A Power Cut

There was another successful overnight pet-levelling session for SirDarth on Sarissa-4, getting his pale blue horse safely into level 32. Darth continued his good work until after coffee, when RedRyder and Kaerella took over, for another trip to Prokion Temple on Sarissa-5.

The back room was already in use when I arrived, so I settled for the "corridor room", which, while slightly more sparsely populated with orcs, has a better ratio of the sergeants to the axemen. I didn't have a hugely long session, but it was enough to see RedRyder well into level 36, with 21.93% experience and 300 guild points gained; Kaerella went up by 17.74% and 44 guild points, and they both added 162 skill points.

Back in town, Kaerella was able to learn the final level of advanced herbalism, so that if she goes out farming herbs without using a tool aid, she'll gather them at the maximum possible speed. She also learned the first level of advanced absorption, so soon it would only be the skills for processing the nine kinds of energies, herbs and stones that were left. Then Kae headed for Maargadum Jail, and by dying there eighteen times got back to the start of level 27 once more.

After lunch, it was time for RedRyder and Kaerella to return to Prokion Temple for a more substantial session. TemplarRules did turn up during the afternoon, and managed to cadge a couple of accessories and some green herbs for his blue hatchling; he did say at one point that he had "120k" skill points, but he had already mentioned that he was suffering from a bit of a fever, which probably explains it.

By the time my duo logged out, and SirDarth logged in again, RedRyder had gained another 58.30%, along with 801 guild points, while Kaerella was up by 47.36%, and 118 guild points. They had each got 496 skill points; that took Red over the 4k mark, and meant that Kae could learn the last two levels of advanced absorption, both levels of flawed stone processing, all three levels of imperfect stone processing, the first two levels of flawless stone processing, and both levels of yellow herb processing. Only another 922 skill points to go, and Kaerella will have all her special skills learnt - except for the ones that only become available when she reaches level 32 and level 42, that is.

After another sixteen deaths in Maargadum Jail, Kaerella logged off for the early evening food break, while SirDarth continued his pet-levelling campaign, just managing to get the horse into level 33 before he had to log out again.

For a change, the evening session was over on the Auzura server. I started by moving the "sphinx fighter" location on their memory scrolls from the old camp fire position to the new position, near the shyer of the two elite sphinx "speer" men, for MrChuckNorris, MistressDomina, and Rage, which just meant fighting my way along the route between the two spots. Then, with Rage there on the newer computer, MistressDomina, my level 61 mage, logged back in on the older machine, and joined her there in an equal party.

Rage certainly got a lot more experience and skill exp when MD was within compass-range than when MD was still back in town just supplying the solo party boost, since the sphinx types are blue to her - roughly three times as much, in fact. But within minutes of MistressDomina arriving, an old friend turned up too - the raid boss Kamira! Rage didn't even bother with a magic defence mineral, she just added horse buffs and attacked, so she did use two or three medium health potions, but it didn't take long to defeat the monster, and, while she didn't drop any rare accessories, the usual goodies like lucky scrolls, moonstones, and a crystal of experience (greater) were swiftly gathered up.

Rage didn't make all that much experience, though it was better than a couple of "Storm the Castle" events for that. By the time she logged out she had added 2.46%, and 15 skill points. I decided to try replacing her in the team with my level 67 archer, Kaerella, for the last part of the session, to whom the sphinx types are still green-named, and, while she needed horse buffs to avoid taking much damage, she worked well there, and in rather less time went up 2.19%, and added 8 skill points.

MistressDomina had generally stayed back at a safe distance, though she quite often helped fight the elite speer man. By the end of her session there, she had gone up by 10.06%, and gained 23 skill points. Still, there is plenty of potential for her and Chuck to do some levelling there in the future. Chuck and Kae would make a good team too, as Chuck can give an archer a pair of useful buffs.

By about a quarter to nine, UK time, the sphinx-fighting was over. The evening's special event was due to start on Katar-5 at nine; it was another "Cat Fight" style event at the PvP arena in Dratan, but this time the two female game masters would be working as a team, fighting a pair of male GMs. The Cariae event was to follow at 9:30, so it seemed as if it would be fun to go along to at least those two battles, particularly if any loot got spawned at the end.

So, I logged SirDarth in on Sarissa-4, with a view to sending him back to Merac for a little more pet-levelling (though the weekly maintenance meant he'd not be able to continue overnight), and chose my level 10 archer Barbarienne on Katar-5. She was just heading for the teleporter to get to Dratan, when all the lights, the radio, and the computers went off...

Yes, it was a power cut, so that brought an abrupt end to my adventuring for the day. It lasted from 8:50pm to about 1:10am, and covered quite a large part of the town apparently. So, I had a slightly early night, going to bed by the light of a candle. I wonder which GMs fought, and who won?