I was about 82% into the level when I had a dream about a gnome with crazy hair and reflective glasses informing me that she was going to delete her character off of my account if I didn’t find her something else to do soon.

I took some time out to do the Grandmaster quest and picked up a bit of exploration experience to bump her level up a bit. From there, it was only a few more Void Tempests to get her to 18. It was time for a break.

I’d been waiting to be able to start going through the racial book quests, which I love. I started going through all the History Of… books available from the Mage tower. I managed Book 1 and 2 of most of the good side races, although there are a few locations in Thundering Steppes and Nektulous that I can’t reach.

Previous instalments:

1. The Furious Pacifist - Introduction
2. The Isle of Refuge
3. Paxmar Smells a Rat
4. It’s a Wide World
5. Paxmar Goes Abroad

Paxmar’s version:

Well, the last thing I wrote about was these odd storms popping up all over Norrath. Since then it’s become a lot more frightening! The storms seem to be multiplying and it seems that they are trying to attack Norrath!

The Seeress Ealaynya is struggling to fight against them and gave me a magic potion she called Aab’l Hayat to reverse the effects of those poor creatures trapped within the storms. There were horrible creatures escaping from the storms as well, void beasts with evil intent. They disappeared quickly enough but I’ve never seen anything so frightening. But I kept at it until I was ready to fall over with exhaustion.

The mages of the Concordium gave me a new title of Tempest Chaser and showered me with gifts as a thank you, including a rather experimental icon that makes me fizzle and zap almost as if I am a storm myself! But in the end the darkness grew stronger and the storms began to emit more dark beings. The Seeress said that she no longer felt it was safe for me to try to save the creatures trapped in the storm.

The Concordium have decided to do battle against the beasts that are coming through the storms, which they feel are amassing to create an army. I do not know if that is true but I fear for our future.

In these dark times I turn to my books. I have been reading the histories of the races that I found at the mage tower and revisiting some of the locations they write about. This travel is important to me as I can’t help but fear that Norrath may be about to change forever, and not for the better.

I hope the Seeress can learn more about these Void Tempests and help us to understand what they mean and how we can stop them from breaking through.

Someone mentioned that I can get the evil side History Of … books in Kelethin or Gorowyn. I need to go take a look and do them before I get too much higher. Book 1 is already gray.

A big thanks to Rowenash for pointing out that I can get around the broken EQ2players by using Paxmar’s sig file. This is an image of the information, so that it won’t update.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

If you are new to the adventures of Paxmar, you may wish to catch up before reading the latest instalment:

1. The Furious Pacifist - Introduction
2. The Isle of Refuge
3. Paxmar Smells a Rat
4. It’s a Wide World

Once I left Qeynos it was as if I was consumed by a travel bug - I suddenly found it almost impossible to stay still. Although I enjoyed Kelethin and met some wonderful people, I didn’t stay long. I spent some time near the Combine Spires collecting local beetles and grubs for Mervos Stadrin in North Qeynos - I’m sure he’ll be quite excited to see such exotic specimens. Meanwhile, I found out there was an Aviak station on on the coast of Butcherblock which would take me to Timorous Deep. This seemed too good a chance to pass up so I went to the land of the Sarnaks. I made some friends there and saw some astounding sights but the frontier lands turned out to be rather dangerous. I took a wrong step and found myself under attack by the most ferocious looking Aviak who appeared out of nowhere. I ran faster than I ever have in my life. I made it to the front line of soldiers who slaughtered the bird that had the bad luck to follow me.

I was shaking and crying once I realised I was safe, sick from the sight of the bloodshed that I’d just witnessed but also relieved just to be alive. I couldn’t help but feel that the entire incident was my fault for wandering into the battle zone - who could blame the Aviak for defending his territory, it was I who was in the wrong.

I retreated to the outer island and thought about what had happened. Once again, I got myself in trouble by not paying enough attention. There are these silt storms raging around the area and I wasn’t watching my way and somehow I ended up in the heart of the storm! I was pulled up into the funnel and deposited, surprisingly lightly, on the grass of a hill that had been high above me. I was so lucky! I was rather shaken up, as you can imagine, and decided to stay up there for a while, which was serendipitous because I found a beautiful romantic spot with a bench. I wonder who put it here and what their story was.

This beautiful spot helped me to get grounded again. I went back to the Sarnak and offered my help away from the battle zones. I collected moths and helped tranquilize and tag the chokidai and generally explored the area. It was nice but soon I started to think about home again and I decided to break off my travels. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy seeing new places … but I had run out of clean underwear.

I arrived to find out there was a bit of a kerfuffle about mysterious dark storms all over Norrath. I immediately agreed to help investigate them. It’s become clear that the poor creatures that run into these storms are affected in some way and so I am now focused on curing them but I have to admit, it seems an endless task. I hope the Seeress learns more about these storms and the void beasts that they spawn so we can stop the destruction!

I jumped Paxmar up a level by doing the easy Maj’Dul page collections before the experience on them was reduced (this has since happened). Having left Qeynos, it made sense to keep wandering around.

The list of over a thousand exploration experience locations has been a huge help and made a real difference to me. I was a bit surprised to find newbie areas that I’d never been to before, including Lover’s Look in Gorowyn. You don’t have to ride a silt storm to get there but it definitely adds to the experience.

She’s had her share of deaths, her armor is all broken and I’m not sure whether to repair it or not. I should really, if only to increase her ability to sprint. Well, that and because the message on the bottom of my screen is annoying me.

She’s made a huge amount of money selling harvests and collection pieces - I usually bank things like that but, as she’s not getting anything from my alts, I don’t see why she should donate items to the shared bank. So she’s been putting everything left over onto the broker and making gold hand over fist. I must remember this next time I’m saving up for a horse.

She actually went to Commonlands as well but died repeatedly trying to pick up the quests at the Crossroads until I finally gave up and gated home. She managed to get level 17 from the exploration experience though and now she’s repeating the void storm quests until she gets level 18.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

My biggest problem is dealing with other people in-game without coming across like an idiot. Blind group invites have always annoyed me but now, suddenly, they are a relief. I can just decline and carry on my way. When someone sends me a tell asking me if I’d like to group, well, that’s more complicated. Do I lie? That doesn’t seem very pacifist, really. Do I preach? Ugh. Do I say “I won’t be involved with the shedding of blood” and hope that the person has a sense of humor? I don’t know.

Previous instalments:

• Introduction
• Isle of Refuge
• Paxmar Smells Rat

It seems the people of Qeynos are specifically looking for murderers to do their dirty work for them . I spent all morning trekking around the city, offering to help out with deliveries or cleaning up and the like and I get asked to rip the wings off of faeries, as if that’s somehow non-violent behavior. When I try to explain, they shrug and ignore me. Perhaps I need to dare the wilder lands, where a cultured gnome is a rarity instead of a dime a dozen. I was feeling rather disheartened when I went back to the Deductive Directory in Baubbleshire to see if I could be of any help there.

I was so excited to find out that some of the things I had harvested have sold to other tradeskillers, just as Talwith had told me they might. I had three gold to my name - thrilling news! I had been speaking to the Sage Indis Surion at the Mages Compendium regarding work and he’d said that they’d be glad to have my help but that the mages were not particularly flush with cash: I’d have to buy my own materials. Now I finally had the money to do so!

I rushed to South Qeynos and went through the books needing completion but most of them involved travel to places dark and distant - I think the mages need help from more dedicated adventurers than I. I was about to give up when I noticed that there was a simpler task to travel around Qeynos outlying areas and catalog the creatures for research data. That sounded like much more my type of work … and I could look for interesting items for that poor lonely Mr Stadrin at the same time.

The fact that I only bought a few books meant that I still had money left over from my burgeoning little business selling resources. What to do with my new found fortune?

I decided that before going straight to work,I would take this chance to learn more around the world. I bought a ticket for the boat to Butcherblock with a view to hiking to Kelethin, which everyone has told me is a wonderful city for a weekend break.The Storm Breaker offers a regular service from the Thundering Steppes so I was able to go the same day.

The journey at sea was uneventful but I couldn’t believe how dangerous the roads of Butcherblock were! I was gasping with fright as I sprinted down the road hoping desperately that I wouldn’t miss a turn and get lost in these wild and dangerous parts. I was so relieved to see a dwarf keeping the roads clear he just laughed when I ran at him and congratulated me on making it through. “Aye, I remember my first time, sure gets the heart pumpin’” he told me. I felt aggrieved but he introduced himself as Trapper Coalbear and asked what I was doing so far from home. He really was quite sweet and when I told him it was my first time going to Greater Faydark, he gave me some contacts - including Thekela Gillywump who the trapper said was always looking for help gathering for her kitchen stocks and a fae called Venla Vaara up in Kelethin who, he told me, collects odd items from all around, both local and foreign. I should have brought her some of my feathers from Oakmyst Forest.

I shared a meal of grilled turnips with the trapper (who muttered something about having a second dinner later) and then hitched my backpack back onto my shoulders and made my way into Greater Faydark.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Paxmar wrote:

It was wonderful to arrive back in Baubbleshire after my time away. Neezer Grund greeted me before I’d properly made it off the boat and just about talked my ear off! I promised I’d come back to him and went straight over to the Deductive Directory to see if they had any work. There were plenty of jobs but nothing that I was qualified to do. I was beginning to despair again.

That’s when I made a wonderful new friend, Talwith Darkcloud was his name. He saw that I was at a loss and offered to help me out. I told him I wasn’t afraid of hard work but I didn’t know how to get started. He said they were in serious need of more skilled labor in Baubbleshire and that if I was willing to learn a trade, he’s happily teach me. He gave me some basic tools and a bag to put them in and immediately put me to work making simple things.

What a relief to be back in a sensible place rather than surrounded by talk of subterfuge and Freeport all the time!

Talwith is a great teacher and in no time at all I was getting my own wood and pelts from Forest Ruins and making myself backpacks and boxes so that I could store all the bits and pieces that real tradeskillers have to have on hand. Things were going so well, I thought I could do anything!

I then collected the scrap metal for Neezer Grund, taking care not to get grease on my new bags. He was very grateful and gave me an almost undamaged cog as a souvenir. Then he asked me if I could help collect some Nogginspark Reactors.

I hated going back to him empty-handed but I had to tell him that I just couldn’t do it. He made it sound so simple, just “knock those false-rats senseless and remove the reactors” … but then when I caught one of the rats, I remembered what my father said about clockworks being real. Taking out their batteries felt like I was ripping out their heart. He didn’t seem interested in hearing my explanations - it looks like I’ve lost a mentor. This isn’t going to be so easy after all.

I had heard there was a bit of a party happening near the North Qeynos gates but when I went over there all I found was litter and a hungover dwarf who said I was too late and everyone else had gone home. Some days, I wonder why I get out of bed.

I was pleased to have gained level five at the Isle of Refuge, which was more than I expected. I went to Baubbleshire and was doing various quests, including the Neezer Grund gnome mentor quest. Big mistake.

When he said to “knock those false-rats senseless and remove the reactors” I didn’t really think it through. They weren’t alive and I wasn’t killing them, I was just knocking them out. It wasn’t until I thwacked the second one that I realised I was being silly. I waited a week to check on eq2players but sure enough - two kills to my name. No way was I starting off with that trivial of a mistake. I restarted the character on the spot - she was only level 7.

The second time around went a lot faster. I didn’t waste time looking for quests on the Isle of Refuge and so it was pretty painless to get back to level five. It’s a bit annoying though as I lost the Errolisi day quests and missed the Brell’s day quests. On the other hand, there’s an argument that I should save those for a higher level anyway, as they level up with you.

This time, I’ve focused on getting tradeskills up to 9 and some basic equipment for myself. I am a bit stuck though. Clearly she should do a tradeskill, if only for the run speed from the epic! But I’m not sure which tradeskill to learn. I have three provisioners so she’s not doing that! I’d prefer to avoid tailor too as I have a t8 one already. I pondered the scholar classes but she can’t make spells used to do harm and she can’t make poisons, so that’s a bit rough. Weaponsmith is obviously a non-option. Carpentry seems a no-brainer but it’d be nice if she could make things that would help her along. I’ll have to decide soon as she’s capped.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Paxmar wrote:

I decided that I am going to the Queen’s Colony as my father had told me he wished me to do when I came of age. He died in a bloody battle against the clockwork on Faydwer, trying to repossess what he originally believed was ours by birthright. All I have from him are letters that he wrote to me, care of my mother, while she stayed safe in Baubbleshire. The first letters were all about justice and honor and victory. Later letters speak of blood and lost friends and hardship and dying dreams. In the end, he wrote of doubts and dismay. He stopped speaking of the clockworks as scrap metal with bad electrics and started describing them as real beings, with thoughts and feelings of their own.

When we received the letter from Waynil Garwater saying my father had been “lost”, as if one day they might suddenly find him, it was as if someone turned a light out in my mother’s eyes. She never seemed to care about much after that, not village life nor the household, not even me. She died a few years later - they said it was ‘fluenza that took her out but I still think it was a broken heart.

I got a bit of silver from the Gnomish Orphan’s Fund, along with an apology for the amount but things were tight and there were a lot of orphans. It was enough that I could rent a small room and finish my schooling. I decided very early that I wouldn’t be a part of this constant bloodshed that seems to have inundated our lives. Kill the badgers, slay the goblins, stomp on the spiders, stop the clockworks. It’s not like it’s a question of survival any more. I know I can’t change the world but I can be responsible for following my own moral compass and I think I’ve already seen enough death to last me a lifetime.

However, that isn’t to say that I won’t support my village nor that I’ve turned against Queen Antonia. Which is why I’ll report for duty at the Queen’s Colony and ask them if I can help in my own way, without causing harm to others. I have two good feet and two good hands, I’m quick to learn and I am not afraid of a little hard work. Why, I bet they might even be glad for someone who isn’t looking to be a hero and is happy just to keep things smoothed over.

Wish me luck.

I decided from the start that I was going to have to maximise the number of newbie zones I could get to, so I started Paxmar as a Qeynosian Gnome so that she would get access to the Isle of Refuge. I remembered a few starter quests on the island which I could do without killing things but it turned out that all of them were part of a chain - she was stuck. I did Ebik’s Missing Parts and ran around getting the exploration experience.

That gained me my first few deaths and I realised that I was going to have to be a lot more careful - with limited options for experience, I really couldn’t afford to waste it working off debt. I went ahead and took the boat to Baubbleshire and logged her off for the night at level five.

Paxmar wrote:

I had the best of intentions, really I did. The first thing they asked me to do was to learn the art of combat. I told myself that it would, of course, be important to defend myself but I really wasn’t very comfortable with it.

I swung at my sparring partner, clearly going to miss by a mile, but then he blocked my arm and shoved at me and I swung back instinctively and from there it was frighteningly easy. He stepped back and told me well done. I was shaking.

I ran to the beach in tears. Once I composed myself I went back and said that I was happy to support Qeynos and Antonia but I would not under any circumstances fight or hurt another person. Everyone ignored me. I asked what I could do to help and got shrugs in return. I stumbled away, unwilling to let any of them see me cry again.

As I was walking along, berating myself for being a failure, I met another gnome, Ebik Wobblecog. He was rather self-centered, completely ignoring the state I was in but to be honest, it was a bit of a relief. He was trying to find parts from some doohicky which I offered to help him locate. It gave me a chance to explore the island and in the end, the look on his face when I presented him with the Size 7 Clunker that he thought was lost forever, well, it was worth it.

That was when I made up my mind that there was no reason to stay. I felt bad but surely in Qeynos there would be some way to help that wouldn’t involve hurting other people!

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

She’s also vegetarian but that’s pretty easy to deal with. She does need food and drink for regen when sprinting through aggro areas but she doesn’t have a weapon and she’s not particularly bothered about her armor. It’s oddly liberating not to be even thinking about spell upgrades.

She’s a gnome, because I thought the wild hair and glasses and serious look suited her. She’s a fury, simply so that I could make the pun in the title. Although having someone able to port will be useful, I have to admit.

She’ll be a tradeskiller - I’m not sure which tradeskill yet although obviously she won’t make weapons.

She won’t help other people kill - healing in a group that is killing doesn’t make sense to me, although she would of course heal someone if she saw them hurting and not in the process of hurting someone else. She’s planning on doing a lot of traveling and book quests.

I’ll be posting irregularly about her progress to see how far I can get with a rabid pacifist gnome. I’ll also be doing an in-character version which will be fun … and will give me a chance to explain why she has two kills against her showing on EQ2players. Oops. :/

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.