Chapter 4-Episode 2: Protection From Melee

43 Prayer. This is a must have skill level. In many places it literally means the difference between victory and spending a load of cash to replace a majority of your gear.

While I only need 1 level to be qualify for Legends (that was my goal before my break, and I see no reason to change that goal), I need 2 for Protection from Melee. According to Sal's skill calculators, I need to ecto either 73 baby dragon bones or 31 dragon bones to get 43.

I had already started collecting bones before I had taken my break, and since I've used all XP granting rewards on Prayer since I've come back, I only need to collect about 33 more baby dragon bones or 16 dragon bones. My secret green dragon stash (in the chaos rifts) are out now, so for no other reason than to save time, I head to Falador to collect baby dragon bones. It only takes a few trips to Taverly Dungeon, and I not only get the bones I need, I end up with enough food to take on my first adult blue dragon. While I did win, I used a lot of food...and almost chickened out twice.

I head to the GE because I want another Amulet of Glory to make the ectoing a little easier. This will give me 8 return trips to Edgeville, as opposed to 4. It works out pretty good because by the time the amulets ran out of charges, I had enough left over inventory to carry both Glorys and a Games Necklace. This let me recharge without totally going out of my way. All in all, it's a rather quick operation, and in about an hour I have 43 Prayer!

Chapter 4-Episode 1: Back At It

A lot has changed since I last played, so I decided to take a moment to explore some of the new changes. I'm playing in the new graphics mode, and I must say that I'm absolutely impressed. It looks cool, and they've even redone teleport animations! I can hardly wait to actually do some real mage.

I log in to find out that instead of having about 800 gp, that I now have 21k! I had put some plain tiaras on the GE, and during my time off, they all sold. Good news for me!

I then head off to Lumbridge, because I've also heard that there's a new achievement diary, so I head off to get that rolling. I'm disappointed with the changes to the achievement diary. I always felt part of the challenge was figuring out where the task was and how to pull it off. Now it directs you every step of the way. I shrug off my misgivings, and set about the task of trying to finish at least the easy part (I decide to do Varrock, too, since I'm in the area).

While looking around at some things not in the game, I'm now officially less happy with how Hiscores works. It used to only show the top 1 million players. Now it's the top 2 million players. It bugs me as it now takes so much less effort to make it onto that list.

I can't finish the Varrock (need Dig Site quest...I'll do it later) right now, so since I'm in the mood, I pop off to Karajima to try to finish the easy part over there. Looking at it, there's nothing I shouldn't be able to complete. On a side note, I didn't do terrible on my first trip to Fight Pits (considering I didn't take any food).

I was lucky enough to get a max hit before my unfortunate, yet anticipated demise.

I manage to complete the Karajima easy tasks as well as the Lumbridge beginner and easy tasks, and I'm one task away from finishing Varrock's easy tasks, too. I decide to jump back into questing, and I start with the Dig Site quest (this should allow me to get enough Kudos to complete Varrock's easy achievement diary).

Shopping List:
Tinderbox
Chisel
2 Rope
Pestle and Mortar
Vial
Uncut Opal
Cup of Tea
Leather Gloves
Leather Boots

I grab a pestle and mortar, vial, tinderbox, chisel and 2 rope from the bank, and steal a cup of tea on my way out of Varrock. Everything else I'll get at the dig site by pick pocketing workers.
While I end up buying the boots, everything goes off without a hitch...although it took a lot longer than it should have (I couldn't pickpocket hardly any of the items I needed). Quest Complete: 2 Quest Points, 2,000 Herblore XP, 15,300 Mining (54 Mining, 37 Herblore).

While the quest itself doesn't give me enough Kudos, I spend an hour in the cleaning room and find enough artifacts to get me there. With this final task, I have all easy achievement diary tasks complete.

While the item rewards are barely useful, I learn that they now give out experience lamps with each completed difficulty level. Those, coupled with a book from Mr. Mordaut, get me to Prayer level 41.

Chapter 3: Prologue-Hiatus

July 26, 2008

After a bit of a hiatus, I've decided to return to Runescape.

The reason why I took a break was simple. I was bored and went to check out other things:

My website: I have a Geocities account that I maintain and periodically tear down to the ground just so I can rebuild it. Recent updates include a new account with a new name, and moving the things I wanted to the new site, and the addition of some slick flash nav menus. I will be adding a section on my Runescape acomplishments, few that they are thus far.

Guild Wars: Total and complete waste of time and money. I'll give you my official review of the game:

Civilization IV: I absolutely love that game, but I can only play it so much before I'm bored to tears with it. It's one that I play for a couple days and put it away for a few months or more.

History Channel: My favorite channel on cable. I get in moods where I want to do nothing but watch TV, and this is my normal choice.

Youtube: I have days where I'll just search Youtube for random stuff. I usually end up getting mad at the psychotic conspiracy theorists. That's where I'm at now.

Why Come Back?

I always knew I'd come back. I always do. I've gone long spans without playing and letting my membership expire, but I always come back. I enjoy the way the community works better in this game than I do in any other game. I usually start over...but not this time. I have the perfect character name and I've already done some noteworthy things. This one's for keeps.