EQ Chronicles: The Apologetic Return
The Bard is back. I said that was it when I left EQ, and it was. Really. It’s just that DAoC was too unformed and in flux for me - and, well, I got bored quickly. Then I started reading my guild’s message board. All the things we had worked *hard* for were just about to happen. They were preparing to take on the Vindicator in Kael (a big bad mob that is recognised as a bit of a watershed for guilds), and then HoT (Halls of Testing) in the dragon arena at the Temple of Veeshan, or ToV. These are big names in Norrath, and inspire awe in those who have heard them but never seen them. Dragons. That’s what I’m talking about. I just couldn’t miss it.
So one night after staring at the reactivation button for a while, I caved in, burned the AUD$20+ and booted up my account. “Just for a month” I told myself. “As soon as I feel that deathly dullness again or Verant push me once, I’m out”. After the happy reunion and “hello welcome back’s” died down, I started back in. A few hours here, a few hours there, and suddenly I was loving it again. What can I say? My lack of conviction may disappoint, but my Bard was ecstatic. After the slow drudgery of DAoC movement, Bardsong had never seemed so fast. I spent the first 10 minutes flying across the pristine snow of the Great Divide in a rapture of smooth speed like a dog at the park. I spent the next 10 sessions getting familiar with my setup again. Playing a bard was never easy, but I hadn’t realised how much there was to it until I tried to pick it up again. What did that song do again? What does that icon mean? Things happened immediately too, instead of there being a continual sluggish pause between when keys were pressed and the screen responded. Welcome back.
Being back was like picking up an unfinished book after a long break. I barely had time to get acquainted with where my Bard was in his story again when I and my guild jumped into the big raids. Dangerous giants, deadly dragons, nice rewards. But before I digress toward tales of top end glory, there is an unfinished chapter I must relate first: the War of the Ring - quite possibly the coolest quest ever coded.
I mentioned in a previous Chronicle my continuing quest for a ring which increases in power at each stage. Thanks to his endless battles with giants, my Bard is now a close and trusted friend of the Coldain dwarves (and, consequently, the dragons). One of the benefits of being a dwarf friend is access to the Coldain Ring Quest, a 10 stage quest that has as it’s reward one of the most powerful pieces of jewelery in the game: Ring of the Dain Frostreaver IV. But that, for my adventurous Bard, is not the reason to pursue the quest. The real reward is to experience the final war of the 10th Ring - a staggering four hour conflict between the dwarves and wave after wave of increasingly powerful giants intent on sacking their city, ending in a truly epic battle with an ultimate and fearsome bad guy. Almost worthy of Tolkien.
Others have attempted the final war, with varying degrees of success. I have stumbled into the mayhem caused by upwards of 100 players, scores of giants, and lines of dwarves defending their ice city on my way to Thurgadin more than once. It has to be seen to be believed. Once I loaned my Bard to the battle to save the dwarven capital. Sadly, we lost that day, but it was a thrill just to be involved. The experience gained will be put to good use when he attempts it for himself. That will be a while however, as he is currently contemplating the much smaller skirmish - again between forces of giants and dwarves - necessary to win the Eighth Ring.
As epic as the 10th war is, the Eighth war is more dangerous. Fail, and everything is lost, and the quest must be restarted from the beginning. The reckless dwarves in the frontier lands of the Eastern Wastes, for whom my Bard has been performing a variety of difficult tasks in return for each ring, have now decided to attack a nearby fort of orcs who are allied with the hated giants. Despite already proving his mettle and loyalty to the dwarves, my Bard must now ensure their survival against overwhelming forces. These dwarves may be brave, but they aren’t particularly bright or resourceful it seems. Luckily, he has come across information that will make the battle a little easier, but until he can find and meet with an illusive dwarf leader (ie. as soon as the necessary NPC respawns so I can hand in an item), he won’t be able to pass the information on. Enter yet again a slightly undesirable element - selfish players.
A little dwarf camp SW of the orc fort is the normal home for Dwarven raid leader Gloradin Coldheart. Unfortunately for her (and me) the other dwarves in the camp provide a nice faction hit for those trying to get allied with the giants. As a result, high level players often kill the poor little buggers. That in itself isn’t such a problem as they respawn every 20 minutes or so. Gloradin however neither supplies a faction hit nor respawns sooner than 24 hours. But ignorant or spiteful faction-seeking players kill her anyway, effectively short-circuiting the entire Coldain Ring Quest.
Enter my Bard with a full group of willing helpers and a cunning plan. By clearing the entire Orc fort - not too difficult at our levels - and hiding there invisible, we could wait for the Orc Chief to appear just before the war, surprise and kill him, and take his head to the dwarven raid leader before the fight begins, effectively avoiding the conflict. It was a good plan, and was going well. An easy 30 minutes of clearing and we stood in an empty fort. I told my group to invis up, and then leapt into bard speed toward the Dwarf camp to hand in my seventh ring in exchange for Marching Orders. Trumpets sounded upon the exchange of the ring. I always get a bit nervous on quests, and I was shaking just a bit in anticipation. One mistake and several months of questing would be lost. I flew back to my waiting group:
“The Chief will spawn within about 2 minutes, then we’ve got 2 minutes to kill him before the dwarves attack” I told them. We all waited in the orc fort in tense excitement. Nothing.
“Oh my God, I forgot to hand the note to Gloradin,” I informed my group with not a little bit of embarrassment.
“We’re all gonna die,” observed our sarcastic level 60 Warrior. It’s not that I was incompetent, I was just nervous. Honestly.
“Yep, we’re gonna die,” reitterated the Shadow Knight. Leaving their happy derision behind I sprinted back to the dwarf camp with my note and… no Gloradin. She had been killed unnecessarily by a silly faction seeker. Game over. It would be at least 24 hours till her next spawn, maybe more.
After reluctantly informing my group and apologising profusely, I resigned myself to another wait. Just before logging out I noticed a level 60 Mage without a guild tag pulling newly spawned dwarves from the camp. Ah, the likely culprit. After a fruitless exchange of words which only bought my Bard more experience with the abusive arrogance of selfish players, I logged out. Not surprisingly, albeit consistently, the same player later that day was single handedly responsible for my guild wiping out during a big raid on the Vindicator in the Giant capital Kael Drakkal (one out of place player can create instant disaster) despite many polite requests to move by our raid leader.
So, the ring had to wait for another day. Which opened up some time for an even more significant quest: the search for my Bard’s Epic Weapon - the famed and covetted Singing Short Sword…
posted by monty · at 2:56 am · filed under EQ Chronicles
lol no backbone monty no backbone. I wont be returning to the mmorpg scene until world of warcraft appears, although graphically that codemaster game (can’t remember the name) and asherons call 2 look very nice but graphics don’t make it fun.