Finding Farahlon

As I moved around some things in my garrison, I came across a map of Draenor. I could only assume that one of the peons moved it while cleaning and forgot to put it back where it belonged. As I walked back to the town hall with the map in hand, I noticed one corner was servery damaged. It looked like it was almost cut, but the person decided that was a bad idea and tried to erase the island on it. They didn't do a great job because I was still able to make out the name "Farahlon". Now where did I hear that name before? Oh yes, a garrison mission I previously sent followers out on.

Immediately I left the town hall and questioned a few of my followers. After a bit of interrogation, they confessed to me that they never found the island and the item they brought back was a staff that was picked up by the Laughing Skull clan. Hearing those words awoke the explorer inside of me once again. I had to do it; I had to go looking for Farahlon! I couldn't convince any of the ships I had recruited to take me out there, so I decided to go alone. It was just me, my raft, and the ocean.

I first stopped by the Laughing Skull village and listened as they told me tales of the magical island lined with large crystal formations and lush environments. There were even whispers of a treasure they called the pearl of Farahlon. A pearl!? Could this be yet another connection to the importance of pearls in Azeroth? I couldn't run out of the village fast enough, but they stopped to warn me of the seas surrounding the island. They were extremely rough and stormy; it would take a skilled ship fleet to survive. That still didn't deter me since I have survived death already.  As I paddled out further and further into the sea, I noticed my skyline change from a beautiful blue to a gloomy orange.

I kept going... and going, and going. I'm sure by now you're wondering what exactly did I find out there? Well, I found fish, magical flying fish to be exact! This group of fish would jump out of the water and fly around for a bit before plopping back into the ocean. I also found a large gron-like skull that had been in the ocean for quite some time to have so many mushrooms growing from it. Perhaps both of these items marked a hidden passage to get to Farahlon, but I sadly couldn't find it.

I pushed my raft around for a while longer before I folded up my map and took my hearth back to my garrison. I can't be the only one who had sent countless followers out there to check for something, yet they all turned up empty handed. I will definitely mark this one down in the books to "try again later". Someday I do believe we will find Farahlon, but sadly today was not that day.

If you would like to see the flying fish of Farahlon (as I like to call them), you can fly over to 90,40 in Gorgrond. If you look around under water in that area, you will also find the big skull I talked about in the post. Happy hunting!

Mysterious Talador Flower

I haven't done any exploration recently, and I'm pretty ashamed of myself for not doing it. This was how my blog got started after all! Have no fear, I will be attempting to explore every area of Draenor that I can in the upcoming months. I want to carefully comb over each zone at a time, but I stumbled across this while treasure hunting in Talador, and I couldn't wait to talk about it. I love to fully explore a zone, and after finding a cute little Draenei couple having a picnic, I realized I didn't check what was on the uphill slope across from them. I'm also the type of person who is "click all the things!" so when I initially found this flower, I did just that. (Coordinates 37,91)

A small event played out before me, but I have no idea what really happened. An orc came out of the ground and gave a Burning Blademaster a flower. The Blademaster smells it, freaks out screaming "Please... no flowers...", and then gets assassinated. I was pretty sad I didn't take any screenshots since I was watching the events play out before my eyes, so when I quested there on my alt, it was one of the first places I went to.

I was shocked to see that this wasn't a treasure, and I received no item from looting it. I decided to do a little research. Supposedly it was a toy item in beta, but never made it to the live version of the game. It was called Mysterious Flower. Doing a bit more research on WoWpedia netted a few broken pages, but a little more information. It seems as though each zone was going to have a flower. My guess is that once the player found every flower in each zone, the toy would be rewarded to them. Regardless of everyone saying that the other flowers were not available in the other zones, I had to check for myself. Of course, everyone was right, but that still doesn't stop me from checking every once in a while!

Many have speculated this is a tribute to the Flowerpicker Clan, an easter egg from Warcraft II. The Orc assassin definitely fits by being dressed in blue. Here is a picture of the female counterpart.

Mysterious Orc

I'm guessing when the toy item was removed in live, they forgot to take out this flower. Things like this always bother the collector and adventurer in me. I always want it to be more - maybe it's a hidden item that no one has discovered. Sadly it's just usually something that's been overlooked. Hopefully one day this item makes it into the game for all of the toy collectors out there.

Update: While leveling an alt through Talador recently, I noticed the flower is no longer there. It was probably removed during one of the recent patches. I will be leaving this post up for reference and in hopes that this flower will make an appearance elsewhere someday.

Whispers of Tirisfall Part 2

Click here to read pt. 1

Tirisfall Glades houses many areas that hold "whispers" - the Whispering Forest, Whispering Shores, and Whispering Gardens. While the forest and shore are in close proximity with one another, the gardens are located around Scarlet Monastery. Supposedly they hold the whispers of the dead from a battle between the Scourge and the Scarlet Crusade. After visiting, I heard no such thing, so I'm not sure if they are linked. However, if you think about how you can still hear the "whispers" from the event of Arthas killing his father in the Throne Room of Lordaeron, then the lands of Tirisfall do tend hold on to the memories of past events.

The Whispering Shores are also rumored to be the place where Dath'Remar Sunstrider and his fleet touched shore. You can find remains of old High Elf ships on the shores close to Scarlet Monastery. Here is an excerpt from WoWpedia:

"Sunstrider led the high elven fleets across the world for many long years. Their goal was to find places of considerable ley power for them to build their new homeland. After landing on the Lordaeron continent, they moved inland and formed a settlement in the Tirisfal Glades. After a few years, however, many were driven insane. The belief at the time was that something evil slept beneath the Glades, so the high elves abandoned the region and moved northwards."

We know that the beings who love to whisper madness and insanity into all those around them are the Old Gods. They are what drove Neltharion (Deathwing) to insanity. We saw his madness take on the form of destruction in Cataclysm. I found this piece of information about Fairy Rings in old folklore pretty interesting:

"In Tyrol, folklore attributed fairy rings to the fiery tails of flying dragons; once a dragon had created such a circle, nothing but toadstools could grow there for seven years." 

(taken from Wikipedia)

Screenshot from Alazar

The fiery flying dragons sounds a lot like Deathwing. He did fly over the whole of Azeroth and left immense damage in his path. Perhaps something in the Whispering Forest was awoken by this. Looking at the patch notes, this area became named during patch 4.2 in Cataclysm (6-28-2011). Since there are seven Fey-Drunk Darter's that spawn, perhaps if WoW is still around in 2018, we can see if the fairy circle will open up a portal to another realm. ;)

Of course, I am hoping that N'zoth will be the next Old God we will encounter, and I even wrote an entire speculation post before the Dark Below was proven to be a hoax expansion. While I still think N'zoth has more to do with the sea and Lady Azshara, he is still linked to the Emerald Dream in lore. Let's take a look at the Glyph of One With Nature. This is a Druid glyph that has a chance to teleport the player to a random location... the Whispering Forest is one of those locations. Since Druids have been responsible in the past for keeping the nightmares from the Emerald Dream at bay, this location could hold a secret. While I do not believe this is the Rift of Aln, I do believe that it could be another smaller rift that could open up the Emerald Nightmare. I believe the Fey are protecting whatever it is and possibly using their lullaby to keep the evil calm and hopefully asleep.

Screenshot from WoWInsider.

I believe that the evil that sleeps beneath the Glades is still there and active, and I'm still holding on to it being an Old God or maybe a portal to another world. Even though Blizzard has said there isn't an Old God under there, they did acknowledge that there is something, and it is extremely powerful. Blizzard has been known to go back and fourth on their word, so I take everything they say with a few grains of salt. You never know what could change. So, what do you think is buried underneath Tirisfall Glades? Let me know in the comments below.

Whispers of Tirisfall Part 1

Ever since I stumbled upon the magical mushroom circle in Tirisfall Glades and hearing about others experiencing the event, I wanted to see it. I never had the opportunity, so a few months back I decided to take Vel out there to wait for the event to happen. This is is my, or better yet her, encounter of the Whispering Forest event:

Sunday, May 4th, Nightfall

8:07 - I've heard tales of the Whispering Forest, but I've never seen it for myself. I left the comfort of the Shrine and set off to Tirisfall Glades. Once I arrived, I noticed two of the Fey-Drunk Darters were already flying around. I took rest upon a mushroom and decided to wait.

8:15 - At this time I was beginning to think that they may spawn every seven minutes since I heard rumors that it took seven Fey for the event to begin. The woods are quiet tonight and a chill wind blows through. Nothing else around except a few stags and their plagued mates. Not very unusual since the land around is mostly dead. I should know first hand since I come from a place not far from here...

8:24 - I guess my theory of the Feys spawning every seven minutes was proven to be wrong. Before I could even finish writing down my last observation in my journal, the 4th and 5th were fluttering around before my eyes. It seems that there is no pattern that I can notice. I will keep watching.

8:28 - As if the chilled night air wasn't enough, it just started raining. To warm myself I decided to take a walk around the area. Aside from small rats, deer, and some little bugs, I found a sleeping bear. Again, it looks plagued like much of the wildlife around, yet so out of place to be this high up. Regardless, I don't think it noticed me as it didn't even move from its sleep.

8:33 - After my trip around the forest, I walked back to the mushrooms. The 6th Fey popped up out of thin air. It's still raining and doesn't look like it will be letting up anytime soon. I would love to have a warm cup of tea from the Shrine, but I suppose that will have to wait.

8:48 - So almost 40 minutes after I arrived, the 7th Fey has come. The next part is supposedly the longest part. I just have to be patient and wait until they decide it is time. Hopefully I am worthy to witness such an event. I am nervous and excited all at the same time. I've heard so many rumors about this place... maybe I shouldn't get too close?

9:40 - I had nibbled on a few pieces of bread and tried to give some crumbs to the local wildlife, but they weren't interested. Suddenly I noticed the Darters beginning to circle around me. Before I knew it, they were merged by a green light and began to sing their haunting song. I felt compelled to join in the celebration, but using better judgement I decided to watch from afar. It was so mesmerizing and before I knew it, the deer had also joined in watching. It was almost as if it were too beautiful to look away, and some "magic" was almost forcing you to watch.

Before I knew it, it was all over. The Fey Darters were gone and the wildlife began to slowly walk back into the Whispering Forest. As I write about this now, I don't think my words can explain the beauty of this event. This is something that if you have the time, you should definitely go and experience it for yourself.

I wanted to continue on with this post about some speculation and my thoughts on the Whispers of Tirisfall, but I realized the post was getting way too long and very confusing. Instead I have decided to break it up into two parts. Stay tuned for next week when I pick apart the Whispering Glades.

Click here to read pt. 2

Newman's Landing

A few weeks ago I got a message from a friend who plays WoW with us. He asked if I could do a post on Newman's Landing. I figured this would be the perfect time. Rather than just talking about this as an exploration post, I decided to make up a little story to go along with it. We're gonna be traveling by boat, so grab your pirate hats and let's get going!

I've heard tales of Newmans's Landing while passing through Booty Bay. One day my curiosity got the best of me, and I began asking around. Most of the people I talked to were afraid to talk about the place. I was beginning to think it didn't even really exist. There were rumors of illegal trading, and ghastly initiation rituals for "new men" joining the pirate ranks. I decided to scope things out myself.

I was able to borrow a ship, and I took to the seas. The place was really easy to find, but I was quite disappointed upon arrival. Things looked pretty run down, however, I did see goblins fishing off of the pier. High Admiral "Shelly" Jorrik sat there with two Booty Bay Bruisers who were drinking and laughing. I was shocked to have been greeted so graciously. I sat down with Admiral Shelly to see if I could get some more information about the place, and to see if any of the rumors were true.

Admiral Shelly opened us each a bottle of rum and began to explain to me that the house had been there for ages. It used to belong to a little fishing family. Once the Orcs invaded Azeroth, the family fell victim to them. The story goes that the savage Orcs killed them and tossed their bodies into the raging sea. It wasn't until many years later that some pirates stumbled upon the rundown house and slaughtered the remaining Orcs that had taken up residence there.

Pirates began to use the place for trading; rum, cloth, exotic foods, basically whatever they could get their hands on. Sometimes they would take new members of their crew here for an initiation process. The Admiral said the process usually involved getting tattooed and being thrown in the cold waters to swim back to shore. Definitely not some of the horror stories I heard down at the Bay.

"We may all be scum, but we still have some respect for each other. Since I left the Bloodsail Bucaneers, I decided to take of residence here. There is still some trading that goes on, but many things have quieted down since the Shattering," he said with his huge Goblin grin. "We like the tales people make up about us. Keeps us mysterious, dangerous, and feared throughout the land. There is no doubt in my mind though, one day the Pirates will rule these seas once again."

Before I left, we shared a meal of grilled Smallfish, and he offered me a rare pattern that he gets his hands on every so often. They offered me to stay the night, but I politely declined. I figure it was better I take off now than to wait until nightfall. I got on my boat and set my sales back to Booty Bay. With the wind in my hair, and the salty sea air blowing across my face, I could definitely see the appeal of traveling like this. I looked down at my map and smiled; I couldn't wait to be back on land. Yo ho, yo ho... a pirates life's not for me.

Echeyakee

I had some friends who rolled new Horde hunters and accidently completed the quest to summon Echeyakee before they realized they wanted to tame him. So after doing some research, I realized I had a character that never completed the quest and could summon the white lion.

While you can always get Sian-Rotam, this can always be a pain camping due to the level requirement of Winterspring, spawn time, and CRZ.

I have decided that if there are any hunters out there, Horde or Alliance, that want this pet, I'm available to summon him! Just leave me a comment here and we can work something out!

Resource: Petopia

Karazhan Crypts

First I wanted to start off by saying, I explored Karazhan Crypts way back in BC. The method I used to get in, of course, no longer works. Even though I'd love to go back there and explore, I wouldn't try to do it again. At that time, me and my boyfriend Pigletoos dueled to get in there. We used the mage's polymorph and with the warrior's spell reflect to basically "sheep" through the bars.

These screenshots are from sometime in late 2008. I kept my UI up in most of them so that the names of the places would show in the screenshots. That's why in most pictures you can still see the black box that was my chat window. I did my best going back to clear up and edit some of these photos, but remember, my graphics card wasn't that great at the time. Here we go... delving into the depths of Karazhan Crypts.

Oddities Around Azeroth

In keeping with the spooky theme for this month, I decided to sit back, go through every zone, and find some things that I think are pretty creepy. Next time you're in some of these areas, I hope you will take the time to look around and notice some of these things.

Due to the tons of pictures and my descriptions, I decided to put this behind a cut. Grab a warm apple/pumpkin cider, a sticky tricky treat, and enjoy!

The Lady's Necklace

In my previous post about the WoW soundtracks, I wanted to touch more on the Lament of the Highborne and the quest line to go along with it. If you didn't level up a Blood Elf or quested in the Ghostlands zone to get Loremaster, then chances are you never completed this. It's out of the way and acquired by getting an item to drop off of some mobs. Sorry everyone... this one is Horde only!

"I hope my sisters and I can grow up and get married together." - Sylvanas Windrunner
Art by: Vice08

The Windrunner family lived at Windrunner Spire in Quel'Thalas. The eldest sister, Alleria was given a necklace by her parents which contained three stones: an emerald, a ruby, and a sapphire. She was sent on a mission with her rangers to chase the orcs beyond the Dark Portal, however, before she left, she had her necklace melted down into three pieces. She kept the emerald piece for herself. The two remaining pieces were given to her Lieutenant Verana to deliver to Sylvanas and Vereesa. Verana decided to wait for Alleria's return so she could gift the pendants to her sisters herself; However, Alleria has never returned. Eventually Verana did give the pendant to Sylvanas and I'm sure we can assume that Vereesa also got hers. During the Scourge invasion of Quel'Thalas, Sylvanas lost her necklace; She saw her death here and also sealed her future to become our Banshee Queen. The sisters were forever broken apart.

While adventuring in Ghostlands, you stumble into the Windrunner Spire. Fearing for your life, you kill the first banshee you see, and she drops an item called The Lady's Necklace.

Upon further inspection of the piece of jewelry, you realize that it once belonged to the Dark Lady in Undercity. You decide to take it over to High Executioner Maven in Tranquillien who may know something more about this odd piece of jewelry.

Maven takes a look at the necklace and tells you to deliver it to Sylvanas in Undercity. You're not really fond of the place, but you head there anyway. Upon arriving in the Dark Lady's Sanctum, you aren't greeted happily. Sylvanas does seem a bit taken back by the delivery.

"Lady Sylvanas Windrunner looks down at the discarded necklace. In her sadness, the lady incants a glamour, which beckons forth Highborne spirits. The chamber resonates with their ancient song about the Sin'dorei..."

I can't help but feel that deep inside her heart, she still has some love for her sisters. I'd love to maybe see them in a happy reunion someday even though I really don't think it would happen as Vereesa doesn't seem to keep on befriending any Horde since the death of her husband, Ronin.

As you turn to leave the Queen's chambers, Ambassador Sunsorrow motions you towards him. He gives you an item and says:

"Just a small songbook that I thought you might like to have. It contains the lyrics to a song known as the Lament of the Highborne; the one that Lady Sylvanas glamoured from the air."

You can either keep the book or discard it. I decided to keep in on this character that I used for these screenshots since I no longer have it on my main. It's a nice little memento that to remind you of the quest, and it also has the lyrics to the song. So, if you're bored and find yourself wandering around the Ghostlands, this is a nice little quest to do that takes less than 5 minutes of your time.

Added Bonus: This is a picture of me doing the quest during The Burning Crusades on Velgana. This is the old Sylvanas model singing the Lament of the Highborne with her Banshees.

Timeless Isle - First Thoughts

Free trip around the Isle! Wheeee!

So with 5.4 hitting yesterday, I thought I would give my first thoughts on the Timeless Isle. Let me start off by saying that I enjoyed it so much I ended up playing for almost 13 hours. I peeled myself away from my computer around 1:30 or so last night. I didn't get all the screenshots I would have liked, but I was in the moment and that's all that mattered.

When I arrived to the isle for the first time, it was littered with skeletons, but I quickly figured that out why later! I must have died more than a dozen times last night... and all I was doing was hunting rare spawns! The Alliance definitely outnumber Horde on my server. Everywhere you turned you saw yellow! I had to be very careful when looting stuff not to accidentally hit one of them to make me flag up. It's times like this I am so glad I do not play on a PvP server.

Me and my friend on Huolon watch!

The first things I did on the Isle where pick up my quests and explore. I opened so many chests and was actually able to get quite a lot of gear for my alts. In fact, I managed to get more pieces from rares last night that I need to send to them. I also want to try to get myself a trinket piece because I looted a burden blah blah from a chest in things cave. The Celestial's didn't give me a piece of gear... just gold.

I tried out the Celestial Tournament. I managed to beat the 3 tamers very easily, but the Celestials were really hard! I definitely need to work on getting some more pets up to level 25 before I attempt that again! I did manage to get a few new mini pets:
Ashwing Moth
Flamering Moth
Skywisp Moth
Skunky Alemental
and my friend got me an Azure Crane Chick

This rare spawn bug was bugged... Har, har, har!

While I will be playing around on the isle again today, I will definitely be taking it a lot slower, hehe. While fun right now, on a server like mine, I can see it being pretty dead really fast... which will make it a dangerous place to be in!

The Magical Mr. Pinchy

Mr. Pinchy... where do I begin...

I actually fished and got my Magical Crawdad during the Burning Crusades, so when I decided to take up this task again, I didn't quite remember how much of a pain it was and STILL is!

Mr. Pinchy having a well balanced meal.

Here are the things that changed for the better. First, the pool spawns used to only pop up every 30 minutes or so. Now it seems that after you fish in one, you can guarantee another will be up in one of the other locations. Second, and best thing of all is now Mr. Pinchy is on a 4 hour cooldown. It used to have a 2 day cooldown which really made it frustrating to get him!

Fishing skill required: I would go for at least 300+ just to be on the safe side!
Flying mount required! (or someone to bring you there!)

So get your fishing poles, and let's head to Outlands - namely Terokkar Forest! You're looking for the pools called Highland Mixed Pools which of course, only spawn in the "highlands".

Here's the wonderful part, you have 3 locations where you can chose to fish from!

Lake Jorune

Lake Ere'Noru

Blackwind Lake

I really like fishing from  Lake Jorune and Lake Ere'Noru because I was tending to get a lot of unwanted attention at Blackwind Lake. Some Alliance leveling up would follow me and fish from the same pools as me just to be annoying! Also it's a daily hub for the Sha'tari Skyguard so you may have some competition there.

You'll get BC fish and crates with goodies from that xpac in them. You should get Mr. Pinchy pretty fast. I don't think it took me longer than an hour to fish up any of the Mr. Pinchy's for this post, so hopefully you're just as lucky. I'm not sure they increased the drop rate, but since the pools spawn so fast, that's probably why!

After you catch him, this is where the fun begins. The item will grant you 3 wishes. You can use the item every 4 hours. It's completely random to what you will get from it. Here they are below:

Benevolent Mr. Pinchy: follows you around and fights mobs with you!

Furious Mr. Pinchy: very mad and will try to fight with you!

Mr. Pinchy's Blessing: and old flask buff, but you turn a cool shade of red!

Mr. Pinchy's gify: he gives you a gift that contains old health and mana potions!

The last gift is the best of all, Mr. Pinchy grants you the Magical crawdad Box (and an Achievement)! Sadly, I wanted to get another one just for this post, but after 18 unsuccessful wishes, I decided it was just better to write this thing and send all my luck to the person on the other end going on the hunt for him. If you decide to fish him up just for fun, or because you want him for your collection, let me know how long or how fast you got him! Good luck and happy fishing!

My Log:

1. Benevolent Mr. Pinchy

2. Furious Mr. Pinchy

3. Mr. Pinchy's Blessing

4. Benevolent Mr. Pinchy

5. Furious Mr. Pinchy

6. Mr. Pinchy's Gift

7. Benevolent Mr. Pinchy

8. Mr. Pinchy's Gift

9. Mr. Pinchy's Blessing

10. Mr. Pinchy's Gift

11. Mr. Pinchy's Blessing

12. Benevolent Mr. Pinchy

13. Benevolent Mr. Pinchy

14. Furious Mr. Pinchy

15. Mr. Pinchy's Gift

16. Furious Mr. Pinchy

17. Mr. Pinchy's Gift

18. Benevolent Mr. Pinchy