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The Tattered Notebook: The touching story of Ribbitribbit and the EQII community
Every now and then, we hear stories that transcend gaming and prove that there's something more to our pixelated worlds than uber loot and leveling up. Last week, the Guk server (which I proudly have called my home server for the past several years) rallied together to bring some cheer to a young boy with terminal cancer and to his loving family. I first heard of this story last week while I was at GDC, and although I wasn't able to attend the event, I caught up with one of the organizers this week to hear about this incredible effort. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll look at the story of Ribbitribbit and how his mother's call for help with decorating brought on a wave of support from the amazing EverQuest II community.
The Tattered Notebook: A rose-colored celebration of EverQuest
In honor of EverQuest's 12th Anniversary, EverQuest II is holding a special event in the game. Players can travel back in time to several instances, and they get to meet some of the infamous named mobs of EQ. If you've ever dodged Fippy Darkpaw's attack on the Qeynos gates, sailed far out to search for Allizewsaur, or camped for weeks at a time to find Quillmane, the elusive Pegasus, then you'll enjoy this trip down memory lane. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll travel back in time to meet these legendary nameds. Be warned, though, this does contain spoilers!
EverQuest's Ancient Heroes game update brings a "classic EQ" experience
There are a lot of players and former players of EverQuest that would love to see a server that is locked down to just the first few expansions, or maybe none at all. While the latest game update, Ancient Heroes (which goes live today) doesn't bring a new server, there will be a new "classic EQ" experience introduced to the game. An NPC in the Plane of Knowledge will transform your character into a level 50 (the level cap once upon a time) decked out in launch-era equipment, and send you off to fight the Kobolds in Nagafen's Lair or the Frogloks of Guk -- or even to raid the old dragons, Lady Vox (pictured above) and Lord Nagafen. There will be new rewards waiting for those that choose to take up arms in old-school fashion.This character morphing is the primary focus of the Ancient Heroes update, but in fact, there is more character morphing to be had with some new Marketplace items. A Potion of Amnesia will allow you to change your character's name, and a Potion of Disgenderment will flip their gender -- both changes are permanent, though you should just be able to buy another potion if need be. The Witness Protection Pack combines the two new potions, for those situations where you've really driven your reputation into the ground and need to start afresh.
The Daily Grind: Will you be exploring The Shadow Odyssey?
As many excited EverQuest II players are well aware, tomorrow is an important day. It marks the launch day for EverQuest II's fifth expansion, The Shadow Odyssey. Of course, for those folks who have been thinking about getting into EQ2 but haven't taken the dive as yet, it's a good time for you as well - SOE tends to bundle in all previous games with their expansions so you can check them out without shelling out a bunch of money. The Shadow Odyssey brings in lots of content for players from level 50 to level 80, with the addition of several areas brought forward from EverQuest like Guk, Mistmoore and Befallen. While this expansion doesn't increase the level cap, it does increase the number of Achievement points, adds heritage quests, opens alternate achievement paths - and so, so much more! Today we wanted to ask - are you heading into the shadowy world of EverQuest II's Shadow Odyssey? If so, what part sounds like the best part to you? Is it visiting places you may remember from EverQuest? The sharded gear rewards? Perhaps you're just looking forward to all those Achivement points so you can really get your character to where you wanted it to be. Let us know!
Take a visual tour of EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey's new dungeons
EverQuest II's The Shadow Odyssey expansion is set to launch this November. In addition to heritage quests and the shard reward system, the expansion will add an EverQuest classic -- the dungeon of Guk. And in the days leading up to the launch, EQ2 players will get to start exploring another dungeon: Veksar.To build up anticipation, SOE is rolling out articles, screenshots, and concept art related to the two new dungeons. For Guk it put together a series of lore-oriented postcards and images explaining what the place is all about, culminating in some concept art wallpapers. The Veksar article is a little more traditional in its presentation, but the substance is all there. We've put together in a gallery all the images from both of those tours.SOE also released concept art for guild halls, which will be implemented soon. Guild halls date back to Meridian 59 and text MUDs before it, but for some reason they've been out of vogue in the 21st century.%Gallery-30866% Well met, fellow Norrathian! Make sure to check out all of our coverage of the next EverQuest II expansion, The Shadow Odyssey as well as Seeds of Destruction, the next expansion to EverQuest!
Into the depths of EverQuest's most famous dungeons
We've been following along as the official EverQuest site offers up new articles about very old things. They're working through the game's lore, pointing out some of the most important places in all of Norrath. Today the folks at SOE have a pair of writeups on two of the most important dungeons in all of the original continent of Antonica. The city of Guk is one of those, the swampy ancient home of the Froglok people. Driven from their ancient lower chambers by Trolls, undead, and things even fouler still, the upper reaches of Guk are still home to noble frog warriors. The lower depths, though, are some of the most dangerous areas in all of the older game. Whether you were bashing bones on the 'Dead Side' or ruining your Froglok faction on the 'Live Side', these confusing caverns were home to some great victories and defeats over the years.The other dungeon covered this week is the gnoll-infested hole of Blackburrow. Given its low level and proximity to the goodly starting city of Qeynos, Blackburrow is a locale almost every EQ players will be familiar with. It's famed throughout the game as one of the most interesting lore areas in all the game. It's also well known for the endless trains of monsters that typified low-level questing there. From the top of the great pit to the wet-dog smell of the Commanders' room, the place is steeped in EverQuest lore through and through.
EQII lore: Escape from Guk part 3
The final chapter of the EverQuest II lore piece Escape from Guk is now available, and we're able to follow Nurgg and Kaltuk on the last leg of their escape. After Kaltuk successfully out-drank the Trolls and ended up passing out, Nurgg threw him over his shoulder and set about getting past the rest of the guards.What he found was that every other Troll on the way out of Guk had already been killed, leaving piles of bodies with odd bloated wounds. Nurgg made it out of Guk with no resistance, and started to trudge through the swamp. However, with the strange scene in Guk still in mind, he suddenly realized that it was a little too quiet outside ...
Part two of EQII lore feature Escape from Guk available
The next installment of Escape from Guk, an EverQuest II lore piece, has been made available at EQ2Players. Part one began with us joining an Ogre by the name of Nurgg Rockfist, trapped in a Guk prison, as he was introduced to his new cellmate, ale-loving Dwarf Kaltuk Ironstein. Whilst Nurgg had been imprisoned for many years, Kaltuk had already managed to think of an escape plan in a matter of days. In this chapter we get to see how he uses his fondness for drinking to try and get them out of their cell. A challenge is proposed to the Troll captors, and a good old fashioned drink-off ensues. But does Kaltuk have the constitution to come out on top when he is matching their drinks two for one?
EQII Lore: Escape from Guk, part 1
On a recent trip to Trakanon, some parchments were discovered that contain the story of an Ogre, Nurgg Rockfist, and a Dwarf, Kaltuk Ironstein, and their escape from their Troll captors in Guk. The parchments are thought to be from the Lost Age, and were penned by a previously unheard of bard named Eylee Zephyrswell, a friend of the two escapees. Thus we have some new lore for EverQuest II fans to enjoy!EQ2Players has obtained a transcript of the parchments, and has featured part 1 of the tale for all to see. It opens with Nurgg, having already been imprisoned for around 10 years, being introduced to his new cellmate Kaltuk. After barely being there for five days, Kaltuk thinks of a plan to bust the two of them out, and being a good Dwarf, it of course centers around drinking ...
