(N)EverQuest Scrolls

This is mainly aimed at newer players, but should work for experienced players who want to run through the early quests and tasks efficiently. Tasks usually give only trivial experience, but the rewards can be useful. If you are intending to powerlevel and twink extensively, then this isn’t for you.

Tutorial – Mines of Gloomingdeep

You start in the tutorial zone, Mines of Gloomingdeep. You have to run through the initial quest with Arias (Jail Break!) and the jailer to enter the main mines zone. That will put you at level 2. Take the Arias: Basic Training quest, and run through it to get the Kobold Skull charm. Take Arias: Rally with Rahtiz.

There are some remnants of the old tutorial zone still around without much purpose – these are the tradeskills and swimming quest NPCs, Frizznik and Pozik. Pozzik will give you a low AC mask, and his lost sword may also be a minor upgrade. Frizznik’s baking is superceded by skill-up quests in Crescent Reach, but gives some very minor stat food. One probable bug: Rahtan used to refer melee characters to another NPC to get their level 1 tomes, but this no longer happens – they will have to buy them in PoK/Crescent Reach.

Start with the rats and bats and spiders quests: Rahtiz: Clearing the Vermin Nests (stitched burlap leggings), Rebellion Reloaded (?); and Vyrinn: Spider Caves, Spider Tamer Gugan. You should be able to clear all of these in 20-40 minutes, and be level 4/5. This leaves just the Arachnidia quest to kill Queen Gloomfang, who is level 7. Stepping out to run the Plane of Knowledge quests at this point may be the best plan (see below). Back in the mines…

Move on to Guards Hobart and Maddoc. Hobart: Battle of Gloomingdeep; Maddoc: Kobold Leadership. Find Zajeer and Kaikachi while killing grunts and warriors. Zajeer: Scouting Gloomingdeep, Sabotage; Kaikachi: Goblin Treachery, Busted Locks. Use the scouting task to get to the fort to execute Sabotage; the supplies crate is to the left as you enter; you will have to kill or pass 2 or 3 captains to do this. Come back to Zajeer and kill goblin slaves on the way. The locksmith is nearby, up the passage to the north. If you still need slaves and slave wardens, go into the pit – Rockfynn is along one of the side passages, and is level 7 (or 6).

While you are in the kobold area, open the barrels – some will gives you free small bags.

Go back and kill Queen Gloomfang if you haven’t already. Reward is a few celestial healing potions.

After this activity the only three quests remaining should be: Hobart: Freedom’s Stand; and Maddoc: Pit Fiend. You can only get the latter after completing the Battle quest (may be level limited?), which also gives you some Gloom leggings. The final quest is Flutterwing’s Dilemma from the main camp.

At this point I would switch to Crescent Reach, although it is certainly possible to spend all your time in one or the other. The value of Gloomingdeep is the charm, plus an easy way to get some very basic armor. Switching to Crescent Reach at this point lets you skip some grinding in Gloomingdeep, and pick up some much better armor. The old newbie quest armors are also better than the gloom armors, although how easy they are to obtain varies considerably with class and location (hint: all berserker quests are excessively easy).

Plane of Knowledge

There are two ways to leave the mines: through the doorway/tunnel into your home city (Crescent Reach), or by saying to Arias: “ready to leave”. This takes you to the Plane of Knowledge. I would recommend the latter for some quick quest experience; take Arias’s advice, and go to find Vivian the True, at the entrance to the Library. Her several small quests give significant exp at low levels. To get to Crescent Reach, go back into the tutorial from your character select screen.

Crescent Reach

In Crescent Reach, pick up Tinnvin: Welcome to Crescent Reach; from Dakkan: Ways of Nature, Snake Sacs, Diseased Spiders. These are only worth taking if you will gain experience from the kills, which means around level 5 or lower. Fathus: Getting To Know You, which sends you running around. Only take one of the council member quests, unless you need faction (or the 1pp per quest reward): Prove Your Worth. Drakkin’s need take the quest for their dragon only; it may be worth other races doing all of the council quests to improve faction, but I have seen no evidence that this will be required (so far). Heshyrr: Heshyrr’s Wisdom. The runes for this are in the far SW of the dragon grove, and on the stones, just NE of the entrance/exit.

Back in the city: Champion Utenka: Ways of Combat; Guard Captain Minka: Love in the Air (reward necklace); Disgruntled Boawb (belt); Reakash: Reakash’s Revenge (mask). These are all run around quests (apart from the previously mentioned killing quests from Dakkan).

Now take Baker Shivra: Slightly Less Than Half of a Baker’s Dozen; Jinkin: Cap of Colour. These are for the mushroom cave (the first cave). Next is Jinkin: Here, Kitty, Kitty! and Baker Shivra: Party Preparation. Both of these are for the puma caves; of course, you should take all four at once. Jinkin’s rewards are potions, Shivra’s stat food. The highest level quest from this range is: Jinkin: Thrills and Quills; the reward is a bracer.

There is one easy killing quest remaining: Vunder the Dark: A Dark Heart. Reward is a 1HB. Vunder is marked as a level 10+ quest giver.

Total time to this point for me was 5 hrs 30 mins. The next Crescent Reach quests are significantly higher level (all mobs are yellow to red). This is a good time to go back to Gloomingdeep and finish the remaining three quests. Overlord Grikan is probably the easiest of the three, and should be level 10. Slave Master Ruga is only level 9, but he spawns two guards when you attack him; if you are high enough level (10 or 11), and pull him to the side of his room, then they shouldn’t aggro on you. The final mob is Krenshin, the level 12 pit fiend. You will get a Gloom tunic as a reward for Grikan.

One tip: stay bound in Gloomingdeep for as long as you can. You can gate into Gloomingdeep (if you are a caster), or use the Tutorial button on the login screen. From there you can use the tunnel exit to reach the Dragon’s Grove in Crescent Reach, or say to Arias: “ready to leave” to enter Plane of Knowledge. this is significant, because the PoK book is a long run through a slightly higher zone away from Crescent Reach.

The next quests are all from Skinner Bezath: No Skin Off Your Back, What a Croc, Rings and Things. Alligators and bears are level 11 and up. Gnolls are higher. If you have some skinspike potions, this may be feasible, but otherwise you’ll need to grind. You can pick either the fort or jail areas in Gloomingdeep, or the puma cave in Crescent Reach.

Once you are level 10, some more quests become active in PoK; check with Vivian the True once more. She will send you to an armor quest NPC (one good, one evil), who I think will refuse to speak to people with a home in Crescent Reach. She also gives a third, neutral quest giver: Castlen Drewe: Haunted Butcherblock, this requires level 11, and the reward is a Ghostly Mantle. Castlen has several quests to give, one per level up to 15/16, and a last one at 19. The armor NPCs give out pieces of the newbie quest armor, and if you have been levelling in Crescent Reach, this isn’t likely to be an upgrade. Castlen’s quest fill out most of the non-visible slots, and are high quality.

While in this level range and passing through PoK, get the Fine Antique Ring. Find Curator Merri in one of the buildings on the good side, and get her Collecting Box (just talk to her). Then you need to combine four items in it. A cockatrice beak, a high quality cougarskin, a tiny rockhopper eye, and an undead froglok eye. You will need to buy the skin in the Bazaar (unless you are already 30ish!), so hold off on this quest until you can afford one; the alternative is a merchant diving trip to the gnomes in Iceclad to see if anyone has sold one to them. The other items can also be bought there; this will be cheaper for the beak than trying to hunt one, or buying one from a vendor. The tongue can be found from frogloks in Qeynos Catacombs near Cubert (fine if you aren’t kill on sight there or can invis), and the eye from vendors in Shar Vahl, or from rockhoppers in the pit under the city. Tongues can also often be found on vendors in many other places. This ring has the mana preservation II focus.

Also consider the mask quest (the Forgotten Pools) for spell haste II. This involves talking to the guys sitting next to the pools on the good side of PoK, and giving in a sarnak blood (Bazaar/merchants again, or a trip to the newbie yard area of LOIO). You then need to make a run into Droga, so make sure that you have a good invis – the 10pp, instant cast cloudy potions may be an option for clerics and warriors.