Guard Eba has many quests to give the newly arrived adventurer. Next to him is Guard Na Cho who also has many quests available. The first quests had to deal with eliminating Ulvari Devourers which are nothing more than gremlins, and thin out an infestation of what turned out to be flying eyeballs. These creatures were just steps away from where you get the quests, so they were easy to complete.

The Ulvari Corruption: Ulvari Devourers quest resulted in me receiving 1 silver, 60 copper, and 3983 experience points.  The Eye of the Ulvari gave 1 silver, 50 copper, and 3618 experience.  The Eyes of Ulvari surround a colorful rock formation and are very easy to pull solo.  The same goes for the gremlins.  I also completed the Ulvari Pearls quest that had me find a pearl that the gremlins drop.  It gave me 75 copper and 1921 experience and this quest is repeatable.

The next set of quests had to do with the Loamsworm Brotherhood.  There is a stronghold of these brigands located just past the Ulvari area.  They built their fortress inside some mountain walls.

There are several different kinds of these brigands and I had to go kill several of each as well as bring back some gems that they drop.  It’s actually a neat area with fast spawns that can keep the solo player busy.  A group could burn through it in minutes.  I completed the quests Loamsworn Necklaces, Prophetic Action, The Rest of the Bunch, and Alluvian Gems.  They all gave around a silver each along with 3618 experience points each.

I dinged level 17 and logged out for the night.

I found Bautali inside the Hold and he had a bunch of quests to give.  Standing next to him is Hai Tang who also has many quests to hand out.  I picked a few from Bautali and got started on them.  I had to go kill a bunch of tigers, ostra’s, varana’s, and others.  The varana and ostra were easy to find, but just like back in the starting areas, the tigers were extremely rare.  I got so tired of running around looking for the tigers that I put that one on hold and worked on some other quests.

Located on the beach which is down the hill from Lotus Hold is a bunch of burned out houses that the orcs have taken over.  The quest Orc Assault: Martok Deadbringer wanted me to go kill a few of the Deadbringers, so down to the beach I went.  The beach is crawling with orcs, so it was easy to quickly find what I needed.  The quest netted me 1 silver, 40 copper, and 3220 experience points.

Back at Lotus Hold, I discovered that the stress and fear of constant orc attacks have caused some of the villagers to go crazy.  Some guy named Mung decided to take a group of them away from Lotus Hold to find some other place to live.  It seems that the crazed villagers took Tao’s Idol of Focus with them when they left and they didn’t ask permission to do so.  I was tasked with getting the idol back.

The crazed villagers are found up on a high hill that is a ways south of the Nakai Dojo.  They stand close to each other, so I had to use Nature’s Calm in order to pull a single.  The very first one I pulled had the idol.  Nice luck.  Returning the idol to Tao resulted in me receiving 1 silver, 40 copper, and 3220 experience points.

I then started a quest that tasked me with retrieving some treasure boxes that the orcs had stolen from Lotus Hold.  These boxes are located around the burned out houses down on the beach.  I had to clear the way of orcs in order to get to some of them, but I also found that I could sneak in behind the houses and get to some of the treasure boxes with minimal combat.  There is a wooden wall behind the houses that has gaps in it and I found a couple gaps that I could squeeze through.

I ran back to Lotus Hold and turned in the treasure box quest and the kill animals quests.  They all gave about a silver each and 3220 experience points each.  I dinged level 16 while doing these quests and here is a list of spells that my Druid received:

- Barbwood Talisman III: AC 60, HP 120, 17 damage shield

- Wild Growth I: 935 to 986 damage over 24 seconds

- Solar Flare II: 297 to 319 fire damage & 107 to 118 over 4 seconds

- Restore II: 503 point heal

- Summon Earth Elemental II: Summons a pet for 3 minutes

- Quelling Wind I:  Lowers hate by 3%

]]> http://www.mmonotebook.com/2008/04/12/vanguard-lotus-hold/feed/ 0 http://www.mmonotebook.com/2008/01/05/vanguard-no-food-served-on-flying-reindeer/ http://www.mmonotebook.com/2008/01/05/vanguard-no-food-served-on-flying-reindeer/#comments Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:31:23 +0000 Wolfen http://www.mmonotebook.com/2008/01/05/vanguard-no-food-served-on-flying-reindeer/ A large portion of my second night playing Vanguard involved riding a flying reindeer. As part of the holiday festivities, players were given access to Randolph, the red-nosed reindeer. I tracked him down in the city of Tanvu and tested him out. I flew him around for a bit just for the fun of it, but the real reason I got him was because of the Riftways.

Riftways are portals to other areas of the game world. Vanguard’s massive size makes travel long and tedious, so they put in the riftways to help. In order to travel from one riftway to another, you must first unlock them by visiting each one. Normally, that would be a pain, since you would have to travel on foot to each one. Ol’ Randolph helps out by flying over the land and well away from any danger. Even so, it still took a very long time to get from one riftway to another. I can’t say it enough – Vanguard’s landmass is huge. Each riftway is marked on your map, so you don’t have to search for them. I grew weary of riding Randolph after about an hour and a half, so I flew back to Tanvu and let him go. Once in Tanvu, I checked my quest log and got back to work becoming a hero.

I had a few interesting quests. One led me to a house that I needed to search for a missing villager. I looked over both floors of the house but didn’t find any clue. Back upstairs I noticed some poles leaning against a wall. The poles led up to a window. I slowly scaled the poles and emerged onto the roof where I was quickly attacked by two foes. Taken by surprise, it was a touch and go fight for a few seconds, but I was victorious. I soon found the body I was looking for and completed the quest.

Another quest involved a task given to me by a Jin master. He wanted me to find four Essence of Jin and absorb them. This took me around the surrounding area, slaying creatures as I went. The Essence’s were floating “glowies” that were dispersed across the countryside. Most of them never moved, but one of them roamed the beaches and I had to track it down.

One quest that I really liked, even though it was rather easy, wanted to test how well I was following the path of Jin. To test my agility I had to find a mushroom located atop a high boulder. Once I found the boulder, I noticed that it was actually several boulders spaced slightly apart. I had to nimbly jump from one boulder to the next until I reached the mushroom. I tried eating the mushroom, but to no avail.

Other quests involved trading a man crab for fish, saving a Lao’Jin house from Ra’Jin attack, slaying X number of komodo dragons, and slaying X number of boars. On a side note, where is it written that every MMO must have their own version of boar that we must kill? It gave me Lord of the Rings Online flashbacks.

All the quests kept me busy throughout my first couple nights of play. Quest experience is big, so it is well worth doing them, even though the Jin theme begins to wear thin after awhile.

–Wolfen