Monday (31 May) - Happy's Dreams Come True

Monday (31 May) - Happy's Dreams Come True

I know what you're thinking, but no, Happy has not decided to leave Silvermoon City, nor has he decided to start levelling. He would be horrified and dismayed if told to do either. That's not what you were thinking? Well, no, he hasn't decided to shack up with that cute blood elf bank alt that keeps wanting to dance with him, either. But ... well, never mind that.

Happy has a certain glow of glee, though, and his sudden exuberance is due to a quite unexpected turn of events. It was Wildshard who actually discovered it, but for Wild it was kinda "Eh". Wild mentioned it casually to Happy, though, thinking it might be useful.

"Useful!!" Bellowed Happy when he heard about it. "Get it for me NOW!"

Wild was kicking around on the WoW Armory website, checking the calendar to see if there were ICC10 raids planned for this week. There are, the expected Tues/Wed MM raids and what FS is calling an altICC10 raid on Wednesday (the attempt to get a third ICC10 group started). Anyway, Wild noticed a tab that I don't remember seeing before. Maybe it's been there and I never noticed, but anyway I digress.

The tab said "Auction House." Looking at the pull down menu, there were selections for Summary, Browse Auctions, My Bids, My Auctions, and Create Auctions. The summary showed how many items were up for sale, how many bids had been won, how much gold had been earned, and how full the mailbox was. Dig a little deeper and you can check on what specific items have sold and get the complete list of everything listed for sale. This is from the wow website, not in game. Happy practically wet himself with joy. Even when Happy isn't even in game, he can still check on his precious Auction House.

For example, as I am writing this I can see that the five flasks of frost wyrm Happy had posted this morning have all just sold. This item is very price sensitive and over the course of the day will get underbid, lowering the price each time. So Happy posts these flasks in small groups of five or less, underbidding the current posts, hoping to catch the sales before Happy's own price gets underbid. Seeing the sales, Happy used the website to create new auctions for five more flasks, keeping the current buyout price since Happy hadn't yet been underbid. Normally Happy wouldn't find out about the sales for hours, when the price of the flasks will have dropped. This is just Awesome! as Happy would put it.

Of course, the Mrs had a slightly different take: "I see, so now you can play the game even when you aren't playing the game?" Uh, yea, I guess you could look at it that way. She's so cute when she rolls her eyes like that.

There was a little bit of Monday night pvp, but we all seemed a bit tired and under the weather after the long weekend. After Sin, Sis, and Philly completed a quest chain of arena style combat in Zul'Drak, the 30's bracket team of Lao, Ando, and EZ rounded up alliance in Warsong Gulch and soundly trounced them. The single pvp match gave EZ enough xp to reach level 32, where she finally got her big DPS spell, Chain Lightning. EZ's chances to use it greatly diminished, though, as Ando DINGED to level 40, taking her from being King of the 30s bracket at level 39 to being a noob at level 40 in the 40-49 bracket. Sis remains a level 39, but should reach level 40 soon. EZ acknowledged her fate and congratulated Mery. Mery, a level 42 hunter, is the likely choice to join Ando and Sis in the 40s bracket. The war with the alliance will continue.

An unmarked envelope mysteriously showed up on the publisher's desk, mixed in with the input for the day's posts. Whoever took the photos inside that envelope took great pains to hide their identity. The subject of these photos obviously did not want to be recognized, either. At the risk of putting lives at risk, these photos are being published for the public good (and the profits of the publisher, of course).

Who this might be is complete speculation, but one theory is that this is Naithipe, seeking to return to anonymity with a Barbershop makeover after her recent appearances. Another, more sinister theory, is that Naithipe is so secretive because she has an enemy, an enemy that has now been revealed in these photos. The shots were taken in the Cleft of Shadow barbershop in Orgrimmar and at the Cantrips and Crows in Dalaran.

The well dressed stranger is caught standing outside the barbershop

Inside the shop, the stranger and the shopkeeper haggle over the price, emphasized by the drawn blades

Settling down in the chair, and a rare closeup

This last shot is taken at the Cantrips and Crows Inn. Are the two talking to each other? Is the bartender involved?