Merry Christmas

A group of us ventured into the watery depths of Sunken Temple a little while back, with some of us finishing up our class quests. Here we are playing with our pets after killing one of the dragons.


My wife got to do some adventuring lately too. Here is Nahrcissa taking a break in Duskwood after becoming an expert skeleton killer there. She was fascinated by that critter in the bushes and kept trying to coax it out to make friends. It was a little shy.


Tyberiuss moved on through the Dark Portal finally! Outlands await.....


But when I get there, I find all these great gifts lying around for me ..... some on the ground, others in my mailbox.


Oh, look at this one .... a mechanical squirrel. That's cute, but why is it looking at me like that? I really need to find the directions to this thing.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Moonglade

Wasn't Princess Theradras of Maraudon a real cutie pie?

~Princess Theradras Bio (from Wiki)
She is an elemental force of earth related to the Old Gods, a daughter of Therazane the Stonemother. Ages ago, Theradras and Zaetar, first son of Cenarius, began a relationship. The offspring of their time together became known to the people of Kalimdor as centaurs, who promptly slew their father for his part in their misbegotten creation. Fearful of Cenarius' wrath, the grief-stricken Theradras sequestered her dead lover's body in her secret sanctuary, the Crystal Caverns of Terramok, where she watches over him to this day. Travelers who come to Desolace have little trouble spotting Zaetar's tomb, for the blessing of nature that permeates his being transformed his resting place into a verdant paradise of flora and tranquil pools. Today, this tomb is now trodden by the hooves of Zaetar's children, who have claimed this great cavern as their sacred stronghold Maraudon. The subterranean tunnels are populated by the vicious, long-dead ghosts of the centaur Khans, as well as Theradras' own raging, elemental minions.

I managed to get to Moonglade last night to turn in the Seed of Life quest. My first attempt to drown myself so I could exploit the spirit rez didn't work so good. Just before drowning I must have tapped one of the move keys and it nudged me into the adjacent zone....I rezed in Darkshore instead. The next attempt went fine. Afterwards, I stopped in at Nighthaven to see what they had to sell. I couldn't leave without getting Mugato some peaches.

~History of Nighthaven (from Wiki)
This city once held the largest concentration of night elves anywhere on Kalimdor. Massive trees, ancients, and many forest beasts fill the surrounding woods. Nighthaven has survived for centuries despite demon and undead attacks, and the night elves protect their home fiercely. They are very cautious of whom they let enter the village. High elves are not allowed under any circumstances, and anyone smelling of arcane power is likewise turned away. Those allowed entry find Nighthaven hospitable, though a subdued and even eerie place. Night elves run the inns, taverns, and shops, and their way of life is rooted in nature. This spiritual heritage manifests in many small ways that foreigners may find unsettling - from how the buildings are constructed to mesh with the surrounding woods to a wildness that seems to lurk just beneath a quiet demeanor. While visitors may come and go as they please for the most part, they are never allowed near moon wells. In addition, any high elves seen near a moon well are attacked on sight.

Instead of hearthing out, I decided to explore some and then visit Felwood, a zone I had never been in. That plan involved traveling through the tunnel of angry Furbolgs to get out. Before leaving Moonglade I grabbed the Horde flight point very close to the tunnel entrance. Most of the way through the L53 Furbolgs went fine, with 2 and 3 pull encounters. However, things got real difficult towards the exit when Mugato had to tank 5 of them, and I had to chain-trap a 6th. We lived!....much to the surprise of two waiting Draenei, who were able to then waltz right down the tunnel without a scratch. They could have at least given Mugato a thank you banana.

Felwood is a little depressing, but after visiting Bloodvenom Post, I'm considering doing my L50s questing in that zone rather than Hinterlands. They also have three cooking recipes there that are good for progression of that skill. I'm interested in seeing what fish come out of the slimmy ponds in Felwood. Another motive for staying is that during some of my older AH research, I discovered that this zone can yield a vanity pet called a Disgusting Oozeling. Maybe I can bring one home for each of us.

Maraudon

Maraudon has GOT to be the longest instance in the game. We have still not gotten all the way through it, but have hauled in some good upgrades and had lots of fun. I'm still refining my guide for this place.

Tyberiuss replaced his helmet with the Bloomsprout Headpiece (kinda looks like a hippie headband), and his pants with the Infernal Trickster Leggings.

Over both sessions, attendees were:
Tyberiuss, Asterien, Nowand, Darkdoc, Vynaron, and Fluoxx.

Here is the stat report from the second mission to Maraudon.

~Bacchus Achievement
You may remember me writing that I’m not interested in any of the achievements; if I get one, great!.if I don’t, that’s ok too.

However, before the achievement system was added, there was one "goal" I had in the game that has continued to elude me!.. winning the Stranglethorn Fishing Tournament with my alliance hunter, Bacchus.

The event is held every Sunday at 2pm (server) and I have participated many times; and at best, I come in around 5 fish short of the winner (first to 40 wins).

Last Sunday, I hoped to take advantage of the WotLK launch and win the tournament while all he L70s were in Northrend. No such luck! There were still L70s there, apparently with the same idea as me. I lost by 5 fish again......dang it.

Zombies in my Bedroom

So, starting this post off in a personal direction, I have a funny story to tell you. When I sleep, I like to have the room totally dark.....and there is a good reason for this. Any kind of light shadows on the wall or ceiling will cause me problems when I occasionally stir, because in my groggy, dream-fading thoughts, my mind starts to play tricks on me and makes up strange reasons for what I'm seeing. This happens a lot to me, but on rare occasions I will act upon or speak out loud about what I'm perceiving....much to my wife's amusement. Also, stressful life events of the day have also caused me to partially awake and act-out remaining portions of dreams related to those stressful events. During morning breakfast I will get laugh-filled reports from my wife about these rare antics of mine.

Some of my more funny episodes include:
New Hotel Accounting Job - My wife and I awoke one Saturday morning, to see strange and expansive scribbling on my side of the bed sheet. After closely examining these marks, I discovered that some time during the night I had reached over to my nightstand, grabbed an INK PEN, and began writing room rates and accounts receivable info on the bed. I'm glad she was not too mad about that.

New Aircraft Mechanic Job - My wife was awakened when I asked her to pass me a 5/16" wrench. When she asked "what for?", I told her I was taking the engine starter off. She proceeded to play along by passing me imaginary tools as I asked for them....all while I made wrench turning motions in the air.

My newest episode can be blamed on WoW. I routinely stir and have dream-fading thoughts about WoW, but last night I spoke out about it......waking my wife in the process. Her morning report included accounts of me pointing to our bedroom ceiling fan, and referencing a zombie necropolis in the sky. I then began pointing to the light shadows on the wall, and started explaining to my wife that wherever the light beams come out of the necropolis, zombies will be there. She opted not to play along with this one, but knew exactly what I was talking about. I went back to sleep after the raid wiped them out.

Look at this. You can totally see how I could have gotten freaked out.

The zombie event was fun, but apparently I've gotten too large a dose of them.

~Zul'Farrak
This instance is one of my favorites. And fresh into my stables, Mugato made an appearance with me in his first instance. He was a little overzealous on the thunder stomps, but I finally got him calmed down. Make sure to give him a hug when you meet him. He is very anxious to meet the rest of the group, especially Nowand, since I had to explain to Mugato that there are actually boy and girl bloodelfs. He is not convinced, and still thinks all bloodelfs are girls.

The rest of our ZF crew consisted of Asterien, Darkdoc, Firfeldre, and Yrys. While almost everyone came away with the Carrot on a Stick as a quest reward, some folks also got some blues.

Firfeldre picked up Big Bad Pauldrons. Darkdoc got the Bad Mojo Mask.

I recorded the combat log that evening on a WoW Web Stat Report. Make sure to click on the toon name to get even more details. This is a great tool, and reviewing the content may help the attendees get a better idea of their performance at the micro level. Check it out soon, as the free version only maintains the report for around two weeks.

Report Snapshot

~Running of the Beef 4: The Resurrection
Some of our group did partake in this event. We all rezd on the Stormwind Cathedral steps, and proceeded to wreak havoc amongst the terrified inhabitants. Here is a pic of us all in the spirit world just before resurrecting. My toon created just for the event was named Fmundacheeze.

Halloween Thoughts

"You guys look so much alike. Are you brothers?" was a common question folks would ask when seeing us brothers running around in the summer.

Not knowing if that was good or bad to look like your brother, we would begrudingly respond with "Uh....yea, we're brothers." ---> /Smack little brother on back of head

Now we play WoW together, and get the same question. See picture of us.......yes, the resemblance is uncanny. Now stop bugn us about lookn alike!

~Don't Go In There
When growing up in the desert & mountain areas of California, my youth was not filled with X-box and PC games.....rather, the outdoors was my playground and the toys made from the cool stuff I found.

My brothers and I figured out ways to entertain ourselves by catching snakes, black widows, and scorpions (future WoW Hunters in the making). We built awesome forts out of anything we could find.....car hoods, tumble weeds, and sun-bleached bones were just some of our building blocks.

When not on foot through the rough stuff, we rode our bikes with abandon. We did crazy stunts, got skinned up, and got up to do it all again..... all without helmets! We would even wreck on purpose sometimes......into each other......in front of an on-coming car ..... just to freak them out. It was a different time then.

When I think back on those times during Halloween, I consider how different the culture is today by comparison.

When we went trick-or-treating then, it was till 1AM. And the last part of that evening was not spent asking for candy, but just being mischievous. It was like a night unlike any other. Our folks let us be......we came back alive, but maybe with more fake blood on us than when we left.

My most memorable Halloween involved an occurrence that was very unusual for me. It was at a mobile home, where the inhabitants invited us in for treats (you parents reading this are probably getting the willies right now). I was thinking that there must be really good candy inside, right......there wasn't. Instead, there was a long table set up with all kinds of delicious foods. These weren't the kinds of foods you stuff in a pillow case and leave with, no. It was deliciously messy foods like cake, ice-cream, donuts, yummy sandwiches, and hot cider. This was so different! We had to sit around the table to pickup and eat what we wanted, because we couldn't carry it. In the midst of this once-in-a-lifetime buffet, was a weathered old man, seated directly at the head of the table. Is this sending up a red flag to any of you readers?

Admittedly, this was a little weird to me then, but our group stayed anyway. As we ate, the man's eyes moved to each of us one by one, and he asked us about our costumes. "Who are you dressed up as", he would dryly ask. We responded between bites with, "a ghost" .... "a devil" .... "an angel" .... "a vampire", and around the table we each revealed the mystery of our costumes.

Continuing to eat what was on our stuffed plates, the old man told us stories of his youth and the spooky things he remembered doing on Halloween. I don't remember any of those stories now, but have always remembered how he brightened up and transformed into a seemingly more youthful person as he spoke. We left there with no more candy than when we arrived, but instead I took away the memory of that event.....it has always stuck with me.

It's 30 years later now, and if I could somehow visit that old man today, I would. I have always wanted to hear his stories again, listen to the details of his youth, and remember them this time.

Razorfen Downs and more

~Scarlet Monastery
The Cathedral section was the next stop in the monastery, and required carefull pulls. Use of Freeze Trap, Concussive Shot, and well-timed ranged shots helped keep the fights controlled to 3-4 mobs at a time. We did have a couple of wipes when pulls went bad, so we kept learning along the way. Here we are at the altar after killing the final boss, Commander Mograine.

~Razorfen Downs
This was a step back in difficulty level, but was extremely long for this level of dungeon. Is was great to have Vynaron along for his Shackle Undead, since the place was full of them. The crowd control of Sap (care of Zeil), Freeze Trap, and Shackle really helped when the pulls were five at a time. Here you see Tyberiuss and Porkchop standing on the massive pile of bones that served as Mordresh's throne......but our team de-throned him.

~Other News
My brother has begun playing WoW. He and I are linked under the Refer a Friend program, so expect to see us leveling together at 3x the experience points. His toon is a hunter named Wulfgahr, and I created a paladin named Retnox to hang with him. As we level up, I may dust off Ponfarr to adventure with him, and then later Tyberiuss will step in for the final stretch to L60 (when the 3x bonus stops). So put Retnox and Wulfgahr on your friends list, and pitch my bro a "hello" from the gang.

~Runetotem
Bacchus finally dropped the gold on a Swift Stormsaber. This cat is fast .... and its a real chick magnet too.

And after the guild found out one night that Bacchus was three bubbles from L70, they all teamed up to help me push through to the end. Here is Bacchus at the moment L70 glory. /cry .... I finally made it!

With L70 comes a few perks. One of which is the opportunity to get your own flying mount. Bacchus painfully plunked down the 6000 gold (ty Midgetfist) for the epic fast flying mount, but giggled the rest of the evening while trying out his new Swift Red Griffon. Yes Mom, I just HAD to get the red one!

Scarlet Monastery

~The Armory
We adventured through the first three instances of Scarlet Monastery a few days ago, with great success. We got some good upgrades and had no wipes, and concluded with killing Herod the Scarlet Champion in the Armory.

Pictured here is my new Chesterfall Musket (Fluoxx is afraid of it) obtained as loot from the Monastery. Also seen in picture below is a shiny new enchant to my Armor Piercer that was obtained during the AIE craft fair last Saturday (9pm-12).

~Craft Fair
Speaking of the craft fair, I dropped skinning and decided to pick up the enchanting profession. During the huge craft fair there were lots of donated enchanting dusts, and I leveled from L1 to L255 in one evening. The mats are getting expensive at this point, so I'm going to sit on it for a while and slowly collect some mats at good deals in the auction house. I have an awesome list of enchants I can do for my buds at this point, so just ask. Also during the craft fair, there were donated ores that I smelted to get my mining skill up, then returned the bars to be used by the engineers and blacksmiths. The fair was a little hectic, but was a great experience overall.

~Runetotem
Bacchus is still trudging along towards L70. I upgraded his mele weapon to the standard hunter pick for that level, the Crystalforged War Axe.

While still adventuring in Shadowmoon Valley, I stumbled upon Uvuros, a monstrous core hound. My thoughts turned towards WotLK and how core hounds can be a tamed. Uvuros would look awesome as my next pet. Notice.....I'm standing really far away from him (on hill background), using my Eagle Eye ability to take the pic.

Before going to bed at the Inn, I could not help but take this creative picture. It kinda looks like a massive new Druid helmet, but its really a wall trophy on my head. Hey....its not a lamp shade. I'll blame it on the Dwarven Ale!

~Authenticators
Have you got yours yet? I just did, and it works great! Only $6.50...that's cheap protection.

Level 70 on Horizon

Tyberiuss spent the week resting and waiting for his buds to come back to WoW. He sits snug at an Inn somewhere in the Arathi Highlands.....still at L33.

But this downtime for Tyberiuss led to much adventuring for Bacchus.

~Naxxramas
There was a server wide invite for a raid on Naxxramas, which Bacchus signed up for. It was organized for people to see this old world dungeon before it gets transplanted to Northrend in the future expansion. He was attuned and all ready to go, but we did not get enough people to show. The signups indicated that we had plenty of players, but the storms and high winds from hurricane Ike were later blamed for why there where so many no-shows. We (6 of us) did decide to at least go in and look around Naxx, only to have our butts handed to us on the first mob pull. The hosting guild is trying to reschedule the raid.

~Dragon Hunting
Bacchus attended a Titans of Glory event of dragon slaying, where we took on the two dragons at the portal to The Emerald Dream. Pictured here are the dragons Rothos, and Taerar (a possible spawn form the nightmare dragons). We were not able to finish off the the boss dragon due to lack of healers. So Bacchus was honored to be turned into dragon poop.

~Elemental Line-Up
During an interesting quest series that involved capturing the essence of the four basic elemental food groups (water, earth, fire, air), the quest turn-in netted this nice lineup of their forms being put to rest.

~One step from L70
While questing in Shadowmoon Valley, an early quest turn-in yielded enough XP to reach L69. He had all kinds of L69 gear stashed away (some made by my leatherworking profession) to change into, making for some nice upgrades. L70 here I come.......short lived level cap, as WotLK now has an official 2008 release date. Bacchus has all his gold ready to straight for the Epic Flying Mount, thanks to his little auction house buddy, Midgetfist.

~Meet Midgetfist
This is Midgetfist's usual spot, standing on a barrel in the auction house, trolling for good deals.

Don't feel bad for him, because he does have hobbies.....he trades and collects Darkmoon Fair Cards. Pictured here is his collection, showing him snapping up most of them. Since the fair recently came to Goldshire, he put up 3 completed decks on the AH for tidy profits.

Cooking and Enchanting

Tyberiuss - taking it easy this week I finished at L33, while killing jungle cats and raptors in Stranglethorne Vale. I also took time out to visit Wulan in Shadowprey Village (Desolace), achieving Expert cooking through the purchase of his cookbook. Next for cooking, I can see Dirge Quikcleave at the Gadgetzan Inn of Tanaris for the Artisan cooking quests.

Mohrn, my banker, took a little time away from the AH and spent his efforts in leveling his Enchanting skill. He is now maxed out at 150 and can provide you fine folks with all kinds of very inexpensive enchants to your gear (see pic below for options). Mention this ad and get a 100% discount on all enchants if performed within the boundries of Undercity....he hates to travel (offer cannot be combined with the Cenarion X-Plan).

Nowand will be on a one-month break soon, beginning on Sept 16. We hope to all get some great play time with him before his break.

Vynaron (our semi-regular Priest) is still picking up the loose ends due to hurrican Gustav in his home of New Orleans. We hope all is well with him and family.

Mangolore is back in action. Doing some extended playing, he achieved L30 and obtained his wolf mount. Gratz!

Asterien has been involved lately with the details of his family's first home purchase, and getting moved in. Cable hookup and sore back willing....he should have his L30 Warrior back in action soon.

Ok folks....here are some dungeons we should have our eyes on for progression. Let me know what your availability is like.

The Scarlet Monastery:Graveyard (30-32)
The Scarlet Monastery:Library (33-35)
Razorfen Downs (34-37)
The Scarlet Monastery:Armory (35-37)
The Scarlet Monastery:Cathedral (36-40)

~Runetotem
Bacchus has been doing some heavy grinding. Saying goodbye to Nagrand, he got this great pic of Durn the Hungerer, a giant who patrols the area of the Oshu'gun Spirit Fields. He had to stay far ahead of this guy for fear of getting stomped into a mud hole. Even at that distance Durn's size is impressive! Bacchus later traveled into the new site of Shadowmoon Valley for his continued adventures and also hit L68.

~Big News
> In the upcoming patch before WotLK, leveling from L60 - L70 will get easier. There will be a 30% decrease in XP required for each level, and a 20% increase in XP for mobs kills. Woot!

> For any other Hunter readers, BRK (Big Red Kitty) has an awesome new podcast out now that gives great insites about our class changes coming for WotLK. Just look up BigRedKitty in the iTunes store to find his podcast.

Porkchop's Nightmare

Friday’s adventures took us into Razorfen Kraul, the ancestral home of the Quilboar.

The dungeon was not that difficult, with only one death occurring when a bad alignment within three mob groups ended with us fighting all of them, and Nowand dying.

Vynaron the Bloodelf Priest made a return visit (last seen him in Shadowfang Keep) to our group this day, and took care of the healing duties and revival of Nowand.

Guest spot was filled by AIE guildie Druid named Aquen, who took the off-tank duties.

Returning heavyweight, Asterien, plowed through the mobs as our main tank, and took home a nice new shield and sword in the loot drops. Rumors of him being seen later, grazing with Aquen have been flatly denied.

Nowand and Tyberiuss supplied the DPS, with both of us hitting L31 by evening’s end. Loot for me included a sweet Armor Piercer …now that is a stat stick!

An odd quest for some of us involved letting loose our caged gophers to go hunt down some blue tuber roots in the lower parts of the dungeon. However, the poor critters kept getting into trouble as they would wander into the Quilboar dens while sniffing out the roots.

The most memorable boss was Agathelos the Raging, a collosal armoured boar. He was kept in a short tunnel guarded by several quilboar who maintained a field to keep the monstrous creature penned in. This fight kinda freaked out Porkchop. I had rescued him from this dungeon a week ago, and now asked him to go back and fight his big daddy Agathelos. Porkchop is slowly getting back to his old self. Any care packages sent to him should include Goldenbark Apples, his favorite.

Agathelos the Raging

~Other Questing
A few days later, questing brought Asterien and I back to Thousand Needles, where one quest involved piloting this remote controlled robot into Alliance territory to retrieve a sample of water from their moonwell. Shown below is picture of Asterien next to the noisy contraption.

~Back in Runetotem
My wife got the urge to play, so off we went to finish some quests in the Redridge Mountains. She advanced two levels, finishing at L25. During a trip to Stonewatch Keep, she grouped with a former ToG Priest who now hangs with the Shady Grove guild.

Being a little spooked by the next area of Duskwood, Nahrcissa cuddled up with this bear rug before falling asleep …… restlessly dreaming about future fights with giant spiders and fiendish ghouls.

My Sweet New Ride

Beginning last night at L29, I had ambitions of reaching L30 before bedtime.

While Nowand and I did try to group up for some quests in Thousand Needles, that ultimately did not work out. However, I did meet some more guildies while questing in Ashenvale. It seemed that some of them were just a few ticks behind me while using the Tour Guide mod (the best thing for power leveling), because just as I would finish a quest they would wander into the same spot later. So, a few quests I did twice.....it's hard to say no to AIE family.

As my night wound down I found myself 2.5 bubbles from L30, and just picked up a quest in Sunrock Retreat to kill the Bloodfury Harpy Queen. Should I go to bed, or should I go cut off her head? The urge to complete my journey to L30 and pick up my new mount prevailed (/takes sip from 3rd cup of morning coffee).

So I set off to the Charred Vale to find her, but my concern was whether or not the quest turn-in would give me enough XP to make it to L30. I find her quickly, and she is surrounded by about 10 of her loyal subjects. This is going to take a while, I thought! But after studying her patrol route, I could see a weakness in her cover. I probed for the best angle on her, waiting for the right moment when she had the least amount of guards in proximity. Seizing my moment, I layed down a Freeze Trap and fired one arrow at the Queen. Perfect!....her screams only alerted one other guard and they both began their flight towards me and away from her group. Porkchop charged in and locked up the Queen quickly; and poof!....her guard got caught in my Freeze Trap, where it took a timeout to contemplate the rest of its short little life. Porkchop and I quickly finished off the Queen, and then dispatched the frozen guard.

After hacking off the Queen's head and shoving it in my backpack, I thought...that was too easy. And my XP bar still looked a little too far from the end, even considering the XP gain I would shortly get for the quest turn-in. So, I began my return to Sunrock Retreat, killing a few Fire Elementals and Basilisks along the way, hoping to rack up some more XP before the quest turn-in. But alas! .... here came one of my AIE shadows, strolling into the Charred Vale and looking for the Bloodfury Harpy Queen. Showing him the severed head in my pack, I escorted him to the best spot to wait for the queen to respawn. Soon enough she appeared amongst her guards, and she even had a new head ... go figure. So I helped this guildie kill her, but just before she died I pulled out the severed head and pointed it at her, yelling "In Your Face". She died with a very confused look on her new face......uh, of her new head (is anyone else confused).

Back at Sunrock Retreat, the quest turn-in pushed me to L30. You have to be quick on the shutter to snap this kind of picture....you only get one chance. See me glowing in Level 30 awesomeness (/roles eyes). L1-L30 in three weeks is good for me, considering my alliance Hunter is only L67 after 20 months of play. (click on any pic to enlarge)

Rubbing the growing sleepiness from my eyes, I took the final evening trip to Orgrimmar to purchase my sweet new ride (financed by Mohrn, my banker). I opted for the Timber Wolf variety because he came with an extra cup holder on the saddle.

~Final Notes
Reading from the WotLK notes, a pre-patch will come out soon. Some of the Hunter/Pet changes are supposed to take effect then, which will nerf the boar by completely removing the Charge ability he has. So I may put Porkchop out to pasture then .... I have a great spot picked out for him in the Redridge Mountains (/wipes tear from eye). You may see me soon running with a gorilla named Mugato (only those diehard Trek fans will get that one). While the gorilla had been a weak pet in the past, these coming changes will make him one of the powerhouses.

Asterien was MIA yesterday, but his eventual move in work schedule will have him power leveling past all of us when he has 5 days off in a row each week.

Nowand probably hit L30 as I wrote this, since he was L29 last night.

Mangolore has been having some extended summer fun (have you ever seen an Orc wearing a Hawaiian shirt?). We hope to see he and his totems back soon.

I have been networking within the New Members section of the AIE forum, and hope to soon get some more regulars added to our little group. Keep an eye out for these folks to join us:
Zeil (Rogue)
Hexpot (Warlock)
Rinion (Paladin)
Shadowfreez (Rogue)

Weekend Update - Level 29

Friday was a big evening for me, going from L26 to L28. Quest lines took me to the far north side of Ashenvale at Zoram'gar Outpost, and all over some deep caves of Thousand Needles. It felt strange seeing some of the old Night Elf Ashenvale stuff, but even stranger to have to kill some of them. Oh well, I dried the tear and moved on.

Back in Thousand Needles, I saw Gerp (the GM) running through one the cave passages I was questing in. I'm not sure what he was doing there....maybe farming rep or maybe ore. Anyway, he helped me kill a mob and afterwards Henry (his tiger pet) and Porkchop seemed to bond after sniffing each other.

Flipping back over to Runetotem, I tried to make some more progress on Bacchus....currently at L67. Man does that leveling go slow. Here is a shot of him flying back from the Isle of Quel'Danas after snooping around there. I don't know what this thing is, but I was worried about its airworthiness.....and I did not pack my parachute cloak. (click to enlarge any pic)

Back on Tyberiuss, Saturday saw some questing with Asterien. One of the quests invloved us killing a nasty hyena named Steele Snap. Of course, this guy comes with his own groupies, and Steele Snap did not give up his own rib bone willingly for the quest. So, we took it anyway. Ouch!

Sunday evening was filled with some questing with Nowand, where we took Steel Snap's rib again (he didn't learn his lesson the first time). Then, after stealing some eggs from those lion-bat looking things, I paused to take a wiz off this cliff. I think there was a Gnome down below.

After a dinner break and a 1.5 hour cable outage due to a local lightening strike, I got back on and dinged L29 on some final quest turn-ins.

The evening concluded with me sneaking past some L?? mobs to settle in at Camp Mojache in Feralas, grabbing flight point too.

Final Note - Hold onto your silk drops. At 150 First Aid, you can go to Brackenwall Village (just south of Ratchet) to train up and crank out some silk bandages. Also, Razorfen Kraul is still on our wish list..... so reply with your availability.

Taming My Final Boar

Hey guys,

I got on about 8:30pm last night. I saw nobody on-line, so I did a little begging in the guild to get an escort into Razorfen Kraul.

My objective was to get in there to tame my final boar pet. I like this one because of the cool looking armor that his parents have fitted him with. Doesn't he look tough? (click to enlarge pic)

My escort was a L70 Mage that was popping the mobs with Fire Balls and Arcane Explosion. About six pulls in we found a pit with a few of these boars in it. We jumped down there off a suspension bridge and the taming began.

I'm lovn him so far.

Well....this is my first stab at a blog. I still want to go into Razorfen Kraul with a regular group. Let me know your availability for this next adventure.