The Adventure

Our adventure started when we heard tales of two beasts that needed to be slain. Rumors were flying about our linkshell (a social community of adventurers) that somewhere deep in the mountains of the Uleguerand Range the were two beasts needing to be slain. The leader of our linkshell advised us to speak with a Galka named Zabada who would be "Where the fierce land of Xarcabard meets the even fiercer terrain of the Uleguerand Range." We traveled to the Outpost of Xarcabard and made our way toward the Range.

Once there we did meet up with Zabada whom Yevna failed to describe as underclothed. I am not sure how he was not freezing to death. Maybe I am just unaware and the Galka race has a thick hide and a layer of blubber similar to the king buffalo in the region. Wether that is the case or not I am still unsure and has little bearing on the story I am telling. So please allow me to continue. Zabada told us the story of two Tauri brothers, Eldertaur and Mindetaur. He spoke of both their evil deeds and the treasure they had gathered slaying innocent adventurers.

While the tales of the horrors these "Brothers" had commited burned us deep into our souls it was the rumor that hidden away the had the legendary Hedgehog Bomb stashed away that intrigued me the most. I thanked Zabada quickly and was in a hurry to be on our way. As we started to leave Zabada called out for us to wait. If it was not for Piddle I would have ignored the Galka's wishes. Piddle convinced me to stay and finish listening to the tale.

It was a good thing we did because it was then that I learned that without our own Zephyr Fan's we would not be able to pass the wind pillars to make it to the Brothers lair. Zebada informed us that he in fact had two fans that he was willing to part with for a price. He himself was unable to travel further into the Range and required some ice from the Spring of Chamneat. He told us of a great risk we would have to take to reach the spring. If only we had known how true it was.

As we continued our journey we had to pay special attention to the Tauri, you see it was two of their leaders that we were hunting. You see these beasts were granted the power to see through our magic diguises. We made our way across the treacherous terrain and on our way I felt my magic was weakening. I made the decision to renew my magic so I could continue to remain unseen. Unfortunately I failed in being completely aware of my surroundings. A nasty snoll came out from behind a pilar of ice in an attempt to destroy me. My fellow adventurer and friend was quick to react. He summoned his dark magic to lull the snow into a forced nap.

We decided at this point that we had no time to deal with a creature so trivial as this snoll was. We rested and summoned the energy to remove ourselves from the world of Vana'diel and into another realm. Shortly after we brought ourselves back to Vana'diel in which the snoll had lost interest in the disappearing Black Mages. It was time for our journey to continue. We made the proper preparations and set off again to continue travels to the spring. It came as a shock when we came upon the Legendary Jormungand. I wanted to slay the foul dragon then and there. Piddle reminded me that we had more pressing issues and that Jormungands time would come.

At this point we were approaching a cliff. "What is this all about?" I asked. "That naked bastard sword lead us right to a dead end." As I said this Piddle stared off in the distance and approached the cliff. He looked down. "I think I see where it is," he says "right there." "There is nothing there, how could you possible know that it's down there," I said "and even it was how would we get there." He then explained that we could have to slide down slope. I proceeded to call him insane and told him he was more off his rocker than I had thought he was if he thought I was going down that thing.

Then he jumped down and yelled "Aim for the hump!" I couldn't believe it but of course I had to follow. Otherwise who knows what kind of trouble he would get himself into. So I um.. aimed for the "hump". Yea easier said than done. Ignore the fact that I couldn't her myself think over my own screaming as I slid down to what I thought was going to be the death of me (and in a way it was) there was no "hump" that I could see. Which of course meant I made it to the ground instead of the ledge. Piddle on the other hand was able to make it on to the ledge. So now the plan was for me to die and him to use the power to move unconscious bodies to bring me up an the ledge as well.

This was an excellent plan (I don't mind being ko'd I am used to it with my two main professions) except for the fact he had no way to revive me in his current state. So from there developed the plan for him to go back to his mog house and meditate until he could regain the power to revive me once I was on the ledge. And so the plan continued and I purposely was defeated by an Ice Elemental. Then my body was dragged up on to the ledge with the magic powers of my dear friend. I wait there unconscious for my pal to return. Oh and I forgot to mention that before he dragged me up the ledge he went and got his ice from the spring.

He returned and raised me from below the ledge. He then returned once again to his mog house via our power as BLM's to warp to once again meditate to be more adept in the skills of enfeebling than the skills of restoration. As he made his way back from his second trip away I traveled deep into the tunnel of the ledge and made my way to the spring. I too collected my ice from the spring. We had made plans to rendezvous back at Zabada to collect our Zephyr Fans. I still have no clue what a mostly naked Galka needs with ice but if it made him help us with our goal I don't really care. From here it was time to make our way to tunnel under the water fall.

Around the range again we went this time both were able to keep under the cover of our magic until we reached our destination. Unfortunately we had been warned before hand that during icy weather the waterfall may be frozen over and block our entrance. This was in fact the case when we arrived. We knew that the icy weather would not last forever and we had heard tales of BLM's defeating the King Buffalo in the area. We decided to take our chances and try to take down a few of the beasts ourselves. We succeeded in doing so until the icy weather faded. Though there were many a close call but we always made it through the battles.

Once the icy weather stopped we both used magic to conceal ourselves and then made our way to the tunnel. Once inside we delved deeper until we found the Bearclaw Pinnacle and found the Wind Pillar. We went over our strategy to defeat the Brothers which were lying before us. We decided to have Piddle make the bigger brother sleep for as long as he while could drawing on every ability he had. The little brother would be mine to use the forces of gravity to slow him down as we both nuked him to oblivion. Once the bigger brother awoke it was my turn to draw on my abilities to lull him back to sleep.

We were able to get the little one out of our way before the big brother awoke again. Unfortunately I did not heed warning (along with past experiences with the Tauri) and faced him while I was casting. As a result I was doomed and had 10 seconds to live. I had brought my enchanted earring of raise with me so I was only worried of how long Piddle could hold the beasts attention while I recovered. I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did so. I was able to make a full recovery and we started to nuke down this brother as well. Also employing the methods of gravity and bind to keep the creature from being able to damage us physically.

Unfortunately Piddle succumb to the same fate as I and was doomed as well. He then rested as I took the monsters attention. Once he recovered we both had a new found passion and hatred for the beast and decided it was time to make our last stand. We nuked like there was not another battle after this one and that it was the only one that would ever matter. This is not the case and there will of course be other battles but this is how we felt at the time. At least I know it's how I felt. I can't speak personally for Piddle but through the emotion in the room when we defeated the second brother and located the treasure, I was sure he had felt the same.

The treasure was not what we had seeked but the battle was all the reward we needed. I heard a rumor that the brothers may have survived. So I have a feeling we may meet again and have another go at the treasure they have collected. Until then I hope you all enjoyed reading of my adventure.

New things.

So instead of our usual Under Observation we did an Up in Arms run on Thursday. Nothing rare dropped but all the 100% drops plus gil from winning ends up being around 60k. It may not be the best but compared to a lot of other BC's where a lot of the time you come out empty handed it was nice to have one that I knew I would walk away from with some gil at least. The fight was easy and Yev and I took the kraken's health down with no problem while Itaz kept the creature sleeping.

Friday night I did besieged and capped out all of my magic skills except for enhancing magic. After that I decided to do some farming/crafting. Spent most of my not doing that. Then Penelope asked for help on her Jelly Ring. Rai and I volunteered and met her in Sandy. We went in and luckily the Sewer Syrup was already up and ready to be killed. We took it on with out too much issue and the ring dropped for Penelope. After that I went back to crafting and spent much of my morning doing that as well.

After a while Tybo and some other friends of ours decided to do the ENM for the Blau Dolch. I go climb the mountain and for one of the first times have no trouble doing so. Then we are all gathered at the entrace. Stanley enters and I try to follow. Whoops I forgot to trade the item back to get my key item. I can't get in. So thinking I may still be able to get in if I run back and get item, I do just that. The whole time I hear them on TS talking about how they are wiping. So now I feel like a complete asshole. I finally make it back and we are hoping to recover from the fight and finish it up once I get in.

Unfortunately I couldn't get in since they had already engaged the mobs. So then they had a new idea to try but wiped again. Sad thing is that I know if I was there we probably would have won without any real issues. After that Yev mentioned another ENM called Brothers that me and Piddle could duo. After that the two of us set out on an adventure filled with a snow slide, buffalo, icy weather and doom.

I started writing about our adventure and in turned into more than just a blog entry so I am going to finish here and later I will post again with the full story. I hope everyone enjoys reading it.

Getting harder

I can always for the most part think of something to write, yet every time I do it is getting harder to come up with titles for the posts. I am not exactly sure why but oh well. I ended up being a bit late for the BC run (glad I logged out @ the BC) since we were really busy at work and because of that it took us longer to finish closing. It was interesting having a BST join instead of a NIN but was still easy enough.

Yevna d/c'd a couple times both at inconvenient times but still we were able to win the BC with no real problems. On both mine and Yevna's orbs nothing but junk dropped. On Piddle's run though we got a Ni scroll, it's no PCC but still better than getting nothing which has happened to us quite frequently in the past.

Afterward I mentioned to Yev that the Up In Arms BCNM is a guarenteed 60k and a slight chance at a Kraken Club. Yea the drop rate is abysmal but so is the drop rate on the PCC though the PCC isn't quite as bad. But, like I said before though many times we have left Under Observation with nothing but junk usually amounting to maybe 10-15k. So we decided to set up a run on Thursday night after I get home from work.

I seem to use be able to use my beastman seals more often than my kindred's seals so really would like to plan another run for those at some point. Though it is harder to get 6 people together instead of three.

Tonight did the gargoyle fights and then went on to do the snoll fight for the Three Path's mission of CoP. The Gargoyle fights took a lot longer than I expected but were easy overall. Then we moved on to the Snoll fight which was pathetically easy. I brought way too many salts. I'm not sure how many were even used but my guess would be only 1. I remembered what I read on the wiki wrong and used the wrong ws which did very lame damage. Even so the fight was a cake walk.

I wanted to continue on, but it was getting too late for a lot of our members. I totally understand but sometimes it is very very frustrating being a late night west coast player. Not wanting to be a complete slave driver I didn't whine too much about not continueing. Since Piddle has a short time next week anyway it won't be a big deal to get the last BC out of the way then. I am just really eager to delve further into the story of CoP not to mention get access to sea and my Rajas ring.

I think tomorrow night I am gonna try to level SAM some more. Later all.

The Rest

So when I left off I was waiting for salvage to start. We went in and everything went pretty smooth as usual but as always the nm's were stingy as hell. I think we are planning a boss run for next week. Personally I agree with Val, bosses are pointless if you don't have the 35's for the pieces already. Oh well though, the only reason I go to salvage is to hang out with my friends. So far since we have started salvage all I have got are a few 15 pieces and I am pretty sure I am not the only one.

Really if I didn't enjoy the company of my friends in the shell (and flicking shit back and forth with Lan) I would just stop going to Salvage. Honestly Salvage is almost a cosmic joke in FFXI. ZNM on the other hand I always enjoy and unlike Salvage pretty much everyone gets what they want or will undoubtedly will in the future. Unfortunately we got a late start on ZNM's and weren't able to use all our pop items.

I really enjoyed the fight though, really got to have fun on BLM. I am sure quite a few of the others weren't so excited since all they did was sit around and watch the nm get sleeped and time nuked by all the BLM's. I really didn't want to stop since I was having so much fun even though I was exhausted from work this week and getting up way earlier than normal. Yet it was getting late for the east coasters and we had to call it a night.

I went to bed and woke up later and muled a bunch of stuff of my main and got my NIN 40 cap INT gear muled to my main. I headed out to the bcnm for the PCC, after grabbing my star orb in jeuno, so than when I get of work I am ready to go. I just hope Yev and Piddle are ready as well so Piddle won't be up too late since unlike Yev and I, he isn't on the west coast. Anyway I should take a nap before work.

Hopefully I will post tonight after the BC or tomorrow after we do CoP. Later my faithful readers.

Waiting

So as the title suggests I am currently waiting. Salvage is scheduled to start in a little over 30 minutes. So I figured while I have an hour I could use some of that time to post on my blog. So Friday night I got home and was gonna go BLM it up but rl stuff came up. I wish I would have just stayed home, things did not go well but that story would be for a whole different blog. Anyway I basically ditched out on Laa, Jir and Meph. >.<.

The next morning I ended up getting up early (not by choice) and decided I would log on to see what was going on. Tybo was on and I mentioned I wanted to level SAM. So we went out to the Thickets and started picking on birds. Stayed there for a while then decided we wanted to try out one of the new FoV areas. We decided to try Cape Terrigan and went for the crab and goblin page. Wasn't too difficult even though the gobs were VT, only issue we really ran into was not being able to dispel the crabs.

I think we did 3 regimes before I was starting to pass out. So I told Tybo that I needed a nap and would be back later. 3 hours later I get back on, Tybo and Casque are out duo'ing NM's in La Vaule [S] for the SCNM. I brought out BLM and it was really a lot of fun. I died a few times but not really a big deal. It was one of the first times I was able to use BLM without level sync since I hit 75. The fights were really long but very fun. Again though around midnight I started nodding off again.

Then Today I woke up at 6 am. X_X. I couldn't get back to sleep so I logged on and started messing around. I finished crafting up some mercury that I had mats for and realized I also needed silent oils. Made some of those up and also some powders. Then remembered that I needed Zeni. Luckily it was tigers and they were pretty much right outside whitegate. Was able to get enough pics to finish off the 3k I needed for a pop item for Nuhn.

Did some more crafting after that, then switched to RNG to get ready for Nyzul Isle. Since a couple of our members were MIA we decided to farm instead of climbing (so we wouldn't have to repeat ourselves). First attempt we failed and timed out. Really was just a case of bad luck. Second two runs were amazingly quick climbs. First fafnir was a cake walk but no drop. Second one was a pain in the ass (still not sure why). Yet again no drop. I did get the killer bow, so if for some reason I decide I want a shitty ws for when I use a crossbow, I can break the weapon. Still was nice to get something.

Well getting closer to Salvage time. I'll try to post again later. Sorry Hugin I know this is a longer post but it is only stuff from a day and a half. >.<

The Beast

I don't think I held back so much even on RNG. Such a crazy job and seems like S-E just keeps making it beastlier. Oh well, if you haven't caught on I am talking about Samurai. After being denied some BLM exp (I understand though, if exp is already low adding another BLM isn't going to help) I decided to seek on SAM while doing some FoV. I wasn't sure what I could handle so I went out to OP in the desert and started there.

It was way too easy but by the time I was looking to move camps (after one training regime) I had got an invite. So I was off to kill birds in the Woodlands. The party leader asked me if I had a problem with going /nin. I said no, well because I didn't have a problem with it. Then asked me to pull. I explained I would have a whole mess of hate if I did that but then they suggested the DRK/SAM pull with poison, so I said I would pull. At least I had shadows.

Still I was a SAM with a polearm poking birds, I tried eating food it was gone everytime within 90 seconds. Still it was a very decent party. I popped my anny band twice and my emp band once. Went from 2k into 62 to 63 with some kind of buffer (I don't remember how much.) Even though the party was going good a couple hours in I got bored. Asked for the leader to look for a rep and decided to go farm and relax until it was time to sleep. Speaking of time, It's time for work.

Capped!

So last night I harvested my gardening, did some farming, and skilled up in besieged. Still need to skill up more, damned level sync. Oh well though if it was for level sync I probably would not be 75 yet so I can't complain too much.

To night once I got home it was time for Swift Belt round 2. Meph got his internet back so he was able to join us this week. Celess joined us as well. We had a little bit of trouble with a couple of fights but overall it turned out very well. We went 3/5 on the swift belts and Jiront, Mephisto, and Celess all got theirs. I d/c'd and had to go restart my modem before the last fight. By the time I got back it was time for the nm. It went smooth and we got the drop which was the last one we needed (for Celess).

After I asked who was up for BLM exp. Jir, Laa, and Lp all said they were up for it. Only thing that sucked was we were syncing to Jir/RDM Lp. That meant back to the days of no staves. We went out to West Saruta [S] and fought some elementals. Then something strange happened, Laa went to bed and Jir stayed up and got exp for longer. Crazy isn't it? It was rough at first but then we fell into a groove somewhat and were all able to get some decent exp. Jir got 51 on BLM and Lp got 51 on RDM. I capped exp and got a merit point and am 1.7k tnm.

Overall a very good night and now it's time to find something to do. Either farm or maybe see if there is a FoV I can do on SAM. Later all.

Sidetracked

So I got on last night to farm a bit before I slept. I went afk for a bit and when I came back there was someone farming my efts. I started killing them again as well. At some point he sent me a tell. I responded back and then he told me he was looking for an HQ eft skin for a gobbie bag quest. I had a couple on me from the night before and I honestly didn't want to compete not only for efts but in case Intulo popped as well.

So I decided to help him out while preserving my own interests as well. I told him if he left I would hook him up with an HQ skin. He agreed, we traded and he went on his merry way. Interestingly enough the next eft I fought dropped another HQ skin. I went on to get one more and of course bought more jellyfish to later craft into mercury. Which I usually just npc but last couple of nights I noticed there wasn't many stacks on the AH so I threw a few up along with the skins.

After a while of farming Itaz asked if anyone wanted to do a level sync party with him. I figured I had some time to kill and farming was getting boring. I said I would go and threw up in the ls chat what jobs I would be willing to go as. I ended up co-tanking on WAR with the NIN in the party. I muled to get what gear I could find. Not the best WAR gear out there I am sure but it was good enough to get the job done.

We ended up in the Desert fighting beetles and giraffe's. Was a very decent party until the whm "d/c'd" as Itaz put it. Ended the party with 471 exp tnl, which was fine since while I do enjoy warrior it isn't on my top list of priorities. After that I did some crafting and went to bed. Hopefully tonight I remember to post after I am done and not right before I log in the next day.

Almost capped.

So I ended up doing a few campaign battles on SAM/DNC and got my level. Not too bad it was less painful than RNG or BLM but still campaign isn't really my thing. Even so, now I am sitting on a 62 SAM and hoping at some point during the week I can get a real party.

I logged on tonight and was still on SAM and I thought about going to do some more campaign but then I saw Lp was soloing on BLM. I figured I'd ask if he wanted company. He said sure so I geared up and headed out. I was still surprised the exp was still really decent @ 68. We duo'd for about an hour and a half and I went from about 16k to cap to about 4k to cap. Lp was 1.2k tnl but was tired so he decided to log.

Overall it was pretty fun, had a few close calls and had to log three times. The last time we aggro'd two Giga's and Lp had 8 hp when we logged out! But all things come to an end. Nice to know next time I go out on BLM I can start meriting. Anyway got some more lightning crystals so it's time to craft. Later all.

I said I would try...

So I am currently seeking on 61 SAM it's 2,678 tnl. I still have quite a bit of meriting and gear to get for BLM so it's not retired by any means. I have almost capped exp on BLM now 16kish until cap I think. Which is only less than a couple hours at the Inlet. Lp talked about maybe syncing to my SAM for exp there but tbh I don't like the idea. I really enjoy SAM so sitting around and doing weapon skills every three minutes isn't really my idea of playing SAM.

Only seeking on SAM atm because none of my BLM friends are on atm. Really excited about meriting it. Should be a good thing though since I need a job that do merit parties without spending an ass ton of gil to do so. I really don't mind spending money on gear since I'll always have it until I decide to sell it or something. It's just going on RNG cost me an arm and a leg each time. It then leaves me with no gil to buy new gear.

I have some pretty good ways of making gil it's just depressing to watch it drop every sunday when I go to re-up on my RNG stuff.

Oh also CoP was cancelled this week and will be again next week which kind of sucks but kind of rocks. I got my Swift Belt!!! So did two others we went 3/4. This next week though we are gonna go back and try again for Jir. Which I am more than happy to do. Still can't wait to get back on to CoP and finish the 3 paths and beyond.

Anyways I am trying to keep it short so Hugin will read the whole thing. As I told him I will try to post regularly. Later all.

I need to change the name of my blog!

What a journey it has been. Tonight/This morning I finally hit 75 BLM. What a wonderful journey it has been. I want to thank everyone who helped make it possible, Tybo, Laa, and Lp most of all because those three were there a lot during the final stretch and w/o them I might not have even made it to 70 yet. Also I want to thank Itaz, Rolen, Jir, Piddle, and Meph also for joining in on the BLM fun, when they could. If I am forgetting anyone I am very sorry it's almost 6 am and I should get some sleep.

As much as there is to catch up on, I know there is plenty since it's almost been to weeks since I last posted, I really do need to try and get some sleep before work. Hopefully I will have some time after the Swift Belt run to do some blogging that has more details.


Had to log hate after I leveled so didn't get a SS of that. Oh well. Time for bed.