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 !

Posted by Unknown at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments