At the beginning of the week I reached a point in Runes of Magic where I just simply felt stuck to be honest. It's probably that I'm new and unfamiliar with all the multitude of leveling options, but being Level 57 and questless is not a place that seems fun. I spent some time grinding exp on elite mobs and racked up a pretty severe death debt that required spending a good chunk of Phirius tokens to clear. Whoops!
Asking around in guild, I found out that my best option was to head back to a place I had pretty much skipped through named the Savage Lands, so back I went! There was a sea of quests available here, but the problem is that doing a level 50 quest when you're level 57 feels . . . fruitless? grindy? painful? All of the above? Yes. All of the above.
So, I switched back over to my Rogue half and decided it was time to check out the Returning the Glory quest line instead!! Only to be stopped again at the beginning of the quest when the level requirement for continuing the quest line was level 54. sigh. Back to Savage Lands I went as a level 50 Rogue.
I gotta say, the rumor I had heard where you could just ride the exp train all the way up on the Returning the Glory and Envoy of Dragons quest chains was greatly exaggerated. I suppose if I was running both quests simultaneously as I leveled only one of my two classes, then, sure . . . I guess that would work?
As for the Savage Lands itself as a zone, it's been pretty interesting. It all starts in Sanburs Camp where Leo Hubbert and company tell you all about the Hall of Survivors and the ancient passage way that connected them to the Savage Lands. Archeologists flocked here, and died here, as members of the Eye of Wisdom organization started payrolling a search for the legendary ruins of the Guardians of the Ancient Kingdoms.
A little deeper in you'll start to climb Ape Mountain, which, as you guessed, is infested with Apes. Also found on Ape Mountain is a gal by name of Aylin Kerair, who's pretty much Sigourney Weaver from Gorillas in the Mist. She sends you off to get milk from deer and protect a bunch of weak young apes she's helping out because the apes on Ape Mountain tend to cast out the ones with birth defects.
Also, holy crap the apes here are annoying to fight! They do this un-resistable, triple knockback punch that is really really obnoxious . . . and that's all I gotta' say about that. Beyond Ape Mountain, you'll encounter a giant elven city built around a huge tree known as the Green Tower, which has some territory conflicts with a naga camp to the north. Lots of quests will lead you that direction in the Savage Lands.
The middle of the zone is basically a pit full of demons and ugly water monsters surrounded by high cliffs that host 4 tribes of smaller monkey/donkey/lizard peoples? Look . . . I don't know their genealogy, but they're called "Bodos." They have a face that only a mother could love and tend to attack you as a colony of ants would, in swarms . . . except for the friendly Bodos from the tribe of Haz. Those little dudes are pretty chill.
On the far Western edge of the Savage Lands is a giant mushroom forest known as the Kilanche Fungus Forest. My only complaint here is that I wish this area was a bit darker and had some contrast from the rest of the zone. It might just be I've played too many Dungeons and Dragons games where you delve into an underground bioluminescent mushroom zone, but it just didn't feel quite right being so bright.
In a way it reminded me of the curtains in my parent's old kitchen back in the 70's.
Actually, if the zone had looked more like my parent's old curtains, it probably would have been cooler than what it is. Anyway, I'm always down to help an intelligent tribe of mushroom folks and the Kilanche Fungus crew needed a lot of help. They have a problem with psychedelics and mind control. Half of these fungi are in a happy peaceful state and the other half are super grumpy.
So there you have it . . . Bodos, Apes, and Intelligent Fungus -- these are the things the Savage Lands are made of. I still have a ton of quests here with the Bodos, and I'm sure I'll come back to them, but first I need to get back to the business of the Returning the Glory quests because my Rogue is level 54, baby! YEAH! So I'll be back to report more on the murder mysteries and police brutality found in that quest line later, until then thanks for reading and . . .
Happy Dueling!
No comments:
Post a Comment