A Re-Zeiding Storyline

Today I pressed on with the Bastok rank missions and began with 8-1, The Chains that Bind Us, to search for the Talekeeper Statue in the Quicksand Caves. I don't think I'd ever been to this part of the Caves before, and it was full of weighted doors, so I was thankful I'd recently got my Lodestone.

Examining the Talekeeper Statue popped three Anitcan NMs, which were no match for my Alter-Egos and me, so I finished them off and continued with some very interesting cutscenes about Galka folklore. I sort of have an inkling about what's going on with this storyline but then am not quite sure.

8-2 was pretty straightforward and involved killing three ghosts from Quicksand Caves. There were lots of people there fighting Robber Crabs, so I only had to deal with the Haunts. I cleared the part of the room by the cliff and spawned them. As a PLD they weren't difficult, but they did have a few nasty spells. I liked how the cutscene after explained the presence of so many Haunts in the room.

9-1 was very challenging. I had to go deep into Gustav Tunnel to retrieve some Miraclesalt, and upon examining the ??? I spawned a Gigaplasm. With this mob, when you kill it, it spawns two Macroplasms, then killing them spawn Microplasms, then Nanoplasms (so 15 Mobs in total). I hate slimes anyway (Fluid Toss!), but followed the suggested strategy of killing one branch at a time rather than trying to mow through both. It started off slow and tough but killing each 'layer' of slimes they got weaker, but faster.

Unfortunately I lost most of the party, and in the end it was just Zazarg and myself. I had to use Invincible and Chivalry, then ended up using Sanguine Blade whenever I could just to top up HP. I thought I was going to get aggro from the roaming undead but they left me alone. By the time I had finished off the last Nanoplasm, Zazarg was down to double-figures and I didn't fare much better!

The final mission, Where Two Paths Converge, pitted me against Zeid the Dark Knight in the Throne Room of Castle Zvahl. It was a bit of a trek getting there (nothing like the old days of being low level and getting aggro trying to open every door in the Keep though!) but fortunately there was a nice Home Point by the entrance to the Throne Room so I'll never have to make that run again!

Zeid was a bitch. He hit very hard (60+ with Protect IV, Defender and Tavnazian Taco) and his accuracy was top-notch, critting regularly for over 100. His first form was quite doable, and when I got him down to 70% or 65% life I got a cutscene and Volker joined in. I cast Protect IV on him and rested to full.

As soon as we started fighting Zeid again it all went wrong. He instantly summoned two 'shades' of himself, which hit just as hard and added to Zeid's Stuns, it became impossible to Cure or to Keep up with curing. I got him to 50% before wiping. I either need to level up or try it with NIN sub.

After that I went to Caedarva Mire to pick up another Ephramadian Gold Coin from Jazaraat's Headstone and thought I'd explore a bit. I'd never ventured past the graveyard so I carried on going north and came to a field of Slough Skuas (a type of bird found in a marsh apparently), which checked as VT. I thought I'd give it a go, and summoned Luzaf, Kupipi and Nanaa Mihgo. Got some decent XP from this and thought I'd try to Merit a bit. It was OK but a tad slow, not good without a book really.

I then thought of trying the BLM nuke approach and summoned Gadalar, Shantotto and Ajido-Marujido. The birds went down in a matter of seconds! Managed to get to four Merit Points before logging out and tonnes of skill-ups too!