When It Feels I Can't Go On, Let Your Armour Cover Me

Alts and Equipment

Since restarting again earlier this year most of my time has been spent trying to equip various alts. My current avatar characters are:

• Vampires - Vilexur, Sashell, Viledri, Viltrow
• Rangers - Jessyl, Jessel, Germal
• Thieves - Kurrs, Parx, Krayaz
• Warriors - Joydi, Panish, Skold, Skurnis
• Mages - Gnodra, Vodra, Modra
• Clerics - Chacix, Charix, Juxarn
• Paladins - Sacix, Tantis
• Nephandi - Wroth
• Druid - Varlok
• Fathomer - Zenth
• Barbarian - Skarl
• Augurer - Aryx
  

There are some that were under dressed from never being fully equipped after reaching level 50, some from playing with the Deck and others from dying and not being CR'd years ago. I've been spending a lot of time killing easier avatar mobs that can (and should) be solo'd be an average player such as Dracolothis, Zeus, Dracula, Rez, Justice, Horus, Ra, and Sir Pereval just so that they all have a usable basic equipment set up. Doing this is also a good way to get back into the hang of running mobs without the the pressure of letting down other players if things go wrong. 

The most time consuming mobs I've been doing by myself again are Rage and Fury from The Underworld in the hope of popping a Maniacal Tendencies. After spending three weeks on and off there I had enough rage and fury essences for 17 attempts at it. The funny thing with pops in the Realms of Despair is the randomness of it. Out of the 17 tries I popped an MT on the first go which was then followed by 16 failures. Now most of my alts are well enough armoured to be useful, with others able to pack a punch.

 

The Deck

I've had a hard time with the Deck of Many Things since restarting. While I have found it several times, the challenge has been that other players have been getting their hands onto it first. These days I need to be on right after reboot to get the card. Only once have I manged to find the deck with a card in it. I got lucky and gained a rename scroll.

Bridging the Maelstrom
Darkness pervades this area of cold, deep sea. The water churns and boils all around, but for a tiny strait of calm that lies between the Blood and Azure seas, on each side. It is said that the seas are almost alive and, like any who are shunned by the world of the living, they extort a tremendous toll on anyone who would choose to utilize this path. Far to the north, amidst the fog and mist, a small island can be seen.
Exits: north east south west northeast northwest southeast southwest
The Deck of Many Things lies in wait for a brave soul.
The Deck of Many Things says 'If you can find a card within me, you might be lucky enough to draw something of value.
However, once you submit to chance, you put yourself at the mercy of the cards.
The Deck of Many Things winks suggestively.

> exam deck
You take a closer look at the Deck of Many Things on the ground...
The deck takes the appearance of a very finely wrought and veneered wooden card case, yet the strong magical aura surrounding it offers proof that this artifact is not simply what it appears to be.
The Deck of Many Things appears to be full.
The Deck of Many Things contains:
     the Key to the Deck of Many Things

> g key deck
You get the Key to the Deck of Many Things from the Deck of Many Things.
The Key to the Deck shudders menacingly.
You drop the Key to the Deck of Many Things.
Vl'aresch gives you one gold coin for your sacrifice of the Key to the Deck of Many Things.
Be Forewarned : You could lose all that you own.
Panish has been given the chance to draw from the Deck of Many Things.

>  g card deck
You get a card from The Deck of Many Things.
You see that you have drawn the Tower in Ruin.
As you gaze upon it, the scene upon the card comes to life and is acted out.
Ruin stretches out to engulf you, but by some happy fate you evade it.
A warm feeling fills your body and a scroll of fine parchment appears in your hands.
The cold winds of never rush through the void, whipping the card from your hand and  returning you to the mortal realm.

 

Lowbie Quest

I've also been working on levelling a second barbarian. It's up to level 37 now so it shouldn't be too long until it reaches level 50. While levelling around level 20 I found a little quest in the Tower of Zenothir that I hadn't seen before. It involved getting an item from the Coral Depths that isn't too hard to find.

Madame Juneo's Sightroom
Exits: east
A gleaming crystal ball sits here, waiting for you to examine it.
A buxom woman narrows her eyes at you.
Juneo is shrouded in flowing shadow and light.
Madame Juneo's all-seeing eyes turn to stare into your soul
Madame Juneo says 'A seeker! Welcome to the gateway to the Future, traveller.'
A slight smile twists the Fortune-teller's lips.
Madame Juneo says 'I see we are both seeking...perhaps, friend, we can aid each other?'
Madame Juneo says 'I can see in your eyes, you want to say yes.....'

> say yes
You say 'yes'
Madame Juneo nods knowingly.
Madame Juneo says 'I knew a seeker such as yourself would be eager to aid me.'
Madame Juneo thinks briefly.
Madame Juneo says 'I have an illustrious client...I cannot say who, I'm afraid, but he is quite powerful.'
Madame Juneo says 'He has an...interesting, shall we say...curse upon him.
Madame Juneo says 'I have delved into the mysteries, and have found a way to relieve his suffering.'
 
Madame Juneo says 'Alas, my otherworldly sources say that the success depends'
Madame Juneo says 'upon locating a very rare regent... a dark black pearl.'
Madame Juneo says 'Bring me this pearl from the depths where it lies, and I shall aid you in return.'
Madame Juneo makes a mystical gesture of farewell.

> give pearl june
You give a dark black pearl to Juneo.
Madame Juneo looks over the pearl's shining surface.
Madame Juneo says 'A perfect pearl...you have done myself--and my client--a great service today.'
Madame Juneo says 'I must reward you. Be calm, this shall not harm you.'
Madame Juneo chants briefly over her crystal ball.
 
Power flows through you! You gain 50,000 experience!!!
 
Madame Juneo sits back, exhausted.
Madame Juneo says 'I must rest now. Thank you again for your help.'
Madame Juneo turns away.

 The quest isn't too difficult and most people go levelling in Coral Depths so collecting the pearl isn't taking you too far out of the way.

Home Ownership

I have managed to snag myself an apartment. It was a bargain for only 30 million gold coins. As a bonus it is on board the Meridia meaning I can use it for free transport around the various ports of the Realms of Despair. It's not much but it's home:

Vilexur's Apartment
A room surrounds you, filled with the dirt and filth of previous tenants.
A spray painted frame of the last tenant can be seen on the floor in a far corner.
Exits: northeast

I have been considering starting my own sect for my various alts but at the same time I need to save my gold coins for when I have enough glory for a prestige class.

 

Bug Hunting

Speaking of trying to make gold, one of the newer quests I've seen has gold coins as a reward. Basically it involves hunting down golden bugs with a nice gold reward. I've found vampires work well on them:

DYING>A golden bug's deathrattle fills the air as you drain its life...
Your suspiric grasp jars a golden bug!
A golden bug is DEAD!!
A golden bug screams furiously as it falls to the ground in a heap!
You get 5090000 gold coins from the corpse of a golden bug.
The corpse of a golden bug holds:
     Nothing.

You can never have too many gold coins in this game.

Grinding Away and the Wizinvisible Hand

Lately I've been very quiet on the Realms of Despair for a variety of reasons. When I have been on I've mostly been working on making gold to finish dressing my druid. Grinding for gold isn't the most fun part of the game and I try to avoid it when I can. The catch is with the druid I want to put on it a Bone Helm of Ryuukoroshi, a Breastplate of the Ravager and a Shield of the Ravager which to make adds up to a total of 340 million gold coins.

To make gold the most obvious place is Mithril Hall - between the mobs in the gorge and Midas touch on the items from the mobs like Drizzt Do'Urden, Wulfgar and Bruenor Battlehammer you can make around 6-7 million coins per repop. With a few well placed characters in other areas you can almost double that amount. Either way though it is one of the less fun parts of the game. Sure you could run other mobs and sell the equipment to make the gold but in some ways running another mob and then finding someone to buy the item can be even more of a challenge.

Between repops while golding gives you plenty of time to think and read. One of my favourite sites to read is Imaginary Realities. It's something I'm adding a link to on this site after I finish writing this post. Imaginary Realities always has interesting ideas on how muds work and what others have done successfully. It is also a way for people to spread the news about what is great about their mud. Realms of Despair even gets a mention in an article by Richard “KaVir” Woolcock titled What Do I Do Now? where he says:

Of course the first step was to make sure newbies knew that a “what” command was available, as it’s only intuitive once you know about it! I therefore decided to borrow an idea from Realms of Despair, and include the information in the prompt:  

It would be great to see someone from Realms of Despair write something for Imaginary Realities and Kavir's article has some great ideas I'd love to expand on some other time. "1001 things to do in the Realms of Despair" is an idea I have for another blog post...  But for now I wanted to briefly discuss the RoD economy and some ideas from Griatch's article titled A Case for Bartering in Multiplayer Games

One of the most often debated topics by long time players of the game is about the economy - just look at these posts about it by Tharius and Xenapan. One common thread is that gold has little use. While it is needed for potions and repairs it has few uses besides creating some more expensive items and losing it in gold sinks like housing or the billions spent on the Festivus raffle. As a result other items are being used in the MUD's barter economy.

What I'd like to see is some sort of NPC that players can give items to and set a trade price for in gold or equipment. When another player makes an appropriate trade for the equipment up for grabs then they would hand over the items and store the trade until the first player logs back. This could make trades easier, safer, anonymous and save players from having to go to the effort of scripting trade bots. It would take some thought and coding skills but is doable.

On the plus side I think the Council of Elders does a pretty good job of staying out of the economy and letting the Wizinvisible Hand take care of things like inflation. One of my favourite things is when you realise that a particular player or group has a monopoly on a particular item through their skills/secrets/teamwork and encourages others to have a go with the attitude of "If they can do it so can we"

My other favourite part of the Realms of Despair economy is this:

>rent
There is no rent here.  Just save and quit.

Which is what I'm doing now.

Russian Roulette

Lately I've been doing a lot of teleporting about trying to hit some rooms in Vast Horizons. There are still some unsolved mysteries in that area. I've found the most reliable and safest way to reach the area is to stock up on Zombie candy from Dragon Cult and then heading to the Otherland area before teleporting away. I do this as teleporting from the Otherland can only lead to teleporting to Wild Tundra, Cursed Lands, Sea of Sorrows or Vast Horizons. Oh and occasionally this room in Knights of the Round:

A Nice Place To Teleport Into
You're in a room that isn't really here. So, ignore it.
Exits: none

Besides trying to get the various totem items for different characters one of the best and easy rooms to play with is the Drunken Risks. Here you can play a game of Russian Roulette with a chance to make some easy gold:

Drunken Risks
An eyeball coating film of hazy smoke lingers permanently in the air, the negligible lighting accentuating the effect. Blink as you will, the view will not improve any. Tables lay scattered about the room, and bottles are everywhere, most of them empty. Seasoned looking groups of men sit at the tables, some speaking in hushed voices, others erupting into bawdy laughter.
Exits: south
(Red Aura) A hulking man glares about the room.
Vassily shimmers beneath an aura of dark energy.

> s
Liquid Luck
Exits: north east
A hazy pallor of smoke rises to the roof, creating a foggy haze throughout the dimly lit room. A chunky wooden table of irregular shape sits in the corner of the room, surrounded by a cluster of scratched and mismatched chairs. A clear bottle rests on the table, surrounded by a set of small glass tumblers. Even an optimistic person would have trouble viewing this bottle as 'half full' since the liquid line runs well below an estimated half way mark.
(Red Aura) A man with half an ear sidles up to you with a sneer on his face.
Mikhail wonders 'Interested in some fun?'

> say yes
You say 'yes'
Mikhail says 'We have a game in the next room going that we like to share with the new folks.'
Mikhail says 'It only costs 50000 gold pieces to join in the thrills and fun.'

> give 50000 coins mik
You give 50,000 coins to Mikhail.
Mikhail says 'Fine then, give this token to Demetry, and he'll get you set up.'
Mikhail gives you a roulette game token.

> e
Roulette, Russian Style
A table is nestled into this far corner of the room, and seated at this table are a wild assortment of hard looking men. Each man has probably consumed the equivalent of a bottle and a half of vodka, yet despite the slightly red eyes, it is not immediately evident. Everyone in this room smokes, and the air is thick with it. As strangers approach, the conversation quiets, and all eyes are upon the newcomer.
Exits: west
(Red Aura) A bald man with a long beard rises from the table.

Roulette, Russian Style
Exits: west
(Red Aura) A bald man with a long beard rises from the table.
> look demetry
All the hair from Demetry's head appears to have migrated south to his chin, which sports a full reddish hued beard. Always the wheeler and dealer of the crowd, Demetry loves to gamble. He'll even gamble with his life. Or yours.
Demetry is in perfect health.

> give token demetry
You give a roulette game token to Demetry.
Demetry raises an eyebrow at you.
Demetry says 'When my father was a lad, a wizard showed him a curious weapon. It can fire projectiles a great distance with a loud bang.'
Demetry says 'When the wizard left town, he gave my father the weapon, so he could clear the fields of those rabid gophers more easily.'
Demetry says 'The weapon has only six charges, and then it must be recharged again to work.'
Demetry says 'My father was a popular man in his day, and had many friends. When everyone discovered he had this weapon, his popularity increased.'
Demetry says 'One day, he was sitting around with some of his buddies, and they made up a game of chance, whereupon the weapon was given only one charge.'
Demetry says 'Then he and his friends would pass it around and point it at their own heads. '
Demetry says 'If the weapon did not fire, then that meant the Gods were smiling favourably.'
Demetry says 'If the weapon did fire, then it meant that the person had no favour in the eyes of the Gods and could not continue living.'
Demetry says 'We call this game 'Russian Roulette' after my father, who was a big gambling man.'
Demetry says 'If you would like to try this game out to see if you have the Gods' favour, tell me to show you the weapon.'

> tell demetry show me the weapon
You tell Demetry 'show me the weapon'
Demetry removes a curious weapon from the table and gives it to you.
You point it at your head... and pull the trigger!
*Click*
Nothing happens.
Demetry gives you 10,000,000 coins.
Demetry says 'Take that as your reward.'
Demetry grumbles.
Demetry exclaims 'Now get out of my sight!'
You return to Darkhaven with a smug, yet relieved, feeling. 

Of course you can't win them all:

> tell demetry show me the weapon
You tell Demetry 'show me the weapon'
Demetry removes a curious weapon from the table and gives it to you.
You point it at your head... and pull the trigger!
*Click*
(a huge shield of oak gets damaged)
..Everything begins to fade to black.

You feel yourself leaving your body... rising up into the air, you feel more free than you have ever felt before...

However, before your deity comes to collect your soul, you feel a strange pulling sensation as strange and colorful mists swirl around you...

Overall I'd guess that the chances of success here are about 50%. If you lose you will need to supplicate for your corpse but overall it is definitely worth taking the chance if you teleport here. If you happen to have half a dozen characters teleporting around at the same time then you can hit this room fairly regularly and make a little gold while trying to solve other puzzles.

The Deck of Many Things

One of the most mysterious items in the game is The Deck of Many Things. This item can bring all sorts of unpredictable results - some positive and others negative. If you're the first person to find it following a reboot there will be a key and card in it. I've had a handful of run ins with the deck, but today while wandering around the Village of Edo I foundd it with a key in it. When this happens you have to make two decisions - "Do I pull the card or not?" and "If I pull what character do I pull it with?" My decision today was to pull it with my vampire alt Viledri... The results were:

A Path in the Rice Fields of Edo
Exits: north south southeast southwest
The Deck of Many Things lies in wait for a brave soul.
The Deck of Many Things says 'If you can find a card within me, you might be lucky enough to draw something of value.
However, once you submit to chance, you put yourself at the mercy of the cards.
The Deck of Many Things winks suggestively.

>g key deck
You get the Key to the Deck of Many Things from the Deck of Many Things.
The Key to the Deck shudders menacingly.
You drop the Key to the Deck of Many Things.
Vl'aresch gives you one gold coin for your sacrifice of the Key to the Deck of Many Things.
Be Forewarned : You could lose all that you own.
Viledri has been given the chance to draw from the Deck of Many Things. 

>exam deck
You take a closer look at the Deck of Many Things on the ground...
The deck takes the appearance of a very finely wrought and veneered wooden card case, yet the strong magical aura surrounding it offers proof that this artifact is not simply what it appears to be.
The Deck of Many Things appears to be full.
The Deck of Many Things contains:
     a card 

 >g card deck
You get a card from the Deck of Many Things.
A mystical being appears and points at you. Your senses reel as you are flung through the void to another place.
The card twists and wriggles in your hands.
A great flash of light envelopes the room, blinding you momentarily.
When your vision returns, you see that the Deck of Many Things lies before you once more.
It is highly recommended that you examine the deck before drawing from it. When you are ready, simply take the card.

>exam deck
You take a closer look at The Deck of Many Things on the ground...
The deck takes the appearance of a very finely wrought and veneered wooden card case, yet the strong magical aura surrounding it offers proof that this artifact is not simply what it appears to be.
The Deck of Many Things appears to be full.
The Deck of Many Things contains:
     a card
The card contained within the deck can bring you great joy and happiness, or ultimate peril and despair. Either way, having already placed yourself in the power of the Deck, the only option would seem to be to draw the card and face your fate. 

>g card deck
You get a card from The Deck of Many Things.
You see that you have drawn the Wheel of Fortune.
The card holds your gaze and try as you might you cannot look away.
As the wheel moves inexorably towards its final position, you realise that the tiny figure depicted clinging to it is a perfectly drawn illustration of yourself.
The wheel stops, leaving you sitting securely atop its highest point.
You are filled with elation as you realise Fortune favours you this day.
A large bag of gold appears in your hands.
The cold winds of never rush through the void, whipping the card from your grasp and returning you to the mortal realm.
 

The end result was I got given 20 million gold coins from the deck. I'm not totally sure if that is how much I made as I don't know how much I had before I took the card. While 20 million (or was it 30?) is not a huge amount of gold, I'm happy with that results as I have had negative pulls before or had to sit and wait an hour for an immortal about level 57 to log on and take the next step without any success.

Overall I enjoy finding the Deck. It's something you can search for on your own with a chance of getting some real positives out of it. Plus it certainly adds some excitement to the game.