Children’s Week

Children’s Week is another World Event, running during the first week of May.  I was told there were a few pets available during this event, so barely needed any encouragement to check it out.

My first child was the Orcish Orphan, picked up in Orgrimmar.

He had a couple of quests for me.. he wanted to go and ride the Rocketway in Azshara, go and meet Sylvanas in Undercity, and see the Fallen Chieftain, Cairne Bloodhoof, over at Red Rocks where there was a little ceremony led by Bairne.

After that there was icecream, kite flying, and toy swords bought for the other orphans..

I got a choice of pets and picked up Whiskers the Rat 🙂

Over in Shattrath, my adopted child was a Blood Elf Orphan, who also wanted to travel.. to Sporeggar in Zangarmarsh, to the Throne of Elements in Nagrand, where she got herself burned when she went too near to Incineratus, the Fury of Fire, and off to the impressive-looking Dark Portal in Hellfire Peninsula.

Her next quests had us travel to Silvermoon to see the Elite Tauren Cheiftain, which I had only seen in Blackrock Depths before, and over to the Caverns of Time, where I got her a Toy Dragon.  Nothing for the other orphans back in Shattrath this time, but a second pet for me.

I picked up Sleepy Willy, who is a non-combat pet like the rest, but he can also attack and kill critters..

He is fairly ugly though.. my “pity pet” as another friend dubbed him. 😉

The last Orphan was to be found over in Dalaran, and I picked Roo, the Oracle Orphan, rather than the Wolvar.. next time, puppy-man!

Sightseeing this time took in the Biggest Tree Ever, a massive tree housing furbolgs in Grizzly Hills, the Bronze Dragonshrine in Dragonblight, and off to Winterfin Retreat in the Borean Tundra, where I vaguely remember questing a long time back!  After those, it was over to the Shaper’s Terrace in Un’Goro Crater, where I ended up collecting Dinosaur Meat for my Venomhide Hatchling, before taking my Orphan to meet the massive Etymidian..

..and then on to meet Alexstrasza, and then back to Dalaran for more toy buying at the Wonderworks.

After taking Roo back to the orphanage, I got the Curious Oracle Hatchling in the mail 🙂

Two more pets came along this day: the De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion, from Vorlak..

..and the Panther Cub from the Zandalari missions around Stranglethorn Vale 🙂

The Wrathgate and Beyond

After moving on to Northrend, the quests have been more grouped together, and following a rather more clear plot.  Moving on to Dragonblight, we got even more impressive plot line, with an increased use of vehicles and flight.

We failed one mission in amazing style: we were escorting some Taunka refugees who just couldn’t keep up with the Rocket..  we turned around to find they had stopped following us and died on the path.  We went a lot slower the second time, and managed to get them to safety 😉

I loved the look of the Forsaken buildings at Venomspite..

More quests involved playing with Blight specimens, including a particularly fun quest with some blight spreader vehicles.  After figuring out how to drive these, firing Blight bombs at the undead was quite satisfying 🙂

The very impressive Wrathgate was the last place to approach..

Outside the Wrathgate, there was a huge battle, which gave us a pretty epic cutscene to watch..

Horde and Alliance forces working together to call out the Lich King, only to be attacked from behind by the Forsaken!  Wait.. I thought they were on our side?

The Forsaken were driven back by the dragons, but only after plenty of death and destruction.  Oh, and fire!

Saurfang the Younger was killed by the Lich King, and so we headed back to Warsong Hold to tell his father, then to Orgrimmar.

Here we found many changes, with refugees camped out everywhere, and some unhappy shopkeepers..
In Thrall’s room, there were visitors: Sylvanas Windrunner, who had fled the Undercity, and Jaina Proudmoore, who had come to ask what the hell was going on..

I found this more motivating than the normal quests, with a bit more story to it.  The large scale battles were part of the draw too..

We headed to Undercity to take it back and kill those responsible for the backstabbing!  Here we were seriously buffed up, and for once I didn’t need to worry about my health bar 🙂

The bigger mobs were especially fun to hit while in this state, as were the large packs of mobs which I hit with AOE spell Mind Sear for lots of damage 🙂
Again, a nice change from normal as I normally heal team-mates rather than smack mobs.

The flying doomguards were harder to target as they were flying in and out of range.  Still, they eventually went down too..

Varimathras had been taunting us while we made our way through the Undercity, destroying the lift and later blocking off the corridor to the Royal Quarter.

We eventually got to him though, and started on him as he attempted to summon demons from portals around the room.
There was also another mysterious voice, telling Varimathras he has failed him.  Possible future quest line?