Down in the Dirt

January 25-27, 2008

Another long weekend but this one isn’t nearly as fun. I focused exclusively on Dancer, for reasons I’ll get to in a sec. I took her from 17 to almost-20 in a series of parties on the Dunes and in Qufim.

None of the parties was very remarkable although one was very level-tight. Gambino led two of them, one each in the two aforementioned zones. Omii was along for the ride on both as well, on WHM. I found myself doing at least as much healing as he did although I really don’t mind. We didn’t have too many danger zone incidents and he stepped up when it counted.

To be fair, Gambino was pulling a little enthusiastically and not giving Omii a lot of time to rest. I think I saw Omii down on one knee during several pulls, but who could blame him? He did keep the buffs up which was especially handy against the gobs Gambino chose for us.

In one party I wound up next to Roo who had rep’ed a non-responsive member. She’s a Dancer also but showed up wearing Bone gear and some other accessories. I didn’t see any obvious Acc+ items but she was carrying a fair amount of evasion. Before the Qufim party I would go shopping, blowing about 50k on Dancer-compatible items like a Traveler’s Mantle, the Chakram I’d be using to pull with and some odds and ends for WHM.

It seemed she was hitting about as often as I was but was hitting harder. She was using Republic Cesti but I don’t recall if I saw any STR or ATT boosters. In any case, we never coordinated on who would buff or heal so I just did it whenever I felt the urge. Nobody seemed to mind and I kept my TP up enough to handle cure panics.

I used this time to refine my macros to include party tells for use of the Sambas or TP notices after cures. I hope people understand how dancing work! By the time the final party ended, in Qufim, Gambino and I were a few pulls away from dinging. He had said we would stay for both our levels but abruptly bailed with me 400xp shy. Oh well, I should have no trouble soloing that, right?

Well, I logged in late last night hoping for an invite but after being flagged up for 45 minutes I take my flag down at midnight and head to the Dunes to solo. I’m almost there, working off bunnies and a snipper when I go after a Goblin Tinkerer. I make sure to move closer to the outpost to avoid links and for help if need be and promptly beat him down to about 25%.

Then I start taking crazy damage and I see a Leecher has joined in on the fun. I run for the OP then turn and fight knowing I’d never get the teleport home off in time. I almost finish off the Tinkerer but fall face first in the sand. Cavell, a magey-looking fellow shouts for a raise on my behalf and I thank him and joke about the linky. At least one party passes by and I thought I saw a Red Mage PL but I got no raise this time. After 15 minutes dead I homepoint and return and find myself at 550 tnl, meaning I lost close to 350xp. Grrr! It’s close to 1am but I want to ding so I find a Leecher by himself and pull him to the front of the OP.

I didn’t realize at the time but it was a Tinkerer I wanted, not a Leecher. In any event, we fight to a draw since he cast Cure III on himself FOUR TIMES… I did get to try out the Dancer 2-hour called Trance. It lets you dance your pants off at no TP cost for about 30 seconds. It allowed me to rebuild TP to about 120% but it was clear I wasn’t going to be able to finish this guy off. And this was after about 20 minutes of pounding away!

So I called for /help and a group nearby runs over swings a few times and I’m free. I thank them and log out near the OP’s teleporter, Medicine Axe.

But that’s not the good stuff! I had three interesting run-ins this weekend. First up is Sunoco. He PMed me in reply to my Jeuno shouts for the Holy Shield and Ebony Wand. He said his brother’s account has a lot of goodies he’s been rifling through since his bro left him the account on his way to Azeroth. I jokingly asked if he had a Vermillion or Royal Cloak stashed in there and Sunoco said he’d look. I beg off saying I wouldn’t be able to afford it if I wanted. He said it was no problem – he didn’t need money since his bro had 86M in gil and who knows what in inventory.

He says he’ll look for the Shield and Cloak and send me what he finds after he finished his party. Later on, I run into him in Selbina, doing the quick-fame quest. I was there finishing off LB4 and he remembered me right away, saying he didn’t find the shield but thought he saw the cloak. I asked him what I should pay him when the time comes and he said not to worry, again. This is why I avoided WHM, BTW. I want to see if I can have the Vermy Cloak on before my next Aht Urghan party.

He spends the next day and a half in Kazham and as of midnight last night hadn’t sent the cloak. I managed to get the wand myself off the Jeuno AH and pulled that Wanted listing, but so far, no one has put up the Shield or responded to further tells.

OK, next encounter: Brooks. While in San d’Oria Saturday for that leg of LB4, I comment to the Brigaders about a group of 9 or 10 people all from the same shell gathered together. Kitty and Fhox wonder if they’re up to a Garrison run. As I head past, Brooks runs up to me and PMs, “Are you really a girl irl?” I tell him no, and he asks, “So you’re a guy for sure?” He also asks for a Brigader pearl. I check with Fhox first, noting that Brooks’s title is “New Adventurer” and that he’s a WAR1. Fhox gives the go-ahead so I hand him one.

He switches on immediately and almost as fast, begins to be obnoxious. He pops back to his shell and they go do their thing. Kitty then mentions he had been chatting her up and annoyed her. She said she thought he was whacking off while talking to her. Later Goldy would say that he tried talking to her but she had been AFK and he apparently “Grrr”-ed her and that made her mad.

Weird. Anyway, he popped into the LS once or twice more but I didn’t see him Saturday night or Sunday.

And lastly, shortly after logging in last night and while I was headed through Port Windy, Chubby PMs me saying he knows me. I reply with “Oh? From?” and he says someone talked about me a lot. Paraphrasing, he said so-and-so referred to me as their right hand and that I saved them many times. He didn’t remember the name. I guessed Fhox but he wasn’t sure. I also said as a career WHM I try to save everyone so it might have been that. But he seems to think it was a personal connection.

I didn’t see anyone else from the RDB on so I never got to ask who knows Chubby. But I told him his message was most appreciated. He said he just wanted to let me know people were saying nice things about me.

I wonder if it *is* a Brigader…

Also, as a public service to RMT-watchers everywhere, I saw Ferenan on again. He was in Sea Serpent Grotto, the only place I’ve ever seen him the 2 or 3 times he happened to be on when I was looking for him. I’m really wondering if he’s RMT since he’s always anonymous and always in a party. I’ve heard from people on forums that SSG is one common place to find RMT campers.

And the fact that I’ve spent almost half of his gift makes it more than likely that I’m gonna keep it (mostly) guilt-free. He’s had over a month to contact me if he was concerned and he wasn’t on for like 16 consecutive days right after.

So tonight, my plan is to log in, ding 20 on Dancer and try out the new moves. I’ll also work on pulling now that I have a ranged attack. I did pull a couple for the earlier parties but not regularly.

I’ll also hope to find a present from Sunoco but won’t pester him about it. And I’ll hopefully learn more about Chubby.

P.S. Fhox is working on Summoner now.