Why?
Well, it's actually something that Ophiga had talked about way back when we were getting our Voice of the Master trinket from Delera's. In the same breath she had mentioned the Mantle of the World Shaper being part of the set, but we got carried away on an exp hunt and totally forgot about this Mantle (well, at least *I* did) until Lessah mentioned that she wanted that particular piece of gear. BOOM! OH YEAH, THAT THING! Our plans changed.
It's a great piece . . . permanent True Seeing is pretty cool.
Anyway, Lessah and I were camped out near the NPC that ships us off to the Ruins of Threnal in House Phiarlan when Spode logged on and asked if we had read Ophiga’s e-mail. Ahhh, Memorial Day surprises were upon us! Ophiga’s relatives had dropped by, and standing true to the immortal code of “Real Life First Duh,” she would not be joining us. No problems.
We debated doing Threnal on normal so we could unlock hard mode, but that was before we realized we had Lessah with us, who is obviously a VIP player. That’s one of the great things about VIP players, they can just up and select any old difficulty they want on an instance and just waltz on in. The rest of us have to work a touch harder to unlock stuff. That’s ok, and especially since we have the power of LESSAH GAME CHANGER with us. ;)
I like that title, LESSAH GAME CHANGER!
We decided to run through Shadow Crypt again for more experience, and this resulted in Ulan dinging 11th level. There was an awesome moment when Ulan asked the group, which would be more beneficial for the group, a mass heal or raise dead. I said, "Knowing the way this group plays . . . both." In this case, Ulan decided on the greater of two goods, and we secured another Raise Dead spell for the group. We are so covered! That makes Lessah, Spode, Ulan, and the NPC cleric all have a raise spell for Ophiga and me. ;) We can just up and die whenever we want! YES! It’s totally time to overnuke! Sure I may end up running an instance naked by the end of the night, but that should be per normal considering this band of floozies. *eyebrows* you know what I mean, you know what I mean? *eyebrows*
So as I was saying, Shadow Crypt was so good that Ulan dinged 11, and this led to Lessah bearing a solemn oath she would be 11th level by next Sunday; therefore, this resulted in Spode and I leveling to 12 as we were both sitting on a level (or two *cough*). But it’s all good. I picked up the Disintegrate spell and Fire Savant 2 (OH YES I GET A LOW COST FLAME THROWER SPELL) and Joe snagged a level of fighter! WOOTAH! It’s time for ownage!
Speaking of ownage. After Shadow Crypt we decided to take on the INVADERS! Instance on normal just to see how we’d fare. The result was bloody. Freaking bloody as we each died multiple times until finally we were completely whooped by the beholders (we did manage to take out a few on our way to realizing we were out gunned by the floating evil heads of evilness).
We ran around and tried to find a few quests that we could do and managed to only see mostly level 13 quests in the Lordsmarch area, so we ended up opening up our adventure journals “GASP!”, and Lessah pointed us toward a House P level 4 quest we could rock out on Elite (think it was Rest for the Restless), which we did without many worries. I even earned Noted reputation from House Phiarlan and got a whole slew of 30-minute buffs. (Seriously, this was an amazing night for me).
While we were in the “Bongwater” tavern as Lessah called the “Bogwater” tavern, she ran me over to a couple of notable NPCs who were having a conversation. Basically it was Velah (The Red Dragon) in human form talking with Arach d'Kundarak. This archived thread here has the full text of the conversation. I personally think this quest text should be updated to the lyrics of Like a G6, but that's just me.
Happy Dueling!
