So imagine my surprise to find several hundred people waiting in line. Nevertheless, I received my copy, and one more, for my son. I’ve been playing nothing else since. That’s my girl on the right. Of course she’s a blood elf. Of course she’s a chick. If you know me at all, you know my feelings on following a polygonal ass around for three hundred plus hours. (And if you don’t, they can be summed up as this – if I’m following an ass around that long, it might as well be a nice one. So most of my toons are chicks.) That’s Hiacynth, the hunter. As of today, Tuesday the 23rd, I have a level 18 hunter, a level 16 paladin, and a level 8 rogue. I know. I’ll have more comments on hunters as I go along — she’s definately my new main. But let me just say it’s almost embarrassing how easy it is to kill things with a hunter. I mean.. really. So as Cynth is the new main, I thought I’d pass on a little story about her acquisition of a new pet. Here ya go.
So I’ve reached level ten. In the lands of Eversong Forest, there are a basically two beasts that make suitable pets: Ghostpaw Lynx’s and a DragonHawke. I want something a little more exotic. And quite frankly, a little more sinister. So I travel down to the Ghostlands, south of Eversong, until I find what I’m looking for. A nice, nasty, grey spider. My first attempt at taming one goes awry, as a well-meaning paladin comes along and heals me several times, which causes the taming to fail. I patiently explain that while I understand his intentions are good, please go away. He does, and the second taming goes off without a hitch. I have a new grey spider pet named BloodLilly. I figure lets stay with the plants and flowers themes for names. Why not? It is an RP server after all.
But the next day, I see a hunter in the inn, and I notice two remarkable things about her. She has an excellent looking suit of matching leather armor, and she has an amazing pet. A brief conversation, and I learn that her pet is a ravager. Well, of course, nothing will do but to go get one of those. I’m off to the intARnet to figure out where they live. By the way, the leather armor she was wearing was Battered Leather — plain white gear available from any leathercrafter vendor. But it looks great on a level ten toon!!
So, it turns out the low level ravagers can be found in one place, and one place only. The Draenei starting zone. Yeah. Its on a complete other continent, and in the starting zone for the enemie’s new race. And I’m on a pvp server. Ohhh kayyy. At lunch the next day, I decide to set out.
My friend Robert also has a hunter, and when I tell him of my plan, though he’s playing with a baby on his shoulder from the house, he’s up for giving it a go as well. So at noon, Hiacynth and Aerya set out. We start in Silvermoon, the Blood Elves’ capital city. The Blood Elves have become fairly close allies with the forsaken, and as a token of the relationship, a portal has been installed to allow persons to teleport from our home city to the Forsaken’s capital city — The Undercity. So Aerya and I tap the portal, and blink over to Undercity.
Once there, we trot down the hill aways to where a blimp awaits. The blimp can get us across the sea, to the Orcish capital of Ogrimmar. It’s a bit of a wait for the blimp to show up, so we pass the time dancing on the landing platform. Several of the forsaken standing around there have never seen a Blood Elf before, so as you can imagine, the applause is unanimous. We’re such sluts. Okay I am.
The blimp arrives, and a quick flight across the Maelstrom, and we find ourselves in Oggrimaar. Now is the time I’m really glad Aerya is here. She’s been through horde lands before, and knows them passingly well. She at least knows which direction to take. Poor Cynth is walking around open jawed at the sites of the Orcish capital city, and would have wondered around directionless most of the day if Aerya hadn’t been there to set them out in the right direction. After some quick shopping, selling, and training, we set out south through the land of Durotar.
Aerya and I have both stabled our pets in anticipation of training a new one, but neither of us are comfortable trapsing across the wastelands without a pet at our side. So I stop long enough to tame a Raptor, and Aerya trains a Boar. I name my Dino. Then begins the running.
And more running. Where the hell is the Draenei starting zone anyway! It turns out it’s an island. And the only way to it is by boat. The boat leaves from Auberdine. Ugh. Heavy alliance territory. Should be interesting.
The trip across Durotar, and then the Barrens, while long, is fairly uneventful. Waves at a few passersby, and thats about it. Finally we reach Ashenvale, which is alliance territory. Now things get interesting. We are neither of us over level 14. The first mobs at this end of Ashenvale are level 22. Death. Things go wrong quickly, as in a very short time Aerya gets the attention of an immense spider. I sick Dino on him and run for my life. Aerya, not at her best (remember the baby’s still on Robert’s shoulder), decides to stop and attack, and is dead before her body hits the ground. I wait safely down the road for her spirit to return to its body, and within a relatively short time, we’re on the road again.
We have track humanoids on. We encounter our first alliance player, a level twenty something druid. He follows us.. and again Aerya stops, while I keep running. We do not engage.. our purpose is to tame, not to conquest — not today. And the druid eventually looses interest in following us and goes away. We make our way around Astranaar, picking our way carefully between the 20 something mobs, and keeping an eye out for players. We reach Darkshore without too much incident, and decide to leave the road, and try to come up the beach. We pass another group of players. Apparently the word’s out now. Aerya is far enough away to not be noticed, but a level 60 dwarven fellow spots me, and guns me down before I can get off the road. I ressurect my spirit, slip into the woods as discretely as possible. But now I’m in the worst part of Darkshore, where the bears and cats are thick, and I’m surrounded by cultists. Twice more I die and have to run back just from beast attacks. Finally I make it to the coast.
Aerya has faired better this part of the trip, and she’s far ahead of me. She’s found a little isle off the coast of Auberdine, where she can watch the ships come and go, and scope out the situation. The news is not good. The dock is heavily patrolled by sentinels. There is indeed a boat, and it’s design marks it clearly as the belonging to the Draenie. Unfortunately, its at the end of the docks, past several Night Elf Sentinel patrols. Roberts baby has woken from her nap on her dad’s shoulder, so Aerya decides to camp for the night on the island, and figure out a plan on the morrow.
With her companion gone, Cynthia decides to make a break for it. I figure if I start as soon as I see the boat approaching the dock, I might be able to swim to shore, hop on the dock, and run flat out down the dock to get on the boat. Maybe. Let’s do it.
The plan almost work. I get on the dock, and head down it. Patrols spot me immediately, and set off after me. I sick Dino on them, hoping he’ll hold them up at least long enough for me to get on the boat. Sadly, Dino’s no match for the Night Elf Sentinels, and the cut him down quickly. Too quickly. And now there are more patrols coming towards me from the end of the dock. I get about half way down before I’m cut down.
Still, I’m closer, and now I know I can resurrect at that point on the dock, and make it the remainder of the way on the ship. A Night Elf hunter has seen my attempt, and comes and sits down on top of my corpse. Bastard. I wait for him to go away. Eventually the boat arrives, and he’s more interested in getting on it than harrassing me, so he leaves. My boat arrives, and I wait until everyone departs it. Then I wait a bit more, and then ressurect and dash aboard. Whew! I duck behind the cabin on the far side, hopefully out of sight of anyone that comes aboard. No one does, thankfully. A few minutes later, and I’m leaping off the side of the boat and swimming ashore the island of Azuremyst — the Draenei starting area.
Now, I’ve already scouted someone by means of thottbot, so I have a good idea of where to find the ravagers. I set out across the middle of the zone, my time running short, and wanting to get the pet tamed as quickly as possible. I make it all the way to where the ravagers roam, without incident. Then, a level ten Draenei shaman spots me, and decides to come check me out. I can kill this fellow easily. But I know if I do so, that will bring the entire zone down on me. I really want to get in and get out.
So I smile. I wave. I bow. I point to a ravager. He smiles. He waves. He thinks I’m a sexy devil. He aggros a ravager, and I help him kill it. Good. Maybe I got the message across. Not sure. He’s just standing around, watching. Nothing to do but go for it. I find a likely candidate. Good muscle definition. No scars. I begin to tame her.
I’m almost three quarters of the way through the taming when the shaman decides that would be a good time to unload. I’ve already lost a good bit of health from the taming process. And I’m channelling an ability. If I interrupt it, the entire process is lost. So he begins hammering me with spells. What a dick. Hey it’s pvp, what should I expect. Sadly, he kills me before I can get the beast tamed, so I can’t sick the beast on him. I run my spirit back, and he’s no where to be found. Duh. Shaking my head, I resurrect, and find another beast.
Within a few minutes, she’s tamed, and I have an incredible new pet. I name her PoisonThorn.
I hearth home.