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Tonight, Notuhtooma will be delving into the deepest, smelliest, gnoll slobbered, nooks and crannies of Everquest Online Adventures. All who would like to travel alongside should feel free to contact him. Estimated login time will be around 7-8pm until exhaustion.

This Game Updates announcement on the official message board talks about the orc invasions.

Highbourne
Infinitus spent some time doing a couple of Highbourne quests yesterday now that he seems to have exhausted all of the level 17 armor quests he can do.

Doom to come
The first was pretty easy, and involved visiting most of the Senators in the city. A trip to a temple by the docks clued me in to the coming apocalypse that I've read about elsewhere. At some point Highbourne will be destroyed by some ocean monster that wants a magic pearl back.

Shambling Abhorrent
The second quest was trickier. I was to run north from Qeynos to just north of Wyndhaven to kill three Shambling Abhorrents -- zombies that hang out near the ocean which have pages of a book the researchers in Highbourne want back. Each shambling abhorrent has a special location, and they each have a specific page.

I was lucky enough to find a lv25 dark elf enchanter near there who helped me slay one of them, but it took a while to find the next one south of a camp in Whale Hill (W). The enchanter had to leave before I found the second one, and since they're red-level to Infinitus, I'll need lots of help taking him on.

Previews
It's always good to adventure with higher level characters in your same class because you get previews of certain spells. One of them is Calming Visage. This basically lets you walk right past monsters without being attacked, and keeps you from being attacked while you hit them. This proved invaluable, letting her Clay Golem and my Shalee's Animation attack a tough foe while both she and I attacked with high-damage spells. These spells normally would attract the ire of the foe, but with CV in effect they don't even blink.

The downside to Calming Visage is that I can't have Chaotic Flux cast on my weapon at the same time. This means my staff just chips away at them bit by bit. My spells have become my primary way of doing damage anyway.

You're sure it's not the rat tomb? It's the only tomb I know of in Hagley.

I wrote back to you in-game that the Rat Tomb is on the eastern edge of Hagley. Infinitus was just there the other day. There are spiders in that tomb as well, along with at least one skeletal guardian a couple of levels down. I didn't go down farther -- it could go much deeper.

Ruins of Alesop
Infinitus hadn't yet tackled the lv17 armor quest in his home town, so over the weekend he chatted up the right person and was told to go and slay a renegade woman and her Dark Elf lover in Alesop's Wall.

The zone was two zones east of Highbourne, and after a false start getting smacked down by a couple monsters on the way, I made it over there.

Wall? What wall?
For a zone named after a wall, I didn't see any wall. I ran from South to North, then went East. I moved back down South, then traveled to the West end of the zone. Sure enough, the last place I looked, on the West side, held the blackened ruins of Alesop's Wall.

I found the necromancer and his enslaved girl on the north end of the wall, slew them -- being lv20 is very helpful on these quests -- then took the item back to Highbourne. Once there I had to pay some money to another person in town to cleanse the royal ring. Once the ring was back to the quest giver, the usual activity ensured -- find so-and-so for your reward. This wasn't difficult -- he was in the next building -- and he gave me a shiny new Pendant Of Brilliance.

It's a pity that pendants and earrings don't appear on the character model.

Halas
The next quest I can have Infinitus do is from Halas. I haven't been able to find the creature I must slay or the NPC to talk to just yet. The creature is said to be near the Aviak Village, but as he is a werewolf I'm not sure I'll be able to find him during the daylight hours.

From Surefall Glade, head South/Southeast past a marsh to a Troll Village. The trolls there won't speak to you, but are evil. You can walk right up to them and they won't attack.

The key here is to have you and your teammates split up around the village, killing troll after troll. This way, your gaining 9000 XP each time. Plus, expect $3000 in loot each time you fill your inventory.

There is BETTER XP on a mountain right next door to the Village. Skeletons and Undead Rats live on there. Notuhtooma has a very powerful Ward Death ability that normally does 150 damage per shot. That's very useful on them.

The only drawback is the visibility on the mountain. It's hard to see while your climbing that mountain and you could easily walk into a pile of monsters. Aside of that, it's a great spot. I raised 2 levels in one session fighting there.

XP'd all the way up to lvl 15 1/2 today with Notuhtooma. Found a great XP point and grouped up for hours with a great bunch of guys.

Desert journeys
Infinitus traveled by coach all the way south to Hazniak and then ran south and west to Sslathis. There is a person named Tessarin (sp?) Moonstrider atop a pyramid in the Central part of that zone who must be slain to complete the Fayspire armor quest.

On the way there a very helpful level 39 barbarian let me know I was close, and that she was atop that pyramid with her pet.

Pretty pyramid
Nearly every creature around it was red-level to Infinitus, so it took some sneaking around invisibly to get to it. Once there, I was impressed with the layout and attention to detail.

The pyramid's design is simple. It is in a sort of oasis, surrounded by trees and alligator-like creatures, and thankfully Moonstrider was dark blue level to Infinitus.

He shed his invisibility, summoned his Animation pet, and attacked the green-level pet first.

Almost
Attacking the pet was a bad idea. It let Moonstrider make a big dent in my Animation before I could turn my attention to her, and the recast time for a new Animation was quite long. Add a damage over time spell, and just as the mage was about to be slain, Infinitus was killed and sent back to Qeynos.

I vowed to return another day, preferably with help.

Qeynos Prison, again
I tried to get someone to come with me down that way, but it's exceedingly rare to find someone who has coached down to the Oasis and Hazniak. It's very tough territory for non-casters to cross without Invisibility.

One Paladin I grouped with named Brians refused to go and instead curtly demanded I take him to the Prison.

We went there, and after a couple of fights outside the prison, we fought a tarantula that managed to sting Infinitus and poison him. As my health was ticking down to dangerously low levels after the monster was slain, the Paladin turned and said "Bye bye Infinitus".

How rude!
That is probably the most rude thing I've ever had a group member say. I managed to consume a couple of fish and some cheese at the very end of the poison's lifespan and stave off death. "Well well lucky me." I said, and booted him out so he could go be a jerk with someone else's group.

Quicksilver lining?
I quickly found another group who agreed to attacking the rich field of targets just south of the prison instead of jockeying for position in the crowded and claustrophobic innards of the prison.

We earned lots of XP along the way, and I completely ignored treasures and loot dropped by the creatures almost the whole time. Every 10th creature or so I would try to see what was there, but almost never was able to. I wasn't paying attention to who picked up what -- I was in it for the XP for the most part. Fighting others for rares is tricky business, and there's always a whiner in the bunch, as Salesmunn can attest.

So after lots of XPing it was time for me to pack it in. The last kill we made gave me a Quicksilver necklace, level 16. I was excited, and immediately the guy named Clownbutz demanded a die roll for it.

I was very irritated. Nobody ever demanded a roll for anything before. I don't know if there were no rares before or not, but nobody complained, and now this guy says "Roll" without asking, without saying "In the future, we should roll." Not only that, but he had been one of the last to join the group.

I complain, but aquiesce, like an idiot, and end up losing the item to him. "I win" he says, like I can't read the screen, as if I'm going to cheat him out of the item.

I gave him the necklace and then left. Ungrateful jerk.

Can't Break The Stick!
One high point of the group was adding a member named Stick. His custom taunts were very nice. One example? "Hey Tarantula! Can't break The Stick!" It almost seemed like his avatar name was a superhero's name.

Stick and I led the group for just about the whole time, calling out targets together as best we could, and deferring to the other when we'd both call out a target.

I've got a 110 Wisdom and a 90+ Charisma for Notuhtooma right now. Not counting any +'s from items I'm wearing.

I hope those lvl 16 earrings I gave you are of some use to you.

For my lvl 13 Cleric quest, Notuhtooma traveled North to Wyndhaven then East to Surefall Glade. I read that I should collect a Giant Beetle eye and 2 Black Widow webs on the way to save time.

In Wyndhaven I met up with a lvl 11 Wizard who seemed a bit out of place. No one was talking to him and he was kind of wandering around. I sent him the group invite, he joined and quickly proved to be invaluable. His invisibility allowed us to sneak through the extremely dangerous Jethro's Cast....or whatever....and also allowed me to sneak up to the Black Widows and pull them to safer ground.

I've found my Cleric has become quite strong with lvl 13. I've been throwing all of my status points at Strength and Dexterity lately and it's paid off. The lvl 11 Wizard and my lvl 13 Cleric handled a YELLOW Black Widow and Giant Beetle at the same time once. Not too shabby.

So I collected the items that were needed and unfortunately had to sign off for the evening. When I sign back on I'll need to find the "Old Lady in the Forest" to give her those items. Then it's back to Queynos by Coachman.

Finally met up with Infinitus yesterday and had a very successful evening of adventuring. Actually leveled up almost 2 levels.

Received a quest to Surefall Glade last night. I plan on heading there tonight. Although I won't have much time to play.

Level 18
Infinitus is now at level 18, and has started on a few of the level 17 "armor quests". These quests each grant him a specific protective item. So far he completed the Klik'Anon and Qeynos quests. I'd completed the Klik quest with Kizul, so I knew where to go and what to do, and I had help while traveling around Klik.

Fayspire is the city of elves, and their quest requires me to travel far, far south to Sslathis to slay someone who is, if I recall correctly, a renegade cleric.

Oasis
Many weeks ago I traveled down that way with Kizul to try and coach at the Oasis, but the Oasis was hostile to him. Imagine my indignation when they were similarly rude to Infinitus, the Erudite Enchanter. Cast out into the desert by their cold shoulders, he trekked onwards to die rather swiftly when his Invisibility spell faltered.

A quick run back from Muniel's Tea Garden -- I misspelled it earlier, it's Muniel and not Muriel -- and I reached the good-alignment city in Hazniak. Unfortunately there is no boat link to Freeport from there -- only the dark elves and similar evil race can get back that way.

It didn't matter in the end, because I died when fighting some dark blue-level monsters near Hazniak, immediately jumping back to the Tea Garden. I jumped back to Freeport from there and later went back to Bobble By Water to hunt until the XP debt was paid off.

Notuhtooma
Sales' character has reached level 10, and he's having difficulty completing a quest that isn't well documented online. I predict I'll be working at the armor quests for some time, but don't know how soon I'll be leveling up.

My online documentation seems to indicate that the armor quests don't expire until level 50, so I could technically keep leveling up, but I do know a full group with a good tank character can slay just about anything in these quests.

Baby Steps
Infinitus didn't manage to level up over the past couple of days, but he did spend a little time fishing.

Fishing
The fish act like food in the game, healing the player a certain number of points for a certain number of intervals.

The fish have levels just like the food does. You cannot use a type of food that is above your level, but you can use a type of fish that is one level above yours. Higher level fish is caught with a higher level pole and bait, but you can use lower-level bait to catch lower level fish if you so desire. Higher levels of healing foods and fish heal more than lower level foods.

The act of fishing is very primitive. It basically uses a swinging animation and a simple splash graphic to show it in the game, and the cast is judged to be good or perfect based on how you time pushing X during a downswing-upswing indicator on the screen. This looks a lot like some sports games do it. I remember bowling and golf games having this sort of thing, where you watch the line go down to judge the speed of it, then push the button on its upswing to hit a preset mark on the line.

I suppose the fish are cheaper on average than food is, but I haven't done the math. It wouldn't surprise me if the number of situations where you don't catch anything drag the average price of a fish up over food.

Infinitus spent time fishing on the docks at Qeynos. Nobody else was there either time. People must find the vendors to be sufficient food sources.

Perhaps if later in the game you can create bait from creature parts fishing will be more valuable in the field, but for now it's a diversion.

MUD history -- player types
I came across an interesting paper published on the web by some researchers talking about the different kind of MUD players in the world.

MUDs are text-only online games that existed years before even Ultima Online, going back into the early 1980's if I'm not mistaken. They tended to be fantasy hack-and-slash affairs, thematically similar to the current online games.

The paper is very educational and is something I'd been seeking for some time. Once I saw a mention to it I immediately started reading it, but haven't done so yet.

It includes an analysis of player types, what those types tend to do, how to attract more of the given type to the world, and what the effects of a glut of one type or another will do to a game. The author talks about MUDs, but it's easy to see that most MMOGs are just glorified MUDs.

http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm

It seems to me that EQOA is geared towards Achievers, is very friendly to Socializers, and gives some eye candy for Explorers, but is limited in depth, while cutting out Killers almost entirely (except for training, see above).

Infinitus rejoined
I've picked up the Enchanter class character I started long ago named Infinitus. I'm holding to one guide's advice to spend his advancement points on Intelligence over all other traits.

My power grows!
The June 18th update boosted casters in general, and Enchanters specifically. They've been a weak class historically, and their pets -- suits of animated armor -- were not very useful in combat because they could not be commanded to attack.

The new update broke all those rules, letting enchanters command pets fully, and giving the pets new powers. It will heal itself during and after combat, it will attack if commanded, and it automatically taunts. This basically lets me the enchanter throw whatever I want at a given enemy, even direct spells like Heavy Arms to weaken it or Chaotic Shock to do direct damage and the enemy will not break off from the Animation.

This has effectively turned the Animation into a super-tank in most circumstances.

Ruins, Robes, and Necromancers oh my!
The level 10 quest for Highbourne enchanters involved looking after a lost Asaja at some ruins not far from the eastern exit of the city. I did this, and with some help slayed some Skeletal Dogs. These dogs were carrying various robes. Once I had three robes of different kinds -- I believe of three different casting classes, I had to take them back to my guild master.

Once he had the robes, which I have to say were very hard to get with the dogs being as strong as they are, he sent me out to investigate rumors of necromancy by someone hiding in the Stoneclaw ravines. The skeletal dogs might be his for all I know. I was warned to watch out for Sun Hounds and Shadow Panthers along the way. I'm not sure if this is the point at which I was told to kill Ganron, but that was my quest by the end of this ordeal -- go to him, find him, kill him, and bring back his ring.

I used an online quest guide to find the cave's location after spending about an hour wandering the ravines safely invisible. Sun Hounds were indeed there, and they were pretty fierce.

Once I found Ganron's cave, I made a mental note of how to reach it and went back to Highbourne. I would need help attacking him and preferably lots of it.

Casting troops
Last night I was lucky enough to stumble onto a group of four casters seeking to destroy Ganron as well. I had had no luck until then -- people just weren't interested. The four of us traveled there, where a fifth person was waiting patiently, and I learned from them that their different classes needed a different item from Ganron. This would work out great.

We quickly eliminated Ganron, but someone took the ring I needed by mistake. Astonishingly enough, less than two minutes later Ganron reappeared! Talk about a fast respawn. We ended up slaying 2 or 3 more Ganrons when the leading caster got killed and had to run back to get the earring he needed.

Another enchanter came by, and we let him loot one of Ganron's bodies -- only one appears at a time -- for the ring he needed. He thanked us profusely for helping him.

It was already 12:30 and I didn't have the time to keep playing alongside them, so I returned to Highbourne. The guild master took the ring, and gave me a letter to take to someone at Qeynos. Luckily I had coached there some time ago.

Qeynos warned
I ran through Qeynos going from building to building, and found the person I needed near the enchanters area there. He told me to return to my master after saying he would be investigating things as well. They really don't like those necromancers do they.

A brand new staff
Master Delan gave me a very snazzy new staff that has almost triple the damage dealing power and good ability boosts. He told me to explore Tunaria and keep tabs on the investigation with Keeper Asimov -- his name isn't Asimov but it's very close to that.

That keeper wasn't talking to me yet, so I logged off and called it a night.

Level 12
I had leveled up to 12 and put the offensive spells into place in my roster already. After completing this quest, I reviewed them and found the first spell the enchanters are much sought after for -- Breeze. It accelerates Power recharge in the target. This is something no other class can do, basically makes the enchanter similar to a cleric, but for power and not health.

Something tells me an enchanter-cleric team could be very valuable as part of a larger combat force.

The Days Ahead
Going to Qeynos will probably let me join larger groups and level up quickly. And I'll be checking the quest rosters to see what's coming up next.

I'll also be doing more exploring, and if Salesmunn decides to start a lawful character on Proudpine, I would greatly enjoy helping him get up to speed so we can adventure together again.

Kizul hunted
Kizul spent some time hunting alone around The Last Inn and even got himself killed a couple of times by some dark blue level creatures. Truly pathetic, and it shows how impatient I was because of the late hour I had started playing.

Rizek is born
Rizek is a Dark Elf Cleric in Neriak. I didn't feel like starting off in a goody-goody city with a human -- even if I most often act helpful and non-selfish as a Dark Elf. He serves the deity Innoruk, as all Dark Elves do, and the moment he showed up his guild master was going on and on about him being fodder in the war against the humans.

I'm starting to like being a Cleric already.

I spent a little time running the first basic quests with him, but I haven't even filled out his lv1 spell set yet with cash from slaying beasts outside.

Rizek recycled
I've just consulted a Cleric creation guide online and I think I'm going to erase him and start again, putting 10 points into Charisma (for healing), 5 into Strength, and 5 into Dexterity to help in combat when starting out.

Muriel's Tea Garden
I traveled south from Freeport towards Muriel's Tea Garden, a neutral outpost in the desert. I passed by the very dangerous desert of Ro, going by flame wasps and the like, and even saw some Fire Drakes. It took a couple of deaths before I managed to properly manage my Gather Shadows abilities to get down to Muriel's Tea Garden.

I bound myself there, registered with the coachman, and bought some supplies. The desert had been far too dangerous to hunt in, so I had nothing to sell. I set out south towards the Oasis, convinced that registering there would open up the southern regions.

Sycamore Joy's Rest and the Necromancers
Sycamore Joy's Rest, northeast of the Oasis, held some surprises. There are a few towers rising from the desert sands manned by T'ier D'Al -- dark elves such as myself. They're all necromancers inside, which made me let my guard down -- one of them has a mummy pet which slew me in one strike while the necromancers themselves didn't talk to me. I'm sure I will need to return there one day to complete a high-level quest of some kind.

My travels through the desert showed me that there are many wonders and dangers in Tunaria. Luckily the invisibility spell lets me see them and not be seen -- most of the time.

The Oasis
I reached the Oasis with some effort, and found the human coachwoman there to be less than welcoming. She refused to let me register, no doubt due to some faction number. These eastern humans -- they have no respect for power.

Hazniak
I was forced to continue south and east towards Hazniak without help from the humans. The map told me there would be Good and Evil settlements, and the map was right. The T'ier D'Al have a stronghold down there not far from the humans' outpost, and both are surrounded by lands containing very strong monsters.

The Tier Dal woman who bound my spirit told me I was crazy to bind there in such hazardous lands, but when I pressed her to do so, she aquiesced. She hadn't heard my tale of woe of being ignored by the pink wench in the Oasis. I needed to bind somewhere close -- this was dangerous territory.

The coachman in Hazniak would let me return the Grobb, the troll city I visited early on in my Necromantic training. Had I not registered there, I would have had to walk to Grobb.

The dockmaster in the southeastern part of the stronghold let me know I could return to Freeport. Luckily I had registered with the dockmaster there, even though it had given me no travel options at the time. My travel links to the south-eastern regions of Tunaria were complete.

Grobb and Kerplunk Outpost

I had time, so I figured I would "coach" down to Grobb and then go west on foot to Kerplunk Outpost. I was getting confident in my ability to stay cloaked in shadow while traveling, perhaps overconfident.

I met up with a troll warrior who agreed to travel with me to Kerplunk, and I knew that trip would probably end in disaster. With no way for the warrior to cloak, and no way for me to cloak him, we would surely be struck down by some mighty creature between us and that city.

The trip seemed to go well early on. We hunted a bit, but avoided most creatures to keep moving. Then we entered a region of very difficult monsters, red-level beasts that were thick in the swamp and made passage very tricky. We were doing reasonably well, mostly due to luck, when my companion asked me to wait. He had to do something in real life, I suppose, and while I waited, a patrolling monster crossed Bonesy's path, struck him down, then slew both myself and my traveling companion with ease.

I would die a couple more times on this trip, the last death occurring very close to the Kerplunk Outpost building itself. In an area thick with Shadow Panthers and Black Drakes I had no place to recast Gather Shadows to stay invisible. I knew the timer was running out so I cast around for someplace without a horde of threatening monsters. When I'd found none and the timer ran out, I became visible and was torn to shreds by some large beasty, probably a Black Drake, and incurred a rather large 20,000 XP debt.

I went back to Freeport from Hazniak and worked off the debt, vowing to one day make it to Kerplunk, perhaps by a more roundabout route.

South to the desert city of Freeport
I headed south from Neriak towards Freeport, hoping to meet up with that broken bridge again.

Bobble by Water
I skirted around Bobble By Water, an icky Good-alignment city whose guards and citizens are outright hostile to dark elves like myself. I kept to myself and Gathered Shadows to move past difficult wolf animals near their city without incident.

I'm guessing the broken-down bridge is north of Bobble By Water. I hope to find it, because I'm sure there's a Lore item there.

Freeport
I did reach the desert city of Freeport and found myself in the distinct minority there as a Dark Elf. Almost everyone walking around was human. Blech.

on thin ice
My relations with the neutral city of Freeport citizenry are negative, but the guards seem to be neutral to me. It is odd, but one such guard seemed openly hostile to me. I stayed away from his patrol route, waiting for him to move along before entering the city. Perhaps he is of a race that has bad blood with the dark elves. I couldn't see him well enough from the safe distance I had waited at.

Freeport a free market
I entered the city just as some bustling commerce was underway. A few players were shouting out pricing on magic items, but I didn't know where they were located just yet so declined to participate.

I found a vendor of burlap armor, which requires level 10, to replace my cloth armor. I don't recall if Neriak's armor vendor was selling burlap or not, but it boosted my Armor Class noticeably.

Hut hut, pike!
I took a simple quest to get pike fish meat for someone in the town and did it over and over again, using Bonesy to do most of the heavy lifting. This was my first bit of underwater combat, and it seemed to work well. I only let the breath meter run out once, which inflicts damage over time instead of killing you outright, thankfully.

Orc ransacker, highwayman
Very close to the pike and piranha habitat -- the piranha noticed how much of a higher level I was and did not attack despite the red face icon they bore -- was a ruined house. Outside was a strutting highwayman, who was easily beaten down by Bonesy. The highwayman had a Lore item, a little box marked Stolen Goods. Fine by me, into the bank it would go.

Once in a while an "Orc ransacker" would appear in the house. He was easily taken out by Bonesy as well, and his full smattering of equipment and objects were also all Lore items. At some point they will be useful for a quest, perhaps, so into the bank they go.

Coachman
I signed up with the coachman, extending my instananeous travel reach to three cities: Neriak, Klik'Anon, and Freeport. I hope to dig around for more missions in Freeport before moving on.

That bridge
I read here that there is a river through Hodstock and Temby, the area north of Freeport, which has structures on it and NPCs in it fitting the descriptions from my prior encounters. I'll probably go there soon to find and fight them again. It's rather nice sending Bonesy in swinging, and they'll make nice targets.

Ghostly Mage
After a brief tour with Salesmunn and another player doing the ravens feathers quest again, we attacked a cemetery of undead outside Neriak.

One creature, I believe a Ghostly Mage, attracted our attention. We were warned by our companion that it was too strong, and it did have a red reticle when targeted. Other red-reticled creatures had fallen before the three of us without too much trouble, so we were confident -- overconfident.

We charged in, and it erased Reeno with one hit. Then we fled which, of course, never works. I was taken next with a single 250+ hit point attack. I'm unsure if our companion made it out alive.

Klick'Anon
Reeno signed off, and now that I'd bought up the latest spells for Kizul, I had Gather Shadows and wanted to travel. My companion agreed to come along, so I stayed visible to avoid having him be chewed up by monsters I would walk right by.

We headed northwest towards Klick'Anon. As we got close we passed through a very large iron gate guarded by gnome guards. The town was indeed inhabited by gnomes, and a rather large camp of hostile gnolls, not Darkpaw gnolls, but gnolls nonetheless was situated outside it not far from the main road. There are machines of various kinds in their underground city, and it seems like a nice enough place. We signed the coachman ledger, much to my companion's delight. We can now travel between it and Neriak immediately.

We both picked up a soldier ant-slaying quest from a gnome in town before I signed off for the night.

Pop-in
I'd just like to complain that the more I play eqoa, the less impressed I am with the visuals.

For example, when I summon my pet Walking Bones, there is a decent spell effect. When I dismiss him, he just pops out of existence right away. Was it too expensive to pay for a dismissing spell effect? How about just using the same spell effect as summoning, just reverse it? Would that have been too hard?

Coachmen could be better

And while I really like the coaches, I do think that some sort of physical representation of the coaches should exist for each city, something to give it a hint or more realism since it's apparently not a magical transportation system -- the Waysenders do that for particular quests only. Or at least have a coach A, B, and C, and not tell the user until they check in with the coachman and pick a destination. "Go to coach C for Klik'Anon." Then you have to walk ten paces to get to coach C and board it. Heck at that point, pop me out of existence outside and make a door opening and shutting sound or SOMETHING, then teleport me from inside the coach.

And instantaneous coach travel is really not such a good idea, not for free anyway. Maybe they tested this out and found users not liking it, but how about charging for a coach ticket based on speed? The speed could be given to the user up front. "Free ticket is a 3 minute travel time, express is 1 minute travel time for 50 t, and instantaneous is 100 t." Even if the player is just left in limbo while a timer counts down so they can chat en route that would be fine.

But then again, charging the player would probably make players gripe about having to walk to their destination first and register. Why not just pay money to get there without knowing the way.

This is explained, I suppose, by borrowing horses to take yourself instead of riding in a train-like coach. Why they call him a coachman is beyond me, then.

:cry: And alas there is no joy in mudville for my demo has run out. Sorry I didn't get to meet up with Kizul but at least me and Reeno got to take out a giant beetle and some crabs together and if the deathfist guy hadn't struck me down I would have made the quest to join you both.

Infinitus, gnoll slayer
Over the weekend I managed to take my Enchanter named Infinitus (Proudpine Outpost server), join up with other players just a little north of Qeynos on the road, and attack the three gnolls camped outside the city. I must have spent over an hour slaying gnolls with the group, gaining experience and raising my standing with the Qeynos inhabitants.

Home to Highbourne
With my status restored, I used the stables at Qeynos to jump directly back home to Highbourne and complete a couple of quests there.

Completing a quest did cut Infinitus DOWN from level 11 to level 10. I must remember to contact Support about that quest. It did give him some magical cloth gloves to wear in place of his ordinary ones, however, so it wasn't all bad.

Cheapskate
I completed a quest where I had to get tusked beetle carapaces for someone to make medicine, but my reward was food or a drink. That's it! It even gave me an underwhelmed conversation response to choose from when responding. At least I got the XP from the beetles.

Kizul arrives
On Sunday I started a new character, an evil dark elf, as a Necromancer. His name is Kizul, a menacing name chosen using a dark elf name generator. Kizul exists to serve darker needs, and so I can team up with Reeno, mentioned above.

Neriak to Grobb
He started at Neriak, and is now level 7 and is in Grobb on three quests at once. The major quest is to get Froglok legs from a troll cook for his necromancer master (which has him getting crab legs for the troll cook in return). This required him to use a Waysender to travel between Neriak and Grobb -- a first for me. The second quest was given to him in Neriak by a woman who wants to make poison using four pristine raven feathers. The last quest is from a troll in Grobb who wants borer beetle carapaces, also to make a potion of some kind. Three quests at once, and he's quite close to completing 2 of them.

I am looking forward to him reaching level 8 so I can purchase Gather Shadows for him. It is the necromancer's invisibility spell.

We have two next moves. 1. try to raise our faction with Qeynos, and 2. go east to meet up with your fellow dark elf.

Going north to Whale Hill to slay gnolls should work out well according to the map, and going just a bit farther north to register at the stables of the Neutral city of Wyndhaven would serve us well. We can then head south, swing past Qeynos, or enter if our reputations permit it, and then go east.

Grobb is in the far south and east. I'd like to go east to Alseop's Wall, which I believe you (Salesmunn/Reeno) had visited before, hop south to good Forkwatch so I can register at the stables there while you keep your evil self in the shadows away from the guards.

From Forkwatch traveling southeast to register at neutral Brog Fens is a good idea, then east and south to neutral Oasis.

Southeast of Oasis is Hazniak, which is marked as being both Good and Evil. Farther southeast of that is Grobb, our destination. Once we're bound at Oasis, Hazniak looks intriguing even if we have to split up to go to separate parts of the city to bind and register at stables.

Qeynos
After a safe trip north from my character's home city of Highbourne, with a false start after being eaten by a rat and a lion cub, I bound to the city of Qeynos.

Spirit binding
Getting your spirit bound to a spot means you respawn there when you perish. You can only be bound to one spot at a time.

This map has proven invaluable. I drew coachman arrows on a printout of the printer-friendly version of the map to illustrate what cities can get me where.

Coachmen
The coachmen are a network of stables outside major towns or cities. When you register with a coachman, you can arrive at that town from a linked town. Certain towns only permit access to other towns, so going across the map -- once you visit each destination on foot -- may take multiple jumps.

I haven't yet tried to jump from one place to another, but with a link from Highbourne to Qeynos now open to me, it should be no problem. Hopefully it also won't be expensive.

Good, and not so good
My Good class alignment lets me do whatever I wish in my home city of Highbourne and in Qeynos, including shopping and banking.

Qeynos is a rather attractive city, with a traditional castle look to it. It is the home city of the Paladin class, and looks it.

I headed East and Salesmunn logged in while I was doing so. I was hoping to meet him between Qeynos and Highpass, join up, and then head to a Neutral town of some kind, or try to enter a Good town.

I did know at this point that Salesmunn's character Reeno, as a dark elf of the shadowknight is considered Evil, and he said he was struck down by a guard along the way on a prior attempt to get closer to my home town.

I figured once we met up we'd be able to figure out where to go next. He was a veteran of the game, after all. In the meantime we chatted to each other.

A dangerous journey, again
I was slain by some really mean undead zombies in Fog Marsh on my first attempt going north a bit, then directly east towards Highpass, so I went a bit south before trying again, deciding to go straight west and avoid Evil settlements along the way. I figured the undead liked the evil areas and would stay near them.

I saw a many powerful creatures, including alligators and Plague Wasps. All really tough stuff I had to carefully walk around during a lot of the trip. My trusty pet, the Pendaril's Animation suit of walking armor which is created via an Ability (spell), dutifully marched behind me the whole way.

The meeting
I met up with Reeno in the small village of Blackdown. It was a nice reunion, but boy is his Dark Elf scary! My Erudite self was taken aback by his scythe, but we got along famously well. We bound ourselves to that town and decided to try to head West to Qeynos. We'd try and see if he could register with the stables to ease transport later, and if the town would accept him.

The rude awakening
Reeno engaged Follow mode, automatically tagging along behind my character. Happy that we were traveling together, I trotted along the road. I stepped past a guard, heard a *WHAP* and turned to see Reeno's lifeless body fall to the ground. The guard didn't even look at me, walking right by. Aha, so Faction scores do matter.

Factions
There are several factions in the game. Sometimes killing a creature affects that. Definitely killing an NPC of that faction affects that. I gained a tiny faction point killing an undead rat my first night I played, in favor of what I think is a holy order of some kind.

Off-roading it
We traveled off the main road west towards Qeynos, avoiding guards. I was pretty sure at this point Qeynos would be lethal to Reeno, but the stables were outside the main city. Perhaps the stable master would be neutral to him, letting him register there for easy travel.

Or perhaps not.

We arrived at the outskirts of Qeynos and headed towards the stables, which are outside the town proper. I was excited to re-enter the city, but we were cautious for Reeno's safety. We approached the stables, and the stable boy attacked Reeno. Reeno fought back, and when the stable boy died, as a member of his group, I lost over 100 faction points with the locals. Wuh oh, that was NOT good.

They didn't become outright hostile to me, but they did to Reeno. We fled the area, but the damage was done. Reeno logged out, and I found myself unable to bind to Qeynos, or bank there. I could shop, but not much else.

The road ahead is clear. We must restore our faction rating with Qeynos by slaying their enemy creature. Salesmunn's other character on another server is a Paladin, which, you will recall is the class that starts in Qeynos. He says that Gnolls are the thing to kill to boost faction ratings, so that's where we'll go next.

As far as the XP system goes, if your in a group and travel too far away (Far enough that your group-mates' life bar disappears on the left of the screen) you won't gain experience from their kills.

A neat little note, think of this distance as a full sphere surrounding you. It does NOT take into account whether one character is deep underground. As long as it's within the same distance. For example, you could nest safely in your guild underground while your high level buddy wanders the land above you, slaughtering high XP monsters. Monsters that are easy for him but give you mucho XP.