Dawn

The path behind had been arduous and fraught with peril. We had traveled from every corner of Vana'diel and back again many times over, chasing after the secret of the Keeper of the Apocalypse. Our path would lead us through Emptiness into the ancient city of the Zilart, Al'Taieu, to confront the final threat to Vana'diel's future.

Nag'molada had gone insane over attempting to open the Gates of Paradise. He stood in the Empyreal Paradox and demanded the Twilight God tell him the truth over the creation of the world. Selh'teus' warning came too late to save him, and Nag'molada was consumed by the truth of creation. Thus empowered, the Twilight God Promathia fully awakened and stood before us.

Our battle took place malms above the surface of the world. Above our heads, stars danced and comets cut across the threshold of the welkin. A single crystal stood out, nearer than anything else, as our one gate back to our homelands. Beneath our feet, we could see the entirety of our home continents. It served as a constant reminder of everything and everyone we were fighting for.

Selh'teus pierced Promathia with his radiant spear, while Prishe turned to me with a grin and shouted, "C'mon, Kaerwyn! Time to laugh in the face of oblivion!" and charged right in dropkick Promathia fearlessly. Having no time to be stunned, or to consider our fates among the fury of three immortals locked in battle, we, Lordstorm the paladin, Kael the black mage, Zephiris and Malachi the dragoons, Zadine the monk, and myself, the white mage, all rushed forth to prove the will of mortals to continue living is immeasurably powerful.

Our battle was epic. Each of us fell numerous times, left dying and weakened on the ground, staring down into the land we may never see again. Each time, we found the strength through our friends to rise again and engage he who was set on exterminating us.

As the fight drew on, we fell more and more often, stumbling in our attacks and ability to protect those around us. Even immortals such as Prishe and Selh'teus were wearing down, fraying at the edges as Promathia spread his Malevolent Blessings upon us and pulled comets and meteors down from the sky unto us. Promathia was turning the very heavens against us.

A final desperate act, a paladin charging Promathia with his shield to bash upon his feet, stunned the God of the Twilight long enough for everyone to regain their wits. Promathia began to engulf Prishe in Emptiness, until She pulled the Black Magicite out of her chest and impaled Promathia with it. An enraged and confused Twilight God began an new attack, gathering energies that paled anything used before.

A sudden sensation, a momentary twinkling in the breast occurred, and the purifying lights of Holla, Dem, Mea, Vahzl, and Al'Taieu shined forth from me. They shot straight heavenward, creating a vortex among the stars that even Promathia fell to his knees over. A single drop fell from the rift in the sky, rippling across his face and form. The God of Twilight had ceased his attack, and continued kneeling as the energy dissipated, flushed out of him.

A divine voice asked simply, "Canst though... hear me... Promathia?"

As a new wave of energy, benign and serene, began shining from Promathia, he heard him whisper back, "I hear thee... Altana..." before dissolving into a beam of light streaking upwards into the rift.

Many drops began falling upon us all at this point. Too weary from our battle, we accepted them on us. Each one present was cleansed the moment we came into contact with it. Prishe giggled at the phenomenon, "Heh heh, look at that. The tears of the Goddess." All of us were too stunned to make any comment. Prishe continued a monologue, sorting out all had happened, while the rest of us simply looked to each other, thankful to be still living.

It was silent. We stood looking among ourselves, into the heavens, and below our feet to our home. It was Prishe who first broke the silence, "It's time we went home. The apocalypse is over."

Slowing down.

I have nothing quite as epic to post this time around (really, how can you get much more epic than Omega/Ultima anyway on a regular basis), but it has still been a productive month.

I have been lvling SCH (slowly) and am sitting at 67 at the moment. While in Xarcabard doing some Fields of Valor with Thayos, I got a strange cutscene with Prof. Schultz in it, inviting me to bring him a testimony to finally prove my worth to him. Once I get 70+, I will farm one of them and fight him, just for completion's sake. It will not get me anything special, it does not even count towards a Maat's Cap, but I pursue story more than gear, so I will need to finish this final fight to prove to myself that I am a scholar worth my AF.

I have also been running through a few new assaults. I am happy to try out a few new ones, getting my static past the first two tiers that I feel I have spammed far too many times. We tried our first Superior Private missions today. Our first run went really well considering it was just two DDs and two WHMs. We got down to the last three trolls in Lebros Cavern. We went back to Whitegate and shouted for two more to join, and completed it with around eight minutes remaining. Piece of cake.

Even more noteworthy, I finally achieved a full 2o,ooo points in Leujaoam Sanctum. I picked up my Yigit Seraweels just a few days ago. Of course I was happy (I salivate over anything that contains MP+ while healing), so I took a shot of myself right outside the Imperial Palace wearing them. They look odd after getting so used to the Noble's/Blessed combo I am usually in, but I still love the look of them. And the hMP! =D

We also did the impossible (or at least improbable) a second time this week. Imperium stepped up one more time to face Omega and Ultima in the skies above Sealion's Den and Lufaise Meadows. Once again, we triumphed over them, though this time was a lot closer than the previous run. We began wiping so very close to the end of the battle. At the very end, everyone had died and was reraised except myself and one melee, when Ultima turned its attention towards me. I targetted it, saw it had only 01% life left, and began a desperate cast. I never finished. Ultima hit me the moment Verrick came to his feet and chainspelled it. Verrick's nuke landed the moment Ultima's hit did, so we died together. The funny thing was, I never feel to my feet. My HP was 0, my bar was depleted, yet I stayed on my feet for that short lag time between killing the boss and when the cutscene begins. Comedy.

I did another Dynamis run with TeamSuicide. This one went a lot better. I was able to follow people easier and it was less an all out zerg then the past one. I managed to snag a Cleric's Cap on my second run. Plus getting the win is good as well. Perhaps Dynamis is not as bad as I thought (I was also not the only WHM this time around either). After only two Dyna runs and an Einherjar, I can say I like the LS. They are not what I expected an endgame shell to be at all.

One to be Feared

We stepped aboard the magnificent C.I.D. prototype airship. Our destination was to find Prishe somewhere amidst the Jeuno armada as we made our way to meet Bahamut. Hardy adventurers stood by my side, comrades in arms through many battles, and I felt safer because of them.

Barely had we set off into the sky before we realized it was not to be a carefree ride. That treacherous Nag'molada had brought out his mammet puppets to slow us down while he dealt with Prishe on another airship. Lordstorm courageously drew their attention and kept the rest of us safe as Zadine, Zephiris, and Miur engaged one after the other on more favorable terms. Verrick and I stayed out of the fighting ourselves, knowing we were needed to keep everyone up and healthy. we made short work of the mammets, and advanced to the next ship.

This one was not so easy. Nag'molada sent a strange biotechnological weapon against us, the likes of which I had not seen before. We were determined to see our way through any foe, however alien it may be, and rushed into battle with Omega. This fight was not so clean. It released wave after wave of energy, rolling over each and every one of us, fatiguing even those of us in the back, furthest away from it. Lordstorm, bearing the brunt of Omega's attacks, was the first to fall and I did not last long after that. In quick order, Omega tore through our defenses and dropped each of us. Luckily, I had prepared for such an occurrence, and had a ward to bring me back so that I might do the same for my party members. Miur had fallen too close to the feet of the monster, meaning he could not rise until we all had unweakened from our knockouts. We regrouped, charged back in to face Omega, and this time it could not stand against us.

We waited a few moments on the cleared deck of the airship, restrengthening ourselves and reviving Miur, the last to rise. We had one more grim task ahead of us, as we saw another alien weapon awaiting us on the final airship.

Ultima was brutal. It dropped bomb after bomb on us, enfeebling us with effects even as it damaged and wore us down. Our hearts were strong, and we stood again its fury for many minutes. Then, a slip occurred. I went down to a knee to rest, just as Ultima targeted Lordstorm. By the time I was standing again with a spell forming on my lips, it was too late, our paladin had fallen. My heart sank as I felt my delay had just sealed our fate against this one.

Verrick was not so quick to quit. A cry for "Pump it!" went out, and Zephiris managed to stall the next attack headed towards us. I went to work bringing Lordstorm back to his feet. The moment he arose, I saw another deadly attack coming towards us. I scrambled through my pack, and barley managed to get my CCB Polymer Pump out in time to stun Ultima's next attack, which certainly would have killed us all.

The battle grew desperate, and our fighters had to dig deep within themselves to find the strength we needed to survive through this. Lordstorm, weakened and barely conscious from his recent fall, drew Ultima's hate and used the protection of a paladin to deflect all blows. Zadine focused his spirit into his fists, and they became a blur as they slammed into Ultima again and again. Miur positioned himself perfectly for an unexpected attack, and quickly, Ultima began looking as hagard as we were. Verrick chained spell after spell in his attempt to bring the monster down before it could recover and front another attack.

Suddenly, we were out of resources. Zadine grew tired and his fists began to slow. Lordstorm's protection had worn off, and was vulnerable once again. Zephiris had lost her wyvern, and was fighting solely with her polearm. Miur was no longer in an optimal position for a damaging attack. Verrick's spells slowed, and I was near the end of my magic pool. Ultima may have sensed this as well, because it readied one last bomb to drop on us. Zephiris quickly advanced with a five thrusted attack, and Lordstorm charged forward with his shield in hand the bash the monster's concentration, stunning the attack.

Perhaps that shield held an enchantment unknown to us. Perhaps the weakened spirit of the paladin surged forth as it connected with Ultima. Perhaps we had simply worn down the unnatural beast so far that one simple stun was what it needed to realize its wounds and succumb to them. I do not know. At that moment, it was over. We stood bloody, battered, and bruised, but still we stood while our enemies did not.

Nag'molada would not be drawn into battle, and instead taunted the Wyrm King and fled. Bahamut exchanged words with us, then prepared to charge a Mega Flare that would wipe us out. In our state, we had no chance of stopping him. Tenzen stepped forward, and used the power of the Phoenix Blade to shield us from the blast. Even with the power of a terrestrial avatar, our airship was crippled from the mighty energies and we crashed into Lufaise Meadows. Our flight was short, having only lasted forty minutes and ten seconds, and we were still on the Tavnazian Archipelego. Despite the distance traveled in miles, we each knew we had come a long way in that short time as we banded together on the grass as we had on the deck of the flying ship.

Fan Fest 2oo8

What a blast this weekend has been. It all started out with catching the Alla admins arriving in Los Angeles at The Renaissance Hotel, the destination of this year’s Fan Fest. Once the whirlwind of attaching faces to screen names began, it gripped me tightly until the final goodbyes on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Walking into the hotel, I immediately ran into Thayos, Vlorsutes, and Drakknor in the lobby. We met up with Pikko and Susperia on the second floor, where I was told that the extra ticket they held could not be transferred to my name. I was a little sad, but half expected this, so I was determined to make the best out of the afternoon that I had with them.

We ate at California Pizza Kitchen on Hollywood and Highland. As many times as I have walked in front of the shopping mall, I had never actually been inside it yet, and it was quite impressive. MTV had a store there, where they sold paraphenalia branded with their logo (though it all looked more at home in the 80s with their classic designs and color schemes) and omnipresent Rock Band 2 merchandise. They even had three “stages” setup for anyone to walk up and try some songs out. While I was able to play both bass and guitar, the epicness began when Usagichan took the mic and belted out Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer”. I was photographing, and only casually noticed Pikko was filming with her camera. The next morning, that video was on Alla’s front page.

After rocking out, I got a chance to play tourist myself for a few minutes. I took Thayos out to Hollywood Boulevard, and we were searching for stars for him to snap pictures of. He found a suitable choice when he spied Harrison Ford’s star in front of Mann’s Chinese Theater and the Virgin Megastore. He is a slight Indiana Jones fan, I have come to understand. Sadly, this was all the time that I had, and I needed to leave to get to work that night, so I left Hollywood thinking I would not see any of them again.

Epic win occurred just a few hours later. Pikko and Susperia had successfully lobbied to let me use the extra ticket! Talk about an R/Ex drop! I was so excited that I would get to see everyone again.

I started out for Renaissance Hotel and fan Fest early the next morning (well, early for me anyway), but sadly missed the opening ceremonies due to excessive car accidents on the freeway. Really, someone should screen people’s Chocobo licenses more often. I managed to arrive just before lunch time, and hung around with the Alla admins again in the Premier Site room.

The first sight I got to take in was the Fan Art Contest room. They hung up entries drawn by the fans on boards, giving it a sort of miniature art gallery feeling. Many were hand drawn, some were computer generated, and others were a combination of the two. The styles ranged from mangaesque to muralistic large pieces, and even a few monochromatic olde worldy pictures. I was pleased with many of the submissions and jealous at the same time. In glass cases were the “crafted” entries, being statues, repurposed children’s toys, plushies, and even a box of food. There were many that were impressive, but we only had the option to pick one drawing and one crafted item for the winner.

Lunch at the hotel was free and better than I expected from a buffet. It was probably the healthiest meal eaten by many that weekend. Did I mention it was free? That was nice as well.

After the first lunch group was done, it seemed a good time to get into the line to try out the upcoming Moblin Mazes content. We were setup with a party of six premade characters to choose from (I got stuck as a galka monk) and entered into a zone that looked much like Maze of Shakrahami. Our mob was a water elemental, so I felt pretty much worthless against it, but it was not terribly difficult. After the battle (which lasted 5~ minutes) we opened a chest which netted us 960 moblin marbles (probably a new form of assault/conquest/imperial/allied/zeni currency as nothing appeared in our inventory for them), but no items dropped. We still had a few minutes before the next group came in, so I tried talking to all the goblins in the shop to see if any displayed any sort of rewards or loot. No such luck though.

After the Moblin Mazes preview, we lined up for a chance at the Swarm special event. A fellow Garudian mistook Susperia for Pikko, so we began teasing her about it. The Alla people wandered off, leaving Susperia, Pachi, and I grouping with three strangers. The event was not all I hoped it would be. We stood around in the Silvermines, and one mob every second dropped from the ceiling. Most of them could be one-shotted (I was a hume war/nin wielding a greataxe, but no ninja tools >.<), and we received points on how hard the mob was. It was less of a coordinated event, and more of just a total zerg against the beasts, with every character for themselves. At the end of five minutes, our points were tallied and we were ranked in order of our scores. It seemed a pleasant diversion, but not something that I was overly thrilled about. It was interesting to note that the Swarm room included controllers for us to use while we played, but no ninja tools, while the Moblin Mazes room had ninja tools, but no controllers.

Just as we exited the Swarm room, we heard that Scott from VG Cats was signing and sketching upstairs in the Premier Site room. Vlor, Thay, Pikko, and Usagi stayed downstairs in the main conference room, updating the Alla site and ensuring good seats for the Dev Meeting, while the rest of us lined up for sketches. I managed to complete my Tarut Card set in line, I got a personalized mithra drawing of my character in starter RSE, and then had to hurry downstairs, as we were already twenty minutes late for the Developer’s Talk.

I walked in right as they began to announce the new Scholar merits (YAY!). While my SCH is still a little low to be meriting just yet, I am getting close and am glad to see that S-E are not letting the new jobs go idle without endgame potential the way the ToAU ones were for a long time. My eyes popped out when I saw the SCH relic armor though. It made me want to start Dynamis runs finally. I am so excited to relvl SCH again so I can finally hit 75 and start trying it out in different battles.

They announced more relics and merits for Dancer, but since I have never played DNC it did not mean much to me. It really seems like S-E are putting it in a more frontline position, with the possibility of making it a new tank. Of course, I am not sure how many people are willing to tank with it yet, but one can still hold out hope that a job with native enmity generating moves will find the occasion to step up to the task. The relic armor looks rather nice as well.

The Devs went on to talk about their measures against the RMTs. They started off with a video called “STF Wars”, where the screen scrolled with all the names and servers of the people banned in the last year. It went on for about two minutes, and needed to be sped up or else it may have been over ten minutes long. It was good news and a welcome sight for legitimate players everywhere. The majority of their plan seems to involve a form of catch and release; waiting until the gilseller is close to reaching an objective, then banning that account and all their mules. The most amusing part was the repeated catch phrase that ended each hypothetical scenario, a quick summary of events all leading to “LIFELONG REGRET!”

This was followed by the costume contest. They brought out all the cosplayers on stage, let the S-E judges pick their ten favorites, and then let the audience decide who the winners would be. The top three finalists all had amazing outfits: one guy wore a pinkish octopus mask and the robes/staff of a soul flayer, a gal wore the green SMN complete with plush Carbuncle and a SMN horn, and the winner was a most impressive BLM in full Morrigan’s Set, with a Pluto Staff and even elvaan ears (I had to get close to notice these even).

The awards ceremony came next, with all the entries for the fan art contest announced. Sadly, only the one of the three finalists for the drawing category showed up to accept their award, so we never got to meet the original artist. The developers picked an entry submitted from my favorite FFXI webcomic, LVLUP!, as the developer’s choice winner. At least two of the three winners for the crafting contest showed up. Pikko won second place with her Mandy Bento dish (which she humorously stated “I made it this morning” when the emcee asked her how she created it), and the first place winner was an impressive statue of a chocobo raising its babies. More awards followed, such as first to register, last to register, farthest traveled, least distance traveled. They followed up the awards ceremony with a stirring performance from The Star Onion’s keyboard player, Kumi Tanioka. She ended the set off with her “last song”, “Ragnarok” from the Alexander fight at the end of the Aht Urghan storyline mission. That was an experience for me, as that is my favorite song in the game. She came out and did a few encore songs after a brief Q&A through a translator, and then the events were over, which gave more time for socializing and Moblin Maze runs! I took a picture with Kumi Tanioka as well, as the crowds were dispersing off to their rooms.

We ended the night much as we had the night before, at the Rock Band 2 store and in CPK again. This time, it was my turn to get candidly taped while singing AFI’s “Girl’s Not Grey”. We had Darkdoom along with us, and retired back to the hotel, to attend a party held in the FFXI Vault player’s rooms, until I finally had to leave before the parking lot I was staying in closed, I got towed, and stranded in Hollywood. I ran into the developers wearing party hats and masks in the elevator, carrying a birthday cake to someone’s room. It was a funny sight to end the night.

Recent Events

Perhaps I have been in Vana'diel too much, or maybe I was just more efficient, but it seems as if I have completed a lot more this month than I have in awhile. I would like to lean toward the latter for ego purposes.

On the CoP front, Imperium blew through both Sacrarium and Promyvion-Vahzl with ease. The only problems for the night stemmed from me looking at maps and autorunning into tauruses' (is that plural for taurus? They almost seem like moose, with the plural and singular meaning the same...). I find it humorous that the Sacrarium, a holy chapel, uses the same textures as Phomiuna Aqueducts. So much for a library of learning, I cannot stop thinking of it as a sewer now. The fight against the ghosts in a library full of fomors was fun and chaotic though.

Just a short week later, we climbed to find the heart of the emptyness, Promyvion-Vahzl. We faced down the three NM monsters we had beaten seperately, now joined together in one fight. I have always loved treking through the strange realms or Promyvion, but I believe several others were quite glad we were free of the final one.



Also, pink is the new awesome:



I got a random invite into a party looking to do Windurst 9-2 mission, the fight in Full Moon Fountain. I was quite excited and went into it expecting an epic conflict, but was surprised at how easy and smoothly the fight went. I have heard horror stories about the NPC getting himself aggrod and killed quickly, but we finished off both bosses with him at 100% health. Gogo galka PLD Ishkur!



In yet ANOTHER mission related win, I teamed up with Makina and Zephiris to complete the current end of the Wings of the Godess missions. It involved a dragon fight in La Vaule [S] that was quite tricky the first time, but easy the second time around. It was fitting that the moment the dragon began using its breath attacks on us, rain started pouring from the sky. The somber sky seemed to match the setting and destruction the demon squads had brought out that fight. We got a first peek at Atmos, and some more twists and surprises in the resulting cutscenes.




I had my first chance to attend a Dynamis run, with TeamSuicide, and was the only WHM in the alliance. I was not terribly impressed with the whole experience. It seemed very laggy, and a lot of time was spent standing around tossing a cure or two while everyone else got to do all the fighting. Seemed more like run-around-and-kill-everything event than a planned advance. Still, it was nice to see my first Dyna area, even if it was Bastok. Nothing really dropped our run either, though. I snapped a quick picture of the sole time I grabbed aggro for a moment, just a little before the Mega Boss came out.



I finally got my SCH to lvl 60, and wanted to complete the final AF for it (in this case, the hat). There is a sense of accomplishment for me, everytime I get a piece of AF. It is an affirmation of the class you are playing. It is something you need to earn, not just buy on the AH. The fight for the SCH flathat was ridiculously easy by final AF piece standards, so we went in a liiiiittle bit overpowered. I never even got a chance to screencap anything before the boss exploded. This series of CSes showed me beyond a doubt, that scholars are a strange bunch.



The final little bit is just a random moment captured in LSchat that made me laugh and was worthy of quoting, so here is something that is NOT about how much I accomplished this month.

New Linkshells and Experiences

Most of this last week was spent on my SCH. I managed to bring it up to 43, making it my second highest job, edging out BLM and SMN recently. While I really love Accession and Sublimation, I have been trapped in too many level sync parties to take full advantage of them, making me feel like I am not learning crucial skills to use later on. Most my magic has remained at cap, though I noticed Dark Magic was uncapped at 43. Sadly, I spend 90% of my SCH time in a party as main healer, so not as much chance to bring it up as I would like.

I managed to blow through almost all the remaining Lance Corporal assaults with Ishkur and friends, finishing up Demolition Duty (easy one in Ilrusi Atoll with an automaton tearing down walls while you protect it) and Shanarha Grass Conservation (painful one in Leujaom Sanctum pitting you against 20+ bunnies that all link). After spamming just a few lower tier ones, I managed to rank up to Corporal today, easily finding the Warhorse Hoofprint in Wajom Woodlands (take THAT Caedarva Mire >.<). That leaves only the Mamool Ja assault left for the Lance Corporal rank before I have a completion of those tiers.

My OTHER assault static, LegendarioSalvages, has started basic forays into Salvage recently, which I am happy about. Our first run was jumpy, though not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We had no pt deaths, only deaths from people scouting without sneak/invis on. Enyo's leggings dropped, but our run was cut short by a flan on floor two. We wiped hard, and had to HomePoint because I died before I could get another reraise up. At least the melee types died in a circle, holding each other's hands:



Our second run through Bhaflau Remnants went smoother, though we actually did not get any drops. We lasted the full time limit though, and climbed to about floor five I believe. At least this run, we got almost fully geared, instead of barely unlocking anything and trying to finish the run naked. We faced down a strange NM, a gate that shoots bees at you. I wonder if Jhonen Vasquez had any influence on this mob's design:



In sad news, Imperial is in the process of repearling. It was first changed to EternalEclipse (I had nothing to do with this name, it was decided while I was working), and later changed more sensibly to Imperium, a vast improvement. The subtle name change helps to solidify that the core LS is staying the same, even if our leader has left Vanadiel.

A final picture, taken in Jugner Forest [S] with Light Ixion/Auroral Alicorn will bring this entry to a close. Its horn was broken, and it was losing life. I cured it a few times, but then the war drums of campaigning orcs scared it away.

Minor update: Fishing and NMing (fished NMs, that is)

This is in no way complete, as too much has gone on since my last post to fit all into one entry. This merely covers one day.

Today was very different from my usual experiences in FFXI. I spent the morning in Kuftal Tunnel fishing in direct competition for devil mantas, and more accurately, their angel skins. It started out rather boring, but began to pick up as I got the hang of it. Zephiris and I were duoing, and when one of us pulled up a pugil or crab, she would solo it while I continued fishing.

As hours went by, Verrick joined us as well, though he was more interested in light xp and skilling up on his THF than fishing up any mobs. A few times all three of us were essentially soloing because we had the misfortune of all pulling up monsters at the same time. Things were always in hand though, even when we decided to pop the Phantom Worm at a nearby ???. We only got two claims on the Devil Manta, and no angelskin drops, but it planted a seed in my head of wanting to finally start lvling fishing.

I was in a level sync party during the day, and managed to bring my SCH up to 40. Accession seriously rocks, and I was happy to finally have a chance to Protectra and Shellra without having to rely on my /whm's capped versions. Our puller was infamous among Imperial for his random comments (and unforunate delusion of adequacy), and he did not disappoint this time. This screencap speaks volumes:



I met a nice samurai there who was also a fisherman, so after the pt disbanded we rode the ferry back and forth. I only raised my fishing skill up to 2.2, but I learned about lures on the ocean. I managed to come out of there with seven stacks of bastore sardines and two stacks of quus, along with assorted noble lady, yellow globe, and cone calamari singles.

The true fun began on our second to last trip on the ferry. Melana had opened the door, but stopped short before setting foot on the deck. It seems even on her dancer, she was afraid of the Sea Horror currently on deck. And who wouldn't be? This NM has caused more full zone wipes and xp loss than any other monster I have ever seen. We looked at it for a moment, decided we had strength in numbers and bravely stepped onto the deck with our weapons drawn.

The fight was tough, Melana dropped dangerously into the red during it's Hundred Fists (or is that tentacles?) when I was low as well, and I was forced to disengage and rest to keep the two of us alive. In the end, this sea monk's six arms were not enough, and a final blow from a darksteel maul brought us some closure and relief after having fallen so many times before it.