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Some of you might see my "Not Enough Rage" stories on the journal pages. I wasn't sure whether to put them there as, strictly speaking they're not journals although they're based on my own experiences.
Anyway I have a huge backlog of entries which are being posted one by one as fast as the journal admin staff can get round to it (I think; they don't answer my emails usually) but wondered if it would be appropriate to post them in here first for comments/suggestions. I don't want to flood the forum with my awful prose but flicking through this I can see that most of you are a lot more accomplished than I am.
Anyway below is my latest entry. It kinda refers vaguely to some of my earlier entries. Any comments would be appreciated!
Level 36 was a lonely place. Adenas sat by himself in the Booty Bay bar, sipping a grog that the bartender had served him. Despite the way the drink made everything go a little blurry and inserted amusing hiccups into his speech, he was bored and a little depressed. It was time to do some quests, he thought confidently. "LFG Panther Mastery?" he asked the world, hopefully. As usual, there was no reply.
Earlier that evening Adenas had joined a group with Erys who were off to kill the biggest raptor in the jungle. "Oh, this just gets better" said one of the group members immediately after Adenas had joined. Adenas had been confused; "what?" he asked of the group. "Your too low level n00b" the complainer had replied, "its a level 42 elite". The party had previously been complaining about a Level 38 who had joined. Adenas had left in bad humour.
The fact was Adenas *was* too low level, a fact he resented. Having no patience with the process of monotonously killing creatures by himself known as "grinding", Adenas had instead occupied his time doing other things, mainly resting in inns. In the meantime his fellow adventurers had shot ahead and were now an average of six levels above him. There was no longer any point in him grouping with them as they went off to exotic locations like Alterac and The Scarlet Monastery. Every time he did he didn't gain anything from the experience except for camaraderie and caused no damage to the high level monsters they went to fight. He was, in essence, stranded in Stranglethorn and his friends had left him long ago.
Adenas was just about to order another grog when a message came over the chat channel. "LFG scaring shaky" said the message. Adenas had done that quest, but scaring Shaky again was better than sitting around doing nothing. Soon he found himself in a group with a priest and a rogue. They trudged through the jungle paths towards the gorillas. The plan was this; they needed Elder Mistvale Gorilla entrails to show to Shaky in the hope that he would be dumb enough to mistake them for human entrails, and thus get scared enough to pay his debts. Quite why they needed eight entrails was lost on Adenas, as that equated to quite a hefty chunk of meat, but it was not his place to argue as the goblin who had commissioned the quest was paying nearly 50 silver for it.
The first gorilla fell quite easily to the rogue's stun and Adenas' axe. Unfortunately the second one's cries for help attracted five of his friends, who fell upon the hapless adventurers like only large gorillas can. Adenas bravely tried to get them all attacking him using a combination of taunts and nasty attacks. It was surprising how readily dumb animals with no grasp of language responded to allegations about their mothers' private lives, thought Adenas while happily swinging away with his sword. But his happiness was short-lived when he noticed his health which was plummeting rapidly. Turning to the priest, he cried "heal pls" but saw that the priest was busy healing himself. The rogue, sensing defeat had long since disappeared into the shadows. "Argh" cried Adenas as he awkwardly fumbled for the healing potion he kept on his belt for emergencies. But it was too late; before long Adenas was lying in the graveyard looking at the jungle canopy above.
Adenas left the group soon afterwards and returned to the bar, where the barman poured him a grog without having to ask his preference. "Fancy doing some quests?" he asked Fezarus over the chat channel. "Sorry, doing SM with Erys and Sitch" came the reply. "I hate this game" Adenas said to the bar in general, who to a man ignored him. But then, they were all NPCs. Adenas had another drink. He could feel the strong drink going to his head, or at least see it. The screen was so blurry he could barely see the barman anymore. "Yhre mhy besht friend" he said to the goblin, more for comic effect than because of sentiment. "Aht leasht u dont shod off to the shcarlet moneshtry wivout me!". The barman ignored him. Adenas downed another grog.
Adenas decided then that he would go and solo for the sake of his comrades in arms. Too long had he been whiling away his time in bars feeling sorry for himself: it was time for action and plenty of it! Picking his sword up from the bar, he staggered to the door and outside into the jungle. "I'll shhow them" he vowed, staggering down the main road northwards. Passing horde players looked at him curiously, but left him alone as he waved his sword at them drunkenly, a sign that Adenas believed proved he was invincible. "The shtinking horde fear me!" he exclaimed to the general chat channel, to no response.
He eventually reached the Kurzen encampment where he believed some levelling could be done. "Shoon I will be 40" Adenas stated confidently to a nearby Kurzen Medicine Man, who in response struck a pose and began to generate a ball of glowing magical energy. The shot hit Adenas in the chest, causing minimal damage. Adenas went straight into Bezerker mode, and with a roar staggered towards his attacker. As luck would have it all of his hits were critical and the Medicine Man soon lay dead at his feet. "Bashtard" he exclaimed, spitting on the corpse of the hapless wizard, and checking his combat log.
Adenas was not happy. "Only 25XP!" he exclaimed, then charged the nearest Kurzen Jungle fighter who went down in much the same way as the Medicine Man. Adenas fought his way erratically towards the mouth of The Stockpile, the cave where the Kurzen kept their supplies and where their leader cowered and plotted. Dead Kurzen fighters littered the ground. "I am a mighty warrior" Adenas yelled, and charged into the cave. Kurzen Commandos died one by one in much the same way as the jungle fighters. Eventually however Adenas stood at a crossroads where three Kurzen Elites stood guard. They charged him. Despite defending himself valiantly, Adenas died soon afterwards. The whole episode had taken ten minutes but gained him only 1000XP. There was a long way yet to Level 40.
Adenas returned to Stormwind in a stormy mood soon afterwards. It was clear to him that another strategy was needed.
Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with the exact mechanics of WoW, but still it is interesting how you integrate the gameplay with your story. Stylistically, there was nothing extravagent or over done, but the narrative had a very steady flow. This is both good and bad, good because it means things were never boring, bad because it means that you need to make the story more captivating. That doesn't mean you need to have non-stop action, and don't get me wrong, I think the basis of your story is good. My general suggestion, then, is to try and make the story as satisfying to yourself as possible, settling not for mediocrity at any point.
Poonsmllr The Orc sat in the long grasses chuckling to himself and staring at the road, invisible in Stealth mode. A level 32 rogue, he was feeling pretty pleased with himself. He played with his long serrated knife lovingly but inexpertly. "Ow" he cried as he nicked his finger on the sharp blade. "Shh" said Bootyluvr, a Level 60 shaman, who was standing a couple of hundred metres away from the road in some nearby bushes. Poonsmllr shut up; if it wasn't for Bootyluvr he wouldn't be a sergeant in the Horde army at all but a lowly private: a ganked rather than a ganker, a pwn3d rather than a pwn3, a n00b rather than elitt. Poonsmllr owed him a lot.
Soon a solitary Alliance warrior approached them from the south. This was what the two horde soldiers had been waiting for. Silently, Poonsmllr glided out to meet them. The Alliance warrior was blissfully unaware of him right up til the moment the knife slid into his back as he passed the rogue on the road. Stunned, the warrior could do nothing as the rogue stabbed again and again. Finally, snapping out of the knife-inflicted daze, the warrior let out a roar and turned on his attacker, his huge sword whirling in rage and gouging large cuts into the rogue's weak leather armour. Poonsmllr's health dropped alarmingly. The warrior seemed to have the upper hand.
A fireball the size of a house slammed into the Warrior and he dropped to the ground dead. Poonsmllr spat on the smoking corpse as Bootyluvr appeared from the bushes and danced a little jig. "Haha anuvver honurable kill" laughed Poonsmllr. "Get ready" replied Bootyluvr, "the graveyard is nearby".
The two horde comrades disappeared back into the undergrowth. Before long, Poonsmllr could see the warrior respawn and immediately the little +'s of first aid repairing rose from him, indicating he wasn't about to be caught napping. The warrior rotated, scanning the undergrowth, suspicious but unaware that Poonsmllr was standing by a tree some distance away. "Wait" whispered Bootyluvr, "we have 30 seconds before honor points are ready". Poonsmllr waited.
"Now" cried Bootyluvr. Poonsmllr charged but missed the warrior who already had his sword out and was furiously defending. "He expected me, but I've tagged him" cried Poonsmllr, and in response several fireballs came racing out of the undergrowth towards the hapless warrior, who soon lay dead at their feet again. Once again, Poonsmllr spat on his corpse and for good measure made a rude gesture to it.
The next time, the warrior tried to run almost as soon as hitting the ground and got perhaps ten feet before he was stunned and dispatched by a well placed fireball. He didn't appear after that. "He's watching, probably calling his friends" noted Bootyluvr. The two horde melted into the forest. "Let him fink were gone" said Poonsmllr, grinning wickedly from ear to ear.
Sure enough the warrior resurrected, and warily scanned the forest before running. This time he haplessly ran into a group of panthers who were prowling the forest floor. The horde warriors waited until the warrior's health was low and most of the panthers lay dead around him. "Now" said Bootlyluvr, and Poonsmllr sprinted towards him, catching him a glancing blow on the shoulder. The warrior ignored them, focusing on the panther which was causing his armour damage, a fact which only made Poonsmllr's job easier. With Poonsmllr and the panther attacking him, the warrior didn't stand a chance. After he was dead, a fireball from Bootyluvr soon finished the panther.
The next time, the warrior didn't even put up a fight. As soon as he resurrected he waved at the horde warriors. Poonsmllr was delighted; he would have some fun. He waved back at the Alliance warrior, who knelt before him in response. Poonsmllr laughed. The warrior waved again, before making off slowly through the undergrowth apparently assured of his safety. He was wrong. Once again Poonsmllr stunned him and Bootyluvr finished him off.
Poonsmllr loved the feeling of power this was giving him. The Alliance warrior was like his slave, completely at his mercy. There would be no help here - ganking happened all the time, and corpse camping almost as often, right under the noses of the server administrators who Poonsmllr knew would do nothing. "This is just normal PvP mechanics, n00b alliance" gloated Poonsmllr, mocking the attitude of official posts on the subject. Poonsmllr knew that at this time the few high level Alliance players that might come to this warrior's aid would most likely be busy in their high level areas, far far away. The warrior would either have to wait in ghost form, helpless and bored, or resurrect at the graveyard with an experience penalty and 75% reduced stats, rendering him an easier target than before as the two horde fully intended to pursue him to the graveyard and repeat the process. In the end, after ten minutes of waiting for a warrior who didn't appear, this is exactly what they did.
They were in luck, the warrior had just resurrected and bandaged himself and was on his way to what he considered to be safe ground in the nearby rebel camp. The two horde comrades chased him through the jungle, but the chase was short-lived. Soon once again the warrior lay dead at their feet, the penalty of his 75% reduced stats meaning that even Poonsmllr alone could make short work of him. Poonsmllr spat twenty times on the corpse and laughed mockingly. How dare his slave try to get away! he thought to himself. "We pwn3d" he said to Bootyluvr, who laughed long and hard.
In the World of Warcraft, they knew, the good guys almost never won.
Firstly, I realize that this story isn't exactly another chapter to your whole "Not Enough Rage" series, as it were. However, I think that it would be best to keep these stories in one thread, if only to save space.
Anyway, this was an interesting examination of what goes on in WoW. The writing was good, though I suggest being a little more descriptive in order to give the world a more lush feel.
It's more of a skit, as it were, as I don't put Adenas in it but yeah I'll put them in one thread in the future. I'll try and add more description but I tend to find myself going a little purple if I do!
Adenas woke up in the inn in Stormwind. His room was sparten, the door lay open and for some reason a traffic cone had found its' way into the corner of the room. The remains of a goretusk kebab lay on the floor. Adenas groaned. "What happened last night?" he asked himself, and winced as a shot of pain reminded him that whatever it was had given him an awful hangover.
He sat up and donned his armour, being careful not to knock anything over in the wildly spinning room. Staggering downstairs the annoyingly cheery innkeeper bid him farewell. Adenas slouched off towards the cheese shop - in the absence of any greasy cafes in Stormwind some cheese would have to do to settle his stomach. Last time he had been in this situation he had headed for the dwarven quarter, but the dwarves weren't known for their culinary expertise and Adenas had no wish to repeat the experience of insulting a three foot innkeeper with a battleaxe wider than his arm by throwing up the [Gnomish Surprise] she had cooked for him.
Adenas arrived in the cheese shop. Slowly the memories of last night began to return. He remembered getting drunk in Booty Bay, attacking some Kurzen in a cave and being angry about something. He had returned to Stormwind using his hearthstone (a handy device which instantly returned him home; useful for a night out) where instead of retiring early he'd gone on an Ironforge-to-Stormwind bar crawl drinking large flasks of Dwarven stout. "I may suck at killing mobs, but I can handle my stout" Adenas said to the cheese vendor, who ignored him. The cheese vendor was a strange guy anyway and spent most of his time plotting and scheming instead of actually selling cheese. Adenas had himself done a couple of quests for the guy.
The cheese vendor's lack of dedication to his craft was obvious after the first bite. The cheese was awful. Throwing it away in disgust, Adenas checked his mailbox outside the bank. There was a note from Fezarus promising to pay him back the 17 gold Adenas had loaned him for his mount, which privately Adenas thought he would be waiting a long time for. There was a letter from Erys with two flasks of something alcoholic attached. There was also a note telling Adenas he was the beneficiary of an amazing business opportunity in Booty Bay and would soon be a millionaire if he would only pay some small lawyers charges.
Then came the first shock of the morning as Adenas checked which of his friends were up and about. "Fezarus is level 44!" Adenas said to himself, drawing confused looks from the lost newbies milling around him. Adenas was still level 37. It occured to him that he would never catch up now, and would probably not be able to play with Fezarus until the level cap at level 60. The second shock of the morning came when Adenas checked the time. "I've been asleep in that inn for a whole weekend!" exclaimed Adenas. The newbies backed away slowly. Adenas was struck by a sudden urge to kill defenseless animals.
He eventually decided to kill two birds with one stone by heading off into Elwynn Forest to wrestle unarmed with the wolves, boars and door-to-door salesmen there in order to develop his Unarmed skills and obtain meat to learn how to cook properly. Gleefully Adenas discovered that the weak animals took barely three punches to die, and soon the forest floor of Elwynn was littered with the corpses of dead animals and Adenas was laden with meat. He took it all to the warm kitchen at the back of the Goldshire inn where the man who had taught him to cook stood.
"Level 37 and you can't cook yet!" exclaimed the cook as Adenas inexpertly fumbled around the hearth. At least that's what he would have said if he wasn't an NPC, thought Adenas. After standing around rubbing his hands together which appeared to be the way you cooked things, Adenas had successfully turned the wolf meat and boar meat into the delightfully sounding [Charred Wolf Meat] and [Unidentifiable Burnt Boar]. With his bags packed to the brim with these succulant morsels he decided to sell them. "20 copper" said the innkeeper, to whom he attempted to sell. It was obvious that as a get-rich-quick scheme being a chef wasn't going to cut it in the World of Warcraft.
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