EQ Chronicles: Going Home
After quite a time travelling and slaying in the world of Norrath, I took my mid-level Bardic butt back to my hometown of Kelethin and was immediately rewarded by an appreciation of my new status. In Kunark I was a Nothing Special. In Kelethin I was suddenly a demi-god. It was bizarrly similar to going back to my old primary school and being amazed at how small it was. Low level characters milled around my legs admiringly. Orcs ran from me in fear. Well, most of them…
[October 18]
Someone once said you can never go back. You can return to where you used to live, work, and play, but it and you have both changed in your absence. What you remember no longer exists outside of your reverie. It’s one of the bittersweet realities of growing up and out.
Not so with EQ.
Home cities in EQ are designed to be newbie friendly. You spend most of your time in or near them during your first 20 levels. But sooner or later you travel out into the wider world, and grow with it. When you do return you have changed, but everything else is exactly the same. This means you are, in contrast, a legend.
Recently a friend of mine started playing EQ (partly due to reading about it here), and chose Felwithe as the city he started in. Felwithe is just a short jaunt from my Bard’s tree city home of Kelethin, and in the same zone (Greater Faydark, or GFay). I had to go back to buy a song anyway, so I took the long journey from the OverThere and zoned into GFay.
The effect on me of being back on my home turf was just the same as if I had returned to my primary school after years at University in another country. Everything looked familiar, comforting, smaller, and strangely impotent. There was that turn in the track, and oh yeah, there was that crop of tree trunks. Heh, those bats and orcs hadn’t changed a bit, the little buggers. Oh, but I had. They were now so far below my level they couldn’t hit me if they tried - which they didn’t because it was pointless. I remembered running from them screaming, anxiously watching my health bar. Now they died with one hit, as if I was slapping mosquitoes. I know because I experimented on one unfortunate Orc Pawn. Whack, splat.
Low level characters stood and watched as I flew past, just as I did when I was fifth level. Some brashly “inspected” me by right clicking to see what my armor and other gear was. The practice is considered rather rude if uninvited, but in the context it was akin to hero worship and so forgivable. The more mercenary of them begged for gear or money. These, of course, I brushed off with some sage wisdom about earning any reward themselves (forgetting for the moment the insane generosity of friends who bestowed upon me the gear that was still impressive 30 levels later). Some I helped with random gifts of spare loot, and corpse retrieval. Others I answered questions for. Mostly I enjoyed myself.
Compared to the unimagined dangers of Skyfire and the ever-present difficulty of the OverThere, I was suddenly powerful. I had arrived, and could kick whatever butt I chose. Now this was the way all homecomings should be.
After some time gloating, I remembered my friend.
My friend, being a cleric, needed a good blunt weapon and there just happened to be a nice mace quest at my old hunting ground, Crushbone Castle. Crushbone, or CB, saw me all the way through my teens. It was also responsible for more of my deaths than any other zone, by far.
CB is train city. Inexperienced, unlucky, or foolish players can easily take on too many orcs or be jumped by a newly spawned mob, and in running to the zone for safety attract a long line of others. This single file frenzied pursuit is called a train. If they are unlucky the train will include a number of tough Legionnaires. If they are are particularly unlucky alongside those will be the Emperor himself, or maybe the Warlord. If they are completely cursed the overpowered Rogue Dark Elf friend of the Emperor, Dvinn, will be in hot pursuit backstabbing for 100+ hitpoints.
Once, as I was sitting up on Trainer Hill above the castle waiting for the Trainer to spawn, I had casually looked over the cliff right at the same time a furious train of two dozen orcs including all three super bosses snaked toward the zone chasing a terrified newbie. Aptly, that is still the longest train I have ever seen.
With memories of weeks spent amongst such danger still fresh and vivid, zoning into CB was a rather lovely surprise. Everything conned green. I saw the Trainer on track (my wonderful new level 35 skill) and waltzed up to Trainer Hill. He fell without touching me, and amazingly gave up the coveted Shiny Brass Shield - a shield I had worked a week to get previously and had just recently passed on to my Cleric buddy. I gave the new one away as well, increasing my feeling of omnipotent benevolence.
Areas I once approached with extreme caution I now strolled through with impunity. I arrogantly paced straight through the Throne Room and up to the alcove where the Emperor and DVinn spawned. Dvinn wasn’t there, but the Emperor was. He was also green to me, and although he put up a bit of a fight, he fell without concern. The second time he was carrying the Dwarven Ring Mail needed for the mace quest. Gosh, that was easy. I may as well wait for Dvinn and have a word, Half-Elf to Elf as it were.
Dvinn spawned, and immediately attacked. He conned green, so I hit back, singing a few clever battle songs for good measure. Pfff! The fabled and infamous DE Assassin was a pussy cat. Hang on, that was a 40 hitpoint jab with that knife of his. And another. And another. Holy cow, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
With one red bubble of health to spare - 20 percent of my full count - my Brave and Legendary Bard turned tail and fled like a field mouse. Thank the maker for Selo’s run song, I say. After healing up on the other side of the zone I returned to discover Dvinn had been finished off by another, obviously genuinely powerful character. Rather subdued I zoned out of CB and returned quietly to Kelethin.
I guess going home in EQ isn’t so different to real life after all.
posted by monty · at 8:55 am · filed under EQ Chronicles