Thanks for the super awesome secret quests

I just wanted to give a heartfelt thanks to the EQ team for releasing the extra quests we got on Live servers this year - An Epic Retelling, Artisan's Work, and Artisan's Prize.

One of the best things about it was that no one really knew about them when they were released. This made doing the quests into a really nice surprise. I remember someone asking about An Epic Retelling on a patch bug thread, and I think some others noticed. It being unannounced, and being a collaborative effort, made it so much more fun and interesting. I wasn't expecting anything to be added to EQ after TBM until the next expansion, and this was a really jaw-dropping surprise. The plaque on the wall with someone's name.. nothing like that has ever been done before in this game. The Artisan's Prize is so good it's truly more than any player could ever ask for. When I saw it I literally thought it was an item and not an augment. The serverwide messages really bring people together on the server and enliven the community. It makes the EQ world seem more real, more dynamic.

These quests have by far been the most fun I've had playing EQ in years. The Epic Request tasks were already amazing, and to have an easter egg portion of the quest which unlocks another quest is incredibly creative. The Artisan's Work ground spawn items were the most fun part to me; everyone working together to solve the clues was so great, like a big cross server easter egg hunt. People backed away at the first sign of the TS portion, but it was a lot of fun in its own right. I had no idea how well done the older TS quests were (Aid Grimel and Eron's Jewelry). It made me appreciate the work and intuition that's been put into many EQ quests, and has inspired me to go and do some older quests just for fun, even if I get nothing out of it.

This quest has definitely outdone any epic quest I've ever done. I would be so, so happy if something like it was done again.

Here's my story of how things went down...

I was doing TBM progression for the 10th time, minding my own business, and then this happened:

06/17/16 11:55:36 PM <SYSTEMWIDE_MESSAGE>:A proclamation rings out from the royal halls of Felwithe, 'House Thex wishes all across the land to join us in congratulating, Theriou, the first Grandmaster to claim 'Tranquility' as their own.'
06/17/16 11:55:52 PM Your guildmate Theriou has completed An Epic Retelling achievement.
06/17/16 11:55:54 PM Theriou tells the guild, 'OH BABY'
06/17/16 11:56:04 PM You say to your guild, 'nerd'
06/17/16 11:56:11 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'An Epic Retelling'
06/17/16 11:56:46 PM Sunspark tells the guild, 'what is this!?'
06/17/16 11:56:55 PM Lisard tells the guild, 'wtg'

Nobody knew what was going on, and Riou shared the achievement in eqresource chat (much to the chagrin of some people). From that point, word spread that there was a new achievement for doing An Epic Request. I had not done An Epic Request because I'm a huge slacker, so I set to work. I ran to all the zones; Timorous Deep, Butcherblock, South Karana thinking "wow EQ is so pretty, these zones are awesome" and started the little bard event in Dreadlands, thinking nothing of it.

The bard event for An Epic Request involves performance in a concert with a bunch of famous bard NPCs - you have to put on the correct instrument when directed to do so in order to not hurt everyone's ears. I didn't read up on the event before jumping in because pfft this game is easy, this quest is old, no problem. I am (was) a clean inventory nut and do not carry random crap on me, so I didn't have all the instruments - mid-event, I panicked realizing I didn't have a flute (ironic because I played flute IRL) and summoned my banker. I went through all my bank and didn't have one there either (it was in my house). So I failed what is probably the easiest Epic Request event, which was a humbling reminder to read up on quests before screwing them up.



20 hours later, I dutifully ran to Timorous Deep and all the other zones, this time bringing along my trusty flute. I got the special "it's interesting how you don't sound terrible" green emote across my screen, was excited to be "done" and went on to Felwithe. I hailed the pretty lady and she gave me a golf clap, but no super cool serverwide emote. It was then I realized the problem - I hadn't done my epic 1.0. My bard is from Mayong where we started at 51 with defiant armor, and it just never seemed necessary for me to do it. So I set about scrambling to do the entire 1.0.

I went to Skyfire to kill Eldrig the Old, started Highsunning mobs onto my wizard who was camped at the spawn point. That sucked a lot so I slaughtered everything instead. A few hours later, I was done with everything except for an Undead Bard in Old Sebilis. I sat in OS for more than 10 hours (I was doing other stuff ok) and at 2am, had the sinking revelation that it wasn't a good idea for me to stay up all night waiting for something that might not spawn for several days, so I logged. The next day I got up for work and it still wasn't up. I cried inside, thinking that someone had definitely killed him while I was asleep and I should have stayed up. I left my bard at the spawn point with a "pity me" AFK message and went to work.

When I got home, there was an Undead Bard, tottering around. I happily finished my 1.0 and started An Epic Request again, beginning with the bard event in DL. Raids were about to start, so I ran out of time to explore. Between each TBM event, I would gate and run to another 1 or 2 explore zones. Finally I got to the beloved Timorous Deep. I misjudged the time it takes to run there, and the RL yelled at me so I had to abort my run and gate back to the raid. During raids, my friend texted me to let me know that Zenyan (super wonderful amazing cleric with a bard also) was waiting for me to finish An Epic Retelling before he would do it. I sent him a bunch of I love you tells and told him I would finish soon.

Meanwhile, in the eqresource channel, people were talking about how if you didn't get the green emote, you messed up your event and wouldn't get the reward. I panicked thinking I hadn't gotten the emote again. After much deliberation, I opted to drop my task to avoid getting another 20 hour lockout and redo the bard event after the raid, correctly. After the raid, I redid the bard event 2 times, never getting a green emote. I decided it was OK, as the bard event is very simple and I really, truly, had not messed it up this time. I once again ran to Timorous Deep (4th time) and all the other zones. When I hailed the lady in Felwithe, I had finally done it correctly -

I was so happy, feeling like the luckiest bard in the world because my name existed somewhere permanently on pixels in the interweb, which is totally awesome (I did call my dad to tell him what happened because he played EQ and is totally proud of me, my mom not so much). Now I could go back to my regular schedule of standing AFK in Plane of Knowledge. The quest was finished.. or was it?

A couple days later, as soon as I logged in, the eqresource channel is humming with activity:

06/22/16 10:05:44 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'has anyone thats done it not done the hint so far?'
06/22/16 10:05:46 PM Gimamam tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'anyone got all the links of what is found at this point?'
06/22/16 10:05:51 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'i dont think that many completed it game wide >.>'
06/22/16 10:05:56 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'and no one can complete it till july patch :|'
06/22/16 10:06:24 PM Firiona.Ssdar tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'I haven't heard from the ranger/bard firsts on FV if they started yet'
06/22/16 10:06:29 PM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'there was one guy on luclin that did it'
06/22/16 10:06:53 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'you can only complete it if you already updated the mistmoore part, dzarn said he couldnt hotfix it in'
06/22/16 10:07:22 PM Firiona.Ssdar tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'I have the clues from monk, rogue, mage, warrior, paladin, and beastlord firsts'

Another locked achievement appeared in the Tradeskills section after finishing An Epic Retelling. Riou starts sending me tells to talk to an NPC in EF, so I do, and spit out the emote:

06/22/16 10:07:38 PM You tell serverwide.eqresource:5, '06/22/16 10:06:58 PM You open the crumpled piece of paper. It reads, 'West of Maelin standing between VI and V.' '
06/22/16 10:07:51 PM Firiona.Ssdar tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'oh I know'
06/22/16 10:07:57 PM Bristle.Xanathol tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'thats a clock'
06/22/16 10:08:15 PM Erollisi.Szilent tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'in PoK?'
06/22/16 10:09:50 PM Bristle.Xanathol tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'but I was thinking the time dial perhaps in PoT?'
06/22/16 10:10:22 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'well if it really means maelin the npc, then hes only in pok, dreadspire, library, erudin burning, plane of innovation'
06/22/16 10:10:27 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'but idk if any of those really have a clock'
06/22/16 10:10:30 PM Erollisi.Hotpants tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'or TimeA'
06/22/16 10:12:11 PM Bristle.Xanathol tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'mayeb an NPC with those numerals in its name then? just throwing stuff against the wall '
06/22/16 10:12:53 PM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'maelin is in several zones'
06/22/16 10:13:14 PM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'pok, DSK, library, erudin, poi'
06/22/16 10:15:43 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'could be robot v and vi instead of a time clock'
06/22/16 10:16:11 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'if its poi anyway '

Then I got invited to a group hunting the ground spawns, and the real fun started. With collaboration from the eqresource channel, everyone worked together to find the locations of each clue. I stayed up until 4am searching for ground spawns, others were up even later. Some highlights:

06/22/16 10:23:07 PM You tell your party, 'when you do potime flag, there is a clock in poi'
06/22/16 10:23:13 PM You tell your party, 'in special area you cant reach normally'
06/22/16 10:32:02 PM Xegony.Edrick tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'I know exactly what the latest clue means, but it isn't there' // Edrick probably looked in PoI but it was super hidden

06/22/16 11:05:39 PM Firiona.Ssdar tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'WOW'
06/22/16 11:05:42 PM Firiona.Ssdar tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'Timeless Oil'
06/22/16 11:05:56 PM Firiona.Ssdar tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'it is the maelin in PoI'
06/22/16 11:06:16 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'dont you need special crap to get to him?'
06/22/16 11:06:23 PM Firiona.Ssdar tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'yep'
06/22/16 11:06:37 PM Firiona.Ssdar tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'have to have Quintessence of Elements on you and be grouped (merc works)'
06/22/16 10:37:46 PM Xegony.Qulas tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'i got one not on that list'
06/22/16 10:37:57 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'what one qulas '
06/22/16 10:38:47 PM Xegony.Qulas tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'you'll have to wine and dine me first before i put out riou'
06/22/16 10:39:06 PM Xegony.Qulas tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'Atop the heart of the Kuuan spire.'
06/22/16 10:39:32 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'cool so likely only 3 clues left '
06/22/16 10:39:49 PM Sphynx tells the group, 'kuuan spire... OoW?'
06/22/16 10:39:57 PM You tell your party, 'harbingers spire'
06/22/16 10:40:07 PM Theriou tells the group, 'wasnt kuua god?'
06/22/16 10:43:47 PM Xegony.Edrick tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'Kuuan Light'

Here's the spot: (all the way at the top of Harbinger's Spire, really awesome choice)

06/22/16 10:50:47 PM Theriou tells the group, '"a nightmare under the disarmed ocean lord", "impaled, neither rat, gopher, nor maggot", "a frog surrounded by snakes under the court of a king", "West of Maelin standing between VI and V."'
06/22/16 10:56:02 PM You tell your party, 'impaled one'
06/22/16 10:56:06 PM You tell your party, 'perhaps uhh'
06/22/16 10:56:08 PM You tell your party, 'najena'
06/22/16 10:56:10 PM You tell your party, 'has impaled dwarf'
06/22/16 10:56:15 PM You tell your party, 'other zones like that. old dungeons'
06/22/16 10:57:35 PM Aldier tells the group, 'there is an impaler mob in Ruins of Illasin'
06/22/16 10:57:38 PM Aldier tells the group, 'undead...'
06/22/16 10:57:49 PM Theriou tells the group, 'im thinking its a small fat creature like those'
06/22/16 10:58:15 PM Theriou tells the group, 'actually'
06/22/16 10:58:18 PM Theriou tells the group, 'that is prob dwarf'
06/22/16 10:58:29 PM You tell your party, 'like maggots. nice riou'
06/22/16 10:58:40 PM Theriou tells the group, 'well arent maggots in this game like a barrel size?'
06/22/16 10:59:53 PM Theriou tells the group, 'only problem is theres like 200 places they can be'
06/22/16 11:00:04 PM You tell your party, 'thats what i said when i did your stupid zone contest'
06/23/16 12:20:50 AMYou tell your party, 'Questionable Cheese'
06/23/16 12:21:04 AMSphynx tells the group, 'impaler?'
06/23/16 12:21:10 AMYou tell your party, 'when you see this room you will understand'

Some theorycrafting

06/22/16 11:46:44 PM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'if there are 16 total items which we don't know, some won't be used, there are 23 skus'
06/22/16 11:47:21 PM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'well'
06/22/16 11:47:11 PM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'i imagine he wont use new stuff, i imagine he was working on this in his free time'
06/22/16 11:47:37 PM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'does changing groundspawns require a change in the data files?'
06/22/16 11:47:40 PM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'i think it does'
06/22/16 11:47:58 PM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'the changes i see were made 1/16/2015'
06/22/16 11:50:24 PM Xegony.Qulas tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'when was harbinger spire changed'
06/22/16 11:50:30 PM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, '1/16'
06/22/16 11:50:53 PM Xegony.Qulas tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'so he's been working on this for 2 years?'
06/23/16 10:38:54 AM Xegony.Zephrina tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'so far he hasn't suplicated any areas on the atlas'
06/23/16 10:39:35 AM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'except solc and runnyeye are both NE antonica'
06/23/16 10:39:53 AM Xegony.Beimeith tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'but, solc being added later might negate that'
06/23/16 10:40:33 AM Firiona.Ssdar tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'haven't done a breakdown by map location, but have by expansion (although solc is with original eq in my breakdown)'
06/23/16 10:41:27 AM Firiona.Ssdar tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'luclin and TSS are suspiciously lacking for the size of expansion'

This one my favorite: (a nightmare under the disarmed ocean lord)

Riou finds an unknown one

06/23/16 02:34:26 AM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'Blood Suspension'
06/23/16 02:34:40 AM Bristle.Tiseanu tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'nice, you found it'
06/23/16 02:34:45 AM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'no idea'
06/23/16 02:35:06 AM Lisard tells the group, 'where did you get blood suspension'
06/23/16 02:35:10 AM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'i dont think its related to frog tho since i dont see anything snake or frog around...'
06/23/16 02:35:13 AM Theriou tells the group, 'crushbone'
06/23/16 02:35:31 AM Theriou tells the group, 'this is prob an unknown clue... lol'
06/23/16 02:37:28 AM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'i was looking at throne rooms which are king courts'

By far the hardest one: a frog surrounded by snakes under the court of a king

06/22/16 11:34:30 PM Lisard tells the group, 'the frog snake one i checked Grobb'
06/22/16 11:34:30 PM Lisard tells the group, 'was gonna check guks then OS'
06/22/16 11:34:45 PM Lisard tells the group, 'Blackburrow has a snake pit but no frog'
06/22/16 11:35:03 PM Lisard tells the group, 'Plane of storm has frogs and snakes'
06/23/16 12:32:24 AM Lisard tells the group, 'Lake rathetear have anything to do with a king? both snake and frogloks there'
06/23/16 12:37:52 AM Theriou tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'the only thing can find on kings court is the shadowhaven casino and like neriak 4'
06/23/16 01:03:01 AM Aldier tells the group, 'there is the mushroom king in old seb... and below him are a few frogs.. would juggs be snakes?'
06/23/16 01:30:34 AM Xegony.Qulas tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'Jardel The Pirate King'
06/23/16 01:30:51 AM Xegony.Qulas tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'That has to be it, i bet there's a pirate that's a frog'
06/23/16 10:18:59 AM Firiona.Finalstand tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'snakes and a froglok in lake rathetear and lord bergurgle not really a king though'
06/23/16 10:27:17 AM Xegony.Illa tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'sarnarks are kinda like snakes'
06/23/16 10:27:26 AM Xegony.Illa tells serverwide.eqresource:5, 'has all the right letters'
06/23/16 11:31:38 AM Lisard tells the group, 'look at the map of TD, the island with the iksar master/succor point does it look like a frog to you?'
06/23/16 11:31:48 AM Lisard tells the group, 'or am i going crazy'
06/23/16 11:31:53 AM Hydralisk tells the group, 'youre going crazy lisard'

Around 5 hours later Lisard did find the snake/king location:

Now that groundspawns were all found, a new quest appeared. This one was more straightforward - get TS quests from Lebounde in Halas, complete them, and complete the 3 old TS super quests he asks you to do.

After working on the TS Supplies tasks for a bit, it became apparent that these were going to be difficult - some of the TS requirements were unknown recipes or had very rare ingredients. I looked out over the expanse of Ocean of Tears, hopelessly trying to forage Marr Cherries, and scolded myself for not saving all obscure TS items for years. In retrospect, the Ocean of Tears was probably created by every EQ player who has ever complained about tradeskills, and, more recently, flagging (myself included).

People were still working together in the eqresource channel, and Tiseanu shared the first unknown recipe (Griffon Casserole). The Painted Bean Ale was a straightforward substitution, but the other unkown recipes would be a bit more difficult. The first unknown recipe I tried was Siren Hair Robe (naturally I was attracted to this one since it's similar to my name). I searched for similar recipes, i.e. Ice Silk Robe which uses Ice Burrower Silk, Vial of Purified Mana, Platinum Thread, and a Robe Pattern. The other Velious tailoring combines all followed the same scheme - a dropped item, Gold/Silver/Platinum Thread, a Pattern, and a Vial of Mana. Next I killed everything in SG, collecting a bunch of Lock of Siren Hair. I tried a bunch of different combinations of this hair with Vials, Thread, and a Robe Pattern, but nothing worked. This hair was known to not be used for anything; the only good Siren Hair was from the 10 or so sirens in Cobalt Scar. I spent hours killing those until I had 5 Siren Hair (this gave me 8 total items, the max which could be combined in a Coldain Tanners Kit during Velious). I tried the no drop Siren Hair, but nothing worked. Then I re-tried the Lock of Siren Hair (this time using more hair - usually in TS you only use up to 3 of one component) and it worked! I did a little dance in my chair, told my guildmate who was working on the TS quest with me (Sphynx), and asked him not to tell anyone. The Plan was to trade the recipe for one of the others, once people figured them out. Obviously The Plan turned out quite a bit differently.

After making the robe, since I hadn't done the required subquests (Earring of the Solstice, Aid Grimel, Eron's Jewelry), I set out to do those instead. The earring was straightforward, but I was stuck on Aid Grimel because I hadn't done Elemental progression on my bard. Myself and a few others on our server spent several days running around PoP zones, checking for bosses. We ran Bertoxxulous after a guild raid, invited anyone who was interested, and continued on with the rest of the EP mobs. In between, I gathered components for the quests. I had to do part of the Coldain ring (Coldain Smithy Hammer) and spent a lot of time farming and foraging in various PoP zones. The best (worst) part was when I made 18 Bristlebane Party Platters for myself and friends, thinking I was saving them time. Then I was told that Party Platters are no trade, and my heart sank. What kind of party can you not share food at?

After Aid Grimel, I started on Eron's Jewelry. I don't think I was aware this quest existed in SoF and had never done it before, but the quest itself is pretty neat. I thought it was going to be easy... baking = catch a bunch of fish in SoF zones? No problem, I went to Plane of Loping etc and happily fished for an hour or two. Next I have to combine the fish into some crazy fancy food which I would never put up with making in real life, but this is EQ so of course I'll do it. What do I need? Foraged items in Plane of Loping /facepalm. I made the food with all the fish, go to turn them in, and this jerk gnome says I need more extra fish for "later." I was super pissed. So I went back and felt sorry for myself while fishing in Loping Plains (again). For the other quests, I wasted all kinds of hours farming things from the wrong places, but the best part was definitely the Counting Shadows quest (#5).

If you've never done Eron's Jewelry, this quest is a real treat. Eron gives you a book with missing pages called Shadow Counting. After farming the missing pages and repairing it, the book describes an arcane ritual where you are warned of certain death, with instructions that sound like a computer programmer wrote them and make as much sense as the priest in Monty Python (apparently this quest is a tribute to Terry Goodkind?).

"The magic of the boxes is such that a particular box does not need a particular opening but instead the order in which you open the boxes decides which method is used to open each box."

Okay then. After farming 3 rare boxes and collecting some other ingredients, I went to the island in the ocean north of Hills of Shade. Here there is a small altar. At midnight you do an initial combine for the first box. During daytime, combine the second box, and then the third. At noon the ritual begins, and you have 60 seconds to complete it. If you mess up, you get DT'd and lose your components.

After Eron's Jewelry, I went back to working on the TS Supplies quests. I spent 6 hours farming Pyrilen in RSS, and was so afraid of failing the combine I bought a Draught of the Craftsman. Eventually I had everything except the other unknown combines - Iridescent Scale Headdress and Hooked Enchanted Arrow. Although I'd offered to trade the robe recipe, no one had responded, so I knew I was going to have to just figure it out. Iridescent Scale Headdress is a GoD recipe that used to be known - 1 Enchanted? Platinum Bar + 1 Iridescent Scale, but the combine had been "broken" for years. I set up in a similar fashion to the robe - I collected an array of GoD TS components (Nihilite, Clay, Meldstones, you name it) in my bags along with Vials of Mana, Enchanted Bars of every type and of course Iridescent Scales. After an hour or two of trying every permutation I could think of, nothing worked. I gave up on it for several days, and later gave Sphynx my 2 scales to let him try to figure it out.

Meanwhile, I was taking out my tradeskill frustration on the armies of GoD mobs in Kodtaz, Qvic, and Yxxta while trying to farm more scales. This is actually pretty fun if you have the opportunity, so I kept at it for an absurdly long time. I had 5 scales. I went back and tried the combines again, and it worked - 5 Iridescent Scales and 1 Enchanted Platinum Bar. At this point I tried to trade the two recipes for the Hooked Enchanted Arrow (2 unknown recipes for 1? great deal) and someone replied by posting they'd shared the recipe the night before on EQTraders, so The Plan was pretty much out the window at this point. I shared the recipe with Sphynx and no one else. I told myself that if I found the arrow recipe, I'd keep it to myself until I'd at least finished the quest.

One day I logged in and Sphynx linked me the arrow - apparently a link had been generated on Xegony in /buyer after the patch. Now that we had an item link, our combine attempts could be better directed. Hooked Enchanted Arrow is, well.. it's 3 damage and 50 range, pretty much the worst arrow ever made except that it's magic. This narrowed the possibilities down considerably. Using the item ID generated by eqresource we looked at nearby items. Sheaf Arrow was similar, as was Flight Arrow - two classic arrows purchasable from old school vendors. It was also next to a list of Jaggedpine weapons. Jaggedpine proved fruitless, so it was narrowed down to almost certainly classic EQ. After collecting dozens of TS items from across EQ, and storing them on my wizard (previously clean inventory and bank), this is what happened:

Of all the TS, Fletching is one of the ones I am least familiar with. It seems straightforward - arrows are a combination of 4 arrow bits (point, fletch, shaft, nock) in a Fletching Kit. The thing is, how could their possibly be an arrow that hadn't been found yet? Every combination of every type of point, fletch etc had already been discovered. This arrow had to be special. We looked through every arrow recipe known to Norrath on EQTraders, and they were almost all named CLASS x Arrow, this one had no such distinction. Next I thought about what kind of items made things magical in EQ. Celestial Essence, Vials of Mana, Fairy Dust. Enchanted Adamantite. Enchanted JC Bars. Enchanted Clay. Enchanted Steel. Golden Ember Powder. I consulted a ranger from 1999 (thanks Arahgorn) on the finer points of fletching. He gave me some good ideas but I was still unsuccessful. Nothing worked.

Things went downhill from there. I spent days sitting in PoK thinking about the arrow. I whined and cried to friends. All I wanted in life was to make this arrow. I ran out of AAs to Glyph on raids. I didn't want to exp because I was depressed. I started farming TS items that most certainly had nothing to do with arrows or fletching, but I was convinced that if I just combined every type of TS item in the game in my Fletching Kit, eventually it would work. I farmed Fire Beetle Eyes, Pixie Wings, Bat Wings, Fairy Wings, Griffon Wings. Lightstones. Rat Ears. Essence of Moonlight. Owlbear Feathers. Sticks that could replace the shaft. Branches of Oak. Little shiny bits of metal. Whatever. I was vomiting directly into my Fletching Kit and hitting combine.

One night, I had a dream that I figured out the recipe for Hooked Enchanted Arrow. In my dream I found a special magical fire dagger, I melted it down in a forge. It made 2 enchanted bits, which I used to make Enchanted Hooked Arrow Tips. In my dream, this made perfect sense because the arrow had 4 fire damage on it, so obviously it needed some kind of fire component. When I woke up, I was so happy. "I can make the arrow now," I thought to myself. I slowly remembered the arrow did not have 4 fire damage, and it dawned on me that I was only dreaming. After consulting the eqresource channel, it turns out others had dreams/nightmares about the arrows as well (Ssdar and Goodurden).

07/09/16 08:11:29 PM You cannot combine these items in this container type!

679 "does not combine" attempts. I texted one of my old EQ friends who knows everything, Bonaiel. I told him my predicament with this arrow. He logged in and started trying to make the arrow. He was using a base combine of Hooked Arrowheads + Wooden Shaft + Large Nock + Round Fletch. I realized that I was using the wrong shaft - I had been using Bone Shaft because it gave 3 dmg to the arrow. I swapped it for a Wooden Shaft and recombined with a bunch of magic-y bonus items. Vial of Viscous Mana, and it worked. Remember how I said I wasn't going to tell anyone the recipe? Well, it kind of burst out of me. All that pent up sadness and frustration of not being able to make this arrow and I FINALLY did it, I had to share, so I immediately told Sphynx.

The race was on. At this point, my heart was pounding absurdly fast, like it does when you almost die in a car accident, only EQ. I went to Halas and turned in the fletching seal. The next step was to combine the 3 big TS quest items in a box in Lebounde's house. I went to the bank and couldn't find them - my bank, my inventory, my wizard's bank and inventory were completely trashed and overflowing with random TS items. I did an /outputfile inventory and loaded EverQuest Inventory Report (thanks Fanra!) to find my quest items. After I'd gotten them, I went into Lebounde's house and got the box. The items didn't combine. I re-read the quest description - it was Earring of the Solstice, I had the druid only Xanthe's Earring of Nature. I gated and ran to Shadowhaven, but the brain cells which used to hold the correct path to Fungus Grove were otherwise indisposed. I went to Paludal Caverns, then the Deep side of Echo Caverns, cussed a lot, then finally to Fungus Grove. Got the right earring. Was superstitious about the combine, so I ran back to Halas and tried to get back into Lebounde's house. Couldn't get in. Panicked.

07/10/16 08:41:13 PM Try as you might, the door does not budge.
07/10/16 08:41:15 PM Try as you might, the door does not budge.
07/10/16 08:41:22 PM Try as you might, the door does not budge.
07/10/16 08:41:28 PM You tell your party, 'umm'
07/10/16 08:41:40 PM Try as you might, the door does not budge.
07/10/16 08:41:44 PM Sphynx tells the group, 'do you mind if i complete?'
07/10/16 08:41:59 PM You tell your party, 'let me go first pls '
07/10/16 08:42:09 PM Sphynx tells the group, '/sigh...'
07/10/16 08:42:12 PM Sphynx tells the group, 'ok...'

I wasn't going to be first, because I couldn't control myself, shared the recipe, fumbled my inventory and running around and was too slow. Fortunately Sphynx let me go ahead.

07/10/16 08:42:04 PM You lacked the skills to fashion the items together. Heart Attack #2 of the day
07/10/16 08:42:04 PM You failed the combine, but you managed to recover Earring of the Solstice.
07/10/16 08:42:04 PM You failed the combine, but you managed to recover Signet of Might.
07/10/16 08:42:04 PM You failed the combine, but you managed to recover Eron's Jewelry.
07/10/16 08:42:08 PM You lacked the skills to fashion the items together.#3
07/10/16 08:42:08 PM You failed the combine, but you managed to recover Earring of the Solstice.
07/10/16 08:42:08 PM You failed the combine, but you managed to recover Signet of Might.
07/10/16 08:42:08 PM You failed the combine, but you managed to recover Eron's Jewelry.
07/10/16 08:42:12 PM You have fashioned the items together to create an unexpected product: Expensive Mistake #4

Wtf? An Expensive Mistake? Massive quest troll right there. I went ahead and turned it in.

07/10/16 08:42:38 PM Lebounde ab Dolmen holds up the mangled mass of gems and leaves that was once your prized treasures. He inspects the mass carefully and then looks at you, then looks back at it, then back at you. He breathes heavily and begins chuckling before looking back at the mass again and erupting in uproarious laughter. He places the tangled mess in his pocket and wipes a tear from his eye before calming himself enough to speak, 'My god, Sirenea. What a mess yeh made! Truth be told, I dinnae really expect anyone else t' be able t' make use of that finicky little box. Yeh gave it yer best try and I respect yeh for it, fine enough work t' earn somethin' at least. Maybe with this yeh be less likely to mess up yer next project.'
07/10/16 08:42:38 PM Your task 'The Artisan's Prize' has been updated.
07/10/16 08:42:38 PM The artisan reaches into his bag and pulls out a small shining trinket that resembles what you might imagine a proper melding of your former pieces of jewelry would have looked like. He presents it to you and smiles, 'May it bring yeh good fortune.'
07/10/16 08:42:38 PM You have been given: Artisan's Prize
07/10/16 08:42:38 PM <SYSTEMWIDE_MESSAGE>:A proclamation rings out over the Frigid Plains, 'Halas wishes all across the land to join us in congratulating, Sirenea, for being the first to earn the Artisan's Prize.'
07/10/16 08:42:40 PM You have completed achievement: The Artisan's Prize
07/10/16 08:42:50 PM Sphynx has completed achievement: The Artisan's Prize
07/10/16 08:42:50 PM Your guildmate Sphynx has completed The Artisan's Prize achievement.
07/10/16 08:42:47 PM Rorcex tells you, 'woo woo!'
07/10/16 08:42:56 PM Bdallya tells you, 'zomg~ too!'
07/10/16 08:42:57 PM Bonaiel tells you, ''
07/10/16 08:42:59 PM You say to your guild, 'Artisan's Prize'
07/10/16 08:43:02 PM Sphynx tells the group, 'its an AUG?/1/1'
07/10/16 08:43:03 PM You told Bonaiel, 'Artisan's Prize'

The arrow recipe was shared in the eqresource channel and posted here. As far as I know, there isn't another secret quest... or is there? Happy tradeskilling!

So has anyone tried to complete the quest while already having the aug?
Maybe wearing the aug will make the final comebine succeed.

Repeating the quest, could be the real secret!

Once completed, he then only offers the quests for making the seals.

Thanks so much for sharing your story on this adventure Sirene! It was a great read and really cool how you spearheaded parts of the quest. And I can also be grateful I don't have to slam my head against the wall thanks to many peoples' efforts (including yours).

Fantastic write-up, thanks for sharing!

Great read, thanks for sharing! Can't wait to get through all the artisan tasks myself.

as a tradeskiller myself from many years ago, maybe someday i'll do this quest. The aug looks amazing, but i loved reading the story Sirene