With all of the new blood running around, Wild and JB made a decision to spend a bunch of accumulated Wintergrasp stone keeper shards to buy heirloom items for the children. With over 900 shards between the two of them, they were able to acquire:
Inherited Insignia of the Horde (JB scarfed this one up for herself)
Stengthened Stockade Pauldrons (for plate wearing melee DKs, paladins)
Prized Beastmaster's Mantle (for mail wearing melee/hunters)
Aged Pauldrons of the Five Thunders (for mail wearing casters, shaman)
These items did not come without some spilled blood. Both JB and Wild had to fend off alliance pvpers who just loved to ambush horde players who were only in Wintergrasp to buy items from the Quartermaster there. JB managed to work around them (after dying twice). Wild, though, was harried constantly by a trio of alliance that parked inside the main courtyard, apparently intending to stay all day. Wild ended up coming back just before the start of the next battle when the courtyard was more crowded with other horde.
The proud recipients of two of the heirlooms were Java and Rakta, as they don't have access to the other heirloom gear that Philly maintains custody of. The third piece (the Five Thunders) is still with JB, waiting for a home.
Meanwhile, Slash and Rakta were working on their part of the plan. Slash had the easiest task. He was already comfortably ensconced in Orgrimmar. Before he could start his journey to Booty Bay, however, he had one urgent task to attend to first. As a level 10, Slash could now tame pets, and no hunter is complete without a pet. The quest chain is in three parts, each time to find, tame, and return with a particular pet. After completing those quests, Slash returned to the Hunter trainer to become a full fledged pet tamer. As his "starter" pet, Slash chose one of the many crabs along the coast near Orgrimmar that have a distinctive set of miss-matched pincers. Slash named him Scissors. The chain dinged Slash to level 11 as well, and he immediately began his trek.
Slash left Orgrimmar through the back gate and headed south along the river toward the neutral town of Ratchet. There were a couple of nervous moments when passing through an area of level 15-16 lions and wild dogs. Slash had to sacrifice Scissors once to escape, but made it to Ratchet otherwise unscathed. After that it was easy. Ratchet is on the coast, and has a pier. Slash waited for the boat to arrive, jumped aboard, and a few minutes later the boat pulled into Booty Bay. Slash made his introductions to the Auctioneer (discreetly, of course) and then settled in at the Inn. Slash's half of the plan was complete.
Things were far more complicated for Rakta.
Rakta was born in the zone of Teldrassil, an island off the northern coast of the continent of Kalimdor. All night elves begin their lives in the small, protected enclave of Shadowglen, and then progress to the equally small town of Dolanaar. To some degree, levelling Rakta through her first six levels was like playing the game again for the first time. Rakta did not have the racial memories of her horde cousins, who were born knowing everything that Wild and JB knew. No Wild relation had ever set foot in Teldrassil. Rakta had to learn everything herself.
There were things that were amazingly similar, though, and a pattern emerged that somewhat mirrored the Horde land of Durator and the levelling path of the orcs. Not the environment, no. Durator is an arid land, while Teldressil is lush and green. But the same small creatures, boars and scorpions, are the first targets of both orc and night elf; Razor Hill in Durator is much the same as Dolanaar; and both enjoy a very short trek to a major city. Orcs have easy access to Orgrimmar, and night elves have easy access to Darnassus. However, the quests are very different, and the terrain was a complete mystery.
Another hard to accept reality was that Rakta had no help. There were no sugar daddies to feed her gold and goodies. It was through her effort that the gravy chain could get moving, but right now it didn't exist. That came home very hard the first time she visited her Hunter trainer to get some desperately needed talents. She went away empty handed, because she did not have enough copper to buy them.
Rakta had fun, though, steadily moving up in level, taking whatever gear she could get and, once she got her talents paid for, saving up for a better bow and a few more arrows, which was her bread and butter attack. Rakta didn't want this picture shown, but it truly shows what fashionista Rakta was willing to put up with to stay alive.
OMG, Knickers? I'm Gonna Die of Shame
Once she made it to Dolanaar around level 6, she finally had access to a mailbox, and JB was able to mail her the Beastmaster's heirloom shoulders to help her out. There was still no way to get anything else to her, though. Rakta kept at it, though, and at level 8 the whole picture changed.
Rakta was skipping along the road - well, night elves don't actually skip, but - they can do somersaults, and they have what is quickly becoming a most irritating affectation. When standing still, they sometimes put their feet together, bounce up and down on the balls of their feet (drawing the eye of every male within miles), and finish with a final touchdown, feet slightly apart. Maybe I'll get used to it.
Anyway, to get off the subject of bouncing female night elves and on to more important things, Rakta caught the attention of a passing alliance, who might have ridden right past her on his ground mount had she not been doing that bounce thing at that particular moment. The rider, male of course, hopped off his horse, dropped a buff on Rakta (which got him a sweet "ty" in chat), and then, with a flourish, he opened a large scroll and asked Rakta if she would please, please sign it.
It was a guild charter, and the gentleman was trolling the starting zone area to get newbies to sign up. Well, why not? It's just to help him get his guild started. Rakta signed the charter, and got an even sweeter surprise. The allie opened a trade window and paid Rakta 5 gold. As he rode off I saw in trade chat that he had been asking for sigs, and that he was paying 3 gold. True story - Rakta so flustered him he paid her two more gold than he was offering. And Rakta was suddenly rich. And went shopping.
Rakta asked it she could show off her new wardrobe
It isn't much for stats, but Rakta thinks it's a good look for her:
It isn't much for stats, but Rakta thinks it's a good look for her:
Later, when the allie got his guild, he didn't immediately kick us, which was expected, but allowed signees to stay on if they cared to. Rakta thought the name was kind of cute to carry around for awhile, so she stayed with it - at least until one of us can get her a guild invite to Tea Green.
Rakta's interim guild is called "Exalted with your Sister".
Rakta eventually made the three minute walk to the city of Darnassus. It's a nice looking city, a little too spread out for my tastes, but pretty well laid out. Rakta found the Inn and made it her home, using it as her base as she worked her way to level 10. Then it was back to Dolanaar and to the Hunter trainer there to teach her to tame pets. There is a 15 minute time limit on taming and returning with each of the three pets, and out in the unknown wilderness of Teldressil, Rakta had a chore sometimes in finding the silly creatures and getting them back before they slipped away. She got it done, though, and chose an owl as her first true pet. The sturgid owl is a common bird of prey in the area, but Rakta wanted a bird, and I wanted a pet that would eat fish, which is the easiest pet food to get hold of. Rakta named him Dargh. Yes, you've seen that word before. It's the Klingon word for tea.
Rakta knew that all that had come before was just preparation for her real task. The real journey was about to begin, and it was fraught with peril for a level 11.
A long, long time ago, a young JB took Mery under her wing to help with a special gift. Mery wanted a Greater Fleshripper bird of prey as her pet, a bird found only in the alliance zone of Duskwood, a level 18-20 area far above Mery's level 13 at the time. That adventure was successful, and is recounted elsewhere, but the point was that Mery could not have survived the trip without JB's help.
Rakta intended to make her journey on her own, if at all possible, and without the benefit of full knowledge of the best way to get from Darnassus to Booty Bay. Rakta wished for a Yellow Brick Road, but she wound up settling for a purple pavilion.
Rakta was exploring a bit of Darnassus, on her way to the Hunter trainer, when she stepped into a purplish, glowing pavilion. The pavilion, it turned out, was a portal, and it deposited Rakta on the outskirts of Darnassus next to a Flight path. More importantly, next to the flight path was a pier. Hmm, I'd heard that alliance liked to take to the sea, and that they used more boats than the horde did. Rakta went to the end of the pier to see if a boat would show up. And one did.
It took her to Auberdine. Rakta didn't know where Auberdine was, but she could tell it was a major shipping zone, unique to the alliance. Multiple piers offered destinations: back to Darnassus, of course, or to Azuremyst Isle, or to Stormwind, the home of the humans. Rakta had heard of Stormwind. She wasn't sure of it's exact location, but she knew it was on the Eastern Continent. Booty Bay was on the Eastern Continent. Rakta took the boat to Stormwind.
Rakta was awed and impressed with Stormwind. She wandered the city, staring at the sites and taking pictures like a tourist. In the main square, arranged very much like the central area of Orgrimmar, she even played catch with other allies tossing around a large leather ball. She checked in at the Inn, setting her hearth there, and checked out the Auction House. The prices were too rich for the 4g she had left in her bags, but that was ok. Rakta felt very much at home.
Rakta has more to tell, but that will have to wait until after she gets herself a real city meal and takes a long nap. It's been an exciting journey journey so far.
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