4-manning Nyarlathotep

You may think "Hey I don't know Nyarla-whats-his-name, what instance is he a boss in?", well that's because he's not made out of pixels but out of cardboard. And is therefore a part of Arkham Horror instead of WoW.

Arkham Horror is a boardgame set in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The town of Arkham is in pretty big trouble. An old evil is awakening and only a handfull of investigators have any clue to what's going on and have to stop the evil from awakening and taking over.

As you see it takes up a lot of room and your average dinner table can host a 4-player game, but anything above that and you'll have to get creative with the available playing area.

In short, it's a PvE game where the investigators try to save the city by closing gates and killing off the monsters that spawn from gates and elsewhere around the city, think "Violet hold".

I find it has quite some similarities with running a dungeon in WoW. The PvE and objective part I've already covered.

The investigators the players play all have their own statistics, equipment and special abilities. There is both health and sanity to keep track off so they have quite alot of things with WoW characters in common.

Also when we play Arkham Horror we tend to have some roles which me more or less take or are given to. Not the classical tank, healer and dps roles but still. For example this time my photographer got his hands on both a tommygun and a "Sword of Glory". Even without theorycrafting you can probably guess this means he puts up quite a fight.

Gowron's gravedigger pretty quickly became the local deputy allowing him to portal all over Arkham which made him a good troubleshooter. Having a pair of shotguns to hand out to our other two friends who were a waitress and a scientist didn't do any harm either.

About three hours into the game where I spend most my time streetsweeping, Gowron troubleshooting and our other friends actually progressing the game, we had not made too big of a mess and managed to close and seal of enough gates to prevent Nyarlathotep from awakening and we won the game. The whole experience is like a relaxed guildrun to a dungeon. No strangers speaking a language you don't understand, no "gogogooo" yelling and you're not getting votekicked the moment you go AFK for a minute when someone's fighting, especially since you're quite likely to bring more beers with you when you return.

It's a great eveningfiller and even tough it's a different setting and medium then WoW the basics are the same, having some fun with your friends!

Down the Gold Road

Sometimes I help out the Bluffwatchers at Thunder Bluff, doing a shift of patrols to ensure our mesa is protected. Today however after checking in with Hunter Ragetotem there was no need for an extra patrol but he did have another job for me to attend to. Bringing supplies to the crossroads's innkeeper Plainswind. "They're due tomorrow" he adds as I walk up towards Tal the Wind Rider Master.

"No patrol today, you mean I got dressed up for nothing?"
I deceided to take the unspoken advice and bring the supplies to the Crossroads by land instead of by air. It has been too long since I enjoyed the atmosphere of this land, our pearl hidden in the middle of Kalimdor.

Before long I find the rolling green plains of Mulgore making way for the goldbrown savannah of the barrens as I wander into "Camp T" as it is often referred to. I hold a moment as I reach the T-intersection just outside the camp. The small totem giving directions, that's the way I found out where's what in Azeroth as a young Tauren. "Time for the last bit of this journey" as I turn north, towards the Crossroads.

Once more down the Gold Road
As I start moving a fresh breeze of barren winds hits me simultaneously as a pack of gazelle cross the road. I vividly remember the first time I walked over these stones, it felt as a rite of ascenscion, leaving the safety of Mulgore behind.

I like it here. Even tough the Barrens has more then its share of problems, like for instance the quillboars of Bramblescar on my right, it's a place where many a horde learned his or her ways.

When I cross the bridge meaning the end of the Southern Gold Road I see that life still thrives in this savannah. Plainstriders are everywhere and even more so, raptors!

Many of us, me included, learned the hard way that raptors seldom fight alone
In the distance the treetops of the Stagnant Oasis become visible. While looking like a safe haven from afar, when examined up close the Barren's oasis tend to be crawling with Kolkar.

Deceitfull tranquil appeal, but once inside look out!
On my left, more trees become visible, this time from the Lushwater Oasis where the Labyrinth known as the Wailing Caverns is formed in a maze of caverns in the mountain.

I wonder how it goes with Naralex and his attempt to restore the Barrens
As the walk goes on I can see the tower of the crossroads appear in the distance and a nostlagic smile appears on my face. A few steps more and I see the guardtower appear. It's home to Darsok who send me off to deal with the harpy epidemic.

"The only good harpy is a hamstringed harpy!" - Steamynose
Entering the crossroads I make my way to the inn as once again my eyes fall upon the directional totem and the pointer east says "Ratchet". Along the road to Ratchet Humar the Pridelord, a pristine black lion rules the savannah.

Probably the last thing many a unexpecting traveller has seen
Ratchet itself is a small porttown where the goblins mostly do their own business, tinkering with mad engineering devices and extorting the visistors from their money. What mostly bugs them are nearby pirates and anyone looking for a white feet with the local merchants should not be shy to take a few yarr-yelling seabooters down.

Even tough the life of a pirate usually ends pretty grim, they seem to have no issue finding new recruits, Then again neither do the goblins have trouble finding mercs so it balances out pretty well.

Slightly off the coast lies Fray Island. Being a warrior I went there on a trial, or an "affray" as they call it. It's an interesting test for a warrior and you learn there that sometimes the best defence is a good offense.

The second time I set foot there was during a fishing extravaganza, it's also a great place to fish in peace and quiet with the exception of arms clattering every now and then when a warrior stops by.

Home of Klannoc Macleod the Islander
A bit more south from the pirates is the only human foothold in the Northern Barrens, Northwatch Hold. I once assisted in the escape of a prisoner of theirs, Gilthares Firebough. What I recall mostly is their strong defence and tenacity. Even tough they are considered the enemy, as a warrior they earned my respect.

Human architecture, not pretty to look at, but quite effective
I blink when I realize I've been staring at the directional totem for the last few minutes while my mind's been drifting off. Time to hand in these supplies and call it a day.

Delivery for innkeeper Plainswind!

This little story is part of Disciplinary Action's 11th Hour Challenge.

ICC10pug nummero 5

Tuesdayafternoon, time for another last-minute ICC10pug. I'm glad i'm not the leader of it, what a hassle it is to gather a raid. Anyways, roughly 30 to 45 minutes after I've been invited the raid is completed and we're in ready to go.

And it went allright, a few deaths on the big nasty skeletons since we had no rogue to deactivate the traps but furtherly the lower spire got oneshotted. After that there was one valkyr that took like 6 minutes but that was because of the obnoxious amount of healers he duplicated. All plaguewingtrash including the puppies oneshotted, same as rot and fester who were the objective for the quest.

Next stop, Valithria, same story. After that we went to see the Blood Prince Council. Two wipes there, one with kinetic bombs falling, the other with the spriest tanking Keleseth dying. And a good dose of empowered shopck vortex all around aswell.

And then we stopped. With the raid being a last-minute tuesday raid people didn't expect to be in there so long and kill so much so many had to go.

With the unexpected but certainly welcomed boost to my frosties collection I had enough for the Gauntlets of the Kraken. Which are a pretty nice upgrade from my T9-232 freebies :)
Unbuffed health went past the 40k mark and armor went past the 30k mark, good stuff.

Also the Ashen Verdict reputation got a nice boost to 9168/12000. Plans: Pillars of Might here I come! I've been walking around with the required materials for a few weeks but i'll be damned if I let someone else craft them!

Crafting, emblems and reputation seem to be the only way I can get upgrades anyways. 28 ICC bosses and not one drop to show for it. The allmighty RNGgod must hate me for some reason. And it's not the first time, Lady Deathwhisper took 16 kills on for my hunter's pretty pants to drop and even before that when gearing up it took me 41 runs to heroic FoS to finally pick up the Needle-Encrusted Scorpion. The fact that the RNGgod has its influence in "/roll" aswell doesn't help very much either!

Lootwhine over, you can go now.

Steamynose snorts!

And Steamy's blog was born! What will you find here? Mostly wow-related things I come across when playing on either side of Argent Dawn europe.

On the alliance side there's my dwarf hunter Gunho, who's time in Azeroth is mostly spend in ICC25, logging on shortly before and logging off shortly after the raid.

But most time spent currently is on the horde side where my cow tonk Steamynose does as he feels like in the guild [Single Abstract Noun]. But since you're reading this you probably already knew that.

As for the future (read: Cataclysm), who knows! But the most appealing race/class combinations to me are:

1. Forsaken Hunter
2. Troll Druid
3. Dwarven Enhancement Shaman
4. Tauren Holy Paladin
5. Tauren Shadow Priest

Most likely i'll start with the #1 on the list especially with the changes hunters get, and I like them. To elaborate on that, Gunho has levelled from 1-80 using nothing but self-made engineering guns. And it never really felt quite magical shooting whatever I came across with my tinkered guns and ammo. "Whadda ya mean mana, it's called GUNPOWDER!". So i'm rather curious on how the levelling will go with focus instead of mana.

Enough ramblings for now, time see if I can customise this blog a bit.