Desert of Ro
From EQ KnowledgePit
Located south of Freeport and north of Innothule Swamp, the Desert of Ro was once the capital of Tunaria. In his rage, Solusek Ro caused a drought and burned the Elddar Forest to the ground leaving the expanses of the Desert in it's place. This became known as the Desert of Ro. A tunnel in the northern cliffs connect the Desert to the Commonlands and an entrance to Takish`Hiz was discovered coinciding with the zone revamp and the launch of Prophecy of Ro. In addition to the main entrance to Takish`Hiz, adventurers in the Lost Dungeons of Norrath discovered an entrance into some of the decayed Ruins of Takish`Hiz as well as a path leading into the Rujarkian Hills.
Contents |
[edit] General
The deserts provide a vast hunting ground for low-mid level adventurers. In it's heydey, the Oasis zone was the place to go in your mid-teens. Hunting caimens, crocodiles, deepwater caimens and deepwater crocodiles were the hot spot and the entire shoreline was frequently camped by up to 20 people at a time. A rare named crocodile, Lockjaw, occasionally spawned on the beach and was much higher than the normal crocs, his Lockjaw-hide vest was arguably the best monk chest item in the game pre-Kunark due to its high AC and low weight.
Roaming sand giants were always a threat in the desert, though most everything else to be found freely was around level 20 or lower, level 35+ undercons roamed and frequently caused havoc. Many players remember with fondness the hours of sand giant trains.
In addition to the low level, the Desert (particularly the Oasis) housed some higher level camps of Deepwater Goblins and Spectres. When these mobs got trained to the lower level areas, all hell broke loose.
When Prophecy of Ro was released, the three zones were revamped and the Oasis of Marr was combined with the South Ro zone. The general layout remained similar, but the overall flavor of the zone changed.
[edit] North Ro
| North Ro |
|---|
|
With a newbie area near Freeport, North Ro is a natural place for adventurers to come. It not only offers creatures to kill up to the early teens, but provides an adventure camp and some very convenient merchants. Roaming undead, spiders, basilisks and scarabs haunt the hills near the Oasis of Marr zone.
Wizard Spires and the adventure camp provide for easy travel to North Ro.
[edit] South Ro
| South Ro |
|---|
|
Now containing the Oasis of Marr, South Ro is a very large zone.
The southmost end of the zone contains many small orc camps that are a fun diversion for Trolls making their way out of Innothule Swamp. Nestled amongst the orcs is an adventure camp that players can sell loot to and buy rations.
Further north, the desert begins. This area is most known for the Ancient Cyclops who drops the bottleneck piece for the Journeyman Boots quest. His spawn cycle has often been guessed at, but never confirmed...
North still is the area known as the Oasis of Marr. Here-in lies the Spectre tower which was oft rumored to be an alternate entrance to the Plane of Fear and under the surface of the Oasis is a Goblin outpost. The rest of the zone is fairly safe for low level adventurers provided they're on constant vigil for sand giants... particularly Cazel. In the southwest corner of the Oasis area is a hole leading to Takish`Hiz.
In addition to the normal zones, there is a Druid Circle here which allows for teleportation into the zone.
[edit] Oasis of Marr
| Oasis of Marr |
|---|
|
Though this no longer exists in the game as a separate zone, it's part of Norrath's history, this was one of the most active zones in the game in the early days.
This was merged with South Ro when Prophecy of Ro was released.
