Golden Ear Stud  

 

This used to be awesome, till they fixed the placeholder respawn time.
It's now 30 ticks (3 minutes). It used to be 3 ticks (18 seconds!)
It was great to go here at level 8 when I got the new pet, to equip myself and sell a couple for decent money.

Now you're looking at an hour or two to get an ear stud unless you're fairly lucky.
It's totally random whether you'll get the dress from Cuburt, plus totally random what the reward will be, so maybe 1 in 30 placeholder/Cuburt kills will get you an ear stud. It used to just take 2-4 minutes to get a dress drop. Those were the days, oh well :)

Like everyone said below, just camp the bloody spot at +135,-62 and every three minutes (after killing the last placeholder) a mangy rat, gel cube, sewer rat, or Cuburt will spawn. You can ignore giant sewer rats, spiders, beetles, beggars, etc. About 1 in 6 times at a guess he'll drop the dress. Turn it in to Zamel by the pool outside the bank area, and (guessing again) 1 in 5 times the reward will be the stud.

How to get there: sewer entrances got shuffled from time to time long ago but it's been the same for years now. Get in the water by Zamel and swim down the hole inside the little "cave" area. Swim out to the east, continue forward until you hit land, and you're at the end of the route the placeholders patrol (+230, -180). You can wait here or go south, west along the walkway, and south again to the blood spot marking the spawn point at +135,-62.

Edit: use the soulbinder by the bank so you can just gate back to ZAmel whenever you get a dress drop.

Re-edit: I think I need to up the camp time estimates...I just spent 4 hours, got only 3 dresses, and no ear stud :/

Edited, Sep 22nd 2008 1:41pm by Azrin

Edited, Sep 26th 2008 10:37pm by Azrin

Used the stud happily for a month - each time I got a message someemthing like, "ear stud sparkles" when I cast a root or snare spell. About two weeks ago, I stopped getting the message. Does this mean the stud isn't working, or just that the message was cut out in one of the patches? I'm still wearing it in hopes it is doing its job silently.

This drops also in Southern Karana from the named gnoll just about 200 meters from the bridge at the zone to Northern Karana. His name is Ghanex Drah.

I killed him many times and dropped the earring at least 3 times within 2 days (real life time).

He is about 10 minutes pop and about lvl 15. He has a skeleton pet which is never higher lvl then Ganex Drah himself.

Edited, Fri Jun 14 02:14:58 2002

Scroll File: Cuburt
Study: Qijnopix Quillpen

I first became familiar with Cuburt on accident, though I've now killed him more times than the average individual uses 'Sense Heading'.

AREA

Find the Sewer Custodian Zamel, and leap into the water next to him; under the bridge, and under a small niche, there is a tunnel down. Do not change directions, but go straight into it. Upon reaching the bottom, the passage forks off to the right and the left; the left goes further into the aqueducts. Take the right. You will go up another tunnel and come out into the air in a passage. Keep swimming straight on, and you'll quickly find a stone bridge.

First you should become familiar with your surroundings. The bridge begins at an alcove to your right, and swings around to a platform to the far left. The platform is useless; ignore it. Where the bridge turns off to the left, leading to the platform, will be referred to as the 'BATTLE POINT'. The alcove consists of a the main bridge, with a path running off of it to the left, which thusly swings around to a small water hole and the bridge. When you initially turn left into this alcove, there is a large black grease spot in the earth. This I've learned is actually corroded rock from the constant corrosive slime that the gelentanous cubes shed.

There are various creatures upon this platform: They include a large rat, a giant rat, a sewer rat, a mangy rat, a gelentanous cube, a fire beetle, a large snake, and a large spider. In your quest for Cuburt, ignore the fire beetles, giant rats, large rats, and spiders. If you see any mangy rats, sewer rats, or geletanous cubes, you will want to kill them - these are the only creatures that block Cuburt out.

HUNTING

Just past the burnt spot mentioned above, the creatures you will need to kill (Sewer rats, mangy rats, and Geletanous Cubes) will appear. The sewer rats are just barely more powerful than large rats; the mangy rats are little concern, for upon spawning they will often simply attack whatever creature it's nearest to, often ending up dead in the fight. The Geletanous Cubes can be dangerous for anyone of a lower skill - they can take around 150-250 damage, and hit for 10-14 depending on how strong they are. They also occasionally can slime you while attacking, using the Gela Root technique, which does not last for long, but can be annoying.

The biggest factors when hunting Cuburt, as with any creature, are Time and Patience. These can be greatly reduced with a very simple and effective method of hunting.

For the Mangy Rats and Sewer Rats, don't worry about them much; 20-30 damage will kill them, which can be dealt fairly quickly. If you do low damage though, use the techniques below.

When the creature in question spawns at the burn spot, attack them once and turn to run. Run down the bridge to the "BATTLE POINT" mentioned in the previous AREA section.

When you hurt one of these creatures, wether they be cube or rat, they will inadvertantly run. When they do this, they will go to one of two places depending on where they are. If you fight a creature near the wide Platform to the left far end of the bridge, they will simply jump into the water and swim down the corridors. Unless you're a very fast swimmer, these can be difficult to follow, and if you're commanding a pet that chases after the creature, do not plan on seeing it again for a time.

If you battle a creature at the Battle Point or closer to the alcove, however, they will still head for the water. The creature will head up the bridge, take a right turn onto a small bridge, and jump down into the tunnel that you originally entered the Acqueducts from. If the creature reaches the water, swim down the acquduct tunnel, and then go straight; you will find the fleeing monster stuck against the far wall. Swimming a few feet away, you can then easily kill them, resetting Cuburt's spawn.

However, this is time consuming, and takes much patience; therefore, pull the creature in question all the way to the Battle Point, or even a little past (but not too far, or they'll just jump in the water). This will allow you the maximum amount of time to kill the monster before he gets to the water. This way, I and various companions of mine, of various levels, have had perhaps one in fifteen creatures actually make it into the water, more then halving the time spent searching for Cuburt.

CUBURT

Cuburt will attack you on sight; when you kill one of the Cuburt place holders, run to the blackened spot, and either sit or just stand, waiting. If he spawns, he will immediately attack you. Cuburt is shorter then a dwarf, and looks in all other respects like any other Cube. He hits anywhere from 7-10 damage, can GelaRoot like his larger brothers, and has around 100hp.

The Battle Point is ESSENTIAL for Cuburt. Don't so much as touch him before you pull him there. If Cuburt gets into the water, he won't go up against the opposite wall as other creatures do; he'll simply disappear. And after waiting for him for half an hour, you do not want this to happen.

If you are a monk or other melee individual with attacks other then your regular, such as kicks or bashes, don't use them during the normal fight after you bring Cuburt to the Battle Point. Save special attacks, spells and such for after he starts running - he'll take off with about 30-40hp left, and you need to kill him before he hits the water.

Cuburt randomly appears. I recorded three individual hunting sessions - in each I spent 2 hours using these methods. The first time Cuburt spawned 8 times, with 3 dresses. The second time 9 times with 3 dresses, and the last time he appeared 11 times with 4 dresses. I received 6 Hematite gems and 4 Golden Earrings - the earrings I kept for myself, and sold the other two for 20pp each. Cuburt would occasionally spawn, then a sewer rat or other placeholder would spawn, then Cuburt would spawn again. This happened twice - generally he appears every 20 minutes or so if you're moving at optimal speed. The longest period of time between appearances was 35 minutes.

Other then the dress, Cuburt will drop snake scales, rat whiskers, and an occasional gem to be sold for 3-7gp. After 6 hours of camping Cuburt in individual 2-hour cases, I came out with 4 Golden Earrings, and a small cache of silver jewelry.

Best of luck in the sewers, and beware the slime - the green is safe, but the large brown piles should be avoided. These are sewers, afterall.

- Qijnopix Quillpen



(At the bottom of the scroll is a note scribbled in sloppy, sometimes backward ink)

This Bokbok. Me take care uf Qijie's papers. Qijie stoopit sumtimes; he forget easy stuff. He no told you be nice with Zamel, who you give da poor gurl's dresses to, utherwise you no get the nice gold ring, just lots of dum black rocks. Black rocks no good fur Ogre like me. If Zamel gived me a rock I'd smashum.

- BOKBOK