Disappearing Gold

Just as I was heading for bed last night, another GM announcement came up: "All servers are coming down at 5pm PDT for a brief maintenance to address an issue with the Wendy Bear Events. That is in two hours!" We should at least give them credit for giving proper advance notice, so that nobody would be kicked out with one-hour potions running. Of course, there are things that last for three hours, but hey, you can't have everything.

So, it wasn't worth leaving RedRackham in drake-levelling action, since he'd be kicked out soon; he logged out with the drake just approaching halfway through level 34. MistressDomino had taken in over 300 million gold by then, so I decided I might as well leave her in business until the server came down - as it happened, she didn't sell much more, though, so in total her takings were 364,578,000 gold.

Before breakfast, both characters logged back in; RedRackham returned to the gnoll lancers, and MistressDomino went back into merchant mode. But later I noticed that last night's 364 million seemed to have vanished - so remind me not to leave her in merchant mode when the servers are scheduled to go down! The items she sold had not miraculously returned to her inventory, of course.

MistressDomino sold some more items during the first part of the morning, to get back some of the loss, but it is an annoying thing to happen, when one needs a substantial amount of gold to buy that new bow for Kaerella.

After coffee, I logged SirKit in, got the Elizabuff, joined a solo party, and headed for Prokion Temple on Cariae-5. The solo party only just lasted long enough, so many people seem only to join such a party for a few minutes, but by the time lunch was approaching SirKit had earned 10.01% experience, 204 skill points, and 98 guild points, as well as picking up quite a few more Wendy Bear pieces. Judging from people one sees around Randol, it is definitely the pirate costume-covers that are given out with the event this year.

One thing I was worrying about during the session was - MistressDomino bought those expensive gloves for Rage last night, had they, like all that gold, vanished? That would take my losses over a billion. Luckily, when I logged MD back in briefly to check, the gloves were still safely there. Over lunch, the Auzura incarnation of RedRackham joined in with some pet-levelling, as well as the Cariae one, and got his drake past the halfway mark in level 38; on Cariae, level 35 had been reached by then.

MistressDomino traded the rogue gloves over to Rage, who, by equipping them, increased her physical defence from 2946 to 3037 and her physical evasion from 920 to 1099. Rage then traded across her old 70/72 +13 armour set to my local level 67 mage, MistressDomina.

Since Rage now had her full 85/87 armour set at last, it seemed like a good idea to take her to the Tomb of Theos to fight some screaming zombies, so at the start of the afternoon she teleported over to the Tomb's entrance on Auzura-4, and checked up on the condition of the place - which turned out to be maximum easy. So, Kaerella, who on Auzura was now a level 85 archer, teleported over to join her, and they formed an equal party and went in.

Rage did the targeting and most of the fighting, using a large crit pot, a berserker potion, a platinum adrenaline, and a platinum blessed iris for triple experience gain; Kaerella helped with the fighting, and just used a pbi. Rage went up 7.33% in the first hour, 7.13% in the second hour, which just took her into level 92, and just 4.45% in the third hour, which shows that her new level is a longer one. Kaerella meanwhile, being a few levels lower, went up 29.53%, 29.26%, and in the third hour 26.27%, during which she reached level 86. Rage's drake added 2712 pet points, while SirFrancis, Kae's drake, added 1452 pet points, as Kae tended to only target the zombie in question for the second half of the fight. Rage added 11 skill points, and Kaerella added 12.

Reaching level 86 meant that now, as well as the gloves, Kaerella could wear the Anti-stone Jacket of Dimension and the Antistune Pants of Dimension, both +13, increasing her physical defence just from 2112 to 2143, and her physical evasion from 495 to 831 - her magical evasion went from 297 to 489. The main reason the physical defence stat is changed so little is that her old Balsamic Shirt was +15, and a +15 armour item has a bonus of +100 to its defence, but those increases in her evasion are pretty useful.

During the first hour a knight called Th3Kn1ght asked if he could ks a bit, and since I wasn't using boosters, I agreed; he can't have been very impressed with the experience gain that got him, though, as he left before long. I don't know what level he was, but I suspect he'd have got more experience outdoors with the sphinx speer men and fighters - or he should have been on the fifth subserver, perhaps teamed up with some other people at around his level. An assassin-rogue called TodesJoy was around for a couple of sessions - there was another one called PainManagement at one stage too, and a titan. A specialist sorcerer called pszeskurwysyn was teamed with yet another assassin-type, xEWAx, but I don't think they spoke English. The sorc did die twice, once with the screaming zombie down to a tiny amount of health, which must have been annoying for him.

As far as the Rage/Kaerella team goes, the next step ought, I suppose, to be a combat party with Kae as the fighter, using experience boosters as well as a pbi, plus a crit potion, platinum adrenaline, and a berserker potion, and maybe a power potion too. It might make sense to use a +2 platinum refining stone or two to raise some of her +13 armour to +15 for 24 hours too, for the armour bonus, since that works out rather cheaper than a potion, and lasts a lot longer. Kaerella needs to get to level 87 to wear the Speed Up Boots of Dimension +13 and the Casting Up Circlet of Dimension +14, which should get her evasion and defence up a bit more. All this will have to wait until she can buy a +15 level 85 bow, however... probably a Soul' Rainbow Bow, which is the green-name one with slightly lower attack than a blue-name one but an improved hit rate. And for that I need more gold, of course.

The afternoon session had lasted longer than usual, so the evening session was a bit shorter. There was an "APAC" happy hour from six to eight, with, or so the website informed us, 50% extra experience gain, but on Auzura only. This week I was able to think of a character who would benefit from this extra experience - my level 37 temple knight SirDarth, who on Auzura isn't a pet-leveller, though I must admit he doesn't have a huge stash of skill points. So, Darth teamed up, in a combat party, with RedRider, my level 27 rogue, designed for low-level mad monster spawns and other Auzura events (which sadly have disappeared entirely), who is in theory learning her special skills - and after getting the Elizabuff, they headed for Prokion Temple, where once again I had to settle for the corridor room. A knight called jordan70 did barge in and try to take over a couple of times, I think he must have had a disconnection the first time as he vanished very suddenly, leaving an orc sergeant with almost no health. His English wasn't very good, but he seemed relatively friendly.

I ended the session with SirDarth just 0.02% away from levelling up, to give me the option of forming one more combat party with RedRider; by then Darth had gone up by 30.11%, while Red had added 14.46% and 36 guild points - they had each earned 136 skill points.

I decided to open fifty chaos balls, to see what goodies they do tend to release - and I didn't get any chaos smelting stones, unfortunately. I got just 10,000 gold 9 times, 10 great mana pots 8 times, 10 Candy 6 times, a set of one each of the effort, experience and lucky scrolls 5 times, 10 great healing pots 5 times, five each of the level twelve physical and magical attack minerals 5 times, five each of the level twelve physical and magical defence minerals 4 times, a set of one each of the skill point, experience, and item drop boosters 3 times, a platinum blessed iris twice, and, once each, three tool aids, a blessed iris, and a heaven stone. So, of the fifty rewards, seven were definitely worth more than a chaos ball can be sold for, and another nine were thereabouts...while twenty-three were poor. Of course, if I had got a chaos smelting stone, its value would mean that I'd definitely come out ahead.

Opening the balls with Estella took a while, so by the time RedRydeR's inventory was filled up with all that stuff, it was time to log out for the night. MistressDomino went into merchant mode again - let's hope that she gains money rather than losing it, this time. RedRackham's Cariae pet drake was a third of the way into level 35 by then. Today's "Dungeon Run" event was starting on Cariae at ten, but even without extra monsters, I'm afraid Misty Canyon is a bit too dangerous for even my top character.