Mission Name
 2-3 - Distant Beliefs
Locations

Phomiuna Aqueducts
Level Cap
 40
Estimated Time
 2-4 hours
Special Items:
Bronze Key to open a grate. A THF with thieves tools can pick the lock to avoid needing the key.
Difficulty:
 Medium-low. Anyone that beat Promyvion should be okay here, but don't get cocky. Undead suck.
Medicines Needed:
 Most jobs don't need much, but all tanks will need quite a few Holy Waters. Jobs that can't cast sneak should bring oils just in case a mage doesn't have time to sneak them.
Recomended Jobs:
 All jobs can go, provided you build balanced parties. One WHM recomended for each party.
Brief synopsis:
 Travel through a sewer-like area with an alliance until finding a minotaur. Defeat it and open a gate with a special key. Then find a secret passage in the library to get a cutscene. After the cutscene escape out.

I'm almost certain that it is possible to get this mission done in an hour, but I have the time set from 2-4 because I just KNOW that people will be over an hour late getting to the gathering area in the Tavnazian Safehold. Look, seriously. If you say you're doing a mission at a certain time, don't wait until a half hour later to start getting there, then get gear, then go to your mule two times for more gear, then buy more meds, then log off to go dance in the rain.

Ahem. Sorry. But waiting for almost three hours while a few people did an ENM did some permanent damage. Anyway...


Assemble Your Strike Force:

You can take up to 18 people, but you can probably do it just fine with two parties. I've heard that one party can do it by themselves, but I wouldn't really want to try. Saftey in numbers. Make sure that each party has a WHM in it with Erase and Cursna.

In the ideal, perfect world, either the alliance would bring a THF with tools or farm a key beforehand, and all members going on this would kill a few dozen orcs to remove fomor hate, so this would be cake. But it won't happen. It's hard enough getting people to show up on time with the right gear. Having them kill orcs too is just downright not going to happen.


Once all the riff-raff has assembled, head on in.


Into the Aqueducts:

I never did this mission with a map, but it's not nearly as complicated as it seems. Really, it's somewhat difficult to NOT go to the right way. Wandering aimlessly will almost certainly take you to the minotaur. Of course, having a guide or a map helps too.

The Aqueducts have a number of enemies. Some, like oozes, are well known. Diremites, Taurus and Fomors, are totally new. The last two will play quite a large part in the Aqueducts mission.


This is a Fomor, a new and very interesting CoP enemy. Fomors look a lot like normal player characters, except for the faces and the suspicious names like “Fomor Summoner.” They all look like humes, mithras, galkas, and the lot, but are quite nasty. They are all Incredibly Tough mobs. Worse, they’re often in a party of two or three and will attack in groups. Don’t take on three. Heck, don’t take on two, even with an alliance. They’re mean, mean enemies. I could say that all night, but until you have an alliance brought to its knees by three of these guys, you won’t get it.

Fomors have AoE moves, and the mages have an AoE drown that does 20/tic. This is why you have WHMs with Erase. Get it off before you all die. Any of them can drop a Bronze Key, an item you will need if you don’t have a THF with tools. The Fomors at the early part of the sewer aren’t close enough together to party, so kill them until you get your key. Fomors also drop JSE subligaria, which is a popular reason to come to the Aqueducts. I don’t recommend farming until you complete the mission though, because the mission can take a long time and you need to fight specific forms for specific subligaria, which can take you way away from the mission objectives. Also, if you kill too many fomors, you will need sneak to get by them. There is a man who will tell you if fomors will attack you or not. See the Tavnazian Safehold guide for the full details.

Fomors are undead monsters and will blood-aggro if you are at less than 75% HP (in the yellow, orange, or red). They also sound aggro if you kill a number of them. You probably WILL be killing a number of them, so expect to need to sneak by. Even with sneak, they will aggro you if your HP is in the yellow or below.


Taurs are hunched-over dinosaurs. "Taur" is the general name for them. In the game, they are Brontotaurs or Stegotaurs. They have true sight. They don’t drop anything useful, but they’re usually in the way, so kill them if you can’t avoid them. They have a move called Mortal Ray that can Doom people that see it. It’s a gaze attack, so fight unlocked with your back to them if possible. If anyone is Doomed, they should spam their holy water while mages spam Cursna. Strangely, this Doom status effect can't be removed reliably by a single spell: the spell has about a 75% chance of failing to remove the Doom. Eeek. If you're lucky and fast you'll get it off in time, if not, well, I'll bet you're glad you brought a few white mages for Raise. The easiest thing is just to keep your back to them. Tanks usually have to drop dead a few times before they realize it’s just easier to tank backwards.


This is not the Aqueducts, but this is a Diremite. They’re big creepy tics. Fortunately, they don’t aggro at all in here. Leave them alone.


Elementals spawn when the weather outside changes, and it changes a lot. Be wary. Like all elementals, they’re overpowered for their level.

Farm the first two Fomors (MNK and SMN) to get your key if you need one. After you get your key from the Fomors, travel through the Aqueducts. Avoid non-aggro pugils and sneak past oozes, and kill Taurs if you can't just run behind them. You’ll have to climb ladders at certain points and when you do you’ll be treated to quite possibly the lamest cutscene in the game. Stick together and progress.

Farming:
Bronze Key
The Minotaur:


When someone reaches the Minotaur (a large Taur mob) everyone will be dragged into the small area where you fight it. It’s terribly disorienting. The Minotaur can do Mortal Ray like the other taurus, and he has several AoEs including a powerful poison, but he’s not too bad as long as you were at high HP and MP when you got dragged in. Once again, fight with your back to him to avoid Doom on the tanks.


Trip to the Library:

Shortly after defeating the Minotaur you’ll come to the gate you need the key for. There is a canal of water near the gate. Don’t fall in, because there is no easy way back up and you’ll have to aggro something to die so they can tractor you. Anyway, now you're at the gate. Use your Brozen Key or THF tools to open it, and get everyone inside. After the gate there are more fomors and a cutscene at a ladder. Once you get the CS climb up.

At the top of the ladder is a fork leading to two hallways (full of Taurus) that lead to libraries. You want to go to the LEFT of the ladder, not the right. Inside the library (full of fomors) is a secret button that opens a passage. Follow your guide and go in. The ??? that gives the map can randomly appear in this room, but some ??? spots open up one-way doors that go in directions you do NOT want to go in. The correct ??? opens up a secret passage that leads to a long narrow hall with no enemies.


Fomors in the library. This was the site of an epic battle where our party tried to fight fomors and died down to the last. Erecia (that’s me!) reraised and, with the help of some mages, put the alliance back together. Do you have any idea how hard it is to raise people around blood-aggro monsters? If they are in range, and they have a LONG range, they will just cut them down again the second they get up. I can't stress how important it is not to fight fomors in these rooms.

I digress. Inside the secret passage are eight candles. Checking a candle tells you the day it is and presses it. You press the candle of the current day, then the candle of the day your element is STRONG to. So in firesday you press the fire candle, then the ice one, because fire is strong against ice. Allakazham says that the second candle is the one the element is weak to, but they’re wrong, darn it! I had to go here to test this for myself. Anyway, it takes two people to do this with good timing.  Hit one, wait for the click, hit the second. A door will open and you’ll get another cutscene a few doors later. After that, you’re done. Escape the hell out of there.


(next mission)
(back to the main page)