Time, Time, Time. It's amazing how quickly you can get tired of it. =)
We've been beating our heads against Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Time. Really,
these should be easy. The encounters themselves are not too difficult.
Mostly it's just a problem of getting people familiarized with all of them
and the various strategies involved. Air and Water seem to cause us the
most trouble, but Fire once wiped two separate forces - one that went in
when only the boss was up. Le sigh.
Still, loot's been dropping, and it's not bad loot. Our current policy is
to just random off the loot, since we're fairly certain some of it will be
going to alts within a month. For now, we're being asked to apply some
common sense; don't roll on items that are only a minor upgrade, don't roll
on items that are obviously geared towards a melee when you're a caster or
vice versa.
The only real problem so far was... well, me. We got through to Phase 2 and
killed two bosses before time expired. They each dropped loot... one was a
nice earring. The other was a Gauntlets of Destruction: AC 54 HP 150
MANA 140 DEX 20 CHA 15 WIS 20 INT 20 AGI 15 Strikethrough: +5%
Effect: Aura of Bravery. Slightly more than a marginal upgrade to my Sol Ro
gauntlets. I'd be losing spell haste on nukes and gaining three hitpoints
of regeneration (and an ATK bonus, which of course I wouldn't use). Now, we
were running out of time and lots of people were dead, so rather than wait
for everyone to be rezzed and roll over the corpse, our guildleader asked
everyone to send in their name if they wanted it and he would list roll. So
I mentally shrugged and sent in my name. Soon after my guildleader
announces I had won. Happily I looted it.
Only afterwards did I ask what "Strikethrough" was. Evidently this allows
you to swing through a mob's Riposte and Dodge and hit them anyway. As in,
a completely useless effect for a cleric. I felt chagrined and said in
guildchat that I was sorry I had rolled on them. My guildleader sent me
reassuring tells, indicating that only two people had wanted in on the loot
anyway. That did make me feel better. Still, some people were irritated on
general principle that a cleric would get an item clearly meant for melee's.
We'll know better in the future; a lot of people are still ignorant of many
of the effects.
After we finish in Time, I look around for XP. I still need lots of AA, and
getting Celestial Regeneration and Celestial Renewal 2 is becoming more and
more important for the guild. I have neither of those things, alas. I'd be
happy with an XP group in Fire or Earth.
But a real-life married couple - a cleric and a ranger who joined the guild
together not too long ago - ask if anyone wants to help them with Mistmoore
LDoN adventures. The cleric is going after group Blessing of Reverence, the
spell haste focus. I know how frustrating getting LDoN groups together can
be, so I offer to help. Clerics stack up fairly well in MM because of the
undead mobs. They take me up on the offer, and we end up doing a couple of
MM's. After the cleric and ranger have to log, I keep the group going
because now suddenly I want group BoR. =) In fact, we get a group that
consists of me, an SK, a chanter, and three wizards. We do two normals and
just destroy them. Finally we decide to do a hard adventure. The enchanter
charms a pet and I used my shrinking device to make it tiny. The hard
adventure isn't necessarily a breeze - it's a slow and cautious thing, and
we end up killing about one mob a minute, and we need 59 to complete this
one. But we do end up doing it. I'm very happy as I am now only 150 points
away from group BoR, which I had started the weekend not even seriously
considering getting.
We get back to the Butcherblock camp. I sell and split the loot. I looted
a strength augment so I head to the birdbath to use is.
Here's where it gets... interesting.
As I approach the birdbath, I see no one around it but a level 51 mage, who
is standing in front of it. I have an Elemental Helm that gives me
permanent See Invis, so I know there's no one else nearby. I click on the
birdbath and get the message, "Someone is using that... try again later."
So I wait for a minute - I know it doesn't take that long to augment
something - then click it again. Same message - in use. I try a couple
more times, then ask in /say who's holding open the bird bath for crying out
loud?
Perhaps it's the (admittedly) petulant tone of my /say that prompts her next
action - the mage moves up and actually sits in the birdbath. It's still in
use, so I next send her a private tell. Gonna be using the birdbath long?
I'm not using it, is the reply. I click, and it's still in use. So my
current working theory that she's got it open without knowing it - perhaps
it's hiding behind an inventory window. So I ask if she could quickly move
a few feet away from the birdbath - that will force-close any open birdbath
window she has. Her reply - "I shouldn't have to move just to prove what I
know is true."
When she said that, I knew for a fact that she was holding it open just to
be obnoxious.
Now, there were two lines of action open to me. I could have used the Magus
to get TL'd to another camp and used the birdbath there. Elapsed time:
sixty seconds.
However, it galled me that someone would act in this obnoxious manner for
such a petty reason - this is actually one of my pet peeves, people who like
to make things difficult on other people for no reason at all.
So I chose option two: confrontation. I sent the mage a tell accusing her
of keeping it open deliberately just to be obnoxious. She denies it. I ask
her to prove it by moving a few feet away. Again, she refuses. She then
sends me a tell calling me a profane name. I'd been hoping for something
like this; I promptly /report and /petition it. I inform her that I have
done this; she tells me that the profanity is found in the dictionary and
that if I cared to look it up, I might find my picture next to it.
By this time about half a dozen people are gathered around the birdbath, and
more and more people are pestering whoever's keeping the birdbath in use to
let other people use it. I start using /say to tell people it is the mage
that is using it. She denies it; I again ask her to move just a few feet to
prove. She responds by asking why I don't try moving? I move across camp
and back (took less than five seconds) and said, see, that wasn't so hard.
Her response: too bad you didn't stay away.
Gratifyingly, I get a tell very quickly from a guide. Did I report the
profanity? Yes. He gets a GM to pull it for him; he comments that it's
really not too bad. I agree, it wasn't. He then asks what's happening and
I quickly sum up the situation.
To my delight, he appears in Butcherblock. He approaches the birdbath and
asks everyone to step away so he can check whether it's bugged or not.
That's a nice, face-saving approach to the problem. The mage gets up and
moves away - I notice she keeps dancing back and forth, still staying pretty
close to the birdbath, as if seeing how far away she can be and still keep
the window open. But she does go far enough away that mysteriously the
birdbath becomes available. I send the GM a thanks, then use the birdbath
to augment my new gloves.
In my mind, the matter is nicely resolved. I gate back to Tranquility,
still in the mood for some XP even though it's very late at night. While I
sit there, letting my guild know I was LFG, I get a tell from the mage,
telling me I was not a nice person. I shoot right back that I'm not the one
who kept open the birdbath just to grief other people, lied about it, then
sent a profane tell to someone asking them to move. It goes back and forth
like this a bit until she finally says, "I'm an officer in my guild, and
you're just a member of Silent Tempest. I did a /guildstatus on you." That
was supposed to be some withering retort, I guess; I tell her being an
officer is no reflection of character. She then tells me that I have no
idea who her main is, and that I can shortly expect to be kicked out of
Silent Tempest.
I respond with open laughter. While I've butted heads with some of our
officers, I'm still in good standing with them and the guild in general.
I'm actually the one who speaks out against doing obnoxious things to other
people - like, one time some people in our guild decided to create an ogre
wall in front of the entrance to the PoK stone in PoTranquility, just for
fun. I mildly castigated them on the guild boards - that sort of stuff
reflects very poorly on our guild. It's very well known that I'm almost
violently against any kind of griefing. So I encourage her to go ahead and
try to get me removed. Helpfully I provide the names of my guildleaders. I
also ask for her guildleader, which she provides, a little to my surprise.
Finally, she says "Goodbye" and logs.
I've been relaying bits and pieces of this to my guild, who respond with
amusement. Then, five minutes later, I get a "Hello" from a 65 SK in BoT.
I know this SK; he's been around the server for longer than I have. I
expect he's gonna ask me to join a group there, so I'm surprised when he
then says, "I'm gonna be as nice as I can about this." He then claims to be
the real-life husband of the mage I was dealing with, and he saw the whole
thing on her computer, and he demands that I apologize. I tell him, quite
frankly, I have nothing to apologize for. I go on to detail how things went
down as I saw them. I get no responses at all. Again I shrug my shoulders,
wondering if I'm going to get ranted.
Then I get a tell from an alt of one of my guild's officers, asking me what
the heck I am doing with the SK and the mage. I explain once again, and he
boggles at the story. He tells me to stop bothering them, and I say that I
haven't - they've been the one initiating tells with me. But I also promise
not to respond to them any more or send them any tells, and he's happy with
that. He also says that I need not worry about my standing in the guild.
A strange and bemusing incident. Is it possible the mage was innocent?
Maybe - I have nothing but circumstantial evidence. But someone who was
griefing would have done the exact same thing she did - refuse to move a few
feet from the birdbath when asked. So the circumstantial evidence factored
in with her actions which certainly made her *seem* guilty make it pretty
clear in my mind that she was, in fact, holding the birdbath open in an
effort to be obnoxious.
Why did she do this? I think I can reconstruct it. She had the birdbath
open without realizing it. When I came along and asked in a
not-entirely-polite manner for her to stop using it, it got her dander up.
She'd show me a lesson. So she began the charade, hoping to get under my
skin and to punish me for the way I asked her to stop using the birdbath.
When I petitioned her and a guide came along and forced her to move, she
lost the game she had been playing with me. That made her unhappy, and she
took the game a step further. She somehow thought the fact that she was an
officer in her guild gave her special powers that would get me removed from
my guild. Plus she had another character, an SK (who may or may not have
been her husband; I suspect the same player behind both toons) who had been
on the server for a long time and knew people. So she'd use this
character's influence to pay me back for beating her at the game she had
initiated. Again, she overestimated how much influence he would have.
I can only imagine what revenge she's planning now. I did a /who the next
day and she was online. I never sent her a tell, she never sent me a tell.
Hopefully we can just let bygones be bygones. It bothers me a little
because I like to be on good terms with everyone. But I also can't abide
griefers, no matter how petty the situation. Overall, though, I'm mostly
amused at her naiveté, and gratified that her petty games backfired on her.
I log for the night.
The next day I log on at about 6pm. I ask how far we are in Time, and am
amazed by the answer - we are in Phase *4*. Phases 1 and 2 were finally
done on time, and Phase 3 was evidently very easy. I zone into Time and get
a raid invite from an alt that's parked there. I then run to one of the
trial markers and click on it.
I'm ported into a very large room with a bookcase and a large iron door. I
click on the door several times - nothing happens. I finally ask how I'm
supposed to open the door and I'm told to click on the level next to the
door. Oh. I click on it and the door opens.
I find myself in a very large room with a very large table in the center.
In four corner alcoves of the room are Terris Thule, Saryn, Vallon Zek, and
Tallon Zek. I run around a little agog at the sight - four gods in one
room. I rejoin the raid, which has tried Terris Thule once and wiped. I
get into a group, get raid buffed, and ask about the strategy. Dead simple,
it appears - run to the right ledge, heal the tank, stay out of the water.
No chain, just freestyle the heals. All right.
We run up. Behind TT is a blue vortex, which I expect will gate us to the
area where we'll fight her. To my surprise, she runs right out at us -
evidently we're gonna fight her right there in her little room. I run to
the right ledge and begin healing the MT. We keep him up for a while, but
the AE mana dot kills my mana pool quickly. The clerics run out of mana,
and with TT at 20% the officers yell, "Burn her down!" The place is
swarming with adds - huge skeletons, giant skeletons riding undead horses.
A couple attack me and, with no mana, I run away. They chase me for a while
and then suddenly warp away - evidently there is only so far they can roam
from the alcove.
I target TT and she is at 9%. Definitely gonna be a race. 6%, 3%... then
she's dead. And there is much rejoicing.
The drops are announced. Silk legs, making our casters happy. A
shadowknight weapon that procs a 750dd. My jaw drops when I find that out -
like, wow. And, for the plate-wearers, Armguards of the Brute - AC 59, HP
180 MANA 165, Spell Shield 4%, buncha other stats, permanent EB/See
Invis/Ultravision. I ask and Spell Shield reduces damage from spells by 4%.
Nice item, right? Our officers can't give the thing away. We've farmed the
elemental planes for so long that just about everyone who wants Elemental
arms already has them. And these arms aren't much of an upgrade, even with
the Spell Shield. No one wants to waste their loot karma on a small
upgrade - everyone has their dream item. The officers get a bit
frustrated - "C'mon, someone go in on this!" Finally a cleric who just
became a full member and doesn't have elemental arms gets awarded them. I
find it interesting that our first Phase 4 loot is something we can barely
give away.
There's a problem with getting the loots. Remember the adds? They're still
there, roaming around TT's corpse. Our raid mostly got wiped when TT went
around killing everyone after all the tanks died. We're slowly dragging and
rezzing, but we may not have a force available to take down the adds.
Fortunately we have solutions to all this. The SK uses harmshield to run
up, loot, and die. The cleric uses Divine Aura to run up, loot, and die. A
mage is awarded the silk legs, and a cleric casts Bestow Divine Aura on him
so he can run up, loot, and die. This is all done with five minutes on TT's
corpse and the adds showing no inclination to despawn.
We finally pull ourselves back together. We have four hours to try these
gods. No way we can kill all four gods tonight, but we wanna at least try
out Saryn. We try using the same strategy, but Saryn's adds are nastier
than TT's. The clerics run out of mana with Saryn at 50%, and we wipe. We
try variations of our strategy, and every time the clerics run out of mana
early and we wipe. After our second wipe, I notice that the adds have
finally despawned on Terris Thule's alcove. Curious, I run up to the blue
gate thingy that was behind Terris Thule and click it. I find myself in the
Plane of Nightmares. Woops. Quickly I gate back to Tranquility and zone
into Time. A ranger also discovers where the portal takes you.
After wiping three times we give up since there are only 20 minutes
remaining anyway. Next time we'll maybe try some Xegony strategies, keeping
clerics grouped with necros or SK's and getting beastlords to paragon us.
We're terribly excited - after one week of trying, we're in Phase 4. Maybe
Quarm isn't quite so far away after all. =)
Afterwards I get an MM LDoN group together. Nothing fancy, we just do three
quick normal adventures, including two collects, which is a first for me
because rumor was they were too difficult. I found both of them quite easy;
the drops were plentiful. After the last, I have enough for group BoR. My
guildleader, who was in on the last group, asks why I'm wasting the points
on that spell and not saving them for 40mana augments.
A fair questions, actually. I've never been keen on augmenting my gear,
since I always think of my gear as transitory - something that will soon get
replaced. It's hard to imagine "wasting" augments on my gear since
eventually I'll be replacing it with better gear. I know it's not entirely
logical, but I can't get past that. Plus I do get bugged for BoR a lot, and
it will be quite convenient to have the group version of it. Plus it lasts
five minutes longer than single BoR, which will get stretched out even
further with my AA's and items. Having to recast the spell less often will
make it worth the price. =)
I buy the spell and scribe it. Since BoR was part of many of my spell sets,
I recreate them with group BoR. Then I log, happy with the day's
accomplishments.
Ah, happy days. Progressing in Time, and getting the better of a griefer.
Life is good. =)
--
-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!