Don't Envy the Envoy of Dragons in Runes of Magic

 Back in 2010, Frogster was still in charge of all things Runes of Magic and had stepped up to the plate again with another release that increased the level cap from 55 to 60. They dubbed this major release "Chapter III: the Elder Kingdoms" and the 2.5 million registered users rejoiced! 

It was kind of fun reading the comments to the main theme music for this release on YouTube.  

Gotta respect those old schoolers that sometimes log in to just play a little.

Of course, for me, this is my first foray into this old game that is solidly in the grips of . . . let's be honest . . . maintenance mode, in the hands of Gamigo. That doesn't mean it's any less of a game, just that its ending is more defined, right? Right!

Anywho, my experience in Chapter III has been very different than my experiences in Chapters I and II. I don't know if they decided to hire a solid writer for this chapter, or just took a different philosophy on how players work through the game, but for the most part, this expansion seems to have two main storylines that weave through it: Envoy of Dragons and Return the Glory. 

Currently I'm running through the Envoy of Dragons quest as a Mage. I'm level 56 (almost level 57) and currently stopped on progressing through the Envoy of Dragons quest until I can gain level 57. Certain quests have level requirements to undertake and I'm not quite there yet. Not to worry though, there are plenty of other supporting side quests to help me get the level I'm looking for.

Once I'm either level 60 or have completed the Envoy of Dragons Quest, I'll go back and run through the Return to Glory quests as a rogue. At least that's my plan for now. My other idea is that I just skip Return the Glory and try grinding my way up to 60 just killing stuff.  That's a thing. We'll see.

So, the story behind Envoy of Dragons all centers around an NPC named Morrok Wallinder.

And there he is . . . Morrok Wallinder

I can't say I'm truly checked-in to the actual story telling of this quest because it's been a bit convoluted, but I believe the main plot is that the Dragons of this world are trying to clear their names. Rumors have been flying around that dragons have teamed up with monsters in attacking humans. Dragons don't want their names sullied in such a way.  

So how does Morrok Wallinder work in to this?

And there he is . . . Morrok Wallinder

Come to find out, Morrok is half dragon. Honestly, I'd spend more time in my dragon form if I looked that hot as a dragonoid. You know what I'm saying? The ladies dig the wings.

Anyway, somehow at the beginning of the quest line, you run into Freud Splinter, a rat in the sewers of Delanis, while searching for some books. And you guessed it, he's friends with 4 turtles. I gotta be honest, this seemed super out of character for Runes of Magic to drop a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference in the game. 

Pizza Time!

This is as about as crazy as the game gets. So far I've mostly seen stock high fantasy themes without the wacky references. I liked it! Oh wait . . . the game does get crazier . . . I forgot the random Dev-only zone a stranger ported me to.

Now THAT'S as crazy as Runes of Magic gets . . .

Eventually you start unraveling the mystery of the dragon/monster mix-up by helping a couple bands of troubled centaurs. Centaurs aren't monsters are they? I don't know for sure, but the centaurs got a bad rap and went through, what "Darik Silverstar" (Chief Centaur) called "a dark period." 

But as it turns out, centaurs are a hoot! During the quest you end up getting one of them drunk and again unravel . . . some plot point I didn't really grasp. But, the real villain here is a guy named Luke Ponzi . . . and he's definitely the scheming type. He's also in league with a gal by the name of Belle Allen, who turns out to be a weird demon in disguise, and this starts a whole series of quests where you pursue information about spirits and demons.

Yeah, it's a bit convoluted to be honest . . . most MMO and game writing is because it's not just about weaving a good story . . . it's also about fulfilling a quota of quests and content to accompany a zone. That said, this quest line feels pretty good. I'm excited to see where it leads to (hopefully to being a level 60+ Mage) and how the mystery is solved (I bet the dragons will clear their name . . . if they don't, I'll be happily surprised.)

Happy Dueling!

Exploring the Elven Prophecy in Runes of Magic

Once hitting level 50 in Runes of Magic, the exp just seemed . . . to kinda . . . slow . . . down . . . . Where on the ride to 50 I might have earned 10 levels in a day, I'm struggling to make level 55 in a few days, and that's WITH doing goblin runs AND the Butterflies daily quest AND with guild experience buffs. 

Don't know what those are? Here's a little background:

• Goblin runs are quick little exp and treasure farms that the guild can run together. Typically what happens is we have a couple uber level 100's that speed through the dungeon and kill everything while the lower level people just soak up the experience and loot all the chests. You can run this once a day as long as you have a few coins from doing your daily quests.
• The Butterflies daily quest is a super easy daily in the zone of Xaveria. It rewards about 100k more exp than most dailies and takes about a fourth of the effort.  You basically kill five butterflies in a garden and then run back and cash in the quest . . . rinse and repeat 10 times.
• Guild buffs come from a few clickable towers in our Guild Castle that provide stackable experience buffs. Clicking them provides a bonus to loot drops, skill point acquisition, and experience gain.

Living my best goblin life!

Over the weekend, I've pretty much been sampling the content that came with Runes of Magic first expansion called "The Elven Prophecy." According to this old MMORPG article I read, this expansion boosted players levels from 50 to 55, which could be why I'm experiencing a bit of a slow down in leveling.

Enemies also seem a far bit sturdier than the previous levels! I'm pretty sure this all balanced as if someone has been at level 50 and has reasonably good gear. 

To counteract this bump in difficulty, I've also been introduced to creating soup-ed up tradeable gear that has a ton of stats slotted into it through something known as the Arcane Transmuter. 

One of these, three of these, click confirm and UBER TIME!

Basically you find a piece of "blank" gear that's low level with high durability and doesn't bind to the character. Next, you pull amazing stats off of level 100 gear and combine those stats with the blank gear and it makes an uber item that any joe-schmo-newbie can wear. It has a huge impact. As an example, I was at about 6k hit points and now I'm at 20k hit points just through wearing gear like this.

It's been a lot of learning and explaining from my mentor. As explained to me, this gear is great for hand-me-downs because it's perfect for passing on to the next newbie through the guild bank, and . eventually the gear I will start earning will catch back up and make this gear obsolete. I just need to remember to put it back in the guild bank. 

But, of course, it isn't all about racing to the top level . . . it's also about enjoying the ride as well. 

The "Ayam" fish people of Ravenfell

Ravenfell and Weeping Coast have both had a kind of a coastline biome feel to them, and I've fought a lot of crabs, flying manta rays, fish people, spiders, trolls, water elementals, and dinosaurs. It's a smattering of scary enemies with a nice variety. 

A picturesque pathway in Ravenfell

The villages in these zones are small and personable. Because of this, not only have I fought aforementioned dinosaurs, but I've also chased around a dog as it dug up treasure that a town's bully had buried just to be mean. 

So far one of the most memorable camps had to do with Snake people!  I love me a good Naga in an MMO and Runes of Magic has an excellent group of them. At the top of Weeping Coast there's a whole village of them, and they are marked as Elite enemies. They're a bit tougher to down, but they offer great loot in return. I imagine that back in the day, Naga camp farming for items and exp was kind of a thing, especially since after killing 50 of them, you can trade in their dog tags to get supplies from the Order of Dark Glory people that are stationed there.

Ladi and Spog are the crime fighting duo we all need in our lives

My sights have now turned to what lies beyond the Naga camps, and that is the red-tinted zone of "Aotulia Volcano." The Naga conflict continues here and apparently there are a couple quest lines that are stuff of legends when it comes to gaining experience at high levels. Envoy of Dragons and Return the Glory are both quest lines that are supposed to take you all the way to level 85 in just a few days. Of course, I'm sure my mileage may vary. 

My first glimpse into Aotulia Volcano

I continue to enjoy my journey in Runes of Magic and it's been great getting to know my new guildmates. I can't recommend finding a good guild to be a part of when you decide to take your journey through Runes of Magic. Without their support, I probably would have tapped out quite awhile ago. 

Happy Dueling!

Runes of Magic -- A Vampire in the Canyon

My Runes of Magic mentor, aka the infamous TessLove, was kind enough to point me towards Dust Devil Canyon as my next destination, so  . . . I do as I'm told! Dust Devil Canyon it is!

Cacti, high cliffs, and dusty roads

Dust Devil Canyon is exactly how'd you picture it. a lot of winding trails, high mountain peaks, cacti, sandstone, and scorpions. The zone is pretty much divided right in half by a wide canyon trench that sinks down low and has water in its base.  It's a great place for two things apparently: fishing and being bitten by poisonous giant dragonflies. In fact, one of the quests here is all about helping a dude find his fishing pole. What else would a 50th level vampire do here? Of course I'm going to help you find your fishing pole!

Danny, first I find your fishing pole, next, I make you my vampire minion, k?

For my first day in Dust Devil Canyon, I really just stayed on the southern side of the zone and helped out my buddies in the "Order of Dark Glory Garrison." It may sound grim, but they're an ok bunch. They are really just here to help and are having a heck of a time dealing with all the giant scorpions and fire lizards. That's where we come in, friends . . . so many giant scorpions and lizards . . . .

Thankfully the monotony of scorpions and lizards is broken up by there also being a big hive nearby that's full of "Kal Turok," aka Ant People! (Side note: when the Kal Turok ran at me full speed with their four arms raised for battle, I was reminded of the Tharks from John Carter. Am I the only person that actually liked John Carter?) I gladly went down deep into their cave system and killed a swarm of them (and their little larvae). Now THIS is what a 50th level vampire does! COUNT STINGITE'S CURSE BE UPON THEE!

Possibly the most distinct feature in the zone is the Obsidian Stronghold. It's the first really big city I've encountered on my journey outside of Silverspring. The folks inside the castle had plenty of quests that just involved running around getting to know the place. I think I leveled once just by making introductions here. 

It's kinda like the Las Vegas of Dust Devil Canyon, but with no gambling

By the time I logged off two days ago, I was level 50 on my Rogue, which meant it was time to switch back to my Mage and level a bit more. So, yesterday I decided to venture into the Northern part of the zone where I was introduced to my new favorite harpy NPC, Adley the Alcoholic.

It's Adley the Alcoholic or "AA" for short -- she's ready for her ten step program 

In fact, there's a whole quest line in Dust Devil Canyon that involves figuring out why exactly the harpies are so gosh dang murderous? As it turns out, it's because they're drunk on evil crow blood and fermented berries . . . at least that's what I gathered from the quest text. I may be off there, because at the same time, I was playing dress up as a legit vampire. 

Said mentor, LadyTess, mailed me some fancy vampire dudes, so I'm fully embracing the vampire now.  She even gave me the nickname "Fangs" in the guild notes . . . so I took it a step further, descended down into the Forsaken Abbey, killed the boss vampire down there, and assumed the title for defeating him: Count Hibara's Nemesis.  

I vant to level up

All I need now is a good bat pet, and I'm ready for a guest appearance on "What we do in the Shadows." 

 

So the end result is that I pretty much made little progress yesterday as far as leveling, I was too busy messing around, grabbing elite skills, flirting with murderous harpies, and re-equipping my woefully undergeared mage . . . but it's cool -- I leveled up my "charisma" instead. If I'm going to be a vampire, I gotta look and play the part as well.

"Happy Dueling!" - signed "Fangs" aka Count Stingite

Runes of Magic -- Ystra Yesterdays

The exit from Aslan Valley leading to the Ystra Highlands slopes upward and snakes a path through the mountainside, taking you from a lush forest to a snowy paradise -- a paradise if you're a hunter or a minotaur child perhaps. Otherwise, it's a Sea of Snow (as one of the points of interest is called here in Ystra).

Paleontologists take note! The Sea of Snow is calling you!

The first NPCs you'll run into are the Baggins brothers who are off to the side of the road and permanently locked in a fist-fight as they roast a pig out in the middle of nowhere. Neither of them seems to be exceptionally skilled at hunting as they have you do all their dirty work while trying to one-up each other. I'll gladly help both sides as long as they're giving out experience points and money!

Forget Frodo and Bilbo. THESE are the real Baggins boys!

The Baggins boys' father is a little further up the road in Khazor's Watchtower that flanks the Harf Trading Post with the Khalara Watchtower. Just doing the quests from those areas alone are sure to get you leveled from 30-40th, as they did for me yesterday! 

HARF HARF HARF HARF! . . . Excuse me!

Of course, there are other camps of humans out and about that serve as nice quest hubs. Most of these folks just want you to hunt stuff for them: crabs, bears, reindeer . . . Pokémon. Listen, I can't describe the horror to you enough of when my first quest in the zone asked me to kill this little cute guy.

I am SO SORRY LITTLE ONE!

You see what I mean?  I felt like an absolutely horrible person, but hey . . . they needed the pelts, they needed the meat, they needed the tails . . . they needed all kinds of trinkets from these little guys. The reindeer I didn't mind killing because I hate Christmas. Just kidding, I love Christmas and I guess I didn't mind murdering all the reindeer for their pelts, their meat, their antlers, and all the other trinkets the townsfolk wanted off of them. None of their noses glowed anyway, so I figured I was safe.

Also of note in this area are two perfectly good Horde races for an upcoming expansion to Runes of Magic.  

I'd play that race in a heartbeat.

Wouldn't that be awesome to be able to play as a cyclops or a minotaur? Unfortunately, I highly doubt that's in this game's future.  Adding a new race means also adding a new form and fit for the clothing that goes along with that race and that's enough to make any art developer cringe I'm sure. Not to mention this game hasn't seen an update in the first time since forever. (See the reference there? Thank you. Thank you. - Signed, "The cold never bothered me anyway" Stingite.)

Ystra also featured my new favorite NPC . . . this strange pot.

Yup, it's a pot.

I wasn't reading closely enough to gather what the heck was going on with this pot, but I do remember it sending me out to find its lid . . . so, I "bottled up" my emotions and "closed the vase" on the strange pot's quest line. I wouldn't say I "smashed" the pot's questline, but I made the right choices. I believe it's our choices, Mr. Potter, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

Anyway, I see a ton of quests waiting for me in the next zone over. I'll probably mass drop these Ystra quests and head over to Dragonfang Ridge. Sounds amazing. I haven't seen it, but with a name like Dragonfang Ridge I'm hoping for a lava area? I mean, so far Runes of Magic has delivered me the forest, followed by the snow area . . . if I'm not finding myself in a desert or a lava area, I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with myself.

(as a note, there are two exits to this zone, and one is named Dustdevil Canyon . . . so . . . desert to the north and lava to the south? A friendly necromancer can only hope.)

Happy Dueling!

Runes of Magic -- Aslan Valley Explorer

After I had hit 20th level, I could see that a gaggle of new quests were popping up in the nearby zone of Aslan Valley, and since I can't resist bread crumbs (I'm like duck *quack*), I decided to wander over and take a look. When I got there, I dropped a bunch of quests so I could take a bunch of new quests from the friendly band at Qilana Camp.

A couple tents, a fire, and a whole slew of quests

I was recently asked by a guildmate if I'm more of a quester or a leveler. I guess I'm really more of an "in-betweener." aka the fast one of the slow bunch. Sure, I like story and quests just as much as the next guy, but the pull of better, faster, harder, stronger is totally real for me. A definite pro to doing all your quests is that the Title system in Runes of Magic (RoM) is pretty interesting. 

Don't you hate when you earn a new title in a game and it does nothing for you? Well RoM's solution to this is that each Title you earn for your character is worth an additional 5 health points. Case in point, yesterday I finished the "Noise Terminator" badge, and my health rose from 1250 to 1255. It's a battle of inches and over time, the more titles you earn could be the difference between life and experience debt.

"I'll be back," he whispered as he obtained the Noise Terminator badge

Finishing the Noise Terminator badge meant that I spent a lot of time completing all the quests involved with Aslan Valley's Goblin Village, which is found in the northernmost area of the map and just north of Bloodhound Mountain and a Hunters Encampment. The Hunters Encampment is where you'll find most of your goblin hunting quests to earn the badge.

By the end of your Goblin quests, you will have infiltrated their camp, dug deep into Rumpus Mine and then finally wreck their excavation equipment that was causing all the troublesome noise in Aslan Valley. I have to say, being a rogue and being able to sneak down into the mine had its perks here as it is very easy to get overwhelmed by goblins here. What they lack in strength, they make up for in numbers.

How am I able to sneak with those giant wings? It's gotta be Necromancy!

One of my favorite quest lines so far in Aslan Valley has simply been exploring the large river that flows down the center of it, taking water samples, and taking in the cool environment. The zone has a nice topography to it and the large waterfall in the middle of the map is digitally breathtaking.

It's great! (Aside from the poisonous, giant dragonflies and murderous Ents . . .)

Toward the bottom of the map is the city of Silverfall and a large quest area known as The Distillery. I have a bunch of quests to complete here, but unfortunately, I think the bread crumbs pulling me over to Ystra Highlands will be enough temptation that I'll be dropping the back half of the quests here and picking up a new batch of quests in the next zone over.

Happy Dueling!

Runes of Magic Monster Parade

While playing in Runes of Magic recently, I kept getting announcements every 30 minutes that the monster parade was starting soon and to sign up. I tried to do this before and the game basically told me I needed to be in a spooky monster transformation before I could participate. I ignored that for a bit because . . . I'm a newbie and had no idea what they were talking about.

Cursed to do a parade every year . . . nice.

As it turns out, to get a spooky monster transformation, you need to turn in 10 suspicious looking powder to a ghost in the festival area of Veranas. When I found that out, it all clicked because I had been receiving suspicious looking powder and had no idea what it did until that point.

So I turned in my suspicious powder to the ghost and he gave me a frog transformation potion. Aha! So seeing as it was Halloween, I decided to give the monster parade a go before it got boxed up and put inside Gameforge's virtual holiday closet.

Der . . .

The parade is basically a short journey back and forth between the Veranas Gates and the entrance to the Forsaken Abbey. You stop at 7 points along the parade to collect free items and in-between those 7 points, you'll be fighting some token monsters with your guide.

Sproing!

When you arrive at the Forsaken Abbey, you do battle with Mr. and Ms. Pumpkin themselves and then the parade heads back to the gates.

Mister AND Misses Pumpkin?! Is that where all the little pumpkin pets come from?

At each check point you're given the option of choosing 1 of 3 chests. It appears to not really matter which order you select the chests, it's basically a shell game to receive three chests. One of the chests requires an "ancient key" to open, one of the chests has a chance of giving you an ancient key or some random item, and the third just gives you a random item.

I also played some kind of game in Veranas where you can spook NPCs while disguised as a ghost. Doing that earned me a pumpkin coin. Apparently there are little mini-games like this all over Silverspring (and maybe elsewhere?). You need 10 of those coins and then you can get a little surprise box with a pumpkin pet.

It was pretty fun to at least do one holiday event in an MMO this year! I decided to capitalize on the season and splurge on a new creepy mount, cosmetic clothes, and some bat wings.  I'm looking more like a friendly necromancer/vampire now.

A vampire riding a spider . . . LET'S GO!

Happy Dueling!

Runes of Magic -- Cool people and uh, Ding 49?

So . . . team . . . it seems like there's actually a good number of people that play Runes of Magic. There were quite a few people talking in world chat, and the whole game seemed a bit more bumping with activity. It might have been that it was the weekend and the stars aligned but I had the most amazing thing happen to me, an actual interaction with a super nice person, who recruited me to their guild, gave me a million gold, and helped me quickly level my mage from 20 to 49 with what felt like a beautiful "unintended feature" of the game.

Lemme break it down for you. I'm sitting there in Silverspring doing all kinds of questing. I'm hunting bandits, mutant wolves, giant beetles, and a flock of ostriches, when all of a sudden I see a cry go out on the world channel of a friendly guild that's recruiting older players. So I message her and ask how I can start the application process.

She invites me to the guild and instructs me to do a couple of things:

1. Collect my free daily login rewards.
2. Head to the guild castle asap and grab the buffs there.

I had actually already discovered the free daily login rewards, so I didn't need to do that, but I can see why she wanted me to do that. Inside the free daily login rewards was a certificate to expand my backpack for free for a limited time.  Typically backpack expansion is done on a weekly or monthly basis with premium currency. this also showered me with a cool mount and a bunch of other items that were like, yes please, including a "port to guild castle" stone.

Magical Skurfboards are the best!

The guild castle was impressive. They had a bunch of amenities strewn about and it was large and spacious. The guild had seven buff towers that you click on to activate 2-hour-long buffs and a stable where you can purchase a speed buff to make your mount travel faster. In other words . . . heaven on Taborea.

Buff towers in the guild castle

After this we chatted it up for a bit. She was super cool: also plays Perfect World. WoW, and FFIV. We talked shop for a bit and then she realized I was very low level and super new to the game, so she said . . . I don't usually do this, but check your inbox since you're going to need some cash to buy those speed buffs and stuff. I didn't think twice. Inside my mailbox was a million gold pieces, which seems like a lot, but she assured me, it's not. 

After this I was doing amazing now that I had some buffs to make my attacks more powerful, and the levels started flying by on my Rogue. By the end of my first play session for the day, I was sitting as a 20 mage and 20 rogue, which was perfect for obtaining my true goal, that of learning my necromancer (um, vampire) elite skills!

I logged back on later in the day to grab those elite skills and discovered that there are item requirements and you have to purchase them. So I take my million gold to the auction house looking for zinc nuggets, weird lumber planks, etc, and I can't find them. I shout out to the guild that I have no idea how to obtain these items and my new friend is like, "Don't do that, do the bags quest. Have you been to Heffner?" I'm completely confused and new, and I'm like, "as in Hugh?"

My new friend then tells me to hang on, she'll help me, but as long as we're out and about, do I want to advance one of my classes to 49 instantly? I'm like, "Of course, I'd have to be dumb to not want that." So she tells me to meet her underneath the bridge to Veranas. I'm like . . . what is this seedy under the bridge interaction I've got goin on here alongside a mention of Hugh Hefner?

Next thing I know, I'm clicking on a portal underneath the bridge and told to not move an inch. I'm then told to click on a trap over and over until I find some ostrich meat. I do this, and then she whips out a magic carpet and flies me over to a town where a guy is standing and tells me to hand him the meat. The NPC is like . . . have fun with that, and then my new friend opens another portal to the town of Hefner, where I'm instructed to kill anything. I do that and Bam. I'm level 49, like magic. 

We used to have a few side quests like this in Wizard101 where they didn't have any other quest requirements. People used to be able to make huge jumps in exp by completing random side quests and basically break the game. I don't feel as bad about it since, I'm going to have to play through all the content again as a rogue. It's not like I'm going to miss any content. It's just that I don't have to play through it twice now.

Anyway, then my new friend takes me inside the town and introduces me to a guy who will teach me all my elite skills in exchange for bags from completing a quest, and folks, this quest to collect bags is super simple. You basically click on targets and use a special buff. After doing this, you open the bag and inside is a scroll that allows this NPC to teach you your elite skill.

Next thing you know, I've learned Cursed Fangs and Kiss of the Vampire . . . You're a necromancer, Harry! (Now, the fact that I can only use Kiss of the Vampire once every 60 seconds while playing as a mage is a topic for another blogpost)

Time to Kiss like a Vampire

So, definitely color me impressed with this interaction. I mean, this is what it should be like in an older MMO like Runes of Magic: Friendly folks that just love their game and want to help the newbies. I feel like I hit the jackpot in Runes of Magic and had a lot of fun talking with my newfound friend.

Now I just need to catch my Rogue up 29 more levels, and hopefully ride this wave of happiness all the way into end game. 

Happy Dueling