I have certain "dream goals" I've been trying to obtain since I picked up
the game. For example, I've been wanting to explore Cabilis. Yes, I could
simply create a new Iksar and go wandering around, but I want to explore
Cabilis with Monual first. I've been doing the bonechips quest, although I
haven't made much leeway in the past week. I'd also like to try the Veksar
faction quest, but haven't found a group there yet. An SK in my guild has
said that she occasionally goes to Veksar trying to farm the fingerbones
necessary to spawn the undead dragon, and that I'm welcome to come with her
and collect the faction weapons at the same time. Sounds like a plan.
The other place I've always wanted to go see was the Plane of Mischief.
None of the guilds I've ever been a part of have raided there. From what I
gather, it's an annoying zone with incomplete quests and bizarre design
decisions. I still want to go see it.
So Saturday night the officers stop after just a couple of elemental mobs
because we've been farming mobs for eight hours a day for a week. We need
some time off so we take it. The SK I mentioned above wants my help killing
a couple of easy water mobs - one of which might drop a nice SK-only weapon
that procs a pet. So I help her. After one false start, we kill both
sharks. One drops a CLR-only mace that procs Hammer of the Gods. I already
have it, so it's given to the other cleric with us. The other drops a
DRU-only shield that has a right-click evac; there are no druid mains with
us and no druid mains close to the zone, so the SK's druid bot gets it.
After that, my time is my own. I decide to try for the Plane of Mischief.
I get a gate to Cobalt Scar and make the run for Siren's Grotto. For
safety's sake, I bind myself outside SG, then zone in. I make the run, but
I get stunned underwater and spin about. By the time I stop spinning I swim
in the wrong direction, get thoroughly lost, try to DA myself, and die.
Man, you don't appreciate graveyards so much until you're in a zone that
doesn't have one. Naked, I tentatively try to look for my corpse, pacifying
the fish. But I don't have an EB item and pacification eats up a lot of my
mana when I don't have my equipment on, so I can't search very well.
I finally give up and ask a necro in my guild if he wouldn't mind coming
over to SG and summoning my corpse. He agrees easily, much to my relief.
He gets a gate to Cobalt Scar and then proceeds to run around killing the
Othmir for fun. He links a spear that the Othmir Chief drops. I'm in an
awkward position; he's doing me a huge favor, but I kinda wish he'd stop
screwing around and just come summon my corpse. After almost an hour, I
tentatively ask him if he's planning to actually come help me or if I should
look elsewhere. *Just* as I say that, he appears beside me in SG. Oops.
Lotsa egg on my face.
He summons my corpse, then feeds me mana after I rez. I thank him
profusely, then I manage to cross Siren's Grotto without incident. On the
other side I summon my drogmor and bound across Western Wastes. I notice
Sonty isn't up as I bind myself outside and zone into ToV.
Now, last time I tried the run to PoM, I only had Divine Aura and Divine
Barrier as invlunerability spells. This time, I have an AA ability, Bestow
Divine Aura. Plus, one time after a server reset, I went into Highpass and
layed waste to the orcs. In only took ten minutes to spawn the named orc.
I killed him and looted the Shiny Brass Idol with a right-clicky Divine
Aura. And, even better, I have the AA ability Spell Casting Reinforcement
Mastery, which when combined with my Extended Enchancement shield means that
Divine Aura and Divine Barrier will now last 30 seconds. This should be
plenty of invulnerability for me.
I am just about ready to begin when I realize I don't have a SoW potion. I
use my faithstone to gate to Qeynos, use the book to get to PoK, make my way
to the Bazaar and buy a SoW potion. Then I gate back to WW, SoW myself, and
zone back into ToV. At last, I'm ready.
I invis myself. I go into the North Wing and through the hatchery. One of
the Aary guards can see invis, so I pacify both guards and walk somewhat
nervously between them. NToV seems to be cleared of named dragons,
fortunately, so the Aary pit is clear. I drop down into the pit - no going
back - climb the stairs beyond, draw a deep breath, and cast Divine
Barrier - I always start with it because it's the longest-casting
invulnerability spell I have. I run along the right side of the huge lava
pit, aggroing all sort of mobs. I get almost a third of the way around when
DB drops. I stop, cast DA, try to continue my climb up the rocky path,
manage to lose my footing, and drop waaaaaay down into the lava pit.
Nuts.
I had the foresight to have Gate memmed. I quickly drop DA and cast Gate.
Fortunately it goes off before any mobs can warp to me, and I find myself
outside of ToV.
I zone back in and wait for DB and DA to refresh. Then I try again. I
follow the same routine to position myself on the other side of Aary's pit,
cast DB, and begin the run. I get to about the same place when DB drops, so
I then cast DA. I make it to the hallways on the other side of the pit. I
run down the passageway to the corner where the PoM zone-in is. I stop at
the corner and look around. I don't see anything that looks like the
zone-in to PoM. DA drops and I cast BDA on myself. There's an exit to
Cobalt Scar around here somewhere; I begin running down the passageways. I
run through the train I've created and it's quite impressive. Must be two
dozen dragons chasing me. BDA drops and I right-click the idol. I have no
idea where the zone exit is - perhaps down this passageway? The idol's DA
fades away. Without much hope I try to gate away. No good - the dragons
tear me to shreds.
Double nuts.
I arrive naked outside of ToV. I zone in and consider my options. The zone
is empty, and I don't feel like bugging my guild again for yet another
corpse summons. I decide to log and try again in the morning - perhaps
there will be a HoT raid then. I use the downtime to go to
PlaneofMischief.com and post on the boards there - where exactly is the
zone-in? I'm told I was in the right place - the zone-in is a tiny gray dot
on the floor. Well, no wonder I didn't see it.
Sunday morning I log in - zone is still empty, alas. I do a /who all guild,
and no necros or SK's are online. My friend Kayia has an SK alt, so I do a
/who all Kayia. Alas, she's not on. Her boyfriend Liba is, however. I ask
him if I could request a huge favor - could he please log on Kayia's SK alt
and summon my corpse? I explain my situation, which he finds amusing - I'm
quite self-deprecating about what I've gotten myself into. He has a better
solution - he gets a necro in his guild to agree to come help me. The necro
sends me a tell, and he also finds humor in my situation and what I've been
trying to accomplish. Again I am quite open about how stupid what I've been
trying is.
The necro asks for the exact loc of ToV. I gate out. I notice in the
intervening time that Sonty has popped. I give the necro the loc and warn
him and Liba that Sonty is up. Liba is max ally so he doesn't have any
worries. The necro is KoS, but he says he can "HS" by him. I don't have
any idea what HS is, but, quite stupidly, I sit next to Sonty to wait for
them to arrive. When the necro arrives, Sonty stirs and I immediately
realize the mistake I've made. Hastily I rise to my feet and run towards
the ToV zone-in just as the first AE hits me. Only 850dd, but I can't take
too many more of those. I zone in, and the necro zones in with me and
apologizes. I tell him no need, it was entirely my fault - he'd warned me
that he was KoS; I should have known better.
He summons my corpse. Gratefully I loot it and rez myself. Liba arrives
and buffs me as I recover mana. I gate out, SoW myself, and zone back in.
The necro has volunteered to stick around and watch me try again, which is
terrific. He also tries to follow me to NToV, which doesn't work nearly so
well. I have one more false start - I get too close to the Aary guards
while trying to Pacify them and have to run away and gate out. Next time I
get past them to the Aary pit.
DB and go. I'm getting quite familiar with the run, so I knew exactly when
DB is going to drop. I stop and cast DA. I get interrupted during the
first attempt and about two-fifths of my hitpoints vanish. The second
attempt goes off without a hitch, and I run through the hallways to the
corner. Now that I know what to look for, I can see it quite plainly - a
small grey dot in the middle of the floor. I click on it, and the screen
freezes.
Yay!
I am now in the Plane of Mischief. I happily thank Liba and the necro for
their assistance; they both are happy for me. I tell my guild that I've
finally made it to PoM. They are mostly unimpressed; right now they are
concerned with getting enough people logged in to do Fennin Ro.
After chatting for a bit, I actually decide to take a look at my
surroundings. I'm on some light blue gazebo floating above the ground. I
decide to bind myself right there - I've been standing here for a few
minutes and haven't gotten any aggro, and all the mobs I can see in the
distance con as indifferent. I'm at the edge of a forest with
brightly-colored orange and green leaves. I drop down. Almost immediately
an NPC named Rissa runs by yelling for help. Chasing her appears to be a
giant bixbie. They both con indifferent. I decide not to get involved.
I move slightly forward. Almost as soon as I do, a pansy appears out of
nowhere and attacks me. I back away from the forest. I don't have any of
my soloing spells memorized so I cast BDA, sit down, and quickly mem MoR,
Yaulp, a root spell, and Atone. I stand up as BDA wears off and MoR the
pansy. Then I wield my Coral Head Mace and begin attacking. I right-click
my legs to summon a hammer pet that also attacks. I'm doing all right. I
have to occasionally cast Supernal Elixir, and I'm not killing the mob
quickly, but I'm not in any real danger. It will just take a while.
Suddenly my hitpoints begin to plummet. I turn around. Rissa and the giant
bixbie have evidently put aside their differences and have joined together
to attack me. Quickly I root Rissa, back off, root the giant bixbie, back
off. The pansy is now below ten percent and wanders away. My pet is
chasing it so I decide to let it finish the pansy off. I heal myself and
try to atone the bixbie and Rissa. It seems to work on the bixbie, but
Rissa breaks root and attacks me. I sigh and MoR her and begin to attack
her - she's a green con, so she shouldn't be too much of a problem. Again,
it's not fast, but she does eventually die. She has nothing on her corpse,
and I don't take a faction hit. She must be a quest mob.
The bixbie is ignoring me now. I take a few more steps into the forest.
Once again, pansies appear out of nowhere, two of them this time. I sigh,
back away a few steps, then root and Atone them. I notice that when Atone
succeeds, the pansies disappear. They must be a trap.
This time I invis myself and wander around the forest. I find a huge
castle, surrounded by a moat. There's a bridge across the moat, so I step
onto it and fall into the water. I climb out of the moat and alt-tab back
to PlaneofMischief.com. Ah, the bridge is a fake. There are four invisible
bridges over the moat. I alt-tab back to EQ and position myself where I
think a bridge might be. I press forward and, sure enough, I'm walking on
thin air. I get to the other side just as my guild officers tell everyone
to get to Fire for Fennin Ro. I walk a few steps along the parapet and
suddenly find that all of my buffs get dispelled. That's as good a sign as
any that my exploring has come to an end; I faithstone out and join the
Fennin Ro raid.
Fennin Ro goes well - the MT list is given as "Vsal, then wipe." In fact,
the MT goes down two-thirds of the way through the fight. Another tank
steps forwards and manages to get FR aggro very quickly. He positions
himself correctly as the clerics manage to switch the chain to him almost
seamlessly. FR dies with an unplanned MT switch, which I think is quite an
accomplishment. Our guild leader says, "Best loot ever!" and links two
Ifir's and an elemental plate greaves mold. Two rogues get the Ifir's and
again I put my name in for the greaves and again the officers complain about
every single plate-wearing person wanting the greaves. Another cleric gets
awarded them. I have yet to get a elemental mold drop, although I can't
complain - I've gotten lots of non-mold drops that are just as good.
During the whole clearing-to-FR process I died a couple of times. I found
that the Plane of Mischief is a very pleasant place to gaze upon while
waiting for a rez.
I'll have to go look around some more. A Crazy Cleric Breastplate would be
an upgrade for me - depends if I can figure out the myriad quests involved
and if I can solo the mobs that drop what I need. I just hope I don't ever
need to get a corpse summoned in the Plane of Mischief - I'm figuring I
won't ever be able to get a necro all the way there. =)
--
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
Archon of Rodcet Nife
Silent Tempest
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This page is Copyright by Skaarak; Everquest (TM) is property of Sony Online Entertainment
All stories and art work are Copyright@ by the origial owner/writer.
Most, if not all stories, were taken from newsgroup alt.games.everquest (AGE), I recommend that anyone who gets a chance to read it should!