Sunday, March 14, 2010

Saturday (13 Mar) - Tea Green, "Outing" the Alliance

Saturday (13 Mar) - Tea Green, "Outing" the Alliance

Family ties got a little more interesting over the weekend. It all started with Daethbot, the Alliance druid and member of the DER family. "Yep, I'll admit it, I came out of the closet first. So blame me." Daethbot was talking about his high profile victories in the pvp battlegrounds, becoming the most public of the Alliance among the Families of DER, Sis, and Wild. Many days ago Daethbot had also teased Wild's allie hunter Chaitee out of her quietly boring life in Bloodmyst Vale for a night of pvp revelry, but only for the one night. Wild was busy, and frowned on yet another family member taking up time.

The genie was out of the bottle, though, when Daethbot openly challenged the status quo. "Won't let Chaitee out to play? How about I play AGAINST the likes of Evuh and Jocy?"

"Bring it on!" was the first response from those two, and then they joined the chorus in lobbying for Chaitee's return. DER backed his outspoken allie relative and Wild, recognizing the inevitable, acquiesced.

On Friday night, Chaitee, elated with the news, quickly rounded up her partner, Javajoo, to prepare for their return. "Et tu, Javajoo?" was Wild's initial response. But Wildshard, warming up to the idea, was the first to suggest that the excited young allies should consider forming their own guild. Once the idea had been brought up, it took firm hold and there was no stopping them. Other than geography.

Wild and the rest of horde family were completely ignorant of Alliance geography, other than knowing (now) what zones to avoid. Wild, as a youngster questing in Ashenvale in his twenties, had once tried to enter the city of Astranaar because it looked like a fun place. The Alliance guards at the bridge weren't so welcoming, and only Wild's travel form escape saved him from certain death. So of course there was no one to teach Chaitee and Java about the Alliance world. Chaitee and Java were together at a small town called Blood Watch on a smallish island called Bloodmyst Vale. But they didn't know where that was in relation to anything else. Wild had never taught them, because Wild didn't know.

Daethbot was in Darnassus. That's a sizeable alliance city. I guess it is, anyway, having never been there. Sis was also going to introduce an alliance family member as well, and that one would be off in some starting zone hinterland somewhere. If this guild thing was going to work, someone has to get a guild charter, and someone has to get guild signatures on that charter. In person. Daethbot volunteered, and was unanimously elected Guild Master at the bright young age of level 28, and was unanimously told he would have to do all the work, and the rest of us pledged our undying affection. But don't let it go to your head, they told him. ;-)

Daethbot initially asked Chaitee and Java to meet him at Exodar, a city on the southern coast of Bloodmyst Vale. I think. The two were so uncertain of the direction, though, Daethbot eventually met them halfway, travelling all the way from Darnassus to get the two to sign the guild charter. Daethbot then spent the rest of the evening cajoling all would would listen to sign the charter so that we could form the guild. The silver tongued druid did a fine job of it, too, and got the needed ten signatures. The guild name, "Tea Green", was the brainchild of Sis. We loved it, and we settled on that name even before Sis realized that caffeinated drinks were in the blood of the allie side of the Wild family.

Deathbot, Chaitee, and Javajoo made up the initial core of the guild, but waiting in the wings to earn their tabards are Neekia (related to Sis) and a Wild family newcomer, the female night elf Raktajina. For the first time, after more than five years of calling Azeroth home, Wild finally rolled a female night elf hunter, the most common combination of race, spec, and sex in all of the Alliance. Raktajina means Klingon coffee in the language of that race. But of course. I considered Klingon tea, but the freshly minted night elf was not enamoured of the Klingon word for tea, which is dargh.

Chaitee and Java had been banished to the distant Bloodmyst Isle for so long it took a good part of Saturday to get just one of them, Java, into some semblance of shape. The level 14 paladin had just enough gold left over from his more active days to update a bit of gear, once he found his way to the only city known to him (or the entire Wild family, for that matter), the city of Exodar. It's a confusing place for a young allie pally, and with no way to travel except by foot, everything and everywhere seemed very far away. But Java eventually stumbled over the Inn, the Bank, and the Auction House. It took time to locate the paladin Trainer as well. And then more searching to turn up the cubbyhole where the Weapon Master hung out, as Java needed to learn how to use a nice two-hand sword that was starting to rust in his bags. And Oh! those bags! Yeewww! Talk about moldy, decomposed, and smelly! Java threw most of the contents out and reorganized what could be salvaged.

On the technical side the user interface the two were still using harkened back almost to vanilla wow days. A quick fix was in order, so JB offered her profile as a template to at least make the UI usable again. Chaitee is going to have to go through that same wringer when I get around to her.

The next order of business, once Chaitee is taken care of, is a bit more ticklish. The world does not make correspondence between horde and alliance factions easy. After all, we are in the business of war. There are huge resources on the horde side of the family that could help out the fledgling guild. Getting those resources to the alliance side is the challenge.

At one time Wild had arranged for an underground connection between his horde and allie relatives that was based in the neutral town of Booty Bay in Stranglethorn Vale. There is a Auctioneer there that is willing to make Auction House transactions available between the two factions. It is a bit risky, since items placed there could be bought by anyone, and the whole thing tends to be a bit on the unsavory side. But used cautiously, it works to move gold and gear between the warring sides. Wild tapped eager (and naive) Slash on the horde side, and Rakta on the allie side, to be the go betweens. Now all Wild had to do was get them to Booty Bay.

To reintroduce Chaitee and Javajoo, both of whom are of the Draenie race, they agreed to share a couple of photos:

Chaitee and Javajoo shortly after their arrival at the Inn in Exodar:

Chaitee and Javajoo proudly showing off the new
Tea Green guild tabards designed by Daethbot:

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