Time in the Temple

As usual SirDarth and SirPerivale made an early start; I was busy downstairs all morning, so they managed to continue without interruptions, generally, though a rather large download followed by an attempt to clear some space on the older computer meant it slowed down so much I had to do a restart, so Darth did get a short rest then. By lunchtime though Peri's drake had reached level 30, and the horse Darth is training for SmokeinTheKush had reached level 32, so was now on its final level. 9457 pet points meant nine and a half hours to go...

With his drake now giving 29 of the 30 possible levels of Armour Increase, Peri was able to let Darth have his +12 helm back. With the +4 helm on, together with the rest of the +4 "Radiant" armour set and defence/evasion orientated accessories, and still using Darth's +13 Royal Shield, the 29 levels of Armour Increase mean that Peri has a total Physical Defence stat of 985, which is enough to keep the Berserker he is fighting from doing any consistent damage.

MistressDomina had the afternoon session for her trip to Prokion Temple, and had the back room to herself, except for an intrusion for a few minutes from the pair of non English speaking ks-ers, the rogue kurenaji and the healer Ljubimba. Before she left Randol she got the reward from Healer Yabo for killing assorted spiders out in the desert yesterday, which did add 1.28% experience, so that the afternoon's experience gain figure of 10.96% is higher than it should be. 1300 pet points were also added, and 186 skill points.

Later in the afternoon, when Smokey was online, there were a number of messages to Darth just asking "exp", so he was eager for level 33 to be reached. "2679/9457" I'd reply, which he'd acknowledge with a terse "k".

In the evening, as well as messages from Smokey and another character of his, PineAppleExpress, someone called ProToS got me to add him to my Friends list, and then said that Stavanic had told him to get in touch, and could I level his pony "5-8" levels... Stavanic would give me the necessary tool aid, or hopefully tool aids. So I agreed, assuming he was in one of our guilds, but when Stavanic came online a little later, he said that he wasn't, he'd apparently made his own guild. So I'm not entirely sure what the whole idea is - Stavanic apparently has promised to make him a mount, and I just get to do a few levels of it. I did suggest that he shouldn't "make a habit of giving away my time to strangers"...but hey, it's only a few levels, and Steve himself seems to get the main part of the task. Let's hope it stays that way.

Well, the evening session also belonged to MistressDomina; there is a chance, after all, that following tomorrow night's maintenance the skill exp in the Forgotten Temple might be increased, so it's less than tempting to take Rage there too much, or indeed to move out of its range of levels. At least Kaerella remains well placed to take advantage of any increase there, once she gets her armour back.

The evening session began with a brief trip into Merac to kill a few Berserkers. As she approached SirDarth there, a Pandora's Box came into sight, and, when she opened it, a level 50 Pandora's Beast was released. Luckily the Curse skill, to slow it down, and Terra Spear, to hit it hard, both worked properly, and while one hit did take about a third of her health, it died, and dropped 100,00 gold exactly. As MD was fairly close to Darth at the time, the cash was split between them; he also got the horse buffs MD gave herself before the fight, which meant for a few minutes he couldn't really pet-level, as the extra attack meant that even without a weapon equipped Berserkers died rather quickly.

There was a second Pandora's Box slightly further along towards Maargadum Jail, but opening that one just dropped ten small health potions, which is about the least useful drop one gets. Unless you count the level 30 Beasts, which tend just to drop 200-300 gold when killed!

However, the main part of the evening was spent back in Prokion Temple, where MD was uninterrupted. 11.42% experience was gained, along with 1484 more pet points, and 223 skill points - enough to get the total of unused points up to 24,500 exactly. MistressDomina has also contributed 31,014 guild points to Norcaine, from being frozen or semi-frozen in Prokion Temple... which isn't quite as many as Chuck managed, but then he was 100% frozen all the time, since that was allowed then.

However, with Ratel's continuing absence, it is starting to make sense to have MD leave the Norcaine guild - Kaerella, Chuck and Darth are enough there I think, and without the guild master being online, leaving is the only way to end that 50% freeze. Kaerella is a guild adviser, as far as I know, so can do the kicking; it's better to be kicked than to leave, as people who opt to leave a guild have to wait a week before they can join another. Rage logged on briefly to check with XxAcheronxX and Aszune, and they appear to have room for MD in DreamingRequiem, though no guild master or guild adviser was anywhere suitable for recruiting her. Making a special trip into the Tomb of Theos, at level 34, didn't seem a very wise idea... So, tomorrow, probably. Having both Rage and MD there will make it easier to keep involved, I hope.

SirDarth meanwhile had been making steady progress with Smokey's horse, so that it should be possible to reach level 33 before logging-out time tonight, and pass it across to SmokeinTheKush or her alter ego PineAppleExpress. There may even be time for Darth to convert a pan flute into a brand-new pony as well. SirPerivale should get his drake almost halfway through level 30, as well. PineAppleExpress was saying that she had bought a level 15 blue hatchling for only one million, and that somebody had probably left a zero or two off when they put it for sale. She was thinking of getting it up to level 16 and selling it, but I advised her to hang on to it, everyone needs a pet as well as a mount, to get both sorts of buff.