A Wedding in Mondshine

My "busy day" kept me away from the computer until the evening. MistressDomino had sold a few more health point stealers before she logged out last night, moving her total gold supply over the 300 million mark, and RedRackham had got his current drake to within an hour or so of level 40 before getting a disconnection...but after that, all was quiet for about twenty hours.

In the Twisted guild, a wedding had been announced, to take place ninety minutes before the Sunday Quiz, between our guild master SacSalop and Lyn26 - to take place in the high-level map "Mondshine", normally only accessible by people who are at least level 140. Recalls would be given, though, to get us mid-level people there in time for the ceremony.

I'd been able to log RedRackham in for some pet-levelling over on Cariae-4, down on the fifth floor of Maargadum Jail, soon after I'd arrived home, and MistressDomina was finally able to get online soon after 6:30, UK time. I'd seen in the forum shoutbox that irene_tas was going to be the gamesage officiating at the wedding, as Lyn26 was checking up the timing with her there... and when MD registered for a party, and was picked up by TheGuildMaster and Recalled to Mondshine, peaceIrene, as she is in-game, was there ready...though a bit afk as she was still active in the shoutbox.

When the time came, peaceIrene gave a similar speech to the one huggy-bikini (well, hunnybeenikki) gave for the previous wedding in Twisted's ranks. "Irisians...we are gathered here today in the presence of Apollon, Eres and the couple's friends to unite SacSalop and Lyn26 in cyber matrimony. If any of you believe that these two characters should not be together, speak now or keep your silence for ever!" There was then a pause, but, boringly, nobody did object, so we proceeded; they exchanged rings, and then Irene pronounced Apollon's blessing. "I look down from the vastness of the heaven and smile upon two of my loyal Irisians on this, the sacred day of their joining of hearts. May the two ever remember that together they can achieve much more than if apart - that respect and love are intertwined, and grow with the passing of time."

And that was about it, though peaceIrene did also say "Goodness and hearts golden are the way to the blessing of Apollon." The event was even given a GM-type announcement: "Grats to SacSalop and Lyn26!!! May your love survive Last Chaos and beyond!!" There were various congratulations, not to mention rude comments; pieces of cake were offered, and mindful of keeping a slim figure MistressDomina only picked up two. I think some friends did pass across wedding presents, but I have no idea what might be appropriate on such an occasion. A number of members of Twisted's allied guild DeadlyRebeLs, current holders of Dratan's castle, were there, plus DrJirri, the sorcerer Voldemort, and no doubt a few high-level types who happened to be there anyway. I assume we were in Mondshine's main town, close to the spawning point; it didn't seem like true night, though the sky was greyer than one is used to.

As there wasn't time for anything more adventurous before the quiz, Auzura's RedRackham did some mining of quality stones, using tool aids, and got his stash back up over the 1500 mark; then Kaerella logged in and farmed some green herb leaves, since she has rather a lot of tool aids. Cariae's RedRackham then logged out, and Auzura's MistressDomino then logged in on the second subserver - and headed for the quiz room. Kaerella joined her there once she'd finished her herb-farming.

The quiz ran much as usual, with a few people managing to stay in despite being on the wrong side, and a few clusters of low-levels with random names moving around together. Both Kae and MistressDomino got to the end safely; Kaerella even had a newbie mage called bioshock22 clicked onto her for most of the time, so presumably she got her prizes too. Afterwards, Kaerella traded her moonstones and heaven stones across to MistressDomino, along with 1200 green herb leaves and a couple of other items, and then they both logged out.

I posted my usual reassurance in the shoutbox about three times I think: "After the Sunday Quiz we always get heavy lag, which makes logging back in difficult for a few minutes. The trick is to never click to accept the "Timed Out" messages, just wait and things will eventually load. If you do click "timed out", and try again, the game thinks you are logged in already and you get the "already logged in" message, but it's just a glitch, don't worry." I also reassured people querying "account already logged in" and Roy's merchant mart not working, and, taking my own advice about ignoring the "timed out" pop-up and just waiting things out, logged RedRackham, the Auzura version, back in, and went back to Maargadum Jail - where he got his drake to level 40 before the end of the evening.

MistressSabina went out into the Dratan desert briefly, to see if fighting giants was do-able for her. It did work okay, though the witch skill Stone does take a little longer to recharge than would be ideal. However, there were a few little lag spikes, so it seemed a good idea not to risk a disconnection while fighting there - so Sabina logged out, and SirPerivale logged in.

SirPerivale went to Maargadum jail, and managed to attract a spike canine back safely into the corner behind the teleporter, behind another knight, fighting a dire spike canine, called 0410. Peri has a blue name, so hits with his full force...though as he is just level 22 to the canine's 40, he only hits it for 26 damage, which it can easily handle. It's lucky his 25/27 armour set is mainly +12, though he did need a few levels of the "increased armour (dragon)" buff to feel secure there. Before too long his dragon hatchling reached level 12 - but that was after surviving a number of other lag spikes, when no numbers floated up above the spike canine's head, and the other knight appeared to stop fighting.

So, that was the end of the evening's excitements. I had thought about leaving MistressDomino in merchant mode overnight, but with the lag problems, it doesn't seem worth trying that at the moment.