March Break -- What Break??

How can it be? A whole week with no school and we didn't get any gaming done? Well, not any PC gaming that is. Lots of Wii and DS gaming. Lots of fun in the park gaming. Lots of arts, crafts, baking, a trip to the zoo and generally being in mom's lap the whole week, but very little Warhammer.

We had good intentions. I had a whole series of blog posts crafted in my head of the great times we were to have had. My plan was to have them give their own impressions of each player race by starting from the character creation screen and running through some lower levels. But then my oldest said "Yuck! She's got boob protectors and my youngest said "I think she's pretty" (I'm sure you can just imagine the whiny pouty voice) and that session ended fairly quickly.

And we never really got going again. Though I've agreed they get to have some time tomorrow, the last day before school is back in. As long as I get my coffee and WAR time first, I'm game for that.

A Tribute to Everquest

Everquest is 10 years old today, and apparently still going strong. Everquest was my first MMO, though I didn't start playing right away. I was lured in slowly, sitting in my comfy chair behind my (then fiance) hubby watching him play. Watching him chat with friends and showing me good bits that he really liked. I did like the way the world looked, but couldn't understand why it wasn't like all the single player games he'd played before. Then he showed me how to play. Had me sit in his chair to do it. Suddenly I was only inches away from this world called Norrath and the sounds were all around me. And I liked it! I really liked it! I was hooked from the time I first saw an orc fighting a wolf in the forest and chatted away to a complete stranger about how to find my corpse (he had stumbled across it and I was lost in the forest trying to find it). We had RL friends start the game with us, but we continued on after they had gone on to other things. We made friends with a great group of people that we still go from game to game with to this day. We keep hoping for the next "Everquest", but you just can't go back, except in memory.

And there are so many great memories:

- The music they had in and around Kelethin -- still gives me that warm home-y feeling. And hubby's personal "don't ever play that again!" favourite.

- The first time we hopped servers and I made my first ranger -- a male (not sure why he was male -- all the rest of my characters have been female except for my Squig Herder) half-elf by the name of Llonio. He could sort of see but Oakk, hubby's human druid couldn't see anything and by the time we stumbled out of Surefall Glade in the dark and tried to orient ourselves we ended up killed by the necromancer who hung out around near the entrance. Wish I could remember his name (and too lazy to look it up).

- Our first trip down to the Qeynos sewers, and finding gelatinous cubes everywhere.

- Trying to find a way out after falling through the tree in Blackburrow. Corpse runs to here, or anywhere for that matter.

- Laughing skeletons and maniacal scarecrows. They were the best! Even my girls start giggling when they see a skeleton. I still expect to hear skeletons laughing when I fight them, even though the undead in WAR seem to be very serious indeed.

- Dancing skelly -- the illusion that enchanters could cast on themselves around level 20 or so. And Sol A (a temporary home), where we made friends with one.

- The Naked Gnome Race was an actual race of level 1 "Mad" gnomes from Ak'Anon to Qeynos. To make it to the docks, you could go the quick way through lands of certain death, or run along the road and go slower. Then there was much dancing (and other emoting) to be done on the boat as we travelled very slowly to Freeport. Remember how long the boat ride originally was? Then off again through the Commonlands etc to head over through the Gorge to the eventual destination of Qeynos City. I practised and mapped out the run on the real Tianna. On the day of the race I only died a few times, but it was absolutely hilarious, every single minute. Here's Madtianna.



- Our online wedding, about a month after our real wedding. Not as well attended as other weddings on the server (or indeed our real one), but maybe our choice of Lesser Faydark for the ceremony was a bit intimidating to some. (This is a picture taken after the ceremony with our matching last names.)

- The first time a beholder made me attack one of my friends. I was surprised, but that was nothing compared to his shock at finding me hitting him.

- Lots of things in Lesser Faydark: Coming across the fairy town completely by accident. Same goes for the ranger station. Happening to be in the right place when Equestrielle came out. Back in the days when you actually had to look for stuff for quests, not just run to red blotches on your map. How about training up your sense of direction? Took a long time before you could actually figure out which way you were heading.

- Firebeetle eyes, greater lightstones, Befallen (my personal favourite), ghouls, the rain in the Karanas.

- Permafrost. I came across a page in one of my old journals (yes, I actually had to write stuff down before the advent of quest journals and omnicient Tomes) with the word Permafrost and a tally of about 70-80. I think I was counting goblins I killed alone there one time while waiting for a couple of friends to show up.

Another thing I came across in my journal -- Tianna's original story -- handwritten and the paper is fading, so I'll transcribe it here:

Tianna: Woodelven Ranger: Created 06/25/1999

My name is Tianna. I was born on a high platform of the Wood Elven city of Kelethin. My mother was one of Faydark's Champions, the Rangers who patrol the lands around our fair city and stive to keep the population of the Crushbone orcs to a minimum. My father was a master fletcher of the kinds of arrows that no longer exist, at least not now since so many have faded.

It was a Sylvan world when I was young. The forest was bright and full of sunlight and song. The orcs were not such a danger back in those days, and the people of my race prospered. My mother patrolled the forest every day, relying on her wits and the Trueshot bow my father had made for her. I used to play at my father's feet as he went about his trade. He could wittle the sharpest points and create the best fletches in the whole city.

One day, my father had to go to Ak'Anon, city of the gnomes, for a cam for a very special bow a weathy customer had commissioned. As usual, my mother was needed for patrolling, so my father left me with the rangers in the guild house. I played happily there, testing out the weapons (my how heavy they were) and learning as much as they could teach me. Towards the end of the day they let me go down one of the lifts to the forest floor.

It was all new and exciting to me. I saw lots and lots of shiny black wolves, who smiled and wagged their tails at me. Also, a few giant wasps and bats. As they ignored me, I ignored them. I wandered along the path a short ways, and was met with a scene that left me horror-struck. A hideous blue creature with big burly arms and a face full of fangs was fighting with a wolf. Although the wolf was biting back, it looked as if the orc might kill him in its fury. I believe I screamed for help, then flew at the orc and pummelled it with all of my might. Startled, it tripped over its feet and fell, with the wolf savaging its neck. I was sure that the orc's death cry could be heard from a long way off, and I searched around to see if I could discern any pursuit. There was none. The wolf, exhausted from the struggle, and bleeding from multiple wounds, collapsed in a heap in front of me. I ripped a strip off my tunic and quickly bound the worst looking wound. I searched around for help, and spying a guard, I called him over. He kindly helped me carry the wolf to our little home, high in the trees.

During the night, the wolf died. I was devastated, but it was only a premonition of things to come. I learned from a scout how a legionnaire had waylaid my father in Lesser Faydark. By the time he made it to our hidden camp in the valley, he could only gasp out my name. And then he died. That same eve, my mother had been chasing down an orc centurion who had run into the cave leading to their castle. Bravely she followed it in, only to be hacked to pieces while a Tier'Dal ambassador watched and laughed. Even Maesyn Trueshot was shaken by this news. The Tier'Dal, helping orcs? As for what was to be done with me -- he decided to raise me himself, to do honour to his bravest Ranger.

In return, I eagerly learned their ways, and when it was time, I became a fledgling Ranger in my own right. As I pledged my life to the ranger way, I also vowed to myself that I would rid the forest of the stench of the Crushbone orcs.

Happy Birthday Everquest! -- you gave us the time of our life at the time.

Mommy's turn

"We're the Chipmunks! C-H-I-P-"
"What are you doing?"
"What? I'm following you to the PQ." (Clip clop, clip clop, clip clop, clip clop, is the sound I make on autofollow, checking the map to see how far away we are.)
"No.... the singing -- "
"OOPS!" (cringe)

Oh yeah. The singing. I don't even realize when I'm doing it. I'm blessed with having the computer in the middle of the house in the midst of all the everyday hubbub. Just a few steps away from the TV. Which the girls are blissfully (and loudly) watching while I snag a bit of Sunday morning playtime. Hubby likes having his computer upstairs, where he can close the door and put on his headphones to drown out the sound of the steady march of Sunday morning cartoons. He can sort of hear it in the background through my headphones, but can usually successfully tune it out.

That is if I don't start singing along. (Which I don't realize I'm doing -- really!) And I can tell you: Chipmunks is NOT my favourite Sunday morning show. No really! Would you want to listen to this as you're riding along on your warhorse trying to skirt orcs and goblins and what not? Unfortunately, I seem to be unable to stop singing along. And the theme song is not the worst part of it. Try to imagine 80s songs sung in those voices. And of course, when I sing along, I inevitably don't use my nice singing voice. Nope. The chipmunk version of my voice comes out. Drives Hubby crazy (and I can't really blame him -- especially when it's 4:30pm and I'm working on putting dinner together and I STILL find myself singing the stupid thing). I mean, c'mon now!!!!

So I've tried to schedule our Sunday morning WARtime around avoiding annoying shows like the Chipmunks, but Daylight Savings Time time change this morning had us all mixed up and pancakes were made before playtime. So Chipmunks ensued. And complaining. At least I don't complain when he makes "wocka wocka wocka" noises everytime he gets on his little helicoptor contraption -- but I freely admit that is way less annoying than my sing-along tendencies.

One on one Mommy time (Mar 2/09)

Yes, finally a March post under March. One day I'll spend time trying to figure out how to have the posts I actually wrote last month (but not posted in blogger) have a February tag or something. But that would take time away from the mommy-ing and housework and playing WAR. Now onto our actual post...

Since Little One was at a playdate after school, I thought it would be a real treat for Big One to have one on one Warhammer time with Mommy. Usually it's Daddy they get to play with, so this was a real change, and she eagerly bought into the whole thing and finished up her homework in no time flat! (Note to self: Gotta remember that for future homework arguments.) We got set up -- her upstairs and me downstairs, got the headphone communication lines open, and logged in to make new characters. (Again! I know!)

Hers was a Knight -- she really likes how Liena looks and wanted to try one out for herself. I made a Warrior Priest, just cause I was curious. I have never been able to heal anyone other than myself, and only that sporadically, in any game we've ever played. In fact this is the first game I've actually made a melee character, let alone tank, in, though my ranger in EQ2 did have positional melee stuff. Though I usually kept her at the maximum distance for that. But I digress -- I seem to do that a lot.

Soooo, a new Knight (Hollyfire) and WP (Hollyhammer) appear in Grimmenhagen. We make short work of the first couple of quests since both of us know where to go and what to do. We're doing fine and communicating well, so I press the "Queue for Scenarios button" and cue us for Nordenwatch. Not without some trepidation mind you. Both girls have a tendency to cry if their character dies, or at the very least, get upset. And Big One is not the best of losers. So I tried to give it a positive spin, as I explained what would happen.

I told her that there was a little game inside of the game, kind of like capture the flag (which she's played at Brownies) and that we work as a team with other players against another team of other players to do that. I explained that you die often, but there are no penalties, and you just get right up and go back to where the team needs you. I also explained that we need to wait for enough people before the game would start. She took it all in and waited patiently (for her that means only asking every 2 minutes or so when it's going to start) for the scenario to pop. And it did, in less than 5 minutes (I love our new server! Yay Vortex!).

So in we go. During the countdown I explained what her job would be, and wondered what my job would be -- cause I'm not, I stress NOT the healer type, though I'm hoping that the whole melee damage makes heal-mana thing will work out for me. As the countdown progresses I explain that Daddy and I usually head straight for the Fortress while others capture the Lighthouse. Off we went, arriving just as the red team's frontrunners came into view. We both flail about madly, die quickly and run back to help out the rest of our team that's finally arrived there. We manage somehow to beat them back and take the flag. We die some more, fight some more, succeed a little, lose a little. The battle is pretty even. She reports her status, goes where I tell her we're needed. All in all a pretty good first try. I'm so proud of my geeky girl!

Then she wants to do it again! "I love this, mommy!", she laughs into her microphone upstairs. So I queue us again. We do it again, a little better this time, with a few fewer deaths. And one more time, which is all we had time for before Daddy and Little One arrived back home. Just before we logged off she said "When can we do this again? I love this game!"

Anytime you want, baby. Just let me switch my character though. I can NOT heal, and I doubt I'll ever be able to. Maybe I'll roll my SW again. Maybe you can roll a SM?

Mommy's turn (Feb 22/09)

Ah, Sunday morning! Cartoons and wanton kid abandonment* while playing WAR with my hubby. The routine goes like this: settle kids in front of the tv with the remote and the bribe of pancakes to come later "After mommy & daddy play Warhammer for an hour, ok?"; making sure we both have a cup of coffee; then putting on the headphones and calling upstairs with the "all ready" signal.

And the adventure begins! Today's adventure was actually adventurous, as opposed to the "run around as quick as possible to get as many quests done as we can before I have to make pancakes for the kids" -- whew! Today Liena (Knight) and Fullstaff (Runepriest) are in Avelorn, working on High Elf ch. 12. One of our quests took us to the "Well of Whispers" PQ and we decided to nudge the quest to stage 2 after completing our quest, just for the INF bonus. As stage 2 started, we thought, hmmmm, it might just be possible for the two of us to do this stage -- seeing no champion MOBs around.

So we proceeded to beat up on the Mystics and place their staffs in the piles of dirt. When the first round of rampaging (ok, probably ravaging) centigors came, we were a little taken aback, but with my guard and his healing, we managed to make it through fairly easily. (Note, I really want to get some centigor models and paint them, they were really cool.) "We can do this" we joked to each other over the headphones. But what would happen once we finished this stage?

Only one champion MOB was to be found so we thought maybe, just maybe, this could work -- we really have no problem with most champions just the two of us. So we proceed to pound on the named bad guy for a bit (can't remember his name and too lazy to look it up -- doesn't matter anyway). Then he backs away and we can't attack anymore, and then all I can I see LEGS! Two very large legs. The beast was so big I couldn't even see its head on the screen. Very cool looking guy though, I was thinking (cool to paint too!) when hubby said "um, wait a minute, this guy's a HERO". Yikes! Yikes! Two of us can't take a hero!!!!! Run away!!!

I kept attacking anyways, so that hubby would be able to get away and maybe res me later. But oddly, I wasn't going down quickly, cause OMG he's still standing there healing. And so we kept on. And on. And on! My morale 2 shield wall shows up and I pop it, and still we manage to stay alive. For what seems like an hour (though I'm sure it was only 10 minutes or so), we beat on this thing, whittling away at its HPs while Fullstaff amazingly manages to keep me alive. Some combination of whatever combination of tactics I'm trying out, what morale abilities we have up and sheer timing on his amazing heals keeps us going.

In the end, we are actually victorious. Against this enormous monster that wouldn't even fit on my screen, we amazingly prevail. All hail the good guys! (That's us!) We get a chest! And I get a blue bag! With a very nice cloak I can't wear for three more levels, but with even more -- a sense that this team (of all the teams in our long MMORPG-playing careers) is a winner! Can you tell it was exciting!?!?!

And then I went and made pancakes. Great big monster sized pancakes!

*Note: TV time is rationed in our house, so it's a huge treat for the girls to watch cartoons to their hearts content while munching dry cereal and cut up fruit (we also never eat in front of the TV so double treat). But the real treat is for me (I'm sneaky that way).

Valentine poetry written for my hubby (Feb 14/09)

Love in a Dangerous Time

The blazing sun
On my shield hard won
My armour and sword at the ready.

The cannons blast
Swords and shields clash
The undead horde are making me sweaty.

Chaos creeps in
Among the din
And unspeakable horrors are thriving.

When all at once
Down the road comes
A runepriest with a large staff is arriving.

He is stern and calm
But funny and warm
He has come to save the day.

He flashes a grin
Through the beard on his chin
And together we charge into the fray.

Surrounded by foes
He hardly knows
How my heart pounds for him neath my steel

I long to tell him
But right now there is a hellhound
So the battle begins with a squeal

When he is here
The way is clear
And I can hold the line for the Empire

I do not care who knows
We will vanquish our foes
Though mismatched our hearts are on fire

Mommy's turn (Feb 18/09)

Finally! I get some playtime, but I'm all by my lonesome with the kids at school and the hubby at work. Time to get to work on all those travel quests that we don't bother with when we're playing together. And I need to get caught up, since I changed my character again and I'm about 10 levels behind.

So onto the helicopter thing that has a seat somewhat like a saddle, I'm guessing. Otherwise why would my legs be pointing out that way? Definately not ladylike. At least my Knight wears pants. The elves look really silly with their skirts all stretched out like that. Oh I long for my old destro character and getting to fly on a drake. Not a contraption. But I digress. During one of my flights I noticed that the tips on the loading screen have been updated recently. (Yeah, I read them compulsively, unless it's time for a bio break or something like that. I'm the ultimate captive audience.)

One tip told me to get a good chair (which I'm in total agreement with, but that would mean I'd have to go shopping and not play WAR, and I couldn't hope to get one anywhere near as nice as hubby's special order chair that replaced the one that broke and pushed him forward into the keyboard), and there were other sundry tips, but the best one by far is the warning about the Tome of Knowledge.

It says "The Tome of Knowledge is watching you... recording everything you do..." In my head it sounded like Vincent Price was saying it, much like the closing poem on The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, which is a show I watched as a kid growing up in rural Ontario, Canada. Anyways, it made me laugh out loud, and I'm looking forward to more updated tips on the loading screen, to make my loading process more enjoyable.