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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Final Fantasy XII - 20 - The Stilshrine of Miriam

Overview: Thankfully, not a lot of crazy status effects to deal with here, mostly just puzzles and pedestals. However, many things are weak to Aero, so keep it on hand or in mind, and you'll breeze through the area.


Stilshrine of Miriam/ Walk of Sky
Guide: I love the architecture here, it's a nice map to just walk around for awhile. But your goal is south.

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Walk of Mind
Guide: There's a Teleport Crystal here, and a few Kiltias guards. Head on inside when you're ready.

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Ward of Measure
Enemies: Redmaw, Zombie
Guide: There are a lot of elements in this hall. You might first notice a pedestal in the northern end, an inactive Way Stone in the southern end, and two locked doors on either side of the hall. You need to get things cooking. The Pedestal of the Dawn gives you this inscription: Treaty-Seeker: Relic held, this pedestal embrace. Not sure what it means? Well if you just go ahead and try to activate it you'll be set upon by three Zombies. Not very nice, so what do you need to do? You must equip a member of your party with the Dawn Shard and that character must activate the pedestal. I recommend putting it on a not-magic user, as it'll steal all of your MP.
Creepy statue right? And now you're off who knows where and statues are attacking you.

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Ward of Velitation
Enemies: Miriam Guardian, Dragon Aevis, Miriam Facer, Myath (Trophy Game)
Guide: You'll be teleported here after activating the Pedestal of the Dawn. Slay the giant statue first, then head west. You might notice the pack of Dragon Aevis waiting for you. This can be a difficult battle, surprisingly so. But, if you make good use of Blizzara, you can make it through. If you're just not up to it, run around them to the exit on the far side of the room. You'll have to dodge past two Miriam Facers, but they're not very intimidating anyway.

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Walk of Torn Illusion
Enemies: Miriam Facer, Miriam Guardian
Guide: Head up the stairs and deal with another statue head, then back east along either path, they both have statues to deal with. When you reach the eastern end you'll see another pedestal and you'll be looking out over the Ward of Velitation. As with the first, equip the Dawn Shard and activate it. Ah-ha! Path revealed. Head back to the Ward of Velitation and take either path down to the next area.

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Walk of Revelation
Enemies: Crystalbug
   Treasure: DO NOT KILL THE CRYSTALBUG, until you steal a Feystone from it. You need three Feystones for the Bazaar Recipe for the Tournesol, and there are three Crystalbugs in the game. The only item them have is a Feystone, so you just have to keep on it. If you fail to get your Feystones from the Crystalbugs, you'll have to get them from Entites, and that will be much harder. So again, steal the Feystone, don't sell it until you're in the process of making the Tournesol.
Guide: Say hello to the new Life Crystal, it's...actually a monster. Pity, it's a really nice green color. After you slay the Crystalbug a proper Save Crystal will appear. Make use of it, then head west down the stairs to the next area.
Stilshrine of Miriam/ Ward of the Sword-King
Enemies: Blood Gigas, Miriam Guardian, Darkmare, Negalmuur (Rare Game)
Guide: Make your way past the two Blood Gigas guardians who make yelling noises WITH NO HEAD. At the end of the wall you'll find another Miriam Guardian, then you can go north or south. The doorway to the north is bound, so south it is. Fight past two more Blood Gigas and say hello to Darkmare, who likes to Teleport, a lot. In fact, he'll probably teleport far, far away when you first engage him. Just hang tight and he'll come back. Once you've dealt with him keep heading north past two more Blood Gigas and activate the Sword of Judgement, which opens the door at the northern end of the hall, so head that way, and use the Way Stone.
A note though: There is a secret passage on this map. It has nothing to do with the current story, and leads to an optional area. I will describe how to find it and what it pertains to under the Side Quests Post.
The Way Stone will return you to the Ward of Measure, and now you can use the two side doors. I recommend heading through the western door first.

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Cold Distance
Enemies: Miriam Guardian, Matriarch Bomb (Rare Game)
Guide: Head south and past the Miriam Guardian then west into the next area.

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Walk of Prescience
Enemies: Balloon, Facer, Zombie Warrior
Guide: You can explore the southern hall first if you want, but watch out for the traps, they make fighting here difficult so I recommend Float. Head north and west and you'll find a room with a Stone Brave in the middle, and some Zombies, so deal with the Zombies, then read the inscription on the statue. "Guardians three, face ye the blade. With relic-bearer join, your fealty swear to me." Got it? Rotate the statue to face east, down the hall towards the huge statue in the Ward of Measure. Then take the nearby southern exit to the next area.

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Walk of Reason
Enemies: Zombie Warrior, Ghoul, Ghast, Facer, Balloon
Treasure: You can find a number of rare items in this area. In the north east a chest might contain a Steel Poleyns, and just south of that you might find a Lamia's Tiara. The southeastern corner may contain a Pirate's Hat. The northwest may contain a Sorceror's Hat and a Firefly.
Guide: Fight through the undead and into the large room with the trap in the middle. Yet more undead will appear, but wade through and open the eastern door to enter the main area. There are a lot of chests on this map, namely there's a collection in the southeastern corner that you must stay on ground level to reach. Climb the stairs of the central platform to reach the Stone Brave, and rotate it to face north towards the main statue. Head east from the statue, then north, and back out to the Cold Distance. Head north, then turn east and enter the next area.

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Ward of Steel
Enemies: Vinuskar
Guide: Head down the stairs. Before opening the door, if any of your Heavy Armor wearing characters have the licenses to switch to decent Light or Mystic Armor, do so. If not, it's not a huge deal. Make sure to heal up, cast Protect and Haste. Then head through the door and you'll be engaged in battle.

Strategy: Vinuskar looks tough, and the gravitational field will make your actions slow, but Haste can counter some of that. The most dangerous thing he does is cast Confuse, and considering how long you have before that character can attack anyone, you should have plenty of time to heal it. Anywhere below half health you can end the battle with a decent string of Quickenings.

Guide: Once Vinuskar takes a dip in the lava pool, head east through the Ancient Door and rotate the Stone Brave to face west, towards the Ward of Measure. There's also a map urn in this far room. If all three statues are facing the right direction, you will see a line that says: The colossus has undergone some change. Head back out to the Cold Distance. You'll see that the Colossus has raised its sword, opening a new passage. Head north, back into the Ward of Measure, then use the Way Stone to return to the lower levels of the Shrine.
You can now pass the sword and enter the far room. As you might guess from the inscription, something's about to go down. Heal up, Protect, and Shell for this battle.

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Hall of Worth
Enemies: Mateus, Ice Azer
Guide: As soon as you enter, it's battle time.

Strategy: You're up against a boss that's immune to nearly all status effects. It's almost like playing FF I-IX. Except Slow that is, which I highly recommend, either with an Iron Pole or the spell itself. Really though, you're going to have to flex your muscle, but avoid Thundara. While it'll destroy the Ice Azers, Mateus has Reflect and one wrong Thundara could kill your caster. This is where the Storm Spear really shines. Take care of the Ice Azers first (they like to cast Sleep), then move on to Mateus. You're going to have to wail on it, plain and simple. Once defeated you'll see that it's not just a boss, it's an Esper, so lucky you.

Guide: Head south!

Stilshrine of Miriam/ Vault of the Champion
Guide: Cutscene time, all the time. After all that you might be tempted to throw that bad boy on someone, but you'll see that it's not really suited for combat. Which is a pity, because most Greatswords are amazing weapons. Head back north to the Ward of the Sword-King, then warp back to the Ward of Measure and exit.
You'll see that not all has be quite in your absence, so Teleport or hoof back to Mt. Bur-Omisace.


A Note on the Secret Area: Within the Ward of the Sword-King you can find a secret entrance to an area not marked on the map. To find to face north, and turn your camera so that it is looking at your party from within the western wall. As you do this, run along the western wall just up the stairs from the giant sword and the path will reveal itself.


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