About Damn Time – Ding!

After 18 days I finally went out XPing! /cheer I logged in a little before 10 and flagged up. I had more poor luck with taxi runs and so I decided to hit Valkurm and PL a bit.

(Side note: The more I think about it the more I wonder if the recent drop in farming and taxi profits has to do with this week’s account bans. Most of my taxi customers were known players so I don’t know, but it’s got me wondering. That, and Krii is too damn fast with his invites >< )

I tried the usual spots – Oasis > Siren > OP > Whitebone > Tunnel - and didn’t find anyone not already being PLed. Just as I was going to scoot elsewhere, I get a tell from Katy asking to party. I confirm the intended camp since she was in Whitegate, and she says {Aht Urghan}. I reply that I can’t go, explain why and expect to hear nothing more. However a minute or so later she comes back on asking if they changed camps would I go? Hells yeah I’d go! I told her anywhere as long as it was a Zilart area. By now, some of the others are partying up and the campsite convo kicks back and forth and then they settle on Bibiki Bay.

I get a bad feeling, and while waiting in Jeuno now, I look it up. Uh-oh, it’s a CoP area. I jump in and say so, at which point I get ruthlessly teased. I explained the PS2 situation which helps, but they still threw a few more barbs. Ultimately we picked Boyahda Tree and I offered teles. Katy was going to take one, then decided riding from Jeuno would be faster. Silly Mithra – Nobody beats the Wiz!

Dragonn (BLM) was waiting at the zone and Ravenous (BLM) was inside. I decided to pick a fight with a golem which I shouldn’t have but then Dragonn joins in and I grab a few skillups. As others arrive we run around bashing stuff until Katy calls us in.

We reach the camp (no competition today) and realize we lost Dragonn. We press on BLU-less until Katy finds a replacement Kiriza (sp). We make short work of Robber Crabs and Knight Crawlers but the XP is kinda lame. I don’t know if it was a level-spread issue or just that it was an improper camp for 56-58…

I got teased a bit more and I managed to hold my tongue – I wanted to say, “OK then, good luck with my replacement WHM… Oh wait, there AREN’T ANY!” But I kept quiet, desperate for the XP.

With a couple of close calls but no deaths, we wrap up about 90 minutes later with me finally reclaiming 56, Raise II, and a 3k buffer. Daysitae (NIN) got dropped to double digits before I could cast - Yahoo Mail was lagging me badly! But no deaths.

On closing up I got some more teasing but I got mine in – According to Ravenous, in ToAU areas, the Taru are worshipped. I corrected him saying people only kneeled so we could hear little tarus ^^ My rep, Milokov (BLM) and Ravenous D2ed everyone else so they could carry on in Whitegate areas.

I stuck around looking for the coffer but gave up after sweeping the first floor. I didn’t log until 1:20 - /panic!

I think now that I’m 56 I might get a few more invites although getting all areas next week will cinch it. But now, I’m beginning to wonder if not having AF is going to hurt me. I really need to get a couple of the armor pieces ASAP.