Hope y’all enjoy the ride!

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The Proposal

Aht Uhrgan was the bustling, loud and prosperous center of activity in the near east where thousands of adventurers would pass through looking to make a quick bit of gil or seek adventure, if one knew where to look. Unfortunately our attention today is towards a small semi-forgotten outpost to the north; Nashmau, known to most as ratville.

Here, it’s quiet, foggy and the Qiqirn are going about their daily business with the occasional adventurer passing through to the lethal mire to break the daily routine. An odd pair of adventurers had been part of the daily routine for a while now.

Myrna sat at the docks in her usual blue fishing grab, whipping the fish out of the water with the ease that came with years of fishing experience. To the untrained eye she looked perfectly still while trying to land the daily catches, but Anienne, or Anrym as she’s most commonly known, knew far better. Anrym caught onto all her little cues from over a year of being with her; how Myrna’s tail would twitch the instant something would hit the line, or how her thumbs would grip her fishing rod differently if she was trying to goad a fish into biting. In this case though, an obvious grimace indicated whatever Myrna was trying to convince it to fulfill its destiny at the bottom of her pail decided otherwise.

Anrym scooted over to Myrna, “So, you have been at this most of the day you know, you could stop for a bit.”, she motioned over to the rather full pail of fish and bivalves she hauled, “They usually do not appreciate fish they cannot rot themselves you know.” Anrym winced a bit at the thought while giving Myrna a hug at rubbing her shoulder a bit, which she reciprocated with a barely audible purr.

“I said I ain’t stoppin’ until there’s no more fish in the water dammit.” Myrna stretched herself a bit and snuck a quick kiss on Anrym before resting herself on Anrym’s shoulder. “But yeah, we should call it a day though. I think the fish are started to get annoyed with me…”, she finally stood up and stretched fully, but she still was dwarfed by Anrym’s Elvaan proportions. With Anrym in tow, they set to sell off to the locals the haul of the day to the usual crowd who would set the fish out to ripen outside. The local bird ecosystem was very thankful for this custom, the Qiqirn however were not because tomorrow, they knew that half the fish would be gone and they would have to buy even more to make the infamous Nashmau Stew.

Unsurprisingly, the non-Qiqirn locals were thankful that the stew never ended up being made in the end, and for the delicious birds that could be cooked locally now.

The pair’s role in the great Nashmau routine satisfied, Myrna went to go look out into what they could see of the sea from the upper levels of the docks. After Anrym finished off her own business in town she finally found her, “So there you are.”, she wrapped her arms around her lover and looked out to the fog with her. “Something on your mind, dear?”

Myrna sighed, “Yeah, guess so. Hey you happy?”

Anrym looked a bit puzzled at the question, but nodded an affirmative and held Myrna tighter, “Of course I am! Why would you think otherwise?”

“Well this is new territory for you, and I started to wonder really…”, Myrna sighed, “Bah never mind, just some baseless worries I guess.”

“Bullshit.”

It was always surprising when Anrym actually cussed because despite herself she would always blush a bit, being raised a proper lady and all. Every time this happened Myrna always smiled because it reminded her of how far she’s come.

Myrna reluctantly broke the embrace and turned to Anrym and smiled, “All right then, if you insist then.” She took Anrym’s delicate hands, “W-we’ve been lovers for a few months now, but we’ve known each other for far longer than that before.”, she stopped to chuckle a bit, “And in all honesty this isn’t how I pictured how I would end up! But I uh, wouldn’t have it any other way. And well…”

Anrym blushed considerably as she pointed out, “You’re babbling, just say it!”

“Marry me.”

Anrym’s little world froze in time for a fraction of a second while her brain tried to process what she just heard. After it realized that despite everything life goes on, it did the biological equivalent of cursing itself out and resumed Anrym’s heart at a much higher rate minus one missed heartbeat in the cycle. “W-w-w-what? W-wait did you…?”

“Anienne R Moynel, will you do me the honor of joining me in marriage?”

Myrna was just about as nervous as Anrym and her body language was screaming it but Anrym was far too busy with her own jumbled thoughts at the moment. It rapidly went from panic to hallucinating Myrna in full Paladin regalia to finally how she and Radielle would often talk about how they would meet a noble knight one day.

A split second later she regained focus only to see a worried look on Myrna, followed by a falling sensation along with her world going completely black.

Well here we go.

Operation Desert Swarm is a six person KSNM30, where you fight 6 scorpions that gradually get stronger as the rest get defeated. TP moves between them are linked, when one goes they all go shortly after. Drops of note are Serket Ring, Damascus Ingot, Oricalcum Ingot, Damascene Cloth and Venemous Claw.

Why do I like this? Well, I can essentially solo it. It’s a challenging way to make money and test yourself at the same time. I’ll give credit to Talis for this, but basic idea is to have enough damage reduction and enhancing so that your shield blocks go for 0 past phalanx. So, onto the prepwork!

You need brickwall Paladin for this, PLD/RDM. Phalanx and Stoneskin are nessasary. Cap your enhancing skill, cap divine, cap shield, everything. You’ll need it.

Gear wise, this is what I consider critical for my setup.

309 shield skill

• Gallant Leggings +1 – +12 shield skill is extremely significant. If you do limbus and have PLD you’ll want this.
• Boxer’s Mantle – +10 shield skill and +10 parry, eva to boot! An excellent piece.
• Bucker Earring – +3 shield skill, I had it lying around

Haste/Fast Cast

• Homam parts – hands, legs, feet. A total of +9% haste and Fast Cast on the legs will be huge for survival.
• Loquacious earring – more fast cast, what’s not to like?
• Swift Belt – +4% haste from a force-pop NM of your race in Sacrarium.
• Walahra Turban – 5% haste for 1000 imperial bronze. Definetely a must-get.

Refresh

• Yagudo Drinks – 2mp/3sec, great drinks, you’ll need a few per run at least.
• Ares Cuirass/Vermillion Cloak – 1mp/3sec, invaluable for this fight.

Merits

• Sentinel – Recast down can save you.
• Chivarly – TP>MP in a pinch always helps.
• Sword and Shield – more accuracy and more damage reduction.

Misc.

• Ice Trousers – extremely helpful as an opener, I don’t bother recasting them however. Powerful para effect.
• Joyeuse/Justice Sword – TP gain from these are immense, and doubles the speed of kills in this fight.
• Atonement – Damage based on emnity on the mob, up to 750. Reliable damage, accounts for at least half the damage per scorp.
• Valor Leggings – Sentinel gets more damage reduction, helps to extend Stoneskin.
• Reraise – I can afford two deaths in here, but it’s very close if that happens.
• Jelly Ring – helps get those hits down to 0 on shield blocks with Phalanx.

Now onto the fight proper. I buff up with Protect, Shell, Stoneskin, Phalanx, Aquaveil (yes, it helps now do it), Ensomething for the extra damage can’t hurt, and a taco. Do not forget Signet. I can’t stress this enough. Next, I ready the trousers for use and start with a Yag Drink. Move up to the lip and use the trousers, swap in Homam Cosicales. Flash the scorp you want to kill first, and then blow Sentinel asap. This helps survive until the initial TP buildup. Oddly enough you want them to use TP.

Wild Rage is physical damage, and makes them not attack for a time.

Ground Pounder is magical damage, and binds them in place.

After the scorp i’m fighting uses it, there’s a delay before the others use. In the case of Ground Pounder, you back off and recast Stoneskin and Phalanx. Wild Rage, just recast everything where you stand, they won’t do anything. Recast Phalanx everytime, you can’t afford to let that drop. Once they start to attack again, you resume as well. Keeping Reprisal up as much as possible once Ice Spikes are gone helps tremendously. Atonement every 100% TP, or save for Vorpal if you’re about to kill one. Repeat this for every move and scorp until the last.

Last one gets all the scorpion moves back (including Death Scissors), and hits like a truck. Luckily, there’s only one now. If you made it this far, you can finish it off.

I consider duoing this with a White Mage now to be an almost sure win. Haste and Cureskin are major in this fight. Para helps too but avoid Slow; it puts that scorp out of sync from the rest of the group and makes tanking the group much harder than it should be. Auspice should be avoided too, it delays TP moves. It’s challenging and doesn’t require much people to do with this setup.

Pretty fun night! ^^

That being said, Death Blossom impressions.
I know it can be better than Savage Blade so I guess the 4ish times I fired it don’t really matter. But so far cool. If it can hold its own joy/jus is gonna be fun.

Now to merit Bio III and Slow II.