A pop-up screen appeared the moment the account had been logged into. It announced that the maintenance had finished, as if it wasn’t obvious, and offered various items as an apology for the inconvenience. This time it was several meals, several HP potions, and a decent amount of cure-alls. And, of course, the three thirty-minute XP boost potions that gave the user five times the experience points.
These who had just started playing within hours prior to the maintenance downtime would notice the difference. It would take hours of levelling down to just ninety minutes. Someone who had played for a while would also notice. Depending on how high a level they were, they might level up once, or perhaps thrice.
Someone who was playing 6.0 content, hardly noticed the splash. Frostscourged was so far removed from gaining levels — even job levels — that a measly five times bonus made the experience bar barely tick. That was the curse of the way each expansion increased the job level cap and with Frostscourged coming out over a year ago, the job level was ninety, and the beginner content hadn’t been nerfed either ever since the launch.
However, by 6.0, who really cared about levelling all that much? Especially veterans would give the experience point potions away. They could be bought at the market in the next few days. The players of content past the addition of jobs would spend the next day or two just trying their luck market.
The next pop-up window was an announcement that the mid-winter event was about to start. This time it meant that the irregular Misty Haven content would open up again, among other things. For the actual Midwinterfest content, there was a gift-giving quest this year, and the usual feast quest would open up in the second half of the event.
The pointer moved down the list of several names and chose an account to play with at character level 583. There was a queue as everyone attempted to log in as soon as possible after the maintenance. It affected players in his part of the world noticeably, most of the prime gaming time having passed, but there was little one could do when the developers lived and operated from elsewhere in the world. They had their maintenance late at night to the early morning hours, apparently.
As the loading screen finished, all sorts of species appeared on the teleportation platform — foxes, bears, humans, some sort of dragon lizard, elves, fae, deers, wolves, otters, and, of course, lynxes. It was so crowded that the names just created a haze one couldn’t look through.
You are now logged in.
This server’s activity is currently very high. Please be patient, would there be any loading delays during this period of high traffic.
Misty Haven will open in 53 hours. Recommended character level for Beginner is 40, Normal is 300, Legendary is 500, Nightmare is 750, and Mythmaker 1000. Please prepare.
The lynxkin moved away from the overcrowded platform to the NPC that would give him the items from the maintenance. He then immediately moved to the market to quickly buy as many XP potions he could, hoarding them like a dragon hoarding a treasure.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I GOT IN.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Y’all who live in the past flood the server too much
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Those of us who log in during the mornings like NORMAL PEOPLE are having a hard time
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Though I say this to a mostly empty guild
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: hoarding exp potions again, leader?
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I see you’re online. It’s right there on the members list.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Shut up. I want to get to Nightmare Misty Haven.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: There’s no way you’ll get to lvl 750. Just run it with us veterans. I’ll help you out. I can survive nightmares and make myths.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: also NORMAL people don’t log in mornings. NORMAL people go to school or work in the mornings.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I’m already at the office. I don’t log in past midnight like someone else in here apparently does.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: YOU WORK FROM HOME.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I still go to the office when I go to work.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: I bet that office is your computer on your lap.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: You underestimate the monster of a machine I have. With the attachments, it takes up the majority of a 2-metre wide desk.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: 2m is roughly 6.5 feet to the idiots who can’t use normal measurements.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: VC is much easier to talk to. He uses normal measurements like a pro because SCIENCE.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: why the f do you need 6 foot width???
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I have four screens, a tower, a printer, and some other stuff. It’s even pretty cramped.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Oh, and a bonus laptop with speakers for music.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: What the **** do you even do for work??
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: It requires lots of vram and doesn’t lag when processing is high.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: That said nothing.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Can I have you exp pots?
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: No. I’ll give them to Chu Ghilon. I’ve decided to help our baby to lvl 40 rogue for Misty Haven. The fae also deserves to gt the event items.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Just buy some if Chu Ghilon wants to join the event.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Your Nightmare run is less important than making sure we get everyone through the event.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: That’s final.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: what
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Say what you want, but that can’t be overruled
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Good luck finding another dedicated healer who can carry a whole party through Nightmare Misty Haven.
Odyja paused right before he once again refreshed the market to catch any experience potions being placed among the marketplace listings.
He read the most recent message a second time.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Why are you so aggressive? I was just asking.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: You weren’t just asking. You were expecting me to give up free resources to you instead of someone who has considerably less opportunities than you.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Your Nightmare run is purely self-satisfactory. You can play any of the lower tiers just fine.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: There’s no tier lower than Beginner.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Chu Ghilon has one option to play and even that is currently too high level.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: the fae is really sweet so if you say you want them, you’ll get them, even if they want them. They’ll say what you’re doing is more important probably or more worth trying.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Before you say they can just work on it before the event closes.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Chu Ghilon is on irregularly and never for hours and hours. They don’t have much time.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: So no, I’m not giving them to you. I’m getting Chu Ghilon to 40 because they deserve to get the event items just as much as you do and I have the resources and time to offer the help needed to get it done.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Are you on a crusade against me or something??? You make it sound like I’d extort pots from a low-level member.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I will screenshot how you asked and send VC
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: You don’t trust my English literacy so he can tell you I’m right
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: I get it. Stop threatening me. Sheesh.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Can I have your free exp pot? You’re buying several from the market anyway. More would help getting Chu up to 40.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: No. Buy your own.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: ok
[Guild] Memmi Bvinanka: r u fighting again?
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Yes.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Hi Memmi!
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: T just started punching me for no reason.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: We’re not fighting! @Teenam Mortana
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: I just asked a question and you just went batshit on me.
[Guild] Memmi Bvinanka: go to sleep
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: What she said.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Why don’t YOU go to sleep?
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: It’s morning here. I’m LITERALLY having breakfast rn
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: At your “office”?
[Guild] Memmi Bvinanka: im doing my dailies real quick before heading to work because the game was in maintenance when i went to sleep
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: It’s a literal home office. Not just my desk in a random corner in my apartment.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: But yeah.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I had an unexpected video call with a recurring client about some work I did recently as well as potential new work in a handful of months before I logged in, so I was already in here.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: You got a new job?
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Congrats!
[Guild] Memmi Bvinanka: yes
[Guild] Memmi Bvinanka: thx
Odyja collapsed the chat log and continued to hoard some more potions until he absolutely had to log off for a bit, because he was beginning to log off mentally and physically as well.
Odyja Sorbanja found himself back on the plaza in S’daroa. He landed right in front of the fighter statue, and had the point of a sword directed immediately at him.
He wished he had landed right in front of the mage statue instead. That statue didn’t hold a sharp weapon. It couldn’t kill him, but he didn’t like having a sword at his chest either way.
He moved his character away from the plaza, and after brief consideration of what to do while levelling, he figured he might do the next job quest for Astromancer since he was in the lynxkin town, anyway. He checked the map to figure out where under Velkrinni’s canopy the Astromancer NPC might be. Half of the job quest for Astromancers felt like it was just finding the NPC to accept the quest to begin it at all.
When he closed the map, he noticed the chat log was collapsed and toggled it open.
You are now logged in.
Misty Haven will open in 34 hours. Recommended character level for Beginner is 40, Normal is 300, Legendary is 500, Nightmare is 750, and Mythmaker 1000. Please prepare.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: should I let them die?
[Guild] Neya Cheola: that’s unusual
[Guild] Neya Cheola: i thought u always keep ppl alive no matter what
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: It’s not that I keep them alive, it’s that the people I normally play with are worthy of living. I can just do nothing and then others will eventually die. I just intervene with other people’s certain deaths.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: So I let them die?
[Guild] Neya Cheola: if they were acting like b-word toward you just let them die and finish the run on your own
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Who is a b word?
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: You
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Dude
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: You started it. I’m remembering it.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Why are you awake anyway? Isn’t it in the middle of the night to you? Or still “morning”?
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I fell asleep after dinner and had a tiny 5 and a half hour nap.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Thay is NOT a nap anymore.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Don’t you have work? Go to sleep.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I woke up like 45 minutes ago.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: didn’t you tell me to work less because I was so busy? Now you tell me to work more. Decide on one. I can’t do both at once, kitten.
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: Teenam! Let’s do a dungeon run. I need to get mats for a side quest. The Lost Spirit one.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Just us?
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: + Cap.
[Guild] Feni Kunas: LET ME JOIN LET ME JOIN LET ME JOIN I’M BORED
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Get a real job. Problem solved.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Heck yes! I haven’t run a dungeon with D in ages. Want us to carry you through Nightmare? He’s past 1200 right?
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: I wouldn’t mind the exp.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I have a real job. Wtf are you talking about? @Odyja Sorbanja
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: No caps, @Feni Kunas
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: Stop spamming me privately. Are you a ******* bot?
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: You can come, Feni. Just stfu already.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: I just mean that it’s not a proper job. You don’t work for a company, your sleep is whack, you play games “from your office”. It’s not like a real office job.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I can carry my moon fox sister too. Me is a stronk fox.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Leader, not all jobs are office jobs, not all jobs in offices follow your 9 to 5 schedule.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: And I was just tired. People DO get tired sometimes. My body went “nah, b!tch, nap time” so I napped like a normal person would do when they start nodding off after dinner.
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: I have to agree with Odyja that a nap after dinner isn’t really a nap anymore if it’s more than 5 hrs.
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: But he’s also being an idiot. I can’t deny that
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: And here I thought we’re all friends.
[Guild] Neya Cheola: real friends don’t sh!t on their friends’ jobs
[Guild] Kitu Nilan: i guess that makes leader a fake friend.
Odyja toggled the chat log closed. These people were all idiots. He wasn’t in the wrong. He wasn’t dunking on anyone’s job. He just questioned the legitimacy of Teenam’s supposed profession, which seemed really shifty at best, in his opinion.
Teenam refused to even hint at what it could be. At this rate, he felt that he might as well just assume Teenam did cryptofarming or something. That seemed like a reasonable assumption by now.
It was no point in thinking about it anymore.
He went to find that Astromancer NPC, so he could progress on the job quest. Anything to level up was good, because he needed to get his character level up.
He also needed to begin considering which mage job’s skill upgrades he would go into Misty Haven as this time.
According to the Misty Haven lore, it wasn’t part of the real world. Because of that, it didn’t function like a regular dungeon. Character level and assigned attribute points were far more important than job, but jobs had a minor effectnonetheless.
He would have to be tactical about it. If he could get at least level 650, he might be able to get through the dungeon without anyone carrying him. He didn’t just want to get the Nightmare achievement. Teenam would never understand. Teenam who just messed around and never played seriously but was high enough level that random groups would just let T get carried through Mythmaker…
Legendary was fine, but Odyja wanted to get the server first clear of Nightmare for the scoreboard. Last time he was one completed run short of making it to “First Mage” in Legendary. There was no way he couldn’t make that and get into Nightmare as well and get his Nightmare achievement without carry.
He just needed to boost his experience point enough and grind hard enough, and he could be able to get over seventy levels before the end of the event.
There was a chime, and he checked to find that he had whispers.
[Private] Feni Kunas: What’s up with you today?
[Private] Feni Kunas: Annoying subordinates? Or maybe bosses. I don’t know what would annoy a middle management person more.
[Private] Feni Kunas: I don’t have any middle management to care about.
[Private] Feni Kunas: Just my boss.
[Private] Feni Kunas: Which is the municipality.
[Private] Odyja Sorbanja: Nothing is up.
[Private] Odyja Sorbanja: do you have your exp pots?
[Private] Feni Kunas: I got one Teenam asked for 2 for Chu Ghilon.
[Private] Feni Kunas: T said you might want it, so I shouldn’t sell it.
[Private] Feni Kunas: I don’t get why you’d want one, but we can meet up somewhere later to trade. Can I get something back?
[Private] Odyja Sorbanja: I don’t have anything right now. Maybe half of what the current market value is right now. Around 40 or 45% would be good, I think.
[Private] Feni Kunas: Half?????? Go buy your potion at the market. I’ll just sell it through that and pay the 10% marketboard fee instead. I’m not Yeria Quur.
The market value was through the roof right now. Why wouldn’t someone want even just half of it, compared to the regular price? Some people’s reasonings were absolutely wild.
He found the NPC after practically combing through all of S’Daroa. He had to go do some hunting for some mats. A bit annoying but he could do this sort of quest. He’d just take his potions while barely getting any experience…
He was just about to finish the hunt when he was interrupted by another chime, several hours later. He ignored it at first, but then came another chime. And a third. And a fourth. Odyja had to see what was up.
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: You’re not reading the guild chat, are you?
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: We’re going to start planning for the Misty Haven on Discord. You wanna participate this year or not? T made a thread and put up polls for which achievements one has since previous seasons, which one wants and if one’s goals is event items, event achievement, server/data center/world first or the general challenge of playing without job skills and additional stat modifiers.
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: Teenam was getting a headache during the dungeon, so I told T to go back to sleep. Might be a case of getting sick right after a busy period, and T failing server First Cleric on Legendary this season after working hard to pay rent would suck.
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: Teenam promised to carry anyone wanting to do a tier higher than they can reasonably survive, except Mythmaker. Two tiers higher if we can get Cap to tank with T, but Cap might try for First Fighter in Mythmaker this time. That’s hard competition to deal with. Cap is on the really low end at Mythmaker tier so he might not survive to the end this year.
Odyja felt annoyed. Why was Teenam taking charge in organising these runs? That was his job. Or, plausibly, Gituda’s. It wasn’t as if anyone else was going to attempt for the clear challenge. They could all take their time. They didn’t need to organise their runs to follow the rules about entering with a new party every run.
[Private] Odyja Sorbanja: Why is it always about Teenam Mortana? Does everyone else also think T is the main character of the universe? That fox isn’t, okay
[Private] Odyja Sorbanja: Why is T even doing that this season?
[Private] Odyja Sorbanja: The polls
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: ???
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: It’s what T always has done. Teenam checked interest when you were a newbie too. Teenam did it the first time T ran Misty Haven with the guild after T joined us too.
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: Cap was busy and the guild was just a random group of people who had exactly no plans. T saw that and went, let me fix that. T was the one who set up the application system back then.
[Private] Odyja Sorbanja: Doubt
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: Fine, I did, but it’s based on something T suggested we’d do. I just adapted it mildly to work because I had lots of time. Over the years, it’s been fine-tuned.
[Private] Odyja Sorbanja: Also why does it matter if Teenam gets sick right now? First Cleric isn’t a big deal after a couple of times. If someone who never got First did it, it would matter.
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: Oh. It’s one of those days.
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: Joining or not? Just say which. I’ll chat with everyone and make plans and give you the people participating in what later if you are.
[Private] Odyja Sorbanja: joining
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: Good. Go to sleep. You’re exhausted.
[Private] Gituda Tuuk: You should take a nap. It’ll clear your head a bit.
Odyja didn’t need a nap. He definitely didn’t. He knew better than anyone that he was fine. It was not any kind of day.
All he needed to do was finish this quest.
You are now logged in.
This server’s activity is currently very high. Please be patient, would there be any loading delays during this period of high traffic.
Misty Haven will open in 23 hours. Recommended character level for Beginner is 40, Normal is 300, Legendary is 500, Nightmare is 750, and Mythmaker 1000. Please prepare.
We have reached below 24 hours in the countdown. Remember to read the specifications for the Misty Haven specifications on the website. This season, Legendary requires 10 successful runs, Nightmare 15, and Mythmaker 25. The dungeon tier just played locks for 8 hours of cooldown upon clearing it and when all members of a party dies.
Nightmare and Mythmaker can be run with two full allied parties. These will scale according to the average party if party level exceeds a certain number as well as based on the highest member in the dungeon at that time. Plan accordingly.
Odyja read the system message and then ignored it, collapsing the chat. He went to level up his Astromancer job. He had essentially decided that he ought to go back to his roots after all.
Since Misty Haven had them play as their starter class with the measly skills one got in 40 levels, he really had to think about this well. The job he had played the most was, to some misfortune, Sorcerer. Some of the job skills were just upgraded class skills, so it would be a strategic choice. Unfortunately, Sorcerers without the job bonus lacked the increased FOC modifier compared to Mages without and lacked the DEX bonus that increased crit chance.
On the other hand, it didn’t come with the added weaker CON and STR of a Sorcerer, so there was that as well.
After Odyja paid to travel to a location without a teleportation platform, he checked his Sorcerer skill tree while waiting for the hired service to bring him to the village he needed to visit for the next part of this quest line.
The NPC told him to talk to another NPC and greet her. He could do that. He toggled open the chat to do the greetemote while the NPC was marked.
It was impossible not to catch the chat.
[Guild] Jules Jewels: Is Teenam down?
[Guild] Kitu Nilan: Seems like it.
[Guild] Neya Cheola: Down.
[Guild] Feni Kunas: Not seeing Teenam on a Saturday when I know T is having a downtime is weird.
[Guild] Manda Munbi: flu ig
[Guild] Jules Jewels: ****! I needed help with the Snowflake quest in 5.34 to open 6.0.
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: do you need to specify patch??
[Guild] Feni Kunas: No, Jules just checks the guides and knows which patch they’re from
[Guild] Feni Kunas: The rest of us are normal and forget anything from the in-between expansions patches.
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: oh. ok. good
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: Rich of you to call yourself normal, Moon Fox Girl.
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: i was worried i somehow missed there would be a patch number to find somewhere in the quests later
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: No, you’re good.
[Guild] Feni Kunas: I’m just fox-brained, VC.
[Guild] Feni Kunas: @Chu Ghilon Did you claim the maintenance meals and pots?
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: no
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: Oh, good catch, fox brain.
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: how do i do that?
[Guild] Feni Kunas: There’s a delivery NPC in every major city. Are you near one?
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: no
[Guild] Feni Kunas: I have an exp pot. Tell me privately where you are, I’ll give it to you. I want to help you get to lvl 40. {Misty Haven} is fun.
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: pressing doubt
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: Because she’s an idiot and called the crabs fun, I’ll confirm.
[Guild] Kitu Nilan: foxes are tricksters after all
[Guild] Feni Kunas: You’re also a fox, firepaw.
[Guild] Kitu Nilan: at least im stronger than you, moontail.
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: {Misty Haven} is a fun dungeon. We don’t know when it’ll open next time so it’s absolutely worth giving it a go. We’ll help you get high enough level and if you want to, we can help you through so you get the event items as well, because while it’s fun, it’s also difficult.
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: oh. ok. if you say so, i’ll believe it
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: @Feni Kunas Take mine too that makes for like 2 hours of exp boost
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: @Chu Ghilon What lvl are you now?
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: 22
[Guild] Feni Kunas: PWR LVLING TIME
[Guild] Jules Jewels: POWER LEVELING TIME
[Guild] Neya Cheola: POWER LVLING TIME
[Guild] Manda Munbi: PWR LVLING TIME
These people were all menaces. How he ended up being the guild leader to a guild of gremlins was honestly beyond him at this point. He had been an officer back in the day, and when the old Captain stepped down, Odyja had stepped up. Gituda had been “Vice Cap” both before and after Odyja was the guild leader.
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: Don’t spam. No all-caps.
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: Gremlins, all of you.
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: you don’t need to do this
[Guild] Chu Ghilon: i don’t even play that much
[Guild] Titu Lilin: that’s exactly why!
[Guild] Titu Lilin: we want you to have the event items
[Guild] Titu Lilin: not cause they matter but you do
[Guild] Titu Lilin: we want you to have a good time and good memories every time you see the event items
[Guild] Gituda Tuuk: Titu! LTNS!
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Titu Lilin! You’ve been AWOL.
[Guild] Titu Lilin: the divorce was rough n i burnt out from work
[Guild] Titu Lilin: i’m better now
[Guild] Titu Lilin: thx for not kicking me
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: I wouldn’t do that.
[Guild] Titu Lilin: i couldn’t miss the newest season of {Misty Haven}
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Life happens.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: There’s no reason to kick someone because life is kicking your backside.
[Guild] Titu Lilin: i see vice cap n leader. wheres the 3rd oldie?
[Guild] Feni Kunas: Teenam had deadlines a lot recently. Like, T spent like two months mostly working.
[Guild] Titu Lilin: oh
[Guild] Titu Lilin: body catching up when relaxing?
[Guild] Titu Lilin: hope teenam will be better soon
[Guild] Titu Lilin: wanted to give mythmaker a try this time
[Guild] Titu Lilin: ig i will just do nightmare
Odyja snorted. Titu Lilin was barely 550. There was no way that level could pass through Nightmare. He switched to the battle log and did the greeting emote to the NPC. He got his Astromancer items and was told to go get fifty antlers. He clicked his tongue and abandoned the quest. He wasn’t going to bother with that crap. He would be better off to level up in raids. Which was the raid that would give him the experience without him dying? He could think of a few.
#midwinterfest
Teenam Mortana
As snow falls upon the world, the canopy of the Mother Tree is joined by the flames of the aurora. The moon slowly sinks to rest beneath the horizon of the vast sea surrounding Velkrinni. Up among the stars, the learned see runes; on the ground, the life of the living flows in the veins.
A chill envelopes the stillness of the night in the dark between the moon’s setting and the sun’s rising.
Midwinterfest is once more shaking the leaves of the World Tree.
This year the event comes with:
– Gift-giving quest chain (NEW)
– Feast quest chain (Recurring — new event items)
– The Moon Hunt Challenge (Returned after 2 years absence; new event items, same event specific consumables (unconfirmed?), new boss (yet to be confirmed?))
– MISTY HAVEN — open for SIX WEEKS
Misty Have is what people are most excited about in endgame, but we want all to have a good time. We’ll coordinate with allied guilds to shift party members around for the Firsts Challenges, but we’ll make sure everyone gets through their suitable tier up to Nightmare.
Firsts are available in Legendary, Nightmare and Mythmaker. One can be
– First Completer
– First Fighter
– First Rogue
– First Brawler
– First Cleric
– First Mage
– First Summoner
The spots are available for World First, Data Centre First and Server First.
Teenam Mortana
Please use reactions to THIS POST to show what you’re interested in. Choose all that apply.
1. Mystic Haven Limited Items
2. The Achievement(s)
3. The Challenge
Teenam Mortana
If you already have an achievement from previous seasons react which you already have. Choose all that apply.
1. Beginner
2. Normal
3. Legendary
4. Nightmare
5. Mythmaker
Vice Captain
If you have received a First before, REACT HERE.
1. First Completer
F. First Fighter
R. First Rogue
B. First Brawler
C. First Cleric
M. First Mage
S. First Summoner
Vice Captain
This will help with planning runs. Please be quick so we can start setting up the challenger parties ahead of time. Challengers need to start by clearing Normal, as usual, and move upward in difficulty. The sooner we beat Legendary, the more likely it is one of us gets First Completer this year.
Odyja looked at the reactions. Under the achievements, most had a Beginner or Normal achievement, or both. About two thirds had a Legendary, maybe ten already received the Nightmare achievement in previous years and only two people had the Mythmaker achievement.
Of course one of them was Teenam Mortana. The other was the old Guild Leader still in the Discord, DoamannuGraolla. They were also the ones with at least one “First” before.
As he clicked out of the reactions, he saw someone had written something in a different channel.
#general
Teenam Mortana
I’M BACK, BITCHES
Sry for freaking everyone out. I just got vaxxed right before my holidays and I guess it hit harder than expected. I was half-dead with a fever, but I climbed out of the depths of hell to make it.
Guild Leader Sorbanja
Idiot.
Teenam Mortana
Hi kitten. You good? Still stuck in the 580s?
Guild Leader Sorbanja
Fuck off.
Teenam Mortana
Wow. Guess the feline went canine, because there’s a true bitch right here.
I was literally asking about your progress.
Is it going that bad?
Are you tired?
When did you last eat?
Sleep?
Headache?
Drink water right now. You’re dehydrated for sure.
Teenam stopped writing and Odyja saw the messages get deleted until all the ones Teenam wrote after the feline to canine message and the message asking if Odyja was stuck was edited so it didn’t mention Odyja being stuck at all.
Moments later, a direct message arrived from Teenam.
Teenam Mortana
Okay, listen.
Or read.
Whatever.
I know youre in a bad mood. And that’s okay. But just hear me out for a bit. I don’t know if this matters or anything or if I’m the cause again or of it’s work stressing you out because of the joliday season.
So just hear me out.
After that I want you to get a bowl of cereal or whatever crap you eat late at night, pour the coffee in your cup out into the sink (NOT YPUR MOUTH) get changed, brush your teeth and snugle up under your blanket.
Okay?
I’m sorry for snapping at you the other day. I wasn’t at the top of my game because of the vaccination and having just finished a heavy period of work.
Like, it was a lot.
I put in a holiday over the next couple or three weeks, and because of that I had to make sure I had done enough work to have money for rent and bills when that comes around at the end of the month and get ahead of my monthly quota (this is like… work I need to do monthly no matter what but isn’t for any specific client and is just padding for when I have clients paying me to do work for them, and safety net for when I don’t — does that make sense?)
So I had to make up for the cost in advance. I can’t get money for a holiday, but have to actually have the buffer to survive it.
So I was snappy at you and that’s my bad.
But I also found it unfair you would explicitly suggest that Chu Ghilon didn’t need the exp pots unless they wanted to join the event. Especially since you are in a position of power and Chu Ghilon doesn’t play much.
We should use our resources to help everyone be able to make the choice, not offer the resources only if they ask for them.
Either the whole guild runs.
Or none of us do.
We’re all in it together.
We’re all casual together and play to have fun.
Sorry. That’s so much text. But in case I’m the reason you’re in a bad mood, I wanted to rectify that.
I shouldn’t have been snappy and taken my own physical condition out on you. I’m not sorry for calling you out fpr being unfair, because that’s just truth, but I’m sorry for being unfair to you.
If you want to do Nightmare, I’ll help you power level as much as possible so you can do it on your own before the end of MH being open.
You can’t make it to over 700, but you could maybe, reasonably, be power level to just over 600. If ypuwork on your use of class skills and avoid debuffing your own party, you might manage to survive until the end of the run at that level.
I’m going back to bed. I’m still feeling a bit off and have a headache. Go to bed too, leader. Be a good example for your guild and show that you treat yourself the same way you would treat everyone else in the guild (except maybe me).
Odyja Sorbanja
What a fucking monologue. I’m not reading all that.
But thanks.
You’re right. I might need to get some sleep and an aspirin.
Sorry for saying you don’t have a proper job. That was too far.
Although I think you might just be a fucking scammer for all I know, fyi
Odyja went to log out from the game he had kept running in the background while trying to just rest his brain for a bit.
Before he did he noticed a message from Teenam in-game.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: Reconciliation gift in guild chest. Let’s not fight anymore.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: Until we’re in a raid and you’re debuffing your own tank again like an idiot.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: I got them during a raid. I only heal, so the stuffs useless but was worth too much to sell.
Odyja went to check the guild chest.
Inside was gear that could hardly be more suitable for a mage with his specific build. All of them mythic rarity too.
In his preferred colour.
Goddamn the menace called Teenam Mortana.