Adventures in EverQuest - part 2
          (Continued from the review in Issue 68)

                      From Alex van Kaam

When I left you all in issue 68 of SynTax I told you about how I
started Xilanaz and he had reached level 15+ with him.

Well soon after that it all just went wrong, he died more then he
could do anything else, so I stopped playing EQ for about 3
months.  2 weeks ago I logged on again, renewed my account and
found Xilanaz fully intact at level 19 where I'd left him.

It took some time getting used to playing the game again, learning
what spells to use and all that stuff, but once I got into that it
all went rather nicely.  I first headed over to The Overthere,
which is part of the Kurnark upgrade of EQ.  Found a small group
with a fighter and a bard and gained a bit of experience and
reached level 20. This is the level you can select a surname, and
Xilanaz is now known as Xilanaz Bhrood, Sue will know where that
name came from :-) Also nice is that The Overthere is evil, so
they all liked me there, I could shop and go to the bank with no
problems.

The only problem with The Overthere was that there were not many
players, so it was hard to get a group.  I thus headed back to
Neriak my home town, got a bind there and tried a few of the
dungeons in the area, all too high for me, so I went to Oasis and
soloed Crocodiles, by now I understood my spells a bit better and
got the most out of it, meaning I was sitting down healing a lot
less then before.

I reached level 21 in Oasis, went to Neriak and bought all my
level 22 spells (7), I then went to East Commons with all my money
and items and started buying and selling stuff, I ended up with a
2H Practice Sword that has a "thorn" spell, and a full Bronze
armor (Sue has screenshots so I hope she puts them in).  The sword
I soon learned I only was able to use the thorn spell at level 22,
but I could do about 30-38 dmg with it, very nice.
@~There's a screenshot in the relevant section.

I also gained at lvl 20 my dual attack skill and since my SK has a
high Int, it meant he learned very fast this new skill and soon I
did 2x30-38 dmg with my lvl 21 SK.

I then decided I'd had enough of Oasis and I moved to Lake Rathe,
now this was a long journey, past hill giants and Cyclopes but I
made it in one piece.  Lake Rathe is a huge lake with a few
islands and an area to the side with spawns on it.  I got a bind
in the Arena (the area next to the lake) and grouped up with a
small group to kill Aviak Guards (huge eagle looking birds).  Was
fun but the group soon split up so I went north into South Karana.

Now this is a huge plane, lots of animals and monsters, I'd been
here with my Paladin at lvl 18 and left as it was way too hard.  I
walked around a bit until I got invited into a team of 3 lvl 26
necromancers killing Threants (huge trees), now they really did
not need me, but hey I was not going to tell them that.  Killing
Threants gives you very bad faction with lots of people, but since
I was evil anyway, who cares.

The exp was okay, the level 26 players go most, but the loot was
awesome!!  The next day I headed back towards the zone with Lake
Rath and found the Aviak tower near there.  This is a huge
structure with Aviaks in them, not the same as in the lake area
but close.

I here grouped up with a necro named Sulphur and a Cleric named
Autonomn, now this cleric really played EQ as a roleplaying game,
talking to everybody with Sir and all that, funny in a way, but
also very good of him to keep doing that.  Another benefit he has
is that he will stick with you even if it means he'll die.  One of
those people who are hard to find and I must say that since I
logged on again and revived Xilanaz this was the first time I'd
met someone like that, Borimir knew Roland and Wala who would also
stick together.

With this group I reached level 22 and got 7 new spells:
Convoke Shadow - a pet of level 15, no tank but gives a nice extra
punch
Dark Empathy - allows me to transfer health from me to another
player, is of no use for a tank
Dead Eye - again a spell of no use, gives me night sight, but
being a DE I already have it, is probably meant for human SK
Engulfing Darkness - great spell, does 100 dmg over time and slows
an enemy down by 40%, this is the spell I start all my fights with
Spook the Dead - nice on skeletons and zombies and stuff
Vampiric Embrace - I try to have this one on me during fights, it
randomly sucks lvl / 2 hitpoints from enemy to me
Ward Undead - again handy with undead

The next day I then headed to the lake again and camped the Aviak
Tower myself all day, my lvl 15 pet and my spells meant that I
could solo them.  I reached level 23 in 1 day and did not get
killed one single time.

Being 23 I then went back to the Aviak Tower and met my previous
friends, they had not leveled yet, so I guess I did the right
thing in going to the lake.

By now the new EQ patch was also installed, meaning that there was
no more exp penalty for being a DE SK or other hybrid, or having
one in your party. Not sure if it was because of that or not but
for some reason we got a party of 6 (means extra party exp)
together in no time, with 2 healers, 2 casters 1 tank (me) and 1
rogue and fought at the Aviak Tower all day, reaching level 24 and
having so much loot on me that I could not even run anymore
because of the weight <g>

Around that time I also got invited into a guild by Lanz lvl 45
warrior, (second character of the guy who played Roland) and his
wife lvl 45 Cleric.  It is called "Intrepid Warriors".  It was
nice to see them again, also made me go "erk" to see Lanz reached
lvl 45 with his second character.. Aaaah if I'd only kept playing
:-)

I kept in around the Aviak tower till lvl 24 and a half after
which I went back to the Threants and grouped with a few Necros.
Was easy loot and good experience so I reached lvl 25.

After this I headed into Paw, this is like Black Burrow that
Borimir visited but then for the higher levels.  I got into a
group of 6 here and we cleaned the lobby with easy, heading slowly
deeper into the dungeon till the first door.  The biggest problem
with this group was that they did not work well together, however
I did learn a lot about this dungeon and of course got killed a
few times, especially when the lvl 30 tank left.

I went back the next day and got invited into another group which
was built around 2 main people, a bard and a cleric, cleaned the
whole dungeon till the first door, even going through and pulling
a few wizard gnolls from there, was kinda tricky and not always
worked though.  Anyways we did this for 10 hours in a row (it was
weekend) and I gained 2 levels in 1 day, amazing.  The fact that
Paw is a high risk dungeon and so you get X% extra experience
helped a lot I guess.

What amazed me more about this group, well it was me, the bard and
the cleric, the rest came and left during the day, was that the
cleric just sat there and meditated and cast his heal spells in
time on the right person.  I told the Bard that this cleric sure
was a good party player and he told he that he also was the
bard!!!

Seemed he had 2 PCs, 2 accounts and played 2 players, this was
also the reason why we camped close to the zone edge and it was to
hard for him to evacuate 2 people from deep within the dungeon on
2 PCs.

Anyways, late that evening I left the party and headed back to the
closest shop I could find, I had too much loot (fine steel swords
and platinum) and I gave my copper and silver to other players
(lower level) to lose weight so I could walk a little bit, I was
still 100 over weight so it took ages.  After selling stuff I
headed to a bank (in Ogre town, hey they like me too !!) to
deposit my 150pp !!!!!  I never had so much money in such a short
time.

The next day I headed back to Paw, created my own group, became
the puller and reached another level.  After this I went back to
East Commons to see if I could buy a Dark Reaper, this is a
coooool SK sword, I had 500pp in the bank and after sitting on my
butt for 4 hours, casting spells on my pet so I gained a few skill
levels, I finally saw one on offer for 450pp...

With my Dark Reaper I headed back to Paw, gained another level
(29), lost it, gained it, lost it, gained it and logged off.

My subscription was for 1 month and 2 days after I logged off it
expired, so I have taken a small break, probably went too hard and
fast, gaining too many levels in such little time. I already got
stuff ready for when I go back ... Probably within 3 months else
Xilanaz might be gone.






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