The Unbeatable Spawning

The attendance half hours (or so) went through in the normal way, and CaptainScarlet was able to trade SirFrancis, the drake, back to Kaerella on Auzura, in exchange for the level 50 drake he had loaned her. That drake went across to MistressSabina, so I now have a level 51 character with a level 50 drake. Sabina's previous drake was level 44, so that is the one CaptainScarlet took down into Maargadum Jail; it was around halfway through that level, but by the end of the day had just managed to reach level 45.

MistressDomina restocked her supply of Remedy and headed for the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-4... but the GokSReturN guild were still refusing to set it, so it was still on maximum hard. So, I switched across to Cariae-4, where my cleric Kaerella found that the Tomb was on 80%...though by the time Barbarienne joined her by the entrance, it had actually fallen to 70%, but compared to Auzura, that still seemed good enough.

That meant the day was mainly another booster-free marathon for Kae and Barb. We had the room almost to ourselves until the evening, except for a Polish titan who started one hour while I was off for lunch, levelling up just before his pots ended, and returned for a second hour a little later.

The morning session was not very long, and Kaerella just added 0.79% experience, 9 skill points, and 1187 pet points, while Barbarienne managed 0.71% and 10 skill points, with the polar bear cub getting 22.76% experience in level 24. The afternoon session was a bit longer of course, and saw Kae add 1.90%, 29 skill points, and 3113 pet points, while Barb got 1.72% and 28 skill points, with my poly gaining another 68.27%.

After the early evening food break, it wasn't long before the polar bear cub reached level 25. Soon after, the poor thing got killed somehow, I didn't see what happened, I can only think that the screaming zombie at the edge of the room must have got too near. However, Barbarienne was going to log out soon anyway, as the high-level Mad Monster Spawn, cancelled at the last minute last Monday, was starting on Auzura-6 at six o'clock, UK time. Just after ten minutes before that I mentioned in the shoutbox that we'd not seen an advance announcement about it (which CaptainScarlet would have received), and a minute or so later, the announcement came up.

My Twisted guild member rogue Rage, now level 98, went along to the MMS - and for a pleasant change some other members were there too, and we formed a party, mainly initially so that, by Rage's position on the map, they could find the right spot. SacSalop, at level 157, can't have got much experience out of it, but it was good of him to come along to spearhead our attack. TaterTot is level 122, while munchie is 102, but I wasn't the lowest guildie there as DeathDealerZ| joined us as well, though at 64 he did die once. Rage managed to take on and kill some anubis archers, and generally helped with sphinx commanders, and whatever the others were targeting.

[GM]Darasuum was there in charge, and the spawnings went as usual, with Rage luckily not in the middle of the arriving cave spirits or anything nasty. I did have to run when a mage spirit targeted me, but managed to take on the rogue version successfully, with my Snare proving very useful.

The loot spawning was very generous, perhaps to make up in part for our lack of any real event last week; Rage had managed to pick up 5 moonstones and 5 lucky scrolls dropped by a grand red dragon, and to this were added 3 skill point boosters, 7 item drop boosters, 8 large attack and 12 large defence potions, and no doubt plenty of tool aids and so on.

The Cariae event was scheduled for 7:30, UK time, so Barbarienne was able to log back in and return to Kaerella in the Tomb - happily, the price of admission had again been temporarily cut to 1.4k per level rather than the usual 3k. While Rage had been in action, and Kaerella had been fighting only sporadically, the archer NaOmi and the specialist sorcerer XxAvatarAptxX had arrived, and the night shadow xShadowWarriorx as well - all familiar faces, joined before long by the witch XxFAYxX.

Once she was back in proper action Kaerella handed out the usual Charm and Encourage buffs. She just managed to reach her red ignition run before the next MMS, so Barb moved out of range, and using Avatar's party recall, NaOmi helped Kae by getting a few nearby mummies down to about 10% health, so as ignition runs go, that must have been Kae's best yet.

Barbarienne herself went to the Cariae MMS, and had a slightly safer time than Rage did...those extra levels do help. The GM seemed anonymous to begin with, and the first spawning went a little bit wrong, he must have put in the wrong code - what we got was a dozen or so of the NPC, Armor Trader Rowel, and of course NPCs like that cannot be fought. [GM]Darasuum did arrive shortly afterwards, in the text speech if not in person, saying that the GM had got disconnected, and after that things went as before. I didn't get any raid boss loot this time, but at the end, by getting to one of the distant loot piles first and generally staying on my toes, I did pretty well. I didn't get any large attack potions, curiously, but I got 15 of the large defence ones, along with 8 item drop boosters and 10 skill point boosters.

Barbarienne returned to Cariae-4's Tomb, after spending 600,000 to get the poly "unsealed" and alive again, and rejoined Kaerella. It was lucky that Kae had done her ignition run before the MMS, as now the computer, and this is the new computer, was very laggy, with the picture freezing when the view angle changed. I managed to give everyone their buffs, but said I'd have to log out and return.

NaOmi kindly suggested I join their party, and take XxAvatarAptxX's party recall to get back, so I did that, and Kaerella was soon back in rather smoother action. xShadowWarriorx said he was leaving soon to sell some armour, and Barbarienne asked him if he wanted an unidentified pair of level 109 night shadow pants that she'd picked up at the MMS. He said yes, so Barb put them in the trade window, and he traded her two of the relatively new lucky blessed irises instead, which seemed generous. They just give 100% extra experience gain for an hour, which could be useful.

We all finished at around the same time; I think NaOmi went first, and then Avatar was going to head off to do a monster combo. He and Kae had been working their buffs together, which needed some coordination, but if he put his buff on first and Kae then added hers, Charm or Encourage would last twice as long. I'd assumed that xShadowWarriorx had left us, but when Kaerella headed back to the start, she found that he had moved just around the corner. She was able to give him one last Charm buff as she passed, and buffed a few others along the way.

The evening session had given Kaerella another2.72%, along with 43 skill points and 3917 pet points, while Barbarienne had gained 2.22%, 35 skill points...and the polar bear cub had earned 69.05%, most of it in level 25. So, we are making slow but steady progress.