Officially, the sunday gathering of the Grunt Foundation begins at 6:30am server time (pst). At 5:45am all four of the group who could make it were in game. The warlock, Kon, could not make it. On saturday Philly posted on the Scryers realm forum, asking for a fifth player interested in running Wailing Caverns with us. We got no takers. Sunday morning we canvassed those in game and got one taker - a level 17 druid named Jal. Better him than no one, commented the mage. In a group of two level 22s and two level 21s, the druid should be fine, and if he dies a lot, well, the rest of us can handle things. It was also kind of cool being on the receiving end of the druid Mark of the Wild buff, instead of being the one to cast it. Of course, Philly also has a group buff, "fort", which adds stamina. The pallies have the most complicated buff requirements, as they have several types to choose from and they only last ten minutes instead of the thirty minutes of most other group buffs.
Before the start Philly had to vendor a lot of stuff in order to make room for more "stuff" on this long run. I even abandoned a couple of quests Philly was partially done with, easy ones I could go back and do again if necessary. I would later regret selling off all that linen Philly had, but I needed the room in my bags. We assembled at the Summoning Stone and started about 6:15am. Philly was 94% of the way to level 23.
After speeding through the trash outside the instance, and then doing the same on the initial trash inside, we paused for our first group of hostile druids of the fang and the inevitable shamblers that were with them. The druid player started off in bear and stayed in the form for most of the run, popping out as needed. He seemed to know what he was doing, and quickly caught on to our group's way of doing things. He even joked that we were "gettin fancy" when the warrior began marking targets. But he obeyed the kill order, didn't break crowd control, and rarely pulled the main target off the tank.
With three melee in the group (warrior tank, bear druid, and paladin) Philly stayed out of DPS mode initially until I was sure how the damage spread was going to look. As the healer I had no complaints, though. Most heals went to the tank, with only a sprinkling to the other melee on most fights. Brae, the mage, would Ice any mob that he pulled aggro on, which worked most of the time to keep him out of trouble. A few times Philly dropped a Shield on him just so I wouldn't have to worry about him when things got a little rough. Sometimes Philly had to use that Shield on herself, which gave the melee plenty of time to come help.
We mowed through mob group after mob group, a steady diet of mark, attack, kill, loot, and march on. Philly remembered to use Dispell Magic when someone was hit with Sleep, and even remembered to use the racial spell to break Fear the one time that Philly was hit with it. I'm learning.
WC is multi-level with seeming endless stretches of passageways. All of the boss elites are level 20+ and are scattered throughout, and there is more than one way to go after them. Last week the one boss we faced, Lord Pythas, was a tough fight for the four of us. This week we were all at least a level higher and now had a full group. When we faced Pythas this time he died. Lady Anacondra, who could be at any of four possible spots, was found next and she also went down.
Up to that point no one had died. There is a passage in WC that requires a leap from one ledge, across a drop off, to a lower ledge. It's not a difficult jump (not as hard as the balcony leap in Blackrock Mountain for example) but the angle has to be right. There is also a waterfall that strikes one edge of upper ledge. We were all aware of the jump we'd need to make. The mage happened to enter the waterfall, which if it reacted like most water in WoW, would not have affected the mage at all. This one, apparently, swept the mage off the ledge and down to the level below. We had already been through that area, but mobs were beginning to respawn. Brae knew the way and said he could work his way back to where we were headed. He was already taking damage, though. Philly got as close to the edge of the drop off as I could and tried to heal him. No dice. And at the same time, unknowingly, Philly picked up a shadow from that ledge.
Brae got past the first couple mobs and headed away from us, then got tangled again. "I'm ok," he said. Right before he died. So we all jumped down to the lower level to go retrieve our friend.
Philly noticed that her health was down to half. Hmm, how did that happen, I wondered? The fall damage wasn't that bad. Shrug. Philly healed up and then rezzed the mage. Philly had performed her first resurrection.
The next group of mobs to get by and get back on course was just around the corner. We engaged quickly and Philly got caught on the wrong side of a large rock and out of healing range. I focused on getting to the tank, who was not in extremis but who was probably missing his healer, and settled into the fight. That's when I noticed that Philly's health was at 23%. The pally noticed it at the same time, and we both cast heals. What's hitting me? I asked. Philly started getting hit again. There was nothing there.
"Let's get out of the area," said the pally. "Must be a bugged druid mob. Maybe from the other side of the wall or something." But for the next ten minutes and countless fights, the unseen attacker stayed with Philly, draining health before, during and after fights, bolts of light appearing out of thin air to strike her.
Philly just dealt with it, and somewhere along the way the shadow finally went away.
More druids of the Fang died. We found Kresh so that the pally could get his turtle shield. Kresh drops one of two types, one with a lot of stats, and one with a lot of armor. The warrior had gotten a stat laden shield last week, which is what the pally wanted, too. But he got the other one. Oh well, they are still both nice shields.
Meanwhile the druid was having the time of his life. He was the only leather wearer, so of course every blue drop off of the mobs was leather. I think he ended up with four blues that should last him through his level 20s. He also made level 18 about halfway through. It was his lucky day.
In addition to a total of four Fang lords, the group took out an elite thunder lizard called Skum, and a giant shambler called Verdan the Everliving, a misnomer because he did not live for long.
We had cleared Wailing Caverns. But the run was not quite over. With all four of the Fang and Verdan dead, we were able to do the "Naralax Event." We all ran back to the start of the dungeon (using the shortcut near the corpse of Verdan) to talk to the Disciple of Naralax, who had greeted us on our arrival.
The Event is an escort quest. After talking with the Disciple, he begins a long walk (very slooooooowly) to his sleeping Master, Naralax, to awaken him. There is an easy pair of raptors to kill first. Then he does an encantation at the "circle of vipers" which of course brings on a bunch of vipers. One spawned right in front of Philly. I Shielded and backed away and let the druid have him. The disciple finally gets to Naralax for the ritual of awakening. He does an incantation that's so long the warrior started up some dancing. What follows are three waves of mobs. After dispatching the first two waves, Mutanus the Devourer appears: an extra large, albino murloc. He died as well, completing the Awakening and delivering a shard that begins another easy quest outside the instance that many folks forget to pick up.
A couple of the quest turn ins have to be done in a cave that is located above the entrance to WC. Many a player has wandered about this area, able to see the question mark that shows there is a quest to turn in but unable to figure out where it is. I knew where the cave was from Wild's time in WC, but had only a vague idea how to get up there. The pally, Arq, was already up there somewhere, and I'd seen the direction he'd gone, so Philly followed and took a guess at which upward rising slope would get me to the top. I guessed right, and climbed that slope (located past the graveyard at the Crossroads) to the very top of the mountain. From there Philly made her way toward where the entrance to WC would be below her. Then drop to the ledge below, being careful not to miss it, and then drop again to the entrance to the cave. Collect two quest rewards, and start the quest given by the shard. It's one more mountain climb to complete the shard quest.
Philly made level 23 early on in WC, and then made level 24 while turning in the many quests completed at the end. Another dungeon completed along with every quest offered. A random blue drop also went to Philly early in the fight, a wand. Us three casters have been using a rotation to award blues and it was Philly's turn. The wand was [Firebelcher], a fire damage wand with some very nice damage. Have I mentioned how much Philly loves wands?
Philly also received the quest reward [Crescent Staff], a better blue than the [Staff of the Sun] Philly had only recently earned.
Philly also got a present from Arq, who has been spending his free time fishing up deviate fish from the area around and in Wailing Caverns. The food made from a rare recipe using this fish has very high demand. Arq got the recipe, and apparently has been making a lot of gold. Philly checked the auction house and the dish, Savory Deviate Delight, is selling for almost a gold apiece. Arq passed Philly 10g to help me get all my spells and skills purchased. Sort of hated to do that, but it's all being earned by the guild, and Philly has a lot of herb farming in her future making potions for the guild as we level up.
Tired and satisfied, Philly called it a day. Just another awesome day with the Grunt Foundation.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
2008-01-25 The Sanctum of the Sun
The Sanctum of the Sun, one of several strongholds the blood elves have carved out in the Ghostlands, is the rally point for attacks against the Scourge fortress of Deatholme. There are multiple quest series involving that ongoing battle, and conquering Deatholme would pretty much complete all of the significant quests left to do in the Ghostlands. That was the area the GF focused on for the night's adventures.
I was late getting home from work, but I got Philly in game long enough to check in. Three others were waiting, athough one had just done what I had - get in game, say I'm here, be back in a few minutes. The fifth player, Kon, would not be making it tonight as his computer had crashed (video card meltdown). We started about 15 minutes late. Not a big deal, but since two of the players are east coasters, we tried hard not to be too late getting going. With Kon unavailable, we would manage with four for tonight. Two were at level 20, and two of us (Philly included) were at level 21.
Our questinator, Arq, usually leads the way, but Braeco knew this set of quests very well and took charge for the evening. The quests are inter-related and all happen in and around Deatholme. Deatholme is a walled compound sprinkled with a number of buildings inside. The compound straddles the Scar, a strip of burned and rubble strewn wasteland stretching the length of the Ghostlands and more. Braeco knew which quests to do in which order, and, even more importantly, knew what areas "not" to do because we had not reached the right point in a quest chain to do it. A number of times he would say "Don't go in there now, but we'll be back."
The quests started us off with a number of kill quests to reduce the army of Scourge undead and other nasties that controlled the area. Even with just four of us they went down fast and in bunches. Philly rarely had to heal and so I could get in on the DPS with Philly's wand. I've never played a toon (past level 10 anyway) that could use a wand, and I love it. The [Lesser Magic Wand] that Brae, our enchanter, crafted for Philly does very decent damage and doesn't require any mana to use. It's a ranged weapon so Philly can stand at a distance to use it, and unlike a bow or gun, it also works while in melee range. Beats using mana consuming spells or banging on a mob with a staff any day. It's only drawback is that it is on the spell casting global cooldown (gcd), so when Philly did need to heal I had to stop the wand and pause for the gcd to end before Philly could cast a heal spell. It's only a second, but that can be a very long second when things suddenly get hot.
The second phase of the evening required entering the buildings in Deatholme to find and kill four of the leaders of the Scourge compound. That was a little tricky, but only because we simply rushed into the buildings and began killing things. The inside of the buildings are basically a central cone with a passage that circles around it. Mobs can be found along the passage, and line of sight was sometimes an issue. But they were no match for the group, and whether trash mob or leader (non-elite level 20s) they didn't last long.
We then took a small detour in our questing, deciding to go after two elite roaming mobs (the two that we thought about doing, and rationally decided against, on our very first outing). Earlier in the week Philly was out doing some herb gathering and happened on Arq working the same area. He had made a couple of solo attempts on one of those elites, but could not take it. We grouped up and between the two of us we killed it. This night, the four of us not only took that one down again (so the other two could get the quest done), we went after and killed the other one as well.
Now it was time to take on Dar'Khan Drathir, a night elf undead and traitor of the horde, who commands the Scourge of Deatholme. Dar'Khan is a level 21 elite. He has four protectors, non-elite, but pretty tough. He can Fear and is tough enough to be taken seriously.
We entered his command post, and surveyed the situation. Well, sort of. Brae asked Huldu, our warrior tank, if he thought he could tank them all. I wanted to say "Seriously?" but Huldu said sure, as long as "I get the healin, mon" in his troll lingo. I guess that went without saying, because then he bounded into the middle of the mobs and attacked Dar'khan. Oh boy.
It wasn't pretty. Few tanks are going to hold five mobs at the same time, and since we had not even marked a kill order I couldn't say who was trying to kill who over the course of the fight. All Philly could do was to keep heals up on the tank, and spot heal the pally, Arq, as he was certainly having to tank some of those mobs, while trying to keep myself alive. The mage, Brae, I figured was on his own since he made that crazy suggestion (not really, I did manage to get an occasional HoT to him). Fears would send random players scurrying about, unable to do anything. Philly could do little about that as a missed heal would mean the end of the warrior, as he was taking a heck of a lot of damage.
Philly ran down to next to nothing on mana, soaked up a potion, and kept going. With a couple of mobs now dead the pace of the damage we were getting slowed a little and Philly was able to get out of the 5 sec rule a few times which allowed her mana regen to kick in. It was enough. We killed the other two mobs. With all his protectors dead, Dar'khan followed, and all four of us were still standing.
We were fortunate. Lucky. And, yea, we were a pretty good team under pressure, too. Marking targets and testing whether we could single pull some of the mobs would have made more sense, though.
Philly was also lucky enough not to get Feared. But I had discovered a spell I'd forgotten I had that could deal with that. Undead have a racial ability to break Fear. It would have been handy to remember that in some of the earlier outings, but at least now I know.
Philly made level 22 during the evening. Our time in the Ghostlands is likely at an end, and we will have to decide our next quest farming zone. Sunday we will venture into Wailing Caverns again. I hope all five of us can make it, but given our rising levels four of us could probably manage it. Kon is hoping to get his computer ready by then, though.
As a group we all achieved Exalted rep with Tranquillen faction. What did that get Philly? It got her the ability to buy [Tranquillen Champion's Cloak], her first piece of blue gear. Well, it was actually her second piece, since one of the quest rewards of the night was [Staff of the Sun], a blue staff that is magnitudes better than her old staff. Philly needs to ask Brae for some enchants!
PS - Philly had 2g at the end of the run. After buying the new level 22 spells from the priest trainer, Philly had - 98 copper. That's one tenth of one tenth of one gold. She didn't even have enough to buy Expert Alchemist training. Another grinding night must be coming up.
I was late getting home from work, but I got Philly in game long enough to check in. Three others were waiting, athough one had just done what I had - get in game, say I'm here, be back in a few minutes. The fifth player, Kon, would not be making it tonight as his computer had crashed (video card meltdown). We started about 15 minutes late. Not a big deal, but since two of the players are east coasters, we tried hard not to be too late getting going. With Kon unavailable, we would manage with four for tonight. Two were at level 20, and two of us (Philly included) were at level 21.
Our questinator, Arq, usually leads the way, but Braeco knew this set of quests very well and took charge for the evening. The quests are inter-related and all happen in and around Deatholme. Deatholme is a walled compound sprinkled with a number of buildings inside. The compound straddles the Scar, a strip of burned and rubble strewn wasteland stretching the length of the Ghostlands and more. Braeco knew which quests to do in which order, and, even more importantly, knew what areas "not" to do because we had not reached the right point in a quest chain to do it. A number of times he would say "Don't go in there now, but we'll be back."
The quests started us off with a number of kill quests to reduce the army of Scourge undead and other nasties that controlled the area. Even with just four of us they went down fast and in bunches. Philly rarely had to heal and so I could get in on the DPS with Philly's wand. I've never played a toon (past level 10 anyway) that could use a wand, and I love it. The [Lesser Magic Wand] that Brae, our enchanter, crafted for Philly does very decent damage and doesn't require any mana to use. It's a ranged weapon so Philly can stand at a distance to use it, and unlike a bow or gun, it also works while in melee range. Beats using mana consuming spells or banging on a mob with a staff any day. It's only drawback is that it is on the spell casting global cooldown (gcd), so when Philly did need to heal I had to stop the wand and pause for the gcd to end before Philly could cast a heal spell. It's only a second, but that can be a very long second when things suddenly get hot.
The second phase of the evening required entering the buildings in Deatholme to find and kill four of the leaders of the Scourge compound. That was a little tricky, but only because we simply rushed into the buildings and began killing things. The inside of the buildings are basically a central cone with a passage that circles around it. Mobs can be found along the passage, and line of sight was sometimes an issue. But they were no match for the group, and whether trash mob or leader (non-elite level 20s) they didn't last long.
We then took a small detour in our questing, deciding to go after two elite roaming mobs (the two that we thought about doing, and rationally decided against, on our very first outing). Earlier in the week Philly was out doing some herb gathering and happened on Arq working the same area. He had made a couple of solo attempts on one of those elites, but could not take it. We grouped up and between the two of us we killed it. This night, the four of us not only took that one down again (so the other two could get the quest done), we went after and killed the other one as well.
Now it was time to take on Dar'Khan Drathir, a night elf undead and traitor of the horde, who commands the Scourge of Deatholme. Dar'Khan is a level 21 elite. He has four protectors, non-elite, but pretty tough. He can Fear and is tough enough to be taken seriously.
We entered his command post, and surveyed the situation. Well, sort of. Brae asked Huldu, our warrior tank, if he thought he could tank them all. I wanted to say "Seriously?" but Huldu said sure, as long as "I get the healin, mon" in his troll lingo. I guess that went without saying, because then he bounded into the middle of the mobs and attacked Dar'khan. Oh boy.
It wasn't pretty. Few tanks are going to hold five mobs at the same time, and since we had not even marked a kill order I couldn't say who was trying to kill who over the course of the fight. All Philly could do was to keep heals up on the tank, and spot heal the pally, Arq, as he was certainly having to tank some of those mobs, while trying to keep myself alive. The mage, Brae, I figured was on his own since he made that crazy suggestion (not really, I did manage to get an occasional HoT to him). Fears would send random players scurrying about, unable to do anything. Philly could do little about that as a missed heal would mean the end of the warrior, as he was taking a heck of a lot of damage.
Philly ran down to next to nothing on mana, soaked up a potion, and kept going. With a couple of mobs now dead the pace of the damage we were getting slowed a little and Philly was able to get out of the 5 sec rule a few times which allowed her mana regen to kick in. It was enough. We killed the other two mobs. With all his protectors dead, Dar'khan followed, and all four of us were still standing.
We were fortunate. Lucky. And, yea, we were a pretty good team under pressure, too. Marking targets and testing whether we could single pull some of the mobs would have made more sense, though.
Philly was also lucky enough not to get Feared. But I had discovered a spell I'd forgotten I had that could deal with that. Undead have a racial ability to break Fear. It would have been handy to remember that in some of the earlier outings, but at least now I know.
Philly made level 22 during the evening. Our time in the Ghostlands is likely at an end, and we will have to decide our next quest farming zone. Sunday we will venture into Wailing Caverns again. I hope all five of us can make it, but given our rising levels four of us could probably manage it. Kon is hoping to get his computer ready by then, though.
As a group we all achieved Exalted rep with Tranquillen faction. What did that get Philly? It got her the ability to buy [Tranquillen Champion's Cloak], her first piece of blue gear. Well, it was actually her second piece, since one of the quest rewards of the night was [Staff of the Sun], a blue staff that is magnitudes better than her old staff. Philly needs to ask Brae for some enchants!
PS - Philly had 2g at the end of the run. After buying the new level 22 spells from the priest trainer, Philly had - 98 copper. That's one tenth of one tenth of one gold. She didn't even have enough to buy Expert Alchemist training. Another grinding night must be coming up.
2008-01-22 The Wailing Caverns Report
Jovia looked at the Scryer's device on the nightstand within her private quarters. Jovia, with spells few warlocks even knew existed, had imprisoned an imp, magically infusing it's essence such that the imp was the device and the reverse. The device itself appeared inert and gave no hint of what was bonded with it, but Jovia could sense the imp as the fiendish thing forever worked at it's bonds, and Jovia trusted it not one bit.
Jovia had captured and ensnared other imps - within those leatherskin scraps carried by the group.
The imps were also bound by other magics forcing them to report on the activities of the group. Single imps reported only spotty information, but when grouped the combined intelligence resulted in a more or less accurate rendering of the activity of the group. It was not perfect, as the imps delighted in making their own observations and offering opinions, embellishing the report for their own amusement and to irritate their captor. Mostly to irritate their captor, Jovia thought sourly. Jovia summarized the content in making her report to the Master's, but she found herself growing very interested in the details. Jovia powered the device to hear of the GF's latest foray. And befoer the group even started the imps were already up to mischief.
The imps giggled amonsgt themselves, almost cackling. An interesting toy had found its way into their confinement, and the imps had made the paladin it's target. The paladin was not going to make his renedezvous with the group. The imps put obstacle after obstacle in his way, effectively sealing him into Silvermoon City, far from the Inn at the Crossroads where the others waited.
"Go without me," they chorused together, mimicking the pally's voice. A frustrated Arq finally had to admit that his magics were not yet up to defeating whatever it was that had derailed his arrival. Jovia had no knowledge of how the "toy" had gotten to the imps or who had provided it. Worse, it meant that something knew the magics of the scrying device. This would have to be reported.
The imps looked on as the other four packed up their gear and left the Inn for the trek across the Barrens to Wailing Caverns. "We'll Summon you once we get there, Arq," the warlock Kon promised. The imps smirked. No Summon would work for them today.
Determined to plumb at least some of the secrets of WC, the remaining four decided to make the attempt anyway. They cleared the way through the trash mobs outside the entrance to the Cavern. The imps jumped up and down with glee when both the priest and lock fell through a hole near the entrance. But the two quickly found their way and the group entered.
At the entrance a Disciple of Naralax welcomed the adventurers. WC is a diseased, festering place, but that is not what the druid disciples had wanted, and still tried to correct. The druid blessed each adventurer with Mark of the Wild, to help them with their tasks. He also warned them that the path was dangerous, as many of the corrupted druids following the Fang sect were out and about, including the four Leaders of the Fang.
The group moved on, and began to encounter the corrupted denizens of this deep, watery warren of passages. Raptors, oozes, wind serpents, and many other beasts thrive here. The imps grumbled, bored at how well the group handled the many challenges.
Ahh, thought the imps, all leaning forward as one. Now they face a camp with corrupted druids and serpents. This should be fun. The group carefully marked the targets and attacked. The hostile druid immediately put the warlock to Sleep. Philly struggled to find a counter-spell in her growing arsenal of spells. Here it is, she exclaimed! Philly quickly cast Dispell Magic on the lock and broke the Sleep spell. The druid and his protectors fell to the group.
For awhile the imps simply watched and reported. The group was making decent progress through the cavern, although they missed the presence of their paladin, Arq. Huldu had at leat two mobs in his face on every fight, and the weaving, striking Serpents of the Fang were all over the place. The elite turtle Kresh was discovered making his slow way down a long, shallow stream. Kresh's shell makes a great shield, and the group killed him, awarding [Kresh's Back] to the warrior. The mage Braeco also retrieved a powerful blue robe from one of the felled druids [Robe of the Moccasin].
The group was not just meandering about; they had purpose and direction, and eventually reached their first goal - one of the druid Leaders of the Fang, Lord Pythas. The imps waited and made bets between them on how long it would take Pythas to teach this GF the meaning of failure.
Pythas had two, maybe three, elites around him. In the heat of battle the details grow fuzzy. The group could go one of two ways. Kill Pythas first, or last. More bets were made and paid as the group chose to kill Pythas first.
The warrior engaged. Pythas began swinging a pair of huge axes, and the tank started bleeding. The druid elites were picked up and controlled, but the shambler came with Pythas and joined in against the tank. Philly went quickly from HoTs to longer cast heals and shortly was spamming her best heal spell one after the next, to keep the tank alive. For a moment it looked like the plan would work. None of the imps could believe it.
But a mob got loose, or a patrol happened by, or - things suddenly went bad. Everyone in the group began to take damage, and in the middle of trying to keep the heals coming, the priest found herself Slept. Can Dispell Magic be self-cast when Slept? Philly tried, and answer was no. The group fought on, the healer getting back into the fight as well, but one by one the group fell.
Defeated. The group retreated to the graveyard to nurse their wounds and make further plans.
The imps did not feel as smug as they wanted to, for the fight was close. Too close. Even though many of the passageways were now refilling with mobs, and would have to be fought through again, the group was still planning another attempt on Pythas. They were already reassembling near the Disciple. The imps began to work the magic given them, afraid what a second attempt might bring.
The group was ready, and headed back into the cavern, taking the time to kill a nearby serpent that had wandered too close. But they did not get very far when they noticed one of the group was not following. Huldu remained back near the Disciple. Huldu?
His body remained, but the mind and soul within was clouded. The warlock, still learning the ways of porting, could feel the powers of something like that spell swirling around the warrior. It appeared that the same foul power that had waylaid Arq had now also entrapped Huldu as well.
With only three, they could not continue. Ways to combat that power had to be found, but the GF would be back.
When the report was finished, Jovia sat back thoughtfully. Were her Masters behind this? Or was there yet another player in this game?
Jovia had captured and ensnared other imps - within those leatherskin scraps carried by the group.
The imps were also bound by other magics forcing them to report on the activities of the group. Single imps reported only spotty information, but when grouped the combined intelligence resulted in a more or less accurate rendering of the activity of the group. It was not perfect, as the imps delighted in making their own observations and offering opinions, embellishing the report for their own amusement and to irritate their captor. Mostly to irritate their captor, Jovia thought sourly. Jovia summarized the content in making her report to the Master's, but she found herself growing very interested in the details. Jovia powered the device to hear of the GF's latest foray. And befoer the group even started the imps were already up to mischief.
The imps giggled amonsgt themselves, almost cackling. An interesting toy had found its way into their confinement, and the imps had made the paladin it's target. The paladin was not going to make his renedezvous with the group. The imps put obstacle after obstacle in his way, effectively sealing him into Silvermoon City, far from the Inn at the Crossroads where the others waited.
"Go without me," they chorused together, mimicking the pally's voice. A frustrated Arq finally had to admit that his magics were not yet up to defeating whatever it was that had derailed his arrival. Jovia had no knowledge of how the "toy" had gotten to the imps or who had provided it. Worse, it meant that something knew the magics of the scrying device. This would have to be reported.
The imps looked on as the other four packed up their gear and left the Inn for the trek across the Barrens to Wailing Caverns. "We'll Summon you once we get there, Arq," the warlock Kon promised. The imps smirked. No Summon would work for them today.
Determined to plumb at least some of the secrets of WC, the remaining four decided to make the attempt anyway. They cleared the way through the trash mobs outside the entrance to the Cavern. The imps jumped up and down with glee when both the priest and lock fell through a hole near the entrance. But the two quickly found their way and the group entered.
At the entrance a Disciple of Naralax welcomed the adventurers. WC is a diseased, festering place, but that is not what the druid disciples had wanted, and still tried to correct. The druid blessed each adventurer with Mark of the Wild, to help them with their tasks. He also warned them that the path was dangerous, as many of the corrupted druids following the Fang sect were out and about, including the four Leaders of the Fang.
The group moved on, and began to encounter the corrupted denizens of this deep, watery warren of passages. Raptors, oozes, wind serpents, and many other beasts thrive here. The imps grumbled, bored at how well the group handled the many challenges.
Ahh, thought the imps, all leaning forward as one. Now they face a camp with corrupted druids and serpents. This should be fun. The group carefully marked the targets and attacked. The hostile druid immediately put the warlock to Sleep. Philly struggled to find a counter-spell in her growing arsenal of spells. Here it is, she exclaimed! Philly quickly cast Dispell Magic on the lock and broke the Sleep spell. The druid and his protectors fell to the group.
For awhile the imps simply watched and reported. The group was making decent progress through the cavern, although they missed the presence of their paladin, Arq. Huldu had at leat two mobs in his face on every fight, and the weaving, striking Serpents of the Fang were all over the place. The elite turtle Kresh was discovered making his slow way down a long, shallow stream. Kresh's shell makes a great shield, and the group killed him, awarding [Kresh's Back] to the warrior. The mage Braeco also retrieved a powerful blue robe from one of the felled druids [Robe of the Moccasin].
The group was not just meandering about; they had purpose and direction, and eventually reached their first goal - one of the druid Leaders of the Fang, Lord Pythas. The imps waited and made bets between them on how long it would take Pythas to teach this GF the meaning of failure.
Pythas had two, maybe three, elites around him. In the heat of battle the details grow fuzzy. The group could go one of two ways. Kill Pythas first, or last. More bets were made and paid as the group chose to kill Pythas first.
The warrior engaged. Pythas began swinging a pair of huge axes, and the tank started bleeding. The druid elites were picked up and controlled, but the shambler came with Pythas and joined in against the tank. Philly went quickly from HoTs to longer cast heals and shortly was spamming her best heal spell one after the next, to keep the tank alive. For a moment it looked like the plan would work. None of the imps could believe it.
But a mob got loose, or a patrol happened by, or - things suddenly went bad. Everyone in the group began to take damage, and in the middle of trying to keep the heals coming, the priest found herself Slept. Can Dispell Magic be self-cast when Slept? Philly tried, and answer was no. The group fought on, the healer getting back into the fight as well, but one by one the group fell.
Defeated. The group retreated to the graveyard to nurse their wounds and make further plans.
The imps did not feel as smug as they wanted to, for the fight was close. Too close. Even though many of the passageways were now refilling with mobs, and would have to be fought through again, the group was still planning another attempt on Pythas. They were already reassembling near the Disciple. The imps began to work the magic given them, afraid what a second attempt might bring.
The group was ready, and headed back into the cavern, taking the time to kill a nearby serpent that had wandered too close. But they did not get very far when they noticed one of the group was not following. Huldu remained back near the Disciple. Huldu?
His body remained, but the mind and soul within was clouded. The warlock, still learning the ways of porting, could feel the powers of something like that spell swirling around the warrior. It appeared that the same foul power that had waylaid Arq had now also entrapped Huldu as well.
With only three, they could not continue. Ways to combat that power had to be found, but the GF would be back.
When the report was finished, Jovia sat back thoughtfully. Were her Masters behind this? Or was there yet another player in this game?
2008-01-18 Jovia Dreams of Wailing Caverns
A Master rests, and dreams.
A splintered, fractured, mishapen lump of crystal sits heavily on a rocky sliver of stalagtite in a small, icy side cave within a warren of tunnels of an unmentioned cavern. Deep within the crystal, so deep as to appear a mirage, or a trick of the light (were there any light to fall upon it), a flicker of deepest, darkest green teases the eye of the beholder, eyes that need not light at all.
The cave is filled with nightmares.
The Beholder has a Name.
The Eye trembles.
Jovia woke with a start. Asleep at my post! How embarrassing! Fortunately the entrance of the Inn was currently empty. She has dreamed, but it's pieces are already a jumble of fading impressions.
It's the adventurers, of that she was sure. They plan to explore a cavern out in the Barrens. Jovia knows of the place, knows there are dangers, but they must grow stronger, and they may do some good there.
Jovia sensed that she had shared a Master's dream, and not at the Master's bidding. This dream sharing must be druid work, for druids are responsible for the state of the Wailing Caverns. Night elf druid work, most probably, she thought with displeasure. But maybe not. It was not clear if the dream were threat or warning. But it did portend change. When the GF ventures into Wailing Caverns, they will waken something not even the druids know is there. Something the Masters fear - and covet.
Fate finds it's mate. It would make no difference to dissuade the group from entering Wailing Caverns. And even if they are successful, they will be setting in motion deep ripples that will follow and tug at them. If they are not careful, they will be carried to places from which they cannot return.
That night Jovia placed a slender volume on the pillow in each adventurer's room: "The Beauty of the Barrens" by Naralax.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Naralex
A splintered, fractured, mishapen lump of crystal sits heavily on a rocky sliver of stalagtite in a small, icy side cave within a warren of tunnels of an unmentioned cavern. Deep within the crystal, so deep as to appear a mirage, or a trick of the light (were there any light to fall upon it), a flicker of deepest, darkest green teases the eye of the beholder, eyes that need not light at all.
The cave is filled with nightmares.
The Beholder has a Name.
The Eye trembles.
Jovia woke with a start. Asleep at my post! How embarrassing! Fortunately the entrance of the Inn was currently empty. She has dreamed, but it's pieces are already a jumble of fading impressions.
It's the adventurers, of that she was sure. They plan to explore a cavern out in the Barrens. Jovia knows of the place, knows there are dangers, but they must grow stronger, and they may do some good there.
Jovia sensed that she had shared a Master's dream, and not at the Master's bidding. This dream sharing must be druid work, for druids are responsible for the state of the Wailing Caverns. Night elf druid work, most probably, she thought with displeasure. But maybe not. It was not clear if the dream were threat or warning. But it did portend change. When the GF ventures into Wailing Caverns, they will waken something not even the druids know is there. Something the Masters fear - and covet.
Fate finds it's mate. It would make no difference to dissuade the group from entering Wailing Caverns. And even if they are successful, they will be setting in motion deep ripples that will follow and tug at them. If they are not careful, they will be carried to places from which they cannot return.
That night Jovia placed a slender volume on the pillow in each adventurer's room: "The Beauty of the Barrens" by Naralax.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Naralex
2008-01-18 The "Questinator"
Last night the Grunt Foundation assembled at the Inn without a name at Tranquillen in the Ghostlands. I thought we might exhaust all of the quests in Ghostlands this outing but after last night I don't think we've even scratched the surface. Philly ended the evening with more quests than she started with. We are getting into a kind of ritual each time we get together that includes getting everyone buffed, and handing out whatever crafting goodies we were able to do in between runs. Philly has been handing out healing potions. I plan to start asking what other potions they'd like to have and will make them as Philly continues to level her crafting skills. The tailor, Kon, always has one or two crafted green gear upgrades for the clothies. Brae is the enchanter, and did chest and wrist enchants for everyone. Wild is envious of the group enchanter, as he gets all unused gear to DE to help with his levelling. It cost Wild a fortune to level up enchanting.
Our "Questinator", Arq, had traffic problems last night and so was a little late getting in game. Arq knows where every quest is located and in what order they should be done for maximum efficiency. It is a remarkable talent that we are already addicted to as a group. When it looked like Arq might not make it, we all asked each other, Ok, we can quest with just the four of us, but what should we do first? Philly opened her quest log and perused the dozen plus Ghostlands quests in the log. They are listed alphabetically. Locations scattered all over the place. Organizing that would take half the time we had.
We wrung our hands for a few minutes and I was about to just pick a random quest to get us started when Arq made it in game. Saved! Arq got us ready to go once again, but I'm going to have to do a little research and have a backup plan for future questing. It won't be anywhere as efficient as Arq's, but it will at least get us going.
For the first part of the night the group spent a lot of time in the water. There were multiple quests that required killing sea creatures and collecting things at the bottom of a winding lake. Undead have a racial ability that improves underwater breathing. I wondered why it was only "improved" since undead don't have any lungs and can't breath anyway - but then what do I know. The good thing is that Philly could stay underwater a whole lot longer than either Wild or JB. In one sense, though, Philly is still at a disadvantage as Wild has an aquatic form that can breath underwater, and JB has a spell that allows her to breath underwater. Philly eventually has to surface to "breath".
After killing the requisite number of sea creatures, we went to turn in the quests. I discovered that Philly'd missed a quest giver and did not have one of the quests the others had completed. Since it meant going back into the water to find more things on the bottom, I suggested that Philly could do that on her own time, so as not to slow down the rest of the group. But the quest had a follow on boss quest and so everyone had to get wet again. Luckily it didn't take that long. The underwater boss fight was anti-climactic as the beast wasn't an elite and never knew what hit him.
Then we started on a multiple part set of quests involving a large area of trolls. What trolls are doing in the Ghostlands I'm not sure, but I'm going to have to weave that into the GF storyline somehow in honor of the one troll in our group. The quests involved killing thousands of trolls (well, it seemed like there were that many), clearing bosses from several dispersed huts, and collecting several of six different types of weapons. Doing this solo would have taken Philly a week to complete. Even in a five person group this set of quests took us the rest of the evening. Philly healed like crazy and weighed in with spell and wand DPS as well to keep the kills coming. We were in such a groove we fought through and killed the troll bosses without realizing they were the bosses until we had a chance to loot.
By the end of the evening Philly had DINGED! to level 18, and is well on the way to level 19.
Our Wailing Caverns adventure this coming sunday will be a whole lot more fun knowing we have opportunity to improve our gear in addition to the experience and the fun of conquering it with friends. When JB did WC, she was already geared (thanks to Wild) better than most anything she could have gotten in there. Philly's way is a bit more magical, I think.
Speaking of WC, this long, many levelled dungeon is going to really test this group. Not a single player has died in any of our group outings to date. Philly does not have the mana pool to keep everyone alive if too many start getting hit. I am already noticing that Philly's one HoT spell can no longer keep players health topped off during combat and I am resorting to longer cast spells more often. I am not jinxing anything with predictions one way or another, but we are really going to have to game up for this one.
Our "Questinator", Arq, had traffic problems last night and so was a little late getting in game. Arq knows where every quest is located and in what order they should be done for maximum efficiency. It is a remarkable talent that we are already addicted to as a group. When it looked like Arq might not make it, we all asked each other, Ok, we can quest with just the four of us, but what should we do first? Philly opened her quest log and perused the dozen plus Ghostlands quests in the log. They are listed alphabetically. Locations scattered all over the place. Organizing that would take half the time we had.
We wrung our hands for a few minutes and I was about to just pick a random quest to get us started when Arq made it in game. Saved! Arq got us ready to go once again, but I'm going to have to do a little research and have a backup plan for future questing. It won't be anywhere as efficient as Arq's, but it will at least get us going.
For the first part of the night the group spent a lot of time in the water. There were multiple quests that required killing sea creatures and collecting things at the bottom of a winding lake. Undead have a racial ability that improves underwater breathing. I wondered why it was only "improved" since undead don't have any lungs and can't breath anyway - but then what do I know. The good thing is that Philly could stay underwater a whole lot longer than either Wild or JB. In one sense, though, Philly is still at a disadvantage as Wild has an aquatic form that can breath underwater, and JB has a spell that allows her to breath underwater. Philly eventually has to surface to "breath".
After killing the requisite number of sea creatures, we went to turn in the quests. I discovered that Philly'd missed a quest giver and did not have one of the quests the others had completed. Since it meant going back into the water to find more things on the bottom, I suggested that Philly could do that on her own time, so as not to slow down the rest of the group. But the quest had a follow on boss quest and so everyone had to get wet again. Luckily it didn't take that long. The underwater boss fight was anti-climactic as the beast wasn't an elite and never knew what hit him.
Then we started on a multiple part set of quests involving a large area of trolls. What trolls are doing in the Ghostlands I'm not sure, but I'm going to have to weave that into the GF storyline somehow in honor of the one troll in our group. The quests involved killing thousands of trolls (well, it seemed like there were that many), clearing bosses from several dispersed huts, and collecting several of six different types of weapons. Doing this solo would have taken Philly a week to complete. Even in a five person group this set of quests took us the rest of the evening. Philly healed like crazy and weighed in with spell and wand DPS as well to keep the kills coming. We were in such a groove we fought through and killed the troll bosses without realizing they were the bosses until we had a chance to loot.
By the end of the evening Philly had DINGED! to level 18, and is well on the way to level 19.
Our Wailing Caverns adventure this coming sunday will be a whole lot more fun knowing we have opportunity to improve our gear in addition to the experience and the fun of conquering it with friends. When JB did WC, she was already geared (thanks to Wild) better than most anything she could have gotten in there. Philly's way is a bit more magical, I think.
Speaking of WC, this long, many levelled dungeon is going to really test this group. Not a single player has died in any of our group outings to date. Philly does not have the mana pool to keep everyone alive if too many start getting hit. I am already noticing that Philly's one HoT spell can no longer keep players health topped off during combat and I am resorting to longer cast spells more often. I am not jinxing anything with predictions one way or another, but we are really going to have to game up for this one.
2008-01-15 Jovia's Ragefire Chasm Report
Jovia mulled over information from the scrying devices, very disturbed.
Thrall is aware of the spy in his midst. But why would Jovia's masters involve the young adventurers in uncovering the plot, which they . . . no, I dare not say it, even in my thoughts. I care nothing for the spy, who deserves the fate that is coming to him, but, I like not how this is unfolding.
The GF, as Jovia was already thinking of the five, prepared well for their first major test. When informed of their audience with Thrall, they were not afraid (well, maybe a little, but who wouldn't be, mused Jovia). Respectful and quick with their tasks, Thrall had no reason to squash them on the spot. Jovia shuddered slightly at a memory of an irritated Thrall that she did not dwell too long on. They fooled Naaru, too, a difficult accomplishment, even managing to get his blessing to enter Ragefire Chasm.
The GF took that task seriously indeed. Time to make my report, as my masters are not the patient sort.
The Ragefire Chasm Task
You should be pleased with this report. Five challenges were set, all within the elite realm of RFC. All five returned alive, and all challenges were met and accomplished. I must assume that you intended for the spy, Naaru, to be exposed to the scrutiny of Thrall, and that you intended for agents Bazzalan and Jergosh to be defeated. Their corpses rot in the Chasm now. (Jovia could not help but add that last. And maybe it would goad the master's into revealing something).
Taragamon the Hungerer has also fallen to their combined might, something perhaps you did not expect. Naaru thinks he wins Thrall's favor through these adventurer's conquests while at the same time he has been exposed by the same. The danger to the group grows with these deceits, which they are unaware of.
About the group itself, I know you are very interested.
(Jovia paused before continuing. I had not intended to reveal the naming by the group. But they have gone so far as to apply for guild membership, a public record of which the master's will quickly be aware of. Best to make a clean report on it before that happens.)
They have named themselves The Grunt Foundation, and have applied for guild membership. Their success in RFC is spreading among the horde and likely guarantees that they will receive permission to form their own guild.
They show a strong sense of teamwork and have taken to each other as brothers and sisters in arms. They have the potential to become a force to be reckoned with. A force to be wielded. Already they surpass all that past group's have accomplished. They pass your test. (Even though I have yet to decipher it's true purpose, she reminded herself).
I myself am a bit curious as to what task you will now apply them to.
A Missive From the Master's to Jovia - Do not query us on our motives, Jovia, Innkeeper of Wayfarer's Rest. The fates of minor powers such as dwell beneath the city of Orgrimmar are of no import. The group has proved adequate. So far.
We will ensure your "GF" get their guild tabard. Your task - Continue to hone their skills. Do not fail in this, as their fate rests in your hands.
Thrall is aware of the spy in his midst. But why would Jovia's masters involve the young adventurers in uncovering the plot, which they . . . no, I dare not say it, even in my thoughts. I care nothing for the spy, who deserves the fate that is coming to him, but, I like not how this is unfolding.
The GF, as Jovia was already thinking of the five, prepared well for their first major test. When informed of their audience with Thrall, they were not afraid (well, maybe a little, but who wouldn't be, mused Jovia). Respectful and quick with their tasks, Thrall had no reason to squash them on the spot. Jovia shuddered slightly at a memory of an irritated Thrall that she did not dwell too long on. They fooled Naaru, too, a difficult accomplishment, even managing to get his blessing to enter Ragefire Chasm.
The GF took that task seriously indeed. Time to make my report, as my masters are not the patient sort.
The Ragefire Chasm Task
You should be pleased with this report. Five challenges were set, all within the elite realm of RFC. All five returned alive, and all challenges were met and accomplished. I must assume that you intended for the spy, Naaru, to be exposed to the scrutiny of Thrall, and that you intended for agents Bazzalan and Jergosh to be defeated. Their corpses rot in the Chasm now. (Jovia could not help but add that last. And maybe it would goad the master's into revealing something).
Taragamon the Hungerer has also fallen to their combined might, something perhaps you did not expect. Naaru thinks he wins Thrall's favor through these adventurer's conquests while at the same time he has been exposed by the same. The danger to the group grows with these deceits, which they are unaware of.
About the group itself, I know you are very interested.
(Jovia paused before continuing. I had not intended to reveal the naming by the group. But they have gone so far as to apply for guild membership, a public record of which the master's will quickly be aware of. Best to make a clean report on it before that happens.)
They have named themselves The Grunt Foundation, and have applied for guild membership. Their success in RFC is spreading among the horde and likely guarantees that they will receive permission to form their own guild.
They show a strong sense of teamwork and have taken to each other as brothers and sisters in arms. They have the potential to become a force to be reckoned with. A force to be wielded. Already they surpass all that past group's have accomplished. They pass your test. (Even though I have yet to decipher it's true purpose, she reminded herself).
I myself am a bit curious as to what task you will now apply them to.
A Missive From the Master's to Jovia - Do not query us on our motives, Jovia, Innkeeper of Wayfarer's Rest. The fates of minor powers such as dwell beneath the city of Orgrimmar are of no import. The group has proved adequate. So far.
We will ensure your "GF" get their guild tabard. Your task - Continue to hone their skills. Do not fail in this, as their fate rests in your hands.
2008-01-14 Ragefire Chasm - the First Challenge
The Grunt Foundation team assembled sunday morning to take on the first dungeon instance of WoW, Ragefire Chasm. The group started out with 3 level 15s and 2 level 14s.
The mage had collected all the starting quests for RFC ahead of time and was able to share them with the rest of us. One quest, [Hidden Enemies], required a trip to Skull Cave outside Orgrimmar as a pre-quest to get one final RFC quest we needed. The group trooped out to the cave and had to clear that area some three times before we were all able to complete it. From there we re-entered Orgrimmar and shuffled between the quest giver near the RFC entrance and Thrall himself a couple of times before we got the RFC quest. Finally we were ready to begin.
Philly had prepared a rather lengthy strategy for the group and posted it on our new website. While RFC may not be that tough, I felt it was important that we start off using good group habits so that when things got a lot tougher we would already be doing the right things. Pulling, aggro management, mob assignments, loot rules, etc, were all covered. Nobody read it. :-)
That was ok, though, they didn't get off that easy. Having laid all that out ahead of time, it was easy for Philly to interject things in game at the appropriate moment. Right up front I asked our warrior if he planned to be our main tank. He said yes, and that curtailed any possible confusion later. That made the pally our melee damage dealer, not tank, and so he and the others understood that the tank would have priority for Philly's healing.
The first leg of RFC begins with some snake like things scattered down a long, dark tunnel. It is a very dark dungeon, with lots of deep fiery red tones. Philly pointed out before the first kill that all of the mobs in here were elite, so take it steady. The tank began pulling, first with a bow, and once we had the measure of the mobs, he began using Charge on the single mobs. When we reached the first batch of humanoids, troggs, the tank pulled a lead mob without aggroing the rest, but it was clear future pulls were going to draw a crowd. How about we mark our targets, so we know who to attack and who to cc? (crowd control) Philly asked. Good idea, everyone agreed, and we settled in quickly using a common marking system that should serve us well every time we face multiple mobs.
For our first real group challenge with tough multiple mobs, we did very well. Everyone knew their roles and stayed focused. Philly overhealed at first, and I was running low on mana pretty quick. But I soon learned how low I could safely let the tank's health get, and when or whether to toss heals on the pally or the others. The tank held aggro very well, often handling two mobs. His pulling was pretty impressive, too. DPS followed the kill order. We did remarkably well both crowd controlling the right targets at the right time and holding off against the cc'ed targets until drawn in by the tank.
Philly also played with his Power Word: Shield, so I would get used to using it. It was never really needed that badly (ie, an emergency spell to keep someone protected long enough to get a heal on them), but Philly would pop it on the pally just to save him the bother of healing himself and once in awhile on the mage or warlock on the few times they pulled aggro.
Our first Boss fight ever was against Taragamon the Hungerer. He's a level 16 elite and is a pretty standard tank and spank boss. The pally decided to tank him, and for that I Shielded him once the fight started. The elite went down faster than we thought he would, and we got our first blue gear as well, a cape that was won by the warrior. Three other bosses would meet their fate and we completed five quests, all that RFC offers. I don't think Wild or anyone else in the Wild family ever finished ALL the quests in RFC.
Philly made it to level 16, and better than half way to level 17.
Later in the day Philly got some more game time to level professions and in the process made level 17. The warlock also made 17 out of RFC with the rest at level 16, I think. We are moving forward at a pretty good pace. We will head back to quest in Ghostland on our next run and might be able to finish with that area.
The mage had collected all the starting quests for RFC ahead of time and was able to share them with the rest of us. One quest, [Hidden Enemies], required a trip to Skull Cave outside Orgrimmar as a pre-quest to get one final RFC quest we needed. The group trooped out to the cave and had to clear that area some three times before we were all able to complete it. From there we re-entered Orgrimmar and shuffled between the quest giver near the RFC entrance and Thrall himself a couple of times before we got the RFC quest. Finally we were ready to begin.
Philly had prepared a rather lengthy strategy for the group and posted it on our new website. While RFC may not be that tough, I felt it was important that we start off using good group habits so that when things got a lot tougher we would already be doing the right things. Pulling, aggro management, mob assignments, loot rules, etc, were all covered. Nobody read it. :-)
That was ok, though, they didn't get off that easy. Having laid all that out ahead of time, it was easy for Philly to interject things in game at the appropriate moment. Right up front I asked our warrior if he planned to be our main tank. He said yes, and that curtailed any possible confusion later. That made the pally our melee damage dealer, not tank, and so he and the others understood that the tank would have priority for Philly's healing.
The first leg of RFC begins with some snake like things scattered down a long, dark tunnel. It is a very dark dungeon, with lots of deep fiery red tones. Philly pointed out before the first kill that all of the mobs in here were elite, so take it steady. The tank began pulling, first with a bow, and once we had the measure of the mobs, he began using Charge on the single mobs. When we reached the first batch of humanoids, troggs, the tank pulled a lead mob without aggroing the rest, but it was clear future pulls were going to draw a crowd. How about we mark our targets, so we know who to attack and who to cc? (crowd control) Philly asked. Good idea, everyone agreed, and we settled in quickly using a common marking system that should serve us well every time we face multiple mobs.
For our first real group challenge with tough multiple mobs, we did very well. Everyone knew their roles and stayed focused. Philly overhealed at first, and I was running low on mana pretty quick. But I soon learned how low I could safely let the tank's health get, and when or whether to toss heals on the pally or the others. The tank held aggro very well, often handling two mobs. His pulling was pretty impressive, too. DPS followed the kill order. We did remarkably well both crowd controlling the right targets at the right time and holding off against the cc'ed targets until drawn in by the tank.
Philly also played with his Power Word: Shield, so I would get used to using it. It was never really needed that badly (ie, an emergency spell to keep someone protected long enough to get a heal on them), but Philly would pop it on the pally just to save him the bother of healing himself and once in awhile on the mage or warlock on the few times they pulled aggro.
Our first Boss fight ever was against Taragamon the Hungerer. He's a level 16 elite and is a pretty standard tank and spank boss. The pally decided to tank him, and for that I Shielded him once the fight started. The elite went down faster than we thought he would, and we got our first blue gear as well, a cape that was won by the warrior. Three other bosses would meet their fate and we completed five quests, all that RFC offers. I don't think Wild or anyone else in the Wild family ever finished ALL the quests in RFC.
Philly made it to level 16, and better than half way to level 17.
Later in the day Philly got some more game time to level professions and in the process made level 17. The warlock also made 17 out of RFC with the rest at level 16, I think. We are moving forward at a pretty good pace. We will head back to quest in Ghostland on our next run and might be able to finish with that area.
2008-01-10 Jovia's Report
Unbeknownst to the holders of the mysterious notes, those scraps of leatherskin have magical powers. And Jovia, Innkeeper of Wayfarer's Rest, can track the progress of this band of adventurers through those very same scraps.
== Jovia's Report
As directed, the progress of this latest ragtag, hodgepodge, wholly unsuitable collection of misguided will be recorded here and reported on. The method of selection using these disguised scrying devices leaves a lot to be desired, as I've reported and complained about many times. Many young lives are being sacrificed . . . but you care not about that. Nothing about this current crop of "adventurers" (and I use the term loosely) gives me any hope that they will succeed. Except . . .
I admit that this latest group seems a bit different from the others. There is a harmony observed during their initial trek in the Ghostlands that grew even stronger during the toughest of situations. I've seen more than one group falter completely on those murloc beaches. The crafty creatures attack in bunches and go after the unwary with a vengeance, but ultimately it was the murlocs that retreated and gave this group the field of victory. There is character here, depth of heart.
Strike that last. I shall not grow attached. It may be that soon enough another doomed group will muddy my Inn floors, carrying scraps of leatherskin that might as well be death notices.
Setting aside her report, Jovia began polishing the Inn silverware for the night's meal. They call themselves the Grunt Foundation, she thought to herself. No group has given themselves a name before. But you, my masters, don't know that, do you?
Jovia then answered herself. Of course not. Because that's not going to be in my report. Jovia hummed as she polished.
== Jovia's Report
As directed, the progress of this latest ragtag, hodgepodge, wholly unsuitable collection of misguided will be recorded here and reported on. The method of selection using these disguised scrying devices leaves a lot to be desired, as I've reported and complained about many times. Many young lives are being sacrificed . . . but you care not about that. Nothing about this current crop of "adventurers" (and I use the term loosely) gives me any hope that they will succeed. Except . . .
I admit that this latest group seems a bit different from the others. There is a harmony observed during their initial trek in the Ghostlands that grew even stronger during the toughest of situations. I've seen more than one group falter completely on those murloc beaches. The crafty creatures attack in bunches and go after the unwary with a vengeance, but ultimately it was the murlocs that retreated and gave this group the field of victory. There is character here, depth of heart.
Strike that last. I shall not grow attached. It may be that soon enough another doomed group will muddy my Inn floors, carrying scraps of leatherskin that might as well be death notices.
Setting aside her report, Jovia began polishing the Inn silverware for the night's meal. They call themselves the Grunt Foundation, she thought to herself. No group has given themselves a name before. But you, my masters, don't know that, do you?
Jovia then answered herself. Of course not. Because that's not going to be in my report. Jovia hummed as she polished.
2008-01-11 Becoming a Guild
The Grunt Foundation hooked up last night for our 2nd outing in the Ghostlands. Personalities have started to come out a bit as we get to know each other a little better. The group leader is the paladin, Arq. He knows the Ghostlands and takes a very methodical approach to questing. At the start of the evening he suggested that we work the "northwest" section of Ghostlands. The other four of us were like, sure man, whatever. Anyone who not only knows where the NW section of anywhere is, but what quests are in that section, gets my nod as a good guy to have around. Our one warrior has provided supporting melee for the paladin lead, but routinely pulls his own targets as well. Philly tracks them both and often I have to find the spot between them where I can heal both. The troll warrior is a bit of a free spirit and loves to talk cajun. The serious one is Brae, the mage, who quietly delivers the damage. Kon, the warlock, is the least experienced, but has been very helpful making bags and handing out green gear he has crafted to the cloth wearers. Believe me, at level 14 Philly still has slots where I have no gear yet, so anything crafted is a major upgrade for this grow from scratch group. Kon has provided some unintentional fun, as well. During our first run we were racing about so fast it can be hard to keep track of what quests are done or if you have everything needed for the quest turn-in. I have an addon that displays that info on the screen, but if you don't have that then you have to open your bags and look. Periodically we would post in group chat things like "4/6 spider legs" to tell the others how far along we were. When we were about ready to leave an area, we asked Kon if he had all the quest items. We got no response, despite all three of us asking him the same question in various ways. Whatever Philly said finally connected with Kon. He laughed and said, "Sorry dudes, I was trying to figure out who this "Kon" was you were talking to." The rapid pace can also get confusing, and I've noticed that when Kon gets turned around he'll usually follow Philly to get back into the action. That's not always a good thing, since I've been known to lose my way once in awhile (Duh!), but Kon is the only other female toon in the group and us girls need to stick together. ;-)
As for Philly, she seems to be the cheering and encouragement side of the group so far, making sure everyone gets the appropriate credit, offering good natured suggestions, and generally keeping everyone together. If the pace starts to get a little too frantic, Philly will call a mana break, even if I don't really need one. When Arq and Huldu head off somewhere new, Philly of course needs to be in tow for healing, but once in awhile the other clothies will get tangled up with a mob or two and the two won't notice right away. I'll run back to help, they'll see I've gone missing, and hold up while we regroup. We don't leave our mates behind.
At the end of the evening we had a level 15 (Arq), 3 level 14s, and a level 13 (Brae). My personal opinion is that we all seemed pretty pleased with how well we were working together as well as the synergy of the group. We had a few rough spots during the evening. In particular, in one area we were clearing camps of hostiles, and had swept an area clear. We were rolling on a chest when every hostile in the camp respawned at the same time. That was exciting, but no one lost their cool, no one died, and we wiped out the respawned camp.
This coming sunday we are going to attempt our first dungeon, Ragefire Chasm. RFC is beneath the city of Orgrimmar. It's the lowest level dungeon in the game, and since it's located inside a horde city, it's almost exclusively done by horde. The recommended level is 13-16, with emphasis on the higher end, but we think our group can handle it. The test is whether we can switch from the pel mel questing and grinding mode of the Ghostlands, to a more controlled pace in RFC. Whether it turns out to be easy or hard, its here we start to learn to work as a coordinated team, each of us with our own roles and responsibilities.
We have purchased a guild charter and had a signing party before we started play. We'll need five more signatures before we have a guild. Huldu the warrior has taken the lead on getting that done. He has also set up a guild website, so we will shortly stop using the yahoo group. What's the chances of getting five random players together and get someone who know things like website management or who can draw and quarter a map for efficient questing? So far this is working out very well.
As for Philly, she seems to be the cheering and encouragement side of the group so far, making sure everyone gets the appropriate credit, offering good natured suggestions, and generally keeping everyone together. If the pace starts to get a little too frantic, Philly will call a mana break, even if I don't really need one. When Arq and Huldu head off somewhere new, Philly of course needs to be in tow for healing, but once in awhile the other clothies will get tangled up with a mob or two and the two won't notice right away. I'll run back to help, they'll see I've gone missing, and hold up while we regroup. We don't leave our mates behind.
At the end of the evening we had a level 15 (Arq), 3 level 14s, and a level 13 (Brae). My personal opinion is that we all seemed pretty pleased with how well we were working together as well as the synergy of the group. We had a few rough spots during the evening. In particular, in one area we were clearing camps of hostiles, and had swept an area clear. We were rolling on a chest when every hostile in the camp respawned at the same time. That was exciting, but no one lost their cool, no one died, and we wiped out the respawned camp.
This coming sunday we are going to attempt our first dungeon, Ragefire Chasm. RFC is beneath the city of Orgrimmar. It's the lowest level dungeon in the game, and since it's located inside a horde city, it's almost exclusively done by horde. The recommended level is 13-16, with emphasis on the higher end, but we think our group can handle it. The test is whether we can switch from the pel mel questing and grinding mode of the Ghostlands, to a more controlled pace in RFC. Whether it turns out to be easy or hard, its here we start to learn to work as a coordinated team, each of us with our own roles and responsibilities.
We have purchased a guild charter and had a signing party before we started play. We'll need five more signatures before we have a guild. Huldu the warrior has taken the lead on getting that done. He has also set up a guild website, so we will shortly stop using the yahoo group. What's the chances of getting five random players together and get someone who know things like website management or who can draw and quarter a map for efficient questing? So far this is working out very well.
2008-01-09 Temptations
The Grunt Foundation has found a couple friends with deep pockets to help us out. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I had decided not to transfer a player with money because I felt we should be doing this only through the efforts of the new toons that we had created. But one of the players that was learning jewelcrafting revealed that a friend had loaned him 10 gold to get that going, but that he was running our of money again and doing tailoring too was not going to work. He basically wasted the 10 gold because we don't really need jewelcrafting at this low a level and with three cloth wearers tailoring was of more immediate use. We certainly were eager to get tailored bags for our empty bag slots.
We discussed whether we really wanted to accept outside help. A second friend wants to help out, and we did agree that we needed to get a guild started, and that outside funds could be used for that. But we went a little farther, too, and that may ultimately cause problems.
Case in point: The tailor/jewelcrafter was encouraged to stay with tailoring and drop JC for a gathering profession that would help him get some money. He crafted 6 slot bags for us, for which we were very happy. When Philly came in game last night two of the group were in game, and they told Wild to go check his mail. When I checked I had four new bags, from a 10 slotter all the way up to a 14 slot runecloth bag. I was delighted! Then I thought about our tailor, who did all that work to make us bags that are now mostly worthless before we even have our second get together. And if he's also dropped jewelcrafting, on our advice, well, I know I would feel like I just wasted an awful lot of time.
We do intend to have a guild charter signing party at the start of our get together thursday. We'll need to discuss just how much outside help we are willing to accept and for what things. For example, Philly wants a wand. I could get a very nice level 12 wand for about 15s on the AH, which is almost half of the money Philly has and which I'll need to buy spells as I level. Our enchanter should shortly be able to make me a level 5 wand as he levels enchanting. Do we allow outside gold so that I could buy that level 12 wand, making the enchanter's wand useless for anything but levelling the skill? Don't know what that answer should be.
Anyway, it looks like all of the group will be level 13 before we meet again. Should see some more challenging quests coming up.
We discussed whether we really wanted to accept outside help. A second friend wants to help out, and we did agree that we needed to get a guild started, and that outside funds could be used for that. But we went a little farther, too, and that may ultimately cause problems.
Case in point: The tailor/jewelcrafter was encouraged to stay with tailoring and drop JC for a gathering profession that would help him get some money. He crafted 6 slot bags for us, for which we were very happy. When Philly came in game last night two of the group were in game, and they told Wild to go check his mail. When I checked I had four new bags, from a 10 slotter all the way up to a 14 slot runecloth bag. I was delighted! Then I thought about our tailor, who did all that work to make us bags that are now mostly worthless before we even have our second get together. And if he's also dropped jewelcrafting, on our advice, well, I know I would feel like I just wasted an awful lot of time.
We do intend to have a guild charter signing party at the start of our get together thursday. We'll need to discuss just how much outside help we are willing to accept and for what things. For example, Philly wants a wand. I could get a very nice level 12 wand for about 15s on the AH, which is almost half of the money Philly has and which I'll need to buy spells as I level. Our enchanter should shortly be able to make me a level 5 wand as he levels enchanting. Do we allow outside gold so that I could buy that level 12 wand, making the enchanter's wand useless for anything but levelling the skill? Don't know what that answer should be.
Anyway, it looks like all of the group will be level 13 before we meet again. Should see some more challenging quests coming up.
2008-01-07 The Ghostlands
The "Grunt Foundation", a name picked by the lone troll in our group, made our first foray sunday morning. Perhaps there should have been a bit more fanfare involving the choosing of our moniker, but we were too eager to get started to fuss over a name.
We all met at the Warfarer's Rest, an Inn at Silvermoon City, and talked about what we should do first. All five of us showed up on time and all made it to level 10. We were ready to go. The first suggestion, by Breaco, was to tackle a pair of bosses on a group quest in Ghostlands. He shared the quest with the rest of us, but a quick look at the wowhead description (provided in game by an addon called Lightheaded) showed that the bosses were level 20+. We all laughed. We aren't ready for that level of competition quite yet.
We decided to just head down to Ghostlands and pick up quests along the way and at the Ghostlands town of Tranquillen. That suited everyone else and off we went. As usual I immediately got behind everyone else while typing a chat message to make sure they all talked to the flight master just outside the gates.
By the time I caught up with them they had left the road and were being attacked. Philly tossed some Renews (instant cast HoTs). We had all just by nature followed the warrior, as the tank often leads groups. Well, not all of us. The warrior, Huldu, said he was following the pally, Arq. As to why we were well off the road? Well, explained Arq, he'd just finished levelling another character here and knew his way around. He was taking the direct route to Ghostlands, killing whatever got in our way. Sounded like a plan, so off we went again.
Arq really did know his way around. As we collected quests he would immediately head off in the direction required. The five of us could pretty much empty an area of life on any of the kill quests we tackled. I had set the warrior as focus, expecting him to be the lead tank/melee, but the pally was nearly always the first to mix it up and Philly soon switched to the pally as the main heal target. At this level players heal pretty fast (because we don't have much health to start with), so Philly's one HoT spell was usually good enough. The mobs generally died too fast to worry about aggro, so neither the mage or warlock took much damage.
Our most challenging area were the murloc hunts, since they come in packs and tend to attack everyone. Philly had to slow things down to restore mana a couple of times against the murlocs, but other than that nothing slowed us down and no one died. I was actually kind of tempted to let someone die just so I could use Philly's resurrection spell. But I resisted the temptation. We'll start getting into things that'll kill us soon enough I expect.
We all made level 11 and a good bit of the way to level 12 in a little over an hour's work. At such a low level we could probably solo level faster, but more important now is getting to know each other and our play styles. One thing I hope our friend Arq knows how to do is manage aggro, because when we start needing a tank the warrior will need to step forward. Based on what I saw today, I think we are all competent players, so this should be a lot of fun. It sure was on sunday.
We all met at the Warfarer's Rest, an Inn at Silvermoon City, and talked about what we should do first. All five of us showed up on time and all made it to level 10. We were ready to go. The first suggestion, by Breaco, was to tackle a pair of bosses on a group quest in Ghostlands. He shared the quest with the rest of us, but a quick look at the wowhead description (provided in game by an addon called Lightheaded) showed that the bosses were level 20+. We all laughed. We aren't ready for that level of competition quite yet.
We decided to just head down to Ghostlands and pick up quests along the way and at the Ghostlands town of Tranquillen. That suited everyone else and off we went. As usual I immediately got behind everyone else while typing a chat message to make sure they all talked to the flight master just outside the gates.
By the time I caught up with them they had left the road and were being attacked. Philly tossed some Renews (instant cast HoTs). We had all just by nature followed the warrior, as the tank often leads groups. Well, not all of us. The warrior, Huldu, said he was following the pally, Arq. As to why we were well off the road? Well, explained Arq, he'd just finished levelling another character here and knew his way around. He was taking the direct route to Ghostlands, killing whatever got in our way. Sounded like a plan, so off we went again.
Arq really did know his way around. As we collected quests he would immediately head off in the direction required. The five of us could pretty much empty an area of life on any of the kill quests we tackled. I had set the warrior as focus, expecting him to be the lead tank/melee, but the pally was nearly always the first to mix it up and Philly soon switched to the pally as the main heal target. At this level players heal pretty fast (because we don't have much health to start with), so Philly's one HoT spell was usually good enough. The mobs generally died too fast to worry about aggro, so neither the mage or warlock took much damage.
Our most challenging area were the murloc hunts, since they come in packs and tend to attack everyone. Philly had to slow things down to restore mana a couple of times against the murlocs, but other than that nothing slowed us down and no one died. I was actually kind of tempted to let someone die just so I could use Philly's resurrection spell. But I resisted the temptation. We'll start getting into things that'll kill us soon enough I expect.
We all made level 11 and a good bit of the way to level 12 in a little over an hour's work. At such a low level we could probably solo level faster, but more important now is getting to know each other and our play styles. One thing I hope our friend Arq knows how to do is manage aggro, because when we start needing a tank the warrior will need to step forward. Based on what I saw today, I think we are all competent players, so this should be a lot of fun. It sure was on sunday.
2008-01-06 The Adventurers Meet
When Braeco entered the Wayfarer's Rest Sunday morning, it was deserted but for the Innkeeper, Jovia, and some of the kitchen help. He showed Jovia the scrap of leatherskin, and asked her if anyone else had come through asking about it.
"Correspondence has been left with me regarding these," she told Braeco, "which I may share only when all are present." Mystified, the mage nonetheless settled in and did some Conjuring to pass the time, while keeping his attention on both entrances to the Inn.
Braeco caught the odor before he saw the undead make it's barely held together way into the Inn. Funny how the most substantial part of a female undead's anatomy is the only part that does not appear to decay. For that all should be grateful.
The two eyed each other. After a moment, the undead (a priest, Braeco decided) carefully pulled a scrap of paper from within it's robes. Blood elves are allies of the Forsaken, but not all undead are ready to accept this. Braeco had his own reservations, and was equally careful in revealing his own, identical scrap.
"I'm Philly," said the undead, introducing herself. "My bet is you know no more about this than I, hmm? "
"I believe I have one new thing to add, from Jovia here." Braeco nodded in the direction of the Innkeeper, and told Philly what he had learned.
"So we are two," said Philly as she settled into a nearby chair to take some weight off of her dusty bones.
"Perhaps we are three," said a stranger standing at the entrance to the Inn. Philly stood quickly as Braeco also turned toward the stranger. "I am Arquelion, a paladin and brother blood elf, and I too have come into possession of this interesting note."
"I believe our paths have crossed before, Arquelion," said Braeco.
"Yes, I recall. Something to do with slaying a few distasteful creatures some time back. A familiar face is good to see, when the task is as mysterious as this one." Arquelion nodded to Philly. "May I join you?"
And there were three.
When the blood elf warlock entered the Inn next, there was no question in the mind's of the three already present that she would also carry the scrap of note. The room took on a slight charge from the warlock's tightly controlled power. She smiled and said, "I see I am not the first to arrive. I'm Konpeito," and joined them at the table.
The Innkeeper chose that moment to speak up. "The fifth will arrive shortly. I have been given word of such."
A short time later a troll squeezed through the Inn door and splayed himself in the last chair at the table, his heavy sword and scabbard clanging against the furniture. "It's a long way from Durotar, but no way I wanted to miss this party. Whatever it is." He paused to look at each of the other four in turn. "I'm Huldukrieger. What have I missed?"
Everyone turned to look at the Innkeeper.
Jovia walked over to them and scrutinized the group, as if gauging their worthiness for what was to come. "I am permitted to say this." She paused. "Great tasks are required of this group. Things which you cannot comprehend yet. Things which may be beyond your abilities. "
"You judge us so without knowing us?" Interrupted Arquelion.
"You think you are the first to respond to this call? For a Call it is," said Jovia. Philly looked at the caked blood on her scrap. Others have died before. Others have failed. The same thought was clear in the faces of the others. Philly wondered how they had come into possession of their own scraps.
"These pieces of leatherskin choose who they belong to," continued Jovia, answering the unspoken question. "So you are already more than what you think. But that is not enough. You must prove yourself." Again she paused. "As others before you have not."
"So let's get to the point," said Huldu. "What is this proof we must perform?"
"Very well." Jovia stepped up to each adventurer in turn. "Huldukrieger. Konpeito. Arquelion. Phillyperdue. Braeco. South of here are the Ghostlands. Test the mettle of this group against all that you find there. When you believe you are ready, travel to Orgrimmar. I'm sure Huldu here knows the way." Jovia offered a small smile, her first. "Beneath that city lies Ragefire Chasm, home of a cult known as the Burning Blade. Prepare for that place, and report back to me when you have accomplished all that you must there."
"Are there other groups on this same path?" Braeco asked.
"Until you fail, you are the one true group." So said Jovia. But we all wondered.
"Correspondence has been left with me regarding these," she told Braeco, "which I may share only when all are present." Mystified, the mage nonetheless settled in and did some Conjuring to pass the time, while keeping his attention on both entrances to the Inn.
Braeco caught the odor before he saw the undead make it's barely held together way into the Inn. Funny how the most substantial part of a female undead's anatomy is the only part that does not appear to decay. For that all should be grateful.
The two eyed each other. After a moment, the undead (a priest, Braeco decided) carefully pulled a scrap of paper from within it's robes. Blood elves are allies of the Forsaken, but not all undead are ready to accept this. Braeco had his own reservations, and was equally careful in revealing his own, identical scrap.
"I'm Philly," said the undead, introducing herself. "My bet is you know no more about this than I, hmm? "
"I believe I have one new thing to add, from Jovia here." Braeco nodded in the direction of the Innkeeper, and told Philly what he had learned.
"So we are two," said Philly as she settled into a nearby chair to take some weight off of her dusty bones.
"Perhaps we are three," said a stranger standing at the entrance to the Inn. Philly stood quickly as Braeco also turned toward the stranger. "I am Arquelion, a paladin and brother blood elf, and I too have come into possession of this interesting note."
"I believe our paths have crossed before, Arquelion," said Braeco.
"Yes, I recall. Something to do with slaying a few distasteful creatures some time back. A familiar face is good to see, when the task is as mysterious as this one." Arquelion nodded to Philly. "May I join you?"
And there were three.
When the blood elf warlock entered the Inn next, there was no question in the mind's of the three already present that she would also carry the scrap of note. The room took on a slight charge from the warlock's tightly controlled power. She smiled and said, "I see I am not the first to arrive. I'm Konpeito," and joined them at the table.
The Innkeeper chose that moment to speak up. "The fifth will arrive shortly. I have been given word of such."
A short time later a troll squeezed through the Inn door and splayed himself in the last chair at the table, his heavy sword and scabbard clanging against the furniture. "It's a long way from Durotar, but no way I wanted to miss this party. Whatever it is." He paused to look at each of the other four in turn. "I'm Huldukrieger. What have I missed?"
Everyone turned to look at the Innkeeper.
Jovia walked over to them and scrutinized the group, as if gauging their worthiness for what was to come. "I am permitted to say this." She paused. "Great tasks are required of this group. Things which you cannot comprehend yet. Things which may be beyond your abilities. "
"You judge us so without knowing us?" Interrupted Arquelion.
"You think you are the first to respond to this call? For a Call it is," said Jovia. Philly looked at the caked blood on her scrap. Others have died before. Others have failed. The same thought was clear in the faces of the others. Philly wondered how they had come into possession of their own scraps.
"These pieces of leatherskin choose who they belong to," continued Jovia, answering the unspoken question. "So you are already more than what you think. But that is not enough. You must prove yourself." Again she paused. "As others before you have not."
"So let's get to the point," said Huldu. "What is this proof we must perform?"
"Very well." Jovia stepped up to each adventurer in turn. "Huldukrieger. Konpeito. Arquelion. Phillyperdue. Braeco. South of here are the Ghostlands. Test the mettle of this group against all that you find there. When you believe you are ready, travel to Orgrimmar. I'm sure Huldu here knows the way." Jovia offered a small smile, her first. "Beneath that city lies Ragefire Chasm, home of a cult known as the Burning Blade. Prepare for that place, and report back to me when you have accomplished all that you must there."
"Are there other groups on this same path?" Braeco asked.
"Until you fail, you are the one true group." So said Jovia. But we all wondered.
2008-01-05 The Journey Begins
In honor of the fact that we are on an RP server, I wrote a short table setter below for our group. Embellish, deny, etc at will, its all in fun. Don't expect my submissions to be filled with accurate lore, though. I make things up as I go along. Enjoy.
Phillyperdue munched happily on the corpse of Maggot Eye as she worked to break the right wrist bone of the filthy gnoll. She wanted to free the thing's paw from it's wrist so that she could return it to Executor Zygand for the reward promised by the wanted poster. A scrap of crumpled leatherskin slipped from the gnoll's pocket.
"Wayfarer's Rest. Sunday. It is time, and we must act now or all will be lost." The bloodied scrap must have come from some other adventurer that had fallen afoul of Maggot Eye. Philly had made sure Maggot Eye would murder no more. But what about this note? And what would come of this meeting when whoever had carried this note didn't show?
Philly had travelled extensively through Tirisfal Glades. The tiny town of Brill was not enough for her, even at her young age, and she had taken in the great underground metropolis of the Undercity. The crash of the Blood Elves ship far to the north was well known in UC, as were great stories about the wondrous city that had arisen there. Silvermoon City. That's where the Warfarer's Rest would be found. And Philly had a good idea how to get there. Perhaps she would just "happen by" the Inn on Sunday and see what developed. Philly was ready for some adventure.
In Durotar, across an ocean from Philly, a troll labored among the red desert rocks to make a life for himself. Huldukrieger, a hulking young warrior, found a similar scrap of skin with the same intriguing message. Where did it come from? Who had written it? What troll could resist such a curious message? Huldu determined that he would find out.
And in the fine city of Silvermoon, three travelling blood elves, newly graduated from the expert trainers of Sunstrider Isle, took rooms at Wayfarer's Rest. All three carried in their pockets small scraps of leatherskin with the same message. As they settled in for the night, each unaware of the other, the three - Arquelion, Konpeito, Braeco - wondered what might await them on the morn.
So begins the journey.
Phillyperdue munched happily on the corpse of Maggot Eye as she worked to break the right wrist bone of the filthy gnoll. She wanted to free the thing's paw from it's wrist so that she could return it to Executor Zygand for the reward promised by the wanted poster. A scrap of crumpled leatherskin slipped from the gnoll's pocket.
"Wayfarer's Rest. Sunday. It is time, and we must act now or all will be lost." The bloodied scrap must have come from some other adventurer that had fallen afoul of Maggot Eye. Philly had made sure Maggot Eye would murder no more. But what about this note? And what would come of this meeting when whoever had carried this note didn't show?
Philly had travelled extensively through Tirisfal Glades. The tiny town of Brill was not enough for her, even at her young age, and she had taken in the great underground metropolis of the Undercity. The crash of the Blood Elves ship far to the north was well known in UC, as were great stories about the wondrous city that had arisen there. Silvermoon City. That's where the Warfarer's Rest would be found. And Philly had a good idea how to get there. Perhaps she would just "happen by" the Inn on Sunday and see what developed. Philly was ready for some adventure.
In Durotar, across an ocean from Philly, a troll labored among the red desert rocks to make a life for himself. Huldukrieger, a hulking young warrior, found a similar scrap of skin with the same intriguing message. Where did it come from? Who had written it? What troll could resist such a curious message? Huldu determined that he would find out.
And in the fine city of Silvermoon, three travelling blood elves, newly graduated from the expert trainers of Sunstrider Isle, took rooms at Wayfarer's Rest. All three carried in their pockets small scraps of leatherskin with the same message. As they settled in for the night, each unaware of the other, the three - Arquelion, Konpeito, Braeco - wondered what might await them on the morn.
So begins the journey.
2008-01-04 Five New Souls Are Born
The "play team" is a go. We really need to give ourselves a name. There are five members with one more possible. The sixth was initially turned down since only 5 can group together, but I corrected that and offered to bring him in. He hasn't responded back yet. We could use more than 5 of course, and can split into two groups if needed.
We will be playing on thursday night and sunday mornings. Our first group outing is this coming sunday. The server we decided on is The Scryers, which is an RP PVE server with a low population. "Decided on" is not exactly how that happened - someone offered up that suggestion and we just ran with it. I didn't know it was an RP server, but I don't think it will matter. Oh, and if you don't remember, RP stands for Role Playing. Players are supposed to talk and act like their characters on this server. Not going to happen with our little group, and my initial experience on the server is that it doesn't happen that much with other players, either. Although - there were two players talking in general last night about why a quest giver would give them such a quest, and trying to fit the task into some lore they were discussing.
Yes, I did make a character and I did some playing last night. The name is Phillyperdue, and she's an undead priest. (1) Philly is a play on fille. (2) fille perdue is french for "lost girl". (3) Our members seem to have a penchant for using foreign languages in their names. (4) My handle on the wowhead forums is alwayslost, hence the "lost girl" reference. (5) Yes, I'm playing another healer (with distant visions of shadow priesthood). (6) Yes, I'm playing another lady character, but she hasn't developed a personality yet.
Although we talked about centering the group on Kalimdor around Orgrimmar, when we actually created characters four of us ended up on the Eastern Continent. Philly is in Tirisfal Glades near the Undercity, and three others created blood elves up in the Silvermoon City (SC) area. I could have created a blood elf priest, but undead priests have slightly better racial and attribute characteristics that help the priest class. Plus I've levelled my last three alts in the blood elf starting area and just didn't feel like making yet another BE.
The other members are (names shortened because they are all very long): Brae (BE mage), Arq (BE pally), Kon (BE warlock), and Huldu (troll warrior). We've asked the 6th, if he accepts, to be a rogue or shaman for some additional melee help.
So we have dedicated healing (Philly) and tanking (Huldu) as well as the pally as backup for both.
Once we start playing and get comfortable with each other, we will likely take one of the suggestions we've gotten and open up one of our group periods to other players on the server that would be interested in this idea. That could help grow the membership through a try out like process. I still envision this staying a small group, though.
The idea is that we will all get to level 10 and then meet in SC for our first group adventure sunday morning. If we don't all make it to 10, our first order of business will be to get that done and then proceed from there.
Last night I created Phillyperdue and she began levelling. I've got a level 10 undead warlock that levelled in the same area so I am a little familiar with the starting zone, which helped. This is my first priest, though. I got through all of the starting zone quests, which got her to level 6, and made my way to Brill, a little town on the outskirts of the great Undercity (UC).
In Brill Philly picked up her two main professions, which I decided would be herbalism and alchemy, the same that JB has now. We are all picking one gathering profession so that all our bases are covered. I considered skinning - it would be just weird enough to be interesting if I could both skin animals and eat humanoids (undead have a racial ability to eat dead people to gain health). But I think making potions would be more useful, and you need herbs to make potions. I picked up first aid as well. Brill has a number of quests to do, but I was getting short on time so I decided to make a quick run to UC to pick up other professions like cooking (which I did) and train in staves and daggers, which are the only other weapons priests can use beside maces, which she started with. Philly had earned a magic staff from a quest, and I wanted to learn how to use it.
Visiting the weapon master in UC brought home something I had thought about, and then promptly forgot about. When I tried to acquire the dagger skill (I discovered I had to go to Org for the staff skill), I was denied. Not because Philly is only level 6, but because she didn't have the 9 silver it took to buy it. She only had 2 silver to her name. Philly has no sugar daddy sending her money to buy toys. Wild has gold, but Philly can't muster up 9 silver.
This is what I wanted when I planned this idea. That staff quest reward is meaningful because I didn't just go out and buy a better one on the AH. Getting those weapon skills have to be earned. Minor health potions, crafted out of the lowest level of herbs like peacebloom and silverleaf, are actually useful rather than just a way to level the professions. I both like it and know I will be frustrated with it at times. It remains to be seen how the other members will feel about it when it sinks in. For example, Philly has only her backback, but no bags. It fills quickly, and that's irritating. It was a simple matter for Wild to craft bags for all the alts, and in fact one of the alts still has a whole bag full of unused bags. But no way to get them to Philly.
Well, actually, there is a way, if I want to do it. I could transfer an existing character to the Scryers server. For a character level 30 and below, Blizz allows up to 300g to transfer with the character, as well as bringing along all of your worldy goods. 300g gold and a bag full of bags would go a long way for such low level characters. I haven't looked into whether Scryers is a server that is open to transfers, because although the idea is enticing, I am not going to do it. Philly, at least, is going to do this the old fashioned way with her new group of friends.
Once I get Philly to level 10 (and get enough silver to get my other weapon skills paid for), Philly will head to SC and I will pick up as many quests as I can find which are shareable with the other members. That should get us started questing more quickly. No one has brought up the idea of using the new in game voice chat feature yet, but my take is that we will likely at least try it out. Maybe Philly's personality will include a willingness to talk more - but I doubt it. :-)
We will be playing on thursday night and sunday mornings. Our first group outing is this coming sunday. The server we decided on is The Scryers, which is an RP PVE server with a low population. "Decided on" is not exactly how that happened - someone offered up that suggestion and we just ran with it. I didn't know it was an RP server, but I don't think it will matter. Oh, and if you don't remember, RP stands for Role Playing. Players are supposed to talk and act like their characters on this server. Not going to happen with our little group, and my initial experience on the server is that it doesn't happen that much with other players, either. Although - there were two players talking in general last night about why a quest giver would give them such a quest, and trying to fit the task into some lore they were discussing.
Yes, I did make a character and I did some playing last night. The name is Phillyperdue, and she's an undead priest. (1) Philly is a play on fille. (2) fille perdue is french for "lost girl". (3) Our members seem to have a penchant for using foreign languages in their names. (4) My handle on the wowhead forums is alwayslost, hence the "lost girl" reference. (5) Yes, I'm playing another healer (with distant visions of shadow priesthood). (6) Yes, I'm playing another lady character, but she hasn't developed a personality yet.
Although we talked about centering the group on Kalimdor around Orgrimmar, when we actually created characters four of us ended up on the Eastern Continent. Philly is in Tirisfal Glades near the Undercity, and three others created blood elves up in the Silvermoon City (SC) area. I could have created a blood elf priest, but undead priests have slightly better racial and attribute characteristics that help the priest class. Plus I've levelled my last three alts in the blood elf starting area and just didn't feel like making yet another BE.
The other members are (names shortened because they are all very long): Brae (BE mage), Arq (BE pally), Kon (BE warlock), and Huldu (troll warrior). We've asked the 6th, if he accepts, to be a rogue or shaman for some additional melee help.
So we have dedicated healing (Philly) and tanking (Huldu) as well as the pally as backup for both.
Once we start playing and get comfortable with each other, we will likely take one of the suggestions we've gotten and open up one of our group periods to other players on the server that would be interested in this idea. That could help grow the membership through a try out like process. I still envision this staying a small group, though.
The idea is that we will all get to level 10 and then meet in SC for our first group adventure sunday morning. If we don't all make it to 10, our first order of business will be to get that done and then proceed from there.
Last night I created Phillyperdue and she began levelling. I've got a level 10 undead warlock that levelled in the same area so I am a little familiar with the starting zone, which helped. This is my first priest, though. I got through all of the starting zone quests, which got her to level 6, and made my way to Brill, a little town on the outskirts of the great Undercity (UC).
In Brill Philly picked up her two main professions, which I decided would be herbalism and alchemy, the same that JB has now. We are all picking one gathering profession so that all our bases are covered. I considered skinning - it would be just weird enough to be interesting if I could both skin animals and eat humanoids (undead have a racial ability to eat dead people to gain health). But I think making potions would be more useful, and you need herbs to make potions. I picked up first aid as well. Brill has a number of quests to do, but I was getting short on time so I decided to make a quick run to UC to pick up other professions like cooking (which I did) and train in staves and daggers, which are the only other weapons priests can use beside maces, which she started with. Philly had earned a magic staff from a quest, and I wanted to learn how to use it.
Visiting the weapon master in UC brought home something I had thought about, and then promptly forgot about. When I tried to acquire the dagger skill (I discovered I had to go to Org for the staff skill), I was denied. Not because Philly is only level 6, but because she didn't have the 9 silver it took to buy it. She only had 2 silver to her name. Philly has no sugar daddy sending her money to buy toys. Wild has gold, but Philly can't muster up 9 silver.
This is what I wanted when I planned this idea. That staff quest reward is meaningful because I didn't just go out and buy a better one on the AH. Getting those weapon skills have to be earned. Minor health potions, crafted out of the lowest level of herbs like peacebloom and silverleaf, are actually useful rather than just a way to level the professions. I both like it and know I will be frustrated with it at times. It remains to be seen how the other members will feel about it when it sinks in. For example, Philly has only her backback, but no bags. It fills quickly, and that's irritating. It was a simple matter for Wild to craft bags for all the alts, and in fact one of the alts still has a whole bag full of unused bags. But no way to get them to Philly.
Well, actually, there is a way, if I want to do it. I could transfer an existing character to the Scryers server. For a character level 30 and below, Blizz allows up to 300g to transfer with the character, as well as bringing along all of your worldy goods. 300g gold and a bag full of bags would go a long way for such low level characters. I haven't looked into whether Scryers is a server that is open to transfers, because although the idea is enticing, I am not going to do it. Philly, at least, is going to do this the old fashioned way with her new group of friends.
Once I get Philly to level 10 (and get enough silver to get my other weapon skills paid for), Philly will head to SC and I will pick up as many quests as I can find which are shareable with the other members. That should get us started questing more quickly. No one has brought up the idea of using the new in game voice chat feature yet, but my take is that we will likely at least try it out. Maybe Philly's personality will include a willingness to talk more - but I doubt it. :-)
2008-01-03 When it All Came Together
Bonus Information: The below selected email is the flurry of activity (all conducted on 3 January, 2008) that tracked the formative period of the group and has never been posted before. It's here that Grunt Foundation really came into being.
From Xara, 2008-01-03: ". . . since it appears we've definitely got a lock and a priest, that means we really do need a dedicated Tank. While I'd rather do ranged DPS, I could try out a Warrior and then Machar, if you want to do a Druid we can take turns tanking.Which makes my name Huldukrieger instead, but that's okay. *chuckles* Sorry, I tend to use language translators for my character names, and German for "troll warrior" just sounds rather cool.So let's update the list here:
Machar (Mage or Druid)
Xara (Warrior)
Morskaya (Warlock)
Always2Lost (Priest)
If we can get a fifth it would be great.
From Machar, 2008-01-03: "If we have a warrior and a paladin on board, then we're set for tanks and melee fighters. If this is the case, then I'll roll a mage, since they bring crowd control, magical DPS, and food/drinks. Here's the latest update then:
Machar (Mage)
Xara (Warrior)
Morskaya (Warlock)
Always2Lost (Priest)
svivertio (Paladin)
Please tell me your character's name and race as soon as possible, and we should also decide on how to handle professions too.
Our realm will be The Scryers, an RP-PvE realm. We'll play Hordeside.
Our group meeting times are:
Sunday, starting at 9 AM Eastern/6 AM Pacific for 2-3 hours, and Thursday, starting at 8:30 PM Eastern/5:30 PM Pacific for 1-2 hours.
Group time is for doing quests together, so if you need to repair/restock/use the AH/grind a profession, try to do that on your own time.
Unless I hear objections otherwise, let's meet in Orgrimmar on Sunday, January 6, at 9 AM Eastern/6 AM Pacific. This will give you time to level your way up to 10."
From Always2lost (me), 2008-01-03: "My priest's name is Phillyperdue. Just created her on Scryers as an undead. Professions are flower picking and potion making. We should try to cover all the gathering professions.
I'm good with the thurs/sun group times. Ok with meeting up this sunday, 6 Jan, too. I'd say we should all try make it to level 10 by then and to meet up in Orgrimmar to start with, but if not then we'll work on it when we all get in game. I would also like to quest in Ghostlands as most of the quests there would be new to me, but where we start first doesn't matter to me. We'll get to them all eventually.
A little more about me - I've already talked about my WoW experience
(1 70 with a lot of raid experience, several lower level alts, 2+
years playing). I'm a fan of RTS games like Diablo, Warcraft, Dungeon
Siege, etc, but rarely play them anymore as I don't have the time. WoW
is my first and only MMO. Don't like first person shooters as I don't
have the twitch reflexes to be very good at them, which is also why I
shy away from pvp. Live in California and have been through Phoenix
many times. I am owned by more than a couple of cats. I'm a program
manager and I'll bet older than all of you. :-) "
From Machar, 2008-01-03:"My mage's name is Braeco, and he's a blood elf. I'm going to go with enchanting as one of my professions, and probably mining for my second. So if you pick up some materials that someone else in the group can use, such as cloth, herbals, ore, or junk greens to DE,
consider holding onto them instead of AH-ing them to help our crafters.
Our list so far stands at:
Phillyperdue, undead priest, Herbalism/Alchemy
Huldukrieger, troll warrior, Mining/Blacksmith
Konpeito, blood elf warlock, Tailor/Jewelcrafter
Braeco, blood elf mage, Enchanter/Miner
Arquelion, bloodelf paladin, Skinner/Herbalist
and a slot for earthbayne, if he wishes to claim it.
As for myself, I'm from New England, where I work as a medical researcher in a hospital. I just turned 28, and I've been playing RPGs for over half of those years. I've leveled one WoW character to 70 before, an enhancement shaman, and I hope I'll be going to Kara with him soon over on the Kirin Tor server."
From Philly (now using character names): "Very cool. With 3 BEs and an undead maybe we should get together in Silvermoon city instead of Org. Huldu, think you can make it to SC from Org? :-) "
From Huldkreiger: "Yup, shouldn't be a problem. I'll likely level to 10 in Orcland and then zepp to UC and orb to SC."
From Braeco on Saturday, 5 Jan 2008: "Okay guys, this is the final roll call. We start play tomorrow. Make sure you're at level 10 and ready to go.
Phillyperdue, undead priest, Herbalism/Alchemy
Huldukrieger, troll warrior, Mining/Blacksmith
Konpeito, blood elf warlock, Tailoring/Jewelcrafter
Braeco, blood elf mage, Enchanting/Mining
Arquelion, blood elf paladin, Skinning/Herbalism
and a slot for earthbayne, if he wishes to claim it. (Better hurry!)
Our realm is The Scryers (RP)
Sunday, starting at 9 AM Eastern/6 AM Pacific for 2-3 hours, and Thursday, starting at 8:30 PM Eastern/5:30 PM Pacific for 1-2 hours.
We'll meet at the Wayfarer's Rest Inn in Silvermoon (That's the one closest to the main gates.)
Last chance to make any changes, or voice whether you'd rather go to Ghostlands or Barrens for the first grind."
From Xara, 2008-01-03: ". . . since it appears we've definitely got a lock and a priest, that means we really do need a dedicated Tank. While I'd rather do ranged DPS, I could try out a Warrior and then Machar, if you want to do a Druid we can take turns tanking.Which makes my name Huldukrieger instead, but that's okay. *chuckles* Sorry, I tend to use language translators for my character names, and German for "troll warrior" just sounds rather cool.So let's update the list here:
Machar (Mage or Druid)
Xara (Warrior)
Morskaya (Warlock)
Always2Lost (Priest)
If we can get a fifth it would be great.
From Machar, 2008-01-03: "If we have a warrior and a paladin on board, then we're set for tanks and melee fighters. If this is the case, then I'll roll a mage, since they bring crowd control, magical DPS, and food/drinks. Here's the latest update then:
Machar (Mage)
Xara (Warrior)
Morskaya (Warlock)
Always2Lost (Priest)
svivertio (Paladin)
Please tell me your character's name and race as soon as possible, and we should also decide on how to handle professions too.
Our realm will be The Scryers, an RP-PvE realm. We'll play Hordeside.
Our group meeting times are:
Sunday, starting at 9 AM Eastern/6 AM Pacific for 2-3 hours, and Thursday, starting at 8:30 PM Eastern/5:30 PM Pacific for 1-2 hours.
Group time is for doing quests together, so if you need to repair/restock/use the AH/grind a profession, try to do that on your own time.
Unless I hear objections otherwise, let's meet in Orgrimmar on Sunday, January 6, at 9 AM Eastern/6 AM Pacific. This will give you time to level your way up to 10."
From Always2lost (me), 2008-01-03: "My priest's name is Phillyperdue. Just created her on Scryers as an undead. Professions are flower picking and potion making. We should try to cover all the gathering professions.
I'm good with the thurs/sun group times. Ok with meeting up this sunday, 6 Jan, too. I'd say we should all try make it to level 10 by then and to meet up in Orgrimmar to start with, but if not then we'll work on it when we all get in game. I would also like to quest in Ghostlands as most of the quests there would be new to me, but where we start first doesn't matter to me. We'll get to them all eventually.
A little more about me - I've already talked about my WoW experience
(1 70 with a lot of raid experience, several lower level alts, 2+
years playing). I'm a fan of RTS games like Diablo, Warcraft, Dungeon
Siege, etc, but rarely play them anymore as I don't have the time. WoW
is my first and only MMO. Don't like first person shooters as I don't
have the twitch reflexes to be very good at them, which is also why I
shy away from pvp. Live in California and have been through Phoenix
many times. I am owned by more than a couple of cats. I'm a program
manager and I'll bet older than all of you. :-) "
From Machar, 2008-01-03:"My mage's name is Braeco, and he's a blood elf. I'm going to go with enchanting as one of my professions, and probably mining for my second. So if you pick up some materials that someone else in the group can use, such as cloth, herbals, ore, or junk greens to DE,
consider holding onto them instead of AH-ing them to help our crafters.
Our list so far stands at:
Phillyperdue, undead priest, Herbalism/Alchemy
Huldukrieger, troll warrior, Mining/Blacksmith
Konpeito, blood elf warlock, Tailor/Jewelcrafter
Braeco, blood elf mage, Enchanter/Miner
Arquelion, bloodelf paladin, Skinner/Herbalist
and a slot for earthbayne, if he wishes to claim it.
As for myself, I'm from New England, where I work as a medical researcher in a hospital. I just turned 28, and I've been playing RPGs for over half of those years. I've leveled one WoW character to 70 before, an enhancement shaman, and I hope I'll be going to Kara with him soon over on the Kirin Tor server."
From Philly (now using character names): "Very cool. With 3 BEs and an undead maybe we should get together in Silvermoon city instead of Org. Huldu, think you can make it to SC from Org? :-) "
From Huldkreiger: "Yup, shouldn't be a problem. I'll likely level to 10 in Orcland and then zepp to UC and orb to SC."
From Braeco on Saturday, 5 Jan 2008: "Okay guys, this is the final roll call. We start play tomorrow. Make sure you're at level 10 and ready to go.
Phillyperdue, undead priest, Herbalism/Alchemy
Huldukrieger, troll warrior, Mining/Blacksmith
Konpeito, blood elf warlock, Tailoring/Jewelcrafter
Braeco, blood elf mage, Enchanting/Mining
Arquelion, blood elf paladin, Skinning/Herbalism
and a slot for earthbayne, if he wishes to claim it. (Better hurry!)
Our realm is The Scryers (RP)
Sunday, starting at 9 AM Eastern/6 AM Pacific for 2-3 hours, and Thursday, starting at 8:30 PM Eastern/5:30 PM Pacific for 1-2 hours.
We'll meet at the Wayfarer's Rest Inn in Silvermoon (That's the one closest to the main gates.)
Last chance to make any changes, or voice whether you'd rather go to Ghostlands or Barrens for the first grind."
2008-01-03 Finding Our Way
The new "play team" concept took a step back, and then a couple steps forward. The step back was when a poster on the wowhead thread I'd started reminded us that WoW is played on US servers and on Europe (EU) servers. The key fact about that is that one account can only have players on one or the other. Two of the most active posters who wanted to try this idea are on EU servers and did not want to have to buy another account to play on a US server. They are still going to try to set up the same idea on an EU server, but I was already getting to like those two so its a shame we won't be playing together. The others that are interested on US servers seem more interested in grouping for levelling purposes and maybe not quite as enthusiastic with the idea of just having a chance to play together with friends as the EU two. We'll see.
One step forward is that there are still three others on US servers interested. One is a good sort who has never gotten a character to 60, much less 70, because he hates playing alone. This idea should work great for him. Another is new as of yesterday so haven't gotten a sense from him yet. The third is a vet who has been involved in something similar before. We don't see completely eye to eye on how we should run with this idea. My sense is that his idea of group levelling involves a lot more soloing than I envision - instead of an idea to play together regularly for everything this group does, he sees it as grouping for group quests and instances, and soloing in between. We'll see how this plays out, but I'm leading this and if it doesn't work for him he likely won't hang around.
The second step forward is that a yahoo account group has been set up so that we can discuss details more easily and we are already at the point of deciding on class, faction, and playing times. We have decided on horde for our faction, me because I like horde, the others because they have been alliance in the past and want to do something different. There was some initial discussion of going to a pvp server, but I squashed that and it will be pve. A server has even been suggested for us to start on. The open questions we are still deciding on is race, as it bears on where we will be for starting zones and for initial levelling to 20. The races orc, troll, and tauren are all on the continent of Kalimdor, while the races undead and blood elf are on the Eastern Continent. We have decided that it is ok to solo level up to 10 if desired, and that we would start grouping at least at that point. Partnering up prior to that is fine, as well. Once we reach level 10 the Kalimdor side starts questing in the Barrens, while the EC side would be questing in Ghostlands and Silverpine. It would be simpler to just stay with the orc, troll, and tauren races, but I want to be a priest and the only race among those three that can be priests is the troll. Trolls are the worst race for priest. Undead are the best, with blood elves second. For levelling purposes nothing beats the blood elf starting zone and teen area of Ghostlands. But if we stay with a druid idea, and two of us have suggested they want to be druids, we may end up split between continents.
My idea is to get everyone, wherever they start, to level 10, then get them all to Ghostlands to level our teens. We could then work through Silverpine (the undead area) and then cross continents and do the Barrens. The farthest anyone would have to go is the druids, which would have to make a long walk from Mulgore to Org, take the zep to the Undercity on the EC, then the translocator (a teleport device) in the Undercity to Silvermoon City. From SC there are lots of quests that will take us into the Ghostlands.
We could actually be starting play within a few days.
One step forward is that there are still three others on US servers interested. One is a good sort who has never gotten a character to 60, much less 70, because he hates playing alone. This idea should work great for him. Another is new as of yesterday so haven't gotten a sense from him yet. The third is a vet who has been involved in something similar before. We don't see completely eye to eye on how we should run with this idea. My sense is that his idea of group levelling involves a lot more soloing than I envision - instead of an idea to play together regularly for everything this group does, he sees it as grouping for group quests and instances, and soloing in between. We'll see how this plays out, but I'm leading this and if it doesn't work for him he likely won't hang around.
The second step forward is that a yahoo account group has been set up so that we can discuss details more easily and we are already at the point of deciding on class, faction, and playing times. We have decided on horde for our faction, me because I like horde, the others because they have been alliance in the past and want to do something different. There was some initial discussion of going to a pvp server, but I squashed that and it will be pve. A server has even been suggested for us to start on. The open questions we are still deciding on is race, as it bears on where we will be for starting zones and for initial levelling to 20. The races orc, troll, and tauren are all on the continent of Kalimdor, while the races undead and blood elf are on the Eastern Continent. We have decided that it is ok to solo level up to 10 if desired, and that we would start grouping at least at that point. Partnering up prior to that is fine, as well. Once we reach level 10 the Kalimdor side starts questing in the Barrens, while the EC side would be questing in Ghostlands and Silverpine. It would be simpler to just stay with the orc, troll, and tauren races, but I want to be a priest and the only race among those three that can be priests is the troll. Trolls are the worst race for priest. Undead are the best, with blood elves second. For levelling purposes nothing beats the blood elf starting zone and teen area of Ghostlands. But if we stay with a druid idea, and two of us have suggested they want to be druids, we may end up split between continents.
My idea is to get everyone, wherever they start, to level 10, then get them all to Ghostlands to level our teens. We could then work through Silverpine (the undead area) and then cross continents and do the Barrens. The farthest anyone would have to go is the druids, which would have to make a long walk from Mulgore to Org, take the zep to the Undercity on the EC, then the translocator (a teleport device) in the Undercity to Silvermoon City. From SC there are lots of quests that will take us into the Ghostlands.
We could actually be starting play within a few days.
2007-12-31 The Idea
[Author's Note: The following is the first post discussing what eventually will become the Grunt Foundation]
I've decided to attempt something new for the New Year. I've decided to try building a "play team" from the ground up of players who want to the play the game the way I want to. I thought about putting the idea up on Wild's server forum and see what interest there was, but then I decided to widen the net and instead of the WoW forums (which can get crazy), I decided to post on the Wowhead forum, which is a new feature wowhead has recently started. Since this forum is independant of server and character it would reach a potential wider audience, and most posters here seem to be more mature and knowledgeable.
No, I am not giving up on Wild or Wild's guild. I plan to continue progressing as best I can. I still think Kara attunement will come, and with that more planned raid opportunities for Wild. But on other days I also wish I could play with a small group of friends who prefer to plan their game time in advance. To better explain, here is what I posted on 26 Dec:
"Title: Helping Each Other - Planning time with friends
I am looking for players (both new players and vets) who prefer to plan their in game time in advance and like questing and doing instances with a regular group of friends.
"Join a guild" is what I hear when I bring this up, but my experience is that few players or guilds plan their in game time outside of raids. It's "catch me when I'm on" and "sure I'll help if I'm not busy". Nothing wrong with that for players who have the time. For me, though, that usually leaves me spamming /trade or /guild for help with something, or to get a group together, and that requires endless time finding people who want to do the same thing at the same time. Often my in game time is up before I ever find anyone to help.
I love WoW, but I just don't have enough time to play the game that way. I end up soloing a lot, but I would really like to be part of a guild or group of friends who face the same issues I do and would be interested in planning our game time together.
What I would like to do is begin with new or relatively low level characters, and to play those characters primarily during our scheduled times. That way we would level together and stay in sync with the areas and dungeons that we are exploring and conquering together. We wouldn't want anyone to get too far behind or ahead.
By planning in game time in advance, we would always know what we planned to do and that there would be friends in game at the same time to help.
I'm not the greatest player, but I've been playing a long time and know the game. I have a level 70 and I have guild experience, and all of that is good. I just wonder if there are other players out there like me who would be helped by having regular, planned, in game time with a steady group of friends, all about the same level so that we can continuously help each other.
I play primarily horde on Silvermoon PVE server but faction, server, etc, are all things that we could decide on. I'm asking here on wowhead as my server is an old one where we don't get many new players. I respect the players that post here and am hoping to find some like minded folks that would like to try this.
If this idea appeals to you, and if you love the game and put having fun and working together over loot and epeens then please respond to this post or PM me if interested. "
I've given the post a few days and have so far gotten interest from five others. This morning I provided some initial suggestions on how we should proceed and to get information from the others on server, timezone, faction, character and race preferences so we can figure out if this will work. Meanwhile, I hope we get a few more to express interest.
I've also gotten several helpful suggestions. This is one reason I like the wowhead forums. If I'd put this on the WoW general forum (or even the server specific forum) I would have gotten some serious replies, of course, but a lot of "learn2play noob" comments as well. This idea has been tried before, which I expected, and I've gotten some good pointers from others who have succeeded in doing this.
Well, I'm off to chill the champagne. See you all next year.
I've decided to attempt something new for the New Year. I've decided to try building a "play team" from the ground up of players who want to the play the game the way I want to. I thought about putting the idea up on Wild's server forum and see what interest there was, but then I decided to widen the net and instead of the WoW forums (which can get crazy), I decided to post on the Wowhead forum, which is a new feature wowhead has recently started. Since this forum is independant of server and character it would reach a potential wider audience, and most posters here seem to be more mature and knowledgeable.
No, I am not giving up on Wild or Wild's guild. I plan to continue progressing as best I can. I still think Kara attunement will come, and with that more planned raid opportunities for Wild. But on other days I also wish I could play with a small group of friends who prefer to plan their game time in advance. To better explain, here is what I posted on 26 Dec:
"Title: Helping Each Other - Planning time with friends
I am looking for players (both new players and vets) who prefer to plan their in game time in advance and like questing and doing instances with a regular group of friends.
"Join a guild" is what I hear when I bring this up, but my experience is that few players or guilds plan their in game time outside of raids. It's "catch me when I'm on" and "sure I'll help if I'm not busy". Nothing wrong with that for players who have the time. For me, though, that usually leaves me spamming /trade or /guild for help with something, or to get a group together, and that requires endless time finding people who want to do the same thing at the same time. Often my in game time is up before I ever find anyone to help.
I love WoW, but I just don't have enough time to play the game that way. I end up soloing a lot, but I would really like to be part of a guild or group of friends who face the same issues I do and would be interested in planning our game time together.
What I would like to do is begin with new or relatively low level characters, and to play those characters primarily during our scheduled times. That way we would level together and stay in sync with the areas and dungeons that we are exploring and conquering together. We wouldn't want anyone to get too far behind or ahead.
By planning in game time in advance, we would always know what we planned to do and that there would be friends in game at the same time to help.
I'm not the greatest player, but I've been playing a long time and know the game. I have a level 70 and I have guild experience, and all of that is good. I just wonder if there are other players out there like me who would be helped by having regular, planned, in game time with a steady group of friends, all about the same level so that we can continuously help each other.
I play primarily horde on Silvermoon PVE server but faction, server, etc, are all things that we could decide on. I'm asking here on wowhead as my server is an old one where we don't get many new players. I respect the players that post here and am hoping to find some like minded folks that would like to try this.
If this idea appeals to you, and if you love the game and put having fun and working together over loot and epeens then please respond to this post or PM me if interested. "
I've given the post a few days and have so far gotten interest from five others. This morning I provided some initial suggestions on how we should proceed and to get information from the others on server, timezone, faction, character and race preferences so we can figure out if this will work. Meanwhile, I hope we get a few more to express interest.
I've also gotten several helpful suggestions. This is one reason I like the wowhead forums. If I'd put this on the WoW general forum (or even the server specific forum) I would have gotten some serious replies, of course, but a lot of "learn2play noob" comments as well. This idea has been tried before, which I expected, and I've gotten some good pointers from others who have succeeded in doing this.
Well, I'm off to chill the champagne. See you all next year.
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