Great Joy and Great Sadness

Today was *really* a mixed bag. Lots of good things, but one really sad thing that stood out above the rest of the day's events. The bad thing happened last in the day, so I'll list it last, of course.

Started the day off by deciding to do my Olduum Ring quest. The Olduum Ring is a useful li'l trinket: once per every twenty hours, it can teleport its user to Wajaom Woodlands, an area right outside Al Zahbi. Taking some silent oils and prism powders (items that help you avoid getting attacked by enemies) from my Mog Safe, I ran out to Aydeewa Subterrane to mine up my Olduum artifact to trade for the Lightning Band. I got it on the second try, only breaking one Pickaxe, and didn't get attacked the entire time, much to my relief. I returned to Whitegate, gave the mined-up Electropot to the man who'd requested it, and got my Lightning Band, which I brought to the Leypoint in Wajaom Woodlands and transformed it into the Olduum Ring.

At this point, I realized: I'm twenty levels too low to use this!!! It's not equippable until Level 60, to my frustration. Ah well, at least I got the quest out of the way.

Myself and Sheemie then went out to quest our Corsair and Puppetmaster jobs, which require you to go to areas near Nashmau. As such, we hopped the ferry to Nashmau from Aht Urhgan Whitegate. It was about to leave when Sheemie realized that the PUP flag had not been started. Oh well, we said, at least we'll still both get COR and I can get PUP.

Well, on the ferry, I walked up to talk to the captain, to see how long the ride would be, when an Imp on deck spotted me and killed me... and I got the following message.

Ironside falls to Level 39.

Dang. It. That Exp loss from Promyvion - Mea had taken its toll. Sheemie's Raise left me about sixty-one points short of regaining my level, so I decided it was no big deal, I could go solo some stuff and regain it fast when we got back.

Well, two completed flag quests and two deaths later, I was a good bit farther from regaining Level 40. Me and Sheemie duo'd out in Sauromugue Champaign for a while, but we died against a pair of Evil Weapons and almost ended up worse than where we started, so we left to complete my Casting Wand quest. Aisur Teleport-Vahzl'ed us out to Xarcabard and also decided (read: was begged) to help. We got out there with almost nothing going wrong, until I popped the monster too soon and got my butt handed to me before Sheemie or Aisur could pull hate off of me. Aisur Raised me while Sheemie killed the monster, and it seemed all was well, until Sheemie took aggro from a pair of Demons that were nearby. He got into critical health, but managed to put up Sleepga II on them, allowing Aisur to rest and regain enough MP for a Teleport - Mea, to take us to the far safer Tahrongi Canyon. Sheemie stepped off to the side and sat to heal...

...I then noticed something purple running towards him from a different direction, full throttle. Before I could say anything, it swung:

The Demon Pawn hits Sheemie for (forgot the number) points of damage.
Sheemie was defeated by the Demon Pawn.

Luckily, Aisur had put Invisible up on me, so it wouldn't attack me, but it did come after Aisur, who also died. Checking to see if it was ok and meeting no resistance, I cast Warp and returned to Whitegate, leaving Aisur to Reraise (he had cast it while I wasn't looking, evidently) and Raise Sheemie, then get them both out of there. I then panicked and realized that I hadn't seen the Glowstone (the required item) drop into my inventory before I Warped, but a scan of my inventory revealed it to be there. (Must've dropped during all the commotion with the Demons.) I traded it in in Windurst and got my Casting Wand, my Artifact Weapon. I left town then and got my Puppetmaster to Level 2, before returning to town (via dying to a bunny), changing back to Black Mage, and logging out, an hour before Beherit's well-planned-in-advance goodbye party.

I came to that a little late, as Beherit was about to start his farewell speech. I managed to get there just before he started, though. He doted on his memories of all of us, and gave some of us presents. I myself was surprised he had remembered me, among the people there in East Sarutabaruta (a fair number, too. I took a screenie or two, or three, remind me to post them.), and gave me a Maple Table. After giving everyone gifts, and thanking us all (especially Chainspell, the Linkshell's leader), he invited us to claim all non - Ra/Ex items that were on his person at the time. I walked out with a Holy Phial, and left his (better for me, but ah well) Morion Tathlum for him, since that was a gift to him from Kiryn. Soon after, he gave away all of his Gil to anyone who could answer his question (what race, gender and nationality his first character was), which Kylin won, and then logged out among friends, with a few parting words. We miss you greatly, Beherit!

I stayed at the spot a while to stare out into the ocean there, until I was the last one there (save Nitai, Orangeknight's mule) then logged out.