My name is Raikana Do'Urden, foster daughter to the legendary Drizzt Do'Urden. Or at least, that's my story in most of the areas I live in. I recently got relocated to a strange world known as RuneScape. I haven't been journaling recently, and so this shall not be a full account of my time here, yet I feel that my friend Spartan1128 is correct in that it should be rewarding, or at least entertaining, to begin to chronicle my exploits here.
To begin with, it seems no person may share a name with another, and since there was already a Raikana living in RuneScape, my name has been changed to Ra1kana for reasons I have yet to understand. It's still read the same way, and my friends still call me Raikana, so the change is hardly noticeable, though I continue to find it strange when random events occur.
"Random events?" you ask. Certainly. That's what it's called when someone you have never seen before teleports to a spot right beside you, addresses you by your full and proper name, and pleads for your help. Of course, the first one of these encounters I had, I really did not know what was going on. It was moments after my arrival in this strange world. An old man appeared, handed me a magic box, and vanished. Upon trying to open the box I was met with a puzzle that I also did not entirely comprehend and to my horror the box replicated itself in my pack when I failed to solve it. I had to solve the puzzle boxes multiple times before I received my reward, an uncut sapphire. Of course, the next random event that occurred was a pirate demanding to talk to me, and I was confounded as to what to say, so he attacked me. Spartan found that rather amusing, and I was not pleased he had failed to warn me that the pirate would attack.
He did keep me company as I trained in combat skills, however, which I did appreciate as I was annoyed to no end that I'd somehow forgotten all my previous skills and knowledge. I felt weak and vulnerable, and many things would attack me. He instructed me to begin training on chickens, a task I found preposterous. The area he led me to was populated by a grand total of three hens. I killed one and scavenged bones, raw meant, and feathers from it. He then instructed me to bury the bones for prayer experience. I looked at him askance and he explained the sheet of magic paper that was stuck to the inside of my pack, easily accessible at any time. Apparently there were many things I had need of training in. This sheet of paper explained what level I was currently at in any given skill; a sort of ranking sheet amongst residents of this world. And for every level you gained, you gained more expertise in that skill. Of course, the only way to train a particular skill was to use it, only sensible.
After I understood that, I returned to killing chickens, surprised to find that there were, once again, three of them in this pen. I suspected one had simply been hiding and I had missed it. Preposterous to think… I do happen to be a Ranger. Oh wait… I don't have any levels in ranged yet. I killed the chickens and turned to Spartan expecting him to lead me to another pen, but I was left perplexed as all I found where he had stood only moments before was a brightly colored egg… that chuckled at me. Clearly I wasn't in Aber-Toril any more. The egg shifted back into my friend and he explained that he'd helped the Easter bunny one year a while back and been rewarded with a ring that offered him that utterly useless skill. He pointed at the chickens, three of them, and reminded me to keep training or things would keep trying to kill me.
Now wait a minute… I'd killed them all, had I not? Where did these come from? Thoughtfully, I dispatched these as well, watching in amazement as a few moments later, there appeared three more chickens in their place. What sort of world was this where there were always chickens in your pen no matter what misled adventurer decided to whack them for small amounts of experience points and raw meat that could be cooked over a fire? Magic of the strangest sort, and everyone in this world simply accepted it as life! I would need to be more observant.
I was further bamboozled as Spartan handed me an ax and instructed me to chop down a nearby tree "a few times" in order, of course, to gain experience. I set to chopping away at the thick trunk, rewarded with ready made logs stacked neatly in a pile as soon as I felled it, which rattled my nerves a little. As I placed them in my pack and stowed my ax, Spartan shook his head and bade me wait a moment, then cut it down again. I'd need the experience. I looked dubiously at the stump of the tree for a few moments, then once again became rendered speechless as the tree simply reappeared as if I had never touched it. So, it was not only livestock that magically replenished, but the very landscape refused to be changed.
Days have passed and I have completed various quests for different people. I have helped a man named Romeo with his love, Juliette. I have helped goblins – goblins! I normally kill the things on sight! – with various fashion woes. I have re-forged a sword for a squire who had lost his knight's sword. I have killed a vampire, rescued a man turned into a chicken, found a pirate's hidden treasure, and rescued an Arabian Prince, among other things. Perhaps I shall return to the topic of the quests I performed at a later date. Yet there are more areas of this world I must write down lest I forget at some point just how strange they are.
It took me some time to comprehend one such feature this world has to offer, notably the banking system. Apparently, when you awake in this strange world, you already have a bank account and you may access it from any bank. Yes… any bank. Somehow your items are retrievable from any banking location you visit. I've tested this. I will put my items in the bank, and travel as far across the land as I may go, and my items are waiting for me in the next bank I visit. I have no idea how this works, I can only assume that the banks must be magical and that when you deposit an item, you're depositing it in another dimension, a pocket plane, or your own personal bag of holding that stays there at the bank, and each bank has the means to access it. That makes some convoluted sort of sense. Of course, there are limited amounts of items I may keep in my bank, yet I believe this is due to my being a lower class of citizen. I am not referred to as a member, as Spartan is. There is a limit even on those people called members as far as items go, everyone may only carry 28 items in their inventory. Some items "stack" and so you may carry several items of a kind while they only take up one space, but for the most part, there's a very limited amount of items you may carry. Which must be why the bank is as developed as it is.
One final note to cover, which will lead me to today's tasks: I have discovered that all natural resources replenish at some rate. Some things replenish faster than others. For example, plain trees reappear much faster than oak trees do. This carries down into the dwarven mines, as well, where you may mine clay, tin, copper, iron, coal, gold, mithril, and adamant ores, in order of difficulty and speed. Clay, then, is obviously the fastest to mine and the fastest resource to replenish, while adamant is the slowest in both regards. Yet, adamant ore sells for much more gold than clay, and yields far more experience. Certain levels of mining skill are required in order to mine certain materials, and the higher the skill above what is needed, the faster you may mine that material. There are also different levels of pickaxes, starting from bronze, the cheapest and least effective, up to rune.
So, here I am, mining level 54, finally. As I swing my pick axe for what must be the millionth time, I feel the fire of scorpion venom digging into one calf, making the infected area burn. Of course the cursed thing can find that one chink in my armor. Oh yes, there are scorpions down here. Most wisely avoid me, since I'm far over twice their combat level, yet there are two that continually hunt me down, with some sort of phoenix complex. I kill the most recent one with my pick and return to hacking at a rock that's just replenished its iron supply. I've picked a mining location close to the exit of the mines that leads to my chosen hometown of Falador. There are four iron mining sites in this mine. One would think that would be enough. One would be wrong, of course.
There are six people down here currently. Oh, five, one of them just disappeared for a random event. He'll be back shortly. Of these five, one has laid claim to a coal site just south of me. He has the skill to beat anyone to the coal in each rock, and so people have given up trying to mine in that site for the time being. Another person isn't mining, he's simply running around killing scorpions, which has ceased to make sense to me. They don't have enough hitpoints to give him enough experience, he's a higher level than me, and they don't drop anything for you like other monsters will. Silly person… but he's saving me time by killing some of the scorpions that might have come after me. The third person is doing laps around the area, mining anything that's available, and generally giving me a hard time by mining the iron I'm trying to mine. The forth person, a woman, is mining at the iron site just west of me, and the fifth is somehow managing to mine coal at the site just beside me. Ah, that sixth person is back, which is upsetting. He's trying to mine the same iron I am. Luckily, I'm a higher level than him and can manage to get most of the iron before he does. Until, of course, that cursed scorpion returns.
Which it just did. Right beside me. Of course. I sigh and kill the thing again, and have to muscle my way back into the flow of getting my iron before this guy does. Finally, I have a full inventory of iron ore, and I hike back to the bank to deposit it all. I recently sold over one thousand six-hundred of these raw chunks of iron, and I now have over 500,000 gold. Or 500k as people say here in RuneScape. So, I'm down to under two hundred chunks of iron. No worries, though, I'll get a lot more before I reach the level I want to be. I have to be level 60 before I can get into the mining guild. Which, while ordinarily I wouldn't think to become a miner, much less a coal miner, the guild contains the largest number of coal mining rocks in the world, and very few people are actually ever in there. The entrance is very close to the bank. And coal sells for a lot of money because everyone needs lots of it to make much of anything in the smithing skill.
I walk through a row of about 25 camp fires to get to the bank. Oh yes, you can walk through camp fires and it doesn't do a thing to you. And people make lots of them in a row like this to, obviously, gain fire making experience, what else? These types of rows normally occur by banks because people go woodcutting and store their logs in the bank, then make lines and lines of fires while chatting and hanging out with buddies. An interesting method, and one which I haven't begun to practice yet. I want to get into the mining guild. As I deposit my iron, check for deposits from the Grand Exchange, a feature I shall explain at a later date, I think about another restriction this strange world has. Apparently I'm in a "no fighting zone." This does not mean I cannot fight monsters, or even town guards. (Town guards were lovely training when I was level 30 something and after I'd gotten over my distaste of taking unnecessary life. You learn that they, like any monster, simply replenish. There are several human and dwarven characters that are simply like monsters, and so the only true "life" are those residents of this world known as players.) I am in a "no PvP" or "no player verse player" area, which means I cannot attack fellow players. A truth that has been a plague to me on several mining trips where skillers (players that train one or two skills only and leave combat skills low) manage to mine all the rocks that I'm trying to mine before me. If I could have I would have taught them a lesson they wouldn't soon forget. Alas that I cannot. I know Spartan laughs every time I grumble about that, too.
So, I believe I have covered much of what I meant to. Now I must return to the arduous task of mining iron. Only 14 loads until my next level…
Author's Note: In case any of you are wondering, yes my RuneScape username is Ra1kana. However, I am a shy soul and keep my private chat friend only. If you want to let me know you liked my story, please leave a review here on , as I love to get feedback. However, I do not just friend people because they liked my stories. I don't mean to cause any hurt feelings, it's simply a security measure I've had since day one of playing around on the internet. Please understand I hold every one of you fine readers in the highest regard, and I truly hope you enjoy my pointless ramblings. Thank you all for reading.