Choose My Adventure: The Telara Saga
This past week was exciting. Seriia joined the Gaiscíoch Clan for a bit of rift-running and light roleplay across all of Freemarch. Originally, I had intended to livestream the Telara Saga event for an hour, then sign off feeling good that I helped promote roleplay in RIFT. However, we reached the hour mark before I even realized it. I gave a quick goodbye to the people who were watching so that they did not feel obligated to continue to watch, then continued to stream for another two hours. To my surprise, I ended up having more people watch the last two hours of the stream than the first hour. Apparently, not only was it fun for me to play, but there is an audience interested in the roleplay events in RIFT.
As you can imagine, it was difficult to snap screenshots while trying to livestream, but I did get 10 pretty good ones, which I added to the gallery below. After the break, I have snippet of Seriia's story, as usual. Then I have a very important question to ask you as my time in this column draws closer to its end.
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Seriia adjusted her helmet so that it rested more securely on her head.
To her right, the members of Gaiscíoch Clan of Defiants stretched and tightened their gear. Each member hailed from a different region, Eth, Kelari, and Bahmi alike. These races she recognized from her time in Freemarch after her ascension. The clan leader Foghladha perched herself on a tall boulder overlooking the crowd of Defiants. The Kelari woman stood tall next to a man whose face was hidden behind a great helmet. Two three-foot-long horns stretched from the sides his helmet, and his faceplate was polished smooth save for six bolts in the front. Seriia watched the man curiously, wondering how he could see with his eyes covered. Perhaps his sense of smell compensated. After all, the lower portion of his pale nose was slightly exposed.
To her left, on the other side of the bounder, an army marched toward her. In front were men and women she had never seen before. They appeared to be Eth, yet their statures indicated that these soldiers were not of her race. These particular foreigners stood just a few feet off the ground, and their arms and legs resembled those of razorbacks. Their hands, however, were certainly human. The males wore the hair on their faces extremely long; it stretched to the middle of their portly bellies. The tall, violet-skinned Bahmi next to Seriia finally explained: "Those are Dwarves, friend. They do not like it when you stare."
"Who are the pale Kelari?" Seriia asked her new friend.
"Those are the High Elves." He shined a smile on Seriia. "They descend from the same people as the Kelari. And the others there are of your race, but they are called Mathosian." His face turned down. "We are working with them today, but do not trust any of them. They believe we are infidels, and their gods command them to conquer us. Once the threat of Regulos is behind us, those zealots will turn against you. Watch your back."
The Telara Saga is composed of a series of events intended to tell the story of how the Telarans defeat or don't defeat the Dragon Cults of Regulos. As most of you already know, Telarans devide themselves into two major groups: the Guardians and the Defiants, basically the godly and the godless. Behind the scenes, Regulos perpetuates this war between the two factions so that he can establish a greater presence in the land. If these two factions are fighting against each other, then they will be less able to confront him. Currently, Regulos is getting his wish. However, the leaders of Gaiscíoch want to change that. This clan sees the factional divide as it really is and hopes to defeat Regulos with a united force of Guardians and Defiants.
The game mechanics don't exactly support this type of gameplay, but it was fun working around the limitations. Last week, we marched around Freemarch in an attempt to cause an invasion, but because part of our team was of the other faction, we had to avoid cities and other areas so that our new-found friends wouldn't be flagged or attacked by NPCs. As you can imagine, this was easier in theory than in execution. Defiant towns don't always scream at you when you're entering a city, and many of our companions were flagged PvP at the most inappropriate times, like when fighting giant spiders in life rifts. Adding to the complication, if a Defiant fired an AoE attack at a flagged Guardian, she would become flagged, too. Let the hilarity ensue.
My time in Telara is growing short. After this article, I only have two more issues until my journey is done. It is really hard to believe it is going by so quickly, just as I'm beginning to enjoy my time in this foreign land. Having a regular group of people to hang out with certainly adds to the experience. The game becomes a club or bar. My time spent in RIFT is less about which goals I reach and more about whom I am hanging out with. But being a long-time MMO player, I kind of already knew that. We all know that's why I stuck with a certain MMO long after many people considered it dead.
This week, I don't have a poll. Like I said, I don't have much longer for this Choose My Adventure, so I would like to have suggestions from you. I will probably end this journey leveled somewhere in the upper 20s. What have I not experienced yet that I absolutely have to? I know there are many things I have not seen yet. I'm not even out of Freemarch really. I do like to explore; maybe there is an object or location that I should risk seeing despite my level? Or maybe there is an aspect of the game I have not mentioned in past polls that I should give a try? Maybe one of the items that you thought was necessary was shot down in a past poll? Let me know in the comments. Over the next two weeks, I will attempt to do as much as I can.
Larry Everett is a nut who loves to play MMOs. Sure, he really wants to be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, but alas, it's not out yet. In the meantime, he needs your help: Tell him what and how to play while he waits! Direct his game time in Choose My Adventure on Wednesdays and the livestream on Fridays!
