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.
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