| CRLig |
04-27-2007 01:40 PM |
<cite>Kryussius@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote>Didn't Lavastorm used to have an access quest? If so, it's less a matter of "because I say so" as it is one of someone not getting around to update the area. It's lame to not just remove the big yokel and activate that entrance, or remove both the guardian and the spot on the map, but given the SOE San Diego team works alot better and more efficiently than their Austin team does, I'm willing to give a grudging benefit of the doubt that it's just not high on the priority level. I know there's still an access quest to the Feerrott that you can pick up at the EFP docks, even though you don't need an access quest for any place outside of maybe AP zones anymore. Getting worked up because of the travel time between Fallen Gate's entrance and the old location of the Foreign Quarter is still dumb. As I pointed out, I'm failing to see the threads bemoaning the fact that, if judged by travel time, every single boat dock (save those going to Butcherblock) should be with in the range of a single horizontal leap from one another; maybe two if you have to do a boat hop. Yet no one is yelling about how ludicrous that is. My only issue with things is that whomever was put on the lore behind the world either hasn't had time or just didn't think about reasoning behind small details like this, when a simple solution that doesn't involve massive geographical movements or whims of the gods is readily available. If you look where the entrance to Fallen Gate is, which if I understand the lore correctly is an excavated tunnel entrance, you'll see it falls in what would have been the old West Commonlands, not far from the entrance to Kithicor Forest, which bordered Rivervale - of course, the well known home of the wretched half-pints. The story goes that while the brave and valiant Teir'Dal were over on Faydwer showing their uppity cousins just what a forest fire is supposed to look like, the halflings took advantage of the matter, rallied, and attacked. The Queen either collapsed First Gate in order to block off the invaders, or jumped at the chance to be rid of the King once and for all, and the rest, as they say, is history. My question is, how would an entire army of halflings and allies have made it all the way to the First Gate in such a surprising manner that would not have set off or been reported by advanced Teir'Dal scouts in time to find a different way of defending Neriak? To head off some early "but but but!!" junk, yes I'm making this up, no I do not have lore or official backup for what I am about to theorize, no I have nothing concrete to prove any of it outside of some very very scant in-game facts and a bit of strategic logic. Hokay. Start with the assumption that West Commonlands would have been a place in and of itself that the Teir'Dal would want to keep an eye on after Lanys T'vyl's last couple of appearances (for the uninitiated into old EQ1 lore, she was the Daughter of Innoruuk and had at one time turned Befallen into her base of operations). Strategically, you would want to keep an eye on such a place in case she made another appearance. Also, the proximity to the halfling homelands would be something to keep an eye on, given the advanced halfling scouting units within Nektulos Forest. What's the best way past scouts on the surface? Contract some gnomes to help you tunnel under and past them. Several tunnels to be exact. Send the armies into tunnels that will come up into Nektulos Forest near the city's entrance, while tunnelling directly into the objective with a small force - just enough to break the gates open, and let the full force in. You gain surprise and force an unwary Queen to do one of three things - surrender (something the Teir'Dal are not likely to do out of arrogance), be destroyed (something the Queen is not likely to do, again out of arrogance), or set off an emergency measure that will collapse a large portion of the outer district of the city to prevent them from getting any futher (both sealing yourself off from danger, and delivering the enemy a crushing blow - no pun intended - in the process). Centuries pass and people start to peek out of the Freeport gates again to see what's been happening after all the cataclysms and wars, etc. The Commonlands is still ringed by mountains, but the old passes have collapsed. A tunnel is dug and a gate set up back into Nektulos Forest, possibly by the Teir'Dal trying to get back home. Others go excavating looking for what kinds of minerals and treasures that the upheaval has unearthed. One such excavation team near what was once the border into Kithicor breaks through an inner wall within the mountain of one of these old tunnels that's managed to survive more or less intact from the time of the War of the Fay. Through several miles of digging through collapsed bits and shoring the place up, the tunnel is followed to its end point which ends up being the remains of First Gate. So, entrance to the tunnel leading into the Fallen Gate would begin in the Commonlands. Why has nothing closer been created so that there's a tunnel entrance from Nektulos itself? Can't answer that one. Maybe a history of cave-ins due to the unstable nature of the mountain around them caused too many deaths to be profitable, so Freeportian miners / excavators / adventurers stuck with the one way in they knew wouldn't come down on their heads. So, once you enter into the doorway to Fallen Gate, it actually takes a decent amount of time to get to the actual cavern where First Gate is. Your travel time is shortened by a game mechanic, just like sailing from Nektulos Forest to Thundering Steppes is. </blockquote> Leatherfoot Tales: The Houndslayer, a book quest telling us what's going on about FG.
|
