Well of Souls
My recap of the recent Madrigal event is probably going to contrast pretty starkly from most of the other ones that I have read. I enjoyed the event nearly as much as everyone else, but this is another one of those times where I felt like I was at the same place at the same time as all the rest of the players, but I was playing an entirely different event than they were.
The big reason of course was that this was finally the Well of Souls event for me. I had managed to make it through four and a half events under the tower. I survived Shetra attacks, and Ancient Enemy of the East gates (barely), disastrous trips to Wickfords caves, vampries, Black Templars and the rest of the rogues gallery of Shadowfane enemies and I finally got my chance to fix myself.
Right at the start on Friday night in the middle of the first battle with the Naporean/Selarno crowd I got summoned to speak to the Goblin King in order to get everything set up. Solomon and I have been planning all year to go to the Well of Souls, and at the very last moment Anya also decided to go. Like Solomon she was under the effect of The Harvest and wanted to get rid of that. In the end we formed into two separate teams. Solomon and I got four people to help us, and Anya got five people to help her.
So over the course of the event I was called away three separate times to be tested in the Well of Souls. I went once Friday night, and twice on Saturday. I never knew when the test were going to occur, and that meant I had to be ready to go all the time at a moments notice. For this reason I was scared to go anywhere or do anything that would make me unavailable for any length of time.
Saturday afternoon shortly after brunch I did go on a single mod. I went with a group of people to investigate a gate and ended up meeting the Manticore. The mod itself was fun and very challenging, and I ended up burning through a lot of attributes. But the mod kind of drug out at the very end when it developed into a question and answer session. I hurried to get back to town afterward, and was met by people as soon as I got near Roskins who told me the Reaper was waiting impatiently for me over by the Gate of Death. As a consequence I sprinted from Roskins to the other side of town and went directly into my second test completely exhausted and with only the dregs of my stats that were left over from the Manticore mod. That very nearly cost us all dearly.
After that I stayed a lot closer to town and barely left the area around Death's Gate for the rest of the event. So this means that I missed a whole lot of the stuff most of the people are talking about in their recaps. In their place I did the Well of Souls, which I am forbidden to tell anyone about. That only leaves a few things around the edges of the event about which I can safely comment.
I can say that I passed the Well of Souls test, and for that I am very grateful. I had a phenomenal group of people helping me. We were pretty sure we did well, but it is so hard to tell because we didn't know the exact testing criteria. Even before we got our final grade from Nielus I was completely happy with our performance and was perfectly willing to be judged by it. Solomon and I had to do this, but I am immensely grateful to the players of Jack, Airethyl, Davrem and Alexander for sacrificing a big chunk of their event to help us through the tests.
The Well of Souls kept me away from most of the Naporean/Selarno/Worthy stuff that was going on, and for the most part I was fine with that. I didn't have any role in that, so I was willing to just hear the stories about it from others. I didn't have any role in the giant effort to rescue Grum which took up a lot of people's time as well. I also stupidly chose to stay in town and not go to the battle in Eluviar. At the time I did it for what I thought were sound reasons, but in hindsight that was clearly a huge mistake on my part.
One of the few things I did which gave me a lot of satisfaction was to help out Jack with that little mod in Roskins where we put together a ritual to exorcise a demon from an artifact that was retrieved last event. It was a multi step process that called a lot for Troubadours and Priests of Naveril, both of which I happened to be, so I got to fill in to several steps and that made the process a lot easier.
The ritual and the roleplay around it was fun, but it was particularly satisfying to me because I got a chance to give Jack a hand completing something that was important to him. Lately I've felt for him because he has gone through a long stretch where through no real fault of his own a lot of people have put a lot of obstacles in his way. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only guy out there with his back. And the guy laid it all on the line for me that event backing me up on the Well of Souls, so I was very grateful to have a chance to give something back to him.
There were a few other times in the game where I had those precious little frission moments where I felt totally connected to the game world and was completely living in Martin's skin and mind. Most of those were private moments, though. I played my flute beside the road while waiting for dead spirits to return from Eluviar with no one to hear me but a stray cat who wandered out at the woods. I waited in the field behind Death's Gate for my turn in front of Nielus thinking how I might be spending the last moments of my life here standing out in the cold alone. And then the White Spring and the McFaddens showed up and stood fifteen feet behind me and had a conversation. Stuff like that.
I got a handful of NPC info dumps which have advanced some plot stuff I've been working on quite a bit. For a long time I thought I was spinning my wheels on some stuff, and now I struggling to keep up with the flow of information I'm receiving. This plot has also starting to merge and combine with some other people's projects and stories so I'm getting opportunities to work through this stuff with others. That is always nice.
So I'm fairly well positioned going into the Revel next year. Now that I have the Tower behind me I'm looking forward to pursuing things once again without having to play as conservatively. Four years of Madrigal down. Hopefully many more years to come.
The big reason of course was that this was finally the Well of Souls event for me. I had managed to make it through four and a half events under the tower. I survived Shetra attacks, and Ancient Enemy of the East gates (barely), disastrous trips to Wickfords caves, vampries, Black Templars and the rest of the rogues gallery of Shadowfane enemies and I finally got my chance to fix myself.
Right at the start on Friday night in the middle of the first battle with the Naporean/Selarno crowd I got summoned to speak to the Goblin King in order to get everything set up. Solomon and I have been planning all year to go to the Well of Souls, and at the very last moment Anya also decided to go. Like Solomon she was under the effect of The Harvest and wanted to get rid of that. In the end we formed into two separate teams. Solomon and I got four people to help us, and Anya got five people to help her.
So over the course of the event I was called away three separate times to be tested in the Well of Souls. I went once Friday night, and twice on Saturday. I never knew when the test were going to occur, and that meant I had to be ready to go all the time at a moments notice. For this reason I was scared to go anywhere or do anything that would make me unavailable for any length of time.
Saturday afternoon shortly after brunch I did go on a single mod. I went with a group of people to investigate a gate and ended up meeting the Manticore. The mod itself was fun and very challenging, and I ended up burning through a lot of attributes. But the mod kind of drug out at the very end when it developed into a question and answer session. I hurried to get back to town afterward, and was met by people as soon as I got near Roskins who told me the Reaper was waiting impatiently for me over by the Gate of Death. As a consequence I sprinted from Roskins to the other side of town and went directly into my second test completely exhausted and with only the dregs of my stats that were left over from the Manticore mod. That very nearly cost us all dearly.
After that I stayed a lot closer to town and barely left the area around Death's Gate for the rest of the event. So this means that I missed a whole lot of the stuff most of the people are talking about in their recaps. In their place I did the Well of Souls, which I am forbidden to tell anyone about. That only leaves a few things around the edges of the event about which I can safely comment.
I can say that I passed the Well of Souls test, and for that I am very grateful. I had a phenomenal group of people helping me. We were pretty sure we did well, but it is so hard to tell because we didn't know the exact testing criteria. Even before we got our final grade from Nielus I was completely happy with our performance and was perfectly willing to be judged by it. Solomon and I had to do this, but I am immensely grateful to the players of Jack, Airethyl, Davrem and Alexander for sacrificing a big chunk of their event to help us through the tests.
The Well of Souls kept me away from most of the Naporean/Selarno/Worthy stuff that was going on, and for the most part I was fine with that. I didn't have any role in that, so I was willing to just hear the stories about it from others. I didn't have any role in the giant effort to rescue Grum which took up a lot of people's time as well. I also stupidly chose to stay in town and not go to the battle in Eluviar. At the time I did it for what I thought were sound reasons, but in hindsight that was clearly a huge mistake on my part.
One of the few things I did which gave me a lot of satisfaction was to help out Jack with that little mod in Roskins where we put together a ritual to exorcise a demon from an artifact that was retrieved last event. It was a multi step process that called a lot for Troubadours and Priests of Naveril, both of which I happened to be, so I got to fill in to several steps and that made the process a lot easier.
The ritual and the roleplay around it was fun, but it was particularly satisfying to me because I got a chance to give Jack a hand completing something that was important to him. Lately I've felt for him because he has gone through a long stretch where through no real fault of his own a lot of people have put a lot of obstacles in his way. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only guy out there with his back. And the guy laid it all on the line for me that event backing me up on the Well of Souls, so I was very grateful to have a chance to give something back to him.
There were a few other times in the game where I had those precious little frission moments where I felt totally connected to the game world and was completely living in Martin's skin and mind. Most of those were private moments, though. I played my flute beside the road while waiting for dead spirits to return from Eluviar with no one to hear me but a stray cat who wandered out at the woods. I waited in the field behind Death's Gate for my turn in front of Nielus thinking how I might be spending the last moments of my life here standing out in the cold alone. And then the White Spring and the McFaddens showed up and stood fifteen feet behind me and had a conversation. Stuff like that.
I got a handful of NPC info dumps which have advanced some plot stuff I've been working on quite a bit. For a long time I thought I was spinning my wheels on some stuff, and now I struggling to keep up with the flow of information I'm receiving. This plot has also starting to merge and combine with some other people's projects and stories so I'm getting opportunities to work through this stuff with others. That is always nice.
So I'm fairly well positioned going into the Revel next year. Now that I have the Tower behind me I'm looking forward to pursuing things once again without having to play as conservatively. Four years of Madrigal down. Hopefully many more years to come.