It's A Lock-Out

The usual characters made their half-hour appearances, with after the first three CaptainScarlet taking over the oldest computer for his pet-levelling duties. A little casual mining was done; characters who possess a Juno NPC Scroll are able to teleport direct to Elveen, at the entrance to Ebony Mine, and use the ore veins there.

Zenderfly got in touch, using the Meebo messenger built into the Last Chaos website. "Hey - no more blog from you?" I said that it can take up a lot of time, and Zen did admit that "I'm not really reading it much - though I was almost daily overflying it to see if there was any news in the world of LC."

Visitors to the forum shoutbox reported that Caraie had had its usual crash at around ten o'clock UK time - and Auzura at least had the disconnection at 10:30. A level 32 titan called Jamam was planning to use a teleport book, so Rage was standing by Tomb Guard Atum at the time - Jamam had just said "Just wait there", but my "yup" reply never appeared, since at 10:30, again, the rest of Last Chaos got a disconnection. Luckily Jamam hadn't triggered his teleport book, as he didn't get my reply, and once we were logged back in, he was able to teleport to Rage at the Tomb entrance. I had actually warned him that a disconnection was likely to happen at around that time.

Jamam did go in with Rage, plus Kaerella and MrChuckNorris, but his attempt to run with us towards the anubis spear men ended rather abruptly, despite his use of a haste potion, and he died, which put him off the idea. Luckily he found a more sensible helper, and reported later that he had reached level 53, including soloing some of the outdoor sphinx types.

My trio went down to the first corner after the spear man room, and started fighting there - well as usual Rage went for the anubis spear men, Kaerella went for the sphinx fighters, and Chuck just supplied his pair of useful buffs. When the dungeon time hour began at eleven, Rage started her small crit, platinum adrenaline, and berserker potions, plus a platinum blessed iris - and got through 61 experience boosters in the hour, gaining 33.74% in level 99, along with 4 skill points. Including the few kills before that, Rage added just 33.77% in the morning session, plus 5 skill points and 1118 pet points; Kaerella earned 1.71% (including the quest reward as she went in, for killing fifty fighters), 5 skill points and 868 pet points, while Chuck got 0.92% and 4 skill points.

Rage, Kae and Chuck stayed at the corner over lunch, but as soon as I was back, Rage returned to the start of the Tomb and killed screaming zombies, partly to get her ignition bar moving along, partly because she needed to kill a few for a quest, and partly to help out the lower-level types there; after the link-up with Jamam, we were on Auzura-5 rather than our usual Auzura-4, so, with the Elizabeth buff available, there were a few more low-level types around.

Kaerella did actually kill a few anubis spear men during that period, to make sure the corner looked occupied; and then when the two o'clock dungeon time was approaching, Rage bade farewell to the other zombie-fighters, and headed back to the spear men. This time her "power hour" used 64 boosters, thanks to two first-grade ignition runs, and she reached level 100 as planned, adding 34.55%, plus of course 4 skill points.

My trio ran across to the ancient grey mummies for an hour after that, which was just long enough get Kaerella up to a red ignition run, gaining her about 8 skill points. That meant the total for the afternoon for Rage reached 36.14% plus 23 skill points and 2580 pet points, while Kaerella got another 2.74%, 21 skill points and 1886 pet points, and Chuck got 1.26% and 13 skill points.

After the food break, MistressDomina volunteered for a combat party in guild chat, and Dropkick took up the offer. We actually started at the same place as last time, and MD fought a couple of sphinx fighters and spear men, but our guild master spazz had been checking out the final grave room on other sub-servers, and found there was plenty of room on Auzura-4 - so we moved over there, formed a party, and spazz recalled us in. I just stood on the side, at about the "eight o'clock" position (if the entrance is noon), and only got attacked once.

Rage went along to the Auzura "Storm the Castle" event in Merac on Auzura-6 at six o'clock; there were no other guildies there, but Aszune turned up, not in any guild at the moment and with a red name. I think [GM]Darasuum respawned some of the mobs, but our force battered our way through, and cleaned the place out within fifteen minutes. The usual hands of loot were dropped in the inner courtyard - Rage managed to get five skill point boosters, three item drop boosters, four large attack pots, and six large defence pots, which was pretty good going.

[GM]Darasuum was waiting outside the castle on Katar-6 well before the start, and tried some of his riddles on us. The level 31 rogue Memree was my representative there, and did give three of the answers - a man without arms and legs at your front door is called Matt (I used Google to find that one), in a swimming pool he's called Bob, and you can only run into a forest "halfway" - after that, you are running out...

The GM asked us if we wanted double mobs, and everyone said yes; it still only took us eleven minutes to clear the place out, though. My suggestion of double loot must have gone unheard, though, as I only managed to grab two each of the boosters, a single large attack potion, and two large defence potions. No doubt I got masses of the small health and mana recovery pots though, as well as six tool aids.

The Cariae event was a little different; I took my level 111 archer Barbarienne along there, and managed, just about, to give people the Bless Arrow buff for extra health and mana as they arrived, until things started. It all went in the usual way outside the castle - the only trouble was, the doors to the outer courtyard were closed, and [GM]Darasuum was unable to open them - some by-product of the problems Cariae has been having lately, though I thought it was the Dratan castle siege that got messed up by a disconnection, not the Merac one. So, Dara put the loot down outside the gates, and left, not taking up the suggestion to spawn some more monsters, such as Kamiras, outside. My share of the loot was slightly underwhelming; I managed five large defence pots, but just two skill point boosters and one each of the other two.

Some people managed to get a few monsters through the doors, and I got a drop of a level 86 jacket from one of them, but it was a bit frustrating to edge up to the door and be able to see through it at an angle, and look at all the spear men, dark harpies, hell-otuus, and so on that we couldn't get to. Zenderfly did turn up, but was a bit late for what action there was, as far as I could tell.

On Sarissa RedRyder is a level 40 rogue; I mentioned before the start the problem Cariae had had, and while he wasn't then visible, Dara said "I'll hunt you down, Red". Things proceeded smoothly, anyway; I had to run for it a time or two, when I'd attracted the attention of male assassinbugs, but I lived through to the end, and here I got three of the skill point boosters, and a generous five each of the other three main goodies. And a pair of level 107 healer boots as a drop!

On Hatzring, RedRyder went along again, though there she is only level 24. She did actually have to ride down to Merac Castle, to get it onto her memory scroll; it was lucky she had a mount. [GM]Darasuum was there, but this time I didn't mention Cariae's problem. I mean, how many times does one want to be hunted down? The event played out in the usual way, and Red assisted mainly with Snare, since her attack damage on high-level monsters was not very great. This time I avoided trouble entirely; I was lucky at the end, as most of the group I'd been with headed outside again to finish off any monsters there, but I headed for the inner courtyard - and found that Dara had already spawned the loot! I managed to pick up four large defence potions, and two each of the other goodies, so I was okay, but late arrivals in there were a bit disappointed.

MistressDomina had spent the evening in the Tomb, though very little happened between the two dungeon time hours; for eight to nine the party was just MD and Dropkick, who does need someone of around MD's level in a combat party to get good experience from the sphinx commanders. I had fought the one commie that attacked me, and, since I'd gained a full ignition level just from standing around while other party members fought, did battle three commies with it running, but otherwise, I let the others get on with it, and MD just added 1.06%, 8 skill points, and 93 pet points from her evening's adventure.

Tairen, as the newest server, always comes last, so its event started at 9:30, UK time. I moved the level 45 +15 crossbow I'd bought, which my level 40 assassin Memree was carrying, across to my level 42 ranger xRAGEx, as she is the one who can use it. Rage was the first arrival - or maybe Dara beat me to it, I'm not sure. After we'd exchanged greetings he said "Watch this", moved a couple of times, said "Like my pet?" - and Zuney appeared, the local mage incarnation of fellow Twisted member Aszune, and a fairly high-level member of the local branch of the Vendetta guild. I assume Dara used some sort of recall to get her there. "Did I not just pull you out like a dragon?" Zuney, when she knew who I was, explained that the red name and guildlessness on Auzura had been for her "capture the murderess" event.

Maybe I was getting careless, but Rage almost died when a big mob of death knights and baals attacked; I didn't realise I was in any danger, until I noticed that my health was very low. And then, when fighting some wafes, I got slightly overwhelmed - and the one skill point restoration scroll Rage was carrying got used. Still, I kept alive after that, and assisted with the anubis spear men, hell-otuu, dark harpies, and so on. My share of the loot didn't include any large defence potions, which are usually the most common of the four main drops, and the least valuable; I got two item drop boosters and four each of the skill point boosters and large attack potions, though, so the cost of the scroll I'd used was more than covered.

Tairen seems to have some drama, as afterwards people were complaining about the Tomb there not being set, and the person who could set it was saying they should try to take the castle from him and set it themselves... so all in all I'm glad that I am not trying to get to a high level there at the moment. [GM]Darasuum did linger a little, though I am not sure how keen he was on Zuney calling him "Blondie"...

Throughout it all CaptainScarlet had kept busy on Auzura-4 in Maargadum Jail, which meant that by the end of the evening his drake was past the two-thirds mark in 48. The next day with a couple of hours or so of double pet experience is scheduled to be Saturday again, and that takes us into the New Year, so you probably won't read about this particular drake reaching level fifty here...