Opal Darkbriar on the run... again.

[Ozymundas]

Opal Darkbriar currently runs from the Nek Forest exit to the Neriak entrance in Darklight Woods.  When you hail her, she doesn't stop, but says, "Noone can stop me!"  The guards dont locate her in Neriak with a "find npc," and I didn't see her anywhere...  I heard one of the epics involves the dagger used to kill Rylana that was found in the Nek Forest bear caves.  Any information/thoughts?

[Rainmare]

what we found out is the Assassin epic uses the dagger, and their epic requires finding/killing Opal Darkbriar. which frankly, upsets me that they'll allow a major player from early on like Opal to die.

[Ozymundas]

<cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>what we found out is the Assassin epic uses the dagger, and their epic requires finding/killing Opal Darkbriar. which frankly, upsets me that they'll allow a major player from early on like Opal to die.</blockquote>Oh... I agree.  That is dissapointing.  She was one of my favorites...

[Cusashorn]

<cite>Ozymundas wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>what we found out is the Assassin epic uses the dagger, and their epic requires finding/killing Opal Darkbriar. which frankly, upsets me that they'll allow a major player from early on like Opal to die.</blockquote>Oh... I agree.  That is dissapointing.  She was one of my favorites...</blockquote>It's not like she's playing a HUGE part of EVERY storyline out there. She's been rotting in a jail for the past 6 months. The developers were always planning for her death. How is her dying any different than any other NPC? At least she's part of an epic at the end of it all. Rylana's corpse's storyline has yet to be continued though.

[Ozymundas]

<cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ozymundas wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>what we found out is the Assassin epic uses the dagger, and their epic requires finding/killing Opal Darkbriar. which frankly, upsets me that they'll allow a major player from early on like Opal to die.</blockquote>Oh... I agree.  That is dissapointing.  She was one of my favorites...</blockquote>It's not like she's playing a HUGE part of EVERY storyline out there. She's been rotting in a jail for the past 6 months. The developers were always planning for her death. How is her dying any different than any other NPC? At least she's part of an epic at the end of it all. Rylana's corpse's storyline has yet to be continued though.</blockquote>When Nathan Ironforge is killed off, I'll salute.  Opal's death IS "different than any other NPC."  At least it is to me. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Rainmare]

I find it bothersome because Opal is a major player. she might not be in every storyline, but she has been known as the leader of the Academy of Arcane Science for at least three years, and Lucan's right hand elf since inception of the game as the Foci, until she swiped Soulfire. there are a great deal many 'lesser' npcs they could use instead.hell I would have been more impressed if the Assassin epic had you helping free Opal by assassinating that Captain that is running the spellbreaker unit that captured her. or going after someone like those twins in Crow's resting place. or a member of the Freethinkers at the Peacock club. or the Caliph of Coin that everyone hates in Maj'dul. Or how about assassinating a high ranking member of one of Neriak's houses. hell they could have MADE UP an NPC to assassinate.Not to mention there are a TON of storylines you could use with Opal's escape. would she be accepted back in Neriak. How did she escape, and who was willing to help her. she could have become a great NPC for a questline for Neriak/Qeynos citizens to do in manner of higher tier sabotage, getting 'even' with Lucan. Would she, after being turned over by Christanos, join with the Thexians and help find/reveal/support the Prince coming to power? Would she attempt to ally with Qeynos, being betrayed by Neriak and an outlaw to freeport?I think killing her was basically a cop out so they wouldn't have to answer those questions. no one knows how she got out, no one knows who helped her, no one knows if her being turned over was a political ruse or not by Cristanos, and no one will probably ever hear about that 'spell breaker' unit ever again. the only person that knows(and would be willing to talk about) how she got out is Opal. and with Opal's death, there's no one to talk about it.and if they really wanted to kill a nostalgic npc, why didn't they send you to assassinate Fippy. that would have been much better than killing what could have been a great plot device or mover in Opal.

[WeatherMan]

<cite>Ozymundas wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>When Nathan Ironforge is killed off, I'll salute. </blockquote>Everyone, but <i>everyone</i>, would be lined up out the door and all the way across Antonica to do this quest...

[Apocroph]

<cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I think killing her was basically a cop out so they wouldn't have to answer those questions.</blockquote>Or it was a perfectly fitting step in an Assassin's epic quest.Assassins kill people.  Opal swiped Soulfire from Lucan.  If she got away to Neriak, and Neriak gave her quarter, the alliance between Lucan and Cristanos would be toast.That's pretty epic, man.  You kill off a major player in not one but TWO Everquest eras, and preserve the alliance between the evil powers on Norrath.They could have answered your questions, and maybe they will.  But I'd say it's far from a cop-out.

[Gukkor2]

Actually, there's no real guarantee that Opal Darkbriar will prove to truly be dead just because one must kill her to complete a quest.  After all, you had to kill Lucan D'lere in EQ1 to complete the paladin epic, and he's clearly still alive.

[Cusashorn]

<p>Lucan is an UNDEAD Lich, who comes back to life after you kill him. He was in EQlive when the paladins killed him.</p><p>Opal is still very much alive. If you kill her, she's dead.</p>

[Thanriyon Arkhelt]

<p> If Opal Darkbriar is as old, as intelligent, and as powerful as everyone assumes she is..  then she'll have allies to Ressurect her should she meet a sticky end </p><p> Heck, any powerful caster worth his/her/it's salt would make those arrangements..</p><p>Players die and get raised, why would it be different for well-prepared NPCS?</p>

[teddyboy4]

<cite>Thanriyon Arkhelt wrote:</cite><blockquote><p> If Opal Darkbriar is as old, as intelligent, and as powerful as everyone assumes she is..  then she'll have allies to Ressurect her should she meet a sticky end </p><p> Heck, any powerful caster worth his/her/it's salt would make those arrangements..</p><p>Players die and get raised, why would it be different for well-prepared NPCS?</p></blockquote>Players don't get killed really, they just get beaten to the point of unconsciousness. So when you see players getting "resurrected", they're really just being woken up and healed.That is usually the case w/ NPC's too, especially important NPC's. They aren't actually "killed" so much as they are beaten to the point where they run away or leave the fight in some way. That has always been the case and it's like that so the developers can use the characters at later points in the story if they want to. So, in EQ no one ever really killed Naggy, or Vox, or anyone else unless the devs decided they wanted the character to die at the hands of adventurers , kind of like what they did with the Tome of Destiny w/ the avatars of the gods.All that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if they did make Opal Darkbriar's "death" at the hands of an Assassin adventurer in the epic quest "stick", b/c it seems they put alot of thought into setting the whole scenario up and everything fell into place very well. Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised in the least if it turns out that Opal survived the assassination attempt and turned up at some later point in time.

[shadowscale]

also keep in mind <span class="postbody">Opal Darkbriar that was an enchanter. was that even her that got killed or a dopleganger? even if the devs say she is dead now they could always find ways to bring her back in if they wanted.</span>

[Trepan]

I wouldn't put it past her to have cast a glamour on someone and let them get captured in her place.  She's been around for two ages now.Old age and Treachery will overcome Youth and Skill.

[Morticus]

Actually, the reason for her death is outlined and explained in the assassin epic questline.

[Mr. Dawki]

<cite>Morticus wrote:</cite><blockquote>Actually, the reason for her death is outlined and explained in the assassin epic questline.</blockquote><p>If by "explained" you mean barely mentioned, then yeah.</p><p>"Her friends are going to break her out of prison. She has some information for Queen of Thex, you should go and get it from her"</p><p>And that about sums it up</p>

[Gukkor2]

<cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Lucan is an UNDEAD Lich, who comes back to life after you kill him. He was in EQlive when the paladins killed him.</p><p>Opal is still very much alive. If you kill her, she's dead.</p></blockquote>Good point, but when you killed Lucan in EQ1, you also killed his undead form.  I suppose if he's a true lich, then that would only stop him for a time unless someone got to his phylactery, but the wording describing his undead transformation never indicated to me that he's a lich per se. 

[Rainmare]

I still find it a cop out. there is no reason, not one, that I can think of to even imagine a 'player' assassin could kill Opal. she's simply far, far, far more powerful than anything a player can become.she was the Necromancer guild leader in EQ1. which meant she had to be an accomplished Necro to attained that position. she's also one of, if not the, most powerful and well known enchanters in Norrath. and you really think with that kind of an array of skills, that any assassin could even track her, much less kill her?and yes, I've heard about the 'reason'. there isn't one. it's just like it was said. you get told someone is going to get her out of prison, and she's heading to Neriak. you are to intercept her and get information and kill her. there's no mention of WHO is getting her out, or why. there's no mention of why she is apparently welcome in Neriak since she's going to talk to the Queen. (this is second hand info, so they might not have told me everything if some of that there is wrong)and if she is apparently welcome enough to get an audience with Christanos, I see no reason why Christanos wouldn't make sure she got to Neriak. and again, there is no player that's going to be able to handle Neriak's military and magical support of Opal.it took an entire military unit specifically trained by opal, and even then they had to work and improve on what they were trained at, just to figure out she was in Neriak. and Neriak isn't exactly far from Freeport. and you think she wouldn't have been able to get past some no name little assassin?

[Apocroph]

<cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I still find it a cop out. there is no reason, not one, that I can think of to even imagine a 'player' assassin could kill Opal. she's simply far, far, far more powerful than anything a player can become.</blockquote>That would be why she's a raid mob.Also on the subject of power, 500 years ago, we were bitchslapping the gods themselves.  You're surprised that a mortal like Opal could fall to other mortals?

[Gukkor2]

<cite>kuraan wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I still find it a cop out. there is no reason, not one, that I can think of to even imagine a 'player' assassin could kill Opal. she's simply far, far, far more powerful than anything a player can become.</blockquote>That would be why she's a raid mob.Also on the subject of power, 500 years ago, we were [I cannot control my vocabulary] the gods themselves.  You're surprised that a mortal like Opal could fall to other mortals?</blockquote><p>*insert obligatory "we only killed their physical manifestations" comment here*</p><p>Rainmare, keep in mind that this is the epic quest.  You're not just "some no name little assassin" anymore at this point.</p>

[Rainmare]

I never thought we should have been allowed to take on Gods either.but what I meant was a 'player' assassin should have been able to stop opal, or even find opal, considering the massive amount of power at her disposal. She was able to outsmart, out think and out maneuver Lucan, who has 500+ years experience on us. with the array of abilities at her disposal, I could see there being 50 opals running around, only 1 real, and the real one being in neriak before you figured out how many versions of her there were.I can see no reason why an assassin, of no renown, and no affiliation, would have the skills and connections required to even think about assassinating someone of Opal's stature.Being the Foci of Freeport's Academy, having the backing of Neriak after that...I couldn't even see the Ebon Mask guildleader taking out a contract on Opal and being able to make it stick without pulling a lot of strings and calling in some major favors.and again, the only people able to even find her after she was already established in Neriak were the people TRAINED by her to do so, and they had to improve and expand on the techniques to find her not 2 zones away from them. and even then the captain said himself if they hadn't spent the time and effort to improve and expand on her training, they wouldn't have found her either.and your telling me a no name assassin without even that much training could track down Opal?

[Cusashorn]

<cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I never thought we should have been allowed to take on Gods either.but what I meant was a 'player' assassin should have been able to stop opal, or even find opal, considering the massive amount of power at her disposal. She was able to outsmart, out think and out maneuver Lucan, who has 500+ years experience on us. with the array of abilities at her disposal, I could see there being 50 opals running around, only 1 real, and the real one being in neriak before you figured out how many versions of her there were.</blockquote>Or maybe Lucan just let her think she was outsmarting him. Sure, the search to recover the soulfire was genuine, but how do we know that he wasn't planning on getting rid of her, and intentionally let it be stolen?