Where's Nicholas?

[Erudite]

I'll try to provide updates as to the location and current collection for Nicholas the Traveller each week.

For the current week (5/3/09 to 5/9/09)...
Location: Bukdek Byway in the Canthan slums, north of The Marketplace zone point. You encounter no hostile mobs while travelling to him.
Collection: 3 Branches of Junai Berry, obtained only as a quest reward for Insatiable Appetite (repeatable quest) in Elona's Marga Coast. It took me ~45 minutes of repeated runnings to get 15 branches, the necessary quantity to max weekly gifts.

Destrid's take this week:
1 x 5 Mercantile Summoning Stones
1 x 10 Aged Hunter Ales
1 x 5 Green Rock Candy
1 x 10 Sparklers
1 x 5 Cottontail Tonics (yes, drinking causes Disguise: Brown Rabbit)

[Erudite]

For the current week (5/10/09 to 5/16/09)...
Location: Arkjok Ward in Kourna (Nightfall), due east of Yohlon Haven along the shore.
Collection: 1 Mandragor Root Cake, obtained from the collector in Yohlon Haven (an outpost in Kourna) for three mandragor roots. The roots drop only in Nightfall - the fibrous mandragor roots that drop in EotN don't work. Arkjok Ward is chock full of mandragors, but it doesn't seem to be an extremely common drop - I got eight in a little over an hour of farming last night.

Destrid's take this week:
Edit to add
2 x 10 Hunters Ale
2 x 5 Cottontail Tonics
1 x 5 Mysterious Summoning Stones*

*double-click to summon a random ally of your level that lasts for 30 minutes or until slain in combat. Possible allies include devourers, fire imps, oni, ooze, raptors, seige turtles, Black Beast of Aaaarrrrrggghhh! (dervish), swarm of bees (ranger), and white rabbit (assassin - bwahaha).

[Erudite]

For the current week (5/17/09 to 5/23/09)...
Location: Ice Cliff Chasms, in Gwen's Garden. Exit The Eye of the North to the south, then follow the building wall around to the right until you see him.
Collection: 1 Chromatic Scale, dropped by chromatic drakes. Nearby Battledepths is littered with these buggers and it took me ~30 minutes of farming to collect five.

Destrid's take this week...
2 x 10 Sparklers
1 x 5 Cottontail Tonics
1 x 5 Mysterious Summoning Stones
1 x 5 Blue Rock Candy (double-click to increase movement and attack speed and reduce skill activation by 25% for 20 minutes)

[Erudite]

For the current week (5/24/09-5/30/09)...
Location: The Falls, at the far western edge of Tyria (Prophecies). Closest outpost is two instances away, Ventari's Refuge.
Collection: 1 Gloom Seed, obtainable only as a drop in Fissure of Woe, one of the elite Prophecies areas.

Destrid's take this week...
Actually, I'm likely sitting out this week. No henchmen are available for Fissure of Woe, and pickup groups in the elite areas are notoriously bad. Also, going rate on seeds seems to be ~2.5 plat - I just can't see paying that.

*Edit - Okay, I found someone selling the seeds at 1p each, so I sacked up and bought them. My take this week...
3 x 10 jars of honey
1 crate of fireworks (5 uses - dbl-click to set off a 10-minute fireworks display)
1 keg of Aged Hunters Ale (50 uses, each use causes level 3 drunkeness)

Meh. The ale is nice for when I get around to working that title track - I've been accumulating alcohol for a while now - but otherwise probably a waste of money. A few more points towards the Sweet Tooth and Party Animal title tracks is all.

[Erudite]

For the current week (5/31/09 to 6/6/09)...
Location: The Scar, in Tyria's Crystal Desert. Quite a bit south of Destiny's Gorge.
Collection: 2 Dessicated Hydra Claws, drops from any hydra in the Crystal Desert. Took me about an hour to collect 10.

Destrid's take this week:
1 x 5 Mysterious Tonics (random illusion form)
1 x 5 Cottontail Tonics
1 x 10 Sparklers
2 x 10 Honeycombs (double-click to grant the entire party a 5% morale boost).

More DP reduction, anyway.

[Erudite]

For the current week (6/7/09 to 6/13/09)...
Location: Poisoned Outcrops, in the far northern part of Ehlonna's Crystal Desert. (Note - Nightfall, not Prophecies.)
Collection: 2 Margonite masks. Margonites are everywhere in Desolation and Torment, but missions like Jennur's Horde, Nundu Bay, and Grand Court of Sebelkeh are excellent spots to farm these as the vast majority of mobs in these missions are Margonites. Be warned, though - the constantly-respawning Margonite patrol in Jennur's Horde does not drop loot in order to prevent AFK farming. I cursed when I discovered this last night. :mad: Nundu Bay is excellent for farming these, however. Loads of Margonites just hanging around like little Happy Meals with legs.

Destrid's take this week:
1 x 5 Cottontail Tonics
2 x 10 Aged Hunter Ales
1 x 10 Honeycombs
1 x 5 Red Rock Candies (increase movement and attack speed and reduce skill activation time by 33% for 30 minutes)

Not too bad of a haul. Getting tired of bunny potions, though.

[Erudite]

For the current week (6/14/09 through 6/20/09)...
Location: Resplendent Makuun, near Prince Bokka.
Collection: 1 Sapphire Djinn Essence. The Hidden City of Ahdashim has a healthy amount of Sapphire Djinn, although it's an uncommon drop. Two hours of farming to get five of the this week.

Destrid's take this week:
1 x 3 Disco Balls
1 x 10 Jars of Honey
1 x 10 Aged Hunters Ale
1 x 5 Green Rock Candies
1 x 5 Red Rock Candies

Yay, no bunny potions.

[Erudite]

For the current week (6/21/09 through 6/27/09)...
Location: Zen Daijun, on Shing Jea Island in Cantha.
Collection: 5 rolls of parchment - a rather easy week. Rolls of parchment can be crafted by Artisans across Elonia and Cantha for 5 planks of wood and 20 gold. To get the complete 5 gifts this week takes only 125 wood and 100 gold.

Destrid's take this week...
1 x 5 Cottontail Tonics (yay :~)
1 x 10 Champagne Poppers
2 x 10 Sparklers
1 x 5 Red Rock Candies

[Erudite]

For the current week (6/28/09 through 7/4/09)...
Location: Arborstone, due west of Altrumm Ruins.
Collection: 1 Stone Carving. This is likely the easiest farm (outside of craftables) he has yet offered. Stone Carvings drop from living statues in the Echovald Forst (Kurzick area of Cantha). Arborstone (Explorable) has 4 bosses and 5 groups of these in easily accessible areas. It took me less than 90 minutes from start to turn-in, conveniently in the same instance. Four runs yielded 0, 1, 1, and 3 carvings.

Destrid's take this week...
2 x 10 jars of honey
1 x 3 disco balls
1 x 10 Aged Hunters Ale
1 x 5 Mercantile Summoning Stones

Someday I'll get one of those rare items, I just know it... :roll:

[Erudite]

I skipped last week. He was in Mineral Springs collecting Avica scalps and it sounded like a long, ugly farm. They seem to have made up for it this week, though.

For the current week (7/11/09 through 7/17/09)...
Location: Southeast corner of The Breach, due south of Piken Square in Ascalon.
Collection: 1 Charr Hide. Absolutely trivial. This is a common drop off of any of the level 4-8 Charr roaming The Breach. It took me less than ten minutes - I literally collected all the drops I needed for the week on the walk to ascertain his location.

Destrid's take this week...
3 x 5 Mysterious Tonics
1 x 10 Hunter's Ale
1 x 10 Aged Hunter's Ale

Hmmm. Maybe the collection difficulty is related to the random rewards, 'cuz this was a craptastic week. Ah well.