Final Fantasy XI Playdiary
Entry 8 - Leaving home
Today (actually the 20th but I was lazy and filled it in late) I did a lot of exploring and would have accomplished a lot had it not been for my own stupidity. Read on to find out what I mean.
Firstly whilst casually looking for a group I ventured right up close to Mea Crag to find out what the huge white thing actually was. I clambered up some steps and found...a beautiful crystal thing. Examining it in my not-so-expert way I discovered it was a teleport point which is something to do with a mage teleportation spell I think. I found a special item there which I hope will be useful to me in the future too. One mystery solved, a good start!
I bumbled around a little more alone then headed to Buburimu where I was somehow absorbed into a party. Cool. This place is mainly rocky icefields leading off from the canyon area and is often buried in heavy snowstorms. They look so realistic that I can't help but shiver just being there, but for now the weather was quite calm. Hurrah.
One of my fellow fighters in the party, BigBose. To avoid any possible claims I am being biased and only taking pictures of tarutaru, here's a galka. Doesn't that moustache look stylish?
Now back to tarutaru...hey, what's that hume doing in the background? This place and time turned out to be very popular and the area was full of parties doing what we were doing. We mainly concentrated on the "Sylvestre" monsters as they were killable and we were low level for this area. I lagged out once (vile server on my LAN) but my party waited for me and chirpily welcomed me back. Japanese players are just so nice.
I'm starting to get used to the fact that all my Japanese groups break up shortly after I log on due to the fact it's late night for them and they need sleep. Wahh. Anyway, I decided going back to soloing in the canyon would be depressing so I cut my losses and blindly ran the length of the snowfield, dodging goblins and dhalmel and yagudo, intent on finding somewhere new. I eventually stumbled upon signs of civilisation and eagerly ran forward. It turned out to be a port town called Mhaura. I'd heard this was the place to come for the support job quest (alas, level eighteen required) - interesting...
A new town means new NPCs to stalk and places to visit. I ran around doing that immediately. I love exploring!
Have I mentioned I love elvaan men? No?! Well I do, so here's a random one I glimpsed by some shelves near the ocean. And then I found another person with my face (again, an NPC, and with the same dress sense as the last). My monk robes sure are popular.
Wow, look at all the stuff they have. Just seeing those ingots lined up makes me wish I was a thief already. Er, I mean, wow new shops :).
After I'd explored thoroughly and found nothing much to do besides hunt, I bought a ticket for the ferry for a cool hundred gil. I also bought some maps whilst I was at it as they tend to come in handy when exploring. Galka NPCs have cute names. Here I am in the area for waiting for my boat. I didn't have a timetable so I explored the waterside rabidly whilst I waited.
Some other people were already waiting so I assumed it wouldn't be too long now. Strangely none of them actually boarded the boat, now I think about it. Perhaps they just enjoy standing around harbours and looking cool to impress newbies like me.
Another NPC in my robes. Is it some kind of town uniform?! Why wasn't I informed? Maybe they're all trying to copy my sense of fashion.
Those people hanging around again. Betcha didn't know I was taking pictures of you all, nya nya. Eek! The boat arrives and I'm so busy trying to capture that elvaan's pout that I miss getting a shot of it downstream.
Please excuse the bloated entry today, I got very excited and took a lot of pictures. Here I am boarding the ship with my cabinmate, a tarutaru. I took a lot of pictures of him but I won't include them for the sake of sanity. The captain was soon located and harrassed. He told me useful things such as the length of the voyage, but refused to let me drive for a while. Meanie.
As soon as I was able I ran up to the deck and took more pictures. It was so exciting! I tried fishing up there with no success and saw my companion fighting Sea Pugils that were washed onto the deck. Since he was small and defeating them easiliy, I decided I should be able to take one on too. Can you guess what happened next?
Despite my best efforts to flee down to the cabin and force my tarutaru cabinmate to save my life, it ended up with one very dead mithra and one very cranky monster. At that moment my ship arrived at port Selbina, our destination. Great. Well, there was no way I was going to warp back to my homepoint in Buburimu without setting foot in Selbina so I defiantly stayed dead and was thrown out onto the harbour as the ship sailed back home. Argh! I crossed my fingers and hoped someone would pass by to raise me before I was forced back to my homepoint against my will. So close to freedom...
Since this update is so long already, I have lumped the next part of this adventure into tomorrow's diary. Read on to find out what fate had in store for poor dead Xylia.
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Date entered: 21st December 2002