Missions: Gate of the Gods Unlocked (Zilart Missions 6 through 13)

On Friday night, our Zilart "static" was hoping to get through the next two fights, ZM6 (Through the Quicksand Caves) and ZM8 (Return to Delkfutt's Tower), but when our three hours came to an end and we were already up to the ZM12 fight (The Mithra and the Crystal), we opted to stay up late (some of us braving the wrath of their wives) and got to Sky for the first time.

The night wasn't as smooth as it could have been. Our group consisted of:

Ryken PLD71/WAR35
Tsakiki PLD70/RDM35
Itera MNK70/WHM30
Elboron BRD70/WHM35
Grymalkyn THF70/NIN35
Wendell WHM67/BLM33

We met in Rabao and headed to the Chamber of Oracles through Quicksand Caves. We buffed up and headed into the BC, where we were faced with 3 Anticans, a BLM, PLD, and RNG. We fought them in that order. Things went pretty well until Itera was taken out by the Ranger's Eagle Eye Shot, but we finished the fight and won the battle. Itera deleveled with the death, but a Raise 2 from Wendell got his level back, which was nice.

We found ourselves in a room with eight altars, in which we placed the shards we had collected from the Cermet Headstones in ZM5, and got a cutscene. This was "Mission" ZM7, The Chamber of Oracles.

Next up was ZM8 - Return to Delkfutt's Tower. We headed to Qufim Island and made our way to the Stellar Fulcrum from the 12th floor of the tower. This fight was much tougher than the others, and we lost Ryken first. Itera used 100 Fists to hurry the fight along, and I used Invincible to keep Kam'lanaut on me instead of him. We were a bit low on health, but doing ok and Wendell pulled hate, and I was Gravitied, Flash wasn't up, and I couldn't get to him in time for shield bash, so Wendell died too. It looked like we could still win, so rather than have Wendell reraise and get killed again from an AOE, he stayed down until after the fight was over. We got our cutscenes and Wendell reraised and then raised Ryken.

Then came a bunch of running around for missions 9 through 11. First to Jeuno, then Norg for ZM9 (Ro'Maeve), then to the Hall of the Gods for ZM10 (The Temple of Desolation), back to Norg, and then finally Rabao for ZM11, The Hall of the Gods.

It was time for both Ryken and Wendell to go, but we just had one last fight in Quicksand Caves for ZM12 (The Mithra and the Crystal), and we were already in Rabao. I asked the LS "How hard is ZM12 - the fight with the pot?" and the general consensus was that it was really easy. So Ryken and Wendell said they'd see it through rather then reconvening Saturday night to get through to Sky. We hopped on chocobos and headed back to Quicksand Caves, spawned the pot and defeated it. Back to Rabao with the item we'd obtained, and we were given the Cerulean Crystal to open the gate in the Hall of the Gods.

A quick Teleport-Vhazl, the OP warp home and then back out to the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah and we headed into Ro'Maeve and the Hall of the Gods (ZM13, The Gate of the Gods). We opened the Gate and headed up to Ru'Ann Gardens. The cutscenes for the mission were pretty cool, but lack the charm and wit that Chains of Promathia has, with Prishe and the Taru trio. It was very late, so we looked around a bit, took some screenshots to commemorate the event, and headed home for the night.

The last two Zilart missions with fights sound pretty tough, so I think we'll wait a few more levels before trying them.

New Titles: Lightbearer, Sealer of the Portal of the Gods