Shadow Lord

Final Fantasy XI has a plot, a storyline with a beginning, middle and end. The tale is told through cutscenes by completing the various missions. Tonight, we completed the final chapter of the original game by doing Missions 5-1 and 5-2.

Skoal scheduled the run a couple weeks ago. We started gathering at 11 p.m. in Jeuno. We had me (White Mage), Neyla (Red Mage), Soulripr (Black Mage) and Skoal (Summoner). The mage front was very well represented, but we needed a tank and another damage dealer. We shouted for them in Jeuno and finally got Cboi (Paladin) to join. We were getting desperate for a sixth when a Ranger joined.

For 5-1, we traveled to Fei'yin and battled Archlich Taber'quoan, a very nasty skeleton who had six or seven flunkies running around making our lives miserable. The ranger and Neyla were often kiting the flunkies around the room to keep them off the tank while I threw out Cures and Regens like crazy. Skoal would summon Ifrit to toast the baddies.

We'd worn the Archlich down pretty close to death when it used its Blood Saber move and drained a chunk of our life to replenish its health. Skoal died at one point, but had used a Reraise scroll in advance. I ran out of MP and was rushing over to rest beside Skoal and hoping I could get some back. Thankfully, Neyla got the killing stroke and the skeleton died.

Shadow Lord says "Who's your daddy?"

For Mission 5-2, we dropped the Ranger and Paladin for two of Skoal's friends. One was a Lv. 75 Samurai named Dragonx; he served as our guide through Zvahl Castle Keep, which is where the remains of the Shadow Lord were sealed away. The other friend was a Red Mage named Whitekitten.

The trip through the castle was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I've had in awhile. The place was full of demons and assorted creatures that would've attacked me on sight. But we eventually worked our way through and found ourselves at the Shadow Lord's tomb for the fight.

Dragonx kept it busy in the center of the room while the mages stood on the stairs and used their spells. Shadow Lord's first form died, but then he came back nearly impervious to physical damage and it was up to the mages to do their thing. At one point he started spamming AoE spells and I was working overtime to keep everyone cured.

But we killed him and saw the final cutscene. It was a great wrap-up to the storyline, and all of us returned to our respective homelands to report our deed and receive Rank 6. By that point it was 3 a.m. and I wanted to sleep.

The story doesn't end there, of course. Next comes the expansion pack "Rise of the Zilart."

Summerfest is Here

Summerfest begins with colorful garb and fireworks on sale.

The developers of FFXI like to spice things up with holiday events from time to time. Now that summer is in full swing, the cities of Vana'diel are celebrating with a festival. There are tarutaru dancers strutting their stuff around the fountains, moogles are selling fireworks and colorful festival clothing, and a new game has people wading through streams in hopes of catching goldfish.

The goldfish game is pretty cool. You get a paper scoop and a goldfish bowl and try to catch as many of the little guys as you can. There are three types of fish -- each worth a different amount of points -- which can be redeemed for points. The big prize is a Goldfish Set, which can be synthed (with other items) into a goldfish bowl for display in your mog house.

I got more than halfway to Lv. 55 fishing during my runs on the ferry. It was fun seeing all the high-level players riding back and forth hoping to get a shot at Blackbeard. I felt sorry for them, seeing as how none of them brought fishing gear and had nothing to do but obliterate every low-level creature which spawned on the deck. The pirates didn't attack while I was there.

I ran around with Feriz a bit. He'd obtained an item to pop one of the new Notorious Monsters and wanted me along for backup. We went into Dangruf Wadi and found another Notorious Monster -- the Geyser Lizard -- standing near the pop point. We killed it and got the Steam Scale Mail drop, then popped the Chocobo Leech and got the Rare/Ex Gasson Katana.

Waders Obtained

This was a majorly eventful day, the first day back after the big update which has Rangers pissing and moaning about how they're suddenly gimped damage dealers who are now equal to Monks and Dragoons. It also saw the introduction of the Fellowship Quest, which allows players to summon an NPC to come to their aid and help out with fights. I'm waiting for the lines to die down before I even begin to attempt it.

I'd only been online a few minutes when Veresko stumbled across a new Notorious Monster in Jugner Forest, a big Treant called Fradubio. I teleported out there joined Otak, Aimartaru and Hoiy in helping Veresko kill it. It dropped an ebony log, but that was it. I'd like to think we were the first on the server to kill it, but I don't know how often it spawns.

I went fishing for copper frogs with Glaine in the Pashhow Marshlands and obtained my fishing waders.

I wanted my fisherman's waders next, so I headed to the Pashhow Marshlands to fish up some copper frogs. Glaine, the fisherman I befriended a few weeks ago when we were trying to catch Monke-onke in East Sarutabaruta, asked me about the best places to catch them. I warped back to Windurst, picked him up, and teleported us back out toward the marshes. It didn't take us long to max out our points.

I turned in my frogs, cashed in all my guild points, and obtained my waders. I don't know how much I originally paid for my Fisherman's Boots when I started my angling career, but they sell for 7k now and I was more than happy to sell them.

With that out of the way, I headed for Buburimu to start working on the Shall Shell order from Starfruit. I still owed him eight stacks, but he told me to just send four and hold off on the others until he could sell some of the stuff he was cooking. That suited me fine, because Quieren and Neyla were camping a goblin NM in Labyrinth of Onzozo and stumbled across another NM called Ose. Janelly, a Lv. 70 THF, joined us to take out Ose in hopes of getting an Assault Jerkin.

I've never been in Onzozo before and very quickly got lost following Janelly when I had to stop to reapply my Invisible and she kept charging ahead. I found a safe place while Quieren and the others fought the goblin for Neyla's Moldavite Earring. Q tracked me down and led me to camp for the Ose fight. He got his ass kicked and ended up dead on the floor. We had formed an alliance with some other players, so they kept Ose asleep while the other WHM did a Raise III and we waited for the Raise sickness to wear off.

Ose dropped a whisker and some meat, but no jerkin. I was just happy I didn't die.

Quieren gave me an Arcana Breaker, a handy little weapon that does nice damage against magic-based creatures like Evil Weapons, Dolls and Pots. It drops from an HNM called Simurgh.

Blackbeard the Pirate should make my life more interesting.

As icing on the cake, I went fishing on the ferry and reached Lv. 54 Fishing Skill. Fishing there has become even more exciting with the update, as they've added an HNM pirate named Blackbeard to join the pirate attacks. I thought the Sea Horror was bad, but this prick... oy! He took out three Lv. 70+ players before the ship could dock. I gave them all Raise IIs. They rested and waited for the sickness to pass. I was logging out as their backup arrived for another shot at the bastard.

Update Screen of Death

Ryan Carnes makes it all better.

God, I hate trying to update this fucking game after a maintenance. Everyone and their brother is trying to get online at the same time to get their fix, creating congestion on the level of a Denial of Service attack. Bah.

Later...

Hmmmm... Square-Enix has posted a message when you try to update saying they are facing an actual Denial of Service attack. I blame those damned World of Warcraft people... just because I can. I get tired of the whiny bitches who leave FFXI for that game and then come scrambling back gloating about how much easier WoW is.

Wandering Souls Fishing Party

I want my fisherman's waders, damn it!

So close, too. It takes 70,000 guild points to get them. I've been patiently fishing up and turning in each day's required fish to max out my points, and I'm almost there. I should be able to get them as soon as Monday's update and server maintenance are over (the game is scheduled to be down for 18 hours).

I spent the afternoon getting zafmlug bass for points and then spent the rest of my time on the ferry with Veresko, Razzo and Hoiy in what we started calling The Wandering Souls Fishing Party. Veresko wanted tridents, which meant catching Silver Sharks and hoping like hell he'd get lucky when Zaldon sliced them open. I've never tried catching sharks before, but seeing his success rate with a fishing skill level half of my own makes me think it's something I want to try later.

I spent an ungodly amount of time on that ferry fishing bluetail and noble ladies without a single skillup. I didn't mind, because those fish sell fast on the auction house. The noble ladies were often snatched up within two minutes of listing them.

Starfruit contacted me and placed an order for ten stacks of shall shells. He sent the gil and told me to send them as I catch them. I already had two stacks to send, so I'll catch the other eight after the update. Fishing that many will take three or four hours.

With Starfruit's advance payment and the ferry run, I made about 250k in one day. That's going to pay for a shitload of moat carp.

I also tried the quest in Mhaura which lets me see my fishing history:

Name: Halifirien
Skill: 53
Lines cast: 16,827
Fish caught: 7,297
Biggest fish (length): Monke-onke (102 lims)
Biggest fish (weight): Monke-onke (507 ponzes)