One Long Party

I didn't do any adventuring in the morning - instead, MistressDomina on Cariae managed to do some selling. She didn't actually sell a huge amount, but her finances are gradually improving - which is good, as my shopping list seems to be growing.

After lunch, however, I resolved to take Barbarienne back into the Tomb of Theos - and, if possible, get her to the Sphinx Commanders in the final "grave room", as Zenderfly used to refer to it. I'd got 50 "Escape" potions, or perhaps they qualify as scrolls, and I put them on my skills bar... and, after getting horse buffs and entering the Tomb itself, started to run in what I hoped was the right direction.

It is many months since I attempted to run to the "Commies", and I must have taken a wrong turning or two after the "swimming pool" room which is about halfway. In fact, I decided that I might as well head back to the usual anubis spear man room...but my sense of direction had got a bit shaken up by then, and I found myself approaching not the spear man room, but approaching the final area, which always seems to me to be a cross between the entrance area of a railway station, and the bit between the car park and the shops and cinema at a local shopping mall.

So Barbarienne arrived breathless in the final room, to find two people fighting there - the level 100 titan Myvi and the level 103 sorcerer InVictus. There was also a non-fighting night shadow there, IncubuS, with a first-stage jaguar pet equipped. After checking that there was room for me there too, I started my potions. Barb had used 38 of her Escape items - Myvi commented later that he usually used around 10.

There was a little friction at the start, until we sorted out which sphinx commanders were whose - Myvi never commented, but InVictus wanted to reserve the two "commies" on the outside ring, to the right and left of the doorway, for himself, and showed his displeasure when i attacked one of them with a token, skill-less "ks". But once I understood which ones he meant, and got oriented, things quickly settled down, and I joined the combat party...as did Keerella, who used a teleport book to move directly to me.

The spot I initially put Keerella in wasn't a safe one, and poor SkrappY, my level 52 Scra-Chi pet, died very quickly. It wasn't long before Kee had a "send error report?" LC crash too, but at least that gave her the opportunity to get SkrappY unsealed, at a cost of over two million, before teleporting in again.

Keerella settled in next to IncubuS after that, and all went well. SkrappY levelled up, reaching 53, though while IncubuS and his jaguar were there the two pets shared the pet experience from the sphinx commanders. Once they left, things speeded up, and SkrappY ended the session two-thirds of the way through his new level.

It was a long session, and I didn't take the usual early evening food break, just getting some water and cereal bars instead. The first hour saw Barb use 37 experience boosters, and going up 9.31%, but as I got used to things, and space opened up, things moved along a little quicker. The second hour used 38 of the boosters, for 9.94% experience. It was around then that I had my first sighting of the knight ZiPe, but he didn't stay long, and may have had an error, like Kee - he returned though and joined the combat party, after InVictus had left - and returned a third time later.

The third hour saw me crack open 39 boosters, for another 9.94%; the fourth hour used up another 39, adding 9.90%. With the place almost to myself, concentrating on the two sphinx commanders InVictus had preferred, during the fifth hour I used 43 boosters for 11.01%, taking Barbarienne into level 106; I used 44 in the sixth hour, for 11.00%, and, during the seventh and final hour, another 43 boosters were used, adding another 10.75%. Reaching level 106 had meant that Barb could put on her new leggings, and that increased her physical defence from 3350 to 3433. That minor increase rather backs up my strategy of keeping with the level 86 pair, rather than going to the 91, 96 and 101 types, if I could have found them.

Myvi had been a non-fighter for a few hours in the middle, but was back in action later on, and we finished at just about the same time. He had done six fighting hours, he said, for around 90% of a level. While we were recovering from our exertions, a new knight arrived, but he was a little low-level for a combat party with Myvi or Barb, and by the time he decided that, after all, maybe a combat party with Keerella would be better than a solo party, Kee had already logged out...though it took a few minutes for the older computer to actually close down the game.

For just standing around, Keerella had got herself 1.70% experience, and the same number of skill points as Barbarienne - 13. In all, Barb went up by 71.91%, using seven pbis, crit pots, platinum adrenalin, and berserker potions, along with 283 experience boosters. So, if one can get there, it may be a little cheaper on the boosters than the anubis spear men. I hadn't equipped Barb's drake early on, as each time I tried it immediately took damage, but eventually I got used to it getting hit just about every time I attacked a new sphinx commander, and put the green herb leaves on the skills bar, to keep topping up its health. The drake added 5047 pet points, so is pretty near the top of level 44 now.

The Tomb's condition must have been pretty easy, as generally Barbarienne's 10% suction of life accessory was all that was needed to keep her healthy. A few times she did have to use Self Heal, but nothing seemed particularly dangerous, even when two sphinx commanders came in together on her. Good evasion helps of course, if they can't hit, they can't hurt me.

Back in Randol, Barbarienne was able to pass her old level 86 +15 leggings across to Kaerella, who in return passed some gold across, and some green herb leaves. Wearing the +15 pair instead of her +13 pair increased Kae's physical defence from 2655 to 2798. Barb then went to the Master Healer to learn the new seventh level of Enchant Arrow, a passive skill which increases her physical attack by 35 - at a cost of 700 skill points, and 60 million gold, hence the need for some cash from Kae.

Barbarienne did actually have a quest to kill three sphinx commanders, so that got completed early on. There's a quest for spear men that she hasn't claimed a reward for yet, I must try to time my visits to the quest-givers for when an event has raised the amount of experience on offer, as both the rewards seemed reasonably generous.

The one armour item picked up during the session was a level 86 sorcerer shirt, Mother Earth Armour +2, with two sockets. Normally I just sell Tomb armour drops to the npc merchant, who would give 433,900 gold, but the +2 and the sockets would make it worth selling via the merchant mart... though due to a glitch, or lack of forethought, items with sockets can't be sold via Roy yet. So I guess I hold on to it for a while. The commies weren't particularly generous with their drops otherwise, though there was a heaven stone, some stars, stripes, and tokens, a ring or two, and a couple of hands of protection, which give a large defence potion. After Barb levelled up, the "hands" are now blue-named for her - I wondered what was happening when the first one appeared.