Pinch Me, I Must Be Dreaming

As unimaginable as it was a couple years ago, my little Tarudin has not only completed her Valor armor set, but even has the HQ of the coronet. Over the past month of Dynamis we've had our usual ups and downs, with two failures on the Dynamis Lord (one the melee rushed out to meet him instead of waiting at camp, messing up the mages, on the other, we just didn't do enough damage in a short enough time), some really amazing runs in Beaucedine (8 drops one night), cleared Bastok, fell apart in San d'Oria, had a rousing win in Valkurm, and a bad Megaboss pull in Qufim (but a few nice drops for people). We've had some rare Northlands drops showing up lately, in addition to my new breeches. Lucrezia finally got her Assassin's Armlets, Morgoth his Duelist's Chapeau, and Asarath won the elusive Summoner's Horn.

We're in a phase of shifting members, with some people leaving while others are coming in. We're still a bit short on full-time PLDs, with just Amyalfrodo and I, so we keep trying to rotate through all the people who have PLD at 75. Some grumble more than others, but overall, it feels like it's working OK. Most of them don't want to main tank, so if Amy doesn't make it and Lumikumi's on MNK, it's up to me. I get fewer nights "off" now, but it keeps me busy.

On our December 8th Dynamis-Valkurm run, the Valor Coronet -1 dropped, and I was the only PLD main lot on the run, so it was mine! Bwahahahaha. Oh sorry. Got a bit carried away there. It did make me reflect though, of all the goodies I've got in Dynamis and Limbus, my Valor Surcoat was the only thing I'd actually won a lot on - everything else was mine uncontested. So much for "Kiki always wins". :-) I took my Coronet, my -1, 20 Ordelle Bronzepieces and a gold ingot to Sagheera in Port Jeuno after the run, and the next morning, picked up my fancy new Valor Coronet +1. It gives me 18 more MP, another point of DEF and another point of Enmity over the NQ, and was definitely worth the upgrade, since it's my normal headpiece for most tanking duties. My original coronet was the only relic drop I had from Snakes, so it was in a sense bittersweet, yet somehow appropriate, that it's been replaced by a item I got with TheUltimates.

Last Wednesday, we had an "Expeditionary Force" in Dynamis-Beaucedine (never say the word "farm", or the game punishes you) that was more exciting than usual. Lucrezia deviated from our normal path and opted to take on the Dynamis Icon just past the Yagudos, on the way to the Quadavs. We did fairly well with our massive linkage, but suddenly there was only 10 minutes left on the hourglass, so we quickly ran up to the Quadavs and Luc got the 2 time extension statues there pulled quickly. We moved on to the cliffs, back to the Orc lake, and up to the Goblins for further time extensions, and had well over an hour of good "expeditioning". The drops were scarce until we hit the goblins, but we were fairly well-rewarded at that point, getting DRG, WHM, BRD, NIN, and PLD.

Yes, Valor Breeches dropped. I couldn't believe it, and I happened to be dead at the time (we were fighting the Hydra Corps at this point). They dropped from a Hydra Ranger, not sure why he had them. I typed, "get me up!! quick!!", and I think I had 4 people casting raise on me at the same time. Amyalfrodo was the only other PLD main needing them (Lumikumi got his earlier last year), and she lotted a fairly low double-digit lot. I out-lotted Amy, but she said she would have passed for me since they would complete my set, which is really sweet of her. She's currently the only PLD main with access to Beaucedine and Xarcabard, so hopefully we can get hers soon. She doesn't even have her gauntlets from San d'Oria yet, since we get multiple pairs only on the runs she has to miss, and none when she's present.

So here Kiki is, sporting the complete Valor Armor set (not counting the Valor Cape), something I never thought I'd see her do. Since I upgraded the Coronet, I can't store the set, but eventually I can pick up a new one in Bastok. We had a Bastok run on Saturday and one dropped, but we had a PLD on his first run with us (Deathstorm), and I let him have it instead. Technically he's not allowed to lot until after two runs with us, but he could put it to better use than me. It would have been selfish of me to take it.

I couldn't get a good look at my fancy new pants, so I dressed up my Mithra mannequin in the full set. She's showing a lot of leg for someone in heavy armor, but it looks pretty nice. :-)