To get the subject off of rotations and drama for a while, I'd like to bring up a different topic. The following posts have been made "in character" and contains text affected by Ogre speech impediment. Some descriptions are loosely based on game mechanics, while others took liberties to fit the story narrative. For the OOC version, please see the post below: ------------------------------- It hard being Ogre. Many of da udder races not ap … appre … like us. Dey tink we all so dumb dat we never notice. Greenbloods different. Greenbloods have to be smarter dan average Ogre. Being smart makes Greenbloods better at what dey do. Crakneks no need to be smart, just strong. Shamen be wise, but still not smart. But being Greenblood means people double scared of me. Dey no like it when people talk wif dead tings. Me went out in da world and looked to find udder races. Found big city of Freeport. Dey not want me around too much, but I convinced da mil… mili … da guards dat I would help dem wif orc troubles. Orcs prolly misunderstood like Ogres, but smarts say dat killing dem is necessary evil. Dey no great friends to Ogres, so what me care. Me give lots of belts to guards, now most of dem only wary wif me being around. Me just avoid patrols from Pallys. Pallys just no like Greenbloods at all. Once it ok for me to move around Freeport, me make haste to da locals like Greenbloods dat talk wif dead tings. Figure dat dem doing da same ting would make us get along. Nope! Dere shopmen insult me for being Ogre, and da Guild Masters call me “refuse.” At least dey not attack me. Me used smarts to figure out dat dey prolly have problems wif Pallys same as me do. Me use Greenblood tricks to find ways to ambush weaker Pallys. Dead bodies sure to get me noticed. Maybe Dismal Rage (dat Freeport Greenbloods I learned) see how smart me is now. Now dey at least talk to me like me real person and not just dumb Ogre. Dey talk much about Innoruk and hate. Me prefer Rallos Zek, but me understand differences. Me much more interested in using weapons and fighting dan just hating. Me does like swords especially. Raltur Caliskon be da first to talk to me bout important tings. Tells me dat Dismal Rage uses udder guards like Dark Elves use Ogres and Trolls. Me raise eyebrow at dat. Him keeps saying dat Sir Lucan of da guards needs a favor and me should do it, but if it anyting important bring it back to Raltur and not Lucan. Me figures why not, and goes to talk to Sir Lucan. He must have heard of me killing orcs and bringing belts, cause he not mind me walking in. I tell him words dat Raltur give me, and Lucan tells me dat a man in da Commonlands has message going to Pally hall dat Lucan wants. Tells me to get it for him. Me goes around looking for a man in commons, but not seeming to have much luck. Me gets all da way to a pond near da way to da haunted woods when dis man suddenly attacks me. Me not going to take dat lightly, and me swings sword at him. He fight me for a bit, but he not match for me. In hims pocket he has note dat says it going to Pally hall. Did me just get da right guy by mistake? Me takes note and starts walk back to Freeport. Me looks at note more careful. It coming from Qeynos, place me only heard about. Me not completely sure what dis means, but me smarts say dat me might want to copy dis note and keep on Dismal Rage and Lucan’s good side. Me stops at inn in Freeport and makes best copy me can. It good dat me be smart Greenblood. Craknek not know how to copy dis good. Me gives real note to Raltur. Me tinks he may be smarter dan Lucan and be mad if he sees copy. Him makes comments about Antonious Bayle and Lucan and stuff dat he says he already knew about. Him talks about a new mission, but me stopped listening after a while. After him shuts up finally, me walks away to go give copy to Sir Lucan. Sir Lucan also talk down to me. Wants me to find da traitor among his guards dat de note talks about. Me really didn’t have more to go on, so me decided to call it a day and tink about it some time. Over next few days, me use more Greenblood tricks to get more places me not supposed to be. Even slip into Pally hall wifout dem knowing. While tinking about making silly drawing on wall, me hear talk in next room about Pallys infi … infil … pretending to be da udder guards. Some young Pally gonna deliver message to sneaky Pally playing like guard. Me interested, so me follow young Pally as he goes looking for da right guard. Takes young Pally a while to find da guard, but he does. Sneaky guard-Pally say he took someting from floor in Sir Lucan of da Guard’s quarters. He was gonna give it to young Pally, but udder guards come and beat up sneaky-Pally. Maybe dat was one Lucan wanted me to kill. Maybe he got tired of waiting? Paper drops to floor while young Pally looks scared. Me gets good look at it. Paper just say “Zimel’s Blades” and has lots of dots after dat. Not seem much important to me at dat time. Guards not notice paper, and young Pally pick it up after dey leave. More I walk around Freeport more I tink about dat paper. Most of dese humans always wanting to sell tings or give dem away for tings. Maybe dis Zimel have good blade for me. But whole time me been here me never seen anyone named Zimel or shop named Zimel’s Blades. Me ask around at Dismal Rage buddies but no one dere much help. Dere more people dan just dem in city. Humans make tings hard to understand sometimes. Some humans rule over lot more humans dat could easily beat dem if dey put dere minds to it. Me go over to da office where humans get let to own shops and tings in Freeport. Me ask around about Zimel’s Blades. Workers seem to be scared by Ogre asking dese questions. Me wonder if Boomba had dis many problems getting shop. But one of dem tell me about old shop dat used to be around and da man who ran it, Ariska Zimel. Told me about all his stuff getting burned and given to a dwarf in town named Groflah Steadirt. As me turned to leave, caught a glimpse of young Pally running off. Maybe hims sneaking on me now? He must have read dat paper and had da same tinks as me. Me use Greenblood skill to hide in shadows and follow him back to Pally hall. He go back to room me first hear him and udder Pally talking, and tells udder Pally bout Sir Lucan snooping around da old shop of Zimel’s. Me hear udder Pally tell young Pally dat Lucan looking for sword named Soulfire. Me not know what dat is, but sound like good treasure. And me does like swords… Young Pally runs off again and me follows. He go to Groflah’s Forge. Me hears him talk wif dwarf bout Zimel, but dwarf gets scared and no talk. Young Pally gives him da paper me sees before. Groflah got excited bout dem dots and told young Pally to meet him dat night at a bar. Dis getting so interesting. Young Pally and dwarfie not meeting up till later, so I leave dem alone for now. Go back to Dismal Rage buddies to spend rest of day. Talk to dem about what me see. Big boss Pietro Zarn only look at me funny when I talk about it, but Netuk Phenzon seem much more interested. Tells me dat dey know dat Groflah has someting taken from one of dere allies. Tells me Innoruuk wants me to bring dat paper back to Netuk. Me tink dey just trying to use me, but me not tell dem dat. Netuk tells me to find Groflah at bar tonight and get paper from him. Me agrees and leaves. Me waits around bar, keeping away from people dat attack me for just being Ogre, or Greenblood, or bofh. Bad for me, young Pally come in first and sit at bar. If he saw me he not show dat he cares. Dis place do serve all types. Dwarf come in later and sit closer to me. Pally sees him and sits down wit him. Pally gives mean look at me. Me pretends not to listen, but me really does. Me hears dwarf give Pally a new copy of paper, but me can’t see it. Dots were code for someting. Pally asks more about Ariska. Dwarf tells Pally dat Ariska disappeared, but dwarf tink dat he still alive, and tink dat Pietro Zarn did it. Me knows dat Pietro Zarn is da human Greenblood leader. Me wonders if dat is why he looked at me funny earlier. Pally not know about Pietro Zarn, so dwarf tells him more bout how dwarf and Ariska stole a sword from a man leading men wearing Innoruuk stuff. Says da udder men went to fight, and da leader left a glowing sword behind while he fought wif a different sword. Ariska would go take sword from camp and run off wit it. Later, dwarf and Ariska find out man was Pietro Zarn and he was looking for stolen sword named Soulfire. Dere dat name again! Dwarf tinks Zarn found Ariska. Dey get quiet, and Pally stands up to leave. Me follows him outside, and when me sure no one is looking, be bashes him in da head. Him turns around and gives me a good fight, but him not prepared for da touch of Rallos Zek. Me takes da new copy of da paper from him. Dwarf made new notes on dots in da message. Me frow what left of him in da water near da docks just in case. Later, dwarf comes out of bar. Him look like he had too much to drink. Maybe da story bring up bad feelings for him. Me still has job to do for Dismal Rage buddies. After disappointing fight, me takes first paper wif just dots and frows dwarf body in water next to Pally. Me returns to Dismal Rage buddies wif first paper. Me tinks dat more den just Netuk might be interested in it. Me tries to give paper to Pietro Zarn since dwarf said he was da one dat Soulfire was took from. Him doesn’t even look at it. Me asks him about Ariska Zimel, about Groflah, about Soulfire, about Sir Lucan looking for Soulfire. If hims hear me he not showing me. Me gets mad about it, and gives paper to Netuk instead. Netuk is much more happy. But him only gives me scroll for spell me already knew and some coins. Me doesn’t get much use out of dat, but takes monies from him and goes back to bar where dis night started. People go in and out, but me start to smell someting dat make even Ogre sick when man named Tykar Renlin walk in. Him looks horrible to be human. Him starts drinking. After while, da bard in da room sings song about Sir Lucan. Tykar gets mad. Him blurts out dat Lucan jailed him and his friend Zimel. Me jumps up and asks Tykar about Zimel. Him no talk to me. Wants more drink from bar. Me looks at bartender and orders drink after drink until we find someting he likes. Him den tells me about Zimel and how he feels bad cause he took Zimel’s blanket when he got set free. Says Zimel is still locked up. He gives me blanket to give back to Zimel. Me considered beating up Tykar for making me buy all does drinks and frowing him in da water next to Pally and da Dwarf, but me couldn’t see where it would help anyting but me feelings. And he not look like much of a fighter, so not even fun. Me made way to da jail under da arena. Gave nod to Sullon Zek statue as me passed. Me make way down to cells. Me find all da cells open. Me wonder how two guards keep order. Den me see only one prisoner. Guess dat easy enough. Me hope dis one prisoner da one me looking for. Me talk to prisoner, but he talk back to me in words me no understand. Funny dat human not speak good common. Dat coming from ogre say someting bad. Me not want to give him blanket right away. Me say more tings to get him to talk. Hims get real quiet and look at me funny when I call him Ariska Zimel. Me tink dis really be him. Me ask about Soulfire. Him give a different response. Him say someting about blanket (how hims know me have it?) and bog and goo. Me tink about bashing him, but smarts say dat he prolly not have anyting being a prisoner and all. Dis prolly hard for udders to figure out, but being from Ogguk, bog and goo someting me know all too well. Me gets bog juice and edible goo and gives dat to him wif da blanket. Him get funny look in eye when I give to him. Him give me a key (me not sure me want to know where he hide it) and tell me to travel Tunaria’s corridor and find ceelerk. Dis be harder to figure out. But still, me made him tink me was his friend, and hims getting me closer to someting. Me can feel it … Me go talk to Dismal Rage buddies again, but once more dey no help. None of dem wants da key for anyting. Hoped maybe dey could find out what it was for, but guess dat still on me. A few days later me start getting bored of Freeport. Me start heading West. Me make it all da way to haunted woods. Many undeads dere. Dey not da smart undead. Dey no match for me one on one, but dey gang up on me. Me pretend to be dead and dey not know difference. Still, not much excitement since dey not undead me can talk to. Me make way to far side of woods. On far side me come to canyon. Me see many orcs, and humans as well. None of dem seem to like me being here. Me fall back to using Greenblood tricks to hide in shadows. Me find High Keep after wandering around some. Wait, H … K. Me pull out key I got from Ariska Zimel days ago and look at it again. Tag on it say H.K. 102. Me not sure what number on it means, but maybe dis H.K. Me sneak inside and find what look like fun and games. Too bad dey not let me play. Me like games. Me not like losing so much, but me like games. Me go down to basement and find people talking wif woman, getting and giving money and tings from her. Some give her keys like one me have. Me wait till da people leave, and come out from shadows. If her scared by me, she not show it. Good not to show fear. Me try to give her key, but she say take it to assistant. Assistant say she sorry to see me go but give me box from inside a room dat have a metal door. Inside me find a note. It say it for Ariska, and say dat he holding Soulfire for Zimel. It signed by Brother Hayle of Temple of Life. Me heard before dat Temple of Life be goody types from Qeynos, but me never been dere yet. Me make way back to Freeport. Me tink surely Pietro Zarn have someting to say about dis. Him must want Soulfire back after all dis time. Me get to Dismal Rage buddies, but again dey only look at me funny when I show dem da note. Even Pietro Zarn not give me da slightest word. Me getting mad wif Dismal Rage buddies now. Why dey not see dis good chance to make Pallys look silly? Pallys looking for Soulfire, but for some reason me seem to be da only Greenblood dat cares about getting it back for Dismal Rage buddies.
Den me tinks, why not just get it for meself? Me can use smarts. Maybe if me does enough to make Temple of Life tink me not bad Ogre Greenblood dey let me close to Soulfire. Den me do whatever bashing need done and take it for me own. Dat day me gaver tings and set out for Qeynos. Me go passed da Commonlands again. Me go to far side of haunted woods. After sneaking in High Pass canyon, me find big open plains. Me keep moving, killing da odd griffin and giant along da way. Me come across bandits as well. For some reason dey tink me give up money to dem. Me kill dem easily, but me no find much useful at dere camp. Me does find purdy sashes. Dem so soft. Dey so soft, someone surely want good money for dem. Me take as many as me can carry along wif me. As me cross big bridge over river, me see big shiny curved white rocks in distance. Closest me ever seen to someting like dat was bridges in Feerott. Me too curious not to go over and look. Dere me see lots of magic people popping out of portals and going back into dem and disappearing again. Me seen a few people doing dis in commonlands, but dat was just around small rock pyramid. Dis was BIG. For some reason me like. But human guards nearby. Me tink it best if me not stick around. Me travel on furder West. Me pass interesting area dat have ogres, but before me can go talk do dem, more peoples kill dem. Ogres fight good fight wif people. Rallos would be proud. Dey not die wifout fight. As me gets as far West as me can, people talk about Qeynos. Me must be getting close. As me start to see big walled city in distance, me begin to wonder just now me gonna get dem to like me. Me figure if dey like most humans, dey not all goody goody. Dere must be more Greenblood humans here dat at least me can talk wif. Me use Greenblood tricks to get inside city and me start to listen. Before long me hear of Bloodsabers. Dem said to have people dat talks wif undead. Dem said to be in da sewers of da city. One day me going to have to visit Dark Elfies so dat me can talk to Greenbloods in some place not run down. Me make way down to sewers of da city. Me not sure how me not get lost, but eventually me finds place wif lots of evil symbols on da wall. As me walk forward, me gets unexpected surprise as me gets attacked by spectres. Before me even tink about it too hard, me is in battle. It very hard fight, but me win out after some time. Only den do me realize dat spectres are Bloodsaber Guards. Dey already not like me, and now me killed dere guards. Well on da bright side, maybe dis get me in good wif da goodies. Me decide not to worry wif Bloodsabers. Dey prolly as useless as Dismal Rage starting to get. As me return to da city. Me completely surprised to find dat Pallys of storms ok wif me being dere. Well dey still look at me funny, but dey not chase me away. Me even finds one of dem dat wants da bandit sashes me picked up before. Him so happy to get dem, he tells me dat he going to tell most of da city dat me an ok Ogre. I ask him if dat even means dat he tell da Temple of Life. He tell me of course. Wow me getting in good wif dem faster dan expected. News go fast, and now me able to walk around mostly wifout anyone minding too much. Cept some guards still not like me, while some don’t mind. Me not quite sure why. Me head over to da Temple of Life. Sure enough, dey look at me funny, but none of dem chase me out of temple just for being dere. Just as me taking in sights of da temple and trying to figure out how dey make dat ting spin in da air, some human sneak up on me and yells bout seeking salvation. Me jumped a bit, but finding only human wif donation cup out, me settles down. Me gives him some gold for his cup. Him get excited look in his eyes and start to cast spell. Him say he cure me of disease. Me not so sure me needed curing, but whatever. Me decides dat dis Brother Hayle needs to be found. Me starts to ask around for him, but no luck in finding him. Enic Ruklin does tell me dat hims not protecting da fishes like he should, and needs to recover fishy bodies. Me looks around and sees a human wif a skeleton friend sending skeleton into da pond over and over. Me tells Enic dat me do someting about it. Me goes over to da human wif da skelly friend and offers not to kill him if he gives me da fish. Him agrees and hims skeleton goes into da water more and more. After he give me a couple fish, him not notice Enic sneaking up behind him. Enic kill dat human dead. Me show him da fish dat de human was stealing. Him tanks me oh so much for my good deeds (bleh). All da Priests tink da world of me now. One Priestess finally tells me dat Brother Hayle out in da plains wif da Splitpaw gnolls. It never ending wif me running around. Me leave city and go out to da plains again. Me not seen dat many gnolls out here, but me figure da only place me not been is dat bridge Souf of da big white wizzy rocks. Me arrives across da bridge and finds even more plains. Dere some more interesting animals here dat me not seen before. Me explore around and find lots of gnolls around strange rock and hill area. Me find tunnel leading inside. Me tink dis look good for finding who me looking for. After some fighting, and some sneaking, me overhear gnolls talking about human prisoner priest. Me laugh to self, tinking dat me finding so many pallys and pally friends in prison lately. Me sneak over to prison, but before me go inside, me test da levers dat open da cells. Dis not job for one person. Dey never get out again if dey go inside wifout someone to let dem back out. Luckily, me is Greenblood. Me animates skeleton from nearby cell and lets it out. Me tell skeleton to stand near switch and press it when me tell him to. Sure enough, me finds Brother Hayle all locked up. Me gives him da note from High Keep. Him gives me a really funny look, but den says dat finally Ariska has sent a noble knight to get Soulfire. Me not sure about noble, but knight me likes. But him den say dat Ariska said not to give Soufire to anyone wifout proof of nobility. Tired of guessing games, me ask what proof of nobility is. Him say dat da note is one bit of proof, but dat he also wants to see a Sword of Faith and a Testimony of Truth. Says dat pallys in da Hall of Truth will help me get dose. Den he gets funny look and says dat for da hilt of Soulfire me need to fight Xicotl. Me sighs and asks just who is Xicotl. Him tells me dat a Troll Shadowknight tried to steal Soulfire from da Temple of Life, but only got away wif da hilt. Him now shows up at Castle Mistmoore on da far side of da known world near da elfie lands. Greenbloods got no big love for da Nights Keep trolls, so me agrees to get it back. As me walk back to leave da cell, me quietly tell skeleton to push lever. Me surprised dat Hayle not use dis chance to escape. Silly pallys. Me head back to big white curved rocks, and surprise next wizzy dat shows up. Me tell him he taking me to Elfie land, and him agrees. Dat was easy. Wizzy was tricky, him sent just me. Was going to make him take me to Mistmoore. Me have to remember dat trick for later. Me wanders around da forest following roads for a while. Me see big elfie city in da trees, but me not going to try to get close. Elfies very much not like Ogres. Waste of time to try to change dey minds. Me turn back and take anudder fork in road, and see big castle entrance guarded by tall elves. Dem not look like vampires me heard about, so me tink dat not right castle. Down da road me goes again, finding a paff frough tall hills to more forest. Dem elfies likes trees way too much. Dese not even big trees like in Feerott. Just small weak elfie trees. Me takes wrong road again and comes out of forest near city wif lots of gnomes. Just as me getting mad, gnome in robe runs by wif skeleton following him. Me grabs him by his robe and tells him dat him should like me cause I talk to dead tings like him. Him looked very scared and shook head yes. Me asked him to point me to Mistmoore. Him talk very fast about how to get dere. Me let him go and him run very fast back to gnome city. Me may regret dat someday, but for now on to Mistmoore. Once me got to castle me find lots of Dark Elfies guarding. Tinking me found some friends me try to talk to dem. Dey attack me right away. Dey all not realize dat dey supposed to be friends wif Ogre. Oh well, tank Rallos for a good warm up fight. Me kill all attacking Dark Elfies. Me make way frough long canyon killing Elfies left and right. Me finally come to front door of castle. Inside me start making wrong turns again. Me find lots of gypsies dat attack me as well. Me not sure why so many attacking me, or why dere teef so long. Me make way upstairs finding more Dark Elfies, some dat look different dan normal. More like animal dan Elfie. Me rounded corner from one bedroom, only to find someting me didn’t expect. Me shocked to find Troll sitting in big hot baff. Me amazed dat dis Troll even know dat he supposed to take baffs. Him open eyes and see me standing dere, him reach for sword and den attacks me. We fight good fight. Do much glory to Rallos Zek. Him gift me once more wif his Touch, and Troll dies in grip of agony. On hims body me find a hilt of a sword. Me sure dat dis must be da hilt of Soulfire. Wif da hilt in my bags, me heads out and back do da forest hoping to find da wizzy spot and get one of dem to get me back to Freeport. Me got lost again. Not sure how but me ended up in mountains. Me keep walking and pass by Dwarfies. Dey even more stubborn dan Elfies when it comes to liking Ogres. Me keep following road until me come to big wall next to sea. As me walk to da end of docks me hears people saying dat da boat coming to take dem to Freeport. Me luckiest Greenblood ever. After day or two of boat riding. Me get off in Freeport. Long trip leave me very hungry. Me stop by Grub and Grog before leaving docks. Dey sounded like dey know good Ogguk food, but it not to be. While eating sorry human food, human come up to me and tell me how much he tanks me for killing vampires in Mistmoore. Him say dat me done good to put souls of hims gypsie friends at rest. Me didn’t exactly do it for dat reason, but me didn’t tell him dat. Him offer to sing songs of what me did. Me never tink dat me be part of a song. Dis great! Den me got to tinking. Me ask new bard friend Fabian if him would sing songs of me to Pallys in town. Him look at me funny for asking, but den me slide him some gold coins. Him nods his head and runs off. While me feel good about self for getting bard to do hard work for me. Me go over to Dismal Rage people again. Dey looking at me a little more wary den last time. Me pulls out hilt of Soulfire and puts it in Pietro Zarn’s face. Me ask if him know what dis is. Again him give me blank look and no answer. Dis beyond stupid at dis point. Why dey not excited at all dat I’m so close to bringing back da sword dat dey lost. Me even tried giving da hilt to Sir Lucan, tinking dat maybe since he was looking for Soulfire in Zimel’s old shop dat maybe he would care. Nope. Dey all stare at me like me crazy. A few days later, me go back to Grub and Grog, only to hear Fabian tell me dat da Pallys want to meet me. Says him been telling dem what a reformed Ogre me is. Me so happy dat dis plan working. Me going to fool dees pallys and get Soulfire yet. Me goes over to da Hall of Truth, and Fabian must have done good job, cause dey let me in and not try to kill me. Me ask around about Testimony and Sword of Faith. No one give me straight answer, so me guess me have to do tings for dem first. Me talk to Merko Quetalis, so for some reason tink me a squire. Me let him tink dat, and him tells me to go to commonlands and help out Altunic Jartin. Him gives me note to take to him. Of course me can’t just not read note. It say dat me coming to help Altunic out wif a problem. Great me doing someone elses work again. Me find him eventually and give him da note. He say dat man named Narl been scaring him. Me tink dat puny human need a good scaring, but gotta play nice for pallys. While me follow Altunic along, suddenly me see Narl, him charge to attack shouting about Innoruuk. Me catch him wif greatsword in hims belly. Briefly wonder if him part of Dismal Rage. Oh well, for good measure, me chop his head off and give it to Altunic. Hims greatful, but also asks if me can bring him a shirt to protect him. Me tink he do better wif armor, but whatever. Must be nice Ogre. Me tink first dat me kill spiders and make shirt from silks, but den me remembers dat me not know how to work needles. Oh well me sell spider parts later. Me find nearby inn selling shirts and stuff, and bring one back to him. Him happy, and him gives me Token of Generosity. Dis too easy. Me go back to Merko and tell him what me done. Him den say dat he wants a venom sac from desert spiders. Me tinks for a few moments, and pulls out one me just got from spiders in commonlands. Hehe him not know difference. Him give me Token of Bravery. Him say to return boff tokens to face true test. Him tell me dat dis test make me true pally and dat me get a Testament of Truth. If hims tink dat Ogre pally can really happen, den who am me to argue? Me gives him tokens, and him tells me to find my new opponent somewhere in da hall and kill dem. Well dis right up me alley. Me searched around da hall, until me finds Guard Willia, of Sir Lucan’s guards. Dey not normally around da hall, so me tinking dat dis must be me opponent. Me not even stop to question dis, me da guard. While guard dying, me tink dat maybe me was supposed to be all bleeding heart pally and get him to admit dat he was wrong or someting. Me looks over his body and finds Token of Truth. Me brings it back to Merko, getting ready for him to be all mad and say dat I’m just a stupid Ogre and couldn’t ever be a pally. Den he surprise me by saying dat me done good. Him tanks me and gives me a Testimony of Truth. Me can’t believe it. Me reads da testimony, and while it say all sorts of tings dat me never going to hold to, me takes it for da time being. Marr be damned. Now dat me accepted Pally Knight, me approach da leader of da Pallys. Valeron Dushire goes on and on about how bad a human Sir Lucan is. Me figure me just gotta tell him to be nice from now own. But no, pally leader want him dead. Dees pallys getting more fun by da minute! Me makes me way back to Sir Lucan’s office. Me not even stop to talk to Dismal Rage on da way. Dey not care about anyting else me done for quite a while, me show dem how useful me can be later. As me enter Sir Lucan’s office, me not even stop to talk to him. Me immediately go on da attack, and him not even prepared for what hit him. All hims guards leave us alone as me trade blows wif him back and forf. As me uses Greenblood spells to drain his life away, him suddenly shows great fear. As my last strike takes him from his feet, his skin falls apart, and suddenly me is on da backfoot his skeleton attacks me. Him shouts dat I can’t stop da undead. Little do hims know dat I talk wif undead all da time! Hims new skeleton form strong, but Rallos be praised me battled good! Me finally kills him for good, and in da pile of his bones me finds a Testimony, like da one da pallys give me before. Figuring my job done, me walks back out of Sir Lucan’s office like it never happened. Guards on da udder side not fooled so easily. Dey chase me outside and after dey slash at me wif dere swords, I fall down to da ground. Dey look smug about dere kill, and as dey walk away I stand back up and shake me head. Me travels back over to da Hall of Pallys and gives Sir Lucan’s Testimony to Valeron. Him is amazed dat I have done it. Him pulls out a shiny sword and gives it to me. Dis be da Brilliant Sword of Faith dat Hayle was wanting. Me hopes dat having all da guards on me for killing Lucan is werf all dis. Me finally leaves Freeport again. In da Commonlands, me finds a wizzy taking people around da world. Dis time I pay him. As he starts to cast da spell me has a scary feeling. Why didn’t me just force him to take me? Me hopes dat all dis time wif pallys isn’t making me soft. Wizzy drops me off at da big white stones in da Plans of Karana. Me runs across da bridge and makes all speed to da lair of da Splitpaws. Again me animates a skeleton and walks inside da prison. Me glares at Hayle, and pulls out da note he gave me before, da Testimony of Truth, da Sword of Faith, and da hilt of Soulfire. Hims tells me dat me has proven true, and gives me da Soulfire. At long last me has recovered what Sir Lucan and Pietro Zarn and all da Freeport guards and Dismal Rage couldn’t. Hayle continues talking, saying dat dere are many who wish to free da trapped souls of shadowknights and necromancers trapped inside da blade. Me snaps back to attention at dis. Me wonders if dis is why Pietro Zarn had it in da first place. Maybe dere is more to be done. Me must use more smarts to figure it out. As me left Splitpaw and went back to Freeport me couldn’t help but to admire Soulfire. It was a purdy sword, but me could not hold it. As soon as me tried to hold it ready for battle, it fell out of me hands. Of all da pallys dat me had fooled, dis sword knew dat me wasn’t some reformed Ogre turned Pally. It knew dat me was Greenblood at heart, and it wouldn’t help me. Me made it finally back to Freeport, and back to da camp of Dismal Rage. Me walked up to Pietro Zarn, and wifout a word me pulled Soulfire from da backpack me had hidden it in. Me presented it to Zarn, but yet again, if he cared, he did not show me dat he did. No one else in da Dismal Rage camp seemed to care eiver. How could dey who had had dis sword stolen from dem, and who had put Ariska Zimel in prison over it, and had Sir Lucan and demselves looking all over for it, not care now? Maybe dey just don’t want to admit dat me, da big dumb Ogre did what dey couldn’t. Me can only hope dat somewhere else me can find da people dat want to release da souls in dis sword. And dat maybe it can bring true power to dis Greenblood.
Coming back to Everquest after 8 years is quite the experience. There's just something about the live experience that P99 or any other offering can somehow miss. The mechanics work a lot more how you remembered them working, and there always remains the mystery of undiscovered content that is still waiting to be found. There are breadcrumbs in many places that for various reasons seem to lead nowhere. For most we tend to assume that the quest was never implemented, or perhaps it was removed for some reason or another. In 2009, as part of Everquest's 10 year anniversary, this video was posted. In it we learned that at that time there were more than 15,000 quests, and more than 3000 items that were yet undiscovered in the game. Allakhazam's, being the great resource for all things Everquest that is is, has about 8000 registered quests, (QuestID 5 to QuestID 8046) this now several years after the posted video. Now it is very possible that the metric used to determine that there were 15,000+ quests in 2009 was different than what Allah's uses. Maybe the 15K number is representative of every mob that can return something for items or can give certain quest text. The forums switches and loss of community sites over the years make it hard to find a quote to attribute this to, but I remember reading many times that there were supposedly unsolved quests dating back to the original release still in game today! Supposedly during the Velious era, some Dev was quoted as wondering why people were so obsessed with raiding when there was more powerful gear that hadn't been found yet through questing. Getting this new start on a fresh server drove me to want to seek out some of these quests and maybe we could find out something brand new about this old game we all love. It didn't take too long of just googling about undiscovered quests to come across a rumored Shadow Knight version of Soulfire. And as I'm playing a Shadow Knight for this go-round, my intrest was piqued. The few statements on it claimed that it may have had something to do with Pyzjin or Varsoon, and maybe the Glowing Black Stone in particular, but Prathun was kind enough at some point to offer an explanation for GBS's quest tag by saying it got caught into the process that assigned those tags (which weren't original) because it was listed in a quest written by a design apprentice who was just learning the tools. Now Pyzjin and Varsoon may have been a dead end (or maybe they need further investigation not related to the GBS?), but the idea that a SK Soulfire may exist is still very intriguing. I took it upon myself to pour over the quest text of Soulfire. Chief among the things that stood out was that during the conversation between the player and Groflah Steadirt, it is mentioned that Ariska Zimel (the prisoner in the arena jail cell) stole Soulfire from a man named Pietro Zarn. Groflah believes that Zarn is the one who has caused all of Zimel's hardship since then. Pietro Zarn is a Shadow Knight Guildmaster for the Dismal Rage faction, AKA all the evils and Innoruuk worshipers in Freeport. In fact Zarn is the one who recieves a newly created Innoruuk worshiping Human Shadow Knight's guild note. His only other recorded quest is The Bayle List. However going through the other Dismal Rage quests, one may come across Raltur Caliskon another Shadow Knight Guildmaster who offers Message Intercept. It should be noted that this is also a turnaround in a Hall of Truth Paladin quest. The Evil version of this quest can come to one of two possible conclusions. Keeping faith with Dismal Rage gets a tie-in to the previously mentioned Bayle List quest, but if you instead return the message to Sir Lucan, he informs you that there is a traitor in his midst, and that he will reward you for finding and killing said traitor. Said traitor is Guard Alayle who is also invovled in the leadup in the quest for .... Soulfire. This thread seems to dead end at this point, but there are some other bits to follow. In the quest for Soulfire, if one is following all of the leadup and not taking the shortcuts, they will obtain a Tattered Flier from Guard Alayle, shortly before the militia kills Alayle having found out about him being a traitor. The Flier can be turned in to Groflah Steadirt in West Freeport to get the prompt to meet him in the bar in East Freeport, and in East Freeport he will turn it into a Tattered Flier however it will now have a decoded message on it. Back to Dismal Rage. Netuk Phenzon, another Shadow Knight Guildmaster who offers the quest Groflah Steadirt's Death wants you to kill Groflah and retrieve a piece of parchment taken from one of Dismal Rage's allies. The parchment he is referring to is the first version of the Tattered Flier, pre-decoding. Groflah Steadirt will drop the Flier if you kill him in West Freeport, but doesn't appear to do so if you kill him in East Freeport at the Seafarer's Roost. Netuk mentions that the parchment was stolen from an ally of Dismal Rage. We know from the quest text of Soulfire's quest that Guard Alayle took it from the floor of Sir Lucan's quarters. And from the Message Intercept quest we have further confirmation that Dismal Rage is working with the Freeport Militia. Netuk's quest ends when the Tattered Flier is returned, and there is no further indication that something should continue from there. The reward is Siphon Strength, which seems a pretty underwhelming reward considering that even if the spell was level 9 as it was in classic, it would still take a Shadow Knight far longer to be able to kill a level 20 Groflah in West Freeport. At this point, the quest for Soulfire takes a rapid turn, and outside of a chance spawning inside the Seafarer's Roost of Tykar Renlin and Branis Noolright, as well as having the bard sing his Pro-Lucan song and witnessing Tykar's response, there's not a lot of indication of how it was intended to move to the next step. The second (decoded) Tattered Flier has no known use. The decoded message spells out "Help Captiv" which if we fill assume that the second word is "captive" may indicate that we are supposed to be looking for Zimel in some place where he is being held captive. This is further backed up by us finding him in the jail cells under the arena. He doesn't want much to do with either Flier. The only new text I've discovered that the prisoner (Ariska) responds to is "Soulfire" in which he gives a clearer version that he wants Bog and Goo and Blanket too. (This wasn't mentioned in the Soulfire writeup, nor did he answer to the same prompt on non-official servers). The seeming web of related quests leading up to this point grow cold as the Dismal Rage GMs (incuding the dark elf version of Opal Darkbriar and Sir Lucan himself) don't seem to answer any related prompts, nor do they accept any items from the Soulfire questline outside of Netuk taking the first Tattered Flier as part of his quest. I had a brief moment of excitement when Pietro Zarn gave a response when I gave him the second Tattered Flier, when up to that point he had silently returned all the items, but soon I learned that he gives the same response for any item not tagged No-Trade. His response is slightly different from the rest of the Dismal Rage people, in that most of the others recycle the same two messages, but his is unique among them. Moving all the way to the end of the Soulfire quest, upon the final turn in, Brother hayle specifically mentions that there are those out there who would try to free the trapped souls of Shadow Knights and Necromancers in the blade. Could it be possible that Pietro Zarn had it in his posession to do just that when the blade was stolen from him? Why wouldn't he want to continue that work? Or was he taking it to someone else who had that intention? Groflah in his conversation after decoding the Flier mentions that the sword was stolen from the Shadow Knight party in Lavastorm. Could there be someone in Lavastorm, Solusek's Eye, Nagafen's Lair, Najena, or the Temple of Solusek Ro who would be intrested in having Soulfire? Or maybe even since he was in close proximity to Neriak, he was seeking someone there to give the sword to. I traveled to Neriak and to the Temple of Sol Ro to try to give items to anyone who made sense. No luck. At this time I don't know of any clear link to follow up on these assumptions, but the best I can do is begin giving Soulfire, and the other quest parts I still have to various people in hopes to get an unexpected response. But hopefully this thread isn't totally about an SK version of Soulfire that may or may not exist. What other tidbits of information have you guys come across that never seemed to lead anywhere? Maybe a Dev or two could join in the discussion as well *hint hint*.
I wanna pretend that this was all entered into a program that converted it from regular English into Ogrish because the truth hurts me too much.
Sometime around 2011-2012 a Dev made a post asking about unfinished quests, saying he would look into them and see if he could fix them or sort them out at least, people put in a flood of requests refering to NPC's with broken quests, text and such, he did fix some, for example the quest for the Blue Lightning Hammer in Najena, some he reported back that he has no clue what they were meant to do (like the npc's in neriak who will respond to "who is Innoruuk"). pretty sure all the classic quests that actually work are known now.
there's surely a whole lot of unfinished quest in EQ... few of them not discovered by player, a whole bunch broken or just not totally implented.
Yea I probably should have included one of those. TL;DR: There's some odds and ends in the Paladin Soulfire and related Freeport quests that look like they may have been intended to branch out farther but didnt. Is there anything else missing? As to the other comments. Yes this does seem a bit excessive, and I'm not entirely proud that I wrote this much in Ogrish, but once started it got a bit addictive and I hated to throw it away after putting time into it. I'd hoped that the followup post would spark some discussion on this and maybe some other things from the era that either weren't discovered or weren't finished.
I read your post and I find your theories fascinating. It would make sense that there was an evil version of soulfire. It may have been on the drawing board and just never implemented.
It's probably safe to say the exaggerated claim was made to keep up the "mystique" of EQ back then. Would have been another ploy of taking a dump and trying to sell it to the masses. There's likely more broken quests now than there are undiscovered ones. The Rage War Maul quest (known as the Bayle List in general) is more likely to be the Shadowknight's version of the Holy Partisan of Underfoot quest (Chalice of Conquest) for Paladins. The stats appear sort of similar. The Bayle List itself lists names of characters who are spies for the "good" side, yet something like just two of the five names actually exist in the game. Common sense would tell you that the next step after finishing the quest would be tracking down and eliminating those spies for a better reward.
This is fascinating, I would never spend this time myself looking into this. But much respect to you for doing so.
there are other mysteries too, like the stone in Neriak 3rd gate that tells you it needs a key, right near that behind a wall is a fully rendered set of stairs leading down to an unused zone line....
90% of EQ mysteries can be answered by "Devs were doing something but then ran out of time and then later forget what they were doing/never had a chance to finish it/got fired."
I don't know about a locked stone, but there is a locked firepot. Some say it was an alternate way for evil players to travel without needing to take a boat, or it was a guide/staff only thing so they could get around faster. There's one in Qeynos Catacombs, too. The stairs could very well be an old scrapped plan for the 4th gate or something.
Luclin's tower is a good example of that, it was meant to be the final zone in Luclin where the goddess resided, but it was never put into the game, It's even shown on that expansions Box art. I always thought Seru's unusable Sword of Truth was meant to be turned into a bane weapon (popular in that expansion) for that zone, but because it never made it in, the quest for it was never made.
I found your post interesting to read. Sadly, I don't think that there is anything left for us to discover. Whatever is out there not found is probably broken. Whatever is out there that isn't broken and is not found yet....probably never will be. Whoever made the quests long ago forgot about it.
Thanks Krogoth for posting this, I love unsolved quests. My ogre shaman Boggrim on Ragefire and E. Marr servers is working on an unsolved ogre shaman quest. Having to work on faction atm. Will post details when I get past the sticky part (it's in classic era). I say keep looking for more clues, and I loved your Ogrish posts.
I'd imagine the game has been data mined to death and what could be found has been. Who knows though?! I'd certainly be impressed if you found something new.
