An Old Friend

I had to do some moving around of items first, to make sure that Kaerella had enough experience boosters and crit potions, but a lengthy morning session started for her with a trip out to the entrance to the Tomb of Theos fairly soon after breakfast.

The "Condition" bars showed the Tomb to have deteriorated to about 70% easy, but, fearlessly, Kae went in anyway, with RedRackham back online and pet-levelling to supply a solo party. Her platinum refining stones, boosting the remaining parts of the 70/72 armour set that she was still wearing to +15, wouldn't run out until after lunch, so this seemed the best time for at least one more "power hour", with Kaerella using a crit and a power potion, as well as a 61-90 platinum blessed iris and experience boosters.

The level 93 titan Sc0t was there too, and suggested a combat party, which seemed good to me, so I left the solo party, and joined up with him, supplying the full-strength Encourage boost when possible, and some Greater Heal...though such interventions did sometimes mean that a screaming zombie he was fighting would make a run for Kae instead. Titans have so much health that there's seldom any urgency about healing them.

During the hour, Kaerella used just 72 experience boosters, and went up by 80.30%, which got her safely into level 87. After that, Sc0t vanished, and I brought RedRydeR in to "ks", fighting Kae's zombie while not being in a party with her. Kaerella didn't use any boosts or potions over the next two hours, but Red used a couple of the 61-90 pbis, and did go up from level 65 to halfway through 66.

After that it was time for lunch; Kae's total experience gain for the session was 85.53%, plus 2710 pet points and 6 skill points, while RedRydeR added 74.09% and 1606 pet points, but no skill points as she's still way too low to get more than 1 skill exp per kill from the level 100 types. I'd shared the area with two rogues and a healer for a while, but they left before Kae and Red did. Kae had been starting to take some damage from the zombies, and, when I left the Tomb, I checked the Condition again, and it had fallen to around 40%, closer to the hard end than the easy.

Over an extended lunch break, RedRackham got his drake into level 34. The platinum refining stones expired on the 70/72 armour set, so Kaerella was now able to trade her old "Balsamic" set across to RedRydeR, along with her level 69 weapon - Collector Ryl worked his usual magic, turning them into their rogue equivalents for a fee.

The afternoon became a no-fighting affair, when an old friend from Norcaine got in touch - I had actually noticed a rogue called MEDSx in Randol, and thought how much it reminded me of MEDS without the little "x"...but apparently a name-change had been needed at some point, and this was the genuine article, on a rare visit from the "Aion" mmorpg, where he plays on a North American server for only around $8.00 a month, I think he said. It was nice to think that the people who had moved to that game remembered me, and even had thought "oh, Kee would have liked that" sometimes.

Most of MEDSx's best items are over on the Katar server apparently, but, as he doesn't use his Cariae character, MEDSx very kindly transferred across to me some stuff he didn't need - which ties in nicely with RedRydeR's progress, as it included a couple of expensive armour items I'd have needed to buy in the next few days: parts of the 85/87 rogue "Chaser" armour set. being given a b5e +13 Anti-Stone Chaser Jacket and Antistune Chaser pants save me a small fortune. The boots he had now were only the level 77 ones, but at +13 and b5e will be a help for a while...he didn't have the headgear, and only g5e +10 gloves, but it was a great start. After he left, MistressDomina was able to buy from Roy's merchant mart a pair of g5e +15 Light Chaser Gloves, put up for sale by clerica at 770 million - that extra boost from being +15 more than makes up for the slightly lower armour and evasion you get from a green-named rather than a blue-named item, I think. And Cloriform had put a Casting Up Chaser Hood +15, which was b5e, up for sale at a comparatively cheap 679 million, so MD grabbed that too. That only leaves her with 50 million gold at present, so a newer pair of boots will have to wait a while.

MEDSx also traded across 2 platinum adrenalin, 2 large crit, and 4 power potions, plus 23 mana stealers and 22 health stealers, along with 20 heaven stones, 100 million gold, and three of the "eyes of spirit" accessory, so was very generous. I showed her Red's special phoenix armour and coloured horse, and Barbarienne showed off her new armour pieces, but MEDSx seems set on staying with Aion, though promises to keep in touch.

After trading various accumulations of loot across to MistressDomina, and otherwise redistributing stuff (the three EoS have at least a temporary home now with AmityBlaise), it was time for the food break, so RedRackham hurried back to the gnoll lancers, until I was ready to swing back into action.

The evening's adventuring saw RedRydeR and SirKit heading out to the elite sphinx speer man and his cohorts again. Red used three pbis; Kit just used one to start off with, and then just relied on the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff for the other two hours. Red was able to use the gloves, shirt and pants from the 70/72 set, and the level 69 +15 Pillgrip Bow, so found the sphinx types a lot tamer. Over the three hours, they got all their bloodseals added - and just before the end, RedRydeR reached level 67, and was able to put on the hood and boots from the set as well. So, she's ready for higher-level action now.

SirKit reached level 53 quite early in the session, and then reached level 54, a little while before RedRydeR levelled up; in all Kit added 129.33% and 90 skill points, while Red earned 46.18% and 47 skill points, plus 2629 pet points for her drake. Red has passed over the level 61 weapon and 60/62 armour set to Kit now, but he'll need another level before he can wear the gloves, a level after that for the mail and leggings, and a third level before he can wear the helmet and boots, and wield new dual swords.

Back in Dratan City, SirKit got a quest to slay some dragons, and, conveniently, RedRydeR got the quest to kill the legendary slayers in the Forgotten Temple. She'd already got the quest to kill some spiders there, and you can't kill those slayers without the spiders getting involved, so doing the two quests together makes sense, and will be a bit easier in her new armour set.

On the skills front, SirKit was able to invest 200 skill points in the seventh level of his Concentration buff. The passive skill Two Hand Control's first five levels, for 573 skill points, increased his physical attack by 120, with dual swords, so that was worth getting. RedRydeR's earlier level-up had made the seventh level of Piercing available, for 400 skill points; it's not a skill I normally use, as it can aggravate multiple monsters into attacking, but Red's going for maxxed-out skills, so the points were spent, taking her stash down to just below 20k. I suppose it would be a useful skill in the monster combo, and at other times when there's definitely only a single monster around.

RedRackham went out for a little more pet-levelling before the end of the evening - and MistressDomina set up shop on Cariae-4, to try and raise some more gold overnight.