A New Problem

I didn't see any items to buy with my last-thing shopping last night, but while MistressDomina on Cariae-5 was browsing the players in merchant mode this morning, she did at least find an Eyes of Spirit accessory for 45 million, being sold by the temple knight TIKALxMT; there is sure to be one of my Cariae characters who could use it. It doesn't seem so long ago that they were five times that price...

The next thing to do, I decided, was log Keerella in, and move a few items across to MistressDomina, as Kee's inventory is rather full. So, Kee logged in on the newer computer, and I started up Last Chaos on the older computer - at which point disaster struck. Maybe the higher resolution for the game that the new monitor had enabled had over-strained the graphics card, but the screen was suddenly made up of rather random rectangles of stuff, and doing a restart just brought further strange decorations overlaying the usual desktop. Well, it is an old computer, so is it worth replacing the video card?

So, that scuppered my plan for MistressDomina on Auzura to have another "power hour" before lunch. After fiddling around a little, I just ended up with Cariae's MD in merchant mode for a while, though there were so many people selling things, and so few people buying things, that business was rather quiet. We did at least sell a hundred skill point boosters, and a few other oddments - ten moonstone boxes, five heaven stones, that sort of thing.

The attempt for MistressDomina on Auzura to do a "power hour" from two to three o'clock didn't work out, either. I mentioned my intention on the Twisted guild chat tab, but there didn't seem anyone who could give me a solo party - Dropkick, the level 103 temple knight, would possibly be available in ten minutes or so when his pots ended. So I headed down into the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-5, and had just reached that corridor corner, which was already in use though the next spot seemed free, when the level 101 assassin-rogue Chilla asked for a combat party as she passed. I registered, she picked me up - and recalled me a few yards further along, to the wider corridor with pillars at its sides, with four spear men, plus sphinx fighters and towards its far end a single anubis attacker.

We seemed to be slightly at cross purposes, however. Chilla was actually in Twisted, I realised... a pity, if we'd worked things out in advance she could have saved me the entrance fee by using her party recall to bring me straight into the Tomb. "Sit here an hour, and thanks", she said. "Ok? You must sit here." To which I replied, "I'll take the two in this direction." But she said "What? I need four."

So, instead of a "power hour" and a gain of around 50%, I just fought the sphinx fighters, and the sole anubis attacker, using no expensive pots or boosters - just the occasional health potion. And as far as I could see, Chilla didn't actually need all four, while she did move between the two pairs, she didn't have to do that very often. Dropkick joined us once his own pots had ended, and he and a night shadow, also in Twisted, who had a polar bear cub equipped, just sat down next to one of the torches at the side. I was careful to pick up the loot, so that everyone got a little gold for coming, and did remind Chilla once when she was out of compass-map range of the two afk party members... and ended up, when the hour was over, with 3.04% experience gained.

I continued a little while after that, since the others were still there, getting up to 3.39%, but when Dropkick headed back to Randol, MistressDomina ran back to the start of the Tomb, and fought a few screaming zombies, helping out whenever some junior fighter got chased down the corridor. The session ended with MD up a total of 4.19%, which may not seem much, but it didn't cost anything. She got 7 skill points, and 1647 pet points for her drake.

After the early evening food break, MistressSabina went to Maargadum Jail to visit the beast flyers, but Auzura-4's room was occupied by the knight JING, and Auzura-5's by the specialist sorcerer BiliBala, so I was out of luck there. Instead, MistressBlaze logged in, and teleported out to the sphinx fighters and sphinx speer men in south-west Dratan. The level 51 assassin-type rogue Killerhoernch3n arrived at almost exactly the same moment, and we teamed up in a combat party, making a pretty good team against the elite sphinx speer man and his cohorts.

She didn't stay very long, though, saying she needed to do some farming - she did remain in the party for a while however, so that I was able to switch it over to the equal type, and register it as a "party seeking members", with the usual "solo" title. We gradually got up to the full eight, including two or three people visible on the Dratan map - and one of the last of the original eight to join was spazz, from Twisted, so I said hi and identified myself. How he came not to have a guild party I don't know...

It was a long session for MistressBlaze, helped along by the evening's "Turbo" event adding an extra 50% experience and skill exp, though, added on to the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff, which MB is still low enough to get, at level 57, it actually just works out at just 25% more. The buff had worn off by the time I was back in Dratan City, but by then MistressBlaze had gone up by 38.00%, 49 skill points, and 1180 pet points.

I kept an eye on the forum shoutbox, particularly when the gamesage Zhegao was only looking in occasionally, trying to concentrate most of his attention on his college work, and generally playing back-up and giving people the links they were asking for. [GM]Yatou put in an appearance, and I commented "By the way, it's usual to end a MMS with a generous spawning of loot", adding the "rolleyes" type smiley face. "Yeeeeah, I realized it when I went to bed last night that I forgot to change the coordinates on the MMS gifting tool", he replied. "So they did spawn >> just in another location >< so sorry about that." So, our loss was the red sasquatches' gain, apparently. I hope someone was farming there, and was able to get rather rich very suddenly! Yatou didn't stay long, as he had, he said, 200-plus RTs to deal with.