Today I logged into Chumley, and ran off into the woods to go find the next quest NPC. It seems it's now time to tackle a tougher breed of fey... The centaur!
Did I mention they lead armies of fairies?
Needless to say, there was a mass-slaughtering of the fey. There's something extremely satisfying about taking down a group of fairies.
No real progress was made in the storyline with the next batch of quests. I seem to be constantly helping out people who really don't matter much. Delivering tools to loggers, killing fairies so their buzzing doesn't drive some woman mad, getting centaur blood for some guy... I wish I could be sent on better missions. At least in World of Warcraft I was uncovering enemy plans and saving the world half the time. At least the combat is fun.
Finding cool structures like this is quite pleasing though.
It has finally dawned on me how very European all of Arcadia is. Centaurs, fairies, and my next adversary, redcaps... These are all creatures that are very prevalent in European mythology. Coupled with the setting, I'm really starting to wonder if this was intentional.
Redcaps... angry little men, with angry little hats.
And finally, I get to make some progress in Arcadia's storyline. After slaughtering some redcaps along the way, I reached an outpost where a fairy named Lillith resides. She told me that the fey and the loggers have always had problems with each other. The fey protect the forest, and the loggers wish to cut them down. Peace had been brokered between the two, but the problem lies with the individual who brokered the peace. Someone is controlling his mind, and inciting him to order war upon the federation races.
Thanks for not trying to kill me... though I sure am tempted to take a swing at you.
Turns out this "guy" is actually a unicorn, and the "evil ones" came and turned him mad. I'm to go and wound him, and then give him some flower essence to attempt to clear the mind control from him. Hey, if there's trouble afoot, I'm the dog for the job!
I ran off to complete some other quests first, and was really taken aback at how the scenery had changed. No longer were things natural and normal, but instead unnatural and magical.
Giant flycatchers and glowing flowers, oh my!
I was nostalgically reminded of Final Fantasy XI's flora, and smiled to myself at the familiarity. One of my favorite parts about that game was the fantastical plants and trees that covered the landscapes. Ah, good memories.
It's like FFXI in high-def... or what FFXIV should have been.
While slaughtering more fairies and monsters, I found the unicorn guy by accident. Might as well get this over with.
He was one BIG unicorn.
I had to get him to under 30% health, and then dart him with the flower essence. He turned passive and though weakened, he thanked me and tasked me with escorting him to the Fairy Pond. After killing some monsters on the way, he gave me a tear. I was to deliver it to his military commander to show that he wants all attacks to cease. He then teleported away, obviously needed more elsewhere.
Despite the lifting of the evil haze that had clouded his mind, the taint hadn't been removed from the remaining blood-crazed fairies. I had to go kill them, and also put down the severely weakened and confused unicorns in the area.
Once that was done, I moved to the next area and was told to kill more monsters, and to find this woman's sister.
That search didn't end well.
I'm not usually nitpicky about things, but I have to say, I was really bothered by this quest. It wasn't the quest itself, it wasn't the dead body... it was the horrible clash of the music, and the subject matter.
I have to hand it to World of Warcraft on this one, but they had the perfect soundtrack to every area. The music wasn't happy, wasn't crazy, and when needed, was "actiony." No matter what quest you were doing, the music wasn't bothersome and seemed to always fit.
This area of Arcadia's main theme is a happy, cutesy kind of song. (Hear for yourself by watching this video) Doing a quest where you find a woman's dead sister lying discolored, alone in the forest with this music playing in the background just feels.... wrong.
Jon had to go to sleep at this point to get up early for work, so I decided to call it a night.
Current Impressions
Graphics: Still amazing and impressive.
Plot: Weak as usual.
Combat: Fun, though I do need to go back to the main city and get some new skills... I'll have to do that tomorrow.
Questing: Still stale.
Crafting and Gathering: Arcadia is FULL of gathering nodes. I'm quite thankful for it, though my inventory is getting full quite quickly.
Until tomorrow!
Until tomorrow!
