The Pirates Cove

After completing the Talekeeper mission my next mission for Bastok was given to me by the Mithril Musketeer Naji, outside the President's Office, he asked me to travel to the pirate hideout of Norg and rendesvouz with Gilgamesh. Once I reached Norg , Gilgamesh tells me to find an Adaman Ore and askes me to retrieve a Frag Rock from Ifrit's Cauldron by defeating a NM Salamander. I round up a group of BST from LotB and travel through Yhoator Jungle to Ifrit's Cauldron, this is a very dangerous place, especially for mages! The path to the NM is crawling with bats and volcanic gasses that will aggro me at the first cast, if the gases explode they can do over 1200 points of damage to everyone standing around. We reached the area where the notorious monster was located, I threw the Adaman Ore into the spawn point and the Magma (a bomb) and Salamander (a lizard) poped. After we defeated the bomb and it dropped 6 frag rocks, I returned to Norg and gave Gilgamesh his Frag Rock.

Looking for Kris in the Dunes

While fishing up nebimonites on the Selbina-Muhuara ferry I ran into Ppuffy from LotB, during our tryp he acquired the pirates chart needed to spawn the Mecurial Kris battle in the Valkurm Dunes. Once we arrived in Selbina we met up with another LotB member Swizzle and headed to the spawn point to trade the map to a ??? in the surf. Once we traded the map 2 NM's Notorious Monsters) came in from the sea and attacked, a clipper, a pugil and a Kraken once they reach land we each concentrated on one, Ppuffy and Swizzle called on their CC's and I summoned Ramuh. This battle is capped at 20 so once we began I was stripped to my jammies O.o, during the fight other local parties dropped what they were doing to watch the fight, I summoned Ramuh and used my 2 hr job ability Astral Flow and watched as Ramuh unleashed Judgement Bolt....those fish didn't stand a chance! Once the battle ended a treasure chest appeared on the beach, inside we found an Albatross ring, some H.Q pugil scales, and a bone calamary shell (bait). Regretfully the elusive dagger, Mecurial Kris was not inside.

Return of the Tale Keeper

Recently I've been XPing as much as possible and have begun PTing back in the Garilage Citadel and when the PT invites are scarce I'd spend my time on the Mhuara-Selbina ferry fishing Nebimonites, which are selling for 25k a doz, been making decent gil off them.

I recently returned to Bastok and spoke to the gate guard, he said there was a new mission for me but I needed to speak to Medicine Eagle, who could be found near the ramp to Ore Street in Bastok Mines. Medicine Eagle told me of the appearance of a young Galka boy claiming to be the new Talekeeper. There were many skeptics among those Galka that rushed to see the heir of Raogrimm. Medicine Eagle then asked me to go find Drake Fang in the Zeruhn Mines. When I met Drake he explained that the boy was said to hold an Alteppa Moonpebble, just then one of the Mithril Musketeers, Iron Eater, showed up and told me my mission was to travel to Western Altepa Desert and retrieve an Altepa Moonpebble to confirm that this boy was trully the heir to the Galkan Talekeeper and not just a scam artist by collecting an authentic Altepa Moonpebble. My abilities as a Summoner had grown but I wasn't sure that I'd be able to defeat the Sphinx's that guarded the Moonpebble alone. Legend has it that in order to attain an Altepa Moonpebble one must defeat the Eastern and/or Western Sphinx's, feirce Manticores that lay dormant until adventurers come seeking the moon pebble, so I called upon Krogenar who had recently helped me defeat the Shadow Lord! He had recently attained level 75, with his help I was sure we could defeat the Manticores. While gearing up in Jeuno we ran into Jiggs and asked if he'd like to join us.

We traveled to Airs Rock in Western Altepa Desert, . I examined the ??? and the Western Sphinx and Eastern Sphinx appeared. Krogenar, Jiggs and myself slayed both the Western and Eastern Sphinx.

Into the Emptiness

Krog set up a Promivion Dem run, the party consisted of me, Krog, and Lucke from LotB and Jonraffy and Sazuki. We were one member short of a full PT but with Krogenars direction we did fine navigating the emptiness. Krog lead us to the MR's (Memory Recepticles) and with Carby and 2 CC's we made short work of them. Sazuki the WHM did need to raise Jonraffy twice on the way to the forth level of the spire and I got nailed once on the way to the zone on the forth level but otherwise we did fine.Krog laid down the plan of attack and it sounded good. We entered the BC, waited a few mins for there call pet timer too cool down then engaged the Progenerator. Krog and Lucke sent in their CCs and I send in Carbuncle, then we withdraw to let them do some work. The Progenerator put the smackdown on their CC's and Carby didn't last long either. I unleashed my 2hour ability Astral Flow and then commanded Carby to use Searing Light but just as it was about to execute the boss runs away O.o! The plan began unraveling quickly and I see Krog, Lucke and Jonraffy begin to melee the boss. Krogenar unleashes his WS, it doesn't do much damage but gets the bosses attention. Krog drops, but fortunately he had a reraise earing equiped and raises himself then calls on a tiger familiar, Lucke calls his tiger familiar also and they begin assaulting the Progenerator, meanwhile I'm trying to rest up enough MP to re-summon Carbuncle so I can try casting SL again before the Astral Flow timer ran out. The Progenerator used it's Fisson ability and spawned offspring that took me down before I could unleash Carby's Searing Light again...I didn't have a reraise earring so I was done. Soon after I fell Jonraffy died and Krog droped last. It was a fun tryp to the top but we weren't prepared well enough, 1 member short and we didn't use our animas efficiently.

Shadow Banisher

Once Krogenar met up with us we entered CastleZvahl, nothing could have preparared Tryp for what wait for him inside. The castle was a hellish maze crawling with every type of beastman; Goblins, Orcs, Quadov, Yagudo, Evil Eyes, and Demons. I had to keep my buffs up at all times and let the group know when they i needed to recast so as to not be left behind. After a few minutes Eleazar skillfully navigated the group through the castle. We now stood at the foot of a bridge that streched out into the cold mist, in the distance I could see the dark siloette of the Zvahl Keep

Once thru the Keep we entered the tomb and were greeted by the Galkan Dark Knight Zied, what was he doing here?The room was eerily silent aside from us but suddenly the air grew musty and an electricity filled the air, the cover of the Shadow Lords coffin slid open and a large arm emerged.

Apparently Zied was not expecting this, but was ready for action, but the Shadow Lord was not amused, he bound Zied in place and the battle to save Vana Diel had begun! I stood at the entrance frozen by shock at the sheer size of the Shadow Lord, but then I heard Krogenars voice yelling to me to run across the room while he and Eleazar fought the Shadow Lord!

When the final blow was delivered the mighty Shadow Lord stumbled, grabing his chest in pain he fell on one knee, but when the dust settled the abomination was gone, replaced by Raogrimm the Galkan talekeeper who supposedly vanished some 30 years ago....the same Raogrimm I had the vision of back when I was collecting the Magicite for Arch Duke Kam' lanaut.....

I collected the piece of magicite optistone. As I picked it up I experienced a
vision from the past...the king of San d'Oria,; suspicious of the Humes of
Bastok and their "investigation" of the Northlands sends a delegate to oversee
their findings...Once I removed the second piece of Magicite the room in faded
to white and I had another vision of the past, a group of adventurers in the
Beaucedine Glacier; Raogrimm the Galkan swordsman, Ulrich the Hume Warrior and
Cornelia the Hume Monk separated from the fellowship, the tension between Humes
and Galkans in Bastok reached a shatering point Ulrich unsheathes his sword but
Cornelia steps between the two, red snow, a weeping Galka left to die in the
blizzard, a hume with a dark secret....Zied rushed to Raogrimm's side, Raogrimm
explains that when he was betrayed and left for dead all those years ago all the
anger and frustration of the Galka race overcame him and the heroic Mithril
Musketeer known as Raogrimm died....replaced by the Shadow Lord, the culmination
of ages of cowardness,rage, envy, arrogance and apathy.During this precious
moments scene Arch Duke Kam' lanaut and his brother enter the room and we
discover the events that are taking place are all part of a prophecy fortold by
the Kindred an ancient race thought to be extinct for over a millenia, and that
the poem that Lion had told me was actually the Kindred prophecy.

As one bright star shines through the clouds at night,and as one song rings clear above the roar of beasts,we hold to one hope in these darkest of times.That they will come, with the wisdom of the ages and the strength of thousands to deliver us from our plight.We await the awakening of the warriors of the crystal The Crystal Warriors (the Ark Angels) will not come to save us from dark times, but to clense this rotting corpse which Kam' lanaut calls Vana Diel of us maggots. At this point things are looking very grim when Kam' lanauts' younger brother unleashed a portal and 5 large crystals appear hovering above the tomb of the Shadow Lord, in a blinding flash the crystals shatter into thousands of shards and there on the steps stand (and levitate) the Ark Angels! Kam' lanaut declares the end of the 5 races of Vana Diel will begin with the death of Raogrimm! The Hume Ark Angel rushes toward Raogrimm but Zied throws himself between the two, just then Lion enters and witnesses this, she sends some type of lumenescent projectile towrds the Ark Angel and tells us to follow her to safety. Raogrimm orders us to leave also, as I flee the room the Shadow Lord rears up for one last battle...a battle he cannot win and just then I could swear by Altana is saw the spirit of Cornelia, Raogrimms love, as the door shut behind me.

Xarcabard, Land of Truths

Tryp loged in at the desert town of Rabao, he had begun the quest for the Lu Shang's, a legendary fishing rod said to be unbreakable. It seems that without this rod I will never be able to reach artisan level in my craft. The rod could be bought in the Auction house....for a mere 10/20M gill .The only other way to attain this legendary rod is to help one of two brothers; Gallijaux & Joulet, in Port San d'Oria by trading in 10,000 moat carp ( this might take awhile)!

As the day progressed I must've caught 10 doz, but I grew tired and I daydreamed of my recent fight against the Lich in Fei Yin, I was anxious to serve my country so I traveled back to Bastok and met with President Karst to find out my next assignment was to travel to Castle Zvahl, located in the far north of Xarcabard and investigate the tomb of the Shadow Lord. I asked Krogenar if he was interested in traveling to Zvahl where tragity had befell a group of adventurers 30 year before, where Raogrimm the only Galkan Mithril Musketeer died...

Preparations needed to be made, I needed the map of Castle Zvahl and the Keep, Radeivpart in Ru' Lude Gardens would give me the maps I needed but first I needed to get him a Flame Degen sword. Since there were none in the Jeuno AH I traveled deep into Ordell's caverns to find a monster that would drop a flame degen....there were none there when I arrived, I stayed for awhile but none popped.

Soon Krogenar logged on and Eleazar and Farseer volunteered to assist me on my trip to Castle Zvahl and the tomb of the Shadow Lord......I warped back to Jeutopia met up with Farseer and grabbed a tele taxi to Xarcabard and the two of us headed north to the Castle where we'd meet up with Eleazar.The land of Xarcabard is cursed and all around demon Wizards roamed the cold landscape, the northern lights shone from deep chasims near the foot of the castle entrance.

Once we met up with Eleazar we camped at the entrance until Krogenar met up with us and then we headed inside...

Darkness Rising

I logged on last night to do a little ferry boat fishing when Darcy asks if anyone needs to do mission 5-1 the Arch Lich battle. Turns out a few people still needed it, Caldor, Farseer, Darksword....myself, so I meet up with Darcy and Darksword in Beaucidine Glacier and head to Fei Yin (A tower similar to Delkfut tower in Quifim), we regrouped near the Qu'Bia Arena BC within the temple.

Once we all entered the battle I cast ProtectraIII and Shellra II Haste and Regen on Darcy, Caldor, Darksword and Farseer, Darcy went in first and set his Courier Carry on Arch Lich Taber' Quoan, followed Caldor who followed suite. I ran into the room and tucked myself in a nearby nook while the four BST's guarded the entrance and dispatched Arch Lich Taber' Quoan's minions as they attemped to enter the room. I only needed to cure Darcy once or twice, then I saved up my MP as the Lich's HP slowly drained from the relentless attacks of the CC's. Once all of the minions were finished we turned our attentionon Arch Lich Taber' Quoan.

Arch Lich Taber' Quoan seemed a bit overwhelmed and because he's undead he really didn't like me.....especially when I cast Holy on his bony hide! Arch Lich Taber' Quoan dropped like the bag of bones he was after I cast Holy.

I logged out in Fei Yin, the next day I treked to Xarcabard, to the Vhazl telepoint, then warped back to Jeuno and just purchased the scroll of teleport Vhazl.

Supplies!

Tryp finally defeated Ramuh! I am now ready to advance my SMN job as fast as possible to fight the Avatar Prime battles to acquire the whispers of Shiva, Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, Leviathan and Ramuh. I'll need those whispers to get a Moon Bauble and fight Fenrir.

Then I need to get started on the CoP missions to acquire Diabolos. Tryp returned to Bastok each day and fished while waiting for a PT invite, I not only made 160k gil selling moat carp I managed to reach lvl 20 fishing. I also continued to do supply quests for Bastok, this time I had to deliver supplies to Cape Terrigan. I've never been there yet, but I knew that I could reach the Cape thru Gustav Tunnel. I switched to my lvl 50 WHM and headed to the Valkurm Dunes to the entrance to the Gustav Tunnel, inside the white sands were cool in the shade of the tunnel, as a precaution I cast sneak and invis because half way thru the tunnel a NM Wyvern named Bune might have spawned, but I lucked out it hadn't. When I reached the Cape I had come to an impass a large bluff jutted out of the white sands and I could go no further, I had to go a more treacherous route, through the Kuftal tunnel in Western Altepa Desert. I didn't have a map of the Kuftal tunnel, but I was determined to deliver these supplies to the outpost at Cape Terrigan one way or another. Upon entering the Kuftal tunnel I knew right away my 50 WHM was in dangerous territory.....I had no idea how dangerous. I traveled down the steep incline to where the tunnel forked, to the left the tunnel opened to a large cavern, to the right the tunnel sank into the subteranne and darkness. I choose to head into the open cavern all the while keeping sneak and invis up. I hugged the right wall and came to a group of adventures some alive.....most dead. I asked for directions but it seemed that I had just missed a slaugher, but these adventurers were at least 10 levels above me! The crabs that scurried around couldn't have caused this, suddenly the ground beneath my feet trembled, panic ensued among the remaining survivors and across the cavern in the shadows a terrible creature emerged from the darkness, Guivre, a biped wyvern...

it's been awhile since I was trully worried that I would die, it is a great adrenaline rush! I ran north west blindly and the cavern narrowed again and my buffs began to fade, just then Guivre turned around and was headed back towards me! So there i am on a narrow ledge in the bottleneck of this cavern and my buffs drop just as it walks by, tunnel worms within range and crabs skittering close to the detect zone O.o! Would you risk casting sneak and invis? Neither would I, I waited till Guivre disappeared in the distance and cast S&I when the coast was clear. After wandering a bit further I found a PUP soloing spiders and asked for directions he pointed me in the right direction and those supplies made it to the outpost in Cape Terrigan! I am also less than 1k away from lvl 42. =^.^=