June 26, 2007
Giant sea sirens, scurrying brownie troublemakers, huge beasts of molten ore, and axe-wielding minotaurs who keep law and order — all of this can be found at the Arena, in Seawatch Cove. My guildmates and I spent some time here not too long ago, and it’s a fun, and rewarding, spot for anyone who is in their mid 30s.
Above: Finishing off the boss of a silver challenge ticket. He’d make a great plush doll.
Traditionally, when you hear the word Arena, images of PvP and free-for all battles come to mind. This arena is a bit different. It’s not a spot where you get flagged as PvP if you enter, rather, it’s a hunting spot for solo and group players who are looking for some experience and the chance at some great rewards.
The goal is simple in the arena — obtain zaraj arena coins and turn them in to the appropriate minotaur for your desired prize. It’s just like skeeball, only the tickets are really coins, and the person you give them to is a minotaur, and your prizes are things like armor, camel mounts, and legendary weapons, instead of hi-bounce balls and plush dolls.
Above: The Arena in Seawatch Cove.
There are several ways to obtain coins too. You can work on the quests given out by the minotaurs inside the arena, most of which ask you to kill the minos out at the camps and ruins nearby. You can also kill “suspicious spectators” who sit in the stands throughout the stadium. Lastly, you can kill nameds in the arena, who drop coins and also have a pretty good chance of dropping arena tickets.
Arena challenge tickets are a lot of fun, and the harder the challenge, the more coins you win. There are four types of tickets – bronze, silver, gold and platinum. You can divide up the coins any way you’d like, but remember that they are soulbound, so if someone is careless and clicks take all, the rest of the group is out of luck. To begin a challenge, just stand in the arena and click the ticket. Make sure that it’s clear though, and don’t start a challenge when another group is in the middle of one. It’s bad form, and could possibly bug stuff.
Above: One of the guards from a gold challenge ticket.
Bronze is a 6 coin ticket, and pretty easy. You have to kill 3 level 38 2 dot siren trash mobs, and then a level 39, 3 dot siren will spawn. Nothing tricky, just standard hack n slash.
Silver is similar. You kill the three level 38, 3 dot mobs, and a big, level 39, 4 dot cyclops will spawn. This ticket is worth 10 coins.
Gold is a little more interesting. When you start it, 4 big, level 39, 4 dot elementals spawn on the side of the arena, and come, one at a time to fight you. When you kill them all, a 5 dot level 39 rock boss appears. The fun part is that they have some kind of damage mitigation buff, so the fight can last a while, and bring flashbacks of Vex Thal. This is a 65 coin ticket.
Platinum is hard, but if you get it right it’s a fun fight and a great reward of 100 coins. This challenge summons a 6 dot, level 40 minotaur named Champion Traken, the boss of the arena. He’s hugely annoying because he has a big knockback and a stun. The trick is to get him pinned in the corner of one of the side passages, near the gates. It takes some finessing, but once you get him there, it’s a lot easier for the group to stay close enough to damge him. Obviously, casters and ranged attacks help a lot in this fight, just keep your back to a wall and you should be fine.
If you are interested in the specific rewards, seek out the minotaurs that guard the arena. They offer class specific armor for coins, as well as an Arena Master Weapon of your choice for 1,000 coins. There is some fun stuff too, offered by Dizzle, such as a camel mount, repair bots (limited charges) and some Zarajian Magic.
It’s a fun spot overall, and a nice change from the usual hunting and dungeon crawling. Even if you aren’t going for the big prizes, it’s easy enough to get some quick coins and walk away with something for a night’s work. The only thing missing is Russell Crowe organizing the slaves behind a broken chariot and yelling “Strength and Honor!”
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 30-35,Vanguard Level 35-40 | Comments (3)
June 17, 2007
The Liath Desert has many remarkable spots. There is the Sunken Temple, with its towering minarets, half buried in the sand; the Jux Brownie Refuge, with it’s backward speaking denizens; and the Hidden Vault, tucked in one corner near the salt flats, veiled in sandy wind. But the most interesting spot (and most complete!) is Tar Janashir.
Above: Mongo!
If you took the shady patrons of the Star Wars Cantina, combined them with the flavor of an Indiana Jones archaelogical adventure, and added in a cool cave, you have Tar Janashir. It has a good storyline, many quests for mid-30s adventurers, and carries all the amenities of a large city (banker, broker, trainers, crafting stations, civic diplomacy).
Tar Janashir is a trading outpost that sprouted after the discovery of two prized resources – salt and pearls. Long ago, a giant white rock fell from the sky. No one knew what it was, but it caused the salt oysters to start producing beautiful pearls, which became a farmable resource and very prized.
Above: “Psst! Lady! That thing sitting next to you has a charm bracelet of heads that look like yours! Run!!!!”
The salt and pearls are so important that it’s the driving goal of the questline for the Starspark Armor, which rewards you with a belt, gloves, legs, and chest piece, as well as the title “Starspark Adept.”
You start by visiting Ava Diba, who asks you to bring her pearls and salt, which you can find off the oysters and nethod that roam the salt flat nearby. Save the empty nethod salt glands, by the way, because those can be turned in at the outpost for a little coin. This quest is repeatable, but you only have to do it once (not positive on this, you might need to repeat it a second time before being able to get the other quests).
Next, you visit Kaaras Sejeh, who asks you to retrieve raw starspark salt from the Rhajiri Raiders nearby. I think the drop rate has been improved since the early start of Vanguard, because we got the required salts pretty quickly. When you complete this step, you are rewarded with a belt, and asked to retrieve starspark extract, which can drop from the raiders or from the humans in nearby Dazer Cave. When finished, you get some ale and gloves.
Above: Dazer Cave in Tar Janashir.
Next, you visit Darab Marad, who has you bring back pure starspark salt. He directs you to go to the Broken Spine, but I recommend going back to the minotaur camps over near the Jathred’s Twist Rift Stones. We picked up lots of salt by killing the minos there, plus if you are also working on Arena quests, you can get coins and challenge tickets at the same time.
Meanwhile, Tar Janashir is also the location of two interesting archaeological sites that have been uncovered. One is a vault, where the undead inside asks you to bring darkspark crystals. These drop from the mobs in the other structure, the Tomb of Aanak Vor’dan. Collect four darksparks and you can trigger an event in the vault by clicking on the stones in the first room, killing the undead that becomes aggro, and then rushing downstairs to kill another undead named who comes to life.
Above: Vault in Tar Janashir.
There are also several quests involving the tomb, and recently they added in two more, one from Janashir Jones and one from Bellzoc. Sound familiar? Janashir asks you to retrieve a long lost Idol and Bellzoc wants you to bring back an ark from the tomb. Both are found at the throne of Aanak Vor’dan, who resembles Anubis. You can reach the spot either by working your way down from the top, or jumping into the pit and going in through the entrance on the side of the tomb at the bottom.
Above: The throne room in the Tomb of Aanak Vor’dan.
I’ll admit, I clicked the ark after I found it, even though I knew I was supposed to keep it closed.
This dusty outpost is a great stop as you travel through your 30s, and if you are a diplomat with 700+ soldier presence, they recently added in a lot of civic diplomacy content. Personally, I can’t wait to level up in diplomacy just so I can hear some of the storylines in this area. I just hope I don’t get my head torn off in the process.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 30-35,Vanguard Level 35-40 | Comments (1)
June 8, 2007
Pantheon of the Ancients is one of my favorite dungeons in Vanguard. It’s a challenging dungeon that pits your group against the trials of the gods. It brought back memories of Everquest’s Plane of Time, although the Pantheon’s avatars aren’t quite as epic as the legendary EQ gods themselves.
Above: The trial of Haelifur.
The Pantheon itself is located in Strand of the Ancients, underneath the temple of Ssrevessk, which is itself a great hunting spot, and has its own quest line that is found back at Upside Garrison. When you get to the temple, you need to speak the password in order to open the stone doors that seal the temple. The password is part of a quest line in Upside Garrison (or if you want to get the spoiler word I inserted it in my previous entry here) As you enter the main room in the temple, you’ll see a large throne surrounded by trolls and lizardmen. To the right is a pillar, with a grey stone sticking out around the back. Press that stone and it will cause the throne to open up, revealing a set of stairs that leads to the Pantheon of the Ancients.
As you head down the stairs, you’ll see dozens and dozens of scarabs, but don’t worry, they aren’t aggro, so you don’t have to fight them. In fact, it’s important that you not attack them at all, especially when you get to the central room at the bottom of the stairs, because you will aggro every scarab around and most certainly die.
Along with the scarabs, you will also run across a limping, rotting, undead guy who is the “custodian” of the dungeon. Again, do not attack him, but take note of him because he plays an important role in the final event of the dungeon.
From that central room, you will see a hall to the north, stairs to the east (referred to as the “evil side”) and stairs to the west (referred to as the “good side”). Each “side” room contains 6 avatars from the Pantheon, each of whom gives a trial. When you complete 6 trials from a side, you get a part of a cloak. Complete all 12, and the two cloak parts can be combined to make the Cloak of the Pantheon. As an aside, the “turn in” NPCs are found down the north hall, which takes you to the second floor of the dungeon. If memory serves me right, you have to go left to talk to the “evil” NPC and right to talk to the “good” NPC.
Above: Fighting a golem in the Pantheon of the Ancients.
As for the Avatars and their trials, you can move around pretty much untouched if you have invis. The only mobs that see through it are the golems, so be on your toes. Another heads up, though, is that on each side is a huge roaming mob – a giant snake on the evil side, and a huge bug on the good side. They are non aggro, but if you are fighting one of the little trash mobs near them, they will assist and aggro your group.
The 12 trials themselves are terrific. Each one tests a certain moral or personal quality that each god stresses. For example, the trial of Ghalnn, who relishes brutal war and bloodshed, has you run over to the “good side” to find and kill 100 innocent victims. You would know his name well if you did any work on the shadowhound quest (which I hear is long enough to make you want to kill 1,000 innocents by the time you are done!) My favorite trial was the trial of Vol Anari, god of light and purity, who has you endure a purification ritual involving pummeling rocks and intense fire. If you survive, you win, just don’t be a dink like me and accidentally attack him while you are in the trial.
For a full walkthrough on the trials, look no further than Silky Venom. I used this and a nicely done map from Map Vanguard, both of which made things a lot easier. The map doesn’t show the second floor, where the NPCs are for turning in your trial flags and getting your cloak, but it’s easy to figure out if you just keep in mind that the second floor is right above the trial rooms.
If you are interested in lore, you will find a lot here, since the Pantheon Avatars give you insight into the beliefs of the gods themselves. To find out more about the gods of the Pantheon, I suggest checking out Vanguard Roleplayers, which has two nice threads, here and more detailed here.
One tip for anyone heading to the Pantheon – the trials can be buggy at times. If you ever run into any trouble, like not getting a trial from an NPC (busy message), not getting updates while doing the trial, or no luck getting the trial script to begin, abandon the active trial if you have one, and then camp out fully and re-enter the game. Basically, when in doubt, camp out. It seems to be the fall back fix to any issues in the dungeon.
Once you have passed all the trials and received your new Cloak of the Pantheon, you have an important choice to make. You can keep it, or you can head to the Immortal Sanctum, which you can reach from either trial side by taking a passageway at the northern end of either room. There, you will speak to the Custodian, who gives you one final test – defeat the Sisters.
The Sisters are actually one deity that has become split – Mara represents the violent qualities of death, while Caia represents the more serene and natural aspects. Their balance of power is always in flux, although Mara definitely wins the “cooler looking Sister” title. Sadly, I never got a screenshot of her, but she’s one of the best looking boss mobs in Vanguard.
This is a fun event, where the two Sisters, Caia and Mara, take turns doing their best to kill your group. When one is fighting, the other becomes non-aggro, so you have to make sure to change targets every 20% of their health. Along the way, you have to deal with some unexpected twists, like rounds of undead adds that must be burned down. But the real challenge is dealing with the AEs they give off, and the only thing that can counter it is your cloak, so make sure to have it on your hotbar. Some of the AE spells are relatively harmless, like a root or stun, but others are much more dangerous, such as a silence and even a nasty dot that Mara tends to cast when she is at about 50% health. The cloak does have a refresh timer, but as long as you activate it any time one of the Sisters AEs, you should be fine. At the very end, both Sisters become aggro, so it’s best to go all out and get one dead fast or you risk defeat just before the finish line.
When you defeat both Sisters, the Custodian reveals to your group that he is actually…the Avatar of Alurad, god of skill and the one who tries to bring order to the Pantheon. He gives you the chance to turn in the cloak to him, and in return you can receive another reward. The items vary, but the one that everyone hopes for is one of the weapons that reflects the skill and craftsmanship that Alurad personifies.
Above: The Avatar of Alurad reveals himself.
Here are the weapons: Gift of the Prince, Solrahn, Twin of Joh’drol, Insirion, Edge of Flame, Staff of the Old World, Ancient Ksaravi Ulak, and The Righteous Gavel.
Even if you don’t get what you hope for, the good news is that the weapons are tradable and can be equipped by anyone who has defeated the Sisters. You can also repeat the trials as many times as you want, so you can always go back to try for a weapon or get the cloak.
Another tip about the loot, when you sacrifice your cloak, you get a clicky thing that you use at the orb in the Sanctum. Click that, and your reward will go right to your inventory (so make sure you have a spot open). You also get a chest next to Alurad, which contains several soulbound items, and you get that whether you turn in your cloak or not. Make sure you get all your loot, and be careful when looting the chest, because that stuff is soulbound.
I had a great time in the Pantheon of the Ancients. It has a great layout, interesting trials, some nice lore, and a terrific final boss encounter. It’s also set up nicely, so that you can progress through it at your own pace. Those who have the time can grind it out all at once, or you can tackle a few trials a night if you have more limited playtime. If you are level 27-34, this is a dungeon you don’t want to miss!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 25-30,Vanguard Level 30-35 | Comments (2)
May 5, 2007
While I still love writing about my gaming adventures, I haven’t updated as much as I normally do, and that’s because I’ve been playing too darn much to spend time updating my entries. I’m going to try to catch up a little, but that means some screenshot spam. Here are some snippets from my recent travels:
I’ve been doing a little solo questing, and found a couple of nice spots that helped get me through the early 30s. This is Frostshard Lake, which is up near the Northern Border and Falgarholm in Thestra. From what I gather, this was the former home of the Lesser Giants, and there are still a clan of them that have endured through the ages. They follow Vothdar, Valus, and Allurad, so there is a strong sense of ancestral worship and justice among these lesser giants. If you are working on the shadowhound quest, you’ll spend some time up here in order to kill these enemies of Ghalnn. Also roaming around the lake is the giant Torkald who Mourns, and I’d love to learn more about why he’s so sad!
Behind me in the picture above is one of the two giant Fire Pillars of Frostshard Lake. They are eternally burning, and there is a quest involving gathering embers from the pillars, which gives a decent reward. There are a lot of neat quests up here, and it’s also a great place to work on lumberjacking, since there are plenty of knotted and dry trees along the switchbacks leading up to the Northern Border.
Here I am, doing more harvesting in Zossyr Hakrel, in Qalia, which is another great spot for the low to mid 30s. This is the home for two rival clans of Jharru, which look a lot like those lumbering aliens that show up at the beginning of “The Fifth Element.” Ironically, the Jharru are also from another world, and were summoned to Qalia ages ago to help with some sort of conflict. The Shrine of the Elders is a quest hub, and I worked on a couple of tasks, one to clean the valley of various creatures, and another to bless the shrines along the way, which opened up some more quests when completed. There is a cave nearby that also involves some of the quests from the shrine, which I might check out if I have a chance.
I love the neat atmosphere of the Liath Desert too. When I saw it in a griffon flyover during beta, I loved how the desert glowed with the flashes of electricity that sparked from the mysterious metal structures at the tops of the stone outcroppings. From the ground, they look equally impressive.
And yes, it took several tries to time it right and capture this electric bolt!
I’ve also been spending some time over in Cragwind Ridge, a stone forest that contains dozens of quests, perfect for small groups at 32 or soloing at level 34 and up. I had a ton of fun doing the many quests offered from the Petra-like outpost carved into an outcropping in the southeast part of the area. I spent an afternoon with a guildmate, Rancorr, and the two of us finished with a nice chunk of experience and some nice coin to boot. I recommend taking a handful of quests at a time, and lumping together the ones that have you killing similar mobs (vultures, snakes, ant lions, etc) since mob types tend to hang around together in the same area.
Be careful when you hunt here, though, because it’s also home to a giant named Lord Bamf Kya, who roams around at night. I had the pleasure of seeing him the first time I entered the quest hub. He had somehow made his way into the huge cave, and was hovering over a clump of quest NPCs.
Cragwind also offers the quest “Death From Above,” which is a lengthy quest that offers some nice legendary rewards. I got the quest starter, a journal, from one of the roaming mobs when I first entered the area, and while I haven’t gotten that far, I hope to work on it more here and there. (I have a huge in game to-do list, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any shorter)
Here’s a group of guildies crossing the Bridge at Kaza Doo…..er, Thelaseen. This dungeon, also known as the Lair of the Drake Riders, is the foreboding home of the renegade High Elves known as the Order of the True Blood. They are a sinister sect of High Elves that are breeding Drakes, and are at war with the High Elves of Leth Nurae. The High Elves of the Celestine Ward are busy trying to drive them out, along with the bloodhowlers and other threats that lurk in the Marsh of Peril and Ruins of Vol Tuniel nearby.
Here’s a shot from the inside of the Ruins of Vol Tuniel. How a tree could possibly grow inside this dark dungeon is beyond me, but it’s cool as heck! The centerpiece of content for this area is the Celestine Ward questline, which is a long, faction based series of quests, with armor and weapon rewards that get better as you gain faction. I haven’t focused on factioning at all, because it requires a lot of time, and that’s something a bit scarce in my household, but a couple of guildies, Wrack and Wruin, have been working on it, and they’re reaching some of the better rewards. The area is saturated with lore and content – so much so that one player, Leara, created an entire site to it. It’s fantastic, and well worth a visit even if you aren’t working on the quests.
And here’s one more shot from our recent guild defeat of Kronus Infineum, which was the last fight for the Infineum quest line. Several of our members had worked on the quest, and it was a lot of fun, except for those sparkly anti-gravity elevators! We were all around level 30 when we killed Kronus, but most of the quest is perfect for getting through the mid to late 20s. There are some required levels as you go, though, and you have to be at least level 28 to get the final quest. Here we are displaying our perfect tactical form. Our MT, Faunis, is the one on the left in his jammies, and as you can see, we’re all doing a great job of keeping the mob aggro focused solely on him. Meanwhile, Orkoh, our cleric, looks like he’s in the process of blowing a knee trying to be Mr DPS. Hit him with the gavel Orkoh!
That’s a little overview of some places I’ve been exploring. I also just finished up the Pantheon of the Ancients trials, which has become my new favorite dungeon. I’ll write more about in my next entry.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 30-35 | Comments (5)
April 20, 2007
If you yearn for the old days of Everquest, log in tonight and work on the shadowhound or unicorn mount quests. Listening to the shouts Wednesday night of people accusing each other of kill stealing, and watching people all hovering around one or two spawn spots, brought back memories of gankfests like Highhold Pass, where the average orc lifespan was somewhere around .5 seconds.
I chose instead to rise above it all and avoid both quests altogether. Ok, I really chose not to because A) it would take me about a year to finish it given my playtime and B) I’ve slowed down a lot in my old age and know I’d never win a free-for-all anymore. Instead, I went over to Southwatch, which is just north of New Targonor, to work on a quest line that I had been longing to do for sometime. I don’t even know the reward for the end of the quest. For me, the reward is the chance to test drive a griffon, and there is one quest in this series that allows you to do just that.
If you haven’t flown a griffon, either in beta or on the test server, and you want to get a peek at the future of flying mounts in Vanguard, I highly recommend this quest. I was lucky enough to get to try out griffons on three separate occasions during beta, and while there was a lot of stuff I liked about Vanguard, riding a griffon officially hooked me. I flew over a large portion of Qalia, and saw several areas of Thestra and Kojan. It was an absolute thrill to be able to fly anywhere I wanted in Telon, and it’s like nothing I’ve experienced in any game before. That’s not to say that I didn’t run into some unfortunate issues with the griffons, and god knows I played Icarus a couple of dozen times while flying around in beta, but from all reports, they are smoothing things out with them, and it’s gotten a lot better on the Test server. While I’m eager to get a griffon of my own one day, this “rent-a-griff” will satisfy me for the time being.
The quest starts at Beldra Goldhammer, who resides at the Goldhammer Hatchery, tucked in the switchbacks that lead up the mountain ridge in Southwatch. I believe the quest is offered at level 26, although it’s best to bring a partner if you are below level 31. Beldra is highly cranky, not only because she lost her lover, but also because the griffons of Moritha’s Pride are constantly under attack from the Silvertalon Pride, and she’s got her hands full trying to keep them healthy. Your first task is to bring some bells up to Moritha’s Pride, further up along the mountain, to be blessed by Petrenn. Keep a mental note of this location, because this is where you will need to go in order to test fly your griffon.
When you get back to Beldra, she asks you to visit Amy Mullen, who is down the hill at the Widow’s Veil Lighthouse, to pick up some leather for griffon harnesses. Of course, good old Amy blew it and sent the leather up north to Frosthammer to support the battle at the wall. (Something I plan to check out eventually!) So you have to go kill some yetis and bring the hides back to her as replacement. The Ridgefury Brutes can be found in two different spots, both marked on the map, and they are 3 dotters around level 30-31. After getting the hides and returning to Amy, you are sent back to Beldra, where she fashions them into a harness and asks you to fly a griffon down to Beranid Watchtower, to slay some of the harassing Silvertalon griffons.
It’s time to fly a griffon! In your inventory you’ll notice a talon. Put that into the flying mount slot in your mount equipment window (where your horse is), and click on it to summon your griffon. There are a few limitations to keep in mind. First, you can only summon it if you are at Moritha’s Pride, the Beranid Watchtower, or the Silvertalon Pride. You are also limited in how far you can take it, because the griffon gets tired and throws you off (chunking with a griffon is not 100% reliable yet so I think that’s a big part of it). You will get a big yellow warning message, so don’t ignore it unless you want to test out your safe fall skill. You also only have an hour to use it too, although you can now abandon the quest, return to Beldra, and get a new griffon over and over again if you want to keep flying.
To actually get your griffon to take flight, you have to hit space two times while moving forward. I learned this the hard way during beta, where I excitedly ran off the side of the Cliffs of Ghelgad, all ready for my Harry Potter moment, and plunged to my death on the rocks below. Talk about a baptism of fire! Steering is very intuitive, just like riding a horse, only with the added ability to ascend and descend.
While you are limited in how far you can fly, there are several neat spots to visit. I buzzed the Widow’s Lighthouse, the Southwatch wall, and eventually made it to the mountains overlooking Bordinar’s Cleft. If anyone knows of any other neat spots to fly by that are within the leash distance, I’d love to hear them!
This quest series was a bit buggy in the past, but they cleaned it up and patched through fixes yesterday, and I had no problems with it at all last night. Thanks to some helpful tips from a friendly dwarf named Derb, I had a great night of flying through the mountains of Southwatch.
So if you are looking to test out a griffon, or you are someone who is trying to finish the shadowhound/unicorn quests and screaming “SERENITY NOW! SERENITY NOW,” head over to Southwatch and check in with Beldra. Just don’t mention anything about her lover.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 30-35 | Comments (0)
April 18, 2007
Over the weekend, two of my guildmates, Tyga and Flayle, gave a guided tour of the Bounty Hunter quests in Seawatch Coast. In short, you are tasked with completing a series of hunting missions in order to gain bounty hunter rank badges. The tasks involve killing lots of very large things, and the reward is three great armor upgrades. In addition, these quests have some fun easter eggs and interesting twists.
You can get to Seawatch Coast by taking the Stranden Point teleport from the NPC on the Khal docks. Once there, you head northeast (if I remember correctly!) to a small village, where you’ll find a few quests. The first quest we worked on was from a kurashasa that was kneeling nearby the village, which is fitting, since the kurashasa are born hunters. He asked us to kill a large snake named Bhadreth, who turned out to be pretty easy considering how large he was.
For our work, we earned a rank one bounty hunter badge. There are 5 total ranks of badges, and you can find the quest summaries over here. There are two bounty hunter quests offered for the first four ranks, and you need to do both rank one quests in order to get the other ones that are offered at the village back on the coast. When you have completed both quests for a particular rank, you can turn in the badges for a reward. The first three ranks all offer neck rewards, but the rank three necklace is far superior to the first two rank necklaces. (Why three necklaces for the same quest line? I have no idea, other than that perhaps bounty hunters like a lot of bling) The fourth rank reward is a nice pair of pants, and the rank five reward is a great chestpiece.
After killing a giant snake, we were ready for more of a challenge. The next rank one task asked us to kill little centipedes and loot segments of their body, which we had to combine into a big gross pile and drop in a certain spot in order to lure a giant Carnipede who apparently likes to eat his own kind. The quest was called “Carnipedes in the Mist,” which I guess is an homage to the film “Gorillas in the Mist,” although I don’t recall any gorillas running around eating their own. It would have been a much better film, though, if the monkeys ate Sigourney Weaver, but I digress.
We laid the bait, killed the giant bug, collected our badge, and traveled back to the coastal village, where my groupmates gave me a lecture because apparently they didn’t appreciate the fact that I aggroed every annoying trash mob along the way. I swear my camel has a huge aggro radius.
Next up were two quick rank two quests, one to kill a large lump of monster grass and return the package to the person who dropped it out of fear. The other was to leave a chest of rocks in the crossroads in order to lure and kill a bandit who’s been harassing the locals. Two up, two down, necklace number two attained, and it was on to a couple of funny quests for rank three.
The first one asked us to kill an animated golem who had gone haywire and had been causing much destruction along the coast. His name is Number Five, which is a neat little reference to the film Short Circuit. The golem even yells “NO DISASSEMBLE! NO DISASSEMBLE” as you attack it. (We disassembled it)
An even funnier easter egg can be found in the other rank three quest, which asks you to track down an arena fighter and his trainer, who apparently threw a fight. The fighter, Hito Tortiz, and his trainer, Saool S’oliz, are a reference to Tito Ortiz and his trainer Saul Solice, of Ultimate Fighting Championship fame. It’s a good way to get your Fight Club on, if you are into that stuff. (Which I am not!)
The last two quests in the Bounty Hunter series, one rank four and one rank five, ask you to first track down a mad psionist named Monvro Vhad, who was in the process of locating a legendary katana named Shiro, but ended up going mad. The sword was so well crafted that the maker took his own life afterwards, knowing that he could never make another one as great. I’m going to guess there are more references to real life pop culture in there somewhere, but I haven’t figured that out.
In any case, poor Monvro had to die, and turning in his journal gave us the rank 4 badge, which we turned in for some nice legs. The only thing left now was to follow the directions in Monvro’s journal to retrieve Shiro. Of course, the darn sword was cursed, and wasn’t going without a fight. A very large, shadowy, kurashasan manifestation appeared, and was definitely the hardest fight of the evening. I was in good company, though, and we all walked away with the katana.
This was a lot of fun, and great for anyone in their early to mid 30s looking for upgrades to chest, legs, and neck. There’s a theory in baseball that if you are solid “up the middle,” (catcher, pitcher, shortstop, center field), you have the makings for a pennant winning team. If the same holds true for gear, this is the perfect quest.
Cool Moment of the Day: I liked a lot about this quest line, particularly because it is full of easter eggs. But my favorite part was the fact that every important mob we had to kill was huge. Even the dark elf bandit towered over us! We even killed a giant blue spiny crab that roamed the beach, although I think I did about 5 total damage to him. Killing big things is cool.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 30-35 | Comments (3)
