A Most Unfortunate Encounter

I’ve had these Selentine Keys in my bank for quite a while now and have never seen a Selentine Chest (the lowest level “cool” chest) in which to use them. Recently, I found a nice spot, with an easily accessible chest and nothing more than Dire Zombies guarding it. Dire Zombies can still give me headaches, but if I play smart, I can handle three at a time without too much trouble. So, early one morning, I grabbed three keys and headed to the chest, hoping for my first taste of phat Darkfall loot.

The fighting at the chest location went pretty well. I killed the first wave of zombies and cleared the area as new ones spawned. The danger in a situation like this isn’t the mobs, it is the fact that lots of other players know a chest is out here too and thus you are very likely to be ambushed by a player-killer. Every 6-8 minutes, I would check the chest to see if it had refilled, fight a couple zombies, hide, heal, scan the horizon. About a half-hour of this and I had about 1000 gold in my backpack, an enchanted leather chest piece and two enchanted scale chest pieces.

This is good stuff… not great, but good (I have never owned scale armor, let alone enchanted scale), and the money alone was about 1/3 of my current bank balance. I decided to back off and recall to home, which was the nearby hamlet of Skarnibben. Unfortunately, as I sat there helpless, waiting for the recall spell to complete, a zombie wandered back to my hiding place and zapped me, cancelling the recall. I killed the zombie, but the damage was done. I would either have to wait for recall to become available again, or walk back to the town.

I am impatient, so I start the run back to Skarnibben. About 1/2 way there, clan chat lights up. There are reds at Skar killing the various harvesters there. I come over the hill and in the distance, I can see a blooming ball of fire and some other glows that indicate magic is being tossed around. I could charge in and fight… and most likely die and lose my precious new scale armor pieces. I could charge in and try to get to the bank, but I would likely be killed before getting everything banked. Ugh.

I decided to turn east and head for the nearest NPC town. Hopefully, I could get there without running into anyone. So, I sprint and keep to the mountains, rushing to get back to the safety of a guard tower. About 2/3 of the way back, I clamor down a mountainside and fall a bit, taking some damage. I pull my staff and fire a heal as a reflex, but as I look around, I sure wish I hadn’t, because there, no more than 25 yards from me, are the two gankers who were wiping people in Skar. One is on a drake and the other is off, heading for a nearby chaos chest. I hesitate and start to back away, hoping they hadn’t seen me…

But they heard the heal and I don’t get out of sight quickly enough. I run, but there is no chance and I am bitten to death by the drake. Very disappointing.

Mistakes & Lessons Learned

There was no excuse for my recall being interrupted by a zombie— This was my first mistake. If I am going to “back off an recall to home”, then I should have backed off. I just ducked around a corner and thought I was safe to recall, but I could easily have backed off an additional 50 yards and ensured the completion of the spell. Had I recalled, I would have been involved in the fight at Skarnibben, but I would have had ample time to bank all of the goods I wanted to keep.

Use all the information the game has for you — At some point, I should have known the bad guys were headed out of Skarnibben, because the ClanKills tab went quiet. If the bad guys are killing and re-killing everyone at the bindstone, a steady stream of kill messages will appear on that tab and when that stopped, I should have known that Skarnibben was safe. Had I turned around and walked to Skar, or recalled again, I would have been counting my noob loot at the bank.

Stop rushing every so often — Had I not been in such a hurry to get to town, I might not have sprinted down the hill and I might have been able to see the reds before they saw me. Instead of sprinting down the hillside, perhaps a few moments of crouch walking was in order. Slowing down and being aware of my surroundings would have allowed me to avoid the reds.

When in doubt, be aggressive — Finally, when I saw that I had landed on top of these two player-killers, I should not have hesitated. I was not going to outrun them, and the chance of them not spotting me was small. I played scared and thus had no chance of surviving. Had I been a little more on the ball, I should have charged. One of the reds was off his mount heading for a chaos chest. Had I charged past him, I might have stolen his mount which would have given me a much better chance to escape to the safety of the watchtowers… and would have made for a much better story.