By: Erin "Stellara" Oakley So, confession time: when I started this blog, I told myself that I’d be good and complete as much of the content as possible. However, after several sessions in the Mines of Gloomingdeep, it became apparent to me that High Elves are not cut out for subterranean life. (All that dirt wreaks havoc on your hairstyle, after all.) So I finished up what I could, said my farewells to the rebel forces, and clicked out into the open air. Crescent Reach wasn’t around when I first played EverQuest, so I had been looking forward to exploring a brand new city. My first stop was saying hello to the Magician Guildmaster. She welcomed me to the city and, in what I’m pretty sure was a newbie Mage hazing ritual, presented me with a hideously bright green robe: Ew. I thanked her politely, bought a few spells, and then changed back into the purple one as soon as I got out of sight. As I headed toward the city proper, some intriguing looking platforms caught my eye. I waited on the elevator for 5 minutes until I remembered you had to push the button, and then came face to face with dragons! Maybe they had some cool quests? I hailed Dragon’ra, Master of the Void, only to get this response: “You dare speak to one of the Six? You have much to prove before I entertain your babble.” Welcome to Crescent Reach, I guess! Undeterred, I headed into the city itself. I picked up a few quests from friendly residents, the Drakkin, who as it turns out are descendants of the meanie dragons upstairs. Apparently there’s some rivalry between the different families, as I discovered when I helped a few of them poison each other, with entertaining results: Then it was time to do some fighting! (Or rather, time to stand back and occasionally magically light things on fire while my pet and mercenary fight, but same thing, right?) I ventured out into the Hollow to take on the local wildlife: spiders and snakes and bears, oh my! I found a cave with a mysterious crate that was guarded by wild pumas. What wondrous treasures could it hold? I had to find out. After battling my way through the cranky felines, I decided to try out my feeble melee skills for fun. After a string of unsuccessful attacks, this happened: Not only was the crate fighting back, it was regenerating health way faster than I could attack it. So I decided to do what Mages do best: light things on fire until they drop presents. After finally vanquishing the evil crate, I looted a bottle of fizzy lemonade. Who knew lions were so fond of citrus beverages? I gained a few levels and took on the bigger baddies of the zone: wandering gnolls and a farm full of orc skeletons. During one such battle, I was alarmed to discover that my skin had turned as hard as wood. Turns out it was a friendly druid, who proceeded to buff me, my merc, and my pet. (Mm, delicious SoW.) It was a little thing for the druid maybe, but the fact that she stopped to help a lowbie like me reminded me of how cool the EverQuest community is: people overall seem to be helpful and friendly, giving the game a cool small-town vibe. Do you have any good stories about being surprised by the awesomeness of other players? Till next time, Stellara
As it happens, I do have a tale of some awesomeness that I would like to relate. I was puttering around doing nothing of great import when a fellow hailed me and presented me with a tantilizing proposition. He would gear me awesomely and provide some plat if I would make a toon on Firiona Vie server. He was sure I would like the server. As it turns out, he was recruiting for the server, not for his guild as he was top level and so was his guild. I went to FV, I got the promised gear and plat. I have had a ball for several years on the FV server. Time has taken the name of this Samaritan away from me, but I will never forget the act of kindness. Whenever I have a chance, I play it forward to newbies and lower level peeps that are stuggling with a quest or need bigger bags. Safe journeys.
Oh, Stellara -- did no one tell you not to break your nails trying to fight with containers? Why melee when you can wave your hand, command your target to "Open!" -- and there you go. This is one little "trick" I was taught by a veteran player when I was first in the Mines (pre-Crescent Reach). It made raiding those kobold barrels so much quicker, and I have to admit feeling a little bit of happiness whenever I saw a Forlorn Bow in one of them, because the bows sold for 1p-and-change. Good money back then. There were two other highlights of my newbie career. My main character is a barbarian shaman -- created 7 April 2006 at around 2am, and the hour says a lot about her name. (I was trying to get a true barbarian name in, using early Anglo-Saxon name parts, and kept getting rejected. I started typing Chedd... then added a few more familiar letters to yield Cheddar... and got silly and finished with Cheddarella. I thought, hey, I like that cheese combo, and hit the enter key, expecting to be rejected one more time -- but no, Now Entering Game as Cheddarella.) EQ was my first MMORPG, and I took my time in the tutorial. I was on the verge of leaving, about five days or so later, when another player (an alt of a much higher-level character) told me and another newbie about the Festive Doll that was the EQ Anniversary "gift" that year. He linked it to us -- +5 to all stats! Wooooo! The only problem was that the only place to obtain one was Thurgadin (it was No-Trade), but he had the answer for that, too. We went out to the Plane of Knowledge, to the Great Divide portal stone, and went through. He cast Levitation on both of us, and we auto-followed him like a pair of kites, down to the entrance to the city behind the waterfall. Then he led us through the maze that was beautiful downtown Thurgadin until we found the Anniversary merchant and acquired our very own Festive Dolls. (Fortunately, the other newbie and I were both casters and had the ability to Gate out.) The second highlight was the one that had the deepest effect on my entire EQ/EQ2 career. I regret that I do not recall the character's name, for I would give her credit for her benevolence every time I pay it forward. I had left the Mines and was working on the armor quests given in the Plane of Knowledge. I was slowly accumulating platinum -- those were the days when Green Goblin Heads and vials of Green Goblin Blood paid a whopping 4p+ each in Butcherblock -- but I was still dependent on gear drops for any kind of upgrade. One day, a very kind lady took me in hand. She asked if she might Inspect me -- it had been drilled into me that it was rude to Inspect someone without permission, a carryover from PvP, I learned later -- and I said yes. Then she said she would like to take me shopping in the Bazaar, and further said she would pay for it. So in we went, and she explained how to use the Bazaar search function. More important than the money that she ended up spending on me, was the information she passed on in the process. She told me what I should look for in gear -- Wisdom as a priest, Stamina for more endurance and HP, etc. Most specifically, she had me look for a Piercing weapon as well as the usual Blunt weapon used by Priests; she explained that the first Shaman epic weapon was the Spear of Fate, and that I needed to have good Piercing skills in order to wield it properly. I came out of the bazaar with some very sturdy chain leggings and coat, a nice shield, and a Slime-covered Harpoon that I have kept ever since. To this day, whenever I help a youngling, I make sure the person knows the *why* as well as the *what* of gear. I have Cheddarellas in both EQ and EQ2, and both of them level quite slowly because I like to chat, and somehow end up spending a lot of time in Explain mode. It's my nature; my grandmother bent my twig to be a teacher at a very young age. I don't regret it, but rather derive great satisfaction from knowing I've followed in my benefactress's footsteps. Still, there are occasional rewards. Out of the blue, a couple weeks ago, someone I had helped a number of years ago saw my name in chat, and sent EQ2 Cheddarella 100p in the mail. (EQ equivalent would be 10,000p or so). Yeah, I set it aside to help the next youngling I find. It truly is the Norrathian Way.
That is one of the very reasons I have a Magician alt along with my Shadowknight, Cleric, and beastlord - because nothing is better than casting Lava Bolt repeatedly and taking down a mob in no time flat. I'm extremely lucky to have my parents (a 96 Druid and a 100 Wizard) and my little sister (100 Cleric) also in game, because they're always willing to drop everything to come help me, or give me buffs if I don't want to deal with guild lobby lagfests, my stepfather even made my account gold as a surprise for my 25th birthday this year, which was really cool. And despite what I've heard from others, my guild has to be the most wonderful batch of folk I've come across on Xegony. They always tell me it's okay when I overestimate my tanking power as a shadow knight and get them brutally killed by farmers in Valley of Lunanyn, and were more than willing to group with me so I could complete the Citadel of Anguish raid for my 2.0. As for myself, I dropped 5k for some newbie one day because he was super confused as to why his bow wasn't working, only to find out it was a Tunare religion bow (as all Drakkin praise Veeshan, so he couldn't use it), so I bought him a better bow for his level. In the end, you're always going to come across utter trolls in game, people who lootsteal/killsteal, and those that like to start drama in the general chats, but I've come to find out those types of people are few and far between when you come across such helpful people.
My adventure started couple days before Christmas 1999. A friend < Arika > from AOL got me hooked. It was very late at night and Arika and her later real life boy friend sat me down just outside Black Burrow.He went on to explain the game and how I should build my char and practice my magic skills. The thing that stuck after all these years was , It is about the journey not the levels or prizes you gain. Fly by buffing and random acts of kindness help each player have a better gaming experience. As I look back at all the names of guilds and players I have known, Each has a special moment that is tucked away in my memory. "Stay safe and Good Hunting" Wendaan Starrider Rathe Server 1999
Over the years I've had many folks help my toons out of sheer good will. Spells given for nothing, gear here and there and tons of buffs. The biggest gift in relation to the character, was when I made my first character on Fironia Vie server. I was just about naked, and hunting spiderlings, to make bandages to sell for almost a plat a stack. As my druid was meditating, a red con toon came up to me (I have since forgotten their name, to my shame) and opened a trade window with 1000 plat in it, and pressed trade. Dumbfounded, I press my side and had 1000 plat to add to my whopping 10 or so plat. I thanked the person and they said "Welcome to Fironia Vie! When you're higher level, pass it on!" Which I have to this day. When I see newbies half naked in Crescent Reach, I open up my coin purse and give. Sometimes, depending which toon I'm on, it may only be 500 plat, up to 1k. Any buffs I can give and off I go. I just remember how COOL it was that someone opened up trade and gave a half naked toon some much needed platinum, so I've continued it in remembrance of that first Samaritan that helped me my first day on the FV server. A little kindness goes a long, long way. I remember my first day on FV fondly.
