In the Dark

MistressDomino managed to sell 9.5 million's worth of items overnight, which gave my gold balance on the Katar server a very useful boost - later I was able to search through the available accessories that Roy had, and find a Stone of Shadow for 18 million, already identified, which is a couple of million below the next-best price - so Kaerella now has that equipped, along with her Pierce of Wind and the necklace giving 5% suction of life.

Galahad and RedRackham got moving with their pets from breakfast time, but as nine o'clock approached, suddenly the older computer monitor just went black. I had to head out shopping minutes after that, the main monthly, or thereabouts, "big shop", so all I could do was leave things as they were, and hope it was just a fuse in the plug. RedRackham was set up for pet-levelling on that computer, and ought to be okay until later, I decided, even without me being able to see what he was doing.

Galahad had charge of the level 42 drake, which wouldn't stay fed long enough for a full-morning shopping trip, so he had logged off, and Kaerella, back on Katar, settled in to do some low-impact mining while I was out.

Sadly all changing the plug's 5 amp fuse achieved was to get a small green light flashing on the front of the monitor, so in the end I had to switch off the older computer and take off its monitor, bringing in the one from my previous machine, which is a couple of inches smaller, but seems to be working okay. The picture was a bit dark to begin with, but I increased the brightness and it looks fine now.

One other disappointment followed, when, after picking up a pair of free red-and-blue 3D glasses in town, I found that the double-image effect I'm getting on the newer computer for Guild Wars is not a clever 3D thing - the picture is no better with the glasses on. So, I'll need to look for new drivers for the graphics card again I guess.

The afternoon session, however, was more productive, with ColonelScarlet making his final trips to Prokion Temple. Getting the last 17% experience he needed to reach level 35 went a bit slowly, as we don't have any "event bonus" running now, but I used one of his "beginner" platinum blessed irises, and we got there - he added 16.82% in all, along with 65 skill points - and then back in town he was able to spend just 60 of them to learn Canid Fence 2, increasing his physical defence by a further 120.

Kaerella added 8.08% and 53 skill points, which brought her up to just enough to get the final level of herb trunk processing. And then once that had been learned, both Kae and the Colonel headed across to Katar-4, a PvP-enabled sub-server, and, in Prokion Temple, Kae removed her armour, and let the Colonel kill her 8 times. That took him to -155 on the good/evil scale, reducing his attack power, so that, back over on Katar-5, he was able to run down to the Berserker spot, add it to his memory scroll, and start pet-levelling. His horse levelled up, to level 18, before long, and he kept going over the early evening food break. RoGuE10 did get in touch, inviting him to join her on a trip to Maargadum Jail, but he had to decline: "This character will just be pet-levelling now."

I had to be fairly prompt with my time off, as Auzura's "Mad Monster Spawn" is now back to its regular five o'clock, UK time, schedule. My level 31 archer Memree, still with nothing to lose, went to that; I saw ex-guildie JadaMarie there, and I also saw the now high-level and well-armoured knight Ratel too. I saw them both die, come to that, while Memree herself took three or four unplanned free trips back to town too.

Still, the loot drops that GM Stratos gave us were good, there seemed plenty to pick up. I thought we had gone over the time limit on the "boss wave" with its Flutons and Patriarch Botises, but we got a generous final spawning of the Hands of Bravery, Protection, and The Guard, and he even produced a few further Darkmind Terrains for us to finish on.

The main evening session starred MistressDomino, who took another trip out to Velpist Temple, and headed off to the left this time, to the room before the final hall where the "torn book of life" quests get advanced, and fought the berserk zombies and corpse rangers - and even the occasional red-named skeleton soldier, if they happened to get attracted to the action. There were a number of ready-plussed armour drops, but nothing for a mage. Still, MD went up 201.83%, to reach level 16, and got 69 skill points; her dragon hatchling reached level four, too.

After a trip back to Randol, MD followed a minor quest down to Hunter Dranore, and as she was wearing the jack-o-lantern pumpkin helm, saw that there were pumpkin ghosts around. So, as well as doing a minor repeatable quest for Dranore by killing the baby treants, she killed some pumpkin ghosts - which isn't too easy at level 16, as they are level 20, and can hit fairly hard. That little session added another 53.67% and 10 skill points...well, the ghosts aren't augmented boss-types like the Temple inhabitants!

The US servers have their "Mad Monster Spawn" at ten in the evening, UK time, and for a change, and to get some more loot on Katar, I didn't go over to Barbarienne on Cariae, I stayed on Katar with Kaerella. Before the start I had time to use Kae's existing supply of tool aids to do a little mining; I transferred the resulting quality stones across to MistressDomino, who went into merchant mode in town. I only died once at the MMS, though had to do some speedy retreating when a cave spirit type knight or two started chasing me. Krash was in charge, and the Katar people generally handled things pretty well. I ended up with more loot than I'm used to on Auzura or Cariae I think - 7 item drop boosters, 4 skill point boosters, no less than 14 large defence and 11 large attack potions, and 24 tool aids...so more mining will probably get done tomorrow.

There was just time for ColonelScarlet to do a little more pet-levelling before log-out time; by then the horse should just have reached level 20. He couldn't stay up all night, as the server maintenance is due at 1:00am UK time, with no great changes promised, just a glitch or two fixed, the chat filter made a bit less ludicrous, and "some extra anti-hacking/cheating security" - will it let us log on tomorrow, I wonder? MistressDomino managed to sell her supply of empty baskets and ten heaven stones, so it looks as if I should be able to afford to browse Roy's wares a bit more.