So Much Loot, Not Enough Space

Part of the Tales of Skrmischa in Neverwinter Online!

It was very worthwhile guarding the Summer Festival grounds as now not only do I have a fancy new shield and clothes, but a pair of cute piggies to keep  me company, along with a few mercenaries who liked the way I do things. Once I returned to the city proper I decided to attempt the Orc Assault skirmish again, in regular mode this time. It was much the same as the Call to Arms event, but just less rewarding and we had a squad of guards assisting us. Still got a neat looking axe from it though!

Too bad it's not a foldable Gerber Kick Axe. That would rock.

My main problem now is what to do with all this loot that I don't want to sell. I think I'll have to break off from doing only Foundry Quests to run missions at the Blacklake District and Neverdeath Graveyard to get the extra bag rewards there. For such a common item they are insanely expensive at the city's auction house. It still didn't stop me from running a few Foundry tasks though:

Friendly Dragon Canyon @ lelua01 (NW-DPQZC8ARH)
This was a fun mission, having to help out a little dragonling with some pesky trolls. She even gave me a reward at the end!

SANCTUARIUM v2 @ ooroome (NW-DJBCYCFS8)
Not so fun - in fact extremely repetitive, slaying the same four zombie hulks over and over underneath the city. To make things worse there was no reward chest at the end of it. Bleargh.

Festival Freelancing

Part of the Tales of Skrmischa in Neverwinter Online!

OBSTACLE COURSE @ Zoma666 (NW-DHWE5IMMC)
Signed up for guard duty for the Summer Festival and my first challenge was a non-combat obstacle course test which I found really cool.

Having passed the test it was on to the grind, which basically entails fighting off hungry trolls and annoying kobolds in addition to harvesting crops, flowers and herding escaped farm animals back to their pens. It's a pretty good change of pace and a very nice locale to boot. I overheard one of the women say that it was better than the Cragsteep Crypts which I had a chuckle about. The competitive spirit is getting the better of some participants though, especially in the Blooming Boughs where many go to harvest fireblossom flowers. Reports of thievery come in daily but there's little we can do about it as the festival rules clearly state only combating trolls and kobolds.

Also the other night I found someone who seemed... unresponsive... harvesting flowers in one spot repeatedly. As I was heading back to ask what can be done about it a familiar figure came charging towards that man with kobolds in tow. My ex-boss! I readied my weapons to assist but he spotted me and signalled to hold back, evading the kobolds attacks which sliced up the unmoving man to pieces. Only after the stranger was dropped did Mister Skyrim eliminate the his pursuers. I asked him what the heck was going on and he pointed out that the "person" was actually a mind frayed minion, hoarding petals for the dark Fey in Sharandar for their twisted magicks.

Those minions look so life like!

After giving me some reward bags that he didn't need, he left with instructions to seek out and inform him of any more of these brain dead minions on the grounds so that he could deal with them, since the proper authorities wouldn't. It's strange but I'm glad to be working for someone that gets things done again, even if it is just on the side.

Vying for my Attention

Interesting matchup this week between two of my "active" MMOs with Neverwinter Online's Summer Festival versus the return of the Super Adventure Box in Guildwars 2. Both are temporary events which will be gone in a few weeks and both will require some doing before I am "finished" with them. Going purely by the rewards, NWO wins out. Sure, SAB may have cool new skins that I also want but NWO is offering a mount and a companion which in the grand scheme of things is a more worthwhile reward. It's always functionality over fashion for me. Also the Summer Festival tasks are pretty trivial but this makes them severely grindy, especially when it comes to pseudo pvp in the race to harvest flowers. The festival has attracted many trolls to it, and most of them are of the player variety.

Conversely SAB will probably be more fun (/frustrating) to play, but is less rewarding. I am especially looking forward to the "Tribulation Mode" which the designer already stated weeks in advance is for a small minority of players. Specifically those who liked IWBTG (which I won). Can't help but wonder what the current villain is going to be doing while all the heroes go and play a video game though?

A deceptively cute cover for a fiendishly tough game.

So what's a guy to do then? Play the field, obviously! Having an alternate to switch to after burning out in the other should work well in theory. I'll let you know how it goes in practice! Elsewhere, Disney has decided to close their kid MMO "Toontown". Nothing like a server wipe/shutdown experience for the youngins. They wished upon a star, but were a few millions years late. That star is dead. Just like their dreams.