Our friends at Sony Online Entertainment have given us the opportunity to share some of the in-game loot cards that will be released with the new card set, Ethernauts . Available on October 9th, this deck introduces a new storyline about a group of sturdy adventurers that banded together thousands of years ago to save Norrath from certain doom. With a new story, comes new goodies; check them out -- only here at Allakhazam.

Asharae's Cloak

Magical cloak with featherfall and when activated the caster's spells deal 5% more damage for 12 seconds.

Bot Made Iced Cream Cart

Summons the Good Gear Man Ice Cream Cart to dispense treats for all the good girls and boys... and whatever.

SOE has posted a preview of the zones Lower Guk and Guk Stronghold in the upcoming The Shadow Odyssey expansion, which is expected to be released on Nov. 18.

The preview is full of EverQuest lore and descriptions, including the awakening of Warlord Ykesha by adventuring trolls in Guk Stronghold and the clan of undead trolls and frogloks that fight under his command in Lower Guk.

For the full post, check EQ2 Players or keep reading below.

The Official SOE Podcast #47 is live and has an interview with Free Realms' newest designer Julie Burness, who is also a former Vanguard community representative. To download it, visit the official Podcast page . For more information, check out this post on EQ2 Players.

We also feature an interview with members of our Usability Lab team. And don't miss out on the Top 10 list created by our listeners. Make sure you tune in to the very end for Inside SOE, a mini-interview with the Free Realms Brand Manager.

So listen in! You can get your Podcast goodness two different ways: head over to the Podcast’s official site , and click on your preferred bandwidth, or if you have iTunes installed, select iTunes Store, type SOE into the search box and click Subscribe! Your feedback is always welcome either on the Station forums or via email .

Tuesday I was pleased to be invited to a Press Tour of EverQuest II Game Update 49, "Raising the Banner" (now on Test servers). With several other members of the press/fan site set, I followed Christine "Kiara" Renzetti, EQII Community Manager, on a whirlwind tour of some of the goodies in store for EQII players.

Our first stop was at a dig site in Sinking Sands. Here we met some D.I.R.T.Y. Excavators, largely of the gnomish caste. Apparently there are strange things to be found 'neath the shifting sands! Allakhazam is pleased to have people scouring Test for information on this intreguing event leading us to The Shadow Odyssey ; we've found nine new quests so far.  (Warning: That link is a spoiler!)

Next we discussed the introduction of multi-core support for animations, which many people noticed in the Test server patch notes . This support has been in high demand by the players, and Testers are putting it though its paces . 

Noticed on the Launchpad popup and on EQII Players , this weekend will be the first ever double experience weekend! 

DING!