I knew from the very beginning what area I would choose. Qeynos was my most well-known city by far, so I wouldn't get nearly as lost in the beginning. But I was still cowardly, and didn't know how much fun I could have being stuck in only two zones. So I picked six: North and South Qeynos, Qeynos Aqueducts, Qeynos Hills, Surefall Glade, and Blackburrow. This was more because this collection felt natural, than any other reason, though having Surefall Glade didn't add much in the end.
Onto the character. The first version of Qeynalia was a Paladin, which I feel was the optimal choice in this circumstance for a variety of reasons. Since the previous time left a sour taste in my mouth, I picked a different class this run for this run.
Since casters are not as limited by equipment, as well as having access to nearly their full arsenal through guild-shops, I wasn't particularly interested. Clerics and Druids had more equipment available to get, but still felt too... "easy". Ranger would have saved more time hunting down the wandering mobs across Qeynos Hills, Shadowknight couldn't get anything special other than their harm-touch, and Rogue couldn't get poisons, so they only sneak around (not so useful when you tend to outlevel everyone that hates you).
That only left Warrior. The most dependent on what equipment they have, and the worst soloing experience possible. I wonder if my past self was trying to sabotage me.
The rest of character creation only had a few other noteworthy points. I picked Agnostic so I could be friends with as many people from the get-go, picked Human to have a reason for light sources, and dumped the majority of my points into Strength. Stamina wasn't nearly as useful for this run, as the scaling for it doesn't kick in until a far higher level than I could reasonably reach. On the other hand, I'd be carting about a lot of things back and forth, and my damage would be relatively miniscule for what I should have at the end of the challenge.
With that, my challenge began.
I'm not going to do a direct timeline for how my challenge went, as my memory is spotty with specifics, and I was bouncing between tasks constantly. Instead, let's go over each of the tasks in sequence.
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