Cake with Icing

Yesterday will go down in history as probably THE singularly most productive day I've EVER had in FFXI in the nearly five years I've played.

Saturday, I logged out near the Ranger AF1 (weapon) tree in Jugner Forest, since the "???" will only give the cut-scene during the full moon, which it was going to be Sunday morning some two hours before conquest tally. Considering the little sleep I managed to get because I was ripping apart the entertainment center to integrate the Wii, I'm surprised I heard my alarm and stumbled forth from the tomb.

I took care of some necessary housework and logged into FFXI. In no particular order accomplished ALL the following things:

- finished AF weapon quest
- obtained Hunter's Beret +1 (woo!)
- advanced to Steelknight Emblem in Campaign
- obtained another pair of sprinter's shoes
- finished Hunter's Beret quest and stored the entire AF set on NPC.
- built a phenomenal merit party with Bethany, Armonde, Xmaru, Orlinde, and a truly amazing Bard named Selaine ({Nice to meet you})
- participated (read: died a lot) in Dynamis
- built ANOTHER merit party, a little less exp per hour but damn decent (Armonde, Orlinde, Kazesan, Chaosity, and Siraj were in attendance. Congrats Armonde on 75THF!)
- capped my Spell Interruption Rate modification merits (FINALLY)
- gained another merit point in Campaign with Thaedan

Considering all the running around involved in FFXI, most of all how SLOW it is, getting this much stuff done in a day is amazing.

Fast forward to Monday, Memorial Day. I hopped in game and was happy to see Orlinde ding 75 Black Mage (cook ze bunnies! BOOM!). Apparently she needed Thunder IV, so they invited me to come out-pull other campers with them, "they" being Peshcor, Armonde, Siraj, Orlinde and Thaedan. First pop of Mysticmaker scored my Blue Mage/blm / Black Mage a nice Moldavite Earring, but no Thunder IV for Orlinde (dropped Thunder III instead).

Two and a half hours later, there were 2 campers (a 75 Red Mage and a Dark Knight), so we had a bit of a challenge (Shadowbind + Loxley/Striders Ranger 75 vs 75 Red Mage's Fast Cast Dia). In the meantime, we popped chests for maps (didn't know I was lacking a map of Labyrinth of Onzozo before today; Thaedan, Siraj, and I all got one) and slew a lot of Cockatrices for TP build and drops for Siraj [she's crazy for cock meat and tons were dropping! ].

The moment of truth came, and I was very happy to yoink Mysticmaker out from under the Red Mage camper, who was facing the wrong way when he popped. Whamo! Thunder IV for Orlinde and Thaedan scored the second Moldavite Earring drop for his Black Mage. Zuriel, my brother and quite decent Red Mage was impressed with the claim, and I logged to hang out with him for a few hours.

I logged back in after Zuriel left and helped Thaedan with his Bastok Rank 6.1 (twin Manticore NM) fight. That was a little close, but we nailed it (grats Thaedan!). Our super team was Armonde, Orlinde, Thaedan and I. Then it was time for Limbus. Limbus was fun, as always, and I actually ate the floor (Fluid Spread for 1430-ish damage = dead Ranger) in Apollyon SE. I think we were just happy to get through it with the sparse magic support -- I believe we had only one Black Mage.

Finally, did a fast Crawler's Nest Escort with Feiht to dump another exp scroll on my [retired] Thief. That job's "scroll only" now, as I've sold off most of my Thief gear.

In closing, a LOT has been accomplished these past two days. I'm still in disbelief, if you couldn't already tell, due to the nature of FFXI. Hopefully this is the beginning of a nice trend. Tomorrow's goal: Black Mage to 40. We shall see...