The Knights' Messengers

 Yesterday Nimla and I were interviewing members of the community about the merits of fishtack and flour, we were approached by a Knight of the Barracuda named Zanthael who said he had some work for young adventurers like ourselves if we visited him tomorrow (today!) and so we set out to meet up with him under the Mizzenmast by the long bridge leading from the city to the bluffs of La Noscea.

Zanthael told us there was reason to believe Imperial operatives were working outside the city, disguised as rogues and brigands, and because of this the guard needed to be tightened but he couldn't pull Knights from their posts to deliver the orders. This seemed unreasonable to me - could the Knights be this short-manned? It's true they were dealing with the situations of Seal Rock and the sahagin, and now there were suspected Imperials infiltrating the island. I knew it was my civic duty to help the situation and Nimla agreed, although she is mainly unaware of the situation in Limsa Lominsa spending much of her time in Gridania. 

Shai & Zanthael (Nimla Overslept)

Zanthael handed us the arrest warrants and orders to deliver and we set out on the task. We tracked down Bibiraka who was sleeping on the job, but reported that he had heard reports of these brigands seen close to Bearded Rock. The report was odd because they appeared to be searching, rather than raiding and looting like typical rogues and highwaymen in the area. I made a note to pass this information on to Zanthael in case he hadn't heard this particular report.

Sundhimal concurred the information based on her informants' reports within Kraken's Arms and Salthounds who had been tracking these suspicious newcomers in their own way. J'ghonako didn't have much to report other than it used to be a difficult feat to see Imperial airships or juggernauts outside of Mor Dhona region or the Empire itself, but nowadays they were becoming common in the lands of Eorzea and I had noticed this as well. It was certainly disconcerting.

Arthurioux, a clerk at the Coral Tower, was incredibly rude to Nimla and I. We simply dropped off the warrants and left due to him chastising us for being adventurers rather than Knights - as if that was somehow our fault and not Zanthael's for asking us or the Knights' fault for being short handed.

The last person on the list was named Gert and seemed like an average dock worker, who was oddly unimpressed with the reports, orders and warrants. He merely wondered about Empire's true intentions which gave me pause. I had considered this in passing before as well - perhaps the Empire's sights were not set on the city-states at all, but the beast tribes, or the Primals, or something else entirely. That they had conquered Ala Mhigo and not pushed forward for fifteen years until now was a curious oddity. I wondered what Gert meant, but he had turned his attention back to his work.

What Does It All Mean!?

We headed from the docks to the entrance of Limsa Lominsa to finish the task and report to Zanthael, but when we got there we could tell something was going on beyond reports and warrants. Zanthael motioned for us to hurry and filled us in that an operation to flush out the Imperials had been underway after hearing Bibiraka's report on the location of the Imperials and their close proximity to the city. Zantheal was worried that the Imperials would use the caves and tunnels to escape capture and asked us to cut them off while the Knights rounded up the main force and forced them out into the open. Nimla and I quickly gathered our courage and our weapons and set out to the patrol the caves by Camp Bearded Rock.

What Have We Here?

There Are More Inside!

Our patrol ended in success when we managed to block and defeat a handful of Imperials dressed like common rogues as they were fleeing a large cave west of the camp. We were surprised to find that they had captives in tow who they had captured and secreted out of the city itself. We untied these captives and allowed them to return to the city where they would continue to work and help with the set up of the Grand Company, the Maelstrom. Intrigued, I pulled one aside who introduced himself as Kopel Yorpel, an inventor and engineer of the Garlond Ironworks. They had been summoned by Admiral Merlwyb to aid the Grand Company in Limsa Lominsa.

Freeing Ironwork Engineers

Neither Nimla nor I had ever heard of the Garlond Ironworks so we asked Zanthael about it when we returned for him for our debriefing. He explained to me that the Garlond Ironworks is one of the largest collectives of scholars and engineers in the entire realm. They had long strived to uncover the secrets of the Empire's machina so that the city-states of Eorzea could stand on equal ground with the Empire on the battlefield. He had no notion of whether they had succeeded or not, but their help was instrumental in forging the Maelstrom Grand Company in Limsa Lominsa. 

As we left 7,500 gil richer and wiser about the Companies and the Ironworks, Zanthael gave us these parting words which stuck with me so I wanted to write them down in this journal: "Till sea swallows all."