The Silence of the GMs

RedRackham was able to hurry along to Maargadum Jail before breakfast, on Auzura-6, and settle in for some pet-levelling. Sadly, the GMs had remembered to switch off the second half of the double pet experience before leaving their office, so progress was slow - after coffee Red provided the solo party for CaptainScarlet, and so was able to keep going through until the end of the early evening food break, by which time the drake had just managed to reach level 40.

CaptainScarlet had a good long morning session, which continued after lunch as well, with the orc axemen and orc sergeants in the back room of Prokion Temple. Once the Elizabuff had ended, he went back to Randol to get it renewed, and then headed for Merac, where the rewards for his quests killing pilferers and bandits, and then berserkers, got him 15.86% experience and 80 skill points - his Prokion time had earned him 25.53% and 188 skill points.

The main afternoon session was with the bandits, berserkers, and pumpkin ghosts. A couple of pandora's boxes each gave him 50,000 gold - but a third released a level 50 beast, which initially I left well alone. However, another knight appeared, and got it down to around 50% health before he died, so I attempted to finish it off... only to end up respawning back in town. Before I got back, a passing high-level archer, presumably in search of the grand red dragon, had finished it off.

By the time I took the early evening food break, CaptainScarlet's Merac adventurings had added another 21.68% and 44 skill points, plus 1206 pet points; he returned there after the break, mainly to get to an Ignition level he was just short of, and added another 3.41%, 10 skill points, and 94 pet points.

I logged on to my Auzuran rogue Rage, ready to say "hi all" to my Twisted guildies...only to find she was no longer in the guild, to my surprise. Checking the Tomb of Theos, however, showed it to be on maximum easy, so it seemed a good time to log in as MistressDomina. It appears that there have been some changes in Twisted, in that the previous guild master, spazz, is now back, after being without an internet connection, or at least one good enough for online gaming, for quite a while, and when he did a little "spring-cleaning" of the membership, nobody remembered who Rage was, sigh. I must say that the guild chat seemed a bit spikier, though it settled down as the evening progressed. We can arrange to get Rage back in when convenient; I got the impression that the castle siege events weren't currently considered very important, just opportunities for people who enjoy PvP to go along and get involved in the fight.

RedRackham had had to log out, as he is on the same account as MD; instead, I logged SirGalahad in, and, in a solo party with MistressDomina he took his level 1 pony to Maargadum Jail, where he lured a spike canine back to behind the teleporter, a rather cramped space which was already a bit crowded with two other knights and a sorcerer. With his good-quality armour, he was just able to keep his health up; a level 23 character fighting a level 40 monster needs pretty good protection. By the end of the evening the pony had got its sympathy up to 100%, and was in level 8, so next time, Gal will have the added protection of a bit of armour buff from it.

MistressDomina headed for the Tomb, and for the usual room with its supply of ancient grey mummies. I took up position in the corridor leading into it, as someone was already busy in the main room, and started a "power hour" since, as it's skill points MD is farming, she doesn't have to stick to the "dungeon time" set-up. With plenty of time left on the giant skill pill, I just added the platinum super skill pill and a small crit potion, both lasting an hour, plus of course the individual skill point boosters.

During the first hour I only got through 51 boosters, partly because it was a little while before I remembered that MD does move along more quickly if she uses her three buffs; she added 1.51% and 283 skill points. Helped by an Ignition run, during a second hour 58 boosters were used, still a long way short of the "full-speed" hours MD has done in the past, for 1.73% experience and 321 skill points.

The evening's "Turbo" event had turned out to be 50% extra experience and skill exp, which was quite handy; I don't mind if MistressDomina moves on a bit more quickly through level 103 now, as she has a pretty good supply of skill points after all the work that has been done, and even without any additional boosts, that 50%, plus the 15% from the giant skill pill, meant that I still got 7590 skill exp per kill. So, over the next ninety minutes or so another 43 skill points got added - in all over the evening MistressDomina added 5.62%, 647 skill points, and 3747 pet points.

A Twisted guildie, BlackenedSoul, did actually happen to arrive not long before I finished, but she, a fellow mage, is a few levels higher, and would have needed the whole room, as she'd be mobbing the place and using every mummy within range. I did offer her my corridor collection, but that wasn't enough, with the room still being used by a couple of others, so she went off, perhaps to a PvP subserver where less people would be around. When she said she'd give me a boost, I thought she meant a buff - but what she traded across to me, refusing payment, was one of the special pots that increases a character's total health and mana by 30% for a week. As I commented when I thanked her, something that would be very useful later on, when MistressDomina has moved beyond the Tomb of Theos.

Once MistressDomina had logged out, there was just time to send RedRackham to Maargadum Jail again for an hour or so. He didn't go down to the death mask lancer, though, he just got his own spike canine, and took up a position next to SirGalahad. At level 23, with a blue name (+45 good), Gal hits the canines for 28 with no weapon equipped, while at level 35, with a red name (-154 evil), Red just hits them for 18.

I'd been too busy with the ancient grey mummies to get involved with the "trick or treat" event, which had gamesages in Randol, moving from server to server, handing out goodies to people who said the magic words. Going by the Twisted guild chat, the treats were mainly soup, or chocolate, or cake. Tuffsen, using the website's Meebo messenger, reported that she got some goodies, when it was Cariae's turn. She also told me later that this time, the Vendetta guild had won back the Dratan castle, which may well mean that, for the coming week at least, the Tomb on Cariae doesn't get reset to the easy end.

There was no "tiered spender event" for Halloween; there was a tiny-chance raffle involving killing or being killed in PvP, and there was an "up to 50%" bonus cash sale, but, apart from the higher-priced loot forge and its (possible) master stones, things on the aeria point side were unusually quiet. And, concerning special events this weekend to compensate Auzura for all the time and grinding lost to the rollbacks...not a peep from the GMs, which seems extraordinary.