Always Bet on Black

Cloud Strife: No way! That thing's just a machine.

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Kazagg Chah awaits you with news.

Quest description

Always Bet on Black is a Quest in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

Journal[]

• Unable to learn the location of the Solace of the Gods and the final relic, Kazagg Chah directs you to call upon Ququruka once more. Perhaps Lalai will be able to assist you in gaining an audience with him. Seek her outside Milvaneth Sacrarium in Ul'dah.
• Lalai has discovered that Ququruka is no prophet at all, but merely the vile criminal he was convicted of being one hundred years ago. He means to use the black magic at his command to open the voidgate and summon forth Barbatos─a monster capable of destroying all Eorzea. Follow Ququruka to Nald's Reflection in southern Thanalan and put an end to his maniacal scheme before it is too late.
• You have vanquished Barbatos and heard from Ququruka the truth of all that has transpired these hundred years. The souls of Ququruka and his black mage brethren have finally been put to rest. Speak to Kazagg Chah, Dozol Meloc, and Da Za once more for closure.
• You have spoken to the three black mage beastmen. All have forgiven Ququruka his sins, and pray their ancestors have done the same. Return to Burgundy Falls in eastern Thanalan and speak to Kazagg Chah once more.
• Kazagg Chah is happy that you have chosen to walk the path of the black mage, and to have walked it with you. He vows to forever count you among both his friends and brethren.

※The next black mage quest will be available from Lalai once you have completed the main scenario quest “Before the Dawn.”

Objectives[]

• Speak with Lalai in Ul'dah.
• Follow Ququruka to Nald's Reflection.
• Speak with Kazagg Chah.
• Speak with Dozol Meloc.
• Speak with Da Za.
• Report to Kazagg Chah at Burgundy Falls.

Script[]

Always Bet on Black script
Kazagg Chah	You have gathered the first four artifacts, [Player Name]. That is no small feat.
Kazagg Chah	Yet I fear little time remains. If the tablet of Da Za's great ancestor is to be believed, there is yet one more. Attempting to seal the voidgate before you have found them all would be the height of folly.
Kazagg Chah	Our search for the Solace of the Gods continues. I have gone through all the records left by my great-grandfather, yet have discovered little.
Kazagg Chah	The only seemingly relevant passage I found was his last. He put it to paper some one hundred years ago, just before bidding farewell to his home. “The true power of destruction will be awoken in that most sacred of places.”
Kazagg Chah	The power of destruction is black magic, of course. But as to what is meant by this “awakening”... I fear I am at a loss.
Kazagg Chah	Hm? You believe that Da Za's and Dozol Meloc's ancestors might know more? To be sure, they were witness to the same events. And it is true that they, too, left their homes one hundred years ago and were damned for traitors.
Kazagg Chah	It could be mere coincidence... But, no, I do not think that likely.
Kazagg Chah	I fear this foreshadows our doom. Should you find aught else, I beseech you to tell me at once. I will also continue the search for answers.
Kazagg Chah	The tablet seems to suggest that the way to the Solace of the Gods and the final relic will be made known in time. Yet we can scarce afford to wait idly by.
Kazagg Chah	Both Dozol Meloc and Da Za understand this urgency, and have already returned to their respective homelands to delve into the matter.
Kazagg Chah	And now, to your next task. You must return to he who first bound our four fates together─the prophet, Ququruka. Perhaps his words can guide us once more.
Mamane	Solace of the Gods? There is no such place within the walls of Arrzaneth Ossuary. But the name... I recall having heard it before.
Mamane	Yes, there was a mage with Lalai who I overheard mention it. A Lalafell dressed all in black who... When he spoke there was...a darkness about his words.
Cocobygo	This place you seek... It has something to do with black mages? I know nothing of it, and the same goes for most folk around here, I'd wager. <shudder>
Cocobygo	That said, Lalai is always with that criminal who escaped the Pit. The dark arts are her trade. She might have the answers you seek.
Yayake	Solace of the Gods? Black mage? voidgate? Gods, woman/man, you sound like a bloody cultist!
Yayake	What madness has that criminal filled your mind with? Follow him down this path and you'll wind up no better than Lalai.
Yayake	Ququruka's grip on that foolish lass is far too strong. For her, truth lost the battle to his lies long ago.
Lalai	Please, you must help me. Ququruka has disappeared!
Lalai	That man is no messenger of Nald'thal. He is a miscreant and a charlatan─one guilty of the most heinous of crimes.
Lalai	None had seen him for days. I became worried and entered his chambers to see that he was well, though he prohibited me from doing so. Within I found only evidence of his deception!
Lalai	The records he had hidden were damning. I now know why he was condemned as the greatest criminal of his day.
Lalai	One hundred years past, he conspired with magi from the beast tribes to summon a creature known as Barbatos─a monstrosity that was meant to destroy all of Eorzea.
Lalai	Their plot was discovered by the Order of Nald'thal, and the voidgate was sealed before Barbatos could emerge.
Lalai	Ququruka was cast into the Marasaja Pit for his crime, where he was to rot until his last breath.
Lalai	The Order was loath to let word of this spread, fearing others might someday seek to succeed where Ququruka failed. And so they left no record of the plot, save a few inscrutable documents─parchments intelligible only to those to whom the secret was known.
Lalai	These were the last words I found among the scribblings.
Lalai	“Four is the answer. Four spells of black. Four artifacts of eld. The blood of four races. By four alone shall the true power of destruction be woken from the voidgate.”
Lalai	[Player Name]... Black magic is not the key to sealing the voidgate. It is the key to opening it! Ququruka used us to revive this dark art, and now means to finish what he began a century ago.
Lalai	What fools we were to believe his lies...
Lalai	Please, [Player Name], you must stop him before it is too late! Hurry to Nald's Reflection in southern Thanalan.
Minotaurmalm	I have been ordered to let none pass.
Dozol Meloc	You! Deceived us all, you have! Squaaawk! Pay, you will!
Ququruka	You. You are one of Hetali Meloc's get, are you not?
Dozol Meloc	Mother of mother of mother! Her name, you know!?
Kazagg Chah	And you, Amalj'aa... Yesss, you are of the line of Kazibb Chah. I can see it.
Daza	And, kobold, through your veins courses the blood of Da Gu, does it not?
Ququruka	And last but not least─the black mage [Player Name]. Splendidly done. Few could have vanquished Barbatos as you have.
Ququruka	No doubt you are all eager to hear what truly transpired one hundred years ago. Being a kindly soul, I shall tell you.
Ququruka	I was an ambitious mage in my youth─insatiable in my thirst for knowledge of the arcane. In the course of my studies, I discovered ancient writings which told of a black magic. A magic capable of destroying as only the gods can.
Ququruka	It was innocent at first. Until it wasn't. But then questions began to arise in my mind that demanded answers. Where had all the black mages of old gone? Why had the existence of the art been hidden?
Ququruka	And so I probed. Endlessly. Tirelessly. The more I uncovered, the more it drew me in. There was such...power to be had.
Ququruka	I was not merely ambitious. I was also vainglorious. I desired recognition. Deference. By accomplishing that which no other could, I sought to make my legacy an eternal one.
Ququruka	Yet the pursuit of black magic was...trying. I would pass days, weeks, months at a time, unsure of how to proceed. And what little progress did come, came but slowly. It was then that I met your ancestors.
Ququruka	The Gem of Shatotto, the power to sense magic, the relics─all of these things I owe to them. With their vast knowledge, the slow crawl of my studies turned to leaps and bounds.
Ququruka	I daresay your ancestors sought the same recognition as I.
Ququruka	Kazibb Chah, ridiculed by the Amalj'aa for his ingenious analyses of worldly phenomena. Hetali Meloc, named a pariah for not sharing in the small-minded prejudices of the Ixal. Da Gu, a victim of his kind's idiocy, bound never to leave the land of the kobolds.
Ququruka	We toiled together, learning what we could. And learn we did. Much and more. Imagining we had gleaned all that was to be known, we prepared to hold a dark rite─one we believed would restore black magic to its fullest expression.
Ququruka	I do not know what came over me. I... Blinded by my own lust for power, I altered one of the incantations. It was...arrogant. Foolish.
Ququruka	Our command over the ancient powers we summoned was lost. I watched as the chaotic aether washed over my friends, ripping them apart, only to fuse them together into an...abomination.
Ququruka	No... You couldn't mean... That thing we just saw...
Ququruka	Yes. When I saw what my hubris had created, I mustered all of my strength to see Barbatos sealed behind the voidgate. Sealed─yet not defeated.
Ququruka	Yet I felt myself corrupted by the aether, and was unsure whether I could hold my powers in check.
Ququruka	Fearful, I returned to Ul'dah where I manipulated the minds of a few thaumaturges of the Order into believing I had committed some terrible crime. Only with me confined to the depths of the Marasaja Pit could the realm be safe.
Ququruka	And there I remained─waiting. Waiting for the coming of one with the power to purify the aether of those three friends with whom I once shared a dream.
Ququruka	I do not expect your forgiveness, but I am truly sorry.
Ququruka	No words, Dozol has. Squaaawk! Only squaaawk!
Ququruka	I am not long for this world. Here, take this relic while I still have strength enough to offer it.
Ququruka	The fifth artifact? Yes, yes, the fifth!
Ququruka	Welcome to the Solace of the Gods. Perhaps you know it better as Nald's Reflection, as most do.
Ququruka	Truly remarkable, [Player Name]. You have succeeded...where many great mages...have failed. Mastered...what we sought...to master.
Ququruka	I can now rest...knowing that this power...is safe with you. It is for you...to set the hatreds of the past...aright.
Ququruka	My time to join Thal...has come. May He greet me...as a friend.
Kazagg Chah	To think, Ququruka carried that anguish one hundred long years.
Kazagg Chah	His crime was born of the hubris of youth, yet his atonement came from the wisdom of old age.
Kazagg Chah	His soul has found peace, and it is not our place to linger and disturb it. Come, let us return to Burgundy Falls.
Dozol Meloc	Century-old plan, this was? Fulfilled his purpose, Ququruka did?
Dozol Meloc	Mother of mother of mother! Forgiven Ququruka, she has? Squaaawk! Think so, Dozol does.
Dozol Meloc	Finished, this story is.
Dozol Meloc	Had much fun, Dozol did. Like mother of mother of mother! Grand fun she had, too, Dozol hopes.
Dozol Meloc	Farewell, [Player Name]. We meet again someday, Dozol hopes. Squaaawk!
Daza	Then it is over─finished, ended, over. We did all we could, and the souls of Ququruka and the others have been saved.
Daza	The legends carried by my forebears have had their final chapter written this day. I confess, there is a sadness in that.
Daza	I am proud to call you friend, [Player Name]─brethren, sister/brother, friend. Now and always, no matter how divergent our paths from here.
Daza	Yes, yes, you are a true mage of the black now. Pray grace we kobolds in La Noscea with your presence someday.
Kazagg Chah	Things have come to an end, it would seem. Both the threads which bound us all, and this tragic tapestry they wove.
Kazagg Chah	Most mysterious things, these lives we lead. Do you recall when the words of so many legends and prophecies first brought you to me? It was here, at these same Burgundy Falls. We have spoken much here since then, yet I never imagined this day would come.
Kazagg Chah	I stand before you now with no regrets. I am grateful to the gods for letting our paths cross. Dozol Meloc, Da Za, and you, [Player Name]─I count you all as my brethren in black.
Kazagg Chah	Together, we have seen the souls of our ancestors given peace, and I, too, now feel a happiness I have never known.
Kazagg Chah	You have become a true black mage, my friend. And more than that, a true friend, black mage.
Kazagg Chah	Let the dark art we share be a symbol of our bond, and that undying─in shadow or light, by day or night.
Quest complete.