One of the most frustrating and annoying things about playing Everquest is that you get killed. A lot. Unless you have a 'twinked' character(one with weapons and armor that it could not get at the level it currently is), you can spend a hour or more trying to get all the things that are sitting on your body when you died. So what's a noobie to do?
Because I solo my Ranger often, I have learned a few tricks of the trade to make it somewhat easier to retrieve my stuff without too much trouble. The first thing to do is to familiarize yourself with a place in the Plane of Knowledge called the Guild Lobby. It is located on the west side of the plane, and it has several important areas that will assist you in recovering your corpse in a speedy fashion. There are soulbinders that will bring you back to the lobby when you die, bankers to retrieve saved money, reagent merchants to buy soulstones, and priests to summon your body from wherever you were killed. There's also an augment sealer to put those nifty new augment stones into your gear.
This wondrous place comes at a price, however. To retrieve your corpse with the aid of a priest, you must purchase a soulstone from the reagent merchant. The prices vary on what level your character is. You then give the priest the soulstone and he summons your corpse. If you've died multiple times, all of your corpses will appear. Dying multiple times can get expensive, especially as your character goes up in levels. If you choose this route to get your dead body back, remember to find out how much it costs to buy a proper level soulstone BEFORE heading out. It may be a good idea to buy a soulstone and put it in the bank ahead of time. The soulstones usually go in multiplies of 10 in levels, so a minor soulstone may summon the corpse of a player from level 10 to level 20. Get the idea?
One of the many perks of the Guild lobby is that many times a cleric is around broadcasting resurrections (rez) and temperance (temp). Resurrection will give you back some of your experience you had before you died, and Temperance is a blessing that will increase your hit points. Sometimes they want a donation, but usually not. I never go around begging for a rez or temperance because they are offered so freely. Sometimes players will loan money to you if you need it to buy a soulstone. If some one is kind enough to help you out in this way, pay them back ASAP. News about players deeds travels fast in the realm, and you could quickly find yourself ostracized. I will use this route only if I was dumb enough to die somewhere I was not familiar with, or kept getting killed physically trying to get to my corpse. I work hard for my platinum and take a different approach to reduce the amount of times I get killed and an easy way to physically trek to get my corpse. I try to hunt in a zone that has a portal book that I can zone out of easily. If I die, I return to the guild lobby and just take a portal stone in the plane of knowledge. I usually end up within a few feet of my dead body and can loot it within seconds. Saves me money to buy a soulstone, albeit no hotzones are located only one portal stone away. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) changes hotzone every few months to get players to areas they may not have been to in a while.
