So we’ve been 50 for about a month now, with a regrettable number of no-play weeks. I blame myself, what with being very much AFK for two of them. Just the same, we’ve been adventuring with our gnomish heads held as high off the ground as we can.

As part of our fierce drive to reclaim the game for ourselves, early last month we ventured back to Rivervale. When the content there dried up, we headed out to another zone that I’d previous poo-poo’d: EverFrost. Despite my trepidations, it actually turned out to be more than a little bit enjoyable. And the dungeons! The Dungeons! Miragul’s Menagerie, you magnificent monster. Permafrost, you perfect paragon!

Read on for the meat of our mighty tales in the melt (and an aside on Brenlo’s pie complex.)

The first time we ventured into it, the Everfrost was one of the zones that made me want to quit the game. Upon returning, I found it to be a wonderland of sno-cones and fun quests. What a difference just a few levels makes. The group stocked up on basic kill quests and ventured forth through the ice, snow, and tentacle monsters to get the job done.

Over two sessions, we ground through most of the zone and completed a bevy of quests. Both of them were just great times, and I’m not sure if that had to do with the content so much as our moods those evenings. I particularly enjoyed the experience of knocking down the Galebreaker/Cloudsong Maidens. Those are some awesome models, and it’s been a little bit since we really encountered brand-new monster appearances.

As much fun as our usual grindathon was, spurred on by comments Tipa made here on the site a long time ago (thanks Tipa!) we tried a few different things during our time in the whiteout as well. Specifically, we took on a pair of dungeons that left us very well pleased. The first was the mini-keep known as Miragul’s Menagerie. Miragul’s hideout was originally introduced to Norrath in the Lost Dungeons of Norrath expansion (easily one of my favorite EQ1 content additions). It’s aged well, though I don’t think it’s as big as it was back in the day. I blame melting.

The four room instance is a great little scripted experience, with a trio of boss fights that really tested the mettle of our undersized group. The story of the dungeon is pretty forgettable. Trapped powers seeking escape, a scroll hidden in a chest, shades of the original Miragul seeking power from the shadows … stabbity stab.

What was fantastic was the two end boss fights, an angry caster named Sulon McMoor and a sphinx-thing called Myrgoth. We wiped pretty hard on Myrgoth the first time we tried the encounter, but persistence lead us back to clear out the place twice more before moving on. As a pro-tip: make sure to stand all the way against the far wall when you aggro Myrgoth; his adds won’t aggro then! Aside from the challenge, both Sulon and Myrgoth offer some nice lootz – we got several masters during the course of our time there, all of which sold for a pretty penny.

Though we’ve only scratched the surface of the second big dungeon in Everfrost, we walked away impressed: The giant stronghold of Permafrost was really great to wander around in. Actually, it’s one of the times that the experiences I had in EQ really came back to hit me. Something about that place really reminds me of Runnyeye; I never had much experience with the original Permafrost Keep, so you’ll have to tell me how well they did recreating that space.

Permafrost repeats one of my favorite elements from our last big dungeon, Drafling Tower. There, numerous quests were available right in the midst of the zone. Clicking on a lamp or a book would net you a thing-to-do just a few steps down the hall. Permafrost offers the same, in what I’ve seen described as a somewhat epic questline. To get those quests, you want to go to the room labeled on the GamePressure map as the ‘Horn Room’ and click on the statues there. Basically once you’re in the keep proper, take the first left, and then go all the way down the hall and hang a right.

We did little more than get quested up and bash in some giant heads while we were there … but still it was a great time. It made me pumped for further explorations of that crumbling ruin. But that was not to be … just yet. Next time: a side-trip back to Lesser Faydark and the continuation of our Permafrost adventure!

Aside: So Brenlo, at the Community Influencer thing, was a bit agitated about the short end of the stick haflings get in EQ2. Whereas the short people we play, gnomes, can turn into clockworks (and a number of other things) Haflings aren’t so fortunate. In fact, their racial benefit is apparently that they get … pie. He was understandably distressed; pie, on its own, is a bit useless in a fantasy milieu.

Maybe I should have told him Katie and I used to play Haflings back in our EQ days. Oh, that Rivervale music …