A Journey to Vana'diel

The Harvest Festival has started ! Nyss is bewildered has she sees a gate guard changed into a ghost !

A skeleton walking in the town in broad daylight ? What weirdness is this ?

Balloons made at the effigy of the Bomb monsters are anchored to the ground in the streets.

As usual, Moogles sell festival goods under their colorful tents. But they seems to only sell Jack-o-lanterns...

... though it seems that one must treat sweets to the various Trick Ghosts to somehow be turned into a monster for some time ! Nyss wonders where she could get some...

Tarutaru usually look rather cute, but with such pumpkin hats they look just adorable >:3

Someone here was turned into a Quadav. Nyss got startled when she saw this one, she actually never saw a live Quadav !

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Some tall pine-like trees can be seen near the road in the northern part of the plateau.

In the southern part of the plateau, there are small canyons, where the Royal San d'Orian Guards use to conduct drills. Sometimes Wind Elementals can be seen there, beware of them !

A closer view of the western canyon.

Nyss allows herself a little idle time near the canyon, while the strong wind blows away small weeds.

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After leaving the hunting party, having made new friends, Nyss took the road back to San d'Oria, as her travel bag was full of items to trade and she wished to check for new gear. From the heat and sands of Valkurm Dunes, she travelled to La Theine Plateau and its beautiful green and rocky landscapes.

La Theine Plateau is surrounded by majestic moutains.

Sunrise can be quite pretty in here !

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Near the Outpost in Valkurm Dunes, Nyss joins a group of adventurers. The group waits at the Outpost for the last members to join.

Tonight a summoner joined us and invoked the cute Carbuncle.

The team had the very wrong idea to attack a Pugil, that proved to be extremely nasty.

We had to wait some time, the sea water drenching our miserable corpses, before a helpful white mage would raise us.

After a hearty self-motivation session ...

... the team exercised vengeance on Goblins ! Nyss finally ascended to level Monk 17 !

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Selbina is originally a Bastokan settlement, that declared its independence shortly before the war.

It is a small fishing village located within Valkurm Dunes.

Usually the weather is very sunny in Selbina.

Buildings in the village host the Weavers Guild, Fishers Guild, the Mayor's residence and an inn.

The view from the rooftops is quite nice !

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Nyss hunts Wild Sheeps for their skin in Ronfaure. She was requested to gather three Sheepskins by the Mithra Hanaa Punaa, from South San d'Oria Tanners Guild.

She also tried some fishing in the Knightwell ... but fell out of luck and didn't catch even the smallest fish !

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Nyss practices her clothcrafting skills, still very amateurish, by synthetizing Grass Thread. There are two recipes for this elementary synthesis:

• Wind crystal and a Yagudo Necklace
• Lightning crystal and two threads of Moko Grass

As she had gathered necklaces from Yagudo, Nyss uses the first recipe. A good exercise to raise through the first skill levels !

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After reaching Selbina, Nyss met a friendly ninja from her linkshell, who kindly offered to escort her to San d'Oria, so that she can have a look at how her auctions are doing.

She therefore crossed safely Valkurm Dunes, heading northeast, and then went north through La Theine Plateau and the forest in West Ronfaure, thanks to the helpful ninja.

Parting with him, she first headed to the Auction House in South San d'Oria, cheking her deals and auctioning some goods gathered on the road. Then she went looking for maps, as she will have to travel in those regions, yet unknown to her. She took note that two merchants sell maps in San d'Oria, Violitte in the North district and Elesca in the south.

As the sun sets down on San d'Oria, Nyss took a stroll through the streets of the Elvaan hometown, before going to take a well deserved rest in her rent-a-home, graciously provided by the Kingdom.

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Nyss has a little chat with the captain of the ferry, while sailing to Selbina. He advises her to stay clear from the deck, as inexperienced as she is, she might be badly roughed out, if not worse, by sea monsters !

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Finally , after running through Buburimu Peninsula and taking great care of avoiding the lethal foes here, Nyss reaches the port town of Mhaura, on the outskirts of the Federation of Windurst. The ferry has just docked to the quay ! Ready to embark for Selbina !

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Nyss rests with her party, during a hunt for Wild Dhalmels in Tahrongi Canyon.

The end of a hunting day !

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Posing with her Moogle, Nyss is more than a little proud of her new Brass armor set !

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I got to play for some time this weekend, and lots of new stuff happened.

I finally got involved a nice LinkShell, with most members in my timezone (that helps ^^). So I set out on myt first real travel from Windurst. Took me some time to work my way through Tahrongi Canyon, and partied to hunt some Wild Dhalmels. Also got my first teleport crystal a the Crag of Mea.

From here I ran to Mhaura, where I could join the said Linkshell (http://ls-fr-bahamut.monforum.com/). Then on to Selbina by ferry: first trip was terrible, I was alone on the ferry and got killed in one hit by a Sea Terror T_T.

From Selbina I went to San d'Oria, and back to Valkurm Dunes ! Now starts the "fun" with exp camps, mostly killing Snippers and some Goblins aggroed by mistake... A good opportunity to start collect that Crab Apron for the subjob quest ! So far I got MNK level 15 and started levelling WHM to a small 7. I hope to hit MNK 16 this week ! Then I'll need to fetch a Damselfly Worm and a Magicked Skull so that I can pick that subjob at level 18 ...

It can be sometimes plain, even boring in the Dunes, but if you run in nice and experienced players you sure learn a lot: setting party roles, handling mob hate, synchronizing with party members for skill chains !

I have taken lots of pictures and will post them as soon as I find time and energy to do so, until then... Also from now on I have decided to adopt a narrative approach to this blog, so expect no more posts of this "rant" type ^^

Posted by Unknown at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well well... I haven't much free time recently, at least not to doodle online :) Didn't even get to play a lot !

Today I'll just post some random (and a bit old) pictures, to get started again.

Some Summer Breeze Festival fun in Windurst !

This is the Star Tree Orchard in Windurst.

Magicked Bones in Horutoto ruins !

Yagudos look cool for overgrown crows !

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I'm just back from holidays... I'll soon post updates :)

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Today is the first day of the Sunbreeze Festival !

Throughout Windurst the Tarutarus have set up beautiful platforms, like here at the fountain in Windurst Woods, home of my fellow Mithras !

Tarutarus are joyfully dancing the Rakapopo around the platform !

As night falls on Heavens Tower the drums of the festival music start beating...

... and soon the fireworks illuminate the night sky!

Soo beautiful ^^

Posted by Unknown at 1:39 AM | Permalink | Comments

Just a very quick tip I found: by default similar items don't stack in your inventory, you'll have to use the auto sort feature to have them do so ! That's quite useful since as soon as I began hunting and fighting Goblins and Yagudo with Signet casted on me, my inventory would get completely cluttered with Yagudo Necklaces, Beastmen Seals and all crystals ! And since those can be auctioned in stacks, well better stack them in any case ^^

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Well the first time I went browsing the prices at Windurst Auction House I was like shouting aloud "the hell be of those greedy capitalists !" as everytinhg seemed (and still seems somehow) sooo overpriced !

Since you are very broke when you start, here are the first sources of income I could find:

1. The Teacher's Pet quest in Windurst Waters, 250 gils per trade
   
2. The Creepy Crawlies quest in Windurst Woods, 600 gils per trade
   
3. The Mandragora Mad quest in Windurst Waters
4. The Hat In Hand quest in Windurst Waters, but it gets quickly boring

Also for the first armor set I bought I noticed that the NPC shop is waaay cheaper than the Auction House.

Then on level 8 I had to get more gils to buy my first monk armor, so be sure to get familiar with auctions, that's where you make big money ^^ I was quite happy when I received my first payment from the Auction House at my Mog House, feeling like somehow I had finally started in business in Vana'diel !

Posted by Unknown at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments

So this is the end of my trial period. I've tried different jobs and species, had a look at the main cities - Bastok, San d'Oria and Windurst. I played as a Hume, a Tarutaru and a Mithra, and got the first crude basics of the game. Now's the time to choose a final character as my avatar in Vana'diel !

As I'm a big cat fan and since I definitely felt like being a Windurstian citizen, I created my final character: Nyss the Mithra monk. Well yeah I'm a dude so I'd probably better play a male character, but Mithra is a very good race for monks, due to their agility. I could have chosen an Elvaan (stronger but less agile) but I definitely like cat girls after all ^^

Here are the first pictures of Nyss's travels:

Lvl 6, healing at Sarutabaruta West Outpost after defeating my first Yagudo (at least they look more fearsome than bees, Rarabs and tiny Mandragoras !)

He he just got level 8 ! I just purchased my first Monk armor set, Kempo Gi and all, and boy she looks good with it ^^

Punching Mandragoras yay !

Standing pretty near a Mana Orb Charger in Horutoto Ruins.

Oh and by the way, Nyss lives on the Bahamut server !

Posted by Unknown at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments