ZM4 or Bust!

Neyla and I are after access to the Sky region where the gods are fought. We were planning to start those Zilart missions after Rank 10, but we got lucky today. The two of us were going to clear some Windy quests when I got a /tell from Caerloc asking if I wanted to join him and some of the other Notorious Hunters folks for ZM4. I asked if Neyla could come along and they said yes.

The mission is widely considered a major bitch, as is the one after it. With ZM4 and ZM5 out of the way, you can get Sky access in an afternoon.

We gathered and headed for the Temple of Uggalepih and spent some time running around in there before descending into the Den of Rancor. There's a BCNM fight you have to clear, but getting to the Burning Circle involves lighting some lanterns with magical flames. Unfortunately, we got the wrong flames. It went downhill from there.

Carmine-Tailed Janberry is a punk.

The people with lanterns went back to try to get the right flames. Rorion and I stayed behind at the gate, but he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings and a bat attacked him. Then one of the tonberries joined in and killed both of us. We were content to stay dead until the others returned, but Caerloc and Neyla lost their connection and couldn't log in again.

Reko and Onaule fought their way back to us so I could Reraise and get Rorion back on his feet. With the mission scrubbed, we decided to farm new lanterns. We moved camp and found a nice tunnel where we could pull tonberries and kill them pretty fast. There was a nasty moment when one used Everybody's Grudge and dropped Onaule like a rock and she deleveled (she got it back with my Raise II).

We ended it by fighting a notorious monster called Carmine-tailed Janberry. It dropped a Rare/Ex club called Asklepios, which they said let me have. I like my Darksteel Maul more, but it's still pretty nice.

I teleported us out of there and we ran around the desert a bit looking for the Dune Widow, which is a spider NM that drops the Spider Torque. We didn't have any luck, so I returned to Windurst.

Neyla eventually logged in and leveled Beastmaster to Lv. 6.

Trick or Treat

My Pumpkin Head II and Trick Staff are nice rewards.

FFXI was down for a ten-hour maintenance today, but we were all able to log in around 9 p.m. This year's Halloween event had started when I appeared in Windurst. Ghosts and ghouls were running all over the place. By giving them treats (in this case, Ginger Cookies purchased from an NPC in Windurst Waters) you receive special items or are temporarily transformed into a monster.

So far I've received a Pumpkin Head II (+1 Enmity) and a Trick Staff with a bat on the end.

Uday

I decided to try catching Emperor Fish for the first time today. They're used in a few high-level recipes, and Neyla will be needing them. I wanted to see what the bite rate was like, so I bought some trout balls from the fishing guild and got an outpost teleport to Beaucedine Glacier. I was able to catch plenty in an hour's time (my fishing skill bumped up to 71 while I was at it), so I can certainly keep Neyla supplied when the time comes.

That was the first part of my day. The rest involved helping a tarutaru named Uday unlock the Summoner job. Neyla had helped Uday get Kazham keys a few weeks ago, and today they were going after a Carbuncle Ruby. I was bored and decided to tag along to the Maze of Shakhrami to help kill leeches. The ruby dropped in about twenty minutes, which beats clubbing the bastards for hours.

Uday and Carbuncle attack a bumblebee outside Windurst.

We had nothing else to do, so we started traveling all over Vana'diel to gather the seven colors of the rainbow (obtained by encountering specific weather patterns) needed to empower the ruby. We were teleporting and riding everywhere, and at one point we trekked out to the glacier for the Ice pattern.

The two remaining conditions, dust and fire, were trickier. We left Uday in Selbina so he could track them down in Valkurm Dunes by consulting with the weather forecast NPC.

I woke up around later around 2 a.m. and logged into the game to see if any of my Emperor Fish had sold. The ones in Jeuno had been snatched up. On a whim, I did a search for Uday and asked how he was doing. He had gathered the final pattern and was looking for the circle of stones for the final trade.

We ended up hanging out for nearly an hour. I hit Norg and bought him an Earth Spirit Pact and watched over him for a few minutes outside Windurst while he attacked bees and mandragoras with Carbuncle's help. I also gave him a pearl and inducted him into Wicked Wayz.

Weapons Supply

Errati from Wicked Wayz is a Dragoon, and he's been salivating over a Colossal Lance. It goes for about three million gil at the Jeuno auction house, but he had a player willing to sell it to him for less. An even cheaper alternative would be to get it from the Notorious Monster that drops it. In this case, it's the prize for killing the Ocean Sahagin in Sea Serpent Grotto.

I wanted to do a skillup part in Boyadha Tree, but I figured I'd help Errati by first organizing a run for the lance. Wulfgar, Hadafal, Skoal and Neyla joined us after I spent a decent thirty minutes or so questing a Sahagin Key to get through the ornamented door. My main instruction as we were going in was that nobody was going to die for this thing because I would escape us at the first sign of real trouble.

Steelshell crabs in Boyahda Tree are great for skillups.

My only major error was not checking to see if everyone was actually at their keyboard when I opened the door, so Neyla got left behind. The rest of us started fighting our way through the area. I didn't get a single skill-up while we were there, and we eventually had to abort after Skoal used Carbuncle to pull one of the Sahagin NMs and it brought friends.

Errati left us at that point, so we went to the tree and met up with Neyla to fight steelshell crabs. Nanunanoo joined us, and I got a /tell from a Bard who asked if he could join us. Having a Bard in a skillup party is a wonderful thing because he can top off everone's mana pool, enfeeble the crabs, and increase everyone's accuracy so they can hit better.

I desperately want to get my club skill to 220 so I can learn Hexa Strike. It's a weapon skill only White Mages can learn, and it kicks major ass by letting the mage get six critical hits in a row on the monster. Nanu learned it while we were in the tree, making me feel jealous as hell. A few more hours in the tree and I'll have it.

Windurst Mission 9-2

Of the original group of players going for Rank Ten, only Twille, Neyla and I remained to finish. Everyone else was either kicked or dropped out because they didn't have sufficient levels to survive the final showdown. Today our party gathered in Windurst for the final BCNM fight for Rank 10. We were originally going to do this with Otak and Aimartaru from Wicked Wayz, but they'd already cleared it. Instead, Neyla recruited from QCDN.

Our breakdown for 9-2:

Halifirien - 66 WHM
Kateverlasting - 75 WHM
Lucylittle - 75 RNG
Neyla - 70 RDM
Nyett - 75 BLM
Rappa - 72 DRK
Twille - 75 PLD

Everyone agreed to go in twice so both Kat and I could get rank. I went in for the first fight at the Full Moon Fountain after a brief run through Toraimarai Canal. Kat remained behind in case the unthinkable happened and we needed Raise III.

Rappa, Kateverlasting, Twill, Neyla, Nyett and I celebrate outside Heaven's Tower.

The battle came in two parts. The first half involved fighting four Ace Cardians. Nyett used Sleepga II so we'd only have to fight one at a time.

We took out the first three and saved the White Mage (Ace of Cups) for last. Everyone beat it down until it used Benediction, at which point we slept it and rested our MP back to full. Once we were ready, we killed it and moved to the second half of the fight.

This is where it got interesting. Ajido-Marujido joins you for this battle against a wyvern and a manticore. The normal tactic is to see which Ajido attacks first and concentrate on it while someone kites the other. Ajido went straight for the manticore and Twille, who has no fear of death, charged in and went for the wyvern.

Ajido is badass (favorite line from this fight: "You should be thankful. I'll give you a shortaru trip back to the hell you came from!") and unleashes a lot of ancient magic. My job was to keep Twille and the others alive while also keeping Ajido up and running.

When it was over, I warped back to Windurst and Kateverlasting took my spot for the second run. Neyla said the second fight was faster because everyone cut loose with the heavy damage. Hate wa bouncing around and the wyvern went after Neyla after a few cures were thrown around. Nyett was in charge of watching Ajido's health that time.

Once they cleared the battle a second time, everyone (except Lucylittle, who cleared this a long time ago) returned to Heaven's Tower in Windurst to see the final cutscene and receive Rank 10, 100k and a Windurstian Flag.

My Windurstian Flag hangs over my bed as a reminder of how badass we are.

Both fights went well, and there were no deaths. Kat heaped a lot of praise on me when it was all over. She spent the first fight outside the burning circle but could still see our HP bars. "You're an awesome WHM, Hali!" I was blushing over that, but pleased.

Twille had to log off to take a nap, and Neyla spent the next hour farming Rusty Daggers in the ruins so Twille could get his own pass through the three-mage gate. I spent that time doing a write-up for QCDN about our adventure (most of which is recreated in this post). I couldn't do much in-game at that point which wouldn't feel mundane after the fight, so I prepared to log.

To my surprise, Feriz popped on. He's been busy with school and hasn't been in the game for a few weeks. He had updates to download, so hopefully we'll get to hang out tomorrow or later in the week.