Last night was another weekly get together of Nostalgia. It was one of those nights where I wish everyone would show up, but alas that was not the case. Missing two wizards, a shaman, a beastlord, and who knows what else. I was on Dainty, but just not feeling it. However, once the groups got started, things went better. Our first run was just an easy, and due to level ranges - it was gray to me, and when not gray, it was green. Hrms.

We blew through that, Tipa sitting out until more people logged in. Next run we split into two groups, and my group decided to take on a difficult mission.

I forgot how some times, they really are difficult.

We were this close to finishing it on time and if it were not for the fact that it took us almost an hour to find our groove, we’d have had it. Alas we failed, and decided to get a normal to follow it up. The night ended with a few levels but not too many, some defiant gear (I think one piece of chain) and some augments. It was an ok night, but I am really looking forward to the future ones. They consist of going to Dulak and possibly Skyshrine. Two zones I loved hanging out in. We’re basically trying to get to 51, so those who want to play more can switch to aa experience and play, and we won’t feel as though we’re out leveling anyone else.

Afterwards, Kuron, Lackey, and myself headed to Lower Guk. Lackey needed some bags, and Kuron needed to.. stretch his wings. Not exactly how I want to remember the dwarf warrior but to each their own, eh. We sat around in the assassins room for an hour or two before calling it a night, the bag-dropping fiend (whose name eludes me right now) did not make an appearance. Ishbel did manage to hit 41 and almost 42 there though.

Wait a second, Ishbel, the healer? That’s right. After discussing it some with Tipa, I switched my Nostalgia main back to the cleric. I enjoy the rogue but I love the cleric. I love healing. Once that was decided, it was time to work on gear, and levels. I hunted Stone Hive with Kuron for defiant gear, and after some time went to Dulak with Rogbog for some exp. We just duo’d the entrance and before I knew it I was level 45 - the cap for this week. The pulls were nice and easy, and I barely ran below 80% mana. Ah yes, I love playing a cleric.

When not stretching his wings, Kuron can be found in Dulak - getting stuck in invisible walls. Having to petition to get out of them, managing to wiggle his way out, some how, and getting stuck again later. Personally? It’s all the honey he has stuck in his beard from Stone Hive, causing him to stick to the walls. All those honeyblaster ladies just can’t keep their hands off of him.

A few more defiant pieces dropped, as well as some augments. I of course need to shop for new spells, but that wasn’t the end of the fun, oh no. I farmed Dulak with Invis, my rogue, along with Kuron, in the hopes of more defiant. A REALLY nice pair of boots dropped, I of course lost the roll on those. Congrats Rogbog. Afterwards, Woosao wanted to get some experience, so I logged into Minxe, my 36 necromancer. We ran around Stone Hive together and before I could blink he’d leveled to 40, and me to 41. More spells to buy.

Yes, I’m having a blast in EQ1. Who needs any of those new fancy games when you have fantastic friends, and old world fun.

I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it looks pretty cool. Hard to tell, but his eyes actually don’t line up at all, as though he’s got some horrible deformities under that helm. It’s wonderful the various things you see while you’re standing around the bazaar (or guild lobby, for that matter).

As an experiment, and from listening to Tipa talk about her shrouded experience, I decided to try it out myself. I took Kameeko, the 68 enchanter, and shrouded her down to level 15, a bear warrior (I want to be like Urtog).

I know shrouding her down to 30-40 would probably be a better level range, but for now, this works. After 1.5 hours of hanging out in Paludal Caverns, with mobs that were mostly red and yellow, I gated back to PoK to revert to my ‘normal’ self, and gained 3% regular exp, and 59% of a level through my shroud form (hoping to unlock the wolf one next).

Not bad. Next I’m going to switch all that to aa experience, and perhaps up the level of the shroud, to see what a difference it makes. I had a level 50 druid trailing with me for heals and buffs. I imagine I can go to stone hive with much the same set up and kill there. The closer to your natural level you are (I assume) the more experience you gain while shrouded. Rogbog came along as well, and gained a level and a half from the shroud experience, leveling from 37-38.

Two of the new ‘defiant’ pieces also dropped. For those who haven’t heard, these are random bits of gear that SOE accidentally threw into live yesterday. The stats are FAR superior to pretty much everything out there. They work by tier, and are amazing. I wasn’t sure what was going on with them, so I poked around the eqplayer forums, and discovered a few devs speaking up about this incident. They admitted they were not meant to go live yesterday, and that they WILL be nerfed in the future, so people shouldn’t count on them having the stats they have now.

Good thing. I found a level 26-40 chain helm that has +spell dmg, some sort of sight buff (for those who don’t see well) +20-16 to various stats, and I didn’t have to do any real work to get it aside from killing bixie in stone hive (which was pretty boring). I prefer my crafted stuff that I worked so hard to make. I hope to see this fixed, alas it probably won’t be until next week some time.

Tonight is Nostalgia night, we’re headed to Everfrost LDoN. I’m fairly certain I’ll be playing Dainty (call it a hunch) it should be interesting, to say the least. Maybe this time I’ll remember to take screen shots.

“Mayong’s Cruelty: the Drachnids”

From the diary of Najena, Tier’Dal sorceress.

It was in the beginning of the apex of my career of sorcery when I accomplished what I still believe to be my prized achievement. They were beautiful beasts with carapaces that gleamed so black they seemed to be cut of obsidian, multi-faceted eyes that could not even begin to comprehend, and they were many hundreds, possibly thousands, of times the size of their much smaller cousins: the black widow spider.

They were beautiful, deadly, and my creations.

Once I had discovered the secret of raising these magnificent beasts, I sent some as gifts to those I admired. Among these individuals was Mayong Mistmoore. Seeking to curry his favor, and to let him know exactly how capable of a sorceress I was, I sent him one as a gift.

Imagine my surprise when he sent it back, irrevocably changed. And my poor emissary, L’Dalt, butchered for his experiment.

What had left as two different beasts returned as one. He had grafted the head and torso of L’Dalt onto the body of the spider, and the two walked as one. L’Dalt’s personality and memories seemed to have been lost in the shift, but his cunning and magical powers were still there - capable of being carried to and utilized wherever the body of that spider could take him. It was a truly formidable combination.

I couldn’t help but feel a hint of amazment and respect for Mayong’s ingenuity. At the same time, however, he had stolen my design and used it to his own ends. The thank you note he sent, “Thank you for supplying Mistmoore with suitable raw ingredients for true servants”, mocked me. I vowed to learn all I could of these creatures and create something better.

I studied these creatures, which came to be known as Drachnids, after Mayong began to release them into Norrath in packs.

They settled into small, neatly organized colonies. The young males spun the webs, and the young females caught food for the nests. The business of the mature males was always elusive. They seemed to be carrying out orders, possibly of Mayong’s, but to what ends? I could never tell. The mature females fought for dominance in the position of nest matriarch. These Widows fiercely protected their station and killed the younger females that might challenge them. It all had a beautifully simple design to it. Mayong was truly a genius.

My studies ended when I was discovered. Trapped in their webbing for days, I nearly went mad from hunger and thirst and finally, out of a purely desperate attempt to live, I managed to use my magics to get free. I evaded all who pursued me, though I know I am truly only alive today because I never had to contend with any mature Drachnids, and hid beyond their borders.

Before I was to truly escape, however, I confronted Mayong. He seemed to be waiting for me, on the edge of their territory, and his face was without pity, or humor as I approached. I outlined what had happened, expecting, well, I am not sure what, but something from him. He, however, only coldly acknowledged that his creations seemed to be establishing themselves well and learning to act together.

When I told him exactly how offended I was that he cared not for what had nearly happened tome, he merely stared at me and informed me that the only reason he had called off the mature Drachnids was because I had played a small role in their creation. I felt foolish then, incredibly so, for imagining he would be angry at his creations for capturing me. If anything, it was a testament to their prowess, and had doubtless pleased him. He told me then that my boon had been expended, and that I should not lurk around their nests anymore. Next time I would not likely find so fortuitous a path to safety. Nearly every hour of every day, I think of something I should have done or said to prove to him that he had crossed the wrong sorceress, though the truth was that I said nothing to him. I only ran away in a wash of emotions I do not care to admit to having felt.

Once back within my own dominion, however, I began to plot.

I designed newer, more ferocious creatures to match and surpass his own. He, I vowed, would feel that same fear and humiliation I had, and I would not rest until he had been shamed.

I am still striving. I have created creatures from all manners and pitches of nightmares, but none seem to have quite such deadly perfection as those beasts.

I will find one though. It is only a matter of time, and then Mayong Mistmoore will regret what he did to me, and regret having ever made the Drachnids.

By my blood,

Najena

Sorceress of the Teir’Dal

Thousands of years ago, a group of brilliant iksar druids sought a power unlike any other possessed by their people. They tapped into a deep, ancient power that drew on a very different aspect of nature.

This power is the root of decay - truly a mixture of nature and shadow power. Where most natural power gives energy and life and growth, this power sucks it away. Some powers of wardens and furies draws on this in small doses, but none plunge straight into it the way that these iksar did.

They might have had the world at their feet if the nature of the magic hadn’t slowly drained them of their mental power. They fed more and more on it, and as they did, they lost more of their mental acuity and of their physical form.

Soon, they had little more will or reason than fungi, and their bodies had grown to resemble their intellects;ashen skin covered in slime-like glaze. A small growth, protruded from their head, and as time passed, it swelled and swelled until it resembled a mushroom cap.

Today we know these beasts as the sporconids, and they dwell in the much near Dragon Drool Lake. Though they may resemble giant mushrooms, they have a measure of sentience, and an undeniable power at their finger tips. Fortunately, they don’t have the guile to harness this power fully.

And so we see what can result from harnessing a power that is not fully understood. What might have been a world devastating force became the idle plaything of a childlike, simplistic race of swamp dwellers.

Should the sporconids ever once again realize what they have in their hands, and find a way to apply it fully, all of Norrath might be on their knees before them. Fortunately, they would need an intellect magnitudes greater then their own to do so.

For the past two days, this has been the new look to the magus in the guild lobby. The model is called a “Girplan” (I believe.. I may have gotten it wrong after all) and if memory serves, came out with Gates of Discord. Or at least, I remember fighting a whole lot of these guys for someone’s epic in a discord zone. I think they look sort of cute. Still curious how it ended up that way though. Maybe project illusion can be cast on npc (an enchanter aa) or a bored GM was wandering around. In any case, it was something I noticed as I headed to the guild hall, and couldn’t help giggling over.

One thing (of many) that I’m completely loving in EQ1 is just how much there is to do. In EQ2 I feel as though I’ve done it all, or at least come pretty close to it. I’ve seen all the zones, run all the instances, I may not have my epic, but pretty much everyone else does. Getting 140aa is easy and there’s nothing really left to do anymore. I mentioned before about how you’re not supposed to feel like you can ‘beat’ an mmo because there’s always something left for you to do - and while in EQ2 I don’t feel as though that’s true, in EQ1 it certainly is.

Early in the evening yesterday Malfi and Binxs logged in, along with Woosao, Tipa, and myself, and we headed to Blightfire Moors to get some levels. Malfi was away on business when we ran our Nostalgia group last week, and Binxs could use the exp as well. So I logged to Minxe, my dark elf necromancer. She was level 32 at the time, and after all was said and done after two hours or so we’d all gained 3-5 levels, it was nice. Tipa joined us as a level 30, in shroud form. Mostly to try it out rather then anything else. In the end she’d actually gained two regular levels - something she was trying to avoid. It was great that she could lower her level to play with us, but until we hit level 51 and stop gaining experience in favor of aa, it’s frustrating.

I managed to craft my level 33 pet spell (cheers) and set off to Abysmal Sea to gather the rest. Since Minxe is no longer my progression character, I’ve decided to stop playing my level 30 monk with Woosao, and to play Minxe. That means I can delete the 30 monk, and thus have another character slot open (which is rare for me). That leaves me with: 70 rogue, 68 enchanter, 68 cleric, 45 shadowknight, 40 cleric, 38 rogue, 36 necromancer, 33 druid, and a level 7 beastlord.

Yes, I have two clerics, and two rogues. Not sure what I’d like to make next, I’m sure I can figure it out though. Lackey (magician) logged in and promptly headed to Najena to hunt for a broom and shovel. Apparently these items are used in some magician focus items (and thus for the epic 1.0 as well further down the road) and he was having some difficulty getting things to drop. Urtog (faithful warrior that he is) volunteered to help him out, and within the hour had gathered so many pieces Lackey needed, it made my head spin.

All I managed to do was get Lackey killed - supposedly twice. We went to Ocean of Tears (and me on my 68 cleric) to kill a few Seafury Cyclopes and steal their toes.

Now, I know this may be hard to believe - but -

It was my first EQ1 boat ride, ever. Apparently, they used to be a lot longer, but when I started playing 3-4 years ago, the boats were all broken, and Translocators were set up on docks in order to port you to your destination. It was nice to see that the boats were back, and I enjoyed the ride. In another short hour Lackey had all of the pieces he needed, and later today I’m sure he’ll eagerly complete the quests granting him his items. Aside from the death (or two) it was a great night, again spent with great friends. The Tuesday Nostalgia group was canceled for the night, since one of it’s key members was called away unavoidably (the healer). They were meant to spend the night in Najena, but it looks as though it’ll have to be next week instead. I never did spend that much time there leveling up.

I’m pleased that most of the people who were slightly behind in Nostalgia (the Friday run) have caught up the few levels they needed. Coldheat, Malfi, and Binxs, with Gozad not too far behind. Aerrik and Sev still have a little work (Sev being away for medical reasons) and Said as well, I believe. This Friday we’re heading to do Everfrost LDoNs, which I’m sure will be interesting. This is another one of those camps that I dislike, and I can’t quite recall why. No doubt Nostalgia the Guild will change my mind though.

Between leveling, hunting for gear upgrades, doing random quests, crafting, getting excited about aa, and where Nostalgia the Guild is going next, well. The game is pretty booming, what can I say. For now it’s still my ‘game of choice’ though I do wander into EQ2 still on occasion. Having a group of steady friends on has been just the thing I needed.

This weekend has been fun. In fact, so fun that I completely forgot to take screenshots. I know, I’m bad. Last night (was it only last night?) Tipa, Lackey, my favorite warrior Urtog, and of course myself (as Ishbel, the cleric) headed out for fun and mischief. We found plenty of both. It started off of course when Tipa’s own druid forgot to bring.. TIPA along in the port to Emerald Jungle. Or maybe it started before that when we spent 20 minutes deciding where to go. Either way, that set the tone for the night, and I barely stopped laughing until we finished our adventures.

We headed to City of Mist, a favorite zone of mine in the past, and made our way to the stables. There was no one around (surprise surprise) and it’s not a hot zone but the experience was steady. Breaking camp is always the best part of any group, and Urtog managed it with Ease. Lackey nuked away while his pet DPS’d and Tipa did it all, tanking, dps’ing, you name it. I sat and looked pretty in scales, of course.

We were lucky, it seemed that every named was up waiting just for us when we zoned in. It started with the Mighty (red) Golem right at the entrance who dropped a pretty face piece for me. Then we took down a few ghosts and a shield dropped with mana preservation III on it. Very nice. Lackey also got himself a shield, though it wasn’t quite as nice as mine, it was better then the nothing he was wearing before. A pair of plate gloves found their way to the guild bank, and the only down side to the evening was that we reached our level cap for this week - again - too early.

It’s only Monday and we can’t play our Nostalgia characters until Friday, for fear of out leveling everyone else. Tipa’s already 41 and creeping up on 42, Ishbel is 20% away (though she’s not technically my Nostalgia character). Lackey isn’t a part of the Friday night groups and he swung by 42. Urtog sits comfortably at 40.

Since I hit 40, it was time for me to work on my temperance spell, a cleric quest that’s really quite easy. All it requires is talking to an npc in Gunthak, heading over to Dulak Harbor, being on the right boat (gulps) and killing things there until it drops. Tipa came to the rescue, and her third mob in, found an emblem. I’d be lost without her what can I say. I ran back to Gunthak, talked to the npc again, and set off for the beaches to find the female erudite ghost - who was also up.

Give her the new emblem, and presto, I have temperance.

At level 45 I’ll be able to scribe the group version of this spell, which is waiting for me, having already made it with Kameeko (I like being able to research, though the new method is a little.. odd). All in all, the weekend has been great. I wandered around Stone Hive some more today with Growlius’ necromancer, though not too much dropped for me. In Dulak I found a nice pair of shoulders for Ishbel - though the rogue is a little harder to gear up. I’m hoping to drag her around to finish some quests, or maybe craft her some more pieces of gear like jewelery. We’ll have to see I suppose.

All in all, just another great day gaming. Now if I could just remember to take screen shots while I’m having so much fun…

This weekend has been a lot of fun so far. Deciding that Saturday would be my ’slack’ day (and I’d actually get things done Sunday that I needed to do? Right…) I spent most of it in one game or another with a long break between the two. I started off in EQ1, and I felt like playing my druid a little bit. This of course was after I spent a few hours watching Kuron fail work on bits of his Dwarven armor for Urtog. Cultural armor is just fantastic (if not a little expensive when your skills are quite low). Anyhow. It’s not often I play my druid, I don’t even remember playing her way back when, though she does have a few leadership points, so I must have played her in a group at one point or another. Gozad was on and wanted a few levels as he’s going to be moving into a new house and won’t be around for a few days, and Kragz, a paladin friend of mine, offered to come tank and off tank our mobs while we let them die on the wonderful druid damage shield.

We headed to Blightfire Moors, zone of choice for levels 20-40 it seems, though Stone hive would have been fun, it would have also meant death with my little group. I make it a point to know limits, as a healer, and there was no way my little druid (who only has one direct heal and no regen until level 34) was healing that place. Once Gozad hit 34 (and me a little into 33) I got a plea from EQ2. Group of friends wanted to do a quick Nizara run, but had no idea if an enchanter of some sort was still required.

Nizara? Sure, I haven’t been there in ages, and never with the 79 coercer. There’s PLENTY of aa in this zone, and it’s still green at level 80. In the past, this zone was death. The mobs have an attack called Flame Claw - and you never used to be able to cure it. It’s been ‘dumbed down’ some since then, and now you can. I decided for once I would keep a charmed pet. There are stories about the bard mobs in that zone being able to take on anything and also give your group a nice buff. I couldn’t seem to find myself one of those though, so I just settled for a caster. It’s not often I actually get to play in a group with a charmed pet. In fact, I’d say it never happens. Since I knew the group though, I felt comfortable doing so. There’s always the ‘what if the pet breaks and eats a healer’ situation, which I never want to happen.

We got a few legendary chests (nothing impressive, like the belt off of the first named that I had my fingers crossed for) and a lot of aa, and had a good time. I was expecting it to take 2h still, but we flew through it. Shadowknight, Guardian, Bruiser, Templar, Dirge, and myself, Coercer. After we made quick work of Nizara, we decided to continue with the group and head to Vault of Eternal Sleep in Jarsath Wastes.

I’d also never been there with my coercer (hey, did I also mention I went to Stormhold last week and my map for Antonica was black? Oh yes, slacker coercer indeed) and decided again I’d take a pet.

Who broke about 15 minutes into the zone and dropped me to 1% health, then turned on the healer. The ex-charmed pet also summoned little pet adds, who ate and chomped until I slapped down a mez and re-charmed. Bad pet, bad!

By the end of the evening I’d walked away with 118aa (5 more then I started with) no gear upgrades but lots of stuff to transmute, two chromatic shards (which will come in handy later when I decide to craft items with them) and just had a lot of fun. It was nice to be back playing EQ2 a bit — though I’m still spending most of my time in EQ1. I can’t help it, that game just appeals to me on so many levels right now. If there was housing I’d probably be strictly playing EQ1.

The coercer is now 60% into level 79, and quickly coming up on level 80. She’s got two interesting spells ahead of her, that should help dps a lot. I’m not in a great rush to get there (did I mention last week she finished her workers hammer to port to Jarsath Wastes?) but it would be nice to start working on her epic. We’ll see how it goes.

Last night was Mistmoore Castle, and above is the only screen shot I managed to take the entire time we were there. If it could go wrong, it did go wrong. Malfi (healer) wasn’t there, Relm (beastlord) wasn’t there, Aerrik (other healer) was very low level and ended up being disconnected (we think) part way in - which left group one with no healer as Coldheat also had a sudden emergency and had to go afk for the evening. Urtog (group two’s tank) also had to leave part way through leaving Tipa and Rogbog as our tanks. There was no doubt we were in Mistmoore Castle, this is what the zone was known for (and still is to this day). We combined two groups into one and after numerous deaths, and trains of various sizes, we decided to head to a LDoN to cap off the night -

Where we also died twice more.

Well, ok it was only once more but I died twice more since I decided to spam heal while waiting on an evac. At least I provided suitable distractions for everyone else to get away. Oh yes, did I mention I healed? That’s because despite having spent the majority of my time this week leveling up a rogue, working her skills, and making her armor - I played the cleric.

The forces of the universe were obviously against me. I make a healer and we’ve a surplus, so I switch to a necro, then switch to a rogue, and then back to the healer. Thankfully, I have the time to keep both characters (at least for a bit) within our level ranges. I also enjoy both a great deal. I spent the majority of the beginning of the evening (before we’d actually started) role playing UghUgh the ogre rogue (aka Dainty, the gnome) as her true ogre self. It happened to coincide with a new recruit to Nostalgia the Guild who didn’t speak ogre and had no idea what I was going on about. It was great. Thankfully Tipa and Gozad managed to pick up ogre before this whole incident began. I plan on keeping it up - at least with the rogue. Ishbel (the cleric) has no such rp yet, and I haven’t really managed to think of one for her. That’s not to say I won’t, though.

I still had a lot of fun. I still highly encourage anyone who wants to come play in our static Friday groups to get a hold of someone in guild and let us know. The level caps for this week are 35-40 and there are people willing to help you (for now while the level is low) level up. I can’t help people who don’t play though.

The rest of the evening was spent in Stonehive on high level characters killing the Queen (aka: Watching Tipa kill it) who dropped a caster earing that was actually an upgrade to my enchanter, and a few goodies for our lower level characters. One of the highlights for the evening, for me of course, was the Manic Mushroom, and the little ditty I made up to the tune of ‘Manic Monday’. Ah, good times.

Today is Friday, which is wonderful. It means it’s almost the weekend, people are in relatively good moods, and tonight is another meeting of Nostalgia the Guild. I’m looking forward to our trip to Mistmoore to hit on some vampires. Though I expect Urtog will be doing most of the hitting on. Dainty just stabs. I’ve (unfortunately) been sick most of this week, so last night was yet another night of me going to bed around 8pm and I didn’t get much done in game.

What I did get done though was manage to make Dainty two pieces of her cultural armor for level 35-40. It requires a tinkering skill of 185 and her skill is currently 102 which means out of the 9 tries I failed 7 of them. But I still managed to walk away with a new chest piece and a new pair of shoes. Today I’ll see about making a few more pieces. The stats are really nice, +6-10 to pretty much everything, with a good arrangement of hp / endurance / mana (not that she uses mana). I still need to look up some quests some time for those “missing slots” of gear, but I felt proud that I could craft armor that’s pretty good for her level.

Before tonight’s meeting of Nostalgia, I need to learn ogre. Easily done. I also still need to work up my lock picking, disarm trap, and a few other things that I just simply haven’t had time to do. I love how EQ1 actually requires you to play in order to get these things done. I believe it was Tipa who said “well it’s really hard to level if you don’t log in” when we were discussing a few things.

The supplies for the 35-40 armor are very cheap, about 20p per piece all together. That mostly includes the 15p you need for the main component of the augment, which is water specific to your deity. I have my enchanter make these augments as it requires a skill and a quest that I didn’t exactly want to do on my lower level right yet. I’m not supposed to be getting experience, after all.

Once things settle down some, I’d like to keep playing my cleric (the drakkin) who I decided not to delete (she’s just too much fun) as well as Minxe (the necromancer) who can solo herself a few levels if I ever find the time. This weekend should be spent mostly with me at home trying to get better, and hopefully not sleeping quite so much. We’ll see how it goes, I suppose.