Mid-Level Mad Monsters

The Tomb of Theos on the Cariae server was at 30%, when Barbarienne checked it out after coffee, so I switched over to Auzura, where MistressDomina was told that it was currently on 50%, by one of her Twisted guildies, which was a bit low for trying a "power hour" during the eleven to twelve dungeon time. However, it seemed worth checking it myself, so MD went out to the entrance, and found it had moved to 70%, which seemed do-able. So, Kaerella logged in to join her and, once they had formed their combat party, they went in to the Auzura-4 Tomb.

One thing I forgot to do was give them the attack and defence "horse buffs" before entering, which was almost a costly mistake. Kaerella followed MistressDomina on her run to the anubis spear men, and when they reached that first corner in the corridor after the spear man room, they both fought a couple of sphinx fighters which had followed - and I suddenly noticed that Kae's health was down to about 200. So, she did a lot of Self Heal while MD fought the fighters, and got her health back to a safe level before joining in.

As usual there, MistressDomina fought the two anubis spear men that spawn close to that corner, and Kaerella mopped up the local sphinx fighters. I checked afterwards, and the Condition had fallen to 60% - I think it must have done that almost as soon as I went in, as Kae did seem to do rather more healing, both of herself and MD, than usual. MistressDomina's Terra Spear skill soon hit for a bit less damage, too, and using only 38 experience boosters, for 38 spear man kills, shows that it was slow going. MD added just 27.16% from those kills, and her share from Kae's sphinx fighter kills - adding a kill or two before, and one after, brought the session's total to 27.35%, while Kaerella earned 4.47%. They each got 3 skill points; MD's drake gained 1179 pet points, while Kae's managed 1085, cut back a bit by the time she spent healing.

There were some Twisted guildies quite near by, and I think a bit of power-levelling going on; they may well have been attracted by my announcement that the first spear man room was not in use, when I arrived.

The two to three o'clock dungeon time hour was a bit similar - but this time, when I checked, the Tomb of Theos on Cariae-4 was up to a positively luxurious 80%, so instead of a mage backed up by an archer, at the first corner of the corridor after the anubis spear men room I had an archer backed up by a mage - Barbarienne and Keerella. As the place had only been reset relatively recently, there weren't many other people around, which helps to keep things simple. Barbarienne used 54 experience boosters, which shows the benefits of a level 109 weapon, allowing her to kill comparatively quickly, and, aside from the platinum blessed iris, just a platinum adrenaline potion to speed up her attack. By the end of the hour she'd added 23.79%; Keerella, keeping busy on the sphinx fighters, had earned 1.53%. Barb's drake was up by 1272 pet points, with Kee's drake on 1214, and they'd each added 7 skill points, since they are closer to the spear men's level than MD and Kae are.

Then it was time to see if MistressSabina, my level 46 witch, could have another hectic pssp hour on the third floor of Maargadum Jail on Auzura-4, in a solo party with RedRackham, in his usual spot on floor five there. The 10% suction of life necklace certainly did make things easier for Sabina; she didn't use any health pots, though she did occasionally use her witchy skill to steal a little health from a foe. 4.87% experience was gained, and, with her experience gain semi-frozen, some further guild points were earned for Discipline; her drake added 1024 pet points, and she earned 141 skill points.

RedRackham continued through a rather lengthy early evening break, getting the drake to three-quarters of the way through level 41. His supply of quality stones is certainly starting to dwindle.

The "New Mad Monster Spawn for levels 46-90" was scheduled to start with Auzura at six o'clock - My nearest to that range was my rogue Rage, on 92, really, and she arrived out near the new deserted, waterlogged village in south-west Juno a couple of minutes after the start time, to find just a few people waiting around. I commented on the lack of activity there in the forum shoutbox, and luckily irene_tas was there, and able to pass on a reminder to the GMs, so that, at a quarter past, an announcement was made that the event would start in five minutes. [GM]Darasuum turned up soon afterwards, apologising for being late.

Rage may have been two levels over-qualified, but that didn't stop her getting killed when a whole lot of skin walkers and endemic demons, and probably some boucu demons, took after her - I'd forgotten that they were protective of each other, and the skin walkers' skill, reducing the speed at which Rage could run, meant that she couldn't get to safety. One of Juno's new "invisible walls" on a slight slope didn't help, either. So, that was a bit expensive...while I do have a supply of resurrection scrolls, their market price is around ten million each.

The battle was still going on when Rage rode back from town. On my screen at least, Rage was now coloured red, a side-effect of the demons' attacks. I at least managed not to get killed again, and helped mop up the skin walkers, which were now scattered...I even got the credit for one solo kill, counting towards an Egeha quest that Rage has to kill ten of them.

[GM]Darasuum then announced that it was loot time - but, instead of the usual spawnings of hands of bravery, hands of protection, and hands of the guard, which cannot be picked up for perhaps half a minute, allowing everyone to gather round and pick stuff up, he just dropped some oddments - I was lucky to get a couple of small defence pots, and two experience boosters, but most people got nothing. The GM then vanished without a word, leaving people standing around lost, hoping for some "proper" loot. One or two relatively high-level people took pity and dropped a few things, I think I got four or five tool aids...

But by then seven o'clock was approaching - which was Katar's turn for this mid-level MMS. This event did at least start on time; as I could only take my level 43 archer Kaerella on Katar, I had to be careful - I forgot that death mask lancers were protective of each other, so had a mob of those chasing me briefly, but other people soon helped me out. There were quite a few higher-level monsters spawned again, including perhaps a dozen Kamiras, who dropped there usual bits and pieces; I was able to pick up some medals of honour, 5 moonstones, 5 lucky scrolls, some medium mana potions, and a crystal of experience (greater). [GM]Darasuum was in charge again, but didn't actually appear, so I'm not sure if he did spawn some loot in a similar way to the previous server...I didn't get any, for sure. Luckily a high-level mage, EpicHellMage, was generous enough to drop quite a few things, so Kae was among those chasing her around...and got an experience booster, a master coin, three large defence pots, level three magical attack & defence minerals, a pair of level 87 boots, and a necklace of thunder - it didn't have any hit rate or suction of life, but 30 crit and 8 physical fortitude, plus some attack, ought to make it useful for one of my lower characters.

Keerella went along to the Cariae event at eight - and boy was I glad she had her +15 armour set, when I got a whole bunch of Kamiras on me, plus barren eises and blood terrains. Sadly I had to retreat a bit, and probably left the loot from a number of Kamiras for other people to pick up, but I did a single Kamira's worth of moonstones, lucky scrolls, tool aids, and so on, as well as four of the crystals of experience (greater). The level 102 titan ArchSentinel mentioned that he'd got a rare Tears of Knight accessory from one, so he certainly got lucky.

There seemed more monsters this time, even before [GM]Darasuum added a final wave. An endemic demon dropped a level 72 helm for me - and this time, when the GM mentioned that the loot was about to appear, I knew enough to be right beside him with my finger on the "pick" button, so I managed to get two item drop boosters, two HP stealers, and two item drop boosters - plus three small mana recovery potions.

It seems my rogues are unlucky. I took my level 39 rogue RedRyder along to the Sarissa event, and she too got killed - so she's without any resurrection scrolls now, until a cheap pack of them comes along, as she's too high for one of the remaining "beginner" ones to be started. I don't have any idea what killed me, I seemed to be a safe distance from the high-level Egeha stuff, but these things happen. [GM]JediMike was in charge this time, and gave us more waves, I think - there were still a whole bundle of Kamiras, and the skin walkers, boucu demons, endemic demons, scorpionmantises, zamoras, wights, and so on.

Finally, we were instructed to go to the statue - and, again, just a few items appeared, of which I was able to grab two of the small defence pots, two item drop boosters, and two experience boosters. For some reason these things seem to be spawned in pairs, rather than singly. And if Darasuum had been in charge, that would have been it - but we got the "Thanks to those who participated in MMS ... until next time!" GM message, and, more importantly, Mike's patented nice, generous spawnings of our favourite hands. RedRyder was able to grab a good number of item drop boosters, skill point boosters, and large attack and defence pots, as was everyone else - so everyone left happy.

RedRackham had kept going with his pet-levelling all evening - by the time he logs out, his drake should be pretty close to level 42.