Yesterday I wake up with my chest on fire. I wasn't surprised, since I'd
been having a cold slowly building up over the last week, and in fact had
trouble sleeping. So I grabbed the phone and called in sick. I then tried
to go back to sleep, but the congestion in my lungs was too much. I was
much better off being upright than lying down, so I pulled myself over to
the chair in front of my computer. Ah, better, chest doesn't hurt so much.
And heck, while I'm in front of my computer...
I log on and look around. It's late-night for the large Asian contingent on
our server, so I decide to see if I can use that. I do my usual "trade
route" - Bazaar to Nexus to PoK and back again - using /auc to tout my
smithing skills. I get the usual inquiries - "Can you make DE armor?" "How
much for legs? Ack, too much!" - and an order for a Fine Heraldic bracer.
I throw one together and get 7K out of it.
I also browse the Bazaar for the usual - ornate plate molds or any
65th-level spells. A few times I've seen Hand of Virtue for sale for 125K -
a price I categorically refuse to pay. However, others *are* paying it,
including someone else in my guild who sold some of his equipment to get it.
So I don't see the price dropping soon, alas. This time I see a copy of
Yaulp VI for sale for 40K. This is more reasonable, and I snag it, leaving
me at about 30K in the bank - the poorest I've been in a long while. Gotta
get some more smithing done. And at least I have the latest version of
Yaulp - an ATK and DEX buff that also hastes me and gives me an extra 12
mana per tick. It only lasts for 24 seconds, of course, but it also only
costs 10 mana to cast. Great for those moments when I solo or on raids
where it's too dangerous to sit.
I'm not in much of a mood to group. My friend Kayia is online in the guise
of one of her alts, a 44 SK she's been having a lot of fun with. I haven't
seen her much lately, and we chat for a while. Alas, she soon goes to bed -
she works third shift, so our playtime doesn't coincide as much as it used
to. A shame.
After she logs, I contemplate my choices. I could try to work on getting my
pottery up, or make a run at some tailoring. Nothing like tradeskilling to
mindlessly kill a few hours. But I'd also like to get the new Pure Blood
spell - something that removes 18 Disease and Poison counters in one go.
Not bad; it will certainly have its uses. Alas, the spell requires farming
components in the new Legacy of Ykesha zones. I'd already helped one guy
farm one of the components, and in the process got one for myself. It'd be
nice to get the rest.
My mind made up, I take a stone to Paineel and try to make my way through
the Warrens, get hopelessly lost, gate back to the Nexus, get a wizard to TL
me to Stonebrunt, and take the "boat" to Gunthak. I bind myself at the
lighthouse, then alt-tab to my web browser. First I look up the quest
walkthrough on the EQCleric forums. Then I open up another web browser and
check out eqatlas and eqmaps. Neither has a map of Gunthak. EQAtlas does
have files you can download that should bring up the map using the new
cartography feature. I download the maps and make several attempts to bring
them up. No matter what I try, I can't seem to make them work. Finally, I
fall back on the oldest method in the world - I /ooc "Where can I find the
fort here, please?" The response is, "First left in the caves." Ah,
that'll be easy.
I swim on over to the beach, summon my drogmor, make myself invisible, and
run to the caves. Indeed, the first left takes me to fort surrounded by
hovels. The hovels are full of "pillagers" and "marauders" of various
races. Just what I need. I summon a hammer and equip it, then memorize
Yaulp and Mark of Retribution. MoR adds a kind of 15-point DS to the mob -
that is, every time the mob attacks *anybody*, it does 15 points damage to
itself. Alas that I don't yet have Mark of the Righteous, a 65th-level spell
that increases the damage to 34 points.
After buffing myself I wade in and begin killing the mobs. They're pretty
easy, although they have an annoying tendency to run away *fast* if their
hitpoints get too low. Fortunately I'm prepared and I root then nuke to
finish them off. There are *lots* of hovels and *lots* of mobs, so I slowly
begin to circle the fort, clearing it of mobs. And I do mean slowly; I can
kill a mob in about four or five minutes. It would go faster if I just
nuked them, but then I'd run out of mana quickly. Clerics just aren't
efficient solo farmers no matter how you slice it.
This all proves to be no problem, although I'm not getting the drop I want.
I turn on the TV and watch "Hoosiers" while I'm farming. Good flick.
Finally, after three hours, I get the drop I need - "Gulf of Gunthak Water".
Finally.
I need two more pieces, both of which drop in Nadox. So I hop onto my
trusty drogmor and create a huge train as I gallop through the caves
uninvis'd. I zone into Nadox - where my drogmor disappears, alas. No
mounts allowed. I see a few people at the zone line, and three corpses.
Two of them have active rez timers, so I click on them with my trusty epic.
I heal the rezzed, then cast MGB Ancient Aego to buff everyone at the zone
line - after giving warning that I'm about to, of course. Wouldn't want to
overwrite someone's PotG, after all.
I've been in this zone exactly once before, and then I was with a ranger who
evac'd me immediately to some other place in the zone. Now that I'm here by
myself, I look around and see a river of lava leading away from the zone
line, with a few elementals floating atop it. I memorize Pacification and
cast it on them, then jump into the lava. I swim upstream a ways, taking
burning damage all the while, until I find a place I can climb to shore on.
I also manage to aggro another elemental. I drag it to shore, then root,
pacify, and atone it. I never used Atone much when I was leveling up, but
my impression was that it was similar to the mem blur that chanters use - in
other words, it wipes the hate list of the mob and makes it forget all about
me. This doesn't seem to work; when my root wears off the mob makes a
beeline for me. I cast Atone again - without rooting or pacifying - and
this time the mob simply wanders off. Hmm.
I peer around the cavern I find myself in. Ever since I replaced my Aegis
of Life, I've had problems in dark places. I literally fumble around in
places like Neth Lair, where the zoning areas are pitch black. I could use
a good Acumen about now; this place is really dark. I can see vague shapes
at a few spots, and by clicking on them I can confirm that they are indeed
mobs. I have no idea where to go. I bring up the in-game map again, and
again it shows nothing, despite what I downloaded from EQAtlas. I sigh and
zoom out, and out, and suddenly a line appears. I blink and zoom *way* out,
and lo and behold - a complete map of the zone. Included is a notation in
one area of the map: "luggalds", just where I needed to go. Perhaps my
Gunthak map would have worked if I'd zoomed out enough.
Well, first things first. I need to cross a bridge. When I try to do so, I
get attacked by a Blackhand guard that cons green. I attack him and, to my
dismay, he's a *lot* tougher than the green mobs in Gunthak, and has a *lot*
more hitpoints. In fact, I burn through a lot of my mana killing him. Bah.
I peer into the tunnel I need to go through to get to the luggald area. I
see two mobs guarding the tunnel and I pacify them, but in the gloom I miss
the guard that's patrolling the tunnel itself. This mob cons light blue and
beats me silly. I turn, cannonball into the lava, swim upstream, and zone
out.
I wait a bit and zone back in. This time I use my GVD to invis myself. I
make through the lava, across the bridge, and down the tunnel without
incident. The luggald area is still really dim, and I wander around trying
to find a safe place to pull mobs to. There doesn't seem to be such a
place - not that I can make out in the gloom, anyway. I do find a short
tunnel that ends in water. There are two mobs there - "waterlogged
sailors" - so I'm not sure it's safe. I decide to give it a go. I go far
enough into the tunnel to be out of aggro range of the guards but not so
deep that I'm in aggro range of the sailors. I get ready, and attempt to
pacify one of the luggald guards. Alas, in trying to get into position, I
manage to aggro both guards. I grimace and attempt to root one of them,
which I manage. I pull one away and try to beat him down, but then root
breaks on the first one. This process is repeated several times - I can't
seem to get root to stick for any length of time. And during all of this, I
neglect to monitor my health, which is just plain stupid. Suddenly I
realize that I'm at twenty percent health. I try to get a few heals off,
but I keep getting interrupted. I try to DA and run, but even DA gets
interrupted, and then I'm dead.
I find myself back at the lighthouse, mildy frustrated. Clerics need to be
able to solo better, that's all there is to it. I /ooc that I'll donate for
a SoW at the lighthouse, and I quickly get one. I buff myself and make the
run back to Nadox. I sit at the zoneline and wait for my corpse to appear
in the graveyard there. I pass the time playing online chess. After two
quick games, my corpse still hasn't appeared. I ask people in my guild -
who have begun appearing in greater numbers as the day progressed - if
there's a graveyard in Nadox. I'm told no. Dangit, that's what I get for
assuming - just because I saw three corpses at the zone line doesn't mean
that's a graveyard.
So now I address the problem of how to get my corpse. I don't want to ask
for help. I use Pacify and Atone to get back to the bridge. From there, I
decide to make a kamikaze run. I cast Divine Barrier, then run into the
luggald area. I find my corpse and drag it and about fifteen mobs back to
the lava. I jump in just as DB wears off. I quickly cast Divine Aura, and
it goes off, and I swim as quick as I can (yay 200 swimming) back to the
zone line. I dump my corpse and zone. Hooray, one corpse run successfully
completed.
I zone back, loot, and rez. I think it over, then use my faithstone to gate
to Qeynos and use the PoK books to get back to the Nexus. I buy a KEI and
gate back to the lighthouse. I head back to Nadox and prepare myself.
I'm going to have to use the same strategy I used when I was farming
gorangas in Maiden's Eye. I will have to MoR the luggalds, cast Yaulp to
speed my attacks and proc rates on my hammer, summon a pet, and constantly
heal myself. With all my mana regen buffs, including Yaulp, I should be
able to stay ahead of the curve.
First things first. I invis myself and make the now-familiar journey to the
luggald area. I scout around, trying to find a better pull spot. I still
can't find a clear area - I maybe should have gotten an Acumen while I was
in the Nexus. I find a corner that is just possibly out of range of a
nearby luggald abomination. I decide that's where I'll make my camp. I get
all my spells ready, and then drop invis.
Alas, I am in fact in range of the abomination. I get to work: MoR the
mob. Yaulp. Summon pet. Target self. Cast Supernal Elixir. Target mob.
Yaulp has worn off by this point; cast Yaulp. Attack mob for a few seconds.
Supernal Elixir wears off. Target self. Cast SE. Target mob. Cast Yaulp.
Over and over again. This style of fighting require my constant attention,
but it does leave me at nearly full mana if all goes well. It takes about
ten minutes - and a recast of MoR along the way - but the mob eventually
dies. A huge bonus is that these mobs fight until death, which means I
don't have to worry about rooting them.
I look around the room - the mobs are in pairs, an abomination and an
initiate. My information is that the drop I need comes from initiates, so I
pacify the abominations and grab the initiates one at a time. This works
fairly well. My only problem comes when I pull the last initiate in the
room. He's down to about 25 percent when the nearby abomination respawns.
He attacks me, and I have to burn through a lot of mana keeping myself
healed until the initiate dies and I can concentrate on the abomination.
I note that it appears MoR is doing most of the damage in these battles.
Fighting unslowed mobs is a huge pain, but at least it gives me the
satisfaction of watching them beat themselves to death on the DS I have cast
on them. I wonder if having a DS cast on myself would speed things up - one
of MoR's best features is that it stacks with all other Damage Shields. So
I gate back to Qeynos and make my way to the Bazaar. Alas, although there
are *lots* of potions for sale, I don't find any DS potions. A shame; I
would have made some shaman somewhere rich. =) I gate back to Gunthak and
head back to my camp spot in Nadox. I don't have to worry about losing my
spot; there's hardly anyone in the zone.
More and more people have been logging on. I wasn't on the night before; I
play bridge most Wednesday nights. From guildchat I gather that we
attempted to clear Vex Thal. We got wiped by a warder that spawned *after*
we killed the mob that was supposed to despawn it. Several members have
petitions in, although I'm fairly confident that the GM's won't be able to
help. They discuss alternatives while they wait for an answer to the
petitions. I'm in favor of giving Rallos Zek another go - we've made a few
attempts but haven't yet figured out how to pull the Zek twins. I really
can't participate in the discussion much, though, because all of my fights
take so much micromanaging, and I need to keep the pace up to try and keep
ahead of the corner respawn.
Very much to my surprise, a GM answers our guildleader's petition and kills
the warder. The word goes out - head to Vex Thal. I finish up the last mob
I'm on - without getting my drop. While that was disappointing, I don't
consider the time spent there a total waste - now I know where to go and
what to do once I get there. The next famring session should be more
productive. I get up, faithstone to Qeynos, take the book to the Plane of
Knowledge, zone into the Plane of Tranquility, realize that Vex Thal isn't
off of the Plane of Tranquility, zone back to PoK, zone to the the Nexus,
zone to Neth Lair, fumble about in the darkness, manage to get to
Dawnshroud, summon my trusty drogmor, and buck the rest of the way to Vex
Thal.
I get CotH'd fairly deep in. I ask how long it will take us to get to AHR,
and our guild leader estimates it will only take four hours or so, give or
take awarding loot. I get myself into raid mode and we begin.
The raid goes really well. We don't have anyone die to any of the trash
mobs. There's a spirited discussion in guildchat about the war in Iraq that
I participate in until one of the mobs we're fighting gates and our guild
leader tells us to shut up and focus until we get past the point where a
gating mob could kill us. The war debate eventually sputters out and we
finish clearing to the first boss mob. This leads to a moment of mild
embarrassment for our allied guild when a ranger goes in on one of the
sleeves that drops from the mob and the guild awards it to him - only to
then have it pointed out to them that the sleeves can't be used by a ranger.
For the rest of the night, all drops are awarded to the ranger - "Grats
Ranger01 on priest helm!" This is soon followed, of course, by the
announcement of the real loot award.
The second boss mob we kill drops a range item - Eye of Darkness. This
all/all item has some nice stats - AC 20, HP/MANA 100, some resists. I
currently have a Temariel Vex, which is a WIS 10 HP/MANA 50 item. I
normally don't bother upgrading such stuff - I want to save the loot I go in
on for things that would replace my Heraldic armor - but the Eye of Darkness
has an effect I've been dying for: Truesight. Truesight gives you permanent
See Invisible and... Ultravision! No more fumbling in darkness, yay! I
quickly send in a tell, and not ten seconds afterwards, the officer I sent
the tell to says in guildchat, "Last call for Eye." That usually means they
have a candidate in mind, one that's well-suited for the dropped item, and
I've commented before about how much I've been wanting an Ultravision item.
Sure enough, a few seconds later I get awarded the eye. I loot it and equip
it, and immediately I can see a difference, even in a relatively bright
dungeon like Vex Thal. I can't wait to give it a try in Nadox.
We clear the blobs without incident, then move in on Aten Ha Ra and kill her
easily. Yet again, the Mail of Judgment doesn't drop - it has yet to drop
in all of our AHR kills. Our third consecutive Shadow BP drops, though.
Not that I am under any delusion that I'd get the Mail if it did drop - I'm
at FT14 right now with an extra five ticks on top of that, and I've gotten
two loot awards recently, including a very nice Emp drop. But I'd just once
like to see the darned thing. =) It is, after all, the dream cleric BP.
For now.
We end the night by going to Ssra and killing Blood. Again I notice the
difference that my Eye makes; Neth Lair is clear as day to me now. And
parts of Ssra, which used to be quite dim, have also become bright and
cheerful. Emp isn't up, although we give him a few minutes to pop before we
engage Blood. I spend the time chatting in the cleric channel. I mention
that I was in high school during the 80's, which prompts people to ask me
how old I am - 37 - and to have everyone else share their ages. I am, of
course, the oldest one in the cleric channel, although another male cleric
is 32. The women range from 22 to 28, and the other men are 19-21. I end
up getting into a humorous back-and-forth with the 19-year-old, who calls me
gramps while I ask if the reason he wasn't on last weekend was because he
was grounded.
Finally we pull and slaughter Blood. No Emp, but that's okay - Blood loot
is still of value. I gate back to Gunthak and call it a night - a
thirteen-hour session which didn't see me get a lot of XP but saw me make
progress on a spell quest and get a long-sought-after effect.
I may be sick, but I'm no longer blind, and that's a pretty good tradeoff.
=)
--
-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!