Onwards With Kaerella

MistressDomino on Auzura-5 spent much of the day in merchant mode, and did take in about 130 million, making her, and me, slightly richer than she was before. The price of heaven stones seems to be falling there, perhaps because of the LacaRette wheel prizes - I don't think that I sold any at 2.79 million, while 2.95 million used to be a reasonable price.

As well as preparing for the coming weekend, what took a fair amount of my time was the arrival of a new Windows 7-running computer. It started up with a high-speed clicking noise, but eventually the phone support guy had me wrench one fan sideways a bit - don't you just love high-tech solutions? So now it's all silent and handsome, proudly displaying the Windows flag on its desktop... but basically useless, as I can't connect it to the internet. Trying to use my broadband supplier's disc just gave me the exhortation to upgrade to a more modern operating system, such as XP or Vista - and looking on their website, the client is not available, though I could leave my details so that they would email me when it is ready for release.

It looks as if a new modem will be needed, my current one isn't 7-capable it seems, just plugging the USB connection in was useless. Why don't they make these new operating systems at least a little bit backwards-compatible...?

Kaerella on Katar got out to Maargadum Jail twenty minutes or so before the end of the two to three o'clock dungeon time, anyway, and fought the dire spike canines, two-headed canines, and beast spears for a while. A level 41 specialist sorcerer, DangerDemon, recruited Kae and a level 44 rogue, AngelsofSouls, into a combat party, and we moved to the third room on floor two to fight the beast spears there, with some success, though I had to take a few minutes off to try and make a telephone call to my computer supplier's support centre.

Inevitably, DangerDemon suggested a move to the sphinx fighters, so we went across to Dratan and began to fight them - but before long I got a telephone call back, and when I was free again the rogue had left the party and DangerDemon was just sitting behind the fence close to where I was, so things had come to a fairly natural conclusion. It hadn't been a massive session by any means, but Kaerella had added 14.76%, 56 skill points, and 375 pet points.

The early evening break was a bit long as I visited the local computer store, taking in my poor broken old XP-running machine - the fact that they promised to ring me back later with their diagnosis rather influenced what I could do in the evening, too. I was back a bit too late for the start of the Auzura "mid level mad monster spawn", but took MistressBlaze out about 25 minutes after the announced starting time, to see if it was still going on - the location was the low-level one, but by then it was deserted. I switched to Katar, as that was next on the list - but when I mentioned on the shoutbox that the location for the MMS seemed unnaturally quiet, was informed that the event had been cancelled, with just double experience and skill exp switched on instead.

What seemed best was to take my Cariae cleric Kaerella to the Tomb of Theos, to fight the screaming zombies. Most of the time I was in a combat party, with at different, or slightly overlapping times, a level 90 night shadow, CURSEDDRAGON, a level 90 rogue, and a level 81 rogue, Deathtrap5. It was the level 90 rogue, jq178, who tended to need the most healing, and she agreed when I said that I suspected that the 85/87 armour set she was wearing wasn't b5e +13.

We also helped a titan to level up, and I think he reached level 51 - he had said he was aiming for level 57, as he had a level 61 +15 weapon waiting, but he left rather suddenly to go and kill Baal. He gave Kae a one-hour platinum pet pill, which was very kind, for her help, and also some magical attack minerals... but I think jq178 helped him more, albeit relying on some clerical healing.

Towards the end another cleric arrived, though as she was using a bow, I didn't realise she was a cleric at first - she didn't stay long, as a monster combo party needed her. I had been considering having Kae try using Barbarienne's old level 85 bow, and she said that using a bow does help her kill more quickly, so it is definitely something to do, when the bow can be traded across. There are certain passive skills for bow use that only an archer would have, but, well, we'll see how hard Kae can hit using it.

Towards the end of the evening, Kaerella levelled up, rather to my surprise - and jq178 levelled up a couple of minutes later. By the time Kae logged out, she had added, thanks to the "happy hour" and a "Dungeon time" hour, 27.65%, plus 16 skill points and, for SirFrancis, 2020 pet points.

The computer shop seems to think that a new graphics card, and probably a new power supply unit, may return the XP-running machine to fighting fitness next week. Getting the new 7-runner to actually be useful may be more complicated...