The Hunt for Pain and Suffering

globalCooldown · #1 10-09-2022, 03:00 AM

Greetings, Green server. I am on a particular kind of quest. A quest to find a peculiar kind of entity: the very manifestation of Pain and Suffering on our own Norrath.

It all started when I was goofing around, trying out another emulated server (The Al'Kabor Project, for those curious). My baby Rogue escaped a fight with a Disease debuff, couldn't get it cleansed, and died from its ticks. Tragic, but nothing to write home about.

Except, after I was unconscious, a message in the combat log got me thinking:

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Who or what was "Pain and suffering," and how could it miss?

Now, I'm sure lots of adventurers have been killed by "pain and suffering" before. And perhaps even missed by it before. But how many of us wrote off how strangely mob-like those death messages sound?

I delved deep, deep into the stygian abyss of old forum threads and assorted wikis, including our own p99 wiki. "Pain and Suffering" is a mob. An invisible mob in every zone, with a zone-wide reach. Its purpose is to finish off unconscious characters. Allegedly, this was a workaround so unconscious characters could "bleed out".

Allegedly, Pain and Suffering can be tracked.
Allegedly, it can be targetted.
Allegedly, it can be killed.

And so, I come home to p99 Green, with an epic quest: to find Pain and Suffering and learn all I can about this mysterious mob.

I turn to you, the community, for help. Can you find proof it exists here on p99? Can it be targetted? Can it be killed? What does it take to kill it? What is its respawn timer? Its /loc? Its loot?

For my part, I will be rolling a fresh ranger in Qeynos to see what I can find. Please feel free to share your knowledge in this thread.

DeathsSilkyMist · #2 10-09-2022, 04:09 PM

Pain and Suffering is the damage you recieve if no valid target is dealing damage to you. It's pretty uncommon. On a technical level, even if Pain and Suffering is some sort of instanced mob, it is almost certainly untargetable, invulnerable, and probably in a GM area, or just floating somewhere you can't reach.

If you did kill it, you may be punished for trying to disrupt the game, so it's probably not a good idea to try anyway. It's not a mob designed to be killed, it's more like a backup for if damage needs to be dealt to you, but the damage isn't caused by any normal damage dealing method.

Chortles Snortles · #3 10-09-2022, 05:10 PM

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magnetaress · #4 10-09-2022, 05:34 PM

I targeted pain and suffering over at the hermit ish area im South Karana once on an older pvp titanium emu. It was perpetually at a sliver of hp. I don't remember what I did trying to kill it or the results. I only just visualize the name in my target box and the greenish slightly sloped hill area and flatness and karananess. The memory is real. If old and fragmented. I was being hunted by a druid there so eventually moved on.

I've also had pain and suffering actually land a hit and kill me.

So I firmly believe it's absolutely possible. I gave up on my hunt tho as my irl illness has severely hampered my ability to play games.

globalCooldown · #5 10-09-2022, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Pain and Suffering is the damage you recieve if no valid target is dealing damage to you. It's pretty uncommon. On a technical level, even if Pain and Suffering is some sort of instanced mob, it is almost certainly untargetable, invulnerable, and probably in a GM area, or just floating somewhere you can't reach.

If you did kill it, you may be punished for trying to disrupt the game, so it's probably not a good idea to try anyway. It's not a mob designed to be killed, it's more like a backup for if damage needs to be dealt to you, but the damage isn't caused by any normal damage dealing method.

If you are correct:
1) Being untargettable, unreachable, and unkillable is valuable info. Really the ultimate goal is learning about the bugger.
2) Better to be up front about my intentions and told "no" by the GMs before I break something.

Zuranthium · #6 10-09-2022, 11:39 PM

Back in the day when Paineel was introduced, people swore the spirit of pain and suffering existed as an NPC on the other side of the giant hole.

Infectious · #7 10-10-2022, 07:51 AM

One of the small lava pits in lavatory you can target pain and suffering

Jibartik · #8 10-10-2022, 03:28 PM

To those that seek to destroy the beast known as pain and suffering.

You have my axe.

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Encroaching Death · #9 10-10-2022, 03:38 PM

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globalCooldown · #10 10-12-2022, 10:53 PM

I have been busy, friends. Today, my fresh-faced Ranger happened to slip into Paineel. Across the vast pit is one alleged instance of Pain and Suffering.

Unfortunately, in my current state, I'm unable to track him. There could be a number of reasons, including:

I'm level 10, and my Tracking is 55. I just might not have far enough reach.
Pain and Suffering really is ~invisible~ and I'll need a source of See Invisible to track it.

So. Back to the grind it is. I hope to get some good faction in the Warrens and get the Heretics to like me enough to snoop around more, maybe try to get at the tower across the pit. 'Til then, thoughts are welcome.