No holds bar story again - I will tell it like it happened.

Ordered my Ruins Of Kunark CD on 18th April and paid for overnight shipping. Nasty rumors float about Verants sachem to only let a few at a time. Nasty rumors appear true as april 24th come and goes and I do not have my CD. April 25 Verant sends apologies to all subribers and states that if you ordered the CD before april 19th and do not receive the CD by the 24 you will receive one free moth play and they will pay for shipping and handelling. May 1 I get CD, Refund on shipping charges and one month free play. Hell I just got the upgrade for $4.00.

Ok install the CD and begin the patch process. Knowing that Mike said it took him about 2hrs to patch I was bumber and started it up while I did some other stuff. Patch one took 15 minutes - please restart and patch again. Yuck this is a drag but ok. New patch Interface second patch I think took 40 minutes not sure because I wasn't paying attention.

Ok game time - fire up log in and first thing I notice is my sound is all messed up. Blasted soundblaster live with it all its effects. Shot down and fix my 3d setting to generic and fire back up. Ah much better sound and the 3d effects are working well.

Ok play time and off to the new world. Being that I like to adventure I skip the free teleport that a Wizard offered me and set out to the town of Freeport. Note being a Cleric and a follower of 'The Prime Healer" the militia in Freeport do not exactly like me to start with. Also considering I have helped kill the corrupt militia men and the leader Sir Lucan their is basically a wanted poster of me on every street corner in the Town. So I have to sneak around to get to the dock so I can take the boat.

I see who is in East Freeport and ask when the last boat came buy and get an answer I have about 10 minutes till the next boat arrives. Ok - I head to north Free Port to seek refuge amongst the Paladin Guards. Get some food and hit the bank to deposit some loot. (Was killing Spectres that like to hound people in Oasis - they are basically grim reaper looking dudes with nasty scythes and spells). So after doing my shopping and heading into west Freeport I see a couple of people cleaning up the town killing the Freeport Militia. I stop buff them up and talk a few minutes and they group me and then cast invisibility on me so I can slip threw the town to the dock undetected.

Hit the port and minute or so the boat pulls up and I get on. Time for a pee break as the boat trip takes about 7 minutes maybe 10. It makes a few stops at some Islands along the way before it hits what we call Butcher Block (BB), this is the homeland of the Dwarves. The landmass is called Fayder and is populated by Elves (High and Wood), Dwarves and Gnomes. It is also home to Mistmore Castle where some nasty Vampires, home to Unrest - undead paradise with ghosts that can only be seen if you have see invisible spell up. The other nice place is Kedge Keep - underwater zone that is very challenging. Ok back to story and moving onto the bad. I go to the dock that has the feries that will take me to the boat. Oh crap a dwarven citizen is their - that will teach me to have killed a few to many of these when I was lvl 40. Any way I am KoS to this dwarf and have to once again sneak onto the ferrie. Ok on the ferrie and waitting. Few minutes later ferry sets sail and into the new zone.

WOW - THIS Boat is a SHIP. It is Huge and beautiful sight and the music fit perfect as I approached the boat and marveled at the graphics. I then notice the ferrie is not stopping - hmm what the hell. I am going back and never got on the boat. CRAP, either I was day dreaming or the ferry is broke.

Well this blows back to the dock and I end up waitting 10 maybe 15 minutes for the next boat - yes this SUCKED. ok ferry headed to ship - hmm I must be having bad luck every one else says the got on so I jump for the plank as the ferry passes and I mis. Ok the bad - this is water real water - you can drowned. EQ has stamina like AC and it takes stamina to swim so eventful I will get tired and die. The Good - I have a fishbone earring some place on me and I equip it so I can breath under water. The bad - it is a long swim to the new world and their are sharks and squids and whales that would love to make me lunch.

So I petition to a GM saying I couldn't get on the boat and am sitting at the bottom of the water. 2 minutes later I am on shore with a GM asking me what happened. She says ok and logs the problem then asks me were was I headed. Bingo She ported me to the new world. So I missed out on the boat ride but has yet another good experience with getting help from EQ Guides and GM's when things go wrong.

The new land is amazingly beautiful. The graphics are mind bogeling. What the hell my video card is lagging some. Damn over kill on graphics. Do some graphics twinking to both card settings and game settings and I am up and running (no one better complain that they have to tweek graphics because I has to do the same for AC).

I then start to move out with some friends to scout out the new land. We have heard that in the Dreadlands just post the High Elven Outpost their is a Castle that used to house the Isakar King and Nobles. Sounds good to me. Oh the new monsters look great. We hit the Dreadlands and I know why they are called dread. Mountain Giants - I thought the hill giants were tall - gesh I might have come to this guys boot straps. Well it was 6 on 1 and the giant went down pretty quick.

We came across a half human / spider encampment and decided best to leave them alone for now. These fellas can be a real pain when they group up on you.

Ok the Really good and cool.

We find the castle and it is HUDGE. We take a group of 6 in (Cleric, 3 paladins, Shaman and Druid) - we are heavy on the healing and Damage over Time. Paladins are a good warrior / cleric combo - means more healing.

I wish I could describe the feeling when we entered the castle and started to look around. Their was already 4 other groups inside so we brought the total players up to 30 in this dungeon. One of the paladins scouts a head and finds us a place that looks good and is out of the way of possible trains should another group get in trouble and have to flee.

We set up shop - buff everyone up and the games begin. The spawns in our area are Drogulas(SP)(Tall dog looking monsters - I am sure they are some decadents of the Kobolds except these stand up straight and are about 1 foot taller then the average human and look like they weight at least 100 pounds more. They wear bronze colored armor and usually carry axes and long swords) Undead Jailer (This was a mud looking fella that was a pain in the butt) and various spectral Isakar floating undead things.

The 6 of us stayed in this area for 2 hrs. Several times coming with in 30 hps of dyeing (note the average paladin at lvl 50 has 1800 to 2000 hps, 30 is scarry) and finding our selves surrounded and pined in. The Drogulas has a nasty habit of sending a guard out on patrol whom when he heard us fighting would run to check it out and then lay into us. The Raoming Guards and Rangers always kept us on our toes has you never new when one would appear.

Thursday I am hoping to hit the Skyfire zone and go dragon hunting. Their is supposed to be dragons their (not on the same lvl as Lord Nagfen or Lady Vox) but they are supposed to make a party of 6 earn the kill. No one has seen one yet so this will be a blast. If they are like the griffins that fly around this will make it over more fun.

Well their is a small story of what EQ is like at times. Good and the Ugly.

Total play time was about 4hrs 9pm to 1am.

Thom