Saturday night was finally the end of the hiatus of the instance group. After a long summer absence, which extended into the fall, we were once again together in an online game.
Rift was the game chosen, and things got off to a slow but positive start.
Everybody, for example, had a copy of the game downloaded and patched along with an account.
With the promise of an early mount and an inexpensive price, everybody except Bung opted for the collector’s edition. Bung only had the trial version of the game. But for a first night’s getting acquainted round, that seemed to be more than enough.
We all eventually arrived and started working on characters. That included picking a basic class and thinking up a name. We ended up with the following spread of characters. (I have yet to decide the universal handle by which I should refer to everybody… well, except for Earl… so I will go with what might make the most sense to anybody who has been following along for a while.)
- Earlthecat – Bahmi Warrior (Earl)
- Aboulhoson – Eth Mage (Potshot)
- Hillmar – Bahmi Cleric (Me)
- Ephemara – Kelari Rogue (Ula)
- Jollyreaper – Kelari Mage (Bung)
Happily, we are beyond the age where you need to type something like c ‘heal’ Aboulhoson in the middle of a heated battle.
I will have to get everybody’s soul choices next time around. I cannot even recall my own at the moment, and I am too lazy to log in.
I had actually rolled up in advance, so spent some time wandering around the initial starter area helping to answer questions and form up a group. I nearly asked Earl what his character name was. Silly me. The rest of us came up with new and different handles.
Jollyreaper actually came from Bung’s son, who thought that would be a good Halloween costume. Rather than being the Grim Reaper, he wanted to have the cloak, cowl, and scythe, but have a happy, smiling mask on along with them. The Grim Reaper back when he enjoyed his job, pre pale horse.
Earl actually rolled up first and got out ahead of the pack… and made some of the same mistakes we all seem to have made, like that quest where you talk to the quest giver and, if you read the quest text, you know to sit tight while he activates a construct to escort you to the final quest hub.
And if you just skip the text and try to run ahead… well… chances are you will end up dying a bunch. I was only save from that fate the first time through by my obsessive desire to make sure I have completed all the quests.
Anyway, Earl got out there and died.
I hung around waiting for Jolly and Ephemara, who I ran into at one of the early quest hubs.
Hillmar and Ephemara
Hillmar’s mail shirt looks oddly like a Cosby sweater. Or maybe that is just me.
Having some time to kill, I actually spent some of it filling in the details and reading all the quest and related text.
It wasn’t that I did not get the story up to that point. We were brought back to life, we are being sent back in time to save the planet, blah blah blah.
Reading this was just confirmation
But it is very in my personality to want a quick look at what is going on and to then go back and fill in the details as I am ready for them.
So I am a bit more filled in on the story so far. I also got to see that Trion holds the opinion that bare female mid-drifts and plate armor bikinis are useful in combat for their opponent distracting value.
Men cannot avert their eyes
I also got to see a few variations of events I had not run into previously, like a sudden mass of skeletons.
Really following the dead
I linked up with Jolly and we made it through to the final battle at the portal and did that fight.
The last starter area battle begins...
We got through and were greeted with a view of another rift.
Old Telara, same as new Telara, only greener
By that time, Earl and Aboulhoson had been into Freemarch for a bit, we just needed Ephemara to catch up. Our rather unambitious goal for the evening was merely to get everybody rolled up, through the starter area, and into Freemarch so we could meet up, collect mail, and generally be ready to start trying to work as a group.
Only Ephemara got stuck on that last fight in the starter area, which was odd, since she had done it before with her other character. We offered advice on Skype, mostly to the effect of letting the NPCs in the area do the heavy lifting for that last fight. But the NPCs seemed to be taking the night off, so our rogue was getting pasted.
And due to the setup, there wasn’t much we could do. You cannot go forward again in time to help somebody out if you have already gone through the portal. So we were stuck for a bit, at least until Abo got up and walked into the next room to help with the problem. He is co-located with Ephemara.
After a short interruption, Ephemara made it through the time portal and into Freemarch.
We were able to collect everybody together at last for a group picture.
The Instance Group in Freemarch
Pictured above, from left to right, not including the boar and cat butts visible at the bottom of the shot, are Ephemara, Earlthecat, Hillmar, Jollyreaper, and Aboulhoson.
Now we are together and poised to move into the game.
<cue stirring music>
The Ancient Gaming Noob 