Three Different Stormings

Britain and Europe has changed over to winter time now, while the USA basks in its summer time until next weekend, which means one feels a little split on the matter of timing. And as I'd been saving my extra hour's lie-in for today, by going to bed last night at more of a summer than winter time, I woke up at the summer time time...which meant that RedRackham was able to get to Maargadum Jail for some pet-levelling an hour earlier than usual - sort of. I continued with my lie-in, so got up either half an hour early, or half an hour late.

MistressDomino had stayed in merchant mode overnight, and did pretty well; she only sold out of the empty baskets and the item drop boosters, but managed to sell useful amounts of heaven stones and a few other things, significantly boosting my Auzura cash reserves. But after coffee it was time for her to have a rest, while CaptainScarlet headed for Maargadum Jail. He was easily able to solo the two-headed canines, standing in their main room on the second floor; by the time I broke off for lunch (which due to tv-watching commitments had to be at winter time), he had reached level 36, adding 37.89%, 25 skill points and 192 pet points.

After lunch, when he headed back to Merac there was a local message-delivery quest to do, which gave him 4.00% experience; otherwise, Cap spent the afternoon fighting the two-headed canines and their friends again, adding 40.69% in all during the session, plus 31 more skill points. The session ended slightly early, by current reckoning, as I needed to be back in action, after the food break, by five.

With the UK winter time, Auzura's "Storm the Castle" event started an hour earlier than usual, at five o'clock UK time. [GM]Darasuum was in charge, and as usual, in his night shadow guise, was there before the start, as the people gathered. When the time came, the monsters were spawned, and the storming began, with the usual thorny mantises, anubis archers, death knights, male assassinbugs, zamoras, anubis spear men, dark harpies, hell-otuu, and so on. It didn't take us very long to clean out the castle's infestation, and the GM rewarded us with the usual hands of loot...this particular GM is never over-generous with the loot spawnings, but I think I got one or two of each of the four main items.

I went to the Auzura event as my level 94 ranger-rogue Rage; rather conveniently, right at the end I noticed that Twisted's guild master, spazz, also a rogue, was there to, so I clicked on him to "apply to join guild". and got Rage back into Twisted.

Cariae's StC event was scheduled to start an hour after Auzura's, so there was just time for my level 24 archer Karanne to go out into Juno and fight the level 24 great horn beasts for almost half an hour, and get some empty baskets on that server - as well as, as it happened, a hand of the guard and a hand of bravery, which between them were more valuable that my share of Dara's loot on Auzura, and various bits of armour. Back in Randol, the empty baskets were exchanged for Halloween candies, and luckily I did get at least one of each of the six different types, so I was able to exchange the six for a 2010 pumpkin helm. SirGalahad then logged out briefly, to allow Karanne to trade the helm across to Barbarienne...and then Barb headed for Merac Castle.

There was just time to get SirGalahad back into action with a spike canine, and then the event began. This time I didn't join the main rush over the bridge - I headed towards the other bridge, dealing with the wight slasher and his retinue of death mask soldiers and lancers along the way. About three other people were already fighting on the other bridge, so it didn't take us long to cut through them, and reach the gate into the outer courtyard, and join the main force.

There was an invisible dragon in the inner courtyard - and wearing the pumpkin helm allowed me to see and attack it, as well as the sphinx commanders. "Never seen a group get through all those mobs this fast before!" the GM commented. "Well apparently it's prize time - then I'll spawn some stuff for ya."

And generous amounts of loot were spawned and picked up, nice thick multiple piles of the usual hands. The event was over... or not, as "Kamira's back in the inner courtyard!" we were informed. And plenty of kamiras there were, though I think I only got 5 moonstones and 2 medals of honour from the piles of loot. "I am going to have to spawn a bit more to challenge you guys", was the next GM comment. "Kamiras are coolest" was my response, and we did indeed get another group of kammies to deal with, but not before "When Croythes ATTACK!" And flutons, and patriarch botises, and some sort of dark missionary, all of which got handled surprisingly easily.

"Great event, anonymous GM", I remarked, hoping to find out the name of our benefactor, though I did have my suspicions. "Much better than Dara's bare-bones StC for Auz ;-)" The "god mode" reply to that was "that's because Dara is a nub." The high-level night shadow Smotpoker made a point of calling our GM "Dara" a couple of times, just for fun. "I'm not Dara! He's a nub!" came the reply. "I already said he was a nub :P"

"Though Dara does at least appear in person", I commented. "Well as I am consistently anon, you can guess who I am I am sure :)" came the reply. "lol hmm strat or sauce", Smotpoker said. "I am not sure but I may be the only one to chat nearly exclusively in god mode", the GM said, and then added "Stratos is a nubcake."

Thinking of the words being broadcast server-wide, Smotpoker suggested "Just say smot rules storm the castle xD and you won't be the nub" - but the actual announcement was "I hear smot needs pants" which, for a robed night shadow, may well be true. That was the last GM-type announcement; a final "later guys! ;)" was on local chat, and as such credited to our favourite GM, AwesomeSauce.

After all the additional monsters, we had earned, and received, a generous second helping of loot, so that, as well the 5 moonstones, and a crystal of experience (greater), Barbarienne ended up with 8 large defence potions, 12 large attack potions, 8 skill point boosters, and 10 item drop boosters, plus plenty of tool aids and the small HP and MP recovery pots. So we all had a fun time, and were well rewarded.

I decided to go along to a third StC, which was due at 7:45 on Tairen-6. My highest character there is a level 42 rogue, so it would be risky - Rage again, or "xRAGEx" to be exact. There was plenty of time before the event was due to start, so Rage headed for Maargadum Jail, to fight a few two-headed canines and other stuff.

Rage did manage to get enough empty baskets from Jail to be able to, back in Merac village, get her own pumpkin helm, as announcements for the upcoming "Storm the Castle" had advised. Once that had been done, she teleported down to Merac Castle, for the event itself.

Preliminary announcements let us know that [GM]Darasuum was a noob, which we know to be untrue - he is a nub, as had been established earlier. Our host for Tairen's StC was [GM]Yatou, though Dara did log in long enough to call Yatou "Failtou". The event was generally the usual one, although the inner courtyard did have some flutons in it. I'd already died once when a hell-otuu killed the person tanking it, and immediately turned on me... and the flamethrower attack of one of the flutons had me using a second skill point restoration scroll.

We didn't get any bonus monsters after the castle had been fully stormed, but [GM]Yatou was nicely generous with the piles of loot, so I think I picked up almost as much as at Awesome's Cariae event. Which was just as well, considering the value of the two scrolls I'd used! I noticed that Zuney, or Aszune when she's on Auzura and in the Twisted guild (or in the forum), was there, remarking at how well she'd been able, as a mage, to "tank" the monsters... I should think so too, I see she is Tairen's fourth-highest ranked mage, on level 129, and a member of the Vendetta guild there.

After the event was over, I went back to Maargadum Jail, fighting on floor two and floor five until Rage's inventory was entirely full. I ended up with quite a few armour pieces, some +4, from the 50/52, 55/57, and 60/62 sets, which may well come in handy eventually. Rage just went up by 20.12%, 41 skill points, and 384 pet points, since most of the time it was slightly unhealthy to have a pet equipped.

I hadn't seen any in-game announcements, but it was mentioned in the forum shoutbox that Auzura was having double skill exp and pet experience; checking, I saw that SirGalahad's drake's experience was indeed going up two points at a time. So, RedRackham went off to Maargadum too, heading for floor five and his death mask lancer, rather earlier than usual. As soon as he was sparring with the lancer, he popped an hour-long platinum pet experience potion, so that the pet points started clicking up six at a time. By the time the first ppep ended, the drake was halfway through level 41; I immediately popped a second one, to move him on still further. Upstairs, at just 2 points at a time, SirGalahad's pony was doing well too, and should reach level 14 before things close down tonight.

My time on Last Chaos will be cut back as the week progresses, and a "busy weekend" approaches, but at least plenty got packed in today. Tomorrow's event is one we've not seen for quite a while, a "dungeon run" through the Forgotten Temple, and Wednesday should bring some "Mad Monster Spawns". I'll probably miss out on the high-level variety, but MistressBlaze ought to have fun at the medium-level type, at least.