My EQ memories (in detail)

[Kika Maslyaka]

So, continuing on to chapter 5...

5. During this in RL i was working with a young man called Kevin. At this point I was talking about EQ non stop for 2 weeks, and finally persuaded him to join up.
I was told Kevin to make a Qeynos based character while I decided to make a Shadow Knight.
Starting on my new SK and reading my guild note, I for the first time discovered that there were CATACOMBS under the city! Wow! I had no idea before this. I knew there were evil characters somewhere in the city, but I had no clue they were underground.
I followed the instruction in the note to "follow the path of bones" and zoned into catacombs.
I was truly impressed at all the Evil that has gathered under the city - the skeleton guards, and the Specters showed me how fearsome the Bloodsabers were.
I tried to explore catacombs a bit, but since my clip plane was still all way down, i could only see few steps ahead, and with tunnels going in what seemed to be all possible directions, I was fearing that I would get lost very very quickly, plus I expected the catacombs to be very high level area.
So I turned back, and returned to the city.

In the city, much to my surprised, all the good merchants I use to deal with, looked at me with unprovoked anger. "Isn't there is some kind of law, that prevents Shadow Knights crawling from under their rock?" - this is what I been told by my favorite merchant in Lion's Inn Tavern.
I scowled back at her, I thought to myself - "Just wait, few more levels, and all you fools will be on your knees before me!"

Zoning to North Qeynos, I found another surprise waiting for me - a peaceful npc I always passed on my way to the gates, suddenly rushed at me screaming "Die infidel!" and promptly beat me into bloody pulp. This is how I found out that paladin/clerics REALLY HATE Shadow Knight, and a value of a right mouse click (/con).
before this incident I only paid attention to the color of the /con message, since I naturally assumed that all the monsters are to be killed anyway, and all the npc are the good guys... At least from my former character's perspective [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Now I had to be extra careful walking around my own city.
But it was ok. As went out to get my levels, I smiled at the sweet revenge I will have on all those who refused to talk to me today.

While i was gaining level, my friend Kevin finally logged in, and told me that he has made a Ranger. "Cool" I told him "Where are in You?"
The next 30 min we spend trying to figure out WHERE THE HECK HE WAS, so i can find him. Since I was more or less familiar with Qeynos by now, I asked him to read names of the shops he see around him. I was running around city trying to match them to the shops there, and found none. This is when I realized that he wasn't in the Qeynos at all - he was in Surefall Glide, since he was a ranger, and they start there!

I told him to find a tunnel leading to Q Hills, and run towards him. Unfortunately it was night and raining (as usual), so I got a bit off the road and ended up on the path leading to West Karana instead. By the time I found my way back again, the Kevin told me he has to get off, as his wife needed the phone.

Few days later, we finally got a chance to meet, and Kevin even played a bit, but eventually he decided EQ was too time consuming for him, so he canceled his account.

In the main time, my adventure as Shadow Knight continued. I found hunting to become increasingly difficult that it was before. I could no longer sell at the Miller's House, and had go all way back to catacombs to sell.
Another thing was, that a whole bunch of high level npc who hang around Qeynos Hills, started to attack me: Sandra, Baob, Holy and Cross - all were out for my blood.

During this time, another memorable event has take place: my encounter with a Rabbit Grizzly. Resting by the Millers House, I saw a HUGE bear standing up on the hill.
It conned RED and was named a Rabid Grizzly. English being second language to me, I read this as "Rabbit Grizzly". "Oh, this is so cool" i told my self "How truly deep this game is. This giant bear while fearsome, only eats Rabbits. hence, this is why its called a Rabbit Grizzly! Its completely harmless to humans. Look, i will show you". Continuing to talk to my imaginary audience, I promptly run up to the hill to take a screenshot with me fearlessly standing next to the big bear.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to me to /con the beast before approaching it! But no, it was a split second too late! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
SMACK! Wait, What?! SMACK! Hey!!! SMACK! Ouch! SMACK!!!
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This is how I learned the meaning of the word "rabid" [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So, I finally made it to level 6(AGAIN!!!) and gave up. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
The faction penalties were killing me, and despite the promise of all the cool spells I was suppose to get at lev 9, I hate the very idea of grinding XP of low end mobs just to get there.
This time I was MAJORLY upset. I really wanted to be good - if I just could find a class that I felt comfortable with.

I opened up all the online guides I could find (EQlore was a good site for class descriptions back then), and started reading through them, over and over, trying to find a class that could sustain itself, with healing and combat power, and won't rely too heavily on mana.
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to be continue [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]


P.S. Curious, does anyone actually interested in reading this? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]