The Big 7-0

Quieren and Truegrave were in Newton Movalpolos when I logged on. Some of the moblins drop a Gold Key needed for the next CoP mission, so I hustled out there to get one of my own. Beastmaster pets are pretty weak, but it still gave me a sick thrill to solo something which checked as Easy Prey while Truegrave killed the goblin.

Once that was out of the way, I put my flag up again.

The

Dudes, I think we pissed it off.

party I joined camped in the southern part of Kuftal Tunnel where all the tigers and cockatrice hang out. I'd been there before back when I was in Sneakypants' static party, but we were a few levels too low to really make the place work for us. This time we were fine, and the taru Ninja was rocking hard.

Near the end, when the Red Mage was clamoring to leave and we were trying to squeeze out one last chain, the puller brought back one of the wyverns. We killed it fast and I was thinking, "Hey, these things aren't so bad." The tigers and cocks hadn't respawned, so he brought another wyvern. That's when I remembered why they suck: Dispelling Wind. All our buffs -- Protect, Shell, Haste, Reraise II, etc. -- got knocked off. We'd attacked his retarded younger brother the first time, so this one was pissed and ready to fight. The third wyvern killed two people and I had to Escape us. That sorta ended the party.

My second party took me to Bibiki Bay for more dhalmel and hobgoblin action. The party was pretty good, although our Red Mage had a nasty habit of going afk during fights without warning. I'm sure it's strictly a coincidence that Riox got "disconnected" after I pointed that out in party chat. The taru Warrior knew a Red Mage in our level and convinced him to come out as a replacement.

And

The sweet sight of victory.

so, after ages of playing, I finally reached Level 70 and learned Raise III. I joked that one of them needed to die so I could try it out. The Dark Knight, to his credit, volunteered to do the honors but I said there'd be plenty of chances for me to raise during Dynamis. I got 7k into the level before we disbanded, which is a pretty good buffer.

I didn't have much to do at that point, so I teleported out to the jungle and leveled my NPC on crawlers while Neyla and other members of the linkshell did the escort mission for the necropolis.

Elemmire's scheduling screw-up had us originally set for a return to Dynamis-Jeuno, but another linkshell had already reserved the time. We were going to switch to Dynamis-Bastok, but one of the Japanese shells had that one. We were stuck with Dynamis-San d'Oria. With all the recent linkshell drama, we only had about 25 people. Of those 25, only three of us were White Mages. That's how I ended up in the tank party with Elemmire as my refresher. Being short on WHMs dulls the shine of being chosen for the tank party, but it's still a lot of pressure and I like to pretend it's an honor anyway.

I

We always seem to wipe out near the stables.

regularly bitch about Elemmire's "skill" as a Red Mage any time we're paired up, because she can't chew gum and Refresh at the same time. I inwardly winced as soon as I realized what party I was in before taking comfort in bringing enough ingredients to make a dozen Yagudo Drinks. She's that bad abount maintaining a cycle.

We didn't win, either. Most people saw the numbers and figured "Okay, we're probably farming," but Elemmire wanted to win. We were doing okay until we got to the Chocobo Stables and it came time to pull the second NM to trigger the boss. We only had one Thief (who had used his two-hour on the first trigger), and every attempt to get the NM resulted in someone's death. We finally got it, but were were quickly overwhelmed and ran out of time. I gave my Raise III cherry to Jescer and even got to give the first of what will no doubt be many R3s to Neyla. At some point during the festivities I got a Relic Gun, which I cheerfully threw away when I returned to Windurst.

We

Hippogryphs are ugly when you see them up close.

were all sleepy and bored, but too keyed up to log out, so Wicked Wayz decided to go into Cape Riverne to farm Hippogryph Tailfeathers. I was going to log, but said I'd stay awake if I could go as Beastmaster. Neyla and I grabbed our gear and headed out with them. We were the pullers, which was awesome as hell except for the part where we didn't have maps. Neyla and I mostly relied on jug pets, although I would charm the vultures and use them for a fight or two. I kept one a little too long and it started attacking Nanunanoo, which had me giggling until I could charm it again.

I love being a healer, but they never get to see me doing anything else. At one point Dagry, who's a Lv. 75 Warrior but was there as Black Mage, laughed at how Twilight Zone it it was that he was there as a mage and I was a melee.

Not Worth the Tacos

My joy at being able to join an xp party with Kerowyn -- a mithra paladin Neyla and I used to run with ages ago -- was dampened by the lackluster xp we were getting.

MP

The cows don't die as quickly as they used to...and it sucks.

wasn't really an issue, but our setup was very very weak. It seemed to take forever to kill anything and the melees couldn't work out a decent skillchain. Kerowyn, to his credit, stuck with it for about two hours or so before his unexpected replacement turned up in camp.

"Curse you for leaving me with this bunch," I jokingly told him in /tell.

"Sorry, man," he said. "It's just not worth the price of the tacos for the xp we're getting."

He wasn't kidding, either. I jotted it down and I we were averaging a whopping 3k xp per hour. We probably should've moved inland to a weaker breed of dhalmels for faster chains, but by that point I didn't feel like wasting a 40k Mushroom Stew for the risk.

I gave my 30-minute notice so they could start finding a replacement. I always refuse to track one down myself because I don't want the guilt of dragging some poor sap to the same xp hellhole I'm escaping. It's too much like stepping on a baby to flee a sinking ship.

On the positive side, I'm 20k away from Lv. 70. Assuming I don't die about eight zillion times in Dynamis-Bastok tomorrow evening, I should be able to use Raise III by Sunday night. Then I get to start buying pieces of Blessed gear.

After

The Teleport-Yhoat crystal gives easy access to mobs for NPC leveling.

I left the party I fished a few stacks of black sole in Port Jeuno and then teleported out to the jungle to level my NPC a little. Gauldeval is my blonde elvaan boytoy, and I usually just make a circuit and kill all the crawlers around the Yhoat telepoint. I've been slow to embrace the NPC quest because I don't need a portable healer the way Neyla sometimes does, but a pocket melee isn't a bad idea. Most of my soloing consists of keeping Stoneskin and Haste going until I can unleash with Hexa Strike, so an NPC with a sword could be cool. Gauldeval hit 33 before I finished.

I made a Rose Wand this morning and advanced to Journeyman rank at the Woodworking guild. I made a signed one for level-capped events, although I'd probably never use it. The Solid Wand has the same stats and can be equipped much earlier.

Someone who recognized me as "that crazy taru fisherman" sent a /tell with an ASCII fish. I liked it so much I incorporated it into my bazaar comment.

Neyla Guest Entry: Little Lululn

Lululn the soloing MNK looks my way while hunting prey in Qufim Island.

There was no soloing of any avatars today. I was too tired to even think about it. I was too tired to even pick up any of the necessary forks. Instead, I just wandered Vana'diel for a bit like I was Cain from Kung Fu and came across a familiar face after outposting from Windurst to Qufim. Little Lululn.

I first noticed Lululn when I was a RDM in the 40s and would patrol the Selbina zone in Valkurm Dunes whenever I didn't want to party but didn't feel like logging off either. She'd always be there as well, killing goblins and sheep at random as a solo BLM. Later on I'd see her doing the same thing in Qufim Island and Rollanberry Fields, targeting worms and crabs in the first and goblins and bees in the latter. I'd keep leveling and building my character up at party rates while she'd be moving slower than a death-plagued BST. After a while it became obvious she was soloing all her levels and ignoring the party system altogether. Totally mind-boggling.

I

FFXI is a sophisticated crab murder simulator.

think I was in the 70s when she finally got to around 49 or 50 and switched over to the job she's working now, MNK. (Toss in the three months I quit RDM over Maat to get a picture of how long it takes to level BLM solo, then add in how long it takes to level post-60.) If I could functionally communicate with her - she (or he, you never know) is Japanese and only communicates with me via emotes - I'd take her BLM out and solo the G1 drops for her, if she so wished. But since I can't, and since I don't know if she'd be interested in such help anyway, she keeps wandering out to Qfuim and beating worms and crabs with her tarutaru fists of fury. If I come across her when she's fighting I'll cure her to full after the battle, toss her Protect II and Shell II, and give a salute before carrying on with my business. This is how it's been between us ever since we first crossed paths.

People tell me a lot of DRGs level the same way a lot of the time, soloing easy and decent prey for a lot of their levels, but I can't imagine going through it myself. Still, I admire little Lululn and her maverick ways. It's refreshing to meet interesting people like her every once in a while, instead of having everyone take the same cookie-cutter approach to the game all the time.

I did get an invite to a MNK cannon party in King Ranperre's Tomb about ten seconds after I first logged on, which is rare now that I'm 75 and 75RDMs are a dime a dozen. Still, I turned it down because cannon parties have never really sat well with me. It really doesn't matter the setup either - whether you're stacking MNKs, WARS, BLMs or SMNs - because I'll still say no. I understand that in the right setting the experience points can be insane and merit points can be made in half an hour or less, letting you tweek your character up enough to make lowbies' jaws drop in awe when they see how "1337" you are, but I still prefer a traditional setup with people playing their traditional roles. The points are slower and if I felt differently I'd have all the merits I could want by now, but I've never been one to look for the easy way out of something. I'll stick with my social LS's merits points parties against birds and rams in Lufaise Meadows or against the weapon family in the Shrine of Ru'Avitau.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

My buddy Neyla has started a blog of his own called Tarutaru Defender as a subdomain of my site. There will no doubt be tweaks and template changes in the days ahead, but it's up and running now. Get over there and show him some love. I'm totally ripping of his header image idea at some point.

Frozen Dead Body

Picking

Truegrave engages a Weeper on the way to the Memory Flux.

up where we left off on Tuesday, the group ventured back into Promyvion-Vzahl and found themselves standing at the Memory Flux. Once we were buffed and rested, we started across the landscape to find the Memory Recepticle. We passed the Weeper which repeatedly killed me, and I couldn't resist giving it a well-deserved /slap.

The third NM was the annoying Thinker-type which steals buffs. It managed to kill Truegrave right at the end of the battle, but we got him up in time to get the cutscene. From there, we had to backtrack and little and find the entrance to the spire. As with other promies, it was a short mad dash train to the zone.

The fight in the spire is against all three crag bosses, although thankfully you can fight them one at a time. When you attack one, the next doesn't aggro until the previous one is down to about 20% of its health. We fought the Craver-type boss first; Hayatox used Shadowbind when the Dem boss woke up. They tend to start spamming their nastier attacks when they get low on health, so I used my animas to stop them and to keep Hayatox alive while he was kiting.

The

Yes, that's all three crag bosses in one battle arena.

fight went very well. We didn't break any records doing it, but we managed. We had seven people, which meant having to do the fight a second time. This time we didn't have meds or two-hours at our disposal, and we hit a snag when the Dem boss started popping out offspring. We wiped.

We were determined to win it for Aarjuna, though. We went back in and it was insane. Andreva died pretty fast and was out for the entire battle, so it was down to Truegrave (NIN) and Hayatox (RNG) doing the fighting while I cured and the two BLMs nuked and cured while I rested MP. The last boss was a nightmare because we whittled him down so slowly I didn't think we could pull it off. Truegrave had built a ton of hate, so the thing didn't blink when I ran forward to use Benediction.

I imagine we'll eventually have to drop Aarjuna from the static. These fights are getting tougher and more expensive, so doing them over for one person is losing its appeal. Promyvion-Vzahl was a blast, though. In some ways, I think it was even easier than the first three promies. We received the title "Frozen Dead Body" when it was over.

In other news, the HNM linkshell I'm in suffered a schism. Several people jumped ship and decided to form their own. Cythe, the leader of The Namless, was about to quit the game altogether. It's looking like they're going to hang in there, though. If they continue as an HNM shell, I'll be sticking around. If they turn into a social shell, I'll lose interest because I already have one of those.

The Dynamis runs are going to continue, at least. I plan to use Friday to get a buffer for Saturday's return to Dynamis-Jeuno.

Neyla Guest Entry: Much Ado About Nothing

My tarutaru NPC Yawawa and I battle a Rock Golem in the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah. I'm really hitting him where it hurts.

My first post about my life in Vana'diel...and it was a fairly peaceful, unproductive day. At least in my corner of the world.

Figures.

That's what happens when you log on and have no definite plans on what you're going to do, other than level your NPC. Yawawa is coming along nicely, though, now that I've finally warmed to her and the whole leveling process. It can be tedious killing too weak mobs so your automated friend can ding a level every couple days, but having a level 41 healer follow me around can be damn useful, especially since Halifirien has been mumbling about getting back into the party grind and finally hitting 70.

She wouldn't last long in any fights I'd find challenging, but Yawawa knows how to bust out the status cures whenever I need them. Handy for a RDM who far prefers subbing BLM to anything else. Plus leveling her on coeurls in The Sancuary of Zi'Tah is a good excuse to farm meat for pet food my BST can use and curry dishes I can sell at the Auction House, along with the hides I sometimes sell to leathercrafters I'm familiar with. Pocket change for someone who's level 75, but chocos and outpost teleports don't come for free.

While

Yawawa and I pause over our fallen prey.

my little tarutaru friend and I hacked and slashed our way through cat after cat, along with the occassional golem, I listened in while members of the HNM LS I'm loosely associated with griped on and on about the problems they've been having lately. Such drama is one of the reasons I say I'm loosely associated with anything endgame, since I really don't have patience for it. I don't have any patience for the long, boring camps either, but that's another matter altogether.

It's strange because I've known some of the people involved in the LS's squabbles for quite some time, and called upon one of its now estranged members to help me out when I needed a good damage dealer for my Rank 10 battle. But even stranger to me is how people can take virtual pieces of armor so seriously. There's a reason I say shit is so much simpler when you're not worried about crap you don't actually need. Big gil items are dreamy and everyone wants to be pimped out to the max so they can do the best job possible, but none of it's worth ending friendships over.

Maybe I'm in the minority there. I sometimes swear I think I'm one of the last few people who tries to keep the game fun. I'll stick by the LS for now and maybe even give them a little more effort since their schism has left them a few guns short. But I'm not sure I'll ever be a dedicated endgamer. I'm often more interested in helping other people than in helping myself.

For a while I went to Castle Zvhal Baileys with a couple members of the HNM LS so we could try our hand at farming a pair of items they needed. Bajaratt (75WHM) was hoping to get a coffer key for BRD AF while Ivela (70?SAM) was hoping to land a test for the Maat fight. Blood Demons were the target for the tests, with random Ahrimans thrown in for the key.

I can't say I care for either mob type, especially since I ended up default tank with Bajaratt using staff and Ivela spending most of her time working dagger. Demons hit hard and go down slow when confronted by a low damage class like RDMs. (Yagudo, goblin, orc and sahagin test mobs are far easier.) Ahrimans are almost impossible to Silence even with enfeebling well over 300, and can buff themselves for high magic resistance. They also make you question the existence of the RDM job trait "Resist Petrify." In the end, neither item dropped and we left in disgust.

Maybe tomorrow I'll finally get around to soloing an avatar whenever I'm done with Yawawa. (The closest I've come to doing it is duoing with another mithra RDM, Malystryxx, and laughing at how easy they are.) Posting on an online forum that I can do it has made my life interesting with all the forum PMs and in game /tells I've been getting from lowbies dejected that all they have is Carbuncle. Yesterday it was a level 20 tarutaru SMN named Selektah, who I helped some time back with...something. After a while it all becomes a blur, whether it was Kazham keys or helping rape one of the 2-3 dragons with my BST and a CourrierCarrie jug.

I'll think about helping him again, but the minibattles against the avatars are there for a reason. It's just a shame they cost lowbies so much of their hard earned gil. I know I cringed over the cost of my meds throughout my eight Maat fights.

So Tired...

I haven't slept much all week, and today it caught up to me and knocked me on my ass. I put my flag up while I went after Bladefish for the current fishing tourney, but when Quieren saw that and said "Wow, you went up one whole level. Are you sure you don't need a break?" I realized a nap was in order. I spent most of the evening in bed. I woke up long enough to catch a dozen or so emperor fish and repay the last million from Quieren. Three million gil from two-and-a-half weeks of non-hardcore (softcore?) fishing is pretty good in my book.

Macroverse

Just to step out from behind the curtain a sec, I thought I'd go technical and post my macros for educational and entertainment purposes. I have two main banks which get the most use, so that's all I'll worry about here.

The first set is what I call my "Travel Macros." These are the ones I use on a regular basis when I'm walking around Vana'diel. I call them up with CTRL-SHIFT-1.

CTR-1: Fish. Equips all of my fishing gear and then casts my line.
CTR-2: Mine. Equips field gear, targets mining poing and swings a pickaxe.
CTR-3: Buffs. Casts Protect IV, Shell IV and Reraise II on me.
CTR-4: Warp. Sends me to homepoint and displays moonphase.
CTR-5: Teleport-Mea. Casts Mea and displays moonphase.
CTR-6: Teleport-Holla. Casts Holla and displays moonphase.
CTR-7: Teleport-Dem. Casts Dem, moonphase, etc.
CTR-8: Teleport-Altep. You know the drill.
CTR-9: Teleport-Yhoat. See above.
CTR-0: Teleport-Vzahl. Uh-huh.
ALT-1: Map. Calls up my heavily-marked maps.
ALT-2: Heal. Equips Dark Staff and heals.
ALT-3: Sneak. Equips Skulker's Cape and casts Sneak on me.
ALT-4: Gear. Equips Noble's Tunic and WHM AF when I'm finished with fishing.
ALT-5: Invis. Equips Skulker's Cape and casts Invisible on me.
ALT-6: Haste. Gives me Haste.
ALT-7: Raise. Casts Raise II on target with "Game over, [player]. Play again? Y/N" in /say.
ALT-8: Dance. Strings taru emotes to make a dance.
ALT-9: Flash. Casts Flash on my target.
ALT-0: Cure. Throws Cure III to my target.

The other main set is my White Mage xp party set. I call them up with CTRL-SHIFT-4. If I'm in a party with you, this is what I've got at the ready to keep things running smoothly. Almost all of them include Recast timers and equipment swaps. Offensive spells are set to Battle Targets. Other than the buff and MP status calls, none of these include /party spam, as nothing gets on my nerves more than a mage who feels the need to clutter up my chat log with "Casting Cure III on So-and-so."

CTRL-1: Flash. Handy for alternating with a PLD and vital when party with a NIN. I use Flash 2-3 times each fight.
CTRL-2: Move. Casts Paralyna on target.
CTRL-3: Talk. Casts Silena on target.
CTRL-4: Buffs. Has (Gather Together) call and casts Protectra IV and Shellra IV. Includes Echo line reminding me to reapply Reraise II ASAP.
CTRL-5: Dia II. Casts Dia II on target.
CTRL-6: Banish. Casts Banish III on target.
CTRL-7: Poisona. Casts Poisona on target.
CTRL-8: Paralyze. Casts Paralyze on target.
CTRL-9: Slow. Casts Slow on target.
CTRL-0: Shit. Casts Cure III on myself.
ALT-1: Map. Calls up my heavily-marked maps.
ALT-2: Heal. Equips Dark Staff and rests.
ALT-3: Stona. Casts Stona to remove petrification.
ALT-4: Erase. Casts Erase on target.
ALT-5: Haste. Casts Haste on target.
ALT-6: Regen. Casts Regen III on target.
ALT-7: Status. Tells party status of my MP pool and has an Echo line reminding me about Reraise.
ALT-8: Cure III. Casts Cure III.
ALT-9: Cure II. Casts Cure II.
ALT-0: Cure V. Casts Cure V.

I have banks for playing BLM, SMN, BST and melee jobs. I also have one set up for when I'm on WHM and duoing with Neyla. I have my Spell List sorted manually to keep my Bar- spells and Stoneskin at the top where I can get to them with CTRL-M for quick casting.

Promyvion-Vzahl

The golem at the entrance to Promyvion-Vzahl was such a joke. I had built tp for Hexa Strike on one of the diremites and didn't even get a chance to use it because Truegrave and Andreva skillchained and the nukes destroyed it first. I'm not complaining. Our alliance setup was WHM, NIN, RNG, BLMx3, and MNK.

Promyvion-Vzahl

It's all brown and disgusting inside Promyvion-Vzahl.

was giving me flasbacks to the crag ones. It's rougher because there are more floors to fight across. The monsters are pretty spread out, except for a narrow strip of arches on the second floor nicknamed "The Gauntlet." It's packed with Empty of all sorts, and we had to slowly pick our way through it by pulling and killing any mobs that wouldn't move on their own.

We were having an easy time of it. We didn't hit any fake Memory Recepticles and stuff was dying fast, but I got hit by a terrible bout of lag which put me through R0 hell. We had killed the first Memory Flux NM on the third floor, but I lost track of the party on the fourth floor. By the time I got to them they were being attacked by two or three different mobs and we wiped because I couldn't even target Truegrave.

The comedy began when I raised myself and immediately cast Reraise. The Weeper noticed me and killed me again. I waited for it to leave before I popped up again, but of course I didn't move far enough away and it eventually got me before I could raise anyone else. I died four times in a row before I could get Quieren up to help with raises. That's when we found out the other two BLMs had gone BLM/RDM, which was pretty fucking useless.

It

We catch our breath at the fourth floor Memory Flux.

was a terrible place to wipe, that's for sure. Q and I got everyone up and we moved east a little to the next Memory Flux to rest to full. Once we were buffed and ready, Truegrave popped the Craver NM. The fight was going well until it used its knockback move, which knocked all of us into the red. I started pouring cures into Truegrave when the three BLMs used Manafont to bring it down. Andreva and Asmodius died, so Q and I had to raise them fast so they could get the cutscene.

Truegrave had to leave to go to class, so we didn't bother trying to get to the next Memory Recepticle. We're going back in on Thursday, and the best part is we'll be warped directly to the Memory Flux on the fourth floor. Built-in "save points" like that are a wonderful thing.

I lost 1k xp off my buffer due to the multiple weeper deaths. I may try to get a bigger buffer on Wednesday if Neyla and I don't hang out. He had said he was thinking about soloing Ramuh, but he logged off shortly before the Promy run and never came back.

Simurgh Poacher

For some reason, there aren't many anglers putting Emperor Fish on the auction house lately. I don't know if they're all privately contracting with cooks or synthing them on their own, but I do know I'm making a lot of gil because they're being snatched up almost as soon as I can list them. At 15k a fish, I'm easily pulling in 200k-250k a day just from fishing that first hour or so when I log on.

I

Simurgh flaps around Rolanberry Fields like a desperate turkey.

was out at the glacier and running out of inventory space when Quieren said members of The Nameless had claimed Simurgh and were dragging him to Jeuno, but they needed a healer out there. I warped back to Port Windurst and outposted to Qufim, but they were getting destroyed trying to move him. I warped back and outposted to the marshlands and started running across Rolanberry Fields.

Simurgh is a greater bird like Roc, and it drops Strider Boots. The boots give a nice agility boost to thieves and rangers and also gives them a 12% increase in movement speed. Veresko has been after them for awhile, and he was there with Tymon, Truegrave, Karikhinz and the others who had hustled out to lend a hand.

Simurgh was mostly dead by the time I got there. It didn't drop the boots, so it was free lot on the rest. I won the Vile Elixir, which I'll store until I'm ready to fight Maat. I also got the title "Simurgh Poacher."

I returned to the glacier later and reached 84 fishing skill.

Signature Moves

I designed two new sigs for use in the assorted FFXI forums Neyla and I frequent. The idea for mine came from a player named Uzor, who joked that I probably got my Noble's Tunic by fishing up a dead WHM and stealing it. Neyla's evolved from a discussion of how he adopts tarutarus and has more pets than a Beastmaster, but I was also intrigued by the idea of making a propaganda-style sig.

Mine really doesn't thrill me as a long-term prospect, so I'll be making a new one in a week or two after the last bit of humor has been drained from it.

Just Like Old Times

It's been about two months since I went for experience points on my White Mage, and I've endured constant good-natured barbs from Neyla and Quieren about it. You would think seeing me fish almost constantly until I could afford to buy a Noble's Tunic would be a clue that I was serious about getting WHM to 75, but it fell into one of those "I'll believe it when I see it" deals.

Naturally

I love fighting cows.

I took great delight in sending them /tells pointing out that I was in fact in Bibiki Bay and getting xp. Neyla replied and said "Just admit it, you're fishing on the dock," but I really was partying. The setup was NIN, WAR, RNGx2, RDM, and WHM. We were camped far to south, practically at the cliffs edge where I could see the Manaclipper every time it pulled into Sunset Docks, fighting dhalmels and the Hobgoblin Blaggers and Physicians which roamed nearby.

This was my first real test of the Noble's Tunic, and I could see a difference in my performance. A 20% bonus to Cure potency (with Light Staff) may not seem like much, but it adds up. The only fatality of the night came when one of the rangers -- subbing WAR instead of NIN -- did one of those insane damage moves they have and took a one-shot dhalmel stomp death to the head.

The NIN ran out of tools and I warped to Jeuno with him so I could tele him back to the canyon. I also picked up another Mushroom Stew while I was there. They've doubled in price to 40k since the last time I stocked up, and I always keep three of them in my inventory.

I got to Lv. 69 and got a 3.5k xp buffer, which I'll probably lose during Promyvion-Vahzl tomorrow.

While

I model my Federation Aketon for Fyaninana.

all that was going on, Neyla was leading the mission static through the final battle at Full Moon Fountain. I felt guilty about not being there after helping week after week, but they had plenty of healers and didn't really need me. I parked myself in front of Heaven's Tower to cheer them on, but I only got to see Fyaninana before I had to log for the night. From Neyla's description, there were a few deadly mistakes along the way, but they eventually got through it. After doing the fight four or five times, everyone who needed it was rewarded with Rank 10.

I also "attended" a linkshell meeting for The Nameless. There was a scheduling conflict between camping King Behemoth and a Rostrum Pumps run which dissolved into lots of pissing and moaning, and Cythe called everyone together to straighten them out and remind them that KB is important enough that a popped NM run can be delayed an hour or two. Some of them needed the Full Moon Fountain battle, so Neyla took them for that, too.

Back Into the Nest

I'm

I haven't partied in the Crawler's Nest in ages.

finally finished with my /BLM. I went fishing in Port Jeuno again with my flag up and got an invitation to party in Garlaige Citadel again. I wasn't wild about it when I realized we had a Paladin and Ninja in the same party, and I really wasn't thrilled when the leader invited Tigran, but I decided to at least give it a try. We were actually making really good xp, and we sighed with relief when Tigran's parents called him away to shovel snow. The leader (WHM) had to leave, but our THF had another character with a WHM in that level range.

We moved to the Crawler's Nest when the xp started sucking, and they were nice enough to hang around for the last 1k xp I needed to ding 38. I've decided to take BLM to at least 40 for BCNMs and level-capped CoP stuff, so I took some time to quest the Warp II scroll. I'm glad I can finally mark /BLM off my "To-Do" list (which I've added to the sidebar).

Moriki,

Everyone knows how much kitties love the taste of fish.

one of Neyla's taru adoptees, needed whispers from Shiva, Leviathan and Titan. I still needed Leviathan to get my Moon Bauble, but I traded in my whispers the day before so I could do all three with them. Moriki brought another Lv. 74 RDM named Bookitty who also needed them. Watching three mithra red mages fight is entertainment in itself, the sort of thing that probably makes straight guys think of pillow fights, scented massage oils and lots of giggling.

Moriki had himself beamed directly to the protocrystals from the taru quest-givers so we could meet him for the fight. Titan and Shiva went down easy, and getting through the Temple of Uggalepih was a cakewalk because another group had already killed the Temple Guardian when we got to the door. They didn't have a Paintbrush of Souls, so they had to clear the room while I used mine to open the door to the Den of Rancor. Neyla started flipping out a bit because I went down the wrong corridor, but it didn't take long to get to the place where we needed to drop.

Leviathan was trickier because he can heal himself, but it still wasn't bad. I was supposed to melee on this one to make a Light Skillchain with Neyla, but I managed to miss it both times. We still won, so it didn't really matter.

I really need to get a map of the Den of Rancor. It's a confusing warren of looping tunnels, and it's a miracle anyone can find their way through it. You can catch Zebra Eels there if you manage to locate the pool.