Pinned Down

I logged in tonight for the first time in awhile, due to my {Bio} condition… I was able to manage well enough…

Anyway, I was bored and didn’t want to party in my enfeebled state. So I checked for the Haty and Vran mobs that drop Rogetsurin (throwing). I can use that on 4 of my melees as an ammo-free pull, and I might finally get my Throwing skill out of the dumpster.

I didn’t see any NMs in the indicated areas, so I took a chance on VE in Valkurm. His beach was deserted and all the flies were milling about. I went ahead and cleared all the ones I saw and started on the repops. And, as I headed to the western corner with the rock, there he was! I flashed him, Hexa’d him and owned him. “Empress Hairpin GET!”

I joked in shell about going after LL next but decided against it. Vet was going after Titan again and Ben was soloing in Gustav. So I made my way to Jeuno to sell my Silk Headband +1 and then to AU.

Running downstairs from the warp point, I passed a fiery redhead – Kush and Djehuty were returning from somewhere. We chatted a bit (told him about the WoTG vid with his double in it; he mentioned "Real Men Of Genius”) and then I saw shouts from Peterlee about AU 12-17.

It was pretty late but I’ve been itching (see what I did there?) to progress any of my missions. I joined in, despite already having 12 done. Ricklee was in the group also and as we headed out to find Ameretats, we gained Kyte as well. As luck would have it, Kyte was being tailed by a Marid and an Ameretat. He didn’t realize at first we were after the red octopus-plant but soon all four of us pummeled it and it dropped acid 1/1.

We then boarded the Nashmau boat so Peter could convert the drop into the key item needed to start 13’s fight. We eventually made our way to the cemetery in Caedarva. Kyte opted to stay where he was, soloing for PUP skills. So the three of us took on the Shade. It was a nasty fight – besides frequently eating all our TP with AoE spam, he often hit for 400+ damage. I lost Rick when I was too slow bringing up my Cure macro (but I was bringing it up!) I think there was some concern, partly justified, that I was splitting my attention a little thin between melee and mending.

In any case, I raised him, died myself, then reraised just in time for all three of us to win standing up. However, just before he died, the shade used an AoE Drain that killed both Rick and I (again!) during the CS. Obviously, had I seen the effect land I’d have erased/esuna-ed it. Had I seen… We had to HP from there and I lost nearly 2.5k off my buffer. Glad I still have 15k left!

This next part took an eternity – CS with Naja then off to the Arrapago Reef and the Black Cofffin. This fight was against two waves of Shade crewers, and their Corsair Captain. This time, we recruited Zane, Devilboy and Batsu and dropped Kyte. No, I don’t know if it was THAT Batsu. However, departing for the fight didn’t happen quickly.

I had over an hour to kill and I used it fixing my DS3 with the trigger spring from the original SixAxis crappo controller. Now hopefully I won’t have any more problems with macros acting on their own lol.

We eventually made our way to the reef and the dock where a cutter waited to take us to the Coffin. There was an initial, foreboding cutscene featuring a shade Mithra. Not nearly as cool as the Mithra from the Rank 5 missions… Anyway, after being sufficiently spooked, we waited for Batsu and Dev to arrive as Batsu was out of IS…

And then Zane DCed. With just the three of us (Rick, Peter and me) we killed shades waiting for the other two. They eventually made it and we got ourselves ready, then rode the cutter to the Coffin. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one hoping it wasn’t to be *MY* coffin!

The fight wasn’t too bad overall, as we had support from Gessho, a Yag merc. My job was to keep him alive, buff the fighters and stay out of trouble. Which I did. Then, we lost Batsu to a DC. I think we also lost Dev near the end. And Peter got a scare – he was going deep red and while I was trying to get Curaga 4 on him he called out “Aer!” then “AER!!!!!!”. With only 60-odd HP I stuck the cure and about 5 seconds later the Captain yielded.

We got another CS and then were deposited in Nashmau. I split then as it was now very late. K had even commented on the hour and I told him I was being a bad kitty. When I return I will hopefully be up to AU17.