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Having reached level 27 last week, we were a little tired of our old routine.
Rather than spend the next two levels hunting in over-crowded, Lake of Ill Omen, we decided to pick up and move
to Warsliks
Woods.
There are two ways to get from Lake of Ill Omen to Warsliks Woods. First there's the "please don't let my invis run out going through these o so confusing, which way was I going, akk!" goblin tunnels. The other is to race through the Frontier Mountains and the Overthere (avoiding General V'Deers). We opted for the latter: with sow, superior camouflage and maps, it was an easy run (except for one giant who took a few whacks at Trystahnn). Warsliks Woods is tree-filled and overcast, like Faydark, except most of the trees are shorter while the terrain is ragged and rocky. The zone entrance isn't very clear, no long, twisty tunnel just a bunch of trees and LOADING, PLEASE WAIT. Once in the zone, I began to track: everything I saw was at or below our level. We kicked ourselves for not having come here at level 25, fresh out of the Karanas. With only twelve other players in the zone, we made for the forest giant fortress, an enormous structure that dwarfed even the inhabitants. Two guards waited at the entrance. A quick cast of harmony on my part made it possible for Trystahnn to pull one at a time. Though large, the giants were never too much of a challenge. Once when a wandering goblin soothsayer joined in the fun, I became a little nervous. But stopping to quickly memorize Grasping Roots gave me a way to stop him in his tracks then soften him up with a few casts while Trystahnn dispatched the two in succession. Our strategy was to have Trystahnn use his bow to pull the giant across the bridge (occasionally through the river beneath it) to a knoll near the fort. I cast Shield of Barbs so that the giants took damage every time they landed a blow. Trystahnn used his paladin spells of Yaulp for added strength and melee ability and Flash of Light to blind them. My damage over time spell, Creeping Crud, was a nice addition to the overall damage the giants experienced. Finishing up the casting with a quick Snare spell prevented our cowardly foes from running back to the fortress to their buddies. In quick succession, the forest giants (mostly evergreens and greenwoods) fell to our onslaught. One corpse managed to fall on top of Trystahnn, fortunately for him he took no damage from the incident. During two hours of fighting, we slew over a dozen giants and split the loot we took from their corpses. We didn't like to let the bodies pile up more than two at a time since they were large enough to be a real problem to see past. Many no-drop Evergreen Ivy Ringbands, Magician Words and coin were all we looted until I spied a lone giant standing outside and to the south of the fortress. In his hands, a massive, silvery grey blade! Excitedly, I urged Trystahnn to abandon his meditations and pull this monster. He obliged and the forest giant raced across the river to attack. His blade was mighty but he soon succumbed to a combination of Trystahnn's weapon mastery and my spell casting. When combat concluded, the greenwood lay at our feet, a Leg-chopper ours to loot. Sportingly, Trystahnn rolled and came up with a twelve. My roll of fifteen beat him, so I took the weapon to sell later to a merchant for a nice little sum of platinum. Our evening was drawing towards a close, so we decided to take one last giant before returning to the Overthere zone to camp. Trystahnn pulled a greenwood guard from the gate and within a few moments, had him on the run. The giant died in mid-stride trying to flee despite the effects of my snare spell, but a bug in the display left his body treed far beyond our reach. We pondered what we were supposed to do (and posed for screenshots). Finally, inspiration hit me: levitate! I memorized and cast the spell, running up the nearby cliff face and racing off into the trees. It took three attempts but finally, the corpse was looted. Whew! All told, a fun and entertaining evening's adventure for two. Although none of the forest giants we fought dropped the coveted Forest Loop, we still got some nice cash and other loot from our kills, had the fun of exploring a brand new zone and even ran into an old friend, guildsister Nyxa Celeborn. We camped just over the zone line back into the Overthere, ready to return another day and continue our attacks upon the forest giants of Warsliks Woods. |