Kill Kali!

There was more pet-levelling done overnight, with Galahad's horse making steady progress through its final level, level 36; SirDarth did lose a couple of hours or so when yet another Microsoft security update decided to install itself, complete with a restart of the older PC, but he still got his horse into level 24 by breakfast time.

The "Simon Says" event late last night (at least for us Europeans) was just a bit of fun, with no prizes or penalties for getting things right or wrong, just a generous spawning of the usual hands of loot at the end. [GM]Darasuum was in charge on Katar-5, though [GM]JediMike did put in an appearance too, to give him some moral support and threaten the most prolific chatterers with a silencing.

I'd taken my mage MistressDomino along there. It was mainly a matter of having the "C" window open, which has buttons for the almost-unused "social" skills, like "sorrow", "laugh", "greeting", "taunt", "clapping", and "bow", and hitting the appropriate button when the GM said "Simon says, bow to the person next to you" or whatever... and resisting the urge to comply when, a couple of times, he left off the "Simon says" bit.

I decided that I could just about stay awake for the second event, which was on Cariae-5, and took Barbarienne along so that she could show off her newly-acquired sunglasses, which were received by linking her Aeria account with my Facebook account, which was made specially for that purpose. I must investigate what delights Facebook has to offer, some time...

Anyway, [GM]Darasuum got a little bit more ambitious on his second outing, and used "sit", from the "actions" tab, as well, and a little bit of running around. One thing he should remember for any future "Simon Says" events is that not every class has a "boast" emote...probably just the male ones, strangely enough!

It was about 12:30, UK time, when Galahad got his horse to level 37; he logged out, ready to trade it across to RedRideR when convenient, and after lunch ColonelScarlet over on Katar-4 was able to start a pet-levelling session for his pink, or pale mauve, drake, though as it was already well into level 38 it got through the quality stones twice as fast. Oh well, at some point I'm sure it will make one of my characters on that server a useful pet. It did just get into its next level by the end of the session.

For the evening, it seemed simplest to let Cariae's SirPerivale start earning his skill points. The alternative would have been for RedRydeR to do an intensive sp-gaining session, but I didn't think that the evening would be the best time for that, since Prokion Temple can get rather busy then.

I didn't have a full hour available to begin with, so Peri just took the Elizabuff and headed for the Temple on Cariae-5, and fought in the back room for a while. This got him up by 21.29% and 90 skill points, but before I could think of Peri upgrading the Discipline guild, or getting a few cheap levels of some passive skills, he had a more pressing concern - maximising the level 30 skill Mana Break, since he wouldn't be able to choose to become a royal knight without having its five levels, and you really need to choose your profession before you reach level 32.

That part of the evening was short because Auzura-4 was due to host one of its regular "Pharaoh's Treasure" events at 6:30, and Kaerella always goes along to those, since the loot is pretty good. I was riding around Juno before the announcement of all the locations came up, and indeed had passed a couple of the usual spots which were already full of sphinx fighters and sphinx speer men. I passed quite a few more sphinxy mobs, too, before the announcement of the loot location was given, so hurried to the map's north-east corner, where there were already a few people, and, for a change, [GM]Valsharyn instead of [GM]Noboru.

As with the "Storm the Castle" event. Val didn't seem to put quite as much into things as her co-GM does, but we got a fair amount of loot, and the monsters that showed up were a bit less lethal than some were last time - a few wight slashers were the limit. So, it wasn't the most lucrative treasure hunt ever, but it made a nice break in the evening's activities.

Now SirPerivale did have time for using his (beginner) platinum super skill pills. The back room on Cariae-4 was being used by someone, so I headed for its mirror, and did quite well there for an hour - without the Elizabuff SirPerivale just added 11.61%, while the 150% bonus from the b-pssp meant that 113 skill points were earned.

I needed to return to town to get some more bloodseal gems after the first hour; when I got back my favourite back room was free, so I popped a second b-pssp, and started on the orc sergeants and orc axemen there. As Peri's armour had got some useful bloodseals for defence and evasion by then, I decided to switch from using a sword and shield to using dual swords - more attack, but less defence.

It was a bit of an experiment, since Peri lacks all the passive skills for extra defence and health regeneration, but I found that the orcs weren't managing to hurt him, thanks to the +10 armour, and continued using the dual swords...which meant that 15.28% experience was gained in that hour, along with 144 skill points.

So, back in Randol, SirPerivale was able to learn the fifth level of Mana Break, and become a royal knight. As he's on the same account as RedRackham, who is a pet-levelling temple knight, there was no point in making him anything other than a royal knight - who knows, maybe he'll learn Concentration and be able to help a rogue increase the chance of her Snare working, one day.

SirPerivale had enough skill points, and gold, to upgrade the Cariae-server Discipline guild from level one to level three, using 90sp. The next levels won't be as easy, as they need 120, 240 and 500sp, but Peri still has three of those beginner pssps left, at least.

At 9:30 the first of the "GM versus YOU" events was due to begin, on Katar-5, so I took my local level 31 rogue Memree along. It was a bit of a mess, to be honest. It was in the Randol arena rather than the Dratan "proving grounds" one, and the idea was that everyone should work together and try to kill [GM]Kali within twenty minutes. In practice, it just meant that anyone who focussed on Kali tended to be killed by some player-killer, and, unlike a fluton, I assume Kali had access to healing potions.

There were so many people around the GM that she was impossible to target, after the first minute - I had managed to launch Snare and Poison Capsule, but neither had any effect and I was soon pk'd. I commented after a while that it would have been more fun to watch a team of eight top-level players trying to fight Kali, which might have worked, particularly at the Dratan arena with its viewing areas, but as it was, it was just a crowd of players, with pk'ers picking them off one by one, and not much of a spectacle.

Kali wasn't killed within the time limit, so she left, spawning some flutons for people to fight - and also spawning some loot, but it wasn't worth trying to pick any up as the flutons were walking all over that area. So, Kali moved on to her second fight, on Cariae-5... and I didn't bother to follow.

Galahad had passed his level 37 horse across to RedRydeR earlier, who had mounted it and given it the usual "horse buffs" skills. Gal then went off to Lorraine and Jajan and got himself a brand-new dragon hatchling, which reached level 6 by the end of the evening.