A Rash Impulse

I did try to leave SirGalahad pet-levelling overnight, and MistressDomino in merchant mode too, but at some point both computers got a Microsoft update to install, and thus needed to restart, so things came to a halt. Still, Gal had managed a good few hours by then, and MD had sold quite a few heaven stones and other things, so that before breakfast I was able to transfer 31 million in gold across to Rage, before SirGalahad once again headed for Maargadum Jail, and his friend the death mask lancer.

This was always going to be a busy day for me, but the busy part didn't begin until a little after mid-morning, so Rage was able to log back in shortly before coffee, and check out Roy's merchant mart for an affordable but better level 33 weapon. The best I could find was a +14 mage staff being offered by Querion, who seems to be quite a busy buyer and seller, at 19 million, so I took a deep breath and bought that, then spent another 95,000 for Collector Ryl to convert it into a rogue's crossbow. The only other expense was a further 5,000 to buy five bloodseal gems for it.

So, with Rage's physical offence stat increased from 386 to 453, there was time to finish off a few quests, since Rage doesn't intend to stick on level 31 - if she does do any Misty Canyon runs, it will be at level 32, so that the new skills she can learn at that level get finished first. There were a couple of old minor quests to finish by running around Juno, and then some quest rewards in Dratan City - followed by slaying death goddesses in the middle of the desert. There was another quest that needed silvery fur dropped by silver foxes of the desert, who were conveniently next to the death goddesses, but though I killed quite a few of them, I didn't get a single scrap of fur dropped. Over near Prokion Temple there were some desert spiders to kill - and then it was time to head back to town to claim my rewards.

In all, Rage went up 35.25%, mainly from quest rewards, and gained 110 skill points. She had spent quite a few skill points earlier in Randol, but it seems a good idea to hang on to this new bunch until level 32 is reached, so that the aforementioned level 32 skills can be started on as soon as possible.

That was all I had time for then. SirGalahad kept busy, with level 32 reached in the morning by his horse; knightofhonor was down there for a while, with the usual Combat party to boost his experience gain a little. I managed to log MistressDomino back in, and she did some more selling. The price she sold heaven stones at gradually moved up, with 750k followed by 795k, 825k, and a last batch at 845k, and she ended her stint rather richer than she started out.

A message came up that a Parade was about to be held on Auzura-4 at four o'clock, UK time, so as I'd finished most of my work, MistressDomino logged out of Tairen-1, and Kaerella, my level 67 archer, logged in on Auzura-4. There was the usual dropping of firecrackers and various transformation scrolls by [GM]Noboru, and I transformed into a jaguar, and then, for the first time, into a drake. It's strange, when they aren't moving forward, players transformed into drakes seem to "freeze" in place, with their wings unmoving; but if you're doing it yourself, on your own screen the wings continue to flap.

I didn't quite stay to the end, as a level 5 titan called Ncwerk had decided to form a party with me, and he wanted a little assistance, being new to the game. So, I had to take him out to the energy stones and help him to do the energy collection level 5 quest there, and try to explain various things about the game. I don't play all that much on Auzura so didn't really feel qualified to become his Guardian, but I gave him a drake egg, and helped him get to Jajan; we went outside the town so that he could see his new hatchling. I gave him a few quality stones, and some small health potions, but I'll leave it to his Guardian, if he enrols, to part with any actual gold.

So, the food break's start was slightly delayed. SirGalahad kept going, though, and his horse reached level 33 at around six.

It seemed time that my cleric Kaerella over on Cariae-1 had another outing, so she had the evening session - and it was a pretty varied one, though let down by a sudden impulse to try something that turned out to be way too hard, which cost a resurrection scroll. Kae had a number of new quests to do, ones only recently added to the game mainly, so instead of heading out to the akane giants straight away, I had a checklist of monsters to visit - giant larvae (level 50) and Cerebrii (51) down in south-east Merac, and the rough jaguar of desert (51) and ravenous larvae (54) in Dratan's desert. It was quite a long journey south from Dratan City to reach the larvae and jaguars, south of the Forgotten Temple - and just when I was nearly there I had a disconnection, which was annoying.

Still, after getting SirGalahad back to work, I got Kaerella back down there. Luckily the rough jaguars weren't protective, in the way the level 8 ones in Juno are, so it was easy enough to get the quest items from them - and the ravenous larvae were right next door. so the actual fighting didn't take long. I memorised the spot, as the ravenous larvae might well replace the akane giants as Kae's adversary of choice in a level or two.

Even though they weren't as high level, the giant larvae in Merac seemed more aggressive - and the cerebrii, which are protective and have a magic attack, did Kae some real damage a time or two. I was also a little distracted as Ratel was chatting to me by then, it's a long time since we talked, it seemed to me, so it's good to know that he is still able to play, and having fun. Coincidentally he too had been surprised by a different level of experience/skill exp loss from what he had been expecting, so with my new-found knowledge I was able to assure him that the penalties had always been higher at lower levels. After a few minutes of action, those monsters got crossed off my list too - and then back in Merac village I had another quest I'd not previously noticed, to venture down into Maargadum Jail.

So, for a few minutes I had characters active on the fifth level of Maargadum Jail on both Tairen-1 (with SirGalahad pet-levelling there) and Cariae-1, with Kae killing a few death mask soldiers to get her quest items. The only problem was that on the way down I'd picked up another quest from the guard on level two - and that required me to kill the Jail's boss, the Death Knight of Iris.

Common sense told me that was a bad idea, with his strong area-of-effect magic attack, but foolishly, encouraged by the ease with which the death mask soldiers had died, and with horse buffs still active, and Kae's own anti-magic buff applied, I went on into the Jail's final room - and it didn't take the Death Knight very long at all to kill me. I don't think I'll be trying to finish that quest again, it would be safer to let the quest expire than to have poor Kae expire again. A level 12 magic defence mineral might be an option, but those are probably more valuable than the quest reward, and success still wouldn't be guaranteed.

Well, the last of the quest rewards were claimed, so that, including the various bits of fighting, Kaerella had gone up by 13.58% and 68 skill points, along with just 61 pet points - and then it was time for a more predictable bit of farming, with a trip out to the akane giants.

There hadn't been a party available earlier, but bluray had got one going now, so I was able to join that - and who should join it later than an old Norcaine member, Stanislav, on a level 90 character called ArCh3r. He told me that he has a level 53 titan as well, and I was able to assure him that I was still in Norcaine, and that Elvastar/Ratel was still playing too. I seemed to do a lot of chatting with a level 27 player, Chola, who had only recently returned to the game - so that the information about the free level 33 weapons and 30/32 armour set was, well, news to him.

I left the party for a few minutes when a low-level Mad Monster Spawn on Cariae-4 was announced; I was a bit late changing over, actually, and by the time my level 27 rogue Karella had rode out there, the event was almost finished. Still, Karella was in time to pick up some of the generous spawning of loot that the GM, presumably JediMike, provided. It was only a single wave of monsters, I think, and there was no word of any higher-level MMS event to follow, so Kae returned to her party on Cariae-1. While she didn't get any further announcements, SirGalahad got a notice about a low-level MMS on Tairen-4 - but unfortunately I didn't spot it on his screen in time.

Kaerella's session ended a little abruptly and early, as Kamira finally decided to put in an appearance at just gone ten past nine, UK time. By then Kae had added a further 10.04%, so is almost a third of the way through level 52 now, along with another 76 skill points, and 872 pet points. On the loot side, she picked up a heaven stone dropped by one akane giant - and the next one she killed dropped another. There was a third, as part of a Hand of the Warrior, not long after, too. Which makes up for having to use that resurrection scroll, I guess.

Keerella, my mage, teleported out to deal with Kamira, and did so easily, getting all the usual goodies but no rare accessory. Her inventory is so full she had to drop a medal of honour to make room for the (rather ordinary) necklace that was dropped, but I don't want her to spend much time in town transferring items to a different character, as she has the "Christmas Cheer" buff still running, and it would be useful if that lasted for a few more meetings with Kammy. And that seemed a suitable point at which to end the day's excitements, just leaving SirGalahad to go on until close-down; by then the horse ought, I think, to be halfway through level 33.

Red and Rage Team Up

There was some exchanging of items to be done again this morning, which meant that RedRyder got her armour and crossbow back from Rage, who now has earned her own set; the second +10 level 33 weapon that Rage got was then converted into a single Eagle Sword for SirGalahad, and passed across to him, before he set off for Maargadum Jail.

Having a sword he can use along with his shield made things easier for Gal; he was able to kill the one death mask soldier that attacked him easily, before starting to spar with his usual death mask lancer. Before coffee knightofhonor turned up again, and another combat party was formed while he killed the local soldiers and the other lancers.

At level 31, Rage was now ready to team up with RedRyder for some action in Prokion Temple, but, ideally, Red needed to gain a little more skill exp first. So, Red had a slightly interrupted morning session, and managed to add 190 skill points while going up by another 6.01%. The afternoon session started a bit late, but was more of the same, with the only visitor of note a titan called "jpk1974" who I don't think was really high enough level to take on the orc soldiers. He started with a little ks-ing, and then grew bold enough to take on not just the orc soldiers, but the nearby orc fighters as well - alas, it wasn't long before he slumped to the ground, dead.

I ended the session with another 4.49% added, which took RedRyder's total experience in level 29 up to 32.99%, and 141 more skill points. That really did seem high enough, as the law of diminishing returns does set in, so that the more deaths that are necessary to get back to 0%, the more skill points were going to be lost.

So, the next step was to teleport to Misty Canyon. The Introducer Camio as usual easily killed Red every time it was approached - and then when Red was down to 2.99%, rather than risk a "double death" glitch, I went outside, and sneaked past the elite cerberi and elite frenzied berserkers, and let an ordinary highlander add the last death. If I'd respawned next to him rather than back in town, I would have had plenty of time to get to safety.

Each of the eleven deaths needed took 3% of Red's skill point total, rather than the 2% I had been expecting. I checked up in the shoutbox, and scapegoat630 and Giovanna_X directed me to a page that shows that the 2% rate only applies from level 36 up, from 21-35 it's 3% - and from 11-20 it's 5%, so things could have been worse. Below that level, there is no loss. From the 936 I started out with, 670 remained at the end, so a "free" 670 skill points can't be bad.

The evening session was always going to have an early finish, as often happens on a Wednesday, but there was time for Rage and RedRyder to have their first team-up - in Prokion Temple of course, but on Tairen-4 for a change, which seemed very quiet. The idea was for Rage to do all the work, and get almost all the experience, with, in a Combat party, the skill exp shared equally, so, to see how things would go, the back room was again put to use.

I wouldn't say that things were ideal - for the first hour they both used a "beginner" pssp, and just got 169 skill points each, which didn't seem very much to me, though while Rage went up 18.54%, RedRyder just went up 4.67%. For the second hour, Rage didn't use a pssp, so went up by 67 skill points, and 18.18%, while Red went up another 4.57%, and 166 skill points. It does at least get RedRyder's total of unused skill points up over the thousand mark, with the prospect of plenty more sessions before she reaches level 30, but our cunning ways to try to amass skill points without spending vast amounts of money need a bit more work. Red can still fight the orc soldiers solo - or perhaps Rage could kill the level 25 orc fighters quickly enough to generate more skill points per hour? Perhaps I need to sell more loot, particularly the stock of heaven stones, and spend the gold on getting a weapon a bit higher than Rage's current +10 one, to help her kill orcs more quickly.

The week's new patch last night seems to have been rather minor, with some wrong stated durations for buffs being corrected, "radar bug fixes" (which ought in theory to stop the compass-map sometimes showing a party member nearby when nobody is there), and "targeting bug fixes", to stop players hiding behind their pet in PvP. Now we have the option not to treat sorcerer's elementals and everyone's pets as targets, which is useful in a player versus player situation - and also elsewhere, as it makes it easier to click on someone, rather than their pet, to buff them, or try to add them to a party, and so on. As for events today, all that was on the website was a European hide and seek event, and the similar but deadlier "Betrayal", involving trying to get a GM safely back to town without other people killing you. There was some voting on the forum for either a hide and seek or a "random prizes in Randol" thing at some point, but both of those tend to take up more time than they are worth. Still, tomorrow there may be a few Mad Monster Spawns at some point, if more people vote for that than for a "Pharaoh's Treasure"...as I write, the MMS is ahead by 53 to 26 votes.

After RedRyder and Rage logged out, SirGalahad, no doubt feeling refreshed after his rest, was able to return to level five of Maargadum Jail - and with any luck the horse should reach about a third of the way through level 31 by closing time.

A Polar Bear is Sighted

There was a slight delay before SirGalahad could swing into Maargadum action this morning, as I needed to move items around between characters on Tairen-1; most importantly, RedRyder traded the +10 30/32 armour set across to her fellow rogue xRAGEx, along with the level 33 +10 crossbow, and indeed the level 29 +4 one, while Rage passed the older armour sets on to a storage rogue character, and recent loot drops got moved to MistressDomino. It all took half an hour or so, but finally Gal was able to be reunited with his favourite death mask lancer, and I was able to get some breakfast.

The morning session didn't start very promptly after coffee, as I needed to make a trip to the post office, but eventually Rage was able to spend every last one of her stash of skill points, and, since RedRyder had passed over some of her supply of quest items, some quests were completed immediately - these included two that called for a visit to Shuraine, so it's handy that I tend to add that location to a character's memory scroll when I pass Shuraine's oasis on the way to Prokion Temple for the first time.

Rage started in the room alongside the "back room" which houses orc soldiers and mummies, but once she reached level 26 and was able to wear the +10 shirt and leggings, the corridor outside that room was more useful, with its mixture of orc soldiers and orc fighters. With just the old armour set, except for the +10 gloves, Rage's physical defence was 436, but moving up to the new shirt and leggings moved the figure on to 603, so even the fighters couldn't do any appreciable damage.

There was just time before lunch to reach level 27, and put on the hood and boots too, which moved the defence stat on to 734. 196.58% experience had been added, probably almost a third of it from quest rewards, and a new stash of 253 more skill points. As RedRyder had traded a drake egg across along with the armour, Rage had been able to start a new hatchling at last, and it had got a third of the way into its second level as well, with its Sympathy reaching 62%.

Towards the end of the lunch break, when I was back at the computer but not yet playing actively, SirGalahad had been invited into a party for a while down in Maargadum Jail by a knight called knightofhonor, which seemed strange until he explained that it was a combat party, so would give him a useful boost; Gal gained 2 skill points from that. Knightofhonor tried a little pet-levelling after he'd finished fighting the soldiers, but unfortunately tried the lancer I was fighting, so it died before long, so he didn't get much out of it. As for me, well, I just had to wait for the lancer to respawn, and was able to continue.

For the main afternoon session, Rage headed back to Prokion Temple. The back room was now available to Rage, with her full +10 armour set, so that's where I went. Before long a mage called Arkantos came in, and lured an orc sergeant to back near the door, where she took ages to get its health down - I had to kill off any other orcs that spawned too near to her. It was all very puzzling, and she left before the sergeant was killed. Later a level 33 or 34 archer called Ariahna charged in, took the central position, and proceeded to dominate the place, which slowed me down rather - quite often we ended up firing our bows at the same orc. I think she must have had a +15 bow, as the place certainly wasn't really big enough for both of us...but we persevered. The situation wasn't helped though when Arkantos returned, this time able to use the Terra Spear skill! Luckily I was approaching level 29 by then, so was able to get to that level, equip the +10 level 33 crossbow, and head out.

The announcement had come up that one of [GM]Valsharyn's "Cluedo" events was coming up on Auzura-4, so my food break got postponed, and Kaerella, who's a level 67 archer in those parts, logged in. No prizes for me this time, but boy was it slow - why Val had a seven-minute gap between each of the three questions I don't know, and the first "clue" each time was so vague that it didn't really help. Somebody who had had a few number one hits in their time? A fairly new star? Someone over 40? Narrowing those down by sex didn't help much either, but finally enough was revealed for people to guess Elton John (after a hint about his penchant for "crazy costumes"), Megan Fox (as the star of a movie that had had a recent sequel), and Jack Nicholson (as someone who had been brought up believing his grandparents were his parents). So, it was all very slow, and rather delayed the food break.

I was back just in time for the Mad Monster Spawn at six, UK time, again hosted by Our Val. I didn't realise that he was running a low-level one as well as the usual one; when I found out, and after a wave of goodies had been spawned and grabbed, I teleported across, but it had finished by then, so I moved straight back. I think RedRider only died once, and as usual was able to use Snare usefully. From the loot grabbed, her inventory weight went up about 25%, but that was probably mainly tool aids.

I did try to ask [GM]Valsharyn about the lack of Asia/Pacific and European time "Happy Hours" on Fridays and Sundays lately, but, to both Kae whispering it to her at the "Cluedo" event and Red asking in the general channel after the MMS, I got no response at all. Maybe it is a taboo subject, I don't know...

After that, well, it was time for another session with Rage in Prokion Temple on Tairen-1. Luckily, the back room was free, though for perhaps the last hour I shared it with an archer called BlackFireHealer, a member of the elite DestructioN guild, who had a polar bear pet, which as far as I could see just followed her around and didn't take any damage, with the lighting in that room making it look more of a brown bear cub than a "poley". She did actually ask if there was room for her too before starting to battle the orcs, which makes a very pleasant change, and there was, just about - though as she was using a full-strength platinum super skill pill and a health stealer, I did occasionally let her take priority when only a single orc had respawned.

She did attempt to sell me two platinum pet pills for three million gold, which is probably a good price, but I don't really need them. I mentioned that I had a pet leveller hard at work on level five of Maargadum even then, with a horse at level 29 - and she told me that she had levelled and sold three pets already, just using her healer, bare-handed, in Merac, presumably on berserkers. I guess that may be how she affords the pssp and health stealer.

I kept going a little beyond my usual finishing time - but then, I "usually" do, it seems. But when Rage reached level 31, that was the time to leave the room to BlackFireHealer, and head back to town. The +10 armour set and pair of rogue weapons arrived safely in my inventory, and Rage had added 200.34% plus 575 skill points, as well as getting her hatchling up another two levels to six. I'd apologised for its behaviour, as it flitted all around the room picking up anything it could, but BlackFireHealer said that was fine, she didn't pick stuff up... a policy she might have changed if the heaven stone that dropped at that point had been from one of her orcs, rather than one of mine.

Back in Randol Rage spent all but 19 of her skill points, and became a ranger, a crossbow-wielder, as my rogues always do. The assassin class, using a pair of daggers for melee combat, is more of a PvP kind of character, and a ranged attack is a lot simpler in PvE. Over in Maargadum Jail, knightofhonor returned around then, for a new combat party. By the end of the evening, SirGalahad's horse will still be an hour or so short of level 30, but with the usual server downtime scheduled for about one o'clock, UK time, the option of leaving him on overnight isn't available.

Mummies and Soldiers

SirGalahad managed to keep pet-levelling through the night, but did hit a problem towards the end - I came back to the computer to discover that he wasn't just battling the usual death mask lancer, but a death mask soldier as well, and, as the soldiers are pet-eaters, it had attacked Gal's horse, which had been killed. Luckily Gal himself is now quite able to withstand a double attack like that even without the Armour Increase buff from his pet, but it did mean that I had to go back to Randol, or restart the game and spawn there, to get the horse "unsealed". At level 24, that cost 92,736 gold, which Gal could easily afford. I don't think anyone had maliciously lured my death mask lancer within range of a soldier, probably it had just wandered a little bit in that direction, and the soldier happened to move a little out of its normal position too

After that, SirGalahad went back to Maargadum Jail to continue his work. An "unsealed" pet only has 30% health, but it wasn't too long before the horse reached level 25, which restored its health to 100%. The levels are starting to get a bit longer - level 25 is 5173 pet points long, which takes Gal about five hours.

After coffee, SirGalahad provided the solo party boost for RedRyder, who went off to Tairen-1's Prokion Temple for some more orc soldier fighting. The first thing I saw as I approached the usual orc soldier room was mageBr slumped dead, which wasn't a very cheerful start - a dead mage always looks very pathetic. The place was quiet to begin with, but eventually other people turned up. The level 26 healer Skilled suggested a party, but I had to break it off almost immediately, it increased the experience per kill dramatically and, as I explained, I needed to get skill points with as little experience as possible.

A couple of rogues soon turned up, LiLy and Kasighari, which made the place a bit crowded, but by the end of the session Red had added 7.49%, while earning 232 skill points. At 18% the sp total was 464, which if I'd died six times to return to zero experience would have fallen to 411, while at 21% the total was 558, which would have fallen after seven deaths to 494 skill points.

For the afternoon, I decided to work on xRAGEx - and, courtesy of a few berserk wolves, a lot of jaguars, and a trip to Velpist Temple to fight the wandering, ancient and berserk zombies, plus later on a few level 16 corpse rangers and even slightly more level 21 skeleton soldiers than I'd have wished, I got Rage from level 7 to level 17 by the time the food break came along, having remembered to enrol her as an apprentice of SirGalahad for the Guardian system when she was level 10. It was the usual strategy of going to the right in the Temple first, then after a couple of levels going straight ahead to the upstairs room where enough ancient and berserk zombies spawn to keep me busy, if I can avoid the few skeleton soldiers in the room. Then it was off to the left, and again upstairs, for the room outside the "torn book of life" final room, for berserk zombies and corpse rangers.

It was about 3:00pm, UK time, when Rage became SirGalahad's apprentice in the Guardian system - and at 6:45 she graduated, having reached level twenty... and there was a relatively leisurely food break in there, of course. At level 17 Rage had made the run out to Prokion Temple, and after a few ghouls close to the central lobby, she made her way to the room with the mummies and one orc soldier, and stayed there until level twenty. Once 339.13% and 157 skill points had been gained, it was time for a trip back to Randol, to get the various quests sorted out - particularly the one that hands over the special rogue "neckless" accessory. Before I'd gone to Prokion Temple I'd bought a level 21 +3 crossbow from Roy's merchant mart for 50,000 gold, and now I was able to find a level 25 one, also +3, for the same amount, which was good value I thought.

I went back to the mummy room after that, having spent all but one of my skill points, and settled in for a nice steady session. As I levelled up the amount of experience per mummy went down, but the amount of skill exp didn't fall as fast, so I started to pile on the skill points. For much of the time I shared the room with a young mage called devinecurse; she went off to eat, leaving her character in a corner, but by no means wall-hugging, and I had to keep a lookout, as mummies did sometimes attack her. Eventually we teamed up, though when she reached level 22 she went back to town for new armour - and I reminded her about the Elizabeth buff.

Her trip took a while, and as I was halfway through level 24, with my log out time approaching, I decided to move along to the middle section of that particular part of the Temple, and tackle more than one orc soldier at a time. Since they are protective, so that attacking one of them can bring in three or four, I got through a number of small health potions. Devinecurse returned while I was there, and we fought them together, though as she likes to live dangerously, health percentage-wise, I had to be ready to attack orcs attacking her, and she had to be ready to run for it. It was a few minutes past my usual log-out time, but I managed to reach level 25. She had a disconnection just after that, so the team-up, and the session, reached a natural conclusion. Rage had gone up another 464.05%, and earned another 589 skill points, which is a good number to have, with skills still to be maximised and the new level 25 skills to get started on.

I did get one invitation to join a level six guild, but somehow having the name "HellsChickens" floating over my head didn't appeal. I guess Rage will join Discipline, if she needs her experience gain semi-frozen, which might happen at level 29. A few extra skill points can't hurt, and the guild does need some more guild points, after all.

The only event that [GM]Valsharyn was doing on Auzura today was a "hide and seek", rather than a Mad Monster Spawn or a Storm the Castle - people were having to search for Val, and, as it was a PvP sub-server, battle other seekers to stay alive for four minutes before earning any reward. Not really my kind of thing, I'm afraid. At least I've got the Tairen version of Rage well on her way to being an event-attender; she will soon need to temporarily borrow the +10 armour and crossbow from RedRyder, my sp-hunter with ambitions to reach a high level with a proper amount of skills, until she reaches level 31 and gets her own set.

SirGalahad kept busy throughout the evening, and with any luck his horse should be halfway through level 27 by the time I need to switch the older computer off. I had been considering selling that horse, but I suppose Rage will want it, now... Anyway, from nowhere to level 25 in two days is a good start for her.

Lighter Work

I did make an attempt to keep SirGalahad at his pet-levelling overnight, but when I checked up on him just before lights out, there had been a disconnection so, not really feeling up to going through all the rigmarole of getting Gal back online, into Merac, and down to level five, I switched off the computer for the night.

Still, my knight in Steel armour was back in action at breakfast time on Sunday, and kept busy throughout the day, sparring with his favourite death mask lancer. He didn't get ks'd during the day, though the room did have a few visitors - I did see someone getting killed when a couple of the magic-attack beast crawlers got involved in the fight.

There wasn't any time for an active morning session, however, as some shopping had to be done - and on Sunday our lazy local supermarket doesn't open until eleven, which rather rules out an after-coffee session.

Still, the afternoon was business as usual, with RedRyder in a solo party with SirGalahad, going to Prokion Temple on Tairen-1. The idea continued to be to just fight orc soldiers, and while it was fairly slow going, particularly when other people decided to share the room, progress was made. There do seem to be a lot of rogues around in the Temple at the moment - while the mage mageBr shared the room sometimes, otherwise it was all rogues - Reebeeka, Cecil, and xXxVampiRoguexXx mainly.

RedRyder added 323 skill points while going up 12.90%, which seemed good to me. It's interesting that a death costs 3% experience, as a figure, and 2% of one's unused skill points, as a percentage, so a single death would take Red down from 15% to 12%, and reduce her skill points from 373 to 365; dying five times would get her right down to the start of level 29 again, but still with 337 skill points, if my calculations are correct. If I take her up to 24% she ought to get about 598 skill points - and be left with 509 after eight deaths. The higher I would take her before heading off to the Introducer Camios, the more skill points she would be left with, but the number of sp lost from all the deaths continues to rise too, so it wouldn't really be worth going all the way to 99% I think.

The pre-Quiz part of the evening was a good opportunity for Kaerella on Cariae-1 to go back out the the elite akane giant and its pals; there was no solo party available so I teamed up with someone on the list of prospective party members, and then registered us as a solo party. We managed to recruit a few people, and after a while bluray himself joined. He asked to be leader, so that saved me the trouble of allowing applications and so on. Judging by the occasional "the item is not enough" pop-up window, he was in the cube system again.

It wasn't a hugely long session; if you must know, I'd got slightly delayed by watching "Chicken Run" on the BBC iPlayer, which stood up pretty well to being watched again. But Kaerella did add 14.91%, taking her into level 52, plus 87 skill points, taking her above 9,000 unused sp, and 1004 pet points. One party member thought they were bugged and would have to relog, they couldn't get Elizabeth to give them her Enhancement buff - we had to break it to them gently that at level 62 they were too high, you only get that buff up to level 60. Once again Kamira snubbed me and stayed away...

But by about 8:15 the announcements for the Quiz were starting to advise us to head for the quiz room, so, after just about twelve hours at work, SirGalahad logged out, with the horse near the top of level 21, and MistressDomino logged in on Tairen-2. Kaerella logged out on Cariae-1, and her level 10 namesake logged in on Tairen-2 also.

The quiz started on time, and ran pretty smoothly - only the question about [GM]JediMike running the Old Skool Treasure Hunt caught out many people, perhaps a third of us vanished from the wrong side of the room then. Kae and MD got their 10 tool aids after question ten, their 10 moonstones after question fifteen, the 5 heaven stones after question eighteen, and the other 10 heaven stones after question twenty...and then stayed on the wrong side for the next question, so that they respawned back in town.

SirGalahad headed back to Maargadum Jail, and soon got the horse into level 22. As usual after the quiz the servers were pretty busy, so it was hard to log characters back in - first you get a "time out", and then because of lag the server thinks you are logged in, and gives you the "account ID already logged in" error on your subsequent attempts. It only took a couple of minutes, though, to briefly check up on MistressDomina over on Auzura, and then log Rage in on Tairen-1. Unlike the Auzura version, I couldn't get the name "RAGE" here, so she is in fact "xRAGEx" - very fashionable, an exxtra "X" or two!

This wasn't a character I'd done any work on for Tairen, but if RedRyder is going to be carrying unused skill points, it may end up being useful having an alternative rogue for Mad Monster Spawns. Anyway, there wasn't time for anything more important, so Rage fought foxes and deer, and wolves, and then elder wolves, dire wolves, and berserk wolves, so that, with the "Elizabuff" on, she got to level 7 fairly quickly. There will soon come a point at which I have to decide whether it's Rage, Kaerella or MistressDomino who join the Guardian system, and speed straight ahead to level 20 at least.

Desert Slog

Once again SirGalahad started work on level five of Maargadum Jail before breakfast, with his new level 10 pony - and he had a productive morning, so that the pony was well into level 12 by lunchtime.

After coffee RedRyder headed for Tairen-1's Prokion Temple, though this time she was able to apply the horse buffs before entering, which added usefully to her attack for a few minutes. It being Saturday, the place was a lot busier than usual at that sort of time of day, so I ended up in the "mirror" half. There was a useful corner just beyond the local equivalent of the corridor room, and I settled in there for a while, killing mainly orc sergeants - but it was actually too rich in the sergeants, with not enough orc axemen, which, given that the sergeants give a lower ratio of skill exp to experience, meant that Red wouldn't be able to get the target of 407 skill points without levelling up.

At 25% experience, Red had only got 97 skill points, so I moved along into the "mirror" version of the back room, where there were more axemen, and a few orc soldiers as well - and that worked better, at 50% I'd got 218 sp, so I was well on target. By the time I'd got the 407 sp I was after, the experience had reached 89.39% which, while just over 10% more than last time, was reasonable and safe. 272 guild points and 1123 pet points had also been acquired.

After RedRyder got back to Randol, she was able to learn all three kinds of herb processing skills from the Herbologist Trainer, and then there was just time to go across to Misty Canyon and get the Introducer Camios to kill Red thirty times, to get the experience percentage safely back to zero.

I'm afraid that I missed the Auzura "Storm the Castle" event today, but Saturday lunchtime is not that convenient a time for such things. I hope that [GM]Valsharyn had a good turn-out for it, though last week wasn't up to her usual standards of innovation, and the hands spawned were a little on the meagre side. It was a bit later than one o'clock before I logged on again, and that was over on the Sarissa server for a change.

Kaerella on Sarissa went up from level 7 to level 8 at the last low-level Mad Monster Spawn, so I wanted to do at least a little work on her, and, with a little help from the jaguars, got her up to level 10, and added Velpist temple to her memory scroll before fighting a few wandering zombies in there. I didn't, again, want to go past level 10, to leave the Guardian option open. The cash picked up at the MMS meant that Kae could at least afford a level 13 bow; and I did have one bit of good luck, I opened a Pandora's Box which released, rather than the usual homicidal level 30 Beast, 50,000 gold, which does really help Kae along.

For the second half of the afternoon, I switched back to RedRyder on Tairen-1. My favourite back room was available, so getting the last 172 skill points I needed to "max out" her final available special skills, flawed stone and imperfect stone processing, didn't take too long. The 43.66% experience gained was soon wiped out by the Introducer Camios, though I did have one "perma-death", meaning I had to log out and then return.

RedRyder did actually have a visitor in that back room, a level 25 rogue called Rogue123, who asked for a party but didn't say anything else. I don't mind partying with people there, unless I'm using a pssp or something, but she didn't last long - I'd just taken my eyes off the screen long enough to make a note of her name and level, and when I looked again she was no longer in the room, either dead or fled. She left the party soon afterwards. Well, it is a dangerous room for people who don't have good armour yet.

There was just time after that for a different sort of short experimental session for RedRyder, before the early evening food break. Now that she needs to stash away as many skill points as possible for future use, the ratio of skill exp to experience becomes even more important, especially if one doesn't intend to buy more platinum super skill pills, skill point boosters, etc for a character. At level 29, with a solo party and with the 50% experience freeze plus Elizabeth's Enhancement, killing a level 25 orc fighter gives 6600 skill exp (almost two-thirds of a skill point) and 8985 experience, while killing a level 23 orc soldier gives 4400 se and just 1327 experience. Killing a level 19 mummy though isn't much use, that just gives 2 se and 720 experience now.

So, including an experimental kill or two, for the first percent of experience Red managed, killing orc soldiers, to add 22 skill points, and for the whole short session she gained 2.10% and 50 skill points - so at that rate it would be possible to get around 2,400 skill points before reaching level 30. To do the killing at a reasonable speed though, I'll need to choose fairly quiet times in Prokion Temple for that.

After the break, my level 101 archer Barbarienne spent quite a while looking through Roy's stock of high-level bows. I was hoping that there might be some level 101 bows around, but there were none at all for sale; a number of 97 ones, and 109 ones, at varying prices, though it looks as if Barb's current budget of 450 million would be just enough to upgrade from her current level 85 one to a 97-er. That's something to investigate further - it's not just the "plus", it's the colour of the title text, and the number of seals - a blue-name bow hits harder than an equivalent green-name one, though if the green-name one has a good hit rate bonus that might make up for it. All complicated stuff!

There was, however, time for Kaerella to do a full three-hour session on Cariae-1, out with the elite akane giant and its companions. I joined a solo party, and from sticking around long enough became its leader, so had to remember to re-submit it every time we got to the full eight members and someone left. Members included another cleric, or at least, at level 31, cleric-to-be, Curucuar, and a few others who did chat a bit, but many were strong silent types.

Kamira did not put in an appearance, so Kae kept busy for the full length of the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff, and by the end had added a substantial 32.21%, and 169 skill points, along with 2040 pet points for SirFrancis - so that means that Kaerella is getting fairly close to level 52 now. That's not a level with any new skills, level 53 is when the first level of Party Heal 2 comes along, allowing a cleric to heal all party members within range for 300 health points, which is slightly better than the lower-level Party Heal, though it costs more mana. It's useful to have both skills available I guess.

Throughout the whole day, SirGalahad had kept going on the older computer, which seems to not be getting that "run out of memory" error anything like as quickly as it used to, at least temporarily. So, plenty of progress was made down on level five of Maargadum Jail, with the little pony becoming a larger and more elegant horse, which should reach level 18 by the time we finish for the night.

RedRyder Gets Her Mount

SirGalahad logged in at breakfast time for his final session pet-levelling his first horse, and kept going until lunchtime - it was a little before one o'clock, UK time, when the horse reached level 37 and his job was completed. RedRyder made a solo party with him after coffee, and went to the back room of Tairen-1's Prokion Temple, for a usefully uninterrupted session there which added 407 skill points, enough to learn the processing of all three different kinds of energy, while going up 79.36%. There was just time before lunch for Red to get those skills, and then head out to teleporter Sellma in Merac, to enter Misty Canyon and get the Introducer Camios there to wipe out that experience gain, 3% at a time.

After lunch SirGalahad traded the horse, and his sellable loot, across to RedRyder, who traded the loot, plus her own acquisitions, on across to MistressDomino - and then got her horse turned into a mount, before using most of her tool aids for some mining and green herb leaf farming. Most of the results were passed on to MD, and then a good number of quality stones were in turn traded to SirGalahad. Gal himself did the pan flute quest, which just involves taking one to Lorraine in Randol and then going on to Jajan in Dratan - once he had got his new pony, he went off back to Maargadum Jail.

So, this new horse started from zero pet points on level five of the Jail, with Gal fighting the death mask lancer there. Even without the Armour Increase buff, Gal's health kept steady, thanks to that new Canid Fence 2 passive skill keeping his physical defence stat at 1302. The pony's degree of sympathy started at 50%, but by the time it levelled up for the first time, to level 2, it was 58%, then 66% when it reached level 3, and 75% the next time - so if I'd taken Gal back to town to get a level or two of Armour Increase, he'd get that percentage of the full defence increase for that level. Equip a pet and its sympathy increases, keep it unequipped for too long and its sympathy starts to fall again.

Over on Hatzring-1, Kaerella went back out to Prokion Temple, and was able to get to the room with just level 19 mummies plus a single orc soldier. I did get a disconnection there, but noticed that I had more experience when I logged back in - I must have killed the mummy I was fighting while in the process of losing the connection. Almost as soon as level 20 was reached Kae returned to Randol - I stayed very slightly longer just to get her skill points up to 65 again, for a speed-increasing passive skill, Elven Walk.

Among the quests available in Randol at level 20 now is the one that just involves receiving the special accessory for one's class, so Kae went straight to the Master Healer and got the "Holly Neckless of Healer" - the spelling of our Korean chums doesn't get any better, does it? It won't work after Kae passes level 35, but until then it gives her 16 more intelligence, 100 more mana, 9 more magical attack, and adds 20% more to the rate of her mana recovery, so it's useful.

A trip out into Juno to visit Hunter Dranore, Wild Collector Kal, and Border Guard Tamon ended the afternoon; a quest reward from Dranore meant that at last Kae does have three accessories to equip, which is progress.

The European event for today was, at five o'clock, a "Pandora's Beast Event", which, apart from the earlier timing, was exactly like any other such one. "Pandoras Beasts have been spotted throughout Juno, Dratan, and Merac! It's up to you, Heroes to track down and destroy them all! Take heed, these monsters do not like to go down easily, but reward greatly those who can defeat them!" As the Beasts only come in two varieties, the level 30 bandit-types from Merac and the level 50 larvae-types from Dratan, I decided to take my junior wizard MistressBlaze along, since at level 47 she seemed the most likely character to get some benefit.

It always has been a rather under-performing event. MistressBlaze did get around 50,000 experience for each level 50 Beast she killed, but that is only 0.03-0.04%, so not exactly dramatic, and the skill exp is no better than for any other level 50 monster. As for "rewarded greatly", well in my experience they only drop gold, and never more than 900 at a time. In contrast, as I was riding through Merac looking for another group to fight, I came across a Pandora's Box, which when I opened it released a Merac Blood Frenzy-type level 50 Beast, and when I killed it, it dropped a not untypical 96,000 gold.

I'm afraid MistressBlaze is a little out of practice, and somehow at the last spawning point managed to attract too many of the Beasts, and by trying to take them all down with Flame Storm, rather underestimated their attack power. So that was another resurrection scroll used; MB revived on the spot, once they had moved away, and took her revenge after re-applying horse buffs, but it is annoying when that sort of thing happens.

After that, it seemed like a good change of pace for Tairen's Kaerella to log in. She was at level 7, and I noticed that she had just over three "hours" left (or a 24th of that in real time, say eight minutes) of the "Christmas Blessing" buff from the tree remaining, which was supposed to increase one's chance of drops. But, with one exception right at the end, Kae only got the usual gold drops from the jaguars and, returning after a visit to town, in a shorter session she got a hunter bow, a small healing potion and a moonstone box, which is much more typical of a few minutes on that hill. The one exception I mentioned was a "double drop" I've never come across before, though - a hand of the guard (item drop booster, skill point booster, and two tool aids) and a heaven stone!

I got Tairen's Kaerella to level 10, mainly getting those jaguar claws for Geres to make into necklaces; I made the trip out to Velpist Temple to get that location onto her memory scroll, and then made the run through the Dratan desert to get Prokion Temple's location memorised too. I went into Proki, but didn't try fighting anything. Now that she is level 10, it's a matter of either leaving her at that level for a while, or, if she is going to go further, getting her into the Guardian system before level 11 is reached, and then getting her to level 20 within the deadline, so that she gets the useful level 21 "event weapon" bow.

Back on Hatzring, I gave Kaerella there another hour's worth of activity in the mummy room. All this server-changing gets confusing, I was surprised to see in another room somebody with PvP mode on... but it's Tairen where that isn't yet enabled! I was keeping an eye on the forum shoutbox too, and making the occasional contribution - I was among those asking [GM]OgreKing why the Europe-time "Happy Hours" seem to have been discontinued, but he didn't seem to quite grasp the problem.

Kaerella, Hatzring version, reached level 22, which means she can use a level 25 bow, and wear the 25/27 armour set, so should be a bit more useful the next time there is a low-level Mad Monster Spawn. Assuming that there are more of those, which after yesterday's low turn-outs, can't really be guaranteed.

SirGalahad meanwhile had kept busy, getting his new pony up to 100% sympathy - and, with any luck, up to level 10 before things close down for the night. He did get his lancer ks'd once, gosh I hope the person, who I just glimpsed heading on down towards the Jail's final room, didn't get killed by the "Death Knight" boss character there, or anything. I often don't see the actual killing of my pet-leveller's sparring partner, but do notice the "rising mist" effect as the body evaporates.