41124: a mighty knight of darkness

Lt. Cryllara says 'Excellent. You've completed your task, Taerom.' 
You are awarded cash and experience for your efforts.

First try at Shinarae's newest addition, 'Efiilas Advance'. I let them
autodecide my task level and got a hard quest targeting the knight of
darkness. He didn't resist my types so was easy enough to solo, though that
exp value was a bummer. From what I remember he shouldn't be an undervalued
mob, maybe the tasks target him so often he has been abused to horrible tune.

The feature iself is sweet, I generally like everything that subverts the
usual exp grind. Will certainly do more of it.

Krigar the Accursed stops existing in this reality.
Krigar the Accursed is DEAD, R.I.P.
You successfully restored the following quests: ether realms 3 and ether
realms 4.

82684: Krigar the Accursed, evil master of the ether realms

Finally got a master ghost from a By-Tor kill yesterday so today was the
finish-reinc day. Somewhat surprisingly the moment closest to death came when
trying to find the portal in the master-level spiritworld, Krigar himself
never really got close to a kill. Though admittedly I already knew his tricks,
whereas failing to dodge the backstabs in spiritworld was more unexpected. In
any case the result was still good.

Reinc nearly complete, only missing a master level ghost to try the second
phase of Liberator quest reclaiming. Working nice so far, tested Zilvra for a
solo kill and she went down without much trouble despite being a little phys
resistant (though she was only 100k). Unfortunately only got two journeymen
from her, but that master can't be too far off.

Reinced, on my way back to LibAnimist. CavFolkAelena was a fun enough combo,
but it was a little too cast heavy for my liking. And then the greenhouse tune
hit that playstyle pretty hard. Theoretically magic mounts should make looking
for fresh "seed plants" doable, but I just couldn't be bothered restructuring
my greenhouse setup again.

On the plus side got a Valar short story written and trying the race for the
first time (book 1252 in the library). Probably going to take max Tarma levels
this time as well, would make for a much stronger healer than previous Libby
reincs.

As the the final piece of the armour set is laid on the rack, the pieces begin
to glow.
The voice of Albert Woodglenn echos in your head: 'Thank you for finding all
of the pieces to my set of armour and for restoring the honor that belonged to
me. You have brought be great joy and I will now be able to rest in peace for
all eternity.'
Congratulations! You have just completed Restoring albert's honor!
You receive 1370 gold as a reward for completing the quest.
You receive 2 training points.

Half-explorish 2-man run turned into a succesful quest. The boss mob was kinda
painful though, with nasty specials especially against such a minimalist
party. The quest itself was simple enough, now I only need 5 more similar
quests and I can train a statpoint of something!

Finally got my 5th greenhouse built. Due to having only a 1 tile plot I've had
to build vertically, and the next one would cost 1.3 mil so this is probably
where I'll stop. Upgrading those to tier 4 should still give me plenty of
herbs, especially if herb conservation starts working more reliably at higher
percentages.

Regain done. Took normal mode and didn't die during the regain so ended up
with higher totals than before the reinc. First impressions so far are really
positive. Aelena and Folklorist are both as interesting as I remembered and
feel like they should synergize nicely. Ceremony from Aelena turned out to be
amazing for greater magic mount, boosting duration from 14 minutes to a solid
20.

Lots of different reps to gain, situation to begin with from earlier visits:
 Insight 6%
 Spawn +9, 3 tentacles
 Familiar 15 skillpoints
 Herb conservation 19%
 Study marks 1611

Reinced! Played with the reinc sim too much and couldn't resist anymore, on my
way to Cavalier + Aelena + Folklorist. In theory a decent mounted tank setup
with tons of utility (which I like in general), though more spell heavy on the
damage dealing part than Liberator. In any case looking forward to finishing
the reinc and seeing how that combo actually works.

Also completed two more level quests, likely the only ones for this reinc:

Congratulations! You have just completed Sacrifice staff!
Congratulations! You have just completed Magic tower!

Reached 10k liberated ghosts and 320m totals today. Exping has been
surprisingly pleasant despite pool drying up, guess that's the Skeleton
exprate helping (overall feels like a decent race choice for a Libby). 'No
pool' bane is still on, so that basically turned out to be a free boon until
my next reinc.

Speaking of which I've been toying with the reinc sim again. Feeling a little
anxious to try a reinc other than Liberator for a while. Probably a
Folklorist-tank type reinc, Folks being in contention for my 2nd favorite
guild after Libbies.

155493: An armoured drow woman traces her fingers over the map.

First time soloing Zilvra, and a new top solo kill for the reinc. She had a
little physres and two friends, so I think I could even go for something a
little bigger under good conditions. No hurry to do that though, maybe if some
fun target comes to mind.

Total of 299746608 experience spent on character.

Bane (percentile): No bonus exp
Description: You receive no bonus experience from the exp bonus pool system

Taking advantage of a (literally) once in a lifetime opportunity for getting a
free bane! Now to see if it clears once I hit that 300 mil total or not. Or
maybe it'll turn into 'You don't want this bane'.

Apparently I've gained another Liberator rep based boonpoint some time in the
last few days, now up to 6. Combined with 2 from quests and 2 from banes I can
now consistently max a couple Liberator boons in addition to the obvious ghost
mastery. Trying a combination of link, slash and less pissy ghosts next.

Krigar the Accursed is dogfood.
Krigar the Accursed is DEAD, R.I.P.
You successfully restored the following quests: ether realms 3 and ether
realms 4.

85695: Krigar the Accursed, evil master of the ether realms

First time attempting to restore higher end Liberator quests and it turned out
succesful. That was actually a rather fun fight. Didn't know what to expect,
and it wasn't clear if I was going to win or not until maybe 2/3 through the
fight. He had a couple interesting tricks, one that I kind of expected from a
boss mob like him and another that caught me off guard at first. Favorite kind
of challenge, appropriately tough that forced quick thinking yet ultimately
ended in victory.

Hit middle aged roughly a week ago, and that combined with having a free reinc
due to over a year in the current one caused an irresistible urge to reinc.
Additionally my boon setup wasn't taking advantage of the new boons
introduced, and clearing boons by cash would've basically cost the same.

Still enjoying the Liberator + Animist + Tarma combo so didn't change that,
but did pick Skeleton for race instead of Centaur to spice things up. I'll
also pass the exp bonus pool limit soon, and since I'm already a slow exper
that combined with Centaur exprate was beginning to worry me. There're some
differences between the two races so I'll have to adjust playing a bit, but
overall I imagine I'll be able to do most of the same stuff as before. And
testing differences is part of the fun really.

Also completed one more quest while at it, surprisingly decent cash bonus.

Congratulations! You have just completed Explore70!
You receive 120315 gold as a reward for completing the quest.

With basically all of my useful skills maxed, it's time for a new exping plan.
I don't feel like taking more levels yet (though maxing Tarmas would no doubt
be useful), so instead I'll go for maxing all of my Animist soul's deffing
skills / abilities. I already have a bunch of them, but maybe if I go for
absolute maxes it can start tanking bigger mobs too.

In short, exping target now +42.4 mil.

The book crumbles to dust in your hands.
You feel more knowledgable about ghost channeling.

Third book, third sorta-useful-I-guess result. I'm not really expecting great
success from this endeavour, though I think I'll still read two more books
just for fun.

2nd knowledge book read with similar result as the first. A skill that gets
used, but was already over 100% due to background bonuses.

You feel more knowledgable about ceremony.

blog taerom 58966

After about a year of mostly inactive twiddling, I reached my exping goal of
having all skills in the 90 - 100 range (or maxed if less than that). And now,
finally, I got to read that +10 skillbook..

You feel more knowledgable about bless.

Yeah, that's about right. I suppose it could've hit something like Baptize or
Bludgeons and been totally useless, at least I get to use my awesome 120%
Bless. :)

Congratulations! You have just completed Help loretta!
You receive 18504 gold as a reward for completing the quest.
You receive 4 training points.
Ntein suddenly stops breathing and jerks a couple of times violently, then
falls to the ground, lifeless.
Ntein is DEAD, R.I.P.

240448: Ntein the twin brother of Derov (possessed)

What started as a solo exploration run ended up being a two man run for the
1st quest, and a succesful one at that. Got the quest, a master ghost and the
amulet for my secondary - wish all explore runs went that well.

You give A city key to Rendburg to Mayor.
The mayor examines the key and starts smiling.
The mayor jumps on you and starts hugging. After that little
emotional moment he stands up and says 'Thank you my friends for
bringing back this key. Now I can lead my people back to the valley.
And now with this key I can lock the gates in the future
if any evil forces try to conquer our city again.'

137284: Shenare the evil polar demon 

Managed to solo Shenare and everything leading up to it, but didn't actually
get the quest. Maybe I'm missing a checkpoint, or the guest has a chance to
reset or something. Probably won't be bothered to try again solo, a shame, but
at least I get to add another nice solo kill to the list.

Todd the journeyman cook joins your ghost army. (id: 1)
Someone loses the privilege to live.
Someone is DEAD, R.I.P.
Congratulations! You have just completed Ether realms 4!

81251: an ethereal dragon, souleater extraordinaire

Inspired by the success of realms 3, burned one of my two grandmasters to go
for it. Was a whole lot more intense than realms 3, this thing could take a
beating (and had plenty of friends). Closest to death was when I got psychic
crushed to 18 hps and cornered to a no safe exits room, but again Tarma heals
saved the day.

With this the ether realms quest line is done, and I also got my 2nd boonpoint
for quests. Great result overall. Next, I probably need to do some more
mapping before there's any point in starting to hunt for master missions and
related quests, so that'll be a while.

Bertha the journeyman peasant joins your ghost army. (id: 4)
Someone gets an acute case of iron-poisoning.
Someone is DEAD, R.I.P.
Congratulations! You have just completed Ether realms 3!

52668: an ethereal monster, its many tentacles swaying

With an abundance of master level ghosts decided to try this, and it wasn't
too bad. It helps that I'm quite used to the spiritworld by now, went in with
max buffs I can cast and used another master ghost for the slashing. At one
point took a series of backstabs to ~200 hps, but Tarma heals made for a quick
recovery and got the kill without needing to stop for regens.

Just now found out that bookcase aren't actually limited to 10 per case,
wonder where I got that idea from. After a bit of reorganizing was looking at
a case with 19 books of knowledge in it, and exping plan became obvious. Train
everything to 90, overtrain some cheapo skills to 100 and start reading books.

Exp target: +30.6 mil.

208104: A tall, armoured drow bodyguard stands here.

Another from the list of long time wanted to do, this was also a two manning
with Delion (mage). We tried a couple reincs ago with a less optimal setup,
and due to not knowing his tricks that run ended in a failure. This time the
game plan was solid, and he died without too much fuss. Only a journeyman
ghost, but did get the gauntlet so can't complain.

136035: Xirtonne the artificer stands ready
262433: The Wretched hides in the webs.

Finally, after so many garbled directions, exploring and half-succesful visits
to Wildspace got to Xirtonne, and managed to two man it with a blaster friend.
I can't even remember how long I've been planning his demise. Continued two
manning by testing Wretched (wanted the tail), and that went down too, with
the blocker repopping almost immediately after we had finished. And to top it
off Liberator rep went over the treshold for 5th boonpoint somewhere along the
way, so today was a good day.

654426: A towering demon, swathed in black

Lidia the grandmaster cook joins your ghost army. (id: 4)

First bigger deffing in the reinc, and it went quite smoothly. Had no trouble
keeping spirit mount alive, didn't dismount once, and the only death could've
been avoided if I'd paid a little more attention. Def set is approaching
semi-acceptable, and got a grandmaster ghost out of it so all in all a good
run.

Hans Dandruff says 'Thank you for saving my life. I want to reward you for
this. Wait.'  
Hans picks a four-leafed clover from the depths of his pockets.
Hans Dandruff says 'This didn't bring any luck to me, perhaps it is more
useful to you. '   
Hans gives a four-leafed clover to you. 
Hans Dandruff says 'The bandits didn't find all of my money. '    
Hans removes his shoe, shakes them and few mithril coins drop out from the
hidden compartment. 
Hans gives you some coins.

Another fun little random NPC on Laenor. I've ran into him before, but only
now had all the required skills / spells to actually help. Gave a bit of cash
and a presumably +luck consumable. Wish every continent had encounters like
these. :)

128349: Lilian, ghost of amazon princess

Betsy the journeyman sage joins your ghost army. (id: 51)

Pool was already empty so decided to go for a solo kill. Went quite smoothly
actually, though last time it released a grandmaster ghost. Journeyman is
quite a bit worse than that, but I suppose getting a grandmaster from a mob
that size was a stroke of luck in the first place. Still, I'll probably have
to kill her a few more times to have a full set of each bracelet.

Iexek says 'That concludes the first part of my task for you.'  
You successfully restored the following quests: way of the liberator 1, way of
the liberator 2, help the newbies, ether realms 1, ether realms 2, beneficent
being, remember the fallen 1 and remember the fallen 2.

Quests reclaimed & reinc complete. 25 tarmas instead of full, because redoing
the math those +5 levels would've created a massive infla. Still 25 levels
gives good healing power and plenty of utility already, so I'm happy with
that.

I enslaved 4413 souls as a Kharim, so appropriate first goal would be to
liberate that many ghosts. That should bring my total to ~10k, hopefully
gaining another boon point.

Congratulations! You have just completed Ferry!
You receive 154 gold as a reward for completing the quest.

I wonder how long this has been in the game, and I never noticed. Oh well, got
it done now, up to 60 total quests done.

Decided to reinc, on my way back to LiberAnimist, with Tarmas this time.
Overall I quite liked Kharim, the sword + shield style was a fun change of
pace, and not having to worry about the alignment of monsters was refreshing
(I always did like Catfolk Village, but a Liberator has no business being
there).

That said, a few things did go a little less than perfect. Blades for
starters; the combination of messing my builds up and them requiring who knows
how many souls to be effective meant I didn't get a chance to use one at all.
The key based rep was also a bit tedious, since my runs don't usually generate
that many keys (Catfolk Tree keys cap real fast), so I would've had to do
dedicated key grinding.

I might consider another Kharim reinc some time in the future though, the
guild is still rather well done despite the above nigglings. Maybe as some
type of nomad instead of evil relig, looking back this reinc was perhaps a
little confused (Reaver with no spells in combat, Feast and CSW from Priests
overlapping).

Some numbers,

Final Reaver energy : 107.102% ultimate
Total souls drained : 4413
Total keys done     : 1434 (5 success, 4 fail, 3 no entry)
Exp change          : +49m

I was curious about just how bad my new Kharim blade compares in damage and
went on a compare spree. Turns out even a random iron 2h sword from Arelium
weaponsmith is better, I simply couldn't find a 2h sword that was worse. Only
Anyweapon in a weightless form (fire, air) was able to equal my blade in
damage not done. If I removed souls from the blade it could probably be used
as a healing item.

And then, this happened to drop from a random mob in Kurya's.

a shard of an old weapon (identified)
When joined with chaos, the weapon quality will be at least average.
When joined with chaos, the weapon sharpness will be at least good.
When joined with chaos, the lethality factor will be at least divine.

So two things are now known for certain. First, never, ever make a Kharim
blade out of fire. And second, BatMUD gamedriver is a troll.

a broad-bladed fire two-handed sword 'Cremator' of Agathorian origin with a
basket-hilt

Your Cremator feels terrific in your hand! You may now bind souls in it.

So 2nd blade attempt is now soulbound and ID'ed. In construction I used ~170kg
of divine fire, 6 different shard pieces (which is also the reason for the
spammy desc) and 16 different sacitems ranging in sacvalue from 100k to 400k
with a wide range of stats. Went with only 42 hours, which judging by the
evolution history didn't have much of a negative effect.

Results were, well, disappointing. The blade did score one evolutionary trait
(hp regen) that caps at meager, but I kinda hoped for a bit more than that.
Furthermore binding my 4.2k souls in the blade and it compares as worse than a
spider sabre for damage. That's pretty horrible for a 2h sword to be honest,
and means I'm not likely to ever reach a blade that's worth using over a
regular sword.

Holiday bonuses are over, exping feels like a crawl now. Not to mention every
area was abused so bad, tune is horrible everywhere. Guess exping is off the
table for a few days. This actually suits me just fine, time to get
soulbinding that 2nd blade and see how it turned out.

Overall the exping frenzy worked out really great; I ended up making +31 mil
in 6 days, which is definitely amazing considering I'm usually a really slow
exper. Totals an even 250 mil, and the next reinc plan is slowly forming, Lib
+ Animist with full Tarmas. That still requires some more exping, but it is
definitely within the realm of possibility now.

You are an Ultimate Reaver -- chaos and destruction made flesh!
You have 101.988% of the energy needed for this final stage.

Reached Ultimate Reaver and made +4m exp in the process (holiday bonuses
continue), so another good day. Thanks to the exp got most of blood harvest
trained right away too. Additionally my 2nd blade finished the construction
process, but I won't be bothering with that for now, all playtime goes to
exping until the bonuses expire.

Time: 10 hours 31 minutes 33 seconds
Experience gained: 8006492
Experience lost: 0
Experience spent: 8001359
Gold difference: +440481.00

Decided to go for a personal exping record with the holiday season bonuses
(double exp, everything in lot tune) since I basically had a day with nothing
else planned. Not all of that 10 hours is playing time, party size was either
solo or two manning with a mage friend. Previous record was probably somewhere
in the 2 mil for the day area, so today was a good day (and the cash was a
bonus).

The book crumbles to dust in your hands.
You feel more knowledgable about true reaving.

Found yet another skillbook from a box. With 18 already stored (and both
bookcases full), I figured why not just read it for the fun of it. No
preparation done, and hit a skill I don't really use and haven't trained that
much either. Oh well, nothing gained, nothing lost.

You open the present.
From the present falls a pair of short green boots <christmas glow>.

Best present so far this season, even if only a temporary. Will make a nice
addition to spr swap for the duration.

You perform a solid strike with your scythe and cut the head of Zcandler and
pick it up. You grab a wooden stake and erect it on the ground. You hang the
head on the stake and tilt your head meaningfully as you call for the souls to
provide guidance for the lost soul.
You feel proud as the Blood God grants you the power to summon soul zombies to
your soul army.

First and probably easiest of the soul army additions. I don't think I'll be
in any hurry to collect more soldier types, since I pretty much need all the
souls for other purposes (mostly the blade). Still, these are at least one
extra thing to do besides exping, and sometimes you want that change of pace.

82049: huge swimming fish-monster with long tentacles
88636: the minotaur captain, in full armour, stands ready

By random stroke of luck got a chance to open and run around in Wildspace, and
since I hadn't tried any bigger solokills yet decided to go for it. These two
dropped ok, but my Reaver skills still need *something* because they keep
missing like crazy on anything bigger than a bunny. Maybe I just need to max
everything offskill related and hope that helps with the misses. At least
that'll give an exping target for the next ~7 mil or so.

a weenite no-dachi 'Eclipse'

Got the first blade, and also got it soulbound already (that took a couple
extra days). Used 100kg of weenite leftovers from the Merchant reinc, tossed
in a couple random eq pieces I had no use for and an 'impressive sharpness'
shard gotten from random killings. End result is a not that amazing sword, at
least with the number of souls I can bind at the moment, though true potential
isn't looking that hot either.

That said, learned quite a lot of the creation process, especially after
getting the blade ID'ed / evaluated. Could probably have saved some cash by
going for a lesser creation, but at least I got some ideas for the 2nd
attempt. Will probably try some variant of 'huge piles of random crap, no
money' approach next and see what that does.

Regain done! Didn't even die during it, so ended up with higher totals thanks
to the exp made than pre-reinc. Next up, forging my first chaos blade (got
some merchant reinc materials left over, so I'll probably go with those and
see what happens).

Turns out I still had some energy left over from a previous Reaver reinc. Last
time I was a Reaver was in 2008, made it a little above Ultimate, and now I
still have 3rd layer and 46% from Ultimate left. This'll certainly make
reincing easier, since 3rd is pretty much the money layer in Reavers.

Had a sudden and unresistable bout of reinc fever, and just went with it. The
Liberator was still fun, and it worked well, but the Templar levels didn't
really bring enough new stuff to explore. And so I'm now on my way to joining
the soul slavers, Reaver + Kharim with Priests / Society / Navs for support.
Pretty much the evil version of Liberator (and on a positive note will let me
use much the same eq sets).

At 43 days in the previous reinc, normal tax was 1% and now I have 2.8m exp to
make before fully regained.

Okay, exping plan time. I got 16 knowledge books stashed, most from the
merchant reinc. Now to train all skills cheaper or equal to kick in cost to
100 (slight overtrain), all casting skills to 100, and all other skills to 90
(barring some templar skills that I can't max yet). Then read a skillbook and
hope for great success. :)

Exp target: +70.3 mil.

| 4           Taerom             9817 |

Finally 4th on the Animist mount rep plaque. The next guy has twice the points
I do, so this is probably as high as I'm ever going to be in the ranking.
Still I consider it a good accomplishment, since I'm not a super active party
animal either, plus my mounts are already working pretty well so rep isn't
that high of a priority.

Taerom Fuiruim the skilled, Knight of Holy War

Turns out I was allowed to do the holy war Templar quest right after reinc, so
that gives me the first aura. At this level of rep I only get 2% holy warfare
so the aura probably isn't all that useful, but a nice starting point for
gathering Templar rep (which should come naturally because Liberator).

Iexek says 'That concludes the first part of my task for you.'    
You successfully restored the following quests: way of the liberator 1, way of
the liberator 2, help the newbies, ether realms 1, ether realms 2, beneficent
being, remember the fallen 1 and remember the fallen 2.

And with that, reinc is finished. Went with 90 lvls and a slight infla, but
it'll be easier to train skills than it would have been to level up. Besides,
25 Templar levels gives me some nice utility skills / spells, raises how much
parry / mastery of shielding I get and finally should enable some of the
Templar auras later on.

Congratulations! You have just completed Machine!
You receive 44900 gold as a reward for completing the quest.
You insert the activator card.
The machine chugs and churns for a moment, then explodes in a burst of
steam.  When the steam clears, it looks as if the machine has melted.
You have done well, and you will not go unrewarded or unrecognized.  For your
efforts above and beyond the call of mudding, the financial interests of
BatMud award you level quest 50.

Another quest long waiting to be completed. Probably won't do any more quests
during this reinc phase, don't have any others sufficiently scouted. Plus I
want to get to full power asap.

Lorne says 'Thank you so much for saving us from those mean and nasty
highbies. Please make yourself at home here, and have some fun on our rides.' 
Lorne asks 'Um.. my father gave me this hat, but I think I look kind of stupid
in it, why don't you have it?'   
Lorne gives you a hat.
Congratulations! You have just completed Liberate newbies!
You receive 6400 gold as a reward for completing the quest.
You give A small, wooden gavel to Lorne.

A little something I didn't bother with when reincing to merchant, but wanted
to do it now.

Finally reinced! On my way back to Liberator / Animist, this time with Templar
levels. I'd like to take it all the way to lvl 90, but that means inflating
quite a bit so not sure yet if I'll do it.

Anyway, some chest building numbers from the merchant reinc. These are after
I'd reached 100 skill, mostly weenite and ebony / dukonium with some random
others thrown in (like bamboo / ebony).

Total chests : 99
Total slots  : 1060

Slot distribution:

12 slots: 52
11 slots: 22
10 slots: 9
09 slots: 1
08 slots: 5
07 slots: 3
06 slots: 5
05 slots: 0
04 slots: 0
03 slots: 1
02 slots: 0
01 slots: 1

Overall pretty good I think. Kept maybe a little less than half of those for
my own use, so hopefully won't be running out of chest space any time soon. :)

The book crumbles to dust in your hands.
You feel more knowledgable about make reagent.

Aww, was hoping for shipbuilding (I need +5% of it). Oh well, that 1.8m exp it
costs to train is just barely doable with the folklorist levels I have. Plus I
guess having make reagent at 109 base may increase the amount of power
reagents made.

Upgraded my class3 to a class4, added sailor quarters and ran some speed
tests. Results were pretty much as expected (lvl 6 nav):

LUC - FUR 1:54 Class3, 15 lvl 7 sailors
LUC - FUR 3:21 Class4, 15 lvl 7 sailors
LUC - FUR 2:08 Class4, 20 lvl 7 sailors

FUR - ROT 1:31 Class3, 15 lvl 7 sailors
FUR - ROT 1:42 Class4, 20 lvl 7 sailors

Slight hit in speed, but nothing major if you're going with max sailors. I'm
quite happy with this, now to do the lift/speed quests and max those too and
see how well this thing can fly (class3 was a bit limited in that, even with
lvl 6 lift mages).

| Minecrafting                   | 100 |

That took a good bit longer than I thought it would. Went up really fast in
the beginning, but the last few points slowed to a crawl. Now to figure out
what else besides skillbooks I can find down there (stored book count: 9).

Ruuben tells you 'CONGRATULATIONS! Few have ever possessed a creation such as
this, I hope you find it of continual aid in your endeavors. I know you will
do the Merchant's Guild proud.' 
Ruuben [merchant]: All hail Taerom!!! He has truly earned the rank of Master
Merchant, and built for himself an incredibly powerful toolbelt!

Finally finished the belt I started roughly 10 years ago, when I last was a
merchant. Next up ship quests for upgrading my class3 and / or hammering a
mountain of chests for personal use.

The book crumbles to dust in your hands.
You feel more knowledgable about bargain.

Decided to read one book just for the fun of it, they seem to be dropping like
crazy during minecrafting. Keeping a minimum of 3 stored for my next reinc
though. Bargain is not the most useful, but I hope not entirely useless
either. Already had it way above 100 so no idea if this will affect anything
really.

Found from a chest while minecrafting,

Ancient book of knowledge (friendly)
a pile of batium coins

Stashed the book, I now have two reserved for later use. I think I'll want to
optimize my next reinc in a way that gives me a good chance to hit a useful
skill with one of the books.

Finished my second batch of medium chests and they turned out nearly maxed
slots as well (one out of five was at -1). And more importantly:

Chest creation                 | 100 |

Time to start hammering 10+ slotters.

Completed my first four chests a few days ago:

a small bamboo sailor chest reinforced with ebony (open)
a small bamboo sailor chest reinforced with ebony (open)
a wood chest reinforced with bamboo (open)
a wood chest reinforced with bamboo (open)

Pretty good results considering I used the medium chest skeletons, especially
when it also resulted in +16 chest creation. One more batch of not-max
skeletons and I'll hopefully get to 100, and then I can really start chest
building.

Plans change (as they are wont to do). Yesterday I reinced merchant/folklorist/
(bard) for several reasons. First of all, I was looking at a reinc anyway as
age was becoming a problem. Second, I couldn't really do eq as every single
chest slot was full (now I can personally do a crapton of new chests). Third,
this reinc is good for supporting my secondary's alch research, and he can do
potions for the primary. And finally, change is refreshing. :)

I fully intend to return back to liberator / animist once I'm done with this,
because that was a really fun combo. I made 75 mil exp in that reinc (+60% to
my totals), explored & soloed new mobs & areas and even deffed a few bigger
things. Some people might not enjoy the semi-roleplayish side of it, but I
actually liked that too.

the black dread, 581469 exp

Scot the journeyman peasant joins your ghost army. (id: 7)
Dwayne the master ranger joins your ghost army. (id: 56)

First try at deffing something remotely bigger. Went pretty ok I think, didn't
die, only dismounted once, but did suck the most damage in the party. Though
that could be because I had my soul following (not tanking though) and it
sucked some area blasts, plus mount obviously tanks and I have no idea how
those are counted for party stats. Didn't dice anything, but did get a master
out of it, so overall quite happy considering my def set is newbie junk.

Ulath the christmas coder opens a door in thin air, scuttles in, running on
his 84 arms like a centipede.
Ulath the christmas coder gives you 1 gold coin.
Ulath the christmas coder exclaims 'Ela tuhlaa kaikkea kerralla!'
Ulath the christmas coder opens a door in thin air, jumps down on his 84 arms
and scuttles away.

Arch quizzes are always worth it!

116877: Lilian, ghost of amazon princess

Sonia the grandmaster armoursmith joins your ghost army. (id: 17)

A really unexpected bonus, first grandmaster gained from a mob ever. This
wasn't a solo kill attempt, I just wanted her bracelet to start my (vlw) wis
swap. I was a bit worried about the Wiki listing her as having skill drain,
but either I dodged them all or she didn't cast it. Also had I not decided to
reinc once ancient, I would never have risked my +10 dodge, but having done so
has allowed me to widen my kill range to potential skill drainers.

Hit 'old' yesterday, which is another personal first if you don't count Asmo
sacs. It also caused me to change my plans a bit. I decided that instead of
fighting for a full youth I'll reinc once I hit 'ancient', and because I want
to try something new I'll pick Templar as my 3rd guild instead of Tarmalen.
Twiddling with the reinc sim I ended up with a lvl 90, 230m incarnation with
25 Templar levels which seemed rather fun. So the goal now is to reach 230m
totals before 'ancient'.

70477: Prince Glubux Frox, heir to the throne, envy of all crab kind

You unlock the cell.
King Frex Frox steps out of the cell!
King Frex Frox exclaims 'Free at last after being captivated by
my own son!'
Congratulations! You have just completed Find frex frox!
You receive 4364 gold as a reward for completing the quest.
You receive 4 training points.
King Frex Frox says 'Taerom, have this ring of my ancestors as a sign of my
true gratitude.'
King Frex Frox says 'I am forever grateful.'

Two manned this with Delion (tarmadruid). Technically doable solo, but so much
easier with a friendly neighbourhood mudpitter. Not even close to getting to
train another statpoint, but the ring is pretty nice and having one more quest
is never bad.

129165: a powerful gibberling blockading the forest

Another almost-but-not-enough in my search for a cooler top solo kill. This
one was also a first time, and moreover I got to romp through one of my all
time favorite areas again. Secladin is very nuanced for a newbie area, has a
good story, a quest that requires a bit of thought without having impossible
syntaxes and even a few pieces of newbie eq - all of which I enjoyed back when
I was an actual newbie. This time only the blocker offered any real
resistance, though unfortunately the exit from the last mob took me back
outside the blocked area, and the gibberling had respawned, so I didn't get to
see what happens if I complete the quest.

120513: A four-armed skeleton coated in black gore stands here wailing

Sigh, this one was also too small to make top solo. Yes, I know I could just
choose which kill I want to show, but I kinda want it to actually be the
biggest. And hopefully cooler than the current 'a huge spider'. Died once to
the pre-Ebon form thanks to stun+crit, which I managed to run from but then it
tracked while I was waiting for the stun to clear (didn't want to risk
stumbling back to his room).

This was actually my first time soloing Ebon Bane, so despite it not being the
top, I'm quite happy to add it to my kill list.

Gained another liberated ghost based boonpoint! Think I'll use it to max ghost
slash mastery, and then it'll be either trying ghost armour boons or the newly
added "can kill good mobs better" boon with activity boonpoints to figure out
what I'll start working on next.

,---------------------------------------------.
| Boons                            6          |
|---------------------------------------------|
| Banes                            2          |
| Leadership and activity          0          |
| Quests                           1          |
| Liberated ghosts                 4          |
|---------------------------------------------|
| Points available                 1          |
`---------------------------------------------'

Updated my exping plan a bit. Train all skills to a minimum of 92%, all arcane
casting skills to 100% and regular skills cheaper or equal to 'kick' in cost
to 100%. That last bit requires overtraining with my 98% skillmax, but with
the cheaper skills it's still just doable. After all that exping is done, I'll
finally read the +8% skillbook and hopefully profit. :)

Target: +64.29m exp.

113286: A drow in a grey robe is mixing some flasks.

Bugger, still no new top solo. I had soloed this one once before as an
aelena/folklorist, so I was pretty sure it was doable in this reinc as well,
but back then it was worth ~150k (not sure if this was tune, random, or if I
had some bonus then). On top of it this was a neutral Drow, meaning my skills
didn't work at full capacity and didn't get a ghost for the kill. Oh well,
guess I'll wait for prosperity event and try for a new solo record then.

113786: A long, coiled wyrm is crawling around (crippled)

Still not a top solo kill worth. Hadn't seen this version of the mob before,
and consequently failed to dodge the acid spray special a few times. Died
once, when I kept moving after a stun and stumbled back into his room. This
one felt tougher than the last, was really expecting it to be higher exp
worth. Don't think I'll be doing more of these solo until I can get at least
some sort of def set. Guess I need to go solo all the Spider GMs next. :)

Upgraded my ships's navigator from rank 4 to rank 6, so that's 2.5m more spent
on the ship. Speed boost is noticeable at least on tradelanes, rank 4 spent
2:44 running from Lucentium to Furnachia, and rank 6 spent 1:49. Speed wasn't
the reason for the upgrade though, but to be able to set longer paths. Maybe
now I can start using the ship more widely as a regen spot.

63825: an athletic looking oriental man practicing some weird form

Another in the series of always wanted to try solo. Went much easier than
'bookmob', but then this was a pretty appropriate challenge for the exp value.
Didn't know they block the normal exit though, so the first run was a frantic
search for the maze command and got hit with spider touch (among other
things). That slowed things down a bit, but other than that no big trouble
soloing it.

122640: The ghostly form of a banshee floats through (crippled) (undead)

Didn't feel like exping today, so went for a new solo kill. I've always wanted
to try solo this one ever since finding (and dying to) it the first time. Took
quite a bit of time, and then it wasn't actually big enough expwise to make
number 1 solo (it's quite a bit more challenging than the value suggests).
Still, a decent notch for the list of solo kills I think.

Just made a new plan for exping, to train every skill I can to either guild
max or 92%. Why 92%? Because the next skillbook (already have one stashed)
will give +8%, and I want to maximize the chance to 'benefit' from the book,
even if it hits some silly skill. The exceptions will be skills that I cannot
train to guild max yet due to having low Tarma levels, and 'Battery', because
I'll never be able to use bluds anyway.

In short, target +50821700 exp.

25 mil exp gained in this reinc, for a total of 152 mil plus change. I don't
think I've ever made that much in a single reinc, not counting alchemist
potion research (can't remember how much that was) or early rebirth exploring.
Next up, +50 mil in this reinc.

Your boons and banes: swordsmith, master swordsmith and grandmaster
swordsmith.
You select Marcos, the grandmaster weaponsmith. [##########]

a truly pure ghost bastard sword, super sharp <red glow>

Trying to get back into mudding after a rather lengthy break. The above ghost
sword was something I've wanted to try ever since starting Liberators, ie.
what kind of ghost sword does a max ghost + max boons give you. It's a fairly
futile effort since the sword only lasts for a boot (or 3 weeks when given to
animist soul), but satisfying pointless curiosity is one of the more amusing
parts of the game. :)

Total of 150049226 experience spent on character.

I rebirthed in 2005, debirthed in 2007 and this is the first time since then
that I've reached 150m exp. Meaning I now have the highest totals I've ever
had, yay! (and sad that the top is at only 150m)

Ancient book of knowledge (friendly)

Another one of those dropped from a random small mob. This time I'll stash it
for later, since I'm actually gaining exp and might be able to max some skills
first. Book status for the reinc so far: +10 dodge, +9 burial ceremony.

Gained a rep based liberator boon point some time yesterday! Now I can start
taking the ghost slash boons, hopefully they'll have as major an effect as the
ghost link boons did (those really changed a 'meh' spell to 'awesome').

,---------------------------------------------.
| Boons                            6          |
|---------------------------------------------|
| Banes                            2          |
| Leadership and activity          0          |
| Quests                           1          |
| Liberated ghosts                 3          |
|---------------------------------------------|
| Points available                 0          |
`---------------------------------------------'

The book crumbles to dust in your hands.
You feel more knowledgable about burial ceremony.

+9 burial ceremony, not quite as awesome as the +10 dodge from the previous
book, but after that I suppose I can't complain. :)

Eula the journeyman peasant joins your ghost army. (id: 6)
A large cavity replaces Someone's chest.
Someone is DEAD, R.I.P.
Congratulations! You have just completed Ether realms 2!

44805: an ethereal minotaur, its black eyes fixed at you

Success on the first try, but it was really close. I was running out of sps,
my mount was about to die and I was forced to use my only master level soldier
when my journeymen wore out. I've completed all the liberator quests that I
can for now, next ones would require master level ghosts or above and I don't
have many of those. Theoretically killing Grimoor should be possible, but I
don't really have a set to go def tanking.

Marty the journeyman priest joins your ghost army. (id: 7)
A large cavity replaces Someone's chest.
Someone is DEAD, R.I.P.
You feel slightly better at fighting with your soul companion.
Congratulations! You have just completed Ether realms 1!

42265: an ethereal beast, a chilling sight indeed

Yay, that was rather intense. Being chased by maybe 10 hunters and half a
dozen lurkers didn't give too much time to think about where to move and made
mapping the place impossible. This was my 2nd attempt today, and 3rd overall
(the first two of course ended in death).

Your seance is done. You place the ghost lily ceremonially on the ground.
You hear someone whisper 'I sense potential in you... Please, let me help
you.'
Pauline the journeyman armoursmith joins your ghost army. (id: 102)
Congratulations! You have just completed Remember the fallen 2!
The pure white lily starts to glow faintly. Soon after that, it turns to a
floating white vapor that rises into air and vanishes.

6 liberator quests completed, next up are ether realms 1 and 2. Last time I
tried those it ended horribly, partly because I wasn't prepared for it and
partly because I used the wrong ghost and didn't even realize which mob I was
hunting. This time I'll try to do those with a little bit more thought.

You give a bloody chunk of minced meat to Dog.
The dog looks gratefully at you.
The dog eats the chunk of meat with great enjoyment.
A mighty voice says: You have solved the quest.
Congratulations! You have just completed It's dog!
You receive 18610 gold as a reward for completing the quest.
You receive 4 training points.

Actually managed to solo this one too, gaining a new top solo kill for the
reinc (a huge spider, 132711 exp). Also got the last few training points for
that elusive 1 point of con, and finally:

Hit Points     Spell Points     Endurance Points
 1000/1000        680/680            396/396

Funtop croaks 'Ah, almost forgot your reward!'
Congratulations! You have just completed Competing architects!
You receive 1206 gold as a reward for completing the quest.
You receive 2 training points.
Funtop gives you a firm handshake, and as you pull back you notice that he
left a ring in your hand.

Another fun little quest, and this one required no killing. Now all I need to
do is complete a "not very hard" quest and I'll reach my training point goal
(for now).

The King kneels before all in the room in prayer, celebrating the return of
the Book of Faith to his possession.
Congratulations! You have just completed Caves of orac!
You receive 398 gold as a reward for completing the quest.
You receive 2 training points.
You give Oracian Book Of Faith <red glow> to King.

A simple, fun little quest. Before my rebirth/debirth and the continent tune I
used to solo quite a bit in Orac, so I know the quest well. I just hadn't
gotten around to completing it until now. 5 more training points to go.

Congratulations! You have just completed A day at the circus!
You receive 420 gold as a reward for completing the quest.
You receive 2 training points.

Congratulations! You passed the 'A Day at the Circus' quest.
You give A lion's severed head to Ernesto.
Ernesto says 'Good job. I knew you wouldn't let me down. Thank you! .'
Taerom completed the 'A Day at the Circus' quest.

Another head hunting quest done, another 2 training points closer to that
point of con. Still need 7 more points, but there are a few quests that I
already know how to solve that I just haven't gotten around to doing, so this
shouldn't be too hard.

The farmers wife quickly snatches the head and in return gives you a fresh
apple pie
Congratulations! You have just completed Save the farmers!
You receive 630 gold as a reward for completing the quest.
You receive 2 training points.
You give A bloody wyvern head to Wife.

What an annoyingly resistant mob to solo. Only thing that did any damage was
radiant slash (magic), and even that was partially resisted. Got it done
eventually, but still need a few more quests to get enough training points for
another point of con (and 1k hpmax).

10m exp gained now in this reinc. That's more than the total exp gained in all
the reincs I've been in since 2008, when the 'show reincs' logging started.

Really enjoying this liberator/animist combo, having fun with the game again.
I like how both guilds, and liberators in particular, have other stuff to do
besides just exp grinding. The missions may not be much, but they're just
enough of a break to occasionally go map a new area or run through one that
isn't part of my usual route to keep me interested.

Gnome hits the ball with his club.
Golf ball flies south.
It seems to land at forest.
The ball seems to go to the hole.
Gnome exclaims 'Holy donkey balls! I nailed it!'  
Gnome says 'Eagle! Only two strikes! I'll give you something very nice.'   
Gnome gives you Ancient book of knowledge (friendly).
Gnome says 'Oh, found this strange thing as well. You can have it as a
souvenir.'    
Gnome gives you a small wooden penny.
Gnome says 'Okay. That's enough for golf. Maybe something else to do then.'

The book crumbles to dust in your hands.
You feel more knowledgable about dodge.

+10 dodge, not bad for a liberator/animist. The gnome was a completely random
little golfer in a forest on Laenor, didn't even know something like that
existed. Let's hope I can stick to this reinc for a while.