Death Of The Green Hat
Entry posted by Merch Gwyar
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What on earth I was doing in PvP in the first place, I don't know. Actually, I do. It was Joshua Mack's fault. I'd been happily engaged in the wanton mass destruction of mighty banshees; a process made easier by the fact that Zvi5 was letting me use his Pollnivneach house to replenish my prayer. Suddeny the call came up that Josh was getting level 96 range, did anyone want to come for a screenshot? Yes, I did, but I didn't have many banshees left and Shelley was shortly due to go home to Summoning World. I kept going, but ran out of food before the end. Zvi5 appeared to be with Josh, so I surrendered to the inevitable and joined them at the Duel Arena. It's not that I didn't want to be there anyway.
I'd expected that we'd be inside the duel arena, but Josh led me onto the rooftops, past that place where me and CJ used to watch the fighting from a safe parapet. As others arrived, Josh nipped back to the bank to guide them to me. Then there was a slight change of plan. I was called back to the bank. Shelley was about to go, so I said my goodbyes to him and thanked him for the help with the banshees (he'd taken a few out himself). Then promptly got hopelessly lost. I was overlooking Al-Kharid before Josh gave up on my sense of direction and came to find me. Safely back at the bank, he had me bank all of my belongings, then follow him back up to the rooftops. I should have suspected something dire then, but I knew that sometimes you had to bank stuff to enter the duel arena. I figured something like that would happen and just did as I was told. ^_^
We ended up in a corner on the roof, with Josh grinning that he wanted to get his level here. He was holding some Chinchompa shaped pillows and looking pointedly at Chiwowa504. He asked us to hop to a PvP world Off we went, arriving back in the same spot with skulls over our heads and the warning that we couldn't protect an item. Chiwowa504, Dr Leviathan and myself got our messages ready and emoted our little legs off. Josh attacked Chiwowa and the level was achieved.
Congratulations, Joshy! (Zach and Zvi5 had had to leave due to real life happening, and E Zenaku also shouted congrats from within Canting, but was thwarted from being there by lack of membership. 
)
Chiwowa504 immediately dashed of in fear of his sandals, as his hitpoints ebbed dangerously low. Josh followed thereon to bank the rest of his pillows. This left Dr Leviathan and I standing there canting. Neither of us could have attacked the other. Dr Leviathan is combat level about 16 billion, while I was a mere 114, so both of our names looked white to the other. After a while, I asked him why we were still standing there. Josh, by now, was in another world having adventures of his own and the others had scattered. Dr Leviathan just looked at me and shrugged. He had no idea either. We shuffled a bit, then I suggested that we go for a walk, just to see how long it was before we were killed.
So we did. It was a bit creepy. We passed someone in full armour farming in Al-Kharid, but otherwise the world seemed utterly deserted. All across the top of the desert and into Varrock, we didn't pass another soul on the road.
I had vague ideas about skirting the major cities, then perhaps ending up in Kandorin. I figured that if we could make it through Seers unmolested, then we might get all the way to the west coast of Tirannwn. The world was so empty that it felt like a slight possibility. All logic told me that we'd die somewhere between Falador and Camelot though. What I didn't anticipate for one second was that, as we stepped around the Champions' Guild, we would spot a level 4 shooting star sitting on the ground just south of the mine.
Dr Leviathan and I stared at it. Riches and mining xp stared back. We were on a PvP world with skulls on our head. Only complete idiots would even think of grabbing their pickaxes and starting work on it. Dr Leviathan and I exchanged glances. A short conversation later and we were turning on our heels and heading into Varrock to the nearest bank. There were people there. Just two or three of them, dashing in and out of the bank. One person setting fire to the street. Just low-level anarchy. I wasn't as brave as Dr Leviathan. As he grabbed a rune pickaxe, I was pulling out the bronze pickaxe that use when runecrafting through the abyss. I felt a bit of a lightweight noob compared to his bravery, as we raced back to the star.
It didn't take me long to realise that bronze pickaxes didn't produce stardust with any great urgency. I whacked that star with all my might, but the dust only trickled in. In the end, I asked Dr Leviathan how much a rune pickaxe costs. It was only 19k. I gave up on the last remnant of prudence and ran back to Varrock bank to swop my bronze pickaxe for my rune.
I was already on the way back, when Dr Leviathan alerted me, inside Canting, that we had company. I froze next to the Blue Moon pub and tentatively asked if the newcomer looked friendly. There was no response. I rocked forward a step, hesitantly waiting and listening. There were no screams coming from the direction of the mine. I continued back there to find that our fellow miner was dressed like Gonthorian in all regards, as well as being flanked by a huge lava titan. His combat level was white. I relaxed and said 'hi'. I Chemical X did not reply.
Meanwhile, OAll-StarO had been following all of this from within Canting. He was safe and sound in a non-PvP world, but decided to give that all up for the utter tomfoolery of mining a star in PvP with us. He arrived with a cheery hello, which stilled my heart after it had pounded at the sight of a person approaching. Not that Star alone was causing all of this. Every time the lephrachaun or gardener, at the berry patch behind us, moved, I jumped 10 feet out of my seat. I'm not a natural in a PvP world, it has to be said. Nevertheless, Star, Dr Leviathan, I Chemical X and I mined away in relative peace.
I was quite surprised to reach 200 stardust whilst still intact. Knowing that death now would mean the loss of the dust, I immediately sprinted off to Varrock to bank it. Hereon would be mining xp. I'd worry about the tubby if I was still alive to see it. However, at the bank, my natural paranoia got the better of me. I took out three rings of duelling, on the basis that A Grey Parrot had told me that you could teleport wearing it, even while in combat. Back at the star, I traded Dr Leviathan and Star a ring each, then returned to my mining.
It felt like mere seconds afterwards that I Chemical X suddenly turned and attacked Dr Leviathan. I was in shock, because it had all been so quiet until then. I'd half thought that I Chemical X might prove to be protection in the event of an attack, as he had shown no inkling to hurt us before. I'd been lulled into a false sense of security, albeit an extremely jumpy one, in thinking that any threat would come from outside our mining circle. I exclaimed, 'OMG!' into Canting, while Star typed, 'Wow what a jerk!' but neither of us could do a thing to help. Our combat levels were too noobish.
Recovering myself from my fright enough to speak, I then started a diatribe on the PKer. 'Why did you kill him?' and all that. To me, it seemed so mean. If he was going to kill him for his pickaxe, then why not do that when he first arrived? Instead, he waited for him to mine all of that dust, then killed him. It's not like he could claim the dust. Star was reporting into Canting, 'Merch's giving him a right mouthful', but I Chemical X pwnt all of my arguments with a single line, 'Its pvp why cant i'. Why couldn't he indeed? I deflated greatly, unable to think of a response to that. Meanwhile, Star was trying to direct my attention to an important detail. Dr Leviathan wasn't dead. He'd used the duelling ring to teleport away and now had his belongings safely stashed in the duel arena bank.
Just on it, Star reached 200 dust. This was his first shooting star, so he wasn't even aware of what was at stake here with that dust. I was standing there, still mining, debating whether to leave. I wanted to be at the duel arena counting Dr Leviathan's fingers and toes, checking his wounds and stuff, but that was just real life maternal instinct interfering with play. Of course he was alright. He has 99 hitpoints and presumably a bank full of fish. I advised Star to teleport out and bank his dust, explaining that it would be lost if he was killed. Off he went, but before I could teleport out myself out of sheer alarm at suddenly being alone with a PKer, Dr Leviathan was back.
He stood behind I Chemical X blowing raspberries until I got the giggles big time. I did screenie it, but accidentally pasted over it before I could save the picture. That's because I Chemical X immediately turned and attacked again.
With Dr Leviathan once again teleporting out, Star was already on the horizon meandering back. I felt a little calmer after the laugh, so decided to see it out as long as Star did. Dr Leviathan did return another time, again with the raspberries and again with the teleport. I pointed out to I Chemical X that we'd get down this star much faster if he'd just let Dr Leviathan mine.
Before he could reply, there was a zap of fire. L1k3 Ur B4ck was in blue mystic, but wielding a Zammy prayer book and a rune crossbow. I was teleblocked before I even knew she was there. I remember reading, ages ago, in an article linked by Runescape Reader that most deaths in Runescape occur because the player panics. In the grip of utter panic, I tried to calm myself down, clicking impotently on that duelling ring. I noticed little details, like I Chemical X saying, 'gl', a second before my assailant appeared. He had called her there then. I attempted to run, but after a couple of steps, I was frozen. I'd already banked my dust. I was going to lose my rune pickaxe. I recalled Dr Leviathan saying that it's only 19k. That didn't matter. A farming run would more than cover that. I worried about Star being alone there. I wondered at how long it was taking to die. I was going to lose my pointy green hat.
Star survived. He teleported to Castle Wars, where he was joined by Dr Leviathan. Not that it was much safer there. I teleported to join them, in time to see strongthz z being kicked up the backside by Dr Leviathan for attacking us. Strongthz z ran away, but was soon back, freezing me and killing me outright. It didn't matter, I didn't have anything on me at the time.
We came out of PvP after that. Within an hour, I'd nipped into Star Find to learn the location of a tubbied star in a safe world. We cashed in our dust there, as none of us had actually lost that. I bought back a rune pickaxe from the GE and got on with a bit of mining.
It should be noted that that hat is not the original. That was lost to giant snails years ago. At the time, Joshua Mack had the foresight to buy me 10 of them as a gift. That was the third hat that I've lost in my Runescape career. I took the fourth from my bank and put it on my head. The world was suddenly much better again. ^_^
A shout out here to Yaaaaaz, ODST Isaac and Bravinator, whom I know are reading, as they took the time to speak to me in-game about this blog. Also to E Zenaku, who came into Canting to say hello and ended up staying to support me in a fairly frustrating conversation with another newcomer.
Edit: Here is Star's telling of this: Star Hunting.
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