This is one of those weeks where I'm hunting a lot but no really big stories. Mage has been hunting the Island and slowly I'm getting items stocked on the mules. A lot of stuff I'm giving away to vassals. Mage has picked up a really good group of vassals. I expect we will be making some noise after a while. Fist's vassals are quiet for now. A new mage (Adrahill Verrnith) and hybrid mage/fighter (Damien Daring) are playing a lot. The Saint is also back.
I'm also having fun surprising players. Had a player say "Hi" to me the other day at AB. I saw that he could use an item I had just found on the island. After I handed it to him he wanted to know the cost. Free of course. As there is so much greed in the game he was a bit shocked.
Quests
We had two family quests this week. For quests I will bring Fist de Yuma along. There is always a need for a strong fighter. Mage is strong but requires a lot of down time. There are also some quests he would not be too good at yet. Anything requiring a jump is a problem. With a starting coordination of 10 his skill is a bit low. (177 un-buffed)
First quest was Friday. We were meeting in Lin and going to the Sec vault for a Frost stone. I was going to help as I already had this stone.
I was early so I decided to run to Old Mine. I felt I could clear anything around the exit before the party got there. Then I decided to go to the vault itself and be ready to jump in. Well I have never been very good and finding it. The mountains are a bit confusing. There has also been changes, a new fort and monsters. After a bit of wandering I decided to wait for the party at old mine.
When the party formed up I logged a mule to be there in person. I had two vassals going on this, Damien Daring and Mortok. Someone opened up a portal to Qbar as they were going to run from there. Heck, now I did not have a guide.
I logged Fist and tried to find the vault. I met someone in a robe who said he had fell off a mountain and was looking for his body. We crossed a few times as I was trying to find my way. He found his body but needed help clearing it. I quickly changed in and he recovered.
The party got there before I did and sent the coords. I kept hitting dead ends. Fell down a hill at one point and was trapped on a cliff. Someone else was trapped there as well. I saw him fall down another part, taking a bit of damage but still was trapped with me.
I finally found a way off the cliff and, after a lot of back tracking, got to the vault.
I quickly buffed my weapon and jumped in. The rest of the party was having to spend a lot more time buffing. I found there was a crowd there already. For a test I jumped to the post and then the passageway. I felt I could do it with one try. I then jumped down and held off the undead for the rest.
Some were having a lot of trouble getting the jump down. Someone said we would have to go the long way. My quote was something like "No way in hell are we doing that." The long way is pure death. Strong parties of 60+ players have been wiped out there.
At last everyone made the jump and I got up with one try. Jumps use to be my major weakness. I always attack a weakness when I find it. It is now a strength.
From there it was a quick trip to the stone room. I attacked the Dark Reverent first thing. There was a lot of help so it fell quick. Checking the body I found a bone. Outstanding! I'm will be making my xbow in three levels. (45 million points) I will have to find a 300+ fletcher to carve it for me.
The new spawn rate made for a quick stay after that. The undead spawned a few times but were dead quickly. Everyone got a stone and just for grins I get a second one.
After that Damien Daring wanted to try out the Nest. I opened up a portal for him and we headed off. Damien Daring is a hybrid life/fighter. We were doing well for a while. After getting passed the first jumping room we were fighting a few in the hallway.
I was doing my best to keep to many from attacking him. This meant switching to those attacking him if three or more got on him. He was sucked into a pack and one got on his back. I could not get to him and he died.
I ported back and got him. I was glad to see he still had his armor. We fought down and got his body. Two other fighters attached themselves to us and the four of us powered our way to the bottom. Damien said he would stick to the upper levels for a while.
Quest 2
The next night was the Electric stone. I have never done this one but had read about it a bit. My vassal Balash was leading. Like me he has a crazy reputation. He added to it on this trip. I had read that getting into the place was the worst part.
Balash led us to the LS first so a few of the lower players could stone there. Then up and down a bunch of hills. We found a few places where it was safe to get the group together and count heads.
Balash then led us to a big drop into a valley, I mean a very big drop. He said jump and did. This is were he added to his being crazy. My jump skill is high and I had protection on. I was surprised to see I only took 1 point of damage. Others were reporting up to 80 points. I must have hit something soft.
We healed up and stared into a passage. It was a swamp with high hills on both sides. Like most swamps it was full of bad stuff. We ran across a dual-Fragment so of course we had to fight it. Bad idea as that meant we also had to fight a bunch of Altered drudges and some bad golems.
A few were sure we were going to lose some people but it turned out ok. They all attacked me! I had to heal a bunch of times but it kept the rest alive. I don't know what I did to piss them all off but I did get the kill on the fragment. (nada)
The final run was the worst. I'm glad there was not a lot of lag because my radar was full of orange dots. Most of these things I would not want to face two of, let along this mob. We did a full speed run into the portal and I was sure we would lose people there. We were lucky and everyone made it.
Before we started second player of one of our family wanted to be my vassal. He is an unarmed fighter at 24lv then. Sarek More is now under Mage. We were sure he would die before he made it to the vault. Luck was with him and he made it.
We were not sure of the route after that. Balash was going by instructions he had read but it was not going well. We saw trash on the floor so we knew a group was ahead of us. I would try a passage and look for trash. When I found some I called the party to follow that hall.
After a time Che found the party and he knew the way. I was scouting when he showed up and lost the party. I saved one mage who was running from a monster. Then followed a wall. I lucked out and found the party at the final room.
The mages had cleared most of it out so I jumped down. Kill the last few and grabbed the stone. With a 25-second timer I felt it did not matter if I waited or not. Now I was free to just guard.
Only a few spawns before everyone got a stone. They died quickly to my acid claw. After everyone got the stone we ported out. Another successful family quest.
Only bad part for me was breaking my fire stone. I have two acid and two frost, so I have to break the fire one. No biggy as the claw is still charged. I intend to get two more claws so I don't have to risk removing stones again.
Body recovery
One of the big advantages to a large alliance is body recovery. There is almost always someone who can help. With a tight family like ours getting someone to help is easy.
Fist de Mage was on the island and I got a message from an alliance member. He had body in Nevious Passage. Someone tried to help him but he died too. I forgot to copy down the name of this member, for this please forgive me. I will call him Valiant as that is close.
I logged Fist de Yuma and ran to Lin. Valiant is a 17lv fighter. We took the portal to Khayyaban from Lin. I had to do a download and Valiant was gone by the time I got there. Found him in town and he led me to the dungeon.
This is a nice place for a low level. I might bring my fighters on the others servers here. Lot of Reedsharks. Valiant led me to a drop off. I had never been here before so I was surprised to see Sliver rats. Unfortunately Valient died quickly.
I saw that Fist de Yuma was not the right help for Valiant here. He needed buffing to live long enough to recovery the body.
I logged Mage and ran him to Lin, then Khayyaban and the passage. I met two more strong fighters from our family there. One was a Staff fighter that is vassal of a vassal.
I buffed Valiant up with level V and VI spells. Now he was a tank and a half. With little trouble we walked over the place. Before the jump I buffed his jump up a lot and put acid and fire protection on him. He recovered and ran to the protal.
I logged Fist again and ran with him to the next portal. I found a portal I did not know about north of Holtberg. Got him back to Lin shortly after.
Dispel potions
It had been a few days since I got the ore for the dispel potions. A few family members were taking about going and picking up some for Mage and Meek. (Another family mage.)
I ran from Lin and got my ore. I had just ported to AB when my vassal Sarek More said his main was going to get the ore. (Kava More) I met him in Mayoi and we ran to the dungeon. Outside waiting for us was Mavdar and Mortok.
We had a lot more fights on this trip. I guess I was lucky in my other trips. We cleared about 20 lugies and got out ore.
Now the question was, do we wait for the portal Elder had setup or run to get the ore refined. We decided to run from the Nest. This is a long run. We stopped for a few fights but mostly ran. I was lucky that these three are not the "kids wanting all action" type of players. They all enjoyed running as much as I do.
After getting the ore refined they all gave me theirs. One opened up a portal to the subway. I get the mixing potion from the mage and got my mule to combine it. Next step is for mage to pick up the potion. With the 25 he has left from the last pickup and this 160 he should be able to learn all the life and creature dispels.
Special congratulations to Elder.
When Killean stepped down we lost a lot of people. We went from the one of the largest alliance to a middle of the road one. We went from 1600+ players to a little over 500. As the word spread on this alliance we picked up more and more players.
As one of the problems that had occurred before was moving people for rank, we try not to do that now. The most we do is swear mules to mules to build rank. Every day I would log to see more people in the alliance. We have been at 1300+ now for a month.
A few days ago I heard some players saying they needed to go hunt and push Elder to level 90. I did a million points at the Nest to help it along.
Yesterday Elder made 90lv and Rank 8. His leadership and energy is what makes this alliance. There are a lot of things Elder does to help the members of his alliance. Some of which I cannot say here but believe me the work involved is unbelievable. Congrats to Elder, the best patron a player can have.
News group tales.
When I was just starting out in TH I met a fighter with a very hard to type name. I have not had time to play that server much in the last few month but Vance McAlister and I are still in contact. He lives about 50 miles up the road from me so, "someday" we will meet for lunch. You will see by this post why we are friends.
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I have been living and dying in the Lugian Excavation for the last couple of weeks. Starting at level 33 with a melee defense of 210, a matty coat and a cocky attitude, I have died a lot. I even lost a corpse before I knew my way around. But this has been the most engaging place I have hunted so far, and here is why:
-The "all melee, all the time" aspect must bring out some camaraderie. I have never been healed so often in my life, and have returned the favor equally. It has become the standard (during my time slot on TD, anyway) to always check the health of a "one on one" as you run by. Unlike the Citadel, it is not a zoo, and it is all 30+ players, which I think adds to the "Excavation Club" feeling. All watch each others backs. Corpse recovery missions are the standard as well. Death is so prevalent (people not used to the lack of Armor, Impen and Banes) that every night I have joined a group going down to find, then clear, a body. Sharing armor with the temporarily deprived is common (although there is plenty of loose stuff just laying around). I hope this lasts.
-I am getting rich again. Even after going and buying Master Robes, I am piling it away. At least 50K an hour, which at level 34 is pretty good. Maybe I will go and buy a second set of 5 robes, in case I die twice!
-Extas are 9,000 XP a pop.
-Limited to 4 sword buffs, which keeps me sane. And I cant use my shirts and pants, anyway. Only 4 pieces of jewelry to keep charged.
On the bad side, the place has no atmosphere to speak of. Just big hallways and Citadel-style rooms leading to a large, single level of massive rock corridors. It really is easy to get turned around when running for your life. More than once I have been "on the run" when three spawned behind me, and have run the wrong way into an Ore room full of Extas, with the posse on my tail. These guys are more aggressive, tenacious and faster chasers than their wimpy Citadel cousins.
One funny note, last night four of us were fighting in an ore room, and it turned out that each of us had our own Extas and from overhead it looked like a dance floor. During that long fight, many witty comments were made of a Do-si-do nature.
Looking forward to the new Fortress in the Linvaks!
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My Monarch Elder sent this post on out spam mail
As most know, I "sponsored" the White Rabbit Luring and Attack in Ayan Baqur last night.
Needless to say, I was flooded with tells and messages such as "Is it on?", "Where are you?", "Is the bunny in Ayan?", "Sup Man", "Can you combine a ingot for me?" "White Rabbit gores you for 64 points of piercing damage!", "Is it on its way to Ayan yet", "Thought you were hosting this?", "Can you open me a portal to his cave, I died for the 5th time."
Anyway, needless to say, I did what I could to reply. =)
BTW, this is how the assault went.
Heideggar and myself made our way up there. I got there first, and found a level 3 character standing not 3 feet from the White Rabbit, which was on the surface. The White Rabbit generally only attacks when he is IDed.
Heideggar decided to cast some spells on him:
Elder says, "Ready"
Heideggar says, "hehe"
The White Rabbit stands over the corpse of Heideggar.
He lagged and rabbit got him. I IDed him a few times and LS recalled, and continued to ID him. I didnt think he was coming, so I portaled back to "A Cave" north of Ayan.
I get a tell from Insane Kitty, the White Rabbit blazed passed him at about the half way mark between Ayan and his cave. He was after me. He nicked me a few and I recalled yet again. I accidentally selected a door in town, and lost him as a target to annoy. Recall back, and I meet up with Heideggar at the cave. I get another tell from Insane Kitty that he died at the edge of town due to the rabbit and was at the edge of town - then another from him saying the rabbit was in town.
I recall - UG - back to the Armory. Low and behold, the SOB is IN the armory shop trapped in a corner. Unfortunately, there are a couple of hundred people there, and like 30 fighters in the armory whacking away. Lag, needless to say, was absolutely horrible. I even got complaints from people in the Olthoi Horde Nest about the server coming to a halt.
My client crashes (assume data overload). I finally get back into game, and find out I had been portal stormed. I see bodies at my feet, and send tells to those people where their bodies are (because they had been portal stormed as well and died), clear the area for their safe return, and recall back to town.
The rabbit had left the building for the evening.
Some people werent done, and headed to his cave. I read a post this morning that he got stuck on a "wall" and was vulned to hell, and needed more people there. Then I read the persons reply to his own message saying dont come, the rabbit went on a killing spree.
Anyway, the White Rabbit is quite funny. And Im glad the people that came to fight didnt care they would die - those that were fighting were having fun.. of course, we all were complaining about the lag.
I think the next assault will have to be better organized and occur at the cave. And maybe Ill have to provide a portal to the cave. =)
Anyway - if you sent me a tell last night, sorry I didnt reply. Was a little busy with rabbit, lag, tells, and helping people I never met before recover bodies. =)
Thanks to all those that showed up for the lag fest. =)
Elder
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A lot of players seem to be fighting in the Excavation these days. Here is another story about it.
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After a couple of average pulls at Trialos (a couple of 2-6 nekodes and a 7-13 war hammer with spells) I headed off to the Excavation to work some Experience in towards level 30 (Woot!) The top level was being camped by a couple of lower levels so I headed straight down to the caves.
Ran up to an Extas, got him to change to melee, started hacking away at his ankles...VOOOSH! A boulder flies barely past my nose! Eh? No Other lugians on radar? I think. So I stop and back up around a corner and start on the Extas again. Whoopsy daisy, the Gigas around the corner deactivates his Klingon stealth module and rushes around the corner to give me a thrashing with a rock. I finish off the Extas and switch my attention to the Gigas, killing it quickly. Another Extas respawns down bit so I head off for it, get it to switch to melee and so on...
About half an hour later, the stealth gigas I killed before shows up on my radar again as Im headed out. I decide my buffs will still have enough time in them to finish him off. As Im hacking away at him my buffs start to wear out. As I am distracted by the Gigas roaring at me and checking the log to see what wore out, an extas respawns behind me down the hall. Seeing me chopping his chum enrages him so much, he decides to toss a rock down the hall and nut me for 78 points of damage!!! (I have 130 health buffed)
*CLUNK**
Gigas Lugian chuckles
Gigas Lugian says, "Exquisite shot Francis! Care to finish him off?"
Extas Lugian says, "Dont mind if I do Barry! Shall we tarry off to the break room for a spot of tea and toast afterwards?"
Gigas Lugian says, "Fine idea old chap! Hurry and Squish this little weasel otherwise youll have to carry me! LOL!"
..me with all of my 52 health and buffs wearing out decides this isnt a good situation to be in, then my Armor IV pants run out of mana! I hate to disappoint the Lugians but.....
Rael II disappears in a trail of dust and sparks from his lighting katar, his afterimage slowly fades away...Gigas Lugian says, "Oh bother."
Various gigas decide I look tasty on my way out, so by the time Im outside Im on 13 health, shaking my fist at the sky, laughing maniacally. Everyone around the portal buffing their weapons gave me funny looks....
Rael II
Level 29 Unarmed fighter
Soclaim
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One if the keys to this game is to keep learning. There is so much to this that no one can see or do it all. Here is a story on a place I never went to as a low level.
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Ive been sending my relatively new archer around to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge of Dereth, but hes still come across a place or two where cant quite solo all the way to the end.
Thus, new journeys for my main Sword guy.
While exploring the Nevious Passage with the archer, I discovered a place where theres a portal to the surface, and a bridge crossing a deep pit containing a portal to the North Desert Edge, and many rats and reedsharks.
It seemed highly unlikely that my archer would be able to survive the fall, and if he did, the monsters would quickly finish him off. So I sent him cross the bridge. Turns out, beyond the bridge is a large room FILLED with reedsharks. Oops. They all came after him, and he panicked. Rather than taking advantage of some of the walls and doors nearby, he tried to jump across the gap to the portal back up to the surface. He missed the jump, and wound up dead on the floor of the pit.
Well, all he lost was a Moderate Mana Charge (really lucked out), so I didnt bother trying to get back with him. However, I did send my Sword guy back later, to do some more exploring.
I found out that the large room with all the reedsharks is a dead-end. Theres a chest, but what I found in it was hardly worth going to the store to buy, never mind battling all those reedsharks. More interestingly, what I did not find was a route down to the large pit!
I had fully expected to find a civilized way down there, but it turns out you have to jump down. So I did.
The spawn rate down there is fast and furious. Id guess there are about four or five reedsharks (Veterans, and maybe some other kinds), three or four Swamp Rats, and three or four Silver Rats. Never had time to count them all, because no sooner had I finished off the first spawn, but the next wave started coming!
I had been expecting a nice easy place to hunt for Strong Iron Keys. With the Silver Rats, but youve have to carry tons of Stamina-restoring stuff into the pit just to keep up with the spawn. You would still have very little time with which to check the spoils of the battle for keys.
I ran out of Stamina Elixers quickly, during the second spawn, and had to scram, out the North Desert Edge portal.
Now, with TWO or more people down there, totally different story. :)
As I mentioned, after running out of Stamina Elixers in the Nevious Passage dungeon, I took the North Desert Edge portal out. I was trying to get back to Khayyaban, so off running I went. Al-Jalima wasnt far, and there was a reasonably direct route to the northeast.
Just before arriving in Al-Jalima, I came across a dungeon Id noted before, but never actually entered. The Forbidden Crypts. The name says it all. Lots of undead running around, mostly Zombies and Undead, but there is one Lich at the very end, in a large cavernous room just before a portal back to the surface.
There wasnt anything of note in the way of treasure or monsters in there, but I did want to mention how cool the dungeon is, ambiance-wise. Mostly its a bunch of intersecting hallways, with sarcophagi and coffins around, guarded by the undead. Another one of these maze-like dungeons, with three distinctly different levels.
None of the dungeons Ive visited lately are appropriate for higher-level players to spend much time in, but I definitely think theyre worth at least one visit, if you havent been there before. Just reminds me of how much creativity has been put into this game, architecturally speaking. :)
Pete
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After many trips to the Island someone else write a better story than I do about it. His loot luck is a lot better than mine as well.
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Well, Zenoch has become my first character to make it to the, for me, high level of 45, so I thought an Island trip was in order. My monarch, a great guy by the mane of Tostig, loaded me up with a fist full of D notes, and provided a portal to the Sylsfear dungeon. Tostig then showed me the route to the Dires portal past the Shadows. It actually turns out to be a VERY safe/simple method for getting to the Aerlinthe portal. Once through the portal I run to the Lich, and give her a D note and she summons the portal. I step through, ready for the worst. I was a little surprised to note that there was NOTHING around as I portalled in. So I jump off the pedestal and run out into the water to do a thorough buffing. Thorough for me means all 7 life protects and Impen on Matty Coat, undergarments, guants, boots and helm, and Flame bane on undergarments, and Matty Coat. My armor set up is, I think, the best Armor setup left in the game. Matty Coat and Greater Lightning Celdon Leggings, with an Olthoi Helm on top of my head : )
Once I'm finished buffing, Tostig tells me to go mill around the portal dump off site, and look for Banderlings. I do so. I see a bunch of Malus Shreths, and decide to leave them alone. Not worth the effort for the exp. I then see a RED figure, and id it. Banderling Mangler. A RED Bandy ? Now I've seen it all :) I lead off with a yield 5 and follow it up with Light vuln 5. Several lightning bolts later Ive got a smoking corpse at my feet. I open the corpse and am greeted with one of the biggest shocks Ive had in the game. 8k Sword, not a keeper. 4k Shield, not a keeper. Blue Platemail Guants, AL 185, Impen 4 Blueg 3 Frost 3 DAGGER MASTERY 5 Diff 201 .... Oh
MY!! The single best loot I have ever found in the game. Needless to say I am now a bandy addict and I am killing them every chancce I can get!!! It was really quite irksome when I couldn't get a bandy down out of the trees to come play with me in the water :) Didn't want to leave the loot up amongst the Altereds and Shreths, but retrieving THAT loot would have been pure suicide and I knew it!
My observations so far. Manglers and Maulers are NO sweat if your sufficiently protected, and produce some of the best loot I have ever SEEN. Altered Drudges are a bit more challenging as they will debuff war magic and self, but they are a bit easier to actually kill , as they have less health than the bandies. The loot on the Altereds seems to be just slightly less Uber than the Bandies, but that could simply be observer Error.
Loot of note that we found. The Dagger Guants, a 2-7 Quik 4 Bd 2 Cestus that my UA guy just about wet himself when he got : ), a plate Cuirass AL 185 Impen 4 diff 141, and a bunch of other lesser, but good quality loot.
Oh, and for those interested Zen is an og mage with 245 base Creature Life, 222 Base war, and 217 base item. I found I had No problems debuffing the critters, and once the debuffs landed the war landed easily enough.
All in all I have to say that I am UTTERLY addicted to the Island now, and predict MANY a trip out there : )
Zenoch - War Cleric with an Attitude ( that gets him in trouble )
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