With the Heroine

CaptainScarlet did manage to keep levelling Lylja's smart stormy-grey horse overnight without problems, so that by mid-morning it had reached level 33; SirPerivale logged back in before breakfast and continued work on the horse that will be heading Samael's way when it reaches that level, so that it reached level 26 fairly early on. Our characters may not make a whole lot of progress, but our horses do...

RedRackham made the trip out to Prokion Temple on Auzura-4 after coffee, with Cap providing the solo party while continuing his pet-levelling in Merac. Red added 22.10% before lunch, and another 106 skill points. After Peri had returned to the pet-levelling over the lunch break, RedRackham was able to put in some more time in my favourite back room at the Temple, and used the first of his beginner-type platinum blessed irises, for an hour's worth of an extra 150% experience - so that 38.79% got added in the hour, or 39.88% in the session, which continued for only a few minutes after the pbi expired. 84 more skill points rolled in, too.

The main reason the session ended then was that three o'clock, UK time, was approaching, and the "Events" calendar promised that this Friday "Happy Hour" would give a bonus of 50% experience - so that it seemed like a good idea to take MistressBlaze and MistressSabina out to the Sphinx types. However, as soon as I arrived there, the announcement came up that the "Happy Hour" was to be an extra 50% skill exp. Indeed, the first Sphinx Fighter I killed just gave the normal amount of experience, so I hurriedly logged out my witch and wizard, and logged in SirDarth and the level 23 rogue RedRider to take advantage of this. They rushed to Prokion Temple, and settled in; Ratel was in our party, for the solo boost, by now, and he was heading to Egeha to do some farming of the Bogles there, where the extra 50% skill exp would also come in handy.

After perhaps twenty minutes, though, we noticed that the skill exp had been silently changed back to normal, and the regular experience had received the 50% boost it should have had all along; as Ratel had paid 800,000 gold to get to Egeha he was stuck there, and had a decently long session, making enough gold for his next "ticket", plus a useful profit, but, with SirDarth having added 9.05% and 46 skill points, I logged my Prokion pair out, and logged MistressSabina and MistressBlaze back in.

So, it was a bit of a bungle to put on the wrong 50% bonus at the start, and then panic and switch things over - a bit cowardly too not to say anything, perhaps. But finally MB and Sabina were able to get out to the Sphinx Fighters and Sphinx Speer Men, and have about ninety minutes of quality time with them.

I did see PolishLady there when I arrived, but she was just sitting there, not fighting, and left after a while. I had thought about having a Combat party, so that MB would get the full experience rather than sharing it with Sabina, but that wasn't really necessary, or indeed possible with Ratty in the party too. Sabina did level up, so that she is now level 39; she added 51.91% in all. MistressBlaze added 22.04%, and 631 pet points.

Towards the end of the two "Happy Hour" hours notices came up for a second chapter of the "Epic Event" being run by GMBeatrice, apparently taking place in the swampy region of Merac, but I was thinking more in terms of food by then, and didn't really have an appropriate character to take there. The local inhabitants are a bit rich for Memree, at least, and that's before you add the more lethal kinds of dragons and zombies, and who knew what else, to the mix. The Cariae version of the event was scheduled for ten tonight, I noticed...

After Cap and Peri had done more good work, with Peri's horse just reaching level 27, it was time to get back into action. MistressSabina and MistressBlaze went back to the Sphinx types, for a good long session; Elvastar, Ratel's level 22 sorcerer, was in the party from early on, so we had to switch from Combat to Equal mode; he was in Prokion Temple, though logged off a bit early. mike000mike got in touch, and came out to join MB and Sabina, so we were able to take on the Elite Speer Man. Things went smoothly this time, though there are always going to be times when one or two uninvited Sphinx Speer Men insist on joining in.

MistressBlaze managed to reach level 46, which was the main objective; she went up by 36.77% in all, and got 1144 pet points for her drake. MistressSabina added 71.11%, so it won't be long before she can wear the gloves, at least, of MB's old costume. The level 46 shirt and skirt have also been passed across to here by MB, as she has switched to wearing the level 51 ones now.

SirPerivale headed out to the Berserkers, but CaptainScarlet had to wait a while - over on Cariae-3, Barbarienne logged in for the Epic Event, down in Merac's swamp.

I was slightly early getting there, as I had been on the edge of town, knew from the website's photo-comic that the event took place at the swamp, and rode down. Actually I think Merac has two swampy areas, but I knew I had found the right one when I saw a few Endemic Demons, as well as some Screaming Zombies, already there. I used my horse buffs, and opened fire on one of the Demons - so of course the whole lot, triceratops-types with riders on their backs, thundered towards me. They may only be level 84 but they are bosses, so I ran, and luckily all but the one I had targeted gave up eventually. It took a while, but I managed to kill it, and it dropped a +1 level 71 healer shirt.

People began arriving then, and soon there were plenty of players, fighting a great many monsters, including ones I'd never come across before - Almas and Cube Guards, for example. Before long I read a text message saying "take off your horse", and in case it was a warning aimed at me that my reindeer-style pet was in danger, I quickly did that - it was Zenderfly, wanting to add me to her party. Well, the party was just the two of us initially, but before long Zen added a third - at level 145 she capped us, but it was GM Beatrice herself, so I became responsible for healing and horse-buffing the heroine of the "Epic Event" tale herself.

I am not sure if Zenderfly managed to stay alive all the time, her health bar got incredibly low a time or two - I did end up saying "Zen, health potions are available, I'm an archer not a cleric". My health took some hits, particularly when a Fluton decided it didn't like me and chased me along the muddy beach. But it was all great fun, and a fine way to end the day.