Merry Christmas everyone... and I found Queen Valark!

First of all Merry Christmas everyone... Happy holidays, blessings and warm regards to all your respective families!  

Its been a phenomenal last few days both in real life and in-game... and it was wonderful to run into a great friend of mine from when I played FFXI on the Garuda server.  Yep... I'm still pleasantly shocked at how I ran into her, right here on the Mysidia server... and she's none other than Valark!   Its a mad coincidence and what was most heart-warming was how she still has that same great personality of always helping people.  What a good Guv'nor.


I first ran into her FFXIV character (Chick Norris), Lind Legend and Felix Klein a few days ago while trying to get help in completing a quest (getting Storm seals for my personal Chocobo... thanks again guys).  Afterwards, she invited me to her social linkshell and I didn't know it was her until yesterday when we started talking about FFXI.  


Ironically enough, there she was again putting others first by helping me get my Kokoroon Scale Mail as a Xmas gift... and then during the discussion, she told me who she was on FFXI and I freaked out laughing.  Truly a wonderful surprise.  BTW, here she is using her Pugalist to decimate the NM...

...And here I am proudly wearing the drop (we got it on third try; so yes, third time IS the charm lol)...

Then she generously insisted that we go do the pre-Ifrit quests of kiling some of the six required NMs that drop the necessary Echo Crystals.  So we first headed off for another region of Thanalan...

Whereupon Valark... sorry, I mean "Chick"...decided to switch jobs to Gladiator and pwned the chap before I could even dismount my Chocobo.  Crap, now I'm itching to level Gladitor as well now lol.

Then it was off to Limsa.  Stopped for a sec to get a quick snapshot of the Ul'dan skyline... (it might come in handy if I can flog it to the Sultana for a small fortune)...

Prior to that, we made a quick detour into Cassie Hollow (actually called Cassiopeia Hollow), so I could learn more about the secrets of Gladiator (amoungst other enlightening game mechanics)...

She had to log after that, so I decided to take a quick tour of the outskirts of Gridania (had an urge to follow one of the rivers to wherever it ended)... it was something I always loved to do back when I played FFXI... remembering to explore your world now and again...just grab the keys to the Chocobo and ride, dammit.  You'll always be richer for it.

Then I wandered back to my hometown Gridania and while chatting to another friend, I remembered how frustrating I found the Rank 34 Storyline Quest "Forever Taken".  Wait, I think I got a piccy of when I actually went back to Gridania to glare at the NPC (for them lying to me it would be a cinch... cinch my arse, SE placed freaking level 75 to 80 mobs on the bloody path!)

Made a return to the Maelstrom Command headquarters and stopped for a second to marvel at gorgeous Limsa from a cliff near the main city-gates...

Then of course, I had to pause for a bit in the main central area of town... of course no one was about cuz they were all getting plastered at the Admiral's Christmas gig...

Anyway, my phone's ringing again and I need to return to hang out with family at the table.  I leave you all with a screenie of my beloved Maelstrom flag flanked by christmas trees... dunno, just something simple and serene about it that speaks volumes about this great holiday season.  Be well everyone!

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