Category: Gaming

Ishbel’s Sex Change

Ishbel knew there was a way around her situation. The fact that women could not enter combat in the front lines for Chaos in heavy armor bothered her. It had bothered her for years now and she had finally reached an age where she was almost free to do as she wanted. As free as anyone was who lived under Chaos. She was going to do something about it. Something drastic. 

So she headed to Mount Bloodhorn and met with a goblin Shaman, who whispered to her about an orc illusion spell he had been working on in secrecy. The illusion would only work for a few short hours at a time but it would give off the impression that she was an orc to anyone who happened to look at her. The shaman contained the illusion in an inking along her flesh, the sharp needle digging into her. She had only to say the incantation, and she’d have the appearance of an orc – for a short while at least.  The rest would be left up to her. 

Ishbel went about her daily chores, preparing for her transfer to an orc. She gave excuses for her absence, not that any would mind. She pretended to be working on some special healer formula that would enable her to cast at a longer distance and required hours upon hours of quiet meditation. 

Fools.

When the time came, Ishbel ducked into an empty cave in Mount Bloodhorn, and murmered the incantation. Looking at herself, she felt repulsed. It was necessairy though. She had wanted this for so long. Willing to obtain it by almost any means possible. 

Ishbel tentatively peeked out of the cave and looked around. Orcs and Goblins were going about their routines, whatever those were. Now or never, she thought to herself. 

No one gave her a second glance. Squigs ran around and loud booms could be heard in the distance – but no one noticed Ishbel. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She was noticed by one Skarzay. 

“Get in line!” He yelled at her. 

“Uh.. ” She tried to sound like an orc, and simply grunted instead. She took her place behind the others and when it was her turn she picked up a handful of work orders. 

“Name!” Skarzay snapped at her. 

Ishbel had not planned that far ahead. She was so excited that she had forgotten she would even need a name. 

“Zuh…. uh… ” She stammered. 

“Zugug it is!” Skarzay snapped at Assistant Librarian Gruzuk, who stood a few feet away. “Get Zugug recruit clothes, and send him on his way!” Ishbel was shoved forward with the other new recruits. She glanced around. 

“Yo dude!” one orc beside her spoke up, “Put ‘er there!” he held out his hand and Ishbel had to swallow hard to avoid throwing up all over the ground. Green pus oozed from an open wound, and his hand was covered in what looked suspiciously like feathers. 

“Uh… ” She grunted again and closed her eyes, shaking the orcs hand and ignoring the sounds.

“I’m Gorenutz!” He shouted proudly. 

Men. Are. Stupid. Was all Ishbel could think to herself. 

“Zugug.” She said out loud. 

Suddenly a wave of voices started repeating a chant – a chant she should know, she realized. She could have slapped herself for not preparing for all of this. She would have to fake it. 

“Time to… tear.. and smash.. time to .. laugh.. and slash?” She stumbled through the verse some how, mouthing the words and making up those she didn’t know. She made notes to remember it before it was repeated a second time. It wouldn’t do any good to have her cover blown so early. 

She read over her forms, and noticed she was being sent to Da Slop. She had no idea where that was. Looking at her map she found a crude drawing of a bubble bursting and ‘slop’ scribbled across in chicken scratch. Alright then. She hefted her axe to her side, shield on the other and whispered a silent thanks that she had watched her brothers training all those years, it was going to pay off. 

When she reached ‘Da Slop’ she just about turned around and gave up pretending to be an orc right then. Words could not even describe the disgusting view before her. Burping and belching, orcs and goblins alike scratching in places that she wouldn’t even dare touch in public. 

Ew. Gross. 

She held her breath and walked through the green muck, it clung to her feet and she bit her tongue to avoid making any extra sound. This was going to take a lot more effort then she thought. 

As she came across the moving crates along the beach she remembered why she was doing it. The thrill and blood thirst that ran through her veins that healing could not satisfy. The ache and longing to smash in a dwarfs face with her shield, and the sound of bones splintering into a thousand pieces. 

Ah, yes. THIS was worth it. For now, at least. 

 

(( New little Rp story, since women on the Destruction side can’t be tanks, I found a roleplay method to be one. Works for now. I had fun doing the Orc starter quests. We’ll see where this goes. )) 

Edit: Title changed slightly as per Tipa’s wisdom

Squig Bait

What an unfortunate nick name to get stuck with. At times though, that’s exactly how my Archmage feels, especially in scenarios. The first few times I run one it goes fairly smooth, I stand at range, slap on some DoT’s to up my heals, and then heal until there’s a lull, then put out more dots. Things go fairly quietly for me until they (destruction in this case) realizes that the person they’re fighting keeps getting healed – how annoying is that! 

Exceptionally, apparently. Because before I know it, a whole swarm of destruction has come swooping down, ignoring the one they were fighting only to pummel me into the ground. Ah, such is the life of a healer. Once destruction has figured out who the healers are things can quickly go downhill. Especially if there are no tanks playing on the order side of things. Last night I had a scenario with 5 healers and a bunch of dps – but no tanks. No one to stop the swarms from attacking us and be out there in the front lines. We were vanquished, easily. 

I’m still dissapointed that females can’t be tanks on the destruction side. I understand all of the roleplay reasons behind it (( and LORE reasons.. I get it, 25 year old game yada yada )) but I think it’s really just… I want to say stupid but that’s not the right word. It’s really not nice. I realize there shouldn’t be such an issue with me playing a male character if I want to tank destruction THAT bad, but call me weird, I don’t want any danglie bits. I also realize it probably won’t be THAT much of an issue because lets face it, there are just less female gamers then there are male. 

I started a Zealot on Ostermark, which is a heavily populated Rp server. I didn’t get to play much last night since I had other things to attend to, but it was still fun even though I’m not particularly fond of the Chaos starting area. I hear it’s one of the more popular. 

Despite some bad comments about the Tome of Knowledge – I think it’s fantastic. I love to keep track of things, be they quests or roleplay stories or whatever else and this little thing does it all. I love the fact that there’s a built in bestiary and a way to check my titles, and more importantly – a place to read the chapter stories. They’re categorized not only by chapter and ‘main’ story, but also by public quest, and the stories associated with them. I don’t have the most amazing of memories, and it’s nice to be able to flip back to chapter one and read about what was going on. 

A few other people have mentioned this – it’s one of the QUIETEST games I have ever played. Do people all talk on some channel I’m not aware of? No one says a peep. Where’s the general chat? Maybe I have it turned off but it says I’m joining and leaving channels each time I move to a new section of land. I’ve barely heard anyone say anything, unless it was the roleplay stories I’ve stumbled onto simply due to the servers I play on. Who knew one day I’d actually complain that a game is too silent. I’ve heard a handful of people talking in scenarios but even then it’s typically quiet. 

I know I’ve been writing a lot about WAR lately, but keep in mind that I’m waiting on the newest game update for EQ2 as well as the expansion – I have multiple level 80’s there and I’ve just been slightly burnt out. So for those EQ2 readers, no worries I’ll be back, always am. Should get some time to play Guild Wars again this weekend too, which I’m excited about.

Everfrost – Good at all Levels

There was no way Stargrace wanted to go back to Kunark. Not yet at least. Last time she had ventured out that way she ws promptly chased down by everything with legs it seemed – and a good deal of creatures with no legs. She had a contract to fulfill though and was so exceptionally close to completing it. Never one to simply give up, she looked for an alternative means of accomplishing it. 

A friend had mentioned that they’d been spending the majority of their time in Everfrost lately. It had been literally years since Stargrace had bothered to venture into the frozen Tundra, she simply hadn’t felt the need. Who wanted to get all bundled up anyhow. The more she thought about it the more she thought it may just be the place for her. So, gathering her heaviest clothing and a good supply of food and drink (which was rare for her as a provisioner, typically she kept everyone else fed while she herself starved) off she went. 

The landscape had changed slightly since last she had been there. Tunnels burrowed deep within the snow walls radiated a certain warmth, and the pioneers had settled into the Bitterwind alcove. She lept up at the chance to help Li Ning Ventur, who had lost her husband (how does one lose such things?) in her travels. Stargrace braved the icy water to recover Mr. Ventur’s ring (to return to his grieving wife of course) and along with it – his entire hand. No doubt the sacred monument graces the top of some fire place or perhaps a dining table at this very moment. Feeling proud of herself, Stargrace continued on to see who else she could help while she collected parts for various other contracts. 

She practically stumbled into the Bitterwind camp, the snow was so thick. She did not remember it blowing quite so hard before. Once there she was informed that wolves had been bothering the camp, and she was sent to quickly dispatch them. Their furs would make wonderfully warm pelts for those living in the camp. She did a few other menial chores for the folks gathered there, one of which she foolishly fell into. Thala Rohquilin wanted to ward the wolves away from the camp which Stargrace did eagerly enough – however then it came down to placing a bucket of meat in the snow which called forth a great white bear such as Stargrace had never seen before. She thought she would be surely eaten! It gnashed it’s teeth together and rose up on its hind legs, trying to frighten Stargrace.

Thankfully, she was brave and took down the creature without too much issue. Thala thanked the woman for her help, clapping and going on about how the pelt would make wonderful furs for the camp. All the while Stargrace braved a smile thinking to herself that it would have been nice had the camp WARNED her about the giant ice bear first. 

She packed up her belongings after that.. incident and decided it was best if she continued on her way. 

 

(( Ding, 78! Managed to get Stargrace the remainder of her level by doing grey quests in Everfrost. It was nice to step away from the typical RoK quest grind, even if only briefly, to work on something a lot more fun. Now just two more to go… hrms, just like the Nostalgia guild levels. ))

Woops.. I’ma Goober

I admit now, I’m feeling pretty silly. Here I was, thinking I wasn’t getting any reward at all out of healing my arse off in scenarios when it turns out that I’m actually gaining way more then I thought. See, that first column says rank. I always figured it was my rank in the scenario vs. everyone else. A marking system if you will. Well, upon closer inspection, that’s just my level stated compared to everyone else. Duh. 

The second number is the total number of people I helped kill. Then my total deaths. Then the amount of renown I earned for the scenario (which I rank first in), I forget what the next number is for, then my dps, and my heals (nice number for that one) and finally the amount of regular experience I earned. I’m still figuring everything out but it’s a little less frustrating knowing that I’m at least being rewarded for my healing efforts. Even got some tells tonight thanking me. Of course after 4-5 scenarios the opposing team (which consists of the same guild over and over) catches on and heads straight for the healers. Ouch. I can’t heal when I’m being smashed to the ground. 

I also found a few (small) things to do between pvp to keep my interest there. Number one. Those public quests that are always empty still reward you with influence if you partake in them. Stage one is always very simple, a kill amount (or at least they have been in Chapter one and two thus far). Stage two is taking on some + and ++ mobs (group mobs typically unless you’re a few levels higher). Anyhow, I can hang around those empty public quests (every single one I’ve encountered aside from the first one so far has been empty which is really a shame) and kill at my leisure, and earn influence. Then I can head off to the merchant and get some pretty nice gear. 

I’ve also taken up salvaging and talisman crafting. This requires me to basically disenchant items (as like every other game out there who has them) and I can make talismans that get applied to particular pieces of my gear. It’s rare for me to get green+ gear so it takes some mindless farming and grinding easy encounters to get items to salvage. I think my salvage skill is sitting at around 10 and my talisman crafting skill around 5. I haven’t found any new merchants besides the ones in early chapter two. 

I’ll be writing up another roleplay story tomorrow. I’m still playing very much my own way, and it’s going pretty well. I don’t have a guild, but hopefully I’ll find one before it becomes too much of an issue. I did play EQ2 this evening, and it was great to hit level 28 with Nostalgia.