A Visit to the Commies

The attendance half hours got seen to in the morning in the usual way; once the other six had been finished, SirGalahad went to floor five of Maargadum Jail again, accompanied by CaptainScarlet, and they both stayed there until after lunch, levelling their pets. Once two o'clock, UK time, was approaching, though, it was time for Gal to log out so that MistressDomina could log in.

MistressDomina checked the condition of the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-4, and found that it was good, so my level 101 archer Kaerella logged on instead of CaptainScarlet, and went out to join her. Luckily the first corner of the corridor after the main anubis spear man room was free - and luckily today there were no disconnections.

MistressDomina did a full "power hour" from two to three, and managed to use 64 experience boosters, as well as the usual potions, so that she went up 29.47%. I hadn't realised that last night's "Turbo" event, double skill exp, had been left running, but MD got 17 skill points, about twice as many as an hour with the spear men usually gives.

To make a bit more use of the double skill exp, my duo moved across to the ancient grey mummies for around an hour or so, before it was time for the early evening food break. The whole session so far had given MistressDomina 30.28%, plus a total of 51 skill points, and 2153 pet points, while Kaerella earned 2.73%, 45 skill points, and 1849 pet points.

My duo stayed in the mummies' room over the break, and then, about twenty minutes ahead of the next dungeon time's start, went back to my favourite corridor corner, on the feeling that the earlier one got there, the more likely it was to be available.

I was in time to get the spot again, so another "power hour" was run, from five to six o'clock. This time MD just managed to use 61 experience boosters, which gave her 28.14%, and 17 skill points again. Once the hour had finished, MistressDomina and Kaerella returned to the mummies room; a trip back to the spear men side when the eight o'clock dungeon time hour was approaching showed the whole area to be rather busy, so my duo returned to the ancient grey mummies for a few more minutes. By the time they left, the evening session had given MD 30.11%, 77 skill points, and 3149 pet points, while Kae had gained 3.80%, 67 skill points, and 2666 pet points.

The double skill experience, left running by mistake from yesterday, continued until about half past six, and was then switched off... which seemed a bit unnecessary as today's happy hour, starting at six, was supposed to be double skill exp too. Whichever GM was doing it got a bit confused, apparently there was some ambiguity on the calendar, and briefly put double experience on, before messages from in-game, via a gamesage in the forum shoutbox, sorted things out, and double skill exp was restored.

Talking of game masters, there was good news today, with the Last Chaos crew being returned to their full six, after a week or so down at five. While we are losing JediMike, we have been allocated a new name, Super - and Ozymandias has been returned to us. He was always a sensible, friendly type, so the return of "Ozy" is something to celebrate. JediMike has done a lot for our game over, well, probably a couple of years; I did get the feeling that he might have become slightly jaded, though, so a move to a different Aeria game is probably just what he needed.

As eight o'clock approached. I asked on the Twisted guild chat channel if there was any combat party needing a little extra moral support, and, on finding that llGEMATRIAll, the level 106 assassin, and Luda4axD were getting a party together, MistressDomina moved to Auzura-5, registered for a combat party, and was soon teleported into the Tomb - into the Sphinx Commanders' room. Dropkick also joined us as a supporter, sitting on a safe corner with his pet jaguar equipped, and I got Kaerella into the party too. A couple of people from the GatesOfOblivion guild joined too, and we did in fact reach eight people at one stage.

Kaerella equipped her level 37 polar bear cub before long, and it added around 40% in level 37. Where we were standing wasn't quite 100% safe. so MistressDomina did fight a "commie" or two - and when the dungeon time hour was over, and llGEMATRIAll had safely reached level 107, MD fought a few more, getting her up to a second-level ignition run, as just standing there had got her most of the way to that.

It seems that the experience from sphinx commanders has now been increased, so that they give 33 million experience, compared to a spear man's 28 million or so; in the combat party, with four or five of us there, MD got from 35 to 39 million, unboosted, which actually seems pretty similar to what a spear man would give. I must investigate further, but I think the spear men are rather more convenient for MD for a few levels yet.

MistressDomina just added 0.85% and 10 skill points, plus 134 pet points, while Kaerella gained 0.57% and 8 skill points. It seemed quite fitting that MD's 15%-adding giant skill pill finally ran out while she was fighting one last sphinx commander, that was going out with a flourish.

There was just time for RedRackham and CaptainScarlet to head for Maargadum Jail and do a bit more pet-levelling before the end of the evening. Red's pale blue horse made a bit more progress through level 26, while, by log-out time, Cap's drake was 80% of the way through level 49.