General: Kiki's First Trip to Jeuno

I played way too much from Wednesday night through Sunday, but Kiki accomplished what I had hoped, so it was a lot of fun. I bet my boss wishes I attacked my work goals with as much focus as I give to my game goals.  

Kiki's resting in her rent-a-moghouse in Jeuno, Chocobo License in hand, waiting for me to get home from work tonight so she can take her first chocobo ride. She's a WAR20/MNK10, Rank 2-2, fame 4 in Windurst (though none elsewhere, since she hasn't even been to San d'Oria or Bastok yet), and ready to take on the world. Well, at least take on the mobs in Qufim with a good party.

Kiki couldn't have done it without all the help she got from Grymalkyn and others though. Nice to be married to someone who has a character who can help yours out.

Here are some of the highlights from Kiki's journey to 'adulthood'.

She had one pick-up party experience, fighting Maze Makers in the Maze from 13-14, with a SMN/WHM, BRD/WHM, NIN/WAR, WAR, WAR, WAR. Since Kiki's def was much higher than any of the other warriors (good gear and boiled crab rock), she got to try out being the tank. The party was really great, though if Grym wasn't hanging around as a THF32/WHM16 cleaning up the goblins and helping heal the party when we needed it, it might have been somewhat disastrous. The party ended after the NIN left, and we tried to exp chain on the maze makers. We really weren't quite ready for it, especially being one damage dealer short. Kiki ended up dying, but she did her job as a warrior, maintained hate, and took one for the party. When Kiki had been asked to join the party, she and Grym were teamed up as a WAR12 and BLM12/WHM6, trying to level up both, but it was a bit slow going. She felt bad abandoning Grym to run off to her party, but Grym was very understanding.

After that, Kiki fought Wild Dhalmels in the Canyon with Grym healing her until Kiki hit 15, then Grym switched to MNK15/WAR7 and they headed into Bubu together. We fought tough mobs at the Outpost as a duo until we both hit 17, and Kiki got her Wild Rabbit Tail (one of the Mhaura subjob quest items). At this point, Grym switched back to THF32/WHM16, and we headed deeper into Bubu to get the Bull Dhalmel Saliva and Bloody Robe Kiki needed. We fought 5 Bull Dhalmels and got the drop, then headed to the eastern beach to Bogy hunt. When we got there, there was a pair killing leeches (42THF and a 30RDM) hunting for a ruby. After examining us, they asked if we were looking for a bloody robe or a ruby (could have been either with a no-subjob level 17 and a level 32). Next thing we know, they invite us to ally with us, since they just killed a bogy and got the robe. I know some of you were looking forward to helping me with this quest, but as you can see, there was really little challenge to it, and we didn't want to wait for people to be available, since time was of the essence in reaching my goals before the weekend was over. We stayed allied with the other pair, fighting leeches until one finally dropped a ruby. Well, Kiki mostly ran around the beach pointing out leech spawns rather than actually fighting them, but she did try whacking at a few that were already engaged. Our group fought 4 more bogies in this time, and the robe dropped another 3 times. Much better drop rate than those magicked skulls, but bogys are tougher than ghouls, so help from higher leveled people is more necessary.

After Kiki had all the subjob items in her possession, Grym turned back into her MNK17/WAR8, and we headed back to the Bubu Outpost for more tough mob fighting. A bored NIN15/MNK7 asked to join us, and it was really quite good for a tiny little party. Grym and Kiki took turns tanking so we could get some exp chains and enough TP to skillchain for Fusion, which is really effective on goblins. The NIN was AFK for awhile (her son had a 'restroom accident' on the kitchen floor), and Grym and Kiki kept fighting. She leveled up to 16 while she was AFK, which was funny. She stuck with us until Kiki hit the magic 18, which was very nice.

Went out Saturday night as a level 10 MNK with Elboron as a level 10 BRD and Locmari as a level 9 WHM. We didn't have a great time, picking up some random people, and Locmari ended up using Benediction to save Kiki's life when we took on an IT Yag. Of course there was nothing we could do to save Locmari at that point. :cry Elboron found someone to raise him, and after the guy was done, he started casting teleport on himself when a sapling that our SMN was fighting while waiting put us all to sleep - including the high level WHM in mid-teleport. It was quite comical.

Saturday, Kiki completed Mission 2-1, with Grym's help. We had to fight one Maze Scorpion, but it wasn't too bad for Grym to handle. I think some of Kiki's hits even landed on it. :p

Kiki's skipping Mission 2-2, and has decided she will do Mission 2-3 Bastok first, since we've never fought the San d'Oria Dragon, and it will be interesting to see what movie we get for that one. I'm thinking that maybe we can all do that dragon fight when the 20/21 group get to 24/25.

To get to 20, Kiki had two snipper killing sprees at the Hidden Beach near Mhuara, with Grym (THF32/WHM16) keeping her healed while fighting toughs. There were a couple that were just too tough, and I had to invite Grym to finish the snipper off before it killed Kiki, but it went pretty quickly. We even killed some leeches to see if Kiki could get her ruby a bit early, but no luck with that.

After Kiki hit 20, we headed up to the Mountains, both to kill Crane Flies to get the Gausebit Grass Kiki needed for the chocobo, and to set Kiki's homepoint at the outpost. Back in Windurst, she switched to a level 1 THF (mob radar important for sneaking through the Champaign) and headed out to the tower next to the Windurst Waters gate, looking for help from a bat for her deathwarp. So naked Kiki punches a Tough bat, and ends up killing it bare-handed. 120EXP points for level 1 Kiki. Too funny. The next bat she hit, she disengaged so it could kill her, and poof, she was in the Mountains.

Sneaking through the Champaign was fairly painless. With thief radar and a bit of patience, she made it to the Jeuno gate unscathed. And even if she had been killed, it's not like she would have lost much ground with her homepoint in the Mountains. There was one skink she was worried about, but next thing she knew, someone ran up and killed it.

I had enough time to try feeding the Chocobo 4 times before heading to bed last night, figuring I'd finish later today, but around 2AM I couldn't sleep, so I got up and did the other two feedings (happened to log in just before a day change in the game, so did the last two in only a few minutes). Locmari was leveling up his warrior, so we had a nice chat. I think he was a bit surprised to see me at 2AM on a work night.