Tree of Life

In my last post I mentioned that one of my favourite levelling areas is the Tree of Life. Almost every player has levelled at least one character in that area but not many know about the Helm of Lightning that can be made in that area. One of the first mobs that you come across in the area is the Lightning Dragon.

Before the lightning gate
A giant gate formed entirely of electricity blocks the cavern's mouth,
filling the cave with an unholy blue light. Bright white fingers of
lightning grope about the cave hungrily, searching for those who have
encroached unduly into this unnatural room. A chill wind rips the air
through the gaps in the bars of light, gusting the burnt smell of ozone
about the crevasse.
Exits: [north] south
A huge dragon-shaped field of energy stands watch over the gate.
The Lightning Dragon is surrounded by cascading torrents of energy.
The Lightning Dragon sneers at you in contempt.
The Lightning Dragon exclaims 'Halt Vilexur!  Thou hast no business in the domain of the gods!'
The Lightning Dragon says 'Thou shalt not pass these gates uncontested...'
The Lightning Dragon looms menacingly, better run for cover!

When killed like most mobs in the game it sometimes pop body parts. These can be cooked to eat or used in some nephandi spells. The difference with this mob is that when it pops a head it looks like any other mob's head but they do not decay like most parts do. Since these heads do not decay it is sometimes possible just before reboot time to see a dozen lightning dragon heads on the floor of this room. To make the Helm of Lightning you will need one head of the lightning dragon and 15 million gold coins.

Once you have both of these make your way to the top of the tree. Once here you will need to kill the rainbow dragon followed by the essence of magic. For both of these you will want sanctuary and shockshield spells on. You will have to kill both of these using only one character as the kill blow transports the character through. After killing the essence of magic you end up in a little part of the tree called Rain's house. At first there are 3 rooms but a secret room can be found below the first one. To get here you will need some sort of pass door spell. From here be careful as to the south there is a death trap but you will want to go north to get to this room:

Northern end of the cellar
Faint light from a hooded lantern fills the room, revealing a simple table
with a tattered leather bound journal upon it and a single often-mended
chair. Although the floor and the cobwebs which are festooned from the
ceiling are covered in dust, the table and chair are not, showing recent
signs of use.
Exits: south
A twisted and disfigured man cowers in the corner
A disfigured man is shrouded in flowing shadow and light.
A disfigured man cowers in the corner at the sight of you.
A disfigured man exclaims 'Don't hurt me please!  Please don't hurt me!'
A disfigured man bursts into tears.
A disfigured man tells you 'You won't hurt me will you?'
A disfigured man cowers in the corner from claustrophobia.

 When you look at the disfigured man you will see this:

His twisted body covered in rags, his tortured eyes stare back blankly from
under a tangle of matted hair. Running his hands over his filthy hair, he
wanders about the room, muttering to himself under his breath.
A disfigured man is in perfect health.
You peek at his inventory:
     Nothing.

All you have to do then is give this man the head of the lightning dragon with 15 million gold coins on you:

 You give the head of the lightning dragon to a disfigured man.
A disfigured man says, 'ooOOooOOooOOoo.'
A disfigured man says 'Ahh, I see, you want one of those....'
A disfigured man winks suggestively at you.
A disfigured man says 'It's going to cost you though, I only did free work for my master...'
You give 15,000,000 coins to a disfigured man.
A disfigured man gives you Helm of Lightning.

 The helm probably isn't worth the 15 million gold as shown below:

Object 'Helm of Lightning' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 45 armor, weight 5.
Locations it can be worn:  head
Special properties:  glow hum metal
Genres allowed:  rogue fighter aberrant shaman
Alignments allowed:  evil good
This armor has a gold value of 250000.
Armor class is 16 of 16.
Affects hp by 50.
Affects damage roll by 5.
Affects strength by -1.

On the plus side it has 50hp's which is good for a vampire or fighter. 5 damage roll is pretty standard for head equipment for an avatar. Being level 45 it isn't bad for the last few levels before level 50. The -1 strength isn't nice however.

 I've used this helm on evil fighter types before the Edo helm came into the game. For an evil vampire it's not too bad but there are other pieces of headwear that are gettable without too much effort. As for a good vampire - I've never had one of these before but may be an option. Either way it's an item not many people know about - it isn't even mentioned on Rodpedia. It does leave me with one question though - "Who is the disfigured man's master?"

Levelling

I haven't posted on here for a few months due to not actually being on Realms of Despair lately. This has been due to the usual business of reality and frustratingly when I have had the time to play the game has had problems with its server. This is quite unusual in the history of the game as over the last 20 years there has rarely been as much downtime as of late. Thankfully the busy immortals of the realms have restored the sever.

In the mean time when I have been on I've been working on levelling a new thief. I already have 2 level 50 thieves - one a neutral aligned half-troll and the other a neutral aligned pixie. Thieves are handy classes that can do damage and dodge hits well. The aim of the new thief though is to have a devout dwarf since I have gained some decent devout thief equipment I can't use.

Overall I have levelled about 30 characters up to level 50. One of the most commonly asked questions by new players (and experienced players) is "Where is a good place to level?" This all depends on how well equipped you are, what you are levelling and what characters do you have to back up with. I level with a devout cleric and a path of balance mage nearby to do heals, spell ups and to immobilize the necessary mobs. Before I had these characters it could still be done with a lot more purple potions from New Darkhaven. My personal favourite areas to level in are:

1 - 5: Academy
5 - 15: Shattered Refuge, Land of the Fire Newts
15 - 25: Darkhaven Art Gallery, Coral Depths
25 - 35: Tower of Enlightenment
35 - 45: Revelation City, Tree of Life, Cursed Lands
45 - 50: Kings Castle

I often level my characters with an evil alignment though not many other people do this. I still find it easy enough to equip them evilly. Others also often use other areas but the above are usually empty so as to make it less competitive.

Crucifixion

Over the Easter break I've been playing around in the Valley of Crucifixion. This is an area that gets little attention with very few people running mobs in there - why I'm not sure. I haven't been to this place in a long time and was trying to refresh my memory on it. The entrance to the area is one of the scariest parts as seen below:

The Monument of Remembrance
Not far from where scholars uncovered the mysterious monoliths of the Ziggurat,they found a monument of considerable age. At first thought to be contemporary with them, closer examination found it was made far later, by an artist who could not have been alive to witness the actual events but still knew them well enough to depict them in stone. The events in question are those that followed in the wake of the striking of the tower of sin. In striking detail, it shows the mythical Valley of Crucifixion, where the enemies of the divine will were punished for their lack of faith. The location of this monument, according to information available in Darkhaven, should be here. But perhaps the Shattering did render the old map obsolete, for here it is nowhere to be found.
Exits: west
(Glowing) Sinister green energy swirls ominously where stood the monument for the crucified.

>enter
Sickening green engulfs you, and your senses panic as you rush towards certain death...
...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 the chilling grasp of skeletal hands, carrying you to another plane of existence... 

There's nothing like making you feel like you've just ran straight into a death trap to get your pulse going and let you know this is a dangerous area. Once inside there are two options of what to do first - solve the maze that leads to later parts of the area or kill the first mob - Angra. Today I tried to take on Angra.

To get to Angra you need to head in a northern direction from the start of the area. There area couple of rooms with a cross in them to mark the way. Once you get to Angra she's an aggressive mob so be prepared. My method of killing uses a thief. Angra looks like this:

Within the Pale
Nippy and moist is the haze, granting but an arm's length of bleary vision.
A deceitful surrounding it is, where the hand reaches for shadows but catches
nothing, and the foot trips over unseen obstacles. A peaceful stroll through
a calm winter, or a treacherous tightrope over a bottomless abyss - within the
pale, there is no way of telling. However, to picture anything but a perilous
setting would be unwarranted optimism in this Otherlandian realm.
Exits: north east south west
(Translucent) A shameful existence is crying tears of radiant silver.
Angra, the denigrated spectre glows with an aura of divine radiance.
Angra, the denigrated spectre is ensphered by shards of glistening ice.
Angra, the denigrated spectre jars you!
>look angra

In the haze exists a phantom sentinel, shapeless and vague yet strong in
its presence. A shameful spirit, stirred into violent anger by hopelessness
and sorrow. Within it something is held captive, hidden under a thick mass of
tentacles. Denigration they are, impenetrable and strong. Peace of mind shall
remain their prisoner, for none there are who care for freeing her.
Angra, the denigrated spectre is in perfect health. 

Angra can hit quite hard, is tunnelled to 1 character, can't be fled/recalled from and can't be circled at the start. The one trick with her is if you go link-dead and then reconnect it takes you back to the start of the area. This way you can heal up, recall and repair if needed but the big advantage is when you get back to her room you can start circling her which does hit her hard. The actual fight I find similar to trying to kill Justice in the Tower of Enlightenment solo including the gouge attacks. After a while you eventually get the kill as follows:

Angra, the denigrated spectre's blast of frost scratches you.
Your pierce rips Angra, the denigrated spectre!
Your pierce tears Angra, the denigrated spectre!
Angra, the denigrated spectre is DEAD!!
The spectre dissolves into nothing, leaving the woman inside naked in the cold.
A few last tears fall from Ahania's face before she too fades into nothingness.
Ahania says 'Farval, min alskade ...'
One tear turns into an orb of silver before softly landing in the snow ...
You see no corpse here.

 I did a search to find out what "Farval, min alskade..." translated to English and found it means "Farewell my beloved" in Swedish. It adds to the feeling of the area as a sad story (it gets a lot worse later on in the area...) The item you get from killing her is:

You take a closer look at a silver orb of remembrance in inventory...
The silver tears of the denigrated froze into orbs of remembrance, floating
effortlessly back and forth through history, imbued with the wisdom of the
ages. To carry one is to be beyond this life, outside the range of alpha and
omega. Even death, they say, is a mere inconvenience.

Object 'a silver orb of remembrance' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 50 light, weight 3.
Special properties:  glow
This light has a gold value of 10000.
Affects hp by 10.
Affects strength by -1.
Affects mana by 25.
Affects wisdom by 2.

As a light it is nothing special but the item is needed for later in the area...

Overall I find VoC an interesting area. There is more to it that this and I'll have more to post about it in the future.

Lowbie Quests

After taking a break for a while my low level thief that I used to buy cheap potions deleted so I started a replacement today. I called him Vioby since his main job is buying violet potions. One thing I enjoy about the lower levels is there are a number of low level quests available with different rewards that are easy to miss. I found two interesting quests I hadn't seen before - the level five quest from the spirit guide in the academy and one from Dave the bard in Jed's tavern 8s, 3w from DH[].

The level five quest from the spirit guide was this:

You raise your hand in response.
The guide says to you 'You need to learn to acquire beneficial equipment while
'exploring. Not only keep your knowledge broad enough for your level when you
'are ready to gain another but also gather the items that you can use and that
'are doing the most for you. Look everywhere when exploring. Open containers
'and look in them. Try the consider command at every interesting mob. You
'should be able to easily explore Isle of the Monkeys. It is a small area. Get
'a woolen blanket there and bring it to me. It is simple.

So I travelled to the Isle of the Monkeys, tracked down Captain Eldyr killed him and got this item:

Object 'a woolen blanket' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 3 armor, weight 1.
Locations it can be worn:  about
Special properties:  none
This armor has a gold value of 50.
Armor class is 3 of 3.
Affects damage roll by 1.
Affects affected_by by detect_hidden.

After returning to the academy I gave the blanket to the spirit guide and the result was:

You give a woolen blanket to Spirit Guide Selmanovic.
Spirit Guide Selmanovic nods to you and says "Ahhh, yes..."
Spirit Guide Selmanovic tells you 'This is the right blanket, Yes.'
You gain 1400 experience.
Spirit Guide Selmanovic gives you a heavy woolen blanket.

When identified the item I received in return was:

Object 'a heavy woolen blanket' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 5 armor, weight 1.
Locations it can be worn:  about
Special properties:  none
This armor has a gold value of 50.
Owner:  Vioby
Armor class is 6 of 6.
Affects damage roll by 1.
Affects affected_by by detect_hidden.

 Notice that it is a slightly improved version of the previous blanket. The second quest from Dave in Jed's tavern starts when you walk into his room.

A Dark Corner Room
Exits: east
A pensive soul sits at a table, randomly questioning his liquor bottle.
Dave the introspective bard tells you 'So, Vioby. If you must be taking up space in this room, please sit down, at least.'
 

So I then sit down. Sit as a command only seems to have an affect in a handful of rooms besides here. The first time I ever saw sit doing something was in a room in the Desert of Despair. Next happens:

You sit down.

Dave the introspective bard tells you 'I could tell you quite a story, Vioby. I

once ventured with a band of eager thieves into the stronghold of the Hobgoblin King.'

Dave the introspective bard tells you 'We went in to steal the hobgoblins' gold. We were led by a brave warrior, he could kill three or more hobgoblins in a fight. Our thief only needed to take on one hobgoblin at a time, the warrior was so strong.'

Dave the introspective bard tells you 'That left me free to navigate to the Hobgoblin King, and find the hidden treasure I had heard about. The warrior fought, the thief was able to open locked doors and I knew about the gold.'

Dave the introspective bard tells you 'When we were surrounded by the hobgoblin soldiers, though, the cowardly thief ran. He and my leader were both killed. They kept me alive as a trophy to give to the king. I was enslaved and forced to work alongside the miners.'

Dave the introspective bard tells you 'I was forced into hours of labour that no human should be subjected to. But I listened to the miners. The miners sang songs while they worked. They chanted songs about the centuries old conflict with the gnomes.'

Dave the introspective bard tells you 'I listened to their songs and I learned the secrets of the hobgoblins. The gnomes had a secret weapon. I know the gnomes' secret, the hobgoblins sang about it.'

Dave the introspective bard smiles at you.

Dave looks away, apparently aware of something you don't see.

Dave the introspective bard tells you 'I know the secrets. The secrets of the hobgoblins and the gnomes. I know the secrets.'

Dave the introspective bard tells you 'Anyway. If you are joining me, you could buy me another winter green ale.'

 

The winter green ale can be bought from just a couple of rooms away in the tavern. Giving Dave the ale results in:

You give "Black" Jack's Green Winter Ale to Dave the introspective bard.
Dave looks at green.
Dave the introspective bard tells you 'The gnomes scientists can make a liniment, a paste that they apply to their skin to make themselves invulnerable to the hobgoblins. They keep some of it around and the whole village is ready to defend against attacks.'
Dave the introspective bard tells you 'Apparently the gnome children go out and kill fire ants to collect the blood, I have seen the flasks that they use. If you were to collect fire ant blood from the tunnels below the academy, the gnomes might let you have some of the salve.'
Dave the introspective bard tells you 'So anyway, here.  Have the flask, take it, and I thank you for the ale.'
Dave the introspective bard gives you an empty flask for collecting blood.
 

After killing the third fire ant:

Your stab rends a Fire Ant!
A Fire Ant is DEAD!!
You receive 581 experience points.
As the fire ant collapses, you collect enough of its blood to fill your flask.
Now you must take the filled flask and find the Gnome Scientist that Dave spoke
of.
A Fire Ant catches its guts in its hands as they pour through its fatal wound!
You can't carry that many items.
The corpse of a Fire Ant holds:
     340 gold coins

The gnome scientist is found in the Shattered Refuge not far from DH. The result of giving the flask to the scientist is:

Breaks in the trees
Exits: north east south west
A scientist wanders around deep in thought.
A gnome scientist says to you, 'I see you've been gathering plenty of blood from
 the fire ants.'
A gnome scientist says to you, 'If you give it to me, I will gladly share the sa
lve I can make.'
You give a flask filled with fire ant blood to a gnome scientist.
A gnome scientist thanks you heartily.
A gnome scientist says to you, 'This will be of great use to the gnomes. Please
take a sample with our gratitude.'
You have gained 9050 experience points.
A gnome scientist stops using a wicker basket.
A gnome scientist gives you a wicker basket.
You take a closer look at a wicker basket in inventory...
You see nothing special.
A wicker basket appears to be nearly empty.
A wicker basket contains:
     black and red paste (5)
 

The paste in the basket is kind of handy:

Object 'black and red paste' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 6 salve, weight 1.
Special properties:  none
This salve has a gold value of 12200.
Has 7(7) applications of level 29:
  'fireshield'  'dragonskin'

It casts fireshield and these days there aren't many fireshield items out there since they stopped them being brewable. Either way I got some handy experience out of it for my lowbie and found a couple of little known quests along the way.

Undead (still)

It's been a long time since my last post on here. While there are many reasons for this (real life responsibilities, other games and having a hard time getting started writing) I'm hoping to be posting a lot more updates now. Bottom line is I'm still an undead vampire with more stories to tell...

One piece of recent news that is causing concern is the change to the structure of guilds. The end result is the Guild of Vampires only has months left in it's current form. The plan is amalgamate the Guild of Vampires with the cleric, paladin and nephandi guilds. I have mixed feelings on this. I'll have to wait and see how it all works out before planning my next move...

Cleric equipment.

I haven't posted an update for a while on what I've been doing in the Realms. I spent a couple of weeks working on getting my new cleric equipped. Currently it's dressed as follows:

You are using:
<used as light>      the sigil of A'enari
<worn on finger>     the shade ring
<worn on finger>     the shade ring
<worn around neck>   (Magical) (Glowing) (Humming) scales of alpha & omega
<worn around neck>   (Magical) (Glowing) (Humming) scales of alpha & omega
<worn on body>       (Magical) the Aegis
<worn on head>       the cloth hood of the Chosen
<worn on legs>       the cloth leggings of the Chosen
<worn on feet>       (Magical) moccasins
<worn on hands>      claws of the mole
<worn on arms>       silver dragonhide armguards
<worn as shield>     (Glowing) (Humming) shield of the Valkyrie
<worn about body>    the cloth robe of the Chosen
<worn about waist>   (Magical) (Glowing) the platinum band of the Draco Viridis
<worn around wrist>  (Glowing) (Humming) a Bracer of Light
<worn around wrist>  Queen Guenevere's bracelet
<wielded>            (Magical) (Glowing) The Dragon Claw of Legend
<held>               (Humming) the Storm
<worn on ears>       (Magical) a crystalline teardrop
<worn on eyes>       the shades
<worn on back>       a thick piece of lizard hide
<worn over face>     [nothing]
<worn around ankle>  a turqoise anklet
<worn around ankle>  a blue, glassy chain

All fairly easy to get and cheap equipment but for a cleric it does enough to get it equipped well enough to be useful. The most interesting item there is the claws of the mole. This is the gnome totem item. To get it you need to teleport into the gnome totem room in Vast Horizons and then accept the totem item. I was lucky this time and landed in the right room in less than 20 minutes. To get some of the other totem items I've spent 6 hours teleporting around trying to get it. The stats on it are:

>exam claws
You take a closer look at claws of the mole in inventory...
A set of thick, shovel shaped claws look to be the perfect digging tool, and
would be nasty if used in a fight.
As you look more closely, you notice that it is in superb condition.
It appears to be within or below your level range.

Object 'claws of the mole' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 50 armor, weight 2.
Locations it can be worn:  hands
Special properties:  none
Races allowed:  Gnome
This armor has a gold value of 40000.
Owner:  Charix
Armor class is 12 of 12.
Affects backstab by 10.
Affects damage roll by 5.
Affects mana by 15.
Affects susceptible:blindness by 10%
Affects disarm by 20.
Affects carrying capacity by 25.

Not bad for a free item. Besides working on the equipping the cleric I've done a few other projects including levelling and equipping a warrior, killing a few mobs (including revenge on Julajimus!!!) and some other secret projects...

Levelling

Been working on levelling a cleric for the last month. One thing that has amazed me is how many experienced players don't realise that there are mini quests available for levels 2-5 in the academy from the Spirit Guide. The level 2 quest I got was this:

You raise your hand in response.
The Spirit Guide says to you 'You believe yourself to be ready for a test.'
'Since you are level 2 we will keep this one easy.'
'In the garden of The Halls of Knowledge is a fountain. The
'fountain features a statue of a couple. The couple's names are
'inscribed on the fountain's plaque. So, Charix. What is her name?'

You say 'Mariyah'
Spirit Guide Selmanovic nods in agreement with you.
Spirit Guide Selmanovic tells you 'Good, you've seen it. You're able to notice m
ore than the casual explorer.'
You gain 400 experience.

Easy 400 experience points. I was a little disappointed that my level 5 quest did not involve receiving any equipment but it's always worth a shot. A bit later on I tried out another quest I'd never done before in the northern trade route starting at Mayera.

Inside a Small Chapel
Made from logs and painted a white color, this small chapel was built to aid
the sick and dying as they traveled through the forest. A few cots have been
set up around the room, each with a thick grey blanket and a small pillow. A
barrel filled with water rests in one corner of the room, with strips of cloth
in a neat pile beside it. A fireplace at the other end, provides both warmth
and comfort.
Exits: northwest
A woman tends to the wounds of the sick and dying.
Mayera is shrouded in flowing shadow and light.
A small girl lies in one of the cots, her face deathly pale.
Mayera smiles at you.
Mayera says 'Are you the one sent here to help me?'
Mayera says 'That poor child is dying, I can't leave her alone'
Mayera wets a strip of cloth and places it on the girl's forehead.
Mayera says 'We must hurry if we are to save her, she's burning up.'
Mayera says 'Just nod if you are able to help me'

You nod solemnly.
Mayera breathes a sigh of relief.
Mayera says 'To make a remedy to cure the girl, I need 5 items.'
Mayera says 'bay leaves, beholder candy, black cohosh, a head of
Mayera says 'lettuce and basilisk salve. Please hurry and bring all'
Mayera says 'of these back to me. If you aren't sure of a certain'
Mayera says 'item, just ask me about it.'
Mayera gives you a hug and wishes you good luck.

You give a small bottle of basilisk saliva to Mayera.
You give beholder candy to Mayera.
You give bay leaves to Mayera.
You give a head of lettuce to Mayera.
You give black cohosh to Mayera.
Mayera puts all the ingredients into a large bowl and mixes them.
A flash of blinding white light fills the room for a moment.
Mayera turns to the girl and applies the ointment.
Mayera says 'I have something for you in return for all your help'
Mayera drops a thick, white salve.
Mayera says 'A little something to aid you in your travels.'
Mayera thanks you again and returns to watch over the girl.

It was quite an easy quest to do though I did not know where a couple of items came from off the top of my head but I managed to find track them down without too much effort.

In the end my cleric reached level 50 and ended up with a 620hp and 379mana base - not too bad. Next job is equipping it.

V.