Quests: Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee? (Old Wounds)

After hitting level 71 a few weeks back, Kiki started the quest for the sword weapon skill Savage Blade (Old Wounds). Grym and I had been working off the latent for their trial weapons, in places like The Boyahda Tree, Bhaflau Thickets, and Toraimarai Canal. Once we had removed the latents, we turned in our weapons to our respective quest givers and were told to go defeat a monster to collect the Annals of Truth.

These fights aren't to be taken lightly, and there were other people needing the fights, so we made an event out of it this past Saturday. We had three thieves needing to fight the Baronial Bat in Gustav Tunnel (Grymalkyn (THF73), Yobun, and Lemonyapple (THF74)), and two Paladins needing to fight Girtablulu in Quicksand Caves (Kiki (PLD73) and Tempezt (PLD72)). Diasuke (SMN75), Izan (DRG75), Itera (MNK73), and Splinte (WAR67) all came along to help. Yobun came as his BLM75 rather than his THF73.

First we headed off to Gustav Tunnel. Izan apparently forgot about aggro, and we ended up with a dead Splinte and Izan before we even started. Yobun dragged Ijin out of his moghouse to give them Raise IIIs, and we waited for their weakness to wear. Yobun popped the Baronial Bat with Sneak on, and Diasuke used Carbuncle to pull it back to our tunnel, so we didn't have to worry about the skeletons in the room with the spawn spot. The fight itself was a lot easier than it was many many levels ago when we did it for Lucrezia and Trow, but that bat really was hitting me hard. I was afraid I was going to die when my HP dropped down to 33, but all was well in the end.

Next we headed off to the Altepa Gate to fight the scorpion. Yobun ran around activating the columns to open the gate while we skilled up a bit on the Anticans hanging out near it. Splinte ended up dying again when we got four Anticans on us and everyone was fighting a different one. I think he got Burst cast on him, or something equally nasty.

After Yobun finished activating the pillars and made his way to the now-open Gate, we headed into Quicksand Caves and killed the Anticans along the way to the spawn point for the scorpion. I spawned it, and the fight went pretty smoothly. His Earth Pounder AOE did a lot of damage to everyone, but at least he didn't hit me as hard as the bat did.

A bunch of us continued on to do skillups/exploration in Halvung with a couple other people, stopping in San d'Oria or Kazham along the way to complete our quests. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive in Al Zahbi, I ran outdoors to try out my new weaponskill. I'm disappointed with the damage compared to Vorpal Blade or Swift Blade, but it sure makes me laugh to see Kiki soar into the air to smash her sword down on to the monsters!

I finally got my staff skill over 230, so on Sunday morning, I picked up my Pole of Trials for the quested weaponskill for staff, Retribution. Shantotto starts the quest (Blood and Glory). I always enjoy talking to Shantotto. She's so evil.