I’m back home after a hellish adventure. The main challenge of the adventure was getting to the Northern Passage, which I found out from multiple attempts of going there, it’s impossible on horseback (literally had to get my alt to take me there on his boat).
Not to mention the plethora of mobs I encountered of my attempts… so. many. bears!
But when I finally got to the Northern Passage (thanks to my alt), waited ’till the morning next to a Guard Tower and then crossed the passage (had to swim). Discovered Samling’s original spawn point(you even get a popup indicating that you entered/left the area). The GMs placed a ‘statue of nymph’ exactly where we used to spawn in after buying Prem, several years ago. The place around it has drastically changed, yet the guy that offered to feed new players, was still in the same spot.
I also discovered that Xanadu still stands (though not as it did several years ago). After finding this, I set my target to Colossus Lake to see the place of Ewwya’s friend. Getting to the lake was probably a bigger challenge than getting to the Northern Passage. Mainly because, all roads that went south that would take me around the lake, have been changed from what they show on the Map Dump. That’s not good at all.
The first instance of this came from following this curvy one tile road to a small area. According to the map, there is supposed to be a road going south (right behind a guard tower). Yet there was no road, only what looked like there was a road but covered with grass and trees. Decided to go down it, but that’s as far as I got before I was forced to go back.
While I’m trying to find an alternative route, a person named ‘Draiodoir’ popped into my Local and waved at me. I thought “Hmm, maybe he can help me.” and tried to tell him I was stuck. He says “ah cool!”…. I’m stuck and you say “ah cool!”? Seriously?
Anyway, I found an alternative route that somehow lead me right to the guy… who’s playing as a girl character (or maybe is a girl IRL).
She thought I was ‘riding a unicorn’ then saw my sword. Yeah, sure. Me, riding a Unicorn. I wouldn’t be caught dead doing something so sissy. I stood there, hoping she would give me directions to get where I need to go. Instead she’s asking me if I’m part of their Alliance, I said I was in another.
At this time I thought she’s useless to me, and said I had to go and attempted to follow the coast. The end result got me seriously lost. NONE of the roads, or even the landscape, was showing up on the Map Dump. I was forced to backtrack to roads that where on the map and attempt to find another alternative.
After a half an hour (getting lost even more), I finally made it to roads that did show up on the map.. well, sort of. It wasn’t showing the bridges or the super large town I was in, not to mention there was supposed to be another road going South… instead there was a building in the way! FFS!!! D:
My rambling got the attention of ‘Netto’, one of the locals of the area. He actually showed me how to get South, saying how they changed most of the roads. I wanted to tell him “well how in the fuck am I supposed to know where to go by you guys doing this?!”, though his answer would had been “not our fault the map is outdated”…. and it really wouldn’t be.
So, remember when I said how going on a boat is fine, but the interesting areas are inland? Well… fuck that. If I can’t have an updated road map, it’s not worth the stress of getting lost. At least with a boat, I don’t have to worry about mobs while thinking of where to go.
Anyway, as I said, Netto showed me the actual south road. Past this, all the roads on the map were matching. He ran by me, using two hell horses pulled with a large cart.. and he was outrunning my 5 speed horse. Wow. Quite impressive.
Passing that, I got to the East side of the lake. Then I stopped short. I was pissed off that the map dump wasn’t updated and decided to head south and check out this ‘Hunter Lodge’ in the Grand Steppe. Again, I ran into more roads that weren’t going the direction indicated on the map (road was going Southeast instead of South), yet it still did take me in the right direction.
I entered The Grand Steppe, and was blown away by the sure vastness of the place. Nothing but Steppe tiles for miles. No wonder it was called ‘The Grand Steppe’. This is prime hunting grounds, folks.
So I was having some trouble trying to find the lodge. I had thought I found it, but it was blocked by a gate. I had to go back to the forum post and see what it looked like. It was at a place called ‘Haven’. I had to run through the huge Steppe lands, looking for these ‘two mounds’. He said on the post, that they’re there to find the place.
After 15 or so minutes of searching (and dealing with a few mobs I could finish off easily), I finally found the two mounds. Had to lure a bear away who was near it. The place is as big as my house, and.. to be honest, it makes my house look cooler. There wasn’t that much. I expected to see deer antlers on the wall. Bear skin rugs everywhere. But nothing of the sort. It just didn’t feel like a true Hunter Cabin. Though there’s only so much you can do in Wurm when it comes to decor.
With this, I didn’t know where to go next. Of my adventure, I wanted to pretty much see everything that Indy has. But I was too bummed out over the road changes in the Northeast and worried I would run into more. I decided to just go home, but first I wanted to see something that had eluded me for 5 years; the White Dragon.. or rather, where it used to be. I spotted an oh so obvious tunnel access on the mountain’s south side, and went there.
Finally getting there, it was getting dark (and late IRL). The way I assumed to get up there was blocked by two gatehouses, both locked. I went into an abandoned town that I hoped would be the actual route, and there was a unblocked tunnel. Went in, and it was a fairly large mine. Saw a sign in it (while being chased by a black bear) saying ‘NL South Tunnel’. But the way had collapsed. I had to get out of there and got back on the main road.
I then asked Kchat if there was a way get up and see where the White Dragon was. A well-known person named ‘Gumbo'(who helped me so many times before), told me how the owners of the place didn’t want anyone to see the dragon. They had blocked all tunnels leading up to it. Wow. So, even if I had found the entrance 5 years ago, the White Dragon would still had eluded me.
Also, Reaping adds in saying the White Dragon was last seen in Southwest Indy just a day ago (but was slain).
So it’s true that the dragons (like all unique creatures) do respawn, except I’ve learned that they cannot spawn in deeds or anywhere near it’s perimeter. That means, my thought several years ago of seeing a dragon near my deed.. was not too far-fetched. It seems, there’s still a chance that one of these days, I might still see one in the hills East of my deed(before it rips my face off). But it would be so worth it! 😀
With this, I went back on the long diagonal road back to Xanadu, and back to where my alt dropped me off. Had my alt pick me up and take me back home.
I don’t know what I’m going to do now. There’s really no point to explore the rest of Indy; not without a destination. Even though the journey is the real fun. I might do my second idea, which was to explore all of the islands by boat. My Knarr wonders when I’m ever going to use it again.
One server I should avoid at all costs, is Xanadu. Today’s update caused major dsync issues across the entire server.
After that.. *shrug*. I guess then I’ll start practicing on getting my fighting up.
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Oh yeah, before I forget, I wanted to say that getting my gear imped in last year’s Impalong, was a really smart move. I’m being damaged a lot less now, and I can hit harder with my sword. Only a few times did I need to bandage.
I can take out a mountain lion and a wild cat without them even scratching me, and I will also go after any wolf that attempts to kill me(and come out with only Very Light wounds). This is awesome. I’m feeling like a Dragon Warrior now. 🙂