The Longest MMS

RedRackham completed an overnight pet-levelling session successfully on Cariae-3, down with the Gnoll Lancers, and seeing him still safely in action is always a good way to start the day - as was seeing the announcement that the double experience and skill exp which we had been promised had been safely switched on.

So, as soon as possible I logged SirDarth and RedRider in on Auzura-3, with Darth heading straight for the Prokion Temple back room, followed swiftly by Red when I found that the coast was clear. It was lucky that Darth had stopped a few percent short of levelling up yesterday, as that meant he and Red could still form a Combat party, as they were still just ten levels apart...and the party was able to continue after he reached level 36, which didn't take long.

By lunchtime SirDarth had managed to put on, at the double speed, 47.71%, and a handy 206 skill points, while RedRider was up 28.50% and 203 skill points. Since the party, once broken, couldn't be formed again in Combat mode, they both stayed in the Temple over lunch, and I got back to them within an hour, which for me is quick.

The afternoon session only lasted until just before three, UK time, as that was the time for the rescheduled Auzura "Mad Monster Spawn", which I wanted to take Memree, my level 31 cleric, to. By then SirDarth had added another 30.08% and 130 skill points, with RedRider adding 18.22% and 129 more skill points.

GM Xandamere was in charge of the Mad Monster Spawn, as it was still the early hours of the morning over on the Pacific coast of the USA... well, seven o'clock, anyway! I accepted an invitation to join a party with the level 27 knight mazad, and he soon also recruited the level 29 titan exodius - plus the level 117 wizard ConstantKiller and the level 87 archer Azumy. Luckily he knew enough to make the party the Precedent type, so we all kept what loot we picked up.

So, I was pretty busy supplying horse buffs and, when I could, healing - having to look out for the rest of the party must be why Memree died so often, I must have died at least a dozen times, it's lucky that Memree doesn't have at present any store of skill points to lose, and is also right at the start of her level, so it just meant using a memory scroll to get back, after self-healing and horse-buffing - and twice I got killed the moment I teleported in.

I think ConstantKiller eventually gave up, after being killed; the event certainly went on and on, it took us ages to deal with the final "boss" wave, and the one before took a while as well. In all it took eighty minutes before the last Fluton was killed, and by that time, quite reasonably, Xandamere had given up and left. It would have been good if there had been a final announcement to say "Well done guys, but unfortunately you took too long to earn any more loot spawning" - the people who were new to the event must have been left with a bit of a sense of anticlimax.

I had left RedRider in Prokion Temple, hoping to get back there, but the MMS took so long it was time for the food break - so the pet-levellers got a chance to play for a little while, at least, after missing out on the lunch break.

After that, well, SirDarth, RedRider, Prokion Temple - what more is there to say? I had to start off with an Equal type party, while Red got the 9% she needed to level up, and then it was back to the Combat party arrangement. I continued until Darth was near the top of level 36, so that it will be possible next time they go out to Prokion Temple to start with a Combat party, since more experience for Darth and less for Red is the most convenient set-up. SirDarth added another 24.69% and 115 skill points, while RedRider added 19.65% and 114 skill points. So, SirDarth went up by just over a level today, with a significant boost to his skill point reserves.

Before the "Parade day" event, which again Auzura missed out on, there was time for my archer over on Katar, Kaerella, to do a little bit of levelling, so after a quick trip through the first personal dungeon, to level up her drake, she headed to, yes, Prokion Temple.

I started fighting the ghouls and mummies, with plenty of use of Self Heal, and then a mage a couple of levels above me, EvilsMa, asked me to party with her, so I did - she did most of the fighting, and I supplied the healing. I'd said early on that I had very few mana potions, and she kindly went back to town and brought 100 back for me.

Things did get a bit hectic, as the presence of a healer seemed to inspire EvilsMa to bring in mobs of Orcs, but we did both stay alive, just. Kaerella actually reached level 20 before the end, having used about half those mana potions. EvilsMa is on Kae's Friends list, so future mad trips into danger are possible.

But at nine, it was time for Katar's Parade, so I logged Kae back in Randol, and eventually found where they were. For some reason, perhaps due to lag from all the people and the firecrackers, I couldn't use the skill bar, so completely failed to pick up any of the firecrackers being liberally dropped, except for a couple later on which I was able to pick up by hand. And then to end with there was a "moat race", with Kae among those who got so stuck in the narrow bit of the moat that, if any prizes were dropped, they were all gone by the time Kaerella finally reached the end.

Cariae's Parade started at 9:45 UK time, again hosted by GM Krash - he walked slowly around the town, dropping a few single firecrackers - and that is a word you can't type into chat, as "crackers" is a rude word apparently. I think in all, Kaerella's drake, SirFrancis, managed to pick up four, or perhaps five, which shows that Krash's largesse was a bit limited. They aren't items that can be traded, anyway - when I checked my inventory, I saw that Kae still had over 500 left over from last year, when they were one possible reward for opening a pumpkin box.

I skipped the moat race, just riding round on the grass outside it; this time there were some hands spawned just inside the moat, mainly on its steep side, and nothing got grabbed by me. GM Kali put in a brief appearance at the end, though I don't think she did anything; Krash got into the spirit of things by threatening a permanent ban for the next person to "friend request" him, and then, once the race was over, departed to prepare himself for the next server. So, not a patch on a similar "parade" type of thing that the now-departed GM Racoon once did, culminating in a monster spawn in the Arena, but it makes a change from the usual kind of event.

As for tomorrow's "Epic Event", it looks as if there will be an all-out monster attack on Randol itself. So be there - or be safe, er, square!