Introducing, Returned. Level 1 Iksar shaman!

Alright, here's our first toon. His name is Returned, practices the ways of the Shaman, enjoys nice long walks along the Eastern Calibis Canals, heatrocks, and eating flies.

Returned

Oookay, in all seriousness. Here we go. :)

When you start a new toon, you have a note in your inventory, that you should read and bring to your guild master. When I did this for Returned, I was given my first cudgel. The cudgel quests are a line of quests Iksar shaman get in lieu of a typical newbie armor quest line, because when the expansion that included them, The Ruins of Kunark, launched in 2000, there was not a lot of armor that they could wear. So instead they get a weapon or piece of wearable armor, that improves as time goes by.

My first task in this Cudgel line is to perform a daily task for the temple. Tis involves taking the Component Mortar I was given, and filling it with the following. A foraged Mudcrab x1, small mosquito wings x2, and Bone chips x1. These are all fairly common items in the zones surronding Calibis, with the exception of the Mud Crabs. Iksar start life with the Forage Skill capped at skill level 50. What this does, is every minute or so, you can use it to gain a random food type item from the zone. In Lake of Ill Omen, the mudcrab is on that loot table, so you could forage for a few minutes and get it, or a few days, it's all up to luck.

My Guild Masters

But before we get into the cudgel quests, we need a few things. Experience. Armor. Money. Luckily, I know where to get all three, right off the bat. One of the low level Iksar zones is called The Field of Bone. There are three good quests in particular here I like.

The first is for Klok Mugruk. He sends you to the field of bone to gather 8 Scaled Curskins in a Scaled curskin bag. When you combine the 8 skins together and turn it in, you receive a random piece of Scaled Curskin armor as well as money and experience.

The second is for Warlord Zyzz. If you kill scorpions, they often drop scorpion pincers. Giving 4 of these to Warlord Zyzz results in a small amount of coin, as well as a HUGE amount of experience. When I did this turn in the first time on Returned, it resulted on a 24% experience gain.

The final one is the notorious bone chip quest for Trooper Mozo. Notorious because if you're not an iksar, you'll be ginding yourself giving him around 6000 bone chips just to make it so you're not kill on sight in Calibis. Ouch. Ayway, giving him 4 bone chips results in a small amount of exp, and small amount of coins. When I did my test turn in at level 2, it gave about 12% exp, which still isn't bad.

Before heading to the field of bone, I bought myself a mercenary. Mercenaries are basically computer controlled group members that fill a role. They make your life a lot easier at the cost of a portion of the exp, and a fee every 15 minutes. Until level 10 the fee is 0, so there's no reason not to grab one. I grabbed a tank so he could do tankly things while I healed, and buffed. A shaman's job.

My mercenary, barely containing his bloodlust.

So I went to the field of bone, gathered up enough scaled curskins for a piece of armor, killed skeletons for Trooper Mozo, and gathered scorpion pincers for Warlord Zyzz. All in all, I walked out of the field of bone 45 minutes later at level 3, with a shiny new Curscale Cloak to show for it.