Old Haunts Revisited

SirDarth went out in the morning again, and that horse has now reached level 33 - eleven levels above Darth himself, and one level below the Berserkers.  However, for the afternoon and much of the evening, he was able to put his feet up and relax at home, as my computers were busy elsewhere.

Actually, in the morning I will confess to playing a little bit of low-key Guild Wars, mainly taking a level 14 archer around Pre-Searing Ascalon looking for red iris flowers, but that's another story...

As the Cariae server group was enjoying double experience, skill exp, and pet experience today, up to, I think, about nine in the evening, UK time (they won a competition to buy the biggest number of a special cheap Mall package), it seemed like an excellent time to go on over there for a change, and to check out what the Tomb of Theos was now like for higher-level characters.

So, my level 100 archer Barbarienne logged in, ready for some action for the first time in quite a while - and my level 90 mage Keerella too, who got to go on the more modern computer.  What I hadn't previously noticed was that her experience was shown as level 90 and 288.30%, which meant that she was due an adjustment after they changed the amount of experience needed between levels 90 and 100 - so she rushed out of Randol, killed a fox, and was suddenly level 91, and 94.15%.

Barb and Kee both headed for the Tomb of Theos on Cariae-4, and went in - the idea was for Barb to stay near to the wall, and to equip SkrappY, my "human tribe" type cat-like pet, not fighting, but occasionally healing Kee, who'd have her drake Greedo equipped.  And so we started against the Screaming Zombies, in a Combat party, so that while skill exp and loot were equally shared, the actual fighter got the normal experience for a kill plus a little bonus, and the non-fighter got a little bonus too.

Before very long Zenderfly got in touch, and invited Barbarienne to join her and some other high-level types in a Combat party in the Tomb's furthest, hardest room, "the grave room" - so she would boost the active players' experience, and get that little bonus, and some cash etc, herself... and help SkrappY's experience too, as the Sphinx Commanders give "human tribe" pets more experience than anything else short of the top boss characters.

The time in there was not without incident; wall-hugging in there isn't easy, you half-submerge yourself in the wall and can still get attacked.  Poor SkrappY had already been killed once back in the Tomb's entrance corridor when a Screaming Zombie which someone had lured wandered back and attacked him, and now he had a second death - and so a second trip back to Randol to get the Archbishop to unseal him was needed, though luckily he doesn't charge people to do that.  And Barb herself had her health taken perilously low, though she'd been carefully put into what had been thought a safe position by Zen's recall... it seems unusual to me for the Sphinx Commanders to be active on the "outer ring" of that room.  

Luckily at the last moment I reasoned that if I could be attacked, then my skills would work, and I used Barb's Self Heal skill, until the Commander got distracted.  The next time I got placed in what seemed a good, safe spot, Zen advised me to try using a potion - if it was used, then that meant I was in an active rather than a safe spot.  The small health potion I double-clicked didn't trigger, so I was safe, and able to go afk.

That was the time for my early evening food break.  Keerella continued with the Screaming Zombies after that, and joined a "solo" party which did actually include a level 98 gamesage, just to get the solo party bonus for her kills.  It didn't generally seem to me that the Screaming Zombies were hitting much harder than before, but then Kee does have top-grade armour, even if it is just 85/87, and accessories.

Someone pulled a large number of Zombies from lower down, perhaps they had been "ks'd" a bit and got annoyed, or perhaps they just felt like it.  A number of the lower-level people who team up to fight the Zombies got killed - I think the knight and couple of titans who'd asked to be allowed to attack my targets had gone by then.  What was annoying for me was that Greedo, my pet drake, got killed in all the turmoil, and it cost 806,736 gold to get him "unsealed" back in town, as he is level 49.

Kee did actually get her health hit hard a couple of times, and that was when someone had lured up a level 101 Infected Grey Mummy - medium, or even large, health potions were needed then.  Shawshankz and Astarael were in touch, and seemed glad to have me online, and Ratel moved over for the day to Cariae too - his sorcerer, Elvastar, his original character as far as I'm concerned, went to Egeha I think, but found that his demon form and Bogles didn't mix very well.

The Combat party in the Grave Room rather petered out, I think a number of people, Zenderfly included, had to get themselves ready for the Dratan Castle Siege.  When Barbarienne logged out from there, she was unable, after I'd restarted the game, to teleport back to the Tomb entrance to rejoin Keerella, as the Siege was in progress - but she was able to use a teleport book to move to Kee, which saved an admission fee.

So, the Zombie-hunt continued; the place had been very busy earlier, but for a while Barb and Kee had the entrance corridor location to themselves, since other people couldn't get in.  The guild Zen was in won the siege, as she delightedly informed me, and people began to come in again.

By the end of the time on Cariae, Barbarienne had gone up 0.23% in experience, which just shows how slowly things move once you reach level 100, though 22 skill points may be useful.  Keerella, as the one who'd been doing the actual fighting, had added 10.29% - which had been enough to raise her to level 92.  She added 27 much-needed skill points, and 6512 pet points.  The champion achiever though was SkrappY - I didn't think he'd gone up very much at all, but it wasn't 13.65% experience he'd gained, it was actually 113.65%, so now I can casually say "Well yes, I have a Scra-Chi pet over on Cariae - he's level fifty at present."

I was busily chatting to Asta and Shaw, when an announcement came up about the evening Quiz... as well as the usual one, they were going to have one an hour early!  It took us a minute or two to realise that that meant one was starting in five minutes, at which point we all hurriedly logged out.  To avoid problems, it is always wise to restart the game before heading for the Quiz Room.

In fact, the Auzura Quiz Room wasn't yet open when SirDarth, followed swiftly by Kaerella, got there - but at just about the time things should have started, we were let in.  And it was, for a second week, a new set of questions!  Some were so specialist that only guesses could be made, so some respawning in the middle of Randol did happen, but luckily the doors were left open, so people could run back in.   I got the tool aids and the moonstones - I missed out on the five heaven stones, but I was back just in time for both Darth and Kae to get the ten.  Ratel was luckier, I'd changed my mind on one answer, and moved across at the last minute to where most other people had gone, but he hadn't had time to follow me - and thus stayed in, to get the five as well as the ten heaven stones.

That didn't leave a huge amount of time before the second Quiz, but Darth did a little more pet-levelling, and then this time Kae was joined by MistressDomina.  Sadly we got an early question wrong, and this time, to the annoyance of everyone, the doors were locked.  Not many people had survived in there as long as we had, so I doubt if many people even got tool aids, let alone heaven stones, that time.

SirDarth headed out to Merac for pet levelling, and after a while noticed the arrival of a mob of newly-spawned Pandora's Beasts.  I wasn't going to do anything, beyond moving Darth as far back from them as possible, but spotted a box-released level 50 one close by too, which might drop useful cash, so logged Rage in quickly, and rode down.  I was going to say that the Blood Frenzy-type Pandie "only" dropped a Moonstone Box, but that it worth as much as the average Pandie cash drop I think.  Rage stayed to help clear away the mob of spawned Pandies, and generally found that now she could target one of the level 50 Larva types, and it would be dead before it could do her much damage.  

After that mob was dealt with, I went back to the spot to the northwest, downhill from Peri's usual Butcher group, and found the Pandie mob there almost untouched.  There were a few gold drops on the ground, so someone had been there, but nobody was fighting them now.  Using horse buffs of course, I methodically cleared the whole lot out.  All this activity only gave Rage 2.35% experience, 3 skill points, and 120 pet points, however.