Thursday 29 October 2009

The Haunted Jail


There was indeed a whole lot of pet-levelling going on today, which meant that by the evening Galahad's horse got into level 33, and RedRackham's drake reached level 28. It's useful to have relatively high-level pet-trainers, so that the quality stones last a good long time; it was sensible to check up on progress every half hour or so, though, in case some little dear had been along to kill Gal's Berserker, or Red's Gnoll Lancer.

Zenderfly did attempt to contact me, on RedRackham, and even tried to get Red added to Damor's Friends List, but we didn't manage to link up, though I tried to be by the screen on the hour a couple of times, as suggested. The German Last Chaos had had an update we've not received yet...

After my early evening food break I was finally able to log on and play, so Red bowed out, and the Katar incarnation (inpixelation?) of Kaerella quickly headed out to Prokion Temple on Katar-5. Being on a different server from the active pet-leveller meant that I was at the mercy of random parties, to get my "solo party" boost - the first party I joined, I got kicked a minute later when I'd run past the party leader, though she'd not actually been fighting then; when another party became available I got into that, but immediately afterwards a knight joined who was also in Prokion Temple, and in range of my new favourite spot - he was in fact in what, when I reach level 27 or so, is my favourite back room. And for most of the evening he just sat behind a torch there, doing nothing, which meant I had to move out of range, or he'd have leached half my experience, skill exp, and loot.

It was strange, I was fighting green and white-named monsters, some of Kae's own level, 25, others on 23 and 19, but the whole time I was there I didn't pick up any "empty baskets" - a reasonable amount of other loot, including a few moonstones boxes and two Hands of the Warrior, which are chiefly notable for the heaven stone they include. The only empty basket I picked up came from someone who passed by where I was fighting, and stopped to fight an Orc Soldier that had been following him - but didn't stay to pick up his drop.

Still, I easily reached my initial target, which was to get enough skill points for the first, and most expensive, level of Resurrection; by the end of the session I'd added 204 of them, which on top of the 178 I'd brought forward meant that I was able to learn that first level, and the second level too (a mere 100 sp), plus level 4 of Cure Poison. I'd also gone up by 71.55% on the experience side, and 1153 pet points.

After leaving the Temple and learning my skills, I headed down into Merac, to Maargadum Jail. Not the ideal place for a level 25 healer with armour that is just +2 or +3, since the monsters in there start at level 40, but that was where the "Haunted Jail" Hallowe'en event was to be held, starting on the Katar-5 sub-server at 8:00pm UK time - which, with our clocks having fallen back an hour, while the US clocks don't change until this coming weekend, meant that it's an earlier start to such things than usual.

There was no in-game announcement until a couple of minutes before the start time, but GM Kali arrived, and GM Krash was there too. I noticed that Kali is a rogue on Katar, as opposed to a mage on Cariae and an archer on Auzura. And suddenly the first big room on level one of the Jail was full of Barren Eises, and Dark Bogles, and more. Kae did her best to assist with the despatching of this assemblage, and afterwards there were some Hands dropped, so, with a careful eye on the respawning local dire spike canines, Kae did manage to pick up some loot.

The monsters on the second level were harder, with Wight Slashers and Scorpionmantises, plus Assassinbugs - but level three had the cave spirits, the level 119 to 130-plus versions of our six classes, and they are hard for me on any server. It wasn't long before Kaerella died - I managed to run back down and rejoin the battle, but after a second death, there weren't enough other people running back to let me get past the canines. Still, I'd picked up some loot, and only lost 1 of the 2 remaining skill points I was carrying, plus 0.5% experience.

Zenderfly did manage to get in touch while I was down on level three, with a new Katar character - she was still in the starter dungeon at the time, seeing how far past the "final" doorway she could get, using Self Heal to provide some light.

What the German version of Last Chaos has got is a new pet, a kind of bear - like the hatchling/drake/dragon and the pony/horse/mount it does apparently change as it levels up, but like Ichi and Scrachi it cannot be "mounted", and can attack your enemies. For Germany at least the pet is bought from the Item mall - at a price one could buy a video-playing ipod for! And it can only be healed with potions from the Mall, while like Ichi and Scra-Chi its armour and weapon are mall items that need to be renewed every 30 days. Apparently the German mall is a lot more expensive than the Last Chaos USA one, so hopefully prices will be more reasonable, when the bear arrives for us.

There was also a sign that "episode two" with the Night Shadow class is getting near, as the German item mall has seven new Hallowe'en/pirate-themed costumes in its mall now... and the seventh is for a Night Shadow character.

The "Haunted Jail" event moved on to Cariae next, at 8:45, and I moved too, meeting up with Zenderfly there - I'd changed from a level 25 archer to a level 101 one, Barbarienne. The ground floor monsters were all blue-named to us, and absolutely no trouble - the same could be said for level two, and we happily helped rid the Jail of these spooky usurpers.

I had warned Zen that level three would be full of cave spirits, but we joined the general charge onwards. Zen went down the stairs into the middle section, but attracted the attention of a whole mob of spirit titans. I was healing as much as I could - but she was losing health fast, and knew that if she logged out they would all rush me as I'd been healing her. So she made sure I was well on my way to the stairs up before saving herself by logging out.

Zen logged back in and returned, rejoining the party, and after we'd cleared out level three, was asking me where the action was now. I'd run on ahead, so just replied "5".

And pretty intense action it was, too, with Flutons and a Patriarch Botis or two, plus Anubis Archers and other tricky beasts. I thought Zen had died, but she had been hit by one of the "bleed" effects that takes one down to 1 health point - so that even the slightest hit would finish one off. So, she logged out from the Jail safely again, and, as it was getting late, said goodnight from town, and logged out for the night.

Barbarienne nearly died too, hit hard by something big, and then I couldn't stop targetting it as it was too close to the exit... at last I got past it, but there was a Fluton up the stairs, and how I got past that one with still some health left I don't know, it wasn't easy. Once I'd used Self Heal enough times I headed back down, and was one of the team making good inroads on the Fluton's health when suddenly all the visiting monsters vanished - the haunting had been exorcised.

Kali was wearing the new pirate-style mage costume, which looks fun, with the appropriate hat, though it's basically a mage black costume with some red frills added. Krash, as a titan there, sported a red mohican hairstyle, which makes a change...

Generous amount of hands were spawned then, and as there weren't a huge number of people down on level five, there seemed a lot of goodies to pick up - it probably averaged out at about five each of the large attack and defence potions, item drop boosters, and skill point boosters - plus the minor items.

And then it was time to log Barb out, and let RedRackham return for some more pet-levelling. By the end of the evening Galahad's horse was at least a third of the way through level 33, while Red's drake was two-thirds of the way through 28. They should get a fair bit of time to continue tomorrow, though I'm hopeful that I ought to be able to have some sort of afternoon playing session. Zen did mention in a guild message being on at six in the evening tomorrow, perhaps there will be more news from that other Last Chaos version then.

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