Power Cut

Cariae's Kaerella and Barbarienne logged in for their attendance bonus before breakfast, along with Auzura's MistressSabina... and when I checked up after breakfast, I found that Sabina had a friend request, from someone called PandemicX3. I accepted, hoping that it wasn't an ap or password scammer, and discovered that he was a level 31 sorcerer from Germany - and would I become the guardian of his friend?

Once I'd worked out that, unlike the other two screens, I was on Auzura rather than Cariae, and amended the name of the guardian from Keerella to Kaerella, we went ahead, and the level 1 archer moriana became Kae's apprentice. Power-levelling was required, of course - I always think of the Tomb of Theos automatically for that, but unlike when Kee was "reputation farming", now we have Strayana too, and PandemicX3 suggested we go there.

I was a little wary, as I don't have the vaccine to protect myself from the "Strayana virus", but as it turned out, once I was fighting the black puddings (and how's that for a name for monsters?) just outside the town's gate, the suction of life generally kept up with that easily enough. Black puddings may be level 108, but Kaerella is level 102 now, so they didn't give any big problems.

I got moriana to 20, but she asked to go to 23, so we continued a while; she was using one of the beginner platinum blessed irises to boost her experience gain so it didn't take too long. Naturally, as an apprentice, she then asked for some gold, so, back in Randol I gave her 300k and a couple of useful rings. I assume that wanting to get to level 23 was a good sign, that she will continue, as if she'd just been after the +15 event weapons level 20 would have been enough.

PandemicX3 had asked to come along too in the party, as he wanted to get to level 32. He was still 31 when moriana had been finished, so he suggested we go to the Tomb - but when we got to the entrance I saw that as we were in Auzura-4 he hadn't got the Elizabeth buff, and, with the Tomb on maximum hard, and the cost of getting in... well, a switch to Auzura-5, and a return to the black puddings, seemed cheaper and quicker! So we went back to Strayana, on Auzura-5, and got him his level, so he was happy... and one black pudding dropped a piece of level 106 armour, which hopefully I can sell for about as much as I gave moriana.

The timing had been pretty good, as my first three characters had just managed to complete their attendance, and Kaerella (Auzura version) did her half hour in Strayana etc, while I did manage to log Rage and MistressDomina on for their times too. After coffee, SirGalahad logged in to complete the set, and do a little mining - and CaptainScarlet headed for his death mask lancer in Maargadum Jail.

GerMex had been in touch with Kaerella on Cariae too; as he's in the USA, he was up rather late. He reported that he had got his skills maximised, and 1k or so spare skill points, but was getting a bit bored; I did hope he would continue sp-farming in Prokion Temple to something approaching level 35 before he decided he just had to be power-levelled. At that stage he had got as far as level 27, though, so was doing pretty well. We did however have double experience still running from last night, which would have negated the 50% freeze from the guild, and explained his rapid rise.

He decided to head for the Tomb to get it on his memory scroll (his other character MexiGer was the one Keerella used her last summon book on, to power-level there), so I took SirKit out into the Dratan desert to assist, and tried to keep the dragons, etc, off him while he ran past them, and guided him along the route to the Tomb that doesn't involve sphinx fighters and "speer" men.

We moved to Cariae-6 after that, and, as GerMex was adamant that he wanted to level up a bit, Kaerella joined him, and we went into the Tomb for the last 40 minutes of the morning session. He just ks'd Kae, that is, fought the same monster but not in the party; an attempt for him to get the final blow failed when the screaming zombie changed target and killed him, but he managed to level up from 31 to 32 at least. Kaerella just added 0.58%, 3 skill points, and 594 pet points.

He was planning to stay around and play alongside Kaerella after lunch, but as he is on USA time (Oregon), I think he must have finally succumbed to the need for sleep, as he was offline when I got back. So Kaerella headed deeper in, to the ancient grey mummies, and was quickly joined there by Barbarienne.

The afternoon session there went smoothly; I had expected Cariae-6 to be busier than my usual Cariae-4, but I generally had the room to myself. Kaerella added 2.92%, 29 skill points, and 3059 pet points, while Barbarienne added 3.52% and 30 skill points. The polar bear cub added about 80%, reaching level 23.

After the food break, things continued similarly; a titan did start fighting in the corridor and we exchanged buffs, but generally the place was far from busy. However, we now come to our headline; perhaps because of the extremely cold weather and snow we have had today, there was a split-second loss of electricity, and all three computers went off; the old XP-running one, on which CaptainScarlet was pet-levelling, shut down, but restarted when I pushed the power button, the middle Vista-running computer restarted automatically - and the new Windows 7 machine shut down, and wouldn't start up, seeming completely, well, powerless.

It didn't take long to get CaptainScarlet back into action; the other functioning computer took a little longer, as it had been halfway through doing an itunes update when the cut came, but I logged Barbarienne and then Kaerella in, to check their totals. That titan must have been surprised by us vanishing suddenly - not suddenly enough, though, I discovered, as, while Barbarienne was unhurt, the polar bear cub had been killed, and it cost 533,104 gold to unseal him. Still, he had gone up another 20% or so before the cut; Barbarienne had added 1.35% by then, and 9 skill points. Kaerella's drake was unharmed, the mummy she'd been fighting had concentrated on her, so that she'd lost around 40% of her health. Kae had gained 1.49%, 10 skill points, and 942 pet points.

For the moment, I didn't have the heart to do any more active playing; the promised double pet experience had started, so CaptainScarlet began a one-hour platinum pet experience potion. He'd levelled the drake up to 49 shortly before the break, and now started to make useful progress through that level. RedRackham also headed for Maargadum Jail, to do some work on his level 33 pale blue horse.

So, my lovely new computer was sitting there dark and silent - and with the snow and ice, I was sincerely doubting if the manufacturer's "collect and return" service would be able to do anything this side of January. I had actually started to draft the email to Palicomp when I finally thought of changing the fuse in the plug... and when I did put a new fuse in, and plugged the computer back in, this time the computer miraculously returned to life.

Before long MistressSabina was able to take a trip out to the giants, in a general solo party; all went well there, and she added 14.15%, 81 skill points and 1654 pet points. The double pet experience, which had started relatively promptly, helped RedRackham to get his horse into level 34; CaptainScarlet used three platinum pet experience potions in all, and so managed to get his current drake past the halfway mark in level 49. I was lucky the double experience lasted through the third hour, as it is only supposed to run for two hours at a time. I don't think I've ever seen the fifth floor of the Jail so busy, as well as Red and Cap there were at least three other knights at work.