Firiona VieFollow

I've spent a good amount of time in Firiona Vie mainly because the pilgrims there were always such a great help to my character; like wandering guards in the days I was Drolvarging (and don't even get me started on that Ancient Jarsath HA HA HA HA! I hated that guy and his stupid mocking laughter; and the way that he always seemed to pop up when I was being swarmed by Drolvargs and had the situtation coming under control then that blasted HA HA HA HA! and none of the guards were ever man enough to step up and help me when I'd flee back to the outpost- they'd just stand there and let him kill me HA HA HA HA! Even to this day if I'm passing through that area I stop and hunt him down just to bash him. But I'm digressing as always...)

Okay but I moved to the city area when I got to about 40th, and bind outside on the hill by the waterfall (still wondering what's up with all the Iksar statues if this is elven territory) and as time went by I just started feeling something was not right; something was off. I started to note what seemed to me anomalous patterns at work. And the patterns were hinting: get the pilgrims back into Firiona Vie. Now, my hypothesis here may not prove true, but I think it's reasonable even if false, and here is the way it worked out:

First I noticed the pilgrims seem toward tending to gather around the entrance to the city, in the forest just beyond the gate of the city. Now, they do what other roaming mobs do, they move and stand and move and stand. But here at the city gate this normal motion created a different illusion; because the pigrims are from the city, so when a pilgrim would run down to the gate (but never ever go in) it would appear they stand wistfully looking back home, desiring to return. So when I would be sitting there regenerating mana or whatnot, and a pilgrim would run down to the gate or shore and stop, I would think, here's another pilgrim longing to go home. But the pilgrims would never actually go into the city. Because they weren't supposed to, naturally.

Then comes Dragoon M'Nyl. Where he actually spawns I'm not entirely sure, but I do know I mostly find him roaming outside the city, bashing pilgrims and drixies before going into the city, then coming back out to bash, go back, come out- in, out, in out. He'll do this until either I kill him, or until the pilgrims gather in enough numbers that they kill him in the forest outside the city. And when I'd show up to find the pilgrims all swarming on M'Nyl I'd remark to myself, See what the pilgrims can accomplish when they work together. Because if there's only a few pilgrims, M'Nyl will wipe the floor with them, then go back to the city; in, out, in out. Then a thought occurred to me: what is the purpose of this NPC? Why spawn him out in the forest instead of just in the city like the rest of the Dragoons? Why design this NPC to go in and out of the city until he is eventually swarmed by pilgrims and killed? (It may be he also despawn after a certain time if not pilgrim-swarmed; I don't know)

So next I'm kiting M'Nyl for practice and the pilgrims are thronging on him as usual, and I think, will they follow me into the city? So I run down into the city and here comes M'Nyl with about 40 pilgrims on him and sure enough the come into the city; so I run into the middle of the city, the Dragoons start converging and the pilgrims just go running with clouds of drixies and all hell breaks loose. I'm just enjoying watching the clouds of drixies flying all over the city, and then here comes this guy out of the main tower- he's named Fieldsurgeon Trom- and here he comes running up and helping the pilgrims and I'm all like, what is this? What is this? The pilgrims and drixies kill the dragoons and make the mistake of attacking the golems and the golems are too much for them- within maybe 5 minutes it's all over.

But I'm standing in the middle of the city thinking, "Who the heck is Fieldsurgeon Trom? And exactly what is he doing in that tower?" So I camp the tower for a while and sure enough I count two NPCs, Trom and a Shieldbearer- who both spawn in that tower. Then they will walk outside, run up to a golem, and die in two hits. And I thought- what is the purpose of these NPCs? Why design two NPCs to spawn inside an enemy-held tower, to walk outside and be clobbered by a golem? Why is M'Nyl designed to go, in, out, in, out, draw pilgrims, in out, draw pilgrims...

So in light of this, what is the word on this? I thought, surely there have been guilds of players who have leveled the NPCs in the city and brought pilgrims over? Or tried to do something such? Somehow to see if it could be done, or what would happen? Why these two (maybe more I only verified two) elves spawn inside the city? Any ideas or thoughts (other than "you have too much time on your hands" because that's clearly a given)

Yeah right, another anomaly (was any other place revamped like FV?); so it's anomalous behavior at an anomalous location. These are the things that add up and make think something out of the ordinary is going on here. If it were just M'Nyl spawning and behaving in an anomalous fashion I'd be not so inclined to think much of it (I'd still be wondering the purpose a designer had in scripting the character to act this way); but it's anomaly after anomaly after anomaly, all seeming to be tied together with the theme "get the pilgrims back into FV"

Again, this may just be a series of very unlikely "coincidences" but much in the same way I would call "rigged" on a guy who flips a coin and keeps flipping heads results; even if it turned out not to be a biased coin, the suspicion of bias is deserved because of the improbably series of events being witnessed. I also think (I tend to think about these things from the standpoint of the designer, and what may their intent be by doing X) that if I were designing the "change" of FV, I'd know that this change is going to ruffle the feathers of some people playing elves, and they're going to want to try and change it back the way it was. If I were designing it, I would make some hidden way to change it back that could be done if figured out. Now, did the designers do this? I don't know, naturally- but what I do know is that there are multiple anomalies here at FV- strange things afoot at the Circle K.

For information sake: I brought another group of about 40 pilgrims/drixies into the city again today; but first I cleared as many golems as possible (they spawn too fast to get them all cleared- but I cleared the gate and the front of the city). The pilgrims proceeded to attack all the Dragoons and lo and behold here comes the Shieldbearer out of the tower to join the fight. They kill all the Dragoons then start to leave the city back to their routine in the forest. This time Shieldbearer goes with them, then he stands on the hill outside the city gate- and just stands there like he's waiting for something to happen. I try lots of lines and questions looking for a trigger perhaps, but no response. But I definitely got the feeling he was waiting for someone/thing to speak/do something.

Then M'Nyl showed up in the forest, smacked me while I was contemplating the Shieldbearer, who then jumped on M'Nyl with a bunch of pilgrims. I started leading M'Nyl away from FV and back toward the elf outpost to see if I could get the Shielbearer to follow back to the outpost just as a test, but as I was running I heard the battle fading and realized M'Nyl wasn't following me. I ran back and smacked him with a draught to get him to follow (which he did) but I noticed the Shieldbearer was now gone, presumabley slain by M'Nyl.

I'm going to camp the tower and wait for either the Shieldbearer or the Field Surgeon and kill everything they engage to see if I can get them out of the city, or if they go/do something with a clear path.



Yeah if there's anything to this then it's definitely not common knowledge, and is hidden - but hinted at through a series of anomalies. If there's anything to it at all.



I only know Fippy Darkpaw through the little dialogue bozes during load "spawning Fippy Darkpaw..."; I've been waiting to meet him but haven't run across him yet. I did fight some Darkpaw Gnolls- can't recall where- and they hit pretty hard at the time. Alas no Fippy.

Edited, Aug 1st 2013 9:52pm by broonsbane

Okay here is more info for posterity's sake, if anything. I'm camping the tower (maybe it is a guildhall- it's the place just over the wooden bridge before the tower with the statue) and now I have verified there are at least 4 NPCs spawning here: a Field Surgeon named Trom, two Shieldbearers named something like Relios and Buerd, and a woman spellcaster wearing white robes named Vrionele. I checked and these NPCs are in the EQ database here, but their pictures are out of date, and there is zero info about their purpose. Now these NPCs (sometimes spawning two at a time, but apparently this is rare) will all try to walk the same route out of the city. They will spawn, stand idle for about 5 minutes, then procede walking the route that will lead out of the city. This route traces a path through the city that is clearly set up to be very difficult for them to survive, and taking them directly into encounters with the Dragoons/golems that are clearly intended to interact with these NPCs. The positions that the golems are the Dragoons occupy in the city seems to me unquestionably tied to the movement path of these NPCs- anyone following the NPCs will see what I mean.

First they will exit and encounter a golem (and often a Dragoon) right to the left. Without protection they will immediately die. If you kill both the golem and perhaps the Dragoon, the NPC will continue around a bend in the road. straight down the path where a Dragoon always stands with a golem waiting just inside aggro range (sometimes there are two Dragoons here). If you protect the NPC here, they will start toward the bridge to exit the city. Here they will encounter the final two golems that stand guard here. I have not yet been able to protect the NPC through it all, the golems take too much, and by the time we get to the bridge I am out of mana and the final two golems get them. I have tried to use myself as a shield and lure the golems away but the golems will attack the NPC with what appears extreme prejudice.

Note that I can have an army of 40 pilgrims on any golem or Dragoon here, and they will not stop to fight the pilgrims once I hit them for a few K damage they will stick to me like glue- same with the golems. But 1 of these NPCs and it is totally different; I have smacked cliff golems for about 10k damage in order to get them completely focused on me so I can draw them away from the NPC, but the goelm will still kill the NPC before coming after me. No doubt if they get out of the city they will go and stand on that hill like the Shieldbearer did a while ago (and for sake of info I waited for about 20 minutes to see if the NPC would move from that spot and he didn't- so I'm pretty sure I wasn't just catching him mid-move or anything. He definitely seemed he was waiting for something to happen from there. I feel now I squandered a good opportunity earlier by losing track of him once we were out of the city. I can say I'm as confident as the facts lead me that there is something afoot here.

Now LP I hear you about chalking it up to error, but this is analogous to the two of us watch a guy flip a coin 20 or so times and get a heads result every time: we can chalk it up to coincidence, but that would be the wrong call to actually make. The improbability of such a series of results warrants the suspicion of bias; and this is the only reason I post this stuff is because I'm confident that the anomalies I'm seeing, and the interactions going on here, and the series of "peculiar facts" all paint a picture which warrants what I am hypothesizing. Again it may be that the coin actually is not biased, it may be this is just a very peculiar series of occurences in-game; but it's more likely than not to be biased. I challenge anyone to go to FV and protect one of those NPCs exiting the city and you'll quickly come to the conclusion that what's going on is very much suspiciously felt to be by design. I mean the path taken by them, and the positionings of the enemy along that path are unmistakebly planned out.

About M'Nyl, there's no reason for him to need to keep the pilgrims in check or anything, they will not go in to the city. The only reason they will ever interact with him is when he comes out to attack them (or when he spawns outside the city and attacks them). M'Nyl is a complete anomaly. If we remove him from the game, nothing mechanically changes.


Edited, Aug 2nd 2013 1:11am by broonsbane

Heading to FV and something occurred to me, I have a hypothesis on M'Nyl's anomalous behaviour/spawn area. He is not there to bash pilgrims and drixies- this is just a side-effect of his real reason for being in the game. The NPCs are trying to get out of the city, and if protected they (at least I can confirm Shieldbearer Relios) will stand on the hill outside the gate waiting for "something" and my thoughts tell me they are waiting for each other- I'll have to get each one out in turn (or, all 4 together in the rare quad-spawn- which I can't see me pulling off at this level). The first one will stand on the hill there, as usual, and I will run back to the guild hall to wait for the next member to escort. And this is what I fully anticipate next:

You will be escorting the next NPC across the bridge and up to the hill to be with the first- and you will see M'Nyl up there attacking the first NPC and killing them. And you will curse M'NYL! and he will say "You're no match wonk wonk wonk " and that is why he is really there. To make it even harder to get those NPCs to where they are wanting to go.

Yeah I am going to run solo a day or two more then go and get a couple of other players (or try to) if I have to, or even can. Right now I'm bound at the guildhall, and an abscond will put me out by the city gate; so I can jump back and forth rather quickly to check on the NPCs standing there. Was working it yesterday and got three NPCs out of the city (one at a time not together) and can confirm they will just stand there outside of the gate and do nothing for hours (did not witness a despawn of any type). The only thing that will interefer is M'Nyl who will kill/attack them and each NPC I lost to him (though I wasn't trying too hard to keep them from being gotten by M'Nyl since I was just wanting to know if they would all go to that spot). Now, I couldn't get the whiterobed wizard out of the city- I had a perfect opportunity and wasted it, and will try again when the opportunity presents itself just to confirm things- but I am 99.99% she will do the same thing and stand in the same place. But she's a wizard and so am I, so I will hail her or try some words/phrases to see if she responds to me at all. None of the other three will, but they're different classes than me so I need to check the wizard before continuing (I suspect she will not respond as well, but going to check it just in case)

What would really thrill me is to get another quad-spawn, but I've not seen anything like that save the one time, and wonder if the server crash is what got me to witness the quad-spawn being the only time it can happen, or something.



Oh yeah, I hear you. Personally I have no expectations, it's more of just the proverbial journey- the thrill of the chase, as it were. But what I can say is that factually speaking these four NPCs are trying to get out of the city and stand on that hill in front of the gate, and that will never happen unless they're protected. And if you do this one at a time, then you'll be dealing with a rogue element in M'Nyl just happening to spawn at the right place in order to further jeopardize the already escorted NPCs waiting outside the city. So, looks like a protection quest, moves like a protection quest, but doesn't talk like a protection quest. even the look of the party of four: two shieldbearers, a field surgeon, and a woman in white - it's the perfect combo for an evac.

This is why I was asking in another thread where the info about the game comes from- if Sony or someone had an official "this is all of the stuff in EQ" book, or some official "here's all the items and quests in the game"; or if the info is just coming from people playing the game, and the info they find in the game itself. Because if it's mostly just player-derived information, that leaves a gigantic amount of room for so many unknown variables- it's a question of, how does the information we know about the game relate to how much we do not know about the game- what information is still hidden?

Also, I really wanted to read some of those threads on Xorbb but couldn't find any.

Edited, Aug 3rd 2013 1:18pm by broonsbane

Edited, Aug 3rd 2013 1:18pm by broonsbane

ALSO: I'm working all weekend but would love to help you on this quest of yours come Monday. I'm pretty sure I've got a 30-40 toon on Povar.


Povar, er...right?

Edited, Aug 3rd 2013 4:10pm by Bijou

Here's what happened today (I've no doubt whatsoever this is/was an intended quest, the only question is if it is complete or not):

Camped the guild hall, tried to clear as many golems from the route as possible between NPC spawns; difficult but managed to get both shieldbearers and the field medic to their points outside the city (but not able to get them together, as M'Nyl would eventually get them when they were waiting). Couldn't get the wizard out as such, things tend to go straight for her and she drops. So I come up with a new angle on the old. Run out to the gate, M'Nyl is there, smack him untio he locks in on me, drag him running through the forest and gather up another army of pilgrims, then I run the whole thing back to the guild hall and start circling (the hall is just a big loop) and the pilgrims destroy. They all begin streaming out of the guild hall along the same route the NPCs take (they all follow the same route out of the city from the hall) and I tear off running in front of them with my Journey's Boots *insert JB sound effect here* until I come upon a Draggon, smack him and start a beef, then the pilgrims show up and I drag them all back to the loop to devour the Dragoon in the Den of Whirling Pilgrim Death. I start repeating this, running ahead of the throng, snagging something out of the path, taking it back to the treadmill of doom. Takes about 5 minutes per victim (the pilgrims are pretty fast being in such numbers) and pretty soon the city is desolate- I'm running ahead nervously looking for a golem or a Dragoon to keep the pilgrims in the city- and it seemed they were in hiding- but I managed to keep the cycle going.

Now the good thing was that since I was in the guild hall I was keeping an eye on the NPCs spawning, and first was Relios and he joined the throng happily. And they were so many in number that it was good hiding for him, as it were. I keep this up, running out and grabbing obstacles, clearing the path with the pilgrim army. At times it gets really funny, I'm up ahead of the pilgrims and smack a dragoon and he's all "blah blah blah" and I'm standing there and as he's trying to hit me, I can see the throng of pilgrims coming down the avenue behind him (relios always in front) which comes trickling in at first as the wave crashes in behind it and the drragoon is going AH! AH!AH! AH!AH!AH!AH!

Anyway I do this for a long while waiting for the other NPCs to spawn and pretty soon I start thinking they're not going to- something is keeping them from spawning. It seemed a bit of time (two game days about). I'm about to give up and just get Relios to the gate when the wizard and the fieldsurgeon spawn together. Aha! I'm content just to see the wizard through, and now I've got three in the throng. Good news indeed. I decide to take the three to the gate and run along (I note the NPCs will run the route after combat, and not walk it/also note th pilrims/drixies seemed to concentrate spells on the NPCs).

At this point we flood down the avenue, Relios leading the way- I hang back hovering around the wizard because I'll be damned if she's not making it this time. We get to the bridge and there's M'Nyl in the middle of the bridge with a golem on either side, and I see Relios running up aggro on him, and I blast him froma short distance a couple of times but he won't come off Relios and down goes Relios and M'Nyl charges me. I freak out and start draughting the golems trying to get them all locked on me and it's working; but spells start going off, and smoke is everywhere, and I;m circling around in a panic looking for flashes of white robes. Finally the smoke clears, the wizard is still up and running to the gate with the pilgrims and takes her spot. I run up and hail, try some words, no response. Here she is now:

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2459/kpce.jpg

Then I remembered the fieldsurgeon and look around but he's nowhere to be seen. Lost in the battle. Started with three, ended up with one. So I hovered around the wizard waiting for M'Nyl to appear so I could kill him, then go back to the guild hall to check things without having to worry about him. So I wait. But I don't know exactly where he spawns, and where the NPCs stand is a little lower than the hillside beyond, and I see him there a lot. I'm also trying to determine how long between his spawns. So every once in a while I move about three seconds away from the NPC to check the foot of that hill. Run up the hill, check, run back down. And I get nervous every time I move up that hill to check, but I just don't want him to spawn and me not see it. So you guessed it, one time I quick run up to check, turn around and I can now officially confirm that at least one of M'Nyl's spawn points is directly behind the place where the NPCs stand- about ten game feet. He jumps her, I run up *draught* *draught* *draught* he will not come off and down she goes.

Edited, Aug 4th 2013 1:45am by broonsbane

Thanks I'll check it out.



url tags probably [url=address]words[/url]

here?

edit: yeah

Edited, Aug 4th 2013 2:19am by broonsbane

I'm almost certain this has been done (killing guards and/or training the super-buffed guards away) with the anti-climatic result of Fippy reaching an interior point (zoneline?) and despawning.

Yeah scores of players have had to have done this during the run of this game. I was reading another thread on it, and someone claimed they had done it and Fippy runs into the town and says something like "I claim this land for Darkpaw" - don't know if that's true, but I'm certain this has to have been done multiple times. Because I know that I would do this, and so any players with my personality type would also try it, just to see what happens.

This is what surprises me about these NPCs in Firiona Vie- I'm completely shocked at the dearth of info, there have to have been numbers of people who have escorted the NPCs just to see what would happen. But there are no posts, no accounts, nothing. When I originally searched the NPC names to see who they were and why they were there in FV, I fully expected comments like "escorted to gate- all you get is XP and some plat- not worth it" or "escorted to gate- nothing happened- broken quest?" or "anyone know why these NPCs are here" or "left over from original FV quest"; nothing but "saw him/her spawn today, walked out and was killed immediately" and when I say to myself, "Looks like you're the only one that has noticed this" the statement comes off as utterly preposterous. That can't possibly be the case.

By the way, when did the whole "change FV" take place? And does anyone know if FV is the only place in the game to change in such a way?

Edited, Aug 5th 2013 1:32pm by broonsbane

On 02 February 2005, war broke out. Fighting went on for about four and a half hours (real time)

https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=3032 - "The War"

Okay remember how I said I was going to go elsewhere and get some levels? Change of plans, I'm staying. As I'm going through this it's designed to be really difficult, like they want this to be a team effort and not a solo. So challenge accepted. I'm doing this solo. I'm sure they thought, there's no possible way anbody can do this solo- but I'm going to disprove that.

M'Nyl spawns every 25 minutes; either in the middle of the bridge, right behind where the NPCs stand (almost got Trom on my watch today, but I smacked him with a manaburn as soon as he spawned and turned toward Trom I was on him and he couldn't recover enough to be a threat before he was toast), or up in the forest. What makes this so difficult is the weakness of the NPCs, it doesn't matter how powerful your own character is because it's the NPCs that matter, and unless you can clear everything on the island pretty much instantly, it's going to be tough to keep the attack-happy NPCs alive.

Today I managed this:

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/2782/ux3b.jpg

Two out in front at the same time. As you can see, Vrionele will stand beside Relios; and Beuller (or whatever the name of the other shieldbearer) will stand beside her. The good news from my point of view is that they've designed this to be so difficult just getting them to the gate that I suspect the other triggers should be not so difficult. If they are, then they planned for this quest to be extremely difficult.

Here is a bonus shot:

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/3654/6ova.jpg

Unfortunately I was bringing the other shieldbearer to the gate to make three (I had my hopes on having them all four out tonite, but looks like it may take another day or two) when three Dragoons decided to all come stand in his way, so I had to get all of them on me, and ran toward the gate with Beuller in tow, and two golems joined in the chase. I diverted to the beach to circumvent the two still standing at the gate and fried the three Dragoons but was out of mana for the two golems. I should've just stood there and let them wail on me, but I forgot about the two at the city gate and used my gate to escape back to the guildhall (leaving the two golems to turn and trash Tibener Mil'nak (or whatever his name) the guy who just stands around doing nothing while me and the pilgrims are trying to take down golems and Dragoons, and he always just strolls on by not so much as to stop and lend a hand. So now when I see him, I run up to him dragging whatever is behind me- and gate away leaving them to attack him. It's a coward's reward and he fully deserves it. Anyway as soon as I appeared I gasped, realizing the two golems would kill him (or make him gate away) then start back toward the city, encounter Trom and Relios at the gate, and wipe the floor with them. Which is what happened, and I called it a night being back at square one.

Anyway will post more when info is relevant. I'd like to keep this as such just so (not that I think anyone would- but just for posterity's sake, as it were) if someone else goes in there with a group of something and brings them out and something cool happens, and they say "I figured it out" I can be like, "No, that was me, and here is the info to prove it."

Edited, Aug 6th 2013 1:40am by broonsbane

Keep us apprised of what you find, but be prepared to be disappointed. Unfortunately, having also spent quite a bit of time back in the day trying to unravel the secrets behind the behaviors of various NPCs, I've learned that overwhelmingly, they do these things just to create the illusion of a bustling and active environment. The developers realized that if everyone just stood in one spot all the time, it wouldn't seem like a real society, so they created some NPCs that did nothing but spawn in one place and then walk somewhere else and stand there, despawn after a time, and then repeat the process. Others will roam around in a set pattern.

In most cases, these NPCs are *not* quest NPCs. They tend to make quest NPCs stay in the same spots (so that people can find them). These other NPCs are just there for color. I'm going to second an earlier theory that since these NPCs were not relevant to anything in the new elven outpost in FV, they didn't move them or reprogram them. So now, this set of NPCs continues spawning where they used to spawn, and walking the path they used to walk, but now are doing so in the midst of enemy mobs who typically kill them quickly. Never know though, it's possible something happens if you manage to keep them alive. But be prepared for the likely possibility that they'll just stand there ignoring you for a period of time, then respawn back inside the city.