A Timely Visit--Finished

I just finished the quest last night, as a whm40/blm20.
I didn't mean to do this quest at first. I just mean to go to Davoi through the Jugner Forest. I didn't know that the part of Forest that Ramperre's Tomb leads to is barred by the lake from other parts of the Forest.

The ??? is only a short way outside the exit of tomb to forest. Just tab, tab, tab, you'll spot it.

At that time, it's around 00:00, so I didn't examine it (too dangerous for a whm40). I ran around and found out that part of forest is isolated.

As I'd run a long way there, I tried to gather other players around to do this quest. I targeted the 2 players around and asked if they're doing this quest.

As I ran back, the mobs were already triggered by a high level pld.

There's no way to miss such a golden opportunity! Plus, I didn't know that this pld was so powerful. I'd like to support him, so I put my flag up and asked him to invite me.

Luckily, this pld was nice and invited me. I supported with balck magic. Fire, and banish did damage like 70-90. Still, there is no obvious drop in the mob's (shadow) hp bar. I filtered party's attack, so I can't tell how much damage the pld caussed. But this pld had very little drop in hp throughout the battle. He finished the shadow first, then he threw Cure IV on the skeleton. Very useful. And I must add that the mobs kept attacking the pld and never attacked me, even if pld didn't use provoke.

So i finished the quest without difficulty. Thank you, little taru pld. ^^

And the mobs gave a revive tree root, which is needed for the paladin quest. Bring it to Balasiel in S. Sandy.

Afterwards, I stayed there healing for a while. Another whm60/blm?? came and triggered the mobs alone. Her hp dropped dramatically. So I threw her a Cure III. The shadown immediately rush to me, gave me a hit of 77 damage, additonal effect evasion down. Note that I had stoneskin at that time. I zoned at once. Yeah, remember to zone when the situation is critical.

I returned after rest (You know, whms always support one another). The whm managed to finish the mobs after a while, with more than half-hp.

So, the doubts are not yet cleared. Post a reply if you've tested.

ps. And whms, unite to do this quest so that you can heal one another. Lest, you'll risk being interrupted while casting cure's or warp.

cut-scenes
At the end, Roido and Michell... are still kept at chateau for trial. This quest has ended, but I suppose there'll be another quest to continue the story...
And it suggested Prince F??? escaped to Bastok 200 years ago, with help form Vijartal Caphieux, the Obsidiant Bolt.
Also mentioned the Ordelle's Caves resonances with the Perre XXX on the Scepter Royaulais, thus enabling time travel.
These long explanations by Vijartal and Halver would come in handy in future quests or mission, I'm sure.

Healing the land: Get the tele-holla scroll

I tried this quest a few days ago, as whm39/blm19. And I died 3 times while being raised twice.
Listen, don't count on invisible.
I'm telling you what happened to me:

I'm in desperate need of cash (for scrolls, for armors, for weapons, for learnig cooking), and teleport service looks like a good way to help me out. So I read every posts about teleport-scroll quests in a ffxi website.

As I've got this quest already, I started with Tele-Holla. My impression is you just have to run, run and run. No dangers as long as you have invisible and sneak even though you don't have the map. Even better, I had warp with blm sub.

WRONG!

I followed the instructions here, and casted sneak. It went well, though the mine was haunted with ghosts (not mobs) and skeletons (mobs). I managed to survive. But after the first middle door, I found another 3 doors at the bottom of another wooden staircase. I started to wonder if I went the wrong way. But I can't get back then, and there's no other way. So I just go through another middle door. I kept left. But I've passed more than 3 forks (there're 2 only as instructed by the posts below), still there's no hole or jelly. So I get back to the first fork and tried the right way. It felt wrong, too.

After some thoughts, I search the area and asked for instructions. Luckily, someone came and brought me to the hole. She jumped down. I stayed and casted invisible before jumping down. I should be safe then, right?

WRONG!

1st death
Invisible immediately wore off and I got aggro'ed by a bomb. She got aggro'ed by a rancid ooze and told me to run, so I searched for ???. I misunderstood her. She meant "run to exit". So I should have ran to south. Anyway, I don't think I can leave being aggro'ed by a bomb. (Later, I learnt that bombs aggro to magic even at a far distance, so DON'T cast invisible right above the hole!). And I should warp instead of run. (I forgot I can warp before I died, as I was so nervous.)
So, I died. She frowned.

2nd death
After I got raised the first time, the raiser left me without cure, so i cured myself and casted invisible, then the bombs came. I died.

3rd death
I got another raise. He's my friend. I rested (stupid of me). He said "don't rest here". I stood up and followed him. I got aggro, and he claimed it. I ran to south, bumped into flies, got aggro. There're flies all around and THEY LINK. I died, with flies dancing above. He defeated the mob and ran. (Obviously, it's dangerous for him to stay here, even he's at least lvl 50.)
Before going back to hp, I lied there for a while, and observed people occassionally ran into the screen. They didn't get aggro. And according to my previous search, they're lvl 50+ (maybe higher, can't remember, but surely not 40-ish).

Conclusion

1. So there're 2 middle doors to go thru. Turn left whenever you're at a fork.
2. Keep sneak on. If it's about to wear off, stay at a safe spot and re-cast it once it wears off.
3. Cast re-raise, stoneskin and blink (in case invisible wears off and you won't get interrupted while casting warp), then invisible, a long way from the hole after you've found it.
4. Your mp may run out after castings or drop below 100 after you revived. So, bring some silent oil and prime powder is a good idea even if you're whm. Or bring some food that adds MP so that you can keep mp above 100 for warp. Or bring a instant-warp scroll.
5. Warp once you get aggro. Invisble is useless at that time.
6. According the posts, run along the train track inside the room for ???. You have to take a path curls a bit to the west. ??? is all the way in the left hand corner (G-8). Someone says it's on the back wall of shecd. (Check your position, if you've no map, by typing the command . I had no time to spot the ???, esp. as I dunno what's a shed/shack. I'll update this part later).
7. If you can't warp, after jumping down the holes and got everything (or you want to leave, got aggro, whatever), head south and call for help with . There should be some high level players around.
8. I just checked the bestiary. Nearly every mobs down the holes aggro, except the sadfly (but it aggroed me). Most detect by sound, as well as, detect and pursue by scent. The bombs detect by sight and magic. The jellies guarding the hole also aggro, and detects by sound and scent. (They didn't aggro me though) So you'd better keep Sneak, Deodorize and Invisible all on.

Good luck if you're lvl 50-

I'm trying it again, with a party.

A Timely Visit

I haven't gone to the forest to fight the 2 mobs: Giollemitte B Feroun (Shadow) and Skeleton Esquire (Skeleton). But from all the posts I read, they're surely tough. I'll just stop here (got Virtual to help) until I hit lvl 55+.

There's a lot of runnig, but the cut-scenes are truly rewarding. You get one everytime you talk with a NPC. And it's a creative way to bring in time-travelling.

But if you ever paid attention to the cutscene, you'd notice that this quest introduced Viritual XXX (don't remember the name), a renowned hero who came from 200 years ago and the civil war. So this is actually a quest that let you understand the story's background. And it brings you closer to the Royal family (=> more quests and higher fame level). If you don't enjoy role-playing, you really shouldn't have played FFXI.

The reward Medieval Collar may be worth only 2kG, but I bet this quest will lead you to more quests, and this collar may be exactly the item required.

Tips
1. I was whm40/blm20 when I started this quest. And warp is truly a time-saving magic. Set the home point at West Gate, S. Sandy. Whenever you've talked with Halver at Chateau, just warp to find Deraquien and Phillone, or go to La Thiene Plateau for Narvecaint (take a chocobo or walk, as you like). Mobs in Ordelle's Caves didn't aggro me.
2. But mind you, you have to go through a goblin's place in the cave to get to Narvecaint, who's at the exit to La Thiene Plateau. You have to HEAD OUT. He's a knight. If you've ever done this Eco-warrior quest, the exit is right near the knight (Roja...) who offers you the lvl-capping omintment. Narvecaint is not the man hiding behind the stone, though he looks and sounds suspicious. (I got fooled myself and kept runnig around and shouting. lol)

Doubts
After you examine ??? between 18:00-4:00, the 2 mobs spawn. It brings 2 questions:

1. Must you defeat the mob before you examine ??? again? If not, we can just examine ??? twice and then warp.
2. What if you examine ??? between 4:01-17:59? No mobs? Or "You found nothing extra-ordinary here"?

Fit for the Prince: Looking for the ideal bride for Prince Trion

First, there's no time restriction coz i got the quest at least 2 weeks ago (earth time) before I started to find a candidate.

My exp yesterday, on Ifrit server:

I shouted a few times without any response. After I gave that up and was running aroud Sandy for other quests, it occured to me that there're few girls in ffxi. So I started to observe every character I passed by. The most probably, you can see a female mithra or taru, but not hume. And a hume girl was who I was looking for.
Suddenly, in front of S. Sandy AH, I sighted a hume girl, but not with blonde hair. Then I saw another with blonde hair and as I took a closer look, she's the perfect candidate!
So i used the chat function to ask for a favor. After some time, she replied: I can't understand English.
I'm not giving up, so I use very short and simple English, and stressed that it's close and safe: N. Sandy (I used translation, of course). At last, I said: 1 min, ok?
After some thoughts, she said ok and put the flag on.
Thus, we formed a party and went to Cheateau for Halver, with an interesting cutscene.
And after all, i obtained Castor's ring. I did not know she also got a ring at that time. And the cutscene looked insulting to her, making me a bit embarrassed. But I supposed she's japanese (as she can't speak Eng) and so wouldn't request a reward. I just gave her a bow and thanked her, she gave me a smile and left. THANK YOU, Miuu. ^^

Suggestion:

So, I have to say I was very lucky, for having found the perfect candidate just a few miles away from cheateau (North to S. Sandy AH is N. Sandy and Cheateau), and she's a japanese who is willing to help a stranger. I recommend you all to wait for the perfect candidate there. And if you've read this, remember to tell the candidates she'll get a ring (no matter you shout or tell). This should make the search easier.

Use of this quest:
1. Obviously, you got a ring. It's Rare/Ex. But you can remove Ex using wind crystals. And with cyclone crystals, you can add your name to it. I heard that it's for the marriage system, but I don't know the details.
2. I believe it'd be a requisite quest for some other quests. If you still remember the cut-scene, there's a NPC, Temple Knight Captain, Curilla. It seems that she and Prince Trion have some love affairs. I bet either the prince or Curilla (or the other prince Prejue, the king, Halver, queen, or else) would ask for help later.

Do Dia and Bio Stack?

Introduction

A few days before, after I got scolded for casting dia after bio (I hit the wrong macro actually), the party disbanded soon. So I really wonder if what that guy said is true. "I've tested that. Trust me." He said. Bio, Dia and Poison all don't stack, according to that guy.

But I still don't really believe that they don't stack. He said "XX effect wears off" shows when the magic is cancelled out. I'd casted the 3 magic togehter numerous times before, still I never saw such messages! I checked the chat log, there was a message "The XXX is no longer poisoned" afte I casted dia. Thus I stop casting dia and poison altogether.

Another day in another party, the red mage casted bio and poison in one macro. And he put "/p Casting Bio. Don't cast Dia " in the macro. So I asked the party: Do they really cancel out each other? Everyone says he's tested it and "Trust me". If so, why my test results are different?


Discussion

We were at Whitehouse Sands, Valkum Dunes. I was blm/whm. So I started testing, but in my test on 10 tough crabs, there's NO such message. So???

A party member told me light and dark magic don't stack. Another said there's no need to carry out such a test when many people tested that and posted the result on forums. So I stopped that little test. That was an excellent exp party, and I didn't wanna break it.

Then, I really wanna say: When the 1st person says A is B without concrete proof, you wont trust him. When the 2nd, 3rd,...5th say so, you start to belive A is B. And when the 10th says A is A, you'll laugh at him!

Still, from what I learnt in Maths, a theory does not stand once there exists a counter example, even if you've got 1,000,000 supporting examples. And now I've got 10 counters!

Then how would I explain the supporting examples? I guess it was merely a coincidence. The mob is strong against that spell (say poison), so the effect wears off soon after it is received. And this is exactly the moment that the next spell (say dia) is casted.

Finally, have you ever tested it yourself? Don't blindly trust the posts on forums. You can see their words, but not the proof!

The next day, I've checked forums from the web. The information I can get is:

Bio II > Dia II > Bio > Dia
No info about Poison
Some say Light and dark magic are not compatible, and the elements next to each other in the element wheel would lowers the damages. This sounds logical.

For reference, the element wheel is :
Fire > Ice > Wind > Earth > Lightning > Water > Fire
and Light > Darkness > Light

And pls note that as far as I read, nobody stated they experimented that, or got the info from official sources.

IMOO, they do not cancel out each other, but weakens each other, so that the following decrease:
Damagae over time (DoT)
Length of duration
Damage
Enfeebling effect

NB: I havent tested that though (too lazy)


Conclusion

1. To be mp-efficient, don't cast magic next to each other in element wheel during chain nuking.
2. Cast the magic that can weakens the strongest aspect of the mobs, eg. dia for high defence mob (if most of you are meleeing), bio for high strengh mobs. If it's both strong in defence and strengh, well as you like, cast both or either, or cast dia if you like to finish it quickly, bio if you don't like to heal so much.