A Time of Giants

Today was set to be just a "play in the evening only" day, but I could at least get the Attendance side of things sorted out in the morning, and do some pet-levelling too. SirGalahad can combine those two things - so he accompanied RedRackham to Maargadum Jail before breakfast, after getting his thirteenth level of the Armour Increase buff.

SirGalahad lured a spike canine back to behind the teleporter, while RedRackham stood by in case any of the aggressive dire spike canines decided to get involved; then Red ran down to the fifth floor, and started sparring with the death mask lancer, over by the side wall.

After half an hour the Attendance messages came up: "Your attendance for today has been confirmed. You have attended 2 consecutive days. After passed the midnight, you have to re-login to be eligible as attendance day. You will earn 3% additional SP depends on the attendance days." Useful for SirGalahad, if he does some skill exp farming, though less useful for RedRackham.

SirGalahad logged out, and MistressSabina took her turn to earn her Attendance System bonus, buying a hammer and heading out to the mine in Juno to pass the time constructively. Kaerella on Cariae came next, and did a little shop-browsing. Barbarienne went out to do some mining when it was her turn; as usually happens when I've had a previous character also mining, things didn't work until, without stopping the mining animation, I had her sit down, and then stand up again, at which point her hammer started to lose its endurance figure, counting down from 7200 in the normal way.

Rage also had to sit down and stand up before the mining started properly, while RedRackham continued his pet-levelling work. Auzura's Kaerella then took her turn online, selling her most recent loot, and then buying a hammer and heading for the mine. RedRackham had to log out to allow MistressDomina her half hour, so CaptainScarlet headed for Maargadum Jail, and got back to working on his level 45 drake. Once MD was qualified for her attendance allowance, RedRackham was able to log back in - and so Red and Cap pet-levelled through the afternoon. By the time six o'clock was approaching, RedRackham's horse had just reached level 36.

My feeling is that sometimes the Tomb of Theos can get pretty busy in the evenings, as indeed Prokion Temple can, so it seemed like a good idea to let MistressSabina have a trip out to the giants in Dratan desert - particularly as we were scheduled to have a couple of hours of double skill exp, starting at six. o'clock, UK time.

I think it was about 40 minutes later when the increased skill exp started up; the GMs had attempted to start it on time, we were assured, but it just hadn't worked. It only acted like 50% of the basic skill exp per giant to me, or 25% on top of the amount I was getting with the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff on, but it was a help, I suppose. MistressSabina managed to level up, reaching 49; she had a few quests to do, including a delivery to the column of magic in Merac, fighting salamander ruins... and also fighting cerebrii, which was handy as they are in the same area as the sallies. The quest for the cerebrii, to collect some teeth, is a strange one, as it also requires a visit to the rough jaguars of the desert, in Dratan, to get some of their teeth too. Still, I knew roughly where the rough jaguars were, so rode out into the Dratan desert, and across to them.

After a few more trips to the giants, returning to town when MistressSabina's inventory was full, and indeed a few first-stage ignition runs there, by the end of the session MistressSabina had added 25.91%, 98 skill points, and 1217 pet points. Then it was time to check what skills she ought to be learning. I found that there were actually two active skills she should have learned by now still outstanding - Fallen Stat, a debuff which reduces your enemies' stats, and, more importantly, Haste 2. Fallen Stat cost 327 sp for the five available levels, taking off 50 stat points for 100 seconds, while the single available level of Haste 2 cost 250 sp,a buff which increases its target's casting speed by 55% for ten minutes. It's an improvement on the earlier mage skill Haste, which gave a 50% increase in casting speed, but only for five minutes...though the second and final level of Haste 2, when Sabina reaches 76, moves the speed increase on to 60%, and lasts twice as long again, for twenty minutes.

MistressSabina had managed to collect some moon cake ingredients - 5 egg yolks, 7 flour, and 3 lotus seeds. That was rather more than Kaerella and MistressDomina managed in the Tomb yesterday. Prices for those started off ridiculously high, I wonder how they are doing now?

CaptainScarlet had kept busy throughout the evening, so that he ended the day with his drake just past the three-quarters mark in level 45. RedRackham was able to join him in the Jail for the final hour, so that a first thousand or so pet points were gained in level 36 for his horse. At least with a horse we can stop when it reaches level 37, since a mount doesn't really need to go beyond that.