And then this happened

(Last night's RP.)
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Tarquin is nursing his cigarette, leaning back relaxedly.

Tarquin: Master Jameston. How're yeh?

Rheugan: Well enough

Tarquin: Pitch suggested yeh maun want an' talk ta me.

Rheugan: I had expected as much

Tarquin: Aye.

Tarquin: So what d'yeh want ta talk about?

Rheugan: Bricu suggested there might be a spot for me in the Riders. I just asked him, and he said it was still open

Tarquin: Right yeh are, lad.

Rheugan eyes Tarquin, a bit hesitantly.

Tarquin scratches at his chin.

Tarquin: Yet, I canna help but notice, wey yeh say that - it's still oan account some punter else suggested it.

Tarquin: The wey Pitch asked me.

Tarquin: The wey...well, look, mate.

Tarquin plucks the cigarette from his mouth and rests his fingers on the tabletop, letting it smolder.

Tarquin: This outfit, we started it up oan account we wanted ta make our ain wey.

Tarquin: Yeh heard how we say it. Nae crowns, nae flags, nae causes an' all that.

Tarquin: Things come an' go, but what remains is, wir doin' this ta...what's the phrase?

Tarquin leans back, closing his eyes briefly.

Tarquin: Wir seizin' what the world withholds.

Tarquin: An' Master Jameston, welll...ambition's no' a requirement fir the gig.

Rheugan drops his eyes to the tabletop and nods.

Tarquin: But it ha' got a certain relation.

Tarquin: So what I am wond'rin' is, why d'yeh want ta wear the colors?

Tarquin: Besides jus' other folks sayin' yeh ought ta?

Rheugan looks back at Tarq.

Rheugan: Because, honestly, I have no other options

Tarquin tilts his head.

Tarquin: How's that, mate?

Tarquin picks his cigarette back up and trims a little ash off the side with his thumbnail.

Tarquin: Thinkin' about it, mate?

Rheugan frowns at the tabletop and nods.

Tarquin: Well. Put it this wey, then.

Tarquin: First - what wid yeh be doin' if yeh'd never come up the Pig, or met the Black an' Red?

Rheugan glances at Tarq, then looks away again.

Rheugan: I would... probably be dead

Tarquin lifts both his eyebrows.

Tarquin: Really now.

Tarquin: Fra' what?

 Rheugan: I-.. well, the cat- attacked a frostsaber in Darnassas, shortly after we'd left Gilneas after the fighting. When a Sentinel tried to intervene, he turned on her as well

Rheugan: The saber was killed, the Sentinel was wounded badly. They shut me away while they tried to.. decide what to do with me

Tarquin takes a slow, silent drag on his cigarette, his eyes glinting slightly.

Rheugan glances briefly at Tarquin.

Rheugan: That was how Pitch became my mentor. If he hadn't... they likely would have killed me

Tarquin: The Kaldorei dinna care much fir liabilities, 'tis true.

Tarquin: So Pitch's been sortin' yeh out wi' that, an' that is a fine thing.

Tarquin: But Rheugan, me lad - yeh seen what we do.

Tarquin: Up close, even.

Tarquin: Oan the balance, we are closer ta the cat than the Sentinel.

Rheugan: Do you think I haven't realized that?

Rheugan quirks an eyebrow.

Tarquin grins faintly at that.

Tarquin: I think yeh expressed a certain, uh, discomfort.

Tarquin: An' the wey we do things has no' much changed.

Rheugan: No, but I have, whether I wanted to or not

Tarquin nods thoughtfully.

Tarquin: Meanin' yeh can work.

Rheugan nods.

Tarquin: Awright.

Tarquin leans back.

Tarquin: Awright. An' is there anythin' mair yeh want outay it, Jameston?

Tarquin: Asides a chance ta stick by yir mentor?

Tarquin: An' fill yir hours?

Rheugan gives Tarquin a rather sardonic look.

Rheugan: You think that's why I wanted a job?

Tarquin: I dinna ken at all why yeh wanted a job, mate.

Tarquin: All I heard is other people askin' oan yir behalf. An' I am glad yeh come ta me yirself.

Rheugan: I want it because... it's either this, or I keep drifting like I have been

Rheugan: And I'm tired of it

Tarquin pulls the cigarette out of his mouth again and leans forward.

Tarquin: Yeh want purpose.

Rheugan nods.

Tarquin: Well, mate.

Tarquin: All we got is watchin' each other's backs while we grab the world by the bollocks an' squeeze.

Tarquin: If that's eno' purpose fir yeh, that's guid eno' for me.

Rheugan nods again.

Tarquin: Well, then.

Tarquin: Moan oan downstairs, me lad.

Tarquin claps Rheugan on the shoulder.

Tarquin: Yeh drink mead?

Rheugan: Ah, yes

Tarquin: Barry.

Threnn eyes Tarquin up and down.

Tarquin says: Oi! Black an' red.

Tarquin says: Come 'round.

Bricu says: Oi.

Illithias says: Hnhhh.

Lorelli says: Hrm?

Tarquin stretches over the bar and retrieves a dusty bottle.

Pitchblàck raises his eyebrow inquisitively at Rheugan.

Elohn weaves his way over.

Lorelli says: Ah, lovely.

Tarquin says: Bric, make yirself some tea or something'.

Bricu says: Aye.

Elohn blinks at Rheugan.

Tarquin says: Had a wee chat wi' Jameston here.

Elohn says: ...I'd always assumed he was an elf.

Rheugan leans back on the bar, half-trying to blend in.

Illithias snorts.

Tarquin says: Aye, turns out, there's a lot ta the lad we dinna ken.

Tarquin says: But we shall learn it.

Pitchblàck snerks.

Tarquin says: As he, in turn, shall learn how we do things.

Bricu says: Seltzer, with lemon.

Lorelli looks at Tarquin a bit wary.

Tarquin looks around, fingers curled around his own glass.

Tarquin says: A bit sideweys.

Tarquin says: A bit underhanded.

Tarquin says: An' together, as brothers an' sisters ought ta do.

Tarquin says: Us, yeh bastards.

Tarquin lifts his glass.

Elohn lifts his own.

Bricu lifts his glass.

Tarquin says: Wir one larger.

Illithias raises her mug.

Threnn raises her glass.

Tarquin says: Welcome ta the black an' red, yeh puir sap.

Tarquin raises a drink to Rheugan. Cheers!

Elohn salutes you with respect.

Rheugan grins ruefully, then downs his mead.

Bricu nods at Rheugan.

Tarquin claps Rheugan on the shoulder.

Pitchblàck raises a drink to Rheugan. Cheers!

Just a Picture...

He dinged on a discover, right after a pet battle. XD

All I'm gonna say for now is... It's about time!

5.2 Updates!!

One month since my last post, I know, I know...

First off, the patch broke all my addons, so I couldn't even play for very long, since my game would freeze up and I'd have to close it and restart manually. Ugh. I think that's been fixed now (mostly) so I'm getting back into things.

First thing - Sis and I took our hunters (Lark and Kelesaria) out to Dino Island and killed Dinomancers. A lot of Dinomancers. It did take a while, but it was well worth it!

Dinosaaaaaur!

I love him. Holy flip, I love him. Even his noisy footsteps (and they are pretty loud) don't bug me. Kel tamed a white one, though I was a bum and didn't get any screenshots of hers. And we both managed to get one of each baby raptor, though it took Lark forever to get her last.

I now have an even better excuse for pet battles. Rheugan's become my main battler, and he's since hit 89 and is working steadily towards 90. He even dinged from a battle. XD

Leveling pets is going even faster than Rheu, partly in thanks to the safari hat that everyone now has. I've finished Rookie Pet Mob, and gotten 51 now to 25. The Pandaren spirit tamers are done, and at the moment I'm down to 1 last elite for the Beasts of Fable (which I'll probably track down tonight >.>). The elite battles have been surprisingly fun, and I've been discovering just how strong some of my pets are. For example- my nether faerie dragon soloed Dos-Ryga the fish, and Bash the Kun-Lai runt soloed Lucky Yi the cricket. Some of the rest have been tricky, and some have been pushovers. Overall I'm really happy with how Blizzard designed them all.

An added bonus to the elites is that many of them have normal battle pets congregating around them. I've upgraded several of my current pets to rare this way, so now I can level them, without having to worry about it being "wasted" if I stumble on a rare after.

I've captured all 4 of the Isle of Thunder pets, so now all I need is the drop pets. My snake and thundertail are both rare (and 25 \o/) already, though my croaker and razortooth are still just green-quality. It feels almost a waste to be pet-farming there, cause Pitch and Lark don't need the battle xp. I doubt they'd let Rheugan out there yet though, so I'll just deal with it. XD

Isle of Thunder is... well, it's kinda meh, for me at least. I just can't get myself excited over more dailies, and the zone itself is kinda dull and dreary looking. Hopefully it'll get better after I learn my way around and aren't getting lost constantly.  >.>

Pitch has run through the LFR version of the raid already, along with a bunch of fellow Feathermoonies. It's fun enough, although some of the fights were confusing at first. They're not hard to learn, however, and next time I'll probably know what I'm doing. XD

That's about all in WoW. Still playing Rift a lot, although my month there is about to run out, so I need to decide if I want to pay for another one or not. I've become addicted to their player housing, dimensions- enough so that I farmed up the money to buy Kirit something bigger than the newbie one they give you, and I'm currently building her a house in the middle of a forest. :D

House! Still a WIP.

Kirit is closing in on level 30, and my cleric Shaurria is up to 35! I also made some new alts (like I really needed them >.>) so if I do decide to let my sub run out I can still play now and then.

Can't think of anything else to add, so have one last shot of Lark and Devil. Til next time, Happy Hunting!

Guard-dino. Rawr.

More Catching Up!

I really need to stop procrastinating on doing blog posts - it makes it hard to remember what's happened.  :P

Rajast was just a little bit from 78 the last time I played him, so my last day off work I spent some time on him. Shortly...

That went shockingly fast. I didn't even start on any Storm Peaks questing, just finished up a few things in Sholazar, then took him to Icecrown. Rajast is parked in Hyjal now, waiting for the next day that I feel like spending time on him.

Pet battles!

Gypsy the Feline Familiar has become my new lowbie-leveler. She is beastly against critters, and she even has a magic-based attack to take down those pesky flyers (who take reduced damage from beast attacks). Throw in her Devour and she finishes every fight at full health. I've been using her mostly to get my little babies up for my Rookie Pet Mob achievement - up to 50-somthing now, so it won't be long now.

I've had an awesome string of luck with pet battlestones lately, I've been getting one almost every day for almost a week now. Combine that with my OCD-driven hunting sprees, and my list of non-rares is steadily dwindling.

I've been plinking along on Lark, she's doing okay so far with rep (honored with most of the factions I wanted, and almost exalted with Tillers already), but the issues I've been having so far have been with Valor Points. She's just not getting enough from the dailies I do on her, and I never have the time/energy to do dungeons or scenarios. I've gotten a few done, and she got lucky with a 463 bow drop in one, but it's going so slow.

Still messing around on Rheugan too, although his RP storyline has stalled out for now. He managed to hit 88 through archeology, though I think I want to do more questing in Kun-Lai before I take him to Townlong Steppes. I have no plans on gearing him once he hits 90, however, aside from whatever's easiest to get just to make farming/questing easier.

I've also renewed my Rift sub temporarily, though I don't know how much I'll really be playing. I spent all this afternoon on Kirit, my ranger, though. I'd almost forgotten how much I missed her.

Rift invasion, ho!

I also used some of my tax return on a year-long sub for Lord of the Rings Online, just because my sister's been playing that lately, and I miss both her and my toons there. One of these days I'm going to get on Basten and do a leveling marathon; he's been at 41 forever.

So, looks like I've got more than enough to keep busy for awhile. Can't really think of anything else, so I guess that's it for now. Til next time, Happy Hunting!

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!

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!

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!

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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.”
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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