The Adventures of...

We're sort of in the downtime between expansions, right? I mean, that's something that's pretty much universally agreed on at this point, yeah? The guild I'm in said buh-bye to Heroic Archimonde before Christmas, which means as a unit, we're reached our ultimate end-goal for the expansion. While we're still continuing our Thursday night runs, and will even push into Mythic here and there, the long stretch with no new content means many of us are looking for different activities to engage in, whether that's leveling alts, knocking out old achievements, or--gulp--playing other games.*

But for the most (fool)hardy amongst the Sapere Aude clan, there is now a guild Ironman challenge. Created in the same vein as the popular Warcraft Ironman challenges, the contest has you leveling up a character without most of the luxuries a player normally enjoys during the process. Our rules are more relaxed than the ones linked above, but it's still a challenging prospect nonetheless. So as not to anger any purists who might stumble across this post, ours is not an official challenge, just our take on it.

I'll be documenting the trials, successes and failures of that process here.

*I love you Warcraft and I would never cheat on you but when I do it's almost always with another Blizzard game. #keepinitreal #allinthefamily

The Adventures of Glasz

I started out with a human rogue. Most of my guildie counterparts had chosen either dwarves or gnomes. I figured since we were going Alliance--ewww--I'd roll as a familiar race. Glasz is a loud, boastful man, one of several heirs to a family fortune with a love for sailing and booze, as he grew up for the most part on ships. He's decided to join up with a band of Adventurers, Ferrum Aude, for reasons that aren't quite clear. Perhaps that will reveal itself as this process plays out.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I'm going to roleplay the shit out of this guy as we go along.

Unsurprisingly, levels 1-10 flew by without a hitch in less than two hours. I did all of the quests leading up to where you are sent to Westfall. At that point I departed to Ironforge for a previously scheduled guild meeting, after which I decided to continue questing from that point. This sent me to Loch Modan.

I started making my way through the map from hub to hub, knocking out quest objectives with ease. My XP bar is turned off, since not dying is the main objective in this whole thing, and I was mildly surprised with how quickly I reached level 15. My next quests sent me to the central part of the zone near the Loch---I think I had to dispatch some murlocs or something. It's always murlocs.

As Glasz cut his way through the area, he heard some distinct arguing coming from near the shoreline. He looked over to see a group of gnolls and murlocs having some sort of meeting together. Confident he could get closer to them without detection, he crept up slowly. He couldn't make out what was being said, but then latched onto a "better" idea. If these two groups were meeting, it must be over something important. Perhaps whatever thing is important is worth something. Perhaps if he dispatches this group, said important thing will fall into his hands. Perhaps someone would then pay for said important thing.

He sized the group up once more. Five in total: three murlocs, two gnolls. Glasz felt five would be testing his fate. Four though? Doable. Before the rest of the group detected his presence, he had the largest murloc knocked unconscious and his knives into the belly of the largest gnoll. Except, the gnoll didn't go down. It was wearing thick armor underneath an outer layer of tattered cloth. Smart. The gnolls came to the meeting prepared for battle. And now there was one.

Glasz noticed the largest murloc he'd knocked out was coming to; he still grappled with the gnoll he'd first attacked, while the other two murlocs and one gnoll closed in on his flanks. Panic set in. He felt a strange warmth running down the left side of his leg. Did I just piss myself? he briefly thought, but when he flashed a look downwards, he saw it: blood. His own.

Glasz feigned backwards, dropped to his knees while sticking his blades into the sand. He flung them upwards wildly, tossing the fine particles into the faces of his attackers. The move bought him a few moments, but the band caught up with him as he hobbled up a dune just a few yards away.

Then, Glasz knew no more.

The Adventures of Glasz Flasz

So, Glasz's death was rather...unexpected. Full disclosure: the guild's Ironman contest doesn't require a clean slate when it comes to death count (though there are specific conditions under which a character can be resurrected), but I play for keeps. I determined before I ventured out that any "setback" like this would be permanent. That all said, I was not prepared for this scenario. My roommate heard me yell Fuck! and looked over but I knew there was no way to explain this to him. Progress was lost, boo-hoo, now what do I do?

That's when I realized Glasz has a younger brother. And perhaps more siblings, depending on how this plays out.

Flasz, like his brother, grew up on the seas and is also part-heir to the family fortune. Originally trained in deception and avoiding detection, Flasz fell in love with Pandaria when a ship he was on docked there briefly after the mists had parted. He remained there to train in the ways of the pandaren monks. After the events of the Siege of Orgrimmar, he chose to remain in Pandaria, where he has lived since.

Flasz is soon to receive an urgent letter from his brother Glasz imploring him to meet in Ironforge. Unfortunately, by the time the letter reaches Flasz, Glasz is already dead---something Flasz has yet to discover.

The Adventures of... will be a semi-regular feature chronicling my character's journey as he levels through the game under Ironman-type conditions while trying to discover the truth of his brother's fate.