The Thjorgard Mines were next on the list and completion put us all at level 39. HP's now average 390 while SP's average 740. We celebrated by accepting our GrandMasters in Elemental and even gave a small speech on the bridge in Lindisfarne. Someone shouted at us to have tea with the Dragon, but we declined, explainining we still had errands to run. In hindsight I think he was being cheeky.

The Training Hall, Ruined Temple, Dook's Castle, Kluso's House and Drangheim Prison advanced us to levels 48, 49, 48, 48. We're only picking up useable drops like better Armours and things we can Enchant. It's amazing how much experience you get at this level with Enchant. Even so, it's still taking way too long to do the shopping. Next time I might leave all the men at home to watch the footy.

Spoiler ========== The second time through the Chasm Of The Dead was a walk in the park. Four mates all wielding Turn Undead got us through the ghosts and off the rim - no worries. When we got to the room with the Crona Kiga, we just hopped up onto the pedestal and spun around in a circle firing off alternating spells of Turn Undead, Bolt, Bolt and Poison Cloud until the room was cleared. We weren't even breathing hard. And I swear, in one of the side rooms, this Skelly came bounding around a corner, took one look at us and just fell over, full stop. It was lovely. ==========

Our second run through the Chasm of the Dead upped us all to level 59. We now had GM in our respective skills of Light and Dark, plus Expert and Master in a few others. But we've kept our number of skills to a minimum, wanting to pour everything into the primary skills of Learning, Elemental, Light & Dark - with some points going to Bodybuilding and Armour. Body Building increases your HP's with each skill point added, and Armour increases your AC, regardless of whether or not you are adept in that skill. And even tho math is not my forte, I figured it out: It costs 445 skill points to get any one skill to level 30. We are averaging 90+ points per person for each ten levels gained, and this is increasing incrementally (Is that even a word?). So, if the max level is 255, that should be fair dinkham.

Our Armours are between 60 and 65 each. Yanmir's Fort and Uniting the Clans brought us to 65, 66, 66, 65 Wizard's Lab and a second go at the Connecting Tunnels put us at 79, 81, 80, 80. We're now using Chain Lightning exclusively and watching Vampirs, Bloodsuckers, Ghosts and Sorcerers dissolve before they can get our robes dirty. Even the Dagrells fall apart without too much drama.

We currently have 15 each in Elemental, Learning, Meditation, Light/Dark and 10 each in Armour and Body Building. HP's are 740 - 750 and SP's are 1260 - 1275. Which is good because we have only found one medallion of amelioration so far.

Having always, always been a melee player, I'm finding this magic stuff to be a surprisingly pleasant experience. Well, now that I'm not struggling for survival or weapon jockeying between bows and spells because the magic has run out and there's no place to rest and heal up. *eyeroll* I'm not sure I'd feel the same way without the GM glitch, though, so I'm not a complete convert yet.

We're headed to the war council. We polished off the Desert Terror in Thronheim for practice. Unfortunately, with four rounds of Chain Lightning unleashed in the middle of town, we polished off a few guards and vegetable stands, too. Oops.