March 17, 2009

Celebration Continues

The celebration continued in EQ yesterday, and it was great. Not only are there fabled back in game (which everyone was camping) but there are 16+ other quests going on. I stumbled into PoK and was practically blinded by the fireworks going off. From almost every rooftop and outside every building is a wonderful banner, and from these banners amazing shows of fireworks shoot off. They’ve out done themselves with the display in fact. As I began to work on the Bristlebane quest that sends you all over Norrath via riddles, I noticed a new npc on the landing of one of the buildings – right close to the Shar Vahl stone. 

It was a huge Crystalline orb, and it spoke to me. Talking about Veeshan and asking if I was ready to be tested on the last 10 years of Norrath.

Wow, they were not kidding. They ask a series of questions and some of them so incredibly obscure (like, what is the full name of the guard who stands in the lobby of the bank in Felwithe) and you have a total of three minutes to answer them all. There are five questions I believe. The rewards are nice, you get a little cloth item that summons minions of Veeshan to attack your target (once every 10 minutes) and some fire works, coin, and other goodies. It took me a few (ok, more like 50) attempts to answer all of the questions correctly, they randomize every time you re-start the quest. The adventure for Bristlebane’s fireworks is a lot more involved then I had thought too, there’s only ONE firework machine up at any one time, and there are 20-40 zones (I didn’t count exactly) that it could be up in at any one given time. A few of the people in Drinal were kind enough to announce when they saw this party machine, and are helping one another in locating it. It’s that sort of friendship I love to see.

Aside from those two amazing quests – each one of the Gods in EQ have a special quest going on right now. They have returned to celebrate Norrath, and I haven’t looked into these at all yet. We did stumble into one of them in Qeynos, and there are quite a few of them so I imagine that may be the plan for later today, we’ll just have to see!

Another great thing that happened last night was a GM came to the guild lobby as I happened to be sitting in it – and buffed the entire area. There were 80+ people at the time and the GM’s buffs landed on everyone, no matter their level. The great thing is they cast every single end game buff, at Rank3 (RK3) which is raid standard. Because they were landing on those level 1 or higher, it made for a LOT of very happy players. They also gave out cake, and a good time was simply had by all. 

That’s n0t all though, of course not. There is also the great LoN fun going on right now – you get one free LoN loot card every single day this week be it in EQ or EQ2. For EQ yesterday was a burning prince loot card much like the sparkling / shimmering fist items you can get in EQ2. Today it was a kobold king illusion. EQ2 is different, yesterday was a potion that will heal you to 100% health once a day, today is a cloak (I didn’t check out the details to see what it did) so make sure you log in each day to claim your items! There are also special deals going on as far as booster packs go, and special anniversary scenario. 

While a lot of celebrating was going on the guild did manage to get some SoD progression done too. We finished off the Oceangreen Hills progression line which unlocked the Journeyman RK2 mercenary. With some help in Stoneroot (ie: mass pulls) my druid also dinged level 65. Now, it is quite common for me to have alts in every game and it comes as no surprise that I follow that tradition in EQ. I’m always worried about what others will think when they see my army approaching. I’ve always envied those who manage to stick with one character or two, and I’ve just never been able to. The druid is of course a halfling, and a tailor at that (and one wonderful baker). We’ll see how / where things go with her level wise. 

I hope everyone has an amazing Tuesday, and don’t forget it’s also St. Patrick’s Day! Changed my web site colours in celebration. See you in Norrath!