A lot to cover as I’ve been getting quite heavily into many aspects of EQII lately, not least of which is enjoying the low-level area of the Kunark expansion along with 98.7% of the rest of the game’s population it seems. Prior to that I’d started off on a few of the early Butcherblock quests, gathering sandal ingredients for the fisher bloke on the beachfront, swimming back and forth to the aqua goblin island to retrieve pages of a book (haven’t you people ever heard of saddle-stitch linings or leather-binding? Honestly, Norrathian books seem to fall apart at the slightest gust of wind) and generally avoiding dying through my monk invisibility skills and hit-and-run, take ‘em down one at a time, Predator-style tactics.

Nonetheless, progress was being made, levels were obtained, quests ticked off and even a wrong turn in Globbsunk Cove which instead of leading to a final quest item, instead brought me face to eye with Leviathan. The all-seeing monster of the deep. Ol’ Squiddy McTentacle (yes, it killed me so quickly I didn’t actually get a chance to see its proper name, okay?). Which is one of the things I love about this game. Every time you think you’ve seen all of a certain location, something mysterious and terrifying is always waiting just around the corner.

Then, just as I was starting to hit my stride and beginning to throw off the shackles of ham-fisted gameplaying, really start to enjoy myself you know, Kunark hits and a quick nose around with a Sarnak alt suddenly turns into my main EQII’ing experience and before you can say “Well that was inevitable when you stop to think about it,” McStumpy Carrotbeard the Monk is somehow no longer my number one guy. The alt has become the master and this scaly fella below has jumped into the lead position as my highest-leveled character. How the hell did that happen???

I’m beginning to think that banana-tinted aftershave was a mistake.
Damn you, bargain aisle!

The solo starting path for Sarnaks in ROK is surprisingly well structured and it was probably that being-led-by-the-nose aspect that kept me playing through it. None of the vague wanderings found in Antonica, never a moment when I’m not sure how to proceed, and even a surprisingly well-designed selection of quests that, while still mostly of the Kill X mobs variety, at least peppered with enough imagination and plot exposition to paint a really entertaining picture of life in this neck of the woods. Plus it looks gorgeous, but then you all know that already:

Can’t be that advanced a civilisation. Haven’t even invented escalators.

But it puts me in a quandary. The next step for my Sarnak Fury is to head over to Butcherblock. So which of my now two mains do I carry on with? I’d like to stick with the dwarf as BB is based around his kith and kin after all (the main reason I went there in the first place), but the Fury is proving to be a lot of fun to play and he’s kitted out quite well now. Can a Sarnak go to Thundering Steppes and have a worthwhile time? Should Nektulos Forest be an option? All advice welcome to the usual address…