Page 7 of Looking for Group

[Guild][Caius]: I’m a proud Retiarius from a long-line of orcish warriors and I’ve been fighting with a dildo in my off-hand since Rimefrost 11

[Guild][Orcarella]: myrmi used to be my main but I never went ret

[Guild][Orcarella]: anybody up for a dungeon

[Guild][Heurodis]: still maxed

[Guild][Heurodis]: ask me again in 2hrs17

[Guild][Morag]: I’d come but I’m knackered and my offspecs a bit crap

[Guild][Caius]: I should have gone to bed half an hour ago but I’ve been running around Vala’Threk waving my net in people’s faces

[Guild][Orcarella]: Sol?

[Guild][Solace]: Sorry, I’m not in the mood to pug

[Guild][Solace]: I’m fishing

[Guild][Caius]: nn

Caius has gone offline.

[Guild][Orcarella]: isn’t it easier to buy fish on the AH

[Guild][Heurodis]: lol

[Guild][Morag]: lol

[Guild][Orcarella]: what am i missing

[Guild][Morag]: Solace is basically the only person in this entire game who actually likes fishing

[Guild][Solace]: It’s peaceful

[Guild][Solace]: I’m sitting on a rock in Alarion, and the sea is a sort of rich purply blue and I’m trying to catch the moon

[Guild][Heurodis]: is that a new achi

[Guild][Solace]: The sun’ll come up in an hour or two and everything will be gold and red

[Guild][Orcarella]: you’re seriously going to sit there till 2 am to see the sunrise in a computer game

[Guild][Solace]: you were going to stay up till two in the morning doing fights you’re not interested in with people you don’t like

[Guild][Morag]: zing baby

[Guild][Solace]: if you haven’t seen the sun rise over Alarion you haven’t played this game

[Guild][Orcarella]: don’t think I’ve even been to Alarion. isn’t it like vanilla endgame?

[Guild][Heurodis]: it was a lvl 48–50 zone before entry level raiding Wyrmsbreath Lair 12

[Guild][Heurodis]: since RotU everyone just goes straight to Jormenheim

[Guild][Solace]: it’s a really beautiful zone

[Guild][Solace]: it’s like this fallen kingdom full of ruins and ghosts and drifting leaves

[Guild][Heurodis]: dude, that’s Raziel’s kingdom from like Legend 1.

[Guild][Solace]: you should come and see it

Drew stared at the screen for a moment, wondering what to do.

It wasn’t the sort of invitation he’d ever received before, and if he had, he wouldn’t have taken it seriously.

But they obviously did things differently in this guild, and he didn’t want to look like some kind of elitist jerk.

13 Besides, it was probably a bit late to be running dungeons, and as they said, when in Rome, go fishing in Alarion.

[Guild][Orcarella]: omw

[Guild][Solace]: Really?!

[Guild][Orcarella]: y

Solace has invited you to join a group: y/n

Solace is now group leader

[Group][Solace]: Hi

Drew had a moment of panic. He really wasn’t sure what the etiquette was here.

Normally, when he was in group it was for a reason and there was some kind of script, usually along the lines of mana up, protect the flag, buff me, you two take blacksmith, anyone know tacs .

But he wasn’t sure what to say when the plan was sit on a rock and fish.

[Group][Orcarella]: Hi

Shit. That was not a good opening. Traditional, but not good.

[Group][Orcarella]: how are you?

[Group][Solace]: I’m feeling quite virtuous actually

[Group][Solace]: I went over all my lecture notes on the Lorentz transformation

[Group][Orcarella]: you’re at uni?

[Group][Solace]: Yes, physics

[Group][Orcarella]: Me too. not physics though lol

[Group][Solace]: What are you reading?

[Group][Orcarella]: Latest Scott Lynch. You?

[Group][Solace]: Um… I kind of meant what are you studying

Drew felt like a knob.

[Group][Orcarella]: oh right, game art design lol

[Group][Solace]: Cool

Drew still felt like a knob. And he suddenly realised he had no idea how to get to Alarion.

He called up the map, something he hadn’t done basically since he’d started raiding, and squinted at it, mousing over the different zones to try and figure where the hell this place actually was.

To his embarrassment, it turned out to be due south of Orcarella’s home city, the orcish stronghold of Vala’Threk.

His bindstone was set to the City of Stars, that being the closest major hub to Crown of Thorns, where he spent ninety percent of his game time, so he was going to have to travel the old-fashioned way.

He got on his dreadsteed and galloped through the shining streets of the City of Stars and up the spiral ramp that led to the skyship tower that would take him to the eastern continent.

As usual, one was just leaving as he arrived, so he parked himself on the platform to wait, another thing he hadn’t done since he started raiding.

[Group][Solace]: I’ve been meaning to pick up Republic of Thieves

[Group][Orcarella]: i only read the other two last year

[Group][Solace]: Any good?

[Group][Orcarella]: not as good as the first one, better than the second

[Group][Solace]: I thought the first one was a bit all hail my awesome main character

[Group][Orcarella]: yeah but he was actually awesome

[Group][Solace]: That’s the problem. He was clearly supposed to be

[Group][Orcarella]: I like Jean best anyway

[Group][Solace]: Me too. He’d be a great friend to have.

[Group][Solace]: I’d rather hang out with him.

[Group][Orcarella]: wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[Group][Solace]: wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww to you too

[Group][Orcarella]: lol no

[Group][Orcarella]: nearly missed my airship

Drew cantered back and forth impatiently over the deck of the ship as it glided towards the transition that would trigger the loading screen. And then went and stuffed his horse into the prow like Kate Winslet in Titanic .

It was a deep black night for the Heroes of Legend , the skybox lavishly dusted with stars.

Then the familiar loading screen popped up: it showed a scantily clad human with a staff, a dwarf with a huge hammer and even huger beard, a kobold with tiny goggles, and a severe-looking orc warrior.

Drew felt a strange rush of nostalgia for his first experiences of the game when he’d looked at those figures and thought, Wow, I want to play one of those , instead of Wow, I wish this zone would hurry up and load, and yes I know a Tempest employee will never ask for my password.

He got off the skyship at Vala’Threk and paused on the dock to give actual serious consideration to which flying mount he’d show up on.

Part of him was embarrassed to even be thinking about it.

Still, in the end, he settled on El’ir Reborn 14 , the black and purple phoenix that you got for doing the top-tier raiding achievements at the end of Rise of the Underworld. A random level five orcish elementalist cheered him as his mount unfurled its shadowy wings.

He soared into the air and flew south for Alarion.

He passed over a range of black, pointy mountains and the landscape changed abruptly from bare tundra to red-brown forests as he crossed over into the new zone.

You have discovered Invader’s Pass.

He pulled up the area map to look for Solace, who was a little purple dot a short way out to sea.

Wheeling his mount round, he headed diagonally across the zone.

Beneath him, the ghosts of ancient armies battled in the ruins of a once great city, while a fifty-third level kobold scampered in circles, picking flowers for potion crafting.

He found Solace sitting alone on a piece of broken temple jutting up from the sea. He landed his phoenix, which engulfed the whole thing, including Solace, in a whirl of shadows and feathers.

[Group][Solace]: Is that El’ir Reborn or are you just pleased to see me?

[Group][Orcarella]: lol

He dismounted and stood precariously on the edge of the ruin. Solace was wearing an off-the-shoulder white dress that Drew was pretty sure came from the Valentine’s event, and a battered brown hat. She was fishing with a huge, jewel-plated fishing rod.

Drew /pointed in its general direction.

[Group][Orcarella]: nice rod

[Group][Solace]: It’s what you do with it that counts

[Group][Orcarella]: lol

Drew /sat next to Solace, and, for some reason, found himself spinning the camera round so he could see what they looked like.

Which turned out to be kind of ridiculous.

Solace was curled demurely on the floor with her knees together, and Ella was hulked next to her in full Tier 14 raiding kit.

The skull helmet was especially atmospheric.

He opened his inventory and cleared his headslot.

It didn’t really help matters. She was now sitting there with tusks and a gigantic mohawk.

He was beginning to feel like the gawky one in a chick flick.

And he’d run out of rod jokes.

And he needed something to say.

And this was like the worst date ever, except it wasn’t really, it was just two strangers on computers, looking at an elf and an orc sitting on a rock.

[Group][Orcarella]: so here I am

Shit, was that crap.

[Group][Orcarella]: it was a bit of a trip

[Group][Solace]: I kind of miss the travelling

[Group][Solace]: It made the world feel worldy

[Group][Orcarella]: but it used to take like 7m from the city of ash to the stone forest

[Group][Solace]: Yeah but you felt like you’d gone somewhere

[Group][Orcarella]: when I started playing I could normally only play for an hour or so a night with homework and clubs and shit

[Group][Orcarella]: so those 7 minutes came out of my playing time

[Group][Solace]: I didn’t think of it like that

[Group][Solace]: I didn’t really do any clubs so I had plenty of time

[Group][Solace]: And, tbh, sometimes I read a book on the longer flights

[Group][Orcarella]: you know if you’re looking for ways to entertain yourself when playing a game

[Group][Orcarella]: I think the game’s gone wrong

[Group][Solace]: Hee hee

[Group][Solace]: I used to have this really crap computer, so I got used to reading on loading screens

[Group][Solace]: I spent so much time waiting for The Witcher to load 15 , I managed to read the whole book it was based on

[Group][Orcarella]: lol