Level 34 Party, Purgonorgo Isle

Almeth and Amedelie had some things they needed to take care of at our normal playing time today, so I used the opportunity to get some quests done, among other things. First order of business was to complete the quest "The Lure of the Wildcat". Basically, in each of the major cities in Vana'Diel, there is an NPC that wants you to help him/her recruit members to a mercenary group, Salaheems Sentinels. This NPC gives you a badge, and you have to go and talk to 20 other NPC's in that city while wearing the badge, they babble on about something or other, and you move on to the next one. When you're done, you return to the original NPC you talked to and he gives you colored Invitation Card. Sounds pretty dumb, right? Well, after you've completed the quest, and if you have some other prerequisite quests done, you can use that NPC to teleport out to the "new" area, Aht Urhgan. The only other way to Aht Urhgan involves taking a really long boat ride, so obviously having the ability to teleport out there instantly is pretty sweet. I had done the Sand'Oria version of the quest before, but I still had Bastok, Windurst, and Jeuno to do, and with 20 NPCs to talk to in each of the cities, spread out all over the place, it took a while to do.

Once I got that done, I worked on some more crafting. As I was collecting ingredients, linkshell member Chrimsun showed up. I hadn't seen Chrim online in a while, so we chatted...he asked me if there was a party tonight, and I told him that there probably would be a little later on. As I crafted, he went out to get some hand to hand skill ups on his Monk while we waited for the others to show up. Eventually, Almeth popped on, followed by Amedelie not long after. While we talked and tried to figure out what we wanted to do, our newest linkshell member, Mikers showed up, so we quickly put together a group of the 5 of us and started working on a game plan.

Party setup went thusly: BLM/NIN (Ame), RDM/??? (Chrim), DNC/NIN (Mikers), BLU/NIN (Almeth) and MNK/WAR (me). Mikers was good enough to break out his WHM to give us a Teleport: Mea, so we bounced out of Jeuno and made our way to Bibiki Bay, to meet Almeth, who was already there. Then disaster struck...Chrimsun does not have the Chains of Promathia expansion pack installed, so when we went to zone into Bibiki Bay, Chrimsun was blocked from entering. Chrimsun logged out to try and figure out a way to get the expansion installed, and told us to go ahead without him for tonight, so we were four for the rest of the night. Almeth returned to Mhaura to change jobs into his THF, and we gathered on the dock for another trip to Purgonorgo Isle.

Left to Right: Mikers, Xxnumbertwoxx, Amedelie, Almeth

First order of business was some payback. Since Amedelie and I died yesterday to a Clot, I was keen to kill one in retaliation, and since Amedelie was a 58 Black Mage I figured she'd be able to drop Firaga VIII on it or something and blow it up. There was a little more to it then that, but all in all the shit on the boat paid for what they did to us the last time we tried to come out here.

Not so tough now, are you, asshole?!

After taking out all the things that decided to spawn on the boat this time around, the boat finally arrived at Purgonorgo Isle, and we scoped out for a good camp site. We didn't go far when we found decent spot to camp right on the beach, I synced us down to me at level 34, and we got started. Almeth ran off to find some mobs, but he had some difficulty; everything was just so spread out that he was pulling from miles and miles away, and since we were synced to level 34 a lot of the mobs he did find checked as Incredibly Tough. Luckily, I was only 2k or so from dinging 35, so we'd hoped that we could tough it out for a little while until I levelled. Our targets were Opo-Opos, Alraunes, and Toucan's (monkies, mandys, and birds to those who don't know).

Amedelie dropping those BLM bombs, while the rest of us work on the ground and pound.

Because of the lack of good TP building mobs for Mikers, it was a little rough. Almeth and I used the same skillchain strategy we used in Bibiki Bay on our last trip out, with Amedelie dropping Aero for a magic burst. Almeth would SATA on Mikers, which normally is kind of risky...pulling hate off of a DNC can be a real bitch at times, but with Amedelie doing good damage with the BLM thing, it was actually a lot easier to pull hate then before, so that was a definite plus. At any rate, things were progressing slowly but surely, and 35 was in sight...

Then disaster struck. Almeth, already having to pull from miles away, shot an Opo Opo and another one linked. Normally, it wouldn't be too big of a deal; Almeth pops Flee, and takes off running like a lunatic for the zone line. Except for one problem...out here, there is no zone line, except for the boat...and that is only there for a few minutes before it takes off again back to Bibiki Bay. Almeth tried to despawn them by running around the island in a big circle, but with all the caves and shit out there, he took a wrong turn. It wasn't his fault...normally, even without zoning, a mob will give up chase after their target get's far enough away. On his recon trip out here the other day, he had the same kind of issues with a Clot that he aggro'd...after thinking he was in the clear, from across the island the Clot comes flying up and starts pounding him again. Given that experience, and the encounter today, I figured that Purgonorgo Isle must be one of those places that the mobs never give up the chase. I could be wrong, but based on what I've seen it seems plasible. Either that, or we're just unlucky as all hell.

Almeth ran for his life, but with the 2 Opo Opo's chasing him linking even more, it was no contest. Amedelie, Mikers, and I dropped sync and ran out to try and help, but it was too late, and Almeth bit the dust. I shouted for a Raise for 15 minutes or so, but as Purgonorgo Isle is a bit off of the beaten path there wasn't a whole lot of people out there, so he gave up and Home Pointed. It was getting late by that point, and everyone had to get up early, so we just called it a night.

Mikers dancing on Almeth's corpse. The lawls were heard all over the island...

So, all in all, not the greatest night for Bahamut's Dreadnought. Luckily there was only one death this time around, but I'm confident we can make up for that here soon. I ended up an ass hair away from 35, so I'm going to try and get that level on my own before our next group so things will (hopefully) be a little easier for us.