My Last Solo Dungeon for a While......

Hey Everyone,

Managed to get back in the Spiral today, and it's been battle after battle in Zafaria. Finally a dungeon  came my way - Tomb Sweet Tomb. I always like a dungeon that has some quests to complete that are not all battles.

For this one I had to Drum the Drums in a set sequence, (and fast enough!) to light them all in green. I took a snap as it was quite a sight to see when I completed it.

Then there were a few small battles, of course small in Zafaria means 3,000 health and 4 or 5 power pips at the start! They were all enemies I had fought before, and even in my gardening clothes they didn't cause much drama.
Completing the battles gave me items for the Queen, which then had to be placed on the 4 pedestals - bracelet, robe, ring and horn. The last thing to place was the horn..... this causes a ramble and lo and behold - the door opens....

 My goal is to free Prince Tiziri Silvertusk, but wait.... who's this that has made an appearance. Oh no! It's Morganthe...... I quickly set my deck choc full of converts and steady myself for a large battle. But, to my surprise, neither Morganthe or Tsi-Tsi appear in the battle. 
No it's those Shadow Web-Haunts. My goal is to defeat 2 of them, but there are four in front of me, and yes - I have to defeat them all.

So 1-Death Wizard against 4-Death Enemies. They all have almost 3,000 health and far too many power-pips for my liking. At this stage I was glad that I had (1) changed out of my gardening gear and (2) packed those converts. 

My strategy was to defeat them one by one. The biggest problem with Death is getting life back. I would have to hit each one hard and defeat them each with one hit. So I'm glad I had plenty of Feints packed too!

My strategy worked, but boy was I close to being defeated a number of times! At one stage I had 74 health left, but the very next round saw 3,662 replenished and all was good again. I was expecting a boss fight, but it never came. I saved the Prince and my quest here was done.

The post-card is complete, so I am guessing that my time in Zafaria will be drawing to a close soon. My next quest is Mirror Lake - and I will need help with that one. Have any of you solo'ed it at my level I wonder?

Well, that's all I have time for right now. Have fun, until next time!

Tabitha

Have you found the Knobkerrie?

Hey everyone,

As much as my week was huge IRL, the week was also huge in the Spiral with the update machine going into over-drive. Consequently, the Spiral is suddenly filled with anglers, and the water everywhere now has dark shadows moving around! The crafting updates are live now too - and I can't wait to get into those either!

Over in Zafaria, I was in the market, when I suddenly remembered there was a new Housing Vendor. And that was when I decided the next blog would take me back to Housing, and back to the Barn. I had not finished it. It bothers me not finishing things.

This new vendor has lots on offer, and I decided I would start with the main bedroom at the Barn.

I was a little excited because there is new Wallpaper, and there is new Flooring! This is fantastic! Even better, more shields and tribal decorations. New drums, even a new rug. And something else I haven't seen before, a vanity. Just right for my bedroom.

Lets take a look at some of my purchases. First up the drums. I collect all drums that I see, so it was no drama that this would be first on my shopping list. There are two on offer that I didn't have in my collection; so obviously I bought both. The smaller one is the "Blue Top Drum" and will set you back a mere 400 gold. The other one is the "Talking Drum" and costs double at 800 gold.

Next up are an array of racks. These are all new additions to my collection too. The "Knobkerrie", the "Zebra  Shield" and the "Gorilla Shield" racks. These range in price between 450 and 800 Gold.

The Savannah  vanity just had to be bought. It is one of the things that I think has been missing from the furniture you are able to buy, so I am glad to see it's arrival. It will probably be usable in an array of houses as it is not too tribal in design too. Previously I have used a Celestial Shield as a mirror in a bedroom (in my Myth house), but that look was rather different to here.

You may have noticed that the wallpaper is rather different too. There is much to choose from (3 pages no less!), and my Barn will showcase a few of them before I'm done. I loved the colours in this one.

You can see it much better in this image, along with the new 4-post bed. How awesome is this? Flames and tribal art, it really is a centre piece to the room.

I'm going to have fun finishing the Barn. After I completed much of downstairs, I literally ran out of ideas. And that was really because I had already chosen most of the items available and had placed them. Now I have a whole new set of items to find and use.

Oh and one last thing, I popped over to the Bazaar to sell a few Pet Snacks, and was excited by what I saw (and bought!). I'll say no more right now :)

Have fun, until next time.
Tabitha

Tomb of the Zebra Kings

Hey everyone,

My travel around Zafaria continues, as do my Zebra interactions! Who knew that there would be quite so many zebras?

First up are the royal family. The Queen and Princess are flamboyant and well dressed. They could actually be mistaken as twins, same stance, hold the weapons the same. Not so the King! He is totally possessed; take a look at those eyes!

So starts the next part of the story.
 Zebra print is everywhere. It is on the doors, it is on the posts. Zebras are everywhere. From the skeleton here, to the tomb itself, they are everywhere. These 5 zebra line either side of one of the caverns of the tomb. Pretty cool. They are much bigger than this image suggests, bigger than me anyway!
Then there are these two zebras!
Totally unlike any other they are proudly framing the doorway . They are spooky, they are mesmerising and they demand to be looked at.
They are see through, but it's not just that. The light is pulsing through them. It is quite mesmerising.

But it is time for some battles to be fought. These battles are not really any drama. A couple of death minions, a couple of ice minions, and then it is time to meet Zanga Zebu himself. As you can see, Zanga is an Ice boss with a little over 6,000 health. You may remember that I have not had much luck with Ice bosses, but my gear has changed considerably since then.

My deck is tight, and doesn't change much - even for these lower health bosses. I took out the Death Prisms, put in a couple of Poisons and I was ready to roll. One mistake is not including any Feints, as I was expecting around 2,000 health, but I still wasn't concerned. Oh there was another slight issue - I had 4 Scarecrows packed, 2 Wraiths and 2 Vampires.
You see there is usually more than one to defeat. Oh well - we'll just have to see how this pans out. So I settle into normal strategy, blade, vengeance, pimp up the card and hit. First up was a Wraith with one death blade, a Giant card (+125). As expected, the hit goes critical and hit number 1 is 2156.


Time to go again. I had one more Wraith. Same strategy again. This time a Balance Blade, a Curse, pimp up with Giant and then Vengeance. My preference is always to pimp up with Gargantuan, but I have almost run out of them. I have 10 training points, so I am considering training up so I don't have to buy or craft them. Time will tell!
Back to this battle, and as you can see the hit is slightly better, and with half both those hits coming back to recoup my health this is looking to be one easy battle. With no more Wraiths, next up was a Vampire. Another critical hit and Zanga was down to 153 health.
Vengeance is still running and my death wisp hits for 120, so I needed another critical hit for this battle to be over. My critical rating is just over 200 at the moment, so with Vengeance I pretty much go critical on every Death hit, not guaranteed, but more often than not.

This one didn't let me down, and the whole battle was over in 4 hits. Of course those Feints would have made all the difference, but a win is a win.
Back to the Queen to confirm my battle prowess and the Tomb of the Zebra Kings is done and dusted.

And I have to say that I am still really enjoying Zafaria. I love the tribal colours and patterns. I love the colouring that is used. It is more earthy, less 'Moo Shoo' in the main if that makes sense. The red, orange and yellow skies are pretty awesome too and a big change from all the other realms so far. I am encouraged to look up far more in this world - and you know what? I like that!

Have fun, until next time,
Tabitha

The Zebras of the Zamunda

Hey everyone,

You know there is one thing I have noticed in Zafaria, well Zamunda I guess. That is the prolific amount of Zebras. They are everywhere. Although I can't exactly call them a harem or a herd as they seem questionable by their distance from each other; rather they are dotted around randomly! By the way, it is not just the characters I am referring to...... take a look at this for an entrance!

The huge tribal gates are overseen by these two magnificent sparring partners, but take a look at the city beyond the gates.... Two wooden Zebra heads can clearly be seen!!!


I thought I'd take a few more shots of some of these Zebras, as they caught my eye so much while I was passing through. This guy here is the elder. Can barely stand and uses his walking stick to remain somewhat upright. We chat to him a few times, but I don't want to give too much of the story away.


As the story evolves your movements through Zamunda will see many interactions with these Zebras. They really do come in all shapes and sizes, well maybe not shapes - more like many colours. So far there have not been any 'afro circus' like Marty from Madagascar, but painted camouflage appears more than once. 

There are many of the Igoka Defenders splattered around. They are a bit fierce and have a definite sense of pride to them. Strangely enough they give off a fierce persona, but are amongst the only Zebras not have have some sort of weapon.

The soldiers, however, have both weapons and camouflage paint! As you can see there are a couple of types, one with green paint and one with red paint. If you look closely they have different 'uniforms' but they are very similar in stature. Both have the same very cool striped mane. 

Each of the these zebras have manes that are slightly different if you look close enough. Their weapons are different, and interestingly they are both slightly stooped, though only one is using a staff.  

Next up are the captains !

Now these have weapons and colour and both have shields. They are not stooped, they are upright, proud and ready. Interestingly I also noticed that they hold their shields and spears in identical hands. I guess there are no lefties here!


But this story isn't just about the combat Zebras. As with all good tales, there are the good ones, the bad ones, and the unlucky ones. The unlucky ones in Zamunda have been made prisoners. There are a few of them around.

These little fellas are the Igoka Prisoners. You are tasked with setting them free. But before you rush up to them and just press 'X', take a moment to watch them. They are very sorrowful, literally shaking in fear. They turn to face you, to implore you to help them, then turn away again. They have no additional colouring and are bound by their front legs.
Don't take too long watching them though, these poor creatures deserve to be set free!

And that's my take on the Zebras of Zamunda. It is good to take time to marvel at the detail that the artists of KI take time to give us - don't you think?

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

Waterfalls Making Ripples

Hey everyone,

As you all know I recently entered Zafaria. When entering a new world I like to take a look around and get a feel for the place. So I thought it was time to share my initial thoughts on this very different land. First up I am very happy to be outside once again. Second up I am just loving the colour palette for this one!

And another thing I always find interesting when in a new world is the placement of items I have only seen at the Bazaar or decorating my houses. It is clear that this land uses many of the artefacts that I have acquired and have on display in my Barn.

The huge yellow sun is a big draw (again, yellow is my favourite colour), but add to that the vibrant reds of the the sky and looking up is a pleasure! 

This is also the first time I have seen the Savannah trees in situ, they are fine looking trees by all accounts. I'm not sure if I will get a bit fed up of the orange land and the wooden buildings. The colour is very similar - I guess time will tell. As a nice contrast though, I do love the tents, the rugs strewn around, the awnings. They are all colourful and have lovely patterns. 

As you move to the Market place you can almost feel the place come alive. They have done this area very well, the feeling of vibrancy pops out everytime I visit. 

But I think the thing I like almost more than the sun, is the water. The shade of the water is just fantastic. It has so much more depth than the water in all the other lands I have visited so far. The waterfalls into the pools creating the ripples in the water are a nice touch. 

The characters are a bit strange, but that is the case in most of the Spiral! But I am also loving how the story is panning out in this one.... ancient texts and images appearing in places, seems like there are secrets to be learnt.

So it's definitely hats off to KI designers for another well put together land. Will be interesting to see this land evolve as I move through the many areas. 

Time to go back and quest now.

Have fun, until next time,

Tabitha.