The Questing Geese Jugglers

Several months back, Squid and I created our own kinship for our alts, mostly as an experiment to see if we could use it for storage once we were eligible to buy a kin house (five months later! Aghhhhh!). After a while we forgot about the kin house though, until one day, while I was on my (then) measly level 6 champion, that I and a friend put down a wager to see who could reach level forty the fastest. I suggested a rather large sum of in-game gold (for my budget, anyways) as the prize, with certain variables for the winner's stats upon reaching forty. If everything went as planned, there was the possibility that the loser would have to pay up 15 gold. I would never have proposed this ridiculous amount of money unless I was sure I could win, which I was, seeing as how I currently am unemployed and have unlimited free time, while my opponent has a job and a farm to take care of. I felt pretty darn sure of myself.

Everything was going hunky dory, until I realized one day that no matter how hard I thought I was pushing to level, every night my opponent would manage to gain the same amount of levels or more in half the time. This was probably due in part to the difference in our classes, and that I was a heavy armor melee class, with practically no heals, and he was a light armor tactical class that could send out either massive heals or dps as needed. Finally I began to panic and realized that he was probably just toying with me, and if he so chose, he could blow me and this contest out of the water. So that weekend, I sat and stupidly played for over twenty hours straight. I made it to 40, pushing harder on some quests than I should have, and dying many more times than I could count, but I made it. Granted, I pushed so hard that I didn't have much time to level virtues, the variable factor in our wager, so I didn't come out on top with as much as I could have, but still, I came out with about 8 gold. I also came out with a strained wrist and had to wear a brace for four days. It still twinges, even now.

The prize money, combined with what I already had scattered about my other characters, finally gave me enough to purchase our Kinship house. So if you're ever in the Thorin's Hall homesteads on Gladden, feel free to stop by 5 Roaring Road, Tonbry. There's free ale, if that makes any difference.

Squid and I have yet to truly celebrate our new house (we have fireworks saved in our bags to shoot off) but I know in the future it's going to get a lot of use, provided we can remember to pay the monthly upkeep.

As silly as the contest was, we have decided to one day do it again, but on a different server where we have no backup money from other characters to fall on if need be. THAT should be interesting.