The Daily Grind

April 3 – April 10, 2008

Got last Recall scroll, Jugner. As it happens, this one lands me the closest to a CA, at least so long as San d’Oria holds the forest. I think it might be all of two minutes’ walk, so I moved my HP back to Aht Urhgan. Now I have ready access to AU, Jeuno, Campaign, Besieged and via teleports, the 3 nations’ areas by short choco ride.

Spent a looong night working the AF4 key quest because I initially responded to Eft’s shout and once we had a party of 5, went to Davoi. Not Beadeaux. So I helped with his quest and fortunately after it was done, all 4 were willing to go to Beadeaux and get mine.

The key for both quests dropped pretty quickly, especially with Kirin (sp) on MNK75 beating the hell out of everything. The holdup on mine was that sometime around the key drop, the coffer was popped, so we had to wait for the respawn, find it (out of 8 possible spots) and then get to it before anyone else. It was almost 5am Sunday when we succeeded. Before packing it in, I offered assistance or reward and was turned down. Kirin did ask a favor (in all caps): “Have fun playing this game!” I think I laughed – I try very hard not to get sucked into the grind ^^ Many thanks to the crew and then off to bed.

After flagging the next section of the AF4 quest, I tried going to Castle Zhavl to shout for Dark Spark help but got lost. So I went to Fei’yin to try for the magic tome needed to *finally* close out my open Tele-Vahzl quest. It took three days and a few deaths but I finally got the drop, and the chest only took 5 more minutes to get. A Tele-Holla and 5 minutes by bird and I had a scroll worth close to 100k in hand! And I only paid like 65k for mine, so, a tidy profit…

Side note – while I can kill Fei’yin Shadows easily now by nuking with all 5 of my Banishes, I wound up dead from resting aggro. While waiting to recover, I thought of a comic-panel line of dialogue: “When this Weakness doth pass, I’m coming straight for that ass!” Five minutes later my joke was reality as a BLM (BLM? His claymore’s bigger than he is!!) Shadow lay smoking on the floor.

I put my new scroll up for sale and then went to bed, planning to /shout for the final piece of AF4 assistance.

Wednesday, I logged in early, around 8, and found Kitty and Archer. We chatted a bit but still no Fhox. She thought I had quit playing but I told her I’ve had to stick to the late hours for the last few weeks.

That done, I shouted for help and got a couple of bites, with Termy deciding to go for it. I had initially misread the fight description, thinking we were up against AF3’s mob strength. AF4, Dark Spark, is a lowly level 55 Bomb that a WAR75 should be able to diffuse easily. So we stopped looking for help and duoed out to Xarcabard. The walk to the castle was uneventful and the walk to the spawn pop was easy and quick. Once we cleared out a pair of demons and an eye, I re-buffed, rested, and then popped DS. Termy went to work and until the very end, had no HP issues. I didn’t see it in the log but it looks like he took a couple of hard TP moves to the chin, going from 1,300 to 700-odd as one point but he was never in danger. My Banishes were doing significant damage but I had to keep some MP in reserve.

All told, I think we spent about an hour on this adventure, and then we prepared to split up. While I never offered one, and he never asked, I traded with Termy, putting up 10k. For a second I thought he was going to reject it but he didn’t. I still cringe a bit at the cost per hour (so to speak) but realistically, he helped me achieve a long-standing goal, and I can get that back with a short trip to the Ruins. And besides, I was offering Fhox more like 20k.

Returning to Jeuno, I got the Healer’s Mitts and discovered, courtesy of the Cure Calculator, that I actually lose one point off my C5 – 665 to 664 using the AF piece in place of RSE. *sigh* Anyway, I’m on a MND/Cure V build tear now, and added an Insomnia Earring and plan to get a Hale Ring to rep my Windy starter ring. Other than that, there isn’t much to Level 65 I don’t already have that will boost my cure power.

I see that the Noble’s Tunic is now under 500k. I need to hurry and level to 68 so I can finally have Refresh and a hat on.

Still no sign of Sunoco, online or on FFXIAH.

If I missed it, I already finished the first of 4 Ninja scroll quests. 2 of the 3 remaining need 10 each of rusty subligars or leggings. I also need a Damp scroll for the third. I hope these 4 fame 3 quests are enough to get me to fame 4 because the thought of farming more Yag neckclaces pisses me off. I have no idea, but something like 30 sets of 4 should have made me like 100k on the AH…