I had a friend that started me playing EQ1, we started on day 3 of EQ’s existence. For some reason he didn’t understand that the game was nothing but dice-rolling put to graphics – so he’d always dodge and weave in combat thinking it made a difference.

He died, a lot. And then I’d drag his corpses around and hide them places.

I remember once he and I were on the boat going from Butcherblock to….gosh we had no idea where it went because we were so new. Well, as we come near a small island apparently someone thought it would be a good idea to shoot the spectres we passed from the side of the boat. They came after us and quickly murdered everyone on board.

I cursed my friend for being so stupid the whole run back to the docks – and as we waited for the boat to return I continued berating him. The boat arrived and we piled on, only to be slaughtered the second we set foot aboard. The Spectres had bugged out and were now stuck on the boat, and guarding it like wispy pirates. They persisted through zoning, which was mind-boggling to me. Zoning was supposed to be “safety”.

They stayed like that, the captains of the ship, for the remainder of the weekend.

That’s poetry :)

My first sight of the chessboard came when I’d decided to leave Antonica — my friend Noffin and I were the tiny terrors of newbie grounds from Freeport to Qeynos and either of us could bend your ear for hours about our adventures. I was level 12, West Commonlands wasn’t really that exciting anymore and West Karana (yes! the actual zone! not this blog!) and North Karana seemed a little light on the loot, so I decided to explore the world. I got on the boat to Butcherblock and had many adventures on my way through the Ocean of Tears as I stopped at every island. There were people EVERYWHERE, and they told stories! Boat rides were really long, so people would talk about the dinosaur that roamed that island over there — you can see him if you squint, see? — and dropped DIAMONDS — if you could kill him. Or those weird Sisters that would come right up and kill you if they saw you fighting. Or that island of cyclops — stay away! Or the giant that had made some sort of pact with the ogres over there. Goblins that waited to assault people as they sailed into Butcherblock Bay.

It was late by the time I got to Butcherblock, and getting dark. This being the old EQ, it was DARK. They hadn’t yet put in the night lights which made everything pretty bright even at midnight (and which every current game has). I stumbled around for awhile, not knowing where anything was (this was before in-game maps). I did have a destination in mind — I’d heard Steamfont was a good place for my level, and I intended to find it. I didn’t find that. I did find Dagnor’s Cauldron, which the people there informed me was maybe not where I wanted to be. So I backed out, came across glowing yellow towers and mysterious druid rings (druids received their first ports at 19, so I was still some levels away).

And then, coming over a hill, I saw glowing in the distance… a chessboard with giant pieces scattered over it. I was stunned; I had never expected to see anything like that. I ran to it, caught sight of the skeletons and gulped a bit. Two young dwarfs invited me into their group (this was the first time I had seen PC dwarfs in several months of play — travel was uncommon in old EQ for low level characters), and we took on the skeletons. I kept in touch with at least one of those dwarfs for years. That first glimpse of the chessboard was my desktop background for quite some time. If I can dig it up, I’ll post it.

I spent many levels in Butcherblock, Dagnor’s Cauldron and Unrest. I had quite a trade going on in scarab shell armor. After a couple of weeks, I was called back to Antonica, to the Oasis of Ro, to continue my adventures there — but that’s another story. I never did get to Steamfont that trip. I never forgot my first night in Butcherblock.

My gear was crap, though I proudly displayed my 10th Coldain Ring, and Loyalist Shield of Honor. I was one of those dorks who had really crappy gear and very little experience, yet somehow got one or two really amazing items by some insane stroke of luck. When I quit I had about 5K plat just sitting there. It was a lot back then, and people begged me to bestow it to them when I departed. But no! That was my cash and I was to be buried with it and all my gear at the foot of a stump near the chessboard in Butcherblock.

The chessboard was my legacy – I used to rescue people from the Undead King by soloing it when I was a few levels too low. It was always an extremely close fight, and I could never seem to actually kill the thing unless someone was watching me. If they helped in any way I always seemed to die, so I’d charge in and start swinging while yelling “DON’T DO NOTHIN!” One guy started calling me “The Kuron Monster” after an impressive rescue, stating “forget the king, you’re the toughest mob in this zone right now”.

I quietly corrected him, but he kept calling me that anyway – and a few other people took up the habit as well. Whether mocking me, or truly believing – I was known by many as The Kuron Monster long after my lowbie days were over. But I was a warrior, and at that time warriors only got worse and more useless with age. They all eventually discovered the truth, hehe. Kuron Steelfeather was nothing more than a walkin’ trash can with a beard stapled to it.