Age of Aquarius

Today was skillup day, it seems. I caught a few monk-onke for guild points (I have enough for my Fisherman's Apron) and managed to get my fishing level to 66.

While I was getting the fish, Neyla was off fighting robber crabs, spiders and Knight Crawlers in Boyahda Tree. I joined her as soon as I finished and she tanked some of the monsters so I could improve my club skills.

Aquarius scuttles by after slaughtering a few players in Boyahda Tree.

The robber crabs in the tree are placeholders for a notorious monster called Aquarius. Someone shouted that he'd popped and that's about when the dying started. It ran past me and Neyla and killed some poor schmuck who was trying to get away. We disengaged from our own crab and Neyla slept it so we could move back a comfortable distance until Aquarius wandered back to its normal spot. It doesn't link with the other crabs in the area, but it took time before the experience party next to us got up the nerve to pull a crab into their camp.

We left the tree because Neyla had to log for awhile. I switched over to Black Mage and traveled to Buburimu Peninsula to start skilling up my pathetically low Dark Magic skills on beach snippers. A BLM at 32 should have Dark Magic capped at 99. Mine was hovering down around 45. I would target a crab and then spam Bio, Aspir and Drain for skillups. I was still out there when Neyla logged on again, and she tanked them so I wouldn't have to worry about healing myself or having my spells interrupted. My dark magic was at 85 when we stopped.

The big adventure was taking Kateverlasting to the bastard orc for Mission 8-1. She's a Lv. 75 White Mage who is joining our rank mission static party, and I was happy to note she didn't throw her weight around and try to take my spot. Neyla's bombshell earlier in the week that I would likely be "replaced" and denied Rank 10 after all my work didn't go over well, but that wasn't Kat's attitude.

It was nice to party with a White Mage at her level to compare notes, and we were constantly laughing because we were reading each other's minds about which spells to cast and on whom. She's twelve levels higher than I am, so her spells are a little stronger, but tactically I'm right at her level and managed to run a few rings around her in terms of speed and status ailment cures. When she told me I was a damned fine White Mage, I took it as an honest assessment from one professional to another.

We gathered forces in Jugner Forest for another run at Davoi.

Getting to the orc fight was another matter. Soulriper came along as our stunner, and Vang from QCDN came as our tank. The first two attempts to reach the church were blocked by unholy numbers of orc links and we were forced to escape. Neyla and Kat died at one point, and it was starting to look grim. The third attempt was actually the easiest because another group was killing the orcs and gave us a free path. Unfortunately Vang caught the eye of the NM before we were ready and we had to escape yet again.

We got through it, though. Kat and Vang got their cursed wands. Vang and Soulripr left, so the rest of us returned to Windy so Kat could do the legwork for the next mission. I hit the grotto for a litte fishing while that was going on, but returned to help farm rusty daggers in the ruins so Kat could clear one of the earlier missions and get a seal for the three-mage gate.

Hopefully everything will be in place for Sunday's run at Mission 8-2.

Back to Onzozo

I put up my party flag yesterday and received an invitation from a Red Mage named Princemercury. I quickly agreed and discovered Sabia and Dracoden were also there. The four of us are regulars at the QCDN message boards. I love Sabs and her sense of humor. The other members of the party were a Paladin and a Ranger, neither of whom I recognized.

We hit Bibiki Bay to fight birds and hobgoblins, but the Paladin was having a difficult time with SATA and hate got pasted to the Ranger twice, resulting in his quick deaths. I had a fun moment when I had to remind Princemercury to enfeeble the mobs; I was casting Dia II to skill up my enfeebling and he seemed to think that meant I wanted to do all of it.

Dracoden gives me the hug which started the orgy.

The Paladin eventually wigged out and left us behind. We looked for a new tank but couldn't find one. While I was resting, Dracoden walked over and sat down on me so that it looked like he was hugging me. Then it turned into a big cyber-orgy as Sabia and the rest piled on. We were getting cracked up and doing the various emotes so that it looked like we were having sex. I eventually stood behind Dracoden and started doing the /welcome motion so it looked like I was humping him. (See Pic #1, Pic #2 and Pic #3). The party hadn't lasted very long, but at least I got my White Mage to 62.

Once we disbanded, Neyla and I returned to Onzozo to find a chest key. We worked out a decent little skillchain to make the fights go a little faster and spent 90 minutes killing scorpions and goblins before the key dropped. I accidentally passed on it instead of lotting for it. I was horrified, of course.

Neyla and I went back there today after I got my guild points (gugru tuna). It didn't take as long to get the key this time, and I ran around trying to find a treasure chest. There were no chests to be found, so I returned to Windurst to begin the legwork for Mission 8-2. We went to Fei'yin to speak to one of the NPCs and to possibly get a key for a Life Belt. The key thing turned into a pain in the ass so I decided to buy the belt (140k in Jeuno) and we hit Davoi for the next NPC.

I had to talk to the nice taru who silenced the doll from 8-1, and while we were there he gave us the quest for an orb which lets you pass through the Banishing Gate for G3's Orc Crest. Neyla and I walked all over Davoi to dip our orbs into four pools of water before returning to him and completing the quest.

It was a very productive day, to say the least. I'm not sure what'll be happening this weekend, but I'll probably try to level my Black Mage at some point. I'm also very close to getting my Fisherman's Apron. I only need about 5k more guild points and three more fishing levels.

Riding the Orc Train

Windurst Mission 8-1 was a welcome counterpoint to last week's bit of insanity in the Temple of Uggalepih.

This story mission was a two-parter. I did the first half Sunday morning, taking a talking doll to Ro'Maeve to investigate a spring. The doll is basically a tracking device, but it's extremely obnoxious and says stuff like "Whoa, slacker! You need to go northwest!"

Ro'Maeve is full of things which aggro to magic, making for a fun walk. It's also the gateway to The Hall of the Gods, a long watery corridor lined with tall statues. This is where endgame stuff happens, where high-level players with Sky access go to fight the big-time gods. I don't have Sky yet, but I wanted to see the Hall. It's pretty and imposing.

The Ro'Maeve trip turned out to be a bust, so the doll begins directing you to the orc stronghold of Davoi. A tarutaru at the outpost complains of a dangerous orc mage who has been confusing him with a spell, so you have to kill the orc and bring back the wand. Simple enough, right?

The only problem is the orc, named Dirtyhanded Gochakzuk, only drops two wands at a time and we needed six. The strategy is to kill him and then wait for him to pop again 10-15 minutes later for more wands. To add to the fun, he's a Lv. 71 Black Mage who likes to use devastating spells like Firaga 3 and Stone 4.

Our own Black Mage, Lolindor, repeated last week's performance by being late to start the mission and get the legwork out of the way. He made the trip to Ro'Maeve before he discovered he'd didn't have the talking doll. We left him behind and went to Davoi.

Orcs swarm into the abandoned church in Davoi.

Gochakzuk took over an abandoned church which sits at the top of a hill. There are orc dragoons, rangers and paladins all over the place and their easy line-of-sight to the house means it's very easy for them to see their buddies being attacked. They link and join the fight when that happens.

The first attempt to get to the church failed because too many orcs came to the fight at the elevator. We had to escape out and try again. While Lolindor was trudging back to Ro'Maeve, we were slinking into the church and taking out the three orcs inside the entrance. Neyla and Tiael would use Sleep 2 so we'd only have to fight one at a time. Once they were dispatched, we fought Gochakzuk. The fight went well, but near the end he cut loose an attack which killed Neyla and Kyrial. If Lolindor had been there to Stun him and interrupt his casting, it might've been a very different story.

We escaped and made our way back to the house, this time with Lolindor in tow. The next two fights went faster after that and nobody else died. It was brutal and agonizing getting to the door each time with so many orcs to fight, but we won. We each received our wands and gave them to the tarutaru as proof of our deeds.

He also silenced that goddamned doll, which made it even more worthwhile.