Returning to Amberpine (not Amberstill, as reported— sigh), I discovered that people were suddenly very open with their problems and concerns. As per personal policy, I accepted every available task despite any consequences to the nearby fauna. Eagles, wolves, stags and bears were on the menu in this neck of the Woods. Leaving town, I spied a knight on horseback who needed ten (of course) orcs killed at a lumber camp just across a small stream. Just one hitch—accepting this quest would flag me for PvP as long as the quest was in my journal. I gamely accepted and went to go check out the lumber camp.
The camp itself was set up like a small field battle, with humans and orc spawning in endless waves. I waded into the thick of it, watchful for enemy players. It was delightful chaos on a small scale and at one point I had to nip behind our ranks to heal. I had slain nine of the orcs and stood in the middle of the field, waiting for the next batch to materialize… when the power went out at my house.
A bit later when I could once again wield Edison’s Legacy, I logged back in and wondered how far I’d have to run to recover my corpse. The answer was, surprisingly, not at all. I returned in the thick of battle, but was (for the moment) alive! I hastily beat a retreat to the edge of the fray, summoned Steve, then iced (pun intended) the last of the orcs I needed. The quest is a ‘daily’ one, so I may do it while I’m in the area—which at this rate will be about a week.
From that point on, I ran what missions I could and wound up with several I will need to revisit. It just wasn’t my night for pulling off the impossible.
The first was to capture an ice troll in a cage and bring it back to some dwarves who apparently are into that sort of thing. I trekked down to where the ice trolls lurked and hid behind a small rock as I tried to figure out the mechanics behind “setting up a cage trap”. After a moment and reading the quest more thoroughly, I smacked my head hard. The trap was apparently held by a NPC up in the camp where I had picked up the quest and I was supposed to escort the guy down to set the trap up and waylay a troll. I opted to do something else instead. In retrospect, this may be the easiest of the tasks that are pending.
The second quest that is sitting is “Kill the Big Bad”, in this iteration a Viking-themed elite that stands atop a tower. He has a throwing arm that deals devastating damage, but I get a dragon to ride that does nice, but nowhere near enough, burst damage. If it were a straight up Dragon vs. Thane fight, I’m sure I’d win, but the problem is the dragon doesn’t soak up all the damage; there is significant bleedthrough and since Strev is a cloth caster, after a couple of return hits he is hurting bad. This one may have to wait a level or two.
Finally, we have what I can only call “The Getaway”, employing a mechanic I rarely see outside of FPSs. After discovering that a good number of what I assumed were people are, in fact, worgen (read: werewolves) in disguise, I bust a guy out of a holding cell who freaks the hell out like a guy in a zombie survival movie: “Were you bitten?! ANSWER ME! WERE YOU BITTEN?!” After he calms down, we steal a fast horse and we begin a mad dash to escape. The horse runs “on rails” and my job is to defend us with ummm… horse powers (gallop for 2 seconds and stomp which is a small PBAoE stun for a couple of seconds) and Molotov cocktails (targeted AoE fire damage). All the while, the horse is swarmed by worgen just pouring out of the woods. If they get hits on the horse, it slows it down, allowing for more worgen to catch up so timing the skills, each of which have cooldowns, is critical…and apparently beyond my means.
Every time I thought we were in the clear, another eight worgen moved to intercept us. I never had time to check the map to see how close I was to our goal—every second was pulse-pounding as the harrowing ride continued. Little by little, the worgen wore us down until the horse was killed and we were swarmed. The number and ferocity prevented me from being able to escape and I died a glorious death under a dozen worgen and a bear that just happened to be wandering by.
Tonight again I ride.
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