Whether I have 1 reader, or 100 readers, I write because I enjoy it. Emails like this totally make my day and I wanted to share. Thank you so much for writing this Tillarus. I appreciate it more then you could ever possibly know.
I saw the sweetest thing last night in EQ and I had to mention it here of course. In both EQ and EQ2 you’re able to edit a small box of text on your description window. People use these for numerous things, favorite song lyrics, a list of their accomplishments and other random goodies, whatever really happens to cross your mind. When you examine someone these boxes of text are on display for all the world to see.
So it was that I happened to be standing in the guild lobby last night, and I spotted a character with a very interesting looking shield. Naturally I wanted to see what shield it was, so I examined them.
I wish I had of taken a screen shot. It was just that sweet.
In their description was a letter from a husband, written to his wife on his wife’s character. He must have logged her in with the hopes that she would see the message. It was written just before he left for Iraq, or so the brief message said. It was a note about how much he loved his darling wife, and went along the lines of “Hey baby, I love you so much you’re incredible, I’ll see you when I get back from Iraq” – short, and sweet.
The message moved me so much. I almost teared up, reading some strangers description. I don’t even know who they were and they zoned before I could get their name or send them a tell about the message to ask if it was new or how long ago he had left or if he had returned safely. I probably won’t ever know now, unless by some weird fluke they happen to read this site which would be really weird. The emotional connections we all make as human beings within these video games we play astounds me every single day. It reminds me of the great people I have met, the close friends, and everyone I love. Anyone else have amazing stories like this? I’d love to hear them.
Aside from the defeat of Bristlebane, last night was filled with a few other adventures that warrent talking about. To start it off my little necromancer is not quite so little any more. Through the aid of hot zones and some amazing help from both Ultann and Ninga, she’s reached level 68, and 70% into it. She doesn’t have any veteran rewards, no experience item she can use every 24h or anything like that, it’s just been from regular leveling. If I had of concentrated on her the first few days I was playing instead of the rogue she would have probably gained a few more levels by now as well.
Ninga suggested a mission last night (and I’m still new at those) which we did with a few complications (mercs are still not as good at healing as a real person no matter what) and the reward was that glowing staff pictured in the screen shot. This is my first item that I’ve ever owned with a very noticeable particle effect. Needless to say I absolutely love it and I’ll be taking it to bed with me for the next little while. Minxes is completely set with her glowing staff in one hand, and her little doll in the other.
The particle effect staff was not the main component of the evening though, nor even the most exciting. Nope, it wasn’t Bristlebane either.
The boys suggested that I work on my epic 1.5 pre-quest, and then we start plugging away at my epic 1.5 in truth. I sort of stood there dumbfounded for a minute or two, and asked “are you guys serious”? before letting myself get too excited. I’ve owned 1.0’s on characters before, both my cleric and my rogue (and part of the one for my enchanter) but I’ve never done a 1.5 before. Sure, it’s out dated but the feelings I associate with those weapons are very significant.
Just so happens that the necromancer one is not that difficult (now), and does not require the loads of crafting that some of the others require. I have one no-fail combine that needs a blacksmithing skill of over 100, but aside from that it’s all fairly simple. So we headed off to start the pre-quest which was not too difficult. I had to make my way to West Karana (the zone, not the site) and then give a note to an NPC there – doing so triggered five wolves to spawn. Four of them were level 68, immune to melee (sorry our handy monk) summon, and hit for about 1200 a shot. The other one was 69 and highly magic resistant. When I first triggered everything we were not really sure what to do and so the wolves summoned and ate through my little group pretty fast. We also didn’t take along our healer, Nocbot. Woops. Once the mobs are triggered you only have 30 minutes to defeat everything including the next step, so we set up for round two, used monk mez and pulled the wolves one at a time away from each other.
It went much smoother that way.
After they were defeated I had to kill a shady bandit who was standing a little ways away, and then there were a few more fights, nothing of note though. Before long I had my pre-quest completed and I was free to start on the actual epic. Looking over the notes, there is only one encounter (at the end of course) that may be any trouble at all, and it’s in Nobels Causeway. My group is fairly confident that with a little finess we may be able to defeat this just fine – and I was so excited at hearing that, and at hearing in general that I may get my 1.5. I think I mentioned that once or twice already, hehe.
We continued on with the main portion of the quest which requires obtaining random bits and combining them into containers and then turning in those containers to obtain more bits. Ultann headed off to farm some balls of clay while myself and Ninga headed to the mines for a few ore. Afterwards Ultann hunted gargoyls for me for a tradeable bit, and now I need to hunt in Plane of Innovation for a rare drop. After that, it’s a matter of defeating four paladins, and then there’s two more encounters and my 1.5 will be completed. My fingers are crossed for this one, I’d really like to get it done!
My goal for today is to work up my blacksmithing to 100 so that I can get that out of the way. I’m having an absolute blast in game these last few days have been so much fun. I hope everyone else is having an amazing day, no matter where or what you’re playing!
Now, Bristlebane isn’t part of PoP at all (Planes of Power for those who may have forgotten or never played) but he was still on the list of “would like to kill one day” encounters that we all made mentally. I’ve never killed him before, in fact I’d never even seen him before let alone kill him.
So when Ninga and Ultann decided last night that we’d be going to check on him I was so excited. It’s no surprise that I’m a big fan of Plane of Mischief, it’s my favorite zone by far. When I first started playing EQ I spent hours upon hours in this zone with my beastlord friend farming gear that was (at the time) huge upgrades for me. It was so much fun. Probably the main reason I have such fond memories.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the encounter, there was a discussion about how every server had a different version of the playful King of Thieves, but when I looked it up on Zam there was only talk of one main encounter so perhaps things have changed over the years. It was a pretty basic fight. Throughout the duration Bristlebane does an emote (or two) and switches his stances out between being highly magic resistant and fighting faster, increasing his strength and other such things.
My necromancer (who is now level 68 after five days of playing which I’ll talk more about later) was almost instantly turned into a halfling – and not just any halfling, a BALD halfling. Those ones are the worst kind after all. I noticed the rest of the group mates seemed to resist this AoE and I felt a little foolish as I hurled spells at Bristlebane’s ankles.
In the end we were victorious, and the fight dropped a few pretties. What I was hoping for was the clicky shrink item, but apparently that’s rare and we sure didn’t see it. That’s ok though, what we did get was still pretty nice. I relogged over to Invis (the rogue) in order to loot a new dagger.
The dagger (even though VERY old) was still an upgrade to my off hand. Sure, I could purchase a better one from the broker but what would be the fun in that? Where was the challenge.
We also received a bracer, nothing too facny about it – but along with that bracer was a robe. A pretty robe. It went to Minxes (the necromancer) who has been wearing her tutorial gear for quite some time now, and who we’ve just started obtaining gear for. The robe has a beautiful graphic on the Drakkin and it’s black with purples and pink highlights.
Which reminds me, some time I need to take my little necromancer to speak with the npc in PoK about her planar progression stone – though it’s also highly outdated, and I realize Bristlebane has nothing to do with it, it’s just one of those things I need to get around to some time that I have not done yet. Hopefully the guys had just as much fun as I did, even though none of the items we loot are upgrades at all to their uberness. We keep checking on a particular mob every day to see if they are up yet and get a chance to kill them (not telling which, it’s a secret!) but so far, no luck. Not sure when they died last, either.
The boys did get a chance to check in on Cazic Thul and kill him, which I was surprised at, figuring that he would be heavily camped. It won’t be long until the PoP mobs we’ve already killed can be taken down again and now that my necromancer has a few more levels under her belt we can get her some more old flags that are no longer used.
Another post will follow this one in a bit, talking about what we spent the rest of the evening doing (which was a lot of fun and pretty exciting for me personally, I must say). See you in Norrath!
stargrace