Fly Me to the Moon...

So much happened for me to write, I decided to split today up into two parts. /grin
Well, also because this would've been yet another competitor for the title, and I felt it was significant enough to warrant its own section, but anyway...

When I last left off, I was soloing Sapphire Quadavs in Beadeaux in an attempt to get my Water IV scroll, and my Black Mage's testimony, although the testimony evidently is a far more common drop. >_< What happened in the end though, was that two skillup parties came down, and a third was forming in Jeuno, and it didn't look like any of them would want to let me have the Sapphires all to myself, and so I Warped back, albeit disappointed.

It was also Full Moon, and so, I randomly decided that I would try to get my {Moon} pass.

To those who do not know, {moon} isn't actually a whole different area- it's just a sectioned off area in Ro'Maeve. Within {moon} lie all sorts of nasty-wasty creatures (all of which aggro to magic like the mobs outside), and are mobs that parties in the 70s xp off. Needless to say, having access to {moon} would be nice, and it'd allow me to be more flexible in terms of where I could go party, although for the record, I've been to be rejected because I didn't have {sky} access. >_<

Here's a map of Ro'Maeve to explain things:


There aren't many walkthroughs out there as to how to get your moonpass, or at least, the ones that I found were a little fuzzy in some parts, so I'll try to explain things as best I can. As I just said, {moon} comprises of the two areas circled on the map. These two areas are as far as I know, unconnected, so you'd have to leave one side of {moon} to get to the other. There are two ways to get into {moon}- either get someone with a moonpass to let you inside, or wait for the moongates to open and let you in. The two moongates are almost always closed, but are open at 0:00 to 3:00 every night of the Full Moon. If you cannot find someone who will let you in, and need to do it solo, that's when you'd go. Incidentally, during this time, the lowered platform (also marked) near the entrace to Ro'Maeve raises, giving you a more direct route to the top where the Hall of the Gods lie, although this isn't really neccessary.

Anyway, once you are inside {moon}, you are looking for a ??? which spawns in one of eight possible locations. Not much is known about where the spawn points are although the general consensus seems to be that there are four points on each side, and then, they are further divided into three on the "top" floor and one on the "bottom" floor (there are connecting staircases). Furthermore, the ??? changes position every ten (real) minutes if not touched.

So all you have to do is find the ???, although that's not always an easy task.
The problem lies in just surviving. Anyone who's been to Ro'Maeve can tell you that every single mob there aggros. Some aggro to sight, others aggro to sound, but they all aggro to magic. Given the crowded nature of the place, trying to magically reapply Sneak or Invisible is just about the equivalent to committing suicide, bearing in mind that these are xp mobs for level 70 parties, espeically since the mobs have a huge aggro radius when it comes to magic. So you are forced to go with Silent Oils and Prism Powders. How much you should bring depends on luck, really. I personally felt I got lucky and managed to find my pass within three quarters of a stack of both. Others have taken multiple stacks and spent hours in {moon} before finding that ???.
And so, since I already had a few Oils and Powders with me, I just decided to try my luck and bought one stack of each, cursing at the insane prices of both- 11k for Silent Oils and 10k for Prism Powders? Jeez...maybe I should level up my Alchemy to HQ these, considering how quickly they sell! I actually tried checking the San d'Oria AH in Rabao, but they were out of stock on Silent Oils, and their Prism Powders were even more expensive than Jeuno, so grumbling, I bought the oils and powders in the Jeuno AH. The 1,500 gil chocobo didn't help /comfort me, either. ; ;

And so I chocobo'ed into Ro'Maeve, arriving late, and so decided to wait outside for a little bit. Of course, what's an adventure without a little distraction? Valoo happened to be in the area, and asked if I wanted to help kill some Goobbue NM called the Keeper of Halidom. Evidently it drops some very expensive Great Swords, and since I had time to burn for the net hour or so, I figured why not. ^^



He wasn't too hard at all, although Valoo said he packed quite a bit of a punch. >_< We killed him, and only got two Goobbue Humus and a Tree Cutting from him. Evidently, the Great Swords are are very, very rare drop- someone reportedly is 0/28 on them!
Walking to the spawn point and back took up a considerable amount of time, and before I knew it, by the time I had returned to Ro'Maeve, it was about time to set off. And so I did.

I actually got to the west moongate a little early, and had to spend a few minutes in front of the gate holding my breath in case the Killing Weapon behind me decided to aggro and turn me into Taru chowder. Fortunately, my Silent Oil and Prism Powder co-operated, and I only had to reapply once. Once inside, I search through the left section to no avail, and then went to the right section where I eventually found the ??? in a crack on the open section of the lower floor around (I think) E-5. Waited until the Weapon guarding it and the Golem turned to face the other side, then dropped Invisible and rushed to get the ???. There was a faint glimmer, and then the words appeared on the screen:

Obtained Key Item: Moongate pass.

I hurriedly put Invisible back on, and then ran back to the Hall of the Gods where I could Warp back safely. Phew! ^^

With that out the way, I then resolved to resume my hunt for the Water IV scroll. I managed to drag Railston for the ride, and we duo'ed the Quadavs for a while. It was kinda nice having him around since I could pull one link and we'd just split it, or just kill the Sapphire Quadav twice as fast. We weren't without accidents though- Rail died once after his Silence got resisted and the Sapphire Quadav stayed home to cast instead of running out to us so the other two Quadavs moved and linked. That, and I underestimated the Sleepga II castime so the Quadavs were all awake after Railston tried to Firaga III all of them. Yeah, he died. >_<

I died as well after pulling two links, and just got interrupted as I jammed on the Sleepga II macro, and died later that night again once Railston decided to leave, deleveling in the process. ; ;

Fortunately, I was left quite cloe to tnl (about 180tnl), but at 32xp a kill and 10 minutes per kill, it still took quite a while! >_< Eventually, Codelogic and a Japanese NIN/MNK came down and we eventually teamed up to try to find both the scroll for me, and a key for the Japanese Ninja, neither of which happened unfortunately. By the time 4am rolled around, I called it quits, and Codelogic Warped back to Jeuno while I logged out in Beadeaux to try again tomorrow. At least we got Waterga II and Waterga III... ; ;

But why no Water IV?? ; ;