Quests: Trial by Fire/Trial by Wind

On Thursday evening, Kiki grabbed Grym, Elbo, and Itera to go fight Ifrit finally. We recruited Demin's MNK 71 to join us, and headed for Ifrit's Cauldron. I forgot to bring an ice cluster for the flame spout, and we managed to aggro the lava bomb there, which self-destructed, nearly killing both Demin and Itera - they had the most HP, but they took the most damage as well. Itera got aggro'd and killed while we were sneaking our way to the Cloister of Flames, and Grym and I managed to get back and find him and raise him. I'm starting to get a feel for how the place is put together, but I'd really like an in-game map.

The fight with Ifrit went fairly well, with my PLD/RDM being the main healer. Elboron used Soul Voice and fire carol on us just before Ifrit's two hour, but Grym still took 1300 damage, and fell dead. It's like the avatars roll the dice and pick one person to die each time. This was our first time fighting Ifrit, but we're keeping the whispers for our Moon Bauble for Fenrir now. As soon as we get our Moon Baubles we can go back for the avatar.

Next we decided to get our Whisper of Wind from Garuda, and Lalandra (SMN70) joined us. On her way to the Cloister of Gales, she got killed, and Elboron and I ran out to raise her. However, she was in the middle of a herd of raptors and a gang of goblins, so Demin, Grym, and Itera came to help kill everything so we could raise Lalandra. Demin had to log out, so we did the fight without him. It went better than Ifrit - she thought Kiki should die, but I was still left with 500 HP after her two hour, so we foiled her. Garuda's so annoying because she keeps healing herself.

Elbo, Grym, and Kiki now have 4 of the six whispers, while Itera's missing 4 of them. We need to fight Shiva and Leviathan first, then the three of us can get our moon baubles and then get the whispers from Titan and Ramuh for Itera, and we'll be ready to see how we do against the big puppy.