General: Vacation Ramblings

I tend to not write anything when I'm busy playing, as has been the case over my Christmas vacation time. Some of the highlights from the past couple of weeks:

Helped Locmari get the item from the Headhunter Quadav in Beadeaux, so he and Manon were both able to finally complete Rank 5. Unfortunately they both ended up dying in Castle Oztroja after Manon got the magicite, but didn't have an instant warp scroll or anything, and they tried getting back out the way they went in.

Grym and Kiki did the Rescue quest, since they both got the extra items from the Headhunter, which unlocked the jail cell. When they went back to Beadeaux to do this, and the Beadeaux Smog one as well, Kiki managed to get aggro'd when she thought she'd reapplied Sneak. The Bastok Market Gate Glyphs from Summerfest came in quite handy. They went back with BLM subbed, did both quests safely, and warped out.

Finally got a key in the Ordelle's, fighting Goliath Beetles well away from the Stroper Chyme campers. We logged out in the dead-end canyon in the SW part of La Thiene after not having much luck finding a chest. When we went back in later that day, we got aggro'd by a goblin, and had a Pathfinder, a Shaman, and I think a Smithy on us, plus the Pathfinder's pet and then a Slash Pine when Grym used Cyclone. We both had to use our 2-hours (THF43, PLD43), and of course the Stroper Chyme campers stood by watching us, probably hoping we'd die. I think Grym was down to 3HP at one point, but we prevailed. Pretty exciting. Then we headed back to where we'd been killing beetles, and found a chest, so Kiki got her Cunning Earring. I'm torn between keeping it for DRK and RDM, but it was selling for 60K last time I checked....

We did a couple of Selbina quests, one of which involved hours of fishing to get a Fat Greedy each.

We spent some time in the Bubu end of the Maze of Shamkrimi trying to get chest keys for our RSE quests. That was kind of fun, since we were actually getting some EXP off of the mobs, plus some skillups. We both got keys, and now Grym has the full set (had bought everything but the feet), and Kiki got a set of feet and sold them. Since the Mithra RSE is worth so much more than the Taru RSE, it doesn't make too much sense to let Kiki have keys before Grym. Kiki does have a Gusgen key, so we'll have to go looking for a chest there.

We did the Holla/Dem/Mea Teleport scroll quests, and those actually were easier that we had thought they would be. In Gusgen and Eldieme Necropolis, we went as THF43/WHM21 and PLD43/RDM21 and just used Sneak, but for Garlaige Citidel, we were WHM35/NIN17 and RDM25/BLM12, since we needed Invisible as well. Kiki sold her scrolls for about 140K, but Grym will be reading hers as soon as we can get her WHM up to 36.

We did a New Year's Moogle quest to get teleport collars for San d'Oria. Since we already have the Trick Staff II, the Treat Staff II, and still have our Windurst and San d'Oria gate Glyphs, we don't feel like we have to get the other two teleport items (each has 10 charges, and takes you to that city's Chocobo Stables).

We helped a SAM44 (Bloodghost) do Mission 3-3. Near the top of the tower, a lot of the gobs and giants were checking as Easy Prey for us, but for some reason they didn't aggro us. It wasn't until the hallway right before the room with the Giant that drops the tower key that we actually had to fight anything. It was sure a lot easier than it was with people in their 30s in a group!

We helped a THF30 do the Beastmaster quest in Qufim. There was also a Taru mage at level 30 who was with a Galka WAR in full AF, but the WAR provoked the Kraken away from the nightflowers, and then just stood there while the Taru started fighting the Kraken, pulled hate, got killed, and delevelled. Then the WAR killed it in one hit with Penta Thrust. Not sure why he let the Taru die.

We helped a couple people get their Carbuncle Rubies. I'm glad they drop pretty quickly, unlike when we were hunting for Grym's months ago (300 leeches!).

We levelled BST to 25, and are having a really hard time finding a good place to level. We spent a lot of level 21-25 in Bubu, and I almost think that's where we have to go still, though it will be harder to find toughs.

We started working on getting Kiki's Norg fame built up. She really needs to unlock NIN and get it up to 15 for Promyvion if nothing else. She's turned in 104 Yagudo necklaces so far (two runs through Giddeus with Grym and Kiki having space for 25 each, I don't understand why people bother paying 200-500 gil each when they're really pretty easy to collect).