Savagely Entertaining

Tonight at 19:38 marked the start of another Mithran week for RSE, this time in Shakrami. I already had a Shak key, so I figured the time needed to find the chest and return the Magical Pattern to Guttrix wouldn’t be too bad and would leave me with enough time to pop another one. Timing was important because lately Ape and I have been butting heads over my nights and weekends in Vana’Diel…

I didn’t log in until about 8:30 because of some home improvement errands at Lowe’s. Also, I took a slow start because Ape wanted me to do some handyman work in Bran’s room to prepare for my sister’s arrival Saturday. The “Surf’s Up” theme is really coming together. But enough of “The Real World”…

I actually had another errand to run besides RSE, and that was to pick up the last item I needed for Gobbiebag I, a square of linen cloth. I had already picked up the peridot, steel ingot and dhalmel leather but was 500 gil short for the linen before I logged out last night. Upon logging in, I found some of my AH items had sold, and I picked up a few quick tele-taxi fares as well. After paying Bluffnix his blood money, I now have 35 item slots! My next goal will be to expand my MH this weekend.

As an aside, Vana’diel is a rough place income-wise for mages until 36, and then the magic of tele-taxiing kicks in. Since dinging 36 three weeks ago, I’ve made more money ferrying shleps back and to. With my Jeuno MH entrance at Lower Jeuno set as my HP, a complete run with MP recharge can be done in less than 2 minutes. I can really do two runs on my current MP max, so it’s really fast money. I have Dem, Holla, Mea and Altep (great moneymaker!) and the Yhoat quest is active. I won’t likely be able to quest Vahzl because I never quested Holla (thanks AH!) and can’t flag the Vahzl quest. And Vahzl runs for 100k easy…

Right now, I’m concentrating on filling my wallet for better level 20 gear for my BLM and doing helpful quests like the inventory expanders. Spell-wise, I’m pretty complete on WHM and BLM and I don’t really care about RDM now – maybe once I unlock NIN…

Back to the Goblin Tailor and his damned Magical Patterns. It’s maybe 10 by the time I can get into Shakrami in earnest, and thanks to the FFXI-Atlas maps helpfully organized on FFXIclopedia, it doesn’t take too long to find the chest in the lower level “Wight Room”. Somewhere along the way I get blood-aggroed by two Wights and manage to run far enough away from their camp that when I finally die, I can Reraise safely and continue my farming. I decided to try for another key and happened to get one quickly off a Labyrinth Scorpion I was farming for a Stinger.

I quickly Warp back to Jeuno and get my RSE reward – Savage Loincloth. I already had the Savage Gauntlets from a Gusgen Mines run and I’m focusing on MP+ gear. However, Savage + Cotton Doublet = Tard. I actually got laughed at by Nyehicco and more than my usual share of checks… LOL indeed!

I tele back to Mea and run into Shak, and while in the Wight Room on my way through a full sweep of the Maze, my Invisible falls and I get drilled by an Earth Elemental instantly. Two Wights join in, even though I don’t think I got blood aggroed. Most of the Wights had been ignoring me but whatever. I was dead in just a few hits. I waited for them to move away to trigger Reraise, but they had both run back the moment I levitated. BAM – dead again. I HPed and retraced my steps, making sure to keep my Cloak up at all times.

I eventually made it the entire way through, checking every chest location on the maps. In the room with the final few, I notice two likely-Japanese players standing near where a chest would have been. Don’t tell me…they moved it… I warp out and tele back and go ALL THE WAY from the beginning, AGAIN, until finding the chest once more in the Wight Room. I rush back to Guttrix and grab Savage #3, the Loincloth. At least now my upper body matches and the Light Soleas on my feet don’t clash.

The whole time I’m rerunning Shak I’m looking at my clock thinking…less than an hour before the Galka’s turn…45 minutes…30… I grabbed the pattern at 2:10am leaving me less than 10 minutes to get to Jeuno and talk to Guttrix again, but I make it. Fast-forward to Friday morning. I’m looking at the RSE schedule and I can’t figure out why my math seems off. I apparently had another hour or so before deadline. Then it hits me full-force: A week in Vana’diel has EIGHT days, and so the math goes like this: 192 hours per week / 25 = 7.68 Earth hours per Vana week. Using a 7-day Vana week got me 6.72 hours and a lot of extra stress. Ape was still pissed when I came to bed at 2:25…

Courtesy of the Vana’diel Clock FF extension, I see that Mithras are back in Gusgen on Sunday morning. I’ll try to farm one more key before then and grab the Savage Gaiters ASAP on Sunday afternoon, assuming I’m not all tied up with Cathy’s visit.