The Noble, Children's Week, and Arthas

Last night, Yrovi officially became "Yrovi the Noble" when she managed to find a lovely female dwarf sitting outside Dalaran. Naturally, she had been waiting ever so patiently outside the Alliance area for quite some time (dressed up all pretty, with a cozy fire, and egg basket, and flowers) before giving up and running to Ironforge to attempt to find one in it's natural habitat. The guards were rather upset with this idea, naturally, and alerted several other Alliance members. She did meet a rather cute gnome outside, though. I warned her not to play with her food, but she was in a good mood, and still sated from eating all those chocolates from the day before, so he survived the encounter, even when flagged for combat. She gave up when even the great home of the dwarven race had no females and hearthed back to Dalaran after exploring the area. Right outside the bank, pretty as you please, calmly sitting on her ram, was a lady dwarf. I laughed heartily, for at least a few minutes. So, that took care of Shake Your Bunny-Maker.

A short trip to Brill and a flurry of egg finding produced the 100 chocolates needed to purchase a bunny from the nice belf there, which then resulted in Yrovi taking the quick trips needed to the various starting areas. They all had plenty of others with bunnies, waiting patiently, and within no time Spring Fling was taken care of as well, which was the last thing needed. Thus, Yrovi became Noble, and is one step closer to a lovely purple drake, something she desperately wants as she'll be unable to get such a magnificent, speedy, flying beast any other way (yeah, never going to do arena).

Of course, "finishing" Noblegarden only draws attention to next week's event: Children's Week. Children's Week happens to be one of my favorite world events, as the little kids are so very adorable. Last year at this time, I wasn't a high enough level to go to Outland (I think I was around level 40, only just on a mount), so I was only able to participate in the original version, with a little orc child. I'm not complaining, though, as I loved every minute of it. Of course, it means I'm 3x more excited this year as I can do the original, the one in Outland, and the new one for Northrend. :D I'll be getting the little pig, and the baby hawkstrider, and whatever pet that ends up being the reward for the Northrend orphans.

Of course, I'll need to prepare for it as best I can. Bad Example requires several sweets for the achievement. I've managed to purchase several already, specifically the ones you can get in Dalaran. I need to still find the ice cream (I think it's sold on the zepplins, so that's nice), the chocolate cake (although our resident paladin has one already, so maybe they'll share? *puppydog eyes*) and a tasty cupcake. I have two of the emotion food recipies, but not this one, naturally.

Hail to the King can most probably be completed on regular, so that won't be an issue for me. I'll try to do it at least once before the event, though, so I'm not going in blind. The last one that isn't "easy" is School of Hard Knocks... and it will be very "not easy." I enjoy some PvP, but I'm not a guru or anything. Two of the requirements seem relatively straight forward: Assaulting a flag in Arathi Basin, and Assaulting a Tower in Alterac Valley. It's possible that, like the quest you get around level 35 or so for Arathi Basin, you just have to be in the area when someone assaults the flag to get credit. The other two, though... oh, man. Capture the flag in Eye of the Storm: at least I'm a tank, so I could theoretically be a good candidate for this, though it means I'll need to be much more pushy and aggressive than normal. I have no experience running flags. Finally, return a fallen flag in Warsong Gulch: this is going to be the hardest part of the entire thing, in my mind. I can only imagine the sheer number of people attempting to do this at the same time in a normal WG match, and compound it with the need for doing this achievement. It's not going to be pretty, that's for certain.

Noblegarden may have been easily completed in a couple of days, but Children's Week will be a beast. A beast that cannot be fed or sated. I suppose I should look into getting some PvP gear, like the Savage Saronite set. I'm still going to run as Prot, I think... maybe. I'll lose a lot of defense with that set, although the resiliance will help make up for it, and maybe the extra stamina and increased crit will help. I've also been an avid Wintergrasp participant, so maybe I have some marks of honor that are gathering dust. If so, I can purchase a nice epic PvP piece, one that will have a socket, even. Maybe I'll start doing what I can to run it when it's up to get a few more marks before next week. The best part about all that is that I can use the gear from then on, making PvP even more fun. :D

As a footnote: I bought Arthas, Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden this weekend. I haven't finished it, yet, but I have to admit I'm pleasantly surprised. I expected it to be a little over-the-top, maybe even cheesy, but it's really pretty good. It helps that I actually really like Arthas as a character and that I have played Warcraft III and thus know what's going on. Still, I'm finding it a good read and would recommend it to any WoW players out there looking for something to read. It gives an insight into the guy we all love to hate, and who wouldn't enjoy that? I won't give anything away here, of course, but if you've even slightly considered getting it, go do so. Or, if you're still not sure, borrow it from a friend. I have to admit that the $25 price tag is a little hefty, though, so maybe you'll wait for it to come out in paperback. Regardless, read it. :)