Aygaren's Letter

Aygaren writes to me of his adventures, at least once in awhile.


"I was doing this kinda long mercenary thing in Felwood the other day, inside some barrow den the cenerion folks wanted recovered from some baddies. A rather long and drawn out venture deep into the earth. Having just finished off the baddie on their hit list, their voices spoke to me in my head. Obviously, they had more in mind for me to do than they first let on to know.

Sure enough, they had a second, albeit slightly bigger baddie they wished to be removed. So I started the trek deeper into this barrow just knowing within, that there was surely more to come. Of coarse, there's plenty of guards and watchers along the way, but so far no big problems.

Then from around the corner, running up out of this den comes some puny Alliance human paladin. He's not on my current hit list, so I simply go around him and continue smacking down any and all that get in the way. Some days, the blood just has to fly every-which-way...this was one of those days. Shield flying about, mace beating heads in. Yes, it's a good day.

Then I caught sudden sight of someone following me, but holding back a ways. Turned out to be that puny human I saw running out earlier. Taking time for a quick snack and drink, I pondered the possible reasons for his behaviour. He's not showing any signs of possible aggression, so I decided to just sorta move on while keeping one eye behind me. Being a Paladin himself, I was thinking he'd at least show some sign of respect. Nothing. Just quietly following me, watching as I dismissed one after another with ease.

The second so-called big baddie went down rather easily. As expected, that voice announced it's arrival right on cue, with yet another request to rid the world of these evil creatures. This continued on through a fourth bossy type baddie before the end was in sight. All the while, the humie followed in silence. After the third guy went down, I actually tried to communicate with said humie. Gave him one right and proper salute I did. Nothing. No response. Just waited for me to move on to the next. Apparently, he had been here before. Which made me wonder all that much more about his actions.

The fifth and surely the last baddie kinda caught my tracking skills off a beat. I thought he was down in a pit of sorts so off I went. Turned out, I had to back track a bit after some minor dismissals and head up and around on a ramp to reach him. I really should have noticed this, but it didn't quite register. When I had started down, I recall seeing the humie head up. He had quickly joined back with me though, so I just though he was the one lost. Oops.

I got up the ramp to a bridge, where said baddie was on the other side waiting. Big. I mean really BIG. Time for another quick snack and drink while I ponder my attack plans. The humie waits. I let him wait. After all, I can charge in there just so many ways and it would be nice to know a little bit about the area he seems to have kinda all to himself.

*Sigh* Last one, get it done. Up I jump and start across the bridge. The humie is somewhat faster with his puny build, he's over the middle several steps ahead of me and opens fire. He takes a hit, it don't look good at all. Earthmother, give me strength. I jump on this big baddie. I knew I could take him down and down he went rather quickly.

Humie got the kill. Humie then quickly jumped into the portal provided by said employers of this merry jaunt. Not a word or sign from him, no farewell or thanks for saving his puny backside. Left me standing there, waiting to see if this monster might muster a second life. Perhaps I'll be lucky and he was just unconsious for a bit. Hmmm, I sorta needed that pay off for going through all this.

As luck would have it, said monster suddenly rose to life once more and the battle was on. Hurummmph! Me, Aygaren the victor! Then it dawned on me. Said humie had already tried this and failed. The only logical reason he would have had for following me all the way back through this dark place when he was so close to the front door. I walked through the portal, collected my payments and set off for a quiet rest in Org. During the trip, I vowed to self if I ever see that humie again in Felwood, I will irritate every mob within reach and let them feast on him. Surely, Earthmother will understand." ~Aygaren

Hope you enjoyed Aygaren's adventure in Felwood.

Zen'Kiki

Of the many things I love about World of Warcraft, there is that underlying current of seemingly endless possibilities for gameplay. If you tire or stall out in one area, there always seems to be something else to do or give a go at. Wheather it be a new race/class combo, a different road to travel for some personal challenges or somewhere inbetween.


Khrox has seen a ton of playtime over the last several months, almost ten of them I think. He raced from level 30 to 80, to be ready for the big Cataclysm release. His PvE dreams got altered somewhere between 80-85, he now concentrates solely upon the PvP world. Kaimara, the gutsy mage, has been hanging out in Dalaran during all this, doing nothing more than supplying occasional tailoring needs. She seems to be stuck at lvl 78. Sol, although he completed the Argent Tourney grind, grew to hate it. Khrox skipped it all together, and Kai will probably follow suit. Sol eventually decided to retire and concentrate on his Alchemy skills.

Last Thursday, Khrox was enjoying some new battleground experience with his gm and other guild mates. He saw Isle of Conquest for the first time, got several achievements and overall had his fun killing or maiming Horde. Thunderstorms set into the area though. A couple of dc's and afternoon power outage put an end to the fun though.

All these events though, and the weekend coming into being, led to the totally unexpected meeting between Cle and Zen'Kiki. Who the heck is Cle you ask? Well, he's a baby gnome shadow priest at the moment. Kinda sitting on the bench at level 29, just waiting for an opportune moment to shine.


Cle-lvl 41

After the delay of thunderstorms and power outages, his moment arrived. At lvl 30, he completely redid his spec just so he could grab his shadow form. He also snatched up his duel spec specialization, adding Disc to his arsenal. Slightly long story shortened, he is now level 41. Wheather he knows it or not, Cle has three main goals kinda-sorta-pre-determined for him. Of coarse, he's going to become THAT shadow priest. You know, the one that those horde will eventually both fear and respect. Second goal: to also become an accomplished bg healer. The one spec I've never really tried, or even had any desire to try. The third goal, Loremaster. And this one is where Zen'Kiki entered Cle's world.

With the exception of Loch Modan, where Cle somehow missed a few quests, he has been making sure to milk each zone for it's achievement towards Loremaster. The Wetlands, Arathi, Hinterlands and Western Plaguelands have all fallen prey to this little spriest. And ravaged as well, since no skinnable beast or node of ore has been left untouched. Or so it seems anyway.

Western Plaguelands: enter Zen'Kiki. Somehow with all the many alts who have passed through this zone, Zen'Kiki the Druid was an unknown quest, until Cle swept though the zone. Zen'Kiki is a 'troll-wannabe-druid' in training with the Cenarion Circle, and Cle got tasked to assist with his training. I really don't wish to spoil this quest and it's follow up for anyone who hasn't done it, yet. And if you haven't done it, go back and do it! This has got to be the all-time, drag the npc along, most halarious-fun quest I've ever come across. And this comes from one who generally dislikes dragging npc's around. You will come to love Zen'Kiki, and all his misfortunate ways and comments. You will probably even wish to keep him around while you finish out the zone, which is possible from what I've later read about him. Zen'Kiki, is THAT MUCH FUN! In all my years of playing this game, I cannot recall a time when I've actually spent that much quest time ROFLMAO. Maybe because of my experiences with Sol, idk. Anyway, this is a really fun quest to do. So if you're into doing Loremaster, just plain missed this one along your way or would just like to do something fun for a change....the quest can be picked up here. Go talk to Adrine Towhide at the Mender's Stead in Western Plaguelands. ( 48.8, 54.8 )

I've read that there is at least one more such fun quest around. When Cle finally leaves the EK and heads over to Kalimdor, he'll have to make sure to find it.

The Elder and the Newcomer

Since the world as we once knew it became 'shattered', Sol has been resting quite a bit with one of his druidic sleeping spells. He's adopted this sort of causal mind-set that things will be what they will be. So why worry about it now? He'll just deal with it as it comes, and he will survive just as he's been doing all these years. He does have two things in mind though for this last week before the Cataclysm. Simple stuff really, nothing special. He'll pay a few more visits to his buddy Baron Rivendare, as they seem to have developed some sort of odd relationship the past couple of months by having breakfast together. There really isn't any love lost between them, but Sol keeps hoping the Baron will show him a little anyway. The second thing is to aquire a drake.

The Eastwall Gate

Baron Rivendare

 

The newcomer to the family is a fast growing night elf mage named Alisym. I must admit that she has been having unusual growth splurts with the new quest lines and is now into her early 30's. Her adventures are, or seem to be, always exciting and fascinating to follow. Story-lines, simular to a good book that are difficult to just put down. One gets caught up in them and before you know it, you find yourself a quick 3-4 levels experienced. The stream-lineing of the quests Blizzard has done is great for leveling, nothing seems like a grind so far. Even the trash "kill 10 this and 10 that" hold little surprises. Unexpected knock-backs, fears, silences. She even ran into a kill quest where the mobs used these sort of backpack flame throwers! (does "don't stand in the fire" come to mind here?) So yes, even at these early levels the mobs are actually fun and I can easily see how these experiences would help a new player be better prepared for end game.

Alisym wanted to share a couple of her early memory pics, these were of her time in Darkshore. Mr. Withers was a delightful surprise reward at the end of a quest chain. When summoned, he starts out nearly as tall as her shoulders, but if you're away from water, he starts to shrink rather quickly! Go near some water, and he grows back to his normal size. This is like, OMGWOW!!! Mr. Chilly can't touch this.

Another great thing about the early quest lines is the new level of npc interaction. One such quest line led Alisym to work along side of the great Malfurion. And later on, Malfurion even made an appearance during another quest in which she also had the dubious pleasure of meeting Queen Azsura. One last note: the Darkshore quests were so enticing, before she realized it, Alisym picked up the achievement for doing 90 quests there. Perhaps there is a Loremaster in her future?

Enjoying the new, old world!

Beginning of the End?

Kaimara was just finishing up some quests which dinged her to 42. Cutting across Mirage Flats in the Badlands she came across a very unusual scene. Four Rocky Elementals surrounding some sort of rift area in defensive behavior, while the local crag cayoties and buzzards were attacking them. She decided to take a couple of them down just to see what happened, easy enough kills she thought. No loot though, and they seemed to respawn almost instantly. Enough of that mess she thought, so off to see her trainer in SW instead.


Stormwind held a few more surprises when she came out of the Mage Tower. All kinds of people running about. It turns out that Blizz dropped the opening quests which lead up to The Shattering/Cataclysm. Doomsayers in Old Town, Twilight Hammer folks outside of town and wind elementals popping up here and there. All this was quite unexpected today, although welcomed, and an exciting change from the usual farming and questing just waiting for Cata.

Kai decided to take a few snapshots of things, she's like that. Always adding to the memory album. The first is from the Badlands rift. Second up is one of the strange devices which would spawn the Wind Elementals later on in the quest chain. The third is just plain Kia. She just had to have one with her and the SW King.
(click to...you know)

Notice that she did wear her best for this one. Isn't she just the cutest little mage?