Fist de Yuma - May 20, 2003

Boring week Aaa a bad case of between patch blues. There is literally nothing new to do. So far this week has had me leveling FA with Tuskers, grabbing some pincers with Fist and Mage and a little hunting with Winter Raven. Winter Raven has wanted to show me her hunting spot for some time now. We were both running deep into the mountains to help a guy recover his body on Thursday. The body was recovered by the time we got there so it seemed like a good time for her to show me the spot. It was not a bad spot. Lot of running room and spawns somewhat spread out. Not really deadly like around AB but well worth hunting for a mid level player. I think I'll be taking Deadeye out there a lot. Raven had a tie but I think I'll go a different route. I'll not give the spot away as Raven values it for of the lack of competition as much as the hunting. After my hunt I did a little trade work at the mansion. It feels good to be able to dye and Tinker for people. Gives you the feeling that it is not all about killing stuff. My main worry when tinkering is having the odds catch up. Nothing worse that Tinkering a 154 mod bow and having it blow up. Even with high skills there is a risk. Overlord my history You might be surprised to find I have never done the Overlord quest. It is one of those I just never got around to doing. Of course for most of my life in AC it has been a group quest. Somehow I never hooked up with the people doing it. I came close many years ago. Ryujii had died trying to solo it. The Saint and I headed out to try and help him. The first problem was the gate was closed. It had been opened when Ryujii first got there so he had no idea how to get it open again. I had just got lock pick so we decided to see if I could pick it. The gate was a touch guarded. Remember that back then we had very poor armor and not any great defensive abilities. Monster that we laugh at today were deadly back then. We got chased off with our first attempt. Then Ryujii got kicked and The Saint and I ran into a new monster. This was my first encounter with Umbris Shadows. We ran into two of them. I tried to take them on but I was doing very little damage. I was not making much of dent in their hit points. I don't think I was even keeping up with their heal rate. I can imagine their laughing at my 1-4 fire weapon, even with my level IV buffs. I was lucky that neither one really tried to kill me. Just one would have taken me out if they wanted to. With Ryujii gone The Saint and I had to call off the recovery. That night Ryujii left a note on the board about what happened. Elder said he would meet Ryujii and help him recover the next morning. I was off that day so I decided to tag a long. While we were clearing the gate of guards I got into a conflict with two Bone Lords. Today I would laugh them off but not back then. I ended up having to port out so I never got to do the quest. For that matter I never even stepped into the fort! Overlord Today From what I hear the Overlord quest has been beefed up from what it was. The Tommies are much tougher that much I knew. I had no idea if there was anything else to face on this quest so I had to be ready for anything. First step was to get to Teth. That is not hard now because there is a route from AB. You take the portal inside Virindi statue and then the exit portal in the dungeon. That will take you to a hill overlooking Teth. Of course there was a Coral Souvenir at AB and I hate to leave a monster alive if I can help it. Next time I'll just run by it because it took me seven minutes of pounding to kill the darn thing. I was surprised to see I was only doing an average of 14 points per swing. From Teth I headed north. I was not sure of where the Fortress was but I knew it was somewhere north of Teth. There was a lot to kill on the way but nothing deadly. I finally found the Fortress on a hill a lot farther away from Teth than I though it would be. There was one change I could see immediately. The only monsters around the Fortress are Tommies. A whole lot of Tommies to be sure but other than a few golems that was it. The last time I was there it had a big mix of monsters. There're only a few things I knew about this quest. I knew I could jump over the wall if I could not find a key. I was not sure if the key could be found on a monster outside of the Fortress or not. In any case I could not find a key so I jumped. I knew that this quest could be done without lock pick, which I don't have any more. I also heard a rumor that there was a hidden passage that leads to some Virindi. I had a feeling that it also lead to the Overlord but I did not know for sure. Once over the wall I started searching for a way into the dungeon. This meant fighting my way into the towers and trying to find something. I was not sure if it was a portal or a trap door. I knew it had to be a portal before but did not trust Turbine not to change that. As it climbed to the top of the third tower I saw what looked like a portal on the top of the next one. I fought my way up there and took the portal. Inside I found a big room with a smaller room inside of it. After clearing I rebuffed. This time I only buffed my Fire weapon as it seemed as if I would only be facing Tommies from here on. The room turned out to be a big cut through the rocks. Above the cut were more passages. I did not know it was a cut in the rocks at the time but I could see the yellow dots on my radar. I got to a place with a jump down on the left side. I went to the end to be sure that was the only way I could go. The passage dead-ended so I went back. From that angle I could see there was a ladder I could use. Remember all this time I'm in a battle with what seemed like a never-ending supply of Tommies. For the most part I was in no danger. I resisted most of their spells, even when they got Yield on me. I was seldom hit and even when I was it was not for much damage. I took the ladder down. I decided to take the first passage close to the ladder. That led to a bunch of room with two to three Tommies in each. I also ran into some Drudges. Fortunately Fire works well on Tommies and Drudges equally. I hit a room that had a passage on each end. After clearing it I ran into all the walls to check for a hidden passage. I finally fought my way to a gate that required a key. I passed on that one and found a door that would not open. It did not need a key like the gate but a switch or button. After clearing I started looking for a way to open the door. Using the "[" key I failed to find a button or switch so I stared traversing the rooms in hope of finding a floor switch. In the right hand room I heard a switch sound and the door opened. From there I had a battle in another big room. There was a passage out on my right. Before leaving I checked the room for hidden passages, Bingo! I had found a hidden passage that led down. I ended up at a door that needed a key or a picker. I was hoping this was a side quest and not the passage to the Overlord as I had no way to open the door. So I went back to the room and took the other exit. This exit led to a passage with a hand full of Tommies and a bunch of Rats. While clearing the Rats I started getting de-buffed by some Pyreal golems. Pyreal golems forced me to stop and buff my Cestus up. After clearing them out of a room I checked for hidden passages and took the exit. I'm losing mentally here as to whether this passage led somewhere or if I had to back track. I know that the next place I found was a barracks of some sort. There were a lot of rooms with beds and a horde of Tommies and a handful of Drudges. That led back to where I started, coming out of the passage next to the one I went in. I decided to take the passage under the ladder and see where that went. That led to a ledge above the passage I had come in at the start. This was where I found the passage was a slot. There was nothing on the ledge so I jumped over to the other side. That ledge had exits so I followed them. After exploring a lot I came to a room with a bunch of chests. I checked each one and was delighted to find a key! I could not be sure but I had a feeling this was a way into that door by the Virindi. I had not found anything else that might fit into, other than that one gate. I decided to head back to the room with Virindi in it. If that did not pan out I would search out that gate. At this point I had to rebuff again. This will give you an idea on how much time I was spending with exploring and fighting. With a good memory I had little trouble back tracking to the door. Even if the key worked I was not sure if this was the proper route or not. One big problem I had been having during this was little freezes. Each one seemed to be a little longer than the last one. I was reluctant to reboot but in hindsight I should have at least logged on and off. The key worked! Now I advanced to the Virindi. There seemed to be five or six of them along with a few Tommies. It took me a while to clear the room. I saw a passage leading out of the room at the opposite end. As I started running towards the passage I froze again. I kept waiting for the computer to recover but it soon became apparent that this time the freeze was for real. Normally when I freeze I have reboot the computer. I know from watching my player with the other computer that he will not log off for some time. Mostly I have to have the computer rebooted and go through the entire log on process before the player is booted. This time I lucked out. I was able to alt-out of the program. Only the bottom part of the screen showed but that allowed me to close down AC and log on. My intent was to just log on, see if I had died or not, and then reboot the computer. It took a little bit before the log on bar filled. I knew until it did my player was logged on and in danger. This was taking so long that, if there was any monster there, it was unlikely he would live. I finally got on and logged Fist. I mostly expected to be at the LS in AB. I was glad that the key had three uses. It would save me searching for another one. With luck I could portal recall to get back to the dungeon. I lucked out, I was still alive with about half health. I was standing at the very end of the hall I started running to. I had my hand floating over the heal keys and hit them the second I came out of bubble. I was immediately attacked by a bunch of Virindi and Tommies. I was surprised to see one of them was the Overlord. Of all the places to lock up! It was not a hard battle. I decided to clear the Virindi before taking on the Overlord. That might have been a mistake as the Overlord could not only hit me but he made me scream with he did. (grin) When I got around to killing the Overlord his glory was at an end. The chest contained a few items of worth and one outstanding sword. To bad it likely cannot be infused or it would be one of the best there is. No drop sucked and there is a weld so I cannot even show it off. One for the vender. If you can evade the Tommies and resist their spells this is not a hard quest. If either is a problem this will take a lot of caution or a big group. A successful failure First thing I found about with the new patch was Fishing. MS was doing it and said it was fun. I'm all for fun so I decided to give it a try. I found I needed a wooden heart. I did not feel like hunting Wood Golems. I had an idea. I still needed two focus rings and it had been a while since I had done the Favor quest. I loaded up Jr to run the quest. After buffing at the mansion I took the subway to the desert town. From Dame I got a strange response. She acted like I was still doing the quest. I had seen it broken before so I decided to hit the dungeon and see what happened. After getting the Husk and Note back to Dame I got three Obsidian hearts, which was not the right reward. I also got the note for the next part of the quest so I was off to Holtburg. Instead of getting instructions to go check out the reformed bandit I got the fortress key. I figured might as well go get the ring and then restart the quest with Deadeye. In that Hollows are not worth killing with Jr I decided to just run to the end. There might have been someone in front of me as I did see one Hollow body. The ambush at the fort was not there. After running down to the bottom and not killing anything I ended up with a lot more Hollows than I had ever seen. I was taking damage but felt it was the arrows and not the Hollows doing it. I killed the right Hollow and got the note. Rather than chance dieing I use a gem to port out. I got back to Holtburg and was surprised to get a Focus ring! Not bad for a thirteen minute quest. I didn't get the wooden hearts but I'll make good use of the nine obsidian keys and Focus ring. So I failed with my main goal but over succeeded with the side goal. Total success Next up was Deadeye. He got the proper response from Dame so the quest was on. Unfortunately a lot of others had the same idea as I did. There was a line at the chest. The person who had just left sent a message saying he did not get a wooden heart and that Dame was only giving out Obsidian hearts. That caused everyone to port out but me. I felt he might have got bit by the same bug I had and the quest would go normally for me. I was right on. Dame gave me three wooden hearts. From there it was a race to see how fast I could finish the quest. After figuring in buffing time I finished the quest in 40 minutes. This time I got a Strength ring. Total newbe I ran into something you don't see to often, a total newbe. I first saw Vengful-Vlaude's body near the LS. Checking I saw he had gotten killed by a Ziffer. Later I saw him running from a Cat. He had hit the portal to the Hall to escape. I was going to tell him to try and not drag things to the LS as unbuffed mules will be there ever so often. Later while fishing I saw him die. I sent him a tell asking of he could use some help. Vengful-Vlaude said has played AO for a while but totally new to AC. He was in total new trainer gear. I have him a few buffs and was about to head to the mansion to find some armor for him. MS sent me a tell and I told her about him. He died a few seconds after I started talking to MS. MS was had some newby stuff stored up and a 113 bow with no weld. I started to look for Vengful-Vlaude while MS ported to the house to pick up the gear. Unfortunately Vengful-Vlaude had logged by then. I put him on my friends list and hope to get him off to a good start in the game. With luck we can teach him how to play before someone teaches him how to cheat. First reaction to patch Ok, the Fishing is alright, I guess. I would like to see some object to it. I would also like to have seen an anti macro with the Fishing. So far it does not look like it does anything but give you a bigger fishing number. I expect macros to have very high numbers in a few days. They will have numbers so high that a non-cheating player would never stand a chance to match them. I guess that is why there is no point to it. If they gave some big reward for Fishing the cheaters would all have it. New items are always nice. The new mage armor is a lot better than it was but when I see two zero protections on it I have to pass. I think the melee PK people will like the changes to jumping but I don't see a mage being hurt as much as people think. They can recover stamina with little problem and most mages have a lot of stamina. What I want is content! Adventure that is solo or with groups are where it's. New dungeons and puzzles are the meat and potatoes of the game. What we got was fluff. History There is a lot of history with this game. We have gained and lost friends over the years. Many times we find ourselves sitting around and talking about old friends who have left the game. Sometimes a person leaving is not them moving on to something else. Sometimes real life's tragedies come into the game. While we cry or get a lump in our throats thinking about them they will live forever on our hearts. One of my best friends from the start of the game was a player by the name of Randolph. He was not the best player to play the game but he was one of the nicest. Randolph was mostly a social player. When he leveled it was mostly just what he found fun, Olthoi and Tusker. He would be overjoyed at Tusker Island today. It is sad that the game turned into something he would have enjoyed so much after he had left us. Randolph's real name was Randy. Randy had been very sick for many years. Then a situation came up where he was in threat of losing his house. This put him into a deep depression. We almost lost him one time. He was in the verge of death for days. His nephew logged Randolph to tell us about it. Randy recovered but he was so ill that his playtime became very limited. He was so sick that we were not sure from day to day how long he had. One day he logged and gave away all his stuff. I was not on but he made sure someone gave me his Mattie robe. I still have that as my main item from Randy. I'm sure he did that because the end was near and wanted to say his last goodbyes. In my memory I always try to think of the fun things we did together. There are so many others who have affected us in the game. Nabata wrote the below in response to a question about the name of our mansion. Ryujii My second vassal after The Saint was Ryujii. Unlike The Saint we did not do that much together at first. When I saw him it was in hot spots that were well above his level. Ryujii was one of the best players I have ever seen. He was a loner for the most part but what a loner. Quests that people above his level would group he would succeed alone. Sometimes I would have to help him out with recovery. He was one of the first to do the Focus stone quest. I had to help him recover a body there. There was never a better player to have at your back. He moved to college but every so often he will log on and play. I expect to see him back in a few years. Why Kelci Mansion is called that I have been asked to tell a story. Most good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. This story does not have a happy ending, the beginning is dull as it is about me. But the middle is about Kelci, and that is the fun part. Sorry this is so long. I started at the beginning of Nabata's existence, as I didn't have a better idea. I was never much interested in computer games. However, my husband loves them. I enjoy spending an afternoon playing board games with friends, but the computer thing never caught my fancy. One day my husband came home with a "new" game called Asheron's Call. He had been talking about it for months, but didn't buy it at release. He was waiting to see if it was a flash in the pan or really as good as folks were predicting. He would talk about it, and I would respond with the usual," Yes dear" or "Oh really?" He started playing in November after release. I admit, he finally talked me into watching for 5 minutes....that was all it took. I wanted to try. We made a little gal named Kiri Stin. She was a Gharu sword. I hate playing mages in AD&D. I expected Dereth to be no different. I hadn't even planned on taking item magic with her. Tai told me I was nuts. "How will you get around? How will you buff your weapon?" He finally pounded it through my thick and stubborn head, I needed item magic. I finally agreed, but ONLY for ls recall , portals and to buff my weapon. I felt like a traitor to all true melees out there. So Kiri Stin was born in Holtburg. Tai quickly came, opened a portal and moved me to Mayoi. He swore me to Jonquil under Shaitan MacGregor. He also got me started, cause I had no clue how to operate the keyboard. It was a blast. We quickly realized that the two of us were not going to be able to share an account. So I came home one day with another one. I had even thought of a name on the way home. Nabata was born in Yaraq. I had a blast running around and dying to the Auroch cows. I actually was more fascinated with sitting by the armourer and just watching the people interact. I think I was level 3 when some guy came up and started talking to me. I had had lots of folks "working" me and trying to get me to swear to them. I was upfront with all of them saying," I am not ready to swear yet" and they still gave me stuff. One day a guy named Toowired came up and started chatting. I told him about Mayoi and my hubby. We had a nice chat. Toowired didn't normally take folks until they were level 5, but for whatever reason, he took Nabata at level 3. Tai arrived shortly after that, and I went off to Mayoi to hang out with my friends. Toowired came with us. It was pretty cool. I got to meet Dragon's Eye, Silenta the Quiet, Exthalmus, Jalisco, Thorin Ibn Qualic and so many others. My favorite of the gang was named Pin Ku Shen (sp?), I still think that is one of the best pk names ever! He was premed I think. Keep in mind how I started playing. Kelci's experience was very similar. I do not know all the details, but she like me, got hooked by the men in her life. That said, here is how Kelci and I met.... One day, I logged on after patch. This was still in the days when patch day meant horrible lag and roll backs EVERY patch. Earlier that day, my friend Jonquil took Nabata hunting. He had decided it was time to take me up on the mountaintop in Mayoi to hunt Matties. I was level 10 and he was 15. We had a blast, died, recovered, died and lost vitae. All in all a fun day I logged off safely back in town. I logged on a bit later only to find they had done a rollback. I was up in the Mayoi mountains, with no clue where town was and surrounded by Matties and Shadows. Couldn't see the road. Well, I needed to know where town was so I could run the right way. I started /telling everyone I could think of. Toowired, DE and Sil weren't on. Ex wasn't. Jalisco, Shadow they were all off. By some feat of memory that still eludes me, I remembered how to spell Thorin ibn Qualic. He was on and was able to get me the town coords. I wasn't far away and after a quick and careful run, I was safe. That began my friendship with Thorin. He had a vassal named Kelci Gittamad and told me that she and I would get along great! He was right. I spent a lot of time hunting at the Lin Citadel after I hit level 15..lot of time dying there too. Apparently Kelci hunted there a lot as well. I said Hi one day as she ran by. About all she had time for was a quick hi back. Apparently she had died in one of the Gigas rooms I think. Well, I began talking to Thorin and one day when Toowired took me out to hunt, Thorin and Kelci tagged along. We went hunting in the Mountain Shortcut. That was the day Kelci and I really became friends. We didn't talk much at first, mainly because I kept spelling Gittamad wrong and could never pm her LOL. Then as I went into my 30s, I moved from Toowired to Thorin as patron. Kelci and I were now co-vassals and talked A LOT. We were constantly sending pm or sitting in the Lin meeting Hall shooting the breeze. By this time, Silenta had taken over from Exthalmus and she had sworn to Killean under Elder. Kelci and I were very happy in Lin and with the House. We were the new kids and managed to make some friends. Thorin announced his plans to leave HoE. Kelci and I were livid. THAT is when we began talking on the phone. We were plotting. I know it is hard to believe, me and Kelci plotting mwhahaha. Each of us had told Thorin he would loose us if he left HoE. We encouraged him to become more active. He wasn't inclined to hang at the Hall or when he did, no one else was there. He left, we left him and appeared at the Hall w/out patron or monarch. I remember Polekitty's reaction. I said Hi, she ided me and said something like what the hell happened?!? I explained and told her I was deciding who I would ask to take me. Kelci and I had been talking about who we'd pick as patron. She picked Jaster Mereel. I didn't know Jaster at that time, but that didn't stop my friend from trying to get me to ask him. I think I didn't play at the same time he did usually. I really wanted someone I would actually see. I picked Balash and I got lucky, he had a spot open Kelci and I kept talking. Usually getting into trouble together. Helping her when she made health potions on Madame. Going shard hunting for GSA. It was so very dull hunting in Fem. We kept each other sane. There was so much that happened in such a short period of time for us. I know that some folks thought Kelci and I are the same person. And they were surprised to find we aren't. I have been asked to explain why Kelci Mansion is called Kelci Mansion. Kelci was a fixture around the Lin Hall. She would help folks all the time. She took over Buff Night and Tradesman Time when Nyneve left. Kelci was a flirt. Her hubby knew it and didn't mind. If a new face came in, she'd start talking to them and offer them a spot under her if they wanted. But her usual answer was just like the rest of us. Hang out, find someone you like. She'd get Madame Curie out to make healing potions or mana potions. I always felt bad asking for some. Occasionally she forgot to heal and would die while making them rofl! She always had a kind word and a sword/dagger/xbow ready to help if you needed it. She is also very set in her ways and opinions. She never swayed and would tell you in no uncertain terms, that you were wrong and why. And, in general, most folks liked that about her. There were those who didn't and that is fine. Not everyone is going to get along and we need to respect that. Our families had the privilege of meeting in rl when they came thru my way on vacation. Shortly after that she found out she had lung cancer. Most of her playtime was limited to sitting in the Hall. It was all she felt up to doing. So, we chatted face to face this time. She never complained about the cancer, or the pain she was in. I used to make her laugh, saying some truly awful things. But, frankly, she knew they were laced with love and it made her laugh and in some small way, maybe eased the pain a bit. One of my favorites went something like this. She was telling me how she was loosing weight cause she couldn't eat or keep anything down. Now Kelci and I are not what you would call petite girls. I pointed out to her, that if she wanted to loose weight, that there were better ways. Then there was the day she decided to cut her hair off before it fell out from the Chemo Therapy. We spend an hour discussing he different hair covers and merits associated with each. We finally decided that a nice selection of baseball hats was the way to go. Though we did entertain thoughts of those HUGE hats English Ladies wear at Ascott just for fun. One of our favorite topics was camping. We both loved going out, getting tired, muddy, backpacking & exploring and agreed that there was nothing better than when you came home to a nice hot BATH! And, let us not forget that your nails finally got cleaned once you were able to wash your hair. Which later, brought us back to she didn't need to worry about that as she had cut it off, thus getting caught in a rain storm would do just fine. It was great! Every once and awhile you meet someone and within minutes, it is like you have been life long friends. Kelci and I had that. And we loved it! I knew her maybe 2 years by the time she died. It was like a lifetime, and not long enough. She is greatly missed in my heart. I lost a dear dear friend. When she died in real life, the House mourned her. Elder gave her the only tribute he could. He named Kelci Mansion for her and inside we have a memorial fountain. This is the main reason folks think it is so important to keep THIS mansion. We would all agree that it is convenient for a monarchy to have a mansion, but when all is said and done, Kelci Mansion is our virtual memorial to a dearly departed friend. It would be a great tragedy to loose it. I hope this helps to explain to some of the younger folks in the House why it isn't Bat's Mansion, but Kelci Mansion. For those who wish to see her, Willaim the Bat has a ss of when we got our GSA. I think she was actually on as her alter ego Madame Curie, but will always be Nerf Queens with sticks! I think that is what we called the screen shot.