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.

The Eldieme Necropolis, once more widely known as the Coveffe Barrows. As a once-sacred resting place of the dead, more recently haunted by restless souls of the fallen in the Great War, I was naturally hesitant to enter the place, even for the brief time required to burn the incense given by the pilgrim friar in Windurst. Nevertheless, in we went. I am still glad we were not required to go in further, there is something about knowing that the place used to be a peaceful place for my ancestors to end their journey on Vana'diel, and comparing that image to the present-day situation that makes me extremely reluctant to even approach the place.
The burning incense meant to ease the spirits of the dead looked pitiful burning in the depths of the darkness of the necropolis, and I must admit that the scent was not too pleasant. Once we reported this to the friar however, he merely stated he would continue his studies on the matter and gave us a reference letter for friar Eperdud in the Cathedral. This was most unexpected, and we had already made plans to head to Kazham and its jungles after this, going so far as to bond with the home crystal in Lower Jeuno to facilitate our swift return, our intention to take the first airship to Elshimo Island after reporting on this matter. Thankfully, it appears that the letter is not urgent and can be turned in after our journey to the jungles of Elshimo.

Thankful for this small gesture of understanding, we headed to Jeuno where we were momentarily held up by a somewhat alluring offer. It appears that there is a rather similar offer to the Kazham airship pass one, but this to earn a ferry pass authorizing passage to Aht Urhgan, the nation on the eastern continent of Aradjiah. It was most interesting, and we discussed obtaining the items required for this pass with Kii Kalira, but decided we have neither time nor interest to head to the Near East for the moment. I wonder how long this offer stands.

We are now headed towards Kazham as planned, and will reach the city by nightfall. This time, we intend to see what the jungles have to offer for us.

Gusgen Mines...I had no idea things were so bad deep inside. When we visited the place last year we only went a little ways in, just enough to see the hordes of undead that had made residence in the mines. It turns out that undead are not the only ones that call those mines home, but there are more than enough common ghosts in there. I think these might be the actual dead miners from when the place was still in use.
It is highly unsettling. Walking around in the mines, you see strange and unexplainable lights, hear voices and laughter the person beside you might not hear, see visions of horribly disfigured people that appear out of nowhere right beside you, and disappear just as quickly. And as if that was not enough to make Gusgen a truly inhospitable place, once you enter the deepest parts of the mine it appears to be almost impossible to get out. Once we entered, no matter how we tried we could not find the way out - tunnels that seemingly lead towards the exit mysteriously led past it. We could only longingly gaze down at the exit hub far down below, when we managed to find even that. The tunnel you could see it from was entirely too high to attempt descending, however.
I do not ever wish to enter that deep in to the mines again. Once we ascertained that something in the mines was preventing us from getting out the normal way, we took it upon ourselves to cast Warp upon ourselves. It is a good thing indeed that the spell worked, if not we would likely still be stuck within the mines, lost.

While I suppose it was a good thing we Warped, I wonder why we did not do it immediately upon replacing the old seal of banishing with the new one once we found it. We would have done that soon anyway, as it is the overwhelmingly fastest way to return to San d'Oria to report on the completion of the task we were given. Friar Eperdur who gave us this task was gracious enough to reward us with a rare spell, that of Teleport-Holla. Somehow, this magic homes in on one of the crystals at the Crag of Holla in La Theine Plateau, and transports the caster and possibly several others to that exact point, no matter where in the world they were before. I have heard of teleporting before - indeed, have used a kind of teleporting they offer for some cost to every San d'Orian citizen that wishes to use it - but we did not have access to such spells before.
I do not think I can use this spell for quite some time as it requires rather advanced skills with white magic, but Kii Kalira has the required skills and more. This is truly a gift from the Goddess, and will undoubtedly ease our traveling quite a bit. I cannot help but wonder if we would be able to obtain similar spells for other crystals in the world.