Time for another New Attitude.  This week in the first half, the subjects are role playing, deity pets and a new feature I call “Better Moats and Gardens.”

 Read on…

Knocking about Norrath…roleplaying

This week I was fortunate enough to take Sweenie Toad to join the Legion of Kithicor on the Antonia Bayle Server.  The thing about role playing servers, at least in my experience in World of Warcraft is that there was rarely any actual role playing going on. Attempts to role play on a role play server in WoW were usually met with incredulous looks and a shunning that would bring new meaning to the phrase “persona non grata”.  Having performed on stage (and even having been paid for it once - once)  role playing holds a special place in my heart as I am sure you can imagine.

The disdain that is heaped upon people who enjoy role playing is about more than one person trying to ruin someone else’s good time.  Sadder still is the person who has felt the need to “poop in the other person’s punch bowl” as grandmother used to say.  When I see such people it tells me that there is something missing from their life, and they rarely even know it themselves.  What is missing is the small child that we each had inside of us - that we each were at one point.   But somewhere between the office cubes we occupy from 9-5 and trying to eke out a living that small child gets lost - or worse, dies off all together. How sad it is when someone looses the wonder and sheer joy that once came from once imagination. 

Think back to your childhood to some of the joyful times.  No matter how many bad times there are we all have had some joyful moments as well.  Back in my childhood there was no such thing as an internet.  Television was often in black and white and Annette Funicello was still a mouseketeer singing “beauty is as beauty does.”  Those were the days when chairs and a blanket could go together to make a pirate ship to sail the high sees or the walls of a castle. 

What an age we live in.  Many of those in a younger generation will not have grown up in an era where children didn’t have to grow up so fast, as they are forced to in the world we live in now. Things have changed, and not always for the better.  Yet here we have a gift of something called an “MMO” we are able to adventure with players from around the world - with people we would not have met.  We are able to gather together in virtual worlds and once again immerse our minds and stretch our imaginations as we set out on grand adventures.

In the end I pity the person who feels that role playing is stupid and a waste of time.  The rest of us are really enjoying ourselves.

Better Moats and Gardens…

Special note of gratitude: Thank you Tim Eichorst where ever you are today for thinking of the title for this section of New Attitude.

There is a special pleasure that I have that has been absent from my gaming for awhile - until now. Now that I am playing EQ2 I have been able to indulge that favorite pass time that has been missing since my days playing Ultima Online (UO).  The artists at Sony have spent a great deal of time and effort into creating a crafting system so players can spend many a happy day decorating their homes  - homes that are anywhere from a one room in to a 6 room stronghold.  If the artists at Sony have spent a great deal of time on the artwork that goes into these homes, the players have put just as much time, and creativity into furnishing those homes. Yes, all you Lord of the Rings Online (Lotro) players out there, I know that Lotro now has player housing.  And while I am a lifetime subscriber to Lotro this is an EQ2 column isn’t it?

This time on better moats and gardens we begin with a  link to a site.  If you have any kind of interest at all in decorating your home in Norrath you WILL want to visit this section on Sony Station. It is called the “Norrathian Home Show” and what a show it is.  The forum features creative ideas from some of the best homes throughout Norrath.  Here is the link:

This time our tour of virtual homes begins with a friend of mine you have met in these columns before. Her name  is Decim on the Najena server. Thanks Decim for the link above.  In the picture above Decim shows off her new fish tank.  If you read my last column you will remember the feature called “So long and thanks for all the fish.” Here Decim shows off a perfect use for that sword fish - a fish tank.  While you can’t see it from the picture, the fish tank even has flowing water at the back of the tank and bubbles in the water.  Take some magic mirrors, table, counters, a plant or two, alabaster eggs and the bonsai tree from the last expansion. Mix well and you have the wonderful fish tank!

Decim took me to our next stop on our virtual house tour.  A home she found in Freeport on the Najena server belonging to someone named “Crandy.”  Crandy has some great ideas that you will want to see even if you don’t use them.

When you step into the living room the first thing that will catch your  eye is the fact that the living room has it’s own flat screen television! Okay so its really the picture called “Leviathan Unleashed” that you can purchase with status points at the city merchants.  But the second I set foot in Crandy’s house, there was no doubt in my mind why the picture was there.

Making new rooms…

If you have ever seen the larger homes around Norrath, and I am sure you have, the one thing I am sure you have noticed is that some of the rooms tend to be ONE BIG ROOM.  Crandy has some creative ways to divide rooms. At left in the living room we see large sand worn pillars combined to make a wall that fits right in with the surroundings. It almost looks as if they came with the room.  Below, sand worn pillars are combined with tapestries of valor to make another eye catching room divider.

(below) another room divider

A rooftop garden… 

In the picture at left we see the roof top garden featuring its own waterfall.  At first I wondered how Crandy had managed such a wonderful surface to the garden.  A quick look at the picture below will tell you how the raised surface of the garden was managed - through the creative use of Oggokian chairs and tables.  The great thing about the garden is that the multi-level surface and the water fall can all be accomplished without breaking your virtual budget!

(below) How it was done. 

On the road again…

From the roof top gardens of Freeport I went back out on the road in search of my very own deity pet.  When I fist saw people in Norrath being followed about by lions, imps and even a animal that looks like a cross between a cow and a lizard.  I often wondered how these pets, that are showered upon the faithful of Norraths deities to buff them and follow them are acquired.  When I saw the water elementals I knew I had to have one.  The task set me was much harder than it looked however, and it all started with the prophet of  Karana - he of the storms and rain. 

If you have your altar earned by the quest “Forging a bond” and have helped bring Karana back to Norrath in the quest “steppe by steppe” once you hit level 45 you will be ready to earn your pet.

Askr, seen in the picture ati right, can be found just outside the city of Gorowyn if you decide that this pet is the one for you.   Yes I will admit that being able to earn the pet at level 45, earlier than any other pet had a little something to do with it…ok it had A LOT of something to do with it. 

The first shard you will have retrieved as part of the quest “Steppe by Steppe” but once you hit level 45 you will find out that you are not finished.  Askr will as you to go retrieve the remaining two shards.  Where they dropped off in a bank vault somewhere? City on a shelf in someone’s house perhaps? Not a chance.  The first one is in none other than Lavastorm!

When I first considered starting the quest I looked to make sure it said “level 45” and not “level 45 heroic”.  Well if you try, as I did, to pound yourself against the rigors that are the hellish lands of Lavastorm you will soon agree that the quest is quite under rated at level 45.  You will also soon enlist the aid of friends as I did, in the persons of  Bregdania and Raddex.  Bregdania start out by getting me through a temple that was the only path to the objective - the giant Sumarvaldr.  I managed to make it across part of Lavastorm by running my wee gnome behind off and then feigning death.  But even that reached its limits.  Soon, with the help of my two friends, I was facing off against Sumarvaldr. I was sure that the giant, who was NOT anxious to give up his shard, would pound me into the ground like a tent stake.  I took one shot at him and he died.  Now I KNOW there is no way I “one shotted”  a giant like Sumarvaldr. Yet my friends swear that they did not hit him.  So all I can say is like some fighters with a glass jaw, Sumvaldr must have a glass heal.

The next stop is a bit less hot and a lot easier to handle.  The third shard is the Shard of the Pines and it is kept in two halves by two giants in Everfrost.  If like me, you miss Frostfell already, this is your chance to bring back a wee bit of the frosty feeling. 

The first stop was to swim across the bay from Everfrost dock to the small camp on the nearby shore. There Raddex and I spoke to Faythwen who told us we had to go kill th egiants Arnbjorg and Gudrun near Kromise cave.  Taking a swim in the water may bring you more than just chilly air - it may bring you the cold of the grave!  Swimming along the coast I saw an unfriendly site in the distance.

What looked like sailboats in the sunset soon turned out to be shark fins breaking the water - shark fins that belonged to BIG sharks.  If Raddex hadn’t been there I would have been a gnome sized snack for the shark in short order!  When we finally found Kromise cave we also found Arnbjorg nearby. He was, as you can see below, none to happy to see us. If you have help, as I did, it’s important not to do in the giant Arnbjorg before you can do him without the help of someone that makes it too high for your to get a benefit from  you kill, otherwise  you will just have to wait for the giant to respawn.

Not far from the giant Arnbjorg the giant Gudrun can be found.  Raddex mentored down to my level and in no time flat he was dead and flat on his back. Assemble the two halves of the shard by examining them and you have your hard earned reward - the third shard.

The final reward…

With shards in hand I headed back home to Gorowyn.  A quick conversation later and I had my reward - a pet elemental Kantik who gives me a nice boost to intellect - it puts a lot more “Shock” into “Shocking Fists”.

So what does Kantik, child of Karana (seen to my right in the picture above) have to say about all this? Just ask him and he will tell you…

“All things must in time fall to the might of the elements. Mountains crumble, cities wear away…the rain and the wind take them to join the earth” - Kantik, child of Karana

So you say you haven’t decided what deity you want to follow? Do you want to know what they each have to offer and how to make the best of it all? You, my friend, are in luck. Just follow this link.

Until Next time…

Next Friday in New Attitude, we will discuss what John Smedley tells us is the direction he is taking  SOE, getting lost (and found) in a new city and more.  Until then…

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather