A Big Leap Forward
Our Friday session was pretty epic - we covered a lot of new ground. (There was no Saturday session - we were too busy to play beyond a quick check of auctions and mail.)
We started off by going back to Theramore and heading straight out into Dustwallow Marsh. Just off the road north is Swamplight Manor where we picked up three quests - "Swamp Eye" Jarl the cook needed some frog legs, Mordant Grimsby wanted us to whack some Risen Spirits, and we found a document written in Orcish that would have to be returned to Theramore.
Theramore could wait so we went out into the area around the manor to take care of the other two quests (easy) which led to two more quests; Jarl wanted us to pick up spider eyes from Darkmist Cavern to the west, while Grimsby needed us to pick some Witchbane plants from around the marsh nearby. We took care of the witchbane first and Grimsby gave us another quest - he made a torch from the witchbane and had us light it at the end of the dock outside the manor to see what it would summon. What it summoned was Zelfrax, a level 36 demon with bat wings. At this time I was level 35 and Kate 36; Zelfrax wasn't a problem and with him out of the way we headed west to find Darkmist Cavern.
The cavern isn't hard to find although it looked a lot more like an abandoned mine than a natural cavern. In any case there are plenty of spiders in and around the place so it didn't take long to fill the quota of eyes that Jarl needed. We also found that it's one fairly good place to find the white spider meat that we've been looking for (I picked up enough to make ten lots of spider sausage).
We didn't head back to the manor right away, instead choosing to head south to explore the marsh a bit more and try to find the turtles we needed for another quest from earlier. The first find was Brackenwall Village, which is a Horde settlement so we left it pretty well alone. Further to the south we found Tabetha's Farm where we picked up another handful of quests - one to test a totem against some crocolisks, another to gather some marsh venom from the spiders and shredders around the farm, and one to find a Zeppelin crash site to the east.
We left off the crash site quest for a bit and took care of the other two quests. While we were doing that I found a road to the west and followed it a little way to the north - and found another road leading west, right into The Barrens so now we had a second way to get there. There was also a sign pointing to the Shady Rest Inn, but it turns out the place is a smoking ruin.
We headed back to Tabetha's Farm and closed out the two quests then went east to find the zeppelin crash site. There was a gnome there who wanted us to knock down some of the oozes wandering around the area and to pick up some of the supplies scattered around in the crash. Thanks to the Ooze Buster that she gave us the oozes weren't too hard (without it, we'd found, they're pretty tough - level 40 or more) and it didn't take long to complete the quests.
We didn't finish mapping the very southernmost part of the area; instead we went east to the water and swam across the bay back to Sentry Point then ran up the road from there so that we could give Jarl his spiders' eyes and close that quest out. Jarl gave us one last quest - to find a murloc called Razorspine north of the manor and get a sword from him. After a quick trip back into Theramore to close out the quest with the Orcish message, we headed north.
We didn't find Razorspine; what we did find was that if you go far enough along the beach you end up in The Barrens again, and when we continued along a bit further we found the port town of Ratchet.
This part of the Barrens is actually rather nice - it has the feel of a coastal town in north Africa and just inland is an area with animals that look a lot like lions, hyenas, zebras (the Azeroth counterparts are called Zhevras) and giraffes. Ratchet itself has a bank and a flightmaster - very handy.
We were able to close out a quest here by finding Wharfmaster Dizzywig on the dock, and he gave us the next quest which would mean taking a boat to Booty Bay. So off we went...
Booty Bay is in the very southernmost part of the Eastern Kingdoms, in Stranglethorn Vale. We didn't take much time to explore but we found the flightmaster and closed out the quest that Dizzywig had given us; the next quest in that chain will take us to Darkshire. With those couple of things done we took the boat back to Ratchet.
Kate needed (and still needs) to get her First Aid skill boosted a bit, since she's maxed out the points at her current skill level (Master, I think), and to do that we needed an auction house and a first aid trainer, so we flew from Ratchet all the way up to Darnassus. It also meant that Kate could get training to use a bow, since the only Alliance bow trainer in the world is there.
With that done I flew back to Ratchet, thinking that we'd be continuing with the quest to find Razorspine, but as it happened the first aid training wasn't successful and we thought Kate needed another book from Deneb Walker in Stromgarde Keep. She also needed Razor Arrows and I had to fly on from Ratchet to Theramore before I could find someone who sold them before flying back to Ratchet, where we joined up again.
We decided to try Stromgarde Keep, and from Ratchet it's easy - by boat back to Booty Bay then a flight to Refuge Pointe. We made our way out to Stromgarde but it turned out that Kate had already got all the books that Deneb Walker had available. This left us at a bit of a loss as to what to do next on the first aid front.
But there we were in the Arathi Highlands and we had a quest to do there, so we decided to take care of it. This was the one that meant getting the keys from the Circles of East, West and Outer Binding and taking them to the Circle of Inner Binding. Each circle is guarded by level 38/39 elementals, but by this time we'd got new levels (38 for me, 39 for Kate) and they weren't too hard.
With the keys gathered and taken to the last circle, we got one more quest - to find a giant called Fozruk. We'd seen him around and we thought we knew where to find him, but we looked around for a while without any luck, so we decided to call time and headed back to Ironforge to take care of the usual business and pack it in for the day.
Afterward I did a little bit of research; it turns out that Fozruk wanders along the main road between the Circles of East and West binding, a little bit away from where we'd looked for him. At least we know where to look next. And on the first aid front, Kate needs to go back to Theramore to find the Trauma Surgeon - he has the missing piece of training she needs to progress.
So, all in all, a very productive session. We advanced three levels; we explored almost all of Dustwallow, found Ratchet and Booty Bay, and found two new ways into The Barrens so that we're getting ever closer to Thousand Needles.
We still have quests to close out in Dustwallow - we never did find Razorspine - and a little more exploring to do to finish up, and I'm guessing the first priority on our next trip will be to take care of Kate's first aid in Theramore.
We started off by going back to Theramore and heading straight out into Dustwallow Marsh. Just off the road north is Swamplight Manor where we picked up three quests - "Swamp Eye" Jarl the cook needed some frog legs, Mordant Grimsby wanted us to whack some Risen Spirits, and we found a document written in Orcish that would have to be returned to Theramore.
Theramore could wait so we went out into the area around the manor to take care of the other two quests (easy) which led to two more quests; Jarl wanted us to pick up spider eyes from Darkmist Cavern to the west, while Grimsby needed us to pick some Witchbane plants from around the marsh nearby. We took care of the witchbane first and Grimsby gave us another quest - he made a torch from the witchbane and had us light it at the end of the dock outside the manor to see what it would summon. What it summoned was Zelfrax, a level 36 demon with bat wings. At this time I was level 35 and Kate 36; Zelfrax wasn't a problem and with him out of the way we headed west to find Darkmist Cavern.
The cavern isn't hard to find although it looked a lot more like an abandoned mine than a natural cavern. In any case there are plenty of spiders in and around the place so it didn't take long to fill the quota of eyes that Jarl needed. We also found that it's one fairly good place to find the white spider meat that we've been looking for (I picked up enough to make ten lots of spider sausage).
We didn't head back to the manor right away, instead choosing to head south to explore the marsh a bit more and try to find the turtles we needed for another quest from earlier. The first find was Brackenwall Village, which is a Horde settlement so we left it pretty well alone. Further to the south we found Tabetha's Farm where we picked up another handful of quests - one to test a totem against some crocolisks, another to gather some marsh venom from the spiders and shredders around the farm, and one to find a Zeppelin crash site to the east.
We left off the crash site quest for a bit and took care of the other two quests. While we were doing that I found a road to the west and followed it a little way to the north - and found another road leading west, right into The Barrens so now we had a second way to get there. There was also a sign pointing to the Shady Rest Inn, but it turns out the place is a smoking ruin.
We headed back to Tabetha's Farm and closed out the two quests then went east to find the zeppelin crash site. There was a gnome there who wanted us to knock down some of the oozes wandering around the area and to pick up some of the supplies scattered around in the crash. Thanks to the Ooze Buster that she gave us the oozes weren't too hard (without it, we'd found, they're pretty tough - level 40 or more) and it didn't take long to complete the quests.
We didn't finish mapping the very southernmost part of the area; instead we went east to the water and swam across the bay back to Sentry Point then ran up the road from there so that we could give Jarl his spiders' eyes and close that quest out. Jarl gave us one last quest - to find a murloc called Razorspine north of the manor and get a sword from him. After a quick trip back into Theramore to close out the quest with the Orcish message, we headed north.
We didn't find Razorspine; what we did find was that if you go far enough along the beach you end up in The Barrens again, and when we continued along a bit further we found the port town of Ratchet.
This part of the Barrens is actually rather nice - it has the feel of a coastal town in north Africa and just inland is an area with animals that look a lot like lions, hyenas, zebras (the Azeroth counterparts are called Zhevras) and giraffes. Ratchet itself has a bank and a flightmaster - very handy.
We were able to close out a quest here by finding Wharfmaster Dizzywig on the dock, and he gave us the next quest which would mean taking a boat to Booty Bay. So off we went...
Booty Bay is in the very southernmost part of the Eastern Kingdoms, in Stranglethorn Vale. We didn't take much time to explore but we found the flightmaster and closed out the quest that Dizzywig had given us; the next quest in that chain will take us to Darkshire. With those couple of things done we took the boat back to Ratchet.
Kate needed (and still needs) to get her First Aid skill boosted a bit, since she's maxed out the points at her current skill level (Master, I think), and to do that we needed an auction house and a first aid trainer, so we flew from Ratchet all the way up to Darnassus. It also meant that Kate could get training to use a bow, since the only Alliance bow trainer in the world is there.
With that done I flew back to Ratchet, thinking that we'd be continuing with the quest to find Razorspine, but as it happened the first aid training wasn't successful and we thought Kate needed another book from Deneb Walker in Stromgarde Keep. She also needed Razor Arrows and I had to fly on from Ratchet to Theramore before I could find someone who sold them before flying back to Ratchet, where we joined up again.
We decided to try Stromgarde Keep, and from Ratchet it's easy - by boat back to Booty Bay then a flight to Refuge Pointe. We made our way out to Stromgarde but it turned out that Kate had already got all the books that Deneb Walker had available. This left us at a bit of a loss as to what to do next on the first aid front.
But there we were in the Arathi Highlands and we had a quest to do there, so we decided to take care of it. This was the one that meant getting the keys from the Circles of East, West and Outer Binding and taking them to the Circle of Inner Binding. Each circle is guarded by level 38/39 elementals, but by this time we'd got new levels (38 for me, 39 for Kate) and they weren't too hard.
With the keys gathered and taken to the last circle, we got one more quest - to find a giant called Fozruk. We'd seen him around and we thought we knew where to find him, but we looked around for a while without any luck, so we decided to call time and headed back to Ironforge to take care of the usual business and pack it in for the day.
Afterward I did a little bit of research; it turns out that Fozruk wanders along the main road between the Circles of East and West binding, a little bit away from where we'd looked for him. At least we know where to look next. And on the first aid front, Kate needs to go back to Theramore to find the Trauma Surgeon - he has the missing piece of training she needs to progress.
So, all in all, a very productive session. We advanced three levels; we explored almost all of Dustwallow, found Ratchet and Booty Bay, and found two new ways into The Barrens so that we're getting ever closer to Thousand Needles.
We still have quests to close out in Dustwallow - we never did find Razorspine - and a little more exploring to do to finish up, and I'm guessing the first priority on our next trip will be to take care of Kate's first aid in Theramore.
Labels: Draenei Paladin, Games, WoW
posted by Pete Ford at
1:32 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home