Notes From the Underground

I

I look all sexy in the Scorpion Harness.

logged on for a few minutes to check my auctions and hit the Tavnazian Safehold to buy a Scorpion Harness. Beastmasters can equip it, so I couldn't resist trying it on, but it's not something I'd wear again until my Monk job is high enough. I'm going to try and get Acute to make a signed one for me so I can trade.

The only other thing to announce is I'm finally moving my original entries from my "main" blog over to this one. I just hit the 2-year mark in the game, and it's neat seeing those milestones like my first trip to Jeuno and Neyla's "birthday." I'll be copying the rest over the next week or so, making a complete record of travels.

Dibbler's Day Out

Neyla

I'm a Greedalox!

quested and sold his Teleport-Mea scroll ages ago because he didn't think he'd ever get White Mage high enough to need it. I told him I'd quest it on my bazaar mule, Dibbler, when the time came. He escorted me from Windurst to Jeuno and I only died once along the way. Stupid raptor came out of nowhere.

We went into the Necropolis and Neyla used a jug pet to kill all the skeletons so they wouldn't aggro me. Amazingly enough, we found the brazier on the first try.

I returned to Jeuno to do more Gobbiebag quests. I'd completed the first two quests months ago, and I had enough fame and gil to do the other four today. Neyla returned to Windurst while I ran between the Auction House and the goblin NPC. When I finished, I ran out into Rolanberry and picked a fight with a bat for a quick bloodwarp home.

Neyla then escorted me from Windurst to Mhaura, where I suddenly remembered I hadn't talked to the next NPC in the quest. I returned to Windurst for that and then had to be escorted to Mhaura again, but we eventually got to San d'Oria and I was able to give Neyla his replacement scroll.

The

Hey, babe, I've got my eye on you.

other thing going on was a run at Dynamis-Beaucedine. The run was almost called off due to lack of attendance, but we finally managed to get a little over 35 people there. I'm not sure why so many people skipped out on a Northlands run.

We got a piece of Black Mage relic off the first mob and some other job's armor a few minutes later, but after that we didn't get anything but coins. We also go the win for the ones who needed it.

I found out I'm second in line for a Cleric's Briault. Jefa gets the next one that drops. I'm technically tied with Dor for second, but he wasn't there so I think that moves me ahead of him in points.

Neyla and I went to Ifrit's Cauldron and leveled our NPCs when it was over. I got a /tell from Meastoso, who'd contacted me about buying the Montiont Silverpiece and 100 Byne Bill. We met up in Windurst and made the transaction. I'm going to buy a Scorpion Harness while the prices are so low -- it's down to 3.2 million -- because I think prices are going to go up once people start going back to school.

Running Laps

No colibris again today, as Neyla found the camp occupied when he rode out from Al Zahbi. I held off getting a bird until he'd scoped out the Aydeewa Subterrane area where the Blue Mage quest is unlocked. The leeches there were Decent and the Diremites were Very Tough. It looked promising. I stopped at the Auction House and picked up a Chivalrous Chain before riding out.

We

I think these rats have two asses.

started out killing some of the worms, which rated Tough but were kind of annoying. We were fighting one at the top of a slope when Neyla told me to run, but I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. Then my HP bar dropped into the orange; I scrolled back through the chat log and saw the worm had cast Quake on me. Heh.

The other adventure came when Neyla tried to charm a leech but had targeted a Qiqirn instead. We had to kill it, but the little rat bastard kept running away from us in search of his friends. I can never figure out the deal on their rears; do they have bags slung over their backs? Hideously misplaced scrotums? An extra ass? What the hell are those things?

We finally buckled down and started fighting the diremites. We didn't have the map, so it took us a few minutes to figure out where we were going. We'd have to run down the ramp and charm a leech, cast Sneak on ourselves, run south to the upslope past the worms and work our way around to the full diremite room. We'd pull them to the ramp leading down to the Blue Mage platform. Sometimes you could charm a leech from the ramp without having to drop, but mostly we were running laps to stay in the fight.

The xp was very nice. We could usually get Chain 4, but a lot of the time we were killing so fast we'd have to wait for repops. We eventually reached 70 and could equip our Trainer's Gloves and Optical Hats. I toyed with only using the hat for my Rampage macro and keeping my Beast Helm on 99% of the time -- I feel like I should be piloting a broom when I wear it -- but got over the impulse. I like lots of accuracy.

Neyla

If the axes fail, I could use a rolled-up newspaper.

started having computer problems and disconnecting, which prompted me to temp-log to save my taru ass from fights that suddenly went sour. We were a little over 2k into the level at that point, so we left to quest the map for Aydeewa Subterrane.

I led us to the wrong entrance the first time and we stumbled across an xp party who couldn't point us in the right direction. We'd 2-houred slimes to serve as bodyguards, but we lost them when we zoned out. I got us to the correct entrance and we found the stairs for the cutscene. We got attacked by a chigoe and called funguars to kill it -- very satisfying!

We rode to Nashmau, traded our Cobalt Jellyfish and Tin Ores to the Qiqirn NPC, and ran out to the Runic Portal in Caedarva Mire so Neyla could "attune" himself to it. The portal sent us to Al Zahbi, and we rode back to Aydeewa and got our maps.

Neyla and I hit San d'Oria after that so he could pick up his Teleport scrolls and I could make a couple Rose Wands for guild points.

Twisted Perspective

This is how much Neyla hates playing White Mage.

After

Fry, you leaf-eating bastard! Fry!

eating the latest Crawler's Nest escort scroll, we were within 250xp of Lv. 35 on our subjobs. Today we took turns powerleveling each other through a few fights in the Maze of Shakrami. I went in first as SMN/BLM and used Carbuncle and Ifrit to kill a few bats and crawlers until I dinged. Then we warped back to Windurst so we could switch to White Mage and returned to the maze so he could ding. Neyla fought naked other than a hammer and his Federation Aketon.

Getting to 37 will be a bit of a toss-up. He likes the idea of going WHM/BST and duoing the rest of the way, while I'd rather build a party and knock out the last two levels in a couple hours in Behemoth's Dominion. I'm reserving judgment until we've given /BST a try; I don't mind doing it that way if the xp doesn't suck. Otherwise, I'm dragging his sorry WHM-hating ass into a party and making him play healer awhile. Ha!

To prepare for the next level, he headed out to Gusgen Mines to quest one of the teleport scrolls he'll need. He accidentally popped the Aroma Fly and stuck around another thirty minutes for a second shot, but it didn't drop the RSE sachet.

While he was doing that, I finally grabbed my coffer key and made a run into Toraimarai Canal in hopes of finishing the Star Onion Brigade quest. I couldn't find it, although I managed to stumble across a Notorious Monster called Oni Carcass. I gave it a wide berth.

I ran out of time on my search because I had an Apollyon NE run with BigKahunas.

There were eleven of us, and once again I was the only White Mage. Aarjuna joined us as Ninja main tank with Nomar as WAR/NIN backup. Mirewin, Asmodius and Quieren went as Black Mage, giving us some serious nuking power.

We'd already killed the flower NM and obtained our Black Card when Otak logged on, so we waited for her to gear up on Bard and join us before tracking down another flower so she could get entrance.

I really liked this zone. It's a big purple version of those creepy Promyvion zones. There are five floors, each with three chests scattered through the area and surrounded by mobs which have to be cleared out.

The first floor had plenty of mandragoras to fight -- I used a lot of Poison Potions -- and a goobue boss that stomped around and punched the Black Mages when they'd nuke him too hard. Apu got the other Dragoon piece he needed to upgrade his gloves.

The

I didn't expect to see a bird in here.

second floor was populated by crows and Greater Birds. Like Roc, they were Bards who liked to spam Horde Lullaby on the alliance. One of the item chests dropped a Beastmaster item, which went to Asmodius.

The third floor was awkward because we linked a couple magic pots. We managed to get it under control, but there were a couple deaths. The boss on the floor was a doll that didn't want to go down without a fight. The item chest on that floor dropped one of the White Mage items, which I lotted. Everyone congratulated me, but they could've saved their breath because I only got it by default; don't really care about upgrading anything WHM-related. I'm all about the Beast Trousers +1.

The fourth floor was a nightmare. There are two gigas mobs near where we zoned in, and their AoE move was nasty. We took down the first one with few problems, but the second one killed Otak pretty fast and it didn't take long before the rest of us dropped because the melees fought it too close to where the mages were boxed in and couldn't get out of range. Veresko was the only one standing and had to finish it off so I could reraise and get us back on our feet.

The other mobs on that floor are Opo-Opos, which Ikari assured us suck majorly. We bypassed them completely and went straight for the third gigas and took it down.

The fifth floor was awesome. It's populated by dhalmels, and they're not even nasty dhalmels. They were extremely brittle and crunched easily under our assault, and best of all they dropped Ancient Beastcoins like candy. We killed all of them and moved on to the two manticores guarding the final chest... which Quieren opened mid-fight.

It turns out you don't actually have to kill the manticores to win. Once you pop that final chest, it's over. An extra two or three coins would've been nice, but no big deal. We each earned four coins (and the lucky /random winners walked away with five). I summoned Fenrir and let him chase me in a circle while Quieren passed them out.

I now have 16 of the 30 coins I need to upgrade those trousers.

Vying for the Crown

A Beastmaster was already in the colibri camp when I rode out. I asked him if he was going to be there very long -- hey, you never know -- but he didn't speak English. When my "(Beastmaster) (Camp) (Long Time) / (Short Time)?" query produced a sad answer, I gave him a /salute and rode on.

We ended up in the Defoliator camp with the two Slime Molds and the Treant Sapling. I figured it would be best for one of us to try charming a jelly while the other waited to step in for mischarms. Then the person with the jelly could pull a crawler while the other used the sapling. We pulled to the sapling's roam area so it wouldn't despawn, and there'd always be an extra jelly standing by.

I'm

Defoliators are soft and squishy.

normally the king of mischarms, but Neyla was trying to steal my crown today. He failed the charm three or four times at the start and I'd land it. It was making me giggle and doing wonders for my self-esteem, believe me. It was getting so absurd at one point Neyla started accusing me of using "tarutaru hax." Not bad, considering I wasn't using food because I'd left the Tuna Sushi in my moghouse. We'd get a slime every so often that refused to be charmed until about the sixth or seventh attempt. Neyla wasn't wild about the camp and said it was a grind -- but it was steady.

There was a fun moment when Neyla discovered the presence of chigoe mobs and we ended up zoning. I hate fleas, but I've never tried to fight one as Beastmaster. I should run out and get some payback.

We got to within 10k of 70 before we left. I bumped into Rimare in the Tavnazian Safehold, and of course we started flirting with each other as we always do.

"You look hot as hell in that," he told me, admiring the Beastmaster gear.

"Taru BST is the sexiest," I agreed, flexing my muscles.

I

Waiting for Rapido is the hardest part.

fished a little before heading for the desert and a run at Rapido with TheFlock. We stood around about twenty minutes before we started baiting him, and then it took another thirty minutes of watching him zoom past our squeaking prey before he finally took an interest and linked up for the fight.

It didn't go as well as past encounters. People were curing and buffing themselves too close to him, so he'd pummel the hell out of them. I'd moved out of range to Stoneskin myself after 10,000 Needles, but he was chasing someone who'd gotten hate and of course I got his attention. He drilled me hard and left me bleeding on the sand. I still had a minute on my Call Beast timer when I reraised, and he was down to a sliver of health with only two or three other pets besides mine on him.

If he'd used 10,000 Needles at that point, it would've been a full wipe. We got lucky, and the three or four of us still standing finished him off. He didn't drop the bow, but we got the earring.

Windfall

Instead of leveling Beastmaster, Neyla said he wanted to sleep and told me to call him if he wasn't awake before Dynamis. I spent a good amount of the time fishing, climbing steadily toward buying a Sniper Ring. The second squid of the day gave me the .1 skillup I needed to ding 91 fishing.

Cythe bailed on us before we could trade our hourglass, saying simply "I have to go" and leaving us scratching our heads. My favorite "theory" was how it was all a test to see if we could get by without him so he could quit the game and move to World of Warcraft. Those of us with a brain know it's not like him to abandon us, so we figured it had to be some kind of real-life emergency and resolved to do the run.

Bastok

Look out, you koopa bastard!

is a pretty easy zone, so we were confident we could manage with Taurothar as main tank. I'd already been invited to a melee group, but Moink pulled me out and put me in the tank party.

Cythe logged on again as we were nearing the ramp down into the alley behind the auction house. He joined us, but he came as Red Mage since Taurothar was having fun as tank. We were moving a little more slowly than usual -- Taurothar had to be briefed on mob jobs as we went -- but still did okay.

Two Red Mage pieces dropped and Neyla was outlotted each time. Three 100 Byne Bills dropped and I won again -- the second run in a row. If I can manage to sell it and the M.Silverpiece, I may buy a Scorpion Harness and have it waiting for my Monk to catch up and wear it.

The Monster Jackcoat didn't drop. We're doing two runs in Dynamis-Beaucedine and then returning to Bastok, and by then I'll have Beastmaster to 70 and can lot against Manasha for it.

Grrrrrrrr...

I decided to pop on a few minutes Saturday night to farm my Florid Stone for "Test Your Mite." Neyla was off trying for Rutter Sabotons in Newton Movalpolis with TheFlock, and he said it wasn't going well. They managed two fights with multiple deaths and no drops.

My

They're not so tough now.

stone dropped off the first diremite. Neyla was 2k ahead of me in xp, so I decided to solo and catch up. I wandered out to the Aydeewa camp with the Slime Molds and crawlers. It was a lot easier now; the jellies were Decent or Even. I had my xp in no time.

As I was logging out, Neyla was heading to the Boyadha Tree. Mattaru wanted to solo Aquiarius but wanted Neyla to tag along as backup. It eventually turned into duo effort, I learned later.

Today's "Test Your Mite" was called off because three people were missing, and to top it off some jackass decided to heavily undercut Emperor Fish. Bah.

Neyla and I did the escort quest and managed to get Olavia killed on the first attempt because the Soul Stingers have a wider roaming range than we expected and they didn't despawn when we released them to take care of some exorays. They stung her to death before we knew what was happening.

We cleared it on the second attempt and ate our scrolls on Summoner and White Mage, placing us about 250xp from Lv. 35. Neyla returned to the tree for scythe skillups and was preparing to take on Aquarius solo as I logged out.