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Return of the Talekeeper  

Submitted by:Chtulhu the Quick
Realm:Bastok
Start Area: Metalworks
Start NPC:Any Gate Guard
Type:Mission
Prerequisites:Xarcabard, Land of Truths
Related Areas:Western Altepa Desert
Zeruhn Mines
Related Mobs:Eastern Sphinx
Western Sphinx
Mission:6 - 1
Min Level:60
Max Level:75
Reward:Rank 6-1
Rating
*****
(Average from 9 ratings)
This Mission is Not Skippable
Previous Mission: Darkness Rising
Next Mission: The Pirates' Cove
Last Updated: Mon Jan 24 12:44:52 2005

Contents [hide]

Summary

A new Talekeeper is rumored to have appeared among the Galka. Speak to Medicine Eagle, the Mines District guard on post near the entrance to Ore Street, for further details.

Walkthrough

Suggested level/pt size: Around 10-12 level 60s can do this easily. If going with larger amounts of lower levels, make sure your tank is at least 60. The damage dealt is pretty nasty.

To start this quest, you must trade a stack of crystals to an IM and then talk to a gate guard. They will tell you to go to Bastok Mines and talk to Medicine Eagle, who can be found on the left at the top of the ramp down to Ore Street. You must then go talk to Drake Fang who is by the boat from Zeruhn Mines. You will see a cutscene where Iron Eater will approve your mission and tell you to go check out Altepa.

In the center of Western Altepa Desert is Airs Rock. Southwest of the west end of airs rock is a ??? (G-8). Examine it, and two mobs will pop. The Western and Eastern Sphinx. Defeat them, then head back to Bastok.

Talk to Tall Mountain in Bastok Mines on Ore Street by the �Restricted Section� in order to complete this mission.

Spoilers

To read the transcripts for this mission, see the Return of the Talekeeper Spoilers page.

Mission Series

This mission is part of the Republic of Bastok Mission series. The entire mission series includes:

This page last modified 2009-04-01 04:44:16.
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min level
# Sep 06 2009 at 5:08 AM Rating: Decent
the posted min level for this quest is incorrect.

My highest current level is 55 and this mission is flagged.
Easy Prey
# Feb 21 2009 at 5:27 PM Rating: Decent
My wife and cousin and I did this *** PLD/60 <me>, DRK/67, DRG/66. built up 300 tp but had to waste it on a Ant that linked when we pulled. Sneak popped, pulled no biggie. Hit me for as much as an IT would at 60 dropped a yag before hand never ran out of mp.
Finally got em'
# Oct 08 2008 at 10:10 PM Rating: Decent
39 posts
Great tip. Sneak won the fight for me.

I soloed this as a lvl 70 MNK/DNC. Only real prep work was storing 300% TP and chowing down on some mithkabobs. I found the spot and cleared the oversized bird before using spectra jig followed by a boost which nullified my invisible.

Popped the pair and ran straight back. Since they appear to pop back to back, only one spotted me and followed. Fought off the Western Sphinx. Fairly tough fight so I did use my 2hr, but I beat him. By the time I finished that fight, Eastern Sphinx had disappeared.

Checked the ??? and got the key item.

Good luck.
solo
# Mar 27 2008 at 6:55 PM Rating: Default
Just soloed this as 75rdm/37nin

Sneak pulled 1,

it has slowga that dispells your haste. So i bind + grav nuked/dot them.

was a 20 minute fight
another easy prey for a tarutaru smn
# Mar 26 2008 at 8:38 AM Rating: Decent
this mission is easy if you think smart..you dont need to kill the 2NM's juss kill one..iam from sandoria and i helped a smn with these..sneak pop n juss pull one..they wun link if you snk pull...beat the crap outa the other and when its dead wait for the other 2 depop and go click the ??? and you get the item...btw iam a 75smn...representing tarutaru power
Wha Cha
# Sep 18 2007 at 7:11 AM Rating: Decent
CaitSith Server, me (71THF/35NIN) and a friend (70RDM/35BLM), duoed those over grown rabbits w/ wings. we both hit our NPCs to help a little bit. I popped em, and i have about 225EVA skill and about +35ish with gear, so now i have 2 of em, i panic a lil... and so i do the natural thing, go after the smaller one, and we start going... takes a lil bit to get the smaller one down, but bout half way tho, the RDM converts and heals himself up... and then with give or take 5% life on the life RDM runs outta Mp... so i tell him to get down and rest up, (700Hp for me) lucky enough the rabbits were missing me enough to lemme cast shadows and what not, cause w/ the Dispel-aga and Slow-aga, so haste dont work, and shadows go quick. well finish off the smaller one(500Hp for me), so no more slow-aga but dispel-aga still dosent allow RDM to have Refresh or me Haste. The big rabbit cant hit me to well, but -aga takes my shadows like crazy, at this point, RDM has about 200Mp(400Hp for me), i tell him to stay cause i only got 400Hp and i want to have full health, well the thing gets tho my shadows and 2hr just so he can stay and heal me up later, he gets about 500 Mp, heals me up, and thats when i stop panicing due to lack of Mp. We finally kill the Bigger rabbit, and we get our pebble.

Basically, the Smaller one will Slow-aga u, and the bigger one Dispel-aga, only thing thats gonna stay is food, and our lvl 40ish NPCs hardly did ne thing at all. The only thing that saved me and him was the fact my EVA was high enough for the two miss me constantly.

So totally possible for two ppl to duo these things. GL pplz
6-1 Fight
# Jul 27 2007 at 10:10 PM Rating: Decent
Trio'ed the fight with 57 blm/whm,(me), 75 war/nin, and 75 rdm/nin.

I 2 houred, not sure if the others did. I know the rdm converted.

I did nothing but cure.

It was a close fight, we ended it out of mp and in low health.

Recommend bringing more people.

EDIT: The war fought one, the rdm fought the other, I healed when needed.

Edited, Aug 16th 2007 3:20:47pm by Krye
Excitement!
# Jun 20 2007 at 2:22 PM Rating: Good
**
541 posts
I play a Tarutaru female main but I started up a Mithra too. Windurstian Taru, Bastokan Mithra.

Anyway, my Mithra needed this mission and my roomie is asleep, so after reading up on this, I decide I'm gonna take his Galka MNK and my Mithra's 70BRD and see if we can duo this. I read about the sneak pop thing... but when it came to do it, I failed terribly.

The smaller one hit me before I could run out of the larger one's aggro range, thus my sneak dropped and both of them started chasing me. Now I'm controlling both characters (Two TVs, two PS2s, two controllers) I'm not too bad at it, but still this was difficult. After curing myself before I died, I pulled both manticores off me with my roomie's MNK/NIN.

Was kinda hard keeping shadows up with two of them wacking at me and the slowga/dispelga knocking away shadows and making my recast time longer. I gave double Mambo but one of them got dispelled, and gave Cure 3's but a BRD's MP pool is SMALL! (205MP right now) so I kept healing MP when I could.

I got the smaller manticore killed off but MNK was terribly low on HP, stayed at about 195HP for most of the fight with the larger one. Luckily kept shadows up, then I stared at my Chakra recast and hit it soon as it came up, shortly after I got 100TP and finished it with Asuran Fists.

Maybe it doesn't sound as exciting now, but that was a nice rush of excitement then joy after I managed to take them both down.

So, could probably duo this with a MNK/NIN and a proper healer.
easy
# Jun 03 2007 at 5:23 AM Rating: Decent
*
150 posts
did this as 75 whm/nin and 75pld/rdm no sneak pull just went in popped it let the western one beat on the pld while we killed eastern once it was dead we proceded to kill the other one we could of just soloed one each but either way its easy
easy...
# May 23 2007 at 2:21 AM Rating: Decent
6 ppl from lvl 62-73, as a 73 pld it hit me for an average of 33-74 per hit. easy stuff. Pull one at a time, sneak then spawn em. Don't count on trying the depop method, SE probably fixed that.
Soloing
# Jan 04 2007 at 12:48 PM Rating: Good
*
236 posts
Solo'd as 65 BST/WHM.

I did NOT use any food or mp regen drinks, only pet food zeta. popped the Nms and only got agro from the Eastern Sphinx.

Fight took maybe about 20 minutes and was tons of fun. The only thing to be wary of is pet swapping, as the Eastern will spam Dispelga during a swap and will then proceed to beat you down, and he hits hard, fast and often >.<

This is where the MP regen drinks the other BSTs who solo'd this suggested come in handy, If I had it to do over again I would definitely have brought some, I was unaware of the Eastern's ability to Dispelga, which takes out both stoneskin, blink, prtotect and even re-raise in one shot. So the extra MP will help as your scrambling to get your buffs back up.

Cactuars are... not too good against this NM (Scorpions ftw!), they die super fast, but if your lucky to get 100% TP with them before they croak, 1000 needles will help shorten the fight a bit. Also don't discount your jug pets either, PanzerGalahad can take quite a beating from this guy, which will in turn give you time to get stoneskin and blink back up, (don't bother with re-raise) as well as rest for a few.

Good luck to any BSTs that try to solo this, your sure to have an... experience :D

change..maybe
# Dec 27 2006 at 3:33 PM Rating: Decent
i just killed this as a 74 war with two 75 whms and we sneak pulled the eastern sphnix and we pwned it but then we couldnt get the stones so we decided to fight it again and pulled both and killed them and got the stones so idk but i was checking this mission and when i closed my browser i accidently spawned them and i got killed but oh well hope this was helpful
Solo'ing w/out nin sub
# Dec 02 2006 at 7:04 PM Rating: Default
Just soloed this as 75 pld/war. The fight was dicey, to say the least. In the end i had 150 hp and no mp. The sneak thing works like a charm, but be sure to run away as soon as you hit the ??? because the second sphinx will hear you as soon as the first touches you and sneak wears off (i messed up once and had to zone). The sphinx hit me for about 80 per hit as 75 pld.

Basically, just be warned that this fight is not a complete pushover (unless you're not a bum like me and you actually have utsusemi).
Solo Rdm/Nin
# Oct 16 2006 at 9:29 AM Rating: Decent
no surprise huh.

just wanted to give some details on popping the nms.

there are 2 rocks, a large(north) rock and a small(south) rock.
the eastern sphinx, the eaiser of the 2 from what i've read below, pops on the small rock, the western sphinx, the slowga ******* pops on the north rock.

the ??? is inbetween the 2 rocks.

to spawn the nms so that you only fight the eastern sphinx,
1. apply sneak
2. apply some sort of shadow, shihei, blink.
3. check the ??? from the north, so that the north rock is to the side of you and the south rock is in your line-of-sight.

once you check the ??? the nms will spawn, the eastern sphinx will see you right away so make a dash away from the 2 rocks to somewhere safe to fight.

i didn't know of this info. i applied sneak, spawned the nms not knowing how they would spawn (eastern faces north rock, western faces south rock), so i ended up having to fight the western sphinx. he saw me right away so i just ran for it.

western sphinx was simple, took a few minutes but nothing major. he can get through stoneskin, you will be slowed from his slowga the entire time, but he misses enough so that it won't matter.

~keep your buffs on, use ichi(leaving ni for emergencies), keep him enfeebed, and apply barfira for his heat wave.

he'll be cake, and the other will have despawned by the time you're done.
check the ??? for the moonstone pebble.

gl!
DRG solo
# Sep 30 2006 at 9:55 AM Rating: Decent
well... that was easy DRG75/BLU35 can kill these jokes for manticores no prob.
Soloed
# Aug 27 2006 at 3:35 AM Rating: Decent
Easily soled as 75 PLD/NIN, the sneak puylling trick works a charm.

Any job with Ni and Ichi should be able to solo this no worries from around 60 on.
w00t
# Jul 27 2006 at 10:03 AM Rating: Decent
*
109 posts
Duo'd this with my buddy Choompo.
For goodness sake, if you sneak pop these things, grab the little guy. Dispelga sux from the big one. Kept taking refresh away.

To clear up any questions, where these pop on top of two rocks. They pop facing opposite directions, so if you are Sneaked, and pop from between the rocks, you will not get agro. I just ran back some and then ran in front of one of them getting agro from only one. Made sure I was out of sneak agro range before pulling, but i also had blink up to null any casting to remove sneak.

Was a good fight, we drained MP, but killed him relatively easy. On to the Bomb!!

Edited, Jul 27th 2006 at 11:07am EDT by FrostTrunks
____________________________
Pandemonium - RDM/BLM 75/37
Frostbite THF/NIN 75/37
PLD 52, WHM 37
RNG 28, WAR 37
Bastok Rank 10
RDM Maat (1/3)
RDM AF: 1(√) 2(√) 3(√) 4(√) 5(√) 6(√)
THF AF: 1(√) 2(√) 3(√) 4(√) 5(√) 6(√)
Goldsmithing 51
Ose(1/3), Lizzy(1/3), Golden Bat(5/6)
White Coney(1/2), Ge'Dha Evileye(1/4)
Geyser Lizard(3/7), Stray Mary(0/2)
Mysticmaker Profblix(1/3)

w00t
# Feb 11 2007 at 3:06 AM Rating: Decent
**
516 posts
note to self: they pop facing each other, meaning they pop facing between the rocks, which means popping between the rocks is a bad idea. granted, facing each other is still facing opposite directions

another not to self: riddle is so god damned cheap. take me from 650 max MP to 0. so god damned cheap.

Edited, Feb 11th 2007 6:53am by Klaire
Duo'd
# Jul 09 2006 at 3:48 PM Rating: Good
***
1,713 posts
Duo'd this BRD/NIN (me) with my wife, Chalumeau, WHM/SMN. We sneak popped and pulled Eastern Sphinx away a bit. Was a little rough starting but once he was enfeebled he was cake. It was a longish fight (5 minutes or so) but wasn't too hard.

The other Sphinx had despawned by the time we finished. For the sake of testing I tried to sleep it and they are not BRD sleepable.

Edited, Jul 9th 2006 at 4:50pm EDT by Yeargdribble
Note to BLMs: don't attempt solo ^^b
# Jun 28 2006 at 11:38 AM Rating: Good
**
265 posts
All my sleeps were resisted (enfeebs aren't capped, but they are in no way gimp), even Sleepga II was resisted. :P
Solo
# Jun 11 2006 at 11:55 PM Rating: Decent
24 posts
Solo'd this as 71 SMN, just took a bit of recasting. Trick is to sneak before you spawn NM. And make sure only ONE NM can see you when they pop
My experience
# May 15 2006 at 2:07 PM Rating: Decent
Did this Saturday with some people from the LS so we could all get Rank 7.

58BLM, 62PLD, 62MNK, 67RNG, 67WHM, 70SMN

Cleared the area. The plan was to sleep one of the Sphinxs and unload on the other. Unfortunately he didn't stay slept so the SMN kept one at bay with Avatars until we killed the other.
For people tanking these, at 62 they were not hitting me very hard at all, similar to XP level mobs.
k
# May 14 2006 at 6:18 PM Rating: Decent
Just soloed as 75RDM/BLM, had to use Vile elixer+1 for win.

The big manticore casts dispelga, wich made it a decent fight. The little Mantocore cast slowga, no big deal.

I started to kill litte mantcore, when I shoulda killed big manti first >< still won.
Just solo'd
# Apr 13 2006 at 3:02 PM Rating: Decent
*
181 posts
Just soloed this as 75MNK/NIN as long as you are able to pop it and only aggro one, anyone can do this. Was very hard at all took maybe 10 min tops.
Solo'd as 75RDM/12NIN
# Apr 10 2006 at 10:05 AM Rating: Decent
*
58 posts
Did the Sneak pop, and then pulled the western sphinx. Found his greatest vulnerability was paralyze and slow; was cake keeping up Ichi. Casted poison 2 and bio 2 and started hacking away with main Dagger sub Sword doing MP Steal WS whenever available. Took about 7 - 8 minutes but was never in any real danger. Just watch your buffs as it will use Dispelga.

Was like fighting a DC, any high RDM who has soloed anything worth soloing should have no problem with this.


Edited, Mon Apr 10 11:06:20 2006
RE: Solo'd as 75RDM/12NIN
# Apr 11 2006 at 10:00 AM Rating: Good
*
58 posts
I'm merely curious to know HOW sneak helps against monsters that Clearly aggro sight...

Edited, Tue Apr 11 09:56:22 2006
RE: Solo'd as 75RDM/12NIN
# May 30 2006 at 1:24 PM Rating: Good
*
58 posts
They appear to aggro both sight and sound. They spawn facing eachother and if you pop them right they can't see you but they will be able to hear you. Sneak pop them, run out of sound range and then pull one of them, they didn't link when I pulled them.

Clearly not everything is black and white.
Solo'd with bst
# Apr 05 2006 at 10:40 AM Rating: Decent
*
68 posts
lvl 67bst, not as impressive as the lvl 60 bst, but i also solo'd this mission. any bst that want to solo this just read the threads that the other bst have posted and you should be fine. the only difference that i did was used Crow gear and had pineapple juice and hi pots. Run far, very far that sphinx has flee-like abilities to catch up to you lol.

Good luck!
PS: who said "you cant solo that, we needed an alliance to do that. You're gonna die Romy!" That was you Shizzle!(he's in my LS) How you like those apples!... also finished the next mission too... solo'd! Romy<<< Rank 7 lol. j/k with the trash talk shiz you my boy.

Romy @ Seraph
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