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