2006

Getting to know the neighbours

stargrace September 10, 2006 No Comments

“I travel. As long as its to inflict pain.” ~ Voula redeye

“If I found the smallest piece of magical residue in the world and cut it in half, I wonder what would happen?” ~ Taba Curhunter

“OWW!! Head hurts when I do that thing with my brain! OW!! You can’t eat money. Then why people care about it so much?” ~ Urak Eyegouge

“Is it even possible for this city to get more corrupt?” ~ Amandio Sepunius

I run through South Freeport all of the time with various characters, Silverstep and Stargrace especially since each owns a home in that location (Silverstep owning the 5 room and Stargrace owning a 3 room). But I don’t think I’d ever actually listened to what the neighbors were saying as they wandered the streets. So I took a few minutes yesterday and went to see if they had any words of wisdom… They didn’t.

Finished the Jboot quest with Stargrace, more guild status which is always nice. Also snagged her 27th aa. A few friends of mine finished killing Tarinax and finished their claymore quests. I was very proud of them and slightly jealous, it left fast though. I know if I had of *really* wanted to finish my claymore, I’d have been in one of those big uber raiding guilds instead of the guild I’m in now. While every so often I do get the twinge that makes me miss that sort of thing, it’s not easy to tell why I am where I am. I enjoy doing what I want to do, when I want to do it, and the friends that I’ve made. There’s no way I’d be happy with a schedule where you’re raiding almost every time you log in. I enjoy playing my alts too much for that. Besides the fact that I’ve already been there, and done that. I’ve done the raiding guild thing and I sort of consider this my ‘break’. Especially since it wouldn’t be fair to a new guild if I joined and then disappeared once I got into being a guide. We’ll see how things go.

Slacked on the tradeskillers, nothing new there. Contemplating trying to get the coercer to level 70. She’s been sitting at level 64 for a very long time now. Problem is she’s not a tank, not dps, not a healer, so really the group types she gets into are limited. Worth a try though! It would certainly be nice to have a 70 warden / 70 coercer. Then when I’m bored I could work on getting the dirge or the necromancer up there. We’ll have to see. Also nice because she’s already a level 70 provisioner haha. It’d be nice to have at least one level 70/70 as I keep mentioning.

Congradulations Second Dawn, the matron’s heart

stargrace September 9, 2006 No Comments

A huge congratulations to Second Dawn, for this game wide first last night. I know they worked really hard for it. One of my friends afterwards came up to me and said ‘don’t you feel stupid for refusing to join their guild now’, and I had to laugh, because no, of course I don’t. Their heavy raiding schedule leaves me with no time to do what I’d want when I want in game, which is uh, a huge reason why I play. Freedom and all that good stuff. Sure, I enjoy raiding, but it’s not why I play this game.

Worked on a lot of little random stuff last night. I managed to get the carpenter to 28, almost 29 before I crashed and fell asleep. The sage got 37, the dirge got level 35. Spent a good portion of the evening farming, only managed one rare though, stingy nodes! I hate the new crafting method and the amount of raws I go through just to reach a single level. Especially since all 6 of my characters are all tradeskilling. It makes it seem like I spend most of my time collecting goods to craft with. Well, ok so I enjoy that, but I think I use about 400 raws each level. Painful.

On a little side note, another good friend of mine moved back over to Najena, and I’m pleased as punch about that. I rationalized my own move and the costs involved this way, which is what I told her as well as far as the money involved in moving characters. Eq2 is my main form of entertainment. I don’t tend to go out all that often, I’m not big on tv or movies. So spending $50 per character to move them over to a server I would enjoy more, is worth it and even understandable if it means that I will be happier playing this game. It would be like heading out to a bar for an evening, or catching a movie and dinner. Perhaps that’s a weird analogy to some people but it seemed to make sense to me heh.

Screaming mace down

stargrace September 8, 2006 No Comments

Decided it was well past time that I complete the screaming mace yesterday, having never completed this heritage quest on any of my characters before. Why slack so much with this particular HQ? Hrm. Not really sure. I’d done almost all of the HQ on Qutey, even the DoF one, but not this.

It took me about 5 hours to camp the first four named mobs that you need. While I was in Cazic Thul semi-afk and glancing at the screen to see if my mobs were up I noticed how exceptionally quiet that zone is. There was no one around, I saw maybe one group wander by. When I was leveling my characters up I had this zone as my zone of choice, I loved it. There are some great named that hang out, ring events, quests, and all the rest. So why isn’t it being used now? Not too sure.

Guild almost dinged 17, which is also nice, one step closer to 20, which means new houses to purchase, and new bank slots, something I am looking forward to. Worked on Silverstep’s Library a little more as well, it’s going to be a pain inputting all that information about each book into the site, but I actually don’t mind data entry type work. In the end I do think it will be worth it, just so that I can have a place where all of her books are gathered in one spot. A handy place to read the lore as well.

Silverstep’s Library

stargrace September 8, 2006 No Comments

I had started to type out / collect a bunch of Silverstep’s books online when I used blogspot.com as my host, however since I moved, I’d deleted the site.

I decided to re-start the site, as a collection of the books she’s managed to accumulate over the years of playing her. I’ve tried to post where I got the book from, and what it actually looks like. If anyone’s interested in seeing her collection, or at least reading some of the lore that’s stashed away in these books, feel free to browse here, I know there are plenty of other lore sites out there, and sites where there are books listed, but this one is my own personal collection, so I enjoy it more! LOL. Maybe someone else out there will too.

The Gong of War and a pool of tranquility

stargrace September 7, 2006 No Comments

Silverstep, squishing Gurgrog the Carver, Champion of War

Yesterday two new quests were added to the game, live events in preparation of the gods returning to Norrath. The quests were divided by city again, Qeynos being able to do the one for Tranquility, located on the docks in Zek, and the Freeportians heading off to do the bidding of the god of war, along the back of Zek by DFC. Both quests rewarded house items, though I must say my Freeportian warden is feeling slightly neglected prize-wise, so I ran Ricotta (my only good aligned character) to Silverstep’s home, and dropped off her two items there to add to the growing collection of nick nacks and other random items.

The Qeynos quest was difficult, you get zoned into a version of DFC and are allowed 5 items to take with you. You’re sent to rescue 5 monks, using NO violence at all. The items are handy, things such as 30 seconds of an orc illusion, 60 seconds of run speed increase, an aoe mez, an aoe stun, things like that. The first time I died, badly. There are see invis mobs on your way, so you really have no choice but to use some of these items from the outset unless you are one of those lucky classes who can already feign death on your own. You run to the jail in DFC, have to click a few levers, and open some cages, then port the monks back to their home safely, again with no violence whatso ever even though the orcs seem to have no such restriction.

Reward is a pool that is a house item, buffs your power by 438. I love it. Or rather, Silverstep loves it.

The Freeport quest was much easier. You zone into a version of DFC and are told to defeat arena champions. It takes me back to my splitpaw days except it’s much much easier. The final mob is a level above me and pictured above. Reward, is a gong that can be placed in your house, and increases your attack speed by 10%. Sort of usless for my priest. Since I do spend so much time collecting house items for her though, it’s sitting by her weapon wall. I also took Ricotta and did the valor quest in the commonlands. I have to say. I hate beetles. You have to save some and even if they crawl right under your feet and you’re not moving at all, you are proclaimed to be a murderer. Ricotta didn’t like that at all. Reward, a very nice looking spear that can be placed on your wall, and gives a 438 hp buff. Also not sitting in Silverstep’s house.

Hopefully later today I’ll manage to completed the screaming mace. I’ve also got to pick up Ghoulsbane, and the Bone Bladed Claymore. Then Silverstep will only have two more heritage quests to complete, the ancient desert power, and the wurmslayer. I’ve been having some fun with the new tradeskill writs that were added back to the game. However. I hate the timed ones. They do seem to pass my levels quickly though. Problem is I’m a level 52 woodworker with Silverstep, and she needs *SO* many supplies, that can only be farmed in Sinking Sands, or Pillars of Flame. There are no other zones for T6 nodes. They are also CRAMMED with people farming, bots doing their bot thing, everyone and their cat and dog happens to be there. It’s frustrating when all I want to do is get out of this tier of tradeskilling.