The Running of the Bulls

Neyla and I had started Windurst Mission 6-1 the other day by fighting the Jack of Cups cardian in the ruins. I had subbed Summoner to use Carbuncle to pull Cups from the middle of his line of friends. The battle wasn't too bad -- we had a scary moment when the cardian used Benediction and recovered all of its health -- but we had no way of getting into the canal without a Black Mage to help us with the mage gate. Nanunanoo offered to help, but we needed something to occupy our time until Nan logged on.

The latest summer event is called "Buffalo Blitz." I didn't realize it had started until I was running through Ronfaure this morning to turn in moat carp and saw a bunch of people hacking away at a large creature called a Toro. Killing it earns you a Red Sash which any job can equip at Lv. 1 to receive +1 Enmity. The high-quality version, the Dash Sash, gives +2. The event was fun all by itself, but I figured the sash might come in handy on my Lv. 10 Warrior.

Miura is a very large monster.

Feriz wanted to do the event and Neyla had some time while we waited, so we all met in East Sarutabaruta. I changed my subjob to Ranger so I could hunt and track the beast. Then the fun started. The Toros will run at anyone attacking them and slam them hard; they do no actual damage, but they throw you around like a rag doll and can even warp you out of the zone if they're angry enough.

Someone else claimed the first Toro and started leading it to the Windurst Woods gate. We were chasing them and cracking up the entire time, watching the guy get punted like a football. We started fighting it as soon as we got to the gate. I would use Banishga II, Neyla was using Aero III, and Feriz was hitting it with spells of his own. After each spell, the Toro would turn and slam us if we couldn't run inside Windurst fast enough. I was knocked cleanly into Windurst Waters a few times.

Feriz changed his sub to Ranger as well, and the two of us would scour the area to find the next Toro when the last was dead. Eventually Veresko and Nanunanoo came to join us and we kept going. Other people were standing around the gate to help out and get their shot at the sash.

We fought the Toros and Miura at the gate to Windurst Woods.

After the sixth or seventh Toro, the Notorious Monster version named Miura popped. It warped Feriz before he could get it to the gate, so I had to run out and claim it. Miura was twice as large as its baby brother and took longer to kill. We brought it down and got our Dash Sashes, but Nan was too slow and we decided to keep going. We fought a Toro, and then Miura popped again. Good times all around.

When it was over, Neyla and I went into the canal with Cira's help. We made our way through the tunnels until we found the Full Moon Fountain and completed Mission 6-1. Neyla is in charge of rounding up some QCDN people who need to do Mission 6-2.

I finished out the evening by taking Feriz to Ordelle's Caves to get a chest key. Male Hume RSE comes to Ordelle's on Sunday evening, and he needs two of the pieces for his Red Mage job. We killed Goliath Beetles until the key dropped. Between beetles we killed Shriekers for the Danceshrooms I need.

In crafting news, I got my cooking to Lv. 49 on crayfish paste and got .6 in fishing skilups on Bastore Bream. I'm currently at 8,509 moat carp. The Lu Shang is closer.

Sea Serpent Grotto

While Neyla was off partying to reach Lv. 69, I decided to go exploring the Sea Serpent Grotto. I wanted to mark every point of interest on my map, so I started witih the passage to Norg and worked my way out from there.

The fishy Sahagins would feel at home in an H.P. Lovecraft story.

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At one point I found myself in an empty room with a clickable "???" on the floor. I was half-convinced it would spawn some deadly Notorious Monster, so I buffed myself with every spell I could which might keep my Warp spell from being interrupted. It turns out the room was a vault and the ??? was for one of the Norg quests. Clicking it gave me a key item I needed. I marked on the map and moved on.

I was able to find the popular fishing spot everyone talks about. It's at (J-12) in a large room teeming with Sahagins, the fishy beastmen who always remind me of the Dagon followers from H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." The room has a small pond in the center with a large bridge running above it from one end to the other. The sahagins by the pool may be Too Weak, but the ones on the bridge were Incredibly Tough and could easily have killed me. Fishing there will be... interesting.

There are four locked doors in the grotto. Three of them, the gold, silver and mythril doors, can be opened by putting the appropriate beastcoin in an indentation. You don't lose the coin by doing this, which is very handy. Zaria had taken me through the silver door for the chest the other day. I didn't have coins for the gold or mythril doors.

The Ornamented Gate requires a Sahagin Key to get through, and the Incredibly Tough monsters are on the other side. I won't worry about exploring that area for awhile, but I want to go through the Gold and Mythril doors later to see what's there.

Follow the White Rabbit

Neyla and I braved the dunes again Friday night and this time I was able to put together a party which didn't stink like dirty galka ass. It wasn't amazing xp, but it was steady and we were able to get our White Mage and Summoner jobs to 19. Unfortunately most of our party had to leave and the replacements weren't up to par. We finally gave up, switched jobs, and took the tank for his subjob skull.

Sunday's linkshell event involved more Prime Avatar fights. We took down Ifrit and Garuda in short order. Now I only need to fight Titan and Leviathan to be able to summon them, and then all but Ifrit and Ramuh again to obtain the whispers and try for Fenrir.

Taking a moment to rest in Uleguerand Range.

With the avatars out of the way, we traveled to the frozen Uleguerand Range to fight a rabbit NM called White Coney. The rabbit can only be popped during a full moon, and it drops a bow which had Veresko salivating. We fought it three or four times but didn't get the drop. Darkfat and Tasha, who were in my old linkshell, tried fighting it and almost died. We eventually teamed up with them to keep them alive.

Other than that, a quiet few days. I powerleveled Feriz's Thief job to 13 and did a little fishing and mining. I also went to the Maze of Shakhrami as a Summoner and let Carbuncle fight worms for 120xp a pop. Veresko and Zaria were bored enough to help me get a key to the Sea Serpent Grotto by killing every Ironshell and Ghast in sight. Zaria took me to the area where the chests pop, and I was able to obtain my map.

Sea Serpent Grotto is supposed to be one of the best places to fish at my level after you get the Lu Shang rod. Since it's going to be my second home, I wanted the map so I could figure out where to go. It's a much bigger place than I imagined.