Enter the Grand Red Dragon

I wasn't able, again, to have a full morning playing session after coffee, and indeed one of my "busy weekends" is starting to loom on the horizon, so I'll not be playing as much as usual until next Monday at the earliest. Still, LordDarth did at least get down into Maargadum Jail's fifth level before breakfast, to get his pet horse rolling through level 23 - level 24 was reached just before lunch.

There was also a little window-shopping done, with MistressDomina on Cariae-4 and MistressDomino on Auzura-5, but neither of them found anything I currently have on my list - b5e mage and healer gloves on Cariae, and maybe a better bow for Barbarienne, and over on Auzura shirt and gloves for my rogue Rage, and gloves, shirt and boots for my archer Kaerella, plus a level 85 +15 bow.

There was time for a slightly short morning session, however, so SirKit on Cariae-5 took centre stage for once, mainly to get his outstanding quests, and any more he could pick up, done. Lorraine sent him to Merac, where he got the quest to kill some butchers - he managed to join a solo party, and soon got the necessary ten "Orders of Barabden".

In Juno he still had some minor quests outstanding, so ventured out of town to visit Hunter Dranore and Wild Collector Kai, and also got samples of herbs, rocks and energy for Lorraine. Then, with Healer Yabo's quest for "Spider Poison Research", and the Dratan herbologist trainer's "Origin of the Desert Spiders", as well as Occultist Pianon's "The Sand Golems", and a quest to talk to Shuraine, Kit teleported to Shuraine's oasis.

Talking to Shuraine was easy enough, though as usual the sand golems there took a while to drop the necessary ten "soft sand" for Pianon. Teleporting on to the Temple, I killed enough nearby spiders to fulfil both of the relevant quests - and had time to fight the orc sergeants inside for five minutes or so, before moving back to town to claim my quest rewards.

All that activity meant that SirKit added 55.09% experience, along with just 36 guild points since Discipline doesn't get a share of experience given as a quest reward. He also gained 78 skill points.

LordDarth continued over lunch with his pet-levelling; it was lucky I checked up at one o'clock, UK time, as that roguish assassin oXdeathXo was busy luring death mask soldiers onto Darth, having killed his death mask lancer. I unequipped the horse, which was unharmed, and oXdeathXo, assuming the horse had been killed, then killed the soldiers, to remove the evidence of her wrongdoing, and left. So I picked up the 273 gold one of the soldiers had dropped, waited for the lancer to respawn, and then, with the horse equipped again, went back to work.

For the afternoon, RedRydeR and SirKit went to Merac. I spent a little time chatting to a rogue called Liubov near the teleporter, advising her to farm skill points in Prokion Temple, telling her how to feed a pet, and that sort of thing, and then, after getting some quests finished, headed down to the four elite frenzied berserkers. Handily, I had got a new quest for Red, to kill ten highlanders, and there were a few close to the four elites, so that quest got finished automatically.

The Grand Red Dragon appeared after a while - he didn't do a dramatic "Arrival" on top of me, I just glimpsed him only just within range on the main path, so somebody else must have attracted him. Red logged out, and Barbarienne logged in, and rode down to fight him, luckily arriving in time - he'd go elsewhere after a while, if ignored. It wasn't exactly an equal battle, Barb killed him pretty easily; there was no rare accessory dropped, but all the other usual bits and pieces were soon scattered on the ground, for Barb to pick up.

RedRydeR returned, to finish the session. Including quest rewards, she ended up ahead by 61.04%, and 1147 pet points, while SirKit added 20.96%. along with 85 more guild points for Discipline. They each added 36 skill points - and they each levelled up, to 40 and 30.

Over the early evening food break oXdeathXo returned, at about 5:20 for me; by the time I noticed, Darth was again surrounded by death mask soldiers and a few lancers, but this time I managed to unequip the horse in time, leaving it with 17% health. I left the room, to give the inhabitants time to return to their normal spots, and then continued...until 6:10, when there was a similar encroachment, and again I had to unequip the horse, head for level four for a minute, and then return.

Ten minutes later, oXdeathXo's tactics changed, once she knew I wasn't away from the keyboard, and she just ks'd me, killing the death mask lancer repeatedly.. I did warn her that people could get banned for consistent harassment, and she apologised, saying she had been hoping to kill the death knight of iris, but he'd not respawned yet from someone else's killing, and she had been bored, passing the time between looking in on the "torture room" to see if he was back yet. Apparently she'd already done the other Hatzring subservers.

So, from then on she just killed the other death mask soldiers, death mask lancers, and beast crawlers, so I hope that now that she has chatted with LordDarth as a person, maybe she won't harass him any more. If she does, well, I've got quite a collection of screenshots of her in action now...

Reaching level 30 meant that SirKit was now able to learn the Mana Break skill, which is needed before he can choose his class; I also let him learn Deep Wound Training, to increase his chance of critical hits, and Shield Strike, the knight's stun skill, so he ended up spending 558 skill points. He also got Lorraine to open his last treasure chest, which gave him 40 Candy. The Royal Guard captain in Dratan gave him the quest for orc ornaments, which he was able to complete immediately, adding 9.90% experience and 10 skill points; he now has a quest to kill 35 death goddesses, should he so wish.

RedRyder had earlier converted Kaerella's old level 45 +8 gloves into their rogue "Rapid" equivalent, adding 26 to her physical defence stat when she reached level 40 and was able to wear them; now she converted the shirt and skirt too. The healer versions gave 103 defence, the rogue versions 175, which shows how much better rogue armour is. They added another 60 to Red's physical defence, as soon as she reached level 41 and could wear them without penalty.

RedRydeR didn't have any new skills to learn until a minor one when she levelled up, but was able to get a few quest rewards from Wild Collector Kai, Healer Yabo, Scroll Trader Roy in Merac, Magician Kihan in Owl Village, Great Magician Minearm (after Kihan had sent me to get the hearts of three gnoll soldiers), Archaeologist Jajan, and Dratan's herbologist trainer. The pharmacist, close by, then gave a quest that involved killing poison mists for their "mucus of deadly poison", which took only a couple of minutes once I'd ridden down to their location, though a rogue already there, Silvara84, was a bit put out to have yet more competition while she farmed sp and myst eyes.

Shuraine at his oasis had a quest for me too, "The Depravity of Baal" - like the Death Knight of Iris quest later, that's a hard one, as it involves killing the boss spider Baal, and to do it in a party is allowed...if one should happen to find another few like-minded individuals.

By then RedRydeR had added 25.31%, but, as I had found a solo party, and LordDarth was happily pet-levelling without any further problems, it seemed simplest to not team up with SirKit, but just to continue as things were - so Red returned to the elite frenzied berserkers solo, which meant slightly less experience, but rather more skill exp.

This time the Grand Red Dragon did formally "Arrive" next to me, after Red had reached level 41 and put on the new armour pieces, so Red logged out, and Barbarienne again rode down to deal with the raid boss. Another level 41 rogue was there by then, but just watched as Barb killed the GRD. Again there was no rare accessory, just the usual moonstones, tool aids, and so on.

I left the other rogue there, and RedRydeR went to Maargadum Jail instead, running through the ground floor, and moving through floor two as well. She ended up on floor three, fighting level 42 beast archers, level 45 beast scythes, and level 46 beast flyers, without losing much health. She didn't, however, move into the central area, but kept to the gallery on one side and a couple of its rooms - the number of protective beast archers and flyers in the middle would probably be slightly too much for her, as yet, and anyway the knight Boardum, who had earlier led the solo party that SirKit had joined, was there.

Including that 25.31%, in all RedRyder added 52.70% during the evening, plus 124 skill points and 758 pet points. Red's stash of unused sp was getting close to 22k -but there was that level 41 skill level to get now...

I'd not got involved with the Merac Run on Auzura at nine, UK time, but for the ten o'clock run on Cariae-5, Barbarienne logged in. That will end a bit late to be in today's blog, but no doubt I'll find room for a few words about it tomorrow. LordDarth kept on with the pet-levelling, getting past the halfway mark in level 25, but tonight's regular weekly maintenance would prevent him from staying busy overnight.