I’ve been playing Rift quite solidly for the last few days, but I fancied a change today. Been getting a little frustrated with the contribution system there, as I mentioned here. Having to run my stable of alts through exactly the same quests is also slightly wearing, so venturing in a land where there is little or no set track for advancement is rejuvenating. Off I trotted to the Fippy Darkpaw progression server!
With Rift running distraction, Zoltoon has not been out and about as much as I would like. Would that there were more gaming hours in the day! So it is that he is still level 10. I’m not unhappy with that though, partially due to my full set of even lower level alts, and I’m quite content with his general rate of progress when I play him.
There’s a particularly useful button on EQ’s character select screen called “Return Home”. If your character has been logged out for 6 hours or more, you can use it to return him to his home city. In Zoltoon’s case that is Ak’anon, on the other side of the world to Qeynos, where he is usually bound. This means he can pop back at the beginning of his session, should the need arise.
Today, I decided that I rather fancied having a little poke about in one of my old haunts. Steamfont’s Minotaur caves are just about perfect for a level 10 enchanter, provided care is taken to avoid its master, Meldrath the Malignant, and his rather terrifying Minotaur Hero. Back in the day, Steamfont would often see a minotaur train, with the Minotaur Hero or Minotaur Lord at its head, but I’ve not seen one yet, to my slight disappointment!
Zoltoon the enchanter braves Steamfont's Minotaur caves
Minotaurs are a great way of raising your Gem Choppers faction, the gnome warrior faction that is a bit of a pain to raise any other way if you don’t start popular enough to do their quests. They also possess a couple of rather useful bits of kit.
The Minotaur Axe, friend to all lowbie meleers.
The Minotaur axe is an exceptionally good weapon for its available level, let down only by not being magical, and thus unable to harm certain creatures. Zoltoon managed to pick one up for his brother, Dulcien the Paladin.
Minotaur horns are particularly useful to bards, as they may be wielded as an instrument, dramatically increasing the power of any wind based musical abilities. They proved elusive today though, and unfortunately, Zoltoon, ever the adventurous, travelled a little further than was entirely wise into the caves, and managed to get three minotaur slavers interested in devouring him simultaneously. Two minotaur slavers he can handle, with some cunning mesmerisation, but three is right out, so he gated out, sending him back to Qeynos. Revenge will have to wait until tomorrow!
Aw man, I remember paying 4 plat each for mino battle axes in greater fey back before I even knew where they came from. That was back when I played a ranger on the pvp server Rallos Zek and anyone could PK you for your kit! Still, I guess that helped keep prices down.