Missions: Moon Reading (Windurst Mission 9-2)

After completing Windurst Mission 9-1, Kiki had to donate 8 stacks of crystals to the WW guy to get enough rank points to be able to take on her final Windurst Mission, Moon Reading. First, she was told to go to Heaven's Tower, where Semih Lafihna, Apururu, and Ajido-Marujido told her that she needed to collect three ancient verses, scattered throughout Vana'diel.

Kiki headed off to Ro'Maeve with Grymalkyn and Elboron, where they got their first verse from the Qu'Hua Spring near the Hall of the Gods.

Later, they headed to the Temple of Uggalepih with Itera and Wendell. Itera and Wendell both needed a Paintbrush of Souls and an Unlit Lantern for our Zilart Missions, so the 5 of us killed Tonberry Cutters until we got 3 Uggalepih Keys, and Itera and Wendell got their paintbrushes. Next, we headed to the outside walls to get two lanterns from two Tonberry Jinxers. Then it was back into another level of the Temple, and we used the third key to open the door into a library. We headed to the ??? spot on the far side and examined it for a cutscene and our second verse, and ended up needing to escape from the temple when the whole roomful of tonberries decided they didn't like us.

Wendell then took Grym, Elbo, and Kiki to the Chamber of Oracles (we needed someone to hel open the doors in Quicksand Caves). There, we got our final verse, and headed back to Heaven's Tower to let them know our progress. We got another cutscene that let us know the Yagudo declared their treaty with Windurst had been broken, and we were told to head to Full Moon Fountain for a battle.

Weeks later....

We were on target to have at least 12 people in the linkshell ready for the 9-2 fight on Saturday night, but we ended up with several people not yet ready for the mission and others just plain absent, leaving us with 9 people. Since this is a 6-person BC fight, it meant we had to have three people repeating it. So we decided on these two teams:

Tsakiki PLD69/WAR34
Grymalkyn THF69/NIN34
Elboron BRD69/WHM34
Wendell WHM67/BLM33
Yobun BLM75/RDM37
Anastasia BLM75/WHM37

Yobun PLD74/WAR37
Anastasia BLM75/RDM37
Wendell WHM67/BLM33
Akuma BLM69/RDM34
Vyce SAM67/WAR33
Muirnin THF67/NIN33

Akuma, Vyce and Muirnin had to wait for the first group to do the fight, go back to Windurst, complete the mission, change jobs, and head back to Full Moon Fountain to repeat it with them.

The fight itself was quite challenging, with a really nice cutscene leading into it. We started out facing four Ace Cardians. Yobun, Ana and Elboron were responsible for keeping them slept while we picked them off one at a time. Grym ran in to pull the Ace of Batons (BLM) first, and got slept and nuked, dropping her health quite quickly into a dangerous zone without waking her up. I felt we were off to a bit of a rough start, but we recovered quickly, and proceeded to put an end to the BLM. The BLM did cast a lot of AOE spells, dropping all of our health quite a bit. I understand why people recommend to kill this one first. Next we moved on to the Ace of Coins (RDM), then the Ace of Swords (PLD), and finally the Ace of Cups (WHM). After the Ace of Cups used Benediction, we disengaged at 50% health, slept it, and rested to full before killing it.

Then Ajido-Marujido showed up. We knew we would be facing a wyvern, Tatzlwurm, and a manticore, Yali, for this part, neither of which can be slept. Our plan was to see which one Ajido-Marujido would attack, attack that one ourselves, and have Yobun kite the other one. Ajido didn't run in until we did, so I think we probably could have rested after killing the final Ace, but people say to do it the way we did it.

Ajido-Marujido first seemed to head for the wyvern, but suddenly veered off to the manticore, and we nearly lost him. Some quick healing from the mages saved him, and I used Flash and Provoke to get the manticore's attention. Yobun kited the Wyvern, Wendell made sure Ajido stayed healthy, and the rest of us concentrated of gettting the manticore dead. Then we turned our attention to the wyvern. Unfortunately, I was bound on the other side of the room and couldn't get to the wyvern for a few moments. When I finally could move, I ran over and used invincible on top of my flash and provoke to make sure I had his full attention, since he seems pretty interested in eating the mages at that point.

Two final Thunder IVs from Yobun and Anastasia killed off the manticore, and we were treated to another cutscene. Hurray! We'd won! It was a satisfyingly challenging fight, and a good completion to the Windurst Missions. We ran back to Heaven's Tower to talk to the Star Sybil and be granted Rank 10. We also received our Windurstian Flags, and 100,000 gil. The final cutscene had such a "game completion" feeling to it that I almost expected to see the credits start to roll. My husband said, as he always does when we've accomplished something, "We've won the game, time to quit." /sigh

Ana, Yobun, and Wendell changed jobs as needed and headed back to do it all over again with Akuma, Vyce, and Muirnin. I wish I had taken more screenshots - a Galka BLM in an Igqira Weskit is a sight to behold - but I was a bit anxious before the fight, and too busy during the fight, to remember to.

Kiki ran off to the gate guard to use some conquest points to get a Federation Signet Staff, then headed to her moghouse to put her new flag up on the wall. Windurst has been slacking off in the conquest lately, so it may be awhile before Kiki can get her Federation Aketon. A few of us are thinking of doing some Expeditionary Forces to help our nation, but I'm not sure if we'll get time this week.

As much as I really would like to do the Rank Missions in both Bastok and San d'Oria, I simply can't give up my outpost teleports, so I think when I do those, it will be my last weeks in the game.

New title: Vestal Chamberlain