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Magic - 57,888 XP to lvl 90
Crafting - 37,276 Xp to lvl 82
Herblore - 27,200 XP to lvl 80
Agility - 69,780 XP to lvl 75

These are the levels I am closest to gaining. Herblore I'm confident of getting tomorrow as I will be collecting from Miscellania. I'm finishing up on the last of the dwarf weed seeds using My Arm's patch (not risking these on a regular her plot). Gods, more seconds again. Maybe it wouldn't be such a boring drag if I killed unicows and spidines with something other than magic secateurs?

I noticed how much I was using home tele tabs, so I crafted 12 clay bracelets (when worn, lets you mine soft clay). I'd forgotten I wore the VAD armor, which occasionally affects how many ores you mine (2 at once), and I'd gotten almost an extra bracelet's worth of soft clay! 336 soft clay was what I should've had, but I ended up with 363 pieces. Yay for more clay! I enchanted them into home tele tabs and now have over 600. They're a great way to teleport when you have 2 portal rooms (each with 3 portals to different places) and a hung glory. With my house in Yanille, it's perfect.

I sorely need to rc this week. My stocks of cosmics and astrals are quite low. I'll probably craft minds, too, so I can get into killing Salarin the Twisted and get herbs from there (torstols mainly as it's the only reliable way to get them).

^The reason I had a good day today.

A short entry for a boring day of gaming. Farm all 5 herb plots, diddle around for 70 minutes in game or drool over Angel reruns, harvest plots and start over. I have no idea if the herb seeds and harvests are enough for a level. I may have to spend time at dagganoths again and mug farmers.

ION, I'm not on Canting Away anymore and have resigned from being a general. I have my public chat Friends Only, my private chat Off and trade Friends Only. Gods, it's been so peaceful today because of those changes. I feel almost ready to don a skill cape again, knowing the demanding little fuckers can't be heard!

93,737 xp from 90 magic
64,443 xp from 80 herblore
55,861 xp from 82 crafting

The slow grind is still milling the experience. I played Castle Wars (CW) in between farming herbs (they have a 70 minute growing time) and finally got 18 tickets for that frigging armor. I had given up on CW because of the name calling and that, but I went on W82 where CW is *THE* thing to do. So many people... delightful! I dressed in my lunar ceremonial outfit, grabbed my air staff and blood runes and began air waving the other team. The decorative armor is in my skill hall now, looking dandy beside full mith.

The chat channel is pissing me off a bit. Unfortunately, no one's breaking any game rules. Damn me and my lawful tendencies!

In my attempts to get more higher level herb seeds by fighting dagannoths, I gained 83 defense and 104 combat. Today was a bust for scrounging seeds. Last night was great because there were 2 people training - one strength, the other range - and not picking up their drops. I got a bunch of seeds from that, but Cougs gave me a ton that I really wanted and Simple gave me another ton of belladonna seeds.



Tomorrow is more herb farming and second gathering. I'm starting to hate the Tower of Life basement.

I'm down to my guam seeds for farming herbs. Time to mug master farmers again. I did it for about an hour, not really getting the high level seeds I want other than toadflax and ranaar. The next best thing is to go kill dagannoths and scrounge up other peoples' drops.

Firstly, I am having some very serious RL problems, so my blogging and gaming will be affected.

I like picking things up that others drop on the ground, especially at banks. One man's trash is another man's treasure. I fletched my first rune arrows after getting 1100 various bird feathers. I'll take a good loss if I sell them as the arrows are 300-450 each and the arrowheads cost me 480 to buy. I also got 637 stripy feathers and I fished those today. Oh god, I haven't fished for a long time and these fuckers were SLOOOOOOOOOOW! I started at the Barbarian village, then tried Shilo which ended up being a mistake. I got into a question/answer period on the merits of fly fishing vs. monkfishing because my fishing level is 99. I found another bad reason for wearing a skill cape: you will be required, when asked, to give accurate calculations on someone's method of gaining 99 ie: How long will it take me 86-99 fm? Foir fuck's sake, people, is it that hard to do your own math? Count how many logs you burn in, say 15 minutes, and multiply that number by 4 for how many you burn in an hour.

So I left Shilo and fished at Lumby by the goblin house. Took me about 2.5-3 hours to fish the feathers gone and 30 minutes to cook them. Typical. My first fake below.


I got to work on herblore. So far I have 118k to gain to get level 80. When I get 80, I'll start making Sara brews in Yanille using my house. Tomorrow, the last bit of herb farming and gathering seconds. I used up most of everything.

BTW, I need to kill my wild vine 4,797 times to get 99 slayer.

Oh boy:


I decided to start farming all those seeds I stole. I'm keeping 1 of each herb type that I have (guam, marrentil, tarromin, toadflax, ranarr, avantoe, irit, kwuarm, snapdragon, candetine, lantedyme and dwarf weed) so I can steal quickly without stopping to drop useless seeds too often. I should get back into fighting monsters like dagannoths as they drop herb seeds, too.

I blew 3M on a dragon woodcutting axe today. I've wondered for a long time on the differences between a dragon and rune axe for cutting down trees. I did 2 hours of testing at Lletya's magic trees and came up with these statistics:

Wc level: 90
Axe: dragon
Place: Lletya
Inventory: 1 tele crystal
Time cutting: 1 hour*

Load 1: 13 minutes (full)
Load 2: 16 minutes (full)
Load 3: 13 minutes (full)
Load 4: 15 minutes (20 logs)

Total # logs: 109

Tree spawns: 0, at least 1 tree was available at all times
Randoms: Exam, Ent, Ent (broken axe; 1800 gp paid to Bob in Lumbridge to fix)

Wc level: 90
Axe: rune
Place: Lletya
Inventory: 1 tele crystal
Time cutting: 1 hour*

Load 1: 21 minutes (full)
Load 2: 12 minutes (full)
Load 3: 15 minutes (25 logs)
Load 4: 7 minutes (14 logs)

Total # logs: 93

Tree spawns: 4
Randoms: Dwarf, nest, Rick

*The times do not add up to 1 hour (60 minutes) to allow for bank runs and 1 bathroom break.

What does this say about the 2 axes? I did get the logs faster with the dragon axe than the rune one. The rune axe comes off short due to the 4 times I had no trees to cut and was forced to wait a few minutes for 1 to respawn.

Is the dragon woodcutting axe worth 2.7M - 3M gold pieces? Definitely not. They are merely prestige items to show off either how rich or how combat talented you are.

Will I keep the dragon axe? Yes. I have yet to test the special and the special is the only reason for keeping it.

I spent the evening helping Merch finish DT. Yes, she finished without Demsla's help! Read Merch's DT part 2 blog entry for the details on that; look for the replies and see how much of an arrogant cho Demsla portrays herself/himself. The only sticking point was my virus scanning program was downloading an update during Merch's getting of the smoke diamond. For a change, she got to watch someone else stand frozen! I lead her through lighting the torches and there was much rejoicing when she opened the fire chest. Fareed could not be blocked, but she made pwnsauce of that fire n00b. She was game to do the final pyramid. I told her to wear weight-reducing items, go in and run for the ladder down. We met at Eblis and walked to the pyramid. I told her I would wait inside, using the secret entrance in the back. I came back out to check and she was loading the last diamond. We walked to the top and I gave her a reminder to run for the ladder down. She turned on melee protect and went down the ladder. I hurried inside through the back and waited nervously.

I paced.

I played with my mouse toy.

I bit my nails.

I paced more.

Guild was there also as a surprise. He noticed a white dot dash by. "Was that her?" "Idk" I said, and plastered myself against the walls, trying to get a better view with the camera angles. Merch popped up and I let the chat know she was in great health and near by. She had a bit of a moment when she ran toward me and got lost, but she turned around and kept going. Irl, tears blurred my vision; I was proud, nervous and scared for Merch. Guild and I entertained ourselves with emotes. Legolas appeared as Merch ran down the final 20 feet to the room where we were waiting. She came in and got the cut scene.

An emotinal evening, especially for Merch and her slow computer.

The day started off nicely and I learned that food can be more important than gaming:


Later, I helped Merch do parts of Desert Treasure along with Demsla, Legolas and Cougs with evening help from Guild and CJ. I have never heard of anyone have such trouble opening the chest in the desert bandit camp. Merch went through 100 or so lockpicks before getting the gilded cross. Those of us who were there took turns kicking the chest. With the cross in her grubby hands, she skipped off to kill Damis and very well owned him - twice. Okay, there was a sticky point where she was near death, but nothing like the horror stories you hear from other players.

She wanted to continue after this victory, so Demsla, Cougs and I met up with Merch at the Rogue's Den to supply for Kamil killing. Demsla left, but we brave, happy ladies continued onwards. Merch's computer froze her at the wolves and they pounced upon her as she inspected her borrowed spiked boots. Cougs and I ran to help and dragged her to safety, forcing her to eat before throwing her at the ice barraging mage. Her health was a mere sliver of green as she disappeared via a teleport and not death. Merch was waiting in Falador, demanding over the chat for us to grab her stuff. We told her that she's tele'd and not died. Ring of Life ftw!

Cougs had to go, so I was left to shoulder the burden of guiding Merch to her death - I mean, through this quest. After a requisite pause for bathroom visits, we continued on. I, nervous as anything, led the way and reminded Merch I pay attention. I'm sure I babied her, but I don't like dying and the thought of having someone depending on me to keep them alive (or grab their stuff) is such responsibility. If she dawdeled, I ran back to get her; if she was attacked, I leapt into the fray; if she was low on health, I told her to EAT. Sal's guide showed a "safe spot" by a rock. I got in position like the guide shows and told Merch to stand behind me and I would block Kamil. It didn't work; maybe I shouldn't have called Kamil a nooby noob? I stepped away from the fight so she could see what was going on. I gave little encouragement as I knew how slow her computer is. I reminded her to eat and check her prayer and soon, Kamil melted into the snow. Rejoicing, I led the way to the icy path.

After 10 minutes, I was very lost. Merch was happy as a clam, probably wishing she'd brought her sled from Troll Romance. I called out for help on the chat and Cougs came to meet us (she was walking due to no laws), telling me along her route that the path loops around. I'd gone right instead of left at one point which is what got us lost. We found the path and I told Merch, "Now you can put on your boots." We did many faceplants on the ice as we fell. I got her to the troll parents and waited for her to tele out with the cutscene. Over the chat, she said she was okay and had the diamond.

In the evening, it was decided Merch should go for the blood diamond. She hemmed and hawed over this because her last visit with Henrique caused her computer to freeze completely. She said she would try, so a troop of us met in Canifis, with Kieyanar at the Ectofuntus and Iggyfang in Falador castle. I led the way and we all felt this might not work when Merch lagged on the bridge shortcut. At the crypt of Desseous, Merch turned on her prayer and poured the blood pot onto the grave. She ran behind the fence and began attacking. She was doing pretty good, but the four of us could see she wasn't eating. It meant she lagged. With the hits from Desseous and his spells, no one could tell if she died or tele'd. Guild had the presence of mind to stand on top of Merch to get her stuff. Iggy yelled that Merch was beside him and wearing her stuff. Ring of Life ftw again!

Merch decided, when she had control of herself, that she would attempt this tomorrow at the faster computer of her work. Yes, such use of workplace resources! XD Castle Wars was suggested and I hesitently joined in. I am leery of cooperative games such as this, because it eventually falls to name-calling and the like. I played on the side of Zamorak and soundly trounced the Saradomin side. With the reward of 2 CW tickets in my hands, I jumped in for another game. My side lost, so I went to wathc Empath play GTA: San Andreas. I came back later, the lure of gathering decorative CW armor so strong. After 3 more games, I had 2 more tickets and called it quits for the night. The last game spiralled into name-calling for 1) teaming on a lone player, 2) healing yourself and 3) putting up barracades. Though the funniest name-calling was directed at me as I fought another player. He was using protect from melee prayer and I was attacking with a uber poisoned dragon spear.

Him: I'm using a protect prayer, noob
Me: Doesn't protect you from poison, noob



I may play again, but I honestly can't say.

Reaver achieved his quest cape tonight and held a party in W101 at the wizard's tower south of Draynor. Zach asked if he could drop a purple p hat at the party. Several of us told Zach he could drop the p hat to us. So I end this post with the funny about how to find a p hat:

With information discovered on Canting Away today, I found myself on the island kingdom of Miscellania and a burning desire to resolve a nagging question. If anyone of you readers has spoken to King Vargas about the Throne of Miscellania, you've likely found yourself in the situation of being the regent and spouse of either Prince Brand or Princess Astrid. If you've kept your word and dealt with any Royal Trouble between Miscellania and Etceteria, you battled and defeated a deadly sea snake housed in the bowels of these 2 island nations.

A very heated discussion broke out amongst my fellow Canters: Merch Gwyar, Cougarsrule9, Zachman3334 and myself over who is truly the regent of Miscellania. Though it is possible for Zach to be one with any of us ladies, none of the ladies can be a co-regent with with each other (unless there is something we haven't told). Before the hair-pulling and eye-gouging commenced, I decided to look into this situation alone.

With the help of my Fremminik brothers and sisters, I sailed across the calm sea to what I had thought to be "my" island kingdom. My ever faithful rune axe swinging from my belt, I carefully strode through the wheat fields to King Vergas' castle. I paused here and there to speak with Miscellanians, even toting a crate of live chickens to the back of the market before making my way up the 2 floors of the castle. As I opened the door from the inner bailey, my subconscious prodded me to take the right set of stairs upwards instead of my normal route to the left (which goes by Prince Brand's bedroom, but that's none of your damn business).

As I stepped on the wooden staircase, I grew closer to muffled voices somewhere above my head. I stealthily crept up onto the landing and listened at the door in front of me. The voices were louder now and to my right. Was the Princess' bedroom that direction? With the skills I'd learn from Martin Thwaite in Burthorpe, I greased the iron hinges with a bit of animal fat then cautiously pushed the door in to the hallway. I kept a gap of scant inches between the door and its frame just in case anyone was watching or would pass by. As I listened to the voices, I identified them - the King's children and Advisor Ghrim! What were they yammering about so feverishly? I slide myself through the small gap and crawled my way to what I presumed to be Princess Astrid's bedroom door.

Princess Astrid: Well, Uncle Ghrim, what was the take on that last batch I gave you?

Ghrim: The flowers are, as usual, quite useless. The maple shortbow and ruby ring were better received with a fair market value.

Princess Astrid: And? Where's my gold then?

Ghrim (jingling of money in a pouch as though it was tossed): 3500 gold pieces, m'dear. Brand, have you anything to turn in or are you still content with the proceeds from the ring of life Kieyanar gifted you?

Prince Brand: Lovely, wasn't it? How precious of her! I should be sad to have it sold, but gold is prettier than gems.

Oh my Guthix! These 3 are grifters! And the royal brats are polygamists! Growling angrily, I kept my cool long enough to escape the passageway undetected and slip upstairs on the left-hand side as I would normally. Those bastards! They would pay for what they've done; the lying and cheating! It would take planning, but justice would prevail! I spoke with King Vergas about the kingdom since Ghrim was busy "elsewhere".