All Over the Map

I

Neyla watches over my slow crawl.

finally managed to get to 14 on Paladin today, killing a steady stream of little creatures in Tahrongi Canyon. At least now I can wear my VIT rings and all that. I'm tempted to keep going to 15 so I can start out with Shield Bash, but then again it won't take very long to get it once we start killing mobs.

It was actually a busy day. I'd barely finished running back to Windurst before I was preparing to switch back over to Beastmaster and hit Al Zahbi from some Lv. 6 Besieged action. I partied up with Neyla and Veresko for it.

The fight against the troll invaders was pretty intense. We ran around looking for engaged mobs and piled on, axes and crabs swinging wildly, trying to bring them down. Without dedicated tanks, they're hard to hit because they constantly shift position. I got drilled several times, but I never stayed down more than a few seconds because mages were circulating around and raising the dead.

One of the NMs seemed determined to make me his personal squeeze toy, because he always popped up behind me and started chopping. Bah. Two of the generals died, but we managed to win. Unfortunately, I lagged out and got disconnected during the final cutscene. No limit points for me.

Crepitus,

This would be easier if they'd stop moving around.

one of the newer players in our linkshell, needed a Magicked Skull to get his subjob. Neyla went to the dunes to escort him to Gusgen -- he encountered Rampaging Ram along the way and got the horn. I met up with them at the mines. It only took a few kills, and I started leading Crepitus back to Selbina while Neyla stayed behind to help another taru hunting skulls in the area.

"Thanks so much for the help," Crepitus told us. "I feel bad for taking away your time."

"This is part of the fun of the game," I told him.

I checked Widescan on the way back to the dunes and saw Stray Mary walking around. We made a quick detour, but she wasn't in the mood to drop the horn. I told Crepitus to lot the milk, since it's used for a quest.

Once all the dust had settled and subjobs had been obtained, Neyla and I hit Castle Oztroja for awhile.

We

Pity these poor yagudo when Carrie gets at them.

wanted to see how Beastmasters handled the coffer mobs, and it was sad times for the yagudo. The crabs ripped them to hell and back. We dropped down into the Yagudo High Priest area where the mobs are a little tougher, but it was still easy pickings.

I like busy days like today.

Indigo Prophecy

I'm

Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, isn't it? Beautiful plumage!

in a happy mood today because I rushed to the stables as soon as I logged on. My new chocobo has blue feathers! I was worried I'd have to keep running back to Evildr for cards several times until I managed to get something that wasn't yellow.

The hard part was coming up with a name. I'd printed out the list of choices and read over them repeatedly, trying to find something with "Blue" in it that wouldn't sound completely idiotic... which is kinda funny when you consider how race horses have the dumbest names imaginable. I'm holding out for "Shop at Wal-Mart" to win the Kentucky Derby one day when the marketing devils get involved in the sport.

Neyla and I did the Necropolis escort and ate the scrolls on our respective Bard and Monk jobs. He went semi-afk while I geared up Paladin and wandered out to West Sarutabaruta for more slaughter and name brainstorming. I noticed one of the available names was "Charisma," which I pointed out was fun for a Bard and Beastmaster. As a result, he named his chocobo "Charisma Baron."

Once I hit 11 on Paladin, I returned to Windurst to grab the next level range of gear from my mules. I had to use NPC storage for my RSE, Beastmaster and Monk AF to make room for it.

I finally gave up on trying to incorporate "Blue" into the new chocobo's name and went with something I'd been kicking around awhile: "Ghost Wing."

Turnout

If a galka gets Max MP Down, does anyone notice?

for Limbus was a little low; hardly surprising, given the Christmas break probably stole a lot of people away. Sixteen people is more than enough, so we decided to hit Apollyon NE and farm Ancient Beastcoins. As we were gathering in Port Jeuno, I asked Celvantes if the Monster Helm had dropped in Dynamis-Windurst on Friday.

"Three did," he said. Then, after a beat, "Just kidding. The run got cancelled."

"You almost gave me a heart attack, you bastard!" I laughed.

Everyone's modem was running on smoke signals today. I got disconnected when we teleported out to the Mea crag and others kept getting kicked throughout the run. Achates, who was on Paladin, got jacked on the bird floor and was stranded when he reraised and got aggro again. We'd already gone up to the next floor. That left Celvantes as our only tank.

Dantin and Spellbroker disconnected on the Opo-Opo floor ("I had a bad case of kerkopes once," I joked. "The doctor gave me a shot and cleared it right up.") and found themselves unable to reach us. They died trying to reach the telepad, which led to many comments about how they needed to stop monkeying around. Quieren was accused of carrying bananas for MPK bribes.

We got the win and everyone received three Ancient Beastcoins. I'm so close to having my Beast Trousers upgrade...

With

Neyla prepares to swing for the fences.

the late start, I didn't feel like trying to level Paladin. I'd raised some gear concerns, and Neyla agreed to wait until 14 to hit the dunes. He'd been leveling Samurai in Tahrongi Canyon while I was in Limbus, so I teleported out to buff him and give him some cures during the last 1000xp he needed to ding 14.

I still had my Tandjana Wildgrass for the Hot and Cold game, so I told Neyla not to die while I went off in search of treasure. I honed in on it almost immediately and popped the crate to find a Celerity Salad. Those go for 100k-150k on our server, so I was very pleased. I like the game so much I'm seriously considering trying to teach GhostWing the "Treasure Finder" ability from the lost chocobo quest.

Paladin for the Holidays

The

Neyla introduces me to her taru adoptee, Lunarrie.

holidays have come and gone, so normal gameplay can resume. Neyla led me out to West Sarutabaruta on Thursday to meet Lunarrie, since we were planning to party together in the dunes. I went back to leveling Paladin and got it to 9 before I stopped, but she skipped ahead and made it to 14. Neyla had to explain the concept of "level gaps" and told her to press on without us. We're still going to party in the dunes at some point.

I spent Christmas weekend at my parents' house, and took the extreme step of hauling my computer with me. I didn't want to miss my shot at a Monster Helm in Dynamis-Windurst, so I figured it couldn't hurt to have a backup PC in case their machine kept crashing and rebooting on the game like it did last time. Their computer surprised me by running just fine...but their internet connection died and wasn't repaired until Saturday afternoon. No Dynamis for me. I'm afraid to ask if the helm dropped while I was gone.

It wasn't a complete waste, though. I logged on very late Saturday night to check my garden (by some miracle, my plants didn't die) and goof around with the chocobos. I teleported out to the Konschtat Highlands to play the Hot and Cold game and stumbled across Rampaging Ram. I killed him and got the horn, then ran to Bastok to finish the Purple Belt quest. I decided to follow up by camping Deadly Dodo, but of course the bastard didn't drop for me.

We didn't have the ENM or Monday's Dynamis, so I mostly fished and ran errands.

I

Always happens on a lowbie job...

returned to West Sarutabaruta today on Paladin to kill more mandies, crawlers and bees around Starfall Hillock. I encountered Tom Tit Tat while I was there, and it was a close fight. I used Invincible near the end just to be safe and managed to kill him, but of course I only got a mandragora bud for my troubles.

I got to 10 and grew bored, so I left to do some fishing. My gil buffer is dwindling down into the scary range where Limbus runs soon become unaffordable; restocking my mules and managing to sell a few things is the only way I'm going to be able to keep my new Amemet +1. The alternative is to sell off a few Ancient Beastcoins, but I'm not quite there yet.

In other news, Neyla has a chocobo now. Evildr was on Thursday and asking if anyone wanted some breeding cards, so I snagged two. I passed one to Neyla along with a Paprika card, and he hit Jeuno to trade them in and get his egg. It hatched today. It's a male, and I talked him through how to feed it and take it for a walk. He hasn't chosen a name yet.

My bird hits the adolescent stage tomorrow, so I might actually be able to name it. To top it all off, I had a good Vomp Carrot harvest today (plus five stacks of Little Worms... ugh) and planted ten more pots of seeds. This bird is eating better than Paprika ever did.