Okay, just as a prefix- I love Lolliprin, and to a lesser degree Newton Caverns. If I had to do the amount of bashing I've done waiting to get of probation on Achaea, Imperian, or Aetolia, I would have gone crazy. Thanks for the great job on the novice areas.

But, two things.

One, getting to Lolliprin is too hard. Newton itself is fairly heavily bashed, and it's hard to find the chains and widgets to get back and forth. Could I ask for some help there, or an explanation?

Also, the gnome explorers seem...broken.

You greet a gnome explorer with a sincere smile.
A gnome explorer says, "Have you seen a golden portal around?"

You say to a gnome explorer, "I've seen a golden portal around."
A gnome explorer exclaims, "I came through a golden portal, but it's dissapeared!"

You say to a gnome explorer, "I can take you to the golden portal."
A gnome explorer exclaims, "I came through a golden portal, but it's dissapeared!"

You say to a gnome explorer, "The golden portal has reappeared. The golden portal is back. I can lead you to the golden portal."
A gnome explorer excalims, "I came through a golden portal, but it's dissapeared!"


...ad nauseum. Is it supposed to be this way?

You have to give the gnome explorer something for it to follow you.

Yeah, what Kharvik said.

And chains/widgets aren't too hard to find, if you bash efficiently. Most of the time, at least one of the Portals is open.. And if you have teleport, you can efficiently get to someone already there.

It's rarely that heavily bashed. If it is, you should be able to find the chains/widgets on the ground, or else someone else will likely have opened a portal with them. As for the gnome explorers, you need to give 'em something, it's not a verbal command.

edit: Oh, and... while widgets/chains do disappear if you have them in your inventory for more than a couple of minutes, oddly enough they reappear in the dead bodies of the finks/gnomes. So, if you're smart, you can get 'em out of the corpses.

The key to getting the chains and widgets is writting down the ID number of the gnomes and finks that drop each. Only specific ones drop em so you can walk around looking for fink#whatever and pass on those that dont have em, in time you'll be able to run through and pick up the finks or gnomes you need in no time.

I cheated for both honours quests and had someone stay behind in Lolliprin so I could keep teleporting back there. I think I used Zolas a handful of time

Yeah, I'm not a big honors quest person, but I definitely never actually bothered doing the quest to open the gate, I'd always scan NWHO to find someone over in Lolliprin. Heck, I still do when I want to get over to Avechna's Peak in a hurry.