The Tattered Notebook: Navigating EQII's Nights of the Dead

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday, and EverQuest II is easily one of my favorite games of all time. So when the two combine, it's a match made in heaven. But just like the game itself, the Nights of the Dead live event has so much to it and so much to do that it is easy to become overwhelmed. Cue The Tattered Notebook!

I know what it's like to want to participate fully in an event but not know where to start. And now with so many more new players (thanks in large part to the Heroic Characters), it's not even a matter of finding the little changes to this year's event. Let's be honest: Even those of us who have taken part previously can't remember every detail from year to year, especially when more is added each holiday season! So today I'm going to provide a guide to introduce you to all things Nights of the Dead.

I'll give EQII credit: It doesn't send players into live events cold. As during all holidays, every character will receive an in-game mail via the Norrathian Express outlining the Nights of the Dead event. This mail directs folks to the general zone or area of different activities available. However, this note doesn't give many details and can leave a player wondering where specific things he wants to participate in are. So here's a handy list of all things Halloween in-game so you can get what you need before the event ends. For ease in completing your NotD wish list, the activities are listed by zones. And to see the quests live, tune in to EverQuest Two-sday October 29th at 9:00 p.m. EDT on Massively TV!

Norrath

Some parts of the event transpire in multiple zones, like gathering various bits of candy loot from your mob kills while adventuring. These candy bits (with such appetizing names as peanut brittle, fudge, gummy worms, cotton candy) will take up one space in your cube for every type of candy -- and there are more than 25 types! In order to preserve your bag and bank space, you can go to Grabby Gigglegibber and exchange all the different candies for an equal number of space-saving candy corn. Grabby Can be found in all of the main cities (see below).

Another thing that will involve many of the zones is the Nights of the Dead Devotee achievement. Once obtained by collecting holiday themed items for a quest, it is now acquired simply by your completing all of the event quests.

Because you can craft in cities as well as in guild halls and personal homes, I'll add the crafting component here as well. There are multiple spooky items (mainly housing items) that can be made using those candies that drop. And although the recipe books are available only during the event, regular crafting tables can be used year-round to make the items -- as long as you have the candy fuel. You can also acquire two different achievements for crafting various Halloween items: Closet Full of Skeletons and Tricky Treats.

There is also a quest that can be obtained only from a guide; it's called My Creepy Catalog. Unfortunately, there is no special hint to catching the guides on other than checking the guide event forum regularly.

Main cities

A number of event-related things happen equally in most of the main cities, so you can pick whichever is most convenient for you. First off, you may want to visit Grabby Gigglegibber to exchange your candies. Close to Grabby is the NotD Merchant that sells plenty of holiday goodies for both coin and candy corn. You can get plenty of spooky decorations, costumes, the crafting books (six in total), and even a spooky mount. With the exception of the mount and the candy dish (which cost 300 and 50 candy corn, respectively), all of the items have a small price tag of five corn or under five silver.

Also scattered throughout the cities are Gigglegibber Illusionists. From these little goblins you can get an illusion form to wander the streets with a holiday flair. Just be sure you have your illusions turned on in options! To get rid of it, just cancel it in your buff bar.

To help you find all of these NPCs, I've put together a table with the waypoints, To use them in game, simply copy the coordinates, then in-game type /waypoint and then paste. Note: There are multiple locations for the Illusionists in most cities, but for ease of travel I have included only the ones closest to the other NotD NPCs (or in the case of Maj'Dul, the easiest one to get to).

You might have noticed one other set of NPCs in that list above. That's because they start you on one of my personal favorite quest chains for The Haunted Mansion. Speak to Freid Deekat (if evil aligned) or Skeer Deekat (if good aligned or neutral) to grab the quest This Won't End Well, which will send you off to Loping Plains.

Loping plains

I don't want to spoil anything about this quest chain, so I will just just tell you that you can complete that first quest that brought you here only once per year, but the second one in the chain, There Will Be Ghosts, can be repeated indefinitely. Since most of the old rewards can now be bought from the merchant, so it may not be necessary to run through as many times as I have in years past, but you do still get a recipe for making those awesome special mirrors.

The final link of this chain is They Won't Miss it, a quest you can get only your second time through the mansion. It involves opening the toy chest upstairs for a reward. If you complete the instance or forgot to look on your second trip, you'll have to wait until next year. This quest can be done only once; if you've done the quest, it won't appear in future years.

Qeynos/Freeport

Before you leave Qeynos or Freeport (if that is where you were doing the stuff above), you'll want to take a run through the local haunted house. This activity is repeatable every 18 hours, so if you did your other business in different cities, don't worry -- you'll probably travel here many times anyway. The Haunting nets you a cool spider plushie and a black rat plushie each run as well as a couple of dance moves you get to keep on top of the quest reward.

Antonica/Commonlands

Every holiday has some version of The Race. This time, the race is capturing (read: running over) ghosts and is aptly called Ghost Hunter. The idea is to get as many as possible in the short time allotted, and the more you get, the wider your selection of prizes. This is repeatable indefinitely, as long as your sanity holds out. Hint: Hit the yellow ghosts as often as possible as they allow you to see the blue ones, which will significantly increase your count! To participate in Antonica, go to the North Qeynos gate and talk to Groosum Gigglegibber; in Commonlands, talk to Gersberms near the Freeport gate. Completing both of these grants a Ghost Hunter Extraordinaire achievement.

Also, Antonica has an exclusive set of quests focused around McQuibble's farm. Be prepared to run around a bit for this one! The chain starts with Ponchy Shorttie in Windstalker Village. Unlike many of the event quests and instances, some of these do not scale to level, so if you want them to offer XP or AP, you might want to Chronomentor to level 30.

The chain starts with Petrified Pumpkin Pies (level 25) and sends you to investigate McQuibble's farm. Next comes McQuibble's Mystery (which scales to level). You're halfway through now! The third step is Scary Scarecrows (level 25), and the final part is The Troubling Truth (which also scales to Level). A slight warning on that last one -- it's an epic, so grab a friend or a mercenary. This whole series can be done annually.

Nektulos Forest

If you had to pick one zone that is ready for Halloween all year around, you'd pick Nek Forest. So it's fitting that so many of the event activities take place amid the spooky drabness of this place.

First up is the Hedge Hollow series of events, another favorite of mine. The fun begins with A Nightmarish Illness, a non-repeatable quest picked up from Altius Volfban on the docks; he sends you into the infamous hedge maze (known at other times of the year as Cauldron Hollow). After your first run, you can then do A Nightmarish Return whenever you want to, which might be quite often considering the amount of XP and AA you get from the run! Hint: The end boss gets weaker the more mobs you kill, so leaving some behind is not always a good idea.

Once inside Hedge Hollow you can also do the quest Train to Zone; unlike the quest to get in, however, this one has an 18-hour timer. Hedge Hollow is also the home to this event's collection, a gruesome assortment of things found only inside. Besides the collection, Hedge Hollow is also where you can get a harpy plushie drop (off the harpy boss) and the Nightmarish Ceremonial armor set, a neat black and red cloth set that looks like plate and allows every class to look formidable and encased in metal. One miniboss also can drop the pants part of the invisible armor set.

Having run Hedge Hollow many times over the years, I have gotten it down to a science. So although I recommend doing the run at least once without a guide to really soak up the ambiance of it, here's my personal map and instructions to get you through repeated runs quickly. To follow on your own map, you do need to have EQ2Maps.

One final annually repeatable quest is available after you complete A Nightmarish Illness, called Survive the Night.. Talk to Setri Lur'eth at the far western part of the beach by the docks. She sends you to find her granddaughter at the same gate you enter Hedge Hollow (be sure to select Charnel Hollow!). This is the one quest that has given me the hardest time on some characters, as you have to protect the girl from an onslaught of zombies. To do that, grab all the plants you find and arrange them around her -- the plants eat zombies and will help do some damage.

And last but not least Nektulos Forest is where you will find the Headless Horseman. This specter is a level 98 Epic x 2 boss event that has level-appropriate loot.

Build your own haunted house

I love the housing system in EverQuest II, and I can get lost in it for a long time. And there are tons of items to decorate a spooktacular home. But this year there is also something new: a fright-themed home! That's right, SOE has introduced Fright Manor, a new prestige house available in the Station Store. With a creepy house and its own graveyard, it's the perfect setting if you want to relive the holiday all year through!

EverQuest II is so big that sometimes MJ Guthrie gets lost in it all! Join her as she explores Norrathian nooks and crannies from the Overrealm to Timorous Deep. Running every other Saturday, The Tattered Notebook is your resource for all things EQII and EQNext -- and catch MJ every 'EverQuest Two-sday' on Massively TV!