Back to Maargadum

The overnight pet-levelling did get interrupted fairly soon by a ks-er, but luckily I made one final check on ColonelScarlet's situation, and was able to get things going again, and things ran smoothly from then on, so that by coffee time today the horse had reached level 25. And the Colonel kept going, though the sight of a level 50 Pandora's Beast prowling not too far away led to a switch from the berserker and bandit territory down to the gnoll lancers.

After coffee I was able to fit in the second of Kaerella's pssp hours with the Orc Soldiers in Prokion Temple on Katar-4, and, without any interruptions, things went according to plan, with again 302 skill points earned, while going up just 3.52%; I must have managed to avoid attracting quite as many Orc Fighters as last time. There was just time after that for Kae to use up her current supply of tool aids doing some herb-gathering and stone-mining before lunch.

Kaerella did a little shopping after lunch; after MistressDomino had sold so many heaven stones, she had a useful amount of cash, so buying a +15 level 37 or level 41 weapon seemed like a good idea. I eventually found a level 41 crossbow for 150 million, which didn't seem unreasonable - so EisenherZ is now 150 million richer, less Roy's 5% commission. RedRyder headlined the main afternoon session, though, in the same room as before, and got 358 skill points again, so that now both weaponsmithing and armorsmithing just need their last two levels. For some reason this time she only added 68.67% experience, along with 617 pet points. The pet point numbers for her are lower than normal, as the mummies are blue-named, and thus don't give pet experience; the orc soldiers are okay, though.

Red was still stuck in the imaginary party from yesterday, and thus couldn't join a new solo party - with any luck the regular scheduled maintenance ought to reset that, until the next time... but one of the recent maintenances, and patches, was meant to solve party problems. And meant to solve the "moving in Quiz room" thing too, come to that.

There was time for RedRyder to do the necessary 23 suicide runs in Prokion Temple to get her experience down to 0% again, so she was ready for her next adventure. And then it was time for the traditional food break.

The plan had been to link up with Zenderfly, with Merun around as well no doubt, for a Tomb teaming, but although ColonelScarlet was online all evening, I never heard anything. Kaerella was online up until about 5:30, UK time, mainly chatting with HarD and doing some mining, and then SirDarth, still on Cariae but this time on Cariae-1 for Elizabeth's Enhancement, made a short trip to Prokion Temple, just as an experiment. At level 34, focussing on the Orc Axemen rather than the still-green Orc Sergeants, his brief session only added 0.42% experience, but also brought in 22 skill points. A level 29 knight called xxXRenosXxx tried to persuade Darth to assist him with getting a blue name, but as Darth is white-named now, since he no longer pet-levels, there wasn't really anything I could do in the time available.

All this week the series of "Epic Events" with [GM]Beatrice is being reprised, and chapter one, "The Seeds of Eres", taking place in Maargadum Jail, was this evening, starting at six o'clock with the Auzura server - so Rage, my level 72 rogue, signed in, and took the provided teleporter there. Although a lot of the monsters were fifty levels or so higher than Rage, I took things steadily - there seemed to be different spawnings from the first time around, and less of the pesky cave spirits, and Rage's Snare skill came in useful many times, when it worked.

Rage did die once, entering the end-boss room - one got teleported right into the thick of the action, and it just wasn't possible to get clear. Still, a swift run back, with a new resurrection scroll applied, meant that Rage was in at the finish. Unfortunately, it was only after she'd left, going back upstairs, that any goodies were spawned. All the more for the people who waited around... still, Rage did get an armour drop on the way down, a piece of knight armour at about level 106 I think, as well as the occasional bit of gold.

The Katar event started at seven, and my level 25 rogue RedRyder didn't have any better luck with spawned rewards. She had gained over 20% experience on the way down, fighting pretty similarly to Rage, though for her the local Jail monsters were dangerous too. This time the loot was spawned too early, rather than too late, and brought massive lag which many people were complaining about. There were still a number of boss monsters around - RedRyder made an attempt to get to the loot, and had only picked up three of the almost-worthless MP and HP recovery pots when something killed her. Getting back down proved to be a bit of a problem, as the staircase that leads to the teleport point from level one to level two was choked with dire spike canines. Red got killed a number of times by them, but hey, that just means less suicide runs in Prokion Temple next time. She did get back down to the end room eventually, but by then all the action, and loot picking-up, was over.

Barbarienne, my level 101 archer, was my choice for the Cariae event, starting at eight, and things went pretty well, without any use of resurrection scrolls. About halfway down I got recruited into a party by xxXRenosXxx himself. There weren't really any dangerous points for Barb; it helped that I knew what to expect, I guess, and wasn't in the forefront of the tide of players sweeping forward, though there was plenty of action all the same. Still, with Barb's level, and the number of lower-level people in the party, only 0.04% experience got added.

The final room seemed easier this time, it helps if the monsters just happen not to spawn quite as close to the entrance point I guess, and Barb's armour is presumably a bit better than Rage's. This time [GM]Beatrice and the other GMs around managed to get the spawning of the Hands just right, with the monsters defeated, and, carefully zoomed in and looking at the floor to reduce the lag, Barbarienne at least was able to pick up some useful goodies.

When I was preparing to log out afterwards, xxXRenosXxx was trying to persuade me to power-level him, but really, taking him from level 29 would deprive him of the chance to stock up on skill points in Prokion Temple, and it's an opportunity that only comes once. Not to mention that I'm not very good at that sort of power-levelling. Would it even be possible? Most such schemes need the lower-level person to deliver the killing blow, and I can't see a level 29 knight doing much harm to any high-level monster.

The event rolled on to the Sarissa server at nine. I don't have any suitable characters to visit Maargadum Jail there - so what I did for my last half hour was log in my local Kaerella, and get her up from level 2 to level 7, helped along of course by Elizabeth's Enhancement. But I doubt if I'll have the time or inclination to spend too much time over there. I have two level ten characters on Hatzring; a new server, Tairen, is due to start soon, but I probably won't do much over there, beyond reserving my favourite names.

Throughout all the adventuring ColonelScarlet had been hard at work, and the pale blue horse he is training added two more levels, getting comfortably into level 27 before the close of play. It's probably time the modem and computer had a rest overnight, I guess, but I'm sure the Colonel will be back in action tomorrow morning.