Day 2 and spoilers to Day 1's Hint.

I've managed to solve Day 2's hints, and am looking forward to Day 3's hints.

Here are some screenshots of my conversation with the mystery person, the answers will be out tomorrow :)

For those who have yet to solve Day 1's hints, or just couldn't figure them out, here are the answers.

Items: 3 Cakes, 2 Buckets and 5 Bananas

Person to speak to: Lachtopher, who wanders around the Lumbridge General Store.

A screenshot of what exactly to bring, as well as the location of the mystery person.

Little Surprises

Ah yes, the little surprises we sometimes get while going on about your usual training, a sudden woodcutting level up while cutting down our own willow trees to make space for a new one, that unexpected herblore level up while cleaning our fresh harvests, and of course, clue scroll drops.

Something like that happened a while ago, a little surprise while I was slaying aberrant spectres as part of a slayer task. I received a challenge scroll from the Aberrant Spectre Champion. This was really unexpected, but a pleasant surprise though.

Ironically, just a week or 2 ago, I told Boom, who was out challenge scroll hunting, that I have no intention of spending the crazy amount of time he did on challenge scroll hunting, and am in fact, not interested at all.

Since the Champion had already issued a challenge, of course I was game enough to take the fight to him, and for the first time since I became a member, I entered the basement of the Champions Guild, into the arena and kicked the Aberrant Sceptre Champions's Ass. Hard.

I was awarded some experience and calling beads which allowed me to summon my own banner carrier, which really looks pretty damn cool now that I own it. :D

Another surprise was meeting Merch Gywar in pixel! It was the second time we've encountered each other online actually, but I was busy farming the first time so by the time I saw her name in the chatbox, I had teleported far, far away. That happened this time as well actually, but I was not going to miss this opportunity, so I headed over to the bank and got the runes to teleport right back where she was last at. Luckily, Merch showed up a little while later, and I stalked her for a little before I went back to slayer. That was an epic experience.

On a side note, the newly launched Cryptic Clue Fest has been wonderful so far, I've solved day 1's hint, and shall be working on day 2's hint tomorrow. I've blurred out the face and names just in case there is anyone out there who has yet to complete the hint and would not want spoilers.

I've looked through day 2's hints and I already have some guesses, I shall wait till tomorrow to see if my guesses are correct! :)

Some other levels I've gained since the last post:

Lunar Diplomacy.

Under Tim's advice, I decided to get a spirit tree planted in Etceteria. So I decided to start Lunar Diplomacy in order to get access to Suroths. Surprisingly, both Lunar Diplomacy and the subsequent quest, Dream Mentor interested me so much that I completed both at one go, with Tim and Kat cheering me on as I fought off the boss in all its 4 forms. Those quests were rather entertaining, and I especially enjoyed the boss fights.

I also recently made an observation. I wonder if this is a pure coincidence but I chanced upon this player who had released an onslaught of insults on myself during a clan wars game a few days ago. Of course, I avoided him and left him to do his own stuff while I killed my own waterfiends, sticking to my own spot. Soon after, another player came by, a friendly girl, I must say, who came over and said 'Hi', then continued to converse with me. After a while of crushing waterfiends, I ran out of food, so I asked the lady if she had any cooked sharks to trade with my raws. (She could use her bunyip's 'Swallow whole' technique to consume those raw sharks) Unfortunately, she didn't happen to have enough food for herself. Suddenly though, rudeman came over and asked me if I wanted to trade with him and so I accepted the offer, and traded my raw sharks with his cooked sharks. He even threw in a few rocktails as a gift.

I was shocked. Did the man not recognize me? Or was it just a random display of kindness? We even resumed to have a civil, even enjoyable conversation during my stay there. It didn't add up, one day, he was such an angry and aggressive player in clan wars, yet on another incident, he became a generous and helpful guy. After some thought, I reckon that my only conclusion is possibly because of the nature of the activity we are engaging in. In Clan wars, it was a battle of strength, of domination and of pride. Maybe that's why testosterones are rising and tension is high. And for killing waterfiends, it was an individual thing, as long as players stick to their own spot. Relatively peaceful and non-aggressive.

Maybe be that's it. Maybe he just forgot about me. Maybe I was just thinking too much. But people at waterfiends, you need to learn how to hop when it is too crowded! :(

Starstruck

I'm sure everyone has their Runescape 'idol', or someone they really look up to, may it be Gertjaars, Chessy018 or some Pking legend. Well, mine would be Excl, a RS machinima videomakler who recently won the Jagex machinima contest. Of course, my admiration for him started way back, when a fellow clanmate of mine, Deamonloard9 introduced the clan to a few of his videos, about a year or 2 ago. I have to say, I’m pretty amazed by his creativity and undoubtedly, his video making skills.

This sudden confession of fanhood aside, while lurking in his clan chat about a month ago, I was greeted with a surprise. Excl is holding a house party to celebrate 40k Youtube subscribers for one of his friend, Dark Arm3, also known as Sladeakakevin on his Youtube account. Of course, I had to stop my mining training and dash over to his house in Rimmington. By dash, I really ran all the way, using my charges from my explorer ring whenever I was out of run energy. Luckily enough, I was among the first few to reach his house, and decided to take a tour whilst waiting for the crowd to gather. Within 2 minutes, when I went back to the room Excl was in, it was just jam packed with players of all levels and outfits ( Yeah, some of them had fashion sense resembling that of Lady Gaga's -Runescape-wise.)

The house party soon moved to the altar, where Excl 'married' Dark Arm3, with rings and all, while the rest of us aww-ed.

After which, there was just a lot of people running around, me getting bored, and me leaving the party with a really good memory of meeting up with one second favourite Runescaper of all time, Excl. He seems really nice too!

Don't worry Tim, you are still first :)

So, if you are reading this, who is the Runescaper you really want to meet?

By the way, this is one of my favourite moments, I got to sit on Excl's throne!

Jubilation.

I finally got the cape I had been working towards for the past year, the Strength cape. As usual, I invited members from Blessings, as well as my own friends who were online to join me in the screenshot. Albeit the screenshot going wrong and missing the 99 message, we had a lot of fun enjoying ourselves at clan wars, fighting as a clan, as a group, as friends.

Coincidentally, my character looks rather grumpy in this screenshot. I guess my pixel self was as disappointed as myself for not getting the screenshot.

Still, I had a hell of a time, and thinking back, a realization hit me. It really wasn't about the achievement, the cape, or the maxed stat, it really was about friends who I could share any of these with. The most fun I had throughout the whole day was not the moment I got the level up, it wasn't the moment I got my cape either - I asked them to get ready for clan wars and went to get the cape myself, it wasn't even performing my emote for the first time, it was that extremely close match we fought with a larger clan, and Blessings holding our own ground, dealing almost equal damage albeit we had almost half their numbers.

Thank you all! :)

So, to those who could make it, thanks a lot, you really made my day. To those who couldn't, meh, there will be a next time, and its still gonna be awesome! :D

Target Locked.

I'm now closing in on maxing my first combat skill, Strength. And yes, though my methods still entail certain degrees of grinding, my tiny breaks in between did their job in not boring me off the game. The study and examination period that lasted for a few weeks also did wonders with keeping me occupied while my pixel self whacks away at the monsters, gaining those strength experience as I myself gained knowledge whilst reading through my notes. (Yeah, I actually learn from going through my notes, have to admit that I'm not the most attentive student out there :] )

If nothing else fails, I should be done with training by the end of this week, and probably be having the level up and party sometime next week.

This is how little experience there is left till 99 Strength while I'm working on this post! :)

Kat and I made use of the new name-change system too, though neither of us are pleased with the names we came up :|

Wanted to write this part way before the examination period, procrastination pushed the actual typing of this post till now, though.

Before moving over to the desert bandits, I was still training strength in the Stronghold, on level 50 giant spiders. Relative to the players training on desert bandits, those training on the giant spiders are lower in level, and in most cases, donning inferior armor compared to my bandos set.

Something that irked me after a while would happen everyday *without fail*. I would get asked how I made enough money to afford the set. Initially, the attention was rather pleasing and ego-boosting, to be honest, I've never been seen as a rich player before, at least not standing next to Tim, with this Reddy, or Dg, with her full bandos *AND* dragonfire shield.

So, when greeted by this question initially, I would gladly share my money-making method, fishing and farming, with a bit of slayer and hunting thrown in between. This routine goes on, from days to weeks. Albeit tired of repeating the same responses, I was still willing to offer my advice to those who asked me.

What really irks me was how some people decided to just strut by, and comment on how my BGS sucks compared to the SS, how I'm dumb 'cause I'm not selling my Bandos set even though its value (was) dropping, and that I'm a noob 'cause I still train at the spiders. The worst yet, those to question the effectiveness of how I make *my* money. Yup, those were not satisfied with the answer I gave, and started throwing out other common money-making ways, expecting me to do a comparison between those ways and *my* way. After a few instances of that happening, these thoughts entered my mind.

Are higher levels really obligated to help the 'little-ones' out? If so, why aren't we getting more appreciation? Really, if you want help and advice, put yourself in a position where you actually deserve some :\

Achievements today: 290k Strength Experience, 'bout 300k left to go.

Enjoying the game.

While training strength today, I had a talk with a fellow player, Boombaye, who suggested I try soul wars out. Tempted, I went to look up some guides on the minigame, and decided to give it a go.

Initially, though I was reluctant to leave the training spot I've been camping at, I was getting extremely bored of looking at my avatar slashing away at the little critters. The minigame, however, had the effect of breaking the monotony of the training and after a good round, I dived back into strength training with a somewhat less bored self. Though closing in on 95 strength, I must admit that the monotony of the power training is getting to me, and I really admire a few of my friends who could bear just training the skill day in, day out until 99. Ah yes, I'm referring to you, Stacey (She's a complete training machine. Madness). That was what gave me the idea of this post actually, to explore avenues which reduce the pain of power-training.

After some thought, I came up with a list of things I do/did while I was getting my cooking cape, and during my mad dash for both the fishing and strength capes.

1. Minigames

Ah, my favourite. A game of two of Stealing Creation, Castle wars, or an hour at Clan Wars usually gives me a break enjoyable for me to get back to intensive training.

2. Do something IRL - Homework, Manga, Anime, something else that can share your attention.

Surprisingly, training that requires little attention gives me a lot of time to do my work. During my break last year, although I was intensively fishing monkfish, I saw the opportunity to study at the same time since there was little attention required. All I had to do was to move spots and get gear good enough to withstand a few hits from river trolls and the like(aggressive random events were still in play back then :-\).

During that period of time, the amount of time I spent studying was literally the amount of hours I was on Runescape. I even used the clan chat to quiz another friend of mine who was taking the same examinations as I do to check my studying progress.

Anime does a great job for me as well, although sometimes I miss the subtitles when I eat, or reply someone and have to rewatch some parts. :-\

I also take the time training to read the games news and updates, as well as look around the net for other stuff.

3. Train another skill

This was a dangerous choice for me. Getting a little tired of the constant fishing after the examinaions had ended, I decided to take a break and train my strength. ... and that became the current skillcape I'm going full steam ahead for.

But hey, that just proved how effective this is. The new skill relieved my bordoom so much that I switched to training it instead! :)

4. Observing other players

This is my favourite. Entering a clan chat, I often rest in Chessy018's clan chat if I'm not in Blesschat. I like just lurking around, watching how players interact. Maybe it's just a personality thing, but I actually enjoy doing this. Maybe chime in once in a while, but mostly its just silently reading their conversation.

Happen to catch Excl on while writing this post too, around the time when the results of the Machinima competition was posted. A sudden server reset kicked the other players and myself out of the chat though, and by the time I managed to get back in, Excl had left for work. *Sigh*. the first time I've had the chance to see Excl too.

5. Just do something else

For this, I sometimes have random impluses to merch items from the G.E, or do a quest, distractions, and stuff like that. Usually will take me a while too before I get back to training. That's pretty good for bordoom relief too.

While writing this post again, Boombaye messaged me excitedly telling me that Mod Nyrr was in World 1, and *poof*, I was there. The dude stayed to answer some questions and danced around while I got back to training after taking a few satisfactory screenshots of the Moderator.

I really question the fashion sense though, but that's just me.

Today's Achievement: Tons of Strength experience, kept myself un-bored.

Revival.

Hmm, this blog had been left dead for a while, but since I've recently started Runescape again, I think I'll try to keep it going for the time being. :)

I've been doing quite a lot of 26k Pvp trick recently, after being tempted by Tim and Dg's wonderful drops. Surprised to say, the money comes in very easily. Many have argued, however, the easy money has led to the spike in prices of many items, food and potions being one of the categories affected. Countless threads that are unsupportive of this form of money making have also mushroomed in the Official Runescape Forums.

For me, I see their point, but I really do not see why there is a need for such a fuss. One thing I've noticed though, many of the opponents of the PVP trick fall under the "below 100" category and yet most of the trick users I've seen are in the the high 100s.

Hmm.

Happy Birthday Mark!

My post for ya is here. :D

http://a-life-of-hecticness.blogspot.com/

Getting the hang of it.

Finally, the weekend arrived. I never knew the significance of TGIF!(Thank God Its Friday) until now. The time I have to spend on Runescape is really little now, since my new cca demands a lot our of its members. The competition is less than a month away, and that's all the time the coach as to turn most of us from debaters with little-no experience, into mean, savage killing machines. School is rather tiring too, and I found myself dozing off a couple of times during lectures already. Apart from the exhausting schedule and overly-strenuous physical education, I am actually enjoying my junior college life a lot. I made a couple of great friends already, everyone-well, almost everyone in my new class is great, and the bond came really quickly. This is something I have never experienced before. Then again, we only have 2 years to bond and enjoy each others's accompaniment anyway, we'd have to do it quick or miss the fun we'd have. There isn't much really an issue of breaking the ice, we were all rather prepared to be friendly from day 1, and I can really see this class going on to achieve bigger and better things as a whole.
Still, I miss my secondary school life a lot, my friends, my cca, the teachers, I can't wait till Teachers' Day this year to return to my Alma Mater.

My time on Runescape now is mainly split between events, minigame, and fishing. Fishing takes up the bulk of the time actually, since I am usually multi-tasking when I play Runescape on weekdays, if I have any time to play anyway. For now, I'm working towards 90 Fishing, then probably 92. I'll see where this multi-tasking brings me to and decide if I want to switch skills.

Oh and Blessings just turned 2 this March. Finally, we passed another milestone, although the membership is dwindling. I'm grateful for the loyal clanmates who stayed on despite the waning interest for the game, and the changes in schedule in their own lives. I have the intention of keeping Blessings small, I'd rather have a really tight family than a huge group of cliques. This coming year would be tough, with many of the pillars of the clan being engaged in really busy real-life-stuff. We have to stick together, its gonna be better during the holidays! :D Happy Birthday Blessings!

Stuff achieved today : Nothing worth noting.

CALL ME A BEE!

Recently, even though things have settled down, there are still too many things to cope with to make much time ( if any ) for Runescape. My deepest apologies to my clanmates for being an absent leader. Yeah, and now, anytime i have on Runscape is spent fishing and chatting with my guildmates. I'm hoping to see better days soon.

Hetic-ness

Orientation and our CCAs started. Made it into the debate team, although i still have a lot to catch up with the ex-school team debaters, and my self-taught skills are no longer sufficient. The coach seemed very good, and im looking forward to working with the rest of the seniors and my future team mates. Time is flying by, stuff is going on everyday, i barely have enough sleep anymore, so for now, Runescape is for the weekends. :)

The ugly sight behind the lucrative hunting business.

Many a time, when people learn that I've been hunting, comments about this rapid source of cash is made. Indeed, hunting is a rather fast way to earn money, given the relatively ease of catching red chinchompas coupled with the fact that the catch is stackable makes it an even more popular choice for a quick source of money. Although, after a while of hunting, I came to realise that behind the glamour and attractiveness of fast cash, there are some darker, repulsive habits some hunters have within that not only ruin the game for others, but potentially acting as a double-edged sword, spoiling his own mood.

I term these people the spot robbers. They hop into worlds with players they feel are pushovers and try to drive them out from their hunting spot. It is usually done in two ways, or a combination of both and/or more. One of the two is by walking to your spot, and setting their trap on yours while you dismantle it. This will usually result in the hunter "dropping" his trap on the spot while the robber gets away scot-free, with their spot.

The second, a more extreme way, is to lay his traps a little distance from yours, and start killing the chinchompas that approach yours in order for them to respawn (usually near his traps), using a bow/crossbow or less often seen, melee. More often than not, flaming and insults follow after.

I've seen and dealt with these spot robbers. For some reason, I'm less tolerant towards them than random level 50s asking me for places to catch rainbow wingtails. I might be able to offer some tips about how to stop these spot robbers. I think the key to stopping these people is to " pay them back in their own coin".

Bring crossbows, bows or other ranged weapon with you on your trips. Since not all of the spot robbers employ the trick of shooting down your chinchompas, you might be able to deal with some of them that way.

Also, when these robbers steal your spot, steal theirs'. They normally start with more strategic spots, then move in for yours, so by stealing some of theirs' you might actually end up turning the tables around.

Well, I've seen my share of spot robbers, dealt with all of them, never once did I end up at the losing side of the tug-of-war in power. I've driven away level 99 Hunters, driven level 63 Hunters, as long as they try to move in on a spot i painstakingly switched numerous worlds to find, they would be asked to leave, and if not complied, further actions would be taken.

Sometimes others might think, why not share? The logic is simple. There are a limited number of spawns, the less people, the more chinchompas you have running around for you. It all boils down to the theory of "survival of the fittest" i feel. If they manage to steal my spot and force me to leave, kudos to them, if not, they would have wasted a great deal of time unsuccessfully trying to make a stubborn hunter leave.

Some of these spot robbers are in the level 90s when i met them, and they, of all people should understand the annoyance of people robbing your spot, yet they do not spare a thought for others hunting. These people definitely deserves a lesson.

For me, i make it a point not to steal the spots of others' for the sake of honour and thoughtfulness for others. I don't think the desire for fast training would drive me to go against, but at this moment, I'm definitely against this course of action. That's low, it really is.

A new chapter unfolds.

Settling into my new school, i feel resigned to the state fate has brought me to. Slowly accepting the school as my second home for the next two years, I'm starting to see a forming a bond towards the school and cultivating school spirit as a possibility indeed. Alas, the day one kicked off in a rough start, with our schedule crammed full of talks of all sorts, we were delayed for 1 hour and 20 minutes in our dismissal time. Day 2 was slightly better, although seeing the student council perform the mass dances we were about to learn and dance during our orientation week made me pale instantly with embarrassment and dread. Day 3 was much better in comparison, ending with a CCA carnival, which i applied for the Debate and Oratorical Society, I am waiting for news of the interview or tryouts, and hopefully i'll make the cut.

Heh, Runescape-wise, Hunting as usual, having reached 80 a few days ago, the rate of catching red chinchompas seemed to have slightly increased, although it is still the behaviour or spot stealers that bothers me the most.

Stuff achieved today: none.

Nightmare turned reality.

The posting of the school results came out today. My nightmare materialised and I was posted to Anderson Junior College. I don't know what to do, reality is still seeping into my mind and I am feeling dejected, pissed, depressed, anything but rejoicing. My mood is shit low now. Try not to step on my toes today. Seriously.

Chinchompas fear me!

The hunting goes on, in hopes of me getting the skill to 83 as soon as possible, before taking a well-deserved break. Breaking into level 83 would definitely be a good point to take a break, since i would be able to catch dragon imps even when the training is stopped temporarily. With all my attention devoted to the art of hunting, my farming have not been given the attention it should have been given. Rapidly sliding the rank ladder, I am now hovering dangerously near the brink of the top 15k farmers, one milestone i just broke through before i stopped farming. I certainly would not want to have to gear up and train as madly as i did before to get into the top 14k.

Another thing had been bothering me for recently. A rather heated argument erupted in the clan not long ago, with a close friend of mine, Kicky, on one side of the argument, and Timothy, my real-life pal on the other. I tried to remain as neutral as i could, but i couldn't help swaying from side to side as each of them explained their cause and justified their actions. Fortunately though, the argument was soon settled, and Blessings is back on track, having just launched a recruitment drive recently.

A post about Boombaye had also been featured on Vaskor's blog, seemingly he was complaining about the speech used in our clan chat, and his sense of righteousness drove him to quit the clan. I am thankful that he did refrain himself from reporting the player that offended him with a conversation he was having with another member and Vaskor for using an objective tone as much as possible, but Tim recently told me of his opinion towards Boombaye. So it seems from the umpteen times Boombaye continued to linger around the clan chat that he is not so much put off by the type of language used, but was just looking for something to talk about, or maybe he was just bored and looking for attention.


Explained his motvies, didn't he?

Really, if he was so offended by the language that he had to quit, I wonder why he would even hover around our chat is search of 'entertainment' ? Its like one claiming that porn errodes the mind and still surfs the internet with firewall deactivated in hopes of a advertisment popping out. Ironical.





Stuff achieved today: 78 Hunting, 1700 total levels

Hooked.

I've been rather busy on Runescape. Two things, hunting, which I decided to train two last week and got hooked since, and stealing creation, a mini-game I started out hating until I saw my name on the highscores for the first time. Now, I can't really do without a game of stealing creation. Things got so crazy that I just took a rest from 5 straight games. Tim really did a good job at making me addicted to the game :) I enjoy glory, and I just can't stop playing ever since I saw my name on both the most damage done and most player killed highscores today. Things got even better after Tim join me, with his crafting and the lv 5 daggers he sponsored me, the killing spree was much quicker and definitely more fun.









Hunting, on the other hand, gave me much opportunity to chat with my clan mates while waiting for the red chinchompas to wander into my traps out of curiosity. Although the problem of spot stealers bugged me for quite a while, Tim was able to offer a quick-fix solution and advised me to bring a crossbow along when i hunt. Now, the spot stealers can just switch spots or get his catches at a very, very, very slow rate. Although this bad behavior of spot stealing exists, I still see much of kindness and politeness amongst the higher levelled hunters. Many a time they would ask if I want to wait at the spot while they are finishing their last catches, or would switch worlds when I tell them that I'm using the spot, and wouldn't really enjoy the company of other hunters. I've decided on setting 99 Hunting as a goal of mine for this year, though I'm not in a hurry to get that just yet, I plan on enjoying the skill a little more before rushing into a mad hunting mood.



On another note, a close friend and clanmate, Demonmage386, got yet another skillcape, 99 Hitpoitnts a while back. Congratulations, Demonmage! I was quite happy to be asked to tag along for the screenshot. Dg has made some major jumps in the game and her levels and I couldn't be more happy for her. She also had another problem with her membership lately and I hope it gets sorted out as soon as possible :)



Stuff achieved today : 73 Hunting.

Revelation

I've received my GCE O' Levels results this Monday. It was a painful wait, especially since I wasn't particularly certain of how I fared compared to the other sutdents in Singapore. I was rather jubilant upon receiving my results, seeing the first 3 subjects marked with an 'A' , in other words, a distinction. The happiness soon evolved into contemtment as I realised that I had not achieved the straight 'A's that I was secretly aiming for, instead ending up with 2 'B's in the 8 papers that I took together. After tabluating the score though, disappointment set in as I realised that am only 1 mark away from the Arts stream of my dream school, Anglo-Chinese Junior College. That was quite a distasteful realisation, and knowing that my friend, Forminable didn't do as good as he could didn't help with the disappointment either. I'm probably going to sound whiny if I carry on with the ranting, but I want to share my results and though i feel satisfied with my results, I'm not entirely happy with them.

English: A1 (Top grade attainable. Woohoo!)
Chinese: A1
Higher Chinese: A1
Elementary Mathematics: A2
Physics: A2
Combined Humanities ( Social Studies and History): A2
Additional Mathematics: B3
Chemistry: B4

Raw L1R5: 11
Finalised L1R5: 8

Meh, I'm still thankful that I have a final score that is a single digit, although 1 lesser would be perfect if I want to be more sure of a seating in my dream school. Tim and I sent in our choice of schools together yesterday and will be looking forward to hearing the results at the end of the month. Wish us both luck!











Stuff achieved today: None.

Another Beginning

Stepping into year 2009, I have set myself a few more goals. Here's a list.

- Attain another non-combat Skillcape
- Attain 99 att/str
- Reach 2000 total level
- Get to Level 92 Farming
- Bandos Chestplate and tassets

These are pretty high goals I've set for myself, seeing that I'm nowhere as monstrous as Tim or Demongirl when it comes to skilling. But with some hard work I'm sure i can still achieve those within the span of a year.

Hmm what i have below is some of my rather recent level ups, although the 82 farming screenie is horrendously outdated and i am probably getting 83 farming today. ^^










Stuff achieved today : 83 Farming