Staelwyrn has reason to believe that Sevrin is up to no good. Something must be done.
Staelwyrn: I’ve come to expect a great deal from you, lass, and you’ve never once let me down.
Staelwyrn: Yet what I’d ask of you now goes beyond aught I’ve asked before. Would you hear my plea all the same?
Staelwyrn: It eases my mind to have your ear.
Staelwyrn: You’re no doubt familiar with that scoundrel Sevrin by now.
Staelwyrn: Well, the schemin’ scapegrace is at it again. Since that letter came for him, he’s been skulkin’ about in that manner he does when he’s up to no good.
Staelwyrn: Now he’s rounded up his rogues and buggered off, with nary a word to anyone.
Staelwyrn: I’ve grown accustomed to his insolence, but somethin’ tells me this is different. It ain’t exactly damnin’, but when last I had words with him, he didn’t look defiant so much as hunted. I can’t help thinkin’ he’s gone lookin’ for trouble and found more than he wanted.
Staelwyrn: So I was hopin’ you might hunt his sorry hide down and drag it back here before it’s too late.
Staelwyrn: The ungrateful little cur bites me every chance he gets, but I can’t quite bring myself to cut him loose. I s’pose he reminds me a bit of my younger self.
Staelwyrn: Suffice it to say, I’d rather he didn’t come to a sticky end. As for how to find him, I’d try askin’ Grynewyda at the aetheryte. She was the last one to see him.
Staelwyrn: I daresay she’ll be able to tell you where he was headed.
Grynewyda: Nothing that passes through those gates escapes my notice!
Grynewyda: I saw the rouser and his rabble set out for Woad Whisper Canyon not long ago, singing about drinking themselves stupider. Cheeky sods said I should join them!
Grynewyda: I told them I’d rather shrivel up than sip whatever it was that had pickled their brains. If you find the idle swine, be sure and give them a cuff ’round the ear from me, will you?
Aylmer: Of all the dirty, deceitful, downright dastardly deeds that slippery bastard’s done!
Aylmer: Claimin’ to take the lads out for a drink, only to lead us straight into a bloody trap! It don’t get no lower than that!
Aylmer: ‘Course, I’ve learned to stay a step ahead of ol’ Sevrin, so I was ready─but the others weren’t so lucky. You’ve got to help ’em!
Eyrimhus: My axe may as well’ve been a white flag for all the good it did… Hope you fare better, or the sorry bastards in there are done for.
Sozai Rarzai: Sevrin might’ve got us into this mess, but I ain’t about to let him give his life for us. I’d sooner bow to a fishback than be in that connivin’ bastard’s debt! To arms!
Tattooed Man: A true knave! You betray even yourself, Sevrin.
Sevrin: Ugh…
Tattooed Man: We were prepared to overlook the matter of your desertion on the condition that you provided us with suitable replacements. That was the agreement.
Tattooed Man: Yet your latest change of heart leaves your debt to us unpaid.
Few are they who betray the Serpent Reavers twice. You will not do so a third time.
Tattooed Man: Cowering behind your protector will only delay the inevitable. Honorless wretch…your life is all you have left.
Tattooed Man: And worthless though it be, we shall take it!
???: O mournful voice of creation! Grant ye this humble stone a soul, that it may wake to life!
???: That the golem could be vanquished…
???: That woman is no ordinary adventurer.
Y’shtola: (sigh) …The snake slithered away.
Y’shtola: I am only glad he did not have the chance to sink his fangs more deeply into you.
Y’shtola: Those pirates do not belong to any of the known Lominsan factions… Whom then do they serve? The beast tribes? Surely not.
Y’shtola: But the timing of their appearance coincides all too neatly with the recent surge in Sahagin and kobold activity… Something is afoot. The question is: what?
Y’shtola: …Could it be that the tribes are planning to summon their primals?
Y’shtola: Twelve help us if it should prove so. Limsa would be hard-pressed to keep a single primal at bay, let alone two. But all is yet speculation. I must needs find evidence.
Y’shtola: The seas continue to rise…
Y’shtola: While the lesser moon continues to fall…
Y’shtola: And ilm by ilm, the world becomes ever more unlike itself.
Y’shtola: It is as Louisoix foretold…
Y’shtola: The coming of chaos has rendered the laws of nature mutable, blurring the boundary between the material and aetherial planes… Little now stands between us and the primals.
Y’shtola: …But they are not here yet.
“Though time be against us, hope shall ever be on our side.”
Y’shtola: Never did the creed of Sharlayan ring more true.
Y’shtola: Never did I dream that I would possess the means to see aether…yet now that I do, I do begin to take it for granted. How swiftly do the wonders of Sharlayan seem commonplace…
Flower Girl: Um…
Flower Girl: Here, for you. Have you come for the festivities?
Flower Girl: Today the Maelstrom officially makes that great hole in the sea its training ground. Join in the celebrations!
Y’shtola: Wait. A disturbance in the aetheric flow. But whence does it emanate?
Y’shtola: …Seasong Grotto, perhaps?
Y’shtola: What have we here…? Can you walk?
Y’shtola: ‘Tis I.
Regrettably, no. He eluded me.
Understood. I will inform the commodore.
Y’shtola: You collapsed from your exertions. Are you suitably recovered?
Y’shtola: Sevrin here has apprised me of all that transpired. His account shed some light upon how you came to be attacked by a golem of all things.
Y’shtola: A golem is a mindless automaton, inert save when commanded to be otherwise. Common pirates could not hope to control such a thing, so arcane are its workings.
Y’shtola: But then these tattooed wretches are no common pirates─they are the minions of the Sahagin. As to their purpose…well, I shall get to the bottom of it.
Y’shtola: But first I must escort Sevrin back to his place of employment. I daresay Staelwyrn will be wondering what has become of him.
Y’shtola: And you too, for that matter. I will bear word to him of your preservation, but I am certain he would like to thank you in person. Pray pay the man a visit.
Y’shtola: Ah…he told me of you, but perchance he did not tell you of me. My name is Y’shtola.
Y’shtola: I am…a naturalist of sorts, surveying the aether in the hope that it might offer up some clue as to our predicament.
Sevrin: I’d say I owed you my life…but that don’t cover it. If it weren’t for you, my friends would be dead, an’ all…
Sevrin: ‘Tis a debt I can never repay. But I’ll not make things worse by runnin’ away. Take me to Summerford Farms, an’ I’ll face the consequences.
Y’shtola: For reasons I cannot fathom, you seem…
Forgive me. Mayhap we shall have a chance to speak again when I have marshaled my thoughts.
Y’shtola: Until our paths next cross, farewell.
Staelwyrn: Lo! I knew you’d return.
Staelwyrn: Y’shtola delivered Sevrin a bit ago. Tales of your heroic deeds precede you!
Staelwyrn: The rest came shufflin’ back, too─the lot of ’em sportin’ the same haunted expression.
Sevrin: It’s me who’s to blame for that─that an’ the rest.
Sevrin: I was once a Serpent Reaver.
Staelwyrn: …A thrall to the Sahagin? Seven hells… Reavers may look and sound and act like pirates, but they’re naught but the fishbacks’ flunkies.
Sevrin: Us pirates ain’t much for laws, but there’s things we won’t do. We’ve got a code, see─but the Reavers’ve never followed a word of it. A few years back, they started snatchin’ law-abidin’ Lominsans.
Sevrin: I’d only just taken my oath when our captain bent the knee to his new Sahagin masters. I knew I had to get away.
Sevrin: So I crept off one night, got myself a new name, an’ found myself a new home─Summerford Farms. Trouble is, secrets don’t stay secret for long ’round here, an’ word soon spread…all the way back to the sea.
Sevrin: The penalty for desertion is death, but the Reavers offered me a way out instead─my freedom in exchange for my mates’.
Staelwyrn: The letter…
Sevrin: I dunno what I was thinkin’… (snort) I wasn’t bloody thinkin’. Too busy soilin’ meself.
Staelwyrn: Aye, but you got there in the end, didn’t you? When the time came, you made the right decision.
Staelwyrn: The men say little to me, but I hear ’em talk of how you stood up to the Reavers at the last─of how you tried to give your life to save theirs.
Sevrin: Be that as it may, no deed, however good, can atone for the crime of betrayin’ your brethren.
Sevrin: I know that─I do. That’s why I’m going to hand myself over to the Yellowjackets. I’ll bring shame to the farm no more.
Staelwyrn: Hm. You’ll hear no arguments from me. Each man must sail accordin’ to his own moral compass.
Staelwyrn: I just hope yours guides you back here someday. There will always be a place for you at Summerford Farms, lad.
Sevrin: An’ I’ll always be in your debt, Staelwyrn.
Staelwyrn: I owe you a debt too, Meredith. Not once have you let me down. Thank you for savin’ the men of my farm.
Staelwyrn: If I could ask one more favor of you, it’d be this: tell Baderon what’s happened, from start to finish. I’m certain he’d put in a good word for Sevrin if he knew the whole story.
Staelwyrn: And he’s one of the few people I know who the Yellowjackets’ll listen to.
Staelwyrn: Well, I reckon I’ve asked all I can possibly ask of you. Safe travels, lass.
Baderon: …Bloody ‘ells! Life on the farm ain’t quite ‘ow I pictured it!
Baderon: Ah, but ye needn’t worry yerself over young Sevrin. The Yellowjacket as ‘ands out the punishments is a good mate o’ mine. If I ask ‘im nice, I reckon ‘e’d be willin’ to commute the lad’s sentence from ‘angin’ to keelhaulin’, kindly gent that ‘e is.
…Ah, I’m only jestin’ with ye! I’ll see ‘e’s treated fair.
Baderon: Now, it sounds to me like ye’ve done everythin’ ol’ Staelwyrn asked o’ ye an’ more─justifyin’ me generous finder’s fee in the process. Much obliged, lass!
Baderon: As fer a reward…well, she’s a lonely lady, this Drownin’ Wench o’ mine. ‘Ow’d ye fancy keepin’ ‘er company fer a spell…with free room an’ board?
Baderon: ‘Venturin’s a tryin’ business, after all. Them as don’t rest their bones every now an’ again tend to end up with broken ones. An’ take it from me: fightin’ ain’t nearly so much fun when yer nursin’ a shattered arm. Got that? Good. There’ll always be a free bed fer ye, so make use of it.
Baderon: Not that ye’ll ‘ave much time fer lyin’ around, what with all the leves ye’ll be doin’. Oh, didn’t I mention? I’m puttin’ yer name down fer leves.
Baderon: Our guild draws all manner o’ clients, offerin’ all manner of odd jobs. Honestly, ye’d be amazed ‘ow much folk’ll pay to avoid doin’ an honest day’s labor.
Baderon: Just give T’mokkri a shout whenever ye feel like makin’ a few extra gil. She’ll always ‘ave some task or other fer ye to do.
Baderon: Oh, an’ it’s all above board, ‘case yer wonderin’. We’re careful to stay on the Admiral’s right side in ‘ere─unlike some pirates I could mention… I tell ye, if it turns out they ‘ad aught to do with them kidnappin’s, there’ll be seven hells to pay. A proper bleedin’ reckonin’…
Baderon: Mayhap that’s what Limsa needs, though. On rough seas, sometimes ye ‘ave to rock the boat to right it.
Baderon: But we’ll ‘ave time fer such talk when yer well an’ rested. Till then, enjoy the Wench’s ‘ospitality!
Keishinrei 