A Magic-al Interlude, part 6

Here it is, the final player card in Sai's Limited Edition MoG Squad Magic deck - the too cute to live die, ever indestructible taru, Geni. I swear, when I first looked at the picture of Ingenia, I shrieked something along the lines of, "omg Geni is so cute!"

Limited Edition Geni Card by ~Oldfeathers on deviantART

A Magic-al Interlude, part 5

You may recall that Dime is the pimp of the group as the only male - that should explain the latest card that Sai has created for the Limited Edition MoG Squad deck.

Dime's Limited Edition Card by ~Oldfeathers on deviantART

A Magic-al Interlude, part 4

I really need to get some screenshots collected and posted so that you can all see the story behind the information in this card - it will help you understand why it is so amusing. But you are going to love it anyway, even without the back story. Sai's latest creation, the Limited Edition Hamalocephale card!

Hama's Limited Edition Card by ~Oldfeathers on deviantART

A Magic-al Interlude, part 3

Sai tackled the card for Tyrannia's DRG next - poor thing says "I am never trying to do a piece of Homan armor again. Ever." But just look at the results!

Limited Edition Tyrannia Card by ~Oldfeathers on deviantART

A Magic-al Interlude, part 2

Sai has been at it again, creating more cards for our special, limited edition MoG Squad Magic: The Gathering deck. This time the subject of the digital painting was The One in The Hat (or the one who will be), Avalonia!

Limited Edition Avalonia Card by ~Oldfeathers on deviantART

An interview with Vana'diel Wootz

The following is a guest post from Saichania - an interview with the Vana'diel news source Vana'diel Wootz, and their intrepid Galkan reporter Homalocephale (no relation to our own lithesome Mithra). ~Ava

---

Welcome to this month's edition of Vana'diel Wootz and our new human interest story about a group some of you may have seen parading around, the MoG Squad.

You of course know me, Homalocephale, your roving Galkan reporter on the scene. Tonight, the six members of the MoG Squad are joining us in Valkurm Dunes to fill us in on their current trials and adventures.  I have here Avalonia, the founder of the MoG Squad.  Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today.

Avalonia:  Thank you Homalocephale, we always appreciate the chance to speak with others regarding our project, to answer any questions or just share the fun and excitement we are having here on Lakshmi.
Homalocephale:  You really do seem motivated and optimistic about this endeavor, can you give us a bit more information about what you personally enjoy about these new adventures?
Avalonia: I personally think we have a great group of friends ready to apply their knowledge and creativity to establish a completely new experience
Homalocephale: Wonderful!  And where are the other members of the MoG Squad right now?
Tyrannia: In my pants!

Homalocephale: Ah!  Tyrannia, great of you to join us today.  How are you facing the challenges of relatively defenseless character in a hostile environment.
Tyrannia: I don't think you can underestimate this group.  We may be level 14, but we have experience on our side.
Avalonia: Tyr... is that blood?
Tyrannia: ...we ran into a few monsters on the way out here today, nothing to worry about.

Homalocephale: Were the other members with you? Ah, there I see Ingenia and Dimetrodon coming this way.  Ingenia, great to meet such a charming and adorable Tarutaru.  What do you like best about your adventures so far?
Ingenia:  To crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentation of their women!
Homalocephale: Ok...  um, thanks.

Avalonia:  Dime, where are the others?
Dimetrodon:  Well, they should have been following us.
Homalocephale: There, I see Hamalocephale and Saichania now.  It looks like they're talking, lets move closer to capture some of the teamwork and knowledge we've been hearing about!

Homalocephale: Hamalocephale, can you give us -
Hamalocephale: Can you only go so long without killing something?  How could it possibly aggro you, when you were further away than we were?  Lets be honest, you provoked it didn't you? Sai?
Homalocephale:  She seems to have run off.

Saichania: TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE, RABBIT!
Dimetrodon: Is she talking about herself or the rabbit?
Hamalocephale: I never can tell...

Avalonia: I'll set up a more structured interview for next month Homalocephale.
Homalocephale: Sounds like a good idea.  This is Homalocephale saying happy adventures Vana'diel!

A Magic-al Interlude - part 1

The next few posts will be content from our suicidal-DRK-in-training, Saichania.

Did you ever play the CCG Magic: The Gathering? I know that Tyrannia still collects cards for it, though I confess I have not played it in at least 12 or 13 years. That said, even with the fact I have essentially forgotten everything I knew about the game, I love what Saichania has been up to.

Sai is quite the talented digital artist, and while bored recently, created a digital painting of Saichania - and then turned that painting into this:

Limited Edition Saichania Card by ~Oldfeathers on deviantART

Valkurm? No, this is hell with sand. And subjobs.

At 75, in merit parties, the big, exciting way to form a party is 1 healer + 1 support + 4 DDs. I've been in those parties, and 20k/hr+ is amazing.

Would you believe that this sort of set-up does not work quite as well at level 12? I mean, seriously, what noobs decided that 4xMNK + 1 WHM + 1 RDM was a good idea - particularly when the 2 mages are both Elvaan and have about as much combined MP as you can squeeze out of a Tarutaru's shoe?

Oh. Right.

Well, it can't be that bad, right? They're MNKs, they hit hard and they have Boost - that should keep the mobs off the mages, right? We have what, Cure II?

...sigh.

Someone want to tell me how the taru survived that?

Oh yeah, as Geni tells us all the time, "I'm too cute to die!"

We would have skipped this special hell altogether if it weren't for the fact that we needed to eventually get subjobs. As a party of 6 noobs, we thought it best to go the Crab Apron / Damselfly Worm / Magicked Skull route - we had 4 MNKs, and the thought of trying to take down enough bogies or banshees to get Bloody Robes for everyone was a bone-chilling thought. Next time, I'll tell you more about our adventures in acquiring subjobs and the players helpful and not that we encountered along the way.

Early days in the Zeruhn Mines

It has been almost a year since the crazy idea to try being a noob on another server began - why don't I go back to the beginning and show you some of our earliest adventures?

Those days when the only spell a WHM has is Cure 1 and RDMs are stuck with nothing but Dia. With 2 mages and 4 MNKs, and 2 whole spells among them, what does a party do? Everyone melees, of course!

Of course, being level 1 on completely new characters means that you have 0 skill in everything. We could kill everything well enough, but it meant resting after every 1-2 mobs, and sitting on TP for a long time until someone got to level 10 skill.

Thankfully, low levels go by quickly! We got to see the following scene repeatedly, until we were level 5 or 6, when deaths and exp loss created some gaps in the party's exp.

We were living in our own little self-contained world up to this point. Sure, we'd see others in town, but since were leveling down in the mines and not really venturing out and around into the wider reaches of Vana'diel, we didn't really interact. After level 5, we started to leave town and accomplish some goals outside. Next time I will tell you about some of the people we have encountered on our adopted server. Some have been good, so not so good - but all of them have made an impression!

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!