MistressDomina Gets Twisted

The usual characters got their half hours online in the morning, and I added SirKit to the line-up, in the hope that I'll be able to complete his armour set before too long. Chuck was able to buff a couple of junior players, and MistressDomina broke off from farming herb leaves, since she has been getting through them rather quickly lately, to give horse buffs to a low-level knight.

MistressDomina on Auzura went into merchant mode for an hour or so before and during the lunch break, after I'd checked on the current prices, but didn't sell very much, as that is hardly a peak time of day. The best sellers early on were the item drop boosters, but I didn't have many of those available. Luckily, later somebody bought a hundred skill point boosters, which made the total taken in, at around 180 million, rather more respectable.

Just after she logged in, Keerella had a newly arrived titan called Letmium asking for help, so Kee led him to Healer Yabo for quests and Bianca for storage, and gave him some minor potions, a couple of rings, and some gold. I suppose I ought to have suggested he went to Cariae-5 rather than Cariae-4, I must mention the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff if I run into him again...

And then it was time for Barbarienne and Keerella to make another trip out to the Tomb of Theos on Cariae-4. The first anubis spear man room was in use, so I went on a few yards into the corridor, and settled in at the first corner. It was 18 minutes before the two to three o'clock "dungeon time" when Barbarienne started her pots; 14 anubis spear men were killed before the 50% boost started, and in all 57 experience boosters were used in the first hour; gaining 23.51% took Barbarienne safely into level 109.

Reaching level 109 meant that Barbarienne could equip her new bow, and the change in attack between a level 85 one and a level 109 one was pretty marked - instead of a critical hit of around 6930 damage, now it went up to about 8700, with her physical offence stat moving from 2085 to 2553. Luckily nobody was fighting just around the next corner of the corridor, as the two closest anubis spear men were no longer quite enough, sometimes Barb would kill one before the other had respawned and have to move forward and attack the next spear man along.

The second hour saw another 18 spear men killed before "dungeon time" ended after 18 minutes, and a further 46 in the rest of the time, so that another 21.59% was added. In all, then, across the two hours Barbarienne gained 45.10% while using 121 experience boosters. Her drake gained 2091 pet points. Keerella just got 0.96% from being in the combat party, but 4.19% was enough to get her cartoon cat-like Scra-Chi pet, SkrappY, into its 54th level. And Barb and Kee each added 6 skill points.

Barbarienne levelling up means that, until Keerella too levels up, they won't be able to form a combat party, so it may be a little while before Barb can try for level 110. I don't particularly want to do a "power hour" with Kee, though it would be easy enough for her to level up on those anubis spear men...she wants skill points as well as experience, so will do best to take it at a natural pace.

RedRackham traded the level 41 drake across to MistressBlaze in exchange for her level 39 one, so that she now has 25 levels of physical defence (for 200 extra) and 15 levels of magical attack (15 extra); he then set off for the fifth floor of Maargadum Jail, and did some pet-levelling over the early evening food break.

He would have continued there longer, but when MistressSabina, in a solo party with him, arrived at the beast flyers on floor three, just as the "dungeon time" was ending, the place was in use again - by the same knight as last time I think, Draconer. As he wasn't using any pots, I don't really see why he is in Auzura-4 away from the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff, but hopefully he will level up and move on to another spot before too long.

So, it was "plan B" again, with MistressDomina, Kaerella and the polar bear cub going to the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-5 to join some familiar faces there in the never-ending battle against the screaming zombies. There weren't any annoyed or just plain naughty people luring in huge mobs tonight, so things went pretty well, though as usual there were quite a few times when I had to use Terra Spear to attract the attention of a screamie which was intent on killing someone of a rather low level.

It was perhaps just as well that MistressSabina hadn't been able to battle the beast flyers, as the "Happy Hour" started just then, and was announced as double experience and skill experience. That wouldn't have been very convenient for Sabina, but for MD and Kae it was fine. For a part of the session the level 85 sorcerer LittleDrugzz joined our party, so we made it a combat one, but later on he moved further in, so we were able to go back to the equal type.

We had to leave slightly earlier than usual, but MistressDomina had, thanks to the Happy Hour and the "dungeon time", added 10.87%, while Kaerella was up by 11.40%. They had each gained 12 skill points; MD's drake had earned 2484 pet points, and Kae's poly was up by 44.04%.

Ratel had been in touch, and we both decided that it was time for MistressDomina to join him in the Twisted guild (with a future possibility of Rage joining too) - so once the "dungeon time" ended, at nine, MD and Kae left the Tomb on Auzura-5, and moved across to Auzura-4, where one of the Twisted guild advisers would pick her up in a party, recall her to him, and allow her to apply to join. It got slightly complicated by Ratel thinking that Kaerella was a guild adviser in Norcaine, and could thus kick MD from the guild, when in fact it was MD who held that post - so he had to switch across to Elvastar, as guild master for Norcaine, and both kick MD and promote Kae.

MistressDomina registered for a party, as instructed, and was picked up by Dropkick, a Twisted guild adviser. Where would the party recall take me - the furthest reaches of the Tomb perhaps, or an exotic part of Strayana...or maybe dangerously high in Lust Trum tower in Egeha? Actually, Dropkick was just standing in the middle of Dratan City. As soon as Elvastar had kicked her from Norcaine, MD applied to join Twisted, and was accepted. Maybe today's title would be more accurate as "Twisted Gets MistressDomina", but where's the fun in that? It is a level 11 guild, so has room for plenty of members, and I think about a dozen must have been online - the text in the message box was all purple, suddenly, and moving pretty fast. It will be strange to be in an active guild again; I didn't contribute much in the way of conversation, beyond a response that spanking was extra, and only said goodnight to Ratel and Dropkick in the party.

I did attempt to set MistressDomino, my Auzura merchant, up to sell some more items, but when I went to click to actually go into merchant mode, after choosing all the items and the prices, nothing happened. I moved towards the arena, in case it was some local area effect, but that part of town was strangely deserted...and just as I was coming to realise what had happened, the "disconnected" window popped up. Ah well, a slightly downbeat way to end a fairly important day, but if you're going to get a disconnection, then just standing around in town is the best place for it.

Pet Levels

Once the various attendance allowances were claimed, which took until after coffee, there was time for Kaerella on Katar to head to Maargadum Jail's second floor again. Today she reached level 42, and was able to, once she was back in Randol, spend quite a few skill points, as that level opens up the second level of Master Weaponsmith and Master Armoursmith, for 345 sp each. The final levels come at level 52, and then all Kae's "special" skills will be done.

There was also the first level of Deadly Shot 2 to learn, for 200 skill points, to increase Kaerella's chance of a "deadly" hit on her target (which Kae ought to have got one level ago), so 890 skill points were spent in all. The session did however get her 37.72% and 107 skill points, plus 1004 pet points, so things are moving along steadily there.

After lunch it was time for another two-hour Tomb session on Cariae-4 for Barbarienne and Keerella, in their usual combat party. As before, I started well in advance of the "dungeon time" hour of 50% extra experience - 26 minutes ahead, in fact. In the first hour, Barbarienne got through no less than 53 experience boosters, 22 before the main hour began, and added 20.55%; the second hour, with slightly less "dungeon time" in it, added 17.76% more, with 20 booster-kills inside the main hour and 29 after it. Barbarienne's drake added 2122 pet points, Keerella's Scra-Chi pet SkrappY added 3.70%, and both Barb and Kee earned 5 skill points. Keerella, who only fought one sphinx fighter, otherwise just standing there for the combat party boost, got 0.84% experience.

For a change, the main room with the first four anubis spear men was empty when Barbarienne and Keerella arrived, so they settled in there. Apart from people hastily running through on their way to deeper parts, our only visitor was the mage Csaba93, who fought a few of the anubis sphinx men, and a big mob of sphinx fighters a time or two; she also spent a fair amount of time just standing in a safe place at the side, quite near us.

Another session like that ought to get Barbarienne into level 109, and allow her to use her shiny new level 109 bow, so that people don't comment on her still using a level 85 one. That may be all the levelling Barb does for a little while... though come to think of it there is a useful new level of a skill to get when she reaches 110... There was a little time left after that session, which soon got taken up with moving loot, from drops and from the loot wheel, across to my Cariae and Auzura-based merchant characters.

There was also just enough time to use the special golden LacaRette tokens which MistressSabina had gained; they were enough for five top-level spins, using three tokens each. One of the spins just gave a single golden token back, but the other four gave 25 item drop boosters, a platinum blessed iris, and a couple of the hour-long "super huge lucky scrolls".

Katar's Kaerella returned to Maargadum on Katar-5 after the food break, for about 45 minutes of the five to six "dungeon time"; 21.47% experience, 58 skill points, and 516 pet points were gained, from the second floor's various canines, and the beast scythes. RedRackham was back in action on floor three, over on Auzura-4, too...but when MistressSabina logged in and made a party with him, and headed for floor three, with a view to using a platinum super skill pill or two on the beast flyers between the two "dungeon times", unfortunately I found the spot already in use.

So, it was over to "plan B" - and another double trip to the Tomb of Theos, with MistressDomina and Kaerella, not to mention the polar bear cub, on Auzura-5. The place was busy as usual, and got busier as the evening progressed. Somehow we did occasionally get big groups of screaming zombies plus infected grey zombies lured in on us, but maybe our teamwork is improving. Kaerella did un-equip the poly occasionally, and even do a tiny bit of fighting and healing, but no pets were killed during the evening...or at least, neither of ours.

By the end, with an equal party, MistressDomina had moved past the halfway mark in level 92, adding 4.73%, and her drake gained 2642 pet points - enough to get it into level 43. I'd never actually remembered to use the previous stat point from when it reached level 42, so, afterwards, I made a point of going straight to the animal trainer in Dratan City and getting MD two more levels of the boost to her magical attack power.

Kaerella added 6.97%, which shows how much shorter level 91 is than level 92, and they each gained 6 skill points from their evening's endeavours. The polar bear cub reached level 36, adding 61.48%.

And that was the end of the day's excitements. I definitely need to arrange for my merchant characters on Cariae and Auzura to do some selling before long, they now have plenty of stuff to get rid of - and as ever there are various things I need to buy, once I have enough gold...

A Quick Spin

Sunday morning does tend to be a bit shorter than most mornings, but I managed to get my usual crew of characters their attendance allowance. I also was able to get the "ten fully-rebated spins of the Loot Wheel" sorted out - it's handy to have multiple accounts that all have a few aeria points, as the deal was ten such spins per account. I got rather more mana stealers and strong medicines than I'd have liked, and absolutely no pet jaguar or pet polar bear collars, but I did get some experience boosters, skill point boosters, heaven stones, platinum blessed irises, power potions, and so on, which got downloaded onto Cariae, Auzura, and in one case Katar characters. MistressDomina on Cariae, my merchant character there, got most of the local goodies moved across to her, and so is just about ready to try and do some fund-raising at some point.

After lunch, it seemed a good idea to have Barbarienne and Keerella head for the Tomb of Theos on Cariae-4 for a two-hour session, to include the two o'clock to three o'clock, UK time, "dungeon time" boosted hour. The square anubis spear man room was already being used by a pair of night shadows, so Barbarienne took up the same position as yesterday, on the first corner of the corridor after that. Keerella did have to battle one sphinx fighter that followed them, but otherwise she just stood in the corner, occasionally feeding SkrappY the "freshly baked bread" that such pets need.

In the first hour, Barbarienne killed 39 anubis spear men, using 39 experience boosters, 28 of them before the "dungeon time" hour began, and added just 12.97%, but the second hour was a bit better, with 48 boosters used, 39 inside "dungeon time", getting Barb another 19.91%...figures that do rather indicate that the place's condition did vary, though a total of 32.88% across the two hours does seem about right. Keerella just added 1.27%, while SkrappY added 3.20%, and Barb's drake got 2120 pet points. Barb and Kee each gained 8 skill points, helped along by the fact that yesterday's "Turbo", which had apparently been 75% extra skill exp, was still running.

That 75% extra skill exp meant that, for the last part of the afternoon, it seemed worth taking MistressSabina to the beast flyers on Auzura-4, so she and RedRackham went there together. The horse buffs Sabina applied before they left Merac Caron lasted just long enough for Red to kill that death mask soldier rather more quickly than usual; he then unequipped his sword and set to work to do some pet-levelling with the death mask lancer.

Unfortunately for MistressSabina, the beast flyers in the middle of the third floor were being fought by a knight, so she just fought the four in a side room and, when the end of her half hour attendance allowance was approaching, logged out rather than get a 3% addition to tomorrow's experience totals. She just had time to spin the Lacarette wheel, though, and got the star prize - fifteen golden Lacarette tokens, enough for five spins of the top type of course... a 360 aeria point value.

That tiny session meant that MistressSabina added 1.10%,11 skill points, and 155 pet points.

The evening session was another outing for MistressDomina, Kaerella and the polar bear cub, to the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-5. Things didn't get off to a very good start, a rogue called SHOSTFACE, in the BulgarianElite guild, was busy repeatedly luring big mobs onto the people in the corridor, with the usual loss of life. Annoyingly, one of the times I was just too slow to unequip the polar bear cub, so Kaerella had to go back to Dratan City and spend, at level 35, 1,013,200 gold to get him "unsealed". At least a poly does regenerate its own full health fairly quickly.

Things did settle down though, and MistressDomina was as usual pulling in the screaming zombies one by one for her lower-level accomplices to beat on, and doing her best to capture any zombies that passed in hot pursuit of someone who had been standing slightly too far forward. A bit later the level 102 mage Elfnastysfriend arrived - I suppose someone had got in touch with her about the way SHOSTFACE had been acting, and she did her best to calm things down, though Shost's command of English seemed a bit variable. She stayed around for a while, doing roughly what MD was doing, so that was fun - she didn't put on her gamesage glow, or "pull rank" in any way, and as usual was friendly and approachable. She is actually in the same guild as Ratel, Twisted.

Not long after Elfnastysfriend left, however, somebody else pulled the same trick of luring masses of screaming zombies and diseased grey mummies onto us. Kaerella's computer froze, so that I was unable to take off the poly, and I was so preoccupied with trying to keep the zombies away from her, and him, and generally dealing with as many as MD could, that I didn't notice that MD's own pet was in peril. earlier it had got down to 7 health - but this time, while I thought I'd unequipped it in time, when I came to put it back on found that I hadn't.

So for the last few minutes MistressDomina didn't have Kaerella there, after I'd finally managed to close the program, and she didn't have her drake either. Still, the fun continued, until most of us decided it was time to leave the Tomb, and head for the Quiz Room. As it had been a combat party this time, Kaerella had just added 3.00%, plus 8 skill points, while the polar bear cub was up by 31.96%. MistressDomina earned 10.10%, along with 9 skill points and 1879 pet points.

There was just time before the Quiz to get MistressDomina's drake "unsealed" too, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that a level 42 drake is cheaper to revive than a poly seven levels lower - the bill came to 506,268 gold.

Kaerella was joined as usual by my merchant mage MistressDomino in the Quiz Room; Ratel was there too. The questions were the usual ones, so it all went smoothly, though there were reports of a problem on one server, in the forum shoutbox afterwards. I think it turned out to be someone who had just been following the majority of other people in the room, and was surprised when, after question 21, everyone had respawned in town. Which is what usually happens, as after all the prizes are handed out, people deliberately choose the wrong answer then, to leave the Quiz Room.

The after-Quiz lag was as severe as usual, and as no gamesages were around, I had to reassure the usual people concerned about the "account is already in use" error message that is was just lag. "

After the Sunday Quiz we always get heavy lag, which makes logging back in difficult for a few minutes. The trick is to never click to accept the "Timed Out" messages, just wait and things will eventually load. If you do click "timed out", and try again, the game thinks you are logged in already and you get the "already logged in" message, but it's just a glitch, don't worry

", as my ready-made message puts it.

I got chatting in the shoutbox, and also chatting on the website's in-built messenger service with Luko, or rather Renez I think, from Norcaine's busier times. If I ever decide to try the game he and some others migrated to, "Aion", I should go to "NA V server (a)", apparently, to get in touch. And I'd enjoy it a lot, "apart from the ganking"...

I did get RedRackham back to the fifth floor of Maargadum Jail for another hour or so, anyway, and the drake reached level 41 at last... so it's probably time to see which character of mine on Auzura deserves a drake upgrade. As it had last night, the forum shoutbox got taken over by some youngsters from, apparently, Holland, spamming, pasting in the entire forum page, and being rude, so I kept clear...luckily there were gamesages around by then to do the necessary deleting.

More Time in the Tomb

After coffee, as it was MistressBlaze's turn to log on for half an hour. I took her along to the less public of the two elite sphinx speer men and its friends, in the south-western uplands of Merac. At level 57 she didn't have much difficulty there - it was strange not to be in a dungeon, and thus be able to re-apply horse buffs when needed. In the thirty minutes she just added 7.03%, 8 skill points and 186 pet points.

Still, eleven o'clock UK time was looming on the horizon, when an hour of "dungeon time" would begin. If MistressBlaze couldn't take advantage of the extra 50% experience, since there is no dungeon designed for her level, Kaerella on Katar, at level 41, was eager to take over, and head for Maargadum Jail on Katar-5.

Kaerella headed straight for the canines room on the second floor, and set to work there; she was in a solo party led by somebody else who was also in Maargadum Jail, but at level 47 they were probably down with the beast flyers on the next floor. I did have to leave the solo party when the knight BritLover turned up, level 36 now; we formed a combat-type party, which helped things along, though he did leave before the end of the hour. There was no solo party available for the last few minutes, but on average Kae came out ahead I guess. She went up by 34.84%, and added 77 skill points, as well as 318 pet points.

RedRackham had been doing some pet-levelling while Kae was in action, and continued over the lunch break - but then he had to log out, to allow Barbarienne and Keerella to head for Cariae-4's Tomb of Theos again.

This time the spear man room was already being used by two people, but I only needed to go a few yards further, and set up at the first corner in the corridor. Keerella was perfectly safe there, after one sphinx fighter which had followed her was dealt with - and the two anubis spear men there were just about all Barbarienne needed, though very occasionally one of them would be about two seconds late in respawning.

Another archer, the level 98 Tinkerbel, arrived just before the "dungeon time" hour began, by which time Barb had already been fighting for 23 minutes, and asked to join the combat party. She went just around the next corner, and was almost always within range, so that gave us all a nice little boost while the hour was on. She had a level 97 bow, with a PRS to take it to +15, and so was killing a bit faster than Barb, with a better crit rate too, though with the crit potion Barb's crit stat was quite high enough to make just about every hit a critical one.

In the first of her two "power hours" Barbarienne added 19.75% off 47 experience boosters; and then, in the second hour, with slightly less of the "dungeon time" hour in it, she added 17.62%, using 49 experience boosters. Keerella just added 1.01%, while they each gained 6 skill points. Barb's drake gained 2122 pet points, and SkrappY, Keerella's Scra-Chi pet, went up by 5.96%.

Back in Randol afterwards, Keerella traded some gold across to Barbarienne, as well as her recent loot, which, along with her own, Barb passed on to my Cariae merchant, MistressDomina. Now that she had enough gold, Barbarienne was able to get her new level of the passive skill Survival Training, adding 50 health and 20 defence, for 1300 skill points and 80 million gold. That just leaves her enough sp for level 110's second level of Fatal Blow, which will cost 1100 skill points and 100 million gold, and make that skill rather more useful, though it does take a comparatively long time to recharge. After that, it's either some dedicated skill point farming, or the release of the sp currently preserved in her "special" skills. Over the break, RedRackham fitted in a little more pet-levelling.

For the evening, MistressDomina and Kaerella, plus the polar bear cub, headed for the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-5 again - and stayed for about 4 hours and 40 minutes. For most of the time MD and Kae had an equal party, though we changed to combat for a few minutes to team up with Morta, the level 90 titan, who helped speed things up by bringing a few screaming zombies back at a time. For the last half hour or so we went back into combat mode, along with a level 92 pair, Litz and the rogue SliceAndDice. A mage called XxTAFUxTUGAxX brought back some nice big mobs of screaming zombies and assorted mummies, and our large assorted group managed to deal with them. There usually seemed to be one mummy that kept regenerating its health, until we stopped any rogues using Snare on it.

Earlier the ranger Cherena had spotted a pair of "speed hackers" - and when she pointed it out, I could see that the low-level archer in question's arrow-shooting arm was indeed moving at a furious speed. Neither of us had the means to take a video of this, but Cherena took a screenshot and reported it, so that the GMs can check their logs and see what was going on. The sorcerer godofbeasts dropped a few items for people, though I don't think he stayed around all that long - he was telling people that they should "tip" MistressDomina as they left, but I managed to veto that idea. Everyone worked together rather well...

By the end of the evening. both Kaerella and the polar bear cub had levelled up. There is actually some sort of "raffle" today, in which levelling up gives you entries, so maybe Barbarienne or Kaerella are in with a chance... 108 and 91 chances, respectively. MistressDomina herself added 11.19% and 14 skill points, and earned 3719 pet points for her drake, while Kae gained 22.02% and 13 skill points. The polar bear went up by 93.48%, getting into level 35.

Tomorrow's playing time may be shortened a bit, as there will be a 100% rebate offer running on up to ten spins of the "Loot Wheel" per account...so spinning the wheel, and downloading items to appropriate servers, may cut into my actual adventuring time. Still, it should be worth it; I see the wheel currently offers a chance of both the polar bear collar and the jaguar collar. Curiously, one option is a package of four heaven stones, while the in-game Lacarette wheel, played using tokens that are just picked up as loot, has as one of its top prizes a package of five heaven stones...

Cariae, Auzura and Katar

The usual gang of characters had their half hours online in the morning, and after that I was able to send RedRackham down to the fifth floor of Maargadum Jail again, for a little pet-levelling. This time he didn't manage to sneak past the death mask soldier nearest to the entrance, and it took him rather a long time to kill it, as with a "maximum red" name, even with his +10 sword equipped his regular hit does around 42 to 48 damage there. Still, he eventually got 308 gold for his trouble.

The main part of the afternoon saw Barbarienne and Keerella head for the Tomb of Theos on Cariae-4, where to my relief the place's "condition" seemed reasonable. Kee just stood in the corner of the anubis spear man room, with my Scra-Chi pet SkrappY equipped, while Barbarienne did two "power hours" using platinum adrenaline, berserker, and crit potions, plus a pbi per hour and experience boosters. We started about half an hour before the "dungeon time" hour of 50% extra experience, so Barb's two hours were both roughly half-and-half; I had the room to myself until just after the boosted hour began, when a royal knight called DuBlade arrived. He joined the combat party, which was useful, but left once the "dungeon time" was over.

In the first hour, Barbarienne went up by 18.00%, using 49 experience boosters, and in the second hour, another 15.45% was earned, using just 40 boosters - it's a mystery to me why there was such a big change to Barb's killing speed, but presumably the "condition" of the place changed a little. Keerella just added 0.81%, but she and Barb each gained 6 skill points - and Barb's drake got 2122 pet points.

There was still half an hour or so left before the food break, so MistressDomina and Kaerella headed out, not to the Tomb, but to the nearby grasslands on Auzura-4, just to see how well fighting the wafes there would level the polar bear cub. With MD fighting and Kae just tagging along, it was simple enough work to do, and the cub did add 22.24% experience. And after that little session ended, RedRackham headed for floor five of Maargadum Jail on Auzura-4, and the death mask lancer by the door there, though once again he did have to fight a death mask soldier first.

After the break, Kaerella on Katar went to Maargadum Jail, arriving there before the next "dungeon time" began, and staying for its first 50 minutes. The two-headed canines, and other monsters on the second floor, provided her with 31.85% experience, enough to get her into level 41, plus 77 skill points, and 636 pet points. But she had to leave before the hour was up - so that MistressSabina could have her two-hour session over on Auzura-4 slotted in between the end of that "dungeon time" hour and the start of the next one.

MistressSabina formed a solo party with RedRackham; there had been a knight on floor three when he had run through earlier, but luckily the beast flyers were free now, and, on Auzura-4, I didn't have any visitors. MistressSabina used two pssps, platinum super skill pills, and, while adding 9.38% experience, and getting exactly 2000 pet points, earned another 271 skill points. It was all fairly hectic work, unlike the much more laid-back approach one takes when fighting anubis spear men when every kill takes more than a minute. Here, I was killing about seven beast flyers per minute.

Once the two hour slot was over, Kaerella on Katar returned, to make use of all but the first few minutes of the new "dungeon time" - adding 31.66% more experience, 76 skill points, and 631 pet points. Back in Randol afterwards, as she now had enough stat points in dexterity, Kaerella was able to spend 293 skill points on all five available levels of Slow Shot, which for ten seconds halves a monster's movement speed - and hits with 310% power too. It ought to be useful if Kae goes out to visit the outdoor sphinx fighters and sphinx "speer" men, though it's rather a "poor relation" of the mage skill Curse, which may not slow down stuff quite as much, but lasts ten times as long.

RedRackham had continued his pet-levelling efforts - he used rather a lot of quality stones, but got the drake past the halfway mark in level 40. Once it levels up, it will become rather too greedy, so that will probably be as far as that particular drake goes.

One Long Session

The double pet experience was switched off last night before the end of RedRackham's time online, but his drake still made some useful progress. When he logged out its health was at 30%, as that's all you get when the animal trainer "unseals" it, so it would be nice to get it to level up again, and automatically go back to 100%, I thought.

Today I wasn't able to play properly until the evening, but I could at least get the usual half hours of attendance allowance sorted out. One character I didn't want to play, though, was MistressSabina - since she is currently focussed on farming skill points from the beast flyers in Maargadum Jail, extra experience is something she doesn't need. I didn't mind the 3% bonus for most of her session yesterday, but I don't want it to get much bigger than that. She could however log in for a few minutes to get rid of loot, as long as she's offline again within thirty minutes.

MrChuckNorris even managed to get 10,000 gold from a Pandora's Box, on his way back to town. He gave the Battle Roar 2 to a junior titan out there, HeavensWarLord, who admired his armour. "Your look - awesome!" He also said "I wish to be like you one day", which rather made Chuck's morning. MistressSabina did log in briefly after that, to make some room in her inventory, and was lucky enough to get five heaven stones from one of her five spins of the Lacarette wheel.

After that, RedRackham logged in, and hurried to the fifth floor of Maargadum Jail on Auzura-4. for a bit of pet-levelling. He was able to keep going over lunch and through the afternoon, and the drake did manage to level up, returning it to 100% health.

The evening session saw MistressDomina and Kaerella, plus the polar bear cub, heading for the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-5 again, and there isn't a whole lot more to say about it. Lots of familiar names were there, and a few newcomers. We arrived just in time for the boosted "dungeon time" hour for five until six, and were still hard at work during the next one, from eight to nine, and beyond - and from around seven a "Happy Hour" event meant that there was double experience and skill points too.

Level 92 is slow going for MistressDomina; but then, I'm not really attempting to level her up at present. For that she'd need to follow Chuck's example, and go to the anubis spear men, with pots and experience boosters etc. She added just 11.86%, and her drake gained 3910 pet points, while Kaerella, in the equal party, added 34.89% in level 90. They each gained 15 skill points, and the polar bear cub went up by 95.99%, which was just enough to get him into level 34.

There were times when there seemed to be masses of screaming zombies around, but I don't think any were brought in maliciously. Kaerella did unequip the poly a couple of times, to be safe, but generally all went smoothly. There was slight drama in the forum shoutbox, with some created-today accounts insulting the gamesages and GMs and generally spamming, but Aeria_ks1lent showed up pretty quickly, and got rid of them.

So, a rather short posting today. I doubt if I'll be able to play actively tomorrow morning, but there should at least be afternoon and evening sessions to report on then.

Dark Deeds in Merac

There was a reasonably large patch to download this morning, and the patch notes had two triumphs to report. For Mondshine residents, that is, people who are level 140 and over, "the left side of the Chapel is now open... for real!" Also, at last the night shadow skill Soul Injection should be working. Conversations in the forum shoutbox, however, revealed that all was not perfect for Chapel-goers, as instead of you or your party having the place to yourself, presumably in an "instance", now the place is being shared, so that if someone else gets to the boss you need to complete your quest first, you are out of luck.

Apart from those two fixes, we are assured that Juno non-player characters who had moved out of their regular positions last week, with the botched new version of the map, are now back in their proper places. "The developers are currently working to fix the disconnect issue in Raid", we are assured, which is another Mondshine thing, and intriguingly "new content [is] expected within the next two weeks".

While I hadn't thought I would be able to do much actual playing in the morning, my characters got their attendance allowances sorted out, with a little herb-farming and stone-mining on the side. MrChuckNorris cuts an impressive figures in his 85/87 "Thunder" armour, and wielded his mining pickaxe with great flair. In the end, Kaerella on Katar was able to get to floor two of Maargadum Jail in good time for the eleven to twelve "dungeon time"; for some of the session she was partied with a level 34 knight called BritLover, who was a rather better partner than most such random team-ups. He went off to a different level for a while, but when he was in the first room, with its various canines, he fought hard, and did more than his share of the work - helped along by frequent healing from Kaerella.

By noon, Kaerella had gone up by 46.29%, and also got 88 skill points plus 805 pet points for her drake. She has passed the halfway point in level 40, which seemed pretty good going.

RedRackham had logged out last night still a little way short of getting his drake to 39, but he was online while Kaerella was in Maargadum, and the drake soon levelled up. He continued his work over the lunch break on Auzura-4, though he had to log out after that, to allow Auzura's Kaerella on.

Kaerella teamed up with MistressDomina for another trip to the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-5, where some of the usual people were already busy. The afternoon passed in the usual way there, including an occasion or two when somebody brought large mobs of screaming zombies, and the other local monsters, back onto us - but we generally survived, and Kaerella was able to take off the polar bear cub in good time when any menacing hordes approached.

One does have to decline a few requests for power-levelling, and people of about level 25 who want to be inside MD and Kae's party... but people at that level really ought to be farming their skill points in Prokion Temple. By the end of the session, with an equal party for a change, MistressDomina had gone up by just 3.93% in level 92, with her drake adding 1916 pet points. Kaerella, despite missing a couple of minutes from a "send error report?" crash, went up by 10.72% in level 90. They each gained 5 skill points, and the polar bear cub added 41.27%, reaching level 33.

Kaerella on Katar was back in action after the food break, in Katar-5's Maargadum Jail, while RedRackham did some more pet-levelling with the gnoll lancers on Auzura-4. This was a rather shorter session, just to make use of as much as possible of the "dungeon time" hour, so Kae just added 28.38%, 60 skill points, and 482 pet points, before logging out at about ten to six.

By the time the new hour began, MistressSabina, in a solo party with RedRackham, was in position on the third floor of Maargadum Jail, surrounded by the beast flyers - and as soon as the "dungeon time" ended, she started fighting, and popped a platinum super skill pill. When that one finished, she popped a second one, spending two hours farming skill points, and some useful loot, down there. It was pretty hectic, and quite a few small healing pots had to be used.

The skill point gain wasn't quite as good as on the previous occasion, however, just 135 in the first hour and 122 in the second hour, as what was happening on RedRackham's screen distracted me, and I had to give him some attention. I can now report that it costs 404,586 gold to "unseal" a level 39 drake, as I didn't notice the half-dozen or so gnoll soldiers being lured onto Red, and only saw them surrounding him and trying to kill him, after the drake had already died.

So, RedRackham had to return to the animal trainer to get the drake unsealed. He went back to the gnoll lancers after that - it looked to me as if the soldiers had managed to kill the other knight who had been pet-levelling there. I thought that would be the end of it, but before too long, the evil little scrote returned, and I saw that it was a mage called manisha - and she used exactly the same tactics that serina, on a different server, used, luring them in, and using a memory scroll to move herself a few yards away and break aggro. I unequipped Red's drake, which would look to the mage as if it had been killed - but she stayed around, and when I tried to move far enough away to lose the gnoll soldiers, as Red can't kill them very quickly, she followed, and brought them in again, so Red ended up returning to Merac Caron again.

As we were actually having double pet experience this evening, rather than give up, I decided that Red would just have to go to Maargadum Jail himself, so he ran down there from Merac Caron, and then hurried down to its fifth floor, passing MistressSabina. Thankfully he managed to avoid fighting any death mask soldiers, and started pet-levelling on the first death mask lancer - and had no more problems, so that by the end of the evening his drake was more than two-thirds of the way through level 39. Either serina/manisha doesn't know about pet-levelling on death mask lancers, or she hasn't found a way to foul it up. As memory scrolls don't work in dungeons, she wouldn't be able to use them to lose aggro after luring in the local death mask soldiers - she'd have to use a "return to village" scroll, so wouldn't be able to stay and watch the results of her evil-doing.

Anyway, 257 skill points isn't a huge decrease compared with 268 last time; MistressSabina went up by 9.12%, slightly less than last time, and got her pet drake 3681 pet points, thanks to the double pet experience event. The second platinum super skill pill ended just as the new "dungeon time" hour started...and, since as usual I had other business to attend to from eight until ten, Sabina logged out, though RedRackham was able to continue, in the comparative safety of Maargadum Jail, for the rest of the evening.

Just as I came back at ten, there was an announcement that "Elfnastysfriend's treasure trail event is starting now on A4 at Juno West gate", so out of interest, I was able to log Kaerella in to investigate. Elfy herself was riding a pale blue dragon, and led the group through much of Juno, dropping some prizes along the way. The only trouble was that she moved rather fast, and like most people I lost sight of her before long, so as events go it was a bit of a non-event. About the only loot I saw was five of something she'd mistakenly dropped on one of Juno's new unclimbable slopes. Still, it's good that she made the effort, I guess.