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The
Lesser of Two Evils
Progression:
*
Quest: Crossing the Desolation
* Mission: Gate of Desolation
Wyrm
- 04 Jul 2007
Now that we've secured the lands for the time being, we
need to take the offensive and bring the fight to Varesh. Unfortunately, none
of us have any idea as to how to go about doing this. We get word that Kormir
wishes to speak with us, perhaps she knows something about all this. When we arrive
she tells us we need to take Zhed and go see Mirza, and fast since Varesh is probably
already across the desolation. So the Harbingers were merely distractions. Mirza
tells us that no living creature can pass through the desolation. I don't like
the sound of that. He shows us the desolation and the sulfurous haze that covers
it and we plainly see there's no way across. All that's out there is death. We
take this information to Kormir. One name that has been popping up a lot recently
is Palawa Joko. We ask Kormir about him and she tells us that he's a walking dead
king that was defeated by Turai Ossa many, many years ago but that they could
not destroy him, only seal him away. Kormir
takes us to where Palawa was sealed away and before we can examine anything a
rift opens and she is pulled into the realm of torment. Now, we really need to
hurry and find a way to cross the desolation. There's a monument nearby that we
examine closely. When we read the inscription on it the seal is somehow broken
and Joko himself appears. And then runs away. I really don't like the walking
dead. Zhed tells us we don't need to worry since his pride will capture Joko before
long. We decide to believe him and so we head off in the direction Joko was running. It
is not long before we catch up to him. Just as Zhed said, he's been cornered by
centaurs and is exchanging insults with them when we arrive. As we interrogate
him, he and Zhed also share a few insults, but eventually we get the information
we want. There is no way to cross the desolation, but we can go under it by riding
in a giant wurm. In order to do that, we have to make them recognize us as their
masters. This sounds like it's going to be painful. We
head to where the edge of the sulfurous haze is and Joko points to a very large
wurm out in the desolation, calling her Queen Aijundu. In order to obtain her
help, we'll have to first tame her. First though, we have to fight off a few waves
of the walking dead. I really, really don't like the walking dead. Fortunately,
Jenova and Wirr are both avatars of Balthazar and, as such, they deal an incredible
amount of holy damage against these foes, ripping through them incredibly fast.
It's not long before they're all destroyed and Aijundu comes and attacks us herself.
We fend her off as best we can, but she really does hurt. A lot. After
she eventually retreats, more walking dead come in and attack us. This time there
are quite a few more than before and we have to use a few res sigs. To make matters
worse, two champions of the walking dead show up and start attacking us and at
the same time Aijundu also comes back and starts attacking. We pummel her down
and she retreats once again, and while we're finishing off the walking dead champions
Joko says something about us having tamed the queen and now being able to have
her aid. With
the walking dead gone, we approach a wurm spoor and are swallowed up by junundu
wurms. Much to our surprise, we're not dead. Even more to our surprise, we are
able to exert a certain amount of control over these wurms. Ginger is enjoying
herself immensely. This is a rather nice change of pace for all of us. We approach
the queen to thank her and she lets us know, somehow, about her young that are
being held prisoners by demons. We feel helping her is the least we can do, even
though we did have to work hard to earn this. In any case, we decide to help find
her missing young. The attack power and survivability of these creatures is amazing,
and combat with the walking dead and demons is even easier than when Jenova and
Wirr were using the power of Balthazar. Joko
starts to lead us through the desolation to our next destination, but we soon
discover that as we cannot walk on the sulfur desert, the wurms cannot tunnel
through solid rock, so we are forced to get out of them and walk part of the way.
We continue following Joko to the North and back into the desolation, where there
is another wurm spoor and we get back inside the bellies of these wurms. Before
we go much further, though, we spot a group of Margonites further to the North,
guarding one of the young. Remembering our promise to the queen, we head up and
destroy the Margonites. With this junundu young safe, we spot another group of
Margonites and another young down to the South, near where we were before. We
rescue this one and then head east, leaving the junundu as we cross rocky terrain
and then climbing back in at the spoor we had used earlier. We
now head back out into the desolation and to the Northeast, where we meet up with
Joko once again. He leads us along a path and we follow until we spot another
of the queen's young nearby. We decide to take the time to go rescue him as he's
the last missing young. Once we do, we go back and follow Joko the rest of the
way to the remains of Sahlahja, where we once again exit the wurms and proceed
onward to plan our next step. 
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