razorfen downs

guess what? i turned forty!!! that's right. the big four-o! brilliant stuff. i was laying down the law to some trolls in stranglethorn vale when i suddenly exploded up a level. excited, i zoomed on over to org to zap myself up to wearing my plate armour - and wow, don't i just look so sexy right now?

check out those shoulders! spikey and delicous, aren't they?

sure, they're not the greatest armour level, but they're the spikiest i could find and that's all that counts.

so, tonight i decided to celebrate my newfound fortiness by visiting razorfen downs which i haven't yet visited, in search of some plate armour. why not?

we began with a quiet callout among the guildies - a casual fling wondering who'd be interested and got a few interested, including azzaa the golden and brah the eternally magnificent. oix soon jumped on board and led the way to razorfen downs, where he promptly summoned us in - except for brah who was a bit tied up at the time.

oix soon roped in a friend of his, and we were a bit intrigued to find ourselves with a shammy who seemed both unable to utter a hello and who seemed defiantly eager to just zoom right in - at the expense of the rather concrete presence of brah.

oix's friend (whose name totally and utterly escapes me at present), zoomed in, smashed some guys to get his quest, promptly needed a pretty cool item and then hearthed out, abandoning both party and friends in his quest for self-satisfaction. brilliant. fantastic. such an admirable sense of fairness, honour, and gameplay. i was moved by the respect he had for us.

oix remedied this by pulling in a priest of all things (i've never yet quested with one, so this was a first), and we were amazed to find this one too pretty much refused to say hello and seemed to belong to the same guild as the first (the outland raiders, i believe). i was a bit concerned about the dedication of this particular individual, and totally unconcerned with my guildies.

i was proven wrong as oix promptly disappeared and our new friend, laws, stayed for the long haul despite once uttering one of only three or four sentences (well, words), in "tired."

we found ourselves gleefully entering the instance, and though laws once questioned a need for a mage, he offered no further details as to how we might remedy the situation to his satisfaction. he was a bit shy, i think and perhaps struggling with his english, but what he lacked in communication skills he made up for in healing.

the only glitch in the program was when we encountered a large mound of heavy metal skeletons who seemed engaged in a mosh session. while they weren't particularly tough, they were present in numbers and unfortunately cottoned to the fact that laws was a priest and promptly went him. i did my best to fend them off, but was a little late and laws fell under their bony claws. as a token of my regret for this incident, i pretty much volunteered him to receive the benefits of the big skeleton. it seemed fair to me.

it was at this stage we were joined by fellow guildy and all-round merlin, flunk the not-so-flunky.

our good friend and mage jumped straight in, punishing those around us so fast i really thought something had gone wrong with my video card.

we tried a few times to communicate with laws at this stage, but had a few problems. however, he seemed cheerful enough and quite content to follow along and heal us, so i didn't want to appear ungrateful. concerned as to whether or not he was struggling, happy, or just plain weirded out, i asked if he was ok, and with typical undead priestness, he responded with a curt, yet positive, "ok."

what a guy.

we rounded a bend, slapped the big bad guy with our axes until he grovelled, and then received our booty. gleefully looting all in sight, we stood around for a happy snap then hearthed out of there.

i'm not sure if laws was pleased or disappointed, but i'm glad he came along and would like to offer my thanks to him/her if he/she ever gets to read this. it was an odd, yet comfortable pleasure.

in any case, it was another victory for the horde and for the iron fist. we battled spiders (ick), and one of those green things which guard undercity which i've always wanted to fight (yay!) and lots of piggies (oink). i really enjoyed it. it was one of the easiest fights i've had in a long time despite a few hairy moments as i struggled to keep fighting. however, led along by brah's determined persistence and azzaa's bounding enthusiasm, i trundled along behind taking credit for the kills while being kept alive by the ever-vigilant laws - until flunk came along and made me look bad by killing stuff before i'd even had a chance to swing at it and reminding me of my nickname when i used to play baseball as a pitcher - snailball...

anyway. i'd like to thank everyone of the iron fist, especially brah, flunk, azzaa, shaniqua, talhe and the ever-delightful shull (last but never least as she's my consistent questing buddy!). also thanks to hyacia, for the potions. woot! i've almost drunk them all... i'd also like to thank rahzell for the gold he put toward my upcoming wolf mount. thank you all, guys. you're a bunch of gods.

finally, for those of you who enjoy such things, here's my poem for my forties.

i'm big and i'm green and i'm orky
these trolls are so lean and quite warty
i leave tracks in their blood
scream "naxx here we come
- so look out, cuz i just turned forty!"