Quests: Holiday Quest Wrap-Up

Over the past several weeks, we've done a variety of quests, and feel like we're running out of them, at least ones we're capable of completing without help from other people.

Teamwork in San d'Oria

Kiki, Grym, and Elboron have been having a lot of fun doing the Fortune Teller/Food quest, which you get from a woman in Mhaura. She tells you your lucky color, the area where you can find a Luck Rune, and the title of your perfect partner. Having done so many quests, Grym and Kiki can usually change their title to the one required, and then by talking to a Tarutaru in Windurst, they're given two food items, usually HQ, and some times quite valuable. We've gotten things like Coeurl Sub +1s, Snowy Rolanberries, Vermillion Jellies, Leremieu Salads, Timbre Timbers Salads, Sophic Stew, Tonosama Riceballs, and Boiled Cockatrice. Some things don't sell that well on the AH, so we've been using them for leveling and even skillup parties, but with Vermillion Jelly selling for 150K in Jeuno, this really is a favorite new quest.

So one day, the woman told Kiki she needed to find someone with the title "First Rate Organizer", which is from the Advanced Teamwork quest in San d'Oria. Kiki had done it, but didn't know anyone else who had, so she decided to organize a linkshell event to get people to do all three of the quests. Mage's Ballad is the reward for the second quest, and with that selling for 250k-300k at the time, I thought it would be easier to get a good group of people to participate, but we were short on Humes, Elvaans, and Mithra. With the Smilebringer's city-to-city teleport service, several of us had some of our mules go to San d'Oria for the event to help fill out the teams, but even that wasn't quite enough.

For the first quest, you need to have a party with 6 people all from the same nation. For the second quest, you need to have a party with 6 people all from the same race. And for the third quest, you need to have a party with 6 people all with the same job (we chose WAR).

We managed to recruit strangers for the Humes and Elvaans, but the poor Mithra didn't get past the first quest. However, both Quincy and Quiznos were able to complete the second (not enough fame or something for the third), so at least two of our mules managed to get a couple of Mages Ballad scrolls. Our group sort of flooded the market with the scrolls (I think we had 15 people able to complete the quest), so we haven't put them up for sale yet.

Now with Elboron a First Rate Organizer, Kiki was finally able to complete her food quest and move on another one. :-)

A Test of True Love

A Bard named Carmelo in Port Bastok needed help collecting song fragments, and Elboron, Grymalkyn, and Kiki all offered to help him. He needed the pages of the Chanson de Liberte to help save a woman he loved from a strange illness. The fragments were in three different areas, locked away in treasure chests. We had previously found fragments in Castle Zvahl and Sea Serpent Grotto, but hadn't yet ventured to the Labyrinth of Onzozo, where the final fragment lay. We headed there one evening, and, along with our NPC buddies, we killed cockatrices and goblins until all three of us got a key. It was actually pretty easy, and we made some decent pocket change from the drops as well. We headed back to the Labyrinth the next day and easily found treasure chests for each of us.

We headed back to Bastok to talk to Carmello, and he was very pleased to finally have the fragments, and rewarded us with some gil as he set to work on the song.

Lovers in the Dusk

We returned to talk to Carmelo again, and he had completed the Chanson de Liberte, but now wanted us to take it and bury it in the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah. He instructed us to do this at dusk, in a place where clear water bubbles up around a circle of white trees. As we were burying the song, Carmelo and his former love, Dariah, appeared, reunited after years apart. Carmelo thanked us for our help, and reward us with a Siren Flute. Elboron was very pleased to get it, but Grym and Kiki sold theirs to other people who had more use for them.



Wild Card

Kiki has been helping out the Star Onion Brigade in Windurst since she first arrived in Windurst (what seems like) years ago. The Joker Cardian had been given the Mana Orb, and Honoi-Gomoi wants it disassembled. Kohlo-Lakolo told that Joker's been hiding, but Kiki found him. Joker asked Kiki to go to Toraimarai Canal, as he's lost something there.

Kiki and Grymalkyn spent some time killing bats near the Windurst Walls entrance into the Canal, but they were only able to get one Coffer Key, which Kiki ended up getting. Kiki spent several hours sneaking around the canal, trying to find a coffer, but didn't have any luck, so she returned the next day, when the canal was completely empty. She soon found a coffer in a room full of leeches, but was able to open the coffer, get a Joker Card and warp out without being defeated by the leeches (they sure tore through her stoneskin fast though!).

When Kiki took the card back to Joker, he bribed her into letting him live, as he had things he needed to do. Honoi-Gomoi was furious with Kiki, but she believes she made the right decision.

Searching for the Right Words

Kurou-Morou in Lower Jeuno has been having trouble telling Chululu how he feels about her, and while Kiki was visiting with Ilumida in Upper Jeuno, he came to see if he could buy an old chest from Ilumida. The chest is rumored to help people find the right words, and he felt it would help him with Chululu. However, the chest was the only gift Ilumida had ever received from her husband, and she had never been able to get it opened.

Apparently it can only be opened with a Moondrop from Boyahda Tree, so Ilumida asked Kiki if she would be able to get one for her. Apparently Ilumida doesn't trust Kiki to complete her missions, as Ilumida had asked several other people for a moondrop as well, and they all banded together to head for Boyahda Tree. We had a group of 13, with a mix of people mostly over level 60. We examined a ??? near the middle of the Tree, and suddenly Agas appeared, an Ahriman that was impossible for us to gauge, yet we defeated him fairly easily and were all able to obtain our Moondrops.

Ilumida was very happy to finally be able to open the chest, and found a note from her husband, written the last day she saw him before he headed off to war, never to return. Korou-Morou was so struck by the simplicity of the message that he knew he didn't need the chest to tell Chululu how he feels, and instead gave Kiki the money he was going to use to buy the chest, as well as a scroll of Sleepga II. For some reason, he gave everyone some money and a scroll as well, almost as though he didn't remember that he already found the words he needed.

Some of the people on the quest actually read their scrolls, as they had Black Mage leveled past 56 and hadn't yet bought, while some are hanging on to their scrolls to read when they reach that level. The rest of us, who currently do not intend to level Black Mage that high, went ahead and started selling them on the auction house. The first sold for 1.8 million, though the going rate had been 2 million. The next several were solidly at 2 million, but someone decided to put theirs up for 3 million, and it sold, quite quickly too. So now the price of Sleepga II seems to be solidly at 3 million. If the person who jacked the price up a million in one sale ever complains about inflation, I will have to /slap him.

Knocking on Forbidden Doors

Grym, Elbo and Kiki returned to Tavnazian Safehold to talk to Enaremand again, and he needed some help finishing the mannequin that resembled his wife. He wanted to bring it to life by bringing back her soul. We decided to help him, and learned of a mysterious wizard who had been living in the Phomiuna Aqueducts that had knowledge of reanimation.

Since the Aqueducts are restricted to level 40 or below characters, we needed to get some gear, and then headed in to search for the wizard, as a BRD40, BST40, BST40 trio. We had to fight some Tauruses, but managed to run behind several Stegasaurs without being noticed. It was a bit scary trying to get to the spot where the wizard was known to be seen most frequently, but it was fun as well.

He told us that he would need a reed from the river in Misareaux Coast and to meet him at the Waterfall and he would help us. So we headed back to the Safehold and changed to our level 65 BRD-THF-PLD trio, and headed out to Misareaux Coast. We quickly found our reeds, then headed up to the waterfall. We had a bit of trouble there, as Elboron wasn't able to find the ??? spot, but he ended up zoning to another area and when he came back, the ??? spot was there.

The mannequin Alsha appeared, and started fighing with us. The fight for the most part was pretty straightforward, but she did cast an Ancient Magic spell on Kiki, which we weren't able to stop (shield bash, flat blade, silence), and took Kiki's health down to about 100. Then she started casting Fire II on herself and we had to defeat her before she killed herself. We were given the Better Humes and Mannequins key item for helping Enaremand. Fyi Chalmwoh in Mhaura, who built our mannequins for us was extremely excited to see the Better Humes and Mannequins when we went to talk to her later, and has agreed to adjust our mannequins into several different poses (for a fee of course) if we want.



The Call of the Sea

A boy in the Tavnazian Safehold wanted us to help him find a rare shell carried by a monster. He wanted a "spirally" one that makes a sound when you blow into it, and thought we'd be able to find it on the cost in Misareaux Coast.

So we headed to the coast and found a strange ??? spot. When we examined it closely, a giant crab named Bloody Coffin appeared. He took several minutes for us to kill, but he didn't really do much damage to us. We got a Whispering Conch from him, and returned to the Safehold. The boy was asked to give the shell to an old woman, and though he thought that wasn't fair, he complied. We were rewarded with a Memento Muffler for our assistance.