Another fun filled week of Outward Definitive Edition with Qvaid, and World of Warcraft adventures with the gang willing to game with us! I won’t speak for everyone here, but I have truly been enjoying being back in World of Warcraft again. As per the typical adulting life, we haven’t managed to pull the entirety of the gang back into WoW, but even still the number we have has made it evolve into an incredible adventure, indeed! This combined with playing Outward with Qvaid, has certainly made my gaming experiences very enjoyable this last few weeks!
I’m hopeful these adventures can continue for some time, if I’m being honest! While I have certainly put out some hate towards MMOs over the last few years, it has been nice to experience WoW in the new light. My major problem with MMOs in recent years has just been the sheer number of hours, days, and months it takes to gain progress. This alongside with the fact that missing even a day, would usually mean your friends left you trailing in the dust. Let alone the several days a week I tend to be MIA with other gaming schedules, family time, chores, etc… I know there is a portion of the MMO community that might find the over all catering to casual gamers as an atrocity, but I can’t help but find it to be pleasurable experience as time isn’t quite as free for me as it was in my youth.
Game on my friends!
Days Played: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Players: Qvaid, Hobbit
Comments: On Monday evening, Qvaid and I picked back up in Cierzo where we left off. We gathered some supplies, and was already rested from the last time we played. We headed out into Chersonese to get an idea of what we should do next.
After taking a look at the map, we knew we had not hit several of the points of interest to the south of the map. We decided to complete those in a path moving from south of Cierzo moving east to near the point of Enmerkar forest.
We had a plan, and were ready for a night full of adventure, fun, loot, and shenanigans! We started with Vendavel Fortress and managed a full clear of it, before moving on to the Pirates Hideout.
We camped near the clean water source there after clearing the Hideout and heading out to our next area.
Fully rested, and repaired we moved onto the Bandit’s Prison next, and cleared it. On to the Voltaic Hatchery from the Prison. Again we managed a full clear or at least we believe we did! As we came out of the Hatchery I believe it was dark again, or at the very least we were getting tired so we decided to setup camp outside and rest up before heading back to Cierzo for a bit of inventory management and some further rest.
Qvaid and I made it safely back to Cierzo, and started some prep of the inventory management, this time with preparations to travel as we’ve managed to clear everything we care too in Chersonese and wiped out the threat of Vendavel Fortress for Cierzo in the process. We were awarded the Cierzo Key, and Qvaid looted the Ornate chest below Rissa’s Hall.
Unfortunately time was catching up to us and we ended up opting to call it a night after sleeping because we didn’t want to rush into the preparations and leave something we needed behind. Our next adventure involves some travel, and on our new run we don’t have any place to stay or store items except for Cierzo at this point. We’ll pick back up on the inventory management, talk to Yzan, Oliele, and Rissa before leaving Cierzo, but our decision on the faction we’ll choose for this run is still a bit up in the air. Unless things change, our plan is to head to Enmerkar Forest and Berg for a bit of adventure around that area!
Tuesday evening, Qvaid and I continued with our plans to head over to Enmerkar Forest. With no place to stay or store gear and materials outside of Cierzo, we stuffed our packs full of foods, teas, and potions, and made our way out.
In a bit of a blunder… we forgot to speak to Yzan, Oliele, and Rissa on our way out. Opps. Well, I guess we’ll get back to it at some point. We’ll just make due with adventure and exploration for now. I mean, not that we have a choice at this point anyway. LOL! As far as I know you certainly cannot progress your faction quest line without that process.
In any case we fought the local bandits, ghosts, golems, and what not in Enmerkar forest and several dungeons we managed to get too while in the area. We cleared Dolmen’s Crypt, Face of the Ancients, and the Vigil Pylon (which we forgot houses a Legacy Chest).
We had a few distractions as it were, so we weren’t able to accomplish much other than that. We were camping a bit early to get to chores and prep for a busy day on Wednesday. Shortly after the Vigil Pylon was done, we headed back to Berg to call it a night in a relatively safe place. Sold off a ton of inventory that we decided we just couldn’t keep carrying, and to prep for more adventures on Wednesday evening!
Wednesday evening, Qvaid and I were back to adventures again in Enmerkar forest. Most of the combat and exploration was outside of dungeons. We headed over toward the Burning Tree and faced off against some burning men, followed by a jaunt over to the Burnt Outpost where we found it to be empty, at least at this time. I recall it was an area we rescued Rissa from previously (I think?). In any case from there we visited the Friendly Immaculate, where we informed him, he should hold on to his gifts as he would probably need them more.
At this point, Qvaid and I decided we should at least head back to Cierzo to talk to Yzan, Oliele, and Rissa. We still were not quite sure which faction we wanted to pursue but we knew nothing was possible at our current state in the quest lines. We decided to hit Berg on our way out, and I commissioned the Blacksmith in Berg to make a Petrified Wood Chest plate with some petrified wood we’d gathered while wandering in Enmerkar forest.
We b-lined for Chersonese from Berg with the intent on heading to Cierzo to start the quest line. We spoke with everyone, and decided we’d head to Hallowed Marsh, with possible intentions of joining the Holy Mission of Elatt. We stocked up on a supplies, rested, and left Cierzo the following day heading off to the Hallowed Marsh.
During our travels to Hallow Marsh, Qvaid said she’d like to try the Holy Mission this run, so it was finally decided! We would join the Holy Mission of Elatt in Monsoon! We had a plan, and were both excited to start the process to see what adventures might lie ahead.
We made it to Hallowed Marsh with relatively no trouble. We did need to activate the Wind Totem so we could make use of some of our abilities as Cabal Hermits, so we made a stop by there to activate it. Ironically we were encountering an incredible amount of dinosaurs on the way. We managed to defeat them, although one did give us a bit of trouble as Qvaid and I both were in the area of effect for the spores it released. Even still, we managed to activate the Wind Totem, and were getting ready to start our trek to Monsoon.
We had a surprise encounter with an Alpha Tuanosaur. I ended up going down relatively swiftly when I was caught off guard and fumbled a few block attempts. Qvaid followed shortly after, and we seen the message of defeat roll across the screen. Marsh bandits stole our armor and left us for dead in ruins somewhat close to where we were felled.
That slight mishap spawned a whole new set of adventures for us. On our way through the poisoned water in the ruins, we ran across a deadly Jade Blade Dancer! Clad in basically wrags, and suffering greatly from the poisoned water we were stomping around it, trying to find the switches to gain access to our stolen armor!
Alas we both were defeated yet again, when 2 bandits, a Jade Blade Dancer, and eventually another tuanosaur joined the fray. They were fighting each other, but I’m still relatively new to the combat styles we’ve chosen and I fell first in a flash of jade blades coming at me from the Dancer. Qvaid did manage to revive me, but the timing was a bit rough and the onslaught of battle between the bandits, Jade Blade Dancer, and tuanosaur had me felled again before I could even manage to roll or move. Qvaid followed shortly after and we awoke to the help of Gep saving us.
This left us with a bit of a journey as he pulled us farther aware from danger, and our gear was on the other side of the Hallowed Marsh. Eventually we did make our way back, defeat the surviving Jade Blade Dancer, and recovered our gear!
We headed out to Monsoon, making sure to make every hostile thing in our path suffered the wrath of our previous mishaps along the way! We arrived in Monsoon shortly after, and safely I should add.
Qvaid and I walked through the quests, joined the Holy Mission of Elatt, and even managed to pick up our first home outside of Cierzo. We now have a home in Monsoon as well! It was inventory management, rest, and the purchase of supplies to finish out the evening.
On Thursday evening, Qvaid and I began our path on the Holy Mission! We started with a request to burn a Greasy Fern at the alter near the Vigil Pylon outside of Monsoon. It was a horrifying realization that the spirits of fallen warriors were trapped in the crystal shard, and were repeatedly torturing the scourge beast trapped there! Oliele came to the same conclusions we did about the possibility, that we had no idea what we may have gotten ourselves into.
We returned to Monsoon to pick up our next mission, which was to help Oliele on a mission she recently departed to perform. We were to look into a large amount of corruption gathering at near the Montcalm tribe in Chersonese. It just so happened the Qvaid and I had randomly cleared that dungeon before starting our adventures, and we left a door open that would take us straight to Oliele from a building to the right of the Montcalm fortress!
We arrived to see Oliele already at work, and she commended us (I think?) for not destroying the poor skeleton soul out right. I’m sure, Myriade, was grateful for our assistance. He did manage to open the door, even if he couldn’t assist with the vast amounts of corruption inside. He already informed us that he usually allows other undead to bind their memories at the alter in turn for the undead present to help with eating away at the corruption.
Oliele started the ritual, but something must have went very wrong. The corruption lashed out, and took her eyes, arms, and legs! A Pillar of Light crashed down over her, and Elatt restored her body with pure light. Qvaid and I thought it looked really amazing, but Oliele wasn’t quite as convinced. I can see the picture from both sides of the fence though, so I understood her distress.
It was back to Monsoon from there, although Qvaid and I came across a disturbing scene shortly after entering the Hallowed Marsh again. A Pilgrim of Elatt had been slain and we needed to report the incident to Mofat in Monsoon. (This starts the Purifier quest line, which Qvaid and I inadvertently failed on our Blue Chamber faction run. As it turns out the moment you start your third quest for your faction, that quest fails if you’ve started it, or locks out completely if you have not.) With this in mind, we decided not to start the next set of Holy Missions and to put our focus on the new task at hand. We managed to walk through a good portion of it, and unless I’m mistaken we ended the night ready to head to Berg and turn it in to one of the many persons allowed in the choices. We haven’t quite made a decision yet, but we have options and are ready to see what the outcome may be.
We ended the night there for the most part, ready to start our travel to Berg in Enmerkar forest on our next set of adventures. The change in story with Holy Mission has certainly been a welcoming set of amazing times, and Qvaid and I are certainly anxious to see what else might await us!
Days Played: Friday, Saturday
Players: Aces, Error, DNC, Kilen, Hobbit
Comments: Friday night Kilen and I hopped into World of Warcraft for a bit of Adventure. I have been working on some of TWW quest line myself here and there, but I usually stop to join the gang once anyone logs in. I was doing just that when Kilen hopped in and asked if I could help him finish up some of the Secrets of Azeroth quests he didn’t quite finish up prior. We managed to walk through that with relative ease until it appears are all done now (Error included, I’m honestly not sure where Aces and DNC stand on it, nor if they even care to complete them).
From there we did a bit of random things, with Kilen starting by checking his Vault for the week. I noted the Darkmoon Faire was available and I headed that way from Stormwind and started working on quests and events. Kilen joined me shortly after, and we effectively finished out the night there. Kilen called it a bit early, and I worked on the last bit I had left, and called it not long after that myself.
On Saturday, Error, Kilen, and I started with some WoW 20th Anniversary weekly quests, joined a bit later by Aces. We managed to get all those knocked out, including some we don’t normally finish on a regular basis, such as the Codex, and Blackrock raids. After all that was complete we started farming some Time Walking Dungeons, although it wasn’t long after we started those, Error and I had to bounce for a bit.
When we all got back, we started the Time Walking dungeon runs again, and managed to get Error’s item level high enough to progress to Heroics. We ran a couple of those, and the group decided it was ‘time’ to test our luck in Mythic dungeons once Error managed to pull his item level up even a bit more.
Let me tell you. The difficulty between even a Heroic to a regular Mythic is damn near insanity. LOL! I mean we managed to complete the Boralus run even a bit under geared and ill prepared (At least some of us), but it was an experience. A grand, challenging, and amazing experience! That last dungeon run we made for the Mythic was far later in the evening than we should have tried, if I’m being honest. We finally got the mechanics down, and managed to clear it, albeit a touch of barely. Even still, there was cheering, celebration, and VICTORY! Error was on his way out after we got it completed, and I decided it was probably a good time to bounce myself. Kilen was also on his way out, and after I stepped away for a bit to prepare for bed, I noted Aces and DNC were still on. Fret not though, I didn’t fall for the trap. I shut everything down, and headed to bed.
I can’t vouch for who all played on Sunday. Error was spending some quality time with the family, and Qvaid and I headed out to do some Christmas shopping, so I never really made it to my PC for any gaming on Sunday. Rare as it was, I still had a great time, and Qvaid and I believe we got the preparations for the holidays at a completion! Early Christmas Shopping Completed! Achievement anyone!?
