A Dangerous Game

RedRackham took his horse down to the fifth floor of Maargadum Jail on Auzura-6 before breakfast for a good long pet-levelling session, and managed to reach level 29 towards the end of the lunch break. He stayed off by the side wall, slightly obscured by a pillar, and managed to avoid any trouble.

After coffee, CaptainScarlet again teamed up with Red (which is why Red was on Auzura-6 rather than the quieter Auzura-4), got his Elizabeth's Enhancement buff, and also headed for the Jail. Almost immediately another speed hacker turned up, but after being challenged soon disappeared from sight - I did actually see the speed hacking archer from yesterday briefly, but who knows, perhaps they have reformed now.

By lunch, CaptainScarlet had added 22.65%, as well as 51 skill points. The campaign continued after lunch; sometimes the ground floor of the Jail got busy, especially when a titan was trying to gather up every canine for his own use, but generally there were enough to go round. I had to settle for just first-stage Ignition runs, though, and even for those I needed to choose a time when nobody else was active in my vicinity. By the time the food break was approaching, CaptainScarlet had added another 27.52% and 56 skill points.

The forum shoutbox got a bit animated during the afternoon, with a number of people asking why the Tomb of Theos on Hatzring was set to "maximum hard". The gamesage georgerav is level 145 how, so no longer takes such things seriously, so the general reply was in the spirit of "don't whine, suck it up". Somebody was saying that, as on Auzura, it's a protest by the castle-owning guild, in this case HOSTILE (the local branch of Vendetta in all but name), as they feel some of their members have recently been unfairly banned, and I joined in a bit, saying that it's really a matter between the castle-owners and Aeria, with the people unable to farm skill points and experience in the Tomb being collateral damage rather than the target. After all, if the Tomb stays on maximum hard, people who would be playing there won't be spending aeria points, and may well be off playing other games...if they get hooked elsewhere, will they return when the stand-off has been resolved?

Things took a sinister turn when one of the people who'd been most vocal about it returned with a new account, with a "1" on the end of their name, to ask why they had had their account banned. It looks as if georgerav had contacted a GM, and when he found that two of the most vocal people had the same IP address (though they later protested that they were different people in the same house), the dreaded Ban Hammer was used. I felt a shudder, since I hadn't really been all that polite to george myself, asking sarcastically what the time was for the Mondshine Chapel Siege this weekend (as high-level people in Mondshine don't get affected by different "settings" for where they level), but, so far, my account remains active...

By mid-evening, CaptainScarlet had added a final 27.68% and 49 skill points, and reached level 40. So, RedRackham, with his horse still an hour away from level 30, logged out, and CaptainScarlet and SirPerivale (since he is in a different guild) both headed for Prokion Temple on Auzura-2, since that is a PvP sub-server. Things weren't as easy as usual, though, as there were other people around with pk-ing, player-killing, on their minds... and CaptainScarlet getting killed by one of them glitched his ability to, himself, pk SirPerivale, so they both relogged to Auzura-3 - where things were a bit similar. I do think it is pathetic to have a night shadow, by definition level 90 or above, lurking there, but CaptainScarlet got killed again, and ended up glitched... but at least he did manage to get to -150 on the good/evil scale before that happened, to reduce his attack power, so the job was done.

The killings did mean, however, that he lost 80 skill points, which was probably three times 2%, and the 0.06% experience in level 40 he had had. Still, back in Randol on Auzura-6, RedRackham traded across the level 44 drake, and CaptainScarlet, now my senior pet-leveller, headed for the death mask lancer in Maargadum Jail. To my relief he only hits the lancer for 20 damage per hit, so it would be possible to move him up a few more levels at some point - but the drake certainly gets through the quality stones rather more slowly than with Red, five levels lower... so, mission accomplished.

CaptainScarlet gave MistressSabina a solo party, and she went out to the giants in the Dratan desert for the latter part of the evening session. Things went smoothly, with a couple of first-level Ignition runs, though as the giants aren't exactly packed tightly together, one doesn't kill a huge number of them during the countdown. By the time the session ended, and Sabina's inventory spaces were all full, she had added 11.25%, 36 skill points, and 661 pet points; selling the shields and weapons back in Randol brought in a little over four million gold. The evening's "happy hour" had been double experience, which had started a bit later than scheduled, but did stay on long enough to help Sabina along a bit.

RedRackham was then able to log on for the rest of the evening, which was just long enough to get his horse to level 30. By then, CaptainScarlet had got his drake just past the 40% mark in level 44. Pet-levelling on Auzura should be rather simpler now.