[Screenshots] LOTRO – Simbelmyne Steed

Anders got his pretty teal horse today. I swear, it’s always night-time when I go to take pony pictures.

Much as I like this one, I don’t think I’ll get any others, because 40 leaves take a long time to collect!

[Story] Vassanta’s Journal

Hi journal,

I guess I haven’t written for a while. Not too much has happened, except just now which is why I’m writing. Things are good at the temple. Tumbles is pretty much the size of a regular bear now, which is really funny when he tries to sit on Jaeyn’s lap. I don’t think he knows he’s that big. Even though it was my idea, I’m going to be sad to leave the temple behind. I wonder if maybe Tumbles could stay behind and keep the ogres out for us. I should suggest it to Jaeyn.

Ellorian came and made a portal for us to Draenor. He only knew how to make one to Shattrath, not the islands, so we had to ride the rocket over there. Not that I ever mind that! The islands were still there, just as we’d left them. I was relieved that nobody had come and tried to live there while we were gone.

When we flew over the ruins, Jaeyn said he wanted to go explore in them. I kind of had a bad feeling about it, I mean, it’s full of ghosts and I told him that. But hearing that only made him more excited to go see it. They’re draenei ghosts, people who died and can’t rest now because some cult people woke them up. They could be my father and mother, they’re someone’s father and mother for sure. I explained how the ruins used to be a really big temple and he asked if I ever saw it when it was like that. I said it hadn’t, because my family never had anyone to bring here to get put in the crypts.

It didn’t take long before we saw a ghost. It was a young girl, probably not too much younger than myself. I wonder how she died, and I wondered if her family was here too. After that, Jaeyn didn’t really want to see any more ghosts. I’m glad for that, because being in there made me want to cry. Outside we saw a few of the Auchenai, the creepy draenei who live there. I had to explain how they’re not good draenei and they might try to hurt us if they saw us. The one we saw was big and he had no tendrils at all — gross. He was fighting with a long wooden staff and his bare hands. Jaeyn thought that was cool and we should try practicing like that. I don’t really see the point, I mean, a wooden staff is just like a fake sword. He’s graduated onto using real swords. But I don’t see the harm in it, so I said yes.

The Commander was still on the islands too, the one with all the other striders. I think he was the biggest one. He really is a Commander!

Bye journal,
~Vass

[Screenshots] LOTRO – Steed of the Jester (again)

Today’s last box held a Jester steed for Rathanil, my Minstrel. He’s the one I really wanted it for, doesn’t he look great?

I also opened two boxes on Morthorn yesterday and he got one too! I wish the quest wasn’t quite so time-consuming, but I’m happy that the horse drop rate seems to be pretty high. I’ll probably try to get a pony one for my Hobbit too.

Gotta go do Andarthir’s dailies so he can get the new festival horse, he’s over halfway there. Shrew-stomping is the best!

[Story] Isandri’s Diary

Dear Diary,

Thero is such a good cook! I can’t believe some woman hasn’t snapped him up yet. I don’t really believe that his limp would keep them away, so maybe he hasn’t really been trying to be noticed. Whatever the reason, I’m happy to be able to experience it. The other night he made the most amazing steak, he said it was from an animal that lives up here called a shoveltusk. The name sounds awful, but believe me, it was good. In fact it might be the best steak I’ve tasted. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he cooked it with his shirt off either.

I haven’t started looking for my dress, though I’ve talked about it with Lali and Kestrae a little bit. Maybe we could go shopping together? Just to look, I mean. I don’t even know what to begin looking for in a wedding dress. Kestrae seems a little undecided about it too, she said something about eloping. She had better not! I want to see my brother get married, and I want to see her dress too. She’s going to be my sister, she deserves something nice. Even if it’s just a little ceremony like Lali and Raleth’s.

That reminds me, at the park last night we were talking, and we saw Sanimir there. That’s the mage that makes my evening portals for me. Well, as it turns out Kestrae knew him too, and we invited him to sit with us. He’s really quite pleasant, but he was worried that he couldn’t find any girls to like him. He was worried that his hair didn’t match his robes, isn’t that funny? We assured him that his hair was fine (it was) and that his robes were nice (they were). He may just be coming on too strongly, or perhaps he lacks confidence. He kept asking how he could tell if a particular girl liked him, and what he should say to her. I told him to just be himself, but he said that doesn’t work. It will in time, I tried to tell him, but then he said I didn’t have to look for Thero at all so somehow my opinion was invalid. I don’t know. There are plenty of people here in Dalaran though, so I’m sure he’ll find a nice girl soon.

We talked about Teniron too. They both think I should just get along with him, as if he’ll suddenly stop being horrible. I said I didn’t want to invite him to our wedding but I haven’t told Thero that yet. I’m afraid he’ll say that I have to. Maybe if we don’t have any alcohol. Kestrae said that if Sath has to get along with Thero, I have to get along with Teniron. Except Sath and Thero don’t get along, still. I talked to him about it and he said he’s not even going to try anymore. Honestly, those two are so stubborn. I could try talking to  Teniron, I guess, but I really think it would just make matters worse. I don’t know.

[Story] A Tangle of Brambles 83: Pup

Pup turned the knife over in his hands, feeling the cold weight of it. The blade was short, only about four inches long, and it looked as if it had once been longer, salvaged from a longer blade into a dagger. Leather wrapped the handle, allowing a comfortable grip when his fingers wrapped around it. He closed his eyes and drew the letters in his mind.

N-I-F-E.

Pup frowned slightly. No, that wasn’t right. He was missing something, but he couldn’t remember what it was. He couldn’t ask Josie. The elf made him promise not to tell her. He said Josie would take it away if she knew. You need to be able to protect yourself, the elf said. Keep it in your boots or somewhere you can reach easy. If someone tries to hurt you, use it. Even if the guards see you. Run if you have to.

They’d spent more time together lately. Pup liked that. While he was doing well with his reading, he liked going with the elf too. They practiced climbing roofs, he showed Pup his clockwork animals, and he could ask the elf things that Josie didn’t understand. Sneaking things. And sometimes, man things.

Pup pulled on his boots, the leather well-worn and supple. He tucked the blade carefully inside the flap that the elf had showed him how to make. The feeling of the hilt nestled against his calf felt good, comforting. No one would bother him. He picked up his practice book too, tucking it under his arm. Mostly it was in case Josie saw him, but he might find time to practice his words, too. Each week she gave him some new ones to learn, and he spent a great deal of time staring at the letters, trying to distinguish the code of their meaning. Some words were easy, and he learned those quickly enough, but they were getting more complicated.

P-U-P, that was an easy word. That was his name now. He didn’t like his other name, it sounded like a name that would make other people hit him. He wasn’t sure how to spell that one either, but if he thought about it hard, he could probably have found the right sounds to put together. He didn’t want to think about it, though. He didn’t want to think about lying in the bone-chilling mud while it rained, his leg burning with the fever of his bite. He didn’t know how long he lay there, but someone picked him up and washed him off. It was inside a church, and other hurt people lay around on the floor with him. There weren’t any other kids. Pup didn’t think about when he saw them change, and how the lady in the white dress looked at him with worry in her eyes. But though they watched him closely, Pup hadn’t changed. Not yet. He heard them talking about it. Maybe he wasn’t bitten enough. Maybe it would happen when he was older. Maybe it wasn’t the right kind of bite.

His mother and father weren’t at the church. When they had to leave Gilneas, Pup realized that they weren’t coming. They were dead, or they had changed too. He found he did not feel much about it either way. Even before, he’d spent a lot of time in the dark streets, looking for food or dropped coins. He’d just have to find his own place to sleep at night now. The other adults gave him concerned looks, but none of them offered. When he stepped off the boat onto the Stormwind docks, he was alone. Until now, that is.

J-O-S-I-E. She was warm and smelled nice. But he knew she didn’t really want him to stay. She wanted to go without telling him where, and she wanted to do woman things. Sometimes she went out and came back smelling of the woods. He sometimes wished he could go with her, but he never had the courage to ask.

E-L-F. Pup couldn’t spell Harrier, but he could spell elf. That’s what the Lady called him. He was big and fast, and he knew everything. Pup looked up at him in awe. But the elf didn’t really want him to stay, either. He’d gone away for a while and just forgotten about Pup, just like the grown-ups in Gilneas had done. But maybe he felt bad. Maybe he was trying to make up for it now. Pup enjoyed their time together of late, and the elf had even given him the knife. He’d shown him how to climb and he’d promised to show him more. Pup had a feeling that someone had forgotten about the elf, too.

Down at the lakeside, Pup settled beneath the spreading branches of a tree. The morning was still cool, but the day promised to be a hot one. The boy unspooled a length of string, tying the end to one of the tree branches. On the other end he tied a hook, skewering a worm he’d scratched up from the ground nearby. He tossed the baited hook into the lake, and he opened up his practice book to study.

[Screenshots] 25 ICC Drake

One of our guildies is finishing up their Shadowmourne and I have been going along to his runs. Tonight I got the last achievement for my 25 drake! It’s almost exactly the same as the 10, but slightly whiter.

Still it was pretty awesome hanging around Stormwind with our new dragons!

11315 Achievement points!

[Story] A Tangle of Brambles 82: Tick Tock

Tick tick tick.

I hear it all day long, the mechanical heartbeat of the clocks. Sometimes, I think I hear them in my head.

Tick tick tick.

I think about how many ticks make up our lives, how many ticks it takes to kiss someone, how many ticks it would take for our breath to leave our bodies after we die. Business is going well enough. The shop has kept the elf busy with legitimate work, though he mostly does it upstairs in the house. His little desk is there, covered with all of its mysterious bits and springs that he somehow assembles into things that work. I requested a big wall clock, one with little clockwork figures that come out on the hour and travel around the base. I asked for a stag and a wolf, but he might surprise me. I put a few of the little clockwork animals in the window — not the bird and not the horse, those are mine. But some of the other ones, the spider is there, and a cat. Children notice them, their little smeary hands and noses pressed up against the glass. Sometimes their parents bring them in, and sometimes they buy something.

Tick tick tick.

He was in a fury last night, sweeping upstairs like a sudden summer thunderstorm. I’ve found that he’s much more reasonable after he’s worked off some excess energy. I suppose most other women know that, but I’m still learning. But even after the edge of his anger had been worn down, he kept ranting about him. That snotty little half-blood. No respect at all. He’s going to get his stupid ass killed — or worse. So this was the potential hire that he’d mentioned. Apparently he’d had a change of heart.

I fetched him a glass of wine, and that helped a little. I heard someone down in the shop, so I went to see. It was too late for legitimate customers.

Tick tick tick.

Josie had brought him along to meet me, for his approval I suppose. The elf was right about one thing, you could smell the naive on the boy. I hope Josie’s looking out for him in that regard. I think I see why they clashed so strongly — they’re a great deal alike. Though I suspect if you told either of them, they’d be offended at the suggestion. Or maybe elves don’t like each other very much. I don’t know, my exposure to them is limited. He tells me he works for his family’s business, a wide-spread and reknowned operation, from what he says. I haven’t heard of it, but I’ve been a bit out of the loop until recently. But he knows people in Dalaran and in Shattrath, and they work in importing. I have the one external contact, but more are always good. And it’s a pretty risk-free way to feel him out. I offer to find him buyers for some of his merchandise. I know quite a few, and Artero knows more. Between the two of us, we could find good prices for it. I ask if he’d be willing to accept special orders, and he said he would. There’s something off about him, and eventually he tells me why: he’s half sin’dorei. I don’t even want to know how that happened.

And then I see the other reason for the Harrier’s distaste for him. I know better than to get myself in the middle of Josie’s affairs again. Strangely, it doesn’t bother me as much as it should, though the elf is even more improbable than Kor had been. I just tell her to be careful. She wants to go with him alone to his warehouse. If that’s not asking for something bad to happen, I don’t know what is. I tell her to come here if she needs help. I leave the window unlocked.

I stay up and wait to see if she’ll come. I hope that she doesn’t, but then I hope she does, too.

Tick tick tick.

[Story] Moonlight

A sudden rain sprinkled the glassy surface of the lake behind Astranaar, heralded by a crack of thunder that meandered across the sky. Risarra glanced up at the ominous dark clouds, but the tree she sat below should offer enough cover. It was only a little rain. She liked storms, she always had — it was as if nature itself was roaring in defiance.

It was the same lake she’d always come to sit beside, and some evenings there were others here. The little camp on the far side was a favorite meeting place for lovers, they could sit close together and watch the flickering lights of the town. Of course, there weren’t many of those — in more peaceful times because it was a stronghold of the Sentinels, and in more recent times because of the orc attacks. But slowly, gradually, life was returning to normal again. Some draenei had come over from Forest Song to help with the building repairs, and the improvement was already visible. In time there would be no scars from the windrider siege at all — at least not visible ones.

Everyone was so sorry for her loss. They all said it when they saw her. And while she appreciated it — far better than saying nothing — the words were empty. They didn’t change the fact that Magnolia was gone. Captain Rainshadow put a hand on her shoulder and said that she’d have to find a new saber before too long. Of course she would, Risarra knew that, but the very idea of it wracked her with guilt. No saber could hope to be what Magnolia had been, not even close. Yet without a saber, she was at a disadvantage, only half a huntress.

The worst part of it was that she kept seeing her from the corner of her vision, kept hearing her cheerful chirrup when Risarra was nearly asleep. And though she knew Magnolia was gone, she would still sit up and look to see if her friend had returned. The rain began to let up, and the clouds broke, Elune gleaming bright and nearly-full overhead. Magnolia was there with her somewhere, among the stars, and Risarra looked to see if she could tell which she was.

Risarra did not know how long she watched the stars, but when she looked back again at the lake, it was smooth and still as a mirror. Reflected in its surface, she saw an ethereal saber, its form outlined in the moonlight. She gasped, and the saber raised its eyes to her. In that moment, Risarra recognized her old friend. She didn’t know how it was possible, but she was here — or was she? Her form looked to have no substance at all, merely a suggestion formed of coolly glowing light. A spirit, then, or a ghost. Hands trembling, she called to the ghost saber across the lake.

It — she — surprised Risarra by bounding straight across the water toward her, the ghostly paws not leaving even a ripple upon the water’s surface. Nor did she make a sound, though Risarra saw her jaws open. Cautiously, the sentinel reached a hand out toward the spirit, but it was like trying to touch moonlight. Her hand simply went through, illuminated a soft blue by the spirit’s light. She could not feel or hear Magnolia, but she could see her. That was something, and she felt tears stinging her eyes.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you, Magnolia.”

The saber spirit turned its eyes onto Risarra. They were still the same eyes she had been able to read for the past hundred years. You did, they seemed to say. You stayed with me. If only she’d done more, if only she’d asked another healer to try something different–

Without words, the spirit’s presence seemed to reach within to soothe her.

I promised not to leave you, my friend.

[Screenshots] And another kitty!

It didn’t take Risarra long to find ghost-Magnolia

[Screenshots] LOTRO: Steed of the Jester

I still need to get the new spring horse, but Andarthir got the Jester in his last box today. I love, love, love this horse. I like the realistic shading, and its bells jingle while it runs.

His name is “Joker”!