Zap!

Just something about me buying auctions for gloves seems to create drama.

When I first bought some noble gaunts from Asper in an auction, I did it by correctly reading that there was a snipe rule in said auction. Soooooooo, I just set the palm pilot with an alarm for about 15 minutes or so, logged in, made a snipe bid and won them. That was the start of my issue with Gibbon_Raver (Berek Heartthew in-game), who (shock!) it seems was exposed as an evader, lol.

Fast forward to tonight. Those noble gaunts I won? I stuck a quickness gem in them. So, +12, not +15. I've always kept my eye open for major quickness covenant gaunts. They were auctioned off last night. So I bid.

And waited.

I noticed that another person outbid me on them later, but that the auction wasn't ending until about 9pm EST. Soooooo, I made another tactical decision -- I set the palm, and went on about my day (evening).

Then bid around 8:50pm.

1+ hour passes, and the guy realizes he's been sniped. Oops. O=)

Of course, he's crying over the fact that I outbid him by 1 MMD, but it's just patently obvious sour grapes over losing.

These aren't ringed sing keys -- these are MMDs, and they come in ANY amount. I'm not rich, but I do on occasion, make a good business decision. It's called, "Buy low, sell high."

Maybe I'll offer him the gaunts for twice what I paid for them. =P

Hole -- ee -- crapola.

The PoTB is NUTS.

I love it.

I went there -- waaaaaay too late tonight, but this time with AC Maps pulled up (I later eavesdropped on the best way to the pit in PoTB). But I got there, and was immediately recruited -- and saw that I was like the 2nd lowest level there.

Hoo, boy, this should be scary. =(

Two things:

1. Chung had warned me about "rocks to the back of the head." Wish I'd listened, lol. Wham, lifestone in like 10 minutes.
2. When I got back, I (and I don't say this often) seriously kicked ass. LOTS of dead lugies. At one point, it was just me and two mages, before more melees arrived. Woot!

In fact, I should name them, because these two mages were kicking serious ass with the imperils, and were balls-to-the-wall OUT there in the middle of the pit (while I cowered in the doorway, plinking away). Their names were C a r n a g e, and Majin' (can't say much for their names). Anyway, they were astoundingly good at what they did, and also got me thinking --- you simply HAVE to have mages in the PoTB. They're indispensible (but useless without melees/archers) to kill.

One question (and I didn't ask in the fellow, because I was working my ass off, and trying to stay ahead of the spawn): What's the ettiquite there? What's the deal with looting? How do mages loot, if all they do is imperil?

I should ask Lokkie, he'll know how the mages handle it. =D =P

"I'll give u . . . "

Haw.

The same idjit in the MP, named "Whieht Boy" always sends me the same tells every time he sees me in the MP:

"I'll give u 20mmds for ur armor" Monarch is Chunglee, which goes to show you that even in a class act group like his (I'd put it up on par with Kaos' as the best (but I'm biased), you get douchebags.

I never answer him, and never even squelch him. I just ignore him.

Path of the Scared.

So, I'm 141 now, courtesy of some eater jaws. Might as well do it -- let's see what this whole "Path of the Blind" thing is all about. JUST as I beam in, none other than Chunglee is there, and I said something pithy about this being my first time. Chung wasn't in a fellow, so I just assumed we'd form up there at the entrance and hold "the drop" open.

Um, no.

Chung could not have been nicer. He said, "Let's go to the pit," and after I did some "@e wets his armor" emotes, he said, "Ready?"

That seemed weird. Isn't it just a little ol' run?

Oh.

Watching Chung's little "X" fade away from me, whlie I was knee-high to a bunch of angry giants reminds me of being a little kid, charging around a bunch of adults. You only move around at their pleasure, unless you're REALLY fast.

Good thing I poured all that XP into run. =P Anyway, Chung came back for me once or so (ok, it was five times, but who's counting?), and we made it to the pit, where we were immediately recruited. So I start killing, after Chung gives me a heads-up about "taking rocks to the back of the head." Heh, if he only knew -- I've had bunnies throw CARROTS at me, and whack me. =(

Anyway, I started killing. And start immediately getting death messages saying I've killed X number of Tukora Lieutenants. ?=/

Funny -- I'd spoken to so many NPCs, I must have started that quest and not known it. Anyway, I'm up to like 6 messages, and the spawn dries up, so I naturally relaxed.

Oh wait -- this is me.

What I --ACTUALLY-- did was run off down this ramp -- solo. And found 4 giants just staring at a wall.

Double oh.

Someone else came down there to fight, but I realized the pitfall of having ALL combat filtered -- I looked up and saw my beautiful 350 health down to 100.

No, wait, 75. Make that 60.

All the while, I'm hitting the "7" key for my health elixirs. Which I'd forgotten to resupply.

I r teh smart. =(

So, I hit the quickslot for an Aphus gem, and got out. Quickly healed (note: didn't replenish elixirs), and recalled.

Tai thinks, "Now then, WHAT way did Chung go again? Ah, I'm still in the fellow, so I'll just shoot one of those guys over there. I'm sure his five buddies won't mind."

@e hits that exit portal real-effin-quick.

I tried to be graceful, but I had to fess up to the fellow that I'd recalled, and now was lost on how to get to the pit. So, I bowed out, what with someone already in line.

But I'll admit this -- what I saw seemed FUN. =)

Pwned by a Lizard. =(

I've gone out of my way for the past two weeks to bump Juzam's Harbinger quests, only to have that Lizard tell me to go F myself!

Ahem. Kinda forgot that the Harbinger was *90* days, not 30. =(

Oops.

The "breakup" move

Heh, I just got a PM from someone who got me thinking about this thing @ work, and how in a sense it relates to this AC thing I'm feeling about being in any alliance. IRL, I have this girl who's totally stalking me: She comes by a LOT, talks incessantly, has proferred ME her home phone number -- but all in the guise of "being friendly."

I know there's more to it, because she's told other people she's interested. They've promptly come and told me to watch out, but sworn me to secrecy about how I would know. So, in a sense, I've got to play dumb with her (that's not a stretch for me) as she flirts, acts overly friendly, and knocks over some stuff on my desk with her boobs (that's true).

Anyway, the PM got me thinking about how my alliance has a good reputation, and has good, friendly people in it. They're actually a classy, family-oriented clan. So what's the move that a wretch like me does? You end up acting so anti-social that you drive THEM away, and make it out like THEY'VE broken up with YOU. Haw. Oh, how RL imitates AC (um, or vice-versa).

Consider last night: I'm dying to Augment, but I am a touch impatient when it comes to Capt. Justice's quest TONIGHT at 9pm. Juzam's running Harbinger, and I kinda need Harbinger more. Someone from my alliance offered to run the Augment LAST night at 9pm -- woot! Score! Sweet! I can run Augment Wednesday night, and then do Harbinger Thursday night, all at 9pm! Woo-hoo!

And then the Augment guy never logged on. =/

Between that and the chat debacle, I logged in a touch of a huff. But what's the big deal? I mean, Juzam will run Harbinger at 9pm, and then CJ will run Augment at midnight tonight. Why's everything got me so agitated.

Sigh. I guess I have guy PMS right now. =(

One last bit o' thought on Dealing With People.

So, I'm still having a crisis of confidence about staying in the alliance, and the chat mode just made it worse. Logging in to all this chatter gets me in that "Scream" mode (the painting, not the movie).

That got me thinking a bit more -- even if I give back the bows to Lorna (Avy) and Leventhal, will I still owe? I mean, Kaos gave me a magic D tessie (that's 30 MMDs), but I gave Og Tree a tinked up 335 LR bow (which he had mentioned HE would give me 30 MMDs for). So I guess I'm about even if I quit.

But where the hell is all this quitting thing coming from? How much of ALL of this is just my own "fed-up-ness" with dealing with ALL people as of late, instead of not liking being in an alliance.

Mind you, it's NOT this alliance -- it's just being in ANY alliance that's getting me nuts as of late.

Sigh. =(

What the F*#$&#)*?

Oh. My. God.

I flippin' HATE the new chat channels.

And sure, enough, within 5 minutes, Shui Chon Poh was uber-spamming the general channel.

[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"

Followed then by all the people saying how they'd squelched him (also, of course, in general chat).

I immediately turned off ALL chat in windows 1-4, and use the main window for just the "basics." If I wanted to see more channels, I'd just add them in the F11 window.

Then again . . . I was only on for 15 minutes.

Rares

I just thought of this -- I don't think I've seen a single rare come up on TD that was anything OTHER than a +250-type gem.

Hrm.

A heart attack -ack-ack-ack

First off, I'm glad Mage MicheleMM is doing well, and was saved. She's a wonderfully perky person, with a great attitude, and is nearly always positive, which is a great thing.

But note this from her post:

>>>"At age 35 i never in my right mind would think i of all people would have had a Heart Attack"<<<

Look -- there are pics of her from gatherings. She's overweight. And not by a little. There are risks to having that kind of weight, plain and simple. If she's happy at that size, that's totally fine. It's good to be happy with your body. But don't act like a heart attack is a surprise at any adult age, if you're as overweight as she is.

I r teh bitter.

Yet another XP weekend, and I barely had time to get on. :-(

Otherwise known as "premature augmentation"

So, I went from 134 to 138 in (literally) the blink of an eye.

It's called "The Scroll of Dark Rain"

At level 134, I'd finally amassed enough non-attribute XP to take magic D within 3 points of max. Then I handed over the scroll.

Holy crap: Fireworks, level lights, max skill message.

Oh, and 4 levels' worth of xp. =/

Anyway, I was left with like 1.5 billion xp, after having around 480 million. And then it hit me -- why not do that augmentation thing NOW? I am always getting into trouble with burden, carrying around too many arrow types, etc.

Of course, leave it to me to not have a SINGLE thing maxxed, and I'm off to augment. =P

You know what?

I'm still pissed over the whole debacle with the lab dungeon thing.

And so, it's time to put my affairs in order.

There were two 335 bows given to me by members of my alliance, which I tinked up with hog. Courtesy of some pretty incredible timing, I've just had the inscriptions removed. I'm going to return them to the people who gave them to me, with no charge for the hog, and with a well-wishing inscription. No hard feelings.

I also gave away an electric bow to an alliancemate earlier this week. I could have made a bundle on it. If there's a ledger of things received in the alliance, vs. things given, I'm definitely at LEAST even.

As for my current set, all my 360 bows have come from ME. Through MY work. MY efforts. I'm still missing fire and bludgeon, but I'll find some.

On my own.

And the XP whoring begins . . .

. . . driving me out of a fellow, half of which were members of my alliance.

What the hell?! But let me begin, as they say, at the beginning.

So Kit & I are trying to figure out what to do tonight, and I hit on the idea of us going to the Abayar's lab, just outside Eastwatch. You fight Fiun there, and it seemed like a nice idea, with decent XP. Plus, Kit had never fought them 'en masse' (that's Latin for "a fuckload"). Oh, and she wanted to get those Fiun spellcasting gloves for the heck of it. Finally, that dungeon is a dream for us, because with spec'd magic D, we would resist tons of spells (I've been there previously).

As we're talking about this, an alliancemate named "Troh" is talking in @a about how he's doing in there. He says he's in there with one other person named "Foreena." They're clearing 80-90 million per hour. Hrm. Nice. And that he can see there being room for more. So I tell him that me "and a mage" were on our way.

At this point, another alliancemate (let's call him "Bob") who could not be nicer also wants to explore the dungeon. Troh by this point has already recruited him, although we got to the dungeon ahead of Troh and Bob (Troh had left the dungeon to restock, leaving Foreena there alone).

So, at this point the fellow is: Troh, Foreena, & Bob. Me & Kit are standing there at the entrance with the cool kids. We have to actually ASK to be in the fellow. Troh mentions, "Hmm, not that great xp with this many people, and there's already one in the dungeon ahead of us, but, gee, ok." We are now in the fellow.

Just a point here: That's once.

Also, I'm pissed. So I immediately offer to leave the fellow and find another place. Kit will come with me. But Bob mentions that it's the fellowship (I think he said friendship) that's better than the XP. Not exactly a resounding endorsement of Bob's point from anyone else, mind you.

So off we go to the "study" portion of the Lab (where the higher XP is, and where Troh was). We charge into the room.

Foreena says, "..."

Yup, he's pissed. He points out that, "Wow, um, so like, you brought more people back."
Troh recruits him.
Foreena says to your fellowship, "Um, you can still make good xp in the first dungeon, too many people here."

That's twice.

I said something like, "Look, Kit & I will try another room. If the XP is not what you want, we'll leave."
Foreena has left your fellowship.
So, I repeat it in chat mode, just to make sure he hears it. Not that it does any good, he runs off.

Troh then says, "Yeah, it's kinda not as good xp like this, he didn't know I was bringing more people back."
(Good, let's make excuses for the xp whore)

Anyway, that's three times.

Three times, the level of XP has been brought up, and without a subtle method of pointing out that the "extra" people (to wit, me and Kit) will be dragging it down. And that's it for me. Three times, and I'm out.

You tell Foreena, We're leaving the fellow if you want to rejoin it, enjoy.
(like 10 seconds later)
You say to your fellowship, "We can take a hint guys, thanks. See ya." (or something like that)
(this is in open chat here, he came running up) Foreeza says, "Hey Troh, heard you lost two people from the fellow."
Foreena is now a member of your fellowship.
(Honestly, at this point, I'm actually embarrased to still be IN the fellowship when he is re-recruited by Troh)
You have left the (whatever) fellowship.
Kitra quits too. We head to the top of the dungeon.

And off the rest of the fellow goes, happily getting nice n' optimized XP now that those darn interlopers (um, us) are gone.

Troh just happily goes on and sucks at the XP teat. Conversely, Bob then sent me a tell and offered to leave the fellowship to follow us, and do whatever, but I wanted none of it. Frankly, I wanted none of a LOT of things at that point. Bob was concerned Kit would get the wrong idea about people. Gee, I wonder how? But, she just let it go, and we went off to do our own thing.

Heh, but one thing she mentioned to me: While we were in that room, even for only the 3 minutes we were there, she looted a single slot Major Willpower item, lore only.

Karma's a bitch.

si fecisti nega

That's Latin for "If you did it, deny it." That was going to be my title, but I thought about this, and that's not really who I am. I mean, how can one have a blog describing how one gets killed every 5 minutes, blows up bows & wands with mana stones, and constantly does bad trades, and have a motto of denial?

If anything, my problem is admitting to too much! =P

So, I went with this, that describes me far better:

Bona Mixta Malis. That's Latin for "A mixture of good and evil."

Now THAT is me.

Like this bow?

Electric rending bow
+155%
+8 electric
+7% melee
work 6, 8 tinks

I coulda gotten some serious MMD-age for it.

And instead, I gave it away to an alliancemate. Just handed it to him without him knowing I was going to do that. He's a good kid, very enthusiastic, and is extremely polite/cheerful.

And since I keep gifts turned off, I couldn't be paid back for it.

But I'll still, of course, bitch about being broke.

Donald Trump I am not. =(

Wow!

I won a title on VN!

http://vnboards.ign.com/AC_General_Board/b5141/88814355

I have 7 days (from yesterday) to come up with a title. For instance, "Syrus_the_red_dragon," who won before me, has the title, "Resident Dragon." I don't want something unimaginative or boring like, "Resident Gimp," or something too fanboyish like, "Vitae laden."

What the heck should I have my title be?

Why, oh why . . .

. . . do I insist on hunting in my dapper suit?

3 deaths in the Aerbax's lab, just because I can't resist wearing it instead of putting on all my armor (I was only there to burn off about 100 arrows, just wanted them gone).

Instead -- 15% vitae. Ouchies.

Worst thing I did was go on another Noir Assassination investigation and get another suit. =(

Holy karma.

So after I explained to Kit that you could get gems of stillness from Memnosynes, I decided to do her a favor and go get some obsidian hearts for her to carve some keys. Sigh. Don't ask. I mean . . . we're not . . . I'm not supposed to . . . sigh.

Don't ask.

Anyway, I know of those huge spawn of obsidian golems (like 10+) in almost the same radar area in the Vesyanwhatever Islands. So (after spending 15 minutes trying to find which main town has a Kryst portal (hint: its name rhymes with "Moo-she"), I head off to those series of Islands.

Have I mentioned that I just HATE running in archipelagios? ("Oh, you can run across THESE islands, but NOT these ones. THOSE? No way. But those ones just a quarter inch to the right? Sure, as shallow as VN 'good morning' thread"). Grrr.

Um, anyway. Again.

I'm running from Kryst, trying to find that spawn area. And along the way, I see them: Shallows Devourers. I spent HOURS (like many people) looking for Ulgrim's scroll, to no avail.

Ok, I spent like 2.5 hours, but it totally FELT longer.

Anyway. Again again.

I kept my eyes open for devourers, but just kept seeing destroyers. Finally, I had a good run of devourers. Well . . . there were 6. No scroll.

Humph. Moving on. There's two more.

Holy cow. No, wait. Cows had nothing to do with it. Karma. I was out there to do a good deed for someone for whom I bear no ill will, but who has a boatload for me. And there we are.

Eighth devourer I killed.

Ulgrim's scroll.

I don't care how broke I am -- I'm keeping it.

Um, just as soon as I can find Ulgrim. =P

P.S. Killed (this is true) 250 arrows worth of obsidians (most were one shots, but some had them down to just a few points on the first hit). Sum total of hearts: 4. But I'll take that for Ulgrim. And for Karma's sake. Goodnight!

Damn.

If only I'd have been up at 3 this morning. Someone was selling a ton of low work hog. Sigh. =(

Sigh. I'm such a wretch.

Just because I refuse to accept help, I just made an alchemy mule. She's capable of making bloodhunter oil, so I can make my own deadlies, rather than bothering anyone in the alliance, or pressuring anyone to keep the chests at the mansion full for me. I *know* that no one would worry about just picking up oils from the chests, but I don't feel like I deserve to. I really don't contribute to the alliance, and am more a drain than anything else (other than the meager xp passup).

Sigh. I'm such a wretch.

And a gimp. =P

Tai Fung has discovered the vaulter's crystal!

Big freaking whoop. =/

Been a while.

Work has been ka-ray-zee.

Let's see:

--Hit 131 . . . eaters are my total bitches. I go through those pigs like I go through, well . . . bacon.

--Hit 360 bow, and am absolutely having a struggle, ethically, over what to do with the complete set of 335 bows I had tinked up with imbues and hog. It took a lot to complete that set, but I know that I'd never get a full return on my investment (I wouldn't deserve it -- I got my money's worth on their use). But -- I need SOME money for hog on the 360s! So what to do.

What's the ettiquite here? Just give it away to alliancemates? Charge them for it? At a discount? Just put it up for sale on VN? No one responded to a PC/IC, I just got lots of courtesy bumps. Plus, Lorna & Lev donated fire and bludgeon bows to me, so I totally should pay them back in some way -- maybe even return the bows, enhanced with the hog.

--Spent about 2.5 hours in the Tusker holding, over a period of two days, just for salvage. The holding is, not suprisingly based on the number of UCMs that used to be there, GREAT for salvage. I got lots of types I needed, although very few full bags of anything, because I refuse to spend XP on salvaging. I'd rather hunt longer, or at least be more effective when I DO hunt, than worry or hem over getting "full" salvage return.

--I'm going to try and take Kit on one of Juzam's harbinger runs next week -- I'm not sure who will be more stressed: her, because she typically gets stressed on quests, or me, worried that she WILL get stressed. Then again, as I think more about that, I'm not sure that's fair -- she's getting knocked offline a lot, and we're not sure why (it's usually an AC Client crash). That's stressful, to play knowing at any second you could be knocked to your desktop.

--So, a couple of weeks ago, I found a major war magic sceptre. I auctioned it, and it was won for 35 MMDs. Remember -- I'm flat broke, and need hog. The winner of the auction was a former alliancemate of mine (one who doesn't hate me) named "Ozgood the Ass." He's under Juzam now in his main, "Steve Vai." This cat is a nice guy. He's a bit out there compared to my vanilla, button-down nature (of course, compared to me, that would put someone like Lokkie on Pluto!). But putting that aside, I knew something -- this guy is just plain nice, and also just had a new baby. So after (1) he won the auction, and (2), we found ourselves in a fellow in the eater place, I inscribed the wand with a congratulatory message over the baby, and just handed it to him.

I keep "accept gifts" turned off.

So he tried to pay me, and couldn't. I didn't want his money. It was a gift, after all.

Like I'm allowed to ever complain about being broke again. =(

No wonder.

Anyway, see you on Dereth. =)

Even my fireworks were gimped.

Yes, I knew there wouldn't be any. Might have been cool if there were. Ah well.

126.

Wow. And only, what . . . a month late? ;-)

Anyway, it was worth every minute. Every vitae-laden minute.

*bow*

Woot!

Went on my first "tessera hunt" with the alliance tonight (still haven't done a QQ in my entire AC life, but I'll take things slow. I found two tessies (although both are non-specable skills, so I suspect they're worthless): Armor and item tinkering.

But . . . my monarch just GAVE me a magic D tessie! Woot! I am planning on using 5 magic D tessies soon (post September patch, though) with my scroll of Dark Rain. That's the only way I can really get a handle on this "tessera trick" that's done for free XP. It just means I'll leave my magic D 8 points off of max, for life (I think?).

Oh, and landed an imbue on another +12 bow. That makes 4 bows out of 7 so far that I have imbues on, and all are +12. Whenever I can finally get to 360 bow, I'll have quite an array!

And will be in the mood to overpay for Hog. =P

Principled. Even on an XP wh0r3 weekend.

Went to the Tumerok Hill after tiring of eaters, and was all about to join a fellow, when I noticed that Berek Heartthew was in it. He is (was, lol) Gibbon_Raver on the boards, although it seems that someone figured out he was an evader under VN rules.

Whoops! :-D

Anyway, XP or no, I won't associate with someone like that, so I moved onto the Lugian dungeon. Didn't last long there, although now I can say that at least I've SEEN the so-called "basement." Didn't like it much. :-/

Time to go find something else to kill!

Worst. Morning. Ever.

FIVE deaths in three different places.

On the other hand, at least I didn't have to get help to recover the bodies. I got to wallow as much as I wanted, although at one point, I did ask for help. But by the time help was available, I'd recovered my bods.

Sheesh. Talk about an ego hit.

Running away -- now THAT is a quest I can do!

Saturday night was a bust. My alliance was going on an eater jaw run, and I wanted to go, but the person I normally mess around with lost her connection at the last second, and died. They offered to wait and let he make the run, then recover later, but I knew that would fluster her. Drat. Sometimes I'm too chivalrous.

So, later on that night, because I'm completely lacking in the ability to quit, I went back to the 90+ eater place. THAT was fun. No, really - I couldn't believe it, but not only did I *not* die, but I actually only came close to dying like once(!).

(Insert jaw message here)

Woo hoo!

Then I realized -- the jaws from the 90, 110, and 125 level eaters flag you for the "Chasing Oswald" quest. Maybe I should NOT turn this thing in . . .

@e thinks. I mean, *I* run all the time from stuff -- I'm like an expert already!

Off I go with my jaw to Silyun.

Already, I love this quest -- someone is selling PORTAL GEMS! (For a formerly no-magic (not even item) player) Portal gems are teh roxor.

Wilderness Hunter Guy sends you to "Ice Lugian Place."

The Ice Lugian Place:
This place was fun, but scared the crap out of me, because Maggie's did not have a map of it. Note: I realize Maggie's site is a spoiler place, but I happen to love it, and even think she's a total cutie, so take my criticism of it with a grain of salt. I ran in, half dead, because of the run TO this place, which is just insane.

I turned a corner into a snowy valley leading to this place, and was blown away by the mobs. Literally (ba-dum-bum). Ack. So, courtesy of some gems of stillness and health philtres, I make it in.

Maggie's directions are taken verbatim from folks' e-mails, which usually go like this: "Um, from the beam-in, turn that way. No, the other way heheehe. Then run down this hall and take the second left i think but i not sure hehehehe. Do this fliip thing inna big room with a guy, and go down the SE hallway, but not THAT se hallway, k?"

@e die.

Anyway, I didn't die, and managed to run the whole time without getting mobbed, and eventually found the exit portal. But no body. So, I worked a different way, and . . . BOOM! Corpse. Of someone else. Not me. With "the note!"

Woot!

@e cracks a Silyun gem, and heads back to the mean hunter.


At this point, I'm like -- it's 1:30am. I should crash. But, hmmm, maybe I'll just do ONE more task for this guy, who sends me to the Ruschk place.

The Ruschk place:
This place was FAR easier to get to, and other than their spells, actually pretty boring. Except for the fact that they ALL debuffed the crap out of me. The only advantage is that they're not much for chasing one around, which suited me just fine.

You say, "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
(I did. A lot. Yes, no one was there).

The directions again weren't super helpful, but they did the trick, and I got the next note.

By asking directions.

Of the monsters.

(Seriously.) You say, "Any of you uglies seen a corpse around here? Or a dude named Oswald?"

There's something wrong with me.

Woot!

@e cracks a Silyun gem, and heads back to the mean hunter.

At this point, I'm like -- it's 2:00am. I should crash. But, hmmm, maybe I'll just do ONE more task for this guy, who sends me to the Viamontian place.

The Viamontian place:
This was scary, at least in the write up. Maggie's says that there's a lever here.

Levers are to me in quests like sunlight is to dracula. I'm ending up a huge pile of ash when all's done.

I basically ran past as many of those idiots as I can, and as I'm playing, my right leg is bouncing up and down more than a chihuaha getting oral from a poodle, assuming they can do that.

At one point, I ran out of lightning arrows, because as much as I tried to avoid a fight, just like Caine in "Kung Fu," it was necessary to do a little Fungy-style killin.

Viamontian guy says, "Rarrr! You die now bloodless scum!"
You say, "Um, you're wearing all metal armor."
Viamontian guys says, "Um, so?"
@e pulls out lightning bow.
BZZZZZZZT!
@e continues on happily, leaving charred dude behind him.

I checked, and saw I only had one bundle of lightning arrowheads left. Time for a clutch move, where the term "Clutch" is being able to fletch your last set of lightning arrows while getting beat on by guys in scary armor.

You make a big bundle of deadly lightning arrowheads.

Whew. Back to fighting.

All too quickly, I kill the guard, and take the two notes I need from this chest-thingy. I realized as I stood there, that I had completed the quest. I was done!

And here it was about 2:30-2:45am. But -- I. Was. Done.

You have been awarded a skill point!

Woot! Woot! Woot!

I have a subtle reason for wanting this. Because my lore was untrained for oh, about 20 levels, I've had to leave my armor on and continually feed it mana stones.

That's right - now that I could respec lore, and pour some XP into it, there was a happy ending -- I can again (1) get naked, and (2) go back to wearing my dapper suit. :-D

Bow-chikka-wow-wow.

"Hunting" in a dungeon.

You don't. "Hunting," implies that you're seeking out, plotting, etc.

When you're in a dungeon, you're not hunting, you're just farming.

@e goes off to farm. =P

"Learned" skill in a dungeon?

This is a weird thing I've noticed ever since I started going to the 80+ hive, and it's kept up as well at the withered dungeon, and now in the eater place. I seem to go in a dungeon, and get my butt kicked but good for a while. Then, something happens. I quit taking as much damage, and it almost gets boring, insofar as I have no really health worry come up.

Wouldn't it be funny if the game allowed you to "learn" to stay alive once you were in a dungeon longer?

There's something to alliances

I just did the Library Book quest tonight, because it was last run on July 4 (not bad without Decal's Quest Timer!). I was just examing the pants which give you +11% to Run skill, when I accidently clicked on them.

In the old days, you'd get a message --> "You must remove your (whatever) to weild that."

Not now.

Except what came off were my triple life protect pants, with the low low lore of 318.

Tai's current lore until level 125, including 7s and a focusing stone = 280. Uh oh.

So I just kind of ask in @a, "Um, is there such a thing as a rare gem re Arcane Lore?" And from out of the blue, Toujours Pret mentions that he not only (1) has one, but (2) he wants to just give it to me. He wouldn't accept a pyreal for it.

Um. Wow. Wowie wow wow.

And just like that, I'm back in business. I went from thinking the night was blown to, WOO HOO!

This whole "being in an alliance" thing actually can work pretty darn well sometimes, can't it? Not as much fun being the "lone wolf," after all, is it?!

OMG. So tired. Must. Sleep.

I'm TOD'd!

Woot!

Went to (the correct) Best Buy and got my TOD box! I even got them to give me $10 off the purchase of it (you'd figure this wasn't a problem, what with me still having my TOD pre-order box AND receipt!), but that wasn't a foregone conclusion. There was an issue as to whether they'd do it, but I was firm, and here I be -- in TOD!

So I promptly went to the Withereds. :-/

No, I'm not nuts. I used up my last set of deadly lightning arrowheads, from a start of 100 (when I thought they'd NEVER run out). I think I should be done with them, at least for a while. Time to explore.

Basically, I've seen nothing different, other than making a Blue Guy just to see Sanamar. I was just way too proud of myself for finally getting and installing TOD.

I r teh fanboi. :-)

Still no TOD!

I hit the nearby Best Buy just now to see if they had TOD. Woot! They did! I ran back out to the car, and snagged my two pre-order boxes (with receipt, natch) and went back inside to customer service. Trouble is, I bought the preorders out by Dulles Airport, after a quick sidetrip related to my work. The Best Buy I just went to is in Lokkie's neck o'the woods, i.e., Falls Church, VA.

Oops.

Guess I'll be heading out Dulles-way tonight! :-D

Doesn't matter, I'm really not in a super rush, and I'm in a good mood for unrelated reasons anyhoo. :-D

@e whispers . . . owned. =P

ROFL

Owned. :-D

So close, yet so far.

I was within 60 million XP of finally getting to 280 base magic D when Sunday night turned into a bit of a blur -- ended up going out in the afternoon and staying out a touch later than I'd wanted. I'd gotten so used to 60 million being less than 2 hours of leveling, that it never set in that Sunday afternoon's Hopeslayer quest was my last AC:DM time.

Fast forward to tonight.

Withered Lugian Beach? Deserted. As in, not a single white dot anywhere.

Withered Lugian Dungeon? Ditto.

So I went into the dungeon, and stayed at the top . . . OMG this is SLOW! Dammit, where's all those XP wh0res I badmouth now that I need them?!

Ack. This is going to take a while.

Real-time impressions of TOD

Ok, loaded the graphics update this morning, and patched. Saw all worlds were down and went to work, fighting for truth, justice, yada yada yada.

Back home at 10:45pm-ish. Time to fire up TOD:

Hmm. Character screen actually sux. Way too large. And where's my 7th character slot . . . doh, that's for when I can actually BUY TOD, not just the pre-order.

I'll log in as Tai, might as well go for the gusto right off. Wow. Nice text. My covenant suit PWNES! Woot. Um, I had 3 golden gromnies in my villa's courtyard. Now they're Azure. Ack. Oh, wait, pick up and put down again, Cyrano said that. Let's try it . . . worked! My 3 "dogs" are hopping in gold once again!

@e looks around his villa . . . damn . . . NICE! Looks like my Capitol Hill rowhouse, lol (or not). Even my vases of snowflowers looks nice. . . . Gawd. Such a fanboi. Lokkie would beat my ass (I gotta remember not to like it so much!).

Interesting . . . the white dots are off of the map of Dereth. Yay. . . . Time to run outside of the house and clean up the neighborhood. . . . Wow . . . I dig seeing the mobs on the ID screen. Coolness!

Missing BS/2 already. Of course, I was like the LAST person to start using decal, so I should be able to get by. . . . Lokkie was right -- tons o' Tusker Spit. 4 out of like the past 8 monkeys I've killed. . . . OMG! I forgot! I want to go collect tons of spec/unspec gems, lol.

You say, "Shurov Thiguz"

Nothing happens. Uh oh.

You say, "Shurov Thiguz"

NOW I portal . . . that could be annoying.

OMG! Awesome looking LS, lol (like I won't be seeing a lot of THOSE!).

Holy crap . . . haven't seen this many people in the unspec temple since, well . . . never. Feared it would be a total shoving match to get gems, but it's not. Everyone's very polite tonight! Uh oh -- just noticed. The gems disappear in the September event. Ouchie. Grrrr. Including the ones I'd already had on me . . . MAJOR grrrr.

Um, is it me, or do the mobs seem to be running faster now? Uh oh. :-(

Looks like I've got my work cut out for me. But I can't help it . . . I'm super excited over this.

Sigh. Fanboi city. :-(

I have to admit

I was getting killed at work this week, and (courtesy of a friendly e-mail) really liked coming back to the boards to see it exposed that Gibbon_Raver is an evader -- he's stalked tons of people on the boards in PMs (subject of an earlier blog). In fact, I'd complained about this point LONG ago (but since I'm doing this blog for me, and since no one reads it, this expose about him has gone unnoticed, lol).

Anyway, I was psyched that it came out, but I was VERY disheartened when I read Grim's take on it, which was "Well, you don't know if he was permabanned."

Um . . . read the TOS.

1. It doesn't matter if he was or was NOT. He's a banned user who has made an alternate VN name.
2. Isn't it GRIM'S job to check on that? Or is this just willfull blindness?

From the TOS:

Update: Ban Evasion
If you log onto the VN Boards and receive a message that you have been banned, please submit an Unban Request and wait for a Vault Network Message Board moderator to get in touch with you. If you "evade" the ban, by making an alternate user name and then logging into the forum to continue to post, your ban time could be extended and the new account may be banned as well. If you are using a Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo or other "free" e-mail account, you may not receive a response to your Unban Request due to the way these services filter junk mail. We suggest you either do not use these services in our Unban Request form (preferable), or turn off all filtering on your account until you receive a response from us. If you have been banned for more than 72 hours and are not getting a response back from us, you may email us at vnboards@vaultnetwork.com

DO YOU SEE ANYTHING IN THERE DIFFERNENTIATING BETWEEN "PERMA" and "REGULAR" bans?

Nope. Boy, what was hard, wasn't it?

BS/2: Scroll of Dark Rain

So I was feeling sorry for myself after the debacle at the Withered Lugians, and went up on Tumerok Hill -- I was actually alone there! So I made my own fellowship -- "Tumerok Hill"

I hate just naming fellowships, "XP." =P

Anyway, the next thing I know, one guy shows up (and is astonished that it's just me and him -- I said something like, "Yeah, they've been coming and going all night.").

Haw.

Anyway, we make a boatload of XP for about an hour (that's usually all I can stand) there, when I have to run offline. No biggie. But when I log in, I'm nonplussed. It's been a bad week. What better activity than going on a hopeless hunt for a Scroll of Dark Rain?!

Off to the Obsidian Plains I go.

I never have really hunted there previously, and I noticed something tonight - I can definitely KILL that stuff out there. I mean, it's not even that hard to do (!). I used to be so in awe of people who could hunt there (kinda the way I am now with Caul, lol).

Regardless, I've still got to (1) find a Dark Inferno, and then (2) hope he drops the scroll. I checked on Maggie's and saw that Danier of TD had given the coords he found a DI, and worked my way there. Every so often, as I killed things, I'd do a "crazy Ivan," and double back on myself to see what beamed in (not trusting it to BS/2).

Finally, I hit the coords. Nada. I killed a couple of the mobs standing there, when, all of a sudden.

A Dark Inferno. Right there. With 2 Umbris.

I quickly fletched some deadly fires, and then attacked him. With deadly frost arrows, because I'd forgotten to actually EQUIP said deadly fires.

Finally, I wacked him. The whole time, my patron is asking me if I want her to come out and help look. Well, of COURSE not -- do you think I want ANYone else going through this misery?

I actually wasn't looking at the screen when I looted (i.e., hit the "R" key). My attention was diverted. But BS/2 went nuts, beeping like crazy.

And there it was.

On the first Dark Inferno I'd ever seen, much less ever killed.

And now that I have it, I've suddenly reconsidered using it. I'm at 277 base magic D. But what of this "get 30 bazillion points with the tesserra/scroll trick thingie?" What the hell is THAT? And will it be as useful to a gimpy archer, who probably would just as well be happy with 280 base now, and never putting a point into magic D again?

Time will tell.

Man, the Vile Sanctuary turned bad

I've been there a few times, and had a great time every instance. It's been great (but a touch boring). Anyway, I'm close to going over the top to 116, and wanted to try and get a little extra points. So I went there.

No one was at the top, but there was another person named, "Xbow Saebax." She seemed nice enough, so we both ran for the pit, where Poolrad was in there alone. And when he killed what was there, he went to peace mode. I *think* he looted, but wasn't sure. But he didn't respond to either Xbow or my own chat requests.

Xbow Saebax says, "any fellowing??"
Nothing.
You say, "Greetings-- any room tonight Pool? Sae was ahead of me, but wondering"
(I'm nothing if not overly careful)
Still no response.

Xbow Saebax tells you, "bot????"
You tell Xbow Saebax, "Perhaps -- risky!"
Xbow Saebax tells you, "i go hunt outside"

So I wait, since there's another spawn, which Poolrad clears.

You say, "Greetings-- any room tonight Pool?
Nothing.

Meanwhile, a person working the top, who neither of us saw initially, named Redbow, tells me that Dog Tired is leading the fellow, and that I should contact him to get "on list."

You tell Dog Tired, "Greetings-- can you add me to Vile list?"

Twice I sent him this.

No response.

Sigh. Tards. Every one of em. :-(

An Ancient Armored . . . Tai?

A while back, I spent pretty much all I had left on a full Ancient Armored Suit for a friend. She's not in my alliance, but is a super casual player I know IRL (her alliance is the one that made me an un-person both IG and IRL).

She totally loves the suit. I got a look at it buffed (well, I looked over her shoulder at it).

Yowza. That's freakin' amazing. I mean, I can't self-buff, so I'd have to use a buffbot, and only be good for an hour at a clip, but with my melee/magic/missle, it would be hard even for ME to die.

I'm getting back into the game, but there are just no BM quests that I can really go on, and there's still the problem of Aerlinthe (now that I've gotten 'pick back).

Maybe if I work up the courage, I can talk one of those folks into letting me sit at the Caul drop and just leech off of them while they do one of their 70 bazillion XP/hour fellows. Maybe part of the problem is that I need 4 lousy points of Magic D before I can use my complete major suit, but I'm tired of getting XP in the withered places.

Sigh. Things just haven't gone well, and I'm getting that feeling of needing to run off and be alone for a while. There's no reason to, however. I mean, it's not like I wouldn't GET alliance support if I asked for it. I'm just not one to ask. I'm one to just suffer through and work on it myself.

But it does seem like all the uber folks just keep getting more uber, and I'm just spinning in place.

HO-kay . . .

. . . so it's pretty much been a horrible seven days straight now IG.

Just can't catch a break. :-(

*slams head into desk*

Sigh.

Looted an AMAZING +10% slash rending wand the other night. High melee, work 6, nice mana C bonus. Just awesome. Ran and bought some Imperial Topaz, and off to Thurwyn I ran.

It landed. :-O

I tipped him 2 MM notes (from some quest, I forget which), and was just giddy. There was a PYI auction of one of these (WORSE than mine) going for like 25 MMDs! This one had the imbue LANDING!

I'm sooooo broke! But now I can afford a few more things I need! Woot!!

But -- I had to brag about it. In @a chat.

A co-vassal pointed out that it was better than the +9% one he uses. He's tried to look out for me in the past (although I couldn't use his stuff). So, instantly, I met him at the mansion, and just gave it to him.

I've been sick about it ever since. I could have sold it, hell, even given it to someone I know who is even more casual than I am about the game just to help her along with her frustrations. But I had to brag about it.

I'm an idiot. I'm sure this is karma, and I'll be paid back (maybe I already have), but I'm just sick over this.

Then again, since my RL friends have really shut me out as of late, I've been sick a lot in the past few days. Doing wonders for my fighting weight, at least.

Sigh.

No way I can hit 126 with my schedule before the expansion.

Phooey.

Down goes Tai!

Again.
And again.
And again.
And again.

What the hell?

I don't even know what happened today. It wasn't THAT long ago that I wrote about how excited I was to have done the 80+ hive SOLO one day, working my way down to the Matron.

Today -- 2 deaths, and I barely made it to the first ramp down, just past the entrance. Hit after hit after hit.

I was buffed, and so was my bow. My underclothes weren't, but only because the only things that ever hurt me are Muties, and they are hollow.

So, I get those two bodies, and die between the two acid pits on the way to the Matron. That's three deaths in like 20 minutes.

What the hell?

It's even worse when the members of the fellow (Shardy, Shardy's Girl, and Me Fight, who could NOT have been nicer and good natured about the whole thing) actually felt sorry for me, and two of them came to back me up. I got to my body by myself, though, and cleared the area around it. Then the 2 backups showed, and killed some extra straggler spawn around us. No biggie.

I was livid, and really upset at the same time. So I thanked them for the fellow, and bailed back to Candeth.

After running around Ayan for a bit, I decide to join my patron on the Withered Tumerok Hill. Result? Bear in mind -- I absolutely own withered tumeroks. Own them. Have a fantastic slashing bow (even for a 335 wield), and kill em like crazy.

Not this time. They were on me, like 3-4 at a time, and I just couldn't kill them fast enough. Hell -- even lugians were leaving the BEACH to come UP the hill to get me??

Finally, I lagged out, died. First. Death. Ever (on that hill).

I am Tai Flagged. :-(

Here is how it happened:

This is how it started:

I used to be in an alliance of RL friends. We were a pretty small group, underpowered but for a few people who really had lots of time to play and powerlevel.

We were all friends, in and out of game. In fact, the whole reason many of us even play AC is because the monarch all bought us the game for Christmas 1999.

Eventually, I was in a RL conflict w/someone close to me. Friends claimed to have wished us both the best. Some meant it. Some didn't. I reach a truce/understanding, even in some ways a reconciliation with the person with whom I was in conflict.

But, as it turns out, friends still don't wish you well.

This is how it happened.

You send tells to people you thought were friends when you see them online. RL friends. At first they respond, but tersely. Then they respond in one or two word answers.

Then you do an experiment. You decide to not send them a tell until they speak to you first.

They log on. They stay logged on. Of course they see you.
No messages.
You mule.
You log on.
You log off.
They log off. Nothing is said to you.

Then it keeps up. Days pass, then weeks. You're not spoken to.

Because you're no longer their friend, and they didn't even have the decency to tell you that.


This is how you have it rubbed in your face:

Members of my former alliance were meeting in RL not too far from me. Despite things that we said and did for each other years ago (I called one couple the closest thing I had to "family," at one point), I'm now an un-person to them.

Now it appears I'm like that person you just don't talk about, don't acknowledge, don't even LIKE. Without so much as a work why. I know what the LIKELY reason they don't like me anymore is, but that's a RL issue, and the RL parties involved are settled, if not more than civil. But they can't be.

Forget it -- if I'm an un-person to them, so be it. But I never would have done this to them, had the situation been reversed. I'm bigger than that. I'm better than that.

I might be a gimp in-game, but I know a thing or two about doing The Right Thing in life.

So let me get this straight:

The attention whores on the ACV TD boards are allowed to spam and spam (including of course, Kiaya, who still has to make a new thread every time she blasts gas). They're given free reign to spam the boards with OT threads, without any reprecussions.

@e re-reads the TOS.

Hmm.

One thing though -- other than Kiaya (and now PKhere), the constant OT posts have been SOMEWHAT cut down on. But not by much. However, it's noticeable enough.

Heh, what's funny (and sad) is that Kiaya still is enough of an attention whore that she is STILL "post bestower," lol.

ROFL -- Kiaya's at it again.

She's a "published author." Laff.

Her "publisher" is a POD publisher (it's called PublishAmerica). It's a "print on demand" system -- her books aren't in bookstores, until a book is requested. Oh, and EVERYONE who submits a manuscript gets accepted (see the link below). Frankly, you could just Google her publisher, and find out all sorts of stuff. I'm trying to learn to deal with the constant OT posts, but this swollen head of hers is flippin' pathetic.

She's "published" the way that "Grit" is a "magazine."

http://www.sfwa.org/beware/general.html#PA

Is it really so hard . . .

. . . to type out:

"Thank you!" or,

"Thanks,"

In the past 2-3 days, i've gone out of my way to help people. Big time outta my way. The result in EACH instance?

"ty"


Sigh.

Holy crap!

Jericho actually MIGHT be back! I'm freakin' psychic! =P