RNG Gods & Nobelgarden - Part Two

Noblegarden Guide

Since I posted part one, I've spent two days in the craft room, and two days reading wowhead.  Apparently there's a portal from Shattrath straight to the Exodar!  grrr.  I discovered that while reading the guide for Children's Week, which is happening now.  

I don't have the time to do this world event, even though it's Vier's fave event.  I'll save that bit of delight for next year. I don't think I can handle the emotions of mentoring a Draenei Orphan for a week, sending her back to the orphanage in Shatt, and receiving a letter saying what a good time she had and how much she misses me.

 ... ... Nope.  ... .. not going there!  

Must keep my head down and get leveling.  I dinged 65 during Nobelgarden and from my reading, there's much work and excitement ahead at level 70.  New dailies in Shatt, an arduous grind for a Netherwing Mount that is apparently something very special [I think that's the "wow is that cool!" dragon mount I saw when I was being tortured in Booty Bay].[Booty Bay and The Story of the Widowed Strand Crab]  

I still have to get my Warpstalker Hatchling [who is actually for Saelybrooke], and the Unborn Val'kyr [who is apparently necessary for beating the Celestial Tournament in Panda Land], is coming up in Northrend.  

There's a lot of rare pets here in Outland, so I have to work some wild pet battles into my routine.  

But, ... ... before all that, I must finish the story of my Nobelgarden Adventure. 

 Where were we ... ... ah, yes the Swift Springstrider.  I couldn't believe my luck.  While I was sitting there, in a little bit of shock and delight, opening the rest of my eggs, I tuned in to some noticeable sniffing in my vicinity.  Vier says she can't stand the sound a Draenei makes when ... ... I don't remember what, ... but one of the sounds irritates her.  Me, I can't stand the snuffling sound the Worgens make.  It scared the crap outta me one night in Goldshire and it always gets my attention.

Why am I hearing Worgen snuffling in Azure Watch?  Mildly alarmed until I remembered that Worgen are Alliance, though for some reason I think they should be Horde. I looked up to see a poor little Worgen snuffling over her map, [Red Bear and Aunty Lurky: Worgens are a race of ... ... I think, humanoid werewolves, and they snuffle a lot.  Loudly.]  She was so lost. She came to Azure Watch without the breadcrumb quest and didn't know what to do.  I took her over to the Spring Collector and Spring Vendor to see if she could get going without the breadcrumb quest, she could.  Then I helped her find her first egg, but someone beat her to it, so I helped her find another one to collect and told her about some of the sneaky hides. [Paying forward the kindness Shadowmeld Dude had started that morning.] Just as she poofed into a little pink bunny and was off to the races, I came to my senses and the Wow Lust dissipated.

I sat down to take stock, figured why not pull my Spring Rabbit out.  Sorted through my bags, my Pet Journal, sat still to eat 75 chocolates for the achievement Chocoholic.  

Chocolates

I had to eat 100 chocolates for the Chocoholic Achievement!

The first 25 gives the Chocolate Lover Achievement, then 75 more for Chocoholic.

Because I had my Spring Rabbit out, I got to see two of them make baby bunnies!  I haven't looked at my screenshots as I type this, so hopefully I captured the blessed event! LOL

Top right: 2 Spring Rabbits  Top Left: hiding in the grass, 2 Baby Bunny's that pop out when one Spring Rabbit jumps the other Spring Rabbit.  Literally.  They jump on top of each other, a baby pops out and they spring apart. Too cute!

When one spring rabbit sees another spring rabbit, they grow little red hearts above their heads, then they make Baby Bunny.  The longer you sit still, the more baby bunnies they make! LOL

I had almost everything I came for and decided that it was time to vacate the area for awhile.  I told myself that I probably wouldn't be back for a good long time, so to make sure I did everything I wanted while I was here, as I didn't have the luxury to hearth to Stormwind and come back another day. 

 I've been slowly leveling two mechanical and one dragonkin pet to take on my next Pet Battler, so I headed out into the wild to do some pet battles, and see if I could find some copper ore to level my blacksmithing.  

I ended up at  Wrathscale Point and decided to go in to see my old friend The Kurken.  Funny, I remembered him as bigger and scarier!  

The Kurken

I headed over to Silvermyst Isle, just to whack some Owlkins.  I still haven't forgiven them for scaring me so badly when I wandered into their midst looking for a copper node around level 9 or so.  "Oh, they drop linen!  I can level my First Aid!"  
I cleaned them out, leaving a pile of orange carcasses blanketing the island. I made a little game of it, seeing how far away I could target them, cast a killing blow, and time it right so they died and fell over, just as I walked up to them to grab their loot!  Good hand/eye coordination practice I told myself.  

Took a stroll along the beach for some flotsam to loot.  

Skeleton on the beach of Silvermyst Isle

Gave Megwyn [is that her name? the lost night elf sitting on the beach crying?], anyway, gave her a hug.  I didn't have the quest to walk her across the island to reunite her with her father, but assured her that he was OK and some lo-level draenei would be along soon to take her back to him.

On the Swift Springstrider in an elven boat, with a Murloc

I ended up at the Exodar so put some stuff in the bank and went to the Auction House to see if there was some ore for not too much gold to help with the smelting and blacksmithing.  I ended up spending too much, but got some mithril and truesilver ore to smelt and now have grayed out the mithril. 
 Hopefully one day I'll be able to get some truesilver ore and it will be enough points to get me to the next mining level.  I think I only need 4 points.  So frustrating.  Even worse, knowing I have to do it again with Sushel.  Maybe I'll look into the Panda Land version of mining for her. 

I spent way too long trying to get out of that damn crashed spaceship.  grrr. I walked past the exit at least two or three times before I found it. Headed back to Azure Watch. Gathered a few eggs and finally, it lost it's appeal.  I bought two dresses, one for me, one for Saelybrooke. [Sushel doesn't wear dresses, she's too self-conscious about her tummy]  I mailed the dress to Teldrassil and a Spring Suit to Sushel. I was done. Time to leave.

Elegant Dress

While I'm over here though, I should really get over my fear of Bloodmyst Isle, so I headed over there.  Pfft! a bazillion quests undone, yellow exclamation points everywhere!  The only one that rankled was the Ysera's Tears one.  

I still shake my head about the epic battle to the top of the hill and back down and after all that scary fighting, I forgot to collect the damn mushrooms!  I accepted that quest again, did it, discovered the mushrooms are not at the top but down along the shore on the far side of the island [groan], collected them and done.  

Except, ... ...  while I was going up the hill, I did a few pet battles.  Mostly because I very much dislike the Ravager Hatchlings.  They're ugly, they move weird, they make ugly sounds and most of all, they remind me of Bloodmyst Isle, thus creeping me out!  

That's why I only have one and I haven't leveled him.  But.  ... ... oh my, this one on the side of the hill is a rare!  OK, I can make an exception for a rare! 

 At the top of the hill, I actually said it out loud, the RNG GODS have been way too kind today, "there's no way there's going to be a second rare!"  Yes, yes there was!  So add two rare pets to my good fortune list!

The last thing I wanted to do, was actually walk down all the paths on the island, I never did see what was on the north and west sides, I quit the place before I got that far.  Off we went.  I don't know if it was because the world event was on or what, but that Swift Springstrider was swift!  And much easier to navigate than my lovely, but bulky, Elekk!  

Turtle Skeleton and shell on The Bloodwash

Saw the bits, killed more Owlkins and some blood elf spies.  Had a blast taking out a colony of murlocs and discovered the Hidden Reef!  

Aqueous at The Hidden Reef [under water]

Turned in the Ysera's Tears quest, one last circle around Azuremyst Isle on the beach and we're done.  

my beloved Moongraze Woods - one of the most tranquil places in all of Azeroth

Oh right Emberglade, ... forgot about you guys, took their picture. 

Temper in Emberglade

Smacked down a Tallstrider, just because.  

Odesyus' Landing

In the middle of nowhere, decided to do my very last grey moth pet battle.  A rare!  Three rare battle pets in one day!  wow!

Graveyard at Azure Watch - no Orcs, I have not forgotten Christmas Eve!

Now I'm nervous.  If I do anymore it would be really pushing my luck!  Down to the boats and back to Stormwind.  

Waiting for The Bravery at Rut'theran Village

Crossing the oceans

The Gazebo in Stormwind - another serene spot

Found a grassy area in the center of the city, made sure the mini map label said Stormwind City, not outskirts, not harbour, not the canals, not any district, but Stormwind City.  Planted my egg, dinged the achievement, looted my egg, ate my last chocolate, went to the inn, and logged out.  

"Hiding" my egg for the Achievement Nobel Garden

Phew!  What a full day.  What a lot of fun.

Achievements Completed

Achievements NOT completed

THE DRESS

yes, it was all for the dress!

I forgot to take off the white tuxedo shirt, that's what the black smudge on my chest is from, the bow tie on the shirt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's a little mystery for all you readers.  [snort!  all!] While I was circling Azure Watch, I noticed this sign materialize out of thin air.

Mystery Sign:  "The Secret"

I spent considerable time left- and right- clicking on, and all around, it.  Took a few steps back and carefully swept my cursor over everything in the vicinity, ground, structures, the sign, NPC's, [Non Player Characters] ...  looking for a gear icon indicating something to open or loot, looking for sparklies ... nothing.

Anyone ever seen anything like this?  Eventually it just faded out. I checked back every time I came back into Azure Watch the rest of the day and never saw it again. What do you suppose it was?

I'm off to do some serious WoW-ing for the next while.  I'll be leaving the blogging to Vier. Unless something totally blog-worthy happens that I just can't leave to chance of her not telling it correctly ;)

Nor.

RNG Gods & Nobelgarden - Part One

Noblegarden Guide

The RNG Gods were very kind to me yesterday and I participated in the World Event: Nobelgarden.  I don't know if that's one word or two, I've seen both equally, but, as my first world event solo, I had an absolute blast!

[RNG: random number generator aka luck!]

Before I could participate though, I had to get there.  I've recently made Shattrat City my home and I've never traveled from there to anywhere, it's always been about the getting to Outland, not getting back.  I'm sure there must be a portal in the city to take me to Stormwind, but damned if I could find it.  Before I got mad and gave up I decided to just backtrack the route that I use to get to Outland, to get out of Outland.  

Took a hippogryph to the Dark Portal.  As soon as I got on the other side, in the Blasted Lands, I remembered -- I have this dude's ashes I've been carrying around in my bags since we were last questing here. [Loramus' Ashes]  They are a quest item so I couldn't ditch them, I mean, physically I could, but I couldn't, ya know?  

These are someone's ashes and I have to take them to where they belong.  [Have a look at this comment if you want some of Loramus' story.  I wonder if we'll be seeing him in Draenor?]

It actually was easy to find the place, because the quest was still in my journal. I just turned the tracking on, which put the big yellow arrow on my mini map, fire up my Ebon Hippogryph and we're off.  Place the ashes on the platform, the dude will hover, keep him alive from the uglies that are trying to kill him, and you're done.  

I wish I wrote down the info on the guy that helped me, but I didn't.  He was in shadowform [so a priest, or do druids, mages or any other class have a shadow form too?  I don't know], I didn't write down his name, guild, ... nothing.  Shame on me.  I never would have finished it if it wasn't for him.  Thank You Random Shadowform Dude!

He showed me that instead of standing on the platform and healing the guy, [blush] I had to get down on the ground and kill the things that were beaming blasts of red ugly at him.  I don't know long he was killing them before I noticed, clued in, and did it myself. My helper even stood back and made sure I killed them all and accomplished the task.  

When I just stood there, dead bodies piled all around, he walked back towards the platform. Paying attention this time, I walked back up there, and a pale yellow question mark was floating in mid-air.  Great.  [no, not really, not great, not great at all, a sarcastic great]

This isn't done yet.  No, I have to go back to the Serpents Coil and find the dude who's ashes I brought, who I kept alive and who is now down in his winding labyrinth under ground waiting for me.  Sigh.  hmm, ashes = dead guy, but I "saved him" so he's alive? This was a bad idea.

Off I go, ... ... ya, ya, ya .... kill the uglies, walk down the twisty tunnel, high five the dude, done and done.  NO!  Not Done! We have to do the Amulet Ritual! 

right click to open in a new tab or new window to read the text

Of course the ritual takes place in the chat window, so I missed it the first time! An aside, Ancient, from Tome of the Ancient, asked me what WoW Quirks I had.  This is one.  I never remember to look at the chat window.  I don't remember a lot of things, but Vier will back me up, not looking at the chat window is the worst!  

OK, the ritual is done. All that's left now is to get me out of this damn twisty tunnel.  Oh, right!  The big pink crystal, that poofs me out the front door.  I remember! 

I actually remembered something!  

I didn't realize it at the time, but that was the beginning of an amazing streak of good luck for me.

Got airborne again, looked at the map ... Surwich!  I know where I am now!  I came here more than a few times to catch Greater Sagefish!  

Took a hippogryph from there to Stormwind, the boat to Rut'theran Village, 

Waiting for The Bravery in Stormwind Harbour

... and the other boat to the Exodar landing and ta da!  

I made it!  

Before nine in the morning too!  w00t!

The Great Egg Hunt can begin!   

But first, while I'm here, I want to ding my dual spec.  I'm still not sure what it means, and I probably don't have to come all the way here to my original trainer to do it, but it's done.  I'll figure it out later, or get Vier or someone to explain it to me.  

Dual Spec -- Check!

Right now, I have some eggs to find. Gee, look at the empty bags!  [above] They won't stay that way for long!

The only thing I really, really wanted was The Elegant Dress.  A very feminine, long sleeved, long dress in, wait for it ... [WoW readers, if you feel the earth tremble, no worries, it's just my daughter, my sister, and my best friend, all rolling their eyes simultaneously] ... peach.  Yes, ... the dress is actually, ... truly, the perfect tone, shade, ... of peach.  With an almost, but not too much, lacy collar.   sigh.  so pretty.
I didn't notice it 'til looking at the screenshots, but in the pic above, several of the Draenei gals are rockin' the orange spectrum.  

Yikes! Gathering eggs turns you into a pink bunny!  

A very speedy pink bunny! 

A little, speedy, pink bunny that poops little easter eggs!

So, with only gathering about 308 eggs, in addition to having enough chocolate to eat my way to the "Chocoholic" Achievement, and five left over for the Nobel Garden Achievement in Stormwind, inside my collected eggs I looted: 

• 2 Spring Rabbits [a rare pet], 
• 2 blossoming branches, 
• 4 spring flowers, 
• 2 Spring Tuxedos [and an odd assortment of pants], 
• 2 spring robes, 

[the skirt of the spring robes, I should have taken my tabard and shoulders off, but the top is just a little halter/bra-let thing]

• a spring circlet, and 
• a Swift Springstrider [the rare mount].  

I forgot, ... there was a server re-start.  It appears that when I logged back in, I did indeed take a screen shot of the elegant robes and spring circlet without anything else on. [blush] If you're wondering, the Black Spring Circlet has black fur with pink insides and the Pink Spring Circlet has pink fur with blue insides.

Achievement: Sunday's Finest. "Loot the White Tuxedo Shirt and the Black Tuxedo Pants from Nobelgarden eggs."  If you look at the guide I linked to in the title, you'll see that there are two achievements that are strictly luck related.  
Here's the Spring Tuxedo and the Spring Circlet [the ears].

If you're a goal oriented person [uhem, Red Bear], and you were working on completing achievements.  You'd have to get lucky during an event that only runs for one week a year.  That's how you know that I'm never, ever gonna say "I want to get all the Achievements".  Seriously, look at some of them, Nobelgarden Achievements
Laying an egg in a volcanic crater as a rabbit, kissing people that are wearing a certain outfit while you're wearing a certain outfit, shaking flowers at females of each race, above level 18.  Ya, like that's gonna happen!  Not!

l-r: Spring Rabbit in my Pet Journal, my character screen while I'm a pink rabbit, full bags!

I could not believe it!  While researching the event this past week there is endless moaning about people not being able to find bits and pieces of what they needed to finish an Achievement or find the item they were really hankering for.  I convinced myself that I didn't need the mount, that she was ugly anyways.  That the rabbit was boring, just a plain dirty brown and white normal rabbit, nothing special.  And I certainly didn't want the rabbit ears on a head band that is the spring circlet.  

Just needed to get 50 chocolates to buy the dress.  That's all! 

In my first 100 eggs, after the second rabbit dropped, I caught a little "spring fever" and then the challenge was on, could I collect all the prizes before I got bored of collecting eggs? 

Around egg 200, the rest of the world woke up [I started very early in the morning] and all of the sudden there were little pink bunnies and toons everywhere.  The first time I was reaching for an egg that someone else wanted, I backed off.  Then, someone grabbed one out from underneath my nose and the WoW Lust filled my veins and the hunt was on!  

Those people still wandering around as their toons and not yet a little pink bunny, pfft!, they were easy to outsmart, and too slow to boot!  Because I had been there for a couple hours in the quiet, I already knew where the "sneaky" hides were.  

In a box on the top of a pile of boxes that you couldn't see easily as a bunny.  Behind both guys chopping wood were crevices that always had an egg in them.  On top of the curved wall behind an NPC at the entrance.  Tucked under the hippogryphs' butts at the flight master, inside the plants at all the entrances, ya, you late sleepers aren't gonna get one over on me!
At egg number 203 I couldn't believe it! 

You receive loot: [Swift Springstrider]

I waited to celebrate until I added it to my collection and then I gave out a cheer! 

You have added the mount Swift Springstrider to your collection.

I'm so glad I took the time to add /cheer to a macro and button LOL! 

Now, the icon for the Swift Springstrider would have you belive the Swift Springstrider is flamingo pink.  

Nope, I don't know what to call this washed out, sickly not quite yellow, not quite brown? 

End of part one.  I must call it a night, will be back on Tuesday or Wednesday.

... to be continued.

While you wait, check this out.  While we were talking about RP-ing [role playing, there are servers that are dedicated to role play toons, you must act with your character as if in real life.  No running everywhere, I don't know what all the rules are, but apparently they have a lot of sex!]  Anyway, Vier was telling me of this blog she reads.  The guy is a Tauren [ a very large bull] who wants to be a member of the Stormwind Guards.  [For Red Bear and Aunty Lurky: Taurens, in addition to being absolutely huge and, well, "different" and "special", they belong to the Horde faction.  The Stormwind Guards belong to the Alliance faction.  They are enemies. Think Churchill and Stalin on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall - really enemies.] So this picture blog is about a little boy Tauren who wants to grow up to be a Stormwind Guard.  Hi - lare - ee - ous!

Since it's hosted on Reddit [ I don't do Reddit] and it's an imagur blog [I don't do that either], Vier opened the pages for me, here's the first one: Honrar: A Day in Elwynn

Lost in Space

Cyber-Space that is.  Ever since the Liebster Award I've been all over the internets, reading about Nobelgarden, spending way too much time on Wowhead, and jumping from WoW Blog to WoW Blog.  There are so many!

Every day when I wake up I tell myself just to log in to WoW and get on with it, and every day I don't.  See, I did something silly last login and I'm feeling a lot of trepidation about logging in again.  I've done all the Daily Fishing and Cooking Quests in Stormwind and I really have to summon the courage to get Noritam leveled out of Outland.  So, I went to Shattrat City, set my hearthstone there, and logged out.

Then, I read that the spring World Event, Nobelgarden is on and wouldn't you know it, happens in the starter zones.  Then I realized that every other time I've been in Outland, I've used my hearthstone to go back to Stormwind so I don't actually know how to get there now!  I need to get to Stormwind to catch a boat to Teldrassil, to catch a boat back to Azuremyst Isle.  So overwhelming!  Maybe I'll just check wowhead first.

That's always a mistake because I end up with three browser windows open, with twenty tabs open in each one as I right click on, "oh, I should learn more about that", and "hmm, ... maybe this guide will tell me how to get out of Outland", and "A Contest! .... yay!  I like to enter contests, oh, ... this one is different, I actually have to solve riddles and search for things on wowhead to enter".  That one took a couple days and I only solved two of the riddles!

Today I was bound and determined to log in and get straight to work, which somehow led to me checking this blog first, reading comments and opening other WoW Blogs to see what they're all about!  Who knew there were so many!  Though, it seems that the majority of WoW Bloggers are Horde!

I also started to craft a tutorial on how to make a blog post and got bogged down in details.  Today, I closed all of those windows and told myself to start over and adhere to the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid!

Something caught my eye on one of the blogs, a blog post entitled Goldshire Inn on Moonguard.  Vier mentioned once that there is a place in WoW that is all about erotic role play.  I'm not a prude by any stretch, but it boggled my mind as to the hows and whys.  So, apparently more than one person has blogged about it and my curiosity has been satisfied.  Well, part of my curiosity.  I now know what it looks like via screenshots but I still don't understand why. 

I've now been awake for enough hours that it's time to eat and I've accomplished absolutely nothing!  Still haven't logged in to the game, and at this rate, Nobelgarden week will be over before I get there, and I won't have to worry about getting back to Azure Watch!  I still have fifteen wow blogs to check out and I suspect that will take me the rest of the day.

On one of the blogs I was reading, it talked about how long it has been since there was new content for level-capped players and it gave a list of different things to do while they wait for WoD to drop.  The first thing I thought of was Help Out a Low Level Player!  

I think something a 90 could do is go back to a favourite zone, or a zone they thought was difficult to level through, and help someone get through it.  One day Vier and I were playing through a zone she didn't care for, and a guildy came by and joined us.  He actually took over helping me out for a couple of hours and it was pretty neat.  She didn't have to babysit me through a zone she didn't like, he didn't mind helping 'cause it was a one off type deal for him, and I enjoyed having someone new to play with.  It made me try harder [so as not to embarrass Vier] on the one hand, and also, I felt freer to ask "dumb" questions. Which in itself spawned a great conversation with Vier afterwards and she told me to always ask, even if I thought it was a dumb question because she doesn't always remember what it was like to be a new player.

I think there should be an "adopt a newbie" roster equivalent to the queue for LFR or the "find a battle" button in Pet Battles.  Newbies and Oldies could enter what zone and level they're at, or are willing to help in, and the game would match us up.

Once I get finished looking at all the blogs I have opened, I'll probably watch some TV and promise myself that tomorrow for sure I'll log in and find enough chocolates to eat to get my Spring Rabbit.  Then, really, I have to get to work and get Noritam leveled up.  She's so close to dinging 65!  Then it's only 25 levels to 90!

I should really get back to a wow schedule with Vier and let her worry about the blog and concentrate on getting to 90.  

We'll see what happens!

Nor.