Chapter 5-Episode 2: Back to the Man-Cave

(Note, this episode takes place somewhere in the middle of the next episode. Trust me when I say all will make sense soon.)

When I think about my house, I cringe. It's all because of that inevidible question you'll undoubtedly get at some point: Can I see your house?

My man-cave is less of a cave and more of a man-shack on a man-vacant lot. In fact, all it is right now is a workshop and a portal. But the workshop is fully up to date. I've stockpiled a bit of gp, and I know very well how to get more...so I decide to get my house into some semblence of order. The problem is that I have to advance 11 levels to really start building new rooms.

I'm a little beyond clay at this point, so I have to start spending money. I start with 19k, which gets me 78 oak planks. Not a lot, but a good start I guess. Another problem which has presented itself is getting to the house. It's in Pollnivneach. It's location, however, is pretty much irrellivant. Until 50 Construction, it's a long walk no matter where it is. To build the skill quickly, I'm going to have to teleport there, and that means I'm going to need law runes too.

The way I'm doing it is to take the 3 runes and a full inventory of planks, and to get a new hammer and saw from my tool racks when I arrive at my house. After 3 trips, I don't have enough planks to make it worth another trip to my crib, but it gave me a 28 Construction. I set off to make mithril bars for fun and profit (most importantly profit).

This time I have almost 75k gp to work with, so I set asside 25k for the games room I'll soon be able to build, and spend the rest making 210 planks. This is more than enough to me to 35 Construction.

Now, here's where it's going to start getting expensive. I can now build a Quest Hall, which is pretty much the key to my my entire floor plan. With this room in place, I can build the upstairs, as well as most of the rest of the rooms my level will permit. The cost to get my floor plan up to date with my Construction level is 121k gp. That's almost two back-to-back loads of mithril bars.

It was shortly after starting, that I realized the whole reason I was doing what I was doing was for Magic XP...not for money. I likewise realized that 71k or so was small potatoes for the work involved. I decide that this will be the last mithril bars that I smith for profit. I can make infinitely more money fishing lobsters, and it's less labor intensive.

I build all the rooms (I can't build a second bedroom until I have 40 Construction, because I can't build the room that would support it), and even have enough left over to furnish most of them. I still have a few things I need to get it totally up to date, but those can wait until later. Right now I plan to fish 500 lobsters to sell, which should put me in the neighborhood of 150k gp. I can use teak planks to train with now, and they're a bit more expensive.

I have to buy some law runes, but I still have enough left over to get about 160 teak planks, and those get me to 41. I build my study, and build my second bedroom.

I end this batch without a charged glory, so I have to teleport back to Castle Wars. I decide to finish Tree Gnome Village while I'm in the neighborhood. I also notice that I haven't checked my banana tree that's planted here, so I take a minute to do so, and it gets me 39 Farming. I hand over the orbs, which was all I had left to do in the quest. Quest Complete: 2 Quest Points, 11,450 Attack, gnome amulet of protection (49 Attack, 63 Combat Level).

While I haven't quite made it to 50 yet, I've acomplished much of what I set out to do with this bout.