My EQ memories (in detail)

[Kika Maslyaka]

For no apparent reason I decide to write this huge post about my EQ memories, specifically those I remember in great details.
Feel free to post yours.

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0. How it all started. My RPG background mostly included Diablo and Baldur's Gate (which I never finished cause at some point difficulty got too much for me and I got bored). I was out of good game to play for more than a month and started looking at Ultima Online, when suddenly I read review about EQ on Gamespot.com. I still remember one specifically large and detailed review posted by a person who playing a Druid. The review must have been at least 20 pages long, and kept reading it over and over, and finally got hooked.

I have purchased the game at my local BestBuy and headed home.
I remember the very beginning of the Tutorial, where when you start on the little bridge, your controls are locked so you cannot go past the tutorial npc, wihotu taking to him first. I remember being shown how to sell, bank, and fought a skeleton at graveyard. When tutorial was over, only then I realized there was a huge patch I had to download before I could get into the game - thank God for the brand new USR 56k modem! But finaly, the game loaded...

From my experience playing Baldurs Gate, I have made a conclusion that all the non human races are silly, and all their special abilities are weird and stupid, and generally do not worth their stat penalties (in BG humans had the largest stat pool due to having 0 special abilities). And of course Warrior was the only good class (paladins and rangers were just underpowered in melee compared to warriors, and casters just sucked - that was my experience from playing BG. It was utterly wrong of course, but this what I had in my mind at the time)

So with above in mind, I have proudly made a Human Warrior, Agnostic, starting in Qeynos...

1. So it began. I was standing in a tavern and there were some npcs around me. later i found out it was the Fish Ale tavern. I equipped my sword, and went out of the door.
It was night time outside. It was dark and raining. I could barely see 10 feet away, but street lights were enough to make out buildings around me. The lightning was rocking and the feel of a full 3D world with environmental details like rain and lightening forever left their impression on me. This is how I remember my first 5 minutes into my long EQ life.

So I have read my GM note, somehow found the Arena and got my guild tunic. Some time later I made it to North Qeynos, and finally into the park area where I started my hunting.

2. Fast forward to level 3. After few hours of playing I discovered how valuable the bags are, how annoying the gnoll pups are, and to stay the hell away from the fire beetles!!! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] It was still raining by that time, but it was already day time, so I could see further away, so while making my circles around the park, I always made sure not to live the sight of the main gates of the city. At some point I ventured too far along the wall and zoned into Qeynos Hills...
It was still raining, and my clip plane was all way down (as I later found out) so i could not see more than 10 feet away.
"This area maybe way too dangerous" I said to myself "better get couple more levels in the park before going here". So I promptly went back.

3. Fast forward to level 6 or so. Now running around Qeynos Hills, and confidently taking on these large wolves and skeletons, I for the first time found how SCARY the night time can become. back in North Qeynos, even at night, the gates were always very near, but in the hills i kept going in circles unable to return to where I have started. Dieing multiple times while running from 1 mob and into another, unable to find my corpse, and keep circling and circling, until somehow I made it all way to the Ruins, even though, I was sure I was somewhere in the area between the Tower and the Millers House.

The reason reason I run towards the ruins is cause there was LIGHT coming out of that spot, which draw me in like fire draws night bugs - to my death [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
I had a skeleton chasing me for a while at that time, and I saw some people sitting by the ruins, and i run to them for help. Suddenly, a huge brown skeleton poped out of the ground right in front of me, and proceeded hitting me like a truck.
Screaming and cursing, I started running around the ruins like mad, probably picking a few more skeletons in the process. The group that was there manged to get the dread corpse off me and even heal me. I should have backed away from the ruins at this point, but I had no idea that skeletons were statically spawning there, so I stood like an idiot in the middle of the ruins examining my new cool buff someone gave me. I can't recall the name right now, but It was a STR debuff that dread corpse proced on me. But I could not figure out why, if it was a buff, my STR got reduced??? While I was pondering on this question and asking in /ooc, another skeleton spawned right on top of me and finally finished me off...

By the time I respawned and run back, the sun was up, and I started looking around. Now for the first time I finally realized how far from the Millers house I made, when I suddenly saw ruins on top of the hill. pretty far away from where I thought I was. I claimed my corpse, and went back to the Millers House to sell.

From now on, I was only hunting around the house, making sure not to venture too far from it. As soon as the night would come, I would sit on the house stairs, regaining my health and listening to the most beautiful melody, that doesn't play in any other place in EQ, but here.
I was staring into the night, and planning how I would go out hunting again, as soon as sun comes back out...
This is probably my strongest nostalgic memory of my first days of EQ.

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to be continued [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]