The Community Play Diary continues with a new installment titled "Three's Company"!
The Community Play Diary continues with a new installment titled "Three's Company"! Catch up on previous Community Play Diary installments by visiting the archive thread on the TERA-Online forums.
Pixie Payola
Scapes: It's not long before Maon puts us to work. If we're to broker a peace between Lumbertown and the pixies, we'll need to speak with their leader, Lillix. However, there are a few tasks to be done before that meeting, including making use of the graceblooms we gave Maon upon arriving.
The popori harvests the golden sap from the flowers and returns it to us, telling us to find a woman named Katewell who lives in southern Fey Forest. She can extract an essence from the sap, which we can then use to curry favor with the pixie leader-a gift for a new friend as Maon puts it. Before we follow the path south, Maon instructs us to speak with his son, Phonon.
The Pixies
Scapes: Adorably precocious, Phonon is a tiny popori child who asks that we dispatch a few faeries to recover some baubles they stole from him. We're all too happy to drop a couple of the winged menaces littering the forest: you can't walk a yard without a squadron of them coming after you.
The pixies' biggest strength is in their numbers; they're fond of swarming a target, reminiscent of the terrons. The cone pattern of Amareth's Metamorphic Blast counters this tactic nicely, punching holes in the wall of winged fey critters. I really couldn't tell you what the item we were supposed to recover was, too pleased at the prospect of thinning the pixie population, but we return them to Phonon who rewards us with a new task.
Like a Greased Pig, Only Greasier
BrotherMagneto: Phonon wants us to help round up some escaped piglings and bring them back into the stable. This is the first real "escort quest" in TERA and it's also one of the most confusing...if you don't read quest descriptions.
Disclaimer: The first couple of times I played through TERA, I didn't read quest descriptions very closely. When I finally figured out how to do this quest I came back to complete it...at Level 18.
Lesson learned. I always read quest descriptions closely now.
You have to first target the pigling and use an item on it (a tranquilizer dart) and then wait for it to run back to the nearby enclosure. There are fairies and sabertooths swarming around and if they detect your pig, they will most definitely attack. It's not hard to fight them off, but it's good practice for later.
TERA Trivia: At one point this quest was renamed "Ham on the Lam," which was also the name of the first pigling quest back on the Island of Dawn. Now neither quest is named "Ham on the Lam." Me, I'd go with "Bacon for the Takin'," but that's probably why I'm a Community guy and not a writer guy.
Loggers for Lunch
MisterDomino: After our all-too-brief respite at Maon's cabin, Amareth introduces me to a large Amani fellow named Anung-O-Rama, or something like that... Heh, I'll be extra sure I get his name right when I finally use it, because I'd hate to be on the wrong end of that axe.
So, after our introductions, Centurion Reindal tells us of a grave threat to the region: sabertooths. This is more like it. After collecting flowers and fighting swine, I'm itching to hunt a predator, especially one that is harming innocent farmers. With our laundry list of objectives in hand and the morning sun nearly gone, we set off to right the wrongs plaguing Maon's cabin.
I'd like to say that the big cats are easy to find, but that wouldn't be the entire truth. In actuality, they find us. It doesn't matter; between staff, axe and sword, we make quick work of the pride of sabertoothed felines ravaging the region.
Slaying the sabertooths is the last task on our list and upon completing the objective we return to Maon's cabin to share the news.
More Pig Jokes than a Pig in a Poke
BrotherMagneto: While we're cleaning house around the farm swarms of wild pigs will occasionally agro and attack. They're less of a nuisance than other creatures, but they're stubborn as all get-out and will relentlessly chase you and attack, even when you're by the campfire. In other words, they did a really good job with the pig AI simulating real pig behavior. Turns out I know a lot more about pigs than I have any right to know...
Endless Supply of Sabertooths
MisterDomino: Centurion Reindal is very pleased with how we dispatched the rogue pride of sabertooths. He even extends a lucrative offer from the federation to continue thinning the feline population within the region, in exchange for Valkyon Support Rewards that we can all use to exchange for better equipment.
Unfortunately, we have to turn down Reindal's offer as Maon urgently needs us to locate a woman that goes by Katewell at the camp in the Southern end of the forest. It's an especially difficult decision for me to make, because the fame and fortune those Valkyon medals would net me... Oh man. Must. Stay. Focused.
Onward!
MisterDomino: Centurion Reindal is slightly disappointed in our rejection to the federation's offer, but he at least has the wisdom to see that we have the federation's best interests at heart. Before we depart from the cabin, Reindal has one more favor to ask of us. Apparently there is a Valkyon agent by the name of Balter in need of aid, and he just so happens to be in the same part of the forest as the previously-mentioned Katewell. How convenient!
My large friend, Anung-O-Bama, (I think I got it right that time...) quickly steps forward to assure Reindal that we will find and aid his man. So honorable! I just hope there's enough glory (and gold!) to go around.
Refugees Refuge
BrotherMagneto: The end of the day's adventures take us to the abandoned refugee tents in the southern part of the Fey Forest. They neither look abandoned nor like tents: there are some semi-permanent structures and a few federation people manning them. We track down Balter and get our orders to help solve why the Fey Forest is tainted to the point where the lumbering operation has ground to a near-halt. Never mind the refugees displaced by the fighting-it always comes down to profits when you're dealing with a political entity.
Less cynical is Katewell, another federation officer who needs several pints of centaur blood for some experiments. Sounds a little dodgy to me, but hey, it's daylight and she doesn't look like she's going to go Team Edward on us...so why not. Nothing like sucking blood from dead centaurs for the chance to pick up some better gear!
Next Week
Killing sentient creatures for fun and profit!
