Here are some pictures of Dereth as seen by Doc, her clanmates, and the Sparkle
monarchy.
New twists on old places was what happened in March. Here are the results.
 |
The Walled Portals: this is the destination of the portal the Drunken
Mage in the tower south of Bashi creates for you when you give him sake.
Outside the walls is a Serengetti of central Direlands monsters that
are attractive targets for 20's level war mages and archers. In this shot
there are virindi and iron golems assaulting the walls. Also common here
are Drudge Raveners, Tusker Slaves and grievers.
The problem has been getting to the top of the walls. The ladders to
the top are all on the outside of the walls, not the inside.
(and the monsters will occasionally use them to climb the wall and jump
inside!) One not-so-good solution was to portal on through to the Accursed
Halls Fort, and run back from there to here.
A better solution was discovered recently when some hero discovered there
are "hidden handholds" on the inside walls.
|
 |
Kry Drenn showing Doc the trick to getting out of the walled portal enclosure.
There are some hidden handholds on the inside walls that a hero can jump
to, and from there jump to the wall tops. |
 |
Chosen Won -- recently released from Mule duty -- is watching the "zappy"
portal in Mines of Dispair. This is on the way to completing the Focus Stone
quest. |
 |
Here Chosen Won is admiring the Vortex Charger. This is the final step
in the Focus Stone quest. At 24th level, Chosen Won was a "parasite"
on this quest. It requires two keys and battling fearsome undead to make
it to this final point, and he wasn't powerful enough to do either. He just
tagged along and waited at doors until other higher level heros showed up
with keys. He took his time... and he also took all the loot these other
heros left behind in their rush to charge up their focus stones. |
 |
A dark portrait of Washington as he waits his turn for the BDT in Frore. |
The Clan has wandered far and wide in February. Here are some of the results.
 |
Dark Crusader showing off his mystic abilities by levetating over a pile
of lightning arrows. |
 |
Having fun jumping.
|
 |
A "Harrowing" experience for Washington. He was giving this
perch in Mosswart Hideout a try when some hero brought up a 128th level
Harrower Griever from below. The usual denizens of this level are 35th
level Mosswart Fanatics and Idolators being chased around by 20th and
30th level heros.
The Harrower Griever scattered the heros in an instant... all but Washington...
who was frozen in terror. He tried but he couldn't touch the Griever with
any spell (36th level at the time).
But, this situation was a blessing in disguise. The Harrower couldn't
climb the perch, and soon there were Fanatics and Idolators a plenty for
Washington to blast away at -- he and the griever more or less ignored
each other.
The party ended when a real hero showed up. He was a 50th level
archer and after four tries he finally killed the Griever. To the tune
of "Hail, Hail, the Griever's dead", all the other heros came
dancing back in, to once again chase around the Fanatics and Idolators.
|
 |
Some run with bulls at Pampanola. Young Doc Feelgood on Wintersebb is
running with the Auroch Cows at Yaraq. |
 |
Here Doc is dealing with this "prime newby stock". She has lured
this one far from home and got it stuck on the North Yaraq Outpost tutorial
building. |
 |
Face-to-face with a Tusker Slave in Black Spawn Den. |
 |
Some acid spewing Olthoi Soldiers that El Badasso, Lost Leader and Sunshine
faced on a brief visit to Crater Lair near North Castle. |
 |
Even at 40th level Washington takes damage from the drudge hanging around
in Web Maze near Bashi. This time he decided to show them what they had
been missing out on when he runs instead of fights. |
 |
Sometimes things get a bit thick when you're busy slaying undead with
fire arrows -- as these two are in The Cloisters.
|
 |
Truly an odd site! A bunch of robe-dressed heros tightly clusterd around
a fog-shrouded picnic bench beside the road to Holtberg. It turns out this
is a magic "hot spot" where mana renews quickly, and these mages
are busy "macroing" their way to fame and fortune. |
 |
This creepy place is in the city of Frore. Washington is coming out of
a sewer under the eyes of a sinister rock head. See
the Frore quest. |
 |
Arielle, Washington, Sunshine and Invincible Pepito get the new year off
to a rousing start in Ayan... unaware of the grief that is brewing even
as this picture is being taken. |
 |
Scenes from "Black January"
Turbine's "Black January", the month with two hotfixes and
one rollback. Here Lost Leader and El Badasso are lined up to take their
turn cashing in Platinum Scarabs for D notes in Ayan Baqir.
An enterprising character had discovered he could confuse the Fort Tethiana
arch mage by placing an order for 2 billion in platinum scarabs. When
he did the mage charged him only one pyreal.
The secret got out when this character tried purchasing with a half full
main pack, and hundreds of pyreals got dumped on the ground in front of
him. Within hours the scarab rush was on, and scarabs were being sold
to arch mages throughout the land. Turbine responded with a hot fix and
a 48 hour rollback of characters.
|
 |
Players responded to this crisis in many ways. Those that sold valuable
items for pyreals were most distraught, as simulated here by Arielle,
El Badasso, and Sunshine.
The second hotfix crisis came a week later and involved a duplicating
bug that was activated by crashing a sub server... which some players
learned how to do. This crisis was handled even more chaotically than
the scarab crisis had been. But on the bright side, the Wintersebb server
was brought on line as the hotfix ended.
January was a black month for Turbine Designers, indeed.
|