We do not walk alone - running to San d'Oria

As promised, I will tell you about some of the other players we have encountered in our travels around our adopted server of Lakshmi. Some have been helpful in ways that were probably trivial to them, but made us extraordinarily grateful for the help in this experiment (which is somewhat harder at times than we anticipated!). Others have been less pleasant to encounter, yet still memorable in their own way - and others have simply given us a giggle or three as we pass.

Sometime around level 10 on our first jobs, Hama, Sai, Tyr, and I got it into our heads that we wanted to run to San d'Oria. From Bastok. On foot, of course. This wasn't completely a wild-hare of an idea - you may not remember, but making gil as a newbie character is not so easy. We could spend ages running around town, doing little quests for 200 gil, or trying to farm (when we didn't really want to level outside of static then), or we could find another way. That way happened to be fishing.

The major fishers in our group are actually Hama and Sai, and both were talking about getting Lu Shang's rods. And in Sai's case, she not only started fishing, she started cooking, as well!

Lu Shang's means San d'Oria, and Fishing/Cooking both mean Windurst. So one night when we could not exp for one reason or another, Hama, Sai, and I set out for San d'Oria. We didn't get very far before Tyr said she'd come along too.

Knowing your way through a lot Vana'diel purely on sight makes life much easier when you are too poor to buy all the maps! We got to La Theine before we started reflexively checking for the map - not that it did any good!

We followed Bortz most of the way through La Theine, and watched as he killed a Battering Ram. We never talked to him, but we felt a little safer for following in his shadow for a few minutes. I ran into Bortz again during the Halloween event - it was exciting to realize that I recognized a name on this server!

We made it to San d'Oria, and I don't think we even died - despite some unfortunate lag in Valkurm during a sandstorm and gob aggro just before escaping those dreaded sands.

An experiment in choosing to be noobs

It all started as a crazy idea, formed in a half-dream state as I was falling asleep one night.

I have been playing Final Fantasy XI for about 2 years now. I've got 2 jobs at 75, I have a decent grasp of most of the game, and I've experienced a big chunk of the things you can do. Boy a lot has changed - I remember being a total noob who didn't even know how to talk to people or move around. I wonder what it would be like to be a noob again - like if I was starting now, but with all the knowledge I have about the game?

I mulled the idea over for a few days before bringing it up to Melsara. Mels is one of my favorite RDMs (and DRK, THF, COR) and has been playing the game longer than I have. He laughed, and then decided the idea sounded fun. We started talking about finding an alternate server to make mules on, so that we could duo. But the more we talked about it, the more we both thought it would be even more fun if we had a full party of 6 to play with.

We approached my in-game twin, Sheathe, first. The idea was greeted with much enthusiasm, and Sheathe came firmly onboard. Next up, I talked to two of my other favorite RDMs, Imitarate and Phlux. Imit first said no, that he was going to be too busy - but that didn't last long. ^_^ "What the hell? I'm in." was the answer after about 5 minutes. Phlux thought about it for a couple of minutes, then agreed that it would be fun.

5 down, 1 member to go. We spent a week or so discussing who else would be a good fit for our group, and fit all of our requirements - 1-2 jobs at 75 on Gilgamesh, a good grasp of the overall game dynamics, and someone who is known and on friendly terms with everyone else in the group. Then it hit me - Ellion! A real life friend of mine, and someone that everyone else knew and liked. I proposed the idea, and he immediately agreed.

With the party filled out, thus was born the Mules of Gilgamesh!