Amber got her robe AND a fog unicorn pet!

Hurray!

Amber finally got her robe from Malistaire!


. . . Although I'm embarrassed to say that I threw in a few crowns on the second chance chest to get it. Still, I have defeated Malistaire countless times to get Amber that robe and never got it. So, HURRAY SECOND CHANCE CHEST! Amber finally got her robe!


Also, I got a copy of the Fun Online Games magazine and the wonderfully awesome Fog unicorn pet. I plunked my Fog unicorn pet code into Wizard101 and boom there it was. You want to know the code? Sorry, I can't give it to you because it's a one use only code. It wouldn't work anyway.

Amber was the first person to ask me if she could have the pet. I could tell that she really wanted this unicorn, so I gave it to her.



The pet comes with a card of darkwind, so it's a good one that emphasizes her secondary class choice of storm.

I'm liking this Fun Online Games magazine. It has all kinds of cool stuff in it. It talks a TON about webkins, but it also talks about Club Penguin, Toon Town, Freaky Creatures, Nanovor, Moshi Monsters, Free Realms, Neopets, and some others.

At some point in the future I need to write a little bit more about Freaky Creatures and Nanovor.

Anyway, gratz on all the new stuff, Amber!

Happy Dueling!

I had a dream . . .

I have to write about this because it was so incredibly geeky and awesome at the same time. So, I had my first dream ever about working at Kingsisle.

*cue dream sequence*

In my dream my computer at Kingsisle was right next to Kiersten's (Professor Greyrose) computer (which was south facing for some odd reason), and I was working on some kind of new layout design for some kind of player handbook or something like that . . . whatever it was that I was working on, there were lots of parchment backgrounds and Wizard101 fonts and NPCs in round ring circles--you know, typical Wizard101 looking stuff. In my dream Professor Greyrose had blonde hair and this kind of cute pointy nose, almost like the cartoon version of Elizabeth Montgomery from the Bewitched title sequence. (Never seen Kiersten's picture, but I doubt she looks like the cartoon version of Elizabeth Montgomery.) She was laughing with me about something that happened to her earlier in the day.


I was new on the job, and so I was still meeting people.

I turned around and this crazy . . . nay . . . WACKY artist guy was there. He had a tight, curly beard, and he said his name was Consueco. (The closest I can come here would be Joaquin Pheonix in his new artist look.) Consueco asked me what I did for the company and wanted to know if I knew "the shop." I figured out finally that "the shop" was photoshop. He, of course, had a really bad Italian accent. He was pretty excited I knew "the shop," and he was saying how he could really use my help with "the shop."


. . . and then I woke up.

GAH. I tried to go back to sleep because I was so excited I had my first "I work at Kingsisle" dream ever, and I didn't want it to be over . . . but I couldn't get back into it. Hate that.

Maybe one of these nights Consueco will visit me again in my dreams, and we can talk shop about the shop some more.

Happy Dueling!

Thanks for the credit, Esmee!

Got a nice e-mail here from Esmee Nighteyes,

Hey, Friendly! This isn't a question so much as it is an enormous thank-you email! I was reading your blog last night and I stumbled upon the topic of people soloing Malistaire and how you did it as well. Because you said it was relatively easy for a Death wizard, I decided to try it for myself. Unfortunately, I was about halfway there when I realized I should've recorded such an epic event for me (insert picture of me smashing my head into the wall here). I will record it this coming weekend, but in the meantime, I made a "slideshow" and posted it on YouTube as a precursor of what is to come. Thanks a million for the confidence boost! :D

Here's the link to her youtube: click! And here's the link to me soloing malistaire like she mentions: click!

You're welcome! I'm glad I can help and inspire people to do amazing things in game with their character. AND . . . I'm grateful to all the people that ask questions here on this blog. Without that anonymous person's question, I wouldn't have made the video. So thanks for the gratitude all around, eh? :-) 'Tis the season for gratitude . . . it's one of my favorite things. It's appreciated!

Happy Dueling!

What would menu chatters like to see added to their menu?

So I was reading an interesting post by The Wizard101 Addict. And I was thinking about my own experience following a text chatter around.

Okay, now here are a few things I think should be added to the Menu Chat tabs. (My mom doesn't trust me with Text Chat. Hmmph.)

- I'm fine.
- I'm not feeling that fine (???)
- No thank you (It sounds kinda rude when somone asks you, "Do you need any help?" and you just say, "No."
- Sorry, I don't have access to that area

What are some of the other text chat options that you would like to see added for those of you that play with menu chat all the time?

Another great suggestion was recently made over on Wizard101 central: Add "May I join your battle?"

I also found this thread here that has a few more suggestions that are worth checking out. The third and fourth post down on that thread has some excellent suggestions.

Can you think of anything else that would be nice to have?

wow, been so busy with real life!

I hope everybody had an excellent Thanksgiving! I was absolutely stuffed by the end of the last forkful. STUFFED.

I promised you a picture of my FAMOUS spinach balls:


They may not look like much, but seriously, they are really good. Full of Parmesan cheese and onions and stuffing. yum.

After that I did my time standing in line at Best Buy for Black Friday:


You can't tell much from that blurry photo from my phone, but that was right before I entered the store after being in a line that stretched all the way around the back of the building. Amber and Kyle are going to like their Christmas present!

Next I attempted to go into Walmart, yikes:


You know Walmart is full to the gills when there are no carts available. I asked about the TV I was trying to get and they said, "yeah right, those were instantly gone the moment we opened." LOL.

I also managed to pick up a washer and dryer that we desperately needed that was on sale at Home Depot. yay! Our washer has decided to stop agitating the clothes. We needed one, so the deal I got was perfect.

The whole day I was thinking, I need to log on to Wizard101 and see what their black Friday deals are in the crown shop! But I never made it in.

Here's what was on sale this morning though!



a balance minion, 2 pieces of level 25+ crown gear, and a white pony! yay!

Back to regular posting about Wizard101 here soon! Real life has just been real busy.

Happy Dueling!

Say bye to Digby!

Digby had to go . . . he was the lowest level character on one of my accounts and Amber and Kyle wanted to play through the tutorial last night for some reason, so . . . BYE DIGBY!



We shall miss you . . . maybe you'll be recreated some day.

Do not mourn this loss of the little level 8 Digby . . . do not.

*sob*

Happy Dueling!

An hour of Jordan Skybane

Last night I was sitting at the computer and picked out this newbie fella from the crowd, Jordan Skybane. He was rockin' that Hero of Unicorn Way badge. Work it!



I don't know. I just felt like picking some random new person and being their friend for an hour. So, I started following him around and asking him strange questions just to make my family laugh.


He hadn't seen any acorns.

So then we started following Jordan around everywhere he went, and it was hilarious. By this time I had Kyle, Amber, and Bailey all watching the screen and cheering on Jordan. He told me to follow him and every ten steps or so, he'd turn around and look at me. LOL. My whole family was laughing and yelling at the screen, JUST GO JORDAN! WE'RE RIGHT BEHIND YOU! GO! But nope, every ten steps he'd turn around and look at me to make sure I was still there. Poor guy was probably taken back by having this awesome level 50 storm grandmaster following him around destroying everything in 2 rounds with a tempest and a blade. He took me to his dorm room. He took me all over the place. I was Jordan's new best buddy. I think I could hear him singing Spongebob's "Best Day Ever" song through the screen. The whole way, 10 steps, turn around, 10 steps, turn around. Seriously, it was so stinkin' cute of Jordan to do that. hehe.


I tried to take him to the Jade Oni, but he wasn't a paying member. My wife was like, Friendly, next time you pick a random stranger to help, can you at least pick one with text chat enabled? NO WAY! NON TEXTERS RULE! I think it helped me try to figure out what to say just with the text buttons, so I learned a little something a long the way.

I ended up helping Jordan kill the Harvest Lord and Lord Nightshade and then . . . I removed him from my friends list. *GASP* Oh Jordan, you come into my life and then I let you free. Just as Sting sings, Set them free. (btw, although my handle is stingite, I am in no way affliated with Sting, and although I appreciate his music, it's not the reason why I am called Stingite)



It was fun following you around Jordan in a night of random kindness and hilarity. I highly recommend it. Good times. Sorry to my friends list, but I was just too captivated by Jordan to help y'all out last night. I think you'll forgive me because JORDAN RULES!

Happy Dueling!

Is there really a housing furniture magazine for Wizard101?

I'm going to be interspersing a few comments here in Amber's letter to me.

Hi again Friendly,

I just wanted to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanks so much! Happy Thanksgiving to you! We're having my mom down to eat with us and I'm going to be cooking a Turkey and my famous SPINACH BALLS! Now you may be like, what, spinach balls? But these are awesome. I may take a picture of them later.

Love reading your web page and I am very excited about the new world Celestia, although I am still a ways from reaching something new. I am still plugging away in Marley Bone.

Very cool. That's where my wife and I are currently playing together with Bailey and Molly . . . her character Iridian is also in Marleybone.

I do have one question for you, a couple of days ago you responded to Kestral regarding what items look like and you were referring to pages in a book, is this a book that is available to the public? If so where can I get one? Would love to have as much information as I can regarding Wizard 101. I find some things out to late and then cannot change what is already done.

OH! You mean this post here where I'm pretending to be a housing item salesman? Yeah, apparently I didn't explain my joke good enough because I don't think a lot of people got that I was making a joke about there being a housing furniture magazine. My wife cornered me after I made that post and told me that I might have confused some people. Whoops! You see, I was trying making a joke like I was thumbing through a House Beautiful or something like this Duravit magazine. (by the way, page 76, I'd love to have that bathroom with a cool tree and some water right outside . . . you're welcome for the free advertising Duravit, whoever you are.)

You know, now that you mention it, my blog has a tag for all "housing items of the day." Click here and scroll through it and that will probably the closest this game has to some kind of housing magazine.

So look no further! I'm here to save the day! Sorry for the confusion and thanks for the question. ;-)

Happy Dueling!

What is Celestia?

On my previous post, someone named "clueless" (hehe) asked this question:

What is Celestia?

If you type in the word "Celestia" over on the Wizard101 Central forums you will get a complex web of 18 pages worth of threads to pour through. In the end, any real proof on this new world of the spiral is that two quests have mentioned a place known as "celestia."

One quest is from Shellus Gruffheart who states, "I was supposed to find a bloodstone ring for a lady in Celestia, but the ghosts have it!" The other quest is from Mr. Rowley in Hyde Park who states, "My gold watch! It's a verifiable antique from Celestia."

There has been a lot of speculation as to what this new world might be or might look like. As Luke Darkblood commented on my previous blog post, "Celestia: the biggest debate of wizard101 just behind Wild Bolt in PvP." I would have to agree. :-) And I'd add that it's inspired many to dream of what it will be like as well.

What do I think? I think a world based on the name "celestia" will look celestial: of the sky or of the heavens. (It is missing only one "L" at the end there after all.)

What are my predictions for Celestia? I predict 5 more levels of progression, I predict the introduction of one to three new school(s) of magic (astral magic being the most cited), and I predict Malistaire or Malistaire's ghost will be on the prowl there. Since rings and watches are mentioned in both quests about celestia, I predict there will be an emphasis on tinkering or engineering (crafting will take on a new importance there). If celestia is based in the sky, I predict it will be cold based. If celestia is based in the heavens, I predict it will be storm based. Since Mr. Rowley says, "antique," I'm predicting Celestia is an old world that has ancient beginnings and that it started to form before the world broke apart and that it is the farthest world out in the spiral. I also predict that it will be the home of the great raven, who is the sister of Bartleby, that she landed there at the farthest point of the spiral after spinning it with her magic and Bartleby's roots. I predict that the armor sets will all look similar to the current top PvP gear, but there will be many more fashion choices.

And that's about all the guesses I can give you. When Celestia finally comes out, I'm excited to see how close or far off my predictions are. :-) No one really knows and Kingsisle is famously tight-lipped about information. However, when it does comes out, BOOM! Wizard101 will come alive with excitement, and you will want to be there when it does.

Happy Dueling.

Stairway to Celestia found!

. . . I found it last night as I was finishing up some lights on my roof!



It's funny how small skiffs of ice and snow resting upon the tiles of my roof, lit by the glow of soft white LED lights, just looked like an awesome stairway to heaven, the moon glowing in the distance. For as much as I complain about putting up Christmas decorations, there are some really cool moments to be had.

When Celestia is finally released, I hope there is a stairway that's awesome that leads up to it. I love the look of dark zones with lots of stars in them (like Marleybone). One of my past favorites in the game called Everquest was The Plane of Justice. For the most part the Plane of Justice was a maze-like network of jail cells, but at the end of the zone there was this huge room that sat inside of a giant sphere that had moving stars that floated around it like you were in a planetarium. Here's a link to a picture I found of that zone. You ended up spending a lot of time in that particular room as you would slowly heal back up after most likely facing a heart-wrenching defeat in one of the challenges placed before you.

Man that game was tough.

Well, that's enough reminiscing for me. I just wanted to share that photo I took last night and dream about Celestia a little bit. What do you think it will be like?

Happy Dueling!

Where are all the Grizzleheim books?

Cassandra G. of Witch Warrior has a special request:

Hiya, blog bud!
I need help here!
Can you please make a map of the Grizzlehiem books? The quests doesn't give me quests helper.(I got the Northguard one)
Thanks a lot!
- C.G.

Yup. Pretty much all you have to do is keep your eyes open in the main boss fights throughout Grizzleheim and you'll find these. BUT, for you, because you're you, I went ahead and made these up for you. :-)









Hope that helps!

Happy Dueling!

Ok, Youkai's Bonzai Tree is awesome . . . Housing Item of the Day granted.

Sigh.


Sierra Starsong sent me a picture . . .

DANGIT! THESE JUST HAD TO BE AWESOME AND HUGE DIDN'T THEY!?

grumble.

Thanks for the picture, Sierra! Kestrel will be overjoyed you found the missing page to the housing magazine!

now I need to go farm that pesky imp again.

grumble.

Happy Dueling!

What does the domed tree, stone lantern, and gong of the oni look? And why shouldn't I farm the bonsai tree?

Got a question from Kestrel:

Ok, so I am decorating my house to be really mooshu-ey, and I was wondering some things.

1. What does a domed tree look like? (from Maito)
2. What does a stone lantern column look like? (from Oyotomi)
3. What does the gong of the oni look like? (from Death Oni)
4. What does Youkai's bonsai look like? (from Youkai)

Also, where can you get those cute little green bushes you see all over mooshu?

Whew . . . I feel like a housing decoration salesman here with this question. Luckily for you, Amber just happens to be the salesman you're looking for!

*presents magazine and begins to flip through the pages*

Yes, over here on page 21 we have a wonderful domed tree . . .


Don't you just love the look of that? I think those look the most like "those cute little green bushes" you refer to. You should DEFINITELY get yourself some domed trees. It's a winning style statement for a mooshu house.

And here on page 55 you can find a stone lantern column . . .

Once again, this is a fantastically easy item to get. They are all over in the bazaar because the boss that drops them is constantly farmed for money. Easiest one of the bunch to pick up. Yup. YOU GOTTA GET YOURSELF SOME COLUMNS!

And finally on page 67 we have a gong of the oni . . .

I've had that for a long time.

And . . . that's it! Thanks!

. . . wait a second, you want to look at the Youkai's Bonsai? *flips housing magazine furiously to a torn out page area of the magazine* Yes, it looks like that tree has been removed from our catalog. GOOD DAY!

"Why," you ask?

*Amber grows a concerned look on her face and takes Kestrel by the hand*

You don't need a bonsai tree to make you happy my friend, trust me. TRUST ME!

*Sigh.* You still want to know?

Ok, here's what happened. I tried for you . . . i did . . . about 10 tries worth, but I gave up on trying to get this exclusive bonsai tree. I'm sorry it didn't work out. Here's the reason why I gave up.

You see, Youkai is a horrible nasty rank 10 life boss with 9,000 hitpoints. He's buried all the way at the very end of The Tree of Life instance. It takes a long time to run down to this guy.

Now, back in the day, Youkai was one of *thee* bosses to farm. He was "tougher than the Jade Oni," which used to be the end boss of the game back when Mooshu was the top. This was also back before housing was even implemented. So Youkai has a HUGE loot table, meaning he has a hat for every class, a minotaur, and a bunch of other great loot for what used to be the pinnacle hard boss of the game. When housing came along, Kingsisle just plunked a couple housing items onto his loot table and called it good. Unfortunately that makes your chances of getting the housing items less because he has SO MUCH stuff that he can drop.

To make a long story short, friends don't let friends farm Youkai for some silly little bonsai tree. SILLY! Trust me.

Now if you want to farm youkai for a cool looking minotaur pet, a lot of gear for your lower level alts, and to get the "sword saint" badge, more power to ya.

two cents.

Happy Dueling!

Ravenwood Radio Episode 3 is up!

Woot! I just finished up listening to Episode 3. Steve and Leesha do yet another great job on their podcast. You should go check it out!

. . . and I do a little 6-7 minute bit in the middle about the question Jessica asked last week. Let that be a lesson to you all, if you ask me a good question, it may end up being the featured question of the week on Ravenwood Radio. :-)

Side note: It's really weird listening to yourself talk.

OH, and I also did a new theme song for them as well! Seriously, I know I've said it up front, but you must go check it out!

What are you waiting for?!

Happy Dueling!

Wizard101 is the theater, You are the star!

I’ve been thinking about things and coming up with crazy ideas again. This one is a little out there, but hang with me till the end and let me know what you think.

I think Kingsisle needs to create a zone in Wizard City where Wizards can put on magic shows.

So, parents and families are no strangers to going to their kid’s performances. I’ve gone to a good number of these where every parent has a video camera in their hands and a row of relatives are there to cheer on their star. School performances, singing groups, music groups, dance groups, sporting events, talent shows, etc.: I've been to a slew of these in my lifetime, and there's many more of these slated in my future.

This same friends and family draw needs to somehow work its way into Wizard City. On some small level, Kingsisle has already tried to do this with the stage in the Wizard City housing, right? This is a good start, but not nearly what it needs to be. As it is now, let's be honest, the productions on that stage that I've seen were difficult to follow and a little boring to watch. They just weren't that "fun."

I’m sure Kingsisle could brainstorm a few ideas on how to make this happen on their own, but I'm going to give my two cents.

Step one:
You have a kid schedule a time to put on a magic show, and she sends out e-mail invitations for her relatives and friends to join her in Wizard101 where she will be demonstrating her skill as a performer.



Step two:
Instructions are given in the e-mail on how to assume a “guest” account. Guests are given a special name in game with a quick pre-built random character so they can quickly log into the game and watch the show at the correct time. Only menu chat is given to Guests. Guests may log into a theater zone that a player has reserved for up to fifteen minutes in advance.

Step three:
When the performer enters the theater zone, they zone in on the stage side of the theater while viewers remain in the guest area.

Step four:
The performer runs into an empty battle circle on the stage, and her spell cards are then played on the stage to produce varying effects. For instance, our performer plays a thunder snake card, and a thunder snake appears on the stage and hisses at the audience. Guests have an applause button they can press. The kid plays a blade spell and smoke poofs on the stage. The guests have a "ooo!" button they can press. The kid plays a trap spell and a rain cloud appears. The guests have an "ahhh!" button they can press. Etc. Cards take on magician-like illusionist abilities rather than attacks in this special "theater" battle zone.

Step five:
The performer selects one from a number of pre-made dramatic endings in which Malistaire or another favorite NPC appears on the stage to deliver a cool ending for the wizard performer and the audience.

Step six:
The end. The curtain closes. After the show, the guests are taken to a webpage where they are given instructions on how to “continue the magic” with their friend or relative and play alongside them in Wizard101.

I think if Kingsisle gave their players the opportunity to be the star of the show and for Wizard101 to be the theater in which they perform, Kingsisle will have provided incentive for fans to promote the game naturally. Wizard101 is the theater and the kid is the star. Wizard101 gets promoted by the fans "naturally" because it’s where the kid is going to perform.

And that's my crazy idea for the day! What do you think? Would it be fun? Let me know.

Happy Dueling!

Woot! My Beckett mag came in the mail yesterday!

I was so happy to open my mailbox yesterday and see my Beckett's magazine resting in there. It looked a little cold and lonely. It called to my hands, "Hold me, Thomas. Take me and read my MMO goodness, Thomas."

. . . and I did! I read it and loved all the articles from Stephanie Morrow. She's great, you know. The Wizard101 article this time was about the new mounts, henchmen, potions, etc. that were put into the game last major patch. Also, as I had heard rumor of, there was a code in there for THE BLUE RAPTOR BLADE!

Check it out . . . I got me some Beckett's and I got me some Blue Raptor. I had to help improve their cover though for this picture:


It speaks the name of the evil one. So Myrna, looks just awesome with her Blue Raptor blade. It goes perfectly with her ice wizardy self.


I like what KI has been doing with their promo swords lately. This sword does 90 points of damage and comes with three cards (no pip boost). This is along the same lines as what the valor sword comes with (100 points of damage, 3 cards, no pip boost). I was surprised to see that it does Myth damage instead of ice damage, but that's great for Myrna actually. She's happy with that.



I was trying to catch a bit of the sparkle that it leaves behind you . . . and I didn't get much sparkle in the screenshot. But it's there, I promise! It sparkles!



And yes, you go out into the circle to swing your sword at the creature you are attacking. So, this is a win sword for your lowbies. Good stuff.

Hope you got your sword!

Happy Dueling!

Where in the heck is Zhi Lan?

Got a great question here from our good friend, Blaze:

Hey Friendly, Blaze here. First off thanks for the card and Second. I finally got to the Mooshu Crafting Quest, and I have to find some Guy named Zha Lin to buy a ring, I can't find him D: Hopefully you know where he is! Ok Cya!

First off, you're welcome!

Second off . . . well . . . I had no idea who Blaze was talking about. Zha Lin who?

So I sent Blaze an e-mail back and said, "Zha Lin who?" . . . in more words than that, and Blaze sent me the quest text he was talking about.


OK, now we're getting somewhere. NOW, I know what you're talking about Blaze. LOL.

haha, check out this cry for help even. I LOVE IT!


OK, so Zhi Lan (not Zha Lin) happens to be the furniture salesman in Moo Shu. She's just right there in the main area of the Jade Palace.


What the quest is basically letting you know is that to craft those rings, you're going to need to buy a new equipment crafting station since you can't use your basic crafting station to make these rings.


It's not too expensive. Still, 1500 gold is 1500 gold, eh? Not to worry though, you should make it back over time from finishing the quest and selling your crafted wares.

Hope that helps clear up the confusion!

Happy Crafting and Happy Dueling!

Fog ("F"un "O"nline "G"ames) Unicorn Pet WOW!

This just came across the community wire! Woot Fog Unicorn pet!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wizard101 & Beckett Fun Online Games have teamed up to bring players an exclusive in-game item - the Fog Unicorn pet.
(get it? Fun Online Games!)

To learn more about how you can get this exclusive, limited edition pet, visit our Fun Online Games page.

Also, look who's on the cover! We're proud to be a featured game in Beckett's Fun Online Games Magazine and there are even more surprises inside the magazine, including a Wizard101 fold out poster! Click here to learn more!




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh man, I'm going to want one of those FOR SURE! UNICORNS FOREVER!

*insert rainbow*

Happy Dueling!

Player Trading Card of the Day--Tara Mythcrafter

Finally! It's the Tara Mythcrafter card!


So, Tara is awesome. If you're into MMOs at all, in the least, Tara's blog West Karana is where you will hear all about the latest and greatest MMOs. She's been keeping that blog since 2005, and I'm pretty sure her writing career spans well before that. I've seen references to zork. (If she is anything like me, most of her game blogging/writing back in the day was either e-mailed between friends or ended up on now defunct guild message boards.) She also has put in an astounding 178 posts just about Wizard101 and is listed off of their fansite. She's truly an asset to the community.

Tara and I actually crossed paths many times in other games, mostly not knowing that we were crossing paths. We were on the same server on Everquest, and we were both playing Lord of the Rings when that first came out, once again, on the same server. I remember laughing my head off at this comic she did in particular back in the day when I surfed her guild's forums. Something about dragons IM'ing each other just cracked me up. It wasn't until Wizard101 that our paths actually coincided, and we finally got to group together. She's awesome and I do love her sprite minion so much!

More recently she had joined a group of friends and myself to hack through an older RPG known as Neverwinter Nights 2. Yeah, that didn't turn out so good when the game just up and forgot one of our characters. The Sunday night gaming group will rise again though. Mark my words!

I'm a reader of her blog, and I'm so glad our paths crossed here in Wizard101. I can't believe it took 30 cards to get to you. Thanks for all you do, Tara (or Tipa if you're feeling funky).

Happy Dueling!

How do I get to the Hall of Champions and the Frozen Forge?

Got a question from Nathan Fireshade:

Question=i cna't find the hall of champions
to get the frozen firestone

Hi Nathan, I'm not 100% sure, but you may either be talking about a component you need to get for a spell quest (and therefore not really noted anywhere) or perhaps you're talking about the "Frozen Forge."

My wife ran into a problem where she couldn't get to the Hall of Champions for a spell quest because she hadn't completed all the quest lines in The Pyramid of the Sun to advance on to the second area of Krokotopia. If that's the case, you need to finish those quests, then it's easy to get to the Hall of Champions

Here's a video of Myrna running to the frozen forge in The Hall of Champions. Hope that helps at least get you headed in the right direction.


Side Note 1 : Since she was up there, here's Myrna kicking Odji's tail:


Wow, that's a bug! She got a boost when she converted to fire damage. It looks like Odji is flagged as a life wizard, but he is really an ice wizard.

Side Note 2: whoa! I didn't know Odji dropped this awesome necklace! Learn something new every day.


I'm going to have to pass that on to Kyle (or the wife's new storm wizard) for sure!

Thanks for the question . . . it was rewarding!

Happy Dueling!

Player Trading Card of the Day--Blaze Mistshard

Next up, it's our friend Blaze!



The ice wizard cards always seem so awesome and cold to the touch.



/shiver . . . screen is cold.

. . . ok how many of you touched the screen to see if it was cold right then? Caught ya!

I like Blaze's advice. It makes me think of regeants like Mistwood. Of course, I'm a huge packrat anyway. I can't toss any of my old wands out. Even the noob wands.

Happy Dueling!

Havest Hannah is Back!

Remember last year? KI sent out the same graphic again this year. A day after announcing Harvest Hannah, I beat Mooshu, which used to be the end of the game. So wild to take a look back. LOL. A lot has changed since then . . .


I was really excited to see that she still sold the Indian headdress since I really wanted that, but I never spent the crowns on it. Back then 1500 crowns seemed like A TON to me. Now that mounts are out, it's like . . . meh . . . no biggie. Weird how perceptions change as well over time.


Now you may call me by my Indian name: Chief Hangswithnoobs (or if you're on my friend's list--Chief Isanoob)

I will definitely have to wear my new hat when I'm goofing off on Unicorn Way. :-)

Happy Crafter!

I am totally this guy right now:


"Why," you ask? Because Thomas Lionblood finished up his Moo Shu quests for crafting.

"Why does that make you happy," you ask again? One reason actually. He can now craft this card:


It's kind of a weird thing. Since Amber is the grandmaster crafter on this account, I really don't need another grandmaster crafter.

"So why did you level crafting with Thomas," you query? (Man you guys have a lot of questions today.) Kingsisle has made it so that you can't craft the higher level cards for any class outside of yours.

"You didn't know that already," you ponder? Nope. I was quite shocked when I zoomed Amber up to Mortis and tried to buy the Feint Treasure Card recipe. You have to be a death wizard. And to craft the Feint Treasure Card, you have to finish Mooshu crafting, which I have now with Thomas, so once again . . . I am so this guy:


Happy Dueling!

Player Trading Card of the Day--Ronan Ravenshard

Here he is! The Player Trading Card of the Day, Ronan Ravenshard himself:



Ronan is a "ravid" (new invented word from Friendly for you . . . it's rabid and avid all rolled up into one burrito) reader of this blog. Seriously, he probably knows more about this blog than I do, and he's a "ravid" supporter. He's such a huge supporter of this blog I had to invent a new word for him.

His advice is well taken. It really doesn't matter what level you are: even Malistaire can be thwarted with a low level shield used at the correct time. Just do the best you can with what you got.

Happy Dueling!

How do you put furniture inside a jail cell?

Got a question here from a reader:

I was at one of my friend's castles and they put stuff in their jail cell. I know that you can craft an OPEN jail cell, but he had a closed one. He had like a bed and night stand inside it. How do you do that?

First, I really like that idea. Very cool. I checked the ingredient list for making one of those open jail cells and the most difficult component was grendelweed. So, I farmed it. This was a SQUEE moment for sure:


*cue announcer voice* She's winding up for the pitch


And it's solid press on the craft button!


*crowd goes crazy*

I want you to know that I checked first just to make sure you can't stick stuff down in the jail cell just naturally . . . nope. So, yup, you have to do the same old tricks that I talk about in this thread here. Here's Amber breaking out the chessboards and checkers to make the furniture float. Remember, it's pull the small rug out on the chessboard and turn the checkers once counter clockwise before picking them up.


And now they float.


And now we have the item of the day: It's the Broken Jail Cell . . . complete with furnishings and an invitation.


Thanks for the question and Amber thanks you for the great idea for her house!

Happy Dueling!