Wednesday, March 30, 2005

The First Week

The first week went by really quickly. Within 3 days I had attained level 13, and just from doing quests! As I said earlier, citizens in this fine city are lazy and helpless and I have to do everything for them.

That translates to alot of things to do, as well as earning a fair bit of coin. The early game of Everquest 2 is very involved. You never run out of things to do. In fact, you always want to "Do one last errand before I log off".

So anyway, as of this writing, Chenyu, my martial artist, is level 17. Just 3 more levels to go before becoming a fully-fledged Monk!

I even made an evil mage on another server, just to stem the temptation to transfer (or "twink") between characters. I want my mage to make it on his own, just like my fighter has (more or less).

On my 3rd day, I joined the guild, Erus Ex Norrath, or "Masters of Norrath" translated to English. The guys are friendly, but sadly have not grouped with any of them yet. Hopefully they will bring more recruits in near my level and I can finally start grouping with people.

Thus far, my scrapper has been mostly solo. During the first few days, a South Korean girl I met grouped with me pretty often but now she seemed to have disappeared. Guess I will have to put more work into looking for a group I can hang around with regularly. Naturally having a group makes quests easier. For example, I have an outstanding quest to kill some druids in a coven in Antonica but I certainly can't do it alone. Most people are looking for groups to grind XPs (experience points), not to do quests.

Ah well, thus far my scrapper seemed to be on-track. He's also currently doing abit of "twinking" for my lowly level 6 wood-elf mage still on newbie island. I intend the mage to be a crafter as well as an adventurer, hence he's still on newbie island making things. I intend to have him make a few pristine Rawhide Backpacks (6 slots? 8?) for both Chenyu and himself before he leaves, and that should bring him to level 9 in tradeskill. Also, to make some pristine Elm Boxes too, for the banks. If I succeed, the boxes will have 8 slots each, and there are 8 slots in the bank to store items, hence I can have up to 64 slots in the bank not counting the 4 shared ones.

So far, as before, this seemed like my new "home". However, I am wary of declaring it so because it might just turn out like Anarchy Online, where I soon get bored and want to leave. So far it hasn't happened yet. One can only hope.

More next time...

Monday, March 21, 2005

Journey Begins

Ahoy mateys!

So the journey begins. I have left Paragon City, the much touted City of Heroes. It was with much sadness that I chose to leave, as all my super-hero friends have left too. Most have ventured into Azeroth, the accursed World of Warcraft.

I, however, seek a different path, as always. I travelled first to Rubi-Ka, the planet where anarchy rules. Initially I was caught up in the intrigue, but soon lost interest due to there being almost nothing to do as early as level 30 (level cap is 200 for AO classic, 220 for AO+Shadowlands add-on). All you do are just running around, and picking missions from mission booths. Quests are few and far in-between.

Then, a friend mentioned to check out the world of Norrath, and I did.

That is where this story begins, aboard the vessel The Far Journey, on the world of Norrath in Everquest 2. The ship was bound for the city of Qeynos, ruled by the famed Antonia Bayle. I awoke on board with Cpt Varlos greeting me. Immediately he put me to work, sending me to see his navigator, Waulun. I became an errand boy and had to look for his hat. After that I had to sell MY REWARD for finding Waulun's hat to a trader just to buy a shard for Bridget! What do I get from her? NOTHING.

Fast forward a few hours. We dock at the Isle of Refuge, a sort of halfway-house for all incoming refugees. I personally hate the term "refugee", although perhaps it describes me quite aptly. I was indeed a refugee, from another city, another world. Apparently I arrived at a bad time, because goblins were attacking the island just as we landed!

So I got thrust into the action quite quickly. I despatched a few goblins, met a dwarven smithy who co-ordinated efforts against the goblins with other trainers on the island, and eventually I, with some other refugees, took down the Orc Chief in his very lair.

After that I met the Ambassador to Qeynos on the island, and she welcomed me, as long as I gain citizenship in Qeynos. So, off I went to Qeynos, and landed in Starcrest Commune, one of the sub-sections of the city. I was shown to my room at the inn really quickly and was told I was to pay 5 silvers each week for rent. Hah, 5 silvers? A pittance! Back in Paragon City I had 52 MILLION!

Of course I realised too late, that inter-planetary foreign exchange was non-existent in this world. Whatever I had in Paragon City could not be brought here, and thus I had to start all over from nothing, again! 5 silvers now seem like alot.

So I left the room to clear my head, trying to figure out where to get money from. The landlady was kind enough to give me a few leads to get me started. However, as soon as I stepped out of the inn, I realised that the citizens of this fine community apparently were either born lazy, or helpless, or both. Everyone asked me to do something for them. An idea struck me just then - charge them for my services!

Thus began my "Career" of an adventurer. I am a fighter, strong and ready. I have heard that monks are the epitome of fighting fitness. I shall work towards that goal.