumbling building foundations. It was obvious that this area had once been inhabited, but they now sat long empty. As impressive as this discovery was, and as much as I argued against the thought, we determined that the wealth of knowledge alone would not be enough to convince Vallois, which only led us further into the crumbling city to see what we could find, setting up a make-shift camp for the night. 

The next morning Sara must have been up bright and early scouting around the area. She found a complex she wanted us to explore. The first thing of note was an old dilapidated door that was so rusted its details were hard to pick out. It had collapsed long ago and did little to impede our progress. Past it, every surface you could imagine was coated in a thick layer of dust and dirt. I’m unsure how long we really travelled through the tunnel the door once protected, but we eventually emerged into a large room. It was adorned with statues of angry looking heads which each faced a different direction from the others. Chains were snaked across the ground and seemed hooked into different mechanisms that we couldn’t determine from the entryway to the room. With what can only be described as varying levels of efficiency, we traversed the room. Some falling victim to traps, some figuring out the safe way to travel, some of us simply getting lucky. I surmised that the room was a riddle of sorts for some age long past, but who or what it was for remained unclear. 

The next room likely had much the same at one point, but the age of the dungeon was starting to show, and it all but cracked clear in half. One side of the room was a bit lower than the other, and they were separated by a chasm that spanned a few fulms in length. It was filled partially with water. Again, there were varying levels of success crossing the chasm. I think perhaps we need some cooperation training as there seemed to be very little of it going on. When everyone was on the far side of the room, some of us more waterlogged than others, we climbed a staircase towards an almost blinding glowing golden light that shimmered along the walls. Before even reaching the top of the staircase there were murmurs of the treasure we sought, but it wasn’t until we reached the top that it proved to be true. A room filled with gold, lined with chests, and covered in vases. In the very middle of the room was an ornate staff which was the center piece of whatever civilization placed it here. It gave off the glow of the room and looked to be guarded by a giant golem. We all recognized that the golem was going to spring to life if we stole anything… and that did not stop us from plundering the room for the staff. It did not however, strike us, it lifted its sword into the air and thrust it into the wall behind it. The room began to flood with water, and we had to make a quick escape through the last remaining hallway. 

Vallaois seemed placated with the minor treasure we were able to bring him, but I don’t think the scope of the lost treasure was fully explained to him. Whatever the case, the token of gold seemed enough to convince him that we might find more on the next island, and so we relocated, sailing the short distance and setting up camp on the new shores of the largest island in the archipelago. 

We set camp, and got to exploring, and immediately, things seemed encouraging to locating Jerard. We found signs of people living on the island, the most exciting ones being footprints! We followed them into a deep ravine where we were ambushed. They were tall, hairy Roegadyn looking tribesmen who attacked us, fighting well enough to catch us off guard. We were able to drive the attack away, but in the battle they grabbed Joyette and retreated, kidnapping her. 

We gave chase to the remaining living tribesmen, seeing the landscape change from a temperate jungle to blasted volcanic stone with every step. Eventually, we managed to catch up. Again, we were led down the chasm of a ravine, and again, we were attacked from above. We could hear more tribesmen further through the ravine chanting while we fought, and soon we were able to near the opening they were congregating in. 

The natives were all worshiping, chanting in a chorus towards Joyette who was tied up and surrounded with various things. Mostly fruit that had been collected enmasse, but also Crystals that hummed with aether at the chanting. It didn’t take long for us to assume that the natives were summoning their god, and soon enough our suspicions were proved correct. The glow of the crystals soon caused us to avert our eyes and a massive Gorrila God appeared in front of us. He was enormous, and the tribesmen all began to shout with glee, using the word ‘Harambus’ to refer to him. 

I’m not sure why Joyette was needed for the summoning, but Harambus plucked her off the ground as soon as his form was made fully corporeal, prompting a response from the Revelation as our best efforts to save her had yet been unsuccessful. As expected, the battle with the summoned Ufiti was chaotic, but surprisingly short, with the large ape succumibing to our attacks in short order. This left the rest of the tribesmembers in a panic, and we were able to retreat back to the ship in relative safety. 

With that island quickly behind us, we moved to the next, which happened to be the last island in the archipelago. Off the shore, there were immediately more signs of life than the other islands, with evidence of a shipwreck dotting the reef around the shore. Initially, the island seemed to be exactly what we encountered so far, humid and hot overgrown islands, but even just at the end of the beach, there was something interesting. An engraved mask made of wood looking out over the water from where it was hung against a tree. It was adorned with feathers and bones and looked about as well decorated as one could make it while stuck on and island, but that was just it, someone had to craft this. 

We took this as a good sign and began delving deeper into the jungle of the island, and managed to locate more tiki masks. Just when their presence was comforting, they immediately became concerning again, the masks grew arms and legs and out popped a being about as large as a Lalafell. They spoke in Broken Eorzean, and seemed particularly excited to see Kaldea, making motions to her ears while pushing us to follow them into their town. They made comments about us being fake gods and that their god told them that we were fake. Obviously that meant we had to go be judged by their god or whoever was back at their camp. 

We decided that this was likely the best lead we had so far, and followed along. We were led through a tunnel into a small village of sorts. There were more lalafell in the city, a few dozen at most, all of whom whispered to themselves and watched us like we were going to harm them. When their god was being revealed to us, none other than Jerard Moreaux stepped out from the tent after their priest. 

There was a lot to unpack following this reveal. The first of which was the overwhelming success in finding Jerard alive and… relatively well. He looked a little thin, but he did seem to be living of lalafell rations. 

It was decided, I think by our Lalafell hosts, that we needed to provide a challenger to fight Jerard for the position of godhood. By what Jerard had told them, or at least what they had picked up from Jerard, is that there was only one god. So with everyone here, they needed to know who the strongest was, and that person would be their god. We held one of our tournaments, much to the amusement of the lalafells who seemed to make our own internal tournament a bit of a show. Eventually Jocelyne won our tournament and was chosen to face off against Jerard. 

The following day was chosen for the final confrontation between Jerard and our champion, to see who really was worthy of the lalafell’s worship. This seemed to be the most excitement the tribe had seen in years, and they spent all day preparing fires and food and dances for the celebration. When the time came, the tribe turned to the big tent that Jerard lived in and cheered for his appearance, where the simple act of him simply exiting the tent caused a wave of cheers. 

Jocelyne stepped up to face him, and the two actually seemed ready to begin fighting. The ground shook, suddenly and forcefully, and the fight barely even had a chance to begin when the volcano of the island next door began to erupt. Rocks and lava spewed from the crater, and a few pieces of debris that managed to land on the island started to wreck havok on the small tribe town. Most of the buildings went up in flames and were destroyed. There was a huge struggle to get the lalafells to trust us to help them evacuate, many of them just wished to wait out the danger. 

Eventually, Jerard was able to convince the High Priest to get as many to follow us as he could, and we made way out of the tunnel that seemed to be the only entrance into the town. The jungle was on fire and our only hope seemed to be a river that fed into the ocean. The tribe had some small fishing boats that we were able to pile up and ride down the river, dodging fire and falling debris from the volcano. From there it was a short trip to the ship, and once everyone was on board, we made a quick exit from the islands to escape the still erupting volcano. 

We managed to save most of the lalafell tribe, and perhaps most importantly Jerard. I’m told this led to an awkward conversation with Vallois, who walked away with less treasure and more Jerard than he bargained for.

During Hatchingtide, the Crimson Revelation were contracted by the Temple Knights to assist in providing additional security for Ishgard’s celebrations while the Temple Knights were busy elsewhere. This seemed like a bizarre request with so little danger in the middle of Ishgard, but we accepted and tried to do our best to look professional. The city was fairly well decorated and there were stands set up everywhere with all manner of activities for the children of the city to enjoy. It all seemed like it was going to be a relaxing evening. 

It would be noted that we learned after the fact that Bruce, the Moogle companion of the Revelation’s leader, Anakritis, was drawn away from the crowds and out of sight. He was presented with an option by the Garleans that drew him away and captured him. In his possession was a weapon that was favored by Anakritis, a large calibred Sniper Rifle that she had used in many of our missions leading up to this day named “HIs Radiance.” The options Bruce were given were to hand over the Sniper RIfle to the Garleans, or watch as the Garleans began hurting innocent kids during the festival. In the hopes that they would spare the children, Bruce complied and gave them the Rifle. 

Bruce was released, and he reappeared to the members of the Revelation, finding Anakritis and calling out to everyone that something bad had happened. He was hardly able to begin explaining the situation when a loud gunshot rang out into the crowd. 

Anakritis was the target of the first gunshot, and the noise attracted the small contingent of Temple Knights, as well as the scattered members of the Revelation to the scene. The Temple Knights moved into action, starting to help the civilians evacuate and move into nearby buildings for protection. The Revelation began looking for the shooter, but we were not alone, and a large Roegadyn man jumped to our aid, using a shield of magic to deflect the next shot away from us. Based on how he spoke, they must have belonged to the Black Adders, a rival Free Company in Ishgard who did not let their competition with us infringe on their willingness to help. Waves of Garlean Soldiers wearing traditional Garlean Regalia  appeared from nearby buildings, and alongside the Roegadyn man, a group of Black Adders joined the fray alongside us. 

A third shot rang out, and this one was deflected by the leader of the Rock Lobsters, a Third Rival Free Company with whom the Revelation had a particularly bad relationship. Together, all three Free companies fought through one of the Ishgardian streets towards where the gunshots were coming from, until more of the Rock Lobsters appeared, and warned us of a threat that was greater than the man with the rifle. A beam from a satelite moved through the road, causing mass destruction despite the Rock Lobster’s best attempt to generate a shield large enough to shield everyone from it. 

Those that survived the attack were roused a few minutes later by the surviving Temple Knights and Black Adders. We would come to find out that one of the Rock Lobsters had died, a small little thing that was house in some kind of housing attached to suit of their leader. The Garleans were able to all escape in the chaos, leaving us to lick our wounds. 

The next day, we had a meeting, waiting for a representative from the Temple Knights to come deliver a report to us. A Temple Knight by the name of Brasseaux was led down to our meeting room, and took a few minutes to break the tension by discussing the assistance of the other Free Companies, and of the Memorial Service the Rock Lobsters were hosting. He then began to divulge the details he was able to share. 

From those that were captured, they had learned that this was a splinter faction of Garlean National refugees who believed that Garlemald needed to be refounded following the End Days being averted. Across all the city-states of Eorzea, recruitment had been happening to gather all the men together, with this being the first act of violence they had committed to begin achieving their goals. This was all being orchestrated by a Garlean from the 7th Legion going by “The End” but was identified as Proculus Ban Carus with a single ship named “The Annulment” under his command. Anakritis seemed to recognize the name, having worked closely with him during her time in the Garlean Army. 

Unfortunately, this information was all that was known, and even though Brasseaux was willing to answer our inquiries there was not enough information in his replies to really learn anything new. The group did not really seem to have any vendetta against Eorzea at this time, with their goal being to return to Garlemald and refound their empire, but he did not believe they were prepared for this cause just yet, expecting them to continue to cause problems in the mean time while trying to recruit more refugees. 

A long period of no developments gave a sense of peace for a while, but a few things were set into motion that would set the stage for The End’s next chance to strike. 

We received a letter by official Moogle Post. It was from the Leader of the Rock Lobsters who claimed that after a few years of animosity between our Companies, that a fair duel in the Arenas of Ul’Dah were necessary to finally settle our differences. We accepted, and on the date in question arrived in the Arena for the match. The Rock Lobster’s leader seemed offended by the premise of the match despite being the one to propose it. I don’t think anyone was expecting the fight to truly be as bloody as it was, but the ‘grudge match’ was cut short when a surprise gunshot was heard from the crowd. It seems as if I was the target of this shot, but the Free Company and the Rock Lobster Leader all intervened to prevent my harm. This unfortunately resulted in the Rock Lobster taking the brunt of the gunshot, and she fell to the ground. We learned later that she was unable to be resuscitated. 

Chaos erupted in the arena, and people from everywhere in the arena all tried to flee at once from any exit they could take. The gunman was able to use this to cover his escape, but we all ran in pursuit. This led to many members of the Revelation being split up in multiple directions, trying to track down different suspicious persons. Saralotte and I moved together down an alleyway immediately opposite of the Arena where we found a man cowering under a blanket covered in Garlean insignia. After trying to help him evacuate, he removed the blanket, reveal a small chace of explosives that soon went off. I’m led to believe that the other members of the Revelation were ambushed as well. 

We would come to learn that not only was the letter we received fake, but the letter the Rock Lobsters were given was fake as well, using the information of our feud to goad us both into fighting eachother, drawing us out for an easy target. 

During the pursuit of the Garleans in the arena, we were able to capture one, and with the blessing of the Temple Knights took him to Witchdrop to interrogate him. He did not seem too keen on speaking, and nearly jumped off the cliff himself before our questioning went underway. Once he was detained again, his only condition for speaking seemed to be some kind of guarantee of safety. He provided us some information such as the Names of some undercover Garleans in Ishgard, and information on how the Garleans were moving in and out of the City-States unknown. It seems that the refugees were being given more leniency than they should have been and were taking advantage of it. Most of the conversation did not glean much information, but we were granted leave to keep the Garlean detained in our Free Company estate for the time being. 

There was another few months of no new developments, but everyone was constantly on edge about this threat that brewing just out of sight. 

One day, Anakritis left the Free Company estate in a hurry, leaving me with instructions to gather whoever I can and to meet her somewhere in the Black Shroud. When we arrived, Ana said she had ordered some custom pieces for a project from the Skysteel Manufactory, and that is was bound for the Mining Rig we had set up in Garlemald at Fort Dawnbreak. When it didn’t arrive on time, she suspected bandits had intercepted the shipment. It was a lot of steel that was very heavy, so we began searching the woods to see if we could locate it. 

We found the wagons stuck in the mud, and men who had taken the shipment seemed to think we were there to help them at first, but soon a short battle was underway and we caught the bandits by surprise. They weren’t exactly prepared for combat, so when all of them were disarmed and a few were captured. We found the crew of the original shipment, tied up and afraid, but still willing to make the delivery to Fort Dawnbreak., Anakritis began evaluating the shipment to ensure it was all there. A quick round of questioning allowed us to find out that they were tasked with intercepting this shipment from ‘A man in the sky’ and that they were going to deliver it to him. We sent the shipment back underway with additional escort. 

A week passed from our rescuing of the shipment and the plan to corner and destroy The Annulment. Ana had opted to use The Rise, floating in the skies near nothing in particular. Only once everyone was in position did Ana reveal that she had been monitoring census data of the major city states in Eorzea, and that she had found the Garlean Refugee numbers starting to wane. This seemed to indicate that our time to strike was closing in, and Ana chose today to make our attack on The Annulment. 

We split into pairs, each of the pairs taking a manacutter and swarming the ship. The goal was to move the Annulment into making evasive maneuvers, working it into a more vulnerable position per Ana’s instructions. The Garleans aboard the ship scrambled and returned fire, and even The End made his way to the deck of the ship to begin taking shots at the manacutters with his stolen rifle. The battle did not last very long, and at some point, Ana shouted out over the Linkshell that everyone needed to dive their manacutter down as low as they can. 

What followed was a scene of sheer chaos and destruction that I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed in all my time with the Revelation. The sky grew dark in comparison to the bolt of energy that was travelling through the air, and then the whole sky lit up in bright flashes of red and white. The manacutters shook violently and almost lost control in the air, and the noise of the explosion was deafening even as far away as we were. For a moment, everything seemed to stand still. The Annulment remained floating in the air, almost torn in half and on fire. The clouds had all been blown away, giving everyone in the Revelation a clear sight to watch the massive ship begin to sink down towards the archipelago down below. 

Needing to go investigate the damage to confirm the destruction of the ship and death of The End, we all landed our ships, and disembarked, preparing for a fight on our approach. The Garleans that survive were scrambling to put out fires and rescue injured survivors, but we were ordered to leave none alive. Just as the order was given to us, The End must have issued a similar order, giving us a wave of resistance on our approach. Resistance that was made all the more difficult thanks to the massive stolen rifle that The End continued to fire upon us. 

After a long battle with many of our members being injured, we were finally able to kill the errant Garlean, allowing Ana to reclaim her rifle and for the dream to reform the Garlean empire to die. 

Only after everything was said and done did Ana reveal to everyone what has happened. The shipment of the Steel to Garlemal to Fort Dawnbreak was mostly unknown to even the Officer Core at the time, a secret plan created by Ana and Ziemech, the leader of the fort, to construct a massive cannon atop the facility. On her mark, Ziemech fired the weapon across continents, allowing the extraordinary projectile to strike the ship once it had been chased to the correct spot. It was a massive feat of engineering, and coordination that allowed the projectile to strike the ship as planned. 

Only once everything was laid out to us did Ana describe one last piece of information. That firing the massive cannon very nearly destroyed Fort Dawnbreak, and another shipment of materials to repair the fort was needed… meaning we were going to be making a trip out to Garlemald to assist however we can.