Zombies and Sphinxes

I had to go out shopping for most of the morning, which meant that I couldn't set up SirPerivale to level our horse until late in the morning; until then Rage and MistressDomina just did a little bit of mining, to keep busy.

When Peri did go out to Merac, it didn't take long to get the horse to level 34; and then in mid-afternoon we had an unexpected bonus, the GMs switched on double pet experience, which was a useful boost - not as speedy as one of the platinum pet experience potions, but free, and it kept on going for the rest of the day, so the horse actually got a useful way into level 35 by the end of the evening.

When Kaerella logged on after lunch, she quickly got an invitation from Optimusprime to go to the Auzura-1 Tomb of Theos to join a party in progress.      BasheR had been in the party earlier, I think, and came to meet me at the entrance, mainly to show me his new armour, which has the oversized fairy that denotes that it is all +15 - nice!

As well as Optimusprime, Corbenik and the specialist sorcerer StrongLT were in the party, though Strong didn't stay very long, and BasheR did come in and join us.  We generally managed okay, though there were a number of occasions when my health got dangerously low and I had to seek shelter against the wall.  It wasn't a very long session though, people had to leave, but 26.77% was a good start on the road towards level 53.

After the others left, Corbenik and I went across to the Auzura-3 Sphinx Fighters.  He was able to tell me that the party deeper in the Tomb on Sunday had gone okay, though progress had been a bit slow and the rogue did die.  Anyway, we fought the Sphinx Fighters, the Sphinx Speer Men, and the Elite Sphinx Speer Men for the rest of the afternoon.  When Corbenik got a heaven stone he offered to share it with me, but I said it was just the luck of the draw and that I had plenty, so he should keep it... and shortly after that I got one too.  And, for the first time that I remember, the Elite Sphinx Speer Man dropped a ready-plussed item, which came to me, a Mending Shirt +3.

The bloodseals I got on the newly-equipped Mending Tiara and Mending Boots were, as ever, a mixed bunch: increases long range evasion (33) is a bit minor as there aren't that many ranged-attack monsters, and increases close range physical hit rate (56) is pretty useless as Kae can only use a bow, but increases close range evasion (45 and 22) is nice, and energy for spells and special attacks (7), and power of the mind (intelligence, 4) are useful too.

Corbenik had to log out at four o'clock UK time, as that's 11:00pm where he is; he buffed me before he went, though, and I continued until my usual food break time, managing to get to halfway through my level - a total of 49.44% experience gain for the whole afternoon.  6 skill points got added, too, as well as 975 pet points.

The evening session was, well, more Sphinxsters basically, though SirPerivale, after being lucky and getting five level 12 physical defence minerals from one Pandora's Box, unleashed a level 50 Pandora Beast from a second one, and had to run for it.  So, Kae moved across to Dratan, and rode to the spot, killing the Beast fairly easily, and getting 73,600 gold as a drop.  Peri had moved back along the trail to another Berserker, though it was a busier spot, and once his target Berserker did get killed by someone else and their Scra-Chi pet.  Still, it was easy enough to target a different one, so no time was lost.

Apart from that brief diversion, Kaerella was just soloing the Sphinx types.  For a while a specialist sorcerer called DaCvaR was there, in demon form; I assume he was pretty low-level, as he'd lure the Elite Sphinx Speer Man, and then use his spells on it from behind a fence, which is probably a great way to get experience soon after one has left Prokion Temple - and probably risky enough not to count as an "exploit".

By the end of the evening, Kae had added another 34.20%, getting the day's total up to 83.64% experience gain.  Another 19 skill points meant 25 in all today, and 2324 pet points brought us up to 3299, a total much helped by the double pet experience for so many hours.  It's a shame that the servers come down for their usual maintenance tonight, a little earlier than usual apparently, so there's no chance the double pet experience will still be running tomorrow.

As Kaerella was doing some mining over my early evening food break, it looks to me as if she may well have been chosen by the gods to receive divine gifts when I wasn't looking, as happens randomly to players above level 30 when the server is "Recommended". At least, I assume she would only have been carrying ten moonstones, from Sunday's Quiz (Rage still has her ten) - and now she has twenty.  So, fame at last...