Boys with Boats

Boys with Boats

Quest giver

Tansui

Location

The Ruby Sea (X:30.7, Y:37.3)

Quest line

Stormblood Main Scenario

Level

62

Experience

 102,000

Gil

 762

Previous quest

Open Water

Next quest

To Bend with the Wind
The Devil's Cough
The Organ of Sight
The Price of Betrayal
First Line of Defense
Ethereal Lights
Protector of the Small

Patch

4.0

“

Tansui's face betrays nothing as he looks you up and down.

— In-game description

Rewards

Choose one of the following options:

• 1   High Steel Sollerets of Fending
• 1   High Steel Sollerets of Maiming
• 1   Gyuki Leather Highboots of Striking
• 1   Gyuki Leather Highboots of Scouting
• 3   Piety Materia V

Steps

• Search for Tansui.
• Speak with Gosetsu.
• Search for Soroban.

Journal

• Tansui's face betrays nothing as he looks you up and down.

Dialogue

Accepting the quest:

Tansui: You wish to pay the Ruby Tithe, yes? With your...gil, perhaps? It is just as well. Foreign currencies are in demand these days.

Soroban: I would pay for their passage to Othard.

Soroban: Does this sum meet with your satisfaction?

Tansui: ...The sea has been quite tempestuous of late. I cannot say with confidence that you would reach your destination safely─unless you tripled it.

Soroban: D-Do you take me for a fool? I know the price, as do all!

Tansui: Alas, we live in interesting times. As you came from Kugane, I should think I need not tell you that.

Tansui: The shadow of war looms. The wise and the cautious shirk our waters and our custom, and the foolhardy sharpen their knives in anticipation.

Lyse: Meaning...?

Proud Confederate: Sir! Sir! You've got to come quickly. The bastards're at it again!

Proud Confederate: I tried to convince them to stop, but they weren't having it.

Tansui: <sigh> Very well. I will be there shortly.

Tansui: ...Hm. A proposition. Your comrades strike me as a worthwhile investment. I would not hear men name me a cat before koban, so I shall consider their tithe paid─not for what they have done, but for what I expect they will do.

Alisaie: I'm not sure what to make of that man, but at least the matter of our tithe is settled. For now.

Lyse: What was that he and the other pirate were talking about? Maybe we ought to go and have a look.

Upon searching for Tansui (surveying the area):

Tansui: Gentlemen! I am told you were most unreceptive to my associate's requests.

Tansui: I realize you do not look kindly on the Confederacy and her ways. But if you refuse to pay the Ruby Tithe, your safety in these waters cannot be assured.

Imperial Pilus Prior: Spare me your concern, pirate. Your feeble attempts at extortion will not work on us.

Imperial Pilus Prior: You remain at large because we allow it─because you are such insignificant little pests that we see no need to swat you.

Imperial Pilus Prior: But if you wish to risk the ire of the viceroy, by all means, fire upon an imperial vessel. Give us a reason to bring the full might of the Garlean Empire to bear against your pathetic fleet.

Proud Confederate: Bastards!

Tansui: Gentlemen. Surely the fact that you have such limitless resources at your disposal gives you all the more reason to spare some few coins for the less fortunate?

Imperial Pilus Prior: All talk, just as I thought. Come─let us away. I have no time for this rubbish.

Lyse: We're all the same to them, aren't we? Savages to be ruled or slaughtered.

Tansui: They've always balked at paying the Ruby Tithe. But they were never so eager to pick a fight...

Tansui: The problem, you see, is that many of my comrades in the Confederacy are of Doman descent─and the acting viceroy...well, she's none too fond of Domans, to say the least.

Tansui: If we take any action to hinder the safe passage of an imperial vessel, she'll accuse us of attempting to foment rebellion and brand us enemies of the Empire─which we can ill afford to be. Like the man said, we're all talk.

Alisaie: And where do the Kojin stand in all this?

Tansui: With the winning side, of course. They are mercenaries to a fault, eager to offer their services without coercion.

Tansui: The shellback could tell you more...though something tells me he would rather not.

Lyse: I don't understand. If the Garleans are causing the Confederacy this much trouble─and if so many of you are Doman to begin with─why aren't you willing to fight back?

Tansui: Hahaha! Spoken like a true friend of the Doman Liberation Front.

Tansui: If you're planning to rouse us with noble words and grand promises─don't bother. We all know what the imperial army can do. Compared to them, we're boys with boats.

Tansui: Besides, what ties a man may once have held to his home are forsaken upon joining the Confederacy. We look out for none but our own.

Tansui: Be that as it may, our livelihood is under threat, and the captain will need to decide soon whether we are to go down in a blaze of glory or bow and scrape for crumbs from the Emperor's table.

Tansui: ...All while our friend the viceroy continues her purge of Doma's “radical elements.” I believe she's holding court in one of the fishing villages even as we speak.

Gosetsu: That she-devil! Her perfidy knows no bounds!

Gosetsu: She must be stopped. Come, let us find Soroban and put to sea at once!

Tansui: Tell the others that these ones have paid. We all have places to be.

Speaking with Gosetsu:

Gosetsu: What are we waiting for? Come, come! Soroban cannot have gone far!

Gosetsu: ...Though now that I think on it, it is passing strange that he left without warning. Mayhap he did not wish to be seen by his Kojin brethren?

Gosetsu: I doubt he thought to leave us behind, but nevertheless, it may be prudent to return to his ship. Or at least to the Confederate encampment.

Speaking with Soroban:

Soroban: Oh, my friends! A thousand pardons! ...As you may have guessed, I was reluctant to be seen in your company by my Red brothers. Ours is a...complex relationship.

Soroban: I pray you do not misinterpret their actions as a reflection of our allegiances as a whole.

Soroban: You...you understand? Kami be praised! Too often are shell-less quick to judge all Kojin for the deeds of one.

Soroban: Right, then. Now that our business with Tansui is concluded, we can traverse the Ruby Sea without fear!