The Journey Ends: July 29, 2004 - Feb. 23, 2010

The Manaclipper passes a whirlpool.
After

A clot rode the boat with me.

months of inactivity, I finally logged on to Final Fantasy XI this morning to cancel my Content IDs. I'd popped on a few times to finish selling my gear. In the end, I had 3.5 million. I gave a million each to Dalamar and Poring and kept the rest for myself in case I ever get nostalgic enough to go back to Vana'diel.

I did not delete Halifirien. I'm too attached to that character and that world to commit that final act. He's still there if I ever get the urge to reactivate the ID and start punching and dancing my way through enemies again. I don't see that happening -- too much of my pleasure in the game came from playing with Kristofer as Neyla -- but you never know.

For my final voyage, I tossed on the beach clothes and rode out to the Manaclipper dock for a ride to Purgonorgo Island. I wandered the sands a bit and then warped home to Windurst. The moogle can watch over my home, 'cause Hali doesn't live here anymore.
So long, folks!

Bathing Beauty, On His Own

I

I stopped for the Dem gate crystal on the way to Jeuno.

got a little bored shuffling gear from one mule to the next and decided I'd move mine to Jeuno as well and speed up the process of selling everything. I made sure Zocalo didn't have anything in storage and made him run from Bastok to Jeuno in his beach outfit.

Being a packrat is never an issue until you have to do something with all the crap you've kept over the years. My Valkurm Dunes/Qufim Island sets, for example, aren't worth much in the grand scheme of things, but there's a certain attachment from using them multiple times to level jobs.

I was running without an escort, although I brought along some oils and powders just in case. I didn't use any, nor did I die. I just set my home point at each possible spot (and stopped to collect the Dem crystal) along the way.

I'll move my San d'Oria mule later in the week.

More Merits

Neyla

We fought Peg Powler when we entered Onzozo.

and I did another round of Beastmaster meriting in Bibiki Bay this evening. I was sort of on auto-pilot for it while I watched old black-and-white movies on my PSP -- Inherit the Wind, 12 Angry Men, Psycho -- but I still had fun.

After escorting his mules the other day, I popped an Empress Band charge so it would be active when I logged on. When the charge wore, I popped a fresh one for another Experience Points boost. He didn't show any signs of stopping awhile after it wore, so I used my Anniversary Ring as well. Needless to say, I got a lot of limit points during that session.

We hit Onzozo again after that, charming Toramas and killing everything that moved -- including Peg Powler -- and hoping Ose would pop. I charmed the placeholder when we first got there because I didn't know it was a placeholder, but that was as close as we got to a mishap.

I kinda doubt there's an Assault Jerkin in my Dragoon's future, but it doesn't really matter. I'm selling off everything DRG-related. I'm not even keeping the weapons. Getting it to 75 was enough for me; there are no situations where I'd need to use that job again.

Escort Duty

To

There wasn't much to do while I escorted Neyla.

make it easier to sell off old gear and unused equipment, I helped Neyla move two of his mules to Jeuno after work.

I switched over to White Mage so I could cast Raise if he got eaten, which prompted maudlin thoughts about it possibly being the last time I'd be on that job. That's the downside of planning to quit, because suddenly everything feels like it might be the last time you have that experience.

As escorts go, it was quiet. Getting his galka Babyfat from Windurst to Jeuno was pretty easy because there are lots of mob-free canyon areas. I clubbed a Goblin Fisherman or two, but that's about it. The tarutaru from San d'Oria was slightly more entertaining because the visibility in Jugner Forest can be spotty, but killing a tiger was the only action I saw. Neyla's very good at evading aggro.

Exit Strategy

Five

Neyla and I hit Bibiki Bay for some Beastmaster action.

years after I started playing, it's finally time to retire from Final Fantasy XI. Moving to the evening shift has effectively killed my ability to play the game, because it's harder to find time. There's plenty of solo content, but the game has been a duo endeavor of Halifirien and Neyla for a long time. We're not on the same clock in any meaningful way. The only time we manage has been on Sunday evenings. Four gaming sessions a month isn't really enough to justify a monthly subscription.

Today was the beginning of the end. We're selling off a lot of our old gear, but we're keeping the stuff for our main jobs. While we're pretty sure we won't be coming back, we know from the experience of others that there's always a chance we'll get nostalgic and return. When some people retire, they have a fire sale and sell off everything they have for 1 gil. Plus I worked too fucking hard for my Lu Shang Fishing Rod and my Noble's Tunic to let some other schmuck have them.

I deleted my Windurst mule, Dibbler. He didn't have anything of real value on him, mostly just fish and some cooking supplies. It seemed easier to just sell them to an NPC than try to get anything at the auction house. My other mules, Taraza, Kurrelgyre, and Zocalo, were storing more impressive gear. It'll take a week or two to sell everything, I imagine. We're going to use that time to have some final adventures.

Today we geared up on Beastmaster and rode out to our old stomping grounds in Bibiki Bay, charming rarabs and using them to kill dhalmels. We didn't have any competition; the only other people in the zone were mages killing goblin pets to the north of our camp. Naturally, I forgot to bring Tuna Sushi; Neyla gave me half a stack.

We were out there a few hours, getting about 10k limit points during the session. I earned a fifth merit, which made me wonder if I'd have time to earn four more to raise my STR stat again, which made me smile because I'm retiring and there's no real point in doing that.

We

Onzozo provided some entertainment and gil.

left Bibiki Bay and ran out to the Labyrinth of Onzozo. Neyla used to solo there all the time, but I never spent much time in the back except for the few maddening times I tried to fish coral fragments. We charmed Toramas and fought other cats -- I would've laughed if Ose had popped and given me a shot an Assault Jerkin -- and a few manticores.

There was a Thief running around and farming the area, so we left him alone and killed goblins on our way out. One of them dropped a key, so Neyla found the treasure chest and unlocked it for 3k gil. Not bad.

While Neyla hit Qufim Island and Jeuno to check his auctions, I rode out to Purgonorgo Island. I toyed with doing a little clamming on the beach, but I settled for charming the kraken and using it to kill a few urugnites. Lecan, one of our early BST role models, used to wow us with that when we were lowbies.

I'll be sad when we finally pull the plug. Still, I'll have five years of blog entries, hundreds upon hundreds of screen shots, and soundtrack albums. If I could get FRAPs to work on my machine, I'd make a DVD with video of my favorite zones. So it goes.

(Cross-posted at Random Notes.)

Journey to the Northlands

Our

Beaucedine Glacier [S] offers new problems.

initial rounds of Campaign sucked galka balls, because we'd sign up to fight and the battle would end almost instantly. Instead of dealing with that aggravation, Neyla said it would be a good time to finally track down the Campaign NPCs in the northlands of the past.

I have to give credit where it's due, because some of the past areas creep me out. Beaucedine Glacier [S] is a winding, frozen mess of narrow corridors and wide areas loaded with Tough and Very Tough monsters. I'd never seen a ruszor and didn't want to get too close in case it could see through Sneak or Invisibility.

We got separated twice. The first was when a dryptotaur turned as Neyla walked by. I had to wait for it to move away before I could follow. The second was near the zone into Xarcabard [S], when Neyla got aggro from an imp. It was a Tough, but it may as well have been made of balsa wood because we killed it fast when I ran back to him.

Once we reached the outposts and used them to teleport back to Windurst, we settled in for some Campaign action and had a much better time of it. My evaluation earned a nifty Starlight Medal; Neyla earned the Moonlight Medal, which is a rank higher.

Easing Back into the Water

I

We got decent XP from two Campaign battles.

should be beaten with sticks for not updating, but don't hold it against me because I haven't played as much. The first half of August was a bit of a bust, but we've slowly started working our way back into the game. We've been having some really nice Campaign sessions on the weekends, for example. I finally earned a ninth merit and got my third STR upgrade.

The general schedule we had worked out was to play on Sundays, and then mid-week gaming on Tuesday through Thursday after work. That's always up in the air, since we never know if we'll have to stay late or be too damned tired to log on by the time we walk home.

We had a decent session Sunday, although it started out hellish because it seemed like every Campaign battle we joined ended a minute later. We eventually got into a really good fight in Garliage Citadel; there were very few other people, so we didn't have to share yagudo. I love fighting the birdmen because I can pound them into feathers and bonemeal with few problems, unlike those bastard orcs.

I

Take that, birdman.

solved another problem this morning by buying a USB keyboard for my Xbox 360. I've tried using the controller to play, but I just can't do it after years of keyboard usage. I was doing the Slaughterhouse op -- bombing the outpost in West Sarutabaruta [S] -- and Zaltana started waving at me. I couldn't figure out how to wave back, so I no doubt looked like an asshole.

The keyboard made everything better. First I logged on to the PC version to store my macro banks and map markers to the Playonline server, then jumped on the Xbox 360 and downloaded them there. I was thrilled to see it transferred my settings as well, like filters and font colors and all that.

I don't know that I'd want to use the 360 for heavy-duty Beastmaster work -- I'm too used to sitting at the computer for that and wouldn't want to risk screwing it up -- but it'll do for everything else. Running around, fishing, Campaign battles, etc.