The Masters have returned, they say not from where. All seems back to normal, and even the imps seem to be somewhat subdued, at least for the moment.
Jovia was in the stockroom, doing inventory on various items from a locked chest. Definitely not Inn business, and only she had the key to that heavy laden box. While she worked Jovia puzzled about the response she had gotten from the Masters after her reports of the GF's conquests in Blackfathom Deeps. Clearly pleased with the growing power of the group, and content that they are back to full strength, she still sensed an undercurrent of unease when she reported the death of Aku'mai, a hydra that held some sway over the denizens of that place. The hydra was certainly powerful, so were they surprised that the GF were that capable so soon? That did not seem right, but she had no other explanation.
Jovia pulled the latest missive from the Masters received just this morning out of her robe pocket. She did not need to unroll it, as she had already read it's content. The adventurers confidence soared with the ease in which Blackfathom Deeps was forced to give up it's watery riches. Now the Grunt Foundation has decided to test their growing independence and have elected to pursue private matters for a time before gathering together for their next mission. The Masters are giving them some rope, but it comes with a price, and Jovia hoped the leeway the Masters were allowing did not come with a noose on the other end.
The first part of the Masters note Jovia understood. It was a task seemingly unrelated to the main focus of the group, but it would test both their allegiance and their progress. And perhaps Jovia's ability to control them as well.
The first part read: Task them to slay the Alliance outrunners that have been using the Barrens to deliver enemy messages. Take [The Runed Scroll] and let it lead them back to the sender - and kill her. Report when it is done.
Jovia knows the outrunners by their deadly reputation, and who they report to. It is a dangerous assignment.
The second part chilled her deeply. It was written on the same single sheet, but it was written in no Masters hand that Jovia knew. It said:
Aku'mai is returned to his place. Do not disturb the pet again.
The unseen hand in the Masters affairs that Jovia had sensed earlier was still at work. Jovia needed more information, but she dared not openly seek what she feared she might find. Jovia needed help. Huldu had taken an interest in the history of Azeroth, Jovia had noted. Perhaps that would serve her purpose now. She penned a short note and left it in his room at the Inn, along with the task she would set them on:
Grunt Foundation - Those to whom I report are pleased with your success and progress. As further proof of your allegiance you are directed to intercept the Alliance outrunners that are violating Horde territory in the Barrens and take [The Runed Scroll] they carry. Then trace and kill the sender. Take whatever time it takes to complete.
For Huldu: If you would aid me, I have need of information about the hydra Aku'mai, who was slain by this group in the deepest depths of Blackfathom Deeps. Research this for me and report back. Tell no one of what you find other than the GF.
Jovia Sends
Monday, October 12, 2009
2008-02-11 Blackfathom Deeps
Sunday morning dawned bright and warm. It was almost a shame to spend that morning in the dark, water filled warrens within Blackfathom Deeps. But gold, loot, and high adventure awaited!
BFD is almost always called Blackfathom Depths, but Deeps is it's real name. The underground ruins are mostly water filled and we will spend most of the run wading and swimming through streams, pools, and lakes. The dungeon also has a very long, mob filled area before the actual entrance to the instance itself, similar in that way to Wailing Caverns. There are also a lot of Bosses - 8 in all. It is a mid-20s dungeon, and like most of the pre-TBC instances, has been "tuned" to improve levelling. What that really means is that bosses that were as high as level 26-27 elites when Wild ran it, are now capped at level 24 elite.
There are only two quests to enter BFD with, but there are two more that are picked up within the dungeon.
The GF had a full team this time. Level-wise we went in with 2-27s, 2-26s, and a 25. The mage was the level 25. The two week absence of the warlock, Kon, due to computer problems, didn't seem to hurt his grinding, as he jumped from 24 to 26 shortly after getting back. Having Kon back was a big help for BFD, since warlocks have a "Breathe Underwater" spell that allowed us to swim and fight underwater without worrying about drowning.
We fought through the trash mobs down a long, twisty series of tunnels. The ceilings were low in many places, making sight lines hard and giving Philly a claustrophobic feel. Once inside the instance, though, the ceilings rise to a more normal height in most places. A partnership of naga and satyrs with the Twilight's Hammer cult control BFD, and where they still protect and serve a favored pet of the Old Gods. That pet is the final boss in BFD.
The first boss the group encountered, though, was Ghamoo-ra, an elite turtle found on a circular pad of land in the middle of a lake. The place has a mix of elite and non-elite mobs, including many in the water. After clearing through the pool to get to Ghamoo-ra, we attacked and killed the 23 elite with little trouble. The warrior got a nicer shield to replace the one he'd gotten from that other turtle in WC.
Philly had had to make some healing adjustments for this run. I had started out as usual, spamming the HoT Renew to keep everyone topped off. The group was doing fine, but was taking more damage than in prior dungeons, and Philly started getting worried about mana use. Renews cost considerable mana and I was casting it a lot more in BFD. I had to remind myself that priests were not HoT machines like resto druid Wild, and that I'd better start using longer cast, more mana friendly spells. After a little experimentation Philly settled on a 2.5 sec cast Lesser Heal as the mainstay heal, and would cast it whenever a player got below 80% health. Even with both the warrior and pally tanking at the same time on trash mob fights, Philly had no trouble managing mana and keeping them both healthy. Well, except once.
The pally died during one of the underwater fights. He and the warrior were tag teaming 4-5 mobs when the warrior discovered that his underwater breathing had worn off. Philly didn't really notice because she can hold her breath underwater a lot longer than anyone else. The warrior headed for the surface. I can only surmise that the pally was left with all five mobs on him, because in a couple of seconds his health plummeted. Philly dropped a Renew on him, but before I could even get off a follow up Flash Heal the pally was dead. With several mobs now loose it was a chaotic underwater struggle, but the rest of us finally pulled through. Philly got to use her resurrection spell for the 2nd time ever. We all checked to make sure we had our underwater breathing spell refreshed before taking a dip after that. Oh, and the warlock learned how to properly use his master soulstone spell. Philly got it as wipe insurance, so I would always try to position Philly during fights where she could die safely if necessary, since I would be able to use the stone to self-rez.
We pushed on, killing the next three bosses in succession with cool precision. Down went Lady Sarevess, Gelihast, and Lorgus Jett. From those three were two blue drops, a leather piece and an axe that no one needed.
The next boss, Baron Aquanis, is a Summoned boss that appears when using the Fathom Stone, a pillar found at the bottom of one of the lakes. The water elemental was not hard to defeat, but Philly did something wrong in regard to the quest related to this fight. After fighting the Baron, Philly should have been able to pick up a fathom core, which completes the quest. She never picked it up and could not complete the quest. The Baron also dropped an axe. Sigh.
Another Boss, Old Serra'kis, is an optional elite sea serpent that requires some considerable underwater swimming to find. I can't remember if Wild ever fought him. Some of our group had never even heard of him. We went after him, found him, and killed him. He dropped a very nice dagger that any rogue would love to have. Oh, wait, we don't have any rogues. Philly did get a 10 slot bag out of that fight. She was the only guildie that still needed one.
The path to the Twilight Lord Kelris, who with his minions stands in protection of the pet of the Old Gods, requires fighting through a tight sunken corridor of water elementals, and dealing with numerous mobs while walking a narrow raised ledge that twists this way and that as the battles rage. Philly tripped over her own bony feet and fell off the ledge and into the water once, which then required swimming around to a ramp and killing a couple of water creatures in the way. That was embarrassing after having successfully negotiated the harder first part of that path, which required jumping across open water to rocks or platforms four times. Our mage missed a jump on that part and had to be rescued from the water.
We finally got to Kelris, who stands in a trance while we murder all the minions around him. Kelris, when attacked, can both mind control and sleep players. He did mind control the warrior for a bit, but the pally was there backing him up, and Kelris went down. Kelris dropped [Gaze Dreamer Pants]. Finally, a cloth caster blue! Philly didn't win the roll, but it was nice to finally see someone get something they could use.
To reach the pet, we then had to activate four candles set around the room, one at a time. Each candle released a group of mobs to defeat, who approach from multiple sides of the room. These fights got a bit hairy as nearly everyone would take some hits until the pally and warrior could round them all up. Then the AoE would drop them pretty quick.
Finishing off the last of the mobs opens a long passageway filled with shallow water. At the end of the passage is Aku'mai, a favored pet of the Old Gods. A level 24 elite, he supposedly hits hard, but did not put up much resistance against us and went down quickly. Aku'mai dropped another leather piece we could not use.
From a loot perspective, Philly got little of any worth and only one blue drop found a home in someone's gear. Nothing we could do about that, though. The quest rewards, though, were nice enough to take the sting out of the lack of good dungeon drops. All of the caster's likely chose [Witch's Finger] and [Gravestone Scepter]. The former is an off-hand that Philly will hold on to while looking for a good main hand to go with it. The Scepter is a shadow damage based wand that jumps Philly's wand DPS from 25 DPS to over 29 DPS. Very, very nice. The wand shoots a really cool looking purple flame when fired, too. Imagine all three of us caster's lighting up the place with purple shadow flames.
Philly made level 28, and the guild added another dungeon to our list of conquests: RFC, WC, SFK, and now BFD.
BFD is almost always called Blackfathom Depths, but Deeps is it's real name. The underground ruins are mostly water filled and we will spend most of the run wading and swimming through streams, pools, and lakes. The dungeon also has a very long, mob filled area before the actual entrance to the instance itself, similar in that way to Wailing Caverns. There are also a lot of Bosses - 8 in all. It is a mid-20s dungeon, and like most of the pre-TBC instances, has been "tuned" to improve levelling. What that really means is that bosses that were as high as level 26-27 elites when Wild ran it, are now capped at level 24 elite.
There are only two quests to enter BFD with, but there are two more that are picked up within the dungeon.
The GF had a full team this time. Level-wise we went in with 2-27s, 2-26s, and a 25. The mage was the level 25. The two week absence of the warlock, Kon, due to computer problems, didn't seem to hurt his grinding, as he jumped from 24 to 26 shortly after getting back. Having Kon back was a big help for BFD, since warlocks have a "Breathe Underwater" spell that allowed us to swim and fight underwater without worrying about drowning.
We fought through the trash mobs down a long, twisty series of tunnels. The ceilings were low in many places, making sight lines hard and giving Philly a claustrophobic feel. Once inside the instance, though, the ceilings rise to a more normal height in most places. A partnership of naga and satyrs with the Twilight's Hammer cult control BFD, and where they still protect and serve a favored pet of the Old Gods. That pet is the final boss in BFD.
The first boss the group encountered, though, was Ghamoo-ra, an elite turtle found on a circular pad of land in the middle of a lake. The place has a mix of elite and non-elite mobs, including many in the water. After clearing through the pool to get to Ghamoo-ra, we attacked and killed the 23 elite with little trouble. The warrior got a nicer shield to replace the one he'd gotten from that other turtle in WC.
Philly had had to make some healing adjustments for this run. I had started out as usual, spamming the HoT Renew to keep everyone topped off. The group was doing fine, but was taking more damage than in prior dungeons, and Philly started getting worried about mana use. Renews cost considerable mana and I was casting it a lot more in BFD. I had to remind myself that priests were not HoT machines like resto druid Wild, and that I'd better start using longer cast, more mana friendly spells. After a little experimentation Philly settled on a 2.5 sec cast Lesser Heal as the mainstay heal, and would cast it whenever a player got below 80% health. Even with both the warrior and pally tanking at the same time on trash mob fights, Philly had no trouble managing mana and keeping them both healthy. Well, except once.
The pally died during one of the underwater fights. He and the warrior were tag teaming 4-5 mobs when the warrior discovered that his underwater breathing had worn off. Philly didn't really notice because she can hold her breath underwater a lot longer than anyone else. The warrior headed for the surface. I can only surmise that the pally was left with all five mobs on him, because in a couple of seconds his health plummeted. Philly dropped a Renew on him, but before I could even get off a follow up Flash Heal the pally was dead. With several mobs now loose it was a chaotic underwater struggle, but the rest of us finally pulled through. Philly got to use her resurrection spell for the 2nd time ever. We all checked to make sure we had our underwater breathing spell refreshed before taking a dip after that. Oh, and the warlock learned how to properly use his master soulstone spell. Philly got it as wipe insurance, so I would always try to position Philly during fights where she could die safely if necessary, since I would be able to use the stone to self-rez.
We pushed on, killing the next three bosses in succession with cool precision. Down went Lady Sarevess, Gelihast, and Lorgus Jett. From those three were two blue drops, a leather piece and an axe that no one needed.
The next boss, Baron Aquanis, is a Summoned boss that appears when using the Fathom Stone, a pillar found at the bottom of one of the lakes. The water elemental was not hard to defeat, but Philly did something wrong in regard to the quest related to this fight. After fighting the Baron, Philly should have been able to pick up a fathom core, which completes the quest. She never picked it up and could not complete the quest. The Baron also dropped an axe. Sigh.
Another Boss, Old Serra'kis, is an optional elite sea serpent that requires some considerable underwater swimming to find. I can't remember if Wild ever fought him. Some of our group had never even heard of him. We went after him, found him, and killed him. He dropped a very nice dagger that any rogue would love to have. Oh, wait, we don't have any rogues. Philly did get a 10 slot bag out of that fight. She was the only guildie that still needed one.
The path to the Twilight Lord Kelris, who with his minions stands in protection of the pet of the Old Gods, requires fighting through a tight sunken corridor of water elementals, and dealing with numerous mobs while walking a narrow raised ledge that twists this way and that as the battles rage. Philly tripped over her own bony feet and fell off the ledge and into the water once, which then required swimming around to a ramp and killing a couple of water creatures in the way. That was embarrassing after having successfully negotiated the harder first part of that path, which required jumping across open water to rocks or platforms four times. Our mage missed a jump on that part and had to be rescued from the water.
We finally got to Kelris, who stands in a trance while we murder all the minions around him. Kelris, when attacked, can both mind control and sleep players. He did mind control the warrior for a bit, but the pally was there backing him up, and Kelris went down. Kelris dropped [Gaze Dreamer Pants]. Finally, a cloth caster blue! Philly didn't win the roll, but it was nice to finally see someone get something they could use.
To reach the pet, we then had to activate four candles set around the room, one at a time. Each candle released a group of mobs to defeat, who approach from multiple sides of the room. These fights got a bit hairy as nearly everyone would take some hits until the pally and warrior could round them all up. Then the AoE would drop them pretty quick.
Finishing off the last of the mobs opens a long passageway filled with shallow water. At the end of the passage is Aku'mai, a favored pet of the Old Gods. A level 24 elite, he supposedly hits hard, but did not put up much resistance against us and went down quickly. Aku'mai dropped another leather piece we could not use.
From a loot perspective, Philly got little of any worth and only one blue drop found a home in someone's gear. Nothing we could do about that, though. The quest rewards, though, were nice enough to take the sting out of the lack of good dungeon drops. All of the caster's likely chose [Witch's Finger] and [Gravestone Scepter]. The former is an off-hand that Philly will hold on to while looking for a good main hand to go with it. The Scepter is a shadow damage based wand that jumps Philly's wand DPS from 25 DPS to over 29 DPS. Very, very nice. The wand shoots a really cool looking purple flame when fired, too. Imagine all three of us caster's lighting up the place with purple shadow flames.
Philly made level 28, and the guild added another dungeon to our list of conquests: RFC, WC, SFK, and now BFD.
2008-02-08 Only Three to Tango
Philly wasn't sure who would make the regular thursday run or what we would be doing, so I logged in and then went to get dinner as no one else was in game yet. Brae had arleady let us know that he would not be able to make it. Arq has been ill and we weren't sure if he would be in. Kon had left word that his computer repair was complete and that he expected to be there. We had discussed possibly making another foray into SFK so that Kon could get the quests done that he'd missed.
But as 5:30pm became 5:50pm only Philly and the warrior, Huldu, had showed up. We had just agreed to just help each other work on raising our skill levels for our professions when Arq arrived. Yes, he was still not well. But he'd been sleeping all day and wanted to spend some time in game. We talked about what we could do with the three of us, and Arq mentioned that he still needed to complete a couple quests in his pally quest chain. He needed to do another Ragefire Chasm run for one of them. That sounded like fun, so we headed for Orgrimmar.
RFC is no match for three mid-level 20s players, so we made it as challenging as possible. The warrior and pally would try to aggro as many mobs as they possibly could, drag them all into a pile, and then we'd work through killing them all. No matter how many they grabbed, Philly only needed to do light healing, and spent most of the time helping to kill the mobs. We had a blast.
We finally got to the area for the pally quest. We cleared the room and then arq activated a stone that is set at the back of the room. I've seen that stone there many times on RFC farming runs, even tried to activate it, and never knew what it was for. Now I knew. The stone released a level 20 elite demon, and the three of us took him down.
Amazingly, Philly even got a drop out of RFC that she could use. On our prior RFC run, Kon had mistakenly rolled need on a very nice blue chest piece called [Robe of Evocation], which drops off of one of the bosses. We kidded him about it but no big deal. On this run the robe dropped again, and it was still a better chest piece than the one Philly was wearing. Other blue gear that dropped we could only greed on and then sell as we didn't have our disenchanter, Brae, with us.
The RFC run didn't take that long, and since none of us had collected the flight paths we would need to get to BFD yet, we decided to make that run.
It's a long way on foot, but we didn't have any other choice. We gathered back up at the Crossroads, and then headed north for Ashenvale. Once in Ashenvale, we wound along a number of trails to get to Splintertree Post, the first flight path we needed. From there we headed west. Since we were doing other things while making the run (Philly would take side trips to collect flowers, for example) we got pretty strung out, but we all knew where we were going (yes, even me). That almost got Huldu in trouble, though, as he was the only one of us to encounter the elite giant that patrols one section of road in Ashenvale. If I recall the giant is a level 36. To Huldu he was ?? and five times Huldu's size. He managed to avoid him, although it got his heart going pretty good.
Straddling the road we were on is Astraanar, an alliance town. Wild once accidentally tried to enter that town, and fled for his life, alliance npcs hard on his cow tail. We diverted around the town, killing the occasional spider that got too close.
From there the road twisted northward, and eventually there is a path that breaks away from the main road and heads to the coast.
At the coast it's a short run south to the Zoram Strand outpost and the flight path we needed. To the north of the post is Blackfathom Deeps.
About halfway through that road trip Kon arrived. His computer wasn't as "fixed" as he thought it was and he'd had to upload and install some drivers. He hoped it was working now. We used the Summoning Stone at BFD to summon him out to us, and then Philly showed him the flight path at Zoram strand. Arq had one last quest to do for his pally quest chain, which was to kill nagas right in the area where we were. We helped with that, and arq then headed back to the quest giver. The quest reward was a very nice blue level polearm. That will be nice to have in BFD come sunday.
Huldu had to leave, and that left just Philly and Kon. Since Kon did not have the flight path at Spinebreaker Hold, I offered to make the run all the way back with him to show him where that was. Philly then called it a night.
Before leaving, though, Philly was able to confirm that I can change our quest night from thursday to tuesday. Kon is commited on tuesdays for the next two weeks, so it will be 26 Feb before we make the change.
But as 5:30pm became 5:50pm only Philly and the warrior, Huldu, had showed up. We had just agreed to just help each other work on raising our skill levels for our professions when Arq arrived. Yes, he was still not well. But he'd been sleeping all day and wanted to spend some time in game. We talked about what we could do with the three of us, and Arq mentioned that he still needed to complete a couple quests in his pally quest chain. He needed to do another Ragefire Chasm run for one of them. That sounded like fun, so we headed for Orgrimmar.
RFC is no match for three mid-level 20s players, so we made it as challenging as possible. The warrior and pally would try to aggro as many mobs as they possibly could, drag them all into a pile, and then we'd work through killing them all. No matter how many they grabbed, Philly only needed to do light healing, and spent most of the time helping to kill the mobs. We had a blast.
We finally got to the area for the pally quest. We cleared the room and then arq activated a stone that is set at the back of the room. I've seen that stone there many times on RFC farming runs, even tried to activate it, and never knew what it was for. Now I knew. The stone released a level 20 elite demon, and the three of us took him down.
Amazingly, Philly even got a drop out of RFC that she could use. On our prior RFC run, Kon had mistakenly rolled need on a very nice blue chest piece called [Robe of Evocation], which drops off of one of the bosses. We kidded him about it but no big deal. On this run the robe dropped again, and it was still a better chest piece than the one Philly was wearing. Other blue gear that dropped we could only greed on and then sell as we didn't have our disenchanter, Brae, with us.
The RFC run didn't take that long, and since none of us had collected the flight paths we would need to get to BFD yet, we decided to make that run.
It's a long way on foot, but we didn't have any other choice. We gathered back up at the Crossroads, and then headed north for Ashenvale. Once in Ashenvale, we wound along a number of trails to get to Splintertree Post, the first flight path we needed. From there we headed west. Since we were doing other things while making the run (Philly would take side trips to collect flowers, for example) we got pretty strung out, but we all knew where we were going (yes, even me). That almost got Huldu in trouble, though, as he was the only one of us to encounter the elite giant that patrols one section of road in Ashenvale. If I recall the giant is a level 36. To Huldu he was ?? and five times Huldu's size. He managed to avoid him, although it got his heart going pretty good.
Straddling the road we were on is Astraanar, an alliance town. Wild once accidentally tried to enter that town, and fled for his life, alliance npcs hard on his cow tail. We diverted around the town, killing the occasional spider that got too close.
From there the road twisted northward, and eventually there is a path that breaks away from the main road and heads to the coast.
At the coast it's a short run south to the Zoram Strand outpost and the flight path we needed. To the north of the post is Blackfathom Deeps.
About halfway through that road trip Kon arrived. His computer wasn't as "fixed" as he thought it was and he'd had to upload and install some drivers. He hoped it was working now. We used the Summoning Stone at BFD to summon him out to us, and then Philly showed him the flight path at Zoram strand. Arq had one last quest to do for his pally quest chain, which was to kill nagas right in the area where we were. We helped with that, and arq then headed back to the quest giver. The quest reward was a very nice blue level polearm. That will be nice to have in BFD come sunday.
Huldu had to leave, and that left just Philly and Kon. Since Kon did not have the flight path at Spinebreaker Hold, I offered to make the run all the way back with him to show him where that was. Philly then called it a night.
Before leaving, though, Philly was able to confirm that I can change our quest night from thursday to tuesday. Kon is commited on tuesdays for the next two weeks, so it will be 26 Feb before we make the change.
2008-02-05 Jovia's Nightmare
Jovia crouches in her quarters, the horror of the nightmare still fresh in her mind. They have gotten worse, since she experienced the first one on the eve of the group's initial foray into Wailing Caverns. For two weeks there has been no word from the Masters, and Jovia has sent no reports on the progress of the hardy group of adventurers who have exceeded all expectations. In the Masters place have been Nightmares.
She has no memory of the content of the dream, but she now fears sleep. She must find a way to reach the Masters. Far back in her mind a small voice whispers, but Jovia tries not to hear it. You do remember a little, don't you?
Jovia shudders. Yes. I remember the Dragon. And something Else.
It is later in the day, and Jovia has somewhat recovered from the morning, although she has been slow at her work from lack of sleep.
Now she wrestles once more with the enslaved imps, who have grown stronger and bolder. Jovia now must spend precious time undoing their mischief as they pick at and pry loose elements of the spells that bind them. No sooner had she finally freed Kon from them to rejoin the group, when they managed to snare Brae.
But settling the imps has focused her on the tasks ahead. Best to make a report and hope it will reach a Master's attention. So well has Huldu stated the group's progress and successes, Jovia blatantly plagarizes his guild reports and forwards them on as her own.
Jovia carefully edits out all mention of the appearance of the druid, Jal, however. She is not certain where the young lass fits into the story that grows with each meeting. She showed up at just the right time, and has proven her character and her value. But Jovia is not the trusting sort, and the timing of Jal's appearance bears caution. But even if she is exactly as she appears, Jal's path may not be same as the one GF is on. Jal does not carry the leatherskin scryer's device. Was not Called by the Masters. Which, on reflection, is not necessarily a bad thing, Jovia thought.
Jovia finished up her day doing some research. With the conquest of Wailing Caverns two weeks before, Naralax should have been released from his dreams and begun the process of cleansing the madness from the Caverns. The place remains dark, though, and more recent adventurers have only found death inside that place. Something has gone wrong, and it may actually be spreading.
She doubts her recent nightmares have anything to do with GF's recent conquest of Shadowfang Keep. That particular madness is limited to within those walls and the vicinity of Silverpine. Archmage Arugal is dead, thanks to the GF, but his imposters and the prolific breeding of the worgen won't be ended with that one foray. Yet the real source of danger does not lie there. Jovia needs to learn more.
What is it that stalks this group, and has the power to mask even the Masters view? There is a piece to this puzzle in Blackfathom Deeps. What hint lies in those shattered ruins, now peopled with the naga and the Twilight's Hammer cult? Jovia hopes that the GF can uncover it.
She has no memory of the content of the dream, but she now fears sleep. She must find a way to reach the Masters. Far back in her mind a small voice whispers, but Jovia tries not to hear it. You do remember a little, don't you?
Jovia shudders. Yes. I remember the Dragon. And something Else.
It is later in the day, and Jovia has somewhat recovered from the morning, although she has been slow at her work from lack of sleep.
Now she wrestles once more with the enslaved imps, who have grown stronger and bolder. Jovia now must spend precious time undoing their mischief as they pick at and pry loose elements of the spells that bind them. No sooner had she finally freed Kon from them to rejoin the group, when they managed to snare Brae.
But settling the imps has focused her on the tasks ahead. Best to make a report and hope it will reach a Master's attention. So well has Huldu stated the group's progress and successes, Jovia blatantly plagarizes his guild reports and forwards them on as her own.
Jovia carefully edits out all mention of the appearance of the druid, Jal, however. She is not certain where the young lass fits into the story that grows with each meeting. She showed up at just the right time, and has proven her character and her value. But Jovia is not the trusting sort, and the timing of Jal's appearance bears caution. But even if she is exactly as she appears, Jal's path may not be same as the one GF is on. Jal does not carry the leatherskin scryer's device. Was not Called by the Masters. Which, on reflection, is not necessarily a bad thing, Jovia thought.
Jovia finished up her day doing some research. With the conquest of Wailing Caverns two weeks before, Naralax should have been released from his dreams and begun the process of cleansing the madness from the Caverns. The place remains dark, though, and more recent adventurers have only found death inside that place. Something has gone wrong, and it may actually be spreading.
She doubts her recent nightmares have anything to do with GF's recent conquest of Shadowfang Keep. That particular madness is limited to within those walls and the vicinity of Silverpine. Archmage Arugal is dead, thanks to the GF, but his imposters and the prolific breeding of the worgen won't be ended with that one foray. Yet the real source of danger does not lie there. Jovia needs to learn more.
What is it that stalks this group, and has the power to mask even the Masters view? There is a piece to this puzzle in Blackfathom Deeps. What hint lies in those shattered ruins, now peopled with the naga and the Twilight's Hammer cult? Jovia hopes that the GF can uncover it.
2008-02-04 Shadowfang Keep
Sunday's GF Shadowfang Keep run almost didn't happen.
Philly was anxious to get started (and I'd gone to bed at a decent hour on saturday night for once) and logged in around 5:30am server for the 6am start. Philly puttered about the Undercity for a bit and then headed on foot to the Sepulcher, which is a small horde outpost in Silverpine that is on the way to SFK. Philly still needed a lot of herbs to continue levelling Alchemy, so this would be a chance to collect a few on the way. Philly was the only guildie in game.
Knowing that Kon would not likely be able to make it, Philly checked the "Looking for More" option on the LFG tool. A level 22 rogue was listed as looking for an SFK group. I /whispered him, he was interested, and I told him to standby in case we needed that fifth player. Philly picked some flowers and after awhile, just out of curiosity, I did a /who for the druid who had come along last week. He was in game, and when Philly talked to him said he would be delighted to join us again if we needed him. The druid had been busy. In the week since he entered WC with us as a level 17, he has levelled all the way to 27. Philly let the rogue know that we would not need him this week, and thanked him for waiting.
Our mage finally came in game at close to 6am, and then a couple minutes later in came the pally. Philly was already parked at the Summoning Stone outside SFK. I let folks know the druid was standing by, and we went ahead and invited him. At 6am we were all waiting at the Stone. But no Huldu the warrior. There was some confusion last week as to the start time, so we figured he would be here no later than 6:30am.
About 6:15 his RL friend, the pally, called him at home. No answer. Only half jokingly, the pally said that he might still be asleep.
While we were waiting a bruiseweed node popped into existence down the road from where we were waiting. Philly trotted off, saying that she "Was just skipping off for a bit to pick flowers."
The druid deadpanned, "For me? You don't have to give me flowers." Philly came back with "Ah, but I wanna. You're worth it, ya big bear." When Philly picked the bruisweed and the collection showed up in the party log, the druid added, "Bruiseweed! My favorite!"
A level 62 galloped up to us on his mount, watched us a second, and then proclaimed, "The reason I gathered you all here today . . . " To which we immediately replied, ". . . is to take us through SFK. One at a time!" He laughed and rode off to farm the instance.
No warrior at 6:30. Or 6:40.
The pally went to call his friend again, and we asked the druid if he liked to tank. The druid didn't get a chance to answer, though, because the warrior came in game at that moment. He'd only gotten three hours sleep the night before and had slept right through his alarm clock.
It was close to 7am when the five of us finally entered Shadowfang Keep. The druid at level 27. Philly, and the pally, Arq, at level 25. Huldu the warrior and Brae, the mage, at level 24.
SFK is full of worgen, wolfmen summoned into the world during a battle of human wizards against the undead Scourge. Archmage Arugal commanded the wizards, and did the worgen Summons to aid in the battle. The Worgen weren't much for choosing sides, though, and slaughtered both armies indiscriminately. The battle lost, a maddened Arugal eventually made peace with the worgen and retreated into SFK with them and the remainder of those loyal to him. The Grunt Foundation has been tasked to root out the worgen and dispatch Arugal.
There are eight Bosses, including Arugal himself and his pet worgen, the massive Fenrus the Devourer.
The group made short work of the trash mobs inside the door and quickly came up on the first boss, Rethilgore, a level 20 elite. He lasted maybe ten seconds. That would set the pattern for most of this fight.
SFK offers a few more challenges than the earlier dungeons, with mobs that can Silence healers and tricky pulls that can bring lots of mobs down on the group. We had few problems, however. Brae casually asked Philly if she had "Dispell Magic" shortly into the fight. "Of course," I said, and then noticed my Decursive display lit up like a Christmas Tree. Oops, I'd better get hot dispelling those magic debuffs! We had some exciting moments in the stables handling about a half dozen very mad elite horses (part of the pally quest line), but Philly kept everyone up and killing. Bosses went down nearly as fast as the trash and we tore through the place, pausing only when we encountered a room with the first Son of Arugal. These tougher elites defend almost every room from this point on, and they (with their adds) can wipe the group if not prepared for them.
We were standing at the top of a stairway that headed down and then doubled back into a large room with a lot of mobs meandering about. Make a mistake and we could pull a dozen mobs up those stairs. Huldu pulled mobs like a surgeon excising cancerous growth without ever touching clean flesh. When we got around to the Son of Arugal he was alone, and an easy kill. Many more Sons died, and more bosses fell.
When we faced Fenrus, Arugal himself sends his worgen beast at us (along with four voidwalkers) before retreating back to his high chamber. The non-elite voidwalkers were easy prey and Fenrus barely got in a bite before he went down.
All that was left was Arugal. A vision from Wild disturbed Philly's thoughts. Wild remembered the Arugal battle. He had died just as Arugal fell, and could not make it back from the graveyard before Arugal's body disappeared, and Wild was unable to claim his head. A failed quest, never completed.
Arugal can Stun, and he can teleport himself around the room. This could be a real problem with a group that has three melee DPSers possibly trying to chase Arugal around as he teleports from one side of the room to another. We charged in and started the fight. Philly got off one heal and then was Stunned. I kept banging on the heal buttons waiting for the Stun to clear, and finally got off a Flash Heal with the tank at under 50%. But it didn't really matter. Archmage Arugal fell dead without ever getting a chance to teleport. At least the warrior wasn't faced with running back from the graveyard.
First it was Ragefire Chasm. Then Wailing Caverns. And now Shadowfang Keep has fallen.
The druid went home with a bag full of loot once again. Out of the two dungeons he's run with us he is now wearing eight blues. Eight. Everyone got at least one blue. Philly's was [Feline Mantle], a very nice +int shoulder. The four DPSers finished with almost exactly the same total damage, despite their level differences. Philly did a little damage, but some of the mobs were immune to Philly's fire wand so she mostly just dropped DoTs on them. Philly did 100% of the healing. No one even needed a bandage.
Speaking of levelling, for the first time Philly did not level in the dungeon. Even when the three quests for the dungeon were turned in, I came up just short at 98%. It was easy to push Philly over that to reach level 26, but it means that we are slowing down in our levelling pace as the amount of xp we need continues to grow.
Not sure where we will be questing on thursday. We still have quite a few quests to do in the Hillsbrad Foothills. On sunday, though, we will likely wrestle the next dungeon on our list, Blackfathom Deeps.
Philly was anxious to get started (and I'd gone to bed at a decent hour on saturday night for once) and logged in around 5:30am server for the 6am start. Philly puttered about the Undercity for a bit and then headed on foot to the Sepulcher, which is a small horde outpost in Silverpine that is on the way to SFK. Philly still needed a lot of herbs to continue levelling Alchemy, so this would be a chance to collect a few on the way. Philly was the only guildie in game.
Knowing that Kon would not likely be able to make it, Philly checked the "Looking for More" option on the LFG tool. A level 22 rogue was listed as looking for an SFK group. I /whispered him, he was interested, and I told him to standby in case we needed that fifth player. Philly picked some flowers and after awhile, just out of curiosity, I did a /who for the druid who had come along last week. He was in game, and when Philly talked to him said he would be delighted to join us again if we needed him. The druid had been busy. In the week since he entered WC with us as a level 17, he has levelled all the way to 27. Philly let the rogue know that we would not need him this week, and thanked him for waiting.
Our mage finally came in game at close to 6am, and then a couple minutes later in came the pally. Philly was already parked at the Summoning Stone outside SFK. I let folks know the druid was standing by, and we went ahead and invited him. At 6am we were all waiting at the Stone. But no Huldu the warrior. There was some confusion last week as to the start time, so we figured he would be here no later than 6:30am.
About 6:15 his RL friend, the pally, called him at home. No answer. Only half jokingly, the pally said that he might still be asleep.
While we were waiting a bruiseweed node popped into existence down the road from where we were waiting. Philly trotted off, saying that she "Was just skipping off for a bit to pick flowers."
The druid deadpanned, "For me? You don't have to give me flowers." Philly came back with "Ah, but I wanna. You're worth it, ya big bear." When Philly picked the bruisweed and the collection showed up in the party log, the druid added, "Bruiseweed! My favorite!"
A level 62 galloped up to us on his mount, watched us a second, and then proclaimed, "The reason I gathered you all here today . . . " To which we immediately replied, ". . . is to take us through SFK. One at a time!" He laughed and rode off to farm the instance.
No warrior at 6:30. Or 6:40.
The pally went to call his friend again, and we asked the druid if he liked to tank. The druid didn't get a chance to answer, though, because the warrior came in game at that moment. He'd only gotten three hours sleep the night before and had slept right through his alarm clock.
It was close to 7am when the five of us finally entered Shadowfang Keep. The druid at level 27. Philly, and the pally, Arq, at level 25. Huldu the warrior and Brae, the mage, at level 24.
SFK is full of worgen, wolfmen summoned into the world during a battle of human wizards against the undead Scourge. Archmage Arugal commanded the wizards, and did the worgen Summons to aid in the battle. The Worgen weren't much for choosing sides, though, and slaughtered both armies indiscriminately. The battle lost, a maddened Arugal eventually made peace with the worgen and retreated into SFK with them and the remainder of those loyal to him. The Grunt Foundation has been tasked to root out the worgen and dispatch Arugal.
There are eight Bosses, including Arugal himself and his pet worgen, the massive Fenrus the Devourer.
The group made short work of the trash mobs inside the door and quickly came up on the first boss, Rethilgore, a level 20 elite. He lasted maybe ten seconds. That would set the pattern for most of this fight.
SFK offers a few more challenges than the earlier dungeons, with mobs that can Silence healers and tricky pulls that can bring lots of mobs down on the group. We had few problems, however. Brae casually asked Philly if she had "Dispell Magic" shortly into the fight. "Of course," I said, and then noticed my Decursive display lit up like a Christmas Tree. Oops, I'd better get hot dispelling those magic debuffs! We had some exciting moments in the stables handling about a half dozen very mad elite horses (part of the pally quest line), but Philly kept everyone up and killing. Bosses went down nearly as fast as the trash and we tore through the place, pausing only when we encountered a room with the first Son of Arugal. These tougher elites defend almost every room from this point on, and they (with their adds) can wipe the group if not prepared for them.
We were standing at the top of a stairway that headed down and then doubled back into a large room with a lot of mobs meandering about. Make a mistake and we could pull a dozen mobs up those stairs. Huldu pulled mobs like a surgeon excising cancerous growth without ever touching clean flesh. When we got around to the Son of Arugal he was alone, and an easy kill. Many more Sons died, and more bosses fell.
When we faced Fenrus, Arugal himself sends his worgen beast at us (along with four voidwalkers) before retreating back to his high chamber. The non-elite voidwalkers were easy prey and Fenrus barely got in a bite before he went down.
All that was left was Arugal. A vision from Wild disturbed Philly's thoughts. Wild remembered the Arugal battle. He had died just as Arugal fell, and could not make it back from the graveyard before Arugal's body disappeared, and Wild was unable to claim his head. A failed quest, never completed.
Arugal can Stun, and he can teleport himself around the room. This could be a real problem with a group that has three melee DPSers possibly trying to chase Arugal around as he teleports from one side of the room to another. We charged in and started the fight. Philly got off one heal and then was Stunned. I kept banging on the heal buttons waiting for the Stun to clear, and finally got off a Flash Heal with the tank at under 50%. But it didn't really matter. Archmage Arugal fell dead without ever getting a chance to teleport. At least the warrior wasn't faced with running back from the graveyard.
First it was Ragefire Chasm. Then Wailing Caverns. And now Shadowfang Keep has fallen.
The druid went home with a bag full of loot once again. Out of the two dungeons he's run with us he is now wearing eight blues. Eight. Everyone got at least one blue. Philly's was [Feline Mantle], a very nice +int shoulder. The four DPSers finished with almost exactly the same total damage, despite their level differences. Philly did a little damage, but some of the mobs were immune to Philly's fire wand so she mostly just dropped DoTs on them. Philly did 100% of the healing. No one even needed a bandage.
Speaking of levelling, for the first time Philly did not level in the dungeon. Even when the three quests for the dungeon were turned in, I came up just short at 98%. It was easy to push Philly over that to reach level 26, but it means that we are slowing down in our levelling pace as the amount of xp we need continues to grow.
Not sure where we will be questing on thursday. We still have quite a few quests to do in the Hillsbrad Foothills. On sunday, though, we will likely wrestle the next dungeon on our list, Blackfathom Deeps.
2008-02-01 Hillsbrad Foothills
We had a full five for last night's gathering of the Grunt Foundation. The lock, Kon, does not have his computer operating yet, but was able to borrow the family computer. We started with two level 23s, two level 24s, and Kon at level 22.
The new questing area is the Hillsbrad Foothills. The horde town in that area is Tarren Mill, and that's where we all assembled. Philly and Brae (who did the quest collecting this time as Arq is not familiar with the area) were the only two who had gotten the flight path for the town. We waited for the others at the Mill, and when Kon trotted into town we asked him to Summon the others. After doing the Summons, Kon mentioned that those were his first ever. I couldn't help but poke a little fun at Brae by mentioning that last sunday in WC he had given Philly her first opportunity to do a rez. These "firsts" continue to bring home that while we all have high level toons on other servers, the race/classes of the characters we are playing here are all new to us.
The early quests in Hillsbrad involve a lot of beast killing. Much of the area is open, grassy fields, blanketed with lions, bears, and . . . no, not tigers . . . spiders. We also tackled the Battle of Hillsbrad quest chain. This is part of the ongoing war here between the horde undead (Yay for undead!) and the humans who "infest" the area. The first quest takes the group to the human town of Hillsbrad (clever name - not) to kill farmers. Undead must really hate farmers, because over several quests droves of them will die and bloody their own fields. There are two named farmers, Ray and Getz, we must kill. After killing the necessary numbers of farmers, we took up residence in a barn we were sure is where at least one of the named farmers would spawn. After an endless wait and killing innumberable respawning unnamed farmers, we got bored and decided the best way to find the named farmers was through process of elimination. We killed everything and everyone, even the cows in the field (which could be skinned, but Philly did mention she was glad she wasn't Tauren).
The named farmers were soon discovered and dispatched. In the second battle it was peasants we had to dispatch. There are still five more quests in the series we have to do.
There are a number of quests involving invading the battlements of Durnholde, and we got one of those done as well.
We had east coasters who could only stay until 7:30pm server (10:30pm their time) last night, so we only got about five quests done. It was enough to level all of us up by one level, though. We will be going into SFK this sunday with two level 25s and 2 level 24s (although it's possible some of us may level up another notch before then). Kon (level 23) won't be able to make it, though, and we will have to find another stand in.
I took a look at the DPS data from the addon Recap after the run. Since we were just questing everyone was running around tagging mobs and killing things as quickly as possible. I think the mage enjoyed trying to overaggro mobs so the warrior had to chase them. Philly would just stand between them and blast away with her wand. Since everyone was helping with the killing I thought it interesting to compare the damage dealing.
By far the two highest DPS dealers were the mage - and the warrior. They accounted for perhaps 70% of all damage done. I was a little surprised the warrior could match the mage in damage, but he is specced fury and was for sure in full DPS mode. Also surprising was that the warlock's damage was no where near those numbers. He had his succubus out most of the night. I had recap set to include pet damage with the pet owner, and thought the damage would be higher. In fact, in terms of damage per second, Philly was actually slightly better than the lock, although the lock had slightly more total damage. Philly, doing nothing but wanding for damage, shouldn't be out DPSing a warlock. Will have to read up on locks and see if I can help him out a bit.
The data is based only on what Philly's recap recorded, so it's likely that not all damage dealt by the others got recorded if they got too far away for recap to pick it up. Recap is more to look at how well Philly is doing with damage and healing, not as much comparing her to others. But it's still interesting.
I haven't had much luck in convincing the others to use addons like recap, or, more importantly I think, something like Omen or KTH to monitor threat. Other than Philly and Huld (the warrior), none of the others are using anything like that. Well, at least Philly can monitor her threat compared to the tanks.
The new questing area is the Hillsbrad Foothills. The horde town in that area is Tarren Mill, and that's where we all assembled. Philly and Brae (who did the quest collecting this time as Arq is not familiar with the area) were the only two who had gotten the flight path for the town. We waited for the others at the Mill, and when Kon trotted into town we asked him to Summon the others. After doing the Summons, Kon mentioned that those were his first ever. I couldn't help but poke a little fun at Brae by mentioning that last sunday in WC he had given Philly her first opportunity to do a rez. These "firsts" continue to bring home that while we all have high level toons on other servers, the race/classes of the characters we are playing here are all new to us.
The early quests in Hillsbrad involve a lot of beast killing. Much of the area is open, grassy fields, blanketed with lions, bears, and . . . no, not tigers . . . spiders. We also tackled the Battle of Hillsbrad quest chain. This is part of the ongoing war here between the horde undead (Yay for undead!) and the humans who "infest" the area. The first quest takes the group to the human town of Hillsbrad (clever name - not) to kill farmers. Undead must really hate farmers, because over several quests droves of them will die and bloody their own fields. There are two named farmers, Ray and Getz, we must kill. After killing the necessary numbers of farmers, we took up residence in a barn we were sure is where at least one of the named farmers would spawn. After an endless wait and killing innumberable respawning unnamed farmers, we got bored and decided the best way to find the named farmers was through process of elimination. We killed everything and everyone, even the cows in the field (which could be skinned, but Philly did mention she was glad she wasn't Tauren).
The named farmers were soon discovered and dispatched. In the second battle it was peasants we had to dispatch. There are still five more quests in the series we have to do.
There are a number of quests involving invading the battlements of Durnholde, and we got one of those done as well.
We had east coasters who could only stay until 7:30pm server (10:30pm their time) last night, so we only got about five quests done. It was enough to level all of us up by one level, though. We will be going into SFK this sunday with two level 25s and 2 level 24s (although it's possible some of us may level up another notch before then). Kon (level 23) won't be able to make it, though, and we will have to find another stand in.
I took a look at the DPS data from the addon Recap after the run. Since we were just questing everyone was running around tagging mobs and killing things as quickly as possible. I think the mage enjoyed trying to overaggro mobs so the warrior had to chase them. Philly would just stand between them and blast away with her wand. Since everyone was helping with the killing I thought it interesting to compare the damage dealing.
By far the two highest DPS dealers were the mage - and the warrior. They accounted for perhaps 70% of all damage done. I was a little surprised the warrior could match the mage in damage, but he is specced fury and was for sure in full DPS mode. Also surprising was that the warlock's damage was no where near those numbers. He had his succubus out most of the night. I had recap set to include pet damage with the pet owner, and thought the damage would be higher. In fact, in terms of damage per second, Philly was actually slightly better than the lock, although the lock had slightly more total damage. Philly, doing nothing but wanding for damage, shouldn't be out DPSing a warlock. Will have to read up on locks and see if I can help him out a bit.
The data is based only on what Philly's recap recorded, so it's likely that not all damage dealt by the others got recorded if they got too far away for recap to pick it up. Recap is more to look at how well Philly is doing with damage and healing, not as much comparing her to others. But it's still interesting.
I haven't had much luck in convincing the others to use addons like recap, or, more importantly I think, something like Omen or KTH to monitor threat. Other than Philly and Huld (the warrior), none of the others are using anything like that. Well, at least Philly can monitor her threat compared to the tanks.
2008-01-30 GF's Dungeon Plan
With Wailing Caverns completed and the Ghostlands questing area pretty much farmed out, the GF met to discuss where we would go from here. There are several choices for level 20 somethings, and given the pace at which we are levelling, we will probably skip some areas as we will level past their usefulness before we get there.
We sketched out the following plan, which we'll revise if needed as we go along.
The focus of the GF is instances, so our questing areas should coincide with the order in which we want to tackle the dungeons available to us.
Shadowfang Keep (18-22 recommended level) - We decided that this will be the next instance we attempt, probably as early as this coming sunday. SFK is in Hillsbrad Foothills, south of the Undercity and Silverpine areas, where we will quest thursday night. SFK is similar in mob levels to WC, and it is not as long. However, the mob pulls are more complicated and the end boss, Arugal, is one of the toughest bosses a group will ever face at this level. We should be ready for it, though, and the rewards there are very much worth going after. There are only three dungeon quests to collect, but in addition, this is where Arq needs to start getting his paladin quests done.
Blackfathom Deeps (22-24) - BFD is next on our list. This dungeon is in Ashenvale, on the other continent and north of Orgrimmar. We may continue to quest in HIllsbrad Foothills for a week if we feel the quest rewards are worth it. Then we'll shift to Ashenvale. I recall BFD as being a lot of fun. A relatively short instance with several interesting quests. There are 6 dungeon quests, and more pally quests.
Razorfen Kraul (24-27) - Like Hillsbrad, we may need to spend an extra week in Ashenvale before moving back to the Barrens and RFK. For some reason I didn't like this dungeon. Maybe it was because the quests require carrying around a whole lot of stuff, or the layout. Or that it took several tries with several groups before Wild got everything I needed done in there. Hopefully it will be more fun for Philly. Questing will be in the Barrens, and perhaps in Stonetalon Mountains, which is where a lot of the Barrens quests lead to. But we may skip Stonetalon depending on where we are level-wise.
The above should take us a minimum of three weeks, but more likely 5-6 weeks, to get done. It will depend greatly on the continued attendance of everyone, and how much back tracking we will have to do to get Kon up to speed when he gets back.
On the horizon could be Gnomeregan, which is in the alliance zone of Dun Morogh and which I've never been in. And then Razorfen Downs (a sometimes forgotten or ignored instance right next to RFK) and Scarlet Monastery.
We sketched out the following plan, which we'll revise if needed as we go along.
The focus of the GF is instances, so our questing areas should coincide with the order in which we want to tackle the dungeons available to us.
Shadowfang Keep (18-22 recommended level) - We decided that this will be the next instance we attempt, probably as early as this coming sunday. SFK is in Hillsbrad Foothills, south of the Undercity and Silverpine areas, where we will quest thursday night. SFK is similar in mob levels to WC, and it is not as long. However, the mob pulls are more complicated and the end boss, Arugal, is one of the toughest bosses a group will ever face at this level. We should be ready for it, though, and the rewards there are very much worth going after. There are only three dungeon quests to collect, but in addition, this is where Arq needs to start getting his paladin quests done.
Blackfathom Deeps (22-24) - BFD is next on our list. This dungeon is in Ashenvale, on the other continent and north of Orgrimmar. We may continue to quest in HIllsbrad Foothills for a week if we feel the quest rewards are worth it. Then we'll shift to Ashenvale. I recall BFD as being a lot of fun. A relatively short instance with several interesting quests. There are 6 dungeon quests, and more pally quests.
Razorfen Kraul (24-27) - Like Hillsbrad, we may need to spend an extra week in Ashenvale before moving back to the Barrens and RFK. For some reason I didn't like this dungeon. Maybe it was because the quests require carrying around a whole lot of stuff, or the layout. Or that it took several tries with several groups before Wild got everything I needed done in there. Hopefully it will be more fun for Philly. Questing will be in the Barrens, and perhaps in Stonetalon Mountains, which is where a lot of the Barrens quests lead to. But we may skip Stonetalon depending on where we are level-wise.
The above should take us a minimum of three weeks, but more likely 5-6 weeks, to get done. It will depend greatly on the continued attendance of everyone, and how much back tracking we will have to do to get Kon up to speed when he gets back.
On the horizon could be Gnomeregan, which is in the alliance zone of Dun Morogh and which I've never been in. And then Razorfen Downs (a sometimes forgotten or ignored instance right next to RFK) and Scarlet Monastery.
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