A Night Elf in Ironforge

This adventure was spent in and around the Dwarven(fish?) city of Ironforge. It had two strands: one was accumulating more information about the party I am following. Honrid and Tikka are now wanted for murdering their parents and there is a hefty reward offered, which I might try to get for myself. Ironforge is their home city so several people knew them -- I feel as if I'm definitely on the right track with my

The second strand found me hijacked by my colleagues in SI6 -- Sylvya was rather irritated by this, particularly because as a Night Elf she doesn't like doing favours for Dwarfs: being told to do something 'because it's your job' is just annoying. And I could feel her blood pressure rising as she once again had to remind a contact that she hadn't been paid recently.

Anyway -- a mysterious 'scroungy-looking' man on the tram told her to speak to a barman at a gnomish inn and say 'MK sent me'. I didn't write down my instructions and Bettany distracted me and then I found I had forgotten them when the time came. Luckily I remembered enough that the barman gave me a note (which I carefully copied into my spy diary).

The instructions told me to access a legendary undercity called Old Ironforge and check what the Dark Iron Dwarfs were up to down there. I was to get more information by handing over two oranges to a party called Huldur Blackbeard, who I would find in The Forlorn Cavern. I was to take my information over the mountains to Mikhal at Menethil Harbour. I spent some time enjoying Ironforge (you, too, can enjoy Ironforge on the WoW Wiki), chatting to people (mostly slightly unfriendly to a Night Elf tourist). I concocted a cover story -- I was the servant of a Night Elf scholar who was inexplicably interested in Dark Iron Dwarfs ('I know... scholars eh?')

Then I made my way to The Forlorn Cavern where I found a humourless Dwarf with a black beard:
Sylvya: Do you like fruit?
Dwarf: Depends what kind.
Sylvya: Oranges?
Dwarf: Go on...
Sylvya: I've got ONE orange for you.
Dwarf: ...
Sylvya: Just kidding, here's another.
Dwarf: That kind of thing is going to get you killed.

Blackbeard said that there was a magically concealled entrance outside Ironforge and sent me to a riding ram ranch. He also said that Tikka and Honrid had been framed by an organisation called the Twilight Cult. I waited until morning to set out -- it looked cold and dark outside. This proved to be a mistake in some ways as a black cloaked assassin tried to kill me in the night. I didn't have the advantage of stealth so I yelled for help before slashing away. I got a good stab in with my two daggers before the innkeeper arrived with his trusty frying pan. The human assassin was in a bad way, but he came round for long enough that I could ask him a few questions. He muttered something about a black dragonfly and said that she would have killed him anyway before expiring.

I found a family in mourning -- their daughter had run off with those two troublesome dwarf lads and got herself killed by the Dark Irons. I asked, as delicately as I could -- with NO JOKES this time and staying under my cover story -- if they could tell me about Dark Irons. I followed the farmer's information up into the hills and came across two DIs guarding some rocks. I waited to see how the gate worked -- I didn't want to get stuck inside. Then I nobbled the two guards, looted the bodies and took their ears as trophies before letting myself in.

I nobbled and looted another DI despite some atrocious roll-to-hits. Then I reached a large cavern where there were three more DIs and a lot of large eggs. I decided that I wasn't being paid enough to fight against three. I listened in, and discovered that they were waiting for a lady to visit the following day.

Sylvya could have taken this information off to Mikhal at Menethil Harbour -- but I decided that my superiors might want to know more about the lady so (stopping briefly to hand over my DI ears to the underwhelmingly grateful farmer and to buy a riding ram from him) I hurried back to Blackbeard and told him all. He also displayed underwhelming gratitude and asked me to stake out the concealed entrance and watch for the lady's arrival. Sylvya definitely felt a bit disgruntled about this and asked to be paid for her trouble. Anyway, she waited and was rewarded -- a cloaked lady arrived and turned her pale red-eyed face towards Sylvya's hiding place in a very sinister manner, almost as if she knew she was being watched...

(I need to decide which voice I'm writing in -- it switches between player and character throughout this piece).

Sylvya sets out

On Thursday last week (not the Thursday that's just happened, the one before that) Meredith and I sent my new night elf rogue out on her first adventure. We've decided to make her a level 3 character so that she keeps up with the rest of the Tuesday Knights until I (and my character) can rejoin them.

Meredith took the time to teach me how to drive my rogue -- they are a little bit different to your warriors and magic users. They are lightly armoured; and they don't have cure light wounds. This makes them vulnerable in combat so ideally you want to avoid getting hit in the first place. World of Warcraft rogues have stealth which gives them the advantage of surprise, but it switches off if they do anything. This is particularly relevant in combat -- you can't biff an orc on the nose and then disappear again; you have to stand there and finish the fight. When the fighting is over you have to remember to switch stealth back on otherwise you could charge into a situation without the protection of your sneaky advantage. I wrote STEALTH in large letters on my jotter to make sure I remembered. I was thinking that next time I might use a visual aid to remind me: maybe draping a piece of cloth over my miniature (my miniature is presently a Champagne cork with a face drawn on it, borrowed from Alec's toybox).

Sylvya is a spy and her minder sends her on a mission to track a mysterious band consisting of two humans and two dwarfs (ie, the rest of the Tuesday Knights). I followed up a few leads in Darnassus, which led me to talk to a centaur who was willing to provide information in exchange for me doing some sabotage against the Hoard. I trashed some heavy lumberjacking machinery for him and had the time of my life -- it seems Sylvya has a bit of a hippie streak which I will be exploring further.

I got further information from a personable gnome -- I handed him rather a lot of gold and he handed me a rumpled wanted notice for the gang.

I discovered my quarry had set out for The Eastern Kingdoms. This was turning into a major mission with a huge amount of travelling -- luckily Sylvya has no parents so she's well up for it. I got myself a small side commission from the Chief Druid because I gave him news of his protege Galatea and handed over her stuff (the bits I couldn't sell, anyway).

I like information-gathering missions more than the fighty ones; and I like sneaking missions, too, so a rogue will suit me well. I'm a bit disappointed that I forgot about my pickpocketing skills and I failed to loot the body of the goblin that I killed while doing my sabotaging. I want to play Sylvya as a compulsive thief, so I will add a large note to my jotter next time.

Meanwhile, the Tuesday Knights team were continuing their own adventures...

Good night, Galatea.

So, we left Galatea fretting at the chains that bound her to her dull home life and her steady, kind betrothed Tyrion. This gaming session started with Tyrion's disappearance. He'd left  on his work bench a roughed out carving made from an irridescent wood that no-one can identify. Everyone was mystified -- he's shown no inclination towards disappearing or sculpting before.

Galatea goes out to look for him and on the road is surprised to be jumped and enthusiastically kissed. It's Tyrion, but there's a strange light in his eyes and a strange giggling tone to his laugh. When she demands an explanation he prances off into the woods, still giggling.

Galatea, her family and Tyrion's are now very concerned. Their only lead is this green wood, which came in on a special shipment ordered by Tyrion. When it is suggested that the wise trees at the Grove of the Ancients might be able to help, Galatea jumps at the chance to go adventuring again save her fiancé. She sets out with a sample of the wood, hiring a riding cat along the way. At the Grove of the Ancients they point her towards the Dryads at Rainfell, telling her to talk to Romulin.

An uneventful journey (apart from picking up a bit of info about her friends Panril, Tomalok, Tikka and Honrid from a helpful innkeeper) brought her to the dryads. Romulin advised her that she had a spell stuck to her (a leftover from her previous adventures). He took it off; and then listened to her account of her fiance's transformation.

The wood is cursed, it seems, and the poison is slowly turning Tyrion into a satyr. He will probably try to make for Satyrnar but he can be saved if Galatea is able to intercept him and administer an antidote before the transformation is complete. It's a tall order -- the road to Satyrnar passes close by a Hoard camp.

That night the Dryads are invaded by fierce fuzzballs -- Galatea joins in the fight and acquits herself well (despite some awful rolls).

The next day, however, the dice turned against her -- she met with two orcs on the road and though she contemplated trying to sneak round them, decided that she'd been spotted and would have to face them directly. It was not a good encounter, and she didn't make it out the other side.

It's gutting when your character dies and Meredith was just as distressed by this turn of events. We briefly discussed bringing Galatea back to life -- we both felt we'd invested in her and grown fond of her; but there seemed to be no authentic way of doing it. This world is dangerous: the weapons are real; the wounds are real. I mourned, shrugged and moved on -- it's the gambling aspect of RPG. The more you invest in a character, the more you get out of the game; and the more you invest the higher the stakes at every combat. High stakes make for exciting gaming -- I get a real adrenalin rush from risking a character I've worked hard at, and real feelings for relief when they survive a tricky encounter.

We rolled up a new character, Sylvya Starshade, another Night Elf with itchy feet, but a rogue this time. She was following Galatea to practise her rogue skills and witnessed her death. She raids Galatea's pack and makes off with her stuff, notably the  +1AC necklace and the Snowdrop Robe. She can't use the robe herself -- too cumbersome -- but she is thinking she might get a reward from Galatea's family if she brings the sad news to them and the robe will act as proof.

Picture from Wikimedia Commons

Botanising and ghost-busting with Meredith

Meredith has very kindly agreed to run a spin-off of her World of Warcraft Tuesday Knights campaign for my character the night elf Galatea Dusklight. This means that Galatea will keep up with Panril and the guys in terms of level, skills and character development; and it means that I get a fortnightly dose of gamey goodness.

Two weeks ago Galatea was dismayed to find herself framed for murder in her own home town. She put on her gumshoes, enlisted the help of her fiancé Tyrion and walked the streets of Darnassus until she caught the murderer. It turned out that the murderer was their childhood friend who had gone mad from jealousy. She abducted poor Tyrion and Galatea had to rush in and save him. I was surprised at how irritated I felt about the whole relationship with Tyrion -- he's apprenticed to Galatea's father and is eager to settle down. Galatea, it seems, now has a taste for adventure and is not happy with the idea of laying aside her druidic path in order to please him.

The next adventure, played out yesterday, had Galatea's mother, a herbalist, sending her out to a distant ruin to collect some rare purple lotus flowers from the ruins at Emet Erith. The adventure started with a few embarrassments: she had to borrow three gold off her mother; and then hired a big cat to ride, tried to mount and ended up facing the creature's tail. Time for some riding lessons. The flower-picking was complicated by banshees in the ruins and a distraught druid named Sirilian who had woken from the Emerald Dream to find his wife a troubled ghost. 'Can you free her by severing the connection between her body and spirit? I can't bring myself to do it.' Galatea, it seems, can't resist a love story so she signed up. She dispatched three banshees and was surprised to find that when slain these dishevelled horrors turn into solemn, grateful High Elves ghosts who bow and then vanish. Fighting banshee was OK; fighting two was a close-run thing that needed a fair bit of luck and lot of Cure Light Wounds.

The quest turned up a goodly haul of loot: a necklace giving +1 to armour class from Sirilion; and a robe that gives +1 to Galatea's healing spells from the Archdruid who was impressed by Galatea's ghostbusting and was grateful to hear news of Sirilion. Also, she managed to flog some surplus purple lotus to a herbalist in Darnassus which much improved her cash flow situation.

I only played a couple of sessions with the other Tuesday Knights and I'd been finding it hard to get a handle on Galatea: she doesn't have any stand-out flaws (like Clodius who with his low, low intelligence would hit first and ask questions much, much later) or any strange gifts like Sister Justinia's singing. Playing Meredith's more character-led games (I'm not a huge fan of combat rounds, although playing them out with Alec's toys helps me to visualise it) has really helped to flesh out my night elf druid. I knew that she was reckless -- when we met her she was hugely in debt after a bet that went wrong. I didn't really appreciate the effect this would have on the people around her -- her... I suppose the Archdruid is technically her boss does not get on well with her, but is now gaining a grudging respect from him. I feel rather sorry for her fiance -- but not so sorry that she will eschew her adventuring ways!