Another Friday has come and gone, and another meeting of Nostalgia the Guild, perhaps the best gathering ever aside from our very first meeting. We had TWO full groups of people with a few who were known to be gone for the night. Our goal was to own Dulak’s Harbor, and own it we did. A quick /who of the zone showed 26 people there at one point in time - and not all of them were Nostalgians. It was fantastic. Boy, did the experience fly. I think the level leader of the night was Malfi, gaining an amazing 7 levels in the hours we spent there. I managed to hit not only 51 on Ishbel (I was 47 to start) but gained her first 3aa, and spent them in run speed. My choices right now are very limited, especially with my stats already being at the cap of 255. I’ve decided to turn my focus to other things instead of so much wisdom, like mana, and flowing thought.

As if that was not enough, I got to partake in starting a war, and swaying the forces to benefit me. Not without some help of course. Kuron was right there, beard flapping in the breeze.

See, in Hollowshade Moor, on Luclin, there’s three types of creatures constantly battling for power. The owlbears, the sonic wolves, and the grimlings. The first bit of the war was easy. Weaken the grimlings so that when the owlbears prepared their attacks, they won. The next part wasn’t so easy, we had to find the right caves to start it off. Then the sonic wolves began their attacks on the owlbears, and a few slipped past us while we ran off trying to figure out where we should be. The owlbears lost their hold on one of the camps. No worries, they still had claim to one camp. So when the sonic wolves sent out their force en mass again, we killed them before they could get to the owlbear camp.

Then we killed another wave. Waited a bit. Killed another. Waited. Killed another - did this five times, those wolves were persistent. After the fifth wave of sonic wolves had been dispatched, the owlbears made their move to the caves, and since nothing stood in their way, over took them.

Once the owlbears occupied all three territories, their queen Skriat`Chakku spawned in a provisioner area, and even though the drop I wanted was supposedly rare - she dropped it. Ishbel is now the proud owner of “Eye of the Owlbear Mother” - which may not have the best stats, but it does have a meditate mod, and it does have FT1 (remember, I’m capped on wis) add a +mana augment to that thing, and she’s set. Plus, it was LOADS of fun to get.

The fun of course did NOT end there. Oh no. Kragnn and myself (as Ellithia, the 68 cleric) have been slowly working on a charm slot item that came out with Serpents Spine - and one of these relics we needed to collect came from Blackfeathers Roost. The zone is made up of nests and islands and you need to unlock access to each one. We managed the first two with no problem, the experience was fantastic and it was quite easy. We had to round up food to feed hungry griffons. Once we’d done that (twice, they’re hungry!) we noticed the zone was (of course) getting progressively difficult. Of course we called upon mighty Kuron to come save the day. We quickly got him caught up to both of us, and headed off to the third quest in the series.

By that time, we noticed that the relic we had to collect was actually on the first island, and we didn’t need to get access to any of the other ones at all. Oh well, the experience really WAS quite rewarding, not to mention just plain fun. The final access lets you into the Queen’s Palace, which is a raid mob for 55+ (but apparently it’s a lot harder then any 55 level raid would be able to handle) so I doubt I’ll be taking her down any time soon (I see Tipa is there tonight though with a friend, I’m sure if anyone can do it, she can, and maybe we’ll all get the pleasure of reading about it!).

Tonight I did some simple crafting for Malfi, contemplated new upgrades for Ishbel, and almost maybe started my crafting trophy. I’m not sure yet. There’s a quest I want to do in Natimbi for Ishbel to get her a new secondary item with mana preservation III on it, we’ll just have to see how that goes!

So congratulations to everyone from Nostalgia last night on a whole lot of levels, and fun. I hope everyone had a blast! We had a record setting number of folks on, and it was just an amazing time. I’m very lucky to be part of something so wonderful, with people who are just fantastic. It’s been a very long time since I’ve felt this involved in an mmo, and after all my ‘restless’ time bouncing around from game to game, who would have thought all I needed to do was dive back into EQ1.

This a very easy zone to get awesome exp. There are usually enough for a pick up group, but bringing your own wouldn’t be a bad idea. The key is to sit on top of the first hill staright ahead of the building that contains the NL zone, the hill with thr huge boulder on top. Have someone be a designated puller and just pull Greyhoppers and any stonegrabers. These con red for groups in mid twenties but easy kills. They will spwan super fast.

Just the other day I had a group consisting of SK(me), Ranger(puller-great zone for them too), Beastlod, Shaman, Necro, and Bard. The experience was awesome. I got two levels in 3 hours.

- Talking about Marus Seru, in 2006

Oh how things change. The above quote came from a reply in allakhazam, that just made me giggle. That was the EQ1 I remember. When it took three or four hours to get a level. Here they’re going on about how awesome the experience was. Last night an impromptu Nostalgia gathering took place for most of the evening, and we gained so many levels it made me dizzy. My druid went from level 37 to 43 in the amount of time we played. Tipa came with her necro and gained a crazy number of levels as well. Sev, Said, Gozad, Binxs, and Gnewton, we all had a blast. The pulls were steady (and constant) and aside from a break here and there when people had to afk, I don’t think we slowed.

It helped to get people caught up for tonight’s meeting. Gnewton especially, who deserves a medal for working so hard to get caught up to us, and no I’m not just saying that because he’s an enchanter and I’m looking for mind candy. Gozad left early in preparation for packing and moving to his new house, but even he benefited from the plentiful experience before that. I didn’t dare play Ishbel, she’s already level 47. It was great fun to play the druid though, a character I rarely expected to play again. She’s severely out of date in everything from gears to spells, wearing batfang headbands and wolf fang earrings, the only things I could afford way back when. It was refreshing to play her, I’d missed it a great deal.

That’s how my evening was spent, and it was wonderful. Chattering to friends about everything on vent, exping in a hot zone, getting some coin and lots of levels.

Before that I made Tipa a set of jewelery, which hopefully came in handy, and after that was done I took Qutey and Ishbel and bought / organized the last 20 levels worth of spells that I’d been neglecting. I found it amusing that as soon as I got Qutey caught up with her neglected spells, I went and gained 6 more levels, which of course meant even more spells to buy. Druids get an insane amount of spells, good grief. Granted, a lot of those are port-type spells, but still. It’s crazy.

Hopefully I’m all set for this evening. I’ll move Ishbel over to Dulak later on in the day. After being in the zone for the past two weeks or so, I’m wondering when I’ll start to bore of it. The answer to that is quite simple I suppose. As long as I’m with good friends (ie: Nostalgia) I won’t. I’m hoping this weekend goes as great as last weekend did. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ishbel will be switching to aa experience very shortly and that the plethora of alts I have will also all be gaining levels before too long. Ah, good times.

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.

Last night was our fourth meeting of Nostalgia the Guild, and it took us to Solusek’s Eye. We died, a lot. It was great. Two group wipes were directly because of me and being a dark elf. We happened to stumble into the clockwork portions, low and behold the little mech gnomes don’t care for me. Woopsie. I didn’t even realize that they disliked me, so when we made our way down for a second time, and we wiped again - it suddenly dawned in that it was *me* and not just my group they disliked. It didn’t help that they were red con and we had a few on us at once. We could handle them one at a time, but they’re highly resistant to snare and had lots of friends to come play. They didn’t just dislike me though, oh no. Once one had booted me into the near by lava, and my pet decided to dive in right after, I tried to call him back. Of course pets don’t take the usual way back to their owners, no, they have to walk the long way. Through agro mobs, with an angry mech gnome following behind. Which of course lead us to hear a sudden bombardment of whirling gadgets followed by a very loud “Oh shit” from me, and about 20 of the little beasties swarming us.

I lived through that one.

Unfortunately, the rest of the group did not. The joys of being a necromancer though, aside from feign death I can locate corpses, or summon them if I’ve got a coffin on me (which I rarely do, mental note to stock some in my bank for CR’s) I can also invis myself, and invis vs. undead. Best of both worlds.

Tipa made a comment on her post about the evening, “In a pickup group, dying so many of times could only have ended in a lot of bad feelings. With a group of friends, taking risks, having fun… it was great,” which is exactly right. Sure after the third death in a row maybe we were feeling it slightly, but because we’re a group of friends, adventuring together - and the experience is quite fast despite the deaths, there were no hard feelings (as far as I’m aware). Next week will be a LDoN night, which I do enjoy quite a bit, and then the week after we’ll be heading to Mistmoore Castle. Last time I was there it was invaded and was quite high level (back in 2005) but now apparently it’s settled back down to a lowbie zone.

The experience is still quite fast. We’re averaging five levels a week (or a night even, for those who don’t play constantly) and keeping up at a steady pace. A few people have dropped behind, some are not playing any more and can’t make the schedule, but all in all it’s still a LOT of fun. We could use a second tank, an enchanter, and a rogue. The second tank bit seems to be the hardest to find and gathering together two full groups is always a chore. Last night we had a fantastic turn out though, I believe we had two groups of 5, so 10 people total. We got a few upgrades, some weapons for Urtog (our tank) and some caster jewelery pieces for both myself and Coldheat (the cleric). We also got some augments I believe for Rogbog (zerker) and maybe Binxs (the beastlord) I can’t recall though.

The zone is a hotspot, which meant of course - power levelers were around. It was hard to find an area to camp and get experience at when a level 80 is running around gathering the entire zone to level up their alt (or someone else’ alt, who knows). Unfortunately, that’s just a part of the game and you learn to make due.

Best moments of the night? Tipa (in the screen shot above) becoming larger then life (literally) with the help of Bristlebane. Minxe (my necromancer) also had a ‘moment’ when the jesters enlarged her and Urtog suddenly realized which dungeon he wanted to explore next as he attempted to crawl under her dress. Another great moment was when I was trying to locate Malfi’s (druid) corpse in the lava. I spent a good 5 minutes trying to target it and be in range to drag, and suddenly could. I excitedly spoke in vent about how I’d managed to snag his corpse, and brought it upstairs to him. I was so proud, having never found anyone’s corpse before.

Then he told me he’d actually summoned it with his veteran reward aa, and was in the process of looting it when I stole it from him and dragged it away.. He wasn’t on vent and had no idea I’d been hunting for it.

Woops. I make a great necromancer, what can I say. Already stealing corpses. The night was wonderful, I leveled from 25-30, and picked up all 12 new spells in abysmal sea. I was slightly disappointed that I worked really hard to research a spell for level 24 (my pet) and then it was replaced at 29 by something vendor sold. Ah well, that’s the life of a caster! Hopefully a great time was had by all, and we’ll have more excitement next week.