Thursday 7 January 2010

Who Nicked the Teleporters?


Generally, pet-levelling on the new Tairen server has been pretty trouble-free, without people trying to get my pet or my character killed. I think SirGalahad was ks'd three times, that is, he had the monster he was fighting killed, to just leave him standing there uselessly - but last night, shortly before logging out, I noticed that he seemed to have slightly more activity going on next to him that one death mask lancer ought to provide. Looking closely, I found that not one but two death mask soldiers were also attacking, occupying roughly the same space as the lancer, and I can only conclude that some little sweetums had deliberately lured them on to me.

Luckily, although they are "pet-eaters", neither of them had attacked my horse; the standard thing would be for one's pet to be killed, reducing one's defence stat by 250, and then the decrease in one's defence might mean they would then kill SirGalahad. However, it looked to me as if Gal was holding his own - still, I had to do a bit of running around to get the soldiers to "reset" themselves, before I could continue the one-versus-one with the lancer.

There were no such problems this morning, though, and SirGalahad pet-levelled from breakfast until coffee. Then it was time for him to make another trip to Prokion Temple on Tairen-1, along with RedRyder. As usual for a morning adventure, the back room was clear, though I was followed into the room by a knight called redbull, who asked for a party - so I added him to the team. He was level 25, and I don't think his armour was all that good, as he seemed to get through a lot of health potions, and often had to make a run for it. I had to keep an eye on his health bar, and be ready to fight the orc sergeants and orc axemen that had clustered around him.

Another knight called tareghamedabdALH had been working nearby, and he came in to join us too, getting added to the combat party. He was level 26, and generally kept a pretty full health bar - but that back room can be dangerous if you don't have a full +10 armour set, and there were times when he had to run to safety too. He did at least understand English, unlike redbull who I think was Brazilian.

The extra Combat party bonus must have helped SirGalahad along, as by the end of the session he reached level 35, his target for full-on pet-levelling. He had gone up 26.67%, and added 142 skill points, plus 265 guild points; he stayed on for a couple of percent beyond the new level to get the skill point total to 3,060. Back in Randol he spent the odd 60 to learn Canid Fence 2, so that leaves exactly 3,000 spare skill points, at least until any deaths happen. And then, over on the older computer, off Gal went to Maargadum Jail again. With the full 250 defence from 30 levels of his pet's Armour Increase buff, he now has a defence stat of 1552; with 4 more points in dexterity, he now hits his death mask lancer bare-handed for 46, though equipping the "Dash Neckless of Knight", with its additional 16 strength, shows that the lancer can just about manage to absorb a blow of 51, though the hit rate involved would also be a consideration.

RedRyder had actually added 1.20%, 5 skill points, and 9 guild points last night at the Mad Monster Spawn, but the morning's outing added another 24.38%, 162 skill points, and 93 guild points, since Red did do a reasonable amount of fighting whenever an orc came within range. After the lunch break, Red spent all her sp to finish flawless stone processing, and get some levels of herbalism and energy absorption too, and then headed off to Misty Canyon to get rid of her current experience percentage.

After that, RedRyder had her own solo session in Prokion Temple; the back room was in use, so I used the "corridor room", which, going by a couple of gold drops still on the floor, had only recently been vacated by someone. Before long a titan called "sombra" came in and started fighting there too; he didn't stay all that long, but a specialist sorcerer called TheClown, who must have been at least level 32 as he had the red devil and pinhead knight transformations, did stay rather longer. It was a relief when he left at last, and I had the place to myself again, as there aren't really enough orcs to keep two people fully occupied.

It made a change to fight as Red again there; being the same level as orc sergeants she gets better drops than SirGalahad, for a start, and there were a couple of hands of bravery. I kept going until Red had got 394 skill points, which added 82.43% (so a full level would be 478 skill points, fighting mainly sergeants and axemen); that also added 313 guild points, and enough pet points to get Red's dragon hatchling up to level ten.

Back in Randol, RedRyder was able to finish learning both herbalism and energy absorption, which means that she just needs eight kinds of processing skills to finish off her special selection. - that will take another 986 skill points, by my calculations. Then it was time to visit Misty Canyon and its Introducer Camios again, for some more deaths. There were as ever a number of "double deaths", respawning at the point of death and immediately getting killed again, which in these circumstances is no problem; there was also a "stay dead" death, meaning that I could only log out, log back in, and return, to continue.

By then it was pretty close to time for my early evening food break. SirGalahad had been working all afternoon in Jail, and had got the horse into level 36, its final level before it is able to become a fully buffing mount. Since Gal had only recently reached level 35, that was pretty good timing - maybe tomorrow Red will be able to live up to her name, and ryde, er, ride!

For the main early part of the evening, well, it was Kaerella time - but in this case I thought that, if there are further low-level Mad Monster Spawns, it would be a good idea to get my Kaerella on Hatzring up a few levels. So, for a couple of hours or so my level 11 Kaerella fought, first of all, a few jaguars for the Geres Necklace quest, and then went into Velpist Temple. After killing a few wandering zombies, it was time to go upstairs to the level 12 ancient zombies, and the level 14 berserk variety - and by the time I logged out, Kae had gone up five levels, her dragon hatchling had gone up two levels, and she had gained 225 skill points - which, I thought, wouldn't go very far when it came to spending them.

At 7:30 UK timethere was a Parade billed for the European server, being held on Auzura-2, so I upgraded to the local level 67 Kaerella, and went along.. It took me a little while to actually find the paraders; this was a solo operation for [GM]Noboru, who was dropping firecrackers and transformation scrolls in the traditional way. It was pleasant enough, but it did tend to end up with people asking for the GM to give them weapons or armour or money, which she couldn't really do - the description of the event had mentioned that "you may receive prizes", but that presumably just meant the firecrackers and transformation scrolls...oh, and I did managed to grab a drop of 1,111 gold, which doesn't really make me significantly richer than before.

The "hang out with the GM" part did rather go on for a while, as [GM]Noboru was better at saying goodbye than actually leaving, and, well, it's rude to leave before the GM, right? This meant that things overlapped with the "Choose Your Event" event, which started on Katar-4 at 8:00; I took my level 27 rogue Karella along to the Cariae-4 version half an hour later, but it all seemed a bit strange. As far as I could see there was no sign of the promised teleporter outside Randol's north gate, just an announcement to meet outside the Temple of Forgetfulness. It didn't seem a bad idea to ride down from Prokion, which Karella had on her memory scroll, and get that location onto the scroll too, so I did that, but I was either too early or too late, and, while I managed to run as far as the Barren Eise, the comparatively high-level local monsters double-killed me then. It was only a few minutes later that the announcement came up that, by choosing one of two possible teleporters somewhere in the Temple, Katar had voted for an event of 175% experience, and Cariae had voted for 175% skill exp... but as this would apparently run from 11:00pm tonight, UK time, for three hours, this all seems a bit academic for us Europeans. The other servers were to follow in an easily remembered order, Sarissa, Hatzring, Auzura, and Tairen, though how many people on Tairen can get to the far end (?) of the Forgotten Temple to "vote", I'm not sure.

Back on Hatzring, Kaerella completed a couple of minor quests, mined some quality stones for her hatchling, and spent all her skill points - and then, it seemed like a good idea to get Prokion Temple onto her memory scroll, so Kae made the run out to Shuraine's oasis and on to the Temple. I had planned just to kill a ghoul or three, and maybe pick up any gold drops that were handy, but a level 26 healer called XAngelicX very kindly invited me into a party, and also recruited a level 25 rogue called XDevilx. Just killing ghouls, mummies, and orc soldiers and fighters got Kae up to level 17 pretty quickly - and swiftly on to level 18 as well. Sadly, it was getting late by then, so soon after reaching level 18 I had to log out.

I had been expecting to log my level 72 rogue Rage in on Auzura for the voting in the Temple of Forgetfulness - she actually does have the location on her memory scroll. That was scheduled for ten o'clock, UK time - but about ten minutes before that, it was announced that the Auzura vote was in. Three servers were in favour of the extra skill exp, two in favour of extra experience, with just Tairen left. So, there was no point in logging Rage in, which was just as well as it would have made a rather late night for me. At about ten past, the vote was in, and skill exp had won - the extra 75% started then, and would apparently continue until 2:00am.

Through it all SirGalahad had been faithfully pet-levelling, and his horse is now more than halfway through its final level - which means that it would overshoot the target if things were left running overnight. Tomorrow, though, the mount will be finished.

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