House Hunting

So what else was I doing this past week? House hunting. In Rift.

You see, Telara has about a dozen different pocket dimensions that the Ascended can purchase and customize. Unfortunately, there's almost no way to really inspect a completely empty dimension. That is, one not modified by an Ascended. I lucked out and ported into one dimension just after one of my guildies had purchased it. I don't think she had even had a chance to see it herself. Just about every other one I saw had been modified in some way, some dramatically . . . unrecognizably. In deciding which one I finally settled on, I went through several instances, noting what was different in each, because that indicated a player modification.

So which did I decide would be my home in all my alternate selves? /Drum-roll . . .

Shoreward Island (I call it Fair Haven)

Initially—based on the name—I didn't think I would want this dimension, because I'm not really a seashore kind of person. Plus, I already have a copy of the desert oasis Faen's Retreat on each character, as a loyalty reward. (I wonder what people who had already purchased it got for a reward). But in fact, Shoreward Island is a nice grassy environment with a few trees; kind of a cross between Freemarch and Silverwood. Understandable, since it is located in the bay between those two zones, not far from the wrecked Empyreal warship and with views of both Meridian and Sanctum, not to mention Port Scion to the east.

On this island, an outpost tower was built, then abandoned with the fall of Port Scion (I'm assuming). I've made this tower my initial house since it's a convenient structure. There are a couple storage levels, a bedroom level, and the open-air parlor. I have also decorated a few garden areas and have set aside a cemetery plot, a makeshift dock, and an eventual workshop. I'd like to get a hold of another structure or two, and was even thinking of trying to "expand" the island using rock formations and other decorations. I may resort to scratch-building something, though I'm not fully confident in my abilities with the Dimension Toolbox yet.

One thing I did manage—and it was only temporary—was to build a scaffold of sorts in order to place some of the items on the tower. It seems pretty precarious just floating there, and I did fall off once or twice. But some time ago, the devs eliminated falling damage from the game, so it really only costs the time to get back up to the scaffold itself. The Toolbox is tremendously helpful, as was this tutorial I found through a Defiant computation device at "Rift Dimension Addicts." I certainly hope this dimension is free of rifts, though. Some haven that would be, fighting otherworldly creatures all the time!

Anyway, it feels like I've been at this report long enough, I took more pictures with the magic painting camera Larrea had left.  But they were dark, so I'm planning another picture session already. Feel free to embiggen these images or, if you are on Faeblight, feel free to visit Achillea's Fair Haven and have a look around.