What Happens When...

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you played a character to the point where they'd earned a level, but didn't take it and kept playing? Have you wondered how far you can go without leveling up? I did...

Meet EmmDee...



He's my liason to the Lifetakers and Heartbreakers. Obviously a Drow, and in keeping with my previous history, another Cleric.

Mind you, he isn't one of my most played characters, as I've been spending quite a bit of time trying to earn Obsydiian those Seven-Fingered Gloves. But, with some spare time on my hands during the days now, I've been dabbling with what he might become.

While first getting started with him, I found myself running much of the early content solo. Granted, I didn't make any effort to solicit EmmDee's services to the local PUG (Pick-Up Group) market, as I've had my fair share of experiences with PUGs, but I also haven't bothered any of the Lifetakers, either. After all, most of the early quests are just as easy solo as they are with a full group, so long as you've run them... oh... fifty thousand times already.

As I started running the quests, though, I discovered that he had a decent enough build that I could continue to run many of the quests solo, right up to his level. So, in an effort to maximize the eXperience Points he could earn, I ran most Level 1 quests on both the Solo and Normal difficulties.

It didn't take long before EmmDee had earned enough XP to progress to Level 2. But, instead, I decided to finish the list of quests so that all of the quests had been completed "at level." As I recall, EmmDee had earned enough XP that he'd earned the equivalent of two action points into Level 2 by the time I completed the list.

Satisfied with the result to that point, I went ahead and took him through the level progression and then repeated the process of running all of the quests at level. This meant going back and completing all of the Level 1 quest on Hard, as well as completing all of the Level 2 quests on Solo and Normal. By the time EmmDee had completed the majority of the Level 2 quests, he was well past having earned Level 3 XP and was rapidly approaching the 50,000 XP threshold for Level 4.

And, as I've indicated, EmmDee still hadn't completed *all* of the Level 2 quests at level.

Of course, with such a juicy goal at hand, I couldn't resist throwing in some of the Level 1 quests on Elite. It was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

Then it happened...

As EmmDee ran Dalsamira's quest, Recovering the Lost Tome on Hard, he earned the last 400 XP, and then some, to take him over the the 50,000 XP mark, but the game capped him!

Capped!

And he hadn't even completed *all* of the Level 2 quests "at level!"

The game forced me to bring EmmDee up to Level 3 before continuing with his progress.

Wow!

Oh, sure, EmmDee did die a couple of times, but only a couple. Shrewd tactics have kept him alive the vast majority of the time so far. But, he ran *every* quest to this point all by himself.

I'm quite interested to see how far I can take him solo.

Mind you, there have been quite a few blind party invites that have made adventuring with him rather tenuous. Especially when facing a CR: 3 named Ogre in the Waterworks.

To which my standard reply has been "Welcome to DDO. It is generally considered impolite to send an invitation to join your party without first asking. If you will check the Who panel carefully, you will see that I'm already in a quest."

So far, no one has replied with so much as an apology for the interruption. Durned WoW players!

At any rate, running EmmDee has been entertaining, and I look forward to seeing where he goes next. And, in case you're wondering, here's what he'd completed before he was forced to level up...

(click the image to view a larger, readable version)















So, I'm off to see if I can earn EmmDee Level 5 XP while he's still only a Level 3 Cleric!

Keep it fun!!!

AAR, Titan Raid

For those of you who've never served in the armed forces, you may not be aware of the abbreviation AAR. It stands for After Action Report. It was one of those things that can sometimes be a rather tedious and boring part of the job for NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) and Officers, following the execution of whatever mission happened to be on-tap. It was a chance for everyone to recap what the mission's goals had been, and to examine how well those plans had been executed, what went right, and what went wrong, and most importantly, how to correct deficiencies before the next mission.

Well, I must say that our series of Titan raids hasn't been as successful as any of us would've liked. Each time, we had *something* go wrong somewhere along the line that prevented us from seeing the maniacal machine meet its demise.

Of course, this time was no exception. The Warforged Titan, once again, prevailed upon our party of adventurers.

But, we were very close this time.

Very close.

Still, it seems that there were a few things we did that I thought deserved some attention.

First would be to determine precisely what everyone's roles are.

One of the biggest problems adventurers face when they take on the Titan is his rolling aggro. That is, he will target one of the adventurers in the party and attempt to kill them, then change targets and attempt to kill that adventurer, and then change targets yet again. Managing the Titan's aggression isn't as easy as most of the other quests in the game, simply because no one player can hold the Titan's attention for very long. It's kinda like playing with a two-year old... the attention span is simply too short to be very effective.

As a result, it's necessary to designate which players will serve in which roles. And, there are four basic roles to be served. The first is that comes to mind is that of the aggro manager. This player's sole purpose it to try to keep the attention of the Titan while the others perform their roles. The interesting thing is that the majority of the players in the quest should fill this role. That is, as many as nine of the twelve should be filling this role.

To be successful aggro managers, though, the players filling this role *must* stick together, in one position, so that when the Titans aggro rolls from one player to the next, they're all together, and the Titan doesn't wander around the room, making life difficult for the folks filling the other three rolls. To make things more interesting, the aggro managers *must* move together each time they have to reposition the Titan for an attack. If the aggro managers don't stick together and only move as a single unit, keeping the Titan in the right spot can be almost impossible.

The next role is that of the shooter. One of the players has the responsibility of aiming and shooting a large laser-like device. It's the only weapon that can penetrate the Titan's shields. The problem is that this player has to maintain a position that's relatively exposed. So, when the Titan's aggro rolls to this person, they really need to have the ability to deflect the titan's weapons and/or keep themselves healed up once they've taken damage.

Another role is that of the crystal runner. The laser-like device can't operate without power, and its up to the crystal runner to bring power crystals from the storage room over to the power slot on the device. Again, this is a role where the player is relatively exposed, but this player gets to move, and has a chance to evade the assault of the Titan. However, this is still a role in which the player serving stands a significant chance of dying, and really needs to have the ability to keep themselves healed.

The final role is that of the Titan killer. This role is challenging because this is the player who has the dubious honor of taking down the pillars that temporarily disable the Titan while the shooter takes his shots, but is also the player who has to be on-hand to deal the final blow once his shields are finally down. The killer has to be able to endure a significant amount of damage and/or be able to keep themselves healed, or be able to make their way to within range of one of the healers in the party.

In the past, I've seen the role of shooter be successfully filled by, of all things, a Cleric. This isn't to say that it couldn't be successfully filled by some other character class, but that a Cleric, by their very nature, is usually well defended because of their heavy armor *and* they have the ability to heal themselves.

The role of the runner is also often successfully filled by a Rogue. And, again, this isn't to say another character class couldn't do it, but that the Rogue's typically high Dexterity and Evasion gives them the ability to maneuver across the game board relatively quickly and easily.

Of course, the role of the Titan killer is usually best filled by one of the tank-type characters that has a *lot* of Hit Points and a high Armor Class. Usually.

Everyone else, by default, becomes an aggro manager.

Mind you, we've tried to keep the players in these roles as much as possible, but the battlefield rarely sticks to the plans you've made for it. Particularly because the developers at Turbine have tweaked the behavior of the Titan with each successive Module they've installed. And, this last Module has made things more annoying than ever. The Titan can launch your character across the game board pretty easily. It really makes it difficult to keep the group of aggro managers together when they're sent flying against their will.

Now, knowing what we normally like to do helps us evaluate what actually happened this last time.

I wanted to start with the suggestion that folks take off their armor and don a balance item. I *completely* understand this suggestion, as it allows each character a better chance to regain their footing when the Titan knocks them down. Which happens a *lot*. But, I do have to question the suggestion for *everyone* to take off their armor. It seems to me that there were an awful lot of players in our raid this past Friday night who took a lot more damage than was necessary. Particularly since many were aggro managers who were simply supposed to be remaining in a single location until instructed to move to the next. In such a role, it should not matter that they're knocked off their feet, except when they need to heal themselves. So, it might not be as good an idea for everyone to take off their armor.

Of course, there are alternatives. There are Shield spells and Sphere's of Invulnerability, and things like that for those folks who would like to increase their dexterity without sacrificing their character's survivability.

But, I believe this is something everyone in the raid should be aware of. That the removal of armor may *not* be the best idea for every character in the raid. And that the ability to self-buff and self-heal are extremely important for those who do choose to increase their Dexterity the old fashioned way.

The group had also made the decision, once characters began to die with rapid succession, to let characters remain dead so the Clerics could concentrate on keeping the key role players on their feet.

At the time, this seemed like a good idea. Until there were only four left on their feet, that is... The two Clerics, the shooter and the Titan Killer. At that point, the Titan's aggro could only roll amongst the four of them, because everyone else was dead. At that point, there was no way the four remaining characters could successfully manage the Titan's aggro, and this eventually led to our failure of the raid.

It seems to me that it's imperative that as many characters be kept alive as possible, so there remains a large number of aggro managers in the group to keep the Titan's attention. Without this group of aggro managers, the shooter, runner and killer are all subject to the Titan's wrath, and the chances of success drop significantly. The problem is how to go about doing this.

In the case of what we had this past Friday night, both of the Clerics were running about trying to keep everyone alive. It quickly became an overwhelming task for them. And, this despite the fact that many folks were doing all they could to heal themselves. In fact, neither of the Clerics were serving as shooter or runner, so that meant they often had to break away from the group of aggro managers to go throw a heal on the others. This wasn't so much a problem in terms of keeping folks healed, but it did reduce the effectiveness of the aggro managers because folks were more spread-out than what we'd have preferred.

We did also have a couple of mis-fires. And I'm not trying to fault anyone. One of the mis-fires happened purely because the Titan decided he didn't like where he was standing. Although the pillar did knock him down, the laser wasn't in the correct position to hit the Titan once he'd fallen to the floor. The other was a miscommunication, and a pillar was knocked down when the laser had no power. The funny thing was that these two mis-fires weren't quest-ending events. In fact, we still had two pillars left to succeed with.

No, our problem was that we had a party wipe before we could use the last two pillars.

Of course, this is DDO. So, using what we learned from each of the previous attempts, we have a much better idea of how we can be successful the next time. And, because it's DDO, ther *will* be a next time.

After all, Obsydiian is still looking for that elusive pair of Seven-Fingered Gloves.

But, next time, I'm hoping we also have a full party of twelve adventurers. Perhaps having three Clerics would be helpful, too.

Who knows, though...

We'll just have to see what we can put together.

Keep it fun!

Many Apologies

I just wanted to take a moment to apologize for the lack of entries this past week. As it happens, thanks to economic conditions, I was laid off from my job and I've been pretty busy over the past week trying to find a new place to call home. Hopefully, I'll find a position with a new firm that will be more in-line with my career goals. In the mean time, I'll try to get back on track with the blog entries, and keep things entertaining.

Keep it fun!

Changing Direction

I've recently finished reading Storm Dragon, by James Wyatt.  I have to say that this first book in the Draconic Prophecies series is *far* superior to the trilogy of books in Keith Baker's Dreaming Dark series.  Especially from a technical standpoint.

For those of you who may have missed by "book reports" on The City of Tower, The Shattered Land and The Gates of Night, I was less than thrilled them.  It seems that whoever was Keith's editor on the books knew less about the English language than a first grader.  All three books were rife with spelling, grammatical and editorial errors.  To the point where these errors interrupted the story.  I vividly recall a point in one of the books where an entire paragraph was repeated.  If I were Mr. Baker, I'd be embarassed to have my name on those three books.  The story was largely lost due to the technical problems within them.

Of course, I'm not him, but I can't imagine how Wizards of the Coast could publish such a series.  I can only hope that if the series ever merits a second printing, that they spend some time cleaning it up.  Perhaps, then, the story might shine through, and make for a better read.

James Wyatt's Storm Dragon, though, was nearly flawless.  And, I have to say that I'm really looking forward to the second book in the series, Dragon Forge.  The only issue I have at the moment is that it's only available in hardback.

You see, I ride the light rail network on my daily commute to work.  The trains can be rather crowded, and holding a relatively heavy hardback book in such an environment can make it difficult to enjoy the story.  And, since paperback editions usually follow their hardback editions by at least six months, it may be some time before I see a commuter-friendly edition.  I *may* have to break down and buy the hardback, and simply read it at home, in my spare time.

One thing I've noticed about the Eberron-based novels I've read so far, though, is that they don't spend much time in Xen'drik.  And, in the time they do spend there, accounts of any time the characters spend in Stormreach don't quite mesh with what I would consider to be canon for the realm, in what Turbine has created for DDO.  After all, Turbine has to obtain permission from Wizards of the Coast to implement the various aspects of DDO.  So, it stands to reason that much of what we see in DDO should be considered canon with respect to the way the novels interact with Xen'drik and Stormreach.

That got me to thinking...

Perhaps I should write a novel for the Eberron setting.  One that's based in Stormreach, and spends the majority of the story on the continent of Xen'drik, rather than simply using it as a pit-stop on the way to Khorvaire or Sarlona, or some other destination.  I mean, Xen'drik is a fantastic destination in and of itself.

Sure, it'd be nice to be able to visit Sharn, and maybe some of the other locations in Khorvaire, but those locations are already well covered by the majority of the published Campaign Setting and its associated works.  But, there's more than enough to Xen'drik to tell an entire story, and then some.

So, I decided that I'd try my hand at penning a novel.

And, I've decided that, not only should it start in Stormreach, and cover a decent portion of Xen'drik, but it should reveal a fair bit about the city that Turbine has created under the guidelines established by Wizards of the Coast.  Enough that it shows people who've visited Stormreach inside of DDO some things they recognize, and that might even bring some folks into Stormreach who've never visited before.  Something they can read about, and then, if they decide to log in, that they might find familiar once they arrive.

Of course, the story isn't simply an advertising scheme for DDO, but the elements Turbine has created are far easier for the casual player to wrap their brains around than some of the information published in the series of books that describe the campaign setting.

So, I think it would be fun to see references to some of the areas of the city, and some portions of the continent that Turbine has created, and for the characters in the story to interact, even if on a limited basis, with some of the NPCs players can find within the game.  It might make the game a little more interesting for some of the players.

And for some of the folks who have yet to give DDO a try.

So, be forewarned that, as I wander into the waters of fictional writing, I may not be posting as many entries to my blog as you may be accustomed to.  In fact, since I've already begun the process, you've probably already noticed a decline.

Don't worry, I won't give it up.  Afterall, there're still plenty of tales to tell...

Such as a recounting of the impromptu Dragon raid several of us attended on Friday evening.

Which, incidentally, netted Factotum the Ring of the Silver Concord...

It's a great item for a Cleric, I think.  Sure, it'd be nice for a Sorcerer, too, but considering the many Charisma based skills Factotum is able to use, I think he'll find it to be rather handy.

But, I've droned on long enough for this entry.  I'll have to tell you about the runs a little later.  In the mean time, I have some writing to do...

Keep it fun!

Speaking of Adventures in Plumbing...

Despite my loathing for sewer tunnels following my recent challenges with liquid engineering, I found myself in the Waterworks on Monday, running Medyq, my lowbie human Cleric on my second account.  He wasn't able to make his way into the Marketplace without having to cough up twenty gold get Captain Killmarten to look the other way.

I'm thinking my choice for the forthcoming Mayor of Stormreach election has narrowed to a race between Lord Gerald Goodblade or Scraps, as Harbormaster Zin seems to have only his personal wealth in mind.  I'm sure that at least ten of that twenty gold goes into Zin's pockets...  I mean, look at Killmarten's armor.  Yeah, it's a little nicer than you might see any of the NCOs or enlisted wearing, but you expect that of an officer.  At twenty gold a head, you'd expect his armor to be that much nicer than everyone else's...

Anyway, my poor 28-point Cleric build doesn't have twenty gold to frivilously throw Killmarten's way, so I decided to suck it up and take him down to the Waterworks.

As usual, Guard Tember's cousin, Arlos, was "missing" again.

Y'know, Zin has a hell of a racket going here!  It wouldn't surprise me if Zin is the one really responsible for the Kobold infestation in the sewer system.  I mean, they're worse than rabbits, so all he had to do was get them started, and then he had himself a pre-made threat to quash and found himself would-be heros to take care of the dirty work *for* him.

I don't think he realized what how poorly this would reflect upon his reputation amongst the populace.

Still, Medyq decided that it was time to address the problem that had been fabricated for him.

And, I should note that when he started, he was still a meager Level 2 Cleric.  Yet, he still managed to *solo* the first two chapters of the Waterworks.

Perhaps that isn't such a surprise to some of you, but it was for me.  Medyq is my first character to ever solo the first two chapters of the Waterworks *at* level.  The fact that I did it with a Cleric mystifies me.

Sure, it was a bit precarious a few times, but he did it.  Of course, it helped that I had a solid understanding of the quest, but still...

Y'know...  I had a *lot* of fun picking my way through the two quests.  It required a great deal of discipline and aggro management to keep from killing my poor little Level 2 Cleric.  And, even without any Rogue skills, I still managed to make good use of Rogue-like tactics to pick mobs apart.  Managed to earn the Conquest bonus in both quests, too!

The funny part was that Medyq was *just* shy of earning Level 3 when he exited the quest.  One spider and two Kobolds later, as he made his way out of the Waterworks, and back to Harbormaster Zin's house, the advancement animation played!  Needless to say, I was pretty excited.

Now that he's Level 3, I need to start working more seriously on his Favor.  That account *still* doesn't have the ability to roll-up Drow characters yet, and it seems a Drow Cleric holds the key to opening 1750 Favor for that account.  Maybe I'm wrong, I dunno.  After all, I earned 1750 on my primary account with Trinarius, and have yet to earn it with any of my other characters, but the second account would seem to need a more in-demand character to make it happen quickly.

I guess we'll just have to see what happens...

Keep it fun!

Adventures in Plumbing

Let's start things off by saying that I'll be happy to avoid any quests that involve sewer tunnels, or any other plumbing-related quests for a while.

Back in the February-ish time-frame, the washing machine in my home decided it wanted to retire, so we replaced it.  But when I connected the new washer to the 1954-vinitage pipes, the shut-off valves began to leak.

Badly.

Thinking I should be able to handle the job myself, I headed over to the local home improvement warehouse and picked up some parts.

But, it didn't take long to realize that I had a much larger job on my hands, and that it would probably be a better idea to have someone more knowledgable with plumbing than only myself.  However, the wife didn't like the idea of hiring a plumber; she's begun to develop her father's miserly ways as she ages.  (She loves her plat more than anything...)

So, at the time, her decision was to let the leaky valves be until and unless they proved to be a larger issue than they appeared to be.

Fast-forward six months...

"Have you seen this quarter's water bill?"

"No.  Is it bad?"

"It's 40 plat more than it normally is."

"Wow!  That's a lot"

"Yeah, especially since we haven't been doing any extra watering; anyone looking at our lawn can tell that."

"Y'know...  I'll bet it's that leaky valve in the laundry room."

"You don't really think it leaks *that* much, do you!?!"

"Let's go take a look..."

...

[drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, ...]

"Yeah, I'd say it leaks *that* much."

[drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, ...]

"You have one week to get it fixed."

[drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, ...]

...

Thankfully, Belzur knows a thing or two about plumbing in the real world.  Which is why I asked for his assistance.  I realized the threaded parts I'd purchased probably weren't up to the task, but that I didn't know how to sweat pipe to fix it the way it needed to be.

...And that calling a licensed plumber out of the yellow pages would likely cost me several hundred plat more than my wife was willing to part with.

But, again, that's why I called Belzur.

Now, I have to tell you that I was a little intimidated by the task of sweating pipe, but I quickly realized it was the best solution to the problem at hand.  It also gave me the opportunity to install some shut-off valves in the supply lines so I could isolate the branch of pipes in the laundry room from the rest of the house, without having to shut off the supply to the rest of the house.

Did I mention the fact that any time I'd hinted to my wife that I'd need to shut off the water to the house made her feel as though she needed to pee?

Ah, yes...  the psychology of needing to do something you can't...

Truth be known, I was a bit concerned about shutting off the main supply to the house, as the original shut-off valve is still in-place.  Fortunately, when we bought the house, the city required the selling owner to add a new meter to the system.  More fortunately for me, when they added the meter, the plumber doing the job added a new main shut-off valve, meaning I didn't have to mess with something that might mean having to have someone from the city come out on the weekend to shut off the water at the street.

Thanks to Belzur, though, this little problem of a leaky valve provided me with an opportunity to fix something else, too...  the faucet to the landry tub.  Although it didn't leak like the valve for the washer, it dripped unless you used a crow-bar to shut it off.  And, also being of 1954, it was extremely difficult to operate without said crow-bar.

Particularly since the faucet is on the same branch as the valves for the washer connection, but that you couldn't work on either without shutting off the water to the entire house.  Which explains why I decided I needed to add branch shut-off valves.

Funny how a relatively simple project turned into something more elaborate.  But, it was one of those things where you really only want to fix it once, rather than continuing to patch things together.

And the wife already made me promise "no jury-rigging."

She clearly wanted a water-tight solution, if you catch my meaning.

Well, Belzur arrived nice and early on Saturday, even though we'd been out kinda late, digging up trouble in Stormreach the night before.  Once he'd arrived, we made a trip back over to the home improvement warehouse to return the parts I'd previously purchased and exchanged them for the small truck-load of parts we figured we'd need to do the job right.

Except that we hadn't been able to find a replacement faucet.

Which meant a trip to another home improvement warehouse.

Which also did not have the replacement faucet.

Which meant a trip to a *real* hardware store.  One of those old-fashioned, neighborhood hardware stores you used to be able to find before the advent of the big-box warehouses.

And, we finally found what we were looking for.

Once we were back at the house, we started laying out all the parts and began the process of measuring things up.

*I* wanted to cut and pre-assemble all of the parts, but I quickly discovered why Belzur chose to custom cut and fit each part as we went along.  Especially in light of the 1954 vintage of the house and it's associated plumbing.  And, in the end, it proved to the best decision, even though achieving the right fit was a touch more challenging, it was perfect.

More importantly, once we'd finished and tested the new system under pressure, we found only one minor leak, which we corrected with a brief touch of the torch.

All said and done, and no leaks that we could find, Belzur headed home, and I did a quick clean-up of the laundry room.

Of course, it couldn't have been as simple as calling the whole thing done at that point.

Both Belzur and I had decided it would be a good idea to run the washer through an empty load, to be sure all of the left-over flux and solder had been cleared through the line, and wouldn't end up ruining a load of laundry.

If you hadn't guessed, I let this wait until after dinner, after Belzur had already headed home.

Now, while the empty load was running, I would periodically go down to the laundry room to check that everything was still in good order.  After all, the constant changes in pressure on the pipes while the washer runs could reveal something we'd missed.  But, after the first two checks, I decided I wanted to log into the game for a little recreation.

I hadn't been in-game long, with both Stonehands and Belzur, when I heard a funny noise.  So, I excused myself for a moment and went downstairs to find out what was going on.

I had no sooner opened the door and turned on the light when I discovered a river of water running to the floor drain at my feet.

Thank the Sovereigns for floor drains!

I looked around, but didn't see any leaks from the newly installed pipes.  Instead, it sounded like water was overflowing from the tub in the washer, as the washer was still running.  I quickly reached over and cut the supply using the newly installed shut-off valves, but the water kept coming.  It took me a few more minutes to determine that the washer's discharge hose had come loose and fallen free of its gravity connection with the drain, fallen behind the washer and, during the rinse cycle, began to discharge rinse water across the floor of the laundry room, creating the river I encountered.

So, I shut off the washer, called the wife down to assist me, fixed the hose and helped the remaining water find its way to the floor drain.

Again, thank the Sovereigns for floor drains!

Only then did I manage to find my way back up to my computer to re-join Stonehands and Belzur for a little time in Stormreach.

Funny, though, that once I'd returned to my keyboard, they asked me what I wanted to run.  They had a good laugh when I said "nothing involving any pipes or plumbing!"

I think it's time for my lower-level characters to spend some time in some of the outdoor adventure areas.  Time away from sewer tunnels and slimes and such...

Keep it fun!

Interesting Blog Titles

There are days when I'm tempted to post blog entries with adult themes...

and adult themed titles.

For example, today's title *should* read FoundNemo In The Toilet Gives Obsydiian Blow Job.

Oh, look at all the gears turning in your dirty little minds!

But, then, that would be part of the fun in using such titles.  Many, many people pretend not to be the perverts they are.  So, I like to have a little fun with them.  Me?  Without a doubt, I'm a perv.  And so are most of the Misfits.  That's what attracted me to the Trowser Snake Charmer and Kruella Goodbush sisters, and the rest of the Face Stabbing Misfits in the first place!

So, it's only fair (and fun) to play on such perversions.

Besides, I still have a great laugh whenever I think about that time Kru was running her alt by the name of The Main Vein, and her hubby, Craygar, who was in the party with us said "Okay, guys, so long as we keep The Main Vein up when we go in there, we'll be alright."

It could've been said that that particular evening's adventures were a deep penetration of the splinterskull fortress!

Ha!

You know you're laughing right now.  Even if it isn't with your outside voice, you're still laughing!

So, now...

About that blow job...

Last night saw Robinous check in for some adventuring.  He's been stuck at Level 9 for quite some time now, and has been scratching the dirt looking for any little bit of XP he can find in that midbie wasteland, slowly draging himself across the rocky desert floor, through snake-infested sagebrush, and around sprawling beds of cacti, toward that elusive Level 10.

Yes, the mid-ranges really are that bad.

He's been stuck at Level 9 for at least three months now.

'course, if he'd log in a little more often...

:o)

Just kidding, Robin!

Anyway...  Robinous was looking for about ten thousand XP to finally break the Level 10 barrier.  At the same time, Rhy (Bashal/Confrag/Stonehands/etc.) was looking to complete the Vault of the Night (VoN) series, in preparation for a Dragon raid being hosted by the Lifetakers and Heartbreakers this coming weekend.  How convenient for Robinous that Rhy is within level-range, that he could benefit from the run.  And, even participate in a Dragon raid!!!

Particularly since The Jungle of Khyber, chapter 3 in the VoN series will earn you at least nine thousand XP on completion of the Normal difficulty, at least the first few times you run it at level.  And there's plenty of XP to go with that in the first two chapters as well...  So the plan for the evening was to earn Robinous his Level 10, and to get Rhy Dragon-ready, or as much so that we can complete the process in the following evenings leading up to the weekend.

Of course, Murders (Tanision/Puddintan), Factotum (Roulph/Belzur) and Obsydiian (yours truly) were along for the ride, leaving us with one open slot in the party.

That's where FoundNemo (CaptinBob/CaptinNemo) comes into play.

He *must* have been bored out of his skull to join any party that I'm in, because he *knows* I like to give him a hard time.  (He's such a good sport!)

And, as soon as he joined the party, I announced over voice chat "Awesome!  Now I get my own personal Cleric, and the rest of you get Nemo!"  Of course, grotesque chuckles at the bad joke ensued, but, what else did you expect?!?

Nemo got his revenge, though...

Shortly thereafter, while we were waiting around in the Ever Full Flagon for Robinous to make his appearance, FoundNemo ran over to Obsydiian and kicked him in the shin.

He must've broken his toe, though, as he ran away quickly after that, then threw a heal on himself.  I guess he forgot that Obsydiian has an Adamantine body.  Unusual for a Sorcerer, I know, but highly effective in protecting against bruised shins.

When Robinous finally showed up, we jumped into the Tharashk Arena.  And, as always, we vanquished the droves of so-called champions lurking in tunnels, training- and ready-rooms below the venue in very short order.

After a brief chat with Marek Malcanus, we set out to see if we couldn't assist Mistress Orphne in the Prison of the Mind.

For those not especially familiar with the quest, let's just say that if you fall off any of the platforms, the quest is over.  And that there are plenty of wind bridges designed precisely to blow your character off of the bridges to force a quest failure.

Now, over the years that I've played DDO, I've visited Mistress Orphne's prison many times.  And, have had to repeat the quest many times because my own characters have been blown off of various bridges and platforms...

But I've never been blown off the particular bridge I was blown off last night.

In fact, I'd *just* made the comment that I was going to follow Nemo across the bridge where you pick up the wooden dagger, in case he was blown off.  Wouldn't you know it!!!  Obsydiian jumped down off the ledge and ran over to the safe spot, marked on the bridge by an X, and arrived just behind Nemo, who gave Syd a shove back into the fresh gust of wind, which then sent Syd sailing off the bridge!

Can you believe it?!?  Syd *shoved* off the bridge by a Halfling Cleric!!!

I thought for a moment that Syd might make it to a ledge, but decided it best to recall out of the quest before it forced a failure for everyone.

And, I remembered that, after disconnecting from the game, if you immediately log back in to the same character, you'll still end up with a failed quest, so I logged into Trin, forcing a clean break from the group, and *then* logged back into Syd to rejoin the party.

Still...

Syd was pushed!

And it wasn't the kind of blow job he'd have preferred!

Mangey Halfing Clerics!

No hard feelings, though, Nemo!  I realize that, along with greasing everyone down, you just like giving folks blow jobs...

Perv!

:-P

The remainder of the Prison was relatively uneventful.  Though, surprisingly, Obsydiian had the highest Diplomacy skill in the group, and had the dubious privilege of convincing the Fire Giant to allow us to claim Orphne's mirror without a fight from him.

It worked, anyway.

And our trip through the Jungle of Khyber, though interesting where we had to deal with the Beholders, was relatively easy.

And it was upon completion of the Jungle of Khyber that Robinous finally earned his Level 10!

Congratulations, Robinous!!!

(That's his highest level character so far.  It's quite an accomplishment!)

I'm sure this evening will see us take on Haywire's Foundry.  As convoluted as it is, I really enjoy it.  And our group of Face Stabbing Misfits seems diversified enough to handle most any eventuality.  We'll just have to see how well we can pervert that quest!

Keep it fun!!!

Roll For It

I'm sure that anyone who's played for very long has run across some point where a decision needed to be made, but none of the folks in the group could come to any consensus.  It's often those points where nothing is done, or an argument erupts within the group because someone isn't getting their way when someone else is.

It's at points like this were moderation and level-headedness is usually best, but is often in short supply.

Still, a decision has to be made.

Unfortunately, there're occasions where an unpopular decision has to be made.  At points like that, everyone tends to look at the others around them, hoping someone will make the decision for them.  Saturday afternoon, while adventuring with my wife, Phrudin (Belzur) and Kukoo was one of such occasions...

We'd all stepped out of the Cerulean Hills to allow the zone to reset and for our group to take a smoke break.  When we came back to our respective keyboards, we noticed there was another character standing near the gate to the hills, amidst all our characters.  He'd asked in General chat what we were doing.  I replied that we were running the hills, to which he asked to join our group.  Following a brief check with the other members of our group, I let him know we had room.

I should've known what we were in for when he replied rather impatiently in General chat "then invite me."

Hmm...

A bit annoying, considering I was already in the middle of sending an invite.

Doesn't anyone have any patience anymore?

Still, as soon as he joined our group, I said "Welcome!" over voice chat.

A very juvenile voice shouted back "What?"

"I said 'welcome.'"

"What did you say?"

Typing into Party chat, "I said 'welcome'."

Replying through voice chat "Oh.  What're ya doin'?"

Phrudin responded "Cerulean Hills."

...

I could feel the 'you gotta be kidding me' glares from the other members of our group.  Since she was sitting beside me in our home office, it was easy for my wife to comment off-line that our new player sounded rather young.  Perhaps too young for much of the content in DDO.

I guessed that he was somewhere around the 7-9 age range.  Phrudin guessed around 12-14.

Regardless, it prompted me to remark to my wife about DDO not being rated E for Everyone, but that many so-called adults refuse to actually parent their off-spring.  Especially when it comes to telling them 'no' regarding subjects and activities that are inappropriate for them.

Particularly with the mature language humor amongst the all of the 30+ aged adults in our group before he joined.

Of course, it was our group that he was joining, so no one felt compelled to reign-in their behaviors.  Not that we were out of control, but that this is a game for an older audience, not a younger one.

As we began our second excursion out to the hills, our new group member started to chatter about topics irrelevant to the rest of us, and he charted his own path through the wilderness.

It didn't take long before he'd begun to deplete Phrudin's healing resources.

After Kukoo had ask him twice to stick together with the rest of the group, I sent a /tell directly to Phrudin advising him that if he didn't feel like playing catch-up with the young Fighter, that he should withold healing, that the youngster would either heal himself or someone would pick up his stone and put it in their pocket until we reached the next shrine.

Once we'd passed through each of the points where we were looking for particular rare encounters, we decided it was time to recall to drop-group and reset the zone.

Now, perhaps this was a little under-handed of me, but I invited the adult members of our group back together before inviting the juvenile Fighter back in.  It was clear by our discussion that no one really wanted to bring him back in, but that no one wanted to be the 'bad guy' who had to tell him to go find another group to run with.

My wife, being the kind-hearted woman that she is suggested that we just let him continue to play with us.  Even though she obviously wasn't thrilled with the idea.

So, the four of us hemmed and hawed (that's a southern expression) about letting him back in.

That's when Phrudin expressed a suddenly brilliant idea...

"You know, in pen-and-paper, when you need to make a decision, you roll for it.  I say we roll a d100 and let that decide.  1-49, he's out, 50-100, he's in."

"Great idea..."

So, in party chat, I typed /roll d100 and pressed enter.

...

"34"

There was a cheering burst of laughter over voice chat.

And in a classic D&D twist of fate, the dice gods cast the annoying juvenile Fighter out of our group.

Perhaps the cheers and laughs were a little inappropriate, but the youngling couldn't hear us, as he wasn't a member of our group when it happened.

But, all of us adults were relieved that the dice gods had chosen that moment to favor us.

Shortly thereafter, I sent the youngster a message letting him know that we'd be proceeding without him, but rather than being callous, I decided to bend the truth a little, and told him that we had a couple of guildies log in to complete our pre-planned run of another quest.

But, it was remarkable...

Phrudin was exactly right.  Even though this's an online, real-time environment, DDO is *still* Dungeons & Dragons.  When a decision has to be made, especially an unpopular one, it's time to break out the dice and roll for it.  It's the only truly fair way to make such a decision.  And everyone who's ever played pen-and-paper knows they have to concede to the dice.  That's just the way of the game, even if they don't particularly care for the result.

And, for those who've been playing long enough to remember, we used to roll for it quite a bit, when it came to figuring out who would claim the raid loot from the Dragon and Demon Queen raids.

I miss those days.

There was something thrilling about being dependent upon the roll of the dice.

So, keep it interesting...  Roll for it!

A Day That Will Live in Infamy...

My wife finally joined me in DDO.

I finally managed to convince her to give it a try. Nothing crazy, mind you. Just a simple 28-point Ranger. (She likes bows.)

And, of course, she had to start with a 28-point build because I haven't had time to build my bank Cleric up quickly enough. In fact, she couldn't even roll a Drow yet. So, to be safe, I helped her roll-up a Human Ranger.

Her name's SoylentGreen. (Some of you will get the joke.)

And, she's *HAWT*!!!

A sassy and saucy-looking little human.

That's probably what led to the virtual orgy in the Waterworks last night...

But she was pretty intimidated by the game at first.

A couple of my so-called friends introduced her to WoW before I could get her to give DDO a try.

Bastards. ;-)

It's taken me forever to get her to even *think* about creating a character in DDO.

And, now that she's finally joined me in *my* game, she can't help but compare it to WoW. Where she has a combat pet. I've tried to tell her that she can have a summoned... pet (monster) in DDO, but that it isn't persistent like her other game. Not yet, anyway. I reminded her that the folks at Turbine hinted at the probability of the addition of Familiars to DDO *IF* they could get the henchmen AI to function correctly.

At least she knows what a familiar is... she played Neverwinter Nights for a bit, and became accustomed to having her black panther familiar help her through the various sub-quests in that game.

But, she, like many others, thinks that if D&D has familiars and WoW has battle pets, DDO ought to have something along the same lines. Of course, I have mentioned that there are *many* players who would agree with her, some even having left the game because of the lack of such a staple D&D element.

Still, she decided to give it a try.

She was having a tough time at first, though.

It was one thing to try to learn a completely new game, but it was another to have a ready-made adventure party waiting for her as she stepped off the boat and into the Wavecrest Tavern for the first time. I think she was a bit frustrated with my attempt to hurry her through the barkeep's two solo quests so she could join the rest of us. And, she admitted that she wasn't thrilled with the idea of simply jumping right into a group of other players right away.

She said she was afraid she was going to get everyone killed!

That's when I reminded her that this wasn't WoW.

And that we had more than enough characters to ensure that no one would die unnecessarily.

Well, except for Trinarias, later in the evening. But that was my fault. And, I'm used to it. ;-)

Still, we managed to get her through the Goodblade quests with barely a scrape on her pretty little chin. Phrudin (Belzur/Roulph/Factotum) was there to keep her skin healthy and unblemished. :-o

She thought Zith (Bashal/Stonehands/etc.) pretty cool, though. As though, perhaps I'd chosen the wrong class for her. She very much liked "the ninja." So, from now on, Zith, you're a ninja, not a monk. :-P

Lumma (Robinous) joined us for a bit, too, using his burning hands on all manner of things. She though she was on fire at one point. It took a moment for her to realize that it was Lumma's spell. But only after I told her to take a moment and relax. That friendly spells couldn't hurt her character. She was relieved. Though the sound effect still caught her off-guard several times after that.

She really enjoyed Phrudin's Turn Undead ability. And the way the skeletons and zombies would just float away and disappear. Perhaps there's a Cleric in her future!

Of course, after the Goodblades, we took a stroll up the hill and talked to the two halfling guards. That's when we told them with no small amount of certainty that we would Survive the Low Road. Fortunately, I'd had a chance to give her an underwater action item early on. Although she's used to having a character who can die from drowning, I don't think she was ready for the speed at which it can occur in DDO.

It was funny, though. Given the choice of an underwater action helm, necklace or ring, she enthusiastically sang out with "a ring, of course!"

Heh... what was *I* thinking!?!

It was certainly taking her a bit to find her footing with her Ranger, but she seemed to be getting there.

Thanks to WoW, she doesn't like using the mouse; keyboard only for her. So, I had to take a little extra time to explain some of the keyboard shortcuts that would make her play experience a little easier. And, then I had to re-map a key on her keyboard so she could attack her targets. Not something I remember how to do easily, as I basically play with the out-of-the-box keyboard, myself. But, I did manage to figure it out.

It was funny hearing her throttle the keypad Enter key repeatedly, as she tried to mow down her targets.

Poor keyboard...

I'm sure I'll be buying her an new one soon...

:-P

I think she finally began to relax a bit, and started to enjoy the game when we entered into the Waterworks. The first half, actually. We were simply trying to help her earn her writ of commendation from Guard Tember, so that Harbormaster Zin would give her his seal, which, in turn, would compel Captain Killmarten to grant her unrestricted passage to the Marketplace, and the rest of the city.

I think the first half of the Waterworks was a bit over-whelming for her, as she decided she'd had enough of sewer tunnels for a bit. That's when Phrudin suggested we take her on a tour of the Cerulean Hills. Being a WoW player, and being used to the outdoor areas, Phrudin correctly concluded she might enjoy the adventure area a little more.

Sadly, Zith had to log out for dinner, before running in his Hound raid later in the evening, with Bashal.

And Lumma had to log for dinner, too!

That left Phrudin, the wife and myself to the hills by ourselves.

The wife *really* liked the hills, though. It gave her plenty of room to wander about and explore things, and to try out some of the different things her character could do.

At one p0int, we decided to venture into a cave full of orcs. The wife started shooting, and Phrudin moved in to hack away at the one who'd notice he was being shot at. Of course, I saw the heard of them the target had called to his assistance. It didn't take long for me to find myself surrounded and, shortly thereafter, dead.

Fortunately, I'd done enough damage to the others that it didn't take long for Phrudin and the missus to finish off the stragglers. At which point, the cave was then empty, and it gave Phrudin a chance to carry my stone to the shrine.

A shrine that hadn't yet been cleared.

Which is why Phrudin and I told my wife to stay put in the cleared cave, where it was safe.

Fortunately, it didn't take much to clear the shrine and resurrect Trin, then rejoin my wife in the cave. Something we were looking forward to, as we'd stumbled into one of the rare encounters, and there was a chest to loot.

I found it amusing when my wife commented on how many chests there are in DDO. Her game isn't quite like that, and you spend most of your time looting corpses, rather than chests.

Not long after we'd cleared our way past then next couple of explorer points and the shrine, we circled around to the huge tree that is itself an explorer point, and held station while Phrudin's frien Kukoo joined us. I think she began to appreciate the benefits of having a few extra players in-group. Kinda reduces the workload for everyone when you have a few extra swords swinging about.

From there, it didn't take us long to complete the remainder of our explorer objectives, but the rare encounter of the gargoyle continued to elude us.

Finally, Lumma logged back in after dinner, and we decided to head back over to the Waterworks to complete the last two chapters.

While we were waiting, my wife asked me how you make your character shadow-hump. She'd heard me talk about how it's a rather popular pass-time, particularly while waiting for folks to come back to their keyboards during breaks.

So, I showed her.

And, since she had a good laugh when I was making my character do it to her character, I sent tells to the others in the group and told them to prepare for an orgy on my word.

She started laughing really hard and tried to move her character away, but three shadow-humpers were too much, and she finally decided just to stand still and let the boys have their way with her. Followed by the comment in party chat "I need a shower!"

That kinda set the tone for the rest of the evening; there were plenty of laughs about many things adult, though through inuendo only.

(This is why the game is *not* rated E for Everyone!)

Still, it was a lot of fun. And, amidst all the questing, we managed to rack up the complete set of rare encounters, and most folks had overflowing packs by the time we had finished.

Not to mention the fact that SoylentGreen earned her Level 3 *and* opened the gates to the Marketplace, all in one evening! (It took me weeks to get into the Marketplace!)

But, she had enough fun that she logged back into the game with me this afternoon to run a few more quests. I just made sure we stuck to the shorter, simpler quests, to give her a better chance to learn how to do various things in the game.

With any luck, she'll be running the guild for me in no time!

Keep it fun!!!

Henchmen Preview

Before I delve into this morning's topic, I wanted to jot down a few words regarding our attempt to take down the Titan this past Friday evening...

Unfortunately, the Titan wasn't even aware we'd entered the complex; we stalled on the green-side puzzle early on. I can't blame anyone for this, and I wouldn't even if I could; none of us working the green side were familiar with the puzzle, and we were working from various and sundry solutions. Clearly, when you don't really know what you're trying to accomplish, the chances of failure are much greater. As evidenced by our brief attempt on Friday.

In fact, it took us a while to even decide which part of the group would break to the green side, leaving the remainder to the purple side. Ultimately, someone who knew enough about the raid took charge and sent Stonhands, Leaff, Sleepinbeauty, Spankmo, PuddinTan and Obsydiian down the green side.

We ran into problems early, though, because the nomenclature used for the various doors within the green puzzle varied from one guide to the next. It was often difficult to determine which door anyone was referring to. I think this is what led to the failure of the raid... we were generally following a guide that had casters step into a puzzle room, set the tiles in a specified manner, and then Dimension Door out to re-join the group. However, in the process of trying to determine which rooms were set, we left one of the rooms set improperly, with no way to regain access.

It's certainly something we'll have to work on for the next time around.

In the mean time, I finally managed to convince my wife to allow me to open a second subscription to DDO. With my characters hosting the guild bank, they have very little room in their inventories to run quests. And, so far as I'm concerned, all of my characters are playable characters. So, I really need an available inventory for quests.

Now, the wife wouldn't buy-off on having a second account solely for guild bank purposes. The idea is that, some day, maybe soon, she might actually join me in-game. Of course, a second account would be required for such an occurrance. So, I managed to make my case and now have a second DDO account.

And, it didn't take long for me to create a character that would eventually become one of the bank characters.

General consensus is that, if you want a character that will level-up and/or earn favor quickly, you should create a Cleric. After all, there always seems to be a disproportionate lack of Clerics whenever anyone tries to create a group. With such high demand for healing, it should be easy for my new bank character to open up both of his extra inventory slots and both additional bank slots. After all, bank characters can never have enough space to store things...

Conveniently, my wife's computer sits right next to mine in our home office. So, once I'd created my new bank character, I was able to log into both the bank character and one of my playable characters, to transfer items without having to pay exhorbitant postage fees.

Then I got to thinking...

What if I just ran my new bank character *with* one of my regular characters, to build up the required favor? I mean, Trinarias is still Level 2... And, can fight better than the typical healing Cleric. Not to mention the fact that he can disable traps and open locks most Clerics would be hard-pressed to deal with.

So, I booted up the game on both systems and grouped the two together. The idea was to bring the Cleric into the same quest with Trinarias, let Trin do all the work, and let the Cleric reap the benefit.

But, then I decided that the arrangement could be mutually advantageous.

After all, Trin could benefit from having a healer around.

The difficulty lay in one player trying to control two characters at the same time. It would end up being an exercise somewhat like the ability to move-under-cover we used to practice in the Army, where one soldier would lay down cover-fire while his buddy advanced on the enemy position. Once in place, the two would trade duties, where he'd move and his buddy would lay down the cover-fire.

Except that, in this case, there was no cover fire. It was simply moving one character into position at a time.

And, quite frequently, I found it to be more desireable to leave Trin's "buddy" back in a safe spot while Trinarias moved forward to engage whatever opposition he could find. And, when Trin was done, the Cleric could move forward to join him. And heal him. ;-)

It actually worked surprisingly well.

In a couple of instances, I was able to leave the Cleric *just* within healing range, and I could fight with Trin, and reach over to the other keyboard to cast heals on Trin at the same time.

Talk about multi-tasking!

But, it occurred to me that this might be the basis upon which the forthcoming henchmen in Module 8 might be based. Another character you "control" (only to a certain extent) but which isn't intended to do much "intelligent" work, only a prescribed set of actions, based on certain presuppositions about that henchman's role in the group.

I found myself in a bit of a pickle, though, when I attempted to run the pair through Survive the Low Road...

The duo acutally did very well, methodically making their way through the quest. Right up until they encountered the shaman at the end. Actually, the Cleric was left standing at the top of the pipe the pair had just climbed up out of. It was Trin who snuck up the ramp to use his bow on the shaman. Where things broke down was the point at which Trin brought the shaman back down the ramp toward the pipe.

Even though Trin had established aggro on the shaman, the shaman saw that the Cleric wasn't running, and was squishier than Trin. So, the shaman set to work on the Cleric, quickly incapacitating him. Well, was doing all I could to get Trin to kill the shaman, which meant I was too busy to reach over and cast a heal on the Cleric. By the time the dust settled, the Cleric was incapacitated.

This is the point at which I should mention that Trinarias has absolutely no Heal skill, and he doesn't carry Healer's Kits. He is, after all, a Warforged. But, he is also part Ranger, so it seems now is the time he should start carrying wands. Because it didn't take long after the encounter was over that the Cleric finally failed his saving throw and died.

Without a Shrine in the quest, it was impossible to raise the Cleric without recalling.

Since it was so close to lunch time, I had to recall out and skip the end chest, rather than running all the way back from the tavern to claim it.

Bummer!

But, after lunch, I brought the duo back together for a few more lowbie quests. This time, though, after I'd explained what mischief I was up to, Robinous had logged in with his new lowbie Sorcerer, by the name of Lumma. And, we decided to give Garrison's Missing Pack a whirl.

Honestly, the progress through the quest was more pedantic than when all of the characters are under constant and direct control of their own players, but it turned out that, for the all-level-two characters, having a henchman Cleric in the group turned out to be the saving grace...

Based on what I'd learned about aggro in Survive the Low Road earlier in the day, I was careful to keep the Cleric back, well outside the aggro circle of the various mobs, and then, once the path had been cleared, I brought him forward to dole-out healing and Divine Vitality, a god-send for Lumma!

At the branch in the tunnels, where the group has to clear both the left and right sides, and activate the respective levers, things became a little more interesting. We cleared the left side with very little difficulty, and circled back to clear the right side. In trying to clear the right side, though, we pulled the named witch doctor *while* we were trying to clear everyone else out. In the process, the witch doctor incapacitated both Trin and Lumma. Fortunately, all the other mobs had been dispatched, but it took a fair bit of scrambling to bring the Cleric up from the safety of the rear area in time to prevent any unfortunate deaths.

Ha!

The henchman saved the day!!!

He was able to cast enough heals to prevent Trin and Lumma from joining their forebears.

Now, I do hope that the henchmen Turbine will be introducing in Module 8 will have at least a little better Artificial Intelligence than my improvised henchman, as in, that they will be able to keep up an heal (or whatever else) on their own, rather than requiring specific direction at all points along the way.

However, having played using a very close facsimile to a legitimate henchman, I've come to appreciate the benefits of having such an option, especially for smaller, less well equipped adventure parties.

Of course, in my case, I'd prefer to replace my version of Artificial Intelligence with another player. Now, if only I could convince my wife to take the controls...

Keep it fun!!!