Missed Zones and Locales

In the uppermost thread of this string: the one where Cantalope keeps all the 'official' content, there is a section for known zones and locations, but I have found and in a couple of cases created, several areas that have been thus far 'missed' in that roundup, which I will, in the same manner as Cantalope now outline for people who want to write about them. (Work which I encourage Cantalope to copy and add to the top thread for everyone's edification.)

The Meadow: Lying not to far from Clearwater Lake and it's nearby forest, is a large grassy valley where roam a huge number of the 0th level Sheep Critters. The valley also spawns the occasional 'Ram' 2nd level Critter, which in theory are supposed to protect the flocks from Wolves, but usually get hunted down by low level Rangers and other ranged combat classes, or 'Tamed' by adventurers as a decent low level 'pet'. At the center of the valley is an abandoned farm house, which can be used by adventurers with Sleeping Bags as a place to rest for the night in safety, though with Oscar's Den so close by it almost never even gets opened, let alone slept in. Adventurers mostly come here to practice/train the 'Animal Husbandry' skill trees, such as 'Shearing', 'Skinning', 'Herding', and 'Butchering', much to the irritation of the sheep.

Sissiphun Mountain: A craggy, mighty, mountain of grayish granite with five snow caped peaks that is home to a variety of monsters and caves from old lava tubes and ice splitting the stone of the mountain in ages past. This zone is known to be home to Harpies, Minatuars, Hydra, Trolls, Orcs, And if rumors hold true sometimes a Wyrm Dragon lairs in a mighty cave near one of the peaks, though few adventurers get that high up and fewer still live to come back down. The mountain has many dozens or hundreds of small cliff paths just wide enough for single file movement which lead to caves in which monsters lurk or small alpine valleys where you can find streams and plants some of which are medicinal or alchemcial ragients, and make good places to stop and rest. (Unless Trolls or Orcs have claimed them to hunt the Goats that graze there.) This mountain is known for being a good place to do some grinding, with lower level creatures in it's foothills and progressivly stronger stuff the further up you go. There also is a quest to tame and retrieve some of the goats of the upper slopes as fresh bloodstock for a goatherd which many adventurers undertake: the monetary reward is lousy but completing it gives good experience.

Cassowary's Crypt: This dungeon is one of the oldest in the game, and has been expanded upon in successive expansion packs and patches numerous times. It's hallways and rooms now are so extensive that players are known to become lost in them for days at a time, and some people complain that if the game designers would just stop working on it they could add a lot more content elsewhere. Originally 10 levels deep it now descends about 30, and the deepest reaches connect with zones of 'The World Beneath' area where only high level players dare to tread. Several quest strings require players to enter the dungeon, including the one for which the dungeon existed when the game was first brought online, and after all the expansions it is full of Easter Eggs and hidden content. According to rumor the boss on the 30th level of the dungeon is one of the creatures in the game which can drop the Sword of 10,000 Truths, but if he does it is so rare that you would be better served trying elsewhere. In addition to expanding repeatedly the dungeon has gotten harder over the years, even on it's upper floors, where once the upper two stories you wouldn't find anything higher than about 5th level, and that only for mini-bosses, now there are wandering monsters who are 3rd or 4th level just on floor 2, and that is not counting the Micro and Mini Bosses. The game's Guide Book, which is sorely out of date, indicates this is a suitable dungeon crawl for a party of 2nd level with a 5th level leader, down to floor 10, but anyone with sense knows that is WAY inaccurate.

Developer's Note:

I think it is time and passed time that we came out with an updated Guide Book for the game, the monsters in Cassowary's Crypt are just symptomatic of a larger problem, with various areas having been expanded and updated to provide renewed challenge to long time players. Most players log out to get their update news from message boards and Wiki's now, and we need to show them that our offline support is still worthwhile.

Wexford Hill: This small dilapidated village is an area for a quest to wipe out a rebellion against the nobility on the Tashwind Plains. It's full of low level 'human rebels' and routinely raided by parties of 10th to 20th level. Characters with the 'Noble' trait gain extra XP from the quest, but would be well advised to be cautious during the fighting because the rebels all get bonus damage against such characters. There have been reports of some of the buildings in the village collapsing on heroes, and it is advisable to avoid going inside any of them, or even worse fighting inside them.

That's all from me for now, there will be more updates as time goes on.