Missions: Headstone Pilgrimage (Zilart Mission 5)

For Zilart Mission 5, Headstone Pilgrimage you are required to visit 7 Cermet Headstones scattered throughout Vana'diel. Three of them can be done solo, but four require a party to defeat some monsters before obtaining the items you need from the headstones. Over the past two weeks since we completed ZM4, Kiki, Grym and Elbo visited the headstones in the Cloister of Frost (Fei'Yin), La Thiene Plateau (through Ordelle's Caves), and West Altepa Desert (through Quicksand Caves).

On Friday night, we met up with several of the ClanBEB linkshell members, and set out to complete the mission. The hardest part really is just getting to each of the headstones. We had:

Ryken PLD71
Wendell WHM67
Itera MNK69
Grymalkyn THF69
Elboron BRD69
Tsakiki PLD69
Onima MNK73

We met in Jeuno, and headed out to Behemoth's Dominion. There, we spawned two NM Weapons, and killed them pretty quickly. The only trouble we had was that Elboron tried to sleep one of the weapons and couldn't. So we just fought both.

Next Wendell teleported 6 of us to Yhoator Jungle, and Itera use the OP warp system to meet us there. This was probably the hardest part of the whole mission - making it through Ifrit's Cauldron safely. The headstone is actually in a canyon in Yuhtunga Jungle that can only be reached through Ifrit's Cauldron. A lot of alliances fail at this part of the mission. Others will send a WHM with Raise III through Ifrit's and then everyone else dies in a spot that the WHM can grab people with Tractor and then Raise them. We just made sure everyone brought enough silent oils and prism powders. Thanks to the wonderful map on the FFXI Wiki in the walkthrough I linked above, we really had no problems getting through Ifrit's Cauldron. The only thing that would have been bad is if we had run into the Ash Dragon. I think he would have eaten us for lunch.

Once back out in the jungle, we fought things for TP and spawned the NM Opo-Opos at the headstone. Killed them with little trouble, and got the fragment we needed. We also knew about the quest Wrath of the Opo-opos and came prepared with garnets, so each of us traded a garnet to the headstone and got an Opo-opo Necklace as a reward. I needed one of these for my Maat fight, so I no longer had an excuse to put off facing Maat.

Wendell then teleported 6 to the Altepa Crystal, while Kiki used her Trick Staff II to get to Windurst, but it turned out that almost everyone headed to their hometowns first and used the OP warp to Cape Terrigan. Only Onima made the run through Kuftal Tunnel. Then we made the less-painful-than-Ifrit's-Cauldron trip through Cape Terrigan to the Cermet Headstone there. It's in the far northwest section, not too far from the Cloister of Gales. There were a couple decent challenge Goblins there that we had to kill, and then Ryken spawned the NM Shadow we had to defeat for that headstone. He didn't cause us any real trouble either. There's another "secret" quest here that involves trading a Rain Lily to the headstone (Wandering Souls), and Wendell provided us all with Rain Lilies, and we each got a Flagellant's Rope.

For the final headstone, we made our way to the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah (Teleport-Vhazl, OP to our homes, then OP to Zi'Tah). I really love the OP system. :-) Onima was a bit worried about the Doomed NM we would face in Zi'Tah, but it was no match for us, and we quickly put an end to it. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get any cutscenes for the mission, nor any real indication that we had indeed completed it and that ZM6 had magically appeared in our mission logs.

New titles: Friend of the Opo-opos, Bearer of Bonds Beyond Time, Bearer of the Eight Prayers