I'm having a great time too :)

I was saving this post until my email got back up so I could post a
screenshot, but I can't wait any longer!!

Yesterday I went off to the BSD and stopped to kill some Ravs on the
way. The first one I killed dropped a Key for me! That doesn't
happen every day! :)

I was just starting on the second set when Sabrewolf X tried and
failed to assess me. He got Imperil V off but didn't scratch me
before I shuroved. I announce in town that Sabrewolf is heading for
the BSD and to my surprise (and delight) loads of people start
buffing
and take after him - not usual AB behaviour at all!

I go out into the countryside to wait off the Imperil. It finally
goes and I make 100K of XP just fighting golems and drudges... come
across a really nice spawn and play happily for half an hour.

Then some nasty Umbris casts Life Inept V on me and I think RIGHT!
I'm gonna get you for that!!!

I've tried Umbris twice before and the score is Umbris 2, Mhali 0,
but
this time is gonna be different!

So I buff all the stuff that Phil told me to, and Piercing just in
case, and psych myself up for it. I cast the low level yield, run,
come back and cast the high level yield. I run the Umbris out of
mana
but he is kicking my butt so I run away. He casts Life Inept on me
as I run... so I wait that one out as well.

I rebuff and go back to him, recasting the Yield because it's worn
off
by this time and after taking a few scary war spells in the face, I
DEFEAT HIM, wooooo!!!

I am actually shaking I'm so excited!!

So I open up the corpse and there's a fabulous sword worth too much
money for anybody to use, a death item necklace, a staff with SK 6 on
it and a level 5 scroll - Wow!

I /tell Zebediah what happened and he says I needn't stop attacking
because of life inept, just make sure he is yielded and I am buffed
and it'll be okay. So I attack the other Umbris and after a bit of
running back and forth, I kill him even with the Life Inept V on :)

And I get a Dark Shard - my first ever shadow armour rare drop!

So I am really happy and run over the hill uberbuffed and kill some
Copper Golems and one drops a mote for me. I AM RARE DROP GIRL
TODAY!!!

Then I attack another Copper after my buffs have fallen, wearing a
robe (got a bit cocky) and it crits me for 98 and I die :)

But that's okay, I retrieve my body and log for the night. Matt
comes
round, we have a gorgeous dinner and a lovely evening and I'm all
happy.

Then this morning, email at work is down and stays down all day. All
my work comes in via email so basically I have nothing to do - oh
dear
what a shame, will just have to play AC all day! And I do :)

I play Neroli for a bit and she makes half a level in the Lug citadel
on HG, having melee defence is amazing! Every now and again I have
to
go back there and thwack Lugs... call it therapy :)

Then I sort Mhali out with comps, sell everything and leave her ready
to hunt tonight.

Log on and go back to where I hunted Umbris yesterday.. and they are
back :)

This time I buff Endurance (figuring that extra HP, bigger Stam to
Health and bigger Stam to Mana are all good). It works a treat and I
don't even have to run. I KICK UMBRIS BUTT!

I only get comps off the first umbris, but I kill the second one and
get three C notes worth of loot and a shiny new death item - how good
is that?! Mhali the penniless mage won't have to scrounge for much
longer :) I also finally give in and sell my Sword of Lost Light for
another C note... it was fun while it lasted but it's nice not to be
burdened.

I then go off in search of more Shadows... I absolutely LOVE opening
up corpses and not knowing what I'll find :) It is just *too*
exciting :) It reminds me of when I first fought Drudge Raveners all
over again! At the moment I am never happier than when I am fighting
Umbris - I can just fight them all day long and absolutely be in my
element. Even buffing for them is more fun than buffing for tuskers!

Have I mentioned they give THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND XP EACH?!?!?!

So I find some more and kick their butts too!! One of them has one
of
those freaky death messages which I ponder for ages, it's kind of
spooky and cool. And the other drops me a beautiful, gorgeous,
fantastic amuli coat! My mules are going to look like Mike Long!!!

I can't bear to sell it even though it's worth tons so expect to see
Boreal proudly sporting it in the near future :)

Umbris drop the best loot I've ever had, and they're amazing fun to
kill, and they don't even resist me that much. My life is 201 BASE.
I had a great night the other night with Sensai, Oberion and Chinook,
and there is Lightning Stone on Friday and Tumerok party on Saturday.

Since TSS's post, I have been doing whatever I feel like instead of
feeling obliged to level, and I can tell you I am having more fun
with
this game than I have in a long time. I am almost certainly going to
hit 35 this evening - a full ten levels above my HG characters - and
I'm really really really having a ton of fun :)

My advice to anybody who's getting depressed about PKs is... GO FIGHT
UMBRIS! Or for that matter, fight whatever monsters you have fun
with. I hated fighting Tuskers so I'm not fighting them, I don't
care
whether they are perfect for mages or not, I am going to fight Umbris
until I start dreaming about them because I LIKE fighting them :)

And if you ever need cheering up, drop me a /tell and I will come
bouncing back to Yanshi to entertain, hunt and chat :) I am really
up
for Frore (still) and I wouldn't mind another Baron's Amulet of
Lifegiving and I'm happy to hop through the Mayoi S.Direlands portal
pretty much anytime for a spot of group hunting. BRING IT!!!!

Alice
Mhali - will resist the temptation to post her "My First Umbris"
screenshot now she's told the whole story... embarrassingly enough
she
has it as her wallpaper background on her computer though :)