Sandwich Rations

(( With Ethel's growing concern about Tiforis and Ovistine's continuing worry over Valinar -- what with both of those lads having Shadow's Edge whispering to them now -- a pair of dwarves found themselves wondering if it might be good to keep a constant eye on their menfolk. But how to get that eye into Icecrown Citadel, close enough to watch their battles? Well, a certain shaman was putting together a Jeeves, and... ))

Teu hummed to herself as she applied her shiny new Gnomish Army Knife to a King's Amber. Valyrie could barely watch; such a nice gem to be cut in such an amateur fashion! On the other hand, lately Teu had been making all sorts of neat things--target dummies (some of which exploded in a terrific burst of color when Valyrie attacked them), explosive sheep, and boxes and boxes full of saronite bombs.

"Do I get some?" Valyrie had asked, only to be met by an indignant puff of air and a five-minute lecture on how bombs are not for inside the house. As if the furniture didn't need replacing anyway!

It had brought a bit of company by, which was also welcome; Teu had mentioned that the tiny braided dwarf was coming over to help Teu put together her new robotic butler, who was apparently going to clean the house for them. Valyrie was entirely in favor of this plan. When the knock came at Teu and Valyrie's door, Valyrie hopped up and went off to answer it.

The braided dwarf looked up, and up, and squinted at Valyrie. "'Ey there, Miss Valyrie. Is Teu ready to get started putting her Jeeves together?"

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...a healer HoTter than a tree.

Ovinia puts down roots in the Nexus

Ovinia is now 72 and shaking her leaves like nobody's business! While it will take some time for me to put down roots into the resto tree, I'm happy to have branched out this way! Healing as a tree is fun beyond beleaf!

Okay, okay, I'll stop, really.

It's a very different experience from healing as a disc priest (SO MANY BUTTONS OMG) or a resto shammy (everyone stand together in a pile! now chain heal! chain heal like nobody's business!). I haven't actually specced my paladin holy in LK, so I can't speak to that, although I can't help but think it is also very different from tree-healing. ^_^ It's a combination of constantly being on the edge of your seat and getting to relax and think "wow, my HoTs will just keep everyone alive with no problem!" the whole time. I think I was more intent on Grid than I've been in ages, though hopefully I didn't stand in much.

I also got a nice new belt and a quest-reward cloak out of the deal, which was great, too. And I got to flip Grand Magus Telestra the bird, because HAHAHA OVITREE COULD HEAL THROUGH THAT. (Being flung all over the place just isn't a shaman's favorite fight mechanic ever...)

Now that I've inflicted myself on friends (thanks, guys!), I'm tempted to wander through more random dungeons, trying my hand at this tree-healing business. I wish Ovinia had more of an RP backstory, but she is more or less a blank slate. I have a vague idea that her favorite shapeshift form is actually her aquatic form, because she loves the water, and that when not adventuring, she actually lives on (or owns?) a boat near Darkshore (and has been a part of a few different boats' crews over the last several decades), but I have no further ideas yet. Kaldorei RP has a lot of potential, but it's just never been as close to my heart as, er, certain other races. Still, it's time to get over the ancient dwarvish fear of trees, I think! It'll be fun seeing what tree-healing is like in a little more detail. (It may also make me a little less trigger-happy in my raids, so I can stop sniping so many heals out from under our excellent druid healers. Ahem.)

(By which I don't mean "RPing impatient characters". That'd be a different post!)

How often do you get impatient for something big to happen for your character? Whether it's a wedding, a breakup, a character revamp, or just having the opportunity to RP with a well-loved but rarely-seen character, there are often circumstances that prevent us from being able to snap our fingers and declare "boom! done!" about something.

When it's a matter of lining schedules up, that can be frustrating. When it's a matter of many plots weaving together properly, that can be challenging.

When you are waiting for Cataclysm to come out so you can race-change your most-logged-in character and have her take over the mantle of the character you still consider your main, it can drive you UP THE DAMN WALL.

In a way, I kind of wonder if the impatience I'm feeling toward getting to play Ovistine full-time again is rubbing off on poor Teuthida. Teuthida's major plotline, I felt, had a lot to do with Kael'Thas -- she and Valyrie originally set off on the mission to retake Tempest Keep, ended up on the Exodar, and after many adventures, took the bastard down. Her real goal at this point has always been to help rebuild Shattrath City and try to help out at the orphanage. But off she trots into Naxxramas... Ulduar... Trial of the Crusader... Icecrown Citadel... not because she wants to, but because I love playing a shaman.

How's she doing now? Well, she's not really enjoying herself in ICC; she comes home smelling terrible, she's not entirely convinced Arthas can be beaten, and she simply doesn't have the same kind of background with the heroes of Azeroth that other people do. (She barely blinks an eyelash at Muradin Bronzebeard, and has yet to figure out why Muradin calling out "By me own beard!" makes several members of her adventuring party raise their boomsticks or steins in a loud /cheer.) Arthas, ultimately, worries her a lot, and she's not so sure her time is best-spent there in ICC, as opposed to being home with Valyrie or going back to Shattrath and trying to make sure a few orphaned Draenei have a really great next few years (even if the next few years are all that's left).

I, on the other hand, pretty much love ICC. The fights are challenging but not impossible, the plot is great, and I'm really excited to see how it all works out for us (PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NO SPOILERS). I'm really having a good time there, and it's nice to know that there's still so much new content ahead of us.

Mind you, there's an RP reason for Ovistine not to be in Icecrown Citadel right now -- with her memory and abilities as fractured as they are, she knows she can't be trusted to go into the front lines. She doesn't know when her healing abilities will be cut off again -- it could happen at any moment. She doesn't know whether she'll always be able to harness chaos and walk in shadows, or if that's at some risk of going away with the light as well. ICC is really dangerous, and Ovistine's not about to put her friends at risk by asking them to bring along a priest who may or may not be reliable, albeit through no fault of her own.

There's still Ovi's memory to sort out before she can really tackle the other alternative, the one she hasn't even thought about yet -- harnessing healing energies the way the Wildhammers do it. I have a character in play who's intended to be a possible pathway to that end, but I'm leaving my options open -- I don't want to lock myself into one true storyline, since I think improvising Ovi's story has been an awful lot of fun over the past several months. But at some point, I should probably write up a quick bit on Varrim Featherstoneshire (Fanshaw), a former gryphon rider who took a very bad fall and is not even a little bit happy about being grounded for the foreseeable future.

Ovistine was glad, now, that she hadn't given up her room at A Hero's Welcome; it would likely be another few days before things were back to normal in Stormwind, and with her flat in the Dwarven District--and the Dwarven District still being heavily guarded both inside and outside the gates--she'd just as soon come and go as she pleased.

So it was back to Dalaran, first for a soak in the tub to scrub the last bits of soot off herself and out of her braids, and then, hair tucked up in a towel, bundled up in a robe, off to the balcony with a pint in hand, looking over the beer gardens.

She'd expected the memories to stay -- or to come back, at least. She'd had them, she knew it, but they were gone now, something covering them over.

The idea of going back into shadow was a terrifying one--the last thing she needed was to turn into a trogg--but if that was where her memories were, so be it.

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(( Picking up from here. If you're wondering about Aldras Hale, see this post from the wayback machine. ))

It was times like this Ovistine wished she had a shield like her mother's. There were so many people, and she could only toss out her Light-focused shields so often--though a great deal more often than eight years ago, that was for certain. Still, a hammer in one hand and a shield in the other--she could see the appeal in that.

Two hands landed on her shoulders, and Ovistine didn't even have time to turn around before someone yelled, "Ovi--disperse!" at her.

And the hell of it was, she knew how.

She and the priest behind her vanished into shadowsmoke, and when the axe cut through both their bodies, she barely even winced at it.

She was busy.

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(( I don't often have the opportunity to get involved in large-scale open RP threads, but when this one came up with the Wildfire Riders (see the timeline), it was something I couldn't pass by. With my girls both having strong ties to people in Stormwind -- for good or bad -- and with Ovistine actually living there, it seemed more than likely that they'd be on the ground when the excrement hit the Ultrasafe Air Diverter. The rumor that the Cathedral fire might have been started by members of the Scarlet Crusade was kind of the icing on the cake. And so... ))

Ovistine sighed at the loud pounding on her front door. It was a little too easy to guess who the fist belonged to, but she supposed she'd put her mother off long enough. She swung the door open just as Nancie had raised her fist again; the two dwarves blinked at each other for a few seconds.

"Mum," Ovistine said, nodding.

"Lass." Nancie stood back, dropping her hand back to her side and clearing her throat. She didn't look much different, Ovistine thought--no new wrinkles, hair still up in its customary bun to hold it out of the way, still in the same fighting condition she'd been in last Ovistine had seen her. Her armor was a little different, and she wore a red tabard with two white mugs on it, the same sort of tabard Ovistine had seen on the other members of the Boomstick Gang. Ovistine had two such tabards--one red, one black--but hadn't been comfortable putting them on again just yet.

"Were you on your way somewhere?" Ovistine asked. She nodded at Nancie's armor. "Full gear, eh?"

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(( It should be noted that this takes place shortly before Darion Mograine sends Valinar on a quest in which he's tasked with recovering Light's Vengeance, and several days before Shadow's Edge sends Valinar out on A Feast For Souls. ))

Eight years of journals was a great deal to sift through. Ovistine had, at first, started at the beginning and worked her way forward, looking at entries about her mum's return from the war and all the speculation her older self had done about where Nancie had been, who she'd been with, why she'd come home the way she had--but it was a hell of a lot of reading in order to find out that yes, Mum had eventually gone back to fighting, because Mum was a fighter at heart. Well, fine; Ovistine knew that already.

Of more interest were entries that started five or so years back, entries about an elf--an elf named Valinar, who started off as "Mum's friend from the Stormpike Guard" and eventually progressed to just "the elf".

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Well, don't get me wrong: the loot is fantastic. There are many things in there that are outstanding, and I'm collecting Frost badges as quickly as I can -- I desperately want the Frost Witch helm. There's even a freaking caster shield in there -- AND WE HAVE SEEN IT DROP. (I personally never saw the one in Naxx, never saw the hardmode one off of Thorim, and we have only seen the one in ToC twice. Meanwhile, THANK YOU LOOT TABLES for our 48 gazillion Misery's Ends -- at least they have all gone to people who wanted them, I think.)

But here is my very quick first-wing wishlist for Icecrown Citadel:

* Saurfang throws Mark of the Fallen Champion on the warriors.

I would have settled for "on the melee", actually, until Valinar got marked one fight and immediately exclaimed "WHOO! Free rage!" Turns out if he gets marked, he gets so much rage he can afford to stance-swap. We have two to three DPS warriors and one warrior tank in our 25-man, and they're all damn good at using those rage bars; giving them all hawt free full rage bars is never bad.

And let me tell you: Chain Heal + melee = THING OF BEAUTY. Not that this is news; Chain Heal + melee is actually why I tried out resto in the first place (I had a group that was two feral druids, a rogue, and a warrior, and we wanted to go pwn a heroic), and ever since I have had a great enduring love for it. Give me three marked melee and I'm your shammy; keeping three full-throttle DPS warriors alive through that isn't a huge problem (especially not when you have talented HoTtie druids and paladins running around throwing bacon -- and, uh, Hand of Salv -- on people).

Our raid has totally gotten the hang of this fight, even if some particular versions of it are harder than others. We know not to stand in the Blood Beasts. Our tanks are pro. We spread out enough. So I am not, exactly, complaining about the fight mechanics. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't wishing for easymode heals mixed with holycrap hardcore deeps from the warriors on that fight.

It was December 26th, 2004, and as usual, Valinar had gotten a ton of video games for Christmas. One of the games he'd gotten was World of Warcraft.

I'd heard of WoW. I was familiar with the Warcraft franchise, having been with Valinar and one of our good friends at the midnight release of Warcraft III (I chose the orc cover but ultimately liked playing the undead best; I never had gotten around to Frozen Throne, though), and I'd never known Blizzard to make a bad game, but still... MMORPGs were not my thing. The only one I'd tried was Asheron's Call, and I simply wasn't sold on the idea of a game where you had to put in hours just to maintain your status, or build pots, or whatever.

So on the 25th, Val installed WoW, rolled up a paladin named Vaelen, and played for a few hours. I was distracted by the many books and DVDs I'd gotten, so I wasn't really watching, but he said it seemed like it had a lot of potential, and that I could roll up a character on his account if I wanted to try it out.

On the morning of the 26th, I was up an hour or two before Val, as usual (you'll note that I'm writing this post around 8:00AM, and Val is still quite asleep). I logged into his account and rolled, if memory serves, a dwarven hunter with blonde braids named Agnessa. I was trying to emulate my favorite Diablo II character -- I'd played a bowazon with multi-shot for most of the time I'd spent playing the game, and thought a hunter was clearly the way to go.

I spent about fifteen minutes playing -- with the naked vanilla interface and no pet -- before I went back to the bedroom, woke Val up, and said "Okay, I think I love this. We have to get me my own copy."

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Me (as heard by Valinar): Want to log in and play our little Ovis?
Valinar: *cracks up* I think they're called "dwarves", not "Ovis".
Me: I said lowbies! Want to log in and play our little lowbies?

By the way, if you're on Twitter, and would like to contribute to a running list of "stupidest things you've heard someone in a LFG pug say," tag it with #pugbingo! Eventually, if I can find a list of 25 universal stupid-things-heard, I'll make a bingo card (or rather, will set something up to randomly generate a bingo card) and give prizes to people who manage to make a bingo. ^_^