Chapter 3: Pking, P2P and Thieving
Not long after killing the dragon, I took Omegawytch into the wilderness, wearing her new rune plate, at her new combat level of 27. After roaming as high as level 15 without finding a suitable (skulled) victim, she drifted down to level 1 Varrock, and amused herself by taking pot shots at a few skulled players. Not surprisingly, they quickly fled south to Misthalin and safety.
Suddenly, Omegawytch was attacked by another level 27, who inexplicably did not run…
A bit later, Omegawytch was teamed by a combat 26 archer and a level 27 in iron wielding a rune 2hander. But whenever her fire bolts had either one low on life, that player would step out of the wild and eat. After several minutes, it was quite obviously a stalemate: The gang of two was not going to kill Omegawytch, but neither was Omegawytch going to kill either of them.
So Omegawytch left the wilderness and sold the steel and iron items, netting less than 3000 gp.
“Look, Boss,” said Omegawytch to me, “That’s a lot less than the price of the chaos runes it cost me to get this stuff!”
(Do your characters talk to you? If they do, you’ve been playing RuneScape way too much…)
“Yes, we knew going into this that PKing is a money-losing proposition for a mage. That’s why you’re a fisher– so you can sell raw lob certs for the money to buy armor, and runes, and other stuff.”
(Do you talk back to your characters when they talk to you? Please seek professional help…)
“But fishing is boring! I want to steal! Look at me,” Omegawytch continued. “Great defense, low attack and strength, good armor– I could pick pockets all day, with very little food, without having to chase all over Ardougne looking for another spawn because I killed my victim, without using the cocktail shaker trick. Mama 56 is a pretty decent thief– I’m sure the gene runs in the family. I want a membership!”
“Hey! Who’s the Boss here, anyway?”
“Besides,” she added with a coy smile, “I could train defense while I steal… Wouldn’t you like to see me in a bright red helmet at thirty-something combat?”
(Forget about the professional help. When your characters start winning arguments with you, you are beyond help…)
Omegawytch sailed to Karamja, stormed through the Members’ gate in Brimhaven, and caught the next schooner to Ardougne.
It took only moments to pick a Man’s pockets and reach level 5. Reaching 10 at the Baker’s Stall didn’t take much longer. Within an hour or so, I had picked enough Farmers’ pockets to reach level 25, and started in on the Warrior which spawns north of Wizard Cromperty’s azure-carpeted laboratory.
After a few hours, tired of looking at the Warrior, I tried a Nature chest, and was lucky enough to have it to myself for a couple of levels.
Having reached level 40, I started picking Guards’ pockets.
At the end of Omegawytch’s first day as a member, having reached 42 thieving, I headed toward the bank with the day’s loot.
Sigh… The problem with guards, of course, is that people just can’t resist attacking them, whether or not someone is picking their pockets. Unlike 56warrior, Omegawytch can’t defend a spawn by ranging, and maging is too expensive. After trying several locations, I settled on the guard spawn at the east end of the Ardougne dock. Trainers and other thieves seldom linger there, because there’s only one guard. Also, when someone did attack the guard, I could train defense on chickens and gather feathers while waiting for the guard to respawn.
My friends Zapz and Sswiss04 would have kept detailed records of the xp and gp gathered from each NPC. I’m not Zapz or Sswiss04, but I did note that I picked one guard’s pocket 169 times, gathering 5070 gp and 7858.5 xp, before someone came along and killed the guard.
I stuck to guards through Omegawytch’s second day as a member, stopping at 50 thieving, and most of the third day, though I did diversify a bit on the way to the bank.
Omegawytch was a level 57 thief as the fourth day began. Level 58 came quickly, but 59 seemed to take forever!
Yes! Blood rune chests!
No! Wait! Just a few chickens away from a defense level; every little bit helps!
With 18 cakes in inventory, Omegawytch crossed the river and headed north for the moment of truth: Could a level 30 player with 33 hp survive level 58 ogres long enough to loot the blood rune chests effectively?
Yes, she could!
Obnox6, who was training on the ogres, quickly noticed that Omegawytch was looting, and started catching ogres when Omegawytch retreated to eat or search a chest for traps. Thanks, Obnox6!
After another session at the Baker’s Stall, Omegawytch returned to the blood rune chests. This time, there was no one else looting the chests, though I enjoyed the company of two friends, Grades and Cydewinder, AKA Lord Cyde the Golden. Omegawytch banked another 30 blood runes and 7500 gp after the cakes ran out.
Omegawytch then took a well-earned break while 56warrior went on another King Black Dragon expedition with Loraxx. (Not a bad trip– adam plate, yew log certs, runes, and nobody died– but no Dragon Medium.) Cydewinder, meanwhile, headed for Crandor to watch Scared2death kill the dragon and earn the right to wear rune plate at 25 combat– two levels lower than Omegawytch. Very nice, Scared2death!
Real life obligations left little time for RuneScape on the fifth day. Omegawytch went back to the chests, but another thief was working them. Despite ogre-catching help from Ghst1231 and Dominator (thanks, gentlemen! ), Omegawytch ate a lot of cake without looting a single chest. Returning to downtown Ardougne, she chased a Knight into the house south of the south bank, and closed the door.
Talamarimage was watching with amusement from the bank, and commented that he had gained three thieving levels and more than 30,000 gp in the same room, from the same Knight, using the cocktail shaker trick. Omegawytch ran out of food at somewhere around 12,000 gp. Locking the Knight in the room, she raided the Baker’s Stall and returned, but real life fatigue demanded a real life bed just after the 15k gp mark.
This is the sixth day of Omegawytch’s membership, and Omegawytch is on strike. She flatly refused to get back to stealing until I wrote this (these things don’t write themselves, you know, and as a typist, Omegawytch is a hellova thief…).
“Besides,” she added, “You need to properly congratulate my buddy Scared2death for killing the dragon and wearing rune plate two levels below me. And be sure to thank him for joining the Black Arm Gang, because that means we can do the Hero quest together when the time comes.”
Yes, Boss…
56warrior
Notes
Three images in this chapter sadly seem to have been lost; they are not present in the RsInn archive.