Recollections - BLM AF2  

I can verify that Rolanberry Fields weather is connected to Crawlers' Nest weather. I camped CN for a long time, no rain, until I checked the weather checker NPC and it said Rolanberry Fields was "rainy with a chance of clouds". I went to CN and lo and behold, my water elemental was there.

It's also okay to camp there while it's "cloudy with a chance of rain".

lol how did a 71 whm lose while getting this key, its not that hard...

a lv. 51 blm (me) and a 70 whm can NOT complete the second leg of this journey. we managed to kill 1 commander... using 2hrs. and then we died a few times whm having reraise II on. and escaped... no key and no help to finish... yet

if you see me online. i'm logged just at the castle entrance. PLEASE HELP :)

So I had the bag of seeds sitting in my Mog Safe for a long time and got a Whine Cellar key when I went to do my Opo-opo crown item Sands of Silence. So I get to level 50 BLm and go - this is great I have all the items. Trade seeds to Chummi and get a couple of my LS mates to come to come to Castle V with me in my assumption "to fight the AF2 NM"

Part way through

Orionrockr (BLM 74) - So you need the Key
Me - No I have the key
Orionrockr - Then why do you need us
Me - to fight the NM
Orionrockr - There is no NM
Me - There isn't
Orionrockr - No

D'OH!!!

Has anyone tried trading an Infinity Core and incorrect Chip to the Apparatus to force-pop a Water Elemental? If it drops the Bag of Seeds, it could save a lot of time that would have been spent waiting for rain to occur.


Edit - I caved in tonight and bought an Infinity Core and Yellow (Earth) Chip. Spawned the Water Elemental, and recieved no XP or items when it died. I can't confirm that it doesn't drop the Seeds, but I'm guessing they don't.

Edited, Mon May 16 21:31:58 2005

Ok, so my boyfriend and a few ls members spent about 12 real life hours camping water elementals and none spawned. The next night I was there in a party, and it was raining practically the whole time. I told him and of course he was peeved. We went the next night with 2 other ls members, and only fire elementals were there, so we figured, 'Why not? We're bored'. Low and behold, the first one drops a bag of seeds, so we go for a second, another drop. Needless to say, we got 5 drops from the 5 elementals we battled. Moral of the story: Try any elementals, Fire Elementals definitely work and apparently so do the Water Elementals. Good Luck!!

Edited, Mon Apr 11 19:31:52 2005

Could I solo the CN Water Elemental with my RDM60?

To clerify the key drop is pretty simple we had a lvl 61 rdm, me(54 blm), lvl 60 blm, & and a 57 war/nin. We got the key drop after about 5 demons. I went back alone (with all enfeeb, elemental, and dark magic capped) and made my way through the castle. In the keep I sat at the door until no gobs were near it. Then I ran directly left to reinvis. When I ran to the door I decided I would just hit a macro elemental seal + sleepga.... 2 gobs and a pet bat started trying to maul me. Thankfully sleepga went off and all 3 got a nap. The cutscene is not long I repeat NOT LONG at all i was out in I think about 10 seconds maybe less. I got to warp home right after with about 400 or so HP. Very easy if you do it right and sleep all goblins in the area @ 54

Grr.. sorry for the double post.

Edited, Tue Nov 30 19:04:23 2004

I waited for a water elemental in the crawlers nest for 4 hours and i didn't see it at all. I was in the right area waiting for it and it didn't even come on waterday. I gave up for the night but im going to try again tomorrow and ill hopefully get it then ><

Just finished this. Our party was this: 51 blm/whm, 52 blm/whm (me), 52 blm/whm, 54 blm/whm, 71 war/nin and a 66 thf/nin. Yup we did go /w 4 blms. Once we dropped down the hole we camped in the hallway. Its relatively safe and you can make easy pulls. As far as the link issue if u are careful /w your pulls nothing terrible should happen. Demon commanders, chancellors and generals all conned VT - IT to me at lvl 52. I didnt see any of the demons cast ancient magic but that doesnt mean that they cant so keep an eye open. The drop is fairly common, you can expect to see one at the very least every 3 demons that u kill (i dont know if the THF's TH2 came into play here). We had to get 5 keys as the war needed one for his blm. Once everyone got a key we headed to castle zavhal keep and took the first right after the long hallway to the ore door (you have to pass through an iron door before u get to the ore door room which can be a bit tricky b/c the goblins stand close to the gate). I saw at least 3 goblins in there all of which conned easy prey - to me at 52. If you are in a party have everyone who needs there AF2 drop invi and quickly trade the Whine cellar key to the ore door. The key will break and u will get a cutscene. Once everyone is finished cast escape and give the usual warp 2s. Generally the mobs on the way there ranged from EP-IT. The mobs start to get T and above once u drop down the hole.

These directions are right on the money.
The only confusing part can be is that after the first iron gate, the Ore Door is in that room; not the next one.
If you do this on your own, (which I don't advise), either just drop invis, run in and turn in the key and die, or try to wait for the gobbo to look the other way.
Unless you have fast cast, you won't be able to uninvis, open the door, reinvis, and go through it.
If you have two blms, go through the door, kill the first gobbo, then invis both, go to the other door, drop it and trade the key Then elemental seal + sleepga, escape.
In any case, once you get a group to finally kill the Demon Commanders, you have it made.

For our experience(2 BLMs) Demon Commanders had the most drops. In fact, all of our keys dropped from them. It may drop from other ones, but at least the rate(or our luck) was better with the commanders.

Good luck!

I have a little edit to post for AF2. You can get the bag of star seeds you need from any type of elemental in the Crawler's Nest. (As far as i know only water and fire ever spawn there however, and i believe it is a guaranteed drop, along with some crystal clusters) I just did this portion of the quest today, had to wait 2 hours but i got my seeds from a fire elemental. Now all i need is for people to help me with the Castle, which no one seems to be willing to do ><. Ahh well, i guess it will happen at some point in time. Good luck everyone.


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Enfilade (Hume Male) (Pandemonium)
Rank 5
56BLM/28WHM

I'm tired of reading posts that give no extra info and/or copy-n-paste from previous posts. So here I add some notes regarding how to do this quest easier (For Castle Zvahl part):

1) Go to Jeuno's Ru'Lude Garden and check with NPC Radeivpart at H-9. If he gives you quest Northward, go buy Flame Degen at AH (under Sword section) and get the map of Castle Zvahl. It is very important to have map.

2) For those of you who don't have map, try this:
CLICK HERE for Castle Zvahl Baileys and CLICK HERE for Castle Zvahl Keep.
From now on, "MAP1-3" means "the 3rd map on Baileys page", "MAP2-1" means "the 1st map on Keep page", and so on.

3) Question: Where to find demons (commander, chancellor, general, magistrate) that can drop whine cellar key?
Answer: Look at MAP1-1. J-8 is where you entered from Xacabard. Now go to north-east corner of G-8 Grid where you see intersection. You can choose go north or south, no difference. At either north-east corner of F-7 (or F-9 Grid), you should see some downstaris. Go down and head to F-8. Now proceed to Point A on MAP1-1. (If done correctly, you are now at a place that is 1 level below the gate of Dark Spark.) Go west till your map change!
Now use MAP1-2, and you are at Point A on MAP1-2. Do you see the four big circular things at each corner on MAP1-2 (at G-6/7, G-9, H/I-6/7, and H/I-9)? These are what ppl referred as circular ditches, holes on ground, etc. In order to avoid aggro from those demons at the bottom of the holes, please sneak/invis your buddies up. When ready, jump in one of these holes till you hit the bottom of the hole. Now you'll see demons such as Commander, General, Magistrate, and Chancellor. Yes, these demons will drop Whine Cellar Key! Go kill them out! (NOTE: No matter which hole you chose to jump into, you can kill demons in 2 out of 4 spawn circular areas.) In order to leave MAP1-3, you can only go to either Point B or C, and back to MAP1-2.

4) Question: Now I got the key, where is the entrance of the KEEP?
Answer: Similar to above procedures, go to MAP1-2 first. Now instead of dropping from 1 of 4 holes on ground, you need to go to south-west corner of H-7 Grid, or west side of H-8 Grid. You should see few upstairs. Yes, climb up from here then you will reach the upper floor again =). Go all the way west to E-8 and you will ZONE into Castle Zvahl Keep!

5) Question: Where is Ore Door?
Answer: Look at MAP2-1, J-8 is where you came from Baileys, and Ore Door is in H-7 Grid. H-7 Grid has many rooms, so which is it? Well, let's imagine: The whole H-7 grid is divided into 16 small squares with equi-area. Numbering these squares as "1" be the north-west corner of H-7 Grid, "4" be the north-east corner of H-7 Grid, "13" be the south-west corner, and "16" be the south-east corner. Now, suppose you reached the end of hallway after zoned in Keep from Baileys, open the iron gate and go in "15" of H-7 Grid (NOTE: Invis must be off when open any door/gate). From "15", go east then north until you at "12" of H-7. The Ore Door to use your whine cellar key is between "11" and "12" (i.e. when you are facing the Ore Door, you are at "12" and facing west)

That's pretty much I wanna say. HTH

Edited, Tue Jul 13 22:24:20 2004