If you find yourself falling from a very high point, and you have advanced sufficiently in your training, here’s what to do:
Here’s what not to do:
We took a hippogryph to Teldrassil and really, can I just say how much cooler these things are than gryphons? They’re gorgeous. A much better ride. I’d like to petition the gryphon union of the Eastern Kingdoms to consider allowing other choices to your customers. I know we’re filled with continental pride and all but don’t fear import vehicles. We’ll still have jobs at home!
Randis and I went through the glowing, teleporting tree—and honestly, I’m still trying to figure out how the night elves grew that thing when they don’t have any mages—and circled round the big bank tree that looks like a big bear with an eagle on top of it. It’s rather amazing, and Randis thought so too.
“WOW!”
“Yes,” I said, “it’s huge. A mighty marvel.”
“It’s so cool! Thanks for taking me here, Eifle. You’re the best!”
To be honest, I was filled with a sense of pride at that point, mixed with hope for our future generations, that they’d be gracious, humble, hard-working and—
“Hey, can you take me to Theramore?”
Randis’ request broke me out of my reverie. “Wait, what?”
“Yeah, I wanna meet Jaina Proudmoore and get her autograph. She’s my hero! Can we go? I mean, we’re on the same continent.”
“Yes, but—”
“And I want some ice cream. Tigole’s Strawberry. Mmmm.”
“What?”
“I think they make it in the Shimmering Flats.”
“What?!”
“Tigole’s makes the best ice cream! Mmmm.”
So much for my hopes for the future.
We took the boat from Auberdine back to Menethil, and then another boat to Theramore. On the way, I turned to Randis and said, “I’d like to point out that I’ve taken you across the ocean three times at this point.”
“Uh huh.”
“I’m just saying. In case you wanted to grasp the enormity of effort that’s gone into this field trip. Three transoceanic journeys. Two transcorporeal death scenes. Setting my hearthstone to Stormwind when I’m needed in Loch Modan.”
“I wonder if Jaina likes Tigole’s Strawberry ice cream.”
I’m never having kids.
We arrived at Theramore and went straight to the main tower, no time for sightseeing. Up we climbed, and at the top, Jaina actually gave a moment of her time to me (and I stress “me” because Randis was suddenly too shy).
“You’re very kind for taking Randis around like this, Eifle,” she said to me. “You seem tired, you must have travelled very far to come here!”
“You have no idea,” I said.
Randis, to his credit, was really grateful for Jaina’s autograph, and was overjoyed that she wrote him a personal message as well. But as soon as we were done in the tower, I activated my hearthstone.
Randis cocked his head at me. “Is that… can that thing take us both back? I heard that they only work for one person.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I said, letting the hearthstone continue to charge. “Empirical evidence is the best way to answer questions. Let’s find out together.”
Adventuring parents, your hearthstone can bring your kid back home with you, just so you know.
Now, fortunately, it turned out that there was an ice cream vendor in Stormwind that has Tigole’s Strawberry, so Randis’ last request was easy to fulfill. I handed him the ice cream and he beamed.
“Wow, what an awesome day. Thank you so much, Eifle. I think it’s time I got back to the orphanage, though.”
I wasn’t going to argue. But… okay. I like the kid. He knows how to set goals. Just don’t tell him I like him, or he’ll want to do this again next year.
We went back, I dropped Randis off, and for my efforts I received something that I have to admit made all the globetrotting worth it. I got… Mr. Wiggles!
Now I have a friend to keep me company, and he can help me practice my disappearing pig trick!
Last night some guildies and I decided to roll some Horde toons for a change of pace. We’ve done this sort of thing before, but several people wanted to do this on an RP server, which was more than fine by me. Six of us rolled new toons, created an ad hoc guild channel and proceeded to grind through our respective starting areas. On our channel, someone asked what our guild name should be if we pursue these new characters. In the middle of our conversation, something like this happened:
[4. penguins] [Eland]: afk fish crisis
[4. penguins] [Oleru]: “fish crisis”?
[4. penguins] [Oleru]: <Fish Crisis>
[4. penguins] [Panhorus]: yes
[4. penguins] [Kroos]: yes
I like the stranger guildnames over the terribly generic fantasy names. (Think: <Swords of Valor>, <The Silver Protectorate>, etc…. and I’m making those up, so if one of those is really your guild name… sorry, mate.) Something to give me more of a feel for what the character of your guild is. Something that says if you have a sense of humor about your guild name, maybe you’ll also have a sense of humor over an accidental party wipe or otherwise won’t be a prick.
But I also have a fondness for serendipity, automatic writing, accidental art, surrealism, and the like. And sometimes, just like when you might hear a turn of phrase and think, “that would make a good band name,” sometimes good guild names are accidentally found.
I’m sort of hoping we go with <Fish Crisis>, but I won’t be torn if we don’t. It seems fortuitous, for sure. <Drunken Plainstriders> was also thrown out as a version of our <Pirate Penguins> roots.
My dwarven comrade Kelvalron and I paid a visit recently to King Magni Bronzebeard.
The Loch Modan region is a welcome relief from the wintery Dun Morogh… for about two minutes. Then you realize what a flipping zoo Loch Modan is. If it’s not spiders trying to make you supper, it’s bears or boars or crocolisks or whatever those things are at the bottom of the loch. Still, I had been charged with showing young Randis around, so north we went along the road towards the Stonewrought Dam.
Our journey went mostly without a hitch, up until the point where we had to cut east across the land. That’s where we ran across an encampment of kobolds who had taken over the mines.
“You gonna fight ‘em?” Randis asked.
Of course not. We ran through between them, and the few who noticed us were frozen in place with a Frost Nova spell as we made it to the safety of the dam.
“That wasn’t very courageous.”
“I thought you wanted to see the dam, not battle.” I told him.
“This is such a cheap ride.”
“Are you paying for this trip?”
Randis grumbled. This sort of thing is probably why I’m not a father.
Randis’ mood improved once we reached the center of the dam, where we saw the amazing giant stone heads on the Wetlands side, and he was completely impressed with the dam’s size overall.
Randis had ideas about how to proceed. “You can do that thing where we float down after jumping off the dam, right?”
“No, I haven’t yet progressed that far in my studies.”
“Aw, maaaaan…”
Soon we were heading back through the kobold camp and through the gates to Dun Algaz. The Wetlands are as much as a zoo as Loch Modan, but I was even less equipped to deal with the wildlife. Soon a crocolisk had us facedown in the marsh. The graveyard is right near Menethil, so we just revived there and were done with it.
On the boat to Auberdine, I jumped on the prow and got down. Randis didn’t know what to make of this, probably because he hasn’t been out adventuring before.
