The Big Parade

When I switched off the older, XP-running computer last night, it had assorted updates to install - but the newer, Vista-running one didn't at that stage have anything listed, so I left MistressDomino in merchant mode in Katar-1 Randol. However, by morning the newer machine too had succumbed to updates, and installed them, and, as it tends to do, restarted, so MD had been unceremoniously booted out at some point. She only brought in about 3.8 million - which came from selling 55 Candies at 69,500 gold that I'd earlier bought from someone else at just 7,500 each.

There was no time for a morning playing session, as it was time for a supermarket "big shop", which, by including a few Christmas items, got a bit more expensive than usual. Still, ColonelScarlet was able to do some pet-levelling from breakfast time onwards, down with the gnoll lancers, and despite his chosen adversary resetting at some point, good progress was made.

Yesterday afternoon my new rogue Memree went from level 2 to level 17; and for today's afternoon session, in less than three hours, she went on to halfway through level 24, in Prokion Temple on Katar-1, again making use of the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff. At level 22 I returned to Randol to spend some skill points, get Mem's pet pony its first couple of buff levels, and buy some more bloodseal gems... and after that, when I was back in the Temple, for some reason Memree was a little bit glitched.

While I could still use attack skills like Snare and Poison Capsule from the task bar, to equip or unequip the pony I had to double-click on it in the inventory - and I found that using a health potion also would only work like that. As for picking up loot, well, the "pick" and "(pet) item pickup" hotkeys wouldn't work - and neither would the icons in the skills window, so the only way I could pick up stuff was by actually left-clicking on it.

Memree had started near the lobby on the level 17 ghouls and level 19 mummies, and then moved on to the top of the stairs and a landing area with a better concentration of mummies - before ending up in the room that RedRyder uses, with a mixture of mummies and orc soldiers, though she got through a few small health potions there. The solo party I was in included some other people in Prokion, so sometimes early on I didn't get much reward from mummy-killing in the first area; a level 29 character was doing "suicide runs", as RedRyder has been doing, and would often respawn in the lobby, in range, halfway through a kill, before dashing off again.

While I had learned the first four levels of Snare back in Randol, unfortunately I hadn't yet added its icon to my task bar, so when a homicidal titan called "alandyr" attacked me, and inflicted some sort of debuff, all I could do was run for the lobby. If the skill he used was Charge, it was probably just as well I didn't try to fight, as that would stop me from using skills like Snare anyway.

By the end of the afternoon Memree had gained in all a devilish 666 skill points, and gone up by 732.13%. And after the food break it was time for her to exchange her level 4 pony for the level 19 drake ColonelScarlet had got, and take charge of the rogue +10 30/32 armour set from RedRyder, and, temporarily, the previous set too, as well as the level 29 +10 crossbow. When Memree reaches level 31 she should get her own +10 30/32 armour set, so that one of the sets can be passed back across to Red.

With the improved armour, Memree had an easier time in the room with the orc soldiers and mummies, and by the time an announcement came up for the scheduled Parade over on the Auzura server at 6:30, UK time, Memree had added another 157.16% and 284 skill points, plus 629 pet points; level 26 meant that she could wear not just the +10 gloves, but the shirt and pants too.

My level 67 archer Kaerella attended the Grand Parade over on Auzura-2, which was presided over by [GM}Valsharyn. Plenty of transformation scrolls were dropped, though the ones I picked up were mainly sasquatch ones; I used one of those, and after that a dire wolf one. We all paraded around town, letting off firecrackers and picking up anything else that got dropped, mainly single gold coins. Greengem was there, as her gamesage Indria alter ego - she's a bit of a transformation scroll addict, so it was the perfect event for her. I took a screenshot of her, after the scrolls had ended, looking about 18 inches tall, and posted it on the forum. Indria had said that to her I'd seemed to be the small one, and posted a screenshot in her reply to prove it. Weird things happen with transformation scrolls...

While I was typing the whole group, led by Our Val, headed off in a direction I didn't know, so I lost contact with them - some sort of race to some freshly-spawned loot in the mountains was involved. Luckily they returned to just outside the north gate, and there was another loot spawning there - I think I picked up one of each of the item drop boosters, skill point boosters, and large attack and defence potions.

Ratel got in touch; he had been away from Last Chaos for over a week. Not voluntarily, of course! He'd had an internet outage, and also router problems, which means he won't be able to run the game on more than two computers now...which may be just as well, given his limited bandwidth. I was able to tip him off about Elizabeth's Enhancement, and hopefully we'll be able to get together on Katar too some time.

After that, Memree returned to Prokion Temple on Katar-1, and this time went for the room that my level 29 Kaerella on that server has been using, only happily targeting the nearby orc fighters as well as the orc soldiers. ColonelScarlet had recruited her into the Discipline guild earlier, so once she reached level 27, and was able to wear the whole 30/32 armour set, he set her experience gain to 50%. She may not be aiming to have a large reserve of skill points, but the more she can get in Prokion Temple the better. This session added another 138.77%, and 389 more skill points, along with 1327 pet points - and the whole armour set had got its full allocation of bloodseals.

Memree now has her passive skills, up to level 25, at maximum, but there are still some general, attack-type skills that need further work. The next priority must be to get her to level 31, for that second rogue armour +10 set. After that there are some interesting possibilities for a combat party arrangement with Kaerella or RedRyder, in my favourite back room, coming up, but some experimentation will be needed to see what works best for them there.

The special Holiday Giveaway, in association with GoCash, has now begun, with each hour a player is online today counting as a kind of raffle entry for some Logitech gaming speakers. So far, so innocent, but tomorrow's way to get in the draw for a gaming keyboard and mouse is to go around killing people, though wisely only one time per victim counts. I suspect I'll be avoiding the PvP servers if a lot of people are trying to improve their chances by running around killing everyone!

By the end of the evening ColonelScarlet's pony had moved on to level 9, so here we go again. Well, Kaerella and MistressDomino and RedRyder all have horses to ride, so I guess Memree will need one too.