I left off last time in EverQuest Legends at the dock in Freeport. The old Freeport. The original city restored. And I reveled in that a bit, but eventually it was time to head across the Sea of Tears to Faydwer.
On the docks in Freeport
I sat at the end of the dock for a while, initially determined to go very old school and take the boat across to Faydwer, ignoring the inviting smile Tanslocator Setikan there at the end of the dock and the easy answer his presence implied.
I could send you to Faydwer in the blink of a loading screen…
Hours later… or, more likely, about two minutes into the wait… my impatience got the better of me and I spoke to the translocator and had him send me across the water. The boat was always a bit of a mixed blessing, both a happy nod to the realities of travel as well as being the indifferent sea bus that would leave without you, stranding you on the dock if you were lucky or leaving you alone and afloat in the middle of open water if you took too long to load.
I have spent some time treading water in the Sea of Tears waiting for the boat to come back in the past, hoping I could somehow climb back aboard.
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…
There is a whole tale around that from 2011 and the Fippy Darkpaw server if you’re interested in how I ended up getting out of that mess. If you’re not, it eventually ended only with the intervention of GM Maaku. I have been a fan of translocation ever since.
My one concession to exploration was to not translocate directly, but to stop in the Sea of Tears on the way, though even that used to have the potential to turn into a fraught venture back in the day if one of the higher level aggro mobs was wandering around the dock area when you popped into the zone.
I was not disturbed on the island and after a quick look around, I continued on to Faydwer and the dock in Butcherblock. That put me two zone lines from the Estate of Unrest. First one must navigate through the myriad paths of Butcherblock.
Butcherblock Mountains
That map is a bit more recent as it shows the boat to Firiona Vie, which only shows up when Kunark arrives, but it gives a good sense of the place.
Among other highlights, the zone includes Kaladim, the home of the dwarves, and the chessboard, one of the more interesting visuals in the early game and one that is in the mix of my random banners for the blog.
Kaladim – Lit at Night
I have a whole post about the zone from my 25th EverQuest anniversary series of posts if you want to dig into the zone a bit. For this venture I only wanted to pop in on Kaladim in order to set a bind point before heading to the south end of the zone and the connection to Dagnor’s Cauldron, the rocky zone that is mostly a lake, which then connects to the Estate of Unrest.
On the path to the cauldron
I let the wisp guide me there, remaining mildly impressed that it still works both as well and as comically bad as it did back in the day. It will guide you to your destination, but it does not seem very concerned about keeping you on a visible path or dragging you over nearly vertical obstructions.
I had to get the wisp out again to get me to the entry, which is carved out of the crags and rocks at the southern end of the lake, making it easy to miss. Or easy for me to miss at least.
The tunnel to Unrest
Once through the tunnel I zoned into the estate and… found the modest crowd I expected. The Estate of Unrest has always been a popular destination for a given level range. The xp is good and the mobs are plentiful and, if you are a pally or a cleric you can use your specials that only work on undead.
I poked around the periphery. I was already into the level range for the zone, so the yard trash was all below me in level, so easily manageable, even in groups. Loving some of those wizard AOE lightning spells.
In writing the phrase “yard trash” I am now trying to recall if this zone spawned the term. It is laid out as a main building with an open yard around it.
The Estate of Unrest
The progression, back in the day, was to work with your group in the yard and hedge maze, taking on the lesser undead. Then maybe you would tackle the gazebo, marked as “2” in the map above. And once your group was good enough, big enough, or high enough in level, you would start in on the manor itself, taking on the first floor before graduating to the upstairs.
Of course, I wasn’t there with a group. Part of the point of EQL is that you don’t need a group for everything, and maybe only an abbreviated group for raids. Also, I didn’t want to compete with other people in the zone. So I spun up my own solo instance, turned off respawns… surprise respawns were part of the charm back in the day, but I was more interested in exploration really… and headed in.
Free to roam I went to clear out stuff on the lawn.
A bit of a picnic on the lawn
I successfully swept up most of the loose mobs wandering about, then cleared the gazebo, before finally venturing inside the manor.
Almost immediately I ran into a rare spawn mob.
The Lesser Blade Fiend
And this is a way in which EQL excels. The team has decided that if you’re going to spin up your own copy of the zone, they are going to give you all the rare spawns.
The Lesser Blade Fiend, true to its name, dropped a nice 1h sword, which I then went back out into the yard to practice with, tracking down the death beetles lurking in the hedge maze to boost up my slashing skill. I put a dagger I had picked up elsewhere in my off hand and got dual wield skilled up as well.
Another nice thing about EQL is that they eased up on the skill increases. There was a time when you could sit for days doing that.
After that I went back inside and carried on.
Facing the dark boned skeleton
I found that, with some care, I could take on pretty much anything on the first floor, at least once I leveled up to 17. Upstairs was still a challenge, but the punishment for trying and failing is low. Loss of xp is not a thing. You don’t even get sent back to your bind point. Instead you get dropped at a safe spot near the zone line where you can heal up, apply buffs, and carry on as before.
I spent a bit more time there. It was a nice way to explore an old location. EQL is an excellent way to revisit the past and dig into some old locations.
But it is also a reminder that I did this sort of thing, even back in 2011,with friends. Without friends… and being solo in your own version of the zone… is not as engaging. You get to see things, but the grind… even with the reduction in xp needed to level, the increased power of characters, and the extremely light penalty for death… is still pretty grindy without somebody to share it with.
Surprise! EverQuest remains a game best played with other people almost 28 years later!
Who could have possibly guessed?