The Vale of Eternal Sorrow
Wild has a bit of news, but this post mostly belongs to Lao, who had a very busy couple of days.
First up is Wild. Wild is leveling to 90 via pet battles, and while he isn't actively chasing achievements, it's nice when one pops up, such as the "Pro Pet Crew," awarded for getting 30 unique pets to level 25. Wild also DINGED! his way to level 87.
Wild may have to alter his gearing approach, though. He's aiming at a minimum ilevel of i460 in order to get into the beginning Looking for Raid (LFR) groups once he's at level 90. However, he needs i490, I believe, to get into normal raids. Based on Unbleach's i496 for flex raiding (see below), Wild will have his work cut out for him. From what I'm hearing about the Patch 5.4 Timeless Isle, a new area of exploration, it's a lot of fun. Wild's guildies are all over it earning great gear, some of it Bind on Account (BoA) so that it can shared by all my characters.
Now for the news from Lao:
The last 24 hours has been eventful for Lao.
I can be an impulsive creature, which usually costs me money. I want to kill Hellscream – this means I need to raid. I laid out the options in the last email: stay put and work it out, or move to another server and join my raid group there. I chose the latter.
So Lao ($55 later) is now Unbleached, a taller goat version of herself, poor lass.
Lao, before the switch, was able to check out the new Isle that popped out of the clouds, as they are want to do. She ran around and got several account bound cloth purples: cloak, gloves, shoulders (2), chest, and pants. She decided to give all the gear, minus the extra gloves and the chest, to Narcissus. Narcissus is in need of gear in a bad way.
*Note: Be sure to “open” the gear while in the spec you want it to complement
Lao then packed up her bags and went on her whirlwind switch. The guild invite was easy, no wait like Wild had to suffer, and she was almost ready for the raid.
Unbleached decided to do healing for the raid. She has only pvp gear for heals, which is fine, but the trinkets (at least impair-movement-remover one) really do not belong in a raid. So she hit the AH and plopped down 12k on a new trinket. This may not have been as painful had it occurred 3 hours before, when she still had 125k in gold, but you are only allowed to transfer toons with a max of 50k gold, and it had to be done.
So, with her new shiny trinket she went off to the Vale of Eternal Sorrows, which is the prelude to the Siege Orgrimmar.
First Boss up: Immerseus. This is a boss who has a corruption bar, at 100. Once he hits 0 health becomes unstable and explodes out in slime balls. These balls need to be either healed to remove corruption (the blue ones) or killed (the black ones). For each ball healed or killed it removes 1 point of corruption and health to his reformed self. This is repeated until he is at 0 corruption and health.
We divided the room up into pie wedges and randomly spread out. It was a wipe. Next we decided to be a bit more logical about it. We did a better distribution of heals and damage. Immerseus went down.
Next up were The Fallen Protectors. These were the Golden Lotus quest givers that became corrupted when Hellscream did his thing. The mechanics of the fight are simple but busy. Each protector at 66% and 33% does a Desperate Measure. You want to avoid having more than one Desperate Measure going on at the same time. Once they are below 33% you want to bring them down about at the same rate. At 1%, if the others are in combat, they will heal up the one at 1% to 20%. The goal is to get them all at 1% at the same time (within 15 seconds). If you are able to bring them down to 1% at the same time they will have Clarity and snap out of it. We were able to, surprisingly, one shot this and Bleach got new 540 bracers.
Next boss is Norushen. This is a boss to prove you cannot be corrupted before moving on. When engaged you start out at 75% corrupted. There are orbs that appear around the boss that you can click on and enter a different realm where you prove your skill. Meaning healers heal ppl, tanks tank, and dps kill things. When you are done you return to the main fight and are fully cleansed of your corruption. The boss spawns adds that need to be killed but when killed they create pools of corruption that damage everyone. To stop the pools from spreading and doing aoe damage someone needs to stand in them and “soak” up the corruption. Once you get too heavy on the corruption you do the orb thing again.
After about 6-7 tries we got him down.
The last boss is the Sha of Pride. Even just clearing out the trash in this area killed a few of us off. This is basically a tank and spank but you have to be quick about it. As you take damage you get 5 Pride. At 100% pride you give massive aoe damage and it triggers other levels of pride to do damage as well; which means pretty much a wipe, as we found. Also, cleanse cannot be cast without getting pride unless you get a Titan buff. We did one attempt and found that 100% pride is deadly quickly. Raid time was up and we will start again tonight on the guy.
Since the patch Lao/Unbleached has gotten a lot of new pve gear: Bracers (from the raid), gloves, chest, trinkets (one bought), chest, and pants (the latter gear from the Isle).
Like I said, it has been a busy 24 hours.
The Second Night:
Last night we started on the fourth and final boss, The Sha Of Pride.
We did several attempts, however many fits in 2 hours, 3 of which were pretty good. We were getting some of the mechanics but had two possible issues, either not enough dps (just guessing this since I have not gotten recount yet) or missing enough of the buffs (falling in if you have the titan buff to get the additional buff it gives) that we kept just missing the mark.
At the last two fights two of the heals, myself included, switched to dps. We finally got him down. No new loot for me but another healing priest in the guild got a very nice staff.
I will have to look at the dungeon breakup. The guild raids Tu, W, Th. Thursday I cannot do because I volunteer at the hospital those evenings. My concern is that they will clear up to Hellscream on Tu, and W, and kill him on Th. I am going to check to see how many bosses will need to be cleared to get to him. If we get close to him I will have to see about maybe swapping my shift if we run into an issue.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
A Guildie Once Again
A Guildie Once Again
Wild, at last, is back in the Meitha guild. As I do every time I log in, I send JB out (who is a member of Meitha) to see if anyone in the guild is online. Usually there are no guildies in game, and when there are, it is nearly always Fenn or one of his alts (Fenn can't do guild invites) and once it was Diablessa (who also can't do guild invites).
I got lucky on Saturday, though. Grommash was in game. He knows Wild, so I whispered him and asked if he could guild invites. "Weren't you already in the guild?" he asked. Attempting to explain the process of switching accounts and consolidating toons into one account proved daunting for Gromm. His comments were peppered with Hic! Hic! Well, it was Saturday night, so a few - or maybe many - beers could be excused. The good news was that Gromm was happy to invite Wild back into the guild.
I figured that Wild would have to earn back guild rating, but I was very pleasantly surprised that Wild is still rated as Exalted with the guild. Wild will get all of the guild bonus advantages, including a 10% increase in gaining experience points.
Wild is now 15% of the way to level 87.
Wild has also been accumulating gear to use when he reaches level 90. The plan is to be geared well enough to be useful in flex raids. Once Wild gets to level 90 I'll explain all the mechanics of that. In short, though, flex raiding allows for a varying number of raiders (so there is no forced requirement to have exactly ten) and varying levels of gear (instead of a minimum requirement). The raid leader has complete control over who, and how many, raiders are invited. Wild has purchased eight pieces of gear so far, at pretty good prices. There are three or four other interesting items that are stunningly expensive, and likely worth considering, but Wild is going to wait until getting much closer to level 90 before buying anything too pricey.
As of 8 September, 2013 Wild is 39% of the way to level 87.
Wild, at last, is back in the Meitha guild. As I do every time I log in, I send JB out (who is a member of Meitha) to see if anyone in the guild is online. Usually there are no guildies in game, and when there are, it is nearly always Fenn or one of his alts (Fenn can't do guild invites) and once it was Diablessa (who also can't do guild invites).
I got lucky on Saturday, though. Grommash was in game. He knows Wild, so I whispered him and asked if he could guild invites. "Weren't you already in the guild?" he asked. Attempting to explain the process of switching accounts and consolidating toons into one account proved daunting for Gromm. His comments were peppered with Hic! Hic! Well, it was Saturday night, so a few - or maybe many - beers could be excused. The good news was that Gromm was happy to invite Wild back into the guild.
I figured that Wild would have to earn back guild rating, but I was very pleasantly surprised that Wild is still rated as Exalted with the guild. Wild will get all of the guild bonus advantages, including a 10% increase in gaining experience points.
Wild is now 15% of the way to level 87.
Wild has also been accumulating gear to use when he reaches level 90. The plan is to be geared well enough to be useful in flex raids. Once Wild gets to level 90 I'll explain all the mechanics of that. In short, though, flex raiding allows for a varying number of raiders (so there is no forced requirement to have exactly ten) and varying levels of gear (instead of a minimum requirement). The raid leader has complete control over who, and how many, raiders are invited. Wild has purchased eight pieces of gear so far, at pretty good prices. There are three or four other interesting items that are stunningly expensive, and likely worth considering, but Wild is going to wait until getting much closer to level 90 before buying anything too pricey.
As of 8 September, 2013 Wild is 39% of the way to level 87.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Rules of PVE Pet Battle Engagement
Rules of PVE Pet Battle Engagement
Wild has still not found a Meitha guildie who can invite Wild back into the guild, but he did have a very nice and productive chat with a long time friend, Diablessa, on a Sunday morning. I was on Jezzibael (JB), who is in the Meitha guild. The advantage of having JB in the guild is that I can see which other guildies are online. That's how I tracked down Diablessa. She was the only guildie on and was happy to have someone to chat with. We caught up on the personal news, first, and then I asked about the guild. Is Talatiana and Bloodknuckle (my closest friends in the guild) still active? I hadn't seen them around much, I mentioned. She replied that they were in the process of moving and haven't been in game for some time. That wasn't much of a surprise to me. Real life has thrown them a number of curves over the years and long absences from the game are not unusual. She went on to say that the guild leader, Porkkchopp, has been away from the guild on another server, helping a friend set up her own guild. He is an east coast player and works odd hours, so good luck with finding him in game. Sigh.
There are only six players (and their alts), based on guild rank, that can invite players into the guild. I have yet to see a single one of those players in game since Wildshard returned.
On the PVE pet battle front, Wild ran into problems earning experience from those battles. Apparently, there are have been a lot of back and forth changes in an effort to fine tune the rules. For awhile Wild was getting great gobs of XP for every battle. Then, it seemed that Wild couldn't get any XP at all. It was Erik who came up with the right answer. The rules turned out to be a single rule: When doing PVE pet battles, the pets on the team must all be within five levels of each other. Once Wild started making teams that followed that rule, he started to get XP again.
If Wild was interested primarily on leveling up his battle pets, he would take on high level opponents, with one of his own low level pets on his team. That one low level pet would then level much faster since the pet was facing high level opponents. Wild wouldn't get any personal XP that way, though. The method Wild is using is to maintain teams all within five levels of each other in order for Wild to get XP for every battle he wins. One pet would be five levels below the other two to aid in leveling. His battle pets will advance slower, but they do still advance.
As of September 3rd, Wild is 60% of the way to level 86.
Wild's next test of pet battles was in Tanaris. Wild has been doing battles no higher than around level 12 and has been getting XP of 15-20K per battle. I wanted to know if higher level pet battles will provide more XP. The test was quite a success. For whatever reason, pet battles in Tanaris stayed at around 20k each. In Un Goro Crater, however, the XP jumped into the 67K range and often as high as 83K. The max XP received for one battle so far is 87,150.
As of September 4th, Wild is 71% of the way to level 86. His secret was Dragonbone Hatchlings in Northrend. They were level 21/22, easy to kill, packed in groups with fast re-spawning, and rewards above 70k for each victory. Wild barely had to move.
As of a bit past midnight on September 5th, Wild DINGED to level 86.
Wild has still not found a Meitha guildie who can invite Wild back into the guild, but he did have a very nice and productive chat with a long time friend, Diablessa, on a Sunday morning. I was on Jezzibael (JB), who is in the Meitha guild. The advantage of having JB in the guild is that I can see which other guildies are online. That's how I tracked down Diablessa. She was the only guildie on and was happy to have someone to chat with. We caught up on the personal news, first, and then I asked about the guild. Is Talatiana and Bloodknuckle (my closest friends in the guild) still active? I hadn't seen them around much, I mentioned. She replied that they were in the process of moving and haven't been in game for some time. That wasn't much of a surprise to me. Real life has thrown them a number of curves over the years and long absences from the game are not unusual. She went on to say that the guild leader, Porkkchopp, has been away from the guild on another server, helping a friend set up her own guild. He is an east coast player and works odd hours, so good luck with finding him in game. Sigh.
There are only six players (and their alts), based on guild rank, that can invite players into the guild. I have yet to see a single one of those players in game since Wildshard returned.
On the PVE pet battle front, Wild ran into problems earning experience from those battles. Apparently, there are have been a lot of back and forth changes in an effort to fine tune the rules. For awhile Wild was getting great gobs of XP for every battle. Then, it seemed that Wild couldn't get any XP at all. It was Erik who came up with the right answer. The rules turned out to be a single rule: When doing PVE pet battles, the pets on the team must all be within five levels of each other. Once Wild started making teams that followed that rule, he started to get XP again.
If Wild was interested primarily on leveling up his battle pets, he would take on high level opponents, with one of his own low level pets on his team. That one low level pet would then level much faster since the pet was facing high level opponents. Wild wouldn't get any personal XP that way, though. The method Wild is using is to maintain teams all within five levels of each other in order for Wild to get XP for every battle he wins. One pet would be five levels below the other two to aid in leveling. His battle pets will advance slower, but they do still advance.
As of September 3rd, Wild is 60% of the way to level 86.
Wild's next test of pet battles was in Tanaris. Wild has been doing battles no higher than around level 12 and has been getting XP of 15-20K per battle. I wanted to know if higher level pet battles will provide more XP. The test was quite a success. For whatever reason, pet battles in Tanaris stayed at around 20k each. In Un Goro Crater, however, the XP jumped into the 67K range and often as high as 83K. The max XP received for one battle so far is 87,150.
As of September 4th, Wild is 71% of the way to level 86. His secret was Dragonbone Hatchlings in Northrend. They were level 21/22, easy to kill, packed in groups with fast re-spawning, and rewards above 70k for each victory. Wild barely had to move.
As of a bit past midnight on September 5th, Wild DINGED to level 86.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Making Arrangements
Making Arrangements
Since I ended up having to activate the second account for a short period, I figured I'd better make the most of it.
First on the agenda was the transformation of the alliance character, Raktajina. Rakta is a level 13 hunter. She spends all of her time in Booty Bay. Her job was to handle transactions between the Horde and Alliance Auction Houses. She's now out of a job. Rakta the hunter is no more. The new Rakta is an Alliance Worgen druid. Rakta will have the many advantages of heirloom gear and the support of the Tea Green Guild. Her sister in arms, hunter Chaitee (and her faithful combat pet, Tazzy), has taken Rakta under her wing.
It is also time to say goodbye to Ezuh. She is a level 47 shaman that never really connected with the Wild family. There are some very dark memories in her past which continue to haunt her. The Wild family wishes her well.
Wildshard is going to take it "slow and casual" in working on leveling from 85 to 90. Wild spent an hour and a half chasing down and defeating the eleven Pet Battle Tamers in Kalimdor. He started yesterday at 15% of the way to level 86, and finished at 25%. Each victory earned Wild about 69k experience points (XP). I'm not sure if some areas have higher XP rewards, or if all of them offer the same.
Wild hasn't been able to attract the attention of a Meitha guild officer yet, so he is still unguilded.
30 Aug, 2013: Wild continued his languid leveling via pet battles. Wild learned that he gets pretty decent XP even doing non-Tamer battles. The minimum seems to be 5K XP for the very low level pets. He took on whatever Pet Tamers he came across but focused mostly on capturing new pets to complete his collection. Wild is now 44% of the way to level 86.
31 Aug, 2013: "Languid" has turned to "slothful" as Wild only moved up to 45%. Wild did finally catch the eye of one of Meitha's senior guildies, Fenn. Fenn is a good friend. Unfortunately, he does not have the rank to invite players into the guild. Sigh. Given how few guildies are online this may take awhile. In the meantime, Wild gets on average 2-4 requests a day from other guilds wanting Wild to join them.
Since I ended up having to activate the second account for a short period, I figured I'd better make the most of it.
First on the agenda was the transformation of the alliance character, Raktajina. Rakta is a level 13 hunter. She spends all of her time in Booty Bay. Her job was to handle transactions between the Horde and Alliance Auction Houses. She's now out of a job. Rakta the hunter is no more. The new Rakta is an Alliance Worgen druid. Rakta will have the many advantages of heirloom gear and the support of the Tea Green Guild. Her sister in arms, hunter Chaitee (and her faithful combat pet, Tazzy), has taken Rakta under her wing.
It is also time to say goodbye to Ezuh. She is a level 47 shaman that never really connected with the Wild family. There are some very dark memories in her past which continue to haunt her. The Wild family wishes her well.
Wildshard is going to take it "slow and casual" in working on leveling from 85 to 90. Wild spent an hour and a half chasing down and defeating the eleven Pet Battle Tamers in Kalimdor. He started yesterday at 15% of the way to level 86, and finished at 25%. Each victory earned Wild about 69k experience points (XP). I'm not sure if some areas have higher XP rewards, or if all of them offer the same.
Wild hasn't been able to attract the attention of a Meitha guild officer yet, so he is still unguilded.
30 Aug, 2013: Wild continued his languid leveling via pet battles. Wild learned that he gets pretty decent XP even doing non-Tamer battles. The minimum seems to be 5K XP for the very low level pets. He took on whatever Pet Tamers he came across but focused mostly on capturing new pets to complete his collection. Wild is now 44% of the way to level 86.
31 Aug, 2013: "Languid" has turned to "slothful" as Wild only moved up to 45%. Wild did finally catch the eye of one of Meitha's senior guildies, Fenn. Fenn is a good friend. Unfortunately, he does not have the rank to invite players into the guild. Sigh. Given how few guildies are online this may take awhile. In the meantime, Wild gets on average 2-4 requests a day from other guilds wanting Wild to join them.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Like I Never Left
Like I Never Left
[Note: Sorry for the head fake! Seems I can't quite quit this game yet. I'm going to continue this blog, although you should go to the JadedWalker blog first as I will post a link there to any new Wild Family posts. Hope that isn't too confusing.]
My addiction to the World of Warcraft (WoW) has kept me playing for more than eight years, including the purchase of thousands of dollars worth of game time and upgrades/expansions. I even had two accounts so that I could have as many as 22 characters and be able to play two characters at the same time.
Those who follow this blog know I stopped playing WoW on 7 August this year. That's a whole three weeks away from the game before I started thinking about playing again. Yea, there should be a support group I can go to.
My new idea was to ease off playing by starting back up only one of the two accounts. I even had a plausible rationale for doing so. First, it would cut the cost of playing in half. Second, while I love to write and spend many hours a day at it, I still need some other outlet outside work. The extra time I had quickly started to get in the way of my better half, who began making pointed suggestions focused on getting me out of the way and out of her hair.
Playing just one account, though, had it's drawbacks. Each account can accommodate a maximum of eleven characters. Not all of the characters I wanted, though, were on the same account. The cost to get all of my characters into the right account was $130, and that was a lot more than I wanted to spend. I went so far as to ask Blizzard to shift characters around for free. The expected answer was No. Ultimately, I moved only one character, Wildshard ("Wild"), which cost $25, and then activated one account.
Changing accounts created some issues I would have to work through. Wild lost his guild affiliation, and will have to ask to be invited in again. Many of the addons that I typically use have to be updated. Wild's user interface (UI) also has to be updated. Wild pretty much stopped playing for more than a year, so a lot of rust has to be shaken off.
Part 2 - I wish I Had Never Left
Despite all of my planning and preparation, I missed a critical element. When I decided to retire from the game, I spent considerable effort cleaning up loose ends so that should I ever return, things would be in order. Well, it didn't occur to me at the time that I would one day want to activate only one account. That oversight, of course, is why I had to pay to move Wildshard and why I decided to leave my level 90 character, Plumrosefist ("Fist"), behind. I plan to level Wildshard, now a level 85, to 90, with an eye to getting back into raiding. As much as I loved Fist, I had no plans to turn her into a raider.
That decision has come back to haunt me. One of the things that I thought very smart of me was to collect all of the heirloom gear with one character. Very good idea, except that I left the gear with Fist, not Wild. Guess what else she has? Fist has all of the pet battle rewards, too. At least, I think Fist has them. I know for sure that none of the characters in the now active account have them. Guess what that means? I'm going to have to activate the other account, at least for the minimum thirty days. Sigh.
Maybe the silver lining is that I'll now have thirty days to discover what other things I bungled.
[Note: Sorry for the head fake! Seems I can't quite quit this game yet. I'm going to continue this blog, although you should go to the JadedWalker blog first as I will post a link there to any new Wild Family posts. Hope that isn't too confusing.]
My addiction to the World of Warcraft (WoW) has kept me playing for more than eight years, including the purchase of thousands of dollars worth of game time and upgrades/expansions. I even had two accounts so that I could have as many as 22 characters and be able to play two characters at the same time.
Those who follow this blog know I stopped playing WoW on 7 August this year. That's a whole three weeks away from the game before I started thinking about playing again. Yea, there should be a support group I can go to.
My new idea was to ease off playing by starting back up only one of the two accounts. I even had a plausible rationale for doing so. First, it would cut the cost of playing in half. Second, while I love to write and spend many hours a day at it, I still need some other outlet outside work. The extra time I had quickly started to get in the way of my better half, who began making pointed suggestions focused on getting me out of the way and out of her hair.
Playing just one account, though, had it's drawbacks. Each account can accommodate a maximum of eleven characters. Not all of the characters I wanted, though, were on the same account. The cost to get all of my characters into the right account was $130, and that was a lot more than I wanted to spend. I went so far as to ask Blizzard to shift characters around for free. The expected answer was No. Ultimately, I moved only one character, Wildshard ("Wild"), which cost $25, and then activated one account.
Changing accounts created some issues I would have to work through. Wild lost his guild affiliation, and will have to ask to be invited in again. Many of the addons that I typically use have to be updated. Wild's user interface (UI) also has to be updated. Wild pretty much stopped playing for more than a year, so a lot of rust has to be shaken off.
Part 2 - I wish I Had Never Left
Despite all of my planning and preparation, I missed a critical element. When I decided to retire from the game, I spent considerable effort cleaning up loose ends so that should I ever return, things would be in order. Well, it didn't occur to me at the time that I would one day want to activate only one account. That oversight, of course, is why I had to pay to move Wildshard and why I decided to leave my level 90 character, Plumrosefist ("Fist"), behind. I plan to level Wildshard, now a level 85, to 90, with an eye to getting back into raiding. As much as I loved Fist, I had no plans to turn her into a raider.
That decision has come back to haunt me. One of the things that I thought very smart of me was to collect all of the heirloom gear with one character. Very good idea, except that I left the gear with Fist, not Wild. Guess what else she has? Fist has all of the pet battle rewards, too. At least, I think Fist has them. I know for sure that none of the characters in the now active account have them. Guess what that means? I'm going to have to activate the other account, at least for the minimum thirty days. Sigh.
Maybe the silver lining is that I'll now have thirty days to discover what other things I bungled.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Final Words
Final Words
The Wild Family Adventures blog is going into retirement. While there may still be a post about the World of Warcraft on occasion, I will be posting them on The Jadedwalker blog. Please consider joining and contributing to this blog, which discusses my writing career and any other subject readers would like to talk about. The current post is about baseball, for example.
Another website to consider is our "ode to cats" blog, Tazzydbell, where we cover the lives of our many - and I mean many - cats.
I also want to acknowledge all those who read and contributed to the warcraft blog over it's lifetime dating back to 2005. Thank you all.
The Wild Family Adventures blog is going into retirement. While there may still be a post about the World of Warcraft on occasion, I will be posting them on The Jadedwalker blog. Please consider joining and contributing to this blog, which discusses my writing career and any other subject readers would like to talk about. The current post is about baseball, for example.
Another website to consider is our "ode to cats" blog, Tazzydbell, where we cover the lives of our many - and I mean many - cats.
I also want to acknowledge all those who read and contributed to the warcraft blog over it's lifetime dating back to 2005. Thank you all.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Wednesday (31 July 2013) - The Sun Sets
Wednesday (31 July 2013) - The Sun Sets
[Note: I was expecting Happy to have today, 31 July, to wrap up the last items he had received from the AH, but when I logged in this morning the account had been closed. Ah well. The other account remains active until 7 Aug, closing on the 8th. I am giving Naithipe the last say. I suspect that you have already deduced her real name, but let me know if you've figured it out, and if you know the connection between the names. Her real name is revealed at the end of the post.]
The death knight was draped over a bar stool at the Inn shoehorned into a corner of Dalaran. The pig tails drew stares. The armor she wore warned of a more dangerous story. The baleful glare was that of a creature lost to her pain and willing to take all who dared down the dark road she trod.
She was bone tired. Cursed as a death knight, murderer of a trusted friend, and mother of a fatherless child. She had never wanted to be any of those things, in the early years. Now, she accepted her solitude and wrapped her crimes around her to protect her bruised soul.
There were whispers around the edges of the bar. "Naithipe," they murmured. She was known here in Dalaran. Washed up on a forgotten chunk of floating rock and caught in the eddies of a land falling into obscurity. It fit her mood. It fit the dingy Filthy Animal Inn and the decrepit denizens who thought they had a life. It fit the blackness of her heart.
That was her state of mind when she left Dalaran for the Valley of the Two Moons in the land of Pandaria. That had not been an easy journey. The Pandarens, strangely, had let her be. Perhaps they sensed the blackness she carried, and let her pass lest some of that blackness spill across their beautiful world. Perhaps they pitied her, or thought her not worthy of the effort to obstruct her. It made no difference to Naithipe.
Her journey ended at Halfhill Market. At the Lazy Turnip Tavern, Naithipe watched from a dark corner while her only child danced without music on the counter of the bar. She watched with wetted eyes. She could see the darkness in the child, a darkness that Naithipe carried in her own soul. She had not wished to pass that on at her birth, but there it was. Perhaps the curse will pass her by anyway, she hoped. In a quiet way she was proud of her daughter. She had advanced much farther than herself, and surpassed even her mentors. Her daughter was happy in her own way, Naithipe knew, as no daughter was ever watched so closely as her.
Her daughter slowed to a stop and stepped lightly down to the floor. She passed a coin to the barkeep for letting her share his counter. There was appreciative applause without the ugliness that seemed to follow Naithipe. There was envy, there was lust, but there was also respect. There was also that smudge of blackness on her heart. Which way will your life turn? Naithipe wondered of her daughter.
Naithipe rose and spoke. Her daughter turned at the sound of her name, "Plumrosefist." Plumrosefist turned her head to one side, and then the other, seeming to take in and accept every secret Naithipe had ever had. "My little Rose," Naithipe called her, for the first time out loud, for the millionth time in her heart.
"Mother," Plumerosefist said then, and embraced her with a smile.
Someone in the bar murmured, "Naithipe." Plumrosefist's mother turned to the voice, her arm still around her child. "No," she said firmly. "My name is Tiphaine."
[Note: I was expecting Happy to have today, 31 July, to wrap up the last items he had received from the AH, but when I logged in this morning the account had been closed. Ah well. The other account remains active until 7 Aug, closing on the 8th. I am giving Naithipe the last say. I suspect that you have already deduced her real name, but let me know if you've figured it out, and if you know the connection between the names. Her real name is revealed at the end of the post.]
The death knight was draped over a bar stool at the Inn shoehorned into a corner of Dalaran. The pig tails drew stares. The armor she wore warned of a more dangerous story. The baleful glare was that of a creature lost to her pain and willing to take all who dared down the dark road she trod.
She was bone tired. Cursed as a death knight, murderer of a trusted friend, and mother of a fatherless child. She had never wanted to be any of those things, in the early years. Now, she accepted her solitude and wrapped her crimes around her to protect her bruised soul.
There were whispers around the edges of the bar. "Naithipe," they murmured. She was known here in Dalaran. Washed up on a forgotten chunk of floating rock and caught in the eddies of a land falling into obscurity. It fit her mood. It fit the dingy Filthy Animal Inn and the decrepit denizens who thought they had a life. It fit the blackness of her heart.
That was her state of mind when she left Dalaran for the Valley of the Two Moons in the land of Pandaria. That had not been an easy journey. The Pandarens, strangely, had let her be. Perhaps they sensed the blackness she carried, and let her pass lest some of that blackness spill across their beautiful world. Perhaps they pitied her, or thought her not worthy of the effort to obstruct her. It made no difference to Naithipe.
Her journey ended at Halfhill Market. At the Lazy Turnip Tavern, Naithipe watched from a dark corner while her only child danced without music on the counter of the bar. She watched with wetted eyes. She could see the darkness in the child, a darkness that Naithipe carried in her own soul. She had not wished to pass that on at her birth, but there it was. Perhaps the curse will pass her by anyway, she hoped. In a quiet way she was proud of her daughter. She had advanced much farther than herself, and surpassed even her mentors. Her daughter was happy in her own way, Naithipe knew, as no daughter was ever watched so closely as her.
Her daughter slowed to a stop and stepped lightly down to the floor. She passed a coin to the barkeep for letting her share his counter. There was appreciative applause without the ugliness that seemed to follow Naithipe. There was envy, there was lust, but there was also respect. There was also that smudge of blackness on her heart. Which way will your life turn? Naithipe wondered of her daughter.
Naithipe rose and spoke. Her daughter turned at the sound of her name, "Plumrosefist." Plumrosefist turned her head to one side, and then the other, seeming to take in and accept every secret Naithipe had ever had. "My little Rose," Naithipe called her, for the first time out loud, for the millionth time in her heart.
"Mother," Plumerosefist said then, and embraced her with a smile.
Someone in the bar murmured, "Naithipe." Plumrosefist's mother turned to the voice, her arm still around her child. "No," she said firmly. "My name is Tiphaine."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
