Monday (3 Sep) - A Waiting Game

Monday (3 Sep) - A Waiting Game

The Horde armada sits at anchor. The defending Alliance army at Theremore must know by now that the assault, when it comes, is aimed right at them. The two sides now play a waiting game.

Among the Wild family there is another kind of waiting game. A waiting game full of secrets, plots, and missing family members.

Jocey - Sent by Naithipe to Silvermoon City; known to have passed through Tranquillen in the Ghostlands; present whereabouts unknown; purpose unknown.

EZ - Sent by JB to find Jocey; has not been seen since she departed Tranquillen in a big hurry; whereabouts unknown.

Melasahnd - Sent by Wild to find EZ and Naithipe; has not been seen since she left Org; present whereabouts unknown.

Naithipe - The renegade ship recaptured for the Horde at Shalandis Isle was reunited with the armada; Naithipe was not on the ship when it returned; whereabouts unknown.

Adromache - reportedly killed in a bar fight by his best friends cousins former neighbors co-worker.

Slash - reportedly ran off after being linked to a bar fight involving friends, cousins, neighbors, and co-workers.

Wild, JB, Philly - Completing preparations for the Theremore assault. Well, someone has to get serious around here.

With the senior members of the family caught up in the preparations for war, Happy had to step forward to keep his own operations in functional order. Happy relied on Mel to handle the horde side transactions on the neutral Auction House. Happy wasn't very engaged in the family feuding. All Happy cared about was that Mel was not at her post in Booty Bay, and what to do about it.

Happy got hold of Mery, and convinced her (with gold) that it would be great fun to take a trip to Stranglethorn Vale. Happy couldn't get her to agree to take Mel's job, but she did agree to escort Happy's second choice. That choice was the level 16 troll druid Hapless. Hapless was already handling a part of Happy's empire at The Undercity. Happy now wanted her in Booty Bay.

There were a number of ways that could be accomplished, but Happy left that up to Mery. Hapless could easily have taken the zep outside the Undercity to Grom'gal and then taken the flight from there directly to Booty Bay. But there was some concern that Hapless might not have learned the flight path to Booty Bay. No one seemed to think to tell Hapless she could have checked that flight path while in The Undercity, and it would have taken her all the way to Booty Bay if she had learned the route. Oh well. Instead, Mery told Hapless to take the zep to Org and join her there.

Mery, being a merry sort, dressed in her finest and called for her new Traveler's Tundra Mammoth. Mery thought it just wonderful that all of the great riding beasts belonging to the family could now be shared. The great beast was not only of impressive size, suitable for the hefty tauren hunter, but it had a pair of extra seats, one of which was reserved for Hapless.

Once Hapless arrived in Org, Mery trotted out her mammoth wearing her most flamboyant outfit and told Hapless to hop on. Oops, Mery forgot to let the two vendors who cared for the beast know that she did not need their services, and the two were occupying those extra two seats. Getting that straightened out became a bit complicated. The vendors wanted to come along. Hapless had a very dubious look, seeing the size of the beast and nearly stepping into a mammoth pie, also of impressive size. A crowd began to form around the small troop with the big mammoth, clogging traffic coming in and out of the Valley of Strength. Mery dismounted to get the two vendors out of those seats, but as soon as she mounted the two would just jump right back on. The crowd must have thought a show was in progress. They laughed and cheered, while the vendors waved and hawked their wares. Hapless made a couple of timid attempts to climb aboard, but the vendors would tickle the mammoth so it would shake Hapless off.

About the time an Org guard captain figured he ought to unclog the growing chokepoint, Mery figured out how to kick off the vendors without actually having to get off the beast herself. The crowd had more fun at Hapless' expense, then, when, try as she might, Hapless couldn't find a way to get seated. Finally, Mery invited Hapless to group with her, and the mammoth suddenly calmed down and let Hapless board.

The ride from Org to the harbor town of Ratchet was short and uneventful. Mery was a bit surprised that a village of pig people had established themselves along the river beyond the Orgrimmar gates. They made threatening noises at Mery and Hapless, but kept their distance from the mammoth. Mery dropped Hapless off at the pier in Ratchet and headed back to Org. Hapless boarded the boat to Stranglethorn Vale. She enjoyed the few sites along the shoreline, although she did get a little seasick on her first ship voyage.

Hapless has set up shop at the Booty Bay inn near the bank. There should be no interruption of service as the exchange of goods between the two factions continues despite personnel changes, travel glitches, or even wars. The gold must flow.

Happy has some new friends back at The Undercity. A guild called The Sewer Rats liked to hang out at the same spot where Happy did business. When things started changing that guild disappeared for several days. Then, a couple of days ago, a new group showed up in a guild called the Knights Equitable. Many of the names looked suspiciously familiar, and Happy asked the obvious question - Did you guys change your guild name? They had. Happy approved of the new name, and chatted a bit with them. Privately, though, Happy thought the original Sewer Rats to be the best fit for a guild that hung out in the sewers of The Undercity. Just saying ... Hmm, maybe Happy should adopt their old guild name?

In Other News - I finally got around to installing my new video card. I'm very happy with it. I have a lot of video settings set to minimum in WoW for speed reasons which I will be slowly increasing to take advantage of the new card. My monitor, however, while a large 27", maxes out at 1920x1080 and is not HD. One of these days ...

Wild and JB have been in game more often getting their own stuff together. JB even went to the raid target dummy and banged around, practicing her spell priorities in enhancement spec. JB has fewer totems to manage now, but there seems to be a lot more to remember in managing the many procs and knowing when to use the new cooldown spells. I couldn't check her DPS, since I couldn't get recount to work.

Wild's guildies have been practicing and learning their new talents and spells in Heroics. That's something that Wild would normally be doing as well. I'm not really all that excited about that, though. Wild's raiding friends certainly want Wild to come back to raiding, and to be ready for that come MoP. I just don't see me raiding any time soon, though. The most Wild is likely to do is pursue his enchanting profession, and doing whatever leveling might to needed to do that. Happy would insist on having an up-to-date enchanter. Philly leveled to 85 while hardly touching Cata level quests and such. Wild may end up doing something similar - getting to 90 over time without every going to Pandaria. We'll see.