Shiny Goodies

My level 73 rogue Rage did indeed go along to the high-level Mad Monster Spawn on Auzura at eleven o'clock last night, UK time, which was a rather less risky event that [GM]Valsharyn's European one a few days earlier, and generally less substantial. As it had been part of the rota. moving from server to server every half hour, it couldn't be too complex, and after a suitable warming, [GM]JediMike just spawned one wave of monsters for us - high-level critters from the Tomb of Theos and other places.

While he wasn't actually visible, our GM was in a slightly chatty mood. ROCC asked "Is did da 1st round or last 1?" - and he replied "It's the only 1 - I'm going to revamp MMS soon enough", which sounds promising. A relatively low level mage asked "Is my debuff even helping?" and he contributed "I'm buff", followed by "I got an 8 pak", which explains why he always strolls around in his underwear. Someone called lordofallmighty asked him what his favourite event to do was, and he replied "My favorite is... probably prize drop. I like seeing players running around in town."

I'm not sure we retained his full attention, though, as there was a slight delay before the loot was spawned - he expressed surprise that we'd finished already, and then spawned the usual generous amounts, though there were a lot of people there, meaning that I got 2 item drop boosters, 6 large attack & 5 large defence potions, 3 skill point boosters, 8 tool aids, and 16 small HP & 13 small mana recovery potions.

That all probably took no more than fifteen minutes. Thursday itself started in the normal way with SirGalahad heading for his death mask lancer in Maargadum Jail, and then after coffee Memree and RedRyder made up their roguish combat party and, with Elizabeth's Enhancement in operation, headed for Prokion Temple on Tairen-5, since that's the subserver that Elizabeth hangs out on now.

The session went okay, though as time passed more people tended to appear. The titan Torture I've seen before there, and he chatted a little; there was a mage called wroolm who I think was just fooling around a bit, as she came into "my" orc soldier room a few times chased by multiple orc fighters, plus sometimes ghouls and mummies too, which meant that, assuming she was in trouble, I had to kill them, when generally I avoid the fighters as much as possible since the skill exp to experience ratio isn't as good as the soldiers, with a little more skill exp but many times more experience. And then later she used the level 32 skill Terra Spear to kill one fighter instantly, showing that she could easily deal with fighters and so on...

A healer called ChaosMonkey said "yo memree.. do you hack?" which seemed a strange thing to come out with. "I wouldn't know how", I replied. "You just seemed to be shooting far", she continued. "Just normal range, as far as I know", I said. With low-level critters like orc soldiers I'd hardly need any extra unearned advantage. I think some people just come out with that sort of accusation to make themselves appear wise in the ways of LC, which is a bit of a shame.

The session ended with Memree and RedRyder up by 149 skill points each; Memree's experience had gone up by another 8.58% (and 40 guild points), while as the non-fighting half of the combat party RedRyder had added just 1.82% (and 7 guild points). And then, after moving some items from Red to Memree, and then trading across assorted loot to MistressDomino, SirGalahad logged back in for a return to Maargadum Jail.

For the afternoon session, MistressDomino went to Prokion Temple for the first time, on Tairen-5, and after starting at level 16 with ghouls and mummies, after a level or so managed to move on up the stairs and get to the room with a useful selection of mummies, plus the one orc soldier. The session had been a bit late starting, but I just managed to reach level 20, gaining the mage event weapon, before logging out for food.

At five, UK time, there was a "Parade" event on Auzura-4, so I took Rage along, as I'd missed one or two recently and I wanted to check if anything had changed. It was the same old thing, though, with [GM]Nobura in charge, dropping plenty of firecrackers and some transformation scrolls. We wandered around the town, "to impress the NPCs", transforming into sasquatches, dire wolves, jaguars, drakes, or, indeed, little red cubes, and while the NPCs seemed unmoved, it was as usual kind of fun, though not something that one needs to do every week

I had a rogue "Fourth of July" ringmaster-type top hat, so I wore that for some of the time, and suggested that it might be a good idea if the GM wore one too, to make it easier to keep track of her in the mob of people. "

Yea I'm thinking about that already Rage :)" she replied...

Over on Tairen-5 MistressDomino did her level 20 quests, which gave her 40% more experience (and her special new "neckless" accessory), and converted just about all her drops from the afternoon, level 21 and 22 items, into smelting stones to try to upgrade her new event wand, the "Rhine Order" - it reached +2 before the loot ran out, so I didn't do too well there.

After that, back on Auzura-4, Kaerella, my level 67 archer, spent some time looking through Roy's merchant mart. partly to see what price an Eyes of Spirit accessory could be bought for, and partly to see if there was a better level 72 item of headgear than her current +13 one - since her other armour pieces are +14 or, in the case of her Balsamic Shirt, +15. But the time was approaching for the "EU Pharaoh's Treasure" event, which I was hoping might turn up some loot for me, if I wasn't too far away when the true location, as opposed to the spots that were just crawling with sphinx speer men and fighters, was announced. I started off looping around to the southeast. and did find one set of Egyptian-style warriors, and then headed towards the GHB lake - the Kiene Tower was still there from the junior MMS.

And then I was heading along parallel to the hilly edge, heading for Velpist Temple, and noticed that my coordinates were quite close to another announced location, so edged across... and there was [GM]Noboru in the foothills, and a fine selection of the usual item drop boosters, large attack and defence potions, skill point boosters, tool aids, and of course the small HP and mana recovery potions. So barely pausing to say hi, SirFrancis, my drake, and I started to grab stuff as quickly as possible. It didn't take long for somebody else to turn up, and then the "winning" location was announced, and more people started to arrive, but I was able to pick up a fine amount of loot.

[GM]Noboru was generous, and kept replacing the Hands when the goodies ran out. She then spawned a single fluton, carefully to one side, promising more loot if we could kill it, and luckily we had enough rogues to keep it Snared, and enough high-level people to inflict damage - Kae only hit it for 166, though a "Deadly" hit was ten times that. We got some more loot, as promised, though with so many dozens of people there it vanished awfully speedily. By then I'd gone over 100% for my inventory weight - I must have added at least 30% in all.

The description for a "Pharaoh's Treasure" event says, if I edit the spelling a bit, "The ancient reincarnation of Horus has buried treasure somewhere in the Land of Iris. At the start of the Event, the known treasure burial coordinates will be announced. But take heed, Heroes, as only one of the burial spots is actually filled with the glory that you aspire to. All other spots are guarded by a powerful Sphinx Army, forged from the souls of the fallen. If you find the burial spot with only treasures, you can take sanctuary and gather your entire inventory worth of shiny goodies!

" For once, for me they weren't far wrong...

As Kaerella was actually carrying a mage top hat, I decided I ought to offer it to our generous GM: "Since my rogue suggested it... I do have a spare mage Top Hat if you would like it?" She was probably wise to gracefully decline the offer, as it's not a good idea for a GM to accept favours.

After a little more loot, [GM]Noboru finally left, and I went back to town too, putting 71 tool aids into storage to get Kae's inventory weight down. I then celebrated by buying for ten million a Necklace of Wind accessory I'd seen earlier, which gives 5% suction of life, 5 defence, and a 30 increase in Critical Hit. Equipping that instead of the previous one (similarly 5% suction of life and 5 defence, plus "increases all kinds of physical defence" 6 and 58 hit points) decreased Kaerella's total (physical) defence and hit/health points slightly, but moved the "Critical" stat from 541 to 658, which seems good to me.

There was still an hour or so of playing time left, so I decided that the Sarissa version of Kaerella could do with a little bit of improving. I logged her in, spent her current store of skill points, got the Elizabuff, and headed for Prokion Temple, and that mummies, and one orc soldier, room. Kae started about a third of the way through level 20, and it didn't take too long to reach level 21 there. A level 20 mage called Pravis was fighting nearby and made a point of giving me buffs, so I suggested we team up, since neither of us was in a party, and we kept the mummies on their toes. She had to leave for supper at just before 9:15, but she added me to her Friends list, and we may well meet up at the next low-level Mad Monster Spawn...which may well be a bit different, particularly regarding its early starts, as, sadly, [GM]OgreKing is leaving Aeria tomorrow, the forum announces...

I kept going a little longer, and got about a third of the way into level 22 before heading back to Randol - with 145 new skill points to spend. After using up every last one of them, I then bought the rest of the required level 25/27 armour set, using up about half of Kaerella's cash reserve. And then it was about time to log out, though SirGalahad had kept working through all the excitements, and got his drake past halfway through level 25 well before his computer closed down for the day.