Benie's Games Blog

Me on a date? Too funny, yet what a way to ring in the new year. But the way Cindylou has been acting lately (such as calling me ‘hun’), I’m getting a bit concerned that..well, maybe she likes me a bit more than just a friend? Maybe I’m overreacting as usual.
And yes, you may say “Oh wow. Ok. So, you wouldn’t mind if Champagnedragon had sweet emotions for you. But you’re freaking out over someone who might have (and doesn’t have ‘dragon’ in their name)? You need help. Seriously.”

Anyway, I went to go see her deed in Pristine today(then would take her later on to see mine by her request). She lives SE of Blossom (Pristine’s starter town). I was to meet her at Blossom and she’ll take me to her deed. But before I headed to Pristine, I decide to stop at Pilot’s Point and ask Pryath if there’s a mine in Tap Dance(that has Marble). He says there used to be, but that was four years ago and is unsure if it still exists. Thanked him and left, feeling that if I head to the central point of the server and go South, it’ll take me close enough to Blossom.
As I’m enroute, I get a PM from the new guy that I met last month. It(when I’m unsure if the person’s a guy or a girl, I use ‘it’) says they have 272 marble bricks and 9 slabs. Said that I mainly need slabs, and how I wasn’t sure 9 would be enough. It says they would drop off the slabs. I’m thinking “well, I thank you” and tell him to drop them off infront of the gate. Then remembering I had expanded, I quickly give them access to unload and drop in the deed (while also tweaking a few other settings).

Made it to Pristine no problem (and on the correct side). Pass by a bridge named ‘Northern Causeway’. Immediately I get lost and get forced to dock at the nearest deed I see, and get out to try and triangulate my position (by using the Pristine community map). Cindy tries to help me, but since she’s also new to the server, she unfortunately cannot. She however manages to ask the Alliance she’s in and relays what they say to me.
A few minutes pass. I’m still scratching my head and feeling quite angered seeing this “North” bridge with an East/West crossing. But after walking around, I finally pinpoint myself and head straight for Blossom. Arrived there and park on the Southeast side. This time she’s the one lost while trying to find me. I give her names of structures and items to try to find me, but it’s not helping. Thankfully she eventually does find me and shows up in a large cart. Though she doesn’t know how to set perms (or knows that you have to have a lock in order to set them). Instead she allows me to barrow one of the two horses attached to the cart. Tried to tell her that she’ll only be slower with one, and then realizes I’m right after.
Had a quarrel with two greenish scorps. I felt like “I got this, let a Dragon Warrior show you how it’s done!”..before they started kicking my ass, even with my armor on. Ohh FUCK me, seeing Mediums appearing. Luckily we were close enough to a deed with spirit templars. Cindy however doesn’t follow me to save herself, and dies. Ohh, way to GO, Dragon Warrior! You let the civilian die! “Oops” I wanted to say, yet “Crap” was used instead. Was able to use the templars to LT away the Mediums into Lights.
So yeah, greenish scorps hit VERY hard (nearly to the point of a troll). But I think the fact there were two of them, there was no way I could take both of them on.
The rest of the journey was nice (even though I was actively looking for a wolf or something to LT this near Medium wound away). She saw I was hurting and freaked the fuck out and told me to come back to her to receive treatment.
Um, look. Even though I forgot to save you back there, you don’t need to patronize me like this. However, I do appreciate the cotton (as I forgot to grab some).
Halfway there, someone named ‘Dragonkeeper’ logs in. Of course I say “Love the name!” to the person. Didn’t get a response, sadly. Though I would assume the person was all “who the hell is this guy?”
So we made it to her place. She said to not expect much(as it was completely empty apart from a lone large cart), except I did..for one thing. The size of the deed. This thing is is twice the size of mine! I asked her “who’s paying the upkeep?” Didn’t get a response, but I did give her the horse back that she loaned me.
She went off to go get a lock for the cart, in order to set perms. I decided to follow her, and wound up in ‘Wurm Academy’. The last time I saw this name was when B2 was going to pick me up in Release after Saint left me, and saw a banner named this.
The place reminds me of that deed Saint is apart of in Xan, except without the trees and the elevation. She told me that these people took her (and all other new people) in and give them food and shelter until they feel they’re ready to head out on their own. That is really, really nice of the deed owner to take care of newbies like that. Perhaps my opinion on Pristine has been misjudged. It deserves a second chance (especially how I found lots of Steppe tiles nearby.. didn’t find a horse though). We were also quite close to the server’s Rift beam. I wonder if Cindy knows what happens during a Rift event.

Before we left to go see my deed, I had to leave to go eat. Came back on much later than I said I would. She had to come find me. When she did, she tried to set the perms on the cart to allow me to be a passenger. As much as I really wanted to help her, I didn’t know how to go about showing her how to do it. But I believe her alliance people managed to help and I was able to hop in. As we’re heading to my boat, I get a PM from one of Cindy’s alliance members telling me what the deed is about. I thank them for what they do, then ask who’s paying for Cindy’s deed. It says..she is. And adds that the upkeep is.. 10s per month. WTF?! There’s no possible way she’ll be able to keep paying for it. What is she THINKING?! Even I never had a deed this big when I started!
So now we’re enroute back to my place. The new person hasn’t messaged me back saying they dropped off the marble slabs, and I asked them. It says they have and apologies for not telling me. After crossing into Cele, I’m in a heavy fog bank. Though thankfully even with the limited visibility (and Sol going down), I was able to get to Pilot Point and to my deed. Overall, she really liked it yet was unsure why I wanted to tear everything down and redo it. I told her how inefficient the deed is(mainly having to balance fuel between the forge and the stove).
I also told her about what happened with the dragon. She felt quite remorseful, hugging me and stuff. Ended the tour of the deed by showing her the horse pens (which she really liked the most, being a fan of all animals). After that, it was time to take her back to Pristine. As I’m pulling out of the deed, she asks “are you ok?” This question could had gone two ways. “are you ok?” as in “do you need someone to be with you?” ..or “are you feeling OK in the head?”(aka questioning my sanity for having an emotional feeling to a bunch of code in a video game).
I went with the former, saying I’m fine and that it’s just been a bit rough, and that you just got to move on. She seemed to understand that.

Back in Pristine, I dropped her off. She hugged me and expected a hug back (which I did). I said for her to take it easy, turned around and went back home. And now I seem to be unable to really do anything, now that I’m back home again. Something about her just.. I dunno. I hope this weird feeling will go away and allow me to focus.
(Look, I don’t even know how old she is, and I’m not going to ask her either as that’s wrong)

So not only am I back home from the Impalong, but this is the first blog post of 2018! Happy New Year, guys and gals. 🙂 Let’s hope this year will be a good one for the website.
The Wurm team is celebrating the ushering in of 2018 as well, with two things: first, end of the year map dumps for everyone to check out (and to spot your deed). And the second is a treasure hunt happening in Xanadu (and all the other large servers). There are 10 chests on every server, with a few things (such as one rare champagne, fireworks, and a silver horse shoe. All at 99QL).
Compared to 2017’s Wurmxmas ‘gift'(even worse than 2010’s fireworks, as it was more unique), both of these things are much better (as effort was put into them).

With that out of the way, it’s time to talk about the Glasshollow Impalong. One thing I want to say before I start. Instead of boring you guys with reading a SUPER-long blog post, I’ve decided to write a ‘brief’ overall review of what I’ve seen and felt.
So let’s start, with another thing I need to say (this time I’m getting to the point). And that thing, is..well, I was wrong by calling it the second best Impalong I’ve ever been in. So wrong that I put it in 3rd place (with 2010’s Impalong taking 2nd place).
The reason, is Paulofdune wasn’t as active as he needed to be. He’s in charge of the two games (largest fish gets a New Knarr!!(Price is Right reference FTW), and the codes in the Glasshollow starter town(that when given to Paul, awards random useful items such as sleep powders or a merchant contract). Even Rocky said that Paul should had been on (so it’s not just me).
I would had liked to see more games, and others agree with me. On top of it, the people that had found codes..Paul was never on in order to collect them. Should had been more than one games master there. The only thing that made the Impalong somewhat exciting, was the occasional Enkounter. Yet even those were starting to get stale (I could see it with less and less fighters coming to assist).
It got so bad that Enki just stopped announcing there were mobs(with myself saying “Guys, the arena’s active”). The only way I knew he was spawning them in, is the sound of someone using a carving knife next to you.
Now I can see why the Shrimpalong ended earlier than 2016’s. It wasn’t to ruin my plans to attend both, but to not bore people to death. And I never saw this before (because I never fully attended a typical Impalong from start to finish(outside of the Exo Impalong, which only happened one weekend)).

The only really fun day I had, was probably Day 9, when a new person entered my life; Cindylou. And what I mean by “entering my life” is she wanted to go exploring outside of the Impalong. I volunteered to go with her (on foot). Had lots of fun, to the point we got ambushed by several mobs while heading to a place called ‘Westwood’. Sol’s also going down, and I insisted we get back. And we made it back by the evening. Became friends.
It’s pretty cool that there’s someone else that loves exploring as much as I do.
Yet I also discovered she lives in Pristine. Half of me feels “she just lost all of my respect” (of the less than fun time I had while trying to find a horse). The other half wonders “why Pristine of all servers?” She tells me she likes it here. I told her about how I couldn’t find a horse, and how I spoke to this group who said they could lone me a horse for a silver. She claims there’s lots of wild horses there. So maybe something has changed on the server. Perhaps someone imported Steppe times, and now it has grown. Definitely something to check out.
Speaking of which, I’m actually going to be doing that the next time I see her on. I also invited her to come with me to check out my deed (before I tear it down for the redesign project). She’s quite interested to see it.

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And finally two more things to close this first post of 2018, as the Impalong was ending, I was doing Plan B. Unfortunately, the Marble vein in Glasshollow’s starter town’s public mine has been greatly overworked and got mined out in 43 hits. So I’m forced to ask the Wurm community (might even ask Saint) if there’s any public mines that have Marble.
And the final final thing(I swear), is…a more somber note. To remember my friend ‘Emeriss the Ferocious’. It’s now been a year since she passed away after being slain by the hunters. I’ve been meaning to visit her grave sometime today. Though she will be remembered with a new bridge (once the redesign project is completed).
Rest in peace, Emeriss. You are gone, but you’ll never be forgotten.

Holy fuck, have I got blog posts out of the wazoo to write! Where in the hell do I start?
Well, I guess I can start by giving a (quite late) Merry Christmas to all of you. So late that I just got done taking down my tree (and as usual, the emotions while doing it were quite high(while listening to the semi-depressing ‘Jingle Bells’ from Mannheim Steamroller’s ‘In The Aire’ CD)). I call it the ‘Christmas Is Over song’.

And now I start explaining what’s been going on (which is a lot). For starters (if you can’t tell), I’ve been quite busy. So busy that I’ve never had time to write down what’s been happening that day. I literally had to ‘temp ban’ myself from Wurm in order to even fucking watch Youtube to see all the Christmas specials I missed. I haven’t even watched any Christmas DVDs this year, due to Wurm. It’s that bad. And the reason is between imping and the Enkounters in the Bulk Market ‘Arena’.
And now finally, I have a chance to explain. So let’s begin, as I heard you guys love mega-sized blog posts…
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Glasshollow Impalong – Day 2 – Christmas Eve Eve(the 23rd)
(So I wanted to write this as an actual story, but I decided to write it as I saw it)
The Eve of Christmas Eve, and most of the day was.. quite boring. Just myself imping people’s stuff, using most of that 10-hour stored sleep bonus to my advantage. Though the fact it was so boring, I was literally dozing off infront of the forge.
Things didn’t pick up until the evening. For starters, there’s now an issue where the game window will do a complete freeze without warning. Tried restarting my computer, only for it to happen again. But after that first time, it stopped doing it.
Idunn showed up later. I was still tired, wondering “why am I doing this again?” when suddenly I see the head of a dragon above me. I thought it was just Enki messing with me (which felt strange). Tried moving, and noticing the head moving the same speed I am. Looking at my character screen, and noticing something…odd about me. I said “Well, this is interesting” to Idunn (as I didn’t want to show him that I was actually losing my shit), “DUDE!! I’m a Dragon!” going through my mind. Noticed another player was a red dragon (I got turned into a green one). Got on B2 in order to capture some once in a lifetime screenshots of myself stomping around the impalong site as a dragon. But sadly, all good things must come to an end and I returned to normal. It definitely lifted my spirits, that’s for sure.
Two more things also happened this day. First, this year’s gifts are now available either from going up to Santa, or from a pinewood christmas tree. And the gift is.. well, it feels like a slap in the face to non-prem players. It’s Saddle Bags (just one though). Saddles now have an inventory, and you can put a bag in it to carry stuff around while on horseback. This is going to be quite useful to myself for any future explorations I might do.
But because of an exploit (of being able to nest bags and get more than 100 items in a bag), all servers were forced to be taken down for up to 45 minutes (it felt like to me). Though someone said that Xanadu is usually the last server to be restarted.

Another Enkcounter happens later on in the evening, with him telling us “The Simpsons have escaped Springfield”. At the Bulk Market ‘Arena’, there were champ mountain lions(‘Marge’), boars(‘Homer’), goblins(‘Bart’), and lava fiends(‘Lisa’). Never saw any mobs named ‘Maggie’, surprisingly (anacondas would had worked IMO).
Near the end, Enki suddenly opened up a trade window with me and gave me three rare muffins. I thanked him and tried one out.. and they are SO GOOD! They raise your Nutrition fully! Threw them in the cart, hoping they would stay fresh for awhile.
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The hours went on, and at one point I said “I need a break” and headed up to the Glasshollow starter town with B2. I just wanted some time away from all the noise, to finally relax and be myself.
As much as I want to help, I felt I would run out of sleep bonus before I even get to 50 (and they won’t give a fuck that I’m trying to be more efficient in helping, and would tell me to use a bed like everybody else). If there was only a way I could trigger a macro to hit a key in order to turn on or off /fsleep (if I’m not touching my keyboard in a minute) in order to keep as much unused sleep bonus as I can.
But noooooo.. the devs are against macros. Enjoy the grind (and find some way to not fully distract yourself from the game and focus more on said thing), or quit. Your choice. 😛
B2 believed that if they really care to see me succeed, they’ll be ‘pumping me up’ with sleep powders in order to keep the skill gains coming in. Another thing, is I felt “I’m doing all of this work, I should get my stuff imped in return”. Screw that whole ‘Christmas is the time for giving’ crap; never believed in it. If I give, I want something in return. Fairs fair. There are some exceptions to that rule, and it usually depends on how I feel.. but I digress. And let’s be real here.. they got a LOT of other things that need to be imped. Yet the fact I had a few things in forges (and they haven’t been touched for two days), it felt like Favoritism (of imping things for people they like and respect before they imp the others).
All the more reason to say FUCK YOU to this bullshit.
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Glasshollow Impalong – Day 3 – Christmas Eve
One of the busiest days was today.
Starting back where we logged out, I was ready to tell either Paulofdune(one of the staff) or Rocky that I just can’t help anymore. But that was before I noticed my sleep bonus had been fully charged, and I might as well take care of it. Though B2 wanted to do it a different way of giving me signals, saying he would check if my stuff got imped before. So he went down there, while I stayed up. A troll stuck on one of the bridges here, got itself freed and was trying to kill the templars. It’s now dead, and I went down to get to work. Meanwhile, B2 discovered none of my things have been imped yet (proving it’s favoritism). He however didn’t feel it, and that they just don’t have enough people imping (and they need people like myself to help).
Nevertheless, when I got back to the BS area of the impalong, I saw Paul and PM’d him if I could have some sleep powders, saying I lost mine after I had died that one time (I didn’t see them in my inventory, else I would be using them). And his response was exactly what I told B2 (to use a bed). In addition, he told me that sleep powders cannot be lost on death(like the hand mirror), and to contact the GMs to report it. Thankfully I won’t have to, as I found them in my main backpack (I didn’t tell him to hide the embarrassment).
B2 also gave me a backup plan, to sail home and get my large cart and three empty crates, and make the bricks I need for the redesign project back home. I figure of the few days left before New Years Eve(starting on the 29th), to do that. If I didn’t have full sleep bonus, I would had done that. Yet I still feel like I owe it to them to help (for all the years they imped my stuff).

Tulsi pops on for the first time since we had gotten off the boat on the 22nd (finally). Had B2 lead him to the impalong site…and then he logs out without saying another word. For someone that really wanted to come, why is he doing this to me? He won’t answer me in Skype (always on DND).
Obviously he’s too busy (or something happened to him that his parents don’t want him to disclose to me). But how am I supposed to know that, when he isn’t telling me anything? Plus he’s been doing this DND thing a week prior to leaving for the Impalong.
Whatever. He better be ready to go back home when I am. And next year (if there is one for me), I’m not going to bother inviting him (as I don’t want to go through this mess again).

A bit after that, an Enkounter starts up with him saying “Alert! Free pelts avialable at the market arena”. Obviously there’s a catch (aka, the pelts are alive). Made it to the arena and I see more champ mountain lions, and regular rats. Before they could be all killed, more mobs were spawned in (including Rift mobs, which made me freak out).
This fight lasted quite a bit, occasionally having to retreat to heal (and Enki sometimes swooping down to fully heal us). Overall, fun as always (and we all greatly thanked Enki for the fight). Don’t remember what they were named (I’ll have to check the event log later and cross-reference the times, and even that might not give accurate results).
As much as I wanted to butcher, I didn’t have perms to do so. But, I still helped myself to several 70 to 80QL pelts that others forgot to grab. I feel I’ll need them for the future. Had B2 hold onto them for me.
Speaking of the future, B2 was looking in the markets for a better whetstone for me as I went back to imping after the Enkounter. He found one in the Dragon Market for 1.25s, with CoC 91 (and 100QL), and it’s never been used. Not bad at all, for something that cannot be re-imped. He hadn’t found anything that tops it, and I should grab it before I go back home. I can definitely use that CoC for skill gains.
There were also these cake tins in the forge calling out to me, saying “Imp us!”.. yet I needed Tin, which wasn’t in the two large crates.
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Back on after ordering my traditional double cheese pizza from Papa Johns for my Christmas Dinner, Enki’s doing another “guess what I’m thinking of” game with everyone. I had just got back on to get the question: “When I used ot hunt artifacts as a player, what creature was my arch nemesis?” I answered ‘Wogic'(just for a laugh). The correct answer was ‘Spiders'(the original ones, which I think Angry might have his own stories of them). Then Enki talks about his Wurm life story for a bit. One such story is he claims he had to cross the Chaos server four times due to being killed by spiders. And it came to a point where the terrain became so familiar, he didn’t need a map anymore. Wow. That’s both funny and sad at the same time. I feel sorry for him.
Not much happened, except asking Paul if I could have some Tin. They were going to give me some, but forgot about it.

Back from dinner, I had 3 hours and 18 minutes left of my sleep bonus. ‘Asked’ everyone a question of if I could hit 50, and “we’ll see”. Got a PM from a ‘Freddykruger’ suggesting that I imp up to 10QL higher than my skill, for the most efficient way of grinding it. Rocky was there, saying he’s “got me” if I run out of Sleep Bonus. Ohh yeah, give me them drugs, boi!
Meanwhile, my former contact (Tyrtix) is next to me, imping up a storm. He asks if anyone wants a free 10% less damage rune, and would give it to the first one that trades with him. No one seemed interested, which was a surprise. I said “I’d love to have it, but I would still have to pay someone to attach it.” Yet I’m not sure what I would need it for. However (and I don’t think it’s possible), if I could add it to my axe, that would be freakin’ awesome.
He said he has an alt that would attach it for free. Decided to take him up on his offer and opened up a trade window with him. He said to contact Rauros(the person who I didn’t know it was him when I was on that business trip to get the bricks and mortar I needed).
It wasn’t long after that, that I was able to imp my first item to 50 (from 46.56 Blacksmithing)! GO ME! 😀 I got the ‘Exceptional Craftsman’ achievement, and 10 Karma points.

An hour later, another Enkounter rose up: “The Nightmare Upon Christmas is here! Come one come all, bring spare body parts and play in the arena of near certain calamity”… including “BE warned all ye merry fighters… the horror that awaits will certainly consume much cotton!” And he was not kidding!! There were a crapton of mobs in the arena(most were named after Santa’s 8 reindeer). This fight was the longest. Yet, it also felt the most disorganized. I tried to get people to focus on the demon ‘Rudolph’ mobs, yet no one seemed to listen. We were also dealing with server lag. Never a good thing to have during combat. There was even one time where Rocky had lost one of his good horses, and Enki resurrected it (and even restored the traits). He was very thankful.
After the fight was finally done(nearly two hours later), I felt we had nearly consumed all the cotton on the deed. It was crazy! And with Rocky here, I asked if he could adjust the perms of the deed to allow visitors to butcher. And it’s all good now. There was so much meat here. I felt B2 would be able to make breakfasts for months.

Angry decided to pop up. Told him if he wanted eyes, to come to the arena. He brought Benie there, and then logged out suddenly. I asked “did you not need eyes?” And it was like angry realized he may’ve been wasting his time of needing so many for catseyes. He said all he really wanted to do was connect our two deeds “for shits”.
I also saw someone..that I hoped to never see again. Champagnedragon. She says she was doing a business trip, making a delivery near Glasshollow and decided to come over to say hi to Rocky. Mentioned that she got a key to unlock a Bingo chest and it was empty. No one else seemed to want to say hi to her (don’t really blame them). Was glad when she disappeared from local (yet so did Rocky). Now I’m not able to tell him that I couldn’t dig peat (as I needed more for the forge).
Back to Angry. He said his Wurm jaunt might be coming to a close, reason is simply time constraints. Yet, for the first time ever, he said “I can’t stand how slow everything is”.. did you just..of all the people I’ve met.. admit you HATE the grind?! :O HOLY FUCK!! Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming!
I also told him this year’s gift. He says “they’re not even trying anymore”, and “now it’s items you could otherwise craft yourself”. You got to admit, he’s right (especially how it shows how you can make one in the patch notes..what the hell). These items hold no weight. They don’t feel unique and rare.

Back at the arena, someone named ‘Ternesjach’ (I call him ‘Terne’ as it’s easier to spell) is asking if anyone wants meat. I said I would take all the good meat if it didn’t decay before I got back home. He said he has a Food Storage Bin in his boat, which surprised me that one would actually work like that. I told him how I have a larder in mine, and how it’s a pain in the ass that it has to be on the ground in order to put stuff in or take stuff out. He thinks that’s normal, as a larder is supposed to stay in one’s kitchen and not move. I feel burned by Saint now. Debating if I should just sell it, give it back to him, or give it away to someone. The 3rd option feels way too stupid (you don’t just give away something that useful without any effort). Another thing I could do is to just throw it in storage back home and forget about it (and let decay work its magic).
I then ask a bit later if it’s possible I could make (or have one made) an FSB for my boat. And Terne helps with this. I have B2 go to install it in my boat(taking the small cart with him), yet get forced to go over there and Load it (as ‘You can only drop the food storage bin’).
Made it back to tell Terne that I got it in, and if I could have the meat. He said he had already loaded it, and there would be another time for it. Felt like a shot to the heart, but whatever. Don’t really need meat anyway, now that I have Refresh.

The final thing to say of this night, is someone managed to fully imp B2’s pickaxe and my anvils, but he’s unable to grab them (they have a Steal option). Have to wait ’till Paul is on to help.
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Glasshollow Impalong – Day 4 – Wurmxmas Day
It’s now (traditionally) Christmas Day as 12am rolls in. Go to open my gift and see the single ‘saddle bags‘(because fuck proper pronunciation). Meanwhile, one of the templars was spamming “I’ll take care of aged huge spider!” over and over. I found this odd that a spirit templar is dying to a spider. I would be checking it out if I wasn’t busy dealing with a person who is experiencing their first Impalong and didn’t know where to put what for imping. Yet for an apparent newbie, this guy could drive a wagon (something B2 can’t do yet). Another oddity.
A bit later, the templar is still spamming of taking care of an aged huge spider. This is starting to get on my nerves. Someone’s offering a free high QL pelt, and I go right for it. But the guy goes AFK as I wait for him to open a trade window. The spamming got more severe and I said “I’ll be right back” and ran to deal with this spider. Found what’s causing the spamming, stuck on the bridge to the Dragon Hotel and killed it. No more spamming templars since then.
Went back to the guy that’s offering. He responded with “what’s up?” (completely forgetting about the offer). I kindly reminded him and he gave me the pelt, who I gave to B2 (he’s my pelt holder), and went back to work imping. But there came that time where I needed to take another break, and went to the starter town again.
I’m realizing now, that even if I manage to get my Blacksmithing skill to 70, it would be of no use (as I’ll need 70 in Mining as well to get the high QL ore I’ll need). God, this game is a pain in the ass sometimes!
There was someone in local, so I didn’t want to get B2 on. I went into the public mine and checked it out. Only saw one Marble vein, which’ll be useful for the canal bed back home. It was ‘good’ quality, though. Finally the person left local. Got B2 on, and before I could talk to him, kchat caught my eye as I saw Paul was advertising. Told him to get down and get the stuff, and he did. Nearly there, he saw another person in a gold name (named ‘Astarte’). There were pigs walking around, named ‘Eggnog’ and ‘Artificial Christmas Tree’.
Suddenly the arena goes active, with a large snake-like creature that can be seen for quite afar (named ‘Candy Cane’). DH ran down to deal with the new Christmas-themed mobs. Had B2 wait outside the arena with the cart. Finally they’re all dead, and this time I grabbed all the meat I could and had B2 take it to the new FSB in the boat. He had to make two trips with so much meat. Terne’s saying I should bring a large cart with me (with satchels). B2 barely made it back alive.
He had an angry troll chasing him. I ran as fast as I could to assist (and managed to, with Terne’s help). It was a literal Christmas miracle I managed to heal B2’s medium wounds to the point they would heal on their own.
We went to bed after that.
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It’s now Christmas Afternoon. 1/4 of the day had me on the MRT Server. I only got one present this year (and it was very nice). I also was checking out this new adventure map. It’s quite the challenge, and the water maze made me ragequit(as I kept drowning). 😛 Back to Wurm.
So this day began with myself getting on my boat and sailing home again, while B2 had my armor and axe. Since it’s Christmas Day, I was hoping someone would be nice and give said armor a re-imp to 80. B2 also was able to get his pick and my anvils from Tyrtix. Had him put the anvils in the CoC coffin (all part of the plan). And B2 found someone willing to get my armor back up (just not my axe).
Thankfully, no Enkounters happened for B2 as I got back to the Impalong with my cart. Unloading 900 dirt back home was a pita, but at least I’m ready to make the rest of the bricks I need for the redesign project.
Unloaded my large cart near the impalong site, hoping I can use this as my new parking spot. Headed up the road in hopes to find some wild horses. Had B2 do it for me. Now the cart has horses (had to care for them as they’re both venerable). Back to the impalong, threw in everything that was in the small cart to the large cart, and tried to load up the small cart.. no perms. 😛
Had to have B2 take the cart to the public parking spots while I swung my boat over to meet him. Thankfully no trolls this time to mess with him. Then both of us had to walk back (and quickly, as it was close to dinnertime).
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Back from Christmas Dinner (and with only 2 hours left of sleep bonus), I felt I should take it easy (it is Christmas afterall). Back to the starter town. Most of everything I brought has been fully imped. All there’s left are the 12 lamps. Decided to check out the public mine and see if it too has marble. Sadly, no. But it does have ‘upmost’ quality Sandstone (I’ll need bricks of it as well). It also had a few mobs, such as a lava spider.
B2 reminded me about getting back to work (and seeing if I can get more sleep powder from Rocky). He also managed to retrieve my chain armor set (now fully re-imped) and thanked the imper tenfold for the effort. Now if only I could get my axe re-imped.

Several hours later…
‘ Alert! A new shipment of pelts has been delivered to the market’
Yay, more pelts (like I don’t have enough already). Still, I got there as quick as I could. Regular and Champ rats(named ‘squirrel’ and ‘chipmunk’) were in the arena. Even though they’re no problem..when in numbers (and wearing my casual clothes), they can overwhelm. Had to run out and armor up, with this time, lots of people around to kill them.
They’re now all dead. I had B2 come in with the large cart (discovered he can drive it, surprise surprise). Enki also gave us three supreme cake (not as good as the muffins for filling up Nutrition, but it’s still a nice gift). But as I’m butchering, suddenly pineapples fill the arena (in the form of wild cats(‘kitty’). Immediately got B2 out of there and went back to killing. Should had known Enki wasn’t done yet.
They’re dead, and now Nogumps(‘Crazy Cat Lady’) are attacking. It was a real mess, and I loved it. Merry Christmas to you as well, Enki! Heh. He even gave us a ‘White Christmas'(in Wurm Summer) by leaving everyone 1000 snowballs lying around…unfortunately deed perms are still a thing. Fun as always, Enki.
He wasn’t done, though. Suddenly, drakespirits! Except, the ones we’re turned into. The most hilarious part, was the fact myself and B2 also got turned into them (and all you see are two dragons driving a cart).
It’s official..this is now the second best Impalong I’ve ever attended (with 2015 still in first place with its interactive games and free statues to take home). 3rd place goes to 2010 (for the zombie invasion in FM). 4th place goes to 2016’s Shrimpalong(not being able to help), and 5th place goes to the Exo Impalong(that drama, and how short it was).
Coming back to the impalong site, all of the priests were drakespirits. Quite hilarious.
Enki left one more Wurmxmas gift for anyone to take; two buffalo that are 3x the size of the regular model(named ‘Beefalope’). One of them was accessible, and the other doesn’t have a Lead option(even for the impers). Problem with it, is it goes back to its normal size when hitched (yet back to its big size when unhitched).

Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out why in the fuck Tyrtix has a whopping 28 steel picks in the first BS forge. If he wasn’t an imper, he would be getting hell for that stunt. He says not to worry about them, that he’s imping them himself. Then asks “would you like one?” I’m thinking “uhh.. if steel wasn’t hard to make, sure.” Plus, why do I need another pick when I already have a pretty good one on me? But I decide to accept, just for the hell of it. Then give it to B2, who places it in the CoC coffin. Maybe if it’s enchanted good, I’ll give it to Tulsi as a skiller tool.
Rocky’s now on, and I ask him if he could please look into allowing visitors to mine the public dig areas in the Bulk Market fort (as I could also use more tar for my lantern), while I continue imping. Saw an unnamed branding iron and decide to imp it up a bit. Soon the name appears..Tyrtix. For an imper, you’re sure doing a lot of things wrong. Always name your tools (even as an imper).
Sometime later(near the end of the day), Rocky tells me that things should be working. I head back to check and I still can’t dig. I’m feeling quite embarrassed I’m having all of these issues happening and not knowing how to deal with them. I get told to try digging on the Northwest corner of the tile. For some odd reason, that works. Was able to get the peat and tar I needed, and had B2 get them in the boat. He logs off…and I still forgot to tell him I needed more sleep powder (even after consuming the two I had).
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Glasshollow Impalong – Day 5 – The Day after Christmas
And that, brings me to today. I haven’t been playing Wurm at all, just trying to get caught up with all of these blog posts. Plus I have two movies I got for Christmas I need to watch, but I never had a chance to because of Wurm. Don’t have a 3rd monitor to do it (as I need my second for anytime I need to get B2 on).
And now that I finally got caught up (there is another one I need to post later, but it’s not Wurm-related. Something potentially ‘serious’ to me in Elite Dangerous. Anyway, I’m going to watch these two movies. For those curious, I got ‘The LEGO Ninjago Movie’, and a rather odd one; ‘Crazy Frog Presents Crazy Video Hits’.
..Yeah. Even though that fad died, I’ll still watch this thing.
Sorry for the SUPER long blog post, but this is what has been happening these past three days. For those that read the whole thing without skipping a word, I wish I could give you all something.

Day 1 started off as planned, with B2 bringing the cart down while I watched his back. I had B2 rename everything to him. And as he was dropping off one item at a time, I said that I need to sail back home on the next Solrise in order to pick up a few things I forgot (and also to get my old armor set I promised I would let B2 barrow).
Before that happened, I found out (going from this map), that the Dragon and Lumpy Markets have been re-purposed to cover tailoring and carpentry items. I saw this when I first arrived, and all I did was find it rather odd. I also have been trying to see just how much longer it’ll be ’till I get my hands on Refresh. It claimed I would get the question in a few hours. Was really excited.

Finally Solrise came, and I left. Checked my compass after passing the barrier islands and made sure my nose was pointed due South. Made the transfer and check again. No fuck ups this time!
Between the time I left and crossed over (around five minutes), B2 suddenly lost connection. Xanadu had crashed. Nothing I could do but wait (and also sail back home).
Made it back (the deed definitely looks different with low settings) and grabbed my two anvils, and the armor set. Unfortunately, decay had really gotten ahold of it and I was forced to repair everything, sending most of the set pieces below 70ql.
Checked the deed to make sure I wouldn’t need to come back, and I felt good enough to leave.
Almost halfway to the island where I turn south, someone in GL-Freedom announced that Xanadu is back up. Got back on as B2 with no issues. Also while in Xan, B2 asked if ‘a friend of his’ could help with Blacksmithing (and told them my current level), and also if I would have to get my imping tools.
One said sure, they’re looking for anyone to join. I felt quite happy they’re willing to accept my low skill (unlike the Shrimpalong last year). And as for the imping tools, I was asked to contact one of the staff.

Soon I made the turn and crossed back over to Xan. I had B2 go back to where I had parked to pick up everything (while I go back to the love tile and check again). And again, telling me it’ll be two hours. I just stopped trying after that, sure that the game was going to force me to wait ’till the 23rd before I’m able to get it.
Not really much happened, except as I said of wanting to help. Though I know I couldn’t as I had to leave for dinner. When I came back, I expected to see pure chaos with named zombies everywhere. Instead.. no Enki. Really shocked me. Yet about five minutes later, five calves named “Mooooo” started showing up. No one else but myself saw them. Soon, Enki showed up disguised as a bison. He demanded to know where the arena was, and was pointed to the Bulk Market (of ‘Glasshold’). I didn’t know where this was at first (could had sworn someone said the arena was in the spawn town, and even went up there). Then I was told exactly where it was (yet I ended up getting myself lost).
Eventually made it to the Bulk Market, following the sounds of combat. Lots of named mobs here. The first one I saw was brown bears named ‘practice doll’ (I had no idea that this was prepping us for a much bigger battle). And now there’s champ crocks, champ trolls, champ cave bugs, and even champ lava spiders(‘lava lamp’). What a headache. Finally, there were sharks(‘old fish’) and anacondas(‘fish bait’).
And for the first time in recorded Impalong history..I died during one of these battles(to a champ crock that had no one tanking it). Thankfully, I didn’t lose much of my skills (I also feel very fortunate that the spawn town allows to respawn, which may’ve saved most of my skills from the PvE death penalty). Plus I was able to easily retrieve my corpse and get back in the fight. I managed to do the final blow of a champ crock (I claimed payback on this one).
Five minutes later, all the mobs were killed. I was still a bit pissed off at myself for dying like a n00b. How it happened is I wanted to kill one of the sharks to LT my health back up. I didn’t realize a champ crock was beating me until my health really was taking a beating, and I died before I could get to safety.
Crocks are stealthy. 😛 Exactly what happened to me when I was trying to kill the spider on the first time I arrived here (but it was VERY lucky that I was able to kill it with no stamina).

Back at the Impalong site, I decide to PM Rockybalboa (who is the deed owner) that I want to help (but say that I didn’t bring my imping tools), and he actually gathered what he could and allowed it! The thing is, they were actually allowing anyone to help imp (due to the influx of things needing to be imped from the Shrimpalong).
Unfortunately, there was a problem. Rocky had all the imping supplies in a wagon, which I (including everyone else) could not access. He was forced to make a few large carts.
I saw someone next to me, meditating. I check my inventory…and I’m not seeing my rug. I’m thinking “oshi– did my rug decay after I died? Did I fully loot my corpse?” Checked both of my backpacks, and I’m not seeing it. Check my cart, and I’m not seeing it.
Get B2 on and checked if I had accidentally given the rug to him, and no such luck. Suddenly I thought “Oh no…I didn’t leave it at the love tile, did I?!”, and ran to check. Sure enough, there it was. Thankfully (even though it’s in a deed), I was able to pick it up. Placed it back down and meditated, seeing if this time was the charm. And my jaw nearly dropped to the floor when I saw the forth question pop up!!
I answered it correctly. “You can now refresh people.” YES!!! FINALLY!!! And I learned how it works on myself too! You right click your body, and there’s a new ‘Refresh’ option. Clicked it, and ohhhh YES! Food, Water, AND Nutrition to 99%!!! 😀
I NEVER HAVE TO COOK EVER AGAIN!! NO MORE STEW!! NO MORE BREAKFASTS!! WOOO-HOO!!! 😀
Ohhh damn I was so happy, I even told everyone that I got it. They congratulated me. I mean, screw the Santa buffet table now, when I can do it any time of the year (within 18 hours since the last cast, of course)! 😀
This completely makes up for dying earlier. And yet I was so happy, that I left without grabbing my rug again. Turned back around and picked it up. I swear I need to put that rug on a leash.

Now back at the impalong site. Rocky was still trying to get the carts ready, so I couldn’t really help. Enki showed up later at the arena, wanting to play a simple “a single winner wins something” game. At this time I was only on B2 (not really needing DH as I was still waiting for Rocky). He wanted us to guess his current favorite TV show, by ‘giving’ us one clue; Worgs named ‘Linda’). Got on DH and tried to assist, and they were really kicking my ass. Was down to my last cotton too (I had thought of getting more, but that was after I had left home). Teeebomb helped me out by giving me more cotton.
Finally someone said Futurama and was correct (not sure what they won), but we still had more worgs to kill. Finally we were able to overpower them and they were dropping like flies.

The rest of the day was uneventful, except for myself actually imping other people’s stuff for the first time in ever (and enjoying myself). I was able to get my Blacksmithing skill from 32 to 34 (without sleep bonus), enabling myself to imp up to 35ql. Not bad at all. I also used this to imp up all of my low ql lamps to 35ish. There were a few issues (such as imping things I assumed were tools (such as a carving knife)) that was actually raising my Weaponsmithing skill instead (which wasn’t raising the QL of the tool..woopsie).
My old studded leather set is getting imped nicely by someone, though. When I log back on today, I need to get B2 to pick them up ASAP.

With just a few days left ’till the Impalong, I’ve been very hard at work doing Phase 1 of the redesign project. Phase 1 consists of terraforming and paving the new DTH Bypass Route. So far I have managed to terraform the entire route (before and ever since coming back from my initial visit of the Impalong site).
The most time consuming part was flattening down the hill on the South side of the deed (as there was a lot of dirt to collect, and not a lot of places to store it). Infact I have resorted to dumping it in piles on the current bypass route.
Last night, I had finished terraforming the two ramps that will connect to my house. All there’s left to do is to smooth out the terrain between the ramps and the bypass route. Once that is done, the main terraforming part of the phase will be completed.
The final part of the first phase, involves making the iron fence bars and the bricks needed to extend the Perimeter Walls around the deed border (and also to pave the new bypass route(and the house ramps)). After that, I can then remove the old walls. I hope to have all of this done before we leave for the Impalong tonight.
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As a sneak peek, here is Phase 2 (which’ll happen after I get back from the Impalong). It’ll consist of tearing down and relocating the horse pens, the storage building, the cart garage, and then finally my house. After that’s done, the next part of the phase will be to start making the new canals in the deed (and expanding the size of the current one). The final part of this phase will be to tear down all of the current bridges in the deed, and relocate them (including building three new bridges).

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And now to shift the attention to the Impalong that starts tomorrow, I have Tulsi’s and Angry’s responses to their RSVP’s. Tulsi wants to go, and Angry cannot as he feels he’ll be at work (nor does he want to go on the ‘long voyage’ to get there). And that’s fine. This is actually good, because now I won’t have to have B2 following me in his sailboat (incase Angry needs to get back home).
I just hope the Impalong doesn’t suck this year. But…at least I don’t have a red dragon hatchling that I have to keep worrying about if the hunters would get to her. Because it was about this time last year, when she had entered my Wurm life.

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I’m now writing this from the Dragon Hotel in the Glasshollow Market deed.
The terraforming portion of Phase 1 is COMPLETED! I also paved the new bypass route and the house ramps (several times I had to make more bricks due to errors). Never started on the fences, as I figured I would have all the time in the world once the Impalong is over (and/or I get all of my stuff imped/enchanted).
There was a bit of an incident with Xandice and a troll cornering him. It felt like everyone (including myself) wanted to help him, but I found the troll first and lead it to the tower that’s been helping Angry and I deal with the harder mobs.
Then the time finally came to getting ready. With 10 minutes ’till we leave, I gathered everything I could think of that I would possibly need (including re-imping my large maul, which will be needed to bash down the old fences). Might have WoA thrown on it, see if it’ll help speed up the process. And now when I think of it (didn’t at the time), I could had thrown in my small anvil.
Anyway, I was ready, angry was on and I told him how I told Tulsi a long time prior to this point, to be on at this time if he wants to go. He says he would bring him up there if he logged on later, and I thought “if you want to do that, then sure”.
With B2 in my boat, I was about to head out. Had just gotten to the mouth of the canal when angry told me to hold up. Now he’s bringing my old main (Benie) with me.
Nearly five minutes after I had left, Tulsi is now responding and still wants to go. Even though I said how I would leave with or without him, I asked angry to please bring him to me(and parked my boat). I had no idea this would cause such a headache (and I’m not talking about Tulsi).
This headache is some instancing issue, where neither of us were seeing eachother. Instead of just turning back towards the canal, he told me to name buildings as I went West (in order to triangulate my position with him). It wasn’t until I reached Angelkaine’s place (including speaking to the guy in person) of when I finally saw him in local (and his boat). And then there was an issue of Tulsi not responding when being told to get in my boat.
Angry too was starting to lose his patience, but Tulsi finally responded (with no apologies). The rest of the journey went off fine.

Was almost to Glasshollow (it’s now night), when I look to my left over at the barrier islands, and see a lone large crate sitting there. I’m like “:O HOLD up! The Impalong can wait. I see a crate!” A few bearsharks also saw me (one even climbing on my boat to attack angry’s alt). Managed to kill it without too much trouble, then went over to the crate. Looked inside, and there’s 20 iron ore at 58QL (and some peat). I was about to drag the crate to the boat, when I start hearing combat sounds behind me. Thought it was just another damn bearshark as I turned around…it was a ven troll, attacking B2. Quickly ran to the boat and tried to peel out of there. Angry’s alt however had an issue trying to hop back on (due to not having an Alliance(or even a deed) in Xanadu). Had to manually add him and that got it. Told them that I would try to get that crate later (when my passengers aren’t in danger). The whole thing felt like a deliberate trap, and I fell for it.
Angry’s alt had some damage, but I managed to heal his wounds. B2 was DAMN lucky, not being damaged at all. Very glad for that.
Finally we reached where I had parked before, but I was forced to park outside of the deed in order to unload my cart (while Tulsi was spamming me (and even local) about no longer being in an Alliance). Angry set up a team for all of us. And now the studdering is back (and this constant, unplayable micro-freezing). I tried to set a few graphical settings back in hopes to squeeze as much FPS as I could. Seems to have worked, but I’m pretty sure more settings will have to be lowered prior to the Impalong being in full swing once the afternoon gets here.
I need to ask angry if he too had gotten studdering issues here(in order to see if it’s even worth getting that upgrade). I should had done that when he was still online (but it never crossed my mind to do it).. and I’ll probably end up forgetting to ask even after saying this.

So I spoke to a few of the Impalong officials, and they say they’re ready for it (they understand it’s going to be a busy Christmas weekend, on and off the game). Did ask what day the Impalong would end, and one said through New Years Eve (adding how that’s “unusually long”). I doubt I will need to stay there that long while waiting for my stuff to be imped.
We shall see just how busy it is when I log in this afternoon. I expect my computer to be going “…FUCK YOU!! FUCK YOU, USER!!”

Oversleeping was the least of my problems today. Now it’s dark, and it’s coupled with light winds(which are hilariously in my face)! But even with the odds not in my favor, I still need to get to Glasshollow.
As I was about to sail out of the deed, Angry logs in unexpectedly and tells me that he had to take another sick day (he’s recovering from the flu). Last night, he wanted to take my Knarr and extract his priest alt, Ctrlaltdelete, from Inde. But knowing that I would need it, he decided against it. Seeing he was on, I volunteered to head there and pick him up and take him back home (and then head to Glasshollow afterwards).

And that’s what I did, yet after I left the southern canal.. I completely forgot about picking him up (and was enroute to Glasshollow). On top of it, fog is starting to form. God, this game hates my guts. Turned south and went to Inde, then had to go East to the island (as dawn was beginning to break). Angry’s telling me the alt is on the North side of the island. Finally made to the island and began to hug the coast. After telling him where I was, he said the alt was on the Northwest side of the island and apologized.
Managed to find him and picked him up. Before I was about to cross back to Cele, I looked to my left and saw the cool shadow of Jackal(setting) next to Sol. Now in Cele, I was getting a tad lost (never came back home from this angle), but after a bit, I found it.
Angry’s alt wanted to go with me to Glasshollow, but I told him that he needs to be home and stay safe(as priests are squishy). Made it back and dropped him off. He said “dont die out there” (which has to be one of the nicest things he had ever said to me). Said “you too” and then sailed out towards Xanadu.
Now it’s day, and Xanadu’s got no fog. Slowly sailed to Glasshollow(as 13.51 km/h sucks).
Glasshollow is quite a big place, and it seems to have only gotten bigger as I’m trying to find my way to the Impalong site. All I’m seeing are several Cogs named ‘GLASSHOLLOW IMPALONG 2018’ (there are rowboats also named this, which seem to be almost lighting a path to the site). This lead me to the ‘Glasshollow Public Market And Harbors'(a shock they actually use the American term for ‘harbor’ (instead of the British ‘harbour’..but I digress).
Ahead of me appears to be a cave canal. I go in and am immediately stopped by a cave dwelling, named ‘MARKET CAVE TOWN'(from what I see, it’s obviously where they’re getting their metal materials). There’s also a footpath that heads back outside and connects to the market.
Turned around and parked on the side of this canal, and try to find the Impalong. So as I said before, the market has greatly expanded. The ‘Dragon’ and ‘Lumpy’ markets however seem to have been unchanged, but there’s now a ‘Horse’ market, and a ‘Harbor’
market.
And the ‘Harbor’ market is where the Impalong will be held. At first it confused me. But the bear HOTA statues helped to show the way. The site seems to be quite small, while still having the usual places for Blacksmithing and Weaponsmithing, and a place for priests to do their sermons and enchant.
From what I’m seeing, this is going to be the first Impalong (that I’ve ever been to), that would be completely outside. Very cool.

Now that I’ve found the Impalong site and see that it has easy boat access (it’s right next to the canal, which is awesome), I need to find a safe AFK/log out building. There are a few Guest Houses to the West..but they’re all locked for some strange reason. I can only assume (and hope) that these will be unlocked once the Impalong starts. It only makes sense. Yet, why even lock them in the first place? Unless, ‘Guest’ doesn’t mean ‘Public'(and ‘Guest’ meaning the people that are volunteering to help at the Impalong).
The only public rest area I see, would have to be the Dragon Hotel(up the hill, past the Dragon and Lumpy markets, to the South and East of the Impalong site).
There is also a modestly-sized inn to the South (up the road away from the market, in the actual starter town of Glasshollow). There are also the smaller ‘Hostels’.

All there’s left to find now, is a publicly-accessed Path of Love tile. This unfortunately, I cannot even get help to locate(there’s no one in local). Plus the locals in Kchat are less than helpful, telling me to just make my own (if I can’t find one). It seems Christmas presents don’t come free around here.
Maybe I should had brought Angry with me. He could had helped me find it (if there’s even one around here). I can’t bring B2 (as I control him, and I’ll end up getting one of us killed… as there are several spiders, wolves, and bears outside of the market). So this is very disappointing.

But anyway, there’s really no other point in being here. I’ve found pretty much everything (but the Path of Love tile). I honestly thought it was going to take longer, but.. maybe the market isn’t as big as I thought. I’m even surprised I found everything even with the limited time I had of getting here.
Though I decided to take the time to head up the road to the South and see what’s there. I found beauty (and mobs). There’s this one deed called ‘Silver Glass’ (with a single spirit templar guarding it). Was kiting a troll (and a literal pack of 3 wolves) down to it that I found on the road and tried to assist.. “That would be illegal here”. The fuck? Illegal to assist in killing a mob? Okay. Whatever. As this is a single templar, it would likely die (which eventually happened). Continued to kite the now bleeding troll down the hill towards Glasshollow (this one having three templars), and managed to assist.
Troll’s dead. Went back up the hill. Saw another spider just chilling up here…yet I didn’t see its bodyguard (a ven raging crock) until it took a sizable chunk out of my health. Managed to gear up quickly and took it out without too much trouble (I couldn’t run as my Stamina bar was 0, so no kiting). Used the lesser mobs I found to heal myself up. I also reached the end of this lovely three-tile road (where it splits off going East and West). Guess it’s time to go back home.

Entering Glasshollow’s southern deed border, I see someone named ‘Captrix’ in local. I’m thinking “finally, a local!” But this person is just like me; checking out the Impalong. We talked for quite some time, about how quiet it is here, the size of the Impalong itself. Just felt very odd. They also said how most of the altars here are blank and would need to be blessed. Though I’m sure that as the 22nd gets closer, this area will fill up with people. However, Captrix isn’t so sure (due to the Shrimpalong ending yesterday). I commented about how I wanted to attend both (and Shrimpiie saying last year’s lasted too long).
But we shall see.

I then mentioned how I’m looking for a Path of Love tile. The person told me something that should had come to me (to be checking the shoreline). I expected to see the tile in plain sight (instead of having to hunt for it). But that would be too easy, right?
Nevertheless, I hopped in my boat and checked the West coast while they checked the East. And after a half an hour of searching (and finding no signs that mark “I’m a love tile”), I threw in the towel and said I just couldn’t find one. They said there were just too many mobs to really look (and I could agree, with the shore scattered with a few spiders and wolves).
But before I could go back to the markets, I realized I was five minutes past my dinnertime and logged off(of course I thanked them before I did), wondering what would happen next. Though it’s funny how those words would be so ironic when I got back.

Back on and back in my boat, I continued on for the markets. Suddenly I’m not able to turn. I checked to make sure if it was just server lag and it wasn’t. Moored the boat and hopped out…nearly 100m away from my boat and with 15% of Stamina left. I knew I needed B2 to rescue me.
Logged on as him and went right there (with the wind blowing directly in his face). Finally he crossed into Xan and went past the barrier islands, found my boat and then followed its wake to find me. I logged in as DH assuming it would be a standard rescue, and found myself had teleported back to my boat. This game is going to make something snap in my brain, I just know it. Though when I looked to my left. WOW. Jackal was realistically eclipsing Sol! And I swear it actually felt like the sky was getting dark when Jackal had 95% covered it. That was wild. Sent B2 back home, and myself back to the markets.

Upon arriving, I saw a few new people in local (and these were actually people that are local to the server). I asked one of them (named ‘Azrya’) about finding a nearby Path of Love tile(thinking they would know the land much better than myself). They told me that there used to be one to the west, up a road. And sure enough after I left westward and followed the coast (past the public docks), was a pointing sign that said “Love Tile here, by Glasshollow”, pointing to a road going up. I don’t know how I was too blind to see that damn thing before. Yet I also found having a love tile on a hill very odd, because the wiki states that it has to be near water. Went up the road anyway, and I didn’t see a tile. So I went back down to tell whoever I could find that I couldn’t find it.
A bit time later, and Azrya said they were going to come up and show me where the tile was. I went back up to wait for them to arrive, instead I see this other person named ‘Togill’. Before I could ask them what they’re doing over here, a ven troll showed up without warning. With the way the terrain was shaped, there was no way I could solo it. Told the guy to run and made a mad dash back down the road (with him following me). Back on the main road, the troll stopped while still up the hill. However, Togill wanted me to follow him back up the hill for some odd reason. He (who seems to be Azrya’s obvious alt) showed me the sign to mark this a love tile. It was pretty high up, and again.. it just didn’t make sense why someone would do it up here.
But the troll was relentless, keeping us away from this spot. Togill managed to get a spirit guard on the troll (which wasn’t enough). After it died, I attempted to kite the troll down the road and to the market. Saw a tower guard and smacked my G key to call the guards, getting this thing off me (and out of my life).
About this same time, B2 had arrived back home (and angry was on). I (as B2) told him everything I’ve seen so far, and the love tile. With what he said (and correct me if I’m wrong), height doesn’t seem to be an issue. It just needs to be between 5-20 tiles away from water (and a 3×3 flat area. That’s actually surprisingly easy to understand (now (as I type this). It wasn’t back then.) And since then, anything I was doing(that lead to an issue), I relayed to angry for advice.
Back as DH, with the troll dead I went back up the hill to check out the tile. Most of the flowers are there, but two tiles have been replaced by trees. Managed to remove one of them (with the other being in a deed that I couldn’t remove). Someone named ‘Rockybalboa’ was in local, and I asked them to please remove the tree in order to restore the tile. I tried to ask others if they could either help (or point me to a new tile). But it seemed I would be forced to go back home on the 23rd in order to get Refresh.
Angry pretty much said what I was told by the locals in kchat; to just make my own. That doesn’t exactly help when the wiki isn’t that intuitive in explaining just how to do it (again, this was before I thought hard about it). So I decided to hunt the west once again for a love tile (on foot, and it’s getting dark). Half of me is saying “what the hell am I doing, traveling at night without a horse?!”, with the other half saying “I refuse to just give up like this. I have to make another tile..somehow!” With deeds pretty much everywhere (including being chased by spiders and wolves), it wasn’t easy. Did encounter a deed that reminded me of OR. Though except of the deed owner wanting to get rid of the clay, they used it as actual roads for their deed. One such road I found quite interesting, having fences on the sides with lots of lamps, and the floor was patterned with small rafts (to hide the clay).
Came up to another coastal deed named ‘The Rusty Anchor’ (having an unfinished Cog sitting on top of a structure, that served as the entrance). I saw a raised, flat area behind the deed that didn’t look like it wasn’t owned. Sure enough, it wasn’t. Had to ask Angry as B2 (again), of what was the maximum distance a love tile could be. He guessed 20. And from what I was seeing(and now thinking hard), I felt pretty confident I could pull this off. All I needed to do was gather a bunch of flowers, and then use my– wait. Why…is my rug NOT in my inventory?! Ohh fuck.
Ran back to my boat, praying I placed it in the hold. More spiders and wolves are coming out of the fucking walls as I finally make it back five minutes later. I close my eyes as I click the Open option of my boat, then slowly open them and stand there completely shocked that it’s not there.
I’m thinking the worst, that it got lost when I logged back on. Checked the Event log, praying for answers. Compared the log of what I was currently doing, and saw no results for ‘rug’ during this timeframe. So clearly I didn’t misplace it. Yet I’m swearing up and down (in my head) that I took the fucking thing with me!!
I use B2 to see if I had simply forgotten to take it with me. I thoroughly check the entire deed, and I see nothing. The anxiety just continues to build. Check my house… and found the rug next to the stairs, suddenly remembering that I placed it there before I went to bed.
HUGE sigh of relief flows through my body. I need to get him to bring my rug to me. Decide to also have him cook a breakfast. Tried to throw it in a picnic basket, and the fucking thing won’t allow the breakfast to fit. Angry was right, they are garbage.
But no matter, as breakfasts don’t start decaying as quickly as a meal does.
B2’s back on the ocean. Told Angry that he would return soon. Who knew ‘soon’ would nearly be two hours, huh? More on this a bit later.

So B2’s enroute to Xanadu, attempting to fight the bad wind in order to get as much good wind in the sail. In Xan, all I could do was wait for him. Decided to go back to the market as there was really nothing I could do. Rockybalboa, the guy I asked if they could help me, PMs and apologizes for the tree and says they’ll chop it down for me. So this is really awesome. Told angry about it (as B2.. still trying to get to the SW island in order to make the turn).
Back as DH, I made my way back to the love tile, and sure enough he did what he said what he would do, even went as far as planting new flowers to reactivate the special tile. He had his own mat in order to test it out. Everything seems to be working. He says the ‘this is indeed a special place’ tile is infront of the sign. He allowed me to use his mat, and sure enough it worked for me!
WOOT! Refresh by the 23rd, here I come! 😀

With that, I felt ready to return home (having learned everything I needed to know about the site). Yet with B2 still coming, I decided to meet him halfway at the barrier islands. While I waited, once again Jackal’s preparing to eclipse Sol. Yet this one, it only covered like 25% of it. Seems it had reached its peak totality when I saw it before.
B2 arrived, but I had him lead myself back home. This would prove to be a HUGE mistake (mainly for not checking my compass first). First it felt like it took upwards of nearly an hour of sailing away from the massive server until we were able to transfer to Cele.
In Cele, we turned to what I assumed was the South coast (only that it wasn’t), thinking I was heading to the south canal. Instead, we were getting horribly lost to the point I was really getting scared, that I would never see home again. Even areas I remembered using before, were leading us to dead ends. Nothing was making any sense!
Discovered we were on the ‘west’ side of the server (instead of east). On top it, it’s now night again and I can’t see shit with this secondary monitor (due to the glare). Went to Exo to try to use it as a dimensional slingshot, only for it to hit me.. please, just someone slam your fist into my face. I deserve it.
We shouldn’t had transferred. I was on the CORRECT FUCKING SIDE BEFORE!! AHHHHH!!!
Nothing MADE SENSE!!! We were getting a SW breeze which was against us. It would had made sense if we were on the South side! And all I was doing was getting us lost more! FUCK ME!
What was worse, is angry went to Inde and back to Cele with no problem. This is fucking inexcusable!

…ENOUGH with your bullshit, Wurm! I am going home, NOW!! This time I carefully went over how to get back, and used Deli’s west side to get us back to Cele’s east side. Sure enough, this got us to Kami Canal. FINALLY going the right away. Again I had to fight the wind to get to the north canal, and made it. back. home! If I had the ability, I would be kissing the ground. Holy HELL, that scared the shit out of me. I hate not knowing where I am at all times, especially when the map says one thing and where I am says another! It reminded me of a similar thing of Old Inde (of trying to get back to where I was staying after picking up B2 from Samling).
I was going to get back to work with prepping the redesign project (until the evening of the 21st), but I feel exhausted after that mayhem. I feel that I’m still out there, getting horribly lost out at sea (and nothing makes sense anymore).

I feel a good night’s rest will help calm the nerves, and get me back on solid ground. And as for the Impalong, I don’t feel confident that this is going to be a good one this year. The fact I didn’t really see (and feel) a lot of “we’re ready, let’s do it” as the main factor. It’s almost like this is Glasshollow Market’s first Impalong (and I highly doubt it as there was one last year)
But, we shall see. Maybe I might be right, or maybe this would even top 2015’s Inde Impalong (giving free marble statues to take home, and having lots of fun games to participate in).
Every Impalong has the potential to impress me, but only 2010’s and 2015’s have done it(2011’s to the 2014’s could had as well, but I wasn’t playing then). But I still have one question… where is the arena that Enki would be setting up fights? Unless, this is going to be similar to 2010’s Impalong (where Freedom Market was under attack by zombies). THAT..would be interesting, watching newbies running away in fear. 🙂 ..PLEASE let that happen again.

With four days until the 20th(of when B2 and I visit our own Impalongs, and see who gets their lamps imped first), I have some bad news to share. And…..it’s not going to happen. This has nothing to do with my health, or the weather. It has to do.. well, with more fucking assumptions.
Yet this assumption, is something you’re supposed to assume (as there’s been no drastic changes, until now). Such as the first Impalong in Inde, is to end MUCH earlier than expected (which completely and utterly throws off this plan).

And how I found this out, was a rather …. I don’t think I have words, only that it brought back past cringe-worthy memories of a certain thread on the Facepunch forum. Angry and I had just got finished with a long-awaited extension of the eastern road (that goes past the large dead deed on the South side of the lake). I was going to help him get a bridge built (by making half of the materials for it).
Redminer is also on. Suddenly he’s talking about ‘a discussion of gay dragon porn in Kchat’. …Either he’s fucking messing with me in order to get a reaction out of me(angry told him to), or he’s talking about another Kchat (as local Kchat has no one talking). Either way, I never bothered asking what the FUCK is wrong with their brains (because it would not go well for me).
I decide to check Global Kchat and I see no controversial discussions (thank God).

Someone asks a question of when the Impalong starts. I’m assuming they’ll be told how it’s going on right now and it’ll last through Christmas… instead, someone else responds and says how the Blackmoor Impalong (the Shrimpalong) ends in two days. This forces me to speak up in a bit of a shock to the system, asking if that means this Sunday, and was told yes.
I ask “Why is the Shrimpalong ending early? Last year it lasted almost to New Years Eve”. And,..I’m getting my ass kicked back and forth by Shrimpiie herself (and a few other members). Talking about how last year’s lasted way too long, and it isn’t the same as it was back in 2012(which I was on for, as I was in ‘”fuck this game” mode’). Left the conversation, embarrassed(also pissed), saying “Well fuck.” in Alliance chat. Angry questioned, and I told him (and all that other drama, hoping he would feel me.. he never did).

I can’t say who’s fault this is. Both parties (myself, and the people who host these events, both have legitimate claims). I feel that this shouldn’t had been changed (not to mention completely pissed off it ruined my plans). Plus I feel like, a lot of newbies depend on the Impalong. And it gave late-comers like myself a chance to get their stuff imped. Restricting it to end before Christmas, just doesn’t feel like the Impalong anymore (more like ‘Impashort’).
And the hosters would argue about how they do this with volunteering in mind, “your fault for not checking the forum post, I had stated this months ago if you had read it”, blah blah blah.

I also felt “great, I just showed my ass to everyone. Now they’ll probably blacklist me.. I hate this game. Why is weaponsmithing/blacksmithing such a fucking grind? This is unfair. Having to pay for imps is no better than paying for a microtransaction (such as the Premium system of this game).”
Waited several hours, hoping people would just forget that embarrassing thing I did. Finally I decided to ask “when will the Glasshollow Impalong start?”, feeling calmed down. One person said they believed it would be the 18th. Thought “well, that’s great. Technically I’ll still be able to go on the 20th, then!” Shrimpiie says “I believe it’s next Friday?” (vague much?)
Checked my calendar and asked if this meant the 22nd, and was told yes. So there you have it.

.
Highly disappointing that I couldn’t do my original plan. But..shit happens. Time to come up with another.
And that’s what I tried to do, while staring at my calendar. Realizing that I’ve only been to Glasshollow once (when I had gotten my Knarr and B2 sailed back to OR in his new sailboat), I needed to leave at an earlier date and check the layout.
And this is what I’ve worked out..
—-
18th-19th, I’ll head to (and stay in) Glasshollow in order to check out everything we need to figure out (if there’s a safe logout place, public cart storage area, where we’ll have to go to drop off items, etc). Gave myself an extra day to do any other checks (direct road/boat access, market access).
(IF the Impalong somehow is already going, then we’ll leave on the 20th. But according to Shrimpiie, that’s not likely)
—-
20th, returning home to DTH, then go on the MRT Server to make out my present thing for a few known (to me) members. This would also give me time to play Wurm for awhile.
—-
21st(night), B2 and I will head to Glasshollow. I’ve invited Angry and Tulsi to come with me, telling both that I expect them to get back to me by the 20th if they want to go). I still plan to let B2 borrow my old studded armor set, and my good sword/shield. So he’ll be able to have some fun (if I’m bored).
—-
22nd-24th, we do our Impalong things (and watch out for the occasional Enki attack).
—-
25th, open presents in the MRT Server(and from Wurm Santa), then back to the Impalong.
(Depending where the Santa smoke is on the very large server, of if I’ll gorge myself at the buffet or not. It would be the first time I get to the buffet on another server)

And the rest of next next week, who knows what happens. Well.. except there’s supposed to be an ‘interesting’ storm setting up on Christmas Eve. Some models say it could be a cold rain(or nothing), others say ice(please God no) or all snow(possible White Christmas in a very long time (in the Ohio Valley)).

Instead of asking in Trade chat to buy the bricks and mortar I need, I decided to take a little stroll south towards Xandice’s place…feeling like Angry ripped my heart out and isn’t giving it back to me.
Saw Wargsfaith, one of the people doing the sermons. Said hi and how are the sermons doing. He told me he doesn’t do anymore, and “that’s Pryath next door”. Then he goes all Kajiit on me and says “this one is 100 faith”. I wanted to congratulate him, and then he says “Your buddy says hello”.
I questioned with “My ‘buddy’? Who’s my buddy?”. He responds with “I forgot his name…. someone that doesn’t like you”. So obviously, it’s Angry (as he’s the only one that I know of on this server, that hates my guts). Then mentions “the logs are in my laptop, sorry”. Curious, I ask of when he’s able to access his laptop, if I could see said logs. Said he has things on his hands, and I said to take you time, no rush.

Wargasm and someone else (forgot their name) shows up in local. Decide to ask them of what happened to Xandice. Says he only plays on the weekends. I told him that Xan’s house is falling apart. And right when I was about to leave (to get started with requesting orders), Wargsfaith told me to not worry about the house, that Xan had moved. I asked him where, and he said with him and how it’s better off with having to repair the house every week. I agreed, and almost wanted to say “I’m glad, because I prefer not to have a neighbor”(but since Angry’s here, I can’t say that).

.
Angry himself popped up as I was typing this blog post. Said he was at lunch, enjoying a ‘bahn mi’ (a Vietnamese sandwich). Said how it’s very good, but often very spicy. Asked him if it falls within the Top 20 hottest peppers on Earth, he said no, and said how it “lights your face up” for a few minutes. Ok, so is the person that serves the sandwich, a dragon that ‘lights your face up’?
😛 (I kid, I kid)
I attempted to confront him of this ‘damnable evidence’ I was presented to by Wargsfaith. He suddenly claims that he has no idea what I’m talking about. After showing him the proof, he said “probably referring to me”. I nearly said “No shit”, but I held back, and changed the topic (as there’s really no big deal).
I talked to him about Rifts, and the runes that you can get. And it was overall a much better conversation than last night.
After dinner, I’ll buy the mortar and bricks I need.

Finally did the tallies for the entire deed redesign, and here are the results. From the highest to the lowest;
————————–
(none of these values are covering the cost of Ground tiles)
2,453 Planks(double of what I needed to redesign OR for the final time)
1,302 Stone Bricks (I could buy half and then make the other half)
846 Clay (includes Mortar-making. Need to figure out how much Clay I’ll need without needing Mortar)
520 Mortar (purchase it, of course. Two large crates worth. I’ll try to do a crate swap by giving them two of my empty crates)
420 Mixed Grass
329 Small Nails
326 Wooden Beams
270 Shafts
240 Sandstone Bricks & Wood Shingles
210 Wood Scraps (to relocate the farm)
120 Large Nails
102 Iron Fence Bars (extending the exterior fence that wraps around the deed’s border)
58 Iron Ribbons (to make the bridges)…
…and finally, 3 Slabs for the stone benches

As you can see, this is no easy task, and will likely take up to a month to complete. Just to make one thing clear, I knew I was going to need a Knarrload of resources, but it’s not the reason why I’ve been procrastinating). Minecraft was the reason.
Anyway, today (or maybe tomorrow), I think I’m going to try to buy that 520 Mortar, and the half of the 1,302 Bricks I’ll need (651 Bricks I’ll have to purchase (and make the other half)).
The biggest headache of course(if you couldn’t tell by that staggering number), is gonna be the planks. But I feel with enough patience, I should be able to do it myself (plus it should help me reach Master Carpenter). I could just make half (which is what I did when it came to OR) and then make the other half later.

Well that’s about it. Wish me luck for good, reasonable deals (and of course favorable winds).