Chapter 8: 78 Thieving, 40 Combat
By gaining a Hitpoints level, Omegawytch raised combat level to 40, ending my hopes of entering the Heros Guild at 39.
The seeds for the disaster were sown when, after Omegawytch reached 75 Thieving, I trotted her out to the Tree Gnome Stronghold to try her hand at picking Gnome Local pockets. It was wonderful!
Omega got to dress up like a real wytch for a change.
The constant stream of questions in Ardougne (“Omega how u get drag med?” “Omega how u get so rich?” “Omega who ur main?” “Omega show me helm please” “Omega how u kill dragon?” “Omega will u be my friend?” “Omega wut ur thieving?” “Omega wut ur att and str?” …ad selfcensored infinitum!) dwindled to the occasional “Wut u get from them?” (King Worms, Swamp Toads, 300 GP, Gold (nugget), one Earth rune, Fire Orb (rare)– and 198.5 XP per successful pick) and “Can u really thieve them?” (Yes, Cartooncharacternameandnumbersignifyingyearofbirth , I can, when I’m not typing stuff you could check for yourself on the Hiscores).
And the Thieving XP came quickly; I soon had another level.
I also had killed several hundred Gnome Locals, at approximately 7 HP XP each, leaving me just a few hundred shy of 49. Still a safe margin, I thought. I headed back to Ardougne; a mage needs runes.
A mage also needs experience. Omegawytch can steal Blood runes, but she’s a long way below the 80-plus Magic level required to use them most effectively. Of more immediate concern, I’m just itching to get Omega’s hands into a pair of Gauntlets of Magic, to find out for myself just how much they increase the damage done by Bolt spells. That means casting all four Blast spells on the demon Chronozon, to complete the Family Crest quest. Even with the aid of a Wizards Mind Bomb, Fire Blast requires a minimum Magic level of 56.
Where to train? No-brainer! Omega steals large quantities of Chaos runes; Crumble Undead gives the most Magic XP per Chaos rune; the Necromancer supplies infinite numbers of level 24 Zombies on demand. In a very short time, Omega reached 56 Magic, just as she was receiving counseling from a real expert on Magic training:
On the way back to Ardougne, I looked over the stats. Whoa! Just the slight damage inflicted by Omega’s Earth Staff while Crumbling Zombies and casting Earth Bolts on the Necromancer had brought her HP XP to 91700, just 21 XP shy of a HP level– and a Combat level. That left only the faintest hope of entering the Heros Guild at 39 Combat.
Back to Ardougne, to replace the 700 or so Chaos runes I had just burned… and back to the constant stream of “Omega how u get drag med?” “Omega who ur main?” “Omega show me helm please” “Omega will u be my friend?” “Omega wut ur att and str?” …ad selfcensored infinitum. I quickly returned to the bank and withdrew my faithful Rune Medium. Yes, I get more runes and GP per load of cakes with the Dragon helm– but I spend a lot less time typing with the less conspicuous headgear, so I end up getting more runes and GP per hour.
Then began an hour or so of astonishingly good luck. I had a Paladin trapped in Zenesha’s Brass Br… er, Plate Mail Top Shop. Periodically, I’d mouse over the Gems Stall. When it respawned, I’d leave the shop, carefully closing the door behind myself, loot the stall, then return to the shop (carefully closing the door behind myself) and resume picking the Paladin. Omegawytch got her first ever diamond, a ruby, and a couple of emeralds from the stall, in addition to the usual sapphires and the plunder she was picking from the Pal. Could it get any sweeter?
Why, yes, it could. Glidden05 entered the shop, carefully closing the door behind himself, and asked, “Want some shark? Keep you going longer than cake.”
WOW! I was too overwhelmed to think about making a good screen shot, so you can just see the crest of Glidden05’s helm above the inventory. Thank you, Sir!
As luck would have it, the Paladin slipped out the door with Glidden05.
As luck would have it, the Paladin slipped right back in a minute or so later.
I love it when stuff like that happens.
The good luck continued until I was exhausted. I logged out and tried to sleep, but couldn’t: This was the night that Scared2death and I had planned to start the Hero quest. I logged back in, and Scared was ready and waiting.
We met at the Guild, talked to Achetties, then headed for Varrock to talk to our respective Gang leaders. We met again at Horvicks, where Scared, the Black Arm member of the team, was buying the necessary Black Plate– and where D Rad was smiting a Mithril bar to reach 99 Smithing. Then we were off to Brimhaven.
The theft of the Candlesticks was completely uneventful (with one possible exception. NOTE TO PHOENIX GANG MEMBERS: It’s not necessary to range Grip; I was able to mage him with Fire Bolts. I had come prepared to range, with a Phoenix Crossbow even, but with Omegawytch’s Ranged level of 1, I might still be shooting…), and we were soon back in Varrock, in possession of our Master Thief Armbands. Somehow, I don’t think killing the Ice Queen and catching Lava Eels will be quite as easy…
Both of us needed to make preparations for the rest of the quest. I needed food, so I headed to Catherby, and Big Netted and cooked until I had a Fishing level, a Cooking level, three Caskets (ruby, sapphire, and emerald), and 40-odd cooked Bass in the bank. You might call yesterday a gem of a day…
Which brings us to today. I was picking the pocket of a near-dead Paladin when Winsyr (level 55) inscribed his name (with a BIG crayon) on the Long And Growing List Of People For Whom I Will Not Go Out Of My Way To Do Favors (LAGLOPFWIWNGOOMWTDF, for short) by attacking the Pal. I cast a few Fire Bolts and got the kill– and the inevitable HP and Combat levels.
(More– MUCH more– about the LAGLOPFWIWNGOOMWTDF in an upcoming instalment.)
So Omegawytch will be level 40 when she enters the Guild, instead of 39. Doesn’t matter much– Scared2death will be 29 or 30 or 31, and we’re doing the quest together.
I chased another Pal into the room south of the south Bank, and commenced another run of good luck: No one attacked it. By the time the Pal finally fell to the flailing fists of fury, Omegawytch had gained another thieving level– and banked more than 500 Chaos runes.
So I’m feeling kind of not too bad about the last few days, and I log out of the game to write this, and log into Scapeboard to post it, and I find a PM from GangsterTF (Miss Runite in game), who has created an avatar just for me! Hope you like it as much as I do– Thanks, Miss Runite!
56warrior
Notes
Two images in this chapter sadly seem to have been lost; they are not present in the RsInn archive.