There was a substantial patch to download this morning after the weekly maintenance, and it brought in the traditional Hallowe'en goodies, with plenty of sinister-looking scarecrows dotted around the place, at which one could get a free "devil wings hair band", one per character, which has slightly more defence than low-level armour headgear, and also exchange a special drop called "empty baskets" for one of six Hallowe'en-themed candies, or exchange a collection of all six types of candy for a pumpkin head, or exchange a pumpkin for various random gifts.
RedRackham and Galahad went out pet-levelling at breakfast time, anyway, but a bit later Red bowed out, enabling the Katar version of Kaerella to get online and head for Dratan, where she got the quest that needs ten helpings of soft sand. So, she teleported out to Shuraine's oasis, and slogged away on the Sand Golems, and the Elite Sand Golem, until she finally had all ten, and enough of the Hallowe'en-type empty baskets to get a good number of candies - including one of each of the six types. That meant she could get a pumpkin head, which does in fact give more armour protection than Kae's current circlet.
So, Kae went out into Juno, and headed for the place where last year Karella did rather a lot of pumpkin-farming, among the Treants not far from Velpist Temple. With the pumpkin head on one is able to see, and fight, the level 20 Pumpkin Ghosts - and roughly half the time, they'll drop a pumpkin.
Take your pumpkin to a scarecrow and you'll get either 10 firecrackers (which have no value as they can't be traded, but give a brief light-show when double-clicked), 5 effort scrolls (10 minutes of 50% extra skilll exp), 5 lucky scrolls, 5 moonstones, or a heaven stone. I didn't get any heaven stones, but I got the moonstones three times, the lucky scrolls four times, and the effort scrolls once, plus five lots of firecrackers. But by then it was time to log out for lunch; Kae had added 64.56% and 112 skill points by then, thanks to the continuing extra 75% experience and skill exp.
The bonus to experience gain made today a good time to start a new character going, so I decided to work up a knight for Katar, to perhaps be able to pet-level there eventually if the offer of the free +10 30/32 armour set continues long enough. I'd set up a level 2 knight called ColonelScarlet, so he it was who went out to fight deer, foxes, wolves, berserk wolves, and jaguars - and since he wasn't too bothered about fighting stuff a level or two above him, things did indeed move along swiftly, and it wasn't very long before he reached level 8.
At that point, it was time for ColonelScarlet to make the run out to Prokion Temple, to get the location onto his memory scroll, and he did that without using a potion of haste or any health potions, just taking a single blow from a Sand Golem as he ran past. Then he moved over to the older computer, and Kaerella came back on the newer one, and a party was made for a joint trip out to the Temple.
Before that Kae had been in Randol, just giving the Colonel the solo party boost, and doing a little selling. While Kae was in town a knight called RainDropZz asked if he could buy her pumpkin helm - and as he offered half a million, and I had a set of all six candies in my inventory again, I agreed. After that Kae went into merchant mode for a while, selling spare candies at 95,000 gold each, and they sold quickly, which considering how many one does acquire when out fighting seems strange. No doubt the price will fall over the next week or three, but people don't just need a set for the pumpkin helm, if they double-click and use enough of them they will randomly get a "certificate of good taste" and a "certificate of bad taste" - and that will qualify them to get a witch-style hat.
Kaerella didn't go very far into Prokion Temple, so that ColonelScarlet didn't have to get past many ghouls and mummies to stay near. Fighting Orc Soldiers and Orc Fighters wasn't easy, as they are protective of each other, so if I fired on one, as many as four others would charge straight at me. Rather a lot of Self Heal was used.
Still, the session got Kaerella another 46.82%, taking her into level 24, plus 97 new skill points - and it moved ColonelScarlet up to level 18. Hopefully a future team-up, when Kae has got some more levels, will get him further, but there is no hurry to do that, it could well wait until Kae reaches level 31.
There were a number of disconnections today, including Katar getting a mass disconnection at 11:10 UK time - a rather usual time for such events, though one would have expected the servers to run on US time, and this week the US hasn't yet moved back to winter time, although Europe has. I did have a few later minor problems with lag and a disconnection or two, but I think that was because the computer and modem have been on without a break for a while - I kept things running last night, even without Last Chaos in action, to help the Carbonite back-up process catch up. So, the modem had a little rest over the early evening food break, before the pet-levelling recommenced.
The US and Europe being out of synch by an hour, sadly, means I missed the "Storm the Castle" event on Cariae, as it was at nine instead of ten UK time, and my usual Wednesday evening two hours away still runs from eight to ten. As they were running a little late I did manage to get my level 10 mage version of Barbarienne on Hatzring down to Merac Castle, but by the time I arrived the action was over, and all the drops had been picked up. GM Krash was holding a quiz, but it was one with very easy answers so it was really a speed-typing contest, and there was only one winner, being first with the answer to a single question didn't win me anything...
But before my evening gap, I did at least have time to take the Katar Kaerella back to Prokion Temple; really, when there are desirable drops like the empty baskets, it isn't a good idea to play a high-level character, as they tend to kill high-level mobs slowly, and most of my regular sloggers in Prokion Temple are too high to get much in the way of drops there, so Kae has an edge... not that she did actually manage to pick up many empty baskets, as it happens. Still, she found a room pretty close to my favourite back room with a few Orc Soldiers, and some Mummies, and kept busy there - busy enough to reach level 25, and get her hatchling up to level 9. In all she added 72.23% and 167 skill points - skill points she won't spend just yet, as it seems a good idea to get up to a total of 250, so that the rather sp-expensive first level of Resurrection can be learnt.
Galahad had been busy pet-levelling for quite a while on the older computer, so his horse is now well past halfway through level 31; RedRackham went down to the Gnoll Lancers late in the evening, determined to get his drake at least part of the way through level 25 before log-out time. There may well be a fair amount of pet-levelling over the next few days, as I'll tend to be rather busy downstairs as one of my "busy weekends" approaches. Still, I should be able to play in the evenings, at least.
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