WoW, I'm Lost!

When I finished the Children’s Week quests with the Human orphan child, my next step was to go to Shattrath and start those Children’s Week quests.

This time, I get a Draenei orphan pet… I mean, “friend”. This one is trained to appear when I blow a whistle, too.

Super Cute! Her name is Dornaa, and I want to keep her.

If Zoeiei had a child, she would look just like Dornaa.

Here are a few screenshots from Zoeiei’s adventures with Dornaa.

Dornaa had some questions she wanted to ask me – about “nethers”.

Wait, I thought that phrase was used as a curse?

There is definitely something… different… about Dornaa.

Look at the sky!

This short dragon flight was amazing! The scenery was stunning.

Visiting the “wind chime” named O’ros

A visit with O’ros results in a Blessing of O’ros. “You feel good”.

Oh, look! It turns out that Dornaa is a little Shaman! As an elemental Shaman, I approve!

Sadly, I did not get to keep adorable Dornaa.

But, I did get to keep one of Dornaa’s pets. Its a cute baby Elekk!

The part I had the most fun with this year involved part of the “Bad Example” achievement. In previous Children’s weeks, I’d managed to eat ice cream and a tasty cupcake in front of my orphan, (without offering him any).

The only food Zoeiei was high enough level to eat was the Delicious Chocolate Cake. Medros was kind enough to offer to make one for me. I just so happened to have some small eggs in my bag, which I gave to him. Here is Hansbrix, dancing to amuse me, while I was waiting for Medros to gather up a few more ingredients for the Delicious Chocolate Cake.

Eventually, Hansbrix and I decided to go help gather up ingredients. We now needed enough for two cakes, one for me, and one for Hansbrix. This probably sounds boring, but was actually super fun, as the three of us used Guild Chat to keep each other updated as we grocery shopped.

Medros made Delicious Chocolate Cakes for both me and Hansbrix. Here I am, eating it, as my Human orphan child watches. I didn’t know the cake came with fireworks!

Unfortunately, Hansbrix forgot to bring out his orphan before he started eating his Delicious Chocolate Cake! This lead to much giggling (on my part), and another shopping trip, (which we updated through Guild Chat). It is this sort of silliness that I find to be the most fun in WoW.

Other things were fun, too. Dragon Kites!

This is NOT the ice cream shop! (But it is nearby).

Words of wisdom regarding King Magni. /sniff

Don’t get too close to the sun, there, Icarus.

Foam swords! A perfect gift for the orphan children (as I drop mine off for the day).

And then I got this cute pet!

Here is my main, Zoeie. She is a level 66 Elemental Shaman. In a previous Children’s week, she picked up a cute piggy named Mr. Wiggles.

Let’s see what’s going on this year for Children’s Week.

Wow! The poor little children! What can I do to help?

Hey look! I got a pet orphan! He is already trained to return to me whenever I blow this whistle. Wait… I don’t get to keep him? Awwww…

The child has all sorts of interesting observations.

It’s cute that you think mushrooms look like umbrellas instead of …. um…. nevermind….

Ok, so, now I have an orphan human child. What do I do with him?

Oh, good. Randis has some ideas about what he’d like to go and do.

To get to Westfall, we need to go through Goldshire. Hmm…
“Randis, as we pass through this town, you should cover your ears with your hands, and sing “La la la la la” as loudly as you can.”
“But, why, Zoeiei?”
“Why…because… it is a custom for young humans do exactly that every time they travel through Goldshire. That is why.”
“Oh, cool! LA LA LA LA LA…”

“What happened here, Zoeiei?”
“Um.. someone… lost… their horse. Let’s not stop here.”

“Here we are, Sentinel Hill! This is where the Chopper Rides happen.”
“They’re fighting! Just like my mom and dad did…” /sniff
“Yes… well… Let’s go find those choppers… quickly.”

“I wanna to go back to the orphanage now.”

“Zoeiei! Everything is burning!
/mumbles “Why on Azeroth did they decide upon this location as the place to take the orphans for a Chopper Ride?”
“What did you say? I can hardly hear you.”
“Nevermind, Randis. Look! The choppers! They are over there!”

It is good that the Chopper Rides are given for free.
“Hop in, Randis! It is time for the Chopper Ride you requested”.

Here we go!

“You just havta win! Or I won’t grow up to be normal!

Looks like the child had a good time after all!

Time to drop of the Chopper. Back to the town that is on fire.

Perhaps the child won’t be scared for life from this experience.

The Cooking Trainer in the Craftsmen’s Terrace in Darnassus gives out daily quests. One of them is called “Back to Basics”. I used to do a segment for the All Things Azeroth podcast that was called “Back to Basics”, so, this quest caught my attention.

Cooking Trainer Alegorn says “One of the city’s most important staples is rice flour.” He gave me the task of pounding rice into flour. Note, he said “rice flour”.

Everywhere else in Azeroth, it is just called “flour”. Now, IRL, when someone says “flour” they mean flour that is made from wheat. Alegorn specifically said “rice flour”. Why would the biggest Night Elf city be using rice flour, and not regular flour, as their most important staple?

And then, it hit me. The Night Elves are allergic to gluten!

In order to complete this quest, I had to beat up some of the rice baskets that were just sitting around on the floor in different buildings. Oh, look! There’s a sparkly rice basket sitting over here!

I have to pound five baskets into rice flour. Ya know, ’cause rice that has been processed into a basket that has been sitting on the floor in a room that is open to the outside air… perfectly healthy to make rice flour from! Especially for those with allergies. /sarcasm

There’s another basket. Time to pound that one into rice flour!

Baskets that have been pounded into rice flour disappear.

After I gathered up five… batches? piles?… of rice flour, it was time to go back and see Cooking Trainer Alegorn again.

“It takes a lot of effort to ensure there’s enough flour for everyone’s needs.”

“Everyone’s needs” Including all the Night Elves, who are, apparently, allergic to gluten.

IRL, I just so happen to be allergic to wheat, and gluten. I also just so happened to have done a segment for All Things Azeroth that was called “Back to Basics”, (the title of this quest). Wow! Blizzard has found a really unique way to represent me in World of Warcraft! Thanks, Blizzard!

It’s been a while since I posted anything on this blog. I have plenty of screenshots that are just waiting for me to put them in here. The problem was that I got busy, and lacked the time to do it.

I was playing around with the Noblegarden event, because I find it to be really fun. I actually finished all of the achievements for it on my main. She is now Zoeiei the Noble. Didn’t manage to finish it with my alts, though. Perhaps next year.

Here are some fun screenshots from my experiences with Noblegarden.

What could be cuter than a bunny sitting next to a baby polar bear cub?

How about a bunny with a balloon?

A Spring Rabbit with static cling. Bunny defying gravity.

I actually got the Swift Springstrider Mount from a Brightly Colored Egg. I overheard other players in Goldshire say that they got their mount that way, but, this being Goldshire, I didn’t automatically believe them. It turned out to be true – some eggs did randomly contain the holiday mount.

Riglee put on the Elegant Dress, and gave Hanzbrix the White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants to help him get the Blushing Bride Achievement. The bunny ears came from some random player.

If you’re gonna do the Blushing Bride Achievement, on a female toon, why not make it special?

Hanzbrix was kind enough to help Riglee with this one. This was the funnest thing I did in all of Noblegarden. Could not stop giggling!!!

This, too, made me giggle hysterically!

Human male wearing White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants and pole dancing. Only in Goldshire!

After leaving BowShadow, and not finding any dragons, Hansbrix and I decided to try our luck at Seradane. Would we encounter one of the Dragons of Nightmare over there? We hoped so.

We flew over to the bridge that leads into Seradane.

There were plenty of ruins to explore.

This little structure is nearly intact:

It has a bunch of flowers and plants growing on the inside walls:

Here is the portal that is supposed to spawn a Dragon of Nightmare:

Unfortunately, there were no dragons here.

Well, except for the Skull of the Unknown Dragon, that is.

We did make a second trip to Seredane, but alas, there still were no dragons to slay. Perhaps there would be dragons at the next location where the Dragons of Nightmare once spawned.

In episode ten of Skolnick’s Warcraft Less Traveled, he talked in great detail about The Dragons of Nightmare. To get the full story, I highly recommend you listen to that episode.

I did manage to travel to some of the locations mentioned in this episode before Cataclysm. Unfortunately, I was never lucky enough to see a dragon spawn from any of the portals, no matter how often I visited. My best guess is that my timing was never quite right.

Hansbrix and I decided to find out if any of the portals still existed after Cataclysm. Would we be fortunate enough to see a dragon this time?

There are four different locations that one must visit when trying to track down the Dragons of Nightmare. Our first stop was Twilight Grove. The archway at the start of the path was still here, which we took as a good sign.

Once inside, we could see the portal that the dragon was supposed to spawn from.

Unfortunately, there were absolutely no dragons here.

The lack of dragons made it easy for us to explore the area. There was a brightly lit “shrine”.

We also found a moonwell.

What we couldn’t find, though, were the dragons that we hoped to run into. We made a second trip to Twilight Grove, at a completely different time, just on the off chance that we would accidentally find the dragons when we arrived. No such luck! Our next stop would be at Twilight Grove.

In episode nine of Warcraft Less Traveled, Skolnick explained how to get to the Arathi Dwarven Farm. This was a location that I did manage to get to before Cataclysm, but, I seem to have lost my screenshots from my original trip. You will just have to take my word for it.

At the time that episode nine of WLT was recorded, there was a quest chain that started with a letter. The letter was held in the hand of an unfortunate Dwarf whose body could be found underwater, trapped beneath some of the rubble from the bridge.

Hansbrix and I managed to find Sully Ballo. Unfortunately, he no longer holds the letter that starts you on a series of quests.

The Arathi Dwarven Farm survived the Cataclysm. Hansbrix and I found it by flying along the coastline. This was much easier than having to swim there!

Murcablo is considering engaging in arson.

A Dwarven Farmer walks around his farm.

The Farmer’s house is still here.

Here is a view of the inside of the house. I think I remember there being a sleeping Dwarf on this bed before Cataclysm. Maybe I’m wrong about that. In any case, there is no one sleeping here now.

Hansbrix and I sat down at the table for some refreshment. We keep telling Fridge that he is too big to be a “lap bear”, but he doesn’t agree.

The “slightly risqué” painting is still here. It looks to me like a barely dressed human female, not unlike the ones you may find dancing on a mailbox in Goldshire.

It seems that the Farmer’s house lacks indoor plumbing.

Not far from the house, there is a stable.

Inside are a couple of rams, and a large rodent.

There is a dock here, but there aren’t any boats.

It seemed to me that there were a lot of cats here the last time I visited. This time, we only found one cat, sitting on the dock.

The only other critter here was a Hare, bouncing through one of the Farmer’s fields.

Not much else to see. Oh, except the ever present Dwarven still.

Blizzard decided to keep the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior in the game after the Cataclysm expansion. This is as it should be, since the shrine is in memory of a real person.

Here is how the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior looks after Cataclysm.

To get to the shrine this time, Hansbrix and I got on our flying mounts, flew over the mountain that the shrine sits on, and came in from above it. This is much less dramatic than if we would have walked up the mountainside, and therefore, somewhat anti-climactic. But, it is still an effective method of getting there.

The fallen Orc is still here, protected by the Spirit Healer.

This Spirit Healer has been given a very significant name.

In episode eight of Warcraft Less Traveled, Skolnick described how to find the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior. This was a destination that I made sure to go visit before Cataclysm.

Here is the Spirit Healer that is guarding the shrine:

Here is the Fallen Warrior she is watching over:

To hear more details about the real person who is represented by the fallen warrior in this shrine, I would recommend listening to the episode of Warcraft Less Traveled. Skolnick explains it better than I can.

And here is a screenshot to show you how big this is:

Before Cataclysm, the only way to get to the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior was to walk up the path on the edge of the mountain that it sits on.

I remember that you couldn’t actually see the shrine until you finally crossed over the last hilly part of the path. Suddenly, you would see the large, glowing, Spirit Healer in front of you. It was really impressive!