Ferrel, the formative years

The sting of Ultima Online was still pretty fresh in my mind but I went back and played it again a few times after my initial rage quit. Inevitably I would suffer a similar experience a few times and become more accustomed to dealing with it. I never really improved much as a player though and never joined the ranks of the elite PK hunters. If anything I became moderately successful in surviving long enough to run away. It wasn’t long after I retired yet again that Dresden and I were visiting our local gaming store. We chatted about UO and the clerk perked up. He wanted to explain something to us like UO but even more like D&D. Something brand new.

Dresden and I listened with little belief as the clerk explained to us a first person game with classes and a huge world. He talked about dungeons with monsters and their treasures. He even impressed upon us that nobody could simply kill you unless you allowed it. This clerk sold us on an idea that you could play D&D online and truly be your character. The game was called EverQuest and we immediately ran out to purchase it. We also had to do some PC upgrades just to run it and we were still using AOL as our primary ISP! Cable internet just wasn’t there yet.

Our first adventure into EverQuest featured Dresden playing a dwarf warrior. He was, I believe, the first MMO Dresden. Khallid was there too as Khallid the warrior. I played Telbain the paladin while a buddy of ours played a paladin as well. Durrel was also there as a wizard. So, in short, our original EQ group was a warrior, another warrior, a paladin, a second paladin and a wizard. Basically, the most amazing group you could ever have (read: not remotely close to feasible). That didn’t matter though! We didn’t even really bother to group with each other. We played our own schedules and slowly muddled our way ever upwards. Khallid fell in with a group of guys and joined their guild, “Dragon Lords of Norrath.” We begged to be allowed in and were admitted as well. It seems Khallid didn’t really do us a favor though as DLoN was, without a doubt, the worst guild I have ever been in in my entire life.

The leader of DLoN was a pretty good player but not much of a leader. Everyone had to pay guild dues which largely went to further his own ambitions. Unfortunately his ambitions were often confused and foolish. As a prime example he played an ogre who had no strength issues. So what did he do? He took all our guild money and bought himself steel plate from the store instead of wearing bronze. There is no AC upgrade here. Just a weight bonus and that steel plate was ridiculously expensive! He also made some really awful trades later on such as giving someone a rubicite breastplate for a mithril one (that might be meaningless to must of you but trust me, no sane person would do it).

The best story regarding this person involves Dresden though. Our leader had a common drop off the Avatar of Fear in Cazic Thule. It was a pair of bladed thulian claws. There were probably a million pairs like it out there but he wanted Dresden to earn them. He sent him to Erudin to swim in the water and collect pearls while trying to dodge sharks. This went poorly for Dresden and he is still pretty bitter about it to this day!

Khallid eventually managed to reach max level and join a far better guild. The rest of us just milled around a bit and ultimately fell into a relaxed play style. We logged in when we wanted to but never amounted to anything. Telbain never made it to 50 and was always one step behind each equipment or item nerf. He barely missed Jboots. He narrowly missed his guise of the deceiver. He never got his trunk! Always a week or so behind! He was an unlucky paladin indeed. He did get a Ghoulbane thanks to Khallid and that was one of the most amazing things that ever happened to me in an MMORPG. It was also one of the worst things that happened to Khallid.

One fine day Khallid was in Upper Guk farming the Shin Lord in hopes of getting a Ghoulbane. This particular holy sword was either the one I got, the one he gave to our other friend or for trade. I don’t recall but that doesn’t matter. Khallid had no trouble where he was and had been quite successfully soloing the camp. Dresden logged in and wanted to help him. He headed to Guk and started to make his way down… poorly. Our beloved dwarf warrior pretty much found every angry frog between the zone in and Khallid and started to train in. Just seconds before Dresden’s arrival the Shin Lord spawned, Ghoulbane in hand. Khallid engaged just as a dwarf burst in. He managed to type “I’m here” and probably “help” before dying to the 30+ frogloks behind him. Khallid died soon after. I wasn’t there, but I hear Khallid pretty much just logged for a bit at that time. That is just one of our numerous ridiculous stories from the early EverQuest days.

We all eventually took a break and tried Asheron’s Call. I can’t say much about the game other than the fact that we did not last long there. I don’t know my character’s name nor do I really care to. I just remember having a very heavy dislike for the title and moving on quickly. Khallid and Dresden held out a little longer but eventually gave up. It didn’t matter though because we were about to start on a journey that would change us forever. When 2000 hit nothing was going to be the same again!

Check out part one of the story: A history of Ferrel