The "Cinco de Mayo" Last Chaos event seems to have got off to a good start, with enough people spending enough aeria points to qualify for a "tier" offer, meaning that we get 24 hours of 50% extra experience. Not that this affects SirDarth of course; he did stay online yesterday just long enough to get his current horse up to level 26, and the horse did reach level 27 at around lunchtime, and 28 later in the day.
MrChuckNorris didn't benefit from the extra experience either, as his experience gain is still frozen; I managed to get him along to Prokion Temple in the morning though for a one-hour session using a pssp, which yielded 612 skill points, and staying there afterwards for a while made the total 686, along with 1308 pet points. Eight Easter Eggs got picked up, giving us 10 gamma wave energy, 10 herb trunks, 50 gold twice, 500 gold, a magic stone, a tool aid - and the star item, a Greatest Experience Potion, giving 30% more experience gain for a week.
SirPerivale did a bit of pet levelling too over lunch, and there was some exchanging of items afterwards, before Kaerella headed out for the Sphinx Fighters, and the Elite Sphinx Speer Man. 50% extra experience there still isn't actually very much, but as the sphinx types are just about her level now, at least she gets some skill points.
However, Kae's rather boring little stint ended early when Darth spotted one of those Blood Frenzy-type level 50 Pandora's Beasts, which somebody had released from a Pandora's Box, nearby - so Rage was needed to ride down into Merac and deal with it. It dropped 113,600 gold, which is about the maximum they ever give, which was nice.
The Border Guard Captain at the edge of Merac village had a new quest for Rage, however - to go to the third level of Maargadum Jail and kill thirty Beast Flyers. So, Rage rode on down to the Jail's entrance, carefully applied the horse buffs, and ran on down. With her pretty good new armour, Rage was able to take the Flyers on in the central area there, without any healing, and the quest was quickly done; the reward in experience, from Great Magician Minearm, wasn't much, 831,000, but the 50,000 gold was useful - and he also handed over ten Physical Attack Potions, which MistressDomino should be able to sell.
Great Magician Minearm also gave Rage a new quest, "Worry of Minearm", to collect three rings from "Beast Leaders" - which are in fact the magic-wielding Beast Crawlers on Maargadum Jail's fourth level. Considering that they did have a nasty habit, over on Cariae, of killing Kaerella when she attempted that quest, I think we may well not be able to help ol' Minearm with that one...
So, before SirPerivale took over for the food break, Rage added 1.55% experience, 6 skill points, and 76 pet points - before that Kaerella had gained 12.15%, 23 skill points, and 731 pet points, which had been enough to get SirFrancis up to level 33.
After the food break, things started off pretty promisingly, with Ratel volunteering to team with Rage at the Sphinx Fighters, and Kukli4kataBG also getting in touch and meeting us there. Ninatsu was there too, and another useful rogue called Zaphira. To begin with we were separate parties; I'm afraid Ratel died when he and I attacked the Elite Speer Man, I had a very peculiar error, not lag and not the regular "muddy ground" thing which can be cured by mounting up and moving, I could type and my messages appeared, but I couldn't move, or target, or change pets, and could only watch as Ratel slumped to the ground. I relogged and returned, and we went on. We decided to form up into a five-person party, and were considering moving over to the Tomb of Theos for a good long session, enhanced by the 50% extra experience boost. Healing, three people with Snare, Ratel's stuns and buffs...
The only problem was that the server was becoming extremely laggy, with "lag spikes" when everything seemed to stop - only you just knew that the Sphinx Fighters and Speer Men weren't affected, so it was extremely dangerous. It was like a messy disconnection that didn't quite go all the way, and it soon made playing impossible. So, we resolved to try again tomorrow, and went our separate ways.
Ratel changed over to his low-level healer Thabitha, and I decided to switch to a new mage I'd started earlier, MistressSabina, whose adventures against foxes, deer and wolves in Juno wouldn't be disastrously messed up by a lag spike or a disconnection. My target is eventually to get her to level 10, and donate some skill points to the "Discipline" guild. I've not upgraded any of her skills, though she has almost a full set of the 5/7 armour now, she just needs the circlet - Thabitha donated the skirt, since she got it as a drop. The lag continued for a while, sometimes foxes ignored my attacks until they suddenly appeared dead at my feet, but gradually order was restored.
Thabitha got the entrance to Velpist Temple onto her memory scroll, and I decided that Sabina might as well do the same, as, apart from the occasional strolling Elder Werewolf, there aren't any real problems in getting a low-level character there. Thabitha was inside, getting some useful ready-plussed drops, but as the pre-maintenance "mad monster spawn" was due to start shortly, and its location is fairly near to the Temple, I resolved to see if I could get a level 7 mage there. The Great Horn Beasts were a bit tricky, but following other people racing to get to the spot, I made it.
Before the first wave of monsters were unleashed, [GM]Krash spawned some "hands" of loot, which as usual can't be picked up for a few seconds - Sabina managed to get an item drop booster and a large attack potion, plus a few minor things. And then things got tricky, since, as well as the high-level monsters, there are Great Horn Beasts and Elder Werewolves there which could easily kill a level 7 mage. However, I assisted in the attacks on some of the big guys, and added more than half a level easily, reaching level 8.
The only problem was that we then had one of the regular server krashes - so everyone respawned back in town, and with the "rollback" that involves, my experience and loot had vanished. I hurried back, but this time somebody pulled a large number of the cave spirits onto us in one group, and I died. I didn't immediately respawn in town, though, i stayed to watch. The Darkmind Terrain from the Tomb was their, and Anubis Archers, and some Sphinx Commanders, and things I'd never heard of, such as the level 135 Patriarch Botis from Quanian's cave and the level 136 Fluton from the Golem's Cave. And more loot was spawned - and again the server krashed.
This affected SirDarth too of course; and this time, so that at least the local monsters wouldn't kill me, I went back as him, so to speak. The fighting was just about over, but at least I managed to pick up, and retain, a couple of item drop boosters and a couple of skill point boosters, large defence and attack potions, and a pair of tool aids. It seemed to me that there were quite a few low-level people there; maybe not Sabina's level, but Darth's at least. There to offer moral support I'm sure, and of course help carry the loot back to town.
With the krashes, I have no idea if the special "worms" mentioned as part of the Cinco de Mayo series of events were actually spawned, and if they were defeated within the time limit. Still, Darth was able to head back to Merac for some more pet levelling afterwards with a slightly heavier inventory - and Sabina really didn't want the experience boost from helping kill boss monsters, skill points are what she needs.
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