I whelped for air, It was surprisingly warm to the touch. Hesitating to do so he opened his eyes. It was a country side, with a peaceful sky and a warm feeling. Oh my god it really was a country side. Green trees, chirping birds. It was nature, not the dark room. After being experimented on for days this was certainly a welcome site. I let a sigh of relief. I don't know how much more I could have taken...
After the Virindi put me to sleep, I had awoken to find the old Virindi 'man' standing over my bed, laughing at me . It was a cold hard laugh, one that made me shiver inside. He continued. Figuring this would be the best time, I looked up and to see what he looked like. He was a short one with a sort of stubby head, one that made you think he was a short one for his kind. He floated in the air, traditional of the species, wearing a dark blue "shroud like" attire. His face was hidden deep in his head and I could not make out his hands, even though I was sure he had been using them.
"So you are awake my young boy, you know you have been causing me a lot of trouble." He said.
"Huh? What do you mean, 'Causing you trouble'?", I asked.
He chuckled, "You will know soon enough young one.".
Learn what? "Why do you taunt me so? Let me know! Or release me now!".
"Indeed young man. I SHALL release you. But remember this...never return here again." I looked at him very puzzled. "Just believe me, never come back.". Before I had realized it he has hitten me with his fist and I was dead asleep once more. And now....
Here I am. I arose to my feet to survey my surroundings. It was bright outside, must have been Morningthaw right now.....plenty of trees. Maybe I was a distance from a town because I saw no one. That would be good, it would give me time to get myself to together. I did not want anyone to find me in this state, ... I needed to relief myself, and these trees were the perfect cover for me to take care of my business. After doing 'my first duty to nature' I started on the path towards the local village. The road seemed to be relatively free for quite sometime as I seemed to encounter no one along my walk.
After around ten minutes or so I saw a young staffsman off in the distance engaged in battle. "Can I help you my friend?" I asked. "Actually I could use some help" He replied, while barely under stepping a blow from a Drudge Ravener. "I'm coming, just hold on!" I reached back for my wand. But it wasn't there. The old virindi must have taken it from me. The damn bastard was really starting to anger me. "My wand is gone I cannot help my friend!" The Rav reached forward and clawed in the direction of his leg. Expecting this the man jumped up and did a forward jap into his chest. Thrown back the staffer had enough time to react once more. Swinging from his left to right, he struck the Rav mid temple. The Drudge fell the ground and screamed at the top of his lungs. The man knew his victory and twirled his staff mid air, to signify his triumph. A victory dance of sorts maybe. After his spectacle he holstered his staff mid thigh, reached for his fallen robe, and started to run towards me. He was a middled aged young man, maybe mid 20's and about six feet once inches, maybe six two in height. His had a jump suit on. It seemed to be made of cloth, two pieces, and encompass his entire body from upper-chest to the point where his boots came, except where the belt separated the two pieces. It had brown on the outsides and arms while the inner cloth seemed to be white or a sort of light beige. On his hands he wore brown gloves that seemed to provide little protection, due to the fact that they were made of only thick fabrics and that it wasn't even as strong as leather. I expect it was for weather and for minimal, light weight, protection. His boots were also light, brown, and seemed to be made of only leather. His robe was in his hand but from the looks of it, it was a large, very brown and thick. I guess to this man it was not about protection but how light his armor was. And light indeed it must have been, fore he ran to me at a very fast pace, lighting fast almost. As he closed in I had a chance to observe his head closer. His eyes were a light/mid blue, he had a slight tan and a slightly pronounced chin with a beard. His hair was a very light brown, almost dirty blond.
"What happened back there?" He asked. He had a southern Isparian-sounding accent to his voice.
"
I am sorry I lost my wand." I replied back.
"
How could you have lost your wand?"
"Well...." To be honest I had not known what to tell him. I really didn't know much and I really didn't want to try and explain what I did know, so I left it at that.
"I lost in on a corpse a few minutes ago. Darn Tuskers, never there when you need them but in plentiful when you don't. Hehe" He didn't seem to share in my enthusiasm and said nothing.
"Well I AM sorry. Are you alright?" I said
"I am not injured, I will be fine". He replied
That was a relief, I thought he was about to jump me. After a few awkward moments I built up the confidence to ask him a question.
"I seem to be a little lost, what town am I near?" I asked.
"You are near Holtburg, give or take a little bit of distance", he said.
"Can you help me get to tow-" He interjected. "Follow me, I will show you the way."
We grabbed our things and headed off south. We must have walked for what was about two and a half hours before I finally saw the tall buildings of Holtburg. It looked as majestic as ever, with it's beautiful towers and expensive shops it was very much there. By the time we had arrived it must have been half day and the sun would start too fall soon.
"I must go get some potions from the local healer, I trust you know your way around. I will return to meet you in the tavern soon." He said.
"You don't have to travel with me anymore I think I can take it from here. Besides I don't even know your name."
"I wish to travel with you. I..... As for my name it is Derricki. And yours?"
"People call me Saviors Hand."
Derricki looked on empathetically. "I see, I shall see you later....Saviors..Hand...."
He walked off towards the local healer without saying anything else. He seemed to be a very mysterious person. He kept to himself, not speaking a word on our way here and has been very wise to keep his words short and important. Wonder if he was going to get me into trouble or if I would do one the same, whatever happened I felt that I would not rid of him very soon. Actually I got into such a deep thought that I had not noticed the man that was in front of me.
"Excuse me sir, can you please use your magiks on me to help me battle some fiends?"
A 'buff' begger eh? Being a nice person I normally would do so however I was missing my casting wand. "Sorry, I have lost my wand recently and I cannot cast magiks until then, if you have a spare one I can cast spells on you. Do you?"
"Oh, by Asheron's hand, shucks. Well I don't, but thanks for the offer to do it anyways. I shall see you in my travels again I hope."
"As do I"
We then bowed to each other and he took off. Speaking of that I did need to get a new wand. But I didn't know if I had enough pyreals to manage it, so I counted my money on the way to the local Archmage. When I arrived I figured that I would have enough to get a new Orb and still enough for a cup of hot Kimchi or two. So after handing my fellow magic man his dues I left for the bar keep. I came through the door to find my companion already there sitting at a table enjoying his beer. This was actually startled of sorts, he seemed too calm and composed for a man that drank. Waiting for a moment too long I walked to the table, sat down, and asked for the weightier. Not thinking that this was in fact not my home town and there ARE not weightier I got a aggravated look from Derricki and realized that I needed to go get it myself. So I got up and ordered my hot Kimchi. When it arrived it was cold and distasteful, but I knew better than to accuse the bartender of ruining my drink after I had insulted his establishment. I went back to my table and tried to start a conversation with my new buddy.
"So where do you come from?" I asked rather too nicely.
"I was born here after one year of my father arriving. He met a mage cleric and I was born of the love bond."
"Ah I see. Have you been told much about Ispar?"
"Not enough to make me want to go to the world."
Well this was hitting the bottom bucket. I should hit the questions better. "Well is there anything you enjoy to do?"
"I enjoy many things. Most things people would not find 'fun' however." He made a small chuckled under his breath and grinned. We both laughed. After a few more hours of talking we had both decided it was time to retire for the night. We went to the Inn and ordered two rooms, both of which he paid for, then went to our respected domains.
I awoke to a screams and panic. Women were yelling and men were talking loudly amongst themselves. I quickly got up from my bed and put on my battle gear expecting to go into the fray of a fight. I readied my new orb, ran to Derricki's room and opened the door.
"My friend, something has happened, come."
He had not been in his room. He must have already left. I went down the stairs and heard a lady speaking to what would had to be a crowd. She seemed to speak clear when I got out of the building and her words were even clearer....
"Everyone remain calm....... The Lifestones have seemed to stop functioning. An accident took place where a pet dog, who was binded, had died. He should have spawned at the local Lifestone however that creature just passed and his bind seems to have fallen out of effect. I nor anyone else in the town has any idea as to why this has happened. But rest assured that we are praying for Asheron's help. For now everyone stay in your homes and do not venture out, I repeat sta-"
A man came running into town yelling.
"One of the men has fallen in the woods, help me get him back here."
I looked around for Derricki in a state of panic, after a few moments I found him running with a few other men to assist in finding the body. I yelled to the leader of the group and told him to wait because I wished to help. After a minute I got to the head of the pack and reached Derricki.
"What happened?" I asked
"You just heard didn't you?" a man from the side asked seeming a little angered, as if I did not know what had just been said.
"Yeah, just a little dazed I guess. Let's go!" I tried to act very confident but I was a unsure of myself. I didn't know what was happening nor did I comprehend any important details about what had been said. To be honest you could say I was...scared....
We all headed off following the leader...
After about ten minutes run we stopped to location of the dead body. My mouth dropped open. It was the man that had asked me for magiks the previous day....In despair I dropped to the ground and felt my heart swell.
"If only.....................what next?
COMMENTS: 1. Derricki is pronounced 'D-AIR-ICK-EYE', or for another example try to say Dereth, and when you are about to say 'th' say 'KAI' instead. Or just think 'Derrick' the name, and add an 'eye' at the end. Easy to pronounce if I could speak and not just type it too you. 2. This story actually turned out pretty BAD in my opinion. I think I did not do enough content on this edition but I felt with releasing too much of it and not letting it sink it would be too much for me to just continue after this. I plan to have the next one at least 2 times longer if not more. As for the story itself I want to know if people enjoy it or are starting to rather not like them. If you have any comments I should make or if maybe you want to add your name to a character I might put in the story just email me at worf228@hotmail.com and I think we can do something. Also comments, whether positive or negative, are appreciated. You can never really improve a story unless you get some feedback. And I CERTAINLY need some.
NOTE: Most strats will now be in non white format. I have felt that my last two journals had too many of them, which sort of made it pointless to read cause it did not give enough details. If you really plan on not wanting to read them just skip past was will be notified advance as Strategies.
The Lifestone!
When I last wrote my journal Saviors Hand was headed out to a lifestone at the Direlands to try and handle his big stuff there. To be honest when he first arrived something called death kept occurring and for a while it was kinda annoying. I was picking on one too many Banderlings and way too many Grievvers would keep spawning. It was quit frustrating. Banderlings at level 32 have a very bad Magic Defense for their exp. At this place I had to develop stratigies to survive for the first few levels. Here are some:
Strategy Tiatus are your best friends here, why you ask? Because while they have a high Magic Defense at the moment they also do not generally move from there location so you can just fire from far away to avoid much of the danger they may represent. Also if you happen to encounter them and have to run away there is a nearby building that you can run into and drain from a distance, then go down and pulverize the last bit of Health that they might have left. If you go here don't be discouraged when you happen to be resisted 9 or more times in a row, it happens. When you do finally get that spell off you should get some decent amounts of damage. In a far away situation fire off bolt after bolt. From a distance of, well look at your map on the upper right corner. Put him on the outer edge, almost out of the radar. Vuln from here then start firing away. At this point Lightning Bolt VI's aren't really reliable and if you miss the shot or get resisted you are really burning the mana and comps. So stick to a level V. 5-6 bolts should be your magic number for their death, 5-6 that hit that is.
Banderling Trasher/Striker: Another beasty that you can try taking on is a Banderling Thrasher or Striker. While both might be a little difficult at times, especially if they chain resist, you should be fine with just one at a time. Two is possible but I don't recommend it yet. At this point you are in a bind because their hits are quite powerful and if they vuln you 25+ damage a hit is quite normal, even with my GSA.
Bane and Destroyer Grievvers: yeah right...move along now. Don't even try as I am sure you know.
Olthoi Nobles: If you are careful and by the building these guys are yummy in the tummy. While you will get resisted quite often, when you do pull of the spell it works wonders. At this point you should know how to vuln and drain so vuln the creature from far away and stand still for a few moments. If you are careful, and close enough to the building, just run, after that moment, to the building and start climbing. Immediately start trying to drain. If successful you should have aggravated the Noble enough to make him want to stay, which will get him stuck running into a wall. At this point you can rely on your life skills and drain until one bolt will be enough for death or you can fire from top the stairs at him/her. I recommend draining because it is much less mana intensive and does not consume as many components as a level V war does. Also if you need to get back mana/stamina/health a good drain always helps. After death you should have a good amount of experience in your belt and have some good loot hopefully. I don't know how many times I have gotten good, keepable stuff off of these guys. A Blade Protection Self VI shirt that has a diff of only 161 or so is not too bad if you are Aluvian.
Revenent: These guys are 10k a piece and usually hold some decent loot that is pretty ok. However their Magic Defense is relatively high and might cause some problems occasionally in packs, so try and stick to just one at a time. If you can find 5 of these guys, that you can take on one at a time, you have just made severe bankage for this place.
Dark Revenents: Much higher Magic D and shouldn't be approached till around level 33, because they can be a real pain when you they start Chain Casting. They normally stick to fire and cold for me but be prepared for all types of elemental damage when they start to fire off. By now if you did my route you should have Dark Flame, this has been found to be very useful againts Dark and normal Rev's because it seems to do some sort of Holy damage that effects them more than a Normal level V Firebolt. However the skills cost is much higher and it might not be too useful when you start casting level VI's on him . So use whether you think it is worth it or not.
Banderling Mangler/Mauler: Nope, not just yet. I found that unless I had some good luck on my side these guys were not even worth it till my 34th level. They are just too hard with too much Magic D to want to take on in the packs that they come with. For these guys it seems no matter what that if you try and vuln one all their new friends come with them. And this can be a REAL big spike in the woohah. For now, or until you buff to at least 260 skill in both life and war, just stay away from them. However when you can use the building to your advantage. They will cast vulns on your repeatedly so standing face to face is a very bad idea. With no item magic they hit for 20+ every time and critical for around 60-90. Just use the Olthoi Noble draining technique and hope for the best. Here if you DO happen to pull off that lucky drain it works great, because these boys seem to have very high life and stamina batteries. You could drain for quite a while and still be happy with the results. When close to death, go to the bottom of the stairs and fire a bolt. If you hit and cause his death, good job, now take care of the other 3 Bandies. If you happen to miss either fire like there is no tomorrow or retreat and try to recover health to fire again. I say this because they will almost guaranteed get off a hit if you miss. Rinse and repeat for the rest and you have some decent loot and some really good exp.
Banderling Enforcer. DO NOT TOUCH! These guys have the same stats as their Mangler and Mauler cousins but debuffs would hurt you too much right now. Unless you have a spare Gem of Stillness or two handy I don't recommend for a while. If you find that you get hit with a debuff by them just call it a lose and run away for your next few minutes of boredom. I don't even touch these guys and try to stay away from Mang/Maul packs that are close.
End of Strategy
Grievver Hunting
After some hunting days there I eventually messaged my patrons BM, who he leveled to 50 with no problem, and asked if he could help me get some acid. He said he was looking for some as well because he wanted to get his WMA. We started off at some sort of camps that he had been hunting at for quite sometime. We decided that I would get my Acid first then he would get his. So with his old/normal main character, Rhand Altor, we left off. He buffed me with full level VII spells and we started to look on these dry hills. After about what had to be 20-30 minutes of looking and killing Banes we had both decided that this place was a dud and we started back our track to the Lifestone it was near. However like usual he were cut short on a mid spawn and I had gotten killed while he was debuffed quite a bit. While normally he could have taken 2 spawns of this proportion, he is level 100+ and has major magic/UA/Melee Defense skills, he had to help me out and it got confusing so I don't blame him whatsoever. So in the process I acomplished a level that I had coming pretty soon and some knowledge that this place was not for Grievver hunting.
After
dieing he recalled back to my lifestone, he was tied there as well, and gave me
all the stuff from my corpse. We had decided that we could hunt around that
location, because Destoyer Grievvers till dropped acid fairly well and he could
kill them, I had been killing the Banes with his level VII debuffs and vulns
from the old place. What was funny about it was he had tried to buff me a
million times and he should have been fine, his normal skill was 330+ in
Creature and 310+ in Life/Item so it was surprising that he had so many troubles
buffing me up. Turns out he still had those debuffs from all those creatures
back a few minutes ago. Remember people Debuffs are evilWe hunted for around and hour and had gotten some good experience but no acid whatsoever. We had traversed around 1/3 of the Direlands looking for some good Grievvers. After about what must have been another 20 minutes Rhand Altor decided that maybe we should do something else for our time and we both decided that we could do Mt. Leithi. Now I had no idea what this place was but I felt that we could be strong enough to take it with his debuffs. On the way we had found another Bane Grievver and I killed it, what was so spectacular about this one was that it actually held Acid. We were so happy because now I finally had it. However from our position we had both decided that it would be a bad idea to try and run Rhand, his BM, all the way out here to try and get even luckier. We ran again some more and continued till we stopped and called me over. He told me then that this place was going to be tough, and that to expect the worse. I shrugged it off like no big deal and said I would be fine. So on he buffed and I took care of the two different spells I should cast on my own, Pierce Protection Self VI and Lightning Protection Self VI...mainly because he hadn't had those level VII's equivalents and it would save him time if I did it myself. After buffing up he wished me luck and we started off. I at first thought it was easy, only a normal Fire-Type creature and some of his little spawns with him. No worries for me. Few more dead, not problems. Then a Magma Golem comes out. Ok so a beast I can't kill, so be it.
I stand back and tell my patron to go ahead and hop on him. He says nope, that he was my job, and that he would take the VAPOR golem. Needless to say I was a tad bit nervous, I never thought I could take a Magma Golem for a good long time. Here is a picture of me seeing the Magma and getting chills up my spine. For those wondering I kicked his butt
After that we rested for a moment then headed up the mountain some more. It was actually quite difficult, most monsters would resist my life magic and cause me some major issues with trying to get that stam I needed. After what seemed to be a few minutes we arrived at some peak and he told me to wait off. From there he Yielded a Firestorm and had it run our way. Turns out it was my job to kill it, doesn't that make me feel so warm and good inside. Needless to say I was scared again. Here is a picture of me taking him on.
After killing, that's right I actually killed, him it was time for me to rest, however we got pummeled and in the end I could not take anymore and died from too many things at once, supposedly we still had quite a ways to go. After dieing he asked for me to meet up with him at the Drunk man who takes Sake and opens a portal for you. Oh that reminds me. On the way there I had turned in my Diamond Power, which I had gotten off of my first Diamond Golem kill (punk actually took a long time to defeat, thank goodness he never cast an inept) and I have a Writ of Refuge for it. Here is a pic of that too.
I arrived and after us searching the walled portals and a few other places I had died, so after what must have been 5 hours we called it a night. Especially seeing as he lives in Belgium and it must have been around 3 am for him there.
Lifestoning 2!
Before Rhand went to bed he had given me my stuff, a few buffs, some vitae burning and headed off. Being only around 5-6 pm for me I decided to keep on playing and started running around. That day seemed to be a big bandie day where everything seemed to be a Banderling or some sort of Banderling. I was getting chain casted on like crazy and must have gotten close to death more times then I want to count. I have a pic of a Gem of Stillness that I had used to dispell some things, the results were quite shocking.
However I continued on and did the normal leveling with him for some extra days. However after a while it seemed to get quite boring and for once I went to play my Dagger Character Derricki. He had been neglected for quite some time now and I felt that he needed some attention for his time that helps SH.
NON MAGE RELATED SKIP IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ
I went into the sub, and just like everyone else, asked for someone to open a form of the Olthoi Horde Nest. After 10 minutes of begging someone had opened it for me, at the charge of a Mote (cheap skate). This OHN turned out to be the one in the Dires, it seems to be the least populated on my world. I went in and started buffing my Hoary Mattekar Robe. It was a really easy buff to be surprising. Pierce Bane V, Acid Bane V, Impenetrability V. Piercing Protection Self V, and throw on my Acid Prot VI pants. I really don't have to do much else unless I am having trouble with my Bandit Dagger. Then I can hit it with a BD, DEF, HS if need be. I played around for about 20 minutes and leveled him. Much quicker with my Dagger, I was actually stunned that I could level that fast, but I have not been touching him much lately, no internet
.
Here is a picture of me leveling with Derricki if anyone wants to see if
MAGE STUFF AGAIN
Lifestoning 2! continued
I had gone back to playing Savior for the fun of it and it was not too bad, however leveling was surprisingly slow. I guess I was sorta used to D again. After running around with Rhand Altor so long I had accumulated a lot of experience so I wasn't too far away from a level. I found a good pack of Rev's and Dark Rev's. So without saying too much I had fired off a bolt and get me a new level. Another screen of me leveling...
Level VII spells
Well a while back I had a friend, Xhero was his in-game name, who had quit and left his entire account for me to raid. In the process I had gotten some very good loot, he had been a level 45 Og Archer, and my Matty Robe back. Along with all that good loot I had a few Level VI scrolls that I could take into the local Essence near the lifestone to get some Life Spellys. It to be honest sounded like a blast and I geared up to go. The run is actually quite long with a BM who doesn't have that much run. I probably spent quite some time trying to get there, around 20 minutes of real life running. After Tuskers/Nobles/Banderlings/Fragments/Drudges/EVERYTHING that I had evaded my site was within grasp. It didn't seem too hard, as a matter of fact there was nothing really there that I could see. Here is a picture of the Essence and me right by it
Well as I neared closer I found that actually it had a few Dark Rev's nearby. Not too hard just a bit surprising that I found them.....they died......Destroyer Grievvers spawned before I had a chance to get to the Essence......I ran like a screaming bag lady. Now all 3 major ways were blocked in some form or another. One by Ascendant Drudge's, one by Grievvers, one by 5 Tuskers and 2 Virindi Masters. Crap! Everything and it's uncle seemed to spawn in as soon as I got there. Well obviously my only chance was with the Tuskers. I lured one with a Vuln, 4 came all at the same time. Now remember I am not an Item BM so these guys can easily overwhelm. I felt extremely cramped. Getting hit for 10 damage a hit was really smacking me up. After I killed one with a Flame Bolt VI, you can cast these reliably now. and turned to the other. With two now gone and the others already running back to their places I thought it would be fine. I charged the other two, blew them away but at the time I didn't notice the Virindi. Vuln then a Blade on it's way. Luckily I sidestepped and survived. By now masters are easy as pie and I killed it within two spells. Same with the other. I was close but I didn't want to alert the nearby Destoyers. Well I barely did and got my Spells. Here is a pic.
On the way back I encountered something real weird. A SCRAWED Grievver. The weakest, even I could kill it alone. Really weird.
Also my skills for those interested
Lifestoning2! continued....again (final this time)
Not much to say left. Except that I played around for a bit then called it a night with Saviors Hand. I knew this would be my last night deep down. It was the day before patch day, and I figured tomorrow would be as cruddy day as ever to have it happen (It did
). I however worked hard and leveled him one last time, to 35, before I logged
him off. He then went to the house and received his Mage Armor, it had been
someone elses..if the internet had stayed on I would have kindled it with SH,
and logged looking like a pimp. Good luck SH. Here are pics of him leveling and
his WMA...
