What an adventure!

Northrend is so cool guys! You have to visit it one day.

I had a lot of fun in Borean Tundra – there were pirate looking ghosts, walrus people, a Tauren like people called the Taunka, there were dragons (I even got to ride them!) and a heck of a lot of scourge.  I have to say that the scourge are in almost ‘plague-like’ proportions here in Northrend (heh, get it?).

Anyways, I had lots of fun in the Tundra – especially with a group of people called D.E.H.T.A. . They were druids concerned about the animals there and were pretty much conducting a war against the hunters. Looks like Hemet Nesingwary was behind a lot of the hunters so I thought I’d be a bit prudent and not mention that I’d done a bit of work for Hemet, back in Nagrand. It did appear though, that a dude called Harold Lane was in charge, here in the Tundra (I’d seen him back in Nagrand too). They did ask me to um… dispatch him, and they were prepared to pay me nicely. I figured being a mercenary and adventurer means I might work for one guy, one day – and then the next be asked to kill him. It’s the life, I suppose. So, I did it. I did feel a pang of guilt about it though. I wonder if I’ll always feel that little pang? I probably should hope so – I suppose I’d be a monster otherwise.

After Borean Tundra, I moved on to Dragonblight, but didn’t stay in the area too long. Someone told me about a place called Grizzly Hills and it sounded so pretty. I was told about fields of lavender and rolling hills covered in huge blossoms (just look how gorgeous they are!). I found all that there, along with beautiful babbling brooks, majestic tree forests and a couple of snow-capped peaks. Such an enchanting area… well, if it weren’t for the inhabitants. Some of the trees were alive! There were bunches of dwarves, trolls (decidedly not the friendly type I’d found in Zangarmarsh!), furbolgs, giants, and the place seemed to be infested with Worgen everywhere! I took this pic of the dwarves doing something weird here – can you see the living tree in the background?

I did have some fun with a guy called Harrison Jones. He was some dude stuck in some Troll ruin I explored. I helped him out and then he just ran off yelling his thanks. I wonder if I’ll ever see him again?

At one stage I was sent on an errand to Dalaran (now that’s one majestic city!) and found several people wanting to send me places. Strange to feel so wanted – I couldn’t decide where to go first. I ended up choosing to visit a place called Sholazar Basin. Two reasons – one was that it was a jungle area (and I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I have an affinity for green places), and two, they were looking for Hemet Nesingwary! I figured that it was a sign and headed out there. I think I’ll save that for next time though. There’s so much to tell you about.

Movin’ on

Ah Nagrand, your beautiful grasslands, your breath-taking sunsets, your Orcs with their rough and ready roundhouses to inhabit…

Ok, so I figured I’d better move on. I’d explored just about all of Nagrand and I loved almost all of it. I’m still not entirely comfortable with these Orcs though. Is it such a crime to sleep in a building that has a proper bed (one word people – hammocks… oh my aching back!) or a touch of sophistication and gentility? 

I’m still finding the Orcs a bit of a mystery to be honest, so I figured I’d go visit Orgrimmar and also work on my skills at cooking and fishing. I’ve shamefully neglected those skills (do not tell my mother that I rarely cook. She would be horrified!), however it has been getting more and more expensive to buy provisions. I do occasionally find some, but you really can’t depend on that. So, I resolved to become more self-sufficient. I didn’t realise though, how very tedious this process would be! I’ve decided that I don’t mind cooking so much, but fishing… Oh great Lorthemar! Booooring is too tame a word! Unfortunately fishing and cooking often go hand in hand, so I really need to work on both.

The trainer had me start with the easy stuff, so at least gathering ingredients was a simple task. It turned out a great way to explore some of Kalimdor too. I’ve not travelled much on this continent, so that was exciting at least. I even tried my hand at a bit of archaeology too. I have to admit that I didn’t do a lot of that though – who would have thought there would be something even more boring than fishing? I heard someone describe it as archaeomgthisisboring. I loved that and laughed out loud when I heard them say it. I did hear that it can have some very cool rewards, but I think I might leave that until a bit later. I think if I work on my fishing and archaeology at the same time I may just keel over from the boredom.

I’d been told that I should try my hand at a place called Northrend now, so I worked on my skills until I was able to fish and cook my catch from those areas. I don’t know a lot of recipes for the ingredients there yet, but there’s a cook, at an inn in Dalaran, who has graciously allowed me to buy recipes in exchange for a little work. The work is easy enough – it’s just a nuisance going there every day (because the area I’m working in is on one side of the continent and Dal is in the middle. I get a taxi flight but it costs more gold than I’d prefer to spend).

 Let me tell you a little bit about this place. I was sent to a place called Borean Tundra, in Northrend, with my base at Warsong Hold. On first impressions, it’s just more Orcs. Well, I suppose I should have expected that – that’s where the Orgrimmar Orcs would send me. Warsong Hold is pretty big actually. It even has a war room in the middle. Have a look at this pic of me with Garrosh Hellscream and High Overlord Saurfang. I love the little map they’ve made out of hides.

Once you go outside the hold, you’re immediately engulfed in battle with the Nerubians. I really think they should have established Warsong Hold a little further away from the Nerubians, you’d think the people who started the place would have noticed the ginormous bugs just on their doorstep!  I haven’t explored a lot just yet. I’m told there’s whole new races to meet – I can’t wait!

Been chillin’

I’ve been pretty quiet lately. Mainly because there’s not been a lot happening to report on. Let’s see if I can catch you up a little.

After I got my flying licence and my wind rider, I had a lot of fun just flying all over the place. I loved nothing more than waking up in the morning, hopping on the wind rider, picking a direction and just exploring. I think it looks cute when my little wind rider cub pet follows us. I explored the whole Hellfire Peninsula area – every nook and cranny (well, not the Alliance areas though. They were mean and shot arrows at me, if I got too close. Bullies…). Anyway, you might have guessed, from previous posts, that I’m not a huge fan of the deserty type areas.  And that’s really all Hellfire Peninsula is. So I did a little bit of exploring about and found a place called Zangarmarsh.

I hung out in Zangarmarsh for a while. There’s a settlement of Trolls there and they’re a great bunch to hang out with. Always dancing and having fun. I will also admit to falling in love with their accents too – so exotic! I also like the fact that they don’t seem to take Garrosh Hellscream too seriously.  I mean they’re members of the Horde and all, but they’re a bit like the Blood Elves, in that they don’t seem as ‘driven’ as the Orcs.

Zangarmarsh has some pretty interesting scenery.  It’s not a desert, so it has that going for it immediately, but it seems to mostly consist of giant mushrooms.  It was a bit dark and gloomy in parts, but I suppose I shouldn’t expect places here to be like home – it is a whole ‘nother world and all.

Eventually Winter Veil came around and I went home to visit my family. It was a quiet holiday for me, I just stayed home and spent time with my mother, father and my cat. I didn’t bother taking part in any of the events for now, so it was a nice relaxing family time. I did wonder if I should bring my cat along with me. I miss him so much when I’m out adventuring. I decided not to, in the end, he’s used to Silvermoon City and I don’t think he’d cope with all the wandering I do.

After a while I headed back through that mysterious portal and kept exploring. I found an area called Terokkar Forest. It’s quite pretty there, well if you ignore the big wasteland off to the side  (I think they call it the Bone Wastes, which describes it well). There’s also a big city there called Shattrath. From what I hear it used to be just buzzing with life, with Alliance and Horde inhabiting every corner. It seems quite deserted now. Mostly just The Scryer and Aldor contingencies, and troops from the Shattered Sun Offensive up on the main platforms and then lots of refugees living in the lower city. The whole place is looked after by these weird wind-chime like creatures called the Naaru. I spoke to their leader A’dal at one time. He seemed quite nice.

On the other side of Shattrath is an area called Nagrand. I really love it there. It doesn’t have the same dewy freshness of Eversong Forest, but it’s very pretty. It has quite a bit of contrasts actually – islands floating in the sky, a few trees, warm sunlit plains, tranquil lakes and crystal streams. It does have a few rocky outcrops that remind me a little of Hellfire Peninsula – just at the edges though, so they don’t take away from Nagrand’s beauty. Oh and you *must* see the sunsets – enough to take your breath away. I’ve decided, that even though the main settlement is an Orcish one, I’m going to stay as long as I can. I want to explore every inch here.

Oh and please take note of the picture of me in Terokkar – I have proper PANTS again! None of those trampy ones they gave me in Hellfire Peninsula.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Let’s start with the good, shall we?

I CAN FLY!!

Flying is the best thing ever! It is just the most fun and makes questing so much easier. I can’t believe how easy it makes things. I feel sorry for the people not yet skilled enough to fly.

It took me a little while to get skilled enough. I’ve been exploring Hellfire Peninsula quite a bit (though apparently there is still more to explore) and have been working for various people in different camps. There have been quests given to me by the Orcs at Thrallmar, there’s a camp over at Spinebreaker Post, a group of Blood Elves have set up an area they call Falcon Watch, and then there is the Cenarion Post (I’m sure you can guess who hangs out there). There are various Alliance areas too, but I try to avoid them.

Anyway, so I’ve been working hard questing, gaining skills and experience, until one day I was told it was time for me to learn to fly. I was so excited and headed over to the trainer straight away. Then I got to choose my mount. I had three to choose from, but only one looked ok – the Tawny Wind Rider (the Blue and the Green ones just looked odd). Plus it matches my baby Wind Rider cub (who is just adorable!). I am just in love with flying now and cannot fathom how I managed to do anything without being able to fly.

Ok… the bad.

Take a look at this outfit. What the heck were the armour designers thinking when they made this? It’s armour people – not some stripper outfit! If I wanted to be a stripper, I’d just head back to Silvermoon City and hang out in one of those dodgy inns along Murder Row. I mean I’ve got stripper dancing skills already so I’m sure I could make plenty of gold – but I don’t want to! I’m an adventurer, a fighting priest, a mercenary who can swoop in and save the day!  Seriously, who’s going to hire me to fight their battles, when I look like this? All I can say, is thank goodness for shadowform. If it weren’t for shadowform hiding this indecent outfit, I’d have to go after the armour creator and teach better design skill with some skilfully applied mind blasting!

On to the ugly…

Fel Reaver.

This thing scares the crap out of me. I’ll be busily killing some boar, mining some fel iron ore, or doing something equally important and bam! There he is… the ground shakes, you look around and you spot the Fel Reaver bearing down on you like some vengeful spirit. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how he sneaks up on me. I never see him until the ground starts to tremble (and then I run like the wind!).  He hasn’t actually caught me yet – and I don’t intend for him to ever catch me either!

I plan to continue questing here for a little while, though I have heard rumours of a marshy area nearby. I wonder if it will have some greenery or if it will turn out to look a bit greeny-brown like the Swamp of Sorrows, back on Azeroth. It’s difficult to imagine any green areas with all this red dirt and rocks here.

A whole new… hell?

Ok, I screwed up all my courage and stepped through the portal… into hell!! 

Well alright, it’s called Hellfire Peninsula really, but look at this for the first glimpse I had. What the hell are these things? Demons? Living rocks? Other hellspawn? Alliance fighting along side Horde?? It doesn’t give me a lot of confidence that this place will be a nice relaxing visit… It looks like this new world is just one big fight after another. The fact that the Horde is letting the Alliance in on the battle means it’s probably a big one.

The place itself is all red dirt and rocks with a crazy sky. It appears to have some ragged edges with rocks and (almost islands of) land floating off in space. I don’t really understand how it’s possible that the rocks just float about off the edges actually. There seems to be some steep and dizzy angles about and it sometimes makes me feel like I could slide off the edge into nothingness quite easily. There seems to be quite a few ruins around. Some structures look like they’ve been caught in the middle of a infinitesimally slow explosion. I wonder how long, everyone here, has been fighting…

Once I’d arrived I was asked to deliver something to the Orc headquarters called Thrallmar.  I took the Windrider flight offered and tried not to gawk at the scenery too much.  I couldn’t help but stare at this thing though – what the heck is it? It looks like some sort of giant mechanical man. I’ve not seen anything like this before and found myself quaking in my boots at the sheer size of it. All I can say, is that I really hope I don’t see it again.

Arriving  at Thrallmar, I did the usual explore about the place. I found some trainers and learned some new skills. The trainers said I might find some herbs similar to Azerothian herbs, but I’ll probably see quite a few new ones too. The mining trainer said the ore I’m likely to find will be completely new to me. Everyone was talking about fel this and fel that. There are Fel Orcs, there’s felweed and fel iron ore. I wasn’t really familiar with the word fel before and they say it’s like demonic or evil or terrible. Great… no wonder they call this place Hellfire Peninsula! What I find a little ironic, is the fact that I can’t find a first aid trainer yet. Somehow I think I might need it (thank goodness I have some healing skills though).

Starting off I was given some busywork. Collect some metal and wood, go kill a few Fel Orcs for their blood (as you do) and go do some deliveries. I found that the wildlife here is quite different – for one, the boars here will charge you if you go near (unlike on Azeroth, where they’d only attack if you attacked first) and they have hellish looking spikes on their backs, also this world seems to have some giant tunnelling worms. Thank goodness you can see the disruptions of the ground when they’re nearby (they’re pretty easy to avoid). I expect soon enough, that I’ll be given something to do that’s more dangerous – something to test my skills. I can’t wait!

Um, what’s this big green thing in the middle?

So Swamp of Sorrows sorted… and I was sent on  to the next area to help out. And guess what? Yep, that’s right another red, bare, dirty, hot area, called Blasted Lands. I have to wonder what blasted it, in the first place…

It’s not completely arid, I suppose. There is a beachy sort of area, though it’s  not the ideal spot to get some rays unfortunately. It’s kind of infested with ghosts and Naga. The Naga had me surprised as they’d enslaved a tribe of Murlocs – and believe it or not, I ended up helping the Murlocs! I know, crazy right??

Another surprise was a little pocket of forest, tucked away in a corner. The name kind of put me off a bit though – Tainted Forest. A name like this tends to give a worrying feeling, rather than the feeling of ease and peacefulness a forest normally gives. I found a bunch of Blood Elves nearby (calling themselves the Sunwell Excursion) and they asked me to help out, so I did (Blood Elf solidarity and all that!).  Even if it did involve killing a bunch of tainted looking spiders, bats and bears (not to mention  the various demons!).  Hopefully all the spiders I killed will lessen the webbing on the trees. It really lowers the tone of the forest hehe.

The Blasted Lands is mostly true to it’s name. Right in the middle there’s a big crater with this big green swirly structure in the middle. The Horde forces have even set up a bit of a truce with the Alliance, as both have set up camps in the crater. They even appear to talk to each other! I’ll tell you a secret though, the Horde commander there asked me to sneak over to the Alliance side and see if I could sneak a peek at their plans. I’ve tried about a million times, but those Alliance people are tricky! They’ve caught me so many times. I don’t think they’re really mad though – they only teleport me back over to the commander and don’t seem to care if I wander back into their camp to try again.

I’ve heard some rumours, about the place, that the swirly green thing is actually a portal. And get this… it’s a portal to another world! I’ve no idea if that’s true but it’s so intriguing. I’ve no clue what an alien world would look like – or what sort of weirdo creatures I might meet. I’m so tempted by the idea of travelling to another world. Even though I’ve not seen much on the continent of Kalimdor, I have actually been there – and I’ve travelled quite a bit here in the Eastern Kingdoms. The thought of a whole new world to explore however, seems so exciting and, oh I don’t know… cosmopolitan.

I’m not quite brave enough to actually go through it yet, in fact someone said I wasn’t quite skilled enough yet. That was a bit of a blow to the ego, I will admit – I think I’ve done pretty well in my training. So far I’ve ventured up the stairs to it and I vow that one day I will gather my courage and step through!

Get thee to the swamp…

I hung about in Searing Gorge for a little bit longer. I thought perhaps I could work on my mining and herbing skills. Unfortunately most of what I found there wasn’t helping me gain any skills. Not only that, I’ve found that no one here seems to want mithril ore (which is what I’m seeing here mostly). Similarly, the herbs that I’ve put on the auction house lately, just weren’t attracting any buyers. I think for the time being I’ll just store them in my bank vaults and try selling them later.

While I was looking for herbs and doing a bit of mining, I thought I may as well do a couple of simple quests to pass the time. There was a couple of Dwarves hanging about, saying they were members of the Thorium Brotherhood. Sounds all very righteous, I suppose, but I’ve never heard of them. They also had some big Ogre hanging with them. I did a few quests for them and when I came back the Ogre went off his tree about how I’d killed something and how I shouldn’t have done it. I was confused about it all really. The guys he asked me to get stuff from just weren’t going to give it to me if I asked nicely… In the end he ran off. Weirdo…

Then later, he showed up again! He said he could show me how to get stuff without killing things. At this stage the Dwarves had asked me to get some goo off the giant spiders hanging about. So I started out with one and that’s when this Ogre shows up (apparently his name is Lunk). He had me weaken them and then started riding on their backs! This Ogre is nutso, I tell you. I suppose his method works though, I got all the goo the Dwarves asked for, without killing any more spiders.

By then I’d had enough of the place. I’d heard about a way to get to the area called Burning Steppes so off I rode. Once I’d found Burning Steppes, I found the path that took me to a Goblin offering rocket rides to the Swamp of Sorrows. Burning Steppes looked pretty much the same as Searing Gorge – hot, burny looking with lots of dirt and rocks. Like I’ve said before, I’ve been hankering for some greenery! Some pretty vegetation to ease the homesickness I’m feeling for Silvermoon City and Eversong Woods. Whilst riding the rocket, I did see some very pretty areas. Forests and rolling green hills. A bit alien compared to what I’m used to, but pretty nevertheless. I was told this was a Human area though – nothing there for me. 

Once the rocket touched down I found myself at a Goblin town called Bogpaddle (why do they insist on such ugly names for their towns?). I did a few quests for the Goblins in the town and a couple for a surfer looking dude just outside of town. His name was Brono and he was surrounded by a bunch of beach bunnies and beach bums. I cannot fathom why they’re there though! Seriously dudes, it’s not a real beach. It’s a tiny patch of sand by a patch of water. I suppose a party Goblin’s gotta do, what a party Goblin’s gotta do…

So… the Swamp of Sorrows… not quite was I was expecting really. It is green, sort of… More greeny brown and nothing like Eversong Woods. Must be something about the area though, as there appears to be plenty of very large spiders and crocodiles, and it looks like it had humongous turtles at some stage – just look at the size of these bones! I’ve not seen any of these in the flesh, thank goodness!

I’m still aching for some proper greenery. I long for the gentle green carpet of Eversong Woods, with trees that echo the colours of sunshine. I yearn for the towering spires of Silvermoon City too. With the scarlet and gold banners strung from every building and proud statues of our heroes of the past.

I think very soon, I’m just going to have to take a holiday home. There’s probably some training I can do, if I need an excuse to visit! I just wish I could find somewhere that would allow me to test my skills, work on my mining and herbing and still be pretty.