An Oath Of Vengeance

So it was that Dante, Stupid Ranger, and I found our characters wandering around Outlands in Hellfire Peninsula. We were freshly 60 and, as an enhancement shaman, I was thoroughly enjoying sending my spirit wolves to feast upon everything I could. The gear was so much better than the old world, and I was running around territory that looked like something out of a Doctor Strange comic. Life was good.

That is, until the night I met the greatest griefer who ever lived.

I was soloing that night, cheerfully mass-murdering the Bloodhollow Orcs over by Spinebreaker post, collecting a basket filled with their vas deferenses so this guy I knew could make stew. Then I noticed I was dead. I panned my camera to see what killed me, but did not see anything. So I found my corpse again, and had only collected one more vas deferens before suddenly I was dead again.

This time, I saw my assailant: it was a red-bearded level 80 human paladin, and his name was Mwxyywyxm. At least, I think that's what it was. I think he designed his name specifically to cause cranial bleeding. I waited until he flew away, and then I resurrected. Two seconds later, I see him swoop down in front of me. Then I died again, and he made a rude gesture at me. I decided it was time to get the hell out of there.

However, my dear friend would have none of this. When I would get to my corpse, he would kill me. When I would rez at the Spirit Healer, he was somehow close enough to know and he would quickly find me and kill me (which made the 25% durability price ever so much more worth it). I eventually decided to hearth, but he got to me before I could leave.

This was starting to become upsetting.

Fourteen resurrections later, I managed to get on my horse and take off toward Zangarmarsh. I must have caught him when he was going to the bathroom or microwaving a defenseless puppy for dinner, because I found myself still alive after a couple minutes. Surely death was right around the corner, waiting to swoop in and kill me! Had I escaped?

Turns out I had. But that's when the real fun started. I started to notice messaged showing up in the local defense channel:

Spinebreaker Post is under attack!
Spinebreaker Post is under attack!
Spinebreaker Post is under attack!
Spinebreaker Post is under attack!
Spinebreaker Post is under attack!
Spinebreaker Post is under attack!
Spinebreaker Post is under attack!
PhatLewts4Me> zomg wtf
Spinebreaker Post is under attack!
Spinebreaker Post is under attack!
Spinebreaker Post is under attack!
PhatLewts4Me> f@## ret pallys killing everyone
FredOrcWaffles> omg somebody come kill this guy

That continued for a few minutes, and then all was silent. Then, another tidal wave:

Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!
Aggrodamus> ZOMG HELP MEEEE
Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!
PincheeLoafu> jessus everyone in thrallmar is dead
PincheeLoafu> f*#@(king ret pallys
Thrallmar is under attack!
Thrallmar is under attack!

Falcon Watch fell in a similar fashion several minutes later.

Then it hit me. Holy crap. He couldn't find me, so he decided to mess with me by killing every quest giver in the zone. What a DICK.

So I went to Un'Goro Crater and farmed leather. For hours.

I told the tale to my dear friend SirGeekelot, who immediately pronounced: "That guy is my hero".

---

A week later, I was back at it. The rest of the SR team and I had been doing quests in Winterspring. Sure, we could level quicker in Outlands, but we're new to this so it was nice to see all the "old" stuff. Plus that asshole was still out there. But it'd been a week. Surely he's gone. Right? Right?

So we went through the Dark Portal once again, and we were happily collecting the mutated fel-sphincters of some helboars when all of a sudden I saw Stupid Ranger suddenly fall over dead. Dante, as is his nature, immediately charged her assailant. I applauded his bravery, but I already knew the result. I saw the red beard. I saw the jumble of w's, x's, m's and y's. I saw enough damage to make Kel'Thuzad call in sick to work. It was that bastard again.

A half hour later, he'd killed all of us no fewer than twenty times each. We finally decided to call for help from our guildmates. SirGeekelot came to help us on his lvl 80 hunter, either from a desire to help his friends or to meet his new hero. He cheered as the epic battle began.

And then two seconds later, he died. SirGeekelot, that is. WHAT. THE HELL. This happened a couple more times. Then SirGeekelot checked his stats on the Armory. Oh dear, a full set of this year's Arena gear. He was basically a walking PvP machine. Great.

So we called another of our guildies in, and he brought his lvl 80 mage in. And then both of our guildies died, because that asshole had awesome gear and apparently no soul. About 20 minutes later, he eventually flew off. Probably to go kick a nun in the shins.

We never saw him again. But Dengus and I have both sworn this: when we are level 80, we're going to get geared to the teeth, and we're going to find that guy and kill him repeatedly until he wishes he was never born. Then we will kill him again.

Guide to Decorating Your New Dungeon

Congratulations on your recent acquisition!  You have a wonderful new dungeon, ready to fill with all your nefarious traps and your troves of treasure, or to keep as place to escape the pressures of the world and all those pesky adventurers.

Before opening (or locking) the doors of your dungeon, we recommend that you finish the interior design.  The stone walls, floors and ceilings original to your dungeon will do a lot to create that cozy atmosphere, but you may want to also consider these accessories:

1. Portcullises -- There will be rooms that not everyone needs to be in, but it would be nice for them to see the architecture.  A portcullis is an attractive alternative to a wooden door.

2. Sculptures & Tapestries -- Add some art to keep your dungeon from feeling uncultured.  Sculptures are a great way to add a touch of class.  But why pay a lot of money for some measy art?  Shop the factory seconds.  They may have some dings, scratches, cracks or missing appendages, but those imperfections can adda lot of character!  Of course, you should probably have a little variety, and some threadbare tapestries can be a great complement to your sculpture seconds.  Don't go overboard, though, because you don't want to hide all those great stone walls behind cloth.

3. Dead Ends -- A must-have to help deter those annoying adventurers, dead ends will create a level of confusion and frustration that will demoralize most of your uninvited guests.  Plus, they create great places to put some of those sculptures!

4. Ever-lit, smokeless torches -- You will want your visitors - welcomed or otherwise - to be able to appreciate the architecture of your dungeon and all your great design choices; it's the new standard for dungeons to be lit, but regular torches won't do for illuminating your dungeon.  You don't want to constantly be relighting torches, and you don't need smoke getting in your eyes if you need to defend your treasure from adventurers.  Spring for ever-lit, smokeless torches; you won't regret it.

Your new dungeon will provide you with many, many years of dungeon-y happiness, especially if you take a little time to add a few personal touches.

Behind the Screen: Roleplaying the process of training...

As a Dungeon Master, often it makes sense to handwave events that are deemed too dull, too boring, or happen too often to "waste" time on during the gaming session. Over the weekend, I had an "a-ha!" moment that made me realize why letting some events like class training, cleric prayers, or other character specific events have their moment in the sun is important.

Learning by Doing

For those of you that don't know, I am a somewhat experienced martial artist (as is Vanir). I have been training in Shotokan Karate for the last 18 years or so, and as a result I have had an opportunity to train with some very interesting people. After relocating to my current job, I was told of a sensei in our area that is one of the greats, so I sought him out to train with him.

Now, that in itself correlates heavily with most roleplaying games: the student seeks out a very skilled teacher to train him further in his chosen craft, but over the weekend I got the opportunity to participate in a few classes for their club's annual "spirit training". This involved an early morning training session with his entire school (around 30-40 people showed up) packed all in a tight little room to train intensely from the hours of 6 am to 7 am all week long. (I only participated in two days due to schedule conflicts.)

Stupid Ranger and I settled around 40 minutes away (during rush hour), so that meant I got the distinct pleasure of rising around 5 am to get ready and make the trip to the training session.

OK, that's great, but how does it affect being a Dungeon Master?

It's actually quite simple: if I was a player character and my DM simply just hand-waved my morning training rituals, the character development just wouldn't have been the same. The whole experience of training in that way, with that group of people vastly improved my outlook for those days. I was tired and sore, but upbeat and mentally energized at the same time. This would've looked somewhat odd from a player's perspective to just jump into that state with nothing more than a comment like: "Ok, ok, you get up and do your training in the morning, let's get back to the plot" from the DM.

Putting yourself in the shoes of your character in a real way by acting out their training regiment from time to time, or asking the DM if there are any heightened opportunities for class training with others or a seasoned instructor nearby can provide an opportunity for roleplay and fun. Dungeon Masters should be open to this type of interaction and seek it out, it makes a big difference in the quality of your character development.