A Pixel Nomad

(Collection quest from The Estate of Unrest)

By Nicadius Quellborn

I, Nicadius Quellborn, praise the Tranquil One, the Goddess of Peace, Quellious, daily for the bounteous blessings she has blessed me with. The greatest of her gifts is the health and beauty found in my only child, my daughter Jessa. She is as every bit lovely and kind as her wonderful mother. May my wife’s soul always find peace and rest in the light of Quellious. I will one day also depart this life and be reunited again with you my love.

I sit now to write this account in the comfort of my home, the Estate of Rest. This marvelous house has become a sanctuary and place of relief and respite to the peaceful people of Faydwer. The creation of this estate is a special story to me and one that is my intention to record on the pages before me.

The history of this beautiful structure began five years ago. Our home at that time was nothing more then a meager hovel that Jessa and I lived in for all thirteen years of her young life. It was the same place I built when Jessa and I first came to this land, seeking to bring the word of Tranquility to the people of Faydwer and the knowledge of the goddes Quellious.

It was Jessa’s chore at the start of the day to draw water from the well and bring it inside for washing and cooking. One day my daughter awakened early and began her chores. When she went outside to draw water she found a wounded and unconscious dwarf lad next to the well. She was able to rouse the young dwarf with handfuls of water splashed upon his face and helped him inside our cottage.

Jessa quickly awakened me and urged me to attend to the dwarf lad. I tended to his wounds, cleaning and bandaging the cuts and gashes he sustained. Jessa was constantly over my shoulder, concerned for the welfare of the young lad. I suggested that the best way for her to help was to prepare something for the dwarf to eat and something for him to sip to help regain his strength. She quickly took to the task and allowed me to finish with the wounds.

Jessa took great care spooning the broth she made into the dwarf’s mouth. He was able to tell us that his name was Kyll Rucksif from the dwarven city of Kaladim to the north. Kyll said he had gone hunting with his younger brother several days ago and lost his way. He said that while he slept that night he was attacked by a crazed and misshapen bear. Kyll saw the light from our hovel and ran toward it, eventually collapsing near the well where Jessa found him in the morning.

After feeding and tending to the dwarf we let him rest upon my bed. It was only three days time before Kyll was arising from his bed before either myself or Jessa awoke for the day. He would draw the water and start the cook fires eager to assist those that helped him. I knew then that the boy was more than healed enough for the journey home. I anxiously realized then that the time had come for meto finally meet the people of Kaladim, if only to return the boy to his family.

Young Jessa was amazed by the sight of the Statue of Stormhammer, the mighty carving of rock that graces the entrance to the Halls of Kaladim. We were welcomed with open arms as we escorted the young Rucksif home to his worried father. Kyll’s father is a greatly respected and prominent dwarven mason by the name of Viktur Rucksif. Viktur was so greatful for the care my daughter and I showed his son. After showering us with a veritable feast of meats and cheeses, Viktur offered his home for as long as we wanted to rest.

Being polite, Jessa complimented Viktur on such a beautiful home and how it was so different from our own hovel. The elder dwarf inquired more of our living conditions and I humbly told him of the place I had built with my own hands near my beloved wife’s grave. Upon hearing this Viktur insisted that to properly thank us he would offer to build us a proper home. As much as I declined the offer Viktur persisted until I finally gave in and agreed to let him build us a small house.

Viktur asked us to stay as his guests for a couple days while he finished his commissions in Kaladim and then escorted us back to our humbel abode to the south. He set out right away creating plans and recruiting apprentice masons for the work. What started out as a humble and quiet home in my mind became a magnificent manor of exquisite workmanship. Viktur had created a marvelous estate that represents gratitude and friendship.

Whenever I mention that the estate is too much Viktur quickly rebuttals with a grin that I speak nonsense and this is the standard size for a house built in gratitude for caring for one’s child. Viktur and I have become the closest of friends, even though he has jovially resisted all of my friendly attempts at converting him from his unwarvering devotion of Brell. The same was true for all dwarves of Kaladim, except for Kyll. He has been forever grateful to Jessa and me and has grown up with Jessa. He alone has spent equal time in the chapels of both Quellious and Brell.

My hope and prayer is that Kyll’s perpetually troubled younger brother would also follow the footsteps of his sibling and take to the words of the Tranquil One. That lad shows disrespect for his elders and even to Brell. In spite of the efforts of his family, the guards are always escorting that boy home in the middle of the night.

Quellious knows that poor Garanel would benefit from the teachings of Peace and Tranquility.

I spent a little time yesterday (ok, a lot of time) working on Silhouette’s house. I typically devote a lot of time working on everyone else’ house. While my own may seem impressive, they are nothing compared to the ones you can find on the forums at the Norrathian Homeshow. With the new RoK recipes, it’s easy to design some amazing things – and the Gorowyn houses surpass all others that I’ve seen so far except perhaps the Neriak ones. I used one of the expanders, and am able to place 600 items in my house now instead of the regular 500. I also used a vault expander, so instead of 5 vault slots, I have 6. Granted, it’s not as though I have that much to sell, but you never know when they will come in handy.

Pictured above is the start of Silhouette’s library. I figure even though she’s a carpenter and spends most of her day covered in sawdust and smells faintly like coal and other fuels, there’s no reason why she can’t also be well learned. She is a coercer after all. She had to learn how to manipulate others to do her bidding some where!

For now I’ve blocked off one of the rooms in the home, there’s just too much space. The ceilings are really high which makes for great lofts, but I mean they’re REALLY high so high in fact that hanging anything from them is practically impossible without some fancy manipulation of some sort.

A little reading area I designed for the library. I’m thinking in the center I’ll place a large ornate table of some sort and surround it by chairs, and stacks of books, scrolls, and what ever else someone would have strewn about such as in a study. I haven’t decided on anything for the remainder of the house yet. Perhaps a games room along with the weapons display, a bedroom area, a kitchen and dining area. Maybe a garden. It also depends on the item limit and how close I get to it. I typically work on rooms one at a time until I feel like they’re completed. If anyone wants to view the house in person (because honestly the screen shots do not do it justice) please feel free.

As a side note, I love decorating houses. I think every owner has a particular look or feel that they want for their homes and it’s fun to try to display that. Granted my characters are some what boring and very similar to one another, but I still have fun adding to their various collections.

Instances, and lots of them. That was the goal for yesterday. Kasul, Shadowgeist, Eyenstein, and myself first headed to Obelisk of Blight in LesserFaydark and lay waste to the voidbeasts tucked within. The drops were alright – the final two named actually dropped legendary which is something they rarely do for me. Shadowknight set gear dropped, of course. It always does when we have someone along who can actually use the gear. We headed off to Crypt of Valdoon afterward, drops were all treasured except for the class piece for dirge/troubador. Again of course because no one needed it.

Eyenstein switched out for his defiler, and his wife Albrta joined the group on her paladin. We decided to head to unrest, I relogged to Stargrace (illusionist) for some power regen and mez abilities (though we didn’t need them). To most people the group probably looked a little odd. We had:

• 66 Assassin
• 67 Defiler
• 67 Paladin
• 80 Shadowknight
• 76 Illusionist

We didn’t mentor for this zone, having three people who were over what the cap would have previously been for Unrest when it was first released. We had a lot of fun (I think) and it was great to be bringing someone new to the zone and watching their reactions as we ran through the script. It’s by far one of the more complicated scripts in EQ2 to run and this puts it very high on my list of ‘absolutely must go see favorite zones’. I wish we had more areas like this one.

The drops were alright, Kasul picked up a new piercer from the bartender, and he also got his class hat from one named. Albrta got her paladin breastplate though we didn’t see any of the fabled cloaks. I wanted to give bugaboo a shot since he’s white at level 80, but for now he’ll live and roam around the outside of the house.

Before all of the instances, Mayadhros, Said, Kasul, Shadowgeist, and myself made new characters. Ah yes that’s right, even MORE alts. Shadowgeist was interested in trying out a paladin (for whatever reason) and I decided to join on a mystic. Said created a brigand, Mayadhros his wizard, and Kasul had his neglected coercer. We played for a little while and practically flew to level 10-12 and obtaining a few aa. Things go really fast on double exp weekend with a group.

For once, I didn’t craft. I know, I checked for a pulse too to ensure I was still alive. Well, I suppose that’s not exactly true, I did craft for a short while to try to get Nostalgia 2.0 level 21. We’re pretty close, only a few % away. I ended up calling it a night though, and spent some time lamenting over the fact that I only have 4 gigs of space left on my hard drive. I’ll have to fix that, eventually.

Yesterday was by far one of the most perfect gaming days – and I didn’t really do that much. It was great though. Spent in the company of amazing friends and good groups, with only a few deaths. The very early morning portion of it was spent in EQ1. I headed to Dulak Harbor with my 49 beastlord Nala (yes, I actually have two beastlords, I have one who is level 17 still) and my 51 druid, Qutey. Nala hit 50, Qutey hit 52, and got an aa. The kills are still relatively slow, neither character is wearing the best gear, and I’m still working up Nala’s skills since she was leveled fairly quickly. I invis’d my way up to the Oceancrasher and just sat Qutey there while Nala pulled.

Which is one thing I miss in EQ2 might I add. In EQ1 dungeon crawls are more like camps. You find a camp, and your group parks there while someone pulls. Bard or tank or whoever. You sit there for hours, camping your area. Someone zones in and ‘camp check’ is a typical thing, still. In EQ2, I don’t think I’ve ever even heard someone ask for a camp check, unless it was for some particular mob used in a quest and even then it’s rare anyone asks. It’s been phased out, and I miss it. Groups are constantly on the move – granted a lot of this is due to the questing-to-level method of gaining experience. Always on the go.

After that it was time to help out some friends in EQ2, a conjurer and necromancer with their fabled epics. It had been a very long time since I played Petites (templar) to any great extent and I missed it. She was 8% to ding, and I asked if I could tag along on her even though she’d be quite small for the two zones we were headed to (Sebilis and Chardok).

We actually did fantastic, no deaths. The one problem? At level 75 (she dinged almost immediately) you can only cure up to level 83. The mobs we were fighting were level 84-85. So while I could heal just fine, I couldn’t cure the nasty fears, or dots that pummled us. We did the entire zone this way except for one final named at the doors to VS, who I relogged to the druid for. CoTH (call of the hero) her down to the group and we took them out too. The named dropped a very pretty pair of bracers for Goudia that extend the length of her songs by 10%. Couldn’t complain at all! Once we were done getting the updates people needed in Sebilis, it was time for Chardok. Everything went smooth there and Petites managed to wiggle 50% experience out of the ordeal. Even though I couldn’t cure the dots none of the mobs in Chardok fear so we had no issues.

Finally, after all that, I went to play with Kasul some who was inching up on level 65. That’s a big level in EQ2. It’s the level you can start doing Kylong Plains (RoK) content. It’s also the level a lot more instances become available to you such as the ones in Bonemire (there are three at least) and the ones in Loping plains, as well as Obelisk of Blight. It’s also the level you can start grouping with level 80’s.

The experience in Barren Sky was slow, and I was feeling restless, so eventually after some time I suggested we head to New Tunaria with my coercer. Charmed a vampire and we were on our way. LOTS of chest drops and Kasul got his level.

I died, a few times. It comes with the charming mobs territory though and I’m quite used to it. Thankfully this time I didn’t get Kasul killed.

Today, hopefully some instance runs, we’ll see! I hope everyone else has had an amazing weekend.