The Crimson Trial

This is the first Red Mage Artifact Armor quest - otherwise known as AF1.

Start NPC	Sharzalion - Southern San d'Oria (K-6)
Requirements	Red Mage Level 40+
Items Needed	Orcish Dry Food
Repeatable	Yes, after AF is complete.
Reward	Fencing Degen

← Previous Quest	Next Quest →
None	Enveloped in Darkness

Walkthrough

Talk to Sharzalion at the bar in the Lion Springs Tavern. He wants some Orcish Dry Food.
To get this food, you need to get a key to open the Storage Hole which spawns randomly about Davoi.

You need to start this quest while being a Red Mage, but there's no need to fight the NM and attain the key item on Red Mage.

Travel to Davoi and defeat Purpleflash Brukdok around (E-9)/(F-9). He will drop the Davoi Storage Key.

Purpleflash Brukdok pops around (E-9) / (F-9) after you kill an orc to allow him to spawn. You must travel down the river to get to this point. Get down to the river at (J-10) and follow it north and west to (D-8).
Note: there are a few orcs on the way that aggro even at 75, also all nearby orcs linked SMN75's Garuda fighting the NM.
Note: coming /NIN for the NM greatly helps. He spams Bio, Poison, Sleep that minimize risk of death.

The Storage Hole spawns randomly around Davoi, so just hunt around until you find it. There are patterns on the ground which identify potential spawn positions. The patterns look like someone stretched animal skins over a hole in the ground, except that they are the same colors as the ground. There are 4 "skins" in a pattern forming a rough circle divided into 4 quadrants with a fifth small "skin" covering the middle. Trade the key to it to receive the Orcish Dry Food (key item). The location changes each game day and disappears upon trading the Davoi Storage Key.

Some known locations of the Storage Hole are at (F-6), (G-9), (G-10), (K-10), (E-10), (F-7), (K-7), (I-7), (I-8), (F-9), (J-7), (K-8),(K-9), and another at (J-8). There are other locations it can spawn in, anywhere on the map.
It is possible for the Storage Hole to spawn on top of the hill at (H-8), which is only accessable via the Monastic Cavern.

Once you have obtained the Orcish Dry Food, talk to Sharzalion to receive your Fencing Degen.

Client: Sharzalion (Lion Springs Tavern, Southern San d'Oria)
Summary: Retrieve some Orcish dried food from a storage hole in Davoi. Sharzalion will let you in on something in return.