That NPC Said The Funniest Thing - Winter's Veil Edition.

Great-father Winter, not to be confused with Greatfather Winter.

I have started noticing the little things in game, like conversations in inns and dialogue in quests.  Some non player characters are hilariously funny, some are dry and good for a grin, some are clever.  Today, I treat you to Great-father Winter, the Horde patron saint of Winter's Veil.  Sure, most of us know he's a big fraud, a bit actor paid by the Smokywood Pastures franchise.  Oh, you didn't know?  Sorry.  Yeah, that copper racer is pretty cool, huh?  Wow, look at that paper zeppelin! I'll just toss another for you to watch while I go hide behind that tree over there. Why don't you talk to the guy and see what he has to say for himself?

 Pushing Graccu's Mince Pie and Fruitcake like a good sponsor.

The real Great-father Winter would listen intently and patiently. 

Why not? Because LAWSUITS! The real Great-father Winter would let you.

Lush.  He didn't even offer to share. 

I'm sending a note to Halinka to chat with Greatfather Winter in Ironforge later today. I'm curious if he is the real deal or just another guy with a great beard and salesman attitude. Either way, I'm sure Halinka will go and retrieve the stolen presents again. She's just another cog in the machinery at Smokywood Pastures.  At least they have good cookies.

Winter Solstice Challenge - Better Late Than Never?

Christmas is almost here, and I missed the deadline for finishing this, 7 screenshots shy of the mark.  Still, I wanted to finish, so here are the last shots.  Happy Winter's Veil, everyone!

Restored Light.

Luxurious Light.

Light and Life.

Electric Light!

Sound and Light.

Corrupted Light.

Warning Light.

Furtive Father Winter Gift : Navimie!

I totally had no idea anything was up when Navimie said she wanted to help me get a few achievements the other night.  Here is my gift from her.  Thanks, Navi!

I decided to spend some time with Shawndra the other day and try to get her some achievements - I saw she had been doing them with her guild, but I wanted her to have some special ones just with me! After perusing her achievements, I saw that there were a few that we could do - so I decided to ask her if she would like to hang out and do a few achievements, and she said yes - but we scheduled it for the following day.  It's always a bit hard when we live on the opposite sides of the planet with funny time zones and all :P So we managed to get on at the same time and I thought we could do some of the older instances first. What I did forget is how OP we are now at 90 instead of 80 and we killed things way too fast.  I wanted to try Halls of Stone and get Abuse the Ooze - it had been a while since I was in there. Shawndra had to tell me what to do (ie wait for Brann!) because I was wandering around like a noob 70 LOL. Unfortunately, we killed him... Then I thought we'd go to Icecrown Citadel and try for some of the ones there. We went into Forge of Souls and tried to do Soul Power, and we did ok for a bit, but then when he went into the middle, all 4 of the souls got sucked back in and we killed him and he died.  Whoops!  But, at least we managed to kill the Devourer of Souls achievement - Three Faced. I didn't have much time, so I thought I would help Shawndra get another one which is quite easy - Hydrophobia.  All she had to do was stand outside whilst I went and killed Wise Mari - it was lucky because at that time her kids needed her to do stuff, so it was a nice time to AFK. So yay, Shawndra! Hopefully we can find more time to do those little things :)

And as a little gift, I made a puzzle for you! Hope you like it, and a Merry Winter Veil!

I'm not sure how to share the puzzle, but if you are interested in a word search, ask me and I'll share it through e-mail! Happy Winter's Veil to all, and thank you Navimie for spending time spent with me in game.  It's the best present ever!

Winter Solstice Challenge - In The Dark.

Sunset.

Twinkling Lights.

Moonlight.

Starlight.

Carlatta's Escapades In Raids.

Carlatta has been hanging out with the Pwny Express of the Cenarius realm for a few weeks now, and my time playing her has been awesome!  She dropped skinning for alchemy, donated metric tonnes of herbs and skins to the guild bank, joined in on World Boss Wednesday a couple weeks ago (missed it this week due to teenagers and broken bed frames), and joined in on some old world raiding and heroic dungeon fun last night!

We started out in Black Wing Lair and Black Wing Descent, then travelled to the Well of Eternity.  Then, we decided to finish out what was needed for the Glory of the Hero achievement. We started with Violet Hold in hopes that Ichoron would be summoned, but to no avail, so we went to the Oculus to get the Amber Void achievement, then to Utgarde Pinnacle for the Incredible Hulk and to try for My Girl Loves to Skadi All The Time.  The Incredible Hulk was a cinch, the other was not.  We'll be better prepared next time!  After this, we went on to get the ZombieFest achievement in the Culling of Stratholme, then left Arthas to finish cleaning up so we could move on to Halls of Stone for Brann Spankin' New (we tried for Abuse the Ooze, but didn't have the strategy until we'd killed too many oozes). Right about there, most of who was left of us were really tired, so I continued on with another hunter from the group and we were able to get a few achievements in Gundrak and Ahn'kahet. As usual, I wish I had taken more screenshots.  Still, what I got was pretty neat!  

Coolest boss entry, ever (which I missed)

A little less talk and a lot more action, please!

This is still one of the hardest fights I've ever done.  I floor tank well!

Hope you are all having as much fun as I am in game!  Tell me about it in the comments, or find me in game (Shawndrakai#1996).  Take lots of screenshots, and I hope to see you in Azeroth!

More Lights - Winter Solstice Challenge.

Another installment of mostly screenshots for the Winter Solstice Challenge.  Blog Azeroth is following our posts here if you have posted and want others to see that might not know about your blog. If you can't tell by some of the more recently dated screenshots, I've been playing mostly on my hunter on Cenarius, Carlatta.  She is what my old Carlotta on Smolderthorn would be if she ever reached cap.  I'll post some fun shots in my next post of her travels.  In the meantime, enjoy some light in this dreary, cold time of year!

Eerie Candlelight.

Light piercing the darkness.

Bug lights.

Beacon of Hope.

Firelight.

Street Light.

Northern Lights.

Blog Azeroth Solstice Advent Challenge.

Matty over at Sugar and Blood started a link party, of sorts.  Here is my first contribution to her Solstice Advent Challenge. I might do another post on this, but first I have to find some more cool lights in Azeroth. Thanks, Matty, for giving me a reason to look at my screenshot folder! Oh, and I know I'm supposed to do 21 screenshots.  I'll get there, but they're going to have to be grouped like this, because, teenagers and 7 year olds and husbands and granddaughter and stuff!

Spotlight!

Happy, Homey, Cozy Light.

Filtered Sunlight.

Catching Up.

Playing with my High-Powered Flashlight.

Dinnaeh was born to hang out with the guys from Channel Massive on Monday nights.  I missed out on some instance runs while I was out of WoW during the summer, so she fell behind. A few days ago, I got a tweet from one of my guild mates on the Arthas server.

Poor Dinnaeh, I hadn't played with her in so long, and had so much catching up to do.  She was only 48! So, I signed her up for the dungeon finder.

Anyone know what he is saying?

She had a lot of rested experience, so some of it went rather well.  I took her out for quests in the old world to get some ore while I waited, and I'm sure at least two levels were questing and ore gains.

I hate to kill some dragons.  

10 levels later, Dinnaeh ports from Winterspring to Orgrimmar, where the Warchief commands her to go to Outland.

Through the portal, and on to the Dark Portal!

Access Denied.

PvP was happening, and I had completely forgotten that we were on a PvP server.  Still, it's rather jerky to pick off lowbie just for kicks.  Once is cool, sometimes even twice if they are taking things you want (like ore and herbs and mobs).  I think I made the ghost run at least 4 times to get through the portal.  On the last one, I tried to blink though the portal.  Guess what?  Doesn't work.  I walked through the portal on the wrong side, denied the screenshot of her rite of passage.  I was pretty irked. 

Thrallmar was a pile of skeletons and dead npcs.  I flew out of there the minute the flight master respawned and headed for Shattrath, after trying in vain to get a few mining nodes in Hellfire Peninsula. Good thing PvP doesn't hurt your gear as much as PvE.

After getting to Shattrath, Dinnaeh entered the random dungeon queue again, and manage to level up to 62.  By then, I think we were both tired of seeing the inside of the Ramparts, and I took her to Zangarmarsh to learn more engineering and mine some more ore.  By then, it was time for the guys to run their dungeons, and they pitied my lowbiness and took me along.

Jedi Panda!

If I find the cash to play for another month, I'll even her out with the guys, who are at 65 and 66.  It's always fun hanging out with them, and I really missed it!

Haircut And A New Outfit.

Ho-Hum.

I love my draenei priest.  She has this great robe that you can't even get anymore, and that meant to me that she had to wear it all the time. Shadow form covers it so I don't think about it as much, but wearing the same clothes all the time when there is a whole world of robes out there to be worn is just out.  So, I took Halinka out for a day on Stormwind, complete with day spa visit and shopping spree at the auction house.

New Look!

I must admit to a bit of laziness when it comes to transmogging any characters gear lately.  If I can't find it in my bags or on the auction house, then it's not gonna happen.  I haven't updated my favorite transmog tool, WoW Model Viewer, in several patches, so it's broken.  That means I can't go try on every one handed weapon in the game files when I am looking for a match for, let's say, that robe up there. There were a few contenders up on the auction house, one of them being a super clunky mace from Pandaria with just the right colors of blue and green on the business end of things, but I didn't want it to overwhelm the clothing part of the transmog, so it stayed for sale.

Love the look, or parts of it?  Some of it is pretty easy to find from your local tailor (the shoulders and the belt).  The gloves I have been looking at for a while now.  The main hand weapon is pretty common, even if you can't find it on the auction house, you could probably loot it pretty easily while killing level 87-88 mobs. the offhand is a low level item you can have made my a scribe. No boots to show off, no back to cover up because this robe is fabulous! The drop rate on this robe is rather low, so it might be the hardest part to find, but it is so worth it.  Here, have some side and back views.

The detail on the back is so simple, but not worth hiding!

The spellblade handle glows like the shoulders.

The spell book is a little worn and faded, but it went better than the lantern from Nesingwary's.

I love this! I don't see much of it in shadow form, but knowing she looks better when the shadows lift is such a nice treat.  What do you think?  Any suggestions for an alternate weapon or offhand?  I'd love to hear them!

Wallflower.

I'm sitting at my desk, back at home after a great breakfast of something that isn't mostly sugar.  Hot cup of Earl Grey warming my hands, reading blog posts and smacking myself for being the flower and not the butterfly.  I missed meeting a lot of people at Blizzcon (hard to type that without a hash tag!), mostly because I blend in, hide, and don't turn around enough and introduce myself.  I love to people watch, and there was plenty of that to do!

Denny's, because Captain Kidd's was awful and we were starving!

Thursday night Jenny and I met up with the Orange County WoW Meetup group at Captain Kidd's Buffet(don't go there! The food is really nothing to get excited about!) to get her tickets and to stand in line together.  A large group of around 20 were there, and I didn't follow my own advice, so walking the almost a mile to the Convention Center in my pretty shoes about killed me!  Of course, then there was the long queue outside, the longer one inside, and walking all the way back, ugh!!  Poor Jenny, they told her no no, stand in the regular line, they aren't doing name changes anymore, but at the ticket point turned her to another line.  So bad, she ended up waiting another half an hour for her ticket while I gimped out to the fountain to hang out with Jennifer and some of her guildies from the Church. While walking back to the car, we met another Jen (no way! That Jennifer meetup at the meeting stone should totally have happened!), this one from the Shattered Soulstone podcast.  I had not heard of it, but I'll be listening in at work from now on. Finally in the car, I got a look at our sad little goody bag. I miss the little things, like the tissues and the hand sanitizer and the Zerg Creep.  Little toys are just as important as big collector items!  What are we gonna fiddle with on the way back to normal, the advertising poster?

*Suggested by Eric of World of Warcast,"You should flash them in their face repeatedly, like in game!"*

Friday I sat in on the Main Stage for the first two events, then my girlfriend Laura met us for lunch at PF Changs.  I was really surprised at how low the prices were!  Must be the off season menu pricing.  After lunch we wandered for a bit before we headed for our appointed slot at the Meeting Stone.  I tried, mostly in vain, to spam invites to our Meetup groups. We did meet a lovely girl who is a historian and a paladin, and a warrior tank, who sounds like he tanks for a living, that flex raids with Jennifer (she runs flex raids for Cut Throat Gaming). We also met ex-Californian Horde Twitch streamer Vanish who was so nice!  Not as many as I would have liked to spam invites to, but it was not all in vain, as CM-Rygarius came around and gave all 6 of us license plate frames! So cool! Now I have something to go with my Horde sticker on my car, which is not as awesome as this car people spotted at Blizzcon with the Horde symbol on the hood.  How many speeding tickets does that guy get a month?

What a waste of time.  Gigabyte did it better - tattoo yourself and get a shirt.  Sold!

I ended up sitting at the same table at the TNB party with Starman and Eric from World of Warcast, and Starman's co-host for his Apple podcast Kacey.  Yes, I know his real name isn't Starman, but after so many years of listening, it's stuck!  If you ever run into Eric fumbling with his many smart phones, ask him which is his favorite.  I wish I had recorded it, it was funny and so spot on!  I'm glad I had my friend Jenny with me, she is so outgoing and I was just so busy watching the door waiting for Navimie to show! When she finally did, I have to agree with Matty when saying that I felt much like a tauren standing next to her, instead of the undead I do play.  Such a charismatic lady, with a smile that goes well past her mouth and into her eyes and her gestures and words.  What little time I had to meet her was well worth it! I briefly met Rho from Realm Maintenance(and everywhere else! Such a busy guy!), Medros from All Things Azeroth(who guarded my phone while it charged), Fimlys and Hydra from Twisted Nether, and so many others I have yet to put names to.  Such a fun group, but I felt like running away too fast.  Loud music gets to me after a bit, and I knew the next day was going to be a long day, too.

Is KISS missing a band member? Next time I'm getting a baby murloc.

Saturday morning I lined up for a tattoo with Jenny and Jennifer (WowAdoree on Twitter and Twitch), then on a dare I got in line to get my face painted while the other two went over to the Mega Blocks booth to get figures.  I chatted with a nice young girl from Washington who plays an alliance panda, which solidified my choice for face paint.  I wore it all day long and got a few compliments.  I'm only sorry I wasted my time running around doing the treasure hunt and waiting for raffles to draw. I did manage to get Christie Golden to sign my Thrall book (What a great lady! Definitely someone I'd love to sit with for more than a few seconds and get to know!). Still, I can catch up on panels and such with the virtual ticket.  I should have wasted my time in line for something else, like group pictures or the Loot Elemental.  Well, maybe not that, that line was horrible!  I did sit in on the live raid, and another panel later that was just too hard to hear. Again, thanks Blizzard for the virtual ticket.  Those Starcraft fans are loud!

I hear the word is that there will be another next year.  If at all possible, I'll be there, in brighter colors and flitting around like Jennifer did and not staying as rooted as I usually do. Oh, and I'll bring more charging options so I'll feel that I can more freely take pictures and tweet!  Who would have thought two iPhones would drain 3 extra batteries before 5 on the first day?  Did you go?  Why didn't I find you there? Well, at least you visited me here.  Glad you stopped by!

*Actual words said about that escape me, but yes, he told me I should totally whip them out in front of peoples faces, just like in game invites.  Maybe this is why I still have most of the thirty I printed off, because I would never do that! They still work for random real world meetings of fellow WoW players, and are preferable to smacking another bumper sticker on my car.

Preparing for Blizzcon - Gear.

I realized today as I was frantically preparing food for 350 kids that I hadn't really given much thought to what I was going to need to prepare for Blizzcon. So, I'm writing a list of gear I need to take into Blizzcon with me here on my blog so I won't lose it.  This may be helpful to more than just me, so I guess it is post worthy.  That, and people must be wondering what the heck is going on, a it has been a while since my last post.  I'll talk about that after the list, because it is more important, because BLIZZCON!

Might be enough juice for one day.

• Phone chargers, lots of them.  I have a multi-purpose phone (who doesn't these days?)  and I expect to need some extra juice.  I have 3 portable packs and I'll have my Cord And Wall Charger for the evening when I pass out from all the fun.  I'm hoping that is enough!
• Sharpies, at least 3. I should also bring Something Fun For People To Sign, like an art book.  I'm not committed, though.  Who wants to carry that kind of weight around all day?  
• Notepads, probably 2. Not everyone will be toting Social Networking Cards.  I'm fiddling with some on my computer right now, but I may have to resort to just writing down my Battle.Net tag and web address on the back of your hand.  
• Pens and Pencils, probably 3 of each. Sharpies don't work well on thin notepad paper!
• Empty Reusable Plastic Water Bottle, because I'm not going to be buying drinks at the convention. I've weaned myself off of soda, and nothing tastes as good as water right now. Maybe I'll even invest in one of those filter straws, too. Water at my house is great, but I find everywhere else I go it has a chemical taste. Bleah!
• Comfortable Shoes. No explanation needed there.  I have an awesome pair of Skechers (and by awesome I mean the kids are ashamed to be seen with me when I wear them) that are like clouds on my feet. Good Socks are important, too, especially the kind that don't fall off  your heels while you walk.
• Well Stocked Wallet. ID, Medical Cards, ATM/Credit Cards, CASH, pictures of your cats.  Make sure you have a nice place in the bottom of your bag to stash it.  Better safe than sorry.
• First Aid Kit.  Conventions are filled with icky things.  Bandages, hand sanitizer, small bottles of your fave pain killer and TUMS, any meds you have to have on your person, antibiotic cream, even a small bottle of Benadryl might come in handy. Put it all in a nice little zippy pouch and stow it at the bottom of your bag for safe keeping.  Oh, and girls, need I mention the unmentionables?  Didn't think so.
• Phone.  OK, I know this is obvious.  For some, I would also add Gaming Device, because Blizzcon the last time I went was called Linecon by some under their breath.  There will be lots of waiting in lines, saving seats for panels, waiting at the Meeting Stone for people, waiting for me to remember what I was gonna say.  You'll need something to twiddle with, in between conversations.
• Camera. The one on my phone is fine for me, but if you want really good pictures of anything at Blizzcon, you'll want to have a good camera along.
• Bag. From the FAQ: “Any bags being brought into BlizzCon should be smaller than 20 inches x 10 inches (roughly the size of two sheets of paper side by side). Anyone with a bag larger than this may be refused entry.”  Most school sized back-packs are the right size.  I'm planning for a messenger type bag with a shoulder strap that crosses over me.  I was going to attempt to make a bag out of trading cards, but I should have started long ago.
• Snacks. Technically, this is not gear, but so essential!  I plan on having small packages of nuts, dried fruits, mints (for when I eat something not so friendly smelling), gum (for when I can't find the drinking fountain right away), veggie sticks, sliced apples with individual cups of peanut butter, and some fiber filled snack bars. I might even take my youngest daughter's suggestion of packing drink mix packets, just in case I don't get a filter for my water bottle. I plan on nibbling my way though the convention, so I can use what money I have for drinks after Blizzcon.

Maybe it's not too heavy to take...

Have any suggestions of other things I just have to add to my pack?  Drop me a note in the comments! I'm going to go round up some of these things and find my bag right now, so I can get ahead of things.  Next post?  My intended schedule of events!