Tag Archives: domination point
Ut’s on first, Tak’s on second
Things have been pretty quiet the last few days here at Domination Point. We’ve had scouting parties scouring Pandaria for the tomb where the mogu hid the Divine Bell, but no word yet, so we’ve mostly been biding our time here at the base and slapping around some Alliance when the opportunity has presented itself. After one such fun-filled opportunity, I got back to the base just in time for the latest wave of troop arrivals from Kalimdor. According to Captain Drok, Garona came along for the trip this time and apparently has some news she needs to update me on – I guess she was over at the barracks getting settled in when I first got back, so I didn’t have a chance to talk to her right away. (Oh the tragedy.)
Also among the arrivals… <sigh> Well…you remember that kitty druid with the…creative spelling patterns, who wrote in for a few mailbags a while ago, wanting to take over for Mokvar as my scribe? Taktani? Yeah…well…
* Taktani first wrote to Garrosh here, then again some weeks later. And again. Finally, after word of the post-Mokvar opening reached her, she inquired (with big, hopeful eyes, one can only assume) about taking over as the Warchief’s personal scribe.
Hopefully, between Gurtash and the Wonder Twins, they’ll at least be able to get Taktani’s spelling squared away enough that the transcripts won’t be too painful to read. If not, well, Mokvar better hurry up and get his head straightened out and his ass down here to get back to work.
Anyway… I need to go see if Garona has calmed the fuck down so I can find out what this big news is that she came down here to report.
More soon.
Timing is Everything
Hi, everyone. This is Averry, making one of my rare appearances.
Since I’ve gotten a few inquiries about this, I thought I would make a blanket note here in the blog: Yes, I know I’m running way behind in-game events. Yes, I know we’re a few weeks into patch 5.2, and the blog is still only midway through the Domination Offensive storyline from 5.1. Yes, yes, I know.
Now, granted, the blog has always trailed a bit behind the game as a matter of necessity – I’ve always maintained that when new material comes out, I want to have time to play through and process it before I start trying to work it into the blog. So there was never a chance that new content would be acknowledged here right away (well, other than foreshadowing). But since it’s now bordering on the ridiculous, let’s just acknowledge it: the blog is pretty much unfolding under its own timetable. Part of the reason is the comics (new one coming up soon-ish, by the way; Dontrag and Utvoch fans rejoice) — which are fun to make, but man, do they ever eat up time, so they’ve led to some longer gaps between posts than I would like. Another part is, obviously, the side stories I’ve been working into the Domination Offensive thread, not to mention the Mokvar story that’s been running simultaneously.
If anything, I’m grateful that people seem to have been sticking with me through all of this. To make everything a little easier to follow, I’ve added entries to the Major Storylines page for both the Domination Offensive events and Mokvar’s story (the latter being a story that really has to develop slowly). I’ll try to keep those pages updated as the stories unfold. In the meantime, I can only ask that people continue to trust that there’s a reason why I’m not just banging out the Domination storyline in a week’s worth of posts, and that all the peripheral material is actually leading somewhere. It just…may not necessarily lead there as quickly as the patch releases might dictate. My hope is that after I finish with 5.1 (someday!), I’ll be able to make up a little time, since the 5.2 content isn’t particularly Garrosh-heavy, but even then, there will be some 5.1 fallout to deal with. (Not least of all being a surprise set off by the purge of Dalaran – that’s right, there’s your teaser!) All of which will probably keep me busy until 5.3 has been out for months…hoo boy.
This all may or may not be part of a devious plot to delay the Warchief’s eventual fate while I milk more time to spin my strange variety of yarns. Draw your own conclusions…
Be seeing you,
Averry
Sha hunting
I’m giving the blood elves a few days to see if they can get anywhere with Shan Kien — that’s the name of that mogu dude we captured in the Valley of Emperors — but in the meantime I’m going to try to explore other avenues. From what I’ve been able to gather, the mogu’s Divine Bell artifact was able to focus and infuse the power of what the pandas call sha. Basically dark power come alive, sparked by emotions like anger or fear. And even though this Divine Bell sounds like it’s the key to harnessing this sha power to the fullest, that doesn’t mean we can’t do a little testing at the source.
After we’d finished our visit to Tian Monastery the other day, Burzum had stayed behind to see if he could learn a few new tricks from the pandas. I had Gurtash stay with him, and after I’d left for the Sanctum of Two Moons, I had the rest of the DPS kids brought over to do a little hand-to-hand combat training. Now, personally I’m not so big on the fancy martial arts moves — I’m a much bigger fan of just pummeling your opponents to death when you’re not hacking them into little pieces with an axe. But then, that’s ME. Seeing as I’m 300 lbs. of rock-solid awesome and not some skinny fourteen-year-old, I don’t really NEED a whole lot of bells and whistles in my asskicking toolkit. But I figure it might be good for the kids to see if there’s anything useful they can pick up from the pandas.
Also, side note, since I forgot to mention this before — on the way back from Tian, I made a stop at this place nearby called the Arboretum, where they train cloud serpents for some big race. It took some doing, but I managed to talk them into letting me participate in the race even though I didn’t have my own cloud serpent. I will neither confirm nor deny that “talking them into” this involved slapping a few pandas around. Anyway, the race was pretty fun, and you seriously should have seen the looks on the other riders’ faces — and their cloud serpents, for that matter — when Mortimer left them all in the dust. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: wyvern > all.
Anyhow, I digress.
Getting back to the actual business at hand, I’m having Burzum head down to a temple in that neck of the woods that’s been hit by a pretty major sha infestation. Temple of the Jade something-or-other, which really doesn’t help narrow it down much, seeing as it’s in a region called the Jade Forest, and half the stuff around there is called the Jade Whatever-Whatever. Lesson: them pandas sure do love them some jade.
Meanwhile, I’m assigning Krimpatul to investigate another temple not far from our base at Domination Point, a little ways to the north. I hear tell there was a major sha outbreak there until pretty recently, so he might be able to learn something there. While they’re both doing their thing, I’m going to do some extra checking around in the northern mountains, and then the two blademasters will meet me there to compare notes. I hear tell there’s another major monastery in the northwest part of Kun-Lai Summit, so it might be worth convening there and seeing what the monks have to tell us.
More soon.
Thinking outside the box, coloring inside the lines
So, now that I’m no longer (mostly) dealing with the damn boss-level Pandaren flu, I can get back to a few things I’d been wanting to update you all on. A few days ago, just before the last wave of ships arrived from Kalimdor (along with the always-delightful former chieftain of the Darkspear trolls), I noticed Gurtash on some down time doodling pictures of the base and some of the officers. It got me thinking that maybe the kid could provide me with an outside-the-box way around my whole lack-of-a-scribe situation.
What’s that? You don’t follow how Gurtash drawing could help me keep my transcription needs covered until Mokvar’s back on board? Well here, have a look for yourself at the kid’s first practice project from the other day:
* Sylvanas baited D&U into asking Overlord Cliffwalker about this here.
Not bad. I mean, it’s pretty doodly, and his proportions need work, and let’s face it, it doesn’t come anywhere near capturing my level of awesome, but to be fair, that would be too much to expect him to get on paper in one pass anyway. Kid’s only fourteen, after all. Overall, though…yeah, I’m thinking Gurtash may have found himself a new part-time job.
There goes the neighborhood
The Dragonmaw work crews have finished construction on Domination Point, and can I just say again what an awesome job they did getting the place built in no time flat? Seriously, just a few days, and they have a whole fortress up and done. I don’t even want to THINK about how long this would have taken if I’d let the goblins who did (or should I say ARE STILL DOING AND YES IT’S BEEN TWO FUCKING YEARS) Orgrimmar were working on it.
So that’s the good news. The bad news is, no sooner did we finish construction on the place than guess who comes strolling on in with the newest wave of troops – Vol’jin. After I SPECIFICALLY TOLD EVERYBODY not to tell him when we were leaving for Pandaria, to boot. I guess I should count my blessings, what with him showing up by himself. With my luck, it’s a miracle he didn’t bring Baine along with him. And of course, now that I’ve said that, watch Baine show up here too. Just what I need.
Anyway, Vol’jin turned up, and hold on to your ass, you’re never going to believe this, but guess what he started doing right off the bat? If you guessed “COMPLAINING,” congratulations, you’ve been paying attention the last few months. He went on and on, dontragging about us spreading our war to a new land, and utvoching about us driving the pandas away from the Horde with what we’re doing, and blah blah, boo hoo.
Want to know how much I care about Vol’jin’s objections at this point? Here, I’ll give it to you in Earth Online tooltip terms:
Yeah. That’s how much I care.
Of course, that didn’t stop Captain Camel Toe from griping up a storm for a while more, so I finally decided I was going to have to do something with him if I was ever going to get any peace. We’d gotten reports from our scouts about a saurok cave far to the east – the saurok being these crazy aggressive lizard people who used to be shock troops in the pre-panda empire here – so I told Vol’jin I wanted him to go with the unit I was sending to check it out. He still gave me some lip, but agreed to go. He’s heading out that way now with Rak’gor Bloodrazor and a team of Kor’kron, along with a few volunteers from among the adventurers here at the base. With any luck, Rak’gor will manage to get the troll out of my hair for a while.
Since they left, I’ve been going over documents here in the office I’ve set up in the main keep. We have no shortage of notes here on Pandaria and its peoples, not to mention scouting reports on Alliance activity to the east. Thing is, though, as much as I have information overload on all those fronts, and as important as it is for me to be getting our plans in order, the main document I’ve found myself focusing on for the last hour or so doesn’t have much of anything to do with Pandaria. It doesn’t really have much in the way of pertinent information at all. And yet I have it here on the desk, staring up at me, pulling my attention away from everything else. A worn, bloodied scrap of paper, written in the slanted hand of an apothecary who never existed.
They’re going to turn against you. Don’t let them.
Maybe this is what he was trying to warn me about. Maybe not. I may never know for sure. All I know for sure is this: Dranosh died so that the Horde would have a chance to prevail. And I’ll be damned before I let it be for nothing.
I’ll be damned.
And I can live with it.
“Seriously, mon, ya tink I didn’t notice ya talkin’ ta dat guy all quiet? Oh, no, mon, dere’s nuttin’ fishy goin’ on here at all.”
Krasarang reunions
Construction is coming along quickly here at Domination Point. That’s what we’re calling the new outpost, by the way – pretty badass, right? Thought of it myself. Anyway, we’re making good progress getting the place built. Warlord Zaela sent some of her Dragonmaw construction crew with us, and as any of you who were there will remember, a couple years ago when the Dragonmaw joined the Horde, they got Dragonmaw Port rebuilt FAST. As opposed to, say, the goblin contractors who STILL haven’t quite finished the job in Orgrimmar. Which is really pretty ridiculous at this point. I mean, can you imagine how embarrassing it’s going to be if Orgrimmar comes under siege, and we STILL haven’t finished fixing the place from the LAST major problem?
So that’s coming along. While we work on getting the base built and securing the area, I’ve also been keeping Gurtash and the rest of the DPS busy gathering food. Turns out there’s an island close by that’s practically swarming with these huge cranes that have enough breast meat on them to feed half a regiment. They’re a little big for the kids, but it’s been good practice for them working as a team. Also, as part of the Pandaria landing team, I’d brought three of the Mag’har’s best blademasters from Nagrand: Ishi, Burzum, and Krimpatul. So I’ve been having the three of them take turns going out with the DPS when they go hunting, just to keep an eye on them. The kids seem to be hitting it off with Krimp especially. He’s got the gruff lovable mentor thing going for him. Kind of like me.
In other news, General Nazgrim and his team arrived here today. Which was a good thing – one, because Nazgrim is always good in a fight, but two, because that gave me a chance to ask some pointed questions based on Krog’s reports on a certain former captive of theirs.
Case in point: How exactly Nazgrim and his crew managed to turn this:
…into this:
The extent of Nazgrim’s response pretty much consisted of “Oh, so, um, you heard about that, huh?”
One other part of Nazgrim’s arrival, though – along with his regular crew like Kiryn and Shokia, he also brought one of those monkey people he’d recruited back in the Jade Forest, a hozen named Tak-Tak who’s going to be helping our flightmaster Kromthar. And here’s the thing. This was the first time I’d met a hozen…only it wasn’t. Some of you might remember – a few months ago, when time was going all wonky and I was flashing into that alternate reality, I met a monkey-like creature, name of Zhi-Zhi. Who’d been found washed ashore after the destruction of his home in the southern islands. It was the first time I’d ever seen a creature like him…but he seemed to know a thing or two about me.
And so THAT was the first time I ever met a hozen – only now, those events never happened. Except I still remember them. FUCKING TIME TRAVEL. Head hurts.
So after Nazgrim introduced me to Tak-Tak, I pulled Monkey Boy aside and tried picking his tiny little brain some. He said most of the mountain hozen up north were pretty hostile, same for the hozen on the islands to the east of here. According to him, the only hozen who’ve managed to shill at all – and from what I can tell, “chill” would be a VERY relative term – would be the forest hozen where he’d come from. Most of those, he says, have stayed in villages like Grookin Hill, but some individuals have gone off to live with the pandaren in one place or another. He rattled off a few places some of them had gone, and most of the names blurred together, but then one stuck out – a place in the Jade Forest called the Tian Monastery. That one rang a tiny little bell. When we get a little breathing room, I may need to pay them a visit over that way.
Anyhow, back to work. I’ll keep you posted on news as it happens, assuming my internet stays up.
Landfall
Greetings from Pandaria, bitches!
We arrived yesterday and we’re well underway getting set up. Our scouts had found a good location for a base along the southwestern shore of the Krasarang Wilds, and sent up a signal for us once the fleet was in range. Once we brought everyone ashore, work on an outpost here got rolling.
Get this, though. Turns out, at practically the exact same time, an ALLIANCE force landed at the EASTERN end of the Krasarang Wilds and started building a base THERE. Which first of all, what are the odds of THAT timing, and also, for fuck’s sake, will people stop ripping off all my ideas? I’ll tell you right now, if Varian starts writing poetry too, I’m going to lose my shit.
Anyway, this meant that shortly after we arrived, we had bunches of Alliance troops showing up and attacking. And what THIS meant? That yours truly got to get out there and mix it up with some humans, something I haven’t done in way too long. You should have seen the looks on their faces, by the way. Like “Holy shit, it’s Garrosh Hellscream!” “Holy shit, he’s kicking our asses!” “Holy shit, where did the bottom half of my torso go?”
So things are coming along now. Blood Guard Gro’tash, Commander Scargash, and Rak’gor Bloodrazor are heading up the defenses while we build. Meanwhile I’m sending Malkorok ahead to the Shrine of Two Moons, where I hear the last wave of Horde have set up camp, to check things out and also get Belloc Brightblade from the Reliquary started researching this race that used to rule Pandaria before the pandas took over. There should be more Reliquary types on the way to join him once the rest of the blood elf ships arrive with Regent-Lord Ponytail. Plus we’ve got one more wave of troops coming from Kalimdor to fill out our numbers here in Krasarang.
The only down side at this point is that my internet is pretty spotty. Grizzle Gearslip, who’s overseeing most of the building project, seems to know his shit where construction is concerned, but he’s not the computer whiz Spazzle is. I’ve only been able to get online sporadically with this laptop, and I don’t know if that’s going to change anytime soon, so I’m trying not to push my luck. Definitely not rolling the dice trying to play Earth Online, for instance. Hopefully Mokvar and Spazzle have been helping fill the void and can keep it up for the time being.
Also, by the way, while we were going around roflstomping Alliance, I got my first chance to break in Mortimer’s new armor, compliments of Gurtash. Check it out:
Pretty badass, huh? The only thing Mortimer doesn’t seem too thrilled about is the horns attached to the headpiece. Personally I think they look all hardcore, kind of like he’s got his own version of those tusks of Mannoroth’s that I wear. But Mortimer just keeps giving me the same face he did last Winter Veil when I made him wear those fake reindeer antlers.
Oh, speaking of Winter Veil, by the way, before I left for this trip, I wrote up a guest post for Typhoon Andrew as part of Blog Azeroth’s Furtive Father Winter gift exchange. You should totally check it out here if you haven’t already, even if it turns out it IS an Alliance blog.
Fucking Alliance.
