Friday, January 25, 2013

Catching up

Apologies for the blog silence, but I've been so danged tired over the last couple weeks that I haven't even been doing much on WoW, and I figured I would wait til I had enough to actually make a decent-sized post. So.


First things first - Lark is finally 90. She dinged a few days ago, actually, and she's gotten her Cloud Serpent rep finished already, thanks to finding a ton of eggs; it only took about 3 days of actual dailies to get there. Most of the time there was nobody out there while doing them, so all the eggs that spawned were all hers - one advantage to leveling her so "late", I guess.


I have a jade hatchling I named Sheth, so this is his grown-up version. Blame Mishi. I figured if she can be all tiny one minute, then grow up to full size to give someone a ride, then all cloud serpents ought to be able to, right?

Now that she's done with that, I'll start working on Golden Lotus and stuff. She's been doing Shiedwall stuff too on occasion, though I'm still toying with the idea of duoing her and Pitch through dailies as much as possible.

Planning to level Booggah next, so I'll have a max-level on Horde-side. Still working on Rheugan, too - he's still 87, but he's about to ding thanks to a lot of recent archeology. And I also want to level Barraccus, since everyone I know that has a DK has been crowing about how awesome they are.


I got him to 85 a few weeks ago, then took him out to get the beginning MoP quests done. He's been parked since then, waiting his turn with the rest.

Laoden is now 63 and working his way through Zangarmarsh, which is still one of the few zones I'm not tired of yet. I'm trying to avoid thinking of leveling him through the Cataclysm zones, though. >.<

I've been wanting to level my guys on Wyrmrest Accord as well, my troll shammy Rajast is 77 now so he doesn't have too far to go. My next highest are all in the 71-73 range, so I have options if I want them.

Pet battling continues as well. I just got the achievement for 30 pets at 25, which gives a better trap! Still have a lot of wild-caught pets that are grey/white/green, so that'll come in handy. And I've still got a bunch I want to level, so hopefully the next cheevoh won't be too bad to get. I've finished the Northrend trainers, and now I'm working on Cata ones, so more dailies too! And I got lucky with a dragonkin battlestone, which I'm going to save for whenever the Riders finish a Tarecgosa and I can get the whelpling.

There was probably more, but that's all I can think of at the moment. So, til next time Happy Hunting!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Catching Up - Pet Edition

I don't even know where to start, so here, have a bunch of pictures.

Finally found one of these guys, and it was a rare!

Tried duoing BWL with Pitch and Lark. It worked surprisingly well, and I wound up with this guy (finally)!


And once I had my chromepuppy, I got this guy!


This girl turned out to be a beast, and now she's my go-to lowbie-leveler. Varshuna is getting a well-deserved break.


Was checking Tanaris one day, and noticed the sky turning dark just as I logged out. Logged back in quick and nabbed myself a couple of these!


Had a rare one of these and leveled him up. Turtles are pretty awesome. He's named after a RL snapping turtle I used to have. :D


This guy has become one of my faves, he's a little powerhouse. I named him Ceasar. :D


Finally found a minfernal (gray quality, boo), but forgot to take a screenie of it. I've been going through several zones and upgrading all the pets I can to rare. I have quite a list of them at 25 by now, and still working on leveling. And I've unlocked 3 of the trainer dailies (really need to get going on Northrend trainers >.>), so I've been doing those pretty religiously. Gotten several battlestones from them, and I've upgraded a number of my pets- my worg pup, pug, and feline familiar are all rare now!

I'm 5 pets away from the "Level 30 to 25" achievement, so that's my main focus right now. That and getting the rest of the trainers unlocked, though for every trainer I've read up on, I find another pet that I need to level for it. Sigh...

Other than that, not much has really happened. Rheugan's current storyline is mostly wrapped up, just need to wait and see where he's going to go next. Lark is 89, closing in on 90. Once she does ding, I'm thinking of trying to duo her dailies with Pitch, so he can get exalted with a few more factions (Golden Lotus and Shado-pan, specifically). And there's the gearing up thing, ugh.

Laoden is 58 and in Outland now, though I haven't really done much yet. Debating running him through some dungeons before I start seriously questing. And I've decided to get Booggah to cap next, once Lark is finished, although I'm not really sure how much rep-grinding/gearing-up I'll be doing with my Hordies yet. Still, getting them both to cap would be nice.

I've picked up a few new mounts too, which I keep forgetting to mention. Sis and I decided to see how well we could 2-man Sarth for the drakes, and we actually did pretty well!


We did need help with the 25-man version. One of the Riders came to help for the first run, and we managed to 3-man him, just barely. Next week we had a bunch of Riders and friends to help, and we stomped him. So now Sis and I both have pretty new drakes!


Sunday, January 6, 2013

Rheugan:... and Found

SO VERY DELAYED.

I don't even have a good excuse. Can I blame pet battles? And writer's block, though most of my distractions were simply doing other things rather than writing. I will try not to do this again... but no promises.  >_>

ANYWAYS, this pretty much catches up to where Rheu is at in-game. Things are starting to look up now, at least. Enjoy!

__________________

Pitch wouldn’t admit it, but he was far more worried than he’d let on. He was certain Rheugan wasn’t in the Vale, but Kun-Lai was so Elune-blasted big, and he’d stupidly let enough time go by that he didn’t have a trail to follow. He kept searching anyway, unwilling to give up on the druid that had become almost like another brother.

By the third day, Pitch was feeling certain Rheu wasn’t in the Summit. He’d checked the Valley of Four Winds off and on too, but there was no trace of him there, either. He finally turned his wings east, hoping while he flew that his hunch was right.

The Tian Monastery hadn’t changed a bit in the weeks since he’d last been there - not surprising, since even the Sha attack on Serpent’s Heart hadn't ruffled the monks there. He found a groundskeeper in short order and gave him the name he’d gotten from Rheu, and within five minutes he was following the ‘keeper through the grounds.

Pitch had never met Laoden, but the pandaren that the groundskeeper led him too looked pretty much the same as any of his race. It didn’t take an especially sharp eye to tell that most of his heft was muscle rather than fat, but otherwise he could have passed for any Shado-pan fighter or Halfhill farmer. He turned to regard Pitch with friendly yet wary interest as introductions were exchanged, favoring the druid with a brief bow, then he dismissed the groundskeeper. His expression sharpened as he turned back to Pitch. “You’ve certainly taken long enough to get here.” Pitch’s ears went straight up in surprise. “Yes, I had guessed you would be coming,” Laoden said. “We’ve both been expecting you. Now come.”

*   *   *   *   *



The cat was sitting down beneath the orange tree, not moving except to test the breeze when it blew past. Pitch supposed Rheugan was down there too, but he had no way of knowing if he and the cat were “sharing,” or if he’d gone wherever it was he went when he wanted to think or hide. He - they? - looked at peace, at least, so that was something.

“He is fighting it.” Pitch glanced at the pandaren seated beside him, but Laoden was still watching the cat, with the same inscrutably calm expression he’d worn all day. “He is not tainted, not yet, but the temptation is there.”

Pitch turned back toward Rheugan, suppressing another pang of worry. “Is he a danger?” he asked, after a minute or two of silence. Laoden frowned slightly, considering. “At the moment, no,” he replied. “I wouldn’t presume to know the future, however. If he continues as he is, he could become one.” Now he looked at Pitch, offering the druid a faint smile. “He hides much. Maybe too much.”

Pitch flattened his ears briefly. “He’s had reason to,” he said. “He.. hasn’t been treated well in the past.” Laoden looked at him curiously, then shrugged when the druid said nothing more. “He is welcome to spend a few days here, to rest,” he said as he climbed to his feet. “After that...” The pandaren shrugged again.

Pitch blinked at him in surprise, which quickly turned to anger. “What, you’ll kick him out again? Isn’t that more or less how he wound up like this?” Laoden favored him with a reproachful look. “We did not ‘kick him out’ the first time, and we will not this time, either,” he replied. “You are assuming he will want to stay. He is looking for something here, druid, and he has not found it yet.”

Pitch felt himself flushing under his fur. “I’m sorry,” he started, but the pandaren was already gone. Pitch looked back down at Rheugan with a sigh. He wished Alanon was there. This was his job, not Pitch’s. But his brother was still back in Stormwind, so he would have to do what he could.

The cat glanced over briefly as Pitch padded over to sit next to him, just long enough for the elven druid to see the flash of guilt in his eyes. So, Rheu was in there. Pitch considered his options, then unshifted and made himself comfortable on the grass before finally breaking the silence.

“Do not,” he began, as forcefully as he dared, “think that this was all your fault. I’m to blame at least as much as you, I should have noticed something was going on and said something.” Rheugan shrank down as he spoke; Pitch tried gentling his tone a bit. “Rheugan, those things are like... like old gods. They’re strong, they’re evil, and if they want you, they’re darned well going to try and get to you. Cenarius’ horns, Rheu, even I had some trouble with them when I first got here.”

That got his attention. Rheugan sat up and blinked at him, the last traces of the cat’s presence fading. “I... but...” Some of the shame returned, and he ducked his head again. “I.. I am sorrry,” he rumbled. “I didn’t want you to worrry.” Pitch just made a noncommittal sound as he eyed the younger druid carefully. “Do you need to go home, Rheu?” he finally asked bluntly. “Mean, this kind of thing might happen again, and if it’s too much for you...”

Rheugan shook his head firmly, then unshifted to settle on the grass, in an unconscious mimicry of Pitch’s pose. “I.. I have to be here,” he said, a bit uncertainly. “I don’t know if I can put it the right way, but...

“Shaurria said once that I was out of balance. I... I’m starting to get it back, but it’s all in.. in pieces. Northrend was a part of it, and so was Gilneas. But I’m not finished yet, Pitch. There’s something here that I have to find; I just don’t know what it is yet.” He looked up again, and a trace of what might have been a smile crossed his face at Pitch’s expression. “What do you think I do when I’m out ‘thinking,’ Pitch? I’m not debating the color of the sky, I assure you.”

Pitch coughed. “Yea, I suppose not,” he said with a bit of chagrin. Then he focused back on the younger druid. “Are you really, really sure, Rheu?” Rheugan nodded again wordlessly. Pitch sighed and looked up at the tree branches overhead, as if searching for inspiration.

“Well, we both need rest,” he said finally. “Why don’t we stay here a couple days, then maybe take a trip back to Stormwind? Just a short visit.” Rheugan nodded, his eyes fixed off in the distance again. Pitch reached over to gently touch his arm. “We’ll figure something out, Rheu,” he said softly. “I promise.”
____________

Small disclaimer- I am not trying to meta-game here. Pitch doesn't know that the Sha really are part of the Old Gods, but he needed a comparison and, since a good deal of the last 2 expansions involved the Old Gods and their effects, that was simply the first thing that came to mind. So, carry on. XD