A Quiet Day

The newer computer, though it is over a year old, decided to install Vista Service Pack 2 this morning, which seemed to go smoothly, if of course slowly - the only trouble was, I discovered a few restarts later, that it had completely nerfed the computer's sound. What with trying to update drivers, and Microsoft deciding to install another "important" update in the afternoon, there wasn't as much Last Chaos playing as usual today.

Another reason for less Last Chaos was that Aeria had sent me a code-key for some goodies in another game of theirs, DragonSky, so I downloaded and installed that in the morning; I had been listening to the radio, so at that stage didn't know that the computer was an area that had been ks'd into silence, or something. I really ought to have made a note of some of the hotkeys needed; the game looked good, with a better character creation set-up than LC, I must check it out again at some point to make sure that the goodies, whatever they were, have arrived safely.

Still, some pet-levelling was going on; in my general enthusiasm for updating drivers I actually updated the ones for the graphics card on the older computer, so I'm hoping that that may stop its tendency to bleep plaintively in some parts of the Last Chaos maps. We shall see,

Kaerella headed for Maargadum Jail in the afternoon, though the session was curtailed by my discovery of the lack of sound, and SirKrackhead took over the middle of level three there while I was checking up on things. Still, Kae had added 3.50% by then, plus 65 skill points and 749 pet points.

After the early evening food break Kaerella went out there again, and fought the Beast Flyers for rather longer - that session added 7.45%, 135 skill points, and 1699 pet points. Kae is still 50% frozen on her experience gain, which is fair enough, though, looking at the guild points donated, Keerella's total is so large that I have this dreadful suspicion that Damor may have got her on a 50% freeze too, which, with Kee using platinum blessed irises and experience boosters in the Tomb recently, would not be funny.

A sorcerer called Rirol dropped by to try and share the Beast Flyers, but didn't stay long; later the level 35 knight TheSithLord turned up too for a while, and from what he said was apparently using experience boosters. My feeling was that the Merac elite types on the road on down towards the Castle might give him more experience that way. Just as I was finishing, the rogue killthemasses arrived, and I soon left her to it,

There was enough time before the Quiz, which, with UK & European clocks wound back an hour last night, and the US not due to make the change until next weekend, was in theory an hour early for us, for the Katar incarnation of Kaerella to log in for a little while, and buy some new armour before heading for Prokion Temple for a short session. But then, it was time to log out, restart the game, and head for the Quiz room on Cariae-5, which was where Zenderfly had said she would be.

Zen was trying to get Damor there on her second computer, but the game crashed twice, and she ran out of time, so it was just Zenderfly who was in the room, partying with Barbarienne - who had Karanne following her around. But in the end, it didn't matter that Zen only had one character in the room, as she, and almost everyone else, got an early question wrong - and suddenly there were only eight of us left in! For some reason people keep getting confused about which GM does the "Old Skool Treasure Hunt" (JediMike), and which GM does the "Pharaoh's Treasure" (Krash) - it caught me out one week, I absent-mindedly went across the room with everyone else, but since then I have tried to remember which was which.

There were complaints in the forum shoutbox that people had been kicked on a correct answer in some rooms; I must say that I was slightly surprised to respawn in town after question 21, but by then I'd got all my goodies. But, soon after the Quiz ended, it was time for the zombie invasions.

I'm not sure if Auzura had this event this time, but Katar was first up after the Quiz, with GM Kali in control as usual. My level 21 Kaerella there teamed up with some guildies, including DarkzerRoughneks guild master LordDarkzer, and, after waiting till the last moment, as Katar-2 is a PvP-enabled sub-server, out we ran to Berbank Mill. It was only after we got there that I remembered I was carrying 205 skill points, so was in line to lose 4 per death, but luckily I didn't get the attentions of any of the Apes or Ancient Screaming Zombies, or any or the regular Screaming Zombies either, and got a little experience, plus a little loot from the drops at the end. Two of our five party members vanished during the battle, apparently they got disconnected, I must say that the chat channel did get a bit laggy.

Barbarienne logged on for the Cariae version, and went out to the Cariae-2 location. I got recruited into a rather miscellaneous party, with a 90-ish rogue, a 70-ish knight, and a level 6 leader. I managed to kill a few Apes, and Screaming Zombies, and pick up some gold etc; I contributed to the demise of some others, and some of the Ancient ones, and I also gave a few Party Heals, though luckily somebody else provided the horse buffs.

I did get pk'd, player-killed, right at the end of the battle by a player called Karess, but was able to get back in time for the spawning of the goodies. The party was just an equal one, so the loot got distributed randomly between us. As with Katar, we did managed to defeat the hordes within the deadline, which was an improvement on last week. Probably Kali had scaled back the "invasion" a little, which was kind.

And then it was time for RedRackham, who by then had got his Cariae hatchling into level 16, turning it into a drake, to be joined at the pet-levelling by Galahad, whose horse was then about halfway through level 26. Gal went down to the Gnoll Lancers again, but this time was taking care to be as far away from the nearest Gnoll Soldier as possible, next to a pet-levelling mage called HoneyBun, with her guildie the knight Ribena also close by.