Mr Tambourine Man
Now I know it seems more than just slightly bizarre to be excited about a Tambourine. Very few people outside of EQ would be. The thing is, to a Bard a Tambourine is an instrument of substantial power. Motown knew something about these things and built an entire generation of R&B on the peculiar invigoration of their sound and rhythm (yes, that percussive excitement in the choruses you love is a Tambourine). Bards… oh forget the comparisons. They make me run faster. Much faster.
I acquired the final coin in the set of six for my Tambourine quest. The previous journal entry outlined my first disastrous attempt to get it. That same (high level) friend and another later went back to the dungeon on my behalf and spent four or five hours killing stuff they didn’t have to just for me. Last night the other friend - who also has a secondary Bard character with glowing blue Lambent armor and a Tambourine - bestowed the final coin on me and watched as I carefully traded them all in to the banker at Firiona Vie.
For one horrible moment I thought I had made a mistake. Mistakes can be indescribably costly in EQ. You can hand in the wrong things, or in the wrong order, or to the wrong person, and *poof* they are gone. That’s right, no second chances. The indifferent NPC thanks you for whatever you gave and slots it into digital Nirvana. It may have taken you six months of playing to get, they don’t care. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this, but thank-you,” they say as you liquefy and drain out your boots.
However, the drum that appeared in my empty inventory slot (there must be an empty main slot or *poof*, hence my flash of panic) was not just my old and familiar store bought drum. That was still in my secondary equipment slot. Oh yeah, whew. The new “drum” was a slightly dodgy stand-in icon for my polished new Tambourine.
“Equip it and take it for a spin,” my bold blue friend advised. So I did, and the two of us flew around Firiona Vie like chaotic neon streaks. I’m talking 100km in the bicycle lane. It was awesome. And must have looked pretty silly to any onlookers.
Why is this good? Because Norrath is massive. I can’t emphasize that enough. Players spend a lot of time just getting from one place to another. And if you’re not a finger twiddler (read spell caster) and don’t have access to ports (magical translocative spells), you have to leg it. Bards do a lot of legging. This isn’t as bad as it sounds because Norrath is also rather pretty. Being a bit flimsy, they also get hit a lot during battles. Having a significantly faster movement speed can save your royal blue butt if you ever need to extricate yourself in a hurry. Of course, my bard does this often.
So here, after countless hours and labours, is my highly twinked Bard with his new percussive power:
For those of you who didn’t get that:
No, that’s not a gratuitous crotch shot, and yes, I’m rather pleased with myself.
posted by monty · at 11:07 pm · filed under EQ Chronicles