NBI Poetry Slam

Internet Dragons

ffxiv 2013-10-07 21-32-57-40

Last night my group wanted revenge for the previous two attempts at Amdapor Keep.  During the day we plotted our path and strategized what we would change, and when our fearless healer made it online, we went into the dungeon once more.  It has been a long time since a dungeon had gotten the better of any of us.  That is one of the odd things about Final Fantasy XIV is that you have a fixed amount of time to finish any dungeon.  For Amdapor Keep we had 120 minutes, and quite frankly we used every single minute of that in past attempts to try and reason through the fight.

On my first run through the dungeon, the group I was with had mastered the first boss encounter, and in the subsequent two runs we had one shot it without much issue.  This meant on attempt two we spent nearly an hour and a half working on the Demon Wall encounter.  For anyone that has played a Final Fantasy game, they will immediately realize the encounter, as it is one of the more legendary ones that seems to appear in most games.  Essentially you have a fixed amount of time to destroy the wall before it destroys you.  In the MMO version, it essentially reaches a point where there is just too much damaging going out to be healed through.

However the little tweaks we employed in the strategy worked well enough that on our first attempt, I managed to get knocked off the side and the group still recovered without a tank to finish taking down the wall.  This brought us forth to new batch of trash… that basically included a version of the boss from Haukke Manor mixed in multiple times within the packs.  I don’t think we actually wiped on any of this trash, but it was some of the more annoying trash I had encountered to date.  Finally we were up against the final boss of the dungeon… that is some form of a black dragon.

It took us 30 minutes of tries but we managed to formulate a workable strategy, and then it clicked in place once we learned the secret to avoiding massive amounts of damage.  With 30 minutes to go we managed to make it through the encounter, this time without losing a player and finish off the boss.  Amdapor Keep is doubly awesome in that it rewards both the currency we need and some fairly nice gear as well.  Over the course of the dungeon our dragoon got a pair of boots, bard a chest piece and I believe legs, scholar healer neck, ring and pants… and alas me the tank nothing but the satisfaction of killing the encounter.  I hope to go back in now that we can hopefully farm the dungeon for goodies.

NBI Poetry Slam

Yesterday one of my good blogger friends Syl posted a call to arms of sort.  Her idea is that we “shake the bonds of srs blogging bzns” and join the ranks of many other bloggers who have written poetry over the subject of games, gaming and MMOs.  If this concept were not fertile enough, she also pinged me over Twitter to let me know that she was expecting an entry from me.  So I realize I am not getting out of this at all.  Warning… just like my blog, my poetry is “different”. 

I spent a lot of time writing poetry in the past, and even participated in more than a few poetry slams at various coffee houses during my high school and college days.  I tend to draw inspiration from beat poets…  but my own brand of poetry is a bit “odd”.  She was expecting a poem about my current MMO crush… Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn… but I chose to draw inspiration elsewhere.

The Tank

born of stone
embraced by fire
Juggernaut standing
with stalwart purpose
and sharpened will

moving slow
into dank crypt
long axe slung
across broad tense
rampart shoulders

leading cautiously
this weary band
of wizened adventure
moving closer
to the maelstrom

with pealing cry
and furious motion
swings bold axe
cleaving flesh
commanding attention

this is my domain
my steely sphere
of present influence
and none shall pass
my constant vigil

Hopefully that will appease the Syl god and she will not sent me furious messages over twitter of disappointment.  I think it is a pretty cool idea and I look forward to reading what other people come up with.  NBI started out with a simple purpose of trying to help out new bloggers, but it has taken on a weird blogging festival atmosphere for the various sponsors.  Its almost like a holiday that lets us mingle together with a shared purpose, and I feel like this poetry slam idea really adds to that purpose.  Syl will be collecting all the entries on her own blog, so it will be interesting to read them all together in one place.

4 thoughts on “NBI Poetry Slam”

  1. No furious messages from me hehe, you have done beautifully – but then you already knew that. 🙂

    thanks for spreading the word too, more and more people have started to contribute which is awesome!

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