One Heck of a Week

[Tahlian]

I've been looking for Arcturis for one of my high-level hunters or the other practically since he came out. I have never once seen him in the wild. Tamed running around with other hunters, sure...but never in the wild. That is, until Monday.

I took my newly 85 Tauren hunter, Oakh, up to the Grizzly Hills early Monday morning before work, sure that the only thing I'm going to find near the Alliance lodge is more elk to get my hopes up and then dash them. Well, one of those "elk" turned out to be the bear himself. I have never dismounted so fast in my life. One freeze trap and tame beast later, and he's mine...named Kolohe, which means "rascal." I figured he deserved that after how long he made me wait for him.

As I'd sort of gotten the idea of Oakh being the one with all the spirit or spectral type pets, I took Kolohe and went diving into Vasjh'ir, doing the starting quests for the zone, acquiring a seahorse, and riding out to the Abandoned Reef. Nothing there, but not to be deterred, I log Oakh out on the reef and head off for work.

When I return home and log back onto my (by now) very soggy Tauren, I begin to follow Ghostcrawler's path as marked by NPCScan Overlay, and before long, boom. There he is. I quickly dismissed the bear and began to tame. I was rather surprised by how hard that crustacean hit with that Nerfbat, but in the end he decided I was okay and didn't need any more nerfing...after all, Oakh is a beast mastery hunter. Ghostcrawler was renamed "Kaulike," which, in Hawaiian, means..."balance." ;p

After that, there was only one other spectral-type pet I didn't have, and that was Karoma. So Oakh headed out late that afternoon for the Twilight Highlands and made a pass around the elusive canine's areas, not finding anything. So, I did a "oh, what the hell" pass over Sambas' areas, and...BOOM. I look down, frantically clicking the alert button, and nothing comes up. I think it must be bugged, or someone has a pet out and is messing with me. Then one more click of the button, and there he is, in the grove of trees over near the goblin fortress. I tag him, trap him, and, since I hadn't originally wanted Sambas for Oakh, spent a few minutes asking around my guild to see if anyone wanted him. I get no bites, and the zone seemed to be all-but-dead...so Oakh tamed him. He's been steadfastly refusing name suggestions, so there may be a "Name My Pet" post in my near future.

Three rares on Monday...I figure no way am I finding Karoma for months after that kind of luck. Fast-forward to tonight. I come home from family game night with my parents and log on, deciding to take one quick spin around the Highlands just to reassure myself, because of course I wasn't going to find him, right?

BOOM.

There he was. Another drop to the ground, trap, and tame, and Oakh's spectral pet collection is complete...until Blizzard gives us new ones, that is. The ghost wolf is also looking for a name, but we'll see what comes up.

Like the post title says - that's one heck of a week! Time to go see what rares my friends and guildies are looking for to spread some of that crazy luck around and pay it forward.



Though I did notice one odd bit of irony. For Tahlian, it was a dedicated hunt for Sambas and purest happenstance (and the kindness of a stranger) that brought him Karoma. Oakh? Happenstance that Sambas appeared (literally - I think NPCScan caught him a few seconds before he actually spawned), and Karoma the dedicated hunt. Weeeird...

[TygerDarkstorm]

Many congratulations on all your lovelies Tahlian.

[Novikova]

I was wondering where you'd gotten off to! Congratulations.

[Tahlian]

Oh, I'm still very much around...been working to get my little goblin Jynxi to Northrend, which meant getting her through Outlands and to the point where I could pick up a green windserpent from Blades' Edge and could reunite her with an old friend from the Lost Isles in a color-stable form...her green spiky raptor, who wound up named "Comicus" for his goofy grin, after Mel Brooks' character in "History of the World, Part I." ;p

[Tahlian]

And again...if lightning doesn't stop striking, I'm going to invest in tinfoil shoes or something. I'm out on my little rogue Phileas this evening, flapping around Uldum to collect elementium and resume questing for that long trip from 84 to 85, when just north of the area where the bandit leader spawns, I see a rather distinctive-looking scorpid. A damned big, distinctive-looking...red...scorpid. As I mouse over to click, SilverDragon says "BOOM" because I forgot to clear my cache after the last round of rares. So I do what any self-respecting hunter on a rogue alt would do when confronted with this situation...I land, stealth, and start koshing Madexx over the head with Sap while asking Kaelys to come freeze-trap babysit till I can get Oakh down there in guild OOC chat. Kaelys, being made of awesome and win, complies, and I fire up a second instance of WoW to get the account with the Tauren fired up and through the Orgrimmar portal. You'd swear that wind-rider was being whipped like it was running the Kentucky Derby going from Ramkahen to the Salket Wastes. I land Oakh, drop a trap, pop off a shot, and hit tame as Kaelys played dead. Nine seconds later, Oakh's Kekoa has a shiny new red coat of paint.

I'm scared to see what's going to pop up next these days...

[Novikova]

Ooh. That would be why I saw a gaggle of BE in Uldum. >> (Novi totally isn't harvesting herbs to fund stuff and things. Really.) Congratulations! Madexx is awesome and I love the red color. I hope your luck keeps going.

[Rhyela]

Goodness Tahlian, that's some awesome luck!

I really enjoy reading your stories, you have such a..."smooth"...way of writing. It's a pleasure to read.

[Tahlian]

I'm glad you enjoy reading my writing, Rhyela. If I get sufficiently motivated, perhaps I'll post one or two of the fiction pieces I've written over here.