The Story of Qeynalia, Qeynos-locked Warrior

[Gawdayumeet]

Erud's Crossing looks so tranquil today.

A handful of years back, my brain managed to fuse together the idea of playing a map-locked character in early Everquest. So I threw together a handful of constraints and set out to see if I could "beat" all the content in the Qeynos area while staying within its borders.

Sadly, after a handful of weeks, the wombo-combo of real-life and my frustrations got in the way. I ended up cheating, which eventually lead to me giving up at what I have since learned was the halfway mark, and put away the project in the bin with the other silly ideas I've had over the years.

But, several weeks ago, a handful of coincidences lined up to remind me of this project, including realizing that I never deleted the game from my computer. I booted it back up, made a new character, and decided that this time, I would see the end of whatever road the rules revealed.

And today, just a few hours ago, I finally completed all the goals I cared about. I'm finally free.

All that is left is to tell you all about the horrible, no-good, awful adventures of Qeynalia, the Qeynos-locked Warrior.



The rules were fairly simple:
1. I cannot leave the chosen area.
2. I cannot use any item that cannot be obtained naturally inside the chosen area.

The goals, on the other hand, were much more nebulous. I changed them constantly until I managed to settle on something reasonable near the end:
1. Get to the highest level possible.
2. Obtain the best-in-slot equipment, spells, food, drink, and containers for my class inside the area.
3. Complete every quest possible in the area.
4. Defeat all the mobs in the area that seem to be bosses or elite encounters.
5. Remain friendly with as many people in the area as possible.

Also, feel free to mentally amend "within sane reason" to each of those goals. If I hadn't done so, this would have taken two to three times as long for a tenth the payoff. I hope you all can forgive me valuing my time on this planet at least somewhat.

[Gawdayumeet]

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.

[Gawdayumeet]

LEVELLING

The first dozen-or-so would be standard even for an unlocked character. Bashing skeletons until high enough to bash gnolls. The difference was that, while other characters would move on around the teens to more lucrative environs, I didn't have anywhere else. From gnolls to gnoll guardsmen to gnoll elite guards to gnoll commanders alongside multiple stacks of gnoll fangs, I got to level twenty, which was were Qeynalia the Paladin stopped. Much more would require constant reputation upkeep with the thieves and bad guards, due to how many turn-ins I'd have to do per level.

But this time, I was more prudent with studying. There was one other place to grind higher: Sharks.

In the Qeynos Aqueduct, there are a pair of sharks inside the pool one falls into from the thieves' guild above. The wiki states they are 13-17. They were always level 17. Between two spawns every six minutes, and the plethora of dolls to give to a grieving mother, I managed to get to 28 before the tap ran dry. And at 28 was where I ended the challenge.

There clearly exists further sources of experience, but all of them would kick in the "within sane reason" clause:
1. Doing repeated turn-ins. Aside from a handful, none of them give remotely enough experience to be worth the time invested. Not only that, but the sheer amount of reputation change would require me to spend half the time doing OTHER quests just to remain neutral.
2. Killing guards in Qeynos Hill. The only one I ever managed to kill was Guard Kellot, who was just weak enough for me to barely survive on average. Even if I did manage to get a pattern down and stomach the long rests between each kill, I would still have to kill 30 gnolls for every time I killed him.
3. Killing the Erudite traveler. They drop nothing of value to me, and each kill hits Deepwater Knights, which I'm pretty sure includes a handful of NPCs in South Qeynos. Even if I decided to not care about that, the traveler is a pet-caster. I wouldn't be able to run if things got bad, and I'd need to be able to kill him enough times to offset the deaths. Not happening.
4. Killing Mammoth. One spawn per day, craters Surefall Glade rep. No chance.
5. Killing Lord Elgnub. Rare Timed Spawn. I only ever saw him twice, and that was with hours of waiting between each instance. Only advantage would be the free 2 plat and the fact that all the Blackburrow Gnolls check for Qeynalia underneath their beds before sleep already.
6. Killing Donally Stultz. While he is part of a quest, I had enough trouble killing him just once. I don't think the guards would let me bail if I started losing.

Anything other than this list is no-bueno for the same sort of reasons as the rest, on top of probably being even higher level. The only way I could reasonably get higher level would be by grouping up, and at this point, that would be entirely on the charity of other players. No sane person is going to grant more than a couple hours of severely suboptimal grinding spots, like Guards-But-A-Hundred-Gnolls-Between-Each-Pull, and Spectres-But-I'm-Ten-Levels-Under.

As I write this, I did think of the idea of a group of similarly-locked characters partying together, but that sounds like even more of a nightmare than what I've already been through.

[Gawdayumeet]

EQUIPMENT

Let's go left-to-right, top-to-bottom. These are what I had on when the challenge ended:

Ear: Onyx Earrings from gnoll commanders. +2 agility is rather nice, especially when I'm carrying multiple backpacks of shoulderpads and collars. Honorary mention goes to the Golden Ear Studs courtesy of Cubert and Zamel, which probably saved me an hour or two of grinding tradeskills (which is still less than the amount of time I spent obtaining them)

Neck: Spiked Collar from elite gnoll guardsmen. +3 is very nice, though I wasn't sure if a banded collar would have been better due to higher AC. The Investigator's Badge, while nice, is too spread-out to be more than a trophy. Honorary mentions to the Golden Locket (my first magic light source) and the Order of Thunder (which saved me several plat).

Face: Steel Mask from a platemail shopkeep. One of only two steel plate items I got before the end. I was rocking a Banded Mask for the majority of the play, however.

Head: Banded Helm, self-made. God, I hate the stupid little spear-point on the top. I should've saved money for the steel plate helm instead.

Finger: Ring of Pine from Merona Castekin and Limestone Ring from an undead knight. There were many other choices as well. The Rat-Shaped Ring, the Brass Ring, the Band of Rodcet Nife, and so on. Sadly, only these two had an actual combat advantage for me.

Wrist: Banded Bracers, self-made. For half the playthrough, I used a Steel Warrior Bracer instead. Not for the +1 Agi, but simply because it made light and the Spiked Collar was nicer than the Golden Locket.

Arms: Banded Sleeves, self-made. Not many options here.

Hands: Banded Gauntlets, self-made. Before then, I used Brown Leather Gloves, but I'm pretty sure the +2 Dex didn't give me much at all.

Shoulders: Rusty Spiked Shoulderpads from gnoll commanders. The +5 strength is there to distracted you from the fact that they let the gnoll shamans flash you far more often. Still optimal, though.

Chest: Banded Mail, self-made. Also few options here as well.

Back: Banded Cloak, self-made. If it wasn't already a requirement, I might've been upset at wasting a HQ Bear Skin on the Bear-hide Cape and then immediately making this.

Waist: Banded Belt, self-made. I'm running out of options of saying that there weren't many options.

Legs: Banded Leggings, self-made. I can't wait to get to the Blacksmithing section so you guys know how awful this was to make.

Feet: Steel Plate Boots, bought from a shoe shopkeeper. The other steel plate item. I think I might be one of only five people who have ever bought this item.

Prime: Two Handed Sword. If you're disappointed about this result, know that I'm ten times as disappointed. I thought for sure that my earlier combo of Gnoll Slayer and Forged Long Sword was the best, but the calculator says otherwise. I didn't even have enough time to train 2H Slashing before the end.

Secondary: None. With the Gnoll Slayer, I used a Forged Long Sword, alongside a Qeynos Kite Shield at the end to practice bashing, which I never ended up using.

Range: Rough Elm Recurve Bow, from Gillarian Naelev. This should have been much better, but I spent all my money on platemail. Which is, tragically, a better purchase.

Ammo: CLASS 1 Bone Point Arrow, self made. Please do not ask me how I managed to damage a willowisp with this. I have no clue.

Containers: 1 Handmade Backpack (self made), 1 Small Box, 1 Backpack, 1 Tailored Quiver (from Hager Sureshot), 1 Fletching Kit. I spent quite awhile training tailoring and killing bears, but only managed to get one handmade backpack. Better than nothing I suppose.

Lightsource: Greater Lightstone. I am so very proud of how I managed to get this. I'll tell you about it in a bit.

Food: Shark/Fish Rolls, self-made. I killed so many sharks that the limiting factor is bat wings. Still not remotely high enough baking to make it easily.

Drink: Water Flask. Ol' Reliable.

Other: I had a stockpile of Potions of Light Healing. I saved them until the finall boss, but the re-targetting on use is likely what caused my first death against them. Rather useless in combat.

Looking over this, I'm sure you might be thinking of a whole bunch of ways that this isn't actually BIS, but I can guarantee you that I've spent far more time thinking about it. Let's go over the obvious stuff.

Steel Plate Mail: Thousands of platinum down the drain for a handful of extra AC. In time, I would have eventually gotten the rest of the pieces, but at thirty plat per multi-hour BB run, I think that what I have is good enough.
Fine Steel Two Handed Sword: Drops from Dun and Eracon Krengon. They are Level 45, and I have zero pack-splitting ability. No thanks.
Darkwood Bow/CLASS 6 Steel Silver Tip Arrow: I pity whoever decides to play a supreme-one-chunk-equivalent character. 4000 plat on average for the bow, and there isn't a single mob in this entire region worth spending 20 plat on a single arrow. Not only that, but I wouldn't be able to use it more than once or twice a fight, since it can't be used in melee.
Tower Shield: I could just buy one, since it costs barely anything. Or smith it myself if I was being silly. But shields aren't useful here, since there's few spellcasters and the AC doesn't make up for the loss of DPS.
More Handmade Backpacks: This is the single most practical upgrade I could have gotten, but I don't need to carry much stuff around at the moment. Had I continued into a new game plus? Yeah, probably should.
Other potions: None of the other potions/magic gizmos sold in shops are useful, even if they didn't cost dozens of plat each. The Vial of Swirling Smoke is hilariously expensive, though.
Gnoll Hide Lariat: I only just now realized as I'm writing that this is actually a magic weapon, which means that my willowisp strat was entirely pointless. I'm screaming into my pillow. Still not worth using outside of tanking.

There are also a handful of near-misses regarding equipment that are noteworthy:

Fine Plate Armor: If there was a single spiderling in this whole area, this would have been BIS, as well as a nightmare. There are none, however. The sewer spiderling was merely an illusion.
Forged Two Handed Sword/Spear: There aren't the right molds here, or any Oak Shafts.
Enchanted Silver Jewelry: The Giant Fire Beetle Eye was justly nerfed. Could you imagine having to grind Jewelcrafting as every single class? Thankfully, we dodged it by playing at the end of updates.
Antonian Javelin: There is not a single MQ Sheet Metal in sight. It would have been BIS for Ranged in Qeynos City Only, though.
Antonian Long Sword: This one makes me sad. No Folded Sheet Metal here.

There might be, somehow, some other thing or two I missed, but I doubt that they would be even remotely significant. For meaningful improvement, this is about as good as I can get with these rules.

[Gawdayumeet]

I just noticed I forgot to write about Tailoring in the skills section, despite it being mentioned in another skill. My brain seems to be leaking out my ears from writing.

Tailoring: I killed so many spiders. Patchwork clothes into Silk clothes into Cured clothes, and I can guarantee that I would have needed another ten stacks of spider silk at least before maxing out. Even then, I would still be 6 points away from being guaranteed another handmade backpack. Just thinking about it makes me feel tired in my bones.

[Gawdayumeet]

SKILLS

Aside from the combat-focused ones, most of the skills were frivolous. I ended up spending the last few levels of training in Gnoll, solely because there wasn't anything left to spend them on.

Baking: I had to train this for the Shark Rolls, which would have been Fish Rolls if I hadn't studied beforehand. However, I did end up using this to get the Severed Paw, even if it was only a trophy. As for training, there are a bunch of wolves and bears about, and the baking shop sells bread. After that, it was many, many bats killed to use up the ten-or-so stacks of shark meat I wound up with. Other than those, there's not much I could make, since they either require blacksmithing items I don't have, or supplies the stores don't sell.

Blacksmithing: For raw materials, all I have access to is Sheet Metal and Blocks of MQ Ore, the latter of which is useless for me. This meant lots of forged weapons, and then lots of banded bracers until I was high enough skill to go for the rest of the armor. I am grateful that autorun exists, since I could watch videos in between each run from Qeynos into the Hills and back to Qeynos. Drinking lots of alcohol also helped for the level-ups.

Brewing: The only reason I trained this at all was to get the Heady Kiolas for training Tailoring. This would be a semi-nightmare grind for someone who has to get max-trivial in all tradeskills, though, since Minotaur Hero's Brew exists.

Fishing: This was the backup plan if killing sharks didn't pan out. I did fish up a bunch of Pine Cichlids as trophies, though. Not much use otherwise in this circumstance, though I know of at least one other region that would have this be a life-saver,

Fletching: The only other tradeskill than blacksmithing that actually increased my combat abilities. The vast majority of arrows were spent pulling mobs that I couldn't be bothered approaching. But, if a fletching kit didn't exist, my best option would be forged throwing weapons, so I'm grateful for it existing.

Jewelry Making: I would sooner try to solo Varsoon at level 28. Completely pointless.

Pottery: Does not exist here.

Swimming: By far the most useful non-combat skill. I spent hours swimming through the sewers, so finally moving at running speed is so very nice.

[Gawdayumeet]

QUESTS

If there was a single goal that I didn't want to bend, it was this one. Dozens of quests across the region, with wildly differing challenges and rewards, and I did every single quest I possibly could, aside from one (or two?). Every other one required stepping outside the region.

I won't bother listing every single one, but here are some highlights:

Den Magason, Lomarc, and Gnasher Furgutt were really nice for keeping my Circle of Unseen Hands rep high without much mental effort. I hated trying to chase down Trumpy to shove dozens of bottles of mead down his gullet, so just tossing the relevant package at the trio when I saw them was almost relaxing in comparison.

Most of the "Wait for a mob to show, and then turn in their drop" quests were rather chill, since I could just watch videos until they popped. Even if they did take hours, I only had to be actively playing for a few minutes total. There were only a few exceptions to this, which includes Cubert because they actually respawned far too quick to relax, while both the slime and the quest-giver refused to give me what I wanted.

Putrid Skeletons/Rabid Animals were my bread-and-butter during the Paladin run, but weren't nearly as helpful this time, since I couldn't use the equipment, and the potions turned out to be useless by the time I needed them. At least they paid well.

Hurrieta's Tunic completely saved this run. I had turned in too many Putrid Skeletons, and the Bloodsabers became hostile. I wound up doing this quest hundreds of times to fix it, to the point where I was doing the run down to the sewers and back solely in my peripheral vision. I did also kill enough Koalindls for Rodcet Nife to descend and punch me straight into the afterlife, but that was me being greedy for two sets of prayer beads.

Gnoll Fangs and Moonstones is as good as the hype says. I probably got a level or two solely from fang-exp The only issue was trying to keep the other side's rep from falling too quickly.

I could not determine if the Gnoll Paws quest in Surefall Glade actually existed or not, and the wiki did not help in that regard, so I ignored it. If it does exist, then that's my bad, but I don't think I would have gotten much from it regardless.

The Blackburrow Brewers were rather simple, since I had spent a long time in those caves already. Just adding that spawn to the loop of guardsmen I was already doing was simple. It still took several hours regardless, so not particularly worth it for a cloak I couldn't use.

Finally, the one quest I outright failed to complete: The Jaggedpine Crook. I killed so many gnolls in that specific spawn. I killed so many gnolls that I relearned how to use Blender in between kills. I killed so many gnolls that, after I finished playing with Blender, I started recording all the gnolls I killed in a spreadsheet. That spreadsheet says that I killed 325 gnolls in that spot since I started recorded, and only 3 were gnoll hunters. None of them dropped a staff piece, much less the one I needed. The only reason I stopped before reaching 400 recorded (when I would have been actually dry, according to the stats), was because the_fabled_bard on Reddit rightly asked me to. Even if I managed to complete it, I would have only gotten a stick that my character is too dumb to use. Screw this quest. I hope this quest drowns in the lake.

[bcbrown]

Originally Posted by Gawdayumeet [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Finally, the one quest I outright failed to complete: The Jaggedpine Crook. I killed so many gnolls in that specific spawn. I killed so many gnolls that I relearned how to use Blender in between kills. I killed so many gnolls that, after I finished playing with Blender, I started recording all the gnolls I killed in a spreadsheet. That spreadsheet says that I killed 325 gnolls in that spot since I started recorded, and only 3 were gnoll hunters. None of them dropped a staff piece, much less the one I needed. The only reason I stopped before reaching 400 recorded (when I would have been actually dry, according to the stats), was because the_fabled_bard on Reddit rightly asked me to. Even if I managed to complete it, I would have only gotten a stick that my character is too dumb to use. Screw this quest. I hope this quest drowns in the lake.

This winter I rolled a mostly-SSF ranger out of Qeynos. I randomly came across a gnoll hunter at the spawnpoint once, one of the two pieces dropped, and after that made a point to always kill the ph and keep an eye out on track for another gnoll hunter. Never saw a second one. I wish it was far less rare so as to be actually achievable.

Thanks for the writeup, it was fun to read!

[Gawdayumeet]

Mobs

I killed a lot of things during this challenge. Here are a handful of them:

Decaying/Putrid/Skeletons: Excellent early sources of cash and equipment. Bonus points for having zero faction hits. Not even Bertoxxulous likes them.

Gnolls (in general): The only reasonable source of experience in this whole area, and the higher-levels drop nice things to sell. I was sad when I outlevelled them.

Sharks: By the time I got to them, I was high enough level to only need to fight one at a time. Very likely the best source of money in this limited area, due to dropping dolls, shark skins, and research materials. Don't ask me how many times I drowned because I wasn't paying attention.

Willowisps: Because my eyes glazed over the Gnoll Hide Lariat, I didn't think there were any magic weapons in the region, but I still wanted a Lightstone. I could have gotten magic arrows, but I could only hit them once before they exit range. However, there was a *single* other source of magic damage I could find. The frogloks in the sewers drop netted armor, which is inherently magical, so I killed them until one dropped a pair of gloves. I then proceded to punch willowisps with my 2 dmg punches until one dropped a Greater Lightstone. I felt so damned smart for finding that link that finding out about the Lariat has only slightly damaged my pride.

I knew from the start that there would be three bosses I would need to face before the end. I even knew which three they were before I even made my character:

Mammoth: Lvl 20 Bear Warrior, required for the Bonethunder Staff/Bayle List. The easiest of the three, but only due to level. I managed to kill him on my first attempt, but had I needed to run, I would have had to dodge multiple mid-level rangers to the exist. His death is completely deserved for eating that druid's kid, so I don't feel that bad about the rest of the bears never being able to be my friend.

Lord Elgnub: Lvl 21-23 Gnoll Shadowknight, required for Gnoll Slayer. He was the original ending for the Paladin edition, and mostly deserved. The 231 damage harm touch meant that I had to fight him with 70% health regardless of anything else. The first time I fought him was the first time I killed him, with only ten hp left. I then proceeded to use the Gnoll Slayer for the rest of the time until the very final fight because I was so proud.

Donally Stultz: Lvl 25 Human Warrior, required for the Investigator's Badge. It seems extremely fitting that the final boss would happen inside Qeynos. You might be thinking that a Lvl 25 anything wouldn't be so terrifying to a Lvl 28, but the investigator didn't follow me and I was having trouble with a Lvl 20 guard. At the end of the first fight, he had 15% health remaining, but I didn't have many options remaining, since I was effectively max level. At this point, I discovered that the Two Handed Sword had better DPS, but my weaponskill was far too low. I was getting ready to have to pull Qeynos Hills guards to the zoneline so I could train it up enough to have a chance, but then a miracle happened. While I went AFK to grab a drink, it seems that a wandering player named Threaye buffed me. Not wanting to waste this chance, I immediately ran back to the docks and proceeded to pound the rude fellow into the dirt. With his head, the final quest was completed, and so was this challenge.

There is, of course, one more obvious boss in the area: Varsoon. Had I decided to continue playing until level 40 or so, I might've been willing to fight a Lvl 25 human necromancer with a pet and then a Lvl 30 zombie immediately afterwards for the exact same choker that the shark-doll quest gives, but he is not a quest mob, so I will leave his death to the aftermath of the War of Plagues.

[Gawdayumeet]

FACTIONS

Had I been happy to get attacked every time I sat down in my home city, I probably could have finished this challenge much sooner. But I walked the tightrope and now there are only a handful of folks who hate Qeynalia:

Sabertooths of Blackburrow: There was no getting around this. Qeynalia is a human, and there were several things needed from Blackburrow. Even if I decided to be insane and kill guards until neutrality, there are no gnollish quests or shopkeeps here. So, I decided that this was fine.

QRG Protected Animals: This one is more sadly unavoidable. Because I couldn't get the Regurgitonic, Mammoth needed to perish, and fixing that damage would have taken hundreds of round trips between Qeynos and Surefall Glade. But Qeynalia is high enough level not to be bothered by any of them aside from Mammoth, so no need to worry.

Frogloks of Guk: This one is the most regrettable. Had I known about the Lariat, then there would have been no need to fight the frogloks, but now they are the only creatures within the walls of Qeynos aside from a rare spawn of skeleton that would attack Qeynalia. What a shame.