Swiping at Shadows

Today, other than meeting Allicia, another new RDB recruit, in LS chat, I worked on the Sorcery of the North quest for the Teleport-Vahzl scroll. I teled myself to the Vahzl gate and made my way to Fei’Yin. Even with the tele help it’s a long slog through Beaucedine Glacier and its tricky ledges. But the good news is, I can say that at least last night, the Skulker’s Cape worked very well!

I soloed a couple of mobs near Fei’Yin for skillup testing and then entered the ruins. I got the AF3 cutscene and after that buffed up and started looking for Ore Golems. I eventually locate their room and take out three of them plus a trio of Undead Bats. The fighting is hard and I’m getting taken into the red, but Cure V and a Divine Sealed C4 take care of that. My enfeebs, feeble though they are, help mitigate damage, and the golems drop after about 5 minutes apiece. With nearly that long to rest up and rebuff I have DS available pretty much every fight.

I also got bold after the second or third golem and stopped worrying about Sneak and Invisible – it looks like the first-area mobs will not aggro me (unless I heal too close to one – Hi bats!).

After emptying up Miser Murphy’s room of golems I find one of the Shadow rooms and decide to go for it. The pattern is the same as with the golems – Protect, Shell, Blink, Stoneskin, Aquaveil, Haste…then cast enfeebs and spam Banish. The Shadows hit a little harder IMO, and their TP move, Dimensional Death is worse than the golems’ crystal attacks. But they also seem really weak to light-based attacks so between Dia, Banishes and Starburst weaponskills, I’m handling my business.

I take out three Shadows and one more golem but get no keys. I did see that the Ranger Shadow is pathetically inaccurate, missing on almost all his ranged attacks as well as one DD.

I decide to warp out and take the airship to Jeuno to sell more stuff at the AH and flag the LB4 quest. My clues are basically these:
* A man who took to raising his own sheep to get good wool
* A man who is so quiet his boss wants to call him “Silent Mountain” (so-o-o Galka)
* A boy who thinks only of his own mother
* A girl who is tired of being left out all the time

I think maybe 90 minutes of work on this and then I can focus on my Maat fight, which I plan to try at least once as a melee-mage. I did skill up Staff 4 more levels while in Fei’Yin. Maybe I’ll try skilling Club and Shield on my next go ‘round.