Remembering
As time goes on we often forget what caught our eye at some time in the past, or an adventure that stood out. We get caught up in leveling, seeking out the now-available set of repeat quests we can do, or just plain forgetting what made logging in interesting, blindly looking for another level number increment.
So, as minor ramble, following are some memory-bubbles from my past in AC2. there are undoubtably many more, but, this is a few that come to mind today.
Help! I've Been Robbed!
Brand new to AC2. Toon is about 10 minutes old. I KNOW NOTHING of what I am doing, but, I can at least move around, and hey! A chat window!
I know I have a pack, and golly, I got some stuff in it! Coolies! Wow, look at the spiffy potions in there! Those look great!
I move up into Arwic, and, GADZOOKS! Players! As I run past someone crafting at the pre-Craft 2.0 forge to the Arwic NPC, someone goes running by me and jumps off the dropoff to the road below. At the same time that happens, I'm hit with some sort of magic spells!
Wha? Who? Wha? Wha was that? Look around, not hurt. Hmmmm. But, I was "spelled" by someone. Check pack: AAAAAAGGGH! He pilfered my pack with magic! It's empty! Noooooooo! All those "valuable" goods, and that killer 6-9 dmg, cd 70 uber-bow!
I turn to the crafter and say "Was I just hit with magic spells?". And he replies with "Indeed".
I then proceed to whine about how can I protect myself from that in the future. The guy that did it just took all the stuff in my pack. Blah, blah.
Er, I noticed the crafter didn't stick around very long, because later I realized:
A) My pack was NOT empty, I had just selected a sub-slot area accidentally.
B) It was most likely the friendly crafter who hit me for some beneficial buffs. This was before you had to be in a fellow to do so.
Noob Poster Child A-#1
The Deadly Bone Knawer Shreth!
Wandering the deadly landscape of Osteth, fighting off such savage and intimidating creatures as Vermin, Beetles, Wasps (Oh No! A Soldier Wasp!), I encounter the deadly Shreth!
But I prevail. I learn how to kill these powerful creatures.
Until the hour came that I encountered the terror of those hills: A BONE KNAWER Shreth!
He ate me 3 times, and I remembered this from seeing one on a mining run out near the Hero Shrine. LOL. I clearly recall running into a BONE KNAWER Shreth as a total newb wondering HOW I was going to kill such a fearsome creature.
Don't Look Now, but there's a Town over there.
I played for a while clueless to the fact my graphics settings were set incorrectly, and stuff wasn't appearing until fairly close.
Wandering the landscape of Osteth, navigating the hills, valleys, lakes, and streams, I was having a right good-ole time killing stuff with my now even more uber 15-30 (or so) damage sapling bow!
I come to a water way that's blocking my progress. I use the map and notice I really don't want to navigate all the way around. So, I figure I'll just swim around to a landing. (this, by the way, was across from Millstone out past the Diving Board to the rightish on the far shore.)
I dive in and start swimming. I swim one way, then another, I'm running out of vig. Hey! A "diving board" comes into view on radar above me! Er, I'm losing health. Diving board? Hmmm, there must be something up there! Oopsie, er, I'm drowning. I reverse direction and start swimming the other way. JUST as the bridge and landing to Millstone come into view, I drown.
I go back, suddenly understand what was right nearby, and it's a BIG /slaphead.
(Also fixed my video settings after that. Funny how the landscape isn't quite so empty anymore)
Very Cool Duds (or, my first set of Knights Armor)
Craft 2.0 didn't exist then. Knights, Lords, and Kings armor was da-bomb, along with Boots.
Myself and another new player, hmmm, I think that was my now game-departed friend Galdor, came up on level 20. I was just ahead of him by one level I think it was, and he was asking me what the steps where, how it was going, etc.
I did the tomb run with my patron helping me.
Got the Rubies from that mine I had bumped into accidentally 5 levels ago.
I did the Shoyanen's tower, alembic, geyser thing.
And then Galdor joined me at the Millstone Forge as I crafted my Knights Armor.
Very, very cool. The stuff looked good, had decent stats, and Galdor was hyped to get his as soon as he leveled. If I recall correctly that was the next day, and I helped him do the quest wearing my new Knights armor.
Murks From Hell
We all love them. Cute little drudgies that fall over dead without too much pain after the first few encounters.
Then you do Rashans, or perhaps Illuminated Manuscript, and run into your first Murk. Yeah, Scowls are tough, and Glooms are pounders, but you get past them. Murks, plus their buddies the Cabalists just plain made me eat dirt regularly!
The Ringway Blues
Ok! I'm coming for that quest! Be right there! (opening map frantically)
Where was that again? South Prosper Outpost? Ok. Checking map. (pan, pan, click, pan)
Eventually I just learned what was where, and off what town or outpost. Until then I was clueless quite often knowing where an outpost was, and what town had the ringway links to where I needed to go.
Swamps, Burun, and Leeches, Oh My!
The vignette telling the tale of the Tumerok and the Burun was well done, and I just knew Burun needed to die when I saw that story at the end of the vault. Part of me wondered when I'd get to have a shot at those wicked critters.
New to Omishan. Wandering around. Gah. Swamps. Bleh. As I start running to get to where I needed to go, I got turned around a bit near Rakani.
Next thing I know: "Alert the Clutch! Scraawwwk!" Aaaagh! There's some of those Burun thingies! Hmmm. Er, it's a bunch too. Whaaaaaa! Run for your lives! Sloshing through the muck I encounter another bunch also screeching about some kind of clutch alerting. Running this way and that, I keep running into groupings of the slimy blighters, along with the occasional sighting of something really alarming: Hunter Shreth.
Then my buddy Galdor starts /telling me of a quest we could do, and I indicated I needed a few minutes to "get out of this stinking swamp I'm lost in".
I made it out, my toon covered from head to toe in muck and leeches I would imagine, and to this day I look upon the swamplands around Rakani as an opportunity for land-fill development.
The Greenbay Packers In-Game
I'm stalking the Citadel Ringway looking for the (well) hidden Warder's Hideout.
My finely honed tracking skills tell me I gotta be close! I'm on the roadway right near the lifestone by the hideout, but I've sort of overlooked the little valley across from the lifestone leading back to it. Near the lifestone are about 5 other players who are REALLY high level: 30ish or I'm guessing it's been so long.
I ask them if they know where the hideout is, "cause I know I'm close".
One of them points me in the direction of the ravine I over looked, I say "Thanks", and I clearly remember one of them saying "Noobs, ya gotta love'em".
Now, I was solo, and not very high level, and they of course knew about the Lashers inside waiting for me. I head in, and encounter my first set. I manage to kill one, but I'm hurt badly, and I'm wondering just HOW I'm going to push past a dungeon full of these things to get to the Warder, when running past me are all 5 of the players I just left at the lifestone!
Woot! LMAO! I drafted behind them as they ROLLED OVER every stinkin Lasher in the way, helping me up to the warder.
I recall saying to them something like "Woot! You guys are like the Green Bay Packers! "
The Deadly Seeping Bloodstone (and fast Ranger feet)
I don't recall my level on this, but I do recall that I had no chance solo on a Seeping Bloodstone. I was fellowed with a friend who was a tact, and we were raking in some major XP off Burun beach. I'd pull'em in, and we'd both take'em down.
Doing fairly well. Sometimes it would get dicey if the Browerks or a Myrmidon got into the walls and turrets, but, not too bad.
Then, it happened JUST as we finished with some Burun: A Seeping Bloodstone spawned nearby and aggro'd in! Whaaaaaa! Freaking pounder! Stinking health-drain regen machine! (burble-bloop-bloop-Poosh!Poosh! as it attacks)
The battle is joined, and my poor tact friend was aggro'd first. The Seeper pounded down wall, then pounded down the Turrets, then pounded down my friend in fairly rapid order, even though we had started to do some good damage.
I'm attacking, have my (wimpy at the time) Lasher out. The Seeper comes for me with my friend now dead. RUN goes the Ranger up the beach to gain distance
The Seeper follows, burbling away and "coughing" attacks at me. I zig/zag between some palm trees then whip around and head back down the other way.
The Seeper follows, and for the next couple of minutes I do nothing but run up and down the beach past our camping spot, trying to gain some distance on the Seeper, trying to get it to bump into palm trees while chasing me.
It works a little bit. I get a quick chance to send my friend a tell and hit a heal.
Up and down the beach some more, back and forth, the Seeper burbling along behind me looking to flatten me. LOL.
Finally, here comes my friend back from the LS! Ah Hah! I got enough distance to pop another quick tell, something like "Don't worry about me. Running. Setup fast."
LMAO. As I run up and down the beach she sets up again with two turrets and walls, she's /telling me back "LMAO" cause I've got this stinky Seeping bloodstone essentially /follow'd on my butt.
We killed that freaking Seeper when I ran past our camping spot a final time, this time with all turrets online. Took a bit, but we did it, and she found my rabbit routine funny. Was fun.
Bzzzt! Error-error
The Dire Gurog. Master of the Thusik vault. He shall DIE!
"The Dire Gurog he shall Croak, cause my Flaming Arrow it does SMOKE!" Doop-doobie-doop. Yeah, yeah. (Along with the help of my Tyrant Pet of course).
Still new to Ranger-ness, and having some good luck soloing, I've still learned Gurog are not to be underestimated, particularly a vault boss Gurog.
I enter the vault, I kill down to the vestibule. I enter, carefully.
Yikes, he's a big mutha! Heh-heh. But you gonna roast fur ball! Muahahahaaha!
I look around the room, note the layout, and the fact Tall Horned and Twin-Axed is staying put at his end.
Lasher ready? Check.
Ichor on hand? Check-check.
Tyrant Heart ready? Checkeroonie.
And, with a sh*$ eating grin on my face, I SUMMON MY MIGHTY TYRANT TO TAKE DOWN THE DIRE GUROG! Ahahahaaahaha!
"Boop. So sorry. Due to technical difficulties this summoning has failed. If this is a real emergency, such as facing off with a large, angry vault boss, you may call 1-900-KISSYOURBUTTGOODBYE."
The summoning failed, I had no Tyrant, but I gave it a shot. LMAO. Still didn't really have Ranger figured out now that I look back, and the Dire Gurog kept buzzing through my Lasher WAY fast.
He had me for dinner.
Napalm from Above
Hmmmm. Yeppers. This is coolies! These Chaos Spawn drop some good stuff! Tough though. Man, I just discovered these for the first time and the stinking 1 minute combat slow is wicked! (this is pre-nerf recently, and these things as a nasty 1 minute combat slow at that time). But my Lasher is doing the job, and I'm making kills!
Whoa! Lookee that over there! Some kind of wiggly asparagus thingy like a cell-antenna the size of a flagpole! Tendril eh?
Wow. Lotsa HP on that thing. Better leave it alone! Hmmm, but look at that next to it! A Greater Chaos Spawn! I bet I can take THAT!
And I let fly.
We will not go into my instant immoliation as the Tendril flicked a bright blob of plasma at me, or how I ran, flaming and screaming nearly dead on the first shot, desperately running out of radar range triggering a heal. Finally, off radar, I BARELY keep my heals pumping to counteract the DoT.
Then I looked up at a bright light falling down on me. LMAO.
Diemos
Nothing comes close to that dungeon/quest for drama and excitement IMO, particularly considering Tyrants are the neatest critters in-game IMO. At that time with the level ranges out there, this was so very, very cool.
You see, there wasn't a HoD then, or ultra-High HoD-Levelled toons around. At least in the same manner we have today.
Diemos was bad. Diemos ATE entire fellows, and there wasn't any getting around that.
Diemos runs would organize, players forming up at East Gevoth. "Who's leading this attempt?" was commonly heard on /cg. Would they do it? Or, like so many, would they get eaten?
You see, because Diemos ATE entire fellows on a regular basis, it was a mark of distinction to be the one to LEAD a successful run.
You had to be prepared. You had to be careful. And your ENTIRE FELLOW HAD to act as a TEAM. AoE's would get the entire party slaughtered if it broke mezz on Diemos and/or his guardians. Your healer go down typically meant a flaming DoT fueled drive into oblivion. Kill too slowly, and you had his Guardians respawning, etc. I can remember some people trying multiple times, with some pretty beefy fellows, and each time Diemos ate them. Didn't take much for Big D to turn the tide, or ONE mistake breaking mezz or getting a healer killed, for each member of a fellow to drop, one after another.
I was lucky in that the allegiance I was in at the time knew how to make the run. We'd get in to Diemos' lair and freeze. Mezz would occur. Lead would call out MOVE LEFT, and all of us TOGETHER would move left. Kill left. We'd kill left guardian NO AOE's. Move right. We'd all move right and kill right Guardian. NO AOE's. Move center. We'd all move center and attack Diemos. Once in a while we would lose to Diemos. But our success rate was very high. What a kick.
