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Not too long ago we set off for the distant dungeon of Permafrost, nestled in the far reaches of
Everfrost Peaks. Though not as inaccessible as it once was (due to the introduction of new druid ports
to Surefall Glade) it still is quite a trek for a group who relies on a wizard for travel spells. Once
Slugaduk the warrior, Calima the bard and Moonfairy the wizard had joined me, we teleported to the
Karanas. The long run across the zones felt shorter as I provided a guided tour of all the many memorable
spots on this side of Norrath. "That's where Yseulte and Trystahnn died
trying to take on the ogre camp" and so forth. Once in Everfrost Peaks I handed off guide duties to Slugaduk
who led us straight to Permafrost's backdoor. With Moonfairy's wizarding spells of teleportation and invisibility, we felt free to explore much of the zone. She had Lesser Evacuate, the wizarding intrazone group teleport, memorized so we could rapidly get out of any trouble we discovered. As the safe spot it returned us to was right inside the backdoor entrance, we were grateful for that sense of security. Slugaduk also explained that shrink potions were vital to helping a troll get through some of the narrow spots in the zone. Once we made our way up the first ladder, we appreciated his point. We had few plans for the evening's adventure. If the King was up, we planned to kill him in hopes of snagging the White Wolf Hide Cloak. The best items in the zone were beyond our reach (drops from Lady Vox, the dragon) but at least we didn't have a lot of competition: zoning in with only one other player in the dungeon (a lonely barbarian camping a rare drop). Calima checked her track and announced that Vox was up. Slugaduk and I marvelled that the dragon who had once been so assiduously camped by competitive guilds was now up and unnoticed. My objective in Permafrost was to collect permafrost crystals, a vital ingredient for high level pottery (which I am slowly mastering). Calima also had a special objective: she needed the icy greaves that drop off of a elite goblin guard to complete the lambent greaves quest. She already had the shin greaves as a result of an earlier visit to Lower Guk, so she was well-prepared. We began our slow way towards the king room. Even with Calima singing her invisibility song, we found some of the caster mobs would see through the disguise and attack, causing a chain reaction of annoying little goblins. During all our exploring we ended up a bit off track and the party fell into one of the pit traps filled with wolves. Fortunately, these weren't the giant wolves and Moonfairy easily ported us back to the zone-in. Slugaduk quaffed another shrink potion, Calima revved up her invis song and we started off towards the king room again. This time after a few fights, we made it. The room was full, but no King was up. Ahh, well, there WERE many elite goblins. Most of them conned green or light blue to Slugaduk and I at level 43 and 42. With Moonfairy casting invis on all, we followed Slugaduk into the room. He had no problem pulling the goblins one at a time. Calima assisted in melee and sang her damage shield song while Moonfairy threw in well-timed nukes to finish them off. Six goblins fell to our combined attacks before the icy greaves appeared. We all cheered for Calima on a job well-done. She checked her track and confirmed that an Ice Giant Diplomat was up. Feeling him a reasonable challenge for our group, Slugaduk passed through the enormous doors to the left of the king room and brought the giant out. He was large and fearsome, but soon was groaning in collapse. Unfortunately, we wandered a bit too far into the ice giants' lair and pulled another, more fearsome giant who conned red to all and our second evac soon had us back at the zone-in, cleared of aggro and all alive. The night was still young and although we'd helped Calima achieve her goal, we decided one more trip into the dungeon might prove fruitful. Slugaduk led us to the bridge where the goblin archaeologist spawns, hoping we could get at least one of the weight-reducing bags. But only ordinary placeholders appeared and after two slow spawn cycles with nothing giving our group experience, we moved onwards. We poked our heads into several rooms, but few rare mobs were up. We ended up in the Goblin Scryer's room and wiped out the six goblins easily (thanks in part to Calima's charm song). Slugaduk really enjoyed the 85 point poison damage proc off his new Venomous Axe of the Velium Brood. Moonfairy's wizarding bolts hit some amazing crits as they torched the goblins. After we'd cleared the room we all had a good giggle at the focal point of the room: an frozen Neanderthal goblin. After a half hour of pulls, we were ready to call it a night. Permafrost is a great dungeon but didn't have a lot for a party at our level. I'd managed to dig up almost half a stack of crystals, Calima had gotten her greaves and everyone had had fun. So it was a happy group that evac'd out with Moonfairy's assistance. All that remained was assisting Calima get her new lambent greaves. We made a quick trip up to to the Temple of Solusek Ro where we quickly found the quest-giver, Walthin Fireweaver. He directed us to find Genni to enchant the stones. That took a bit of work as we didn't realize there was a third floor to the zone. Persistence (and advice from a guildmate of Calima's) paid off: we located the elusive Genni two floors above Walthin. With all the items in hand, Calima returned to Walthin and completed her quest. We celebrated as she modeled her new armour. |