Happy Birthday to me~

Well, today was a pretty good birthday, I must say. Aside from RL stuff (which I won't go into here), I got a level of DRG, a cabinet, Moghancement: Experience (finally!) and two levels of Cooking, bringing me to 27. Meat Broth's cap is 28, but unlike other recipes, I intend on riding this one all the way to 28.0, "even if I have to buy new stacks of ingredients at 27.9", as I told Shadowdog. The profit is just too good to pass up while I have it.

Sorry for the short entry, but I've got too much to do to write more~!

--Ironside

Gah...

Well, in the past month, I've gotten up to BLM44 (about 1,000 Experience Points away from 45, to boot), and sold said Signa to Mercilesstemper... the latter of which I wish I had not done. After checking his AH history on the wonderful FFXIAH site listed in my Links section to your right, I saw that he had sold one himself recently, for 290k. Know what that means?

That means I got used for a quick 90k. >_<; A 90k that I could use much better than he could, I'm sure.

Anyhow, Aralays is out of town for a few weeks, so we are unable to do the normal ENM runs. There is to be a static for them when he returns, though, due to us getting slaughtered repeatedly by pick-me-up people being stupid, so hopefully that works out well.

In the meantime, with Shadowdog's help, I've gotten my Cooking skill up to Level 25 and made a fair bit of Gil in the process. Crafting seems to appeal to me far more than I expected it too, if only for the easy Gil. I plan on pursuing this further, believe me, but I don't know what I want to take to 100 yet.

We'll see, won't we?

Woot~!

Well, today was awesome. I didn't do overmuch - caught a couple stacks of Moat Carp while fishing, raising my skill to 7. Two main things highlighted my day:

First off, I became a Pearlsack in my Linkshell. For those who don't know what this means, I am now a "moderator" of sorts in the 'Shell, who is granted some powers over normal members.

Let's hope I don't abuse these, eh?

Secondly, and requiring less explanation, I got another Monster Signa as drop from Hoo Mjuu the Torrent - the first one since my not-so-recent post detailing my previous experience getting one. There was only one opposing camper this time, a level 34 Warrior who was busy fighting any nearby Yagudo - if he had been focused on camping, there's almost no way I would have won. This one is semi-promised to Mercilesstemper, but if I can't make contact with him within a couple of days, I'll probably just do my normal deal to the Linkshell. :D

Blue Mage

Well, yesterday I decided to finish my Blue Mage flag after having answered Waoud semi-honestly and getting the quest by pure chance. After waiting for an hour and a half in Valkurm for my Sunsand to appear (and PLing a PT nearby), I finished it with only one death (Raise I'd by Taklum) from aggro, right near the target in Aydeewa Subterrane. I then went to level and gain spells. Over the past two days and now being a BLU5, my records have been:

1/1 on Pollen (Bumblebee)
1/1 on Foot Kick (Savanna Rarab)
1/2 on Wild Oats (Tiny Mandragora)
1/1 on Metallic Body (River Crab)
0/2 on Feather Storm (Yagudo Initiate/Scribe, but I think my Blue Magic skill might have been too low at the time to learn the spell)
1/1 on Sandspin

Overall, I think BLU is growing on me. We'll see, won't we?

Also, it seems Libri and Gargoylebones, two good friends from the Linkshell, are leaving the game. We'll miss you both! :(

Eh...

Sorry I haven't posted in... dang, a bit more than two months. I just have bad memory. (You'll notice I also haven't posted those pictures yet. >_>;)

Since I stopped posting, several things have happened. I've gained levels in various jobs, most notably two levels in Black Mage, placing me at level forty-two. Also, Beherit has returned, which made the LS pretty happy. (He's decided not to play White Mage anymore except to help other people out - he gave away all of his gear, save his Artifact Armor and the aforementioned Morion Tathlum.) I got some nice stuff for the Starlight Celebration, including three Elemental Staves, 100,000 Gil, a fishtank and four Warp Cudgels.

Today was kind of normal. I went to Windurst to talk to my Moogle, since I had placed a Mahogany Bed Shadowdog had lent me in my Mog House yesterday, in order to get a quest to expand my Mog Safe to 70 spaces. The thing decided not to give it to me, which means I have to wait another week to get it. I then went and solo'd Summoner up to level twelve and puppetmaster up to... two. (It turns out that when I said I had achieved level two before, I had really gotten about one hundred experience points away before getting mauled by a bunny rabbit.) So I then got on Black Mage and camped the Pilgrim's Wand Notorious Monster, Nunyenunc. (The Pilgrim's Wand increases the amount of magic regained while healing by two points per tick. Not as good as a Dark Staff, but I can't use that one for another nine levels.) Someone else was camping it also, but I had to log off while camping. I said my goodbye. At around five seconds left until full logout, I got a /tell from the other camper, saying:

Careless>> Nunyenunc lol

The stupid bird had spawned just as I was logging out. Dumbfounded, I logged out anyway - I had stuff to do IRL.

Might have more stuff about today to post later, but I doubt I'll be getting back online.

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.

Good to be blogging again

I'd forgotten to put down what I'd done over the past... five days or so. Yesterday and the day before, I didn't get to play, since I was out of town... but here goes on the rest.

Wednesday was a mixed bag: I went out to camp Hoo Mjuu again with Desolation, only to find out that she and a few other people (some of whom I'd respected) had left the Linkshell. That was pretty much all I did that day: we didn't get claim. Not much else happened (that I remember, anyhow.)

Thursday was pretty boring also (that I remember). I don't remember altogether much except right before I logged out, I saw Shadowdog, a good friend, on his Level 14 Puppetmaster, and asked if he wanted to duo in Tahrongi Canyon with my Level 12 Dragoon. He agreed, and we set out, but I had to log out before we could get there.

Today (Sunday) was... fun, to say the least. I started off by looking in my Delivery Box: Sanoi had finally sent my items. He had succeeded in HQing the Pumps (the important part, by far), but had only made a normal Tunic. Ah well, at least I have the good part.

Then, I saw Rannon was organizing a run at the Promyvions, for a Chains of Promathia mission fairly early on. I had yet to clear any of them, and all three were required -- they can be tough, though, since they're capped at Level 30. We got six people together (Rannon as a Warrior, myself and Kaosreaper as Black Mages, Vivimeister as a White Mage, Ginana as a Samurai and Fubii as a Paladin), but Vivimeister's connection failed him twice on the first floor of Promyvion - Mea, the first one we were doing, and the second time, it didn't come back, so we called in... (drumroll) Desolation as a Thief and had Kaosreaper switch to his White Mage. We gave Desolation a new Linkpearl when she arrived, and expressed how glad we were that she was back.

We made it all the way to the boss area, the Spire, with only one complete wipeout, which was a surprise. We went over our strategy, but it was rough since only three of us had Psychoanima (which gives the user 100% Empty Killer, meaning the Promyvion monsters won't attack at all for 30 seconds) and four of us had Hysteroanima (which blocks an Empty-type mob's special attacks.) We entered the Spire, buffed up, and it looked like everything was going our way, but once its health hit about 15% and we were out of Anima, it started spamming its special abilities. We wiped out with the boss at what I estimated to be 3% health left.

Myself and Rannon had to leave, and I looked over how much Experience I had lost. Oh well, though, I didn't delevel. I logged out for the night, and told Deso again that it was good to have her back.

(Note: I took a few screenshots. Memory providing, I'll be posting them soon.)