Thoughts from the Otherworld

It has been almost a full week since my last journal entry, and I think we have learned a lot here. The Yuhtunga Jungle spreading right outside Kazham is indeed a dangerous place, and was much more dangerous before I and Kii Kalira became a little used to life here. This jungle is no easy place to navigate, and wiill make you lose your bearings should your concentration slip even for a moment. A good many of the beasts here even are different from the ones on Quon and Mindartia, the majority of them being opo-opos, which can be quite dangerous when annoyed as we discovered. Of more familiar beasts there are bees and a type of crawlers, aside from the ever-present goblins. To think that they have adapted to live prosperously even in this dreadfully hot environment.
And speaking of the hot weather, I have never experienced such scorching heat as the heatwaves in this jungle. There are better days, ones with rain that nevertheless makes the air so humid that it is a chore to breathe, but the days of heatwave are the worst. The air shimmers with heat everywhere, and at times it looks as if the whole jungle burns with it.

There are some things that make wondering about the jungle worthwhile though. There are lush flowers everywhere you happen to look, and at times you can come across ones that while nothing too special during daytime, upon nightfall glow with a blue and purple light and spread their almost overwhelming scent to the winds... The first time we came across one we spent many an hour beside it, just wondering about the beauty of nature.

Kii Kalira has adapted well to life here I think. The only thing that gives her trouble are the confounding directions here in the jungles, where to get forward you must sometimes pass through several underground caves leading to entirely different directions before you reach a path that takes you where you want to go. These caves also bring other kinds of troubles. They tend to be a bit hidden, and sometimes when she isn't paying attention, or when she is merely feeling curious about where the cave below leads, she will suddenly drop down one... Thankfully she hasn't gotten hurt yet, but it gives me a scare every time it happens. There are dangerous goblins there, those beastmen like the relative coolness of the air underground.
Although I must admit, this behavior of hers led us to a wondrous place once. Near the newly constructed outpost in the southern parts of Yuhtunga Jungle, there is a high cliff that looks over a valley with several waterfalls. It is a beautiful place, but we hadn't managed to find a way down there yet. Then she dropped down one of those holes, and the tunnel she ended up in led all the way down to the valley. It was even more wondrous up close, although I must admit that at first, getting there was more of a shock than I thought it would be. It appears to be an area frequented by sahagins, the beastman race native to this island. Their skills in battle are nothing to be trifled with.

I believe we have now gotten our fill of the jungle for the time being. It is time to catch an airship back to Jeuno.

Being able to attune your own energy to many different strong energy sources is a blessing of kinds. For this purpose, recently I and Kii Kalira have been practicing our skills in fighting differently from our usual ways. It started with Kii Kalira's fascination with the art of summoning finally overcoming her good sense after arriving in Windurst this time. I think I will be content in the knowledge it is possible for me to summon Carbuncle to aid me should I so wish, I have no intention of making use of such a skill. Indeed, I think I might rest easier knowing I had no such skill, for it is one forbidden long ago.
Yet I cannot judge her for being curious about it. I think she has a bond of kinds with Carbuncle that I do not have. I suppose that comes naturally with fighting with him by your side for longer periods of time.

While Kii Kalira was busy experimenting with the art of summoning, I took it upon myself to practice my physical fighting skills. I have known the very basics of hand to hand fighting for some time now, and since I now had the extra time on my hands I decided to try it out further. I think I've gained many skills in this relatively short time, and once Kii Kalira realized what I had been doing we ended up teaming up to see how the combination of a physical attacker would work with a mage aided by Carbuncle. It works surprisingly well, and we were able to take down opponents we could not have taken at this level of experience on our usual battle styles. I think our knowledge of battle and our adversaries made a difference in this, too.

I think we may be talked about in the Cathedral, and much more than I thought. After completing a task for friar Eperdur in Cathedral proper and arriving in Windurst, we heard word that a pilgrim friar had been asking if we had been in Windurst lately. Not wanting to keep a friar in waiting, we made haste to his reported location, and did indeed find him. He had a rather similar request for us, to place some spirit incense in a fire in Eldieme Necropolis.
We have never been to the Necropolis, and the stories I have heard of it are not too encouraging. Thankfully by his words we do not have to venture in too deep, so we agreed to burn this incense. It is for the purpose of calming the dead after all, and as such a good deed.

I think all that researching and synthesis I did in Bastok left Kii Kalira slightly bored. Hardly had I finished my business as she insisted we go hunt for treasures. I did not know what exactly she had in mind, though, and I think I mgiht not have agreed to this had I known beforehands where we were heading to. She had heard somewhere that the tomb of King Ranperre had treasures for the taking to anyone who happened to wander by. I do admit that the tomb has a bit of a monster problem these days, but to go there in search of treasure! Unimaginable.

Nevertheless, I did not discover her intentions until we were already at the entrance of the tomb, and it was too late to protest her intentions at that point. At least we managed to exterminate quite a few monsters from the tomb. Previously I had only gone a little ways in, but this time we ventured much further. I did not know the situation had gotten quite so bad in there. Goblins, skeletons, even some ghosts, and this in addition to the expected bats and worms that are more every-place pests than anything.
We did not discover anything too valuable, thank Altana for that. Although while wondering around by herself, trying out her new dancing techniques on anything that came too close, she somehow managed to acquire a cloak with some relatively weak enchantment in it. It is slightly worrying, but I do not think the tomb would have originally included an item of that quality, and must deduce from this that it is a spoil of battle some monster had brought to its nest in the tomb. And I do have to admit, the loot we gathered from these monsters, while cheap by themselves, when sold in volume were very helpful in making a little gil to help fund traveling.

It has been a long time, but I visited the Cathedral with Kii Kalira today. One of the friars there had heard of our achievements - from where, I do not know - and had a request for us. We are to replace a seal of banishing deep in the Gusgen Mines. I remember the last time we went there, the place was full of undead of all kinds. They must have pushed off replacing it for some reason. We will head out towards Gusgen in the morrow.

I and Kii Kalira have made our way to Bastok. It has been some time since we last were here, with all this running around between this beach and that, and even the mysterious visit to the past. Nevertheless, here we are now, and I took advantage of the fact to find some more information about this Kriegstanz. I never knew it had such a long and morbid history! I had heard of dancers on the battlefield before, but they were barely more than mere mentions, details to me were left in the dark. Turns out that the popularity of the Kriegstanz - and indeed, the people who invented it - were mountain people from the region of Gustaberg, brought to the city of Bastok the curb the dangerous custom of animating the dead and dancing with them in reckless abandon. This being called the Totentanz. I can barely imagine what it would have been like, knowing that a deadly disease was making its rounds, in despair descending on the streets during the warm nights of Bastok, to dance with the living and the dead in harmony... the mere vision chills my bones.
I wonder how Kriegstanz and other styles of battle dances faded out so thoroughly after the Great War. I wasn't even aware there were that many schools of dance applicable in battle, let alone that somewhere there were still practicioners of it. I suppose the latter makes much sense - after all, it has been a mere twenty years. Not all practicioners could have died out in this brief period of time.

Since we were in Bastok already and I had the spare time for a change, I took it upon myself to try more goldsmithing synthesis. It was a good way to get a little time away from the books while I looked into the history of the various schools of dance, and I ended up making some progress in my skills. As a result, I was finally acknowledged as a recruit of the official Bastokan goldsmithing guild. It is a small step, but even a small step is progress.

This year started so slowly, yet already this much time has passed, and there has hardly been a time to rest properly since the end of February. It is almost May again, and this has prompted the moogles to arrange yet another of their events. I remember this particular one from last year, thankfully neither then nor now has something gone wrong. We decided to come to Bastok to celebrate this past year of adventuring, and see Endahren off on his way back to San d'Oria.
I feel like a bad friend, for not having mentioned him in such a long time in my journal. We have kept in contact via letters, although even this has been made somewhat difficult by me so rarely being somewhere where letters could reach me. Now that I have met him once again, I have this feeling that something is happening in his life that he hasn't been telling me. He seems to..avoid me somehow, even though on the surface he seems exactly like before. I am not certain how to approach this matter.

Before leaving Sand d'Oria when this moogle-sent event Egg-hunt Eggstravaganza was upon us, we headed to Mt Ghelsba to retrieve our second of the set of three keys required for a free Kazham pass. I still have my doubts about this scheme, although I suppose gaining intelligence of the most recent orc movements can never be a bad thing. We had to venture in quite deep to Fort Ghelsba - indeed, at one point we found ourselves at the very top of Mt Ghelsba, above the Forst even - but managed to retreive keys for the both of us. Unlike with the yagudo in Giddeus, I have no worries of the political kind to slay several of these beasts. Or for that matter, quadav.

That being the last required key, the Palborough one. The mine is full of these turtle-like beastmen, as we very well knew from previous experience on the mission we ended up slaying that nether-world dragon. Entering that place brought back unpleasant memories, and the mine is not too cheerful a place for even the brightest person. I have to admit to being somewhat glad to be done with that place.

Other than that, we have been enjoying the Eggstravaganza festivities here in Bastok. It involves trading eggs with letters on them to make sets that spell out various words, and the moogles give out prices to people who give them some certain words. It is a strangely exhilirating experience, and a great spirit-raiser after as gloomy a place as Palborough.

It is good to spend some time in one's home nation every now and then. At least, this was the thought in the back of my head when I and Kii Kalira headed to San d'Oria after making our aqcuaintance with the goblin Guttrix. But as an adventurer of some name I suppose one should not expect too much time to rest. Hardly had we entered within the walls of the city that we came across Balasiel who had previously awared both of us with the rank of a San d'Orian squire. He had one more test for our skills it seems, for he read us a riddle from the Book of Tasks. While somewhat tired, I did not hesitate to start unraveling this riddle. The first part of it was much more easily solved than the second, but I must admit to being almost defeated by the next two riddles. As Kii Kalira claimed to not be interested in riddles it is entirely possible they would have remained unsolved but for a chance happening - an official mission from San d'Oria. And not just any mission, a mission that enabled me to meet Prince Trion! It was a great honor to meet His Highness once again. To have word of my accomplishments reach the ears of one of the princes, it is almost unimaginable.

Ah, yes, the riddles. As my mission orders I was instructed to head to Davoi to retreave a report on the moves of the orcs there. Upon researching my destination - mainly its map - I had the most enlightening idea. The clues, while for certain could point to just any place with a river, could very well coincide with the layout of Davoi as well. I wasted no time picking up Kii Kalira before we headed to Davoi. I have been there on a mission before as well, but that time did not require me to head as deep in as this time.

Once I had successfully retrieved the report from a knight on duty in the area, we started searching the area. While it might not have been too good to dally around like that while on an official mission, I justify this to myself as having been a ssemi-official mission from a high-ranking San d'Orian official.

...I cannot deny that it was somewhat difficult to sneak around Davoi. There were orcs everywhere, ones far more skilled than what we have previously encountered. But once again, our spells came to our aid, and we managed to retrieve a peculiarly disfigured sword from a disused well at the very edges of Davoi. Upon returning to San d'Oria, not was I only congratulated on the completion of my mission by Prince Trion himself, but by presenting the disfigured sword to Balasiel as proof of solving the riddles I and Kii Kalira were awarded the title of honorary San d'Orian knights. I cannot help but feel that my heart is about to burst with pride. I must attempt to bring myself to ground somehow soon, becoming proud over these recent events would not be a very good way to pay back all this honor I have been awarded as of late.

Maybe the way to achieve this lies with Kii Kalira. She does not seem too affected by becoming a knight, but instead grumbles about everything. I wonder what is wrong with her. Maybe she did not agree with coming to San d'Oria after all.

Somewhere along the way, a whole year has passed since I set out on my adventure. Certainly many things have happened, too many to conveniently downsize to a simple sentence. May the next year bring as much excitement, and avoid the sorrows and worries that plagued parts of the last.