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Have you ever looked at antique maps? Where the known world ended, sometimes fanciful
cartographers would pen in "Here Be Dragons." Brrrrr. Now there's a phrase to put you off your stride!
The zone of Nagafen's Lair is home to a
dragon: one well known to many travellers in Norrath. While
dragon-hunting is a lively sport for a character of fifty levels or so, younger adventurers fear
to enter a dragon's lair. That's sad, because there are many parts of Nagafen's Lair where the dragon
never ventures, but other fun abounds for the stalwart explorer.
So it was that Ancarett and Slugaduk proposed to join their guild in a raid upon the kobolds of Nagafen's Lair (or SolB as it is often known). Getting to the zone itself was a bit of an adventure, as we awoke in our current hunting grounds of the Overthere. Fortunately, wizard Calliden offered to assist and, after a quick port to the Dreadlands, brought us to Nektulos for the run through Lavastorm up to the fiery pit of Solusek's Eye. We skirted the lava and ran along the ledge to the zone entrance. Invisibility would be no use to us inside: speed, a good map and the knowledge that intervening corridors were mostly cleared by other hunters made our trip to the night's camp fairly safe. As SolB is popular, if you should venture in our footsteps, take heart: many people found groups immediately upon zoning in and there were plenty of monsters to occupy the many hunting parties busy in the zone. As we arrived late, guildmates magician Cozmoic, wizard Calliden, guildleaders Haunters and Hykros had already claimed one of the Kobold lairs for our night's hunting spot: the King's Room. We arrived as Hykros was pulling some sonic bats and crawlers into the cleared room. The bats were around level 40: just a bit above us, but below our caster friends' levels. The lavas duct crawlers were more difficult: few of our spells would stick and Hykros ended up having to dispose of one by himself. After that he confined his other pulls to kobolds and bats that were suitable for our level. From the moment we arrived until we teleported out several hours later, the action never stopped. If you come to hunt the kobolds of SolB, be prepared to be kept on your toes. Without an enchanter in the party, we were forced to nurse our mana reserves along carefully. Haunters did most of the buffing and many heals (since I was still, at level 38, short of Complete Heal). I concentrated on backup heals and stuns. Slugaduk, as a troll warrior, was in his element. He swung his weapons tirelessly (if stamina seemed low, he could switch to his axe and wait for the proc to restore his stamina). He was aided by Cozmoic's earth pet who waded into combat and assisted by rooting the mobs who were all too ready to run from our attacks. Once we got in a rhythm of killing, Hykros began to pull more. This became even more exciting as we saw the room repopping at a manic rate. Kobolds of all sorts began to filled the chamber. Calliden's spells did astonishing damage when he scored a critical hit and the corpses began to mount up. I threw in the occasional stun to try and contribute beyond simply throwing a few heals. Unfortunately, at one of our most frantic moments, Cozmoic became the focus of the kobold's anger. His hitpoints spilled away like water and soon a revive was in order. I too, fell to the kobold's wrath, but with Haunters there we were both quickly restored to the group. I healed us up while the rest of the party dealt with the ongoing assault of the kobolds. After a while, a guildmate druid joined our party. His regeneration and snare helped to settle the balance back in our favour, though several times he nearly succumbed to the attacks of the angry monsters. Plentiful loot dropped during the few hours we were there. The Kobold Noble dropped both the Petrified Erudite Heart (his rare drop) as well as a staff of writhing, which amused Cozmoic no end with its skull-tipped appearance. A pair of Runed Mithril Bracers dropped as well as a wealth of bronze armour, fine steel weapons and other items. Our packs groaned when we finally decided to wind up our party. Hykros called us all in tight while our port to West Commons went off. Even as we ported out of the King Kobold's room in Nagafen's Lair, more kobolds were coming to attack, but the spell was uninterrupted. Once in West Commons our adventure continued. Slugaduk began to run east on his way to the homey confines of Neriak. He spotted a hill giant near the East Common border and called for me to join him. Running as fast as I could, heavily encumbered and without sow, I finally caught up with him a and prepared to lend a hand. My melee added little but healing came in handy as the giant eventually fell to Slugaduk's two swords. We congratulated each other on the happy cap to a busy evening, then hurried off to sell, bank and camp. |