The End of the Bears

MistressFelicia managed to sell out of all 212 Wendy Bear pieces last night fairly quickly, this time at just 95,000 gold each, so that was another twenty million or so earned. There was just time to log her out, and bring MistressDomino in instead, for an overnight selling session on Auzura-5... but this morning I found that the game had had a "send error message?" crash almost immediately, after she'd only had the chance to sell two damage boosters.

RedRackham did rather better with his new pony though, which levelled throughout the night, and reached level 14 at breakfast time. After breakfast I gave MistressDomino a chance for some more selling, but things were slow; someone bought a chaos ball. and then someone else bought the perfect stones MD was selling. Before coffee, somebody bought all the remaining chaos balls, at a price 60% higher than I'd charge on Cariae, and then some mana stealers went, so my gold reserves were starting to look a bit healthier.

After coffee, the priority was to get RedRydeR the half level she needed to reach level 55, so she and SirKit went to their preferred elite sphinx speer man spot. I didn't think any extra boost like a pbi would be needed, and indeed Red did reach her new level before lunch. She went up by 58.32%, and got her drake 1305 pet points, while SirKit, as her combat party support, added 26.60%; they each added 10 skill points.

The royal knight uffo1, who like Kit is now level 45, arrived after about an hour, so I recruited him into the combat party. I can't say he did a huge amount of fighting, as he had to be afk for a while, which may be just as well as he's one of the people who doesn't mind if his health bar is down to 20%, he'll still dash out and attack another speer man. In a combat party, though, afk members are always welcome.

RedRackham had got his pony into level 15 just before logging out, and went back to his gnoll lancer on Cariae-4 over the lunch break. After lunch MistressDomina had a quick look around town, and checked up on what accessories Roy's merchant house had available, with a view to seeing if a suction of life accessory for SirKit might be had relatively cheaply.

It may have been a mistake with one too few zeroes, but on the third page of the accessories, MD found a Chains of Tiger accessory being sold by HighRueiro for two million gold - and in my view even twenty million would be cheaper than average.

A "CoT" may not be as good as a Tears of Knight ("ToK"), but it adds 16 to physical prowess (strength), and 8 to close range physical attack, so is a useful accessory for a knight to equip. I also found a Necklace of Wind offering 58 hit (health) points, 5 defence, and twice 5% suction of life, being sold by Wredota for five million, which seemed a useful thing for SirKit to equip, too.

Those got transferred to SirKit later, but the main session for the afternoon involved RedRydeR - and since Red was now level 55, it also involved my cleric Kaerella, who on level 70 was just fifteen levels ahead, the maximum for a party without the lower member having their experience gain "capped".

A while back, Auzura's Kaerella, when level 70, had teamed with Elvastar, on level 60, at the sphinx fighters etc, and got good experience despite the sphinx types being blue-named for her; this worked again today for the Kae/Red team. Kaerella only added 4.75%, along with 19 skill points, since at her level the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff to one's double experience and skill exp gain is no longer available, but that's just as well, as otherwise she'd be in danger of reaching 71 before RedRydeR reaches 56; Red added 33.69% and 39 skill points, so a couple more similar sessions ought to see her reach level 56.

I had been wondering if I'd offended her somehow, as I hadn't seen her recently - but Dratan's raid boss, Kamira, dropped by during the afternoon. I automatically logged Kaerella out, and teleported my level 98 mage Keerella to the spot - she killed Kamira easily enough as usual, and got all the regular bits and pieces like moonstones and tool aids, but no rare accessory. Kee logged out, and Kaerella returned, continuing where she had left off.

The session ended slightly early, so that various items could be traded between characters, including loot to MistressDomina and Wendy Bear pieces to MistressFelicia, and some weapons and armour were moved around too. Then RedRackham was back in pet-levelling action over the early evening food break - and the pony reached level 16, growing up to be a nice sturdy horse. MistressFelicia went into merchant mode to sell the Wendy Bear pieces for the last time, again at 95,000 each, and sold out by the end of the break - so that was another 61 pieces sold, making her total income over the two weeks around 80,000,000 gold.

For the evening, I was rather hoping to get enough Wendy Bear sets of pieces to get MistressBlaze on Auzura a pirate costume. I really couldn't think of any Cariae character who would benefit from having a costume cover, the active ones will hopefully be upgrading their armour soon and not want to be tied down for 30 days, or have +15 pieces already that wouldn't benefit from the "bonus book of melding" add-on... and besides, there are so many people around wearing the costumes already.

MistressBlaze returned to Maargadum Jail's third level, but the central area was in use by a knight for all the time I was there, so I had to settle for one of the side rooms, and a few nearby beast scythes while the flyers and archers were respawning. MB already had a few pieces from her recent adventures there, and I managed to get three sets - however, to get the set of costume covers, you have to lose your first game of rock paper scissors with Sharoyan, and I kept winning that first game, and losing the second or third, so that what I mainly got was just 5 each of greater healing potions or greater mana potions.

MistressBlaze finished her session by doing an outstanding quest - killing ten of the giant larvae down in south-east Merac.. In all, including some assorted quest rewards, she gained 19.10% in level 47, plus 137 skill points and 644 pet points.

Kaerella over on Katar had also got a few Wendy bear pieces from her recent session, so she had an hour or so back in Prokion Temple, fighting first a mixture of orc fighters and orc axemen, and ending up in my favourite back room fighting the axemen and sergeants, but she was unable to get a complete set of the pieces by the time I had to finish. She added 10.57% and 175 skill points, anyway, plus 72 guild points for Discipline. She ended up selling the pieces she had got back in Randol, sitting next to Sharoyan on Katar-5, for 95,000 - most people there seemed to be asking 180,000 or 200,000, so while she only had 22, they sold fairly steadily, and they'd all gone by ten past ten, so Kae had earned a couple of million or so, even if she won't be running around dressed as a pirate. That left enough time for RedRackham to log on, over on Cariae-4, for an hour or so's pet-levelling.

Back on Auzura, I'd discovered, just in time, where I'd kept my Wendy Bear pieces from last year's event - on a storage healer called LadyAuzura. So, I I'd traded the pieces across to MistressBlaze, and after another set or two of potions, she finally got the mage pirate costume cover set. She immediately put it on (it can be worn by itself in town unmelded, though it doesn't give any defence benefit unless it has been melded onto one's existing armour) - and went into merchant mode by Sharoyan, with the usual "The Wendy Bear Necessities" headline, and the usual price. Sales were steady, but someone would have to be a bit optimistic to take the whole quantities of some pieces, so I guess LadyAuzura will get some pieces back to keep in storage for next year.

The costume, melded or not, should last for thirty days. The in-game clock in Last Chaos doesn't really join up properly with real time, but when the prize was won the time was 33 - 7 - 5 - 7, and the expiration time is given as "year 35, month 7, day 5, time 7", so if I keep a watch on the clock, which is above the compass-map in the top right-hand corner of the screen, I should know when the piratical look will vanish. It would have been nice to have got RedRackham a costume, as he is named after a pirate (as in Tintin's adventure "Red Rackham's Treasure"), but if he was pet-levelling when the time ran out, he would suddenly be fighting in his underwear, and pretty soon be lying dead on the ground, as a character "wears" the cover, rather than the armour itself, in some strange abstract way.

The maintenance downtime is scheduled for 2:00am UK time, an hour later than usual, to be more convenient for Korean time. What the new patch will bring, we have no idea, it might even extend the Wendy Bear event for another week. Tomorrow we will know what new delights have been introduced.