Big Spender

MistressDomina did very well selling overnight - so much so that I was tempted to make an outrageously expensive purchase in the morning, just before coffee. I found that the healer Kaznar was selling a pair of +15 gloves, blue-named, with all five evasion seals for three billion gold. You might think that one billion would be nearer to the market price - but these Ebade Newvesta Gloves have "decrease limit of apparel level -10". Normally you would only be able to equip them at level 115, but the decrease means that Barbarienne can wear them at level 105, or right away. Her evasion, compared to the old level 85 b5e gloves, stays at 1183, but her physical defence rises from 3334 to 3458. Which doesn't seem a whole lot, considering that Barb has thus skipped direct from 85 to 115, leaping over the level 90, 95, 100, 105, and 110 gloves, but it's a step in the right direction. And the level 105 g5e gloves have been put back in Roy's merchant mart, to see if we can get our 420 million for them back.

All that excitement meant the morning playing session was a bit late starting - it finished slightly early, too, but RedRydeR and SirKit did manage to take possession of floor three of Maargadum Jail, where Red gained 17.90%, taking her into level 46, plus 51 skill points and 766 pet points, and Kit added 9.11%, along with 49 skill points, as he arrived only after Red had found the place clear and started fighting.

After lunch, I was able to transfer the old 50/52 +13 armour set that Kaerella had used, particularly when she was farming skill points from the beast flyers herself, across from CuddlesMcGraw, who had been looking after it, to RedRydeR. Red then spent 1,252,800 gold getting Collector Ryl to change the armour into the rogue equivalent, the "Fatal" set, which I think is, with its red velvet look, one of the best-looking rogue armours. The full 50/52 armour set is one of the rarer ones in the game, so not many rogues will be wearing it.

It was also necessary to pass over some assorted saleable stuff to MistressDomina, so that, after spending all her gold, she will, hopefully, be able to start building up her reserves again. But then it was time for RedRydeR and SirKit to return to Maargadum Jail, with Red wearing the gloves, jacket and pants of her new armour set, and thus with rather better physical defence than before - 1186 had gone up to 1507.

Luck was with us, and our floor of the Jail was again not being used by anyone else - and we stayed there for the whole three hours of the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff. Our only visitor was a sorcerer called Flamebreaker who assured me that he only wanted to kill a single beast flyer, to check how much experience he'd get. After killing one, he decided that the beast scythes were better for him, which was fine with me. They do have the advantage of not being protective of each other, so you don't get a whole mob of them attacking you at once.

It was a fairly busy session, with plenty of Wendy Bear pieces, and three "hands of the warrior", each including a heaven stone of course. By the time the Elizabuff ran out, RedRydeR had earned another 50.23%, and 2773 pet points, and SirKit was up by 28.50%; they had each gained 154 skill points, which was just enough to take Red back over the 22k mark.

RedRackham did a little work on his drake over the early evening food break, and then RedRydeR took the "beast hearts" she had collected out to Rau at the column of magic. The quest reward gave her 100,000 gold, plus 4.29% experience and 10 skill points.

SirKit and AmityBlaise then teamed up in Randol. Amy finished getting Innate Movement, got a couple more levels of Mental Defence, the final level of Poison Capsule, and the second level of Swift Bash to spend all her 206 skill points - SirKit spent 216 on the fifth level of Two Weapon Fighting. A quest reward from Magician Dien in Merac gave Amy 6.27%, which was enough to get her into level 28. In Dratan, Jajan rewarded her for having some dark orbs. which added another 10.68% and 4 skill points.

The main evening session, however, had SirKit in charge, accompanied by AmityBlaise, for a trip to Prokion Temple. The level 36 cleric ThunderStorms was already in the back room when we arrived - but she was taking a break in a quiet corner, so we set to work bashing the local orc axemen and sergeants - and clicked on her to invite her into a combat party, which when she returned to her keyboard she clicked "yes" to.

As I'd been in a solo party before, and seen ThunderStorms occupying the back room a few times, I knew that she was attempting to farm masses of skill points, and that a combat party, with Amy in it to lower the average level, and ThunderStorms not fighting, might give her some useful skill exp - and she did take advantage of the offer for a while, just standing and chatting. She was 77.74% of the way through her level, which obviously was taking a while, longer even than level 35 took RedRydeR - but with the axemen still giving 1100 skill exp and the sergeants three times that, she was carrying on with it. She had already got 37,708 skill points, and was intending to earn some more as she levelled up, so is going to be one fully-skilled cleric, all the way. She did find the idea of teaming with someone about ten levels below her, to boost the experience and skill exp gain, useful, so may try it once she finishes her current level, I think.

ThunderStorms got tired of not fighting, after a while, though, and went off to find a room of her own, leaving us in full possession of the back room, but staying in the party for its solo benefits until about 8:30, UK time. So, SirKit was busy fighting, and AmityBlaise did some fighting too. Kit reached level 38, and was still getting useful experience and skill exp from the orcs - around 2,600/2,300 from the axemen, and 25,000/3,600 from the sergeants.

A mage called xXthekillerXx came in to share the room, but was a friendly type, and gave both of us buffs - so Kit gave her Divine Shield and Concentration too, though I doubt if the latter would have been of any benefit. It shows willing, though! Before long she decided to leave the room to us, and went off in search of a room of her own.

Towards the end a sorcerer called xXsorcexX came in, but didn't know any English, so I have no idea if he was saying "Do you mind, old chap? This group of orcs are all mine, I tell you!" or "I say, if it's not too much bother, could you take a few of this mob of orc blighters off me?" He did say "party?" after a while, but by then the Elizabuffs were just running out, so I had to decline the offer, and left him in control of the room.

SirKit had added 38.06% during the evening, while AmityBlaise had earned another 46.47% in the Temple, along with 144 guild points for Discipline. They each added 348 skill points, so that Kit now actually has over 7,000 unused skill points.

Once the recently-acquired Wendy Bear pieces had been traded across to MistressFelicia, and the other good loot moved across to MistressDomina, MD moved across to Cariae-4 and went into merchant mode near the arena, just close enough to the small fountain there for her pony to be visible. With the official weekly maintenance scheduled for later on, she wasn't going to pull another all-nighter, but with her gold reserves down to almost nothing, a bit of replenishment seemed like a good idea. RedRackham took his drake out to the gnoll lancers on the same subserver for an hour or so; the drake is now around a quarter of the way through level 38, so I really ought to trade it over to RedRydeR soon. For one thing, if RedRydeR has a session or so in Maargadum Jail during the day, the pet she has equipped there probably earns as many pet points as RedRackham's drake manages per day at present.

There was an event scheduled today on Auzura and Katar, but it was apparently going to last two hours, involving "Strategy in Strayana", a hide and seek part, and staying close to the GM for two hours, so that is your name was whispered and you responded quickly enough, you could win a prize. It all sounded rather vague and complicated, so I opted not to burn the midnight oil on it. We are promised a proper "Mad Monster Spawn" on Friday evening though, so that's something to look forward to.