Fighting the Screaming Zombies

Last night's server maintenance break didn't bring any new patch, as the return of the merchant House Agent, Roy, to even the test server has been delayed, apparently due to the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving. We are promised that our annual Halloween celebrations will start in a fortnight, however, so hopefully there'll be pumpkin-type headgear, and the hunting, or indeed farming, of ghostly pumpkins. I remember that last year Karella was just about the right level for that, and this year she's pretty much the same, while her Auzura equivalent RedRider could try a bit of that too.

RedRackham and CaptainScarlet reported for pet-levelling duties at breakfast time; Red's horse was level 35 now, while Cap's drake reached level 31 before coffee. Aftre coffee, though, I hopped across to the Cariae server, and as an experiment teamed up Kaerella and XxGALAHADxX, and took them to Merac.

Galahad had a quest or two popping up there, so after running a message or two across town he began by killing ten each of the Pilferers and the Bandits, before running on to the entrance to Maargadum Jail, and waiting for Kaerella to ride down and join him. She supplied the horse buffs, and he was easily able to run down to the third level of the Jail, and stand in the central area, ignored by the local Beast Flyers and Beast Archers.

Kaerella, 15 levels above him, ran down and joined him, and began to fight the Flyers, as she has done for quite a while solo. They are two levels below her now, but still white-named, so she ought to be able to continue there through her current level; it's a good place to level one's pet, though the amount of mobbing that goes on would mean that it wouldn't be much good for serious afk pet-levelling; SirFrancis is level 46, so can give her pretty good buffs.

While the Beast Flyers do die quickly, unfortunately they didn't seem to give Galahad as much experience per kill as he can get from Orc Sergeants in Prokion Temple, at least when he has a Combat-type party arrangement with Karella or some other character at a suitable level, and a heck of a lot less skill exp, so it doesn't look as if he will need to go there again. But as an outing it made a change! Gal added 5.71% experience, 1.62% of it in quest rewards, plus just 10 skill points and 71 guild points - Kaerella got rather less experience, though the same skill points, and of course a few pet points for SirFrancis.

After that rather short outing, it was time to go back to the Auzura-based pet-levellers for the lunch break. Once I was back, the new project was to make another knight on the Cariae server, in one of two spaces I made a couple of days ago by deleting a pair of old characters. With the current "player appreciation event" supplying new characters with beginner-type resurrection scrolls, platinum blessed irises and platinum super skill pills, I'm sure that it is easier to get a brand-new level 1 character to 31 than to try with an existing character at about level 20 - and of course this way I get the chance to go through the Guardian system again, to get a new event weapon and another 10 Reputation points for Keerella.

I got the new Cariae version of RedRackham to level six killing mainly foxes, plus enough wolves and deer to complete the Healer Yabo quests involving them. There was a Pandora's Box, which Red opened - it released a level 30 Beast so I kept well clear of that, but the boxes themselves must be "bosses" of some sort, they are labelled as level 1 but I'm sure he got around 30% experience from "killing" that one.

Once Red was set up, it was time for Galahad to go back to Prokion Temple, teamed with Karella, who is now wearing the +10 gloves, shirt and leggings, passed over from SirLancelittle and changed into rogue-type armour by Collector Ryu, though she needs to reach level 27 before she can wear the hood and boots. Gal started fighting there, and Karella teleported from Dratan City to join him... I then noticed that there was a mage already in the room, perhaps she had been by the far wall, but she didn't stay, she fled at top speed for the corridor, pursued by a mob of angry Orcs - I am not entirely sure whether or not she managed to make it to safety.

It seemed like a good idea to "unfreeze" Galahad's experience gain, so I did that after a few minutes, after he had gained a final 11 guild points. He ought to get enough skill points for the skills he needs, and then some, if he goes all the way through levels 33 and 34 in Prokion Temple at the regular speed, or even using his "beginner" pbis along the way.

By the time I switched to the pet-levellers again for the food break, Galahad was up by 27.84%, and had gained 74 skill points, so he can afford the final level of Divine Shield now. Karella had gone up by 8.85%, the same 74 skill points, and 36 guild points.

Although tonight was one of my "early finish" LC evenings, I reckoned that there ought to be just enough time for Barbarienne to level RedRackham up to 31 in the Tomb of Theos - and so it proved. The very first Screaming Zombie that Barb killed got him from level 6 to level 9, and that was before I started the first pbi, to add 150% extra experience for an hour. The levels do get substantially longer as one goes along, so reaching level 20 took no more than 20 minutes, by the end of the first hour's pbi Red was halfway through level 27, an hour later he'd moved on to 21% of the way into level 30 - and getting the rest of that level took another 25 minutes. So even using a pbi or three, trying the same system to get Galahad through his final level or so on the way to level 35 would be intolerably slow.

When I started, I had the Tomb of Theos to myself, or at least the first area with its Screaming Zombies. However, things did get busier after that, and I acquired the usual dedicated band of helpers - or "ks-ers", if you will, though generally they did ask before attacking the Zombies I targeted. xxASSASSINxx and rougemom were both sensible rogues, and good company, but another rogue, cashdestroyer1, was only level 26, and tended to "ks" other people too, I think one titan there got so annoyed that he contacted her guild master about it. xxASSASSINxx levelled up towards the end, as did a knight called xXKillingSpreeXx.

Barbarienne did stay on a little while after RedRackham reached level 31, and got his shiny new armour set, shield, and weapons, though Red left the area immediately, since he'll need to slog his way through level 31 in Prokion Temple to get the skill points for the skills he'll need - the idea is to make him a level 32 pet-leveller, so that he can get to work before Galahad, who is aiming for level 35. As my logging-out time was approaching, there wasn't time to do anything else. Red logged out after a few minutes - and his Auzura equivalent logged in for a little pet-levelling. By the time Barb logged out, she had gone up in experience by 1.01%, after about three hours of zombie-slaying - level 100 is a long one! 2723 pet points were also gained for her pet reindeer, and 14 skill points, while, hosted by Red, SkrappY is moving through level 51 quite well.

Back on Auzura, RedRackham continues to move his horse through level 35; if he stays on overnight, the horse should be usefully into level 36 by the morning, but that depends on various outside factors of course.

Femeia Gets Her Mount

RedRackham had a disconnection just about halfway through the night, but he had still managed to get his horse comfortably into level 34 before that happened. He bounced back before breakfast, swiftly followed by CaptainScarlet, who was still working on his drake. At the moment, I'm not sure who's going to end up with that drake, though it is already at a higher level than JohnWellington's, Galahad's (that's the Auzura-based knight, not the Cariae one with the "Xx" framing), or SirDarth's, so a little moving around may be called for. First in line for the horse would be JohnWellington, who would then become my eleventh Auzura character to have a level 37 mount, which can't be bad, or the twelfth if you include the level 37 dragon that MistressFelicia looks after.

I started a new knight character on Cariae in a spare slot, mainly to get another set of level 30/32 +10 armour, and weapons; I was slightly surprised that the name "SirLancelittle" hadn't been taken. I'd got him up to level five, but there was a disconnection at 9:45 UK time, which would be 1:45am on Aeria's PST, so went back to pet-levelling; RedRackham got back on almost straight away after a single "logged into Randol, but the teleporter NPC wasn't there and dc'd again" thing. And after coffee, well, moving Cariae's XxGALAHADxX on to level 33 seemed like a priority, so he and Karella headed for Prokion Temple on Cariae-3.

Galahad got to his new level, and I was continuing on for a little while, since there wasn't really time for any other expedition in the morning - and then at 11:20 UK time there was a server crash, which as usual kept the forum Shoutbox busy. Gal suddenly couldn't pick up the latest gold drop, and, while the Orcs could hit him, he couldn't do them any damage. It's strange, normally he can just stand there and take anything they can inflict, but in the limbo of disconnection, over five minutes or so he lost 111 health points.

By then Galahad had gained 10.88%, plus 48 skill points and 152 guild points, while Karella had added 5.83%, the same number of skill points, and 23 guild points. Once I was finally able to log back in, Gal spent most of his skill points, so that Wall of Belief is now maximised for his level, and he has the first four levels each of Divine Shield and Uncanny Movement. SirLancelittle spent what skill points he had on the first three levels of Canid Fence, and was accepted as Keerella's apprentice, as she is the character with the "Reputation" to enhance. Kee is currently listed as #26 in the Reputation rankings on Cariae, and that ought to take her up to #25. Lance also took charge of SkrappY, my level 51 Scra-Chi pet, after Karella had replenished his supply of fresh bread.

Over the lunch break SirPerivale joined RedRackham out in Merac with the Berserkers. After lunch, SirLancelittle teamed up with Barbarienne, and accepted a Summoning to the entrance to the Tomb of Theos. It would have been possible to take him straight to Barb after she had gone in, but, in case we had any disconnections, or return visits became necessary, it was safest to let him get the entrance's location onto his memory scroll, and then pay his admission fee.

Once inside, SirLancelittle took up a position not too close to the action, with SkrappY equipped, and started the first of his (150% extra experience) "beginner" platinum blessed irises. Barbarienne started to target the local Screaming Zombies, and off we went, with the very first kill levelling Lance up, probably by more than one level.

The mage GingerBeer, now level 95, was there, and we chatted a bit, it was a while since we'd seen each other. She too hasn't bothered to go beyond the old 85/87 armour set, but then, hers is all +15 apparently. It wasn't long before the titan Krodan arrived, and other people did come and go, including the rogue iLoveRangers, who I've seen in Prokion temple lately - which is more her level I think. Another rogue xXxLitaxXx didn't have much luck, she tended to die a bit and after an hour declared that she was down to 0.00% of the way into her current level, partly due to lag problems.

SirLancelittle got to level 27 at the end of the first hour-long pbi; it hadn't take him very long at all to reach level 20 and complete his apprenticeship. I did get a disconnection for Barb during the second hour, but can't have lost more than five minutes use of the second pbi (not to mention a second admission fee of 300,000 gold)...at the end of the second hour Lance was still a little way short of 29, but it only took 35 minutes of the third pbi for Lance to get to 31, and receive the 30/32 armour set, along with both level 33 weapons and the shield.

Back in town Lance was able to get his six treasure chests opened by Lorraine, getting a good number of Candies and a level 21 +4 sword, which itself isn't as good as the "event weapon" sword he got for completing the Apprentice/Guardian system; he kept the one-handed sword and the shield, but traded the armour and the dual swords across to Karella, so that she can convert them into their rogue equivalents and, once she reaches level 27 be suitably well armoured - though if she is going to go some serious skill point farming then she will need a better weapon than she has at the moment.

For the early evening food break, RedRackham continued to work on getting his horse up through level 34, while SirPerivale worked on his level 20 rare blue horse - and at last FemeiaVraci, Lylja's cleric, got in touch, to take back her horse, which Peri, and Red, had levelled up to 37. The trade-across did take a while, as Femeia had forgotten that as well as a new level 2 pony, she was holding a level 24 horse for Steve, and two pets, other than the "new" types like SkrappY, is the maximum one can carry, but finally she remembered that Steve's horse was in her inventory, and traded it across in exchange for her level 37-er. She was suitably grateful, and I must say with its dark grey colouring the horse, now changed into a mount, looks good. The reason she hasn't been on much lately is that she has lost her home internet connection, and can only get online at work.

I had some work to do, so the break continued for an extra hour or so, which gave Peri the chance to get his blue horse up to level 21. Elvastar got in touch, he had heard about the recent "hacking" of a number of accounts, and had also heard advice to change all LC passwords. I'd come across this too, as it had been a topic in the forum Shoutbox - it looks as if well-known high-level players have been targeted. It doesn't seem to be a security fault with Aeria, though, checking the BBC News website it seems that a lot of Gmail and Hotmail accounts have fallen victim to "phishing" attacks, and had dodgy websites installing key loggers, so Last Chaos account details would be among the information that hackers would be offering for sale on dodgy websites. I can't really see the point of that, as the victims are going to report hacked accounts, and the GMs will be able to freeze them and return them eventually, and hopefully replace lost items - and items stolen and transferred to other accounts can be traced, surely?

Elvastar had headed for Prokion Temple; he's a level 31 sorcerer at present, so it seemed a nice idea to take JohnWellington, level 33 now, there to team up with him, secure in the knowledge that the Orcs would respawn faster than the pair of us could kill them. Elva was having problems with lag, so that text he typed would take half a minute or longer to actually appear. After a while he decided that it would be a good idea to restart the game, so he logged out, and came back into Last Chaos - but didn't actually manage to get back to me before lagging out again terminally.

I teamed up John with RedRackham, who had kept on pet-levelling, for a little while, and then when it became obvious that Elva wasn't going to get back any time soon, brought RedRider in instead, and got her to the Prokion Temple back room for the usual Combat party arrangement. And so that went on until the usual time to settle down, and put the pet-levellers up. RedRider added 12.93%, 72 skill points, and 32 guild points, while in all JohnWellington had added 17.69%, 120 skill points, and 289 guild points.

The servers will be coming down for their weekly maintenance at 1:00am UK time, so RedRackham won't be able to keep working overnight. For some reason the usual "Mad Monster Spawns" weren't run tonight, replaced by a more PvP-oriented thing involving protecting GM Kali from attacks by the other games masters - if a group of level 145 players is going to be player-killing, include me out, on any server!

A Long Evening in the Temple

There was another overnight pet-levelling session, this time with SirPerivale working on that new blue horse, and when I checked before breakfast, Samael was on, and had asked me how his horse was getting on - so I was able to tell him that it had reached level 37, and log RedRackham on, once I'd got the older computer going, so that he could take it, and trade back the level 33 one I'd loaned him. Sadly, he was broke, so was only able to pass across five moonstones as well, as a small thank you for the effort, and tool aids, involved. He did ask a little later if anyone could help him with new armour, especially boots, and a +10 weapon, but I was away from the keyboard by then, and when I did get back, he had logged off.

I had to head for Watford for some shopping in the morning, so left Peri and Red at work - Red with that level 33 horse, and Peri with the rare blue one. One thing I needed to buy was some sort of "wipe" for the computer screen, which had managed to get some dirt stuck to it. These of course were only available as a tub of a hundred, so it looks as if I have a lifetime supply of those. But at least the screen is clean again!

When I got back to the computer after lunch, there were some announcements of an Auzura "Mad Monster Spawn", but going by the last time, that had probably taken place soon after I'd gone downstairs, so if I'd teleported Memree to the location, it would probably have been ovre. There were no announcements of further MMS events on other servers, probably GM Xandamere was only letting the specific server know. There had been some sort of monster-spawning in the Arena in Randol area too apparently. It would help if such things were done at a pre-arranged time, with announcements in the website's Events section, so that one could plan accordingly.

Anyway, for an hour or so MistressDomina teamed up with MistressBlaze out at the Sphinx types, just as a change from Prokion Temple team-ups. The routine was to kill the elite, then a couple of Sphinx Fighters and Sphinx Speer Men, by which time the elite would have respawned, and things went okay, though progress was rather slow. MistressDomina just added 3.46% - really, to make any progress there she needs to be solo, with a platinum blessed iris, and maybe experience boosters for each elite if I'm feeling rich. 6 skill points got added, though, and 362 pet points. MistressBlaze added a more useful 11.07%, but only 4 skill points, which is slightly strange.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in checking what various characters over on Cariae had got, and moving appropriate loot over to that server's MistressDomina, my merchant. I do seem to be better off for armour sets on Auzura, most of the Cariae ones I had in stock are just +4 or +6, which modern monsters would easily overcome. I suppose back in the old days before various changes, the monsters may have been less fierce, and there was less of a necessity to fight ones well above your own level. Still, there are some +15 and +14 weapons, and the sets that Barbarienne, Keerella, and indeed Kaerella are wearing are pretty good, even if Barb and Kee's are not actually the highest-level sets they could wear, now.

Over the food break CaptainScarlet got his drake up to level 30, while RedRackham continued to work on the level 33 horse. After that, for the evening, it seemed like a good idea to work on Cariae's future pet leveller, XxGALAHADxX, teamed up with Karella again. The back room was already being used by another knight, so I went to what I call the "corridor room", which was free, though the trouble is that, as it is part of a route through the Temple some people take, you do get people passing through, and sometimes they stop and start fighting "your" Orcs.

A rogue called Nijntj politely asked how long I was going to be, and left when I said I intended to be there for a while - but unfortunately an archer called Muts was a shameless room-stealer, and just stayed and targeted all the Orcs she could. I outlasted her, though my experience gain was probably slowed down a little while she was there, as there were moments when nothing had respawned.

It didn't take me long after I had got there to notice that we were getting the benefit of 50% extra skill exp; I don't know when it started, but apparently Katar and Cariae had had disconnection problems in the morning, while I was innocently pet-levelling on the Auzura server, so this could have been compensation for that - or, more likely, as does often happen on a Monday, the US "Sunday Teatime" bonus had just been left running. This went on until about 9:15pm, UK time, and then was silently switched off.

That meant Galahad was able to get not just 35.54% experience and 484 guild points, but a very useful 208 skill points, meaning that he now has enough sp for the fifth level of Wall of Belief, plus enough left over for the early levels of Uncanny Movement (for extra running speed) and Divine Shield. In the Combat party, Karella got 18.74% further into level 26, plus 75 guild points and 205 skill points.

I must remember to check on Mondays to see if the "Sunday teatime" bonus, whatever it was, has been left running, though to make use of 50% extra skill exp does mean mainly slogging away in Prokion Temple, and one can't really do that all day. Another hour or so ought to get Galahad to level 33, at which point he could actually team up with Kaerella, my Cariae cleric, since she is level 48 at the moment. It might be worth checking if Gal would get good experience from a team-up fighting the Beast Flyers on level three of Maargadum Jail, though it would be useful for him to get a few more skill points first, to maximise Divine Shield and Uncanny Movement and have 60 left over for Canid Fence 2 when he does reach his target level of 35... Beast Flyers are nicely unaggressive, so if he can get down there safely, he ought to be okay.

After that expedition, it was time to get back to Auzura and put RedRackham and CaptainScarlet to work again. Cap's drake is still in the early stages of level 30, but Red's horse is at last close to reaching the top of level 33. And so the evening drew to its traditional close.

Three Zombie Invasions

RedRackham managed another successful overnight session, which meant good progress for Samael's horse XxEmOxX through level 36. The horse finally reached level 37 at around lunchtime - the next thing to do will of course be to actually manage to contact Samael to hand it over. CaptainScarlet restarted his endeavours at what, technically speaking, could be termed breakfast time, if one was in the habit of having a breakfast on Sundays, and his drake got to level 29 just before noon.

There wasn't any expedition to Prokion Temple, either on the Cariae or Auzura servers, in the morning, as I was expecting a couple of my favourite cousins to visit me for lunch - so that meant less playing, and more pet-levelling. They left before the middle of the afternoon, though, so I was able to take full advantage of the "Sunday teatime" bonus, which was going to be two hours of 50% extra skill experience.

So, which character should benefit from this? I opted for giving JohnWellington, my level 33 sorcerer, an all-expenses-paid trip to Prokion Temple, accompanied by, on level 24, my rogue RedRider, in the usual Combat party combination. I'm not sure what time the bonus actually started, there weren't any announcements at all (I may have benefitted from a similar event on Friday and just not noticed it), but it did get turned on at some stage, and ran for a nice long time, ending at 6:24pm UK time. I did take a little time out before that to eat, but not very long as I was still feeling rather full from lunch.

JohnWellington and RedRider kept going for a while after that, but there was some serious lag at 7:17, and John disconnected - Red, as she wasn't doing anything at the time, survived it, and so did the rogue Sunnychild who had recently joined me there, coming in at a time when John was briefly taking a rest. RedRider left then; it had been a marathon session, and John had added 36.13% experience, 277 skill points, and 591 guild points, while Red had gained 33.91%, 272 skill points, and 85 guild points.

After that JohnWellington did some minor quests; these included killing ten Pilferers and ten Bandits in Merac, which did actually attract the Grand Red Dragon, but there didn't seem to be anyone online who would be interested in it. And, after visiting Rau at the Column of Magic, John logged out, having added another 5.01% experience, partially in quest rewards, plus 2 skill points and 7 guild points.

After MistressDomino had a little browse round the shops in Auzura-1, it was time to head for the Sunday Quiz, so Rage joined Kaerella there, on Auzura-2 as usual. Before long Ratel arrived too, along with, thanks to that new router of his, Liezl and Leopardknight. He had a slightly close shave on one of the tricksier questions, "which item can you not feed a horse", but we made it safely through to the end, which meant that Ratel and family were better off by 45 heaven stones, the biggest stash of them he has ever had, it seems, so he was rather happy about that, estimating that he ought to be able to sell them for three million each.

The "Zombie Invasion", run by GM Kali, was next - it was announced initially as taking place on Auzura-1, so Memree headed out to Berbank Mill there - at which point the announcements changed to the usual Auzura-2, so everyone had to log out and move over. That was a bit of a bad start, and, frankly, when the spawns of the various kinds of zombie began, plus not just Apes but the level 115 Cube Guards, those of us who were there got just a bit overwhelmed. Not that Memree makes a huge contribution, damage-wise, though I noticed that on one particular kill I got 222,637 experience, so I must have been doing something right.

This event is a short one, and we only had 15 minutes to kill all the invading monsters... not only did we not manage that, it took us almost twice that time before the area was clear. So, no drops for Auzura... Memree did get killed once, but that doesn't really matter, which is why she is the one who goes on such adventures.

By then, GM Kali had already moved across to Katar; my archer Kaerella is only level 10 there, but she bravely sallied forth on Katar-2, and, well, made even less impression on the monsters, I guess. Still, it was exciting stuff, and the Katar players were just able to meet the deadline - I think Kali may have stretched it by a minute or two to be nice, but hands of loot were spawned, and everyone went away happy.

It was ten o'clock for me now, but Cariae was next, so I logged Barbarienne in on Cariae-2. Level 100 makes more of an impact than level 10, so I made a full contribution there. To my surprise Zenderfly wasn't able to turn up, I'd avoided joining a party in the hope that she'd be along, but the Cariae people were equal to the task set them. There did seem a number of people in PvP mode, and in fact one rogue did briefly attack me, but swiftly apologised, I think she had mis-clicked and had meant to go for a zombie.

I generally tried to be a powerful back-up, but I did get one Ancient Screaming Zombie targeting me, and while I did pretty well to begin with, eventually it used its poisoning skill on me successfully, and my health drained away at a frightening speed, so I had to run for it - it's annoying when that happens, as if one has to run to a safe distance, the monster's health tends to return to 100%..

Cariae did better than Katar, anyway; GM Kali spawned the first hands of loot while we were still fighting, which was mildly annoying, I was going one-on-one with a (regular-type) Screaming Zombie, and suddenly loot spawned around us. I ended up stopping attacking so that I could pick up some items before they all vanished, then finishing off the zombie. For some reason we got two more spawnings of hands, though I didn't seem to do very well on getting any of the good stuff, it was mainly the small recovery potions that ended up in my inventory. We also got a high-level monster or two spawned, including one of Egeha's gigantic Blue Dragons.

So despite attending three Zombie Invasions, I don't think I managed to pick up very much loot; just minor amounts of gold on Auzura, not a lot on Cariae, and on Katar too only two or three good items, like large attack and defence potions and an item drop booster. Though with a level 10 character, those small HP and MP recovery potions will probably be useful if I play her some more.

CaptainScarlet had been working on his drake meanwhile, getting it most of the way through level 29, and it was now time for SirPerivale to join him. His pony soon levelled up to 15, so there is now just one more level to go before it becomes a stylish looking horse rather than a cute, if chubby, little pony. They grow up so fast...

Two Mad Monster Spawns

Yesterday's entry must have been about the longest I've ever made. And I didn't even mention that Ratel came along to where RedRackham was faithfully pet-levelling, while Barbarienne was at the Epic Event, and was able to pay off all the remainder of the loan. He said that being able to have three computers online at once, with his new router, made things a lot easier, I imagine he was keeping at least one character in merchant mode most of the time. With Barb's deadly-dangerous surroundings in Misty Canyon I couldn't manage much more than a "ty" in response.

RedRackham kept pet-levelling overnight, and was joined for a time in the morning by SirPerivale, but still nobody else in the DeathBringers guild was online. And after coffee I switched across from Auzura-4 to Cariae-3, to give XxGALAHADxX and Enchantrella another trip to Prokion Temple, and my favourite back room.

This was to be a short visit, however, as a special "night-time" (as far as the US was concerned) series of Mad Monster Spawns had been announced, and the Cariae one was, we were told, due to start at around eleven o'clock, UK time. So, Galahad logged out, leaving Enchantrella in Prokion in case there would still be some pre-lunch time for further grinding. By then he had added just 4.62%, 32 skill points, and 63 guild points, while Enchie had gained 1.54%, 27 skill points (as usual she arrived a little after him, once we knew the room was clear), and a mere 10 guild points.

Barbarienne logged in, and rode out to the usual spot in Juno for the MMS, which was to be conducted by Aeria's new "night shift" GM, Xandermere. There was a surprisingly large turn-out, with some rather tired US types as well as the European contingent, and no doubt people from other parts of the world as well.

Unfortunately, when the first Hands of loot were spawned, after wave one, I found myself unable to equip my pet horse, and then unable to pick up anything, though other people still seemed to be running around. Before long it became clear, though, that it was a mass "server crash" disconnection - and any attempt to log back in got the "account ID already in use" window.

It probably was about twenty minutes before the problems were fixed - Enchantrella finally got the "disconnection" pop-up, so instead I logged RedRackham in to start his lunchtime pet-levelling early, while, once Barbarienne got back in, I headed back out to the MMS location, where GM Xandamere restarted the event.

I did have to use one more resurrection scroll, as I foolishly targeted one of the "cave spirits" that wasn't already in combat with someone, and suddenly had a whole bunch doing something immediately fatal. But apart from that, things went well, and the GM was generous with the Hands spawned. We managed to kill off the final Boss wave in fine style... and the GM went on to Katar, while I went off to a slightly delayed lunch.

The timing was pretty good, as when I got back the announcements for the Auzura version of the MMS were up, so it was Memree's turn to go out to the appropriate location in Juno. This time, we didn't have any crashes, the GM had assured us that he didn't think the MMS itself had had anything directly to do with the problem, and the Katar event had run smoothly. Memree did die once, but that was just a matter of respawning back in town, using Self Heal a bit, reapplying horse buffs, and using a memory scroll to teleport back. My offers to resurrect people got the level 11 mage NatashaFinn into a precedence-type party with me (so that we both kept what we picked up, rather than sharing it), and I must have resurrected her at least three or four times.

By the end, Memree had picked up 3 item drop boosters, 10 large defence and 12 large attack potions, 9 skill point boosters, and lots of tool aids and small HP and MP recovery potions. Some people may aim to pick up the best items they can see, but I just keep my finger on the "pick" key, and pick up whatever is nearest at top speed.

Then it was time to get back to Enchantrella and Galahad over on Cariae-3, to make up for the abrupt end to their earlier session. By the time I took my early evening food break Gal was up another 9.07% in that Prokion Temple back room, plus 61 skill points and 124 guild points, and Enchie had added 3.18%, 58 skill points, and 20 more guild points. It was a short break, so they stayed in the back room, and then continued; I had a visit from a level 51 royal knight, pknubbb, who had a red name, so it was just as well Cariae-3 isn't PvP-enabled. I'm really not sure why he visited, but he was friendly, said "Hi", killed a few Orcs, and gave Gal the Divine Shield and Concentration buffs. He'd asked what my level was... I was surprised when he said "Hi" again, but then saw that he was talking to Enchantrella now, who was able to say she was level 28 and in a Combat type party. He was rather disconcerted when she mentioned that SkrappY, the cat-like "human tribe" pet she had equipped, was also level 51, and left soon after.

Eventually, Enchantrella reached level 29, after adding another 6.94%, 128 more skill points, and 42 guild points. So she immediately logged out, and my level 25 rogue Karella logged in in her stead, and, after signing up for the Combat style party, hurried to join Gal in Prokion. She was actually the first character I ever made in Last Chaos, but lost out to Kaerella and Keerella for attention. The session didn't continue for a very long time after her arrival; she only needed 0.02% to level up, as when last played we had been able to rely on a 100% experience freeze to keep her at that level as long as we wished. In all she added 4.61%, 58 skill points, and 18 guild points, while Galahad added another 8.80%, 60 skill points, and 120 guild points.

Karella had brought some more food for SkrappY, who gets hungry very quickly when equipped by a lower-level character. With Enchantrella at level 28 and him at 51 it was 13 hunger points per five minutes, and then when Karella took over, at level 26 it moved on to 14 hunger points per five minutes. The Ichi and Scra-Chi "new" pets are expensive beasties to run, but at least they look cute.

Back in Randol afterwards assorted loot was passed across to my merchant, MistressDomina, including Barbarienne's spoils from the Mad Monster Spawn and the recent Events. Karella was able to get Lorraine to open her level 26 "treasure chest", and got 30 Candies, which were also passed to MD. And Galahad spent 550 skill points on upgrading the ForceWithin guild; that left him enough for the first four levels of Wall of Belief, but he will need to get 138 more before he can get level five. It doesn't effect his work in Prokion Temple, as that passive skill only works when a shield is equipped, and against the Orcs he doesn't need to use one. It will be nice if he can farm enough skill points for Divine Shield too, as it is handy to be able to give people an armour buff.

After that it was time to move back to Auzura-4 for the pet-levellers. SirPerivale did log on briefly to see if Lylja, or anyone else, was online in DeathBringers, but it was CaptainScarlet and RedRackham who headed for the Berserkers. Cap should get his drake a third of the way through level 28 by log-out time, while Red's horse, for Lylja's cleric FemeiaVraci, may well just reach level 36 by then. Just that one final level to go, there.

Into the Canyon of Death

I don't like to keep the older computer running overnight, as it can start to get a bit whirry if it's in action too long, but last night I was tempted to keep both RedRackham and CaptainScarlet pet-levelling from evening through until the morning, and all went well, so that Samael's XxEmOxX moved smoothly into level 34, and Kaerella's SirFrancis moved along nicely too. I did restart Last Chaos on both computers after breakfast, to avoid any "run out of memory" crashes, and they kept going safely until after coffee.

After the break, I logged in over on the Cariae server. I'd managed to buy a couple of platinum skill pills (the blue-and-white ones that add 50% skill exp, and stack with a pssp) yesterday, and passed them across to Enchantrella; I'd already got one psp in the account's records section, so she was able to receive three of them - and I found that I had a package there to download as well, which had two more as well as some skill point boosters, and another package with three pssps... so it's stacking up to be a busy and sp-productive level 29 for Enchantrella, when she gets there.

XxGALAHADxX and Enchantrella headed out to Prokion Temple on Cariae-3, and went to my favourite back room. It all went smoothly enough, and Gal added 14.94% and 82 skill points, while Enchie, in the Combat party grouping, got 4.53% and 81 skill points. They got 168 and 28 guild points for ForceWithin and Norcaine respectively. The only visitor I had was a rogue called BlueFire00, who just asked if I was having "good hunting", mentioning that it was a very hard room at her level. I commented that one really needed the +10 armour there; if one attacked a single Orc, suddenly one would be surrounded by six of them...

One old tradition which I thought had been discontinued reared its ugly head - at 11:30am, UK time, Gal found himself unable to pick up the latest gold dropped by an Orc. yes, it was a mass disconnection, and the type where you are unable to get back in because "account is already logged in". So, CaptainScarlet started his lunchtime pet-levelling stint a bit early; RedRackham couldn't, as he is on the same account as XxGALAHADxX, so SirPerivale had about 45 minutes with his pale blue pony before I was able to successfully log Red on.

So, it was a slightly extended pet-levelling lunch break. After that, Galahad and Enchantrella returned to Cariae-3's Prokion Temple for the main afternoon session. Galahad reached level 32, going up by 17.89% and adding 75 skill points and 232 guild points - it looks, unsurprisingly, as if moving up a level has cut his skill exp gain per kill a bit. Enchie added another 6.13% experience, the same 75 skill points, and 37 guild points. A couple more sessions like that and she will reach level 29, and be ready for her main skill point farming period in a solo party.

One other thing I fitted in was a reconnaissance trip to Misty Canyon, as that was where the evening's "Epic Event" with GM Beatrice was due to take place. On Auzura, my most likely candidate to attend was Memree, so she it was who rode down through Merac to Teleporter Sellma, after carefully spending all 29 skill points she had on some low levels of useful skills.

It was easy enough to ride past the elite type Bandits, Blood Frenzies and Highlanders that one encounters along the way, and then, after dismounting, Memree was able to sneak past the Elite Cerberii, which unlike the normal ones are aggressive, and reach the teleporter, Sellma.

Inside, Misty Canyon is a re-use of the map of the third "personal dungeon", Ajaka Canyon, but with different monsters - not foes for a level thirty-something fighter, in there the monsters start at level 124 with the Introducer Camio, followed by the level 127 Punisher Mahlax, the level 130 Performer Bereed, the level 133 Commander Agaress, the level 136 Judge Barack, and the level 139 Chaser Chroshel. They are all aggressive, and have various nasty skills to stun, make dizzy, slow attack, silence - or the one I encountered, a very speedy "bleed" effect reducing my health to 1. And that was before the special high-level stuff was added for the Event!

There were certainly a lot of the monsters around, as Memree carefully moved forward to investigate - unlike in Ajaka Canyon, they started right away, and were all along the paths, standing there or drifting around. Nevertheless, I was able to thread my way between them, their aggro range generally seeming pretty short. Thankfully, the gates that in Ajaka Canyon won't swing back until you've killed everything here were already open, so I was able to make my way down through the open first stage, and then into the tunnel leading to the first large room, which was pretty much full of those large, high-level types.

I did take a hit or two as I passed, there wasn't enough room to stay clear entirely, but I got through the room, and whatever had hit me wasn't interested enough to follow me. So I went down the next passageway - and actually emerged into the approach to the final area, before the monsters were too close together to pass, and I finally got killed.

Back by the entrance, I then got myself killed a few more times, as I needed to take Memree down to only 0.00% of the way into level 31, so that she can farm some much-needed skill points soon - once she inherits the +13 armour set, and the +15 level 33 weapon. But it was a scary place.

Towards the end of a rather extended early evening food break, I noticed that a post I'd made on the Last Chaos forums about the current pet-levelling knight build had received a response, giving details of what was needed to pet-level on the Spike Canines just inside the entrance to Maargadum Jail, so since RedRackham, fighting his Berserker, was fairly near there, I took him over to check things out - and found that yes, with his current 1301 physical defence (not counting any Armour Increase buff), a level 42 Spike Canine would be just about okay for pet-levelling. The couple of people there doing that didn't need to have red names, I noticed...

Once the break was over, the time for the Auzura "Epic Event" was getting close, so I logged Memree in again, and teleported to the appropriate spot in Merac. Unfortunately a friend (in real life) who'd said they would drop in rather earlier had got delayed, so that I didn't get to see all that much of the adventure, as they arrived just as things were starting. The old "I must just check on my computer" excuse will only work for so many times, I find...

Still, Memree did manage to make it just as far as she had previously, and saw the added monsters in action, all scary stuff. I was in two minds about whether or not to take Barbarienne to the Cariae version of the Event, since her level 100 would be substantially below all the monsters... but I didn't have to make an immediate decision.

What I did do was go shopping on Cariae. The item I was mainly looking for was a +15 level 33 weapon for Enchantrella to use once she reaches level 29, and just as I was about to give up, I found one, for 149,999,999 gold, which didn't seem too unreasonable. I imagine that the influx of all the freebie +10 level 33 weapons would inspire some people to try their luck at getting their spare one to +15. MistressDomina, my Cariae merchant, hasn't got anything like the amount of gold that her Auzura equivalent, MistressDomino with an "O", has, but she had enough for that, so I bought it, and traded it across to Enchantrella, in exchange for recent loot-drops like moonstone boxes and large attack potions. I also passed 25 million across, which meant that Enchantrella was able to buy a Stone of Shadows accessory, which someone was selling for 20 million. It cost another million to identify it, but with her improved evasion, and that +15 weapon ready for use when she gets to level 29, her future is looking good.

Barbarienne logged in for the Cariae "Epic Event" in good time. It turned out that we didn't have to ride down through Merac to get to Misty Canyon; instead everyone met up just outside Randol's north gate, and when the hour was reached, doppelgangers of Teleporter Sellma appeared, who were able to take us straight to the start of the action.

It was all very hectic, I must say. Zenderfly had recruited me to her party again, arriving with a few minutes to spare, and this time had brought a level 113 cleric, the highest-rated one on Cariae she told me: DJeemzz. Zen managed to recruit GM Beatrice, the heroine of the tale, into our party as well; we had a fifth member too, but I have no idea even what class they were, though of course they were a good few levels above me.

The whole Cariae contingent set off down Misty Canyon, killing the local monsters, and the special additions, like Cube Guards, Patriarch Botis, Futons, and Reinforced Troll Kings. The good thing about the extra ones was that they didn't respawn - the bad thing about the Performer Bereeds etc was that they did respawn. The large room inside the mountain was incredibly hectic, but it was on the corridors after that that I couldn't avoid getting killed. The first time I used a resurrection scroll to respawn there, and quickly triggered a second one and used Self Heal - but it was only a minute before I died again, and this time, while I used the scroll, I opted to respawn back at the start, for a quieter resurrection. The run back was fraught with danger, though of course plenty of other people were running down too. I got back to the main, if depleted, group safely, and returned to the shooting of arrows at the bad guys, and also doing as much party healing as I could, and some individual healing too..

I assume DJeemzz was doing a lot more healing than I was, though it seemed to me at the time that it was just me, and an archer's healing is nowhere near as good as a cleric's - particularly a level 112 cleric's, in one of the impressive high-level armours. I tried to use Party Heal when I could and when people were within range, even though it can attract monster attention - Heal too, though even repeating it as quickly as it recharged did very little for GM Beatrice's health bar, since at level 145 she has rather a lot of health. DJ did thank me at the end for helping her out on the healing, which was thoughtful.

As usual Beatrice was throwing herself enthusiastically into the fight, exhorting us to forge onwards - she had health and mana stealer potions active, but even so her health often got dangerously low. We'd run on, fight, run some more, and at last we reached the castle-type final room, which was crawling with the local monsters, and plenty of blue dragons and other big, mean stuff - and, leading from the front as always, Beatrice went down! It fell to me to, well, first of all locate the corpse, and get close, and then use Resurrection on her to bring her back into the fight. She was the heroine of the adventure of course, but I guess that makes me at least a useful companion, yes?

There weren't any Hands spawned as rewards at the end, but I did pick up a gold drop or two along the way, and earned a level 86 armour drop - just a sorcerer chestpiece, so probably something best just sold to Geres, rather than me spending a million to identify it, and then try to sell it in merchant mode. Beatrice had to move on to the next server's Event, Zen left fairly promptly - apparently the main bad guy managed to escape, so we all vacated the premises, and DJeemzz and I were among those who, entering into the spirit of things, ran back to the start, though I had to use a few more great healing potions to avoid getting killed along the way. What will the next "Epic Event" be? Hopefully next week we will find out. I did take a few screenies, even before Zen reminded me too, and hopefully will have the time to post a few tomorrow in the Kaerella.com screenshot gallery.

Kaerella has been reunited with her drake SirFrancis now, usefully into level 37, and CaptainScarlet finished the evening working on the one she had borrowed in his stead, which is nearing the top of level 27. RedRackham has taken over responsibility for Samael's horse XxEmOxX, which is at present getting towards the top of level 34, so was starting to get a bit hungry under Cap's stewardship.

A Few Levels for LadyJane

Today was scheduled to be one of those days when I'm busy downstairs, but at least that gives my hard-working pet-levellers plenty of time to fight their Berserkers. SirPerivale took the overnight slot, so that by breakfast time that new pale blue pony had reached level 10, and 100% Sympathy. I saw that Lylja's cleric, FemeiaVraci, had been in touch, probably a little before 6:00am by UK time. "I can't stay now, maybe I'll log in later, I don't know"...

RedRackham rejoined the battle before breakfast, moving Kaerella's drake, SirFrancis (a name he shares with his Cariae counterpart), through the early part of level 35. CaptainScarlet was having a well-deserved rest; normally he would be online rather than Peri, but Peri is the one that Lylja and Samael can contact, since he is in their guild, and I would rather have liked to be able to trade their mounts to them.

Having SirPerivale online did pay off, in that Samael came on a little before eleven, UK time, with a change of plan. It seemed that a friend had given him a handsome grey horse called XxEmOxX, at level 32, and he was asking if Peri could get it up to level 37 for him. So, on CaptainScarlet I traded across the level 33 horse for him to use for buffs meanwhile (with a request not to mount it), and took the level 32 in its place. Cap then headed to Merac to start this new task; XxEmOxX was already about 5700/9457 of the way through the current level, so not far from level 33, at least.

The pet-levelling continued throughout the day, with SirFrancis moving slowly through level 35, and CaptainScarlet working on XxEmOxX - it has been ages since I pet-levelled a pet with a name, I'm sure, and suddenly I'm working on two of them. EmO got up to level 33 easily enough, but of course each new level is longer than the one before. A level 28 pet isn't halfway to level 37, I see, as far as acquired pet points go.

After the early evening food break, though, I was able to get a bit more hands-on, and logged LadyJane on, so that she could move up a few more levels and thus be a useful party member in Prokion Temple. SirPerivale could have continued where he left off, but at level 17 LJ was high enough in level to team with Memree, who is level 31 - so it was a two-healer team that set out for Prokion Temple.

As a healer, even with +10 armour Memree doesn't do too well in my favourite back room, so we settled for the "corridor room", since its Orc Sergeants are a bit more widely spread out, and there are less Orc Axemen. Since she now has a level 33 drake with all 30 levels of Armour Increase, though, with it equipped and giving her an extra 250 physical defence she didn't have to use Self Heal very often.

We'd managed to get there safely, with Memree using party heal a time or two, but unfortunately parking LadyJane against the wall in the main room didn't work. The Orcs ignored her for a while, but then they attacked, and before Memree could heal her, she slumped to the ground, lifeless. Still, experience is gained quickly there, at her level, and she wasn't then carrying many unused skill points, so it didn't seem worth using one of her "beginner" resurrection scrolls. The run back from the Temple's lobby was a bit tricky, but with a few stops to Self Heal and a single health potion, LJ made it back, and found a safer bit of wall in the narrow bit of corridor before the place widens out.

It didn't take very long to take LadyJane up two levels, during which Memree added 18.29% and 29 skill points. Once LJ was level 19, our options were a bit wider, though as she is on the same account as both JohnWellington and SirDarth she can't team with them. Galahad (on Auzura we're talking GALAHAD without any extras) however, at level 33, was now in range, so Memree helped LadyJane to get to our favourite back room, and left her safely there, logging out so that Galahad could log in, make a new party with LadyJane, and hurry to join her.

So, the rest of the evening was spent in getting LadyJane up a further four levels, so that her total experience gain for the evening was 595.64% - plus a less-than-stellar 166 skill points. Once we were finished she spent her skill points in Randol, did a few message-carrying quests, was recruited into the Discipline guild by MistressSabina, who also cut her experience gain to 50%, and logged out. She had got her "event weapon" bow for successfully reaching level 20 in the Guardian system, and now stands ready, like RedRider, to assist my early to mid thirties characters in their endeavours.

Galahad himself added 15.56%, and another 154 skill points, a figure that was slightly helped by the use of the one remaining red-and-white training spell type skill pill he had in his inventory, adding 15% to his skill exp gain for an hour. The more skill points he has, the better his future potential, not that I have any great plans to take him far. There are occasions when a Royal Knight, with his Concentration buff, can be useful, though.

RedRackham was able to head back to Merac after that, followed soon after by CaptainScarlet, who actually encountered Ratel at the warehouse chest, and complimented him on his fine-looking shield... which, come to think of it, is kind of scarlet. SirFrancis should reach level 36 before log-out time tonight, though XxEmOxX will still be at least six hours away from level 34.

So, the pet-levelling for Samael didn't quite end up as planned, but I had started working on that horse which is currently on level 33 anyway - I can always use another mount. There was no further sign of Lylja or FemeiaVraci when I was able to log SirPerivale on briefly, the DeathBringers guild continues to be very quiet. I suspect that GuildHealer, alias Steve, is being kept away from us by his parents at the moment, but no doubt he'll bounce back.