Final Fantasy XI Playdiary
Entry 12 - Digest of some random occurences
Another longish gap in between updates. I have been spending more of my free time playing than journalling lately, so I'm afraid it will be another disjointed sequence of events for you today, with some attempt to string them all together coherently. Here we go...
I left off as a low level thief in Sarutabaruta. Well, I soloed my way up to level twelve as a thief in the familiar places and then took a break. Here I am in the gear I had at that point, which included a boomerang. I really liked the boomerang as I could use it to lure enemies from far away and attack them in safety with my knife once they came closer.
Back home in Windurst to sell the things I had found and made in my travels, I caught sight of some unusually high level people around the auction house. One is a paladin, the other a dark knight (can you guess which is which?). They are both in special job armour for high levels called artifact armour. I like the paladin one best as it almost glows, it's so radiant.
Home sweet home. This is how my mog house looked after a little decoration. It's still quite empty, but with a bed, table and pictures on the walls it feels a step closer to a real home. I threw out my old, wilting plant and attempted to grow a new one. It's doing quite well so far, perhaps due to the greater care I have been giving it. I can't wait to see if it blooms a flower or even some fruit.
I got lonely after a few days in Windurst and took the boat back to Selbina. It was stormy weather and I caught sight of this ghost creature, a Phantom. Someone killed it before I had the chance to run up to it and meet my death.
In Selbina I hunted with a lot of people to get my thief job to level fifteen. A few times I was lucky enough to be invited to hunt with members of my linkshell too.
I had met Hopkins before in Windurst, and by coincidence he had travelled to Selbina just before me. He was also a thief, just a few levels higher, and one night we had no party to join so we teamed up and ran around La Theine plateau killing everything in our path for money and experience. His luck was terrible that night and he died three times, each just before he would have levelled. Here is a friendly passing white mage who agreed to revive him one time. The raise spell is magnificent - once it's cast the corpse rises up slowly and sets the player back on their feet. Unfortunately after a raise, their body is very weak and some time to sit down and heal is necessary before entering battle again.
Venturing farther afield still, I came upon Sand'Oria, the hometown of the Elvaan race. It is a magnificent town full of towers and walls - it reminds me of the tower of London ^^;. It is probably my favourite of the cities I have seen so far to spend time in, and the fact that it's full of handsome Elvaan people is a bonus...
A Bomb! My quest to find all of the regular Final Fantasy enemies begins...alongside my quest to screenshot all of the people I see with funny names.
At some point in my dithering I hit level twenty in the monk job. This was the level needed to begin the chocobo quest that I had been looking forward to. First, I gathered some gozebi greens from bunnies in Dangruf Wadi (getting horribly lost along the way since I had no map). Then I ran into a problem in my plan - I had no way of crossing the dangerous and unfamiliar territory in between Sand'Oria and the Grand Duchy of Jeuno, the place I needed to go to for the quest. I was planning on setting off alone and hoping for the best when Rokugo offered to help. She was the same person who had aided me in my support job quest so I felt really guilty asking for help again. She reassured me and asked me to bring her some rabbit grills in return for her time - incidentally, once I had cooked these and sent them to her, she tricked me by sending me some money as payment for them. Now I owe her three times!
Oh yes, I digress. Anyway, Rokugo is a high level paladin with some very nice armour, and she kept me safe by healing me and mutilating anything that came near me. We ran through a mossy forest and Batallia Downs, where fantastic tigers tore around. Eventually we reached Jeuno, and the chocobo stables.
The quest was quite a long one - basically I had to convince a chocobo to eat the greens I had gathered. It took six days in game time before I had impressed the owner enough to obtain a chocobo license, and in the meantime I explored the grand new city I was in. No wonder Windurst was always so quiet - all the action was here! I could hardly get to the counters in the auction house through the throng of people always there, and there is constant shouting from people selling things and looking for party members. In between exploring, I took the time to rent a local mog house and enjoy the peace and quiet.
Despite the numerous opportunities for distraction, I managed to earn my chocobo license. Here I am riding one for the first time. Since enemies won't attack me whilst I ride, I can explore new places much more easily and travel in relative safety from now on. I tore around for some time, just enjoying the speed and sense of freedom.
Meeting Farplaner, a very high level bard, in Windurst, and an amusingly named Galka NPC. Farplaner is wearing high level bard armour and is very kind. I think I like bards. I was working on my black mage job at this point, hence the skimpy clothes and enormous staff. Hopkins calls me Pocahontas when I dress like this.
Fighting some strange new enemies (including giants) in the Qufim area around Jeuno. Levelling here is fast and easy, and I am getting to meet a lot of Japanese players. I apologise for the disjointed (and image heavy) update today - I wonder what will happen next time I visit Vanadi'el?
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Date entered: 15th January 2003