I have decided to relentlessly pursue an Alchemist's Bauble and the Pixie Swatter. Not buy them, mind you, but earn one of each through T-Chests or paragon drops. This will chronicle my adventure.

First, some background. Why do I so desperately seek one of these baubles?

Years ago, when the first iteration of Marties was released, many people provided input on stratics about what they'd like to see in an expanded menu of Marties. My voice contributed to the general background noise. Two later inclusions looked a great deal like my proposal for an alchemy-themed bracelet and a 'fey slayer.' I covet both of these items for that reason. You might not believe me, and the stratics post is probably long gone. But the little UO player inside of me knows the truth!

Thanks to some helpful folks, like Madrid, my discord is now a powerhouse 120 with jewelry. I decided that paragon hunting in high luck - always a risky proposition - was my best bet.

I mounted my loyal steed, A Blu Sidhe. Since he's allergic to imps, Blu was not excited about another run in blood dungeon. I insisted however and, as I am the one wearing the jewelry, he was forced to submit to my whim.

After dodging some persistent skeletons outside the entrance, Blu and I descended the steps. The stairwell was dark and the air redolent of coppery, dried blood. "Where *does* all the blood in Blood Dungeon come from?" I asked Blu.

As it turns out, me.

I probably should have paid more attention to the other Sonoma dweller OooOooOOing his way back toward Spirituality. At the base of the entrance staircase loomed a shiny Balron Paragon. I took an energy bolt to the cranium and high-tailed it back up the stairs, thankful that this wasn't Deceit where monsters can follow you between levels. A few more attempts to enter the dungeon muttering An Lor Xen and shaking my tambourine yielded no better results.

I gave it up and sought my prize elsewhere. Time was of the essense, as my luck statue boost to 2141 wouldn't last forever!

i for one believe you and wish you well on your quest looking forward to your next adventure

Where can I fight paragons nearby? My head was swimming in circles. Time was ticking away.

What scared me most about my brush with death in Blood Dungeon was not death itself, but the looting tendancies of Balrons. My Armor of Fortune might look bright and shiny, but there is a nefarious curse on it I've never been able to remove. Given my luck, the curse would draw the Balron like a fly to my rotting corpse and he would have stolen this prized possession.

Where could I go near Spirituality Shrine to fight paragons with little risk of losing the armor? Twisted Weald, of course!

Thanks to the power of discord, I'd already proven to myself that Blu Sidhe's super-powered brethren could be brought low. I decided to try another.

The mysterious purple lines at the mouth of Mushroom cave could not distract me from my objective. I gallumphed past them (Blu Sidhe does not gallup) and dove head-first into the faerie ring.

As in previous visits, there was no golden paragon canine prowling the forests. However, and also as in previous visits, some fellow tamers were actively working the spawn. It didn't take long for a monster dog to appear.

I pointed at the dog. "It's you or me, punk." The dog was unimpressed. I flashed it my best knowing smile and produced my exceptional tambourine with a rather exceptional flourish.

I swear I heard it chuckle.

No - the dog, the dog!

The animal's laughter died prematurely, as it fell under the spell of my quasi-legendary percussion playing. There, in the snaking sands of the Twisted Weald, I had accomplished the impossibly unlikely: a successful discord of a Cu Sidhe (Paragon) on the first try.

With a victorious cry, I leapt from Blu's back and landed squarely behind the shoulders of my trusty panda sidekick. (Most veteran Sonomans have phantom polar bears, but I fancy mine has a black ring around his eye. I call him Mu Shu.) I let out a ululuating "All Kill," shouting so every creature in the vicinity could hear.

This included, unfortunately, the nearby changeling gang.

As one, the multi-colored punks ground out their cigarellos (in the sand, of course) and moved to intercept me. I was torn. I could ask Blu to protect me and risk his life and carefully nutured GM skills or, I could make another deposit at the Royal Brittainian Bank. I waffled over my choices long enough that it no longer mattered.

I've thanked Madrid a number of times for the Discord ring he gave me. I should like to take this opportunity to thank him for bringing me back to life before I had ran more than halfway to Spirituality. He's a peach.

By the time Mu Shu brought me back to the Dreadhorn's stomping grounds, a Blu Sidhe corpse was decorating the trecherous sand road. I was able to restore the faithful beast, but given the royal snit he threw and his attitude ever since, I'm not sure it was worth it.

I tossed Madrid my remaining pile of bandages, since he and his wine-red steed were dueling another paragon canine, and called it a night.

As I left the Weald, my luck ran out.

Indeed.

~M

If you wanna hunt level 6 tmaps [one's that contain marties] get them off miasma. They are the tmaps labeled -ingeniously.

this may not be the spirit of your question sorry mag sleeeepy

I tossed Blu another grape bunch. He doesn't much like to spit the seeds, but I haven't managed to modify Create Food to produce seedless white grapes. Yet.

I'd been peeling and seedling grapes for Blu to improve his disposition since our last, ill-fated adventure in the Weald. After onsuming enough fruit to seed a vineyard, Blu finally consented to let me astride his back. It was back to the Weald - but with a Twist!

(Honestly, these just come to me.)

Instead of killing paragon Cu sidhes, I decided that I needed a more robust source of less-difficult golden monsters. They needed to be high-fame and high-volume, but without posing a huge personal threat - I wasn't willing to risk another .1 hit to A Blu Sidhe's pouting skill.

Naturally, I decided to generate the spawn in Twisted Weald. It met all of the above criteria, and carried with it the bonus of garnering cool points from passing Dreadhorn hunters.

I had originally planned to leave Blu with the Luna Stable master, but a quick check of my fame suggested rather strongly that indiscriminate use of Energy Vortexes was likely to have me seeing grey in short order. Instead, I piled on the taming jewelry and send my faithful battle companion after individual targets.

Surprisingly, this spawn progressed relatively fast. I killed a large number of paragon shadow wisps on my way to level two. Eventually, I had to thin out the faeries flying around – but I was still illustrious by the time centaurs popped.

Happy day! No fewer than three Golden Centaurs were prancing around the altar. Fortunately, enough time had passed since my last loving caress of the 10th anniversary statue on my front porch to enable me to boost my luck to the stratospheric 2141 level. I’ve recently learned the benefit of having two or even three sets of gear ready to swap at a moment’s notice, so I hardly slowed between issuing offensive commands and donning my Elemental ring of Loot and its matching bracelet. I’m not sure who Jaana is, but I’m sure she’s missing this staff.

Apparently, the God Rrrnig was unimpressed with Blu Sidhe’s quick dispatch of these foes, despite his pin-cushioned visage. We redoubled our effort. In a show of solidarity with my pet, who was admittedly more committed to the effort than I, I sacrificed my Knighthood status to further advance the spawn. Between this gesture and the arrival of a pair of Beetle-wielding tamer brethren, the next level would not be long in coming.

I had badly miscalculated, however. Remember – my purpose here was to increase the volume of easily-felled paragons. Satyrs and Cu Sidhes are a cut above unicorns and centaurs, and they did not appreciate my rubbing of their collective lamp. A large number of paragons spawned, but Blu showed immense wisdom by refusing to attack them. I was confused and frustrated by this insubordination, until I saw one of the beetle-baiters go down under a flurry of Satyr-controlled beasts.

Whoops. Forgot about that.

Disaster! I was running out of windmill-tilting time, and now the only paragons likely to spawn would be those equally likely to eat me. My growing collection of confectionary products left a semi-sweet taste of defeat. Despondent, I asked a Blu Sidhe to, pretty please, brutally mangle the lone Dryad (Paragon) having tea with Swoop. She fell before I had the chance to play my jarring music.

Suddenly, I felt Rrrnig’s eye upon me! The fickle deity had at last deigned to reward me…

…with Gloves of the Pugilist.

Natch.

~M

i got somethign a little eaasier 4 you ....taake a bunch of bola balls with you find a para cu block him in and take a archer and shoot the living daylights out of him ...never tried it but i think this would work