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What an eveningHail friends, brethren and sisters, Last night was proberbly the most awesome Night I have ever experienced while living in Dereth. I believe I have told you about the Nexus, the missing key and all the frentic searching that has been going around Dereth for that key. Last night brought me to Direlands - Obsidian Planes to be more specific. And if you EVER want to fight Shadows, you cannot possibly find a better place to do it. Literall thousands of Shadows - mostly Umbris and Panumbris - but also Luitenants and a few regular Shadows are to be found there. Those of you that have been in the Pit up near Stonehold (the place with all the Monoguas) know what a radar FULL of orange dots is like. Well hold on to your pants... The place I went yesterday was even more infested with orange dots, and it just went on, and on, and on, and on... a HUGE area just infested with Shadows. But as if that was not enough. Virindi Masters, Servants and Puppets seem to have a secret allegiance with the Tusker Guards and Slaves out there. Once I attacked a Virindi Puppet, 6-8 level 159 Tusker Guards and 4-5 level 126 Tusker Slaves came at me at the same time... Well things becomes difficult, as you have fought your way in there making a tiny wedge. But Tuskers have a tendency to stick to you for the longest time, and suddenly you find yourself in the middle of 20 level 153 Umbris Shadows with 8-10 big Tuskers on your tail... Add to that a mere 15-20 Dark Whisps that drain you for health as you run for your life. most of them casting War V and VI bolts, Slownes, Bafflement, Weakness, Feeblemindedness, Fire Vulnerability V, Imperril V, and an assortment of level V and VI spells. Talk about being debuffed! lol. I started running back to the others on our team, but finally had to bite the dust with numerous Shadows casting simultaneous Bolts of different types. and the rude awakening at the lifestone hit me like a ton of bricks... I had lost everything... No armor at all - almost out of arrows and components, and with a 5% vitae. Getting there in the first place was tough enough as it was being four of us... Getting there alone, with no armor and a 5% vitae seemed like an impossible task. I took me more than 2 hours before I had worked my way back to the others. They had been holding the position the best they could keeping the area around my corpse clear of critters, but one more of us died (we were 4 in all), and the last two were forced to retreat to a less populated area - an area with only 10-20 critters spawning within radar range. By the time I got back to the edge of the Crater, I had long lost my vitae penalty, and I was bid welcome by a whole party of Shadows dancing their dance of victory overlooking the Mushroom Crater with the 2 lonely heroes doing their best to keep the enimy at arms length. Several times I was able to retreat with less than 10 health left (I have 190 when I'm at my normal best). Healing becomes next to impossible when you have that little heath left (despite I have a healing skill of 220+), so naturally I wield my Life IV wand, enabling me to do Stamina to Health I and Stamina to Mana I conversions... But alas - Some critter thinks it funny to continually casting Life Magic Ineptitude V or VI on me - and believe me - those debuffs stay a LONG time, especially if you are waiting for them to run out with no mana to do anything good with. We were joined by our second fallen friend, who had chose the strategy of running through it all to get back, not stopping for anything - not even a heal - hoping his buffs and health would last long enough to get him within radar range of our mage, who started healing him when he had less than 5 health to go... I was watching him on the fellowship "monitor" as he was running towards us, and saw how he was being drained, beaten and spelled half to death. Finally after 2½ hours, we were once again gathered, ready to attempt once more to clear the way to my corpse. We were only 0.3 clicks away from my corpse, and I could target it on my radar. A silent prayer went up to the Spirit of Lord Asheron - to keep us safe as we once more launched our feeble attack on the hoardes of Shadows that came against us... We learned that the circle of death can be done with only 4 people. We also learned the importance of keeping an area behind us clear, an area we could run to if thigs got too hot. I never stayed beyong half my health, knowing that level VI war botls easily can take 90 health from you a hit. So it was a lot of running back and forth, healing, buffing attacking again. It took us another hour to moove 0.3 clicks across the map, where I finally was able to recover my armor. THANK YOU to all brave friends that are willing to risk everything to help a fallen brother in arms. After recovering my corpse - we descided to call it a day, and Portal back to civilisation. I had less than 30 arrows in my shiver, and my major components like Hyssop and red tapers were both down to single digit numbers. However I descided to do one last crazy thing... I wanted to buff myself to the fullest of my ability. Handed EVRYTHING I had (except for a Faran Robe with Hood), that I was using as armor, buffed to the maximum. Undernath it I was even more naked than the day I first saw the light in Dereth. Here is a list of the spells I was wearing for my final "Run of Death":
I had planned it all out. Wantet to run right across the centre of the crater. Had made sure my Screenshot butten was working (because I wantet screenshots to document everything) Had a newly lootet Item II wand in my hand ready to portal out if things got too hot. A Mana Elixir on a shortcut was my final weapon, in case I had no mana, when I neede to do a recall. I started to run. Immediately I was hit by numerous debuffs, nullifying all the buffs our mage and I had just painstakingly cast on myself. The number of wellow dots on my radar grew for each step I took as I ran the fastest I could... WHAM - was hit by a Frostbolt V from a Panumbris Shadow (took me for 40 health) - 150 health left. Recieved one final heal from our mage as I dissapeared from his radar range. Back up to 176 health. Almost got trapped in the middle of a group of Tuskers, that grazed me several times for 2-5 points of damage, while I ran in all directions trying to get out of their "circle of death". Got out with 150 heath left but was immediately drained twice by Dark Whisps, leaving me down with 95 health points, and I wasn't even CLOSE to halfway across. Tryed my best to run Zig-Zag, but as I came closer to the centre, things got even more crowded than before... I believe the ONLY thing that saved me was the fact that I had a couple of VERY stubborn Tusker Guards sticking to my rear, preventing a multitude of other critters from taking a swing at me... Suddenly I saw the fountain in front of me... and around it a multitude of Shadows like anything I have EVER seen before... There was no way I could make it through there... so I descided to run as close as I could to see if I could get a glimpse of a chest or something, that we one day might be able to battle our way to... Perhaps the Key might be there. Allthough I must admit that it currently seems incredibly far out of reach. In the middle of this group of Shadows - I saw a Shadow that was higher than the rest. There was no time to target him, and allthough I tried as a madman, I failed to get his character type. I do believe however that he must be a General, like the ones we have heard the Shadow Captains mention, while they took their last breath. Obviously I have never seen a captain either, so he might simply be one of those - but this one had a majestic look over him. Sceary - REALLY sceary. As I passed close to the centre of the crater, my health had dropped to 55 - and I was certain that there was no way I could even survive to stop and do a Lifestone Recall. So I descided to continue. If I died - I would have nothing to recover but a 5% vitae penalty. At the other side of the crater, things began to look more normal again. With my own pulse beating at 200, hands shaking from the tence grip on my keyboard and mouse - Zig-Zag, leaping forward. I looked at my healthbar, and to my amazment I was still at 45 health, stamina was down to 60, and my mana was down to zero (due to all the drains). I finally spotted a tiny clear area 50 yeards ahead, stopped, and while I change from run-mode to attack-mode (I already had the wand ready), I was drained two times by the Dark Whisps that appeared right next to me as I descided to stop... I hit the shorcit to my Mana Elixir, and it seemed to take ages, changing from attack mode back to peace mode, drink the stuff in my little blue bottle, and changing back to attack mode again... WHAM got hit by another Spell - this time it must have been a Volley spell or something, because it didnt kill me. This thriller ride of a lifetime, ended with me standing on top of my lifestone in Direlands, with 5 health, 67 stamina and 27 mana (yes mana conversion ROCKS). At the top of the tower I recieved all my stuff back, while I regained some of my composure... I forgot to check the time it had taken me - couldnt have been more than a few minutes - but WHAT A RIDE! - I was LEAPING up and down while I failed to utter anything but several "wohooooo", enriched by several single-word-utterances like: "incredible", "amazing" and "fantastic". And I forgot something else too - not a single screenshot to document this trip. I didnt even get a screenshot of my "Active Spells" window - where there must have been at least 3-4 screens worth of spells cast on me - negative as well as positive ones... But over the next 10-15 minutes I heard more "phlunk" sounds than I hear in an entire weeks worth of gaming, one for each of the spells as they expired one by one... I had survived - barely... But I have also witnessed some of the stuff that is out there - yet for all of us to concour. Now I dont think there is any cause to fear that this huge army will invade our towns - but I think we now know where to go find a few shadows to kill. I never found out if the Key to the Nexus was there or not - but I guess it might be. Nevertheless it will take an army of at least 15-20 level 40+ players to fight our way to the very centre, and it cannot be done without heavy casualties. We were 4 of us there all level 45+, and to be honest - we were getting our buts kicked big time... Although it may sound like we were doing great, we were barely scratching the surface. That place is like NOTHING i have ever seen before. It would make no sence taking our Clan into a battle like that, seing it would be a pure suicide mission to even go there. However I still believe there are numerous other battles to be fought out there. If we as a clan are to get involved in the battle - I suggest we pick our battles carefully. Roaming the countriside west of Crater Lake, revieled Panumbris Shadows for the first time seen in Osteth, so we will get our hands full just fighting what is already in Osteth. I suggest we keep in close touch, gathering in groups when we can to go and seek out the Shadows whn we can inflicting loss on their side at every opportunity. Experience Points are in abundance hunting these critters, Brell made more than 1.5 mill XP's on that trip alone... Now only 800K short of level 50. Having 5 million XP's between level 49 and 50 is a lot - having only 800K is a lot less... To those of you unaware of this - I have been playing my new War/Life TANK-mage a bit resently (which is why you might not have been able to reach me). Sometimes it has been hard recieving so many tells every single day, and I guess I just need the peace and quietness of playing an "incognito" character from time to time... Hope you all can understand this. May the Spirit of Lord Asheron keep you all safe in your comming battles against the darkness of the Shadows as they draw closer to our towns... See ya all out there, Brell |
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