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Chapter LXXXVI: Revenant's Toll
Music: The Dragon's Dirge
The Garlond Works crew are together at last. Cid was reunited with both Biggs and Wedge, leaving the rescue of the Scions our next task. Unfortunately, they're locked deep inside an Imperial Castrum. What are our next steps? Well, let's talk to Cid and find out.
When we arrive, let us seek the advice of the local adventurers. We're bound to learn a thing or two that will benefit our mission.
Cid first suggests we group up in Revenant's Toll, as Castrum Centri is located in Mor Dhona.
Music: Fealty
Mor Dhona isn't actually that far away from Monument Tower—at least in the game. We have to head east, over the bridge we found Wedge under and past Aurum Vale.
New Music: Frontiers Within
What the loading screen glosses over is the lengthy and uneventful journey Aggro takes through the Coerthas Central Lowlands—the original home of Aurum Vale. On the other side, we see a giant sign welcoming us into Revenant's Toll. This is the settlement for adventurers, in lands unclaimed by any city-state.
Welcome to Mor Dhona. For adventurers between August 2013 and July 2015, this was home.
It's a small, towering town built into a narrow pass.
At the base of the hill is the central aetheryte. This one will be getting used a lot. Members with a one-time pass are granted free teleports to one location, which can be selected at the aetheryte. The Revenant's Toll aetheryte will be Aggro's for the remainder of A Realm Reborn.
Never forget to attune.
Behind the aetheryte, dressed up in banners on the outside, is the Seventh Heaven. This serves as the central hangout for adventurers, where information can be gleaned. There is no Tifa reference here.
Of course. It didn't always used to be this way.
New Music: Intertwined
Mor Dhona is a land with a lot more history for adventurers. We'll get into that another time, because today's interest lies in the changes that occurred five years after The Calamity—during A Realm Reborn. Not before it like usual.
Revenant's Toll was a vastly more empty, simple town. Next to the Seventh Heaven was an old temporary stall.
The stall outside featured three important NPCs to Adventurers at level 50. We'll be meeting them once we complete the vanilla campaign for A Realm Reborn. They've since taken up residence in what was, at the time, an empty lot to the right of the entrance we passed through earlier. They no longer trade in Tomestones of Philosophy or Mythology which I'll explain later.
The Seventh Heaven's interior was completely different, devoid of anything interesting. Above it, stairs leading to the watch tower were exposed.
At the very back existed an empty lot with some farmland and a camp. No doubt, the local NPCs would have things to say when approached. I'm not sure any record of that dialogue exists anymore. Behind the character in this shot is just empty ground where the buildings we passed at the entrance now exist.
It's actually kind of hard to find any good records for the original 2.0 Revenant's Toll. Nobody expected it to change. When A Realm Awoken (aka Patch 2.1) was released, everyone was surprised to discover the settlement had transformed. The only screenshots above that don't belong to me are the two that feature the male Mi'qote in a cowl, and I couldn't even figure out who that was to source them. I took a lot of screenshots during A Realm Reborn's third beta phase. Unfortunately, I neglected Revenant's Toll and didn't capture many and neither did anyone else, really.
Flashing forward.
Music: Frontiers Within
A Realm Awoken happened. Almost four months after A Realm Reborn released, Revenant's Toll suddenly transformed. This version of the settlement serves as the base for all the changes that occurred after. Any before and after footage or screenshots you'll find on Google will likely depict this version of Revenant's Toll as the "before".
Following the sudden, very real explosion of adventurers to the settlement, the in-world locals looked into expansion. Construction had begun on the farmland, uprooting the local's work and replacing it with paved stone and stalls. This was to become a market place for high level adventurers. Rowena and her employees moved over too, taking residence in a more permanent stall right where the entrance is.
The area surrounding the Aetheryte Plaza was also paved. There was a stall just off-camera, to the right, back in A Realm Reborn's launch. That was removed. The owner likely moved to the market to the north. Meanwhile, construction to remove the old ravine walls from above the building across from the aetheryte had begun.
The Seventh Heaven was built upon, expanding the stone to the watch tower above and leaving the stairs now no longer exposed to the elements. Inside, the interior resembles present day Seventh Heaven. At the time it had less NPCs, but more players.
For some reason, I've either lost or slept on the changes to Revenant's Toll in A Realm Awoken. It took some time for changes to occur again, but I was already planning my original attempt to LP the game. I captured the settlement's shape a day before patch 2.3 dropped. This is how it looked on July 7th, 2014. The stalls had fully opened, and construction on the exterior of the building to the back had finished.
Access into the building had been prohibited by a giant gate.
The back of Rowena's stall was expanding too, seeing further development towards the pass leading to Coerthas Central Highlands.
The building across from the aetheryte now had a park above it.
I didn't capture a previous update of the work being done. I'm not sure where between 2.1 and 2.28 this was, but we can see two pillars being constructed. The stairs on both sides had already been completed by time I took the footage.
Above appeared to be construction on what looked to be a bridge. This'll be the real reason for the park expansion. Later construction revealed this bridge to actually be an aqueduct.
Some of the old ravine walls still remained, crystal piercing out, illuminating the small town. Those crystals were eventually removed.
While Patch 2.28 was the last dramatic change to Revenant's Toll, other smaller changes were made. At this stage, Revenant's Toll began to really look like it does today and any changes made were the final ones. From here, I could basically just take screenshots of modern day Revenant's Toll.
The rocky pass outside Revenant's Toll was reconstructed into a more eye-pleasing field, complete with park benches.
Rowena's House of Splendours opened up. This was the previously gated building behind the market stalls. In 2.38, only the first floor was accessible. While Rowena's merchants from 2.0 remained in their permanent stall outside, her operations greatly expanded. The only change to this section since A Realm Reborn came to a close was a mini-aetheryte added next to Rowena herself, granting her passage to another one of her endeavours.
2.45 saw stairs developed to reach an unfinished upper level.
Rowena changes outfit with every patch.
Revenant's Toll was pretty much finished in 2.45. I can't remember which patch it was, but one of the final 2.5x patches opened up the second floor of Rowena's House of Splendours and finished construction on the aqueduct and unreachable towers.
The final patch of A Realm Reborn marked the end of the changes to the small adventurer town. Alas, adventurers are also fickle. Once the town was complete, the adventurers moved on. First, to a great expanse in the west with Heavensward. Then to the frontlines to the east in the Stormblood expansion. The town is no longer as busy as it was, but its development was an exciting time. While new boss fights, story beats, or all sorts of other new features were highly anticipated, there was also a lot of excitement surrounding how Revenant's Toll would change again. Sometimes, it really is the small things that make a difference. It's something new players miss, but it was a lot of fun.
And so that's Revenant's Toll. I thought about putting this into a bonus section, but I felt like it was such an important part to A Realm Reborn that it deserved a real Echo-dive. Revenant's Toll was actually the main inspiration behind this Let's Play. I wanted to preserve this wonderful, ever-changing game and share it with Final Fantasy fans that may have missed out because it was an MMO. I hope it wasn't too intrusive.
Whatever the case, Aggro shakes off the totally canon vision she just had, and returns outside. There wasn't any valuable information inside. At the corner of her eye, Aggro sees Slafborn overlooking the aetheryte plaza. He must see and speak to many adventurers from that spot, so he might have some information for us.
Aggro gestures an explanation.
Your friends are being held captive at Castrum Centri, and you want to rescue them? I don't mean to discourage you, but that might prove... difficult. The stronghold has been on high alert of late, with armored patrols seen about the perimeter around the clock. Not even a fly could get within a hundred yalms of the walls undetected.
But with security so tight, how are we going to smuggle ourselves in?
Why, I've a mind to walk through the front door.
Huh? The front door?
Aye, we'll disguise ourselves as imperial troops and march right in. For this, we'll need a few sets of imperial uniforms, a suit of magitek armor, and impeccable timing.
Knowing those imperial bastards, they won't even suspect that we savage Eorzeans would think to use their technology.
Then it's settled!
If you're determined to go ahead with htis, I'd recommend you speak with Glaumunt. The fellow's got a personal grudge against the Empire, and happens to know a deal about Castrum Centri besides. I've no doubt that he'd want to be of aid.
Yda and I shall go to reconnoiter Garlean activity at the stronghold. It would not do if something were to befall our comrades before we had the chance to act.
Come and join us when you're ready, Aggro! Let's do this!
The group walk off screen.
So, we have our plan. To infiltrate Castrum Centri, we're going to need to get some equipment and a Magitek Armour. Finding Glaumunt isn't hard. Not only does he have a giant quest marker above his head, and one on the compass to point out his location as with any objective, but he's directly across the path behind us.
Glaumunt first suggests we confirm the captured Scions are definitely in Castrum Centri. This makes a lot of sense. He advises us to travel through the swampland to the west, known as the Tangle, and find drainage pipes for the Castrum. One of these pipes leads to the command tower, allowing a bit of eavesdropping.
Music: Intertwined
With that advice, we take our first steps out into Mor Dhona proper. What awaits us outside is a unique weather effect of the region. It's basically aetherial pollution caused by an old, pre-Calamity explosion. I'll go deeper another time, but it was caused by the Garlean's first attempt at an Eorzean invasion and their battle with the dragon king Midgardsormr.
Almost directly outside the doorstep of Revenant's Toll is the ruins of Camp Revenant's Toll. The old aetheryte of the 1.0 camp swelled up during the Calamity, exploding and leaving a ruin. It's got a tiny bit of history I'll touch on in the lore bonus area, but Eorzeans basically dismissed the spot as cursed and decided to establish their new settlement in the pass to the east. These days it's overrun by giant toads.
Incidentally, fuck those toads. They'll use their tongues to grab you and pull you in if they see you, making them an inconvenience to travel aside.
Behind the aetherial mist, we can make out part of the Imperial stronghold. The path towards it is an open field, but you can see more tree coverage and wetland to the left.
Navigating around the Tangle is sometimes a bit confusing. This is made extra frustrating because it's packed with Morbols that'll inflict basically every ailment under the Sun on anyone they spot, including Heavy. Fortunately, they're blind and rely on sound for detection. Simply walking lets you pass them without detection.
I feel like the players that somehow get lost are the ones that rely on the map too much. Looking ahead, you can quite clearly see the pipes we want to reach.
In reality, who knows how long Aggro eavesdropped. Fortunately, this is a videogame, so we get results immediately.
New Music: The Land Bleeds
Just kidding. The old A Realm Reborn rule of quests taking 7 minutes kicks in, meaning a bunch of Chigoe interrupt our eavesdropping. At least it gives us a chance to listen to the Mor Dhona battle theme we'll hear all of like one time in this LP.
Back in the day, Paladins couldn't deal AoE damage. I could blind foes, but that was it. It's battles like this where I'm thankful for the changes Stormblood brought in.
Music: Intertwined
Let's try this again.
(Youthful Voice) She may as well be a deaf mute for all the information we've gotten out of her.
(Gruff Voice) The others aren't much better. The Elezen gets on my nerves most of all. Every time he opens his mouth, it's only to spout gibberish.
(Youthful Voice) I do wonder, why is the tribunus so obsessed with this Minfilia woman?
(Gruff Voice) They say she possesses some mystical power. Something we Garleans don't have.
(Youthful Voice) Mystical power? Like the kind the beastmen use?
(Gruff Voice) How am I supposed to bloody know? If you're so curious, why don't you ask the tribunus yourself?
(Youthful Voice) As well try to tumble her! I like my head where it is, thank you very much!
(Collected Voice) Our break is over. Best we get back to our stations.
To be completely honest, we didn't even need to hear beyond their comments about the annoying Elezen speaking gibberish. I'd have been happy assuming Urianger was amongst their captives with just that remark. I'm sure I'm not alone.
Anyway, we've confirmed the captive Scions are still in Castrum Centri. This is somewhat good news, so we can begin our operation. Let's go inform the group.
... So Minfilia and the others are indeed at Castrum Centri! Their presence thus confirmed, we may proceed with the mission. While you were afield, Cid took the liberty of devising a plan of action. Pray have the details from him.
Glaumunt is looking into ways to procure a suit of magitek armor. In the meantime, I need your assistance for some preparation of my own. Minfilia and the others are counting on us, Aggro. Let's not keep them waiting any longer than necessary!
Well, this seems like a good enough place to stop than any. Aggro is currently level 44, meaning we're 2 levels off from continuing the MSQ. It's an odd choice. Both Cid and Glaumunt have an MSQ for us, and I understand that Glaumunt is doing investigation, but Cid's required assistance sounded a bit more immediate. Oh, well. I guess time needs to pass.
Catch you all in the next update. This isn't going to be the last big level leap in the MSQ, so you can tell we're really approaching that end.
When you Google the map for Mor Dhona, you actually still usually get the really old launch map. I'll post the full current map in another update, as Mor Dhona is actually rather sprawling. There's a whole section to the East that we won't be approaching anytime soon.
The original opening cinematic from 1.0 gives a brief glimpse into what Mor Dhona looked like, prior to 1.0. Since the Battle of Silvertear Skies, though, it's not been the same and has been ravaged by the aether. There used to be a village called Revenant's Toll, likely one of many settlements in the area.
In 1.0, Mor Dhona is a wasteland. Camp Revenant's Toll was created as a small outpost, and it was named after the original village that would have stood somewhere in that area. Of course, we've seen what happened to Camp Revenant's Toll after The Calamity. Superstition has lead to the new Revenant's Toll settlement being built elsewhere.
Not quite the same as returning to the Waking Sands, but we might as well see what our allies think right now. This doesn't actually change often, so it was worth the bonus addition.
Stealth and subterfuge, Aggro, are how we will free our friends. I have every confidence you can play the part of an imperial soldier.
The stronghold contains immense manufacturing and storage facilities, and it is the priamry supplier of materiel for imperial forces stationed throughout Eorzea. Consequently, it is heavily defended. Infiltrating will not be easy. Nevertheless, it is necessary.
Wedge, don't change.
Chapter Summary
Again, I've mixed in the music.