June 25, 2006
I’m back from one vacation and starting another, so it’ll be a light blog week. Mutz offered to write some entries for me. He’s not going to write any entries for me.
I didn’t have much time to get much done tonight, so I just headed over to the Village of Shin to mutz around.
I bet on the pig race, and my dark horse (or is it dark pig) pick was Oinklet. He lost by a nose, tripping just a few hooves from the finish line.
Then I tried my hand at helping farm the rice paddies. I got pretty thirsty, but I learned that it’s not a good idea to drink the same water that Old Man Nurwin walks around barefoot in.
I finished up near Master Long Shen. He’s a good teacher, but pretty long winded.
Off to the beach, Happy Fourth of July!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Everquest II | Comments (0)
June 21, 2006
So there I was, meandering around East Freeport, perusing my mail and thinking about cheese. And then I heard Baron Dracious say, “Do not challenge my authority citizen. In Freeport, the Overlord’s word is law!”
I slammed my tiny fist against the mailbox. That’s it! It was time to rise up and fight against this nastiness in Freeport. I’m tired of everyone around here being grumpy and mean. I’m tired of all the yelling for absolutely no reason. The line must be drawn HERE!
I decided on a letter writing campaign. I rifled through my bags, and then I rifled through Erika and Mutz’s bags (ssh!), and I gathered up all the evil adepts that were lying around. I ended up with quite a few, with adepts of all levels, from the single digit levels to high 60s. I then did some searching and sent off adepts to people who were about to ding and reach the level to be able to use them. Inside I sent the following letter:
Freeport is a cesspit and a failure. It’s time to reject Lucan and seek the light of Qeynos! Shed your evil ways and come to the side of Antonia! Here is a gift from the Queen herself.
I nodded in pride as I sent off the last letter. In all, I must have mailed about 15-20 of them. I couldn’t wait to get the replies! I was sure I would have at least a dozen new refugees willing to leave Freeport and fight the good fight. Viva la Revolution!
I checked my mail the next day and got several replies! I began to read them:
“Thanks!”
“Thank you!”
“Thanks for the adept, it’s really nice of you.”
“ty”
“Thanks, and if you have any other adepts you want to sell let me know. Assassin adepts are hard to find at this level.”
Thanks?! THANKS?!?! No, no, no, they’re not supposed to be happy! They’re supposed to be inspired to take up arms against Lucan and leave Freeport! Heck, they’re not even good Freeportians, because they’re being polite and thanking me for the adepts! I read on:
“Qeynos will be crushed by the might of the Overlord! Your tribute has not gone unnoticed, however. Join Freeport and you may be spared.”
“Thanks for the adept, but I already betrayed Qeynos and I’m not going back!” (oops!)
I sighed in resignation. This was harder than I thought. And then it dawned on me. Maybe Freeport was a sinking ship and it was just time to take a header off the starboard side. Perhaps it was time to take the plunge and betray. It’s a tough decision to make though, because I’d not only have to do a lot of arduous labor, like picking up garbage. (No one really expects me, a rat, to touch garbage, do they?!) And in the end, I’d become a paladin, which is kind of sissy. What a dilemma! Exile and Haven, or stay in Freeport and fight a potential lost cause.
Well, I have time to think about it, because I’m going on vacation and will be back on Sunday. Toodles!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Everquest II | Comments (1)
June 20, 2006
I learned a lot this weekend, but it seemed I learned them the hard way — by dying and failing! Here are a few things I learned.
Yes, Virginia, you can train people in Sanctum of the Scaleborn. I knew that mobs could end up aggroing people if you ran too close to them. What I didn’t know was that two chuckleheads were going to run about 30 mobs over Mutz and me after we had crawled all the way down to the lower level in an attempt to harvest an egg for the Mark of the Awakened Quest. Blam, blam, dead before I could get a group FD off. Seconds later I see an ooc from chucklehead #1 saying “Sorry if we train any of you but we have to get way down to so and so spot for a quest and we’re not going to fight our way through all this trash.”
Oh, ok, that’s nice to know now that we’re DEAD. We also didn’t fight our way all the way down either, but we used INVIS and we stopped to clear whatever was see invis that was in our way. Nice to know that we did all that work for nothing. Mutz camped in disgust, since it was too late for us to try again. I, of course, sent a tell. To their credit, they did offer a rez, but it was pointless since Mutz had revived. I loved how one of them insisted that they did not train us because they didn’t really run *over* us, just around us on the side of the hall. Mmmm hmm, well tell that to the sentinels, I don’t think they understood that they weren’t supposed to hit us because you didn’t technically run *over* us. As I suggested to them, if you plan to run a bunch of mobs around the zone, think about giving the /ooc heads up BEFORE you do it.
Next lesson I learned is find out where the effing terracotta shards go *before* you start the timed trial in the Tower of the Four Winds. I did a little Fallen Dynasty this weekend, and got up to the second floor quests in the tower. I had a little time so I did the Trial of Bo Fen, the solo version. I get in and receive the quest to kill terracotta statues, collect 50 shards in 30 minutes and put them in the vessel. I roll up my sleeves and start smashing clay people, and got the 50 shards with 5 minutes to spare. (By the way, I did find one shard as a glowing question mark, and another as a little tiny bottle on the floor that I broke open.) No problem, plenty of time to find this vessel, I figure. Well, 5 minutes and a second later, I’m staring at the little “you have failed” message. I ran all over the place and could not figure out where the stupid vessel was. Second time I did it, I made sure to scout it out before accepting the quest and starting the timer. Here is what it looks like by the way:
Above: The vessel you need to fill for the Trial of Bo Fen is in the center. The entry room that you zone into can be seen in the bottom left of the screenshot.
Just a heads up on this spot. It’s through the stone tunnel in the first zone in room, and then up a series of stairs. But if you accept the quest right here at the vessel, you’ll get about 6 or 8 terracotta warriors aggroing you, since they pop all around the vessel and also pop up the ramps. I liked the trial, even though I wish the mobs gave experience when you killed them. I seemed to get a lot of adepts to drop on my two runs though, which was nice.
I also learned that pulling is a lot more fun now, because mobs are a lot more social. Of course, I found out the hard way after getting Mutz and me killed a few times in Sanctum. I kept thinking, “I know I pulled that the same way before and didn’t get those adds, what am I doing wrong?!” The next day I saw it on the EQ2 Forums and our guild forum. I have to say, though, it makes pulling a lot more fun.
Lastly, Mutz and I were in Lab of Lord Vyemm on Saturday night and we got to see Uustalastus Xiterrax. What the heck is Uustalastus Xiterrax, you ask? Well Mutz had the best answer of the evening — it’s Xarretix Sutsalatsuu spelled backwards. Just looking at him, that’s about all the lore I think I want to know about that creepy mob!
Above: Another shot from the Lab of Lord Vyemm raid, near the Uncaged Alzid area. Uustalastus Xiterrax was just past this area.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Everquest II | Comments (1)