Back to the Sphinxes

While RedRyder on Katar sold her soccer balls fairly quickly, MistressDomina on Sarissa didn't really have any more luck overnight with her remaining golden ones, just selling a few minor items, so a further attempt at lower prices will be needed there. She logged out at breakfast time - and RedRackham went out to the gnoll lancers on Cariae-4 for some more pet-levelling.

Back on Katar, it seemed like a good idea to give Kaerella, there a level 33 archer, a chance to do some more work in Prokion Temple for the morning session. While the place was fairly busy, I managed to settle in in my favourite back room with the orc axemen and sergeants, and joined a party...for some reason it was set up for "combat", which limited the range of players who could join, and, though I did suggest changing it to the more usual "equal" status, it closed down about half an hour before I finished my session, having run out of members, and at that time there was no other party to join.

Still, the session moved Kaerella on by 20.80%, and she added 367 skill points, which took her stash up over the 16k mark - so that's pretty healthy, and as long as she stays in Prokion for another level or so, Kae will be well set up for the future on that server.

I spent the afternoon trying to farm more soccer balls on Katar, to increase my cash reserves there - and by the time the food break came along, Memree, my level 31 rogue, had managed to get 12 golden soccer balls and 224 regular ones from my usual "Hunter Dranore Triangle". Before going out there, as she is in theory maximising her special skills, I'd taken Memree to Maargadum Jail to get rid of her 48% experience in that level - there is a special "death insurance" thing running today, and each death gets one a very slight chance of 500 million gold, so it seemed a good time to do that.

There was some controversy in the forum shoutbox, with one visitor telling how they had been threatened with a ban, and generally bullied, by a gamesage - and to our surprise, the (apparently) guilty party was PeaceIrene, or irene_tas as she is in the shoutbox, who is generally a kindly, helpful sort. Apparently, while the combat party system is set up so that it works as long as everyone is within ten levels, either way, of the party leader, the strict "letter of the law" is that all party members should be within ten levels of each other. If the GMs want it to work that way, they need to get the game changed so that combat parties only work like that, I'd say. It seems a bit pathetic to have gamesages running around threatening people that they are "exploiting", when the players are just following the game's own mechanics.

As usual the evening session on a Sunday was going to be truncated by the Sunday Quiz coming along at 8:30, UK time. I also tend to think that the more popular places, like Prokion Temple and the Tomb of Theos, will be a bit full on Sundays once the US has woken up, which rather limits my options. But, first of all, I needed to move the soccer balls and other loot across from Memree to one of my mages there, MistressSabina, so that she would be able to attempt some sales later.

That meant RedRackham logged out briefly, but he then returned to his pet-levelling, this time on Cariae-5, so that he could give SirKit a solo party. The drake had reached level 27 by that point.

The first thing SirKit had to do was head to Merac Caron and get the quest to kill some death mask soldiers and death mask lancers, down in Maargadum Jail. Helped along by Kit's running speed, that was done very quickly, and the horse buffs he had applied in town before using a scroll to move to the Jail's entrance was still on when he claimed his reward. Including the errand to take the "rotten flesh" on to Healer Yabo in Randol, he got 6 skill points and 4.53% experience as his rewards.

SirKit then went out to the sphinx fighters - the regular place rather than the secondary place he and RedRydeR normally head for. He found that, with the occasional small health potion, and taking a bit of care not to be mobbed, he could handle the sphinx fighters, and the sphinx speer men, even though they are thirteen and fourteen levels above him. His poor drake took a lot of damage, though. A higher-level temple knight called livingwolf kindly helped with a speer man or two, and even did a one-off "power level" on the elite speer man...as far as I could see, him using the temple knight Teleport skill on it, after getting rid of 95% of its health, worked like a party recall card in disassociating him from it, so that with one easy hit Kit got the whole experience for that kill. Or maybe him getting on his horse had something to do with it. Soon after that, Kit returned to Juno, and farmed some more green herb leaves, since he had only been carrying one tool aid's worth before. And then, he went back to the sphinxes

Another knight, WraithOfDarkness, was also around, and felt that Kit would be okay in the Tomb of Theos now, providing he used a mana and a health stealer... that I'm not too sure about. Still, by the time the Sunday Quiz was approaching, SirKit had levelled up to 51, adding in all 61.49% in his main evening session, plus 26 skill points and 1195 pet points. In Dratan, he got a new quest...which involved going out to fight a few giants.

The Sunday Quiz went smoothly, although it started a couple of minutes late; as usual Kaerella said when the heaven stones had arrived after question 20, "Grats all"...to which someone else added "except the cheaters". And there had been a couple of suspiciously clone-like lines of auto-followers in the Auzura-2 room, I noticed.

Anyway, Kaerella traded her heaven stones and moonstones across to MistressDomino, and then they both logged out. RedRackham was able to return to the gnoll lancers... and SirKit had his chance to ride west out of Dratan, towards the giants. On the way I saw the first triangle balls I've seen on the Dratan map...so Kit added three more soccer balls to his small supply. He reached the giants, to collect seven "magic arrays"...and the buff was still on when, back in town, he visited storage, sold a couple of items to the merchant, and got the quest reward from Occultist Pianon: 4 skill points and 1.52% experience. It would have been twice as much if he'd remembered to get the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff, silly knight... When Kit reaches level 52, he'll have some ravenous larvae to deal with, so it's handy that he memorised their spot when he was out hunting the rough jaguars of the desert recently.

There was time for a very short further visit to the sphinx types, and then Kit logged off. He'd just added another 9.67% since the quiz, plus 9 skill points and 285 pet points. It was time for MistressSabina, a level 10 mage over on Katar-5, to try to do a little selling of the latest crop of soccer balls, and other loot. Her gold total started at 116,483...and received no early additions. Hopefully, things will improve as the night continues.