Last weekend, when I was perusing gear upgrades for my Ninja in Rhalgr’s Reach, I saw someone using the Bonewicca Shadow’s Chestpiece from Swallow’s Compass, which was something of a surprise, since I realized I’d never actually seen it. Swallow’s Compass was added during my slowed down period with the game, and I only ran it once just to see the next chapter of the Four Lords storyline (which reminds me, I still need to do the Suzaku chapter…). I didn’t get any of the major glamour pieces from that one run, and since I wasn’t playing all that much at the time, I never had much opportunity to see others using most of them, either.

So because of all of that, the Chestpiece really stuck out in my head, especially after I tried it on and checked out its dyeing pattern. Like the Skallic sets from the Healer design contest, most of the Bonewicca bodies dye pretty well (now that I’ve seen several of them from running the dungeon). The Shadow’s Chestpiece is no exception, maintaining easy to work with black elements with secondary color channels set to accents and accessories. I resolved then and there to find some time to farm Swallow’s Compass, since I was absolutely sure I could make something work with the Ninja body (and probably with some of the others, too).

Glamour Components (Required Level: NIN 70)
Weapon: Hyperconductive Kannagi (Replicas)
Head: Elegant Rimless Glasses (Metallic Gold)
Body: Bonewicca Shadow’s Chestpiece (Pure White)
Hands: Karasu Tekko (Pure White)
Legs: Lady’s Knickers (Gold)
Feet: Gyuki Leather Highboots of Scouting (Jet Black)

Once I had the Chestpiece (which only took me three or four runs, quite contrary to my usual luck for such things), I set to work on figuring out a glamour immediately. Initially, since I’d never gotten around to crafting a glamour specifically for my Elemental Knives from Eureka Pagos, I began with a Dalamud Red Chestpiece and (of course) the Scion Healer’s Highboots. That ship quickly ran aground, though, because I couldn’t find a solid pair of gloves that worked in tandem with those other pieces. None of Ninja’s longer gloves that I had any of the necessary red, and staple other pairs, like the Ala Mhigan Fingerless Gloves, didn’t really mesh with the Chestpiece, which has short sleeves.

I did, thankfully, remember Stormblood’s first set of PvP gloves, though, which I thought might work well. After a quick trip to the Wolves’ Den Pier, I found that they unfortunately dye pretty terribly with Dalamud Red (with a ton of pink) but also that they look great in Pure White, since the channel that becomes pink with Dalamud Red is simply more white with that dye. Of course, I’m always happy to find things that work well in my favorite dye, so I immediately made a pivottoward figuring out a Pure White glamour with the Chestpiece instead. A successful daily Frontlines later, I had my gloves and a new plan.

If things were going to work, I needed to find the perfect pair of boots first. That’s always a tricky proposition when I’m using gloves in a color like Pure White, since my normal preference is for gloves and boots to match and most boots don’t look great in Pure White. So, I needed boots worked well in black while also having some gold, since they weren’t going to match the gloves (or the rest of the outfit) otherwise. Most of my staples were out from the beginning since all of the good boots typically have silver accents, but I thought the Saurian Boots of Striking might work, since they have a gold knee guard. They almost worked, but they didn’t really fit in very well with the style of the other pieces—the laces on the back in particular stood out in a jarring way. Thankfully, though, the Gyuki Leather Highboots came to the rescue, having a better overall texture and a “plainer” style which didn’t clash quite so much with the Chestpiece.

After that I had to figure out a pair of shorts or some sort of skirt for the legs slot. My default probably would have been the Nezha Lady’s Slops at this point (since I was already using Pure White), but since the look already had a black-and-white thing going, I figured I should use something in black instead, a color that doesn’t work so well for the Slops. I considered a number of normal options, like the Werewolf Bottoms or Faire Kohakama, but none of them felt quite right. Though I can’t remember why I thought to try them, the gold Lady’s Knickers ended up solving the puzzle, as using black instead was resulting in too much black across the whole look. Going with the gold Knickers instead of the white or black ones provides for a really nice contrast of color that fits in well with all of the gold accents throughout the other pieces.

With the core of the look done, I moved on to the Head slot, which was an easy choice. At this point, it’s more than customary for Alahra’s Ninja glamours to include glasses, and I saw no reason to deviate from that course here. I did, just to be thorough, try out a couple of bandanas and eye patches, but nothing seemed to particularly add to the look, and so I stuck with Alahra’s normal frames. And with those in place, I had a finalized glamour and my first general use Ninja glamour since I fell in love with the Nezha Lady’s Togi almost six whole months ago!

During my farming, I also picked up the Bonewicca Whisperer’s Jacket, and I like it enough that I’ll probably be experimenting with it this week, too. My Red Mage is certainly going to need a new glamour now that we’re closing in on the end of the All Saints’ Wake season, anyway, so picking up the Jacket comes at the perfect time. I’ve not yet decided whether I’ll be farming other pieces from there just yet (though I would love to get my hands on the Soother’s Chestpiece as well), since there are still pieces from Riordana Lighthouse and Drowned City that I want as well, but I suspect this won’t be the last use I get out of Bonewicca gear either way.