Left Foot of Darkness

Our Sunday evening excursion to the Mana Tombs started out early with everyone looking quite serious and determined, except Bob, who was running a little late. (This is actually a pretty good group shot, except for the fact it isn’t our entire guild.) Hallow’s End was in full swing and so as we waited for Bob, we changed each other into skeletons, ninjas, goblins, bats, ghosts, radiated gnomes, and pirates.

There’s nothing like a dead man’s party, as Bob called it. Skeletons have a great air-guitar dance, so we took the opportunity to rock out for a bit. Hallow’s End is easily my favorite World of Warcraft holiday. It’s got the best quests and rewards. Nothing cheers up a hot summer night like changing your buddy into a pirate gnome.

We were at the top of our game and we quickly started working our way through the tombs. Devin earned high praise with his ability to sap while remaining stealthy. His victims would remained stunned until we took out their buddies. You rock, Devin! We had some trouble with the Shadowcasters, and their DoT spells. I at one point said,

Hey, I’m taking a lot of… *gak*

and then I died from the Shadow Word: Pain spell that I hadn’t even realized I had on me.

Devin soon got back to normal, and provided us with the first Devin moment of the evening. The pic to the right shows the giant, Tavarok, who stood in our path, and it also shows Devin in stealth mode moving in his direction. I think we decided to open a chest or clear the area or something, and then Devin sneaks off over behind Tavarok. We watch for a second and then cry out,

DEVIN! YOU’RE NOT STEALTHED!!

and then Tavarok starts stomping on Devin like a bug. We kicked his crystal ass while laughing off ours.

While finishing the quest, Safety is Job One, Devin managed to phase out of our reality by falling through a wall. He was floating around like Captain Kirk in The Tholian Web episode of the original Star Trek. Brian and Bob had to run back and use the summoning stone to get him out of nowhere into our somewhere.

While we waited for their return, Scotty and I relaxed in the karaoke bar. The playlist was pretty limited. It was all Barry Manilow, except for one song by Siouxsie and the Banshees. I had a Consortium Cosmopolitan, while Scotty rocked the house with his rocking versions of “Looks Like We Made It” and “Mandy.”

Once we were back at full force we entered the final area of the instance, and proceeded to get our asses kicked by Nexus-Prince Shaffar and his glowing balls. It was a total wipe, but in our defense, he was a total bastard. We managed to get back in and regroup and rebuff. I decided to stay back and just act as a healer, which made our second attempt go a lot more smoothly. (This led to my recent decision to respec as a healadin. No more wipes for us.)

We then completed the escort quest, Someone Else’s Hard Work Pays Off, which according to Thottbot, is bugged and very difficult to do. We did it pretty easily. I don’t think most groups wait until everything is dead to start the quest.

We wrapped things up relatively early, which was good for Brian. All in all, it was a great example of teamwork and good planning. We made a fair amount of gold and earned some needed rep with the consortium.