Dresden, Khallid and I were getting pretty bored with the PC games we were playing in 2000. We were looking for something far more substantial and over lunch one day we kicked around the idea of giving EverQuest another shot. This time would be different and better (that is what we said anyway). We planned and plotted. Khallid would be a warrior and our main tank. I would play a cleric so we would always have access to heals and resurrection. Dresden would play an enchanter for crowd control and our other friend would be a monk for damage without a gear requirement. Our plan was solid and we agreed to only play together and in person. Voice chat wasn’t prevalent so we created a LAN at Dresden’s house and went to play there.
We selected the newest EverQuest server, Torvonnilous, and rolled up our characters. Khallid was Khallid once more. I created the first Ferrel ever and Dresden switched to Morsello. This is, in every since of the word, where Ferrel was born. That is the moment that I went from regular PC gamer nerd to raging MMO gamer nerd (and now retired MMO gamer geek). We kept true to our word and at about level 10 journeyed across Norrath to link up and form our little group. We invited no others, kept a good schedule, and went to the areas where most others didn’t. Our success was immediately apparent and we progressed extremely swiftly. We easily defeated encounters that had previously vexed us in full groups. The four of us achieved what others claimed four players could not achieve.
Almost all of our money was funneled into Khallid as we kept him in the best gear we could afford. We farmed Ghoulbane and solid it for thousands of platnium pieces. We hunted mobs that dropped major upgrades for each group member. At one point we out leveled Ferrel’s gear so fast that an angry mob casually destroyed her in a hit. That woke us up to gearing a little more evenly for a bit. Our leveling pace was meteoric for EverQuest. Our group, the Shadowfury family, would chat someone up on a Monday and be levels ahead of them just days later. It wasn’t long before we passed the 50 mark and started looking for a guild.
We settled upon a good middle tier guild called Fist of Iron. I don’t recall how we came to their attention or they to ours but that is where we ended up. It was an unfortunate match for us all. We had some early success raiding the planes and trying to get caught up on Epic weapons in Kunark. Velious was due soon so there was a real effort to be prepared. Though we were not max level we did raid consistently. It also became fairly clear that there were some long standing issues in FoI that had been wearing on the officers. I was approached to be something of a sub-officer/adviser. It wasn’t official but they wanted extra support and I accepted.
The guild came to a grinding halt one evening when we were in the City of Mist working on epic pieces. The raid leader that evening was not the guild leader and had preplanned and agreed upon targets. Mid-raid the guild leader decided he wanted to kill a different mob in the zone which was against the rules. I made a private comment or two about it but Dresden pulled, well… a Dresden. My eloquent and well read friend proceeded to lecture on how dangerous and foolish it was to depart from the rules and the plan. He was polite but scathing. All he said was factual, accurate, and true. Unfortunately it was also the final straw on the camel’s weary back. Without any warning the guild leader promoted the raid leader to guild leader and said he could have it. The raid leader then promoted someone else and it all pretty much went down hill from there.
Two funny things that go along with that explosion. The first thing is that after this all went down Dresden actually went and helped them kill the mob that wasn’t on the schedule! The second thing is that we found out sometime later that even though Fist of Iron had had lots of issues prior to our arrival they still blamed us for the destruction of the guild. It is somewhat of a joke with our group these days that Dresden is a guild killer.
Since we had killed or contributed to the death of our guild it was time to move on and we knew it. Fist of Iron was good but we were playing at a much higher level and be bringing a warrior, cleric and enchanter to the party meant we were wielding a lot of influence. We were ready for the big league so just as Velious released we began to court the biggest kid on the block: Blades of Wrath.
Check out part one of the story: A history of Ferrel
Check out part two of the story: Ferrel, the formative years
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