#don't mess with the old ladies of Ishgard

[housedeaubemarle]

FFXIV Write 2024 #20 : Duel

A sequel/companion piece to @escherstrange-ffxiv's entry for #18 Hackneyed

~~

“…lordling …opo-opos... directly to Lady Hanrieaux…!”

“How… Dowager Aubemarle is losing her wits… mountebanks…”

Baroness Symonne de Vaillant fanned herself as she crossed the hall, weaving through the crowd. Along the way, she smiled and nodded at those who greeted her, but didn’t stop till she reached her destination: the side of a lady in a gown of dark purple and black, with matching amethysts round her neck and dangling from her ears. She was watching the room intently, but instantly smiled at the baroness’ approach.

When Symonne reached her, she leaned forward to kiss the air beside each of the baroness’ cheeks. “Sister. Delightful to see you tonight.”

“Likewise. You look very fetching, my dear. You ought to wear purple more often.”

"I most certainly will after such approval." The Dowager placed both hands over her walking stick’s handle. “What news?”

Baroness Symonne unfurled her fan again, fanning herself in slow, elegant movements. Her voice was modulated so only her companion would hear her. “Lady Hanrieaux is leaning heavily on you being hoaxed by your relatives. That could be the only reason for Lord Joshua’s rudeness."

Her sister-in-law snorted expressively. “Is that the best she can do? That excuse is moons old.”

The baroness smiled. “Originality has never been her strong point.”

“That much is being proven every summer.” The Dowager rolled her eyes. “Her aspirations to be an influence on the ton are overshadowed by her desolate taste in fashion.”

Symonne chuckled, still fanning herself as her eyes scanned the room, falling on the subject of their conversation at the far end of the room. Tall feathers in her unusually tall headdress pinned to her hair quivered as the lady laughed at something. “And yet there are willing ears to listen to her and ready mouths to repeat her words.”

The Dowager followed her gaze, and smiled serenely. “There will be others who do the same for us. Speaking of which, here comes one of the wider pairs of ears in Ishgard.” She called out towards a gentleman with salt and pepper hair who had just turned the corner nearby. “Lord Drividot! It has been an age!”

The man she’d hailed stepped forward quite willingly. “My lady Viscountess, Baroness Vaillant. Splendid to see you – what a crush this evening eh?”

“Good evening, Lord Drividot,” said Symonne with a pleasant smile. “We missed you at the Mayeulons’ gathering the other night.”

“An honour to be remembered, ma’am.” He said with a genuinely pleased grin and a bow. “Did I miss anything of import?”

The Dowager slid a look at her sister, who just continued to fan herself quietly, then back at Drividot with a sharp smile. “Oh the usual gossip and rumours, although…” She leaned in, and Drividot did the same to eagerly listen. “There was a particularly striking on dit. Apparently one of our most noble ladies has been hiring musicians.”

“And what might be so particular about that, if I may ask? Music is hardly anything unusual,” said the gentleman with a raised eyebrow.

“My dear sir, do attend: musicians. Not music.” She flicked her eyes towards Lady Hanrieaux’s direction. “An entire quartet, whilst the lord of the house is away these past few nights, for her singular amusement.” She smiled. “Speaking for myself, I would be simply exhausted after only one night. But then, I am old and haven’t such ardour.”

Lord Drividot’s face was the very picture of restrained glee as he followed her gaze. Then he turned back to her. “Well, well. A quartet you say. For multiple nights. What a lover of the arts this lady must be.”

Baroness Symonne raised her fan higher to obscure the struggle she was having not to laugh. With admirable self-control, her sister-in-law nodded gravely. “One might even say, an insatiably involved patron of such arts.”

“Quite,” said Lord Drividot with a grin. “Well, I shall not monopolise your attention, ladies. A good evening to you both.”

They nodded in farewell, watching the gentleman move away. He was soon at the elbow of another man, and in the midst of their conference, nodded in the direction of Lady Hanrieaux. Lord Drividot’s acquaintance laughed aloud once, then they parted ways.

Symonne slid a glance towards the Dowager and finally let herself chuckle. “Did you know he would be here?”

“A lucky meeting,” she said with a shrug, watching as the gentlemen disappeared into the crowd. “It is a fortune his mind has a tendency towards vulgar assumption. With any luck, the rumour mill will do its usual inflammatory work, and we'll have someone whispering to us of her unspeakable sordidness within a week. It might be too much to hope for her to winter in Ul'dah, but we shall see."

“Indeed,” replied her sister with a knowing smile. “Tis a fortune for the Losstarots as well.”

The Dowager’s face was perfectly blank. “Now what could that possibly mean, my sister?”

“Nothing, dear. Just thinking out loud.”

-

end.

[escherstrange-ffxiv]

#4: Reticent

[One year after fleeing Ishgard.]

Laura kicked the door of apartment so hard it banged against the wall. "Here we are, home sweet home. Don't mind the mess, I ain't had time to tidy up." She stepped aside for the boy, watching him take slow, cautious steps inside.

Though she had promised his brother, finding Joshua someone who would take him in was harder than she expected. Everyone had an excuse or other: too fragile, too sickly, too high maintenance, too duskwight. Those who did want him were worse, and that was how Laura Treegarden gained a charge.

Though shorter than most trips, the journey from Mor Dhona to Limsa had changed him: He hadn't spoken much, but now he was downright reticent; jaw clenched, lips pursed so tightly it looked glued shut, and she was certain the light had gone out in his eyes on the boat ride. "I'll get ye a bed tomorrow, just sleep on the couch for now, ay?" A tower of binders clattered to the ground. "Paper's quite soft when ye get used to it, heh."

He did not laugh. He huddled at one side and stayed there, hugging his knees and stared straight into a corner.

She was not prepared for this at all. Where did one even begin to take care of a teenager, let alone an Ishgardian fugitive? "Joshua," she started, scratching her head, "I know this is a lot for ye to take in, and, well, I guess I'm sayin' it's okay to be mad. But life's gotta go on, and, and well, oh I know! We could grab some parchment an' quill t'morrow and write a letter t' yer brother-"

"No need." That would be the first words he uttered all week, and now she had an inkling of what he was thinking. "Ah, yer mad."

"..."

No sooner had she started to comb for ideas did the answer stare her in the face - a battered axe, chipped and dull, leaning in the very corner he looked at. "Ah, here's an idea." She grabbed it and held the handle out to the boy. "This here's m' old axe. Shoulda tossed it after I cleaved the skull o' the man who brought me outta Ala Mhigo - got sick of his ideas for me, y'see - but that's an old memory ye ain't interested in. Anyroad, ye take this axe now, and when yer angry at the world what done you wrong, ye hit something with it. Rocks, trees, maybe when you're older ye can aim for beastkin, I dunno. But it's a start. Go on, try it."

Joshua slowly looked up at the axe, then at her, slowly arching his eyebrow, incredulous at her terrible life hack. He would say, "What the fuck, lady," but he still had not grown out of noble Ishgardian upbringing yet, though it certainly took seed in him.

To her, it was progress. Any progress was always good. Her chest swelled with pride at a job well done. "That's a start, boy. We'll put some life back in ye yet."

[minti-tales]

FFXIV Write '23, Day 1: Envoy

CW: Language.

"Ser Charibert. Father Dumond. How unexpected of you to visit, and at such a late hour. Will you be coming in for tea? I'm afraid that it might take a little while to boil water - we lost our housemaid not two weeks ago. Thought she would be better off with the Fortemps, she did. As if we don't have enough to pay her well!"

The cracked wooden doors of Grandwell, House Treleaux's manse in the Crozier, were wide open, letting in the "damnable cold" the Lady Sabbatine was never fond of. She - her Ladyship, a Duskwright of minor importance - was wrapped up in her favorite purple and gold evening gown, the clothes looking as faded as their wearer. Her snow white hair was a mess, not done up in buns or a weave, like it would've been if there was time to prepare for guests. She thought to portray the role of the matriarch of her House, aloof and unafraid of her very important guests, but the Ishgardian cold knew her better. They knew her better.

The cold crawled up her arms with ravenous glee, feasting, sending her into shivers. It didn't matter that her favorite blanket was wrapped tight and snug against her bodice, her body well sculpted after years of training in the Knighthood. "Won't you come in?" she said, with a touch of urgency in her voice. It wasn't like the Temple Knights, much less a man of the cloth, to stay in the doorway thus. But they always did look at her with more than a modicum of loathing. She was a thief who stole from the shadows of Gridania to make her fortune, after all. A woman who reported directly to the Consortiums in Ul'dah. Everyone in polite society knew that.

Charibert spoke next. The old elf at his side, dressed in simple blue robes tied up with a white cord, nodded occasionally and held the holy symbol of Halone in front of his wrinkled, cracked lips. It swung in the evening wind, spinning like a bird on the gold chain it was suspended on.

"Lady Sabbatine Treleaux, of the House Treleaux, daughter of the late Ser Armone Treleaux," he said, every word pulsing with the rotten fires of faith that burned in his chest. "Pray forgive our visit. It is late, as you have observed so astutely. We are on rather important business, you understand. Concerns sent down from the Holy See, directing us to your place of residence. These urgent matters, I'm afraid, make it that there is no time for you to entertain us." Dumond nodded again, as Charibert continued. "We will, however, come in, by your invitation. It would be rude to refuse a woman of grace, as yourself."

Dumond scurried past Lady Sabbatine, as cockroaches do when they find a warm hearth to swarm in. His eyes seemed fit to pop out of his head and roll around on Grandwell's treasures and antiques, fewer though they were in recent years. Such a toad of a man!

But clever Wards knew their way around toads - humanoid or not - so as to overhear the Lady of the house in a tense meeting with Temple Knights. A Ward, such as the "hyur" Minuet Chocolate du Treleaux, who, despite their youthful appearance, had experienced much since their exodus from the faraway land of Othard. She was so clever as to sneak out of her bed chambers, undetected by any of Treleaux's remaining servants, and press herself right up against a wall that bordered the living room, the wall hollow enough to catch most of the conversation herself.

It wasn't good. Charibert was accusing her Ladyship of harboring a dragonspawn, in addition to being a heretic herself, a Dark Knight. A "Grey-eared witch, with a scaled devil suckling from her teat, has no place in the good city of Ishgard," he said. Someone must have seen Minuet without the shawl she kept over her ears - a way to keep herself hidden from the eyes of the inquisitors. But, it was more than just the accusations of heresy, wasn't it?

"You will be brought to trial, where you will be tried for charges of heresy, and put to death if found guilty, which, I assure you, you will be. You have until the first light of tomorrow morn to settle your business and say your goodbyes. Your heresy will be burnt out of you, my Lady, by all means necessary."

The toad spoke up for the first time. "A-Additionally, House Treleaux is dissolved, as such horrendous witchcraft cannot, will not be tolerated! N-no! H-House Dzmael will be the rightful owner and executor of all their, your, assets. Lady Sabbatine," he croaked. "Vile witch. I s-shall take great delight in seeing your hellspawn burn before Halone's radiant gaze. Mm. Yes."

-----

As soon as Charibert and Dumond left, Lady Sabbatine knew that her candle was nearly out. If Lady Sabbatine was to die - no. She would go out reminding Ishgard of the rot deep inside its heart, sword in hands. Her kingdom had lost its need for gallant knights long ago.

Lady Sabbatine found her ward, her lost lamb in the woods, sobbing in the hallway. The poor girl was slumped against the wall, hand up against the cracking paint in an attempt to steady herself. Not so long ago, her Minuet was ambushed by bandits in the snows near Dragonhead. She would have died a frozen wretch, if not for a knight of Onyx Shade who happened to be riding nearby, and decided to teach her the ways of honorable combat. How much like a storybook...

With armored glove, Sabbatine lifted the girl's chin up. "A squire should not despair," she said with eerie calm, "even when the blade is closest to one's neck. For what is your sword to do, but parry and give yourself room to fight back?"

Minuet sniffled, and reached out to hug her Lady, her adopted mother. It was a warm embrace, in the midst of looming tragedy. "Don't go," she whispered. "We could run away together, couldn't we? Go somewhere, like Limsa, or places East."

"And what would that solve, Minuet? Nothing. All it would do is prove that the Church is right, that we are monsters worthy only of burning in the hellsfire. Monsters who flee at the mention of Halone's grace." Lady Sabbatine brushed tears away from Minuet's eyes. "Cry all you need, and when you're done, Modeste will have a gift for you, from me. But you can't open it until you're ready. Promise?"

Minuet gave a muffled "Yes."

"Good. Then I have needs to attend to, my dear. Twelve be good to you."

-----

If everything went according to plan, Minuet should be far from Ishgard by the break of morn - maybe already on the island if the merchant Sabbatine hired was fast enough. In her packs would be a purse of gil, a fresh change of clothes, and a letter of introduction to the acting guildmaster of the Arcanist's Guild, Thubyrgeim Guldweitzwyn. The guildmaster was to call Minuet by her chosen name, Minti Chocolate, and teach her ward in the ways of summoning. It would have to be enough for her to start anew, away from Ishgardian eyes. Maybe, just maybe, she would never find the crystal in which her Lady's memories were kept. Maybe it would just be a pretty gem in her possession.

Lady Sabbatine, for her part, had a trial to attend. She would give Ser Charibert a rousing defense.

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

in too deep (1)

Snow was beginning to fall over Old Sharlayan as the city began to awaken for the day. Curling her toes into the dirt, Astrid looked out over the city harbor, dragging in deep lungfuls of the salt-breeze that occasionally came her way. She needed the fortification, she needed the awakening...

She needed to get a grip.

A week had been long enough.

And yet it had been a struggle for her to leave the warmth and comfort of her bed, even harder to make herself step into the bath. Helena had been the same way--and Astrid had rebuked her when the housekeeper had tried to start picking up the mess of takeout bags and cartons--a week's worth of food from the Last Stand, for Helena hadn't had the heart to cook, Astrid hadn't had the heart to cook. They hadn't had the will to do anything--

---

"There was...an incident in Camp Broken Glass." Barnier's tone was...quiet. Too quiet.

"An incident?"

"Astrid..." Montichaigne had an unreadable look on his features. "It was Camilla. She's dead."

---

Astrid closed her eyes. It was only natural for one to reel from the sudden absence of a burden that had been carried for too long. For her, it had been hate-it had been rage--a poison ball lodged in her belly, her mind, her throat.

"We don't have the full details, but she...turned into a blasphemy. A young officer of the camp struck her down."

Vengeance for her son, for Emma, for Riven. Complete, utter, and final, as the aether of those turned into blasphemies was fully consumed. Never would they reach the heavens or hells, nor return to the Lifestream to await their turn anew. Never in her wildest imaginings had Astrid ever considered this turn of events.

I hope she suffered every step of the way. Astrid opened her eyes, inhaling a deep lungful of salt once more. She couldn't afford to remain abed, she couldn't afford to wail and weep. A week had been long enough--and it was the height of the Sharlayan social season. The gossiplines surely had to be on fire--and it wasn't wise for her to provide any more fuel.

I will tell Helena to hire a maid to clean the mess, and we will go over what we've missed, and I need to attend the night's gathering. And she'd take Helena with her. Both of them needed to get out of the house. The sound of footsteps startled Astrid out of her thoughts, and she turned around. A figure in pink was running down the path towards her--Helena, and Astrid could only gape in surprise.

"Helena?!" She exclaimed. Her housekeeper closed the gap-and Astrid saw that she was clutching a newspaper. Shock was on her old friend's face, and Astrid felt fear bubble up inside her.

"Helena-what--"

"Read!" Helena got out, shoving the newspaper into Astrid's hands. Automatically Astrid reached out, her fingers curling around the paper as she looked down...

And on the front page was Riven, bejeweled and gowned, a fan held demurely to her face. Next to her was Sebastian, similarly attired. Astrid's eyes fell to the picture's caption--and then she reeled, as if someone had kicked her square in the stomach.

Eorzean champions Lady Riven Fortemps and Sebastian Astralyas take a quick breather out on the balcony at Forum Member Ruuj's ball. We here at the Grapevine have been able to confirm that the Lady Fortemps has accepted an invitation to attend the next fortnight and a half of the social season here in Sharlayan--

"What?!" Astrid choked out. "No, no, that..that can't be right!" Riven-from what she had known and gathered, Riven hated high society gatherings--only attending a scant few in Ishgard and even less in the other city-states...

"It's true!" Helena confirmed. "I got-there was a message that came the night Barnier and the others came to tell us--I didn't open it until now. She's spending the next three weeks here and will be attending every major social function in that time!" She paused, watching as Astrid bowed her head, hair hiding her face.

"What do we..."

"Find out what she's up to." Astrid interjected, her voice a croak. She stared down at the photo-no, photos, there was another one of Riven and Sebastian.

"She's up to something. They're up to something. Find out what it is, and get me a list of every single ball, party, tea--everything she's attending. Get eyes on her, eyes on Astralyas, the Bishops-every single one of them!"

----

Poison Ewer masterpost

in too deep side story [one]

in too deep side story [two]

[whmguidetoffxiv]

A White Mage's Guide: Tomestones and the House of Splendors

If You're sub-50, you won't have to worry too much about this yet. But for those of you just cresting that beautiful 5-0, you've probably heard about and been confunded by Tomestones. What are they? Why do they keep changing? Who's this Rowena person everyone's terrified of?

Well, look no further.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Bane of your existence.

Rowena runs the House of Splendors, and end-game, high-end shop from which you buy gear, weaponry, items, and so forth. however, Rowena doesn't deal in gil; instead, she deals in those enigmatic tomestones that you'll start collecting once you've reached level 50.

These are Tomestones; they're accessed by clicking Ctrl+C to open your currencies window, under 'battle'. These are collected automatically when you run dungeons after reaching level 50. Tomestones of Poetics, the base level, are earned with any post 50 dungeon or roulettes run under level 80. The next three are on a roatation; the second one (under poetics) is the 2nd-high end; you earn it at level 80 by running roulettes or level 80 dungeons. The Third is the Highest tier you can currently get; it's earned the same way as the previous, but you're capped at earning 450 of them per week. Each set of tomestones can purchase a different set of gear or items.

Notice that I never gave them names? Well, that's because they rotate out whenever a post-MSQ patch is released. (Or rather, every other one.) The 'discontinued' tomestone you see was the previous 2nd-high end. So when a new patch hits, a new tomestone is released. The high-end becomes the 2nd-high end, and the 2nd-high end is discontinued and its purchaseables switch to poetics. If you happen to have any of the discontinued ones, you can trade them in for an item that will give you an equivalent you can spend.

Rowena's got her claws in almost every corner of Eorzea and beyond. Practically speaking, it means she's not hard to find. She's got representatives in every major city, and in certain end-game areas for each expansion pack. They're represented by a blue bag on the map for the sundries girls, usually near the aetherytes. The full suites of the House of Splendors are going to be in the endgame areas.

The Girls in Gridania, Ul'Dah, and Limsa, and Mor donuts Dhona will all sell level 50 gear, regardless of what class or you currently are. The girl in Ishgard and Idyllshire will sell level 60 gear, and so on. The sundries girls will only sell items you can buy with tomestones, and there's a reason this is important.

The House of Splendors deals in a LOT more than just tomestones. You'll find random items from raids, fates, and events that you may not know what to do with. Chances are, you can spend them at the House of Splendors. Odin's Mantle, for example; you get it from a Fate that spawns randomly in any of the Black Shroud areas. You can trade it in Mor Dhona for gear, a sword, or a barding. However, you can only do this in Mor Dhona; each end-game area will deal with different 'rare' items you can only gather in that particular expansion.

The items you are most likely to collect come from the 8-man raids that were introduced in Heavensward. You'll get one for completing any of the raids, but the item will differ depending on which of the 12 in the raid series you do. You can trade these in at the Splendors house in the relevant area (which I'm avoiding naming all of them for spoilers reasons) to get a different selection of high-end gear from the normal tomestones. There's a different selection of items that you get from the savage version of the raids that will let you purchase the augmented item (which is dyeable).

It's important to note that, unless you're a glamour fiend, you don't need to save any of these special 'raid' commodities until you reach the current end-game. (As of This writing, that would be Shadowbringers Post-game.) Whatever the high-end Poetics armor/weapons are will always be the 'top' gear over anything else available. A recent patch even removed the normal versions of these poetics gears; you can only purchase the augmented ones now. So for ARR, that would be the Augmented Ironworks gear, for Heavensward it's the Augmented Shire Gear, and so on.

This being said, the Augmented gear will usually last 5-6 levels into the next leveling segment; if you play your cards right (and only do certain roulettes) you can make the armor last until it's time to buy the next set. (We don't recommend this for progressing through MSQ, though; usually the level 65-67 dungeons purposefully have a skill/damage boost to prevent people from coasting through on lower-leveled gear. This tip is more for leveling subsequent classes)

I do want to add this, just to explain how tomestones work once you DO reach the endgame. In addition to straight armor and gear, you can buy items. You can use these to buy crafted armors and glamor sets. I have an example of a piece of armor you can use the highlighted material to get. Again, unless you're a glamour fiend you won't be messing with these too much until the endgame. whatever the 'top' tier of armor is changes with the patch, alternating between crafted gear and gear available from tomestones or raids. Unless you want to be a savage/ultimate tier raider, you won't miss much if your gear lags a bit behind.

Crafters and Gatherers aren't excluded from this, either! The House of Splendors has a separate set of currencies for each that can be used to buy equally high-end gear and tools. These are called scrips. They break down in a similar way to the tomestones, and rotate out, though on a less frequent basis.

Editor's note: The Skybuilders scrips are from a separate event called the Firmament Restoration and are not associated with the House of Splendors in any way.

Earning Scrips is a different process from earning Tomestones, one that you don't even fully start until you reach Heavensward. To earn scrips, you need to complete turn-ins similar to your Grand Company. Unlike the GC, though, the 'collectablity' of the item dictates how much XP or Scrips you get in exchange. (Functionally, the rarity replaces the 'HQ' meter when you're crafting.) These 'collectibles' are separate recipes within your crafting menu.

90% of Crafting/Gathering scrips is going to be the same as tomestones; earn currency, trade for loot. There are, however, two extra things to know about Scrips. The first is that there used to be a LOT more items you could trade in for scrips. As the game expands these processes tend to get streamlined. To prevent old players getting completely screwed over after a 2-year break, there is a vendor in Idyllshire that will trade a lot of these items for Blue tokens. You can get these with Yellow Scrips too, and this is the other extra thing to know.

Crafters can learn 'expert recipes' and gatherers can learn about 'unhidden' nodes, but only through books purchased through the House of Splendors. Crafters purchase their books with scrips, but Gatherers need to use the blue gatherer's tokens. They aren't super necessary for progression, but they DO allow you to gather rare items for that high-end crafted gear, and are worth grinding out.

Probably the best thing you can buy with your scrips if you're still leveling a crafter or gatherer is the manuals; these are one-use items that provide a 2-hour buff to your XP gain as that class, up until a certain point. After that, you can buy materia, orch rolls, and lots of other sundry little goodies. Or materia.

And... that should be everything! Best of luck with your dealings with Rowena, and see you around Eorzea!