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!