Feelin' Better

After getting myself thoroughly worked up (see previous post: Maintenance Blues), I decided to go look for a party in the Maze of Shakrami, and solo Canyon Rarabs en route. But after getting my a** handed to me by a Rarab (that be no or'nary rrrabbit!), and failing to find many party prospects in the maze, I was beginning to wonder if I shouldn't just pack it in and head for the dunes instead.

At that moment, by providence or design, my linkshell buddy, Stump, happened to run by, in pursuit of Windurst Mission 2-1. Having the same mission myself, we decided to complete it together, with the help of the level 26 WAR that I met in the maze (thanks, Akbear!!). Despite getting slaughtered by a Ghoul and chased by a Maze Scorpion, we managed to complete the mission. Finally, before calling it a night, we returned to the Horutoto Ruins to help Bableubiont -- who has agreed to take me to Jeuno (thanks, Bable!!) -- with a misison of his own.

When all was said and done, I had been defeated three times (by a rabbit, a ghoul, and a lord-knows-what in the Horutoto Ruins), with a net EXP loss on both my main and support jobs -- but you know what? I had an absolute blast doing it!

And that, my friends, is what it's all about...

Maintenance Blues

One disadvantage of being one-and-a-half hours ahead of Eastern Time is that the PlayOnline maintenance period typically doesn't end until about 10:30pm. So with a couple hours to go, and the kids in bed, I decide to dig around Allakhazam.com in the hope of finding some information on how to reliably synthesize Witch Kabobs. (If you can help, please send info.) Instead, one of the first things I stumble across is a rather touching little story about losing touch with one's friends in Vana'diel.

At this point, I had been soloing my Black Mage support job for what feels like ages, and hadn't partied with my online friends for quite some time. I was already feeling a little blue at seeing their names show up in Jeuno or Qufim or Rabao while I was still stuck in Windurst, and was starting to feel the call of the Valkurm Dunes all over again, so reading this story put me over the top and I bawled like a baby. (Okay, not really, but I admit it did bring a tear to my eye.)

So -- I'd like to extend an open invitation to my online friends and linkshell members: if you see me online and want to party or complete a quest together or just go exploring somewhere, send me a /tell and I'll be there.

The servers are back up. Think I'll go party...