Rhodry took me on my first quick trip to the Dires around 1am this morning (arrrrghhh, work the next day) and I ended up rolling into bed around 3:30am after Hiya helped out my new vassal with body recovery. Myamoto also accompanied us.

My first impressions are amazing. Once you arrive via Rhodry express portal, you arrive atop a rather normal looking mountain with trees and dirt around (little grass, it seemed). Thankfully my radar didn't look like a birdshot target of brown spots. The guys standing around us were talking about the Skeleton Lord on THEIR radar nearby. Time to run.

Rhodry took us down a short mountain path and blasted the Crap out of a Tumerok Scout from a distance before telling me to finish him off. One of the things I regret about the Dires is it seems you rarely have a chance to SEE anything. I was too busy killing that Scout before I had a chance to get a look at it, though my impression it was like a different shaped purple Banderling.

Once the Scout is gone I can get my first good look at Fort Tethana as we're within spitting distance of it. Its a walled town with towers at the corners and an open gate with a portal to Glendenwood outside. The fort is surrounded by a large flat white plain. All around us appears to be mass chaos, with people running all over the place, war magic battles in the distance random brown spots moving at high speed on radar. Its easy to get distracted from what's in front of you.

As we approach, brown dots are INSIDE the town, heading for the exit. Rhodry identifies the two dots as a Drudge Ravener (Level 59 w/ powerful magic) and an Ash Gromnie (lightning blasts that will kill you in one shot) just exiting the town! Rojon's not sure he made the right choice on this trip.

We wait for the carnage to move away and head into town. Rhodry's lagging severely and its sometimes hard to do anything other than stand around waiting to die. He takes us to the armory and I see what appears to be the same stuff as in the east only at higher prices. One gold chainmail hauberk is over $5k!

It isn't until we go to the general store that it occurs to me I can SELL here, too and start unloading the meager rewards of my brief trip to Mayoi beach, one or two daggers and a lot of non-magical gems. I hate it when I come back from a hunt unburdened, but this trip was a last minute thing and I had cut my hunt short (it didn't have anything to do with the *5* golems I ran into on the beach simultaneously! Honestly!) Normally I would have been happy with about 1k from the junk I had but when I start moving gems over, their paying prices are ridiculous! Gems that I wouldn't have expected to pay 50 are paying 250 and the few weapons I had are worth around 1 or 2k here! I stagger away from the bar under the weight of almost 5,000 pyreals!

Now I have another problem. I'm overburdened by almost 10%, something I really do NOT want to be in the Dires. To make matters worse, Rhodry has logged off to try and get a better connection. Myamoto suggests we "go kill something" and I retort that he means we should "go get killed BY something". Once he's back, Rhodry has us follow him back out the fort and I figure its time to go home, happy and fat with the short shopping trip. I'm amazed however, once he veers left of the valley which brought us down and takes us out into the plain!

"What're we doing?", I ask. "Hunting", Rhodry replies!

Rojon gets his underwear rusty again.

We go up into those brown mountains and on a ridgeline find a Tumerok Warrior (level 22). Rhodry explains the Tumerok Priest is the one we need worry about (the one that ISN'T on our radar) as he casts level IV and V war spells. "Let me kill the Priest first", Rhodry says nonchalantly.

Let me tell you, as a warrior, Rojon has rarely had the chance to sit back and watch war mages in a duel. The brief battle between Rhodry and the Priest was something to remember, with magical blasts flying back and forth across the snowy ridge, the three of us dodging the blasts aimed at Rhodry's head. Eventually the Priest dies, as no one can stand up to Lord Rhodry.

He then aims a few blasts at the warrior and sends us into finish the job. Anticlimactic, at best. At least it is until these four gigantic white shuriken go flying past my head in Rhodry's direction. The priest is back!

We go running like hell to the ridge as Rhodry calmly explains, "They respawn fast around here."

We then head higher up into the mountains and when I mention my burden, Rhodry takes half my cash rather than have me use the new Strength Sword Druss gave me the other night. "Don't waste it", he says. What a guy! I tell you I don't know how these guys do it. I mean, Rhodry is level 23 and all, but he's still a mage at heart. How can he carry all this stuff AND an extra 2,000 py too? I dunno, maybe there's a big "S" on his chest under that matty robe.

Rhodry goes off to scout but quickly comes running back cursing himself for almost getting us all killed. Seems he ran into a level V force bolt from a Vrindi Master, and in repayment decides to show him off to us. He places us carefully on the edge of a steep ridge, then carefully taunts the unseen menace into showing itself. At one point I see SOMETHING emerge from the forest and move quickly behind a large tree down the ridge and close to us.

With some further taunting, the monster finally appears at the base of the cliff, unable to move up its face (these things fly, so WTF?). Once again, its hard for Rojon to see, but I move the camera view to a steep angle and finally get a look at it from a distance.

The Vrindi appear to be small children wearing raggedy burlap sacks.

Anyway, I'm wondering why this thing isn't blasting us magically but eventually after vibrating in rage and shooting us dirty looks for awhile, it runs back off from when it came. Almost immediately 2 players come running up to us with 2 Ash Gromnies in hot pursuit. Luckily they too get trapped at the bottom of the cliff and Rojon actually gets to play with his Crossbow a bit, attempting to shoot straight down at the enraged monsters. He doesn't hit anything, but at least he wastes some armor piercing quarrels with style. The defenseless Gromnies are no match for the good players on the ridge and are quickly dispatched.

At this point, Rhodry takes us back down onto the plain where we ID a level 126 Penumbrant Shadow and his level 56 Lieutenants which thankfully leave us alone. We run into Pain and Rach who are randomly killing everything around them with ease. One player has found a sword which no one can identify, and even Rhodry tries learning level IV true value to get at it unsuccessfully. This takes a while so occasionally I go "help" Pain (read: wait until he's done all the hard work, then run and hit the Monogua or Tumerok he's fighting) dispatch level 20 and 22 creatures.

At one point Rach'mann decides to attack a level 56 Drudge Ravener with his bow and the thing charges us. It appears to really dislike him as it starts spearing him like mad. I'm hacking away for all I'm worth, barely touching the thing when someone blasts him with a fireball and kills it. Unfortunately its a half second too late, as the Drudge kills Rach with its dying blow.

Meanwhile, Rhodry explains he's buffed himself up to Item ID 274, and cast level IV true values and other mage crap which Rojon doesn't understand and FINALLY ID'd the sword. Apparently the thing is second only to the Sword of Lost Light, as it has something like +8% to def., +5% to attack, BD and HS 500, etc. Rhodry rates it a 9 out of 10 and is impressed, so I act impressed, too.

By now its 2:30am and I'm getting tired. I have to get up at 5:30 for work so I ask Rhodry if he wouldn't mind taking me home. He agrees and we bid farewell to our friends. Rach has quickly returned and reclaimed his body, so we head for the Fort. On the way we avoid a Silver Rat as it decides to kill someone else, and a Drudge Ravener that obviously was impressed with the way my sword cast that firebolt and destroyed the other guy. Either that or it wanted someone worth attacking and left us alone.

One thing I leave the Dires with is an impression of how slow I appear to be compared to everything else around me. I don't know how/if Rojon can survive in this environment even when he grows up.

We hit the portal, run through Glendenwood, portal to Rithwic, Shoushi and back to Yanshi just in time to spend another hour doing body recovery and pep talks for my new vassal Hozen Mijzu. Hiya helped him out while I was still in the Dires and I owe him for that.

If you meet up with Hozen, say hello. He's a good unarmed fighter, quick and fast, though he seriously needs to build up his health and stamina. He's hunted with us on Banderling Hill and distinguished himself in battle, running when necessary.

Anyways, that's all for now. Thanks again to Rhodry for taking me out there. It was a trip, though I'm sure I'll enjoy the next one even more having a little idea what to expect next time.

'Nuff said.

Rojon the Impressed