Coff Drop.

About a year ago, while I was still leveling BLM, I started the AF Hands quest. Little did I know I would soon stop leveling BLM for SMN, and that the Hand quest I had started would haunt me for months on end.

After countless attempts to get a group together to go to Garliage, I sometimes managed to gather three others for the Banishing Gates, only to end in failure. There was always something wrong; either other coffer hunters beating my slow ass to the claim, or death, lots and lots of death.

All that changed last night. After a year of being stuck on the BLM AF Hands quest, I am proud to say I can finally move on to something else.


Soulstar, Ruffyreborn, Ishaela, and I gathered at the entrance of Garliage Citadel determined and angry. (They were determined, I was angry. I seriously hate that place.)

We moved like ninja through the Citadel, swiftly and completely undetected. After the second gate, we split into two groups to look for the coffer chest. While Ish and I were having success finding the coffer, Ryffy and Soul were having success aggro-ing a bunch of beetles, and some huge giant blob-frog thing.

I opened the coffer and got the old gloves, while my escorts fought vailiantly against several mobs. After getting the item, I tried to help, but forgot to change my macros, and succeeded in doing nothing. Summoner macros are pretty much useless while on Black Mage, and by the time I realized I was an idiot, it was too late, everything was already dead.

After a quick stop in Jeuno, we headed to Castle Zvahl to kill Dark Spark. We made it to the torches, spawned the Bomb, and kicked his ass.


Here's a shot of our awesome kill-tastic team. It appears Soulstar is a little camera shy, or I'm the worst photographer ever. Both good.

The coffer good times didn't end there. Ishaela and I went to Toraimarai Canal to get my SMN boots coffer. This trip was much less smooth than the Garliage expedition.

While killing skeletons and hoping for a key to drop, I managed to aggro five Canal Pugils. (Funny story, when Sneak wears off, things can hear you. Things that can hurt you.)

Ish was whm/nin so there was no provoke. While she was fighting the pugils off, I used Astral Flow twice, and brought the health of the group down a bit, while also drawing a ton of hate to myself. When all the smoke cleared we stood triumphant. Wounded and angry, but triumphant nonetheless.

Seven hundred skeletons later, this happened:

Note my manly cheer upon finally getting a key. The extra exclamation points are for extra excitement.

After this, Ish and I parted ways and I hooked up with some linkshell mates to do the longest Besieged ever. We had a good group, except for this red mage who tagged along. He was useless. What was his name... Nermal? Neville? I forget, but oh man, useless. (Naw, I'm just kidding. He did a good job, um, guarding the corner of town from Mothra attacks. He was like one of those British guards, motionless and brave.)

During the Besieged, I felt like an old Civil War nurse, running from wounded soldier to wounded soldier, curing and raising left and right. I tried to use Astral Flow, but I only managed to do an embarrassing 24 dmg.

(Nev- That's for claiming to be 'awesomeerthanjoo.' You can't see it, but I'm shaking my fist in anger.)