Qho's Brewday Adventures! [EverQuest II]

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Many adventurers and crafters have had the misfortune of crossing Qho Augren's path while working on the Gathering Obsession series. The infamous brat of Mara nagged us to bring him back more and more harvests every time we returned to him. Yet we put up with his nagging just so we could earn the Cloak of the Harvester, and once that was obtained, we hoped to never lay our eyes on him again.

However, in Destiny of Velious he worms his way back into our lives. Any level 90 crafter who had assisted him in the past receives a letter in the mail from him begging for us to pay him a visit. With much chagrin many of us returned to Qho, who is still swimming in the pond at the Village of Shin, only to be once again sent out to get him even more harvests. We embarked on the Return of a Gathering Obsession, again in hopes that it would sate his interests once and for all.

Upon returning to Qho with our heavy sacks of harvests, we then learned he's managed to convince his mother that we would be the perfect guardian for him to take a trip to Velious with! Much to our amusement, he becomes a pet that follows us around. While I'm sure many people had fun jumping off of cliffs with him in tow, or battling the nastiest of beasts, I saw the opportunity to teach Qho more about harvesting.

Coincidentally Brewday was just around the corner when I picked up Qho from his mother. Continue reading for my tale of Qho's adventures learning all about Brewday and, finally earning the respect of the local Bar of Brell patrons so that he could harvest from their special gardens.

"Well, let's go already", I grumbled as I yanked Qho onto my gryphon with me and took off into the skies.

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" Qho screamed, causing my ears to be on the verge of bleeding. "Wait, aren't we supposed to be going to the turtle, Cyliena? My mommy said that you could take me to Velious and we could find some harvests and we could go on a tour of Thurg..."

I began to laugh. "Qho, I'll take you to Velious, but not right at this moment. You're fortunate today, for Brewday has just begun! We will celebrate Brell, beer and you can learn what special harvests he has laid on the lands for you to gather once you earn his respect."

Qho thought about this for some time. "Well, okay then, but will it take long? My mommy said that..."

"Your mother said that I was to be your guardian, but she never said when I needed to return you to her. I'm sure she won't mind you being gone a bit longer!" I replied.

Qho seemed at a loss for words. I smiled to myself and banked toward Antonica, where our adventures would begin.

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We landed near the North Qeynos gates of Antonica where the entrance to the Bar of Brell was to be found. I showed Qho the portal as he gawked at the dwarves chugging down ales nearby. Grabbing his arm, we stepped through the portal and found ourselves inside the bar.

"WOWEEEE!" cried Qho. "This is soooo cool! Where are the harvests?"

I rolled my eyes. "First you need to earn respect so they will entrust their special glasses to you. Those glasses will allow you to see Brell's gardens."

Qho made some funny noises—surely he must be running out of arguments by now!—and followed along behind me as I introduced the two of us to the patrons. A few of them needed some assistance, and I jotted down notes in my journal while the brat looked on with avid interest. We stopped by the merchant for a chat and I purchased a couple of pretty tiles for Qho and his family to study the craftsmanship of at home.

"Now Qho," I said, "as you have likely noticed, a great part of Brewday is drinking. You are far too young to imbibe such drinks, but I would like to teach you the dangers of heavy drinking. So come downstairs with me please."

We walked behind a heavy curtain and down the stairs, where several of the patrons were fighting. Qho's eyes almost bulged out of his head. This boy really was the face of innocence.

I cleared my throat to get his attention. "You see, drinking too much leads you to do stupid things. Take for instance these two men here. They're fighting over a silly card game that neither of them will win now that they've broken the table and chairs. Tomorrow morning, they'll likely apologize to each other, go back to drinking, and wind up right back where we are now."

A light seemed to finally go on in Qho's head. "I will never drink! That's horrible to fight with your friends."

I chuckled and trucked him back upstairs, where we departed the bar and set out on a mission of questing.                                                     

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Our quests took us all over the Shattered Lands. I stumbled about finding objects of power for Snoogle. I showed Qho how to tip a cow for a distraction, how to tip a minotaur that considered being aggressive, and how to tip over once you've drunk too many spirits. Taking a dare from one of the patrons, I ended up on a crazy adventure much too blurred to remember, only to return to him and be sent out again to find his armor.

During all of this, the boy just gawked and was silent. It seemed that for once and for all I may have found a way to make him less annoying!

We finally met the Avatar of Brell, who was wandering the fields of Antonica. He ruffled Qho's tuft of hair in amusement as he requested that we find some select brews around the world.

Qho and I delved deep into Blackburrow where we nabbed a bit of stout for the avatar. We flew over to Maj'Dul and acquired a local spirit from a suave merchant. Some adventurers on the Butcherblock Docks squealed and covered Qho's eyes as Tumpy Irontoe dared me to streak around in exchange for his brew.

We headed back to the Avatar of Brell, who was pleased with what we brought. He directed us to return to the Bar of Brell where the local patrons were impressed with Qho's assistance and bestowed their special glasses upon him.

"Now," I said, "let's go find those gardens."

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Qho danced around with joy as he put on the glasses. We headed out to the Frostfang Sea and began searching for the Brewday gardens. As we ascended one of the hills, I heard Qho shriek and hoped, er, thought that he might be in danger.

I ran to catch up and found Qho running in circles around one of the gardens. He was so excited that he was unable to make any intelligible sounds. Once I pinned him to the ground and got him to calm down, we carefully plucked out the harvests from the garden.

Continuing onward toward the city of New Halas we found several more gardens. After a while I called for a rest. We sat down together and looked over what we had gathered.

"Now, the rarest harvest from these gardens are Brell's own Emerald Clovers. I only managed to find one..." I was saying, but Qho quickly cut me off.

"I have TWELVE of them!! Look, look, look, look!" He spiraled off into a jumble of excited noises.

I sighed. Even though the boy was as annoying as a screeching bat outside your window at night, I had to commend his talent in finding the rarest of rares.

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Several hours later, I managed to convince Qho to head back to the Bar of Brell.

"There's a surprise waiting there for you, and we shouldn't be late!" I explained to him.

As we entered the bar, I led him to the center. He looked around confused, but I assured him that the surprise would be arriving very soon. While I was giving my assurances, the doors to the bar burst open and several of my friends stepped inside.

"SURPRISE!” they called.”It's a party to celebrate your Brewday experiences, Qho!"

The boy was tickled pink and a good time was had by all. The Burglars, a band that regularly plays at the bar and in Kaladim, kept up their rousing performance as we took turns singing and dancing with Qho. I think my Fae friend really took a liking for the boy, as she kept dancing around him and handing him roses as the evening wore on.

At long last it was getting late and the Bar of Brell was ready to close its doors for the year. "There's one last thing I'd appreciate," I said. "All of you, get together with Qho, so we can have a group picture to remember this wonderful day by!"

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I wonder how Qho will enjoy Bristlebane Day.


Special thanks to Angarak, Meyad, Pickett, Shadilee and Shirrlea of the Everfrost server for helping me out with Qho's group picture. Additional thanks to Domino for unintentionally giving me such a fun pet in-game!

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