It's the one year anniversary of the launch of DDO - I can't hardly believe it's been around that long! To celebrate, they're increasing the XP you gain this weekend, as well as increasing loot you find. Who can pass a deal like that up?

I logged on as my very first char, a fighter currently rank 8 (about midway through level 2). I don't have a lot of time tonight (mainly because the pain meds make me very drowsy), so I can only do a couple quests.

I last logged out in the Leaky Dinghy. So, I can do Osgood's quest - dig through his basement (ok, the sewers) and retrieve an artifact stolen from him. I also did the Smashing the Gambling Den quest - I still laugh at the guy who says "but...I was winning!" as I smash the table he was gambling on.

Finally, I talk to Baudry Cartamon. He wants me to protect a crate from kobolds, while he sets some traps to prevent them from getting in his warehouse. This is a different style of quest. I've got a timer, and I've got to prevent the kobolds from destroying the crate while the timer counts down. It's 4 minutes (I think - I didn't notice the exact time it started), and the kobolds keep coming. Fortunately, I managed to keep them at bay. It was close, tho - at one point the chest was actually on fire (stupid fireball throwing shamans). I went back to Caudry, and he thanked me, and asked me to continue to help him. So, the next phase is something simpler - smash 50 of his competitor's crates before the competitor comes back.

Simpler, but not simple. You get 5 minutes to smash 50 crates (on solo, who knows what it is on the higher settings)...the warehouse is dark, the crates are scattered, there's doors and hallways and winding... ugh. I actually got motion sickness in there, as if I were in first person mode (which is why I don't play FPS's). I managed to find 20 crates in that 5 minutes. THIS one is going to require a party, I think, where we can split up and enjoy some smashy goodness.

Speaking of parties, I was kind of saddened to see that the guild I joined at launch to get the goodie - I think it was a helm - has pretty much deserted the game. The last login was over a month ago, and the longest ago was a year. I'm glad there's solo options in this game, because it's hard to play with friends when you don't have any!

Anyway, I'm going to log in over the weekend more, so I can reap some of that phat xp!