The run to Lin was interesting. I finished up my explorer quests back in Shoushi (where coincidentally enough, Dizzarian was hosting a BM meeting, so I stopped by to introduce myself. Having just discovered his boards, it was nice to chat with some of the major players over there) and hopped the Nanto portal. I firmly believe in not picking on anyone smaller than myself, so the days of Drudges were about over. From Nanto I headed SW towards Lin, lifestoning next to the waterfall. (Lotsa memories in Nanto, my original gimp lived there.) Those were good times with gimped characters, but I didn’t take too much time to reflect. I was on a journey that would take me into Godhood.
As I left the lifestone I didn’t get more than 1 click before I saw my first REAL challenge with this character…2 Reedshark pups. True only level 5, yet with 2 of them, they had the ability to send me packing to the stone. I pulled my Item wand out and learned Impen 1 and piercing 1 on the spot, casting them on my leggings and shoes (I firmly believe that Shreth-hide shoes are the Derethian equivalent of the Converse Chuck Taylor, comfortable, functional, and they never go out of style), then put piercing prot 2 and armor 2 spells on. Every bit of al would help. I fired on the first and threw the vuln,then a 2nd shot killing it. As I targeted the second, I realized we had a serious problem. Momma shark was not happy about me turning her kids into minced-meat and had passed right by the second pup. I turned to run, and realized I didn’t have a chance to outrun this thing, so I turned back, threw a force bolt and a vuln. It resisted the attack, but the vuln landed…hmm, maybe I should have equipped the war wand after I cast my protections. The shark was now on me and had me to down to half my health. I drained it’s health, then cast heal self 1 to get back to full life, switched to my war wand and drilled it with a force bolt.
Adult Reedshark is perforated by your attack.
WOOOT!! Welcome to level 5.
Hmm, I’m used to my melee’s starting with 10 health and getting eaten alive by those things until at least 7th or 8th level, here I am a simple mage and I drill a hole in the sucker at 4th level…maybe I’m not a simple mage after all. Ha, I am the bringer of death, come to walk Dereth and punish foul creatures who stand in the way of decent travelers…hehehe. I hooked up with a 10th level archer on the road to Lin. He asked me for some buffs to increase his archery skill…”HA” I say. “I am no simple lackey here to do your bidding…umm…besides, I don’t have creature
” So he asked me to
put BD on his bow… “hehe…umm..well it’s
like this… I kinda like don’t have Item either”
He summed up his feelings with 1 word as he ran off.“Gimp”
If I could have dragged him off to a PK altar, I would have, right then and there.
I went downstairs and grabbed a beer before continuing my trek…I didn’t get more than 3 clicks before I came upon the first of our archer friend’s bodies
…and the second…and
the third. It would appear that some 10th level archers
still have problems with adult reedsharks.It was quite the dilemma when I saw him come running up as I dispatched another adult…it would appear that my new “friend” recently dropped his 87% mod bow and a couple of hunter shreth had set up a camp on the body, complete with marshmallows and a sing-a-long.
He didn’t ask me for help, and I didn’t offer any. I just opened fire. A flurry of frost bolts left my hands as I lit the Shreth up in blue vulns. One died before he got to me, the other took me down to 3 health before he fell.
* tap foot *
**** the archer says “Thx man, I owe you 1”
You say “No problem”
You say “Gimp”
* spit *
Lin
The remainder of my run to Lin was uneventful, but I’ve never felt such utter satisfaction over killing a hunter before. This is getting better by the day. Now that I had reached Lin, it was time for some serious leveling. Just a click from the lifestone there’s a small cave where a zombie lives. He’s only 13th level, why not, right? I planted myself outside the cave, got him targeted, and tested a few drains on him. He was resisting about 60-70%, but lets admit it…I’m not smart. So I tried a couple of vulns….hmm, landed the fire vuln. This should be easy now, he shouldn’t take more than 2 or 3 hits. I ran around to the entrance of the cave and fired my flame bolt and took a good portion of his health.
Sounds good so far right? Yeah I thought so too, until he popped open that can of whoop-ass unleashing a whirling blade on me.
Luckily the lifestone was close at hand, so I made the quick run back to the cave, and retrieved the corpse. The zombie had retreated back into the cave leaving my body easy to recover. This was obviously a sign of his fear. He knew I would be back for my possessions, so he must have run back to his cave to cower. Well, there’s no hiding from vengeance. I ran straight to the mouth of the cave and unleashed a fury of fire upon his undead arse. It was raining fire and brimstone in that cave. Obviously the flames frightened the creature, for he felt the need to start casting frost spells to put the fire out….I had him down to 3% health before one of his frost spells accidentally hit me between the eyes…Yes, I know it was an accident. He was simply trying to put the fires out and mis-fired. I’m a Battlemage, and that zombie knew it, he wouldn’t have been dumb enuff to actually threaten me with a spell. So, I made the quick jaunt back from the lifestone…AGAIN… only to see that Mr. Fleshless was now standing on top of my corpse outside of the cave. Did I mention earlier that I’m not smart? Hey I needed that body back. I dropped my willpower bracelet. I threw one more flame bolt and actually killed it. I still don’t know how I affected it. I should have been dead again, however the vitae gods must have felt appeased with my earlier sacrifice and agree to allow me to keep it under 10%.
I spent levels 5 & 6 in the Lin area, with a few jaunts over to Tou-Tou and Arwic. Mostly I killed banderlings, with a few lagius lugies thrown in, but grew bored of this and soon headed down to Mayoi. From Mayoi I headed west along the beaches. The plan was to get to Kara, which is pretty much like a leveling playground. On the way I killed more lugians, gromnies, anything I saw that was higher level than myself, but not doing anything stupid…ie: I didn’t try to pet the big kitties.
I was about halfway there when the zefir spawned on me. I had just hit 7th level and was feeling pretty invincible, I guess 3 chain casting faeries wanted to humble me. It worked.
So as I stood back at the Mayoi lifestone, I came to the realization that Kara really was just a backwater lousy excuse for a town. I mean c’mon, it ain’t even on the map. Now Baishi on the other hand…Now that’s where a man could make his fortune. So with a quick jump into the Mayoi ruin, I was in Baishi. It only made sense, my allegiance is based out of Baishi, my mules are at the outpost/fort west of town and there’s some fantastic hunting between Lin and here.
Oh yeah, my spare mattie coat is also in Baishi. Damn Zefir!!!
Next up: A blur of levels, GSA, and more death