August 2009

Saturday BoTD – Not ALL Evil – The Woes of a Gentle Assassin

stargrace August 15, 2009 No Comments

Not ALL Evil – The Woes of a Gentle Assassin – by Clereece

Dedicated to: EKEKIA, the nicest assassin in all of Norrath ! Windday, Warmstill 18, 3821
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Livella had always believed that she had been born on the wrong side of fate.  Even her chosen field of training – that of an assassin – daily mocked who she really was deep inside.

Her mother, a Fae from Kelethin, had fallen mysteriously in love with an Arasai Mage, of all people!!   Her mother had thought it a novel idea to name her only daughter Livella, which spelled “all evil” backwards in the common language. Maybe being only half Arasai was at the root of Livella’s many conflicting moral dilemmas she seemed to always find herself in.

She knew that if her full-blooded Arasai cousins and relations on her father’s side ever caught wind of how she felt about killing certain creatures she found too beautiful to harm, she would never be able to hold her head up high around her extended family of evil persuasions.  But just thinking about killing such creatures as the Seamist Sprites, the little Nibble fawns, the regal Antonican stags or the glade deer, just to name a few on her can’t-touch list, made her feel ill.  However, the Nathsarian frog-biters – no matter how lovely of form – were some of the nastiest bunch of blooms she had ever come across! She would handle them on a case-by-case basis.
The only reason Livella had become an assassin was because it gave her the first opportunity to be out on her own.  She had sorely tested the patience of Qillara T’Despth in Neriak. But through it all, they had both managed a lopsided kind of loyalty and acceptance of each other.

Livella felt there was a whole BIG, beautiful world out there just waiting for her to make her imprint for the better!  Even though she had been trained to kill, she didn’t HAVE to involve any “innocents” in her slayings, did she?  She would just have to pick and choose her assignments very VERY carefully – and hope to Karana that word of her unusual “habits” never got back to her farther or any of his family. He would surely disown her!  And possibly, he might even turn his back on his wife of 40 seasons just for giving birth to such a misfit!! (Livella shuddered at such a thought and knew she would never be able to live with such guilt.)     Livella contemplated how even her style of hunting was unique among most assassins.  She preferred to use her magically imbued Oak Long bow to engage her “misfortunates” as she felt it gave them a more sporting chance, than sneaking up stealthily behind them, catching them unprepared.  Livella only used stealth when there were multiple unfortunates that needed to be dealt with.

Livella knew she should seriously consider re-training as a ranger. She had heard nothing but good things about the famous Ranger scout trainer Elendia Starleaf.  But she also knew without a doubt that she could not do this, not while there was even a slight chance  her Arasai father could learn of the betrayal!

So, for now at least, all the beautiful creatures of Norrath, who would not harm even a pesky dragonfly, were safe — at least as far as she had anything to do with it!

And her biggest secret of all?? She had become fast friends with Ferith’Anar, the stunningly beautiful white unicorn of Oakmyst Forest !
Livella wanted to do the  Fae  happy dance every time  she thought of the many talks she and Ferith had participated in over the past several seasons.  Her unicorn friend told of many stories and legends about pure magic, the power of belief, and the various moons-old laws of nature that worked tirelessly non-stop to keep the pure magic balanced.  She spoke often of just how important this balance was in holding back the ravages of  the more complex and malicious forms of evil.

Ferith’Anar had always treated Livella as someone worthy of her friendship.  For this, Livella was eternally grateful.  She had finally found a creature, the likes of which none in Norrath could compare — whose kindness, friendship and loyalty were totally free of conditions and restraints of any sort.  Unconditional acceptance — what a rare gift!

This gift was a blessing that Livella secretly hoped to spread to others; to somehow brighten and lighten this fog of indifference and chaos she came across wherever she went.

She was going to be a positive influence, even though she was an assassin, even though she was part Arasai — even though most of her family lived in that dark fog of most of her family lived in that dark fog of evil intentions, paranoia and distrust.

She was going to make a difference, even if it killed her !!
Thank goodness she had recently come across a distant cousin thrice removed — Clereece the Mystic — who could bring Livella back from such a consequence.  She knew she was going to need all the help she could get !!

~ The End ~

Working Together

stargrace August 13, 2009 No Comments

Yesterday was a huge flurry of activity, and I had a blast being a part of it. First of all, a new lore book was implemented yesterday morning, releasing more information about the newest expansion slated to go live in February. The books release with a puzzle for players to figure out – the first one involved an instance in Barren Sky, and the second one was far more involved. It first required players to decipher shards written in the Erudite language and then piece them together. It also required finished players to collect five portions of a key – once center piece that would allow you to see the four remaining sides. I’m not going to give the quest away, but if you’re interested in figuring it out take a look on the Eq2players forums, head to the “History and Lore” section, and look for a post titled “Ow!! My head!”

Once people had the key portions, it was time to figure out what and where the item was that it unlocked. This is where the majority of folks got stuck, the clues were vague. It mentioned something about the book being anchored to a small piece that broke off of something larger due to a recent impact (recent being irrelevant here because we were unsure of when the letter was written to begin with, for all we knew something that happened 500 years ago was recent). It was also magical, because the one writing the entry could scry it from Barren Sky.

12 hours later and the book had still not been found. It was fantastic. I was in the befallen.lore channel as well as their voice channel, listening to everyone toss forth their ideas. It was amazing to hear the thought process. As the night went on people were beginning to feel a little more frustrated, so Kiara (little dark elf minx that she is) dropped some hints – one of them even being my own tweet that I had no idea was related to the area the book was located in (doh) even with the hints everything was still pretty obscure.

These live events are what I love to see, everyone getting along together to reach a common goal. Hamal did an amazing job translating tablets, and I was just so proud to see everyone across multiple servers working together. I didn’t get a whole lot of time to play (again, this is crunch week before work deadlines so I’m not in game as often as I’d like) but it was great to feel as though I was a part of things none the less.

I had to go to sleep before I managed to track down the book – but I went to the location this morning and picked it up, adding it to the collection of ‘rare’ books in my library. If you didn’t manage to complete the quest for the first book, you can find it sold on sages in the North Freeport and South Qeynos mage towers.

Happy questing, I’ll see you in Norrath!