2008

A few Levels, and a Lot of Pictures

As much as I’d like to say that I took full advantage of the 20% bonus experience this weekend, and accomplished all sorts of things – I really didn’t, so my post today may be quite short (depends on whether or not I start rambling, though I suppose this counts). I did get level 37 on the alchemist with no vitality (I used a potion, I know how bad is that at such a low level) and the guild did manage to ding level 25. That means we have another five to go by the end of the month. I’m hoping we can do it.

I probably would have tried to get a few more alchemy levels but rough opalines (the common) for T4, are going for a whole 20s each right now. I’m not sure why there was a sudden increase in price, but it hurts. I bought 100 of them just to finish up my level and left it at that.

I did some questing in Kunzar Jungle with Stargrace, who has been inching her way through level 77 for the past few months. It seems to be a hump for me. You’d think that getting to 80 would be motivation to quest, but after completing the same quests on various other characters I’m just not inspired to do it any more. I joined up with Kasul, Bloodpact, Kattareena, and Lanerian for the quests, then started sneezing and couldn’t stop so I spent most of the evening on the couch.

Early in the morning however, I headed to Gatineau Hills for some pictures – bright and early before the crowds got there. Below are two of the pictures I took – if you’d like to see them all you can check out my DeviantART site, here.

Pink Lake – named after a family who settled there and discovered it. The water is actually dark green, and it was very beautiful. There’s basically no sounds except for a random car driving up heading to the hills, and there’s a very nice walking trail that goes all the way around the lake. On the right hand side you can see one of the little lookout areas.

Champlain Lookout is one of the most amazing views from Gatineau, and yesterday was a crystal clear day with not a single cloud in the sky. I’ll be headed back up to the hills in late September early October in order to get shots of the leaves changing colours. Hey, I think I can see my house!

I love areas like this. The best part, is it’s not even 30 minutes away from my house, and I live in the city. Good for when I need my tree fix.

How many epics is that now?

I’ve done a lot of the epics now. For my own epics I’ve completed the warden, coercer, and troubador – once I betrayed Goudia over to a dirge, I decided that I’d also have to complete the dirge epic. The epic was surprisingly easy. I mean, really easy. I decided late yesterday to start it. The beginner drops from Satherians in either Chardok or Sebilis – Made my way with a trio team of myself, Shadowgeist (80 Shadowknight) and Albrta (80 templar). Didn’t have to wait too long for my piece to drop, and we cleared out a few named along the way.

I’d heard from Eyenstein how much of a pain some of the updates could be. Not that they were difficult per say, but that they could take some time. I had one named in Karnor’s Castle after some running around – and for the first time ever, got the update on the first kill. Great! In fact, everything that I need I got on the first kill. This included 50 drakes in Jarsath Wastes, 10 harvests in Chelsith (no named had to be killed, just some abysmal creatures in the front waters plus some coral). I had to get two updates from devourers that we found as trash in both Maidens and Vaults of Eternal Sleep – again we killed no named and just went in with our little trio. Kasul did come along as well though he was only level 73, for some added support. We killed an easy named in New Tunaria, and that was basically the end of my quest.

Oh wait, not quite. I got to head to Rivervale, sing a sad song and make all of the halflings cry. That was fun. Then I also got to gather together some pies from a table and throw them at halflings. That was even better.

After that I headed to Chardok for the last update I needed, an 84^^^ in the library.

Except no one wanted to help aside from Shadowgeist and Albrta. We waited around asking on channels with no interest. Well, that’s what happens on Holiday weekends, everyone goes out of town! So, we decided we’d give it a shot with just the three of us.

We had one death when we tried to train past some encounters instead of simply fighting our way – but thankfully a few updates ago SOE added a respawn point just next to the bridge past the red gate. We quickly collected ourselves and made our way to the library without incident, took down the named, and I headed to Gorowyn for the final turn in.

That was it.

Now I have both the mythical troubador quest on me, and the dirge quest. The troubador weapon itself sits in my bank collecting dust while I sport the new (and much improved) dirge epic. Never know when I may betray back it’s been known to happen once or twice… maybe even three times…

Goudia’s Ratonga Hovel

After working most of the day on Tipa’s new theater (complete with stage and cafe style seating with bar) I decided to unpack Goudia a little bit and maybe start working on her Ratonga hovel. I have plans of a cave-like bedroom made out of Oggok tables and chairs but so far it’s just an idea. I get ideas from Norrathian Homeshow for most of what I build these days, and adapt them where I see fit. So I can’t be given all of the credit. It’s quite common for decorators to share their ideas within the forums though and see how other people use them.

I really did have an amazing time building Tipa’s room though. Theme rooms are easier then just “build me a house” type rooms where I feel obligated to do the same thing over and over. Kitchen, bedroom, library, etc. You know, the common things you find within a home.

Anyhow. This is Goudia’s library. I should work on Silhouette’s library, Malfi was visiting today and commented on how bare the shelves look at the moment. I have a quirk about having duplicates of books in my homes – it doesn’t happen. In fact if I think I may have a double, I go through the list of items from the doorway and remove one so that I don’t have doubles any more. There are hundreds of books in game, from the L&L to the specialty books that are no longer available. I’ve missed out on a bunch of them too, but I still love collecting.

I wasn’t going to post about housing today, but I simply couldn’t help it!

Looking forward to another great weekend, an extra long one at that!

Lets Not

Lets not talk about housing for once. Lets not talk about how I just spent the past six hours designing and decorating a theater type room for the one and only world famous Tipa (did you hear drum rolls? There should have been drum rolls there). Lets not talk about how I’m so excited that I just want to burst, and it’s not even my house.

Instead, lets talk about the cloak of flames.

I finally completed it for the first time ever – why? Not only is it a heritage quest that rewards the guild (at level 80) with 6,900 status (69,000 personal status) but it also got revamped along with the other heritage quests a little while ago. So that crafted cloak I was wearing with a few saves, 25 health and power, and 25 haste? Is now a piece of junk compared to this very nice cloak. Since I have no luck in actually getting a cloak to drop for me in game (ie: the Runnyeye one, scout or mage I’d eagerly take!) this will probably be my cloak for the next little while.

The quest itself was quite easy – it was collecting the snuffing pages ahead of time that was a pain. I spent three days camping Lesser Faydark just waiting for three simple pages to drop. Thankfully, yesterday I had some company in the catacombs, and Kasul and I both ended up getting the pages we needed there. New Tunaria? No problem. I don’t even remember doing Kaladim, so that one must have been easy for me too (sorry Kasul). Afterwards you get three sub-quests. Complete those, and get another three quests and one of those three breaks into four. Do the four quests, the three other quests – and then!

You get to wear some goggles and hunt for itty bitty spider webs scattered all across Greater Faydark. 20 of them to be exact. It took me the better part of last night to gather the flimsy things – but I did it!

Now Goudia sports her cloak of flames proudly.

Hodgepodge

On occasion, I do get a request to decorate someone else’ house. Refreshing since I spend so much time decorating my own. These requests typically come in one of a few ways. Either the owner already has furniture, and simply wants me to arrange it and fill in the blanks – or the owner has nothing and I build them a home from scratch, trying to suit their personalities some what. I always try to make the home suit the character if that makes sense.

Ogres are no different from all the other races out there in Norrath let me tell you. Pictured above is the gentleman’s club section of my latest project, a house for a well learned ogre. The main entrance consists of a museum type display section, along with his vast library collection. In the center platform (if you’re familiar with 5-room Freeport homes at all) is a games room with a bar. I haven’t decided what I’m doing with the rest of the space yet. I’m contemplating turning the upstairs room into either a kitchen, or a cave-type bedroom. It will depend on my mood. I like the way the house has turned out so far though.

Calreth ended up moving his 70 wizard warlock over to Najena – and everyone kept it a secret from me until the following morning. What a great surprise! I love having good friends around and Calreth is one of my closest. I’m also pleased that Nostalgia is growing by little leaps. I never wanted it to develop into something that large – but the recruits we have been getting are nice and polite and friendly, even if not everyone is on all the time.

I’ve been working on my cloak of flames for the dirge – it’s very slow going. I managed to collect my remaining page from lesser faydark late last night (insomnia sucks) and I have three pages left. One from Loping plains, one from New Tunaria, and one from Mistmoore Catacombs. So, that will be the project for today – hopefully. Since the revamp of the heritage quests (and since all other cloaks worth having have evaded me thus far) it’s a significant upgrade to the plain crafted one I’m wearing.

Nomadic Gamer