Zone memories

[Hhrolf]

Recently a lot of people have been running around Norrath visiting zones to get the achievements and level up their run speed.
But what memories did visiting some of these zones trigger?

For me one that stands out is the first time I went to Dreadlands.


It was a long long time ago, back in the days of Luclin being the latest expansion ( early 2002 I think ). Another shaman ( Salorma ) and I both wanted this new upgraded level 24 SoW that we had heard was available from a merchant in Firona Vie.
Getting around was not as easy as it is today and to get to Firona Vie you had to take the spires and run all the way through Dreadlands.
We were level 23 and it was a level 40ish zone so everything in the zone was red, a deep deep 'this is gonna kill you in one shot' red. Our only invis was the type that had variable duration, yes the one that lasts up to 10 minutes but can drop just when you don't need it to. And of course we had heard there were see invis mobs in the zone too. Oh and to make things worse, if you died you had to run back and get your gear, no summons in those days and rez would not be an option either.
Dreadlands is a big zone at the best of times, but on that day it seemed never ending. My nerves were stretched tight as we slowly made our way across the zone, conning every mob to see if it saw invis, and regularly having to find a safe spot to recast invis.
The section of the zone nearest the zone line is where the see-invis Drachnids hang out and we were having trouble finding the tunnel entrance.
Just as we found the tunnel Salorma was spotted by a Drachnid and the first I knew of it was seeing her die. I tried finding her corpse and barely made it to the zone at 10% health as it turned out that I could survive one hit after all but only just. I zoned back into Dreadlands four times trying to drag her corpse to the zoneline and played tag with this corpse-camping drachnid each time. Whilst I had been doing this Salorma had made the long run back and managed to recover her corpse whilst the Drachnid was camping the tunnel entrance waiting for me to pop my head out again.
That one zone took us over an hour to traverse. And after all that Spirit of Cheetah turned out to be such a disappointment.

So what memories did visiting these old zones trigger for you?

[Rimaraf]

So many memories, where to start? One place that I always felt was special was Skyshrine. I guess I was in my 40s when one day I met a ranger and bard duo, Caeliel and Galenbor, who were at that time in the high 50s. They were both pre-Kunark players, really knew their stuff and helped me out a lot.

They'd told me about this place called Cobalt Scar, and that I'd need to complete a key quest to get through to it. My memories of obtaining the key are hazy, only that it first involved killing enough giants to be on favourable terms with the dragons, or using sneak. Although later I was to become an ally with the dragons, more than once, I think I used sneak to talk to the quest giver. Then it was back to Kael to hunt down Wenglawks Kkeak. I must've had some help with this, there was no way I could solo giants as a ranger at the time.

The key complete, Skyshrine and the Wakening Lands became my new home. I spent a lot of time there, trying to forage Drake Eggs and kill the Tigeraptors for their hides. Why? Because my high level bard friend was an expert tailor, and he would be able to craft me some ranger-only Tigeraptor armour. Requiring over 250 tailoring skill, this was no mean feat. Needless to say, it took me hours and hours of foraging and hunting raptors to acquire the pieces, and Galenbor was able to make me some!

Soon after, my two friends introduced me to this crazy quest for a dwarven ring, and I spent a lot of time in the Eastern Wastes progressing through the various stages of the ring, and working on the shawl too. I'll never forgive those griffons! Of course, at that time, the scripted event between Chief Ry'Gorr and Garadain Glacierbane was pretty cutting-edge stuff for EQ.

This was all before I'd heard of the Sleeper, and he'd not yet been awoken...

[Lamini1]

i did Kunark Express myself. FM>OT>LoIO>DL>KC. When luclin popped (^_^), first AA i got was Holy Steed as I was 60 levels sick of running around Norrath. Back then the boats were the only option, and they werent always working.

SHoudlve tried running from FV>KC w/ no potions/invis. Lets not forget I coldnt run at night as a Human race. I usually waited for someone else (higher level) to run and i followed. The run from FV>LoIO wasnt fun either, dang see invis spiders. They'd root you while you got beat up. Reminds me of the sirens that would mez you while you were drowning. Back then i had to do a /who in zone before i ran to beg for a rez. If not, I had to do a /who all cleric and pay for nearest one to rez me. which could easily be a 30minute+ event.