Dealing With Scabaras
Entry posted by Merch Gwyar
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I had absolutely no intention of doing another quest after the two I'd already done that day. I wrote my blog entry on 'In Aid of the Myreque', then logged on with all intention of exploring the new village to see if there was anything changed post-quest (sometimes things get unlocked), then going to do some farming. Then Reaver happened.
He talked me into just starting 'Dealing with the Scabaras' on the basis that he fancied coming along and guiding me through it, plus he had 18 bronze bars to use up. I was quite tired, not going to bed tired but certainly no deep concentration please tired, however I figured that starting it might be fun as long as we stopped when I had to seriously pay attention. Yes...
It was fun. We made our way to Sophanem and I carried on through the gate, staring back through the bars at Reaver going, 'come out of there'. He wanted us to go to the Agility Pyramid first. I had the guide opened (such luxury these days!) and Neo says to start in Sophanem with the High Priest. Reaver still wanted me out of that city and into that pyramid. Ok, off we go. I'd never been on the Agility Pyramid before. Actually that isn't technically true, as I'd been on the first level of it trying to find the Pyramid Plunder game once and had been ignobly pushed off it by a moving block, before finding the proper place to be. I've now been all the way to the top and down the slide, wheeeeeee, and discovered that it might be fun to train agility there.
With the top of the pyramid duly stolen :/ and with 18 bronze bars and 10 Pyramid Plunder gold ornaments provided by Reaver, it was time to speak to the High Priest. This done, I learned two exciting things, that there is now a side-gate to Sophanem, where you don't have to go through all of that dialogue to get out of the desert heat and secondly that there's now more world down there! You no longer skirt the Agility Pyramid to find a void of darkness to your southern flank. Ok, the new world is full of level 89 crocodiles, but if you put on protect from melee and refuse to be provoked into a fight, it's all good.
We pushed through reeds and found the archaeologists, then I learned that there was a maths test. Oh no! My As are all in the humanities, maths was stopped at GCSE level and then only at a C. Me and maths just don't get on, at all. Reaver abandoned me! He had siblings to supervise and so left me confronting maths! :/ Fortunately I was equal to it. In fact, stopping whinging, getting out a calculator and just doing it was far preferrable. By the time he was back, I was smugly grinning with a passed maths test behind me. We saw Simon Templeton and returned to Sophanem.
In retrospect, this was the moment when I should have stopped. It was already knocking on 2am and I was tired, but I hadn't actually read to the end of the guide. I was just doing it as it came. Reaver said to grab melee stuff, pots and food, so I did and we returned to the archaeologists. It was a fairly quick interlude then to kill four creatures for the notes and that was when it finally dawned on me that we were approaching the end of this quest. They were the first of the three finale fights! Also in retrospect, I should have taken some food from Reaver at this moment, but I don't think either of us knew that once we'd descended the steps, I would be in a pre-quest completion scene and he would be unseen in a post-quest completion one.
I started the golem - furnace - levers sequence. At first I didnt realize that failing one meant that you failed them all, so when I failed the strength room first of all, I continued to do the other three. I passed them too, but returned to stoke the fire and then to try the strength room again, only to discover that it didn't work like that. I had also used up both logs that I'd brought and was back by the archaeologists before I spotted something in the guide that said there were logs in the storage room. I returned. This time I passed the strength room first go, but failed the agility one. I immediately returned to the golem instead of re-doing the thieving and scarab rooms. On the third time of trying, I succeeded in pulling the levers in all four rooms, thus opening the antechamber. Woot!
The golem was urging me to quickly go through. I was, by now, desperately tired and really should have been in bed. It was nearly 3am, which certainly added to the confusion of what came next. The guide urged me to ensure that I had enough food/prayer to survive the climatic sequence. I checked. At full health now, I had two sharks and three doses of prayer potion. I was wearing an innoculation bracelet. I was also wearing the ring of charos instead of my ring of life. Ok. At level 92 combat now (with 75hp), my haddled brain judged myself able to survive against the future confrontation. I walked on and was immediately hit for 15, then 15 again by the floor traps. One shark down. Really tired, I struggled with instructions like 'go slightly south, then follow it south and west until you see the room', or whatever it said. I'm guessing it would make more sense this morning. ;) Instead I figured I'd just run out and find the thing. I did and it was exactly as Neo had said, but in the meantime I took a lot of damage. As soon as I raced into the room, I ate my last shark.
The last scene was highly confusing. Half-asleep at my keyboard, I was suddenly confronted with a situation where my hps are draining with no recourse to food and I'm flashing with disease (hitting 0s due to the bracelet, but with the threat of the bracelet running out of charges) and with poison (I used up four does of super anti during the time I was there). The dialogue made absolutely no sense whatsoever, so I was trying to cope with monitoring the poison and disease, plus watching for his attacks and applying the appropriate protect prayer, whilst also judging when it was time to leave, while also wondering if I was missing something important to stop this in the conversation that was taking place. It was like being extremely intoxicated! It also seemed to go on for a long time. He'd attacked me four times when I either made a mistake or else my character's tortured body gave in, because my hitpoints dropped dramatically and I was in immediate danger of death.
I ecto-ed out. The flight from the temple to the bank was fraught, as I was poisoned and the next high hit would kill me. Nevertheless dying in Port Phas., with a chat channel full of people in possession of an ectophial was surely preferrable to dying in a cut scene on the far side of the desert. I careered into the bank, cursing the ghosts for their non-ghostspeak amulet conversation, then shoved everything from my inventory into it. I had a heartstopping moment when I realized that I hadn't taken everything from my person, including Lilshu's dragon shield, Cougar's dragon boots and my glory. I pushed them in, stepped back to check and I only had 5hp left.
I stood in the middle of the bank waiting to die and also bitterly disappointed that I'd come so close to the end of the quest, but had failed for want of, perhaps, a single shark. I was just typing in the chat channel what had happened, when a beautiful player named Deshadeslay traded me. It was five monkfish. I had food in my bank, but that little act of kindness really turned that moment around. I healed myself and looked up to find Helk there saying 'hello', then CJ too. It was CJ's birthday! :/ Happy birthday, cariad. Instead of leaving on a low, disappointed because of failing by a slither, I left surrounded by lovely people. Thank you all.
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