Orcs & Sphinxes

The pet-levelling duo swung into action just before breakfast, and again I didn't have the opportunity to actually play the game in the morning, so CaptainScarlet and SirPerivale made good progress, down with the Berserkers in Merac. Cap got the pink drake up to level 38, but having a pet six or seven levels above the pet-leveller is nothing compared to when SirDarth or Peri would have a horse fourteen levels above them, so maybe we can go a little further before MistressDomina is presented with her new drake, though these higher levels do get awfully long.

After lunch, well, one would hate to think that Prokion Temple was feeling neglected, so it seemed only polite to despatch SirDarth there. The back room on Auzura-4 was free, as it usually has been recently, unless Jacqueline has been there already, so Darth set to work, and my level 21 rogue RedRider hurried to join him.

I had wondered how easy she would find getting to that back room solo, past other Orc Sergeants, Orc Axemen, Orc Fighters, and Orc Soldiers, all above her in level, without SirDarth's horse buffs, but she managed pretty well, though I did crack open one small health potion along the way.

The session itself went pretty smoothly; I did have one visitor, a knight called beule; I assumed he was high enough level from the confident way he started, so I didn't give my usual caution about it being a dangerous room - perhaps I should have, because after a couple of minutes he was running for the doorway with three or four Orcs in hot pursuit, hazed in red to show that he was using some sort of health potion. He didn't manage to get away from them, and slumped to the ground, dead. I don't know why people head straight in if the Orcs in the room are red-named to them, to have got that far they must know they are protective and aggressive.

By the end of the afternoon RedRider, despite the 50% experience freeze, had gone up 147.15%, which got her to the start of level 23, and added 136 skill points; she had also contributed 207 more guild points to Discipline. SirDarth had moved on by 34.59%, and got 139 skill points.

Back in town Scarlet traded over the correct pair of +4 gloves to complete RedRider's Guardian 25/27 set, rather than the +2 ones I'd previously equipped her with, so she is now a bit better equipped for her next run - earlier she hadn't been high enough to wear the hood and boots from that set either. And then it was time for Cap and Peri to take over again. As Ratel had come online by then and joined the party for a solo boost, I had to change over one by one, to keep the party going.

Ratel reported that his Katar character had been at that server's Mad Monster Spawn last night, which had been hosted by GM Krash, so Kali wasn't multi-tasking across four different computers. He had died twice, and not managed to pick up much loot, so hadn't had too good a time there.

This was going to be one of my early log out Wednesdays, but there was still time for a visit to the Sphinx Fighters, Sphinx Speer Men, and the Elite Sphinx Speer Man. My first idea was to team MistressDomina with MistressBlaze, but although they are only fifteen levels apart, so could start a party without MB being "capped", MD is actually so close to the top of level 60 that a couple of kills would take her to level 61, and then she would cap MB.

So, it was MistressBlaze who took the lead, teamed up with MistressSabina - they are just eight levels apart, so can team up for an Equal party, or a Combat one. For a change they did actually have some visitors out there; the first was a level 26 knight called Alingrecu90, who, again, would have been capped in a party, but fought alongside MB for a while, with the shield-based stun proving useful. The rogue HeroRogue then arrived, and they teamed up a little, with or without me, before, as far as I could tell, not speaking a language they seemed to share, they decided to head for the Tomb of Theos. I did see HeroRogue briefly about half an hour later, though, just passing through and pausing to use Snare to assist me.

A little later two members of the EternityofSins guild arrived, the assassin-rogue xELCTRAx and the archer xXGabbieXx, inquiring if I'd seen Kamira recently; I had to say that I'd not seen her today. Judging by the way they dealt quickly and easily with the local monsters, including the elite, I think that between them they might well have been a match for Kamira. They did politely ask if they could kill over on the Elite's side, which was fine with me, but they didn't stay very long, judging by their chat they had decided to look for the Grand Red Dragon in Merac instead.

Ratel had continued to be a member of the party, but, after farming the Arcane Golems for a while, including the Elite, which kindly dropped a +4 weapon for him, he had to return to town, as he had visitors at his house. He mentioned that the last disconnection he had had cost him 3 skill points, from his 120, but I'm not sure when the d/c was. He is likely to be across on the Cariae server tomorrow.

Last night's server maintenance had included, well, nothing really, except for a few new packages in the in-game Item Mall, but apparently something had gone slightly wrong with that, and some people were unable to buy anything - which must have been slightly annoying, as some of the new packages included level 14 physical and magical attack and defence minerals, which haven't been around for a while I think, and unlike the level 3, 6 and 12 versions are only available from the Mall. I did manage to buy a package of 100 each of the magical ones - Rage will have an easier time against Kamira if she has the defence type, or before too long Chuck or MD may take over the Kamira-killing, and would also need such things, while MistressDomina may be glad of the attack variety for general use.

As not everyone could buy the packages, getting a "the item does not exist" error, the servers were brought down at 10:00pm UK time to reset things - and they actually got them running again ten minutes later. CaptainScarlet had logged off just before ten, as advised, with the drake just past 20% of the way through level 38; he was able to return after his brief break, joined by SirPerivale, whose horse should be at least halfway through level 24 by the time he logs out tonight.