Iceday, 12/11/1033

Valkurm Dunes. Levels 12, 13. Defeats = 0

Getting gil is tough these days. I suppose I could do Crafting like the old days, but the cut-throat marketplace is not where I want to spend a lot of time right now. I wanted to try something a little different. My first scheme was to try and get an Astral Ring by doing BCNM 20: Wings of Fury. (BCNM = "Burning Circle Notorious Monster, in case you were wondering.) I had lots of Beastmen's Seals, so this seemed like a good thing to try. As it turns out, a Beastmaster can solo that battle relatively easily because 2 of the 3 bats are charmable. To make a long story short, I successfully completed this battle 3 out of 5 times, but got no Astral Rings. Heck, I didn't even get any decent drops. The BCNM is certainly something to keep in mind for the future, but it's too much of a lottery for my tastes. I need cash now!

By the way, the 2 times I lost the BCNM above were when I got bold and tried something crazy: I went in as a RDM/bst. I almost won the second time I tried as RDM/bst, so I think it is possible. It's just much harder without the Beastmaster 2-hour, Familiar.

So I decided to try my hand at farming. (Farming, as in taking on much lower level creatures quickly for their drops.) Common targets are things like Bees (honey, beehive chips), Sheep (sheepskin), Saplings (seeds), Rams (ram skins, ram horns), Leeches (blood), and you get the idea. I was out farming at an undisclosed location (sorry, gotta try to avoid competition!) when I was surprised to be greeted by my pals Papaya and Pitaya over my linkshell. They wanted me to go out and tank for them in Valkurm Dunes as a Paladin. So I used my new Treat Staff II to Warp out to Jeuno, changed Jobs in my rent-a-room, shouted for a teleport, and was out there in short order.

There were very few low level players out and about, and no one seemed to be seeking a party. It looked like were going to have to go as a party of three. I didn't mind. In fact, I prefer a party with people I trust anyway, even if it is small. (Idiot WAR/nin at level 12 = no thanks.) I was a level 12 Paladin, but it seemed that my friends had already reached level 13 as black mage and white mage. No matter, my trusty Empress Band would help to close the gap. Unfortunately, we only had about a day or two (about 2 hours Earth time) to adventure. It was a lot of fun while it lasted though. I started of pretty rusty at tanking, but think I got back into the groove by the end of the session.

We started off slow, taking on Tough Hill Lizards. At first, we had to rest often as we got used to working together again. However, soon we were fighting at a nice pace, and found that we could take on the Very Tough Hill Lizards readily. In fact, we could take on the Incredibly Tough ones too. By the end of our adventure, were taking on Goblin Ambushers, Goblin Butchers, and Goblin Tinkerers as well. We did better as a party of 3 than a lot of full parties that I have been in there. Much of the credit lies with my friends Papaya and Pitaya who are both excellent mages. I keep forgetting that black mages deal crazy damage, especially at these low levels. But both mages managed their healing, damage and MP admirably, and we never came close to defeat. When we got going, we were reaching chain #3-4 easily. Unfortunately, since I had to pull, I would run out of MP by the 5th fight or so and would have to rest. If not for that, we could have reached chain #5 every time, I think. I think if we could get a dedicated puller (Chili, maybe?) we would be a force to be reckoned with!

By then end of out adventure, we had all reached level 14. I am not sure when exactly our next adventure will be, but we definitely discussed completing some Missions in the next few weeks.

Oh yeah! I managed to got to the Harvest Festival in Windurst a few days before this adventure. It was fun to kick back in town and see all the people in costumes. Some of the costumes were really well-made too. I have no idea how the townspeople dressed as Ghosts managed to float around or how the witches made themselves seem translucent! Anyway, I spent a small fortune giving away treats like cookies to the various townsfolk. However, they gave me some nice stuff in return... eventually. Most notable among my new goodies are the Horror Head, Horror Head II, Trick Staff II, and Treat Staff II. I also completed a fun little quest where I had to follow witches around town while I dressed up as a monster. As rewards for these, I got a Witch Hat and Coven Hat. I took some screenshots and will post one at the top of this page soon.