Cooooool! I won't bore you with the details of my getting my BLK up to 12. Instead, I'll bore you with the news that Tulga announced development of an Expansion to Horizons. One thing that caught my eye was:

Horizons: The Settlements will feature both player-crafted and developer-designed content...

How cool is that? Anyway, head on over and check it out!

...well, fonder certainly isn't the right word here. Back from my latest business trip, friends convinced me to try the wedding quest again.

What a frustrating quest. First, since I got my blacksmithing skills up to 21, apparently I'm going to be charged for every portal (or nearly every portal) I use. At 42 or 84c a pop, and forty bazillion portals for this quest, it adds up, and becomes a quick drain on the pocketbook.

I get a little farther in the quest this time. I made it back to the prospective groom who sends me to the portal near his uncle's place. Well, after reading and re-reading his words, I have no clue who his uncle is. After a reading of the forums, turns out the uncle is actually his 'uncle in law to be'. Well, geez. Like that's easy to figure out from a name. So tonight, I logged in, headed to the portal, made it to the wedding grounds, talk to a guy there who wants to get an orb of truth to give to the groom, just in case. He sends me with a box back to the uncles to trade for an orb. Great, more portalling.

Head back to the uncles...and they won't talk to me. Two just tell me they're busy, and one just waves at me. To be honest, I'm happy for those folks that had no problems doing this quest. I think it just hates me.

Add to that the horrible framerates I was getting the last couple of days, and I just about gave up. My friends convinced me to stay tho, so...

I recreated my char over on Order, since that's where my monarch restarted, and where another friend has joined us. I started the tutorial quests, which I can breeze through, and make it to NT. Now, to find my friends, and begin fresh.

*rant on* Oh, and isn't Order a RolePlaying Server? I saw a name there that I need to figure out how to report. It was particular offensive, even for a non-RP server, but esepcially on an RP server. Why don't people have better imaginations? Shock is fine for rock stars, but keep it off my servers, please. *end of rant*

But after the events of tonight, I'm really not too thrilled.

STILL working on the wedding quest. I found the caterer. He sent me to find the music guy (her cousin's brother-in-law). Who sent me to the union rep for the musicians. Who sent me to the brides uncles.

Who sent me back to the mother-in-law...at which point I discovered that the uncles had NOT given me the bids. So, the quest can't advance. I head back to the uncles, and they tell me...they're busy, and to go away.

So, I spent probably 2 hours running around the countryside. About the only good thing I learned out of this experience was that my map window wasn't wide enough. I didn't know Horizons had a coordinate system until I opened the window a little wider.

I deleted the quests. I may try to run them again sometime (unless they go away with the next update), but for now - it's back to blacksmithing.

Just so happened the other day that three dragons in our guild, one of each stage of development, were all in Bristugo at the same time. It struck me as cute how little Khaleph is compared to Nisse'a, with Wyldfire in the middle. Khaleph will soon grow out of hatchling into adulthood, and Wyldfire is almost an ancient dragon, so moments like this won't last long. *sniffs and gets all sentimental*

It has been about a month now since I posted anything. Sorry. I found out kind of at the last minute I would be off doing some more training. I figured I would have dial up access, only to discover my phone line in my hotel room doesnt seem to work. I cant complain though, there are way more important things that need fixed out there than my phone (the training is in Biloxi). I am home for the next couple of days, and I am heading to my parents house for a week, so I hope to get some play and post time in then. Since lairs have come out (and I won one) I will have plenty to write and show I think. I will try to make up the time I have missed.

Felion Mor, an old cedar treant south of Kion, is concerned about some members of his grove, and sent word to the Kion militia of his difficulties with the Withered Aegis. I had the pleasure of interviewing him and solving his problem.

I stood and saluted. “You sent word to the militia that you needed help. I have been sent. What seems to be the problem?”

“Hroooooommmm... don't be so hasty little one. The forest has returned... Huuummmm... Will you help me Khaleph?”

“Yes, yes. I am here to help. What seems to be the problem?”

“Hruuummm... The terrible axes, Khaleph. They are destroying my forest by cutting down the trees. The axes of the unliving ones and their blighted bite have driven some of the trees mad and they now roam through the forest attacking everything in sight. We cannot cure them, Khaleph. Hrooommm... they do not respond to our pleas for calm. They are being hasty, and so we need your help. Please, we must help them by freeing them from their pain. Kill them, and then return to me.”

“Yes, sir.” At which point, a hunt for the enraged cedar treants ensued. There are two groups of treants, one just south of the wood working shop, and one to the east of it, north of where I interviewed Felion Mor. I found enraged treants in both locations, and then returned to Felion after doing as he had requested.

“It is done, sir.”

“Hroooommm... You have done well, though it was much too hasty. Here, accept these trophies as a gesture of my thanks. Thruuummm”

Felion Mor handed me a dim nature armor crystal and dim nature weapon crystal. “Will there be anything else, sir?”

“Tharoooom... Will you help me again Khaleph? Hruuummm... The plague on the Treants continues Khaleph! The axes are never silent, the blight continues to hurt us, and the Withered Aegis are ever so hasty... thruuummm. You must help us, master. Please find and slay the skeleton they call Lieutenant Vekh. For it is he that brings the pain to my brethren. Destroy him and I shall reward you handsomely.”

“As you say, sir.” I found the animated remains of Lieutenant Vekh just to north, near a ruin inhabited by saris ghosts. After seperating his remains so they were no longer animate, I returned to Felion Mor.

“Hroooomm. You have done well and you have done us a great favor. Freedom from the bite of the blighted axe, for a time. Throoommmm... Vruuuummm... Accept this and go.” He handed me 5 cedar treant knots, useful for adding techniques to armor, weapons, and spells, and a cedar treant totem that I didn't have the heart to tell him was unusable by dragons, knowing it would look good in my horde.

Note: The last quest is repeatable over and over, but you only get the quest experience and the totem once. You will continue to get 5 cedar treant knots each time you complete the quest.

Lieutenant Helles has been injured during a raid of Saris skeletons on the eastern gate of Kion. The Lieutenant was unavailable for comment, but the doctors did confirm that he was injured in the line of duty. Corporel Leshlia was more forthcoming, and expressed concern about the Withered Aegis seen lurking along the roads in the forest south of the city. This young hatchling went to investigate, and checked in with any military personnel who would talk to him.

Private Arlinne at the eastern gate confirmed more recent sightings of skeletons at the forests edge, and admitted to concern that another attack may be imminent. Further down the road, I found Ranger Ishalin, who noted that Saris skeletons seemed to be concentrated further down the eastern road. While initially reluctant to involve someone not in the Kion military, he didn't want to turn down the formidible assistance that a young dragon could provide, and suggested that the undead seemed to be concentrated near a small ruin on the right side of the road, or possibly at a stone circle a little further down the road on the left. It was at the stone circle that I discovered weaker saris skeleton raiders and marauders. Interestingly enough, the skeletons seem to have attracted a pack of greymane wolves as well, so perhaps the canines regard the skeletons as walking snack bars. Before engaging the skeletons, I returned to Sergeant Kipson to report on the location of the Withered Aegis concentration.

Returning to the stone circle, I did my best to discorporate the skeletons, and threw the remains to the wolf pack to scatter and enjoy. While this may not have been the most politically correct response, it will certainly make it more challenging for the Withered Aegis to reassemble those skeletons. After defeating approximately 35 marauders and about three times that many raiders, I returned to Sergeant Kipson to report on my progress. He asked that I speak with Commander Jaleo Devins, who gave me a bounty of 4 silver for my efforts.

The Commander suggested that I talk to Lieutenant Helles, who was back at desk duty during his recovery. The Lieutenant mentioned that the attacks continued against the eastern gate of the city, and that the skeleton in charge of the raids was the remains on one Lieutenant Khar. I was able to find the Lieutenant's skeleton patrolling the road just inside the forest's edge and dispatched the reanimated remains.

Lady Kendra offered a Saris Life Stone for my efforts on behalf of the Saris community, and asked that I carry details of the attacks to Guard Kerrak in Sslanis and Guard Talinse in Parsinia, and return with their replys and report to Commander Jaleo. Upon my return, Lady Kendra gave me a commission as a Private in the Kion Militia.

BUG: The quest only requires killing 8 Weaker Saris Skeleton Marauders and 8 Weaker Saris Skeleton Raiders, but for some reason only the level 10 marauders counted toward the quest completion, hence the larger number that I fought. I talked to a dev in IRC, and he indicated that this has already been fixed on the internal server, and will be going to Blight (the test server) on Tuesday.

Since my last journal entry, I've spent less time in game than I would have expected. I first started having problems with the new patcher, both in Internet Explorer and the stand-alone launcher, which progressed to a problem with framerate, and then an inability to get into the game. Horizons support was very dedicated in helping me track down the causes of the problems, which turned out to stem from some file corruption when my system administrator cut off our netwok connection unexpectedly, compounded by a new firewall that blocked UDP traffic, and some issue in the registry having to do with the original Artifact Entertainment install. Suffice it to say that with Tulga's support departments help and a system administrator thats willing to help out, I'm back in the game and running smoother and faster than ever.

So, in the time that I have been playing, I've gotten Khaleph five more dragon adventurer levels by working on his adventurer quests and a bit of extra hunting to earn a multiple of five trophies for the trophy hunters in Kion and Sslanis. The dragons in Chiconis and Dralk will teach young hatchlings new abilities when they have attained the tenth level as an adventurer, provided they complete a task first.

Wintheria, the Gold Rage trainer in Chiconis, tasked Khaleph with killing a score of Sand Ogres near the village of Bridgeview on the eastern coast of Lesser Aradoth. For this task, Khaleph teamed up with Jasmeen, Velea's Saris Ranger, and let her pull from a further range so that we'd not agro the Sand Pygmies that also infest the area. For killing the Sand Ogres, Witheria taught Khaleph Gold Rage, an ability like Silver Strike that uses up some horde in return for extra attacks with increased damage. These two abilities have made the difference in Khaleph winning quite a few fights and my receiving a death point.

Bentaras, the Dragon Reach trainer in Chiconis, asked Khaleph to hunt a score of Cedar Treants in Lesser Aradoth south of Kion before he'd teach Khaleph Dragon Reach I, a useful ability that lets Khaleph attack enemies from further away. The two minute reuse timer sometimes gives me extra downtime, so I may get a range extended Improved Prime Bolt spell for Khaleph to use for pulling also.

Kaliphar, the Dragon's Gift trainer in Chiconis, asked Khaleph to hunt a score of Bronze Golems just a bit south of the Cedar Treants. In return, he taught Khaleph an ability that fills the Gift slot (low level characters can have one gift active at a time, as you advance you can receive the benefit of more than one gift) and increases Khaleph's skill in Tooth and Claw melee fighting, Primal spellcasting, Evasion, and Magic Evasion.

Frall, the Healing trainer in Chiconis, taked Khaleph with hunting down a hundred Garnet or Malachite Golems. To accomplish this, Khaleph again teamed up with Jasmeen, and we solo'd Garnet Golems near each other. Her kills counted this way, so we finished this task more quickly than if we hunted the same mobs together. Khaleph had to take 50 uncut garnet and 50 uncut malachite back to Frall after killing the five score golems, so Khaleph visited the gem mine in the middle of Lesser Aradoth to quarry the uncut malachite he needed. For accomplishing this task, Frall taught Khaleph the ability to instantly heal himself or an ally in battle for 29 to 33 points of damage once every five minutes. Note that the healing spells that dragons learn are all heal-over-time Breeze spells, so this ability is very useful.

Lisandia, the Primal trainer in Chiconis, requested that Khaleph kill a score of Jungle Crawler Soldiers along the road north of Sslanis. These spiders will assist each other, so I learned to time Dragon's Reach so that one Soldier was isolated from the swarm. I also discovered that there were some higher level undead wandering up and down that stretch of road, and some swarming lower level Biting Necroflies in one of the nearby valleys I had though to use to pull from. Khaleph recalled to the shrine with a new death point during this mission than during any other, so make sure you bind at the Sslanis shrine before venturing into the jungle to complete this task. The reward that Khaleph earned for completing this task was a boost to his Primal spellcasting skill.

Zebegina, the Scale Hardener in Dralk, teaches young hatchlings how to more effectively use their scales, resulting in an increase in their armor statistic. The task she asked Khaleph to complete before she'd teach him the spell was to kill a named sand beetle found wandering the north western shores of Lesser Aradoth near Kion. This beetle is eleventh level, so you may actually want to complete this task before doing some of the Chiconis tasks where the mobs vary in level from 11 to 15.

Luadius, the Breath Accuracy trainer in Dralk, offered to give Khaleph pointers in improving the accuracy of his Fire Breath in return for removing a score of Forest or Jungle Crawler Breeders. Khaleph knew that the Jungle Crawler Breeders were just south of the Jungle Crawler Soldiers he had to fight previously, and just a bit easier to kill as well, so he chose to hunt those. The Forest Crawler Breeders are just north of the Cedar Treants south of Kion if you'd prefer to hunt those. Again, I'd recommend doing this task before doing Lisandia's task, rather than in the order that I did them.

Severant, the Drain Strike trainer in Dralk, will teach young hatchlings an attack that damages a foe and returns a percentage of the damage done as a small heal to the hatchling. Khaleph's geas in order to learn this skill was to kill a score of Cedar Treants or Massive Cedar Treants.

Xerix, the Tooth & Claw trainer in Dralk, asked Khaleph to kill a score of Sand Ogres in return for pointers on how to improve his melee ability with Tooth and Claw attacks. This time, armed with the extra training, extra abilities, and extra levels, Khaleph solo's the Sand Ogres near Bridgeview.

Finally, Rykhar, the Spiked Scales trainer in Dralk, asked Khaleph to kill a score of Malachite Golems near the gem mine south of Kion. These are hard hitting for their level, so I'd recommend saving this task until you have completed several of the other quests.

Khaleph is now level 16, so he needs to do some more hunting to get up to level 20, when the dragon trainers will have more to teach him about each of these skills. I also want to get Khaleph to level 20 as a crafter so that he can do the next series of quests increasing capacity and crafting skill (see my blog entitled "After Skalkaar" for more on that).