Last night I log in at about 11:30pm. My plan is only to be on for a few
minutes, just to check in with the guild to see how things are going.
Evidently they've just finished killing Vallon Zek. This whole week is
being dedicated to backflagging old mobs before we tackle the elemental
planes in earnest. I watch as people frantically log on unflagged people to
get them to the Planar Projection before it despawns. I don't have anyone's
login information - I don't seek it out and I don't like sharing my own - so
I'm not able to help out.
Almost immediately I get a few tells. Shaman in my guild wants me to try a
Tae Ew shield. He has the temper, so I tell him to give me that and I'll do
the combine. He's still with the raid, and says he'll look me up once
they're all finished with that. Another person, who's heard that I'm a GM
smith, asks if I would make him a Tae Ew tunic if he provides the material.
After asking him who it's for and finding that he's the right class and
level to make the tunic a good upgrade for him, I tell him I'll do it for
free. He's happy to do that, except he doesn't have the mold. I tell him
where he can go find it and off he goes.
I also get a tell from a frogluk cleric. He bought a Luminant Heraldic
Breastplate and Greaves from me and is quite please with it, despite the
fact that the stats are greatly reduced because he's 28. He wants two
braces and some gauntlets as well. I tell him sure, and quote him a price,
which he's happy paying.
And while all *that* is going on, the guild alliance channel is full of
people talking about an easy named near the Plane of Water zone-in that can
drop a really nice druid shield. I ask if they need help, and when enough
people express interest, I decide to head over to PoW. So I have to tell
the Tae Ew tunic guy and the Luminant guy that all smithing orders will be
on hold until I finish killing this quick named, and they're both perfectly
content with that. I also send a tell to the guild shaman, but he's
logged - he probably forgot or was simply too tired to have me try the
shield just then.
I zone in and find about ten people from the alliance of guilds loitering
about. I'm unbuffed, so I begin applying buffs to myself while asking if
we're gonna form groups and/or a raid. Suddenly, one of the shamans says,
"Everyone in the water!" Evidently the named - a fish by the named of
Razorfin - is right there, at the edge of the water. Hastily I put on my EB
necklace and dive in. Meanwhile the SK who was our only tank has died.
"Grats me getting no heals," she says in the alliance chat channel. "Grats
us attacking without warning the clerics first" I reply. "Zing!" says my
guildleader.
Razorfin, in the meantime, is attacking a ranger. I start spamming fast
heals on him, and find that Razorfin's hitpoints are dropping very quickly -
this mob has no hitpoints at all. Unfortunately, my fast heals generate
lots of aggro, and Razorfin begins attacking me. Fortunately, an easy
solution - I run out of the water onto land. I turn around and run back in,
but by then the ranger is dead and Razorfin is attacking a rogue. I heal
the rogue, and soon Razorfin is dead. Corpses are dragged out of the water
and I begin clicking - looks like four, the SK, the ranger, another cleric
who I didn't even realize was there, and a monk who I assume pulled Razorfin
to the zone line.
Meanwhile, loot is announced in the alliance channel: a Coral Headed Mace.
1HB, DMG 25 DLY 27, DEX 15, STA 12, WIS 15, HP 100 MANA 100, Effect: Hand of
the Gods, Class: CLR. "Grats Monual" is almost immediately said. I hail
the corpse of the cleric I'm rezzing, but it turns out he has a Furious
Hammer of Zek already. So I win the mace by default, which is the only way
I'd've ever looted one - sure, it's a nice toy, but I have a better primary,
and I've always been happy just to summon my Hammer of Damnation on those
rare occasions I actually melee. I'm asked to wield it to see if it has any
particle effects, so I do but it doesn't - it has a rather ordinary-looking
graphic.
I've read that this hammer doesn't proc any more frequently than my summoned
hammer, so it's basically just the same thing I could summon myself with
better stats. If anyone knows any differently, let me know. =)
I commiserate with the druids present - I'd've much rather that they had
gotten their shield than I had gotten this mace. However, no one is really
disappointed - in fact, it's nice to see an example of the loot that awaits
us in the Elemental planes, of which my mace is probably the least
impressive.
I send a tell to the Tae Ew tunic guy and he meets me in the PoK. I group
with him so he can see for himself the success or failure of my efforts. I
also warn him that there's about a 30% chance of failure, which he
acknowledges. So I tell him to cross his fingers, then press combine - and
succeed. He's terribly happy and gives me a 300pp tip, which I accept in
the spirit of appreciation for which it was intended.
Now, on to the froglok cleric. I gate to Qeynos and begin to prepare for my
combines - I'm very low on all of my smithing supplies, so I better not have
a bad run. In fact, as I look through my imbued gems bag, I only have two
imbued diamonds for the minimum of three combines that I'm going to need to
do. I tell the cleric that there will be a delay, then gate back up to the
bazaar and buy a few diamonds. I start /ooc-ing that I'll pay a cleric of
Mithaniel Marr to imbue some diamonds for me, but it's very late at night
and I'm not having any luck. I tell the froglok cleric that it's too bad
he's not 29, then continue moving from the Bazaar to the Nexus to PoK to
Tranquility advertising for a cleric of Mith Marr. Not two minutes after I
send him the tell, he replies back, "Ding."
Ah, good. I use the PoK stones to head to the Temple of Marr in Freeport.
Now, if you've ever been inside there, you'll know it's a bunch of twisty
winding stairways and passages that are littered with NPC vendors. When I
was a young cleric buying spells there, it would be a chore going from floor
to floor, passageway to passageway, checking out each vendor's inventory to
try and find the spell I was looking for. This was back in the day when you
had to click on each scroll in the inventory to see what spell it was. I
anticipate doing a similar search this time, but on the very first vendor I
come across, I hit the CTRL key and there it is - Imbue Diamond. I buy it
and head back to the Nexus.
The froglok cleric is there. I hand him the scroll and five diamonds. He
scribes the spell, then imbues the diamonds and hands them back to me. I
gate back to Qeynos and do the bracer and gauntlet combines. I succeed
three out of five tries, and when I'm done I'm out of Royal Temper and have
only one Infused High Quality Ring. At least I get a skill-up out of it,
bringing me up to 231 raw. I was quite nervous doing that last combine, as
I would have hated to have told that cleric that there would be a
significant delay on the completion of his order.
I head to the bazaar and complete the transaction with the froglok. I now
have 108K in the bank, which had been depleted a bit when I bit the bullet
and paid 75K for Hand of Virtue a few days back. I'm hoping to push that
over 200K - there's a guy that will do customer character portraits and
signatures for 175K of in-game plat. I've always longed to have a well-done
character portrait, so I'm trying to earn the money to get it done.
A guildie, meantime, has just completed his Brewing Grandmaster Trophy and
proudly displays it in guildchat. I congratulate him and tell him to be
sure to get the permanent 100% weight-reducing giant-sized 10-slot bag.
This is the first he's heard about being able to get a permanent bag and I
guide him through finding the NPC gnome in the bazaar and turning in his
no-rent bag for the permanent bag. He's very happy about that.
I end the night by buying some blue diamonds from a guildmate, prefatory to
doing another smithing run so I can be ready for more Heraldic armor orders.
Overall, a much more active night than I had planned when I logged in. I
have a new toy, I made some plat, and I made a rogue very happy. =) Lots
of little things went right, which is always a pleasant experience. I hope
for more of the same tonight, when we attempt our third consecutive
successful RZtW kill.
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
Archon of Rodcet Nife
Winter's Light
Drinal server
This page is Copyright by Skaarak; Everquest (TM) is property of Sony Online Entertainment
All stories and art work are Copyright@ by the origial owner/writer.
Most, if not all stories, were taken from newsgroup alt.games.everquest (AGE), I recommend that anyone who gets a chance to read it should!