WoW : Snapdragon Quest

WoW = World of Warcraft, an online game I play with , apparently, 5 million other people in the world.

Log in , pull up my quest list. What do I need here ? Four more Infected NightStalkers, one more snap dragon. The snap dragon is a flower. Sheesh , I'm reduced to gathering flowers for people. Oh well. Start on the south side of Azuremyste Island and work my way around. It's actually the long way but you encounter a lot of mountainous territory that way. Which means you encounter a lot of copper veins, and I mine copper and turn it into rings and stuff.

Ah , the peace of fishing. After a fairly extended search , find copper, battle various wild monsters that seem to have mistaken me for lunch, I reach a quiet spot and cast my fishing rod in the water. It's pretty relaxing because you don't have to look at the screen , you can just close your eyes, and when a fish yanks on the line it makes an odd splash I've leanred to listen for, so you can actually fish with your eyes closed.

enough fishing , time to move on ...there's a barrel over there washed ashore , walk over and click on it, and get some "refreshing spring water". More importantly , some text comes up on the screen showing I have just discovered a new area, so I get a few experiance points for that.

Huh ?
Wait a minute. I'm behind Exodar, the city at the edge of the island, there isn't anything behind it. I check my map. Yup, big picture of Exodar at the corner of the map , no room for anything else.
Hmmm.....
Walk deeper into this new area. Find a mountain path and start going up. Then I get more xp for discovering "Wildwind Path" or somesuch. Definately had somethign to do with winds.
Well, maybe there's a snapdragon up here somewhere, it's a plant , it coudl grow anywhere, right ? I only need one more.
Up , and up , and up I go on this path. Mostly empty , i swear it must be an unfinished part of the game. No creatures no plants , nothing.
Then I start seeing torches lining the path. Maybe it's an impotant quest for some warrior or paladin or something ? Only they come up here ? Spot motion up ahead. A Wind Elemental, level 44, which is bad because I'm only 11th and can only take out things , maybe , 14th or so tops. But I can see it's all green (friendly) so It's safe to continue. Start seeing lots of wind elementals. And a big stone with symbols marked on it.

At this point I figure it out. I'd seen that stone before. When I tried out a shaman on the Hoarde Side , the shaman had quests to come to such stones , talk with some super elemental , and learn a few more spells. This wildwind path must be the Shaman's Air totem quest area.

Which was hilarious to me , since I in fact was a shaman. And the Air totem quest I wouldn't see until I was like 30th level. Guess I wouldn't be hunting around much to find it. It's right there , hidden behind exodar on a winding mountain path.

A little farther I find a girl in a cave , (Draenei) and a super elemental. Both talk to me, but don't say much beyond hello , meaning they have quests hidden up but I don't qualify to hear them. I loot the copper vein near by while watching all these air elementals... floating on the air ...actually way out away from the mountain floating on the air. Looks pretty, but prettiness only buys you a minute or two of me being impressed and then I decide it's time to wander off , kill more monsters, complete more quests, and generally get on with leveling my shaman.

All the way back down the path. By this time the water barrel washed ashore has re-apeared (respawned we call it) and I loot it again for more water. Walk three steps farther , and freeze in terror.

No no nooooooooahhhhhhh nooooo ! Murlocs.

Murlocs are the Dark Side of Artificial Intelligence. They're not just computer monsters you have to fight and kill, they're SMART computer monsters. Someone put a lot of effort into the artificial intelligence that runs them. If they're badly injured they'll run away. Usually into a pack of other murlocs, and then they , and the whole pack , will run back at you , and suddenly you're fighting five murlocs , not one. Or... they'll pull out a healing potion just when you think you're going to finish them off , and suddenly be back at full health , and you gotta start all over on them.
And they always apear in groups , usually villages, on the shore of a sea or lake , and there's always a wandering patrol, so while you're busy fighting one murloc, another one , or even a patrol of two , will come up behind you, and suddenly you're swarmed under again !

I really can't express how much I despise murlocs.
Truely I admire the work of the programmer who designed their intelligence... but the murlocs themselves i could do without the first hand experiance of that programming.

Back track a bit and find a way up the mountain and around the murlocs, I'm not going along that beach if I dont' half to.

Further inland find the road and follow it along the north end of the island, to some more mountainous area where I mined a little more copper. Fought a few Infected cats and got my bag limit on that. Along the road and it turned south , and I wandered off the road away from the mountains and it's copper and into the woods. Finally located the last snapdragon plant, hiding under a tree. Truck it back to the road avoiding the cats that think I'm lunchmeat , and finally make it home to turn in my quests.

I figure I'll use half the copper to raise my jewelry skill , and half I'll sell on the Auction House for simple cash. I need some equipment and the stuff I want is pricy. At least I don't have to go hunting for flowers anymore. End of snapdragon quest.