February 27, 2007
Last night, a group of us decided we wanted to see something fresh, so we headed over to the lovely grounds of the Hilsbury Manor. From what I can tell, this used to be the home of Lord Talfyn, a hero of the war against the undead at Old Targonor. Hilsbury and the lands around it were his reward for his noble deeds, but over time, he seemed to have gotten in touch with his darker side, and his manor has turned into the haunted den of evil that it is today.
Above: Hilsbury Manor. Wish you were here!
We barely scratched the surface of this area, but I learned a lot in the few hours that we spent there. First of all, there is a big jump in mob difficulty once you leave the courtyard and enter the mansion. The courtyard is mostly 3 dot mobs, ranging from level 18-20ish, but inside, it quickly turns to 4 dot mobs that are level 20+. So it’s best to have a group that’s all over 20, and probably best around 22-25.
If you played EQ, this place will remind you of Unrest, but after seeing the freaky aggro, I felt it was a lot more like good old Mistmore. One particularly nasty spot that we ran into early on was in the first room on the left as you enter the grand lobby. It’s a dining room area, and it was impossible for us to pull without getting every single mob in the area – at least a dozen or so, including the butler, maid, and one mob that was called moldy cheese fondue, or something like that. A higher level group eventually plowed through it, so we were able to continue, but hopefully that aggro will be toned down a bit soon.
Above: The impressive entry hall inside the manor.
The other issue we ran into was that we couldn’t rez a tombstone inside the mansion, because it would cause the person to fall through the world and die again upon reentering to loot their stone. Our vulmane tank, Rancorr, died at least 6 or 7 times because of this, and while I don’t usually feel much sympathy towards the vulmane, I did feel bad that Rancorr had to summon a few unrecoverable tombstones because of this.
Having said that, there are some really neat twists and turns in this estate. For example, early on as we were fighting in the courtyard, many of us noticed that we had learned something called “curse of the vampire.” It was in our ability book and everything, and I initially figured it was a new combat skill, like the other ones I had learned from fighting mobs. Wrong! It’s a curse, and it’s not some short duration debuff or anything, it’s there for good until we figure out a way to remove it. As far as I can tell, I now am slightly vampirish, so during the day I am weaker (and do less damage), but at night the curse gives me increased strength, more dps, and I have the urge to bite people’s necks. (Ok the last one I made up). I can’t confirm that with damage parses or data, but if it’s true, it’s neat! From what I can gather, there is a quest given inside the manor that allows you to find a cure and remove it, but personally I kinda like it!
Speaking of quests, there are several given out by a creepy looking assistant who can be found behind a hidden wall in the dining room, which is through the left side doors in the entry hall. You do have to be at least level 21 to qualify for the quests though, which, sadly, I am not. I’m also under the impression that you can get some quests from the townspeople of Misthaven after you complete quests with them and gain high enough faction. I can’t verify that yet though.
Above: Hilsbury Apothecary Darrius Elkentrophe, an assistant at the manor and quest giver. He is found in a hidden room off the dining hall, and should be the first stop for any adventuring party. Talking to him will give you a nice preview of the manor and its layout, and he offers several quests to anyone level 21 and up. Most of them are book quests, that involve collecting pages and turning them in for rewards of jewelery. He’ll also cure that nasty curse….if you choose to do the quest he offers.
I still intend to finish “doing” the Fallen Lyceum sometime this week, but I know I’ll be spending a lot of time here in a few levels. I have heard rumors of hidden floor traps, hidden walls, a basement dungeon where you “gather” up body parts to build some kind of frankenstein’s monster, a mirror portal, and even some mention of this estate having two versions, one of darkness and one of light. It should be a lovely stay!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 20-25 | Comments (3)
February 25, 2007
I have a confession to make. I am becoming a lore junkie. There I said it.
I never followed game lore very much in the past. If a certain questline or storyline hit me in the face then I appreciated it, but usually I have been guilty of clicking through quest text faster than a 13 year old playing a FPS game. I remember doing a few guild runs on Sir Lucan in Everquest, and wondering why we were trying to kill a Freeport guard, because the only other people crazy enough to kill Freeport guards were anti-social necros. And when we’d enter a new zone or see a new mob, I’d always brace myself for the long and detailed account of the lore from my friend Xenoa. A lot of it went in one ear and out the other, but I now regret that I didn’t pay more attention!
When I was playing Everquest 2, I did start to have a casual interest in the lore of the game, because I thought it was neat how they incorporated memorable stuff from Everquest into the game. I think Everquest 2 also does a tremendous job of blending lore into gameplay, so that it’s not some geeky little cultish hobby, but something that meshes with the quests and content. I found myself a regular visitor to the EQ2 Lore forum, and I was particularly impressed when I heard about a quest that had been put into game, that was entirely based around knowledge of lore.
WoW has some lore, but we all know it didn’t sell 8 million copies because of its lore! If anything, the lore gives people a storyline to follow as they level up, and makes it a little more fun to get into the spirit of Alliance vs. Horde. I didn’t meet too many roleplayers in WoW though.
In Vanguard, the world of Telon is so rich with sweeping landscapes, amazing landmarks, and fascinating structures, I have found myself constantly wondering what the story is behind much of it. I’ve been surprised, however, how little there is out there as far as lore goes. There’s a nice amount of “official” published lore, which is collected and organized at The Safehouse as well as Silky Venom, but I haven’t found any active site where players are sharing and updating in-game lore that is discovered.
I was also surprised to find that there is no real lore to speak of in the player materials sent with the Vanguard retail box. Years ago, when I first opened up that old Everquest box, I fondly remember a large section in the player booklet that introduced all the gods and gave a detailed storyline behind each of them. I found myself missing that when I opened the Vanguard box. Having said that, it’s pretty clear that the star of the show in Vanguard – the “7th player,” is the land of Telon.
Everyone is always talking about the cloak as the best part of the collector’s edition, but my favorite was the art book. Even though there is no storyline or background, there is a treasure trove of eye-candy from the art book that is included, and it makes you appreciate the care and attention to detail that was put into creating the world of Telon. If you are going to play Vanguard, you have to have some sort of appreciation for the fact that it’s a world made through the eyes of Keith Parkinson. If you know him, you will love Vanguard. If you don’t, you will love Vanguard AND him.
Sadly, even though I played Everquest and probably saw that loading screen artwork about 40,000 times, it wasn’t until recently that I really appreciated his talent. The in game depiction of Parkinson’s concept art is spot on, from the land, to the structures, to even the mobs and the player characters. This is the first game where I’ve heard groupmates remark on more than one occasion about the terrific mob skins that are in game. I’ve also seen several posts on fansites noting that some of the “newbie” dungeons are more impressive looking than end game dungeons in other games, and I have to agree with that. The world that the Sigil team created is a wonderful tribute to Keith Parkinson.
Back in beta, I got a chance to do a few griffin rides, and I took several screenshots…ok hundreds of screenshots. The following are places that made me pause when I saw them, and felt like the stuff of legends. Some of them are of places that I probably won’t see for a very long time, but I look forward to seeing them on foot. I have been able to scrape together some background on several of the locations, and figured I’d share some of them here. I can’t confirm that all the locations are 100% accurate, so corrections are welcome. And if anyone ever gets an in game screenshot of the Kraken that’s depicted in the artbook, please send it my way!
The following are some of the sights around Qalia. I have lots of shots from Kojan and Thestra, and will cover them at some point down the road.
Lost Mordebi Empire
This is a shot of the Temple of Tahatamani, which towers over the ruins of the Lost Mordebi Empire. The Mordebi resided here in the Gahren Plains until The Breaking, a cataclysmic event that destroyed much of Qalia. Earthquakes split the land, while floods swallowed up empires. The Mordebi eventually tried to resettle here in Southwest Qalia, but after another round of earthquakes, they feared it was a sign from the gods and abandoned their empire. The Mordebi and their rivals, the Qaliathari, had a long period of violence afterwards, but eventually made peace and established a center of power in Ahgram.
Rock Forest
This is the area just north of the Lost Mordebi Empire, and south of the Shidreth Mountains. On the retail map it’s the area labeled “Varsul’s Precipice,” and it’s an amazing jungle of stone. What caught my eye was that there are carved out structures within the stones, which sort of reminded me of Petra. You can see examples of these in the screenshots. I don’t know much more about the area, but I’ll update if I find out any background.
Rahz Inkusha/Rahz Inkur
This city stands proudly amidst the barren orange sands of the Qarath Desert. Once again, I don’t know any lore behind this city, other than the fact that it’s high level and found in the southeastern part of Qalia. This place is about the same size as Ahgram, so if it’s a dungeon type zone, it’ll be quite a crawl.
Vhadiz Crossing/Isle of Garnz (a.k.a. Bridge of Destiny/Island of Garuzamut)
Just south of Rahz Inkur is an incredible bridge that links Qalia to the Isle of Garnz. The bridge is very long, and is about the length of the city of Khal. In the center of the bridge was a mysterious orb, which I’d love to know more about. On the island is a structure that looks as if it has been torn open by something, and my guess is that it’s nothing good. Once again, I’m dying to find out more about who Vhadiz and Garnz are, and if I do, I’ll update.
Karrus Hakrel (Liath Desert)
I believe this area is a bit lower level compared to the other spots I have listed, but I had to include it because when I did a flyover of Qalia, this was one of my favorite spots. It’s located on the east side of the Qa River, just east of the Jharru Flats. I flew over the area at night, and as I approached it, I kept noticing bursts of glowing light. As I got closer, I realized that the light was actually electric currents that would travel from one tower to another, like giant spark plugs. The screenshot I posted doesn’t do it justice, but you can sort of see an example of the nice little lightshow I got to peek at from my griffin. Again, I searched in vain for any background on the area.
Mount Stiirhad
From the bowels of Great Stiirhad arose the under-dwellers. The black lands about the slumbering giant became hosts to towering fortresses that housed the tainted fey. A new kingdom arose, vile in its existence and a threat to the mighty Ahgramun and Mordebi. — The Stiirhad Fragments (official Vanguard Lore)
I saved this one for last, and for good reason. It’s incredible. From my griffin, it probably took me a good 15 minutes of flying to reach the top of the mountain, so on foot I can only imagine what it’s going to be like trying to battle and climb to the top. I also didn’t go inside the huge gate in the mouth of the volcano, but if it’s anything like its surroundings it will be very memorable.
Mount Stiirhad used to be fertile, and home to the Ahgramun and Mordebi humans. It was so important to them that they viewed the Great Stiirhad as a god. Howerver, the “tainted fey,” or Dark Elves, eventually drove the humans out, and despite several attempts by the Mordebi and Ahgramun to reclaim it, the Dark Elves successfully made the mountain their home. As time went by, the surface of the mountain grew more and more inhospitable, but the real danger came from within. Elementals rose up from the depths of the volcano and force the Dark Elves to leave Mount Stiirhad and seek refuge in the valley of Hathor Zhi. The Dark Elves still talk of recapturing their homeland, but for now, Stiirhad is a place of great danger.
I put this together so that I could get a handle on some of the places I glimpsed while in beta, but while I did put some names to the places, I know I lack a great deal of information on the history of these spots. I gladly welcome any help on filling in the gaps.
I want to add that while these spots are higher level content in Vanguard, there are many lower level areas that are as visually stunning as these. I have had an amazing time over at the Fallen Lyceum in Thestra for the past couple of weeks, which is a dungeon crawl designed for groups around levels 15-20.
Last night, my group made it up to the Oculus, which is the building that floats on a chunk of rock over the Lyceum, and which houses the headmasters of the school, as well as the overall leader, Ghaldrid. Finding the Kaon Portal and clicking up was as thrilling as any end game raiding moment I’ve experienced.
I’m sad that I have already outleveled a few dungeon areas that I wanted to see. Honestly, I still might try to visit them, just for the experience of seeing them. It seems that there’s a mentality in gaming that you won’t have fun till you grind and race to the level cap. I think it’s something that has been around in all games, but has probably been reinforced with the popularity of WoW, where many players have powered through 1-60 on so many toons that the content is viewed more as a grind than as content. To really enjoy Vanguard, you need to adopt a completely different philosophy. I’ve enjoyed the snippets of Telon that I’ve experienced so far, and can’t wait to see more of Vanguard’s “seventh player.”
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Getting Started in Vanguard,Vanguard General | Comments (3)
February 22, 2007
Since my last update, I’ve been doing a lot of faction grinding with Baby Tylenol, Little Noses, Comtrex, and Sudafed. A real gem of a bug hit our household, so I have been busy either tending to the sick kids or trying to recover from it myself. I think we’re on the rebound now, so hopefully I can get back in the routine again.
I did a nice little dungeon crawling this past weekend over at the Vault of Heroes, a great dungeon near Tarheen’s Vengeance. From what I can gather, this used to be the place where the Varanjar and Lesser Giants buried their heroes from the Orctide War, and which was also used as an armory during the war to help fend off the attacks from the Orcs and Goblins.
Now, though, the vault has been taken over by the Broken Fang Gnolls. There is also a group there that are called the Torsheim, which is the name of a Lesser Giant hero, but I don’t know any other background of why they are there, or why they have teamed up with the Gnolls.
The nearest outpost to the Vault is at Tarhean’s Vengeance, which was named after the last fallen warrior who tried in vain to protect the Vault from the gnolls. While there were many good solo and small group quests there for around 10-15, I could not find any quests that were directly related to the Vault of Heroes dungeon. I’m assuming that Vault quests are further along in a quest line from Tarhean’s, because we saw a few spots in the dungeon that were highlighted when we moused over them, so they must be clickable.
The dungeon is really fun, and a great crawl for any group that’s around 10-15. Pulls usually come in clumps of 2-3, which is a breath of fresh air compared to the hell aggro from Achatlan Caves or Khegor’s End. (Yes, I think I was traumatized by those two dungeons!) If they would just figure out a way to stop the roamers from causing ridiculous chain aggro, those spots wouldn’t be so bad. But there’s nothing more annoying than working hard to bring in a managable pull, and then get a roamer add, who chain aggros the last 12 mobs that he walked past, essentially bringing an entire hall or room of mobs.
We made our way up a few flights of stairs to an altar, which, sadly, was empty at the time. We then crawled back down and eventually found ourselves in some type of tunnel maze that contained spirits of the fallen heroes. The heroes were non-kos to us, and again, I wonder if they are related to some kind of quest.
I’d love to find out more about any quests involving the dungeon. I kinda outleveled the quests that are offered at Tarhean’s, but I might go knock them out just to see if any of them lead further along to other quests. Overall, though, Tarhean’s Vengeance and the Vault of Heroes chunk in general is great for anyone around level 8-15. There’s a lot of solo/duo quests, plus a number of little nooks to hunt from, like the outdoor gnoll camp (just don’t go crazy with the meat please!), Harshan’s Hold, Cave of the Urugog (awesome looking trolls!), and of course, the Vault Dungeon.
But if you do head to the Vault of Heroes, whatever you do, DO NOT SIT ON THE THRONE! Ok, not really, just having an EQ flashback.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 10-15 | Comments (4)
February 18, 2007
I’ve been working away at the quests in the Fallen Lyceum, and loving every minute of it. Friday night I got to be in one of those groups where you felt like you could kill pretty much everything you could find. We made a lot of headway on the tasks that the Lyceum students gave which will uncover knowledge on how to kill the three school headmasters, and ultimately, Ghaldrid himself.
Here’s some screenshots from the past two nights:
Above: Ginon, me, and Andaraiel take on a Treant in the Lyceum.
Above: Another shot of combat in the Lyceum. Johnathan, Andaraiel, me, Ginon and Faunis fighting a treant. Orkoh was there too but always seemed to dodge the camera!
Above: Orkoh (caught you!), me, Johnathan (foreground), part of Ginon, and Faunis, all poised for action in the druid school building. And yes, that is a tree growing indoors!
Above: I know it’s just mid-teens group yard trash, but for some reason after I took this shot I had the urge to photoshop “OWNED” in big red letters across the picture. It’s such a cool looking mob.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 15-20 | Comments (1)
February 15, 2007
I continued to explore the Fallen Lyceum and the area surrounding it, in an effort to help uncover a way to disrupt the influx of Kaon sprites into Telon. I did a nice little solo quest that involves the phase stones just outside Arlinora’s Retreat, and I did my part to control the redcap brownie and kaon fairy population. When I was hunting there I couldn’t help but think of the little fairy village in Lesser Faydark, which also had mushrooms and cute little fairies, although much less threatening. I even enjoyed the background music in both spots – the peaceful melody that plays at the phase cap area makes killing brownies feel like buddhist meditation!
Above: One of my favorite shots of the bridge over Kaon’s Rush.
I also worked on another quest that required me to travel back to the entrance of the Lyceum, activate the phase stone in front, and enter the Kaon Portal that opens up. My ultimate mission was to uncover a way to end the madness of the Kaon Followers. I activated the phase stone and triggered the portal, but had trouble figuring out how to enter it. What worked for me was to double click the glowing portal, rather than right clicking it. Moving around might have helped a bit too, but if you are trying it, stick with it, it will work.
Above: The Kaon Portal outside the Lyceum.
As I ported up, I started to get a little worried that I had ported up without a few friends, and I wondered what train from hell would be greeting me when I arrived on the other side. Maybe it would be one of those huge elementals that guard the courtyard, or a huge treant that stalked the back of the buildings. Maybe it would be one of the Kaon followers themselves, poised with a deadly strike as I entered. As it turned out, it was none of the above, but was instead….
A cat!
Above: Ashby and Me.
A rather smartmouthed cat actually, and his name was Ashby. I had ported up to one of the smaller floating rocks, above the land and below the huge floating school building. Ashby initially gave me a choice of either helping him or not, but I didn’t really have a choice since he told me I was on my own to get off the rock if I didn’t choose to help. Nice, real nice, I’m being bossed around by a cat. It was very tempting to give him a quick flick of my boot and see if cats can really land on their feet, but I continued to hear him out, and the more I listened, the more I liked him!
He brought me back down to the Lyceum courtyard and told me a little background. Apparently there are three schools at the Lyceum – Necromancer, Sorceror, and Druid schools – and each was led by a very powerful headmaster. He sent me to visit three students within the Lyceum, each of whom had a task for me that would help me learn the way to defeat each headmaster. But the real mission was to find a way to destroy Ghaldrid, the most powerful caster and the one who oversaw everything at the Lyceum.
Since I needed friends to help me with the tasks given by the three students in the Lyceum, I went back to the phase stones and picked off a few more. But I can’t wait to continue this quest line, and while I won’t post it here, I did peek at the reward for killing Ghaldrid, and seeing it made me even more motivated to defeat this guy!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 15-20 | Comments (1)
February 14, 2007
After having some rather scrappy nights in the Achatlan Caves and Khegor’s End, I was eager to find a nice spot where there were decent quests, nice views, and it didnt’ feel like every pull was going to bring 12 mobs. The Fallen Lyceum was the perfect spot for all of that and more!
Above: The Fallen Lyceum of Ingolas, from the top of Blightbringer’s Beacon.
The Fallen Lyceum of Ingolas, according to the lore, was a school for the High Elf sages that has been taken over by followers of Kaon, which has caused the school to become a chaotic mess of magic. The main building even broke away from the land, and floats overhead on a chunk of rock, and which is the reason for the deep waterfall chasm of Kaon’s Rush that runs below the Lyceum.
The High Elves set up an outpost, named Arlinora’s Retreat, in an effort to deal with the mess. A group of human casters, named the Sages Arcane, have also established themselves in the area, to the annoyance of the High Elves. While the Sages Arcane claim to want to help, their real desire is to study and master the magic that the renegade elves have unleashed.
Above: A peek inside one of the buildings at the Lyceum. Yes, that’s snow, indoors. Those whacky Kaon Sages!
I met up with a few guildies – Faunis, Orkoh, and Andaraiel, and checked out the quests offered at the Retreat. You will see two quest NPCs standing side by side, one a high elf and one a human sage, and you can only take quests from one of them. I chose to help the Sages Arcane, because I was told the other quest line was broken, but honestly I’d much prefer to help the humans than high elves anyway. I’m tired of asking a dozen Leth Guards where something is, and having them blow me off by telling me to go see the Psionicist trainer!
While there, I also grabbed a side quest to kill undeads at Deathsummoner’s Tomb. While there, I got yet another side quest from a guy in one of the vaults that sent me to Blightbringer’s Beacon. There’s a full listing of all the Kaon’s Rush quests found here.
While those quests were fun and decent exp for me at level 15, the real fun was inside the Lyceum. The courtyard is filled with lava and ice elementals, and pulling there is pure vanilla, and such a breath of fresh air after the hell pulls in Achatlan and Khegor’s.
Another side benefit to that area is that you can quarry the elementals after you kill them, so not only did my group get some decent experience, but we also had a quarry party. I forgot my pick axe so I couldn’t join in, but it certainly did look like quite the nerdy fun!
Above: Ok guys, I’m ready for another pull! Guys? GUYS! ……….sigh.
We finished the night with a nasty greeting from the sages inside one of the buildings. Hopefully we will be able to get inside and explore the next time we try it, and with any luck we’ll find the way to get up to the floating building. I’d really like to meet the people who have the ability to make snow indoors! I could use a little of it right now.
Above: Faunis, Orkoh, Andaraiel, and I take on Frigidar!
Tip of the day: When you cross the scary rope bridge spanning across Kaon’s Rush, you have to jump over a “hole” near one side of the bridge. My groupmates warned me, so I jumped as instructed, and promptly landed ON the hole, fell through the bridge, and landed in the water below. Amazingly, I lived, but make sure to be more careful than I was!
Cool spot of the day: If you are in Arlinora’s Retreat, there is a little crystal near one of the stairwells, and if you click it, it warps you up to the stairs. Follow that up, waaaay up, and you get one of the most spectacular views in Thestra. It’s a great spot to see Kaon’s Rush and the floating Lyceum. Thanks to Faunis for the tip!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 15-20 | Comments (2)
February 12, 2007
I don’t know if it’s trauma from our past or what, but it seems like most people have a cutthroat mindset when it comes to mobs and nodes. I’ve had several instances where I’ve been working on a missive or quest that requires multiple killings of a particular mob, and another party will come in and race to get them first. Now, the mobs themselves really aren’t great exp, and it goes a lot faster if everyone joins up to kill it, but some people can’t seem to cope with that fact.
Above: Killing a named at the Redcap Stronghold, near Veskel’s Exchange in Thestra. Spider mounts are so cool.
One group in particular was so adamant about not grouping that they were even trying to taunt us with a circle dance while we all stood there in the empty graveyard waiting for more zombies. I’m happy to say that we had the last laugh, because the next night, the most vocal of the group had to eat a little humble pie as he followed our group down the Achlatan Caves to get his tombstone. (You can actually purchase some humble pie, by the way, from the nice tavernkeeper in Rindol Field. I highly recommend it!)
It’s the same with harvesting nodes too by the way. While I haven’t done any harvesting yet, I have heard that people who are grouped can both harvest from the same nodes at the same time. So there is pretty much no reason to fight over anything in this game, other than select farm mobs. So team up!
Cool moment of the day: I was out doing some solo missives in Three Rivers, and killing some Stonesmasher Gamehunters near the rock valley outside the village. As I was fighting, all the combat sounds had an echo to them, exactly as you’d expect them to sound if you were surrounded by rock. Small detail, very cool.
Above: Orkoh flipping out inside the Redcap Stronghold.
Neat spot of the week: The Redcap Stronghold, near Veskel’s Exchange. There is a missive offered at VE called “Icy Fruit,” that asks you to travel there. It’s a neat little brownie village that reminded me of the old brownie village in Lesser Faydark where the high level casters used to camp the guards. This one features brownies on their little spider mounts, and when you kill them the spiders flip around for a while after they are dead. The barrels you need to collect for the missive are found in the tents inside the fort, and there are also several named inside that drop a nice bard drum, some good medium healer gloves, a decent medium fighter cap, and other armor. (Expect a lot of bard drums though!) It’s a good spot for a small group of levels 11-14, and you can repeat the missive, so if you do it 10 times you also finish the night with a nice item from the missive turn ins. Now if only I could get myself one of those spider mounts!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 10-15 | Comments (6)