A bright, shining day in Menethil Harbor! After purging the landscape of a number of extremely frost-resistant murlocks (fishfolk) and recovering priceless supplies for the townsfolk and a new staff for myself, I cleared out a couple of dozen dragon whelps and a company of orcs, taking their warbanners as trophies. I retired to the town for a time to turn in quests (Ding! 24.), repair my damaged gear, and hassle the locals. In time I found myself sitting on the dock of the bay, watching the tide roll away, and thinking I should write a song about it. Suddenly, a ship pulls up!
The nice thing about taking a year or two off from a game is that you forget some of the things that you take for granted and the appearance of the masted marvel reminded me that this was a departure point for the other continent, Kalimdor. If I remembered correctly, I'd be whisked over to the forested lands of the night elves. I hopped aboard and noted that the designers had stuffed the ship with guards since the last time I played-- this was a welcome change from the old days when raiding parties of the Horde would attack us from our own ships. There was a merchant aboard, so I sold off a few things as the boat launched and I quickly made my way to a place that was not at all what I was expecting.
Rather than the Elven areas, I was whisked to another human zone that was a major fortification beside a swamp that made the Wetlands look... well... less wet. I believe it was "Darkshore", but as I was pulling into port, a massive sea monster that dwarfed my craft was besieging the city. I skirted around it and explored the town for a few minutes before teleporting back to safer climes. I wasn't ready for the lands beyond the walls, so further exploration in Kalimdor would just have to wait.
I had forgotten that my hearthstone was still set to Duskwood, so I continued my running theme of arriving at destinations with mild surprise. Well, as long as I was here, I figured I'd go get my ol' buddy, The Hermit squared away. I rode down to where his tools had been misplaced and headed down a very beaten path towards an ogre mound. The ogres at the outskirts were only slightly more powerful than I so I tested one out. Hard hitters, but fall harder. Generally if things are 2 levels above me I can hit them and if I can hit them, they -will- go down. At +3 levels... it's a little dicey as I start missing more frequently and missing with snares and roots equals a very flattened gnome. At that point, it isn't mana-effective to hunt critters, to say the very least. At +4 and above, it's pretty much a lost cause.
I skirted around the ogres on the outskirts to see if I could get to the toolbox, which was lying just outside of a cave. The ogres there were level 30. Yikes. Well, maybe I could ninja it. I crept up from behind my target on top of a hill, sliding down to land behind a stone outcropping. On the other side of the rock was my prize with only one angry mage-mashing, club-wielding, doom-bringing Shrek-wannabe guarding it. Slowly I moved into position and when the Ogre had wandered the farthest from the box that he was going to, I swooped in for the grab.
The club cracked me hard across the head, sending me rolling. My hand had latched on hard to the handle and I tucked the tools away as a second ogre joined the fracas. Invoking Rule #2, I darted for the spot I had been hidden at beforehand. Swift and painful death notwithstanding, I could count this one as a "win" and one quick corpse recovery later I was on my way to see The Hermit.
He was tickled pink to see me! There was just one more tiny thing to do for him: deliver a note to the mayor on Darkshire. Well, I was headed there anyway-- it was late and the hermit was positively slavering to work on some project with the supplies I had procured. By the time I get the note translated for the mayor by another local, alarms were going off all over town.
Apparently, there was a massive undead abomination heading for town! The note revealed the unpleasant truth-- I had been duped by the hermit! He was really a NECROMANCER all along and was going to destroy the town! (I really, REALLY love this quest line.) The Night Watch rallied on the road to town and promptly got smooshed by the hulking and appropriately named "Stitches."
Stitches made it to the town proper before he was overwhelmed by the NPC guard, but not without taking a few with him. It made it all totally worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment