The Hunt for Pain and Suffering

[globalCooldown]

Greetings, Green server. I am on a particular kind of quest. A quest to find a peculiar kind of entity: the very manifestation of Pain and Suffering on our own Norrath.

It all started when I was goofing around, trying out another emulated server (The Al'Kabor Project, for those curious). My baby Rogue escaped a fight with a Disease debuff, couldn't get it cleansed, and died from its ticks. Tragic, but nothing to write home about.

Except, after I was unconscious, a message in the combat log got me thinking:

https://i.imgur.com/7mnXMF8.png

Who or what was "Pain and suffering," and how could it miss?

Now, I'm sure lots of adventurers have been killed by "pain and suffering" before. And perhaps even missed by it before. But how many of us wrote off how strangely mob-like those death messages sound?

I delved deep, deep into the stygian abyss of old forum threads and assorted wikis, including our own p99 wiki. "Pain and Suffering" is a mob. An invisible mob in every zone, with a zone-wide reach. Its purpose is to finish off unconscious characters. Allegedly, this was a workaround so unconscious characters could "bleed out".

Allegedly, Pain and Suffering can be tracked.
Allegedly, it can be targetted.
Allegedly, it can be killed.

And so, I come home to p99 Green, with an epic quest: to find Pain and Suffering and learn all I can about this mysterious mob.

I turn to you, the community, for help. Can you find proof it exists here on p99? Can it be targetted? Can it be killed? What does it take to kill it? What is its respawn timer? Its /loc? Its loot?

For my part, I will be rolling a fresh ranger in Qeynos to see what I can find. Please feel free to share your knowledge in this thread.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Pain and Suffering is the damage you recieve if no valid target is dealing damage to you. It's pretty uncommon. On a technical level, even if Pain and Suffering is some sort of instanced mob, it is almost certainly untargetable, invulnerable, and probably in a GM area, or just floating somewhere you can't reach.

If you did kill it, you may be punished for trying to disrupt the game, so it's probably not a good idea to try anyway. It's not a mob designed to be killed, it's more like a backup for if damage needs to be dealt to you, but the damage isn't caused by any normal damage dealing method.

[Chortles Snortles]

https://i.imgur.com/LckUyX8.png

[magnetaress]

I targeted pain and suffering over at the hermit ish area im South Karana once on an older pvp titanium emu. It was perpetually at a sliver of hp. I don't remember what I did trying to kill it or the results. I only just visualize the name in my target box and the greenish slightly sloped hill area and flatness and karananess. The memory is real. If old and fragmented. I was being hunted by a druid there so eventually moved on.

I've also had pain and suffering actually land a hit and kill me.

So I firmly believe it's absolutely possible. I gave up on my hunt tho as my irl illness has severely hampered my ability to play games.

[globalCooldown]

Pain and Suffering is the damage you recieve if no valid target is dealing damage to you. It's pretty uncommon. On a technical level, even if Pain and Suffering is some sort of instanced mob, it is almost certainly untargetable, invulnerable, and probably in a GM area, or just floating somewhere you can't reach.

If you did kill it, you may be punished for trying to disrupt the game, so it's probably not a good idea to try anyway. It's not a mob designed to be killed, it's more like a backup for if damage needs to be dealt to you, but the damage isn't caused by any normal damage dealing method.

If you are correct:
1) Being untargettable, unreachable, and unkillable is valuable info. Really the ultimate goal is learning about the bugger.
2) Better to be up front about my intentions and told "no" by the GMs before I break something.

[Zuranthium]

Back in the day when Paineel was introduced, people swore the spirit of pain and suffering existed as an NPC on the other side of the giant hole.

[Infectious]

One of the small lava pits in lavatory you can target pain and suffering

[Jibartik]

To those that seek to destroy the beast known as pain and suffering.

You have my axe.

https://i.imgur.com/OsMIxad.gif

[Encroaching Death]

https://i.imgflip.com/6wf7b4.jpg

[globalCooldown]

I have been busy, friends. Today, my fresh-faced Ranger happened to slip into Paineel. Across the vast pit is one alleged instance of Pain and Suffering.

Unfortunately, in my current state, I'm unable to track him. There could be a number of reasons, including:

I'm level 10, and my Tracking is 55. I just might not have far enough reach.
Pain and Suffering really is ~invisible~ and I'll need a source of See Invisible to track it.


So. Back to the grind it is. I hope to get some good faction in the Warrens and get the Heretics to like me enough to snoop around more, maybe try to get at the tower across the pit. 'Til then, thoughts are welcome.

[Trexller]

It's not a mob designed to be killed

https://i.imgur.com/oeJWXkX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pQTK1f6.jpg

[Encroaching Death]

I googled this because I wanted to help with the hunt.

I'm just getting Personal Injury Lawyer ads :(

[Chortles Snortles]

https://i.imgur.com/sKJQMO6.gif

[globalCooldown]

Day six. My Tracking is 60 - that's getting close to the acceptable territory. In South Qeynos, I can track the south dock merchant Ghul Rustem from the alley behind the arena.

This is relevant because I went searching for Pain and Suffering in South Qeynos today. The only pain and suffering I found, alas, was disappointment. I checked every corner, north, south, and in the middle. I skulked around the arena tunnels and aqueduct entrances. I drank enough Blackburrow Stout to pitch the corner of my drunken vision partially through walls, to scour rooms I otherwise couldn't see. I swam far out west into the ocean, until every name on my track disappeared, until I was far enough out to see the boats pop into existence, mashing F8 all the while as I tried to find something, anything, out in the unforgiving waters.

I also used EQ Scout (http://www.ulftek.com/eqscout/). It's a really hecking cool external browser based widget that lets you fly around the full unfurnished map models of classic EQ zones.

But for now, no luck.

I would like to extend my thanks to you, dear readers. Your contributions have not just given me hope, but evidence. Coupled with the wild web rumor mill, I have a theory:
Pain and Suffering isn't invisible; you can "see" it without See Invis. It just has a shadowman model, so it's completely see through.

Pain and Suffering might also show up as a blank, unlabeled health bar instead of a mob named Pain and Suffering. Or maybe it will show differently in different zones.

For now, the conclusion is the same: continue leveling Ranger, continue grinding Tracking.



And should anyone be looking for a quest: if you happen to have a high Tracking, and you're not kos to anyone in South Qeynos, take a look around. Maybe hitch a ride on the boat, or go swimming in the deep water. See if you can find an unnamed mob on your Track out there in Prexus' armpit.

[Castle2.0]

Greetings, Green server. I am on a particular kind of quest. A quest to find a peculiar kind of entity: the very manifestation of Pain and Suffering on our own Norrath.

It all started when I was goofing around, trying out another emulated server (The Al'Kabor Project, for those curious). My baby Rogue escaped a fight with a Disease debuff, couldn't get it cleansed, and died from its ticks. Tragic, but nothing to write home about.

Except, after I was unconscious, a message in the combat log got me thinking:

https://i.imgur.com/7mnXMF8.png

Who or what was "Pain and suffering," and how could it miss?

Now, I'm sure lots of adventurers have been killed by "pain and suffering" before. And perhaps even missed by it before. But how many of us wrote off how strangely mob-like those death messages sound?

I delved deep, deep into the stygian abyss of old forum threads and assorted wikis, including our own p99 wiki. "Pain and Suffering" is a mob. An invisible mob in every zone, with a zone-wide reach. Its purpose is to finish off unconscious characters. Allegedly, this was a workaround so unconscious characters could "bleed out".

Allegedly, Pain and Suffering can be tracked.
Allegedly, it can be targetted.
Allegedly, it can be killed.

And so, I come home to p99 Green, with an epic quest: to find Pain and Suffering and learn all I can about this mysterious mob.

I turn to you, the community, for help. Can you find proof it exists here on p99? Can it be targetted? Can it be killed? What does it take to kill it? What is its respawn timer? Its /loc? Its loot?

For my part, I will be rolling a fresh ranger in Qeynos to see what I can find. Please feel free to share your knowledge in this thread.

The only way to find and experience it is to frequent the Red or OOC forums. You're on the right site, but wrong forum.

[Jimjam]

Trakanon’s Teeth at the zoneline to Swamp of No Hope there was an invisible unamed untrackable NPC. Targetable though. You couldn’t hit it but you could practice archery by poofing arrows on hit.

There are other instances of untrackable NPCs. Many boats are targettable NPCs which can’t be tracked.

That shows untrackable NPCs exist.

[Trexller]

OP why don't you first set up a local EQ server on your PC

then you can enable all the GM features, and gain access to alot more zone info

you can spawn and despawn anything, see real time mob lists, apply effects to another toon you log on and see if you can trigger the pain and suffering function on demand

read up more on eq admin stuff, figure this out.

science needs to know

[Jibartik]

Web MD says you have internet connectivity issues.

[globalCooldown]

Trakanon’s Teeth at the zoneline to Swamp of No Hope there was an invisible unamed untrackable NPC. Targetable though. You couldn’t hit it but you could practice archery by poofing arrows on hit.

There are other instances of untrackable NPCs. Many boats are targettable NPCs which can’t be tracked.

That shows untrackable NPCs exist.

THIS IS HUGE. Thank you for pointing this out! It's entirely possible that at least some instances of Pain and Suffering don't show up on Track, then.

OP why don't you first set up a local EQ server on your PC

then you can enable all the GM features, and gain access to alot more zone info

you can spawn and despawn anything, see real time mob lists, apply effects to another toon you log on and see if you can trigger the pain and suffering function on demand

read up more on eq admin stuff, figure this out.

science needs to know

You know, I might just look into this. I've never set up a private server for anything, but I probably have the knowledge base to at least try. I'll get back to you on this.

[Rathnir]

"Pain and Suffering" definitely exists as an untrackable and untargetable Shadowman in Plane of Fear outside of the Amy Temple. You can stand still and let it swing at you if you are in the correct spot.

[Ennewi]

https://web.archive.org/web/20030418210900/http://www.everlore.com/bestiary/beastdetails.asp?mode=show&BID=115686

Submited by: Loganta Tranng On: 9/11/2001 1:00:55 AM Rank: worst 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 best
TWO P&S mobs have also been spotted in ToV zone in...in the two firepots


https://web.archive.org/web/20020705164052/http://eqbeastiary.allakhazam.com/search.shtml?start=0&zone=31

RE: Pain and Suffering Reply... By: Tinamasea,
1 posts
Posted @ Mon, Apr 8th 10:44 AM 2002 Score: Decent[3.00]
Not true.. he can be killed.. he comes up as a blank line on track but can be targeted. if you have no target selected when he hits you, he will pop into your target selection. others can target by assisting. And he can be seen as well to hit. Had casters casting flame lick at him to pinpoint his location. He cons blue to me at 53. Took 2 groups to take him down. Instant respawn time.

Pain and Suffering Reply... By: NaeenSpeed,
3 posts
Posted @ Tue, Aug 28th 4:44 AM 2001 Score: Decent[3.00]
Killed him tonight. Has about 20k HP, hits for 137 max. Very low resist to root, snare and DOTs. He was indiff to me. Doesn't show up, even with see invis on. Was blue at 56, and gave normal exp when killed. No loot. Not worth the time and effort. :)

Naeen
56th preserver

RE: Pain and Suffering Reply... By: galenalight, Scholar
36 posts
Posted @ Thu, Oct 11th 10:28 AM 2001 Score: Good[4.35]
Yeppers I bumped into him to. He shows up as a blank spot on tracking. Tracked him down to a lava pool, hit f8 and was able to target him. He conned even at 50. The only indication he is pain and suffering comes from the messages when he is hitting you. Pain and suffering hits you for such and such. Otherwise he has no name. For instance when you track him it just sayes 'is straight ahaed' instead of 'Pain and Suffering is straight ahead'. Likewise when targeted there is no text in his name. Didnt manage to kill him, but after my res I tracked him down again. He was back in the lava pool. I think he is just a bug simular to the ! mob that was showing up in EK for a while.

Gavin
Ranger 50
Xev server