SAMwhere, SAMhow

A lazy bank holiday of doing nothing but FFXI, pretty much! Now that we were uncapped, we went back into the past to do some Campaigns finally. We had to finish doing Snake on the Plains (putting Zonpa-Zippa's All-Purpose Putty on the Horototo Ruins doors), which was just an easy runaround quest.

After that we returned to Windurst Waters (S) and became Cobras, allowing us to fight. With no Allied Notes, we had to sit in West Sarutabaruta (S) until a Campaign Battle started which took the best part of an hour. Eventually one came, and there were a few people there, which allowed us to join in group fights, rather than try to duo our own. The XP was insane. I remember it being pretty good several years ago, but it was much higher today. The NPCs cured us up regularly, so we were never in any real danger, but on one occasion we were left to our own devices and it took us a long long time to duo one of the Yags, but we did it.

The best moment was in Sauromugue Champaign (S) with a battle versus several waves of Yagudo. I made 4k from one set of Allied Tags, incredible (to me anyway), but it went to pot a bit when the BLM Yagudos came in - I'd always had a problem with those. Sadly, there were quite a few deaths.

After a few more Campaigns, Chinchii was L61 and I'd made it to L62 and finally got Rampart! We logged at that point.

In the evening, Cheekee came on the LS and asked us if we needed help. We decided to take advantage and do Chinchii's AF quests. She went to Norg and got her first SAM AF quest, so we went to the Labyrinth of Onzozo and popped Ubume, an NM Roc BRD, who kept putting us to Sleep. In fact, it opened with Horde Lullaby so we were all asleep except Chinchii who got wailed on until Cheekee awoke and took the hate back.

After that, it was off to Kuftal Tunnel where a Coffer Key dropped on the first mob we pulled. Chinchii got the Key and quickly found a Coffer, giving her the Old Gauntlets. We returned to Jeuno for some CS, then it was off to Xarcabard and then Castle Zvahl-Baileys to fight good old Dark Spark for the key item needed to turn the Old Gauntlets into her SAM gloves.

After that, we headed off into Yhoator Jungle, met with Teila, and made our way into the Temple of Uggalepih. We ran through, past the Temple Guardian and into the big chamber with the patrolling Doll NMs just off the Paintbrush Room for RotZ, but we couldn't get to the Coffer mobs because we didn't have a Prelate Key. We had to come all the way out and ride up to the Den of Rancor, and enter the Temple a different way. Meanwhile, Teila stayed behind to check for Coffers.

Eventually, we zoned back into the Temple and right into the Coffer mobs. We ploughed through them, and I managed to get one Unlit Lantern for RotZ, and soon enough a Coffer Key dropped. Teila had also just found a Coffer sitting in the Paintbrush room, so we ran back down into the first part of the Temple and eventually, Chinchii got her first piece of AF - the SAM body!