Choose My Adventure: Voted off the island

OK, so that title is something of a misnomer, but it does carry through based on the vote from last week. Overwhelmingly, people wanted to hear about adventuring, so I'm glad to report I had a rich week of questing and dealing with the threats found on the starting island in Vanguard. I'm actually poised to leave the Isle of Dawn, but due to the number of comments recommending I finish out the diplomacy and crafting lines, I'm going to spend the time before the vote closes this week to get those out of the way. After all, one doesn't want to start out behind the curve when hitting the mainland.

Curious as to how this week's adventure fared based on the voted desire for adventure? In the mood to watch me fly around uncontrollably on what must be the most annoying elevator ever? Or are you just all about the vote? Well join me after the break as I recount the trials and tribulations I experienced and outline my trip to the Temple of Ancestors!
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Upon logging in and checking my quest log, I realized I still had some serious ground to cover if I was going to finish out the arcs and get off the island this week. As such, I spent a good portion of the time making sure I'd caught up all the adventuring quests for the displaced farmers and their families in Sun Village -- the quests I'd been unable to complete last week due to the lag issues. After researching (via killing a bunch of stone elemental minions) I was able to upset the Aspect of Zalaz enough to summon him forth. The original intent was to talk to him and attempt to both figure out why he was after the Isle and see if I could convince him to bugger off.

Needless to say, there's no reasoning with a pissed off high elemental, so after a bit of trial and error (and someone cluing me into using the ring against the aspect to weaken it), I finally managed to defeat him.

Amusingly, this particular beatdown almost bit me in the butt at a later point. But I'll get to that shortly.

Happy to hear their crops were safe once again, the villagers pointed me towards another group that could use my help: the people of Shining Waves Village. Of course, I passed an outpost just before the village containing Magistrate Gai in his house and a scattered handful of people protecting him. As to why he didn't evacuate to the temple nearby (like every other sane person in the area did), I can't tell you. He immediately struck me as being a bit bonkers, as he talked a great game about the people's welfare being his interest while his assistant was sending me out after his personal effects. They suspected the items were pilfered by some hobgoblins that were camped nearby, so off I went.

As soon as I headed off to retrieve said valuables, I could hear the Magistrate playing a lute. Yep, 'ol Gai is completely and utterly off his rocker: fiddling while Rome burns.

However, despite the belief that the local camp was populated by hobgoblins, I found a far more sinister group -- the Ulvari. According to the storyline, the Ulvari are the race that drove the Raki off their homeworld. OK, sure, the Magistrate is a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal, but upon seeing the Ulvari, I realized this was personal. If I had to wipe every last one of the Ulvari off the map to find bonkers' baubles, I'd do so happily. (Besides, I was kind of hoping their cool Asian-inspired armor would drop. My Raki disciple could totally rock that look.)

Sadly, no nifty-looking gear dropped, and I managed to retrieve the Magistrate's items after a bit of leveling. (It was a bit difficult for me to handle three or four slightly higher-level mobs at level 7, solo.) Once the Magistrate's retinue was convinced that it'd be safe there thanks to my leveling the Ulvari camp (guess they're crazy too), I headed on to check out the nearby temple and warn the people there about the coming threat.

Apparently the Ulvari had beaten me to Shining Waves Village by a few days, as I learned from the priest in charge. Most of the people there had been slaughtered or turned into possessed minions. The only ones who remained all now lived within the safety of the walls of the temple itself.

The lead priest informed me that hope was dwindling fast. However, perhaps, if someone were brave enough to retrieve the Ulvari plans, search for some ancient texts, and eventually enter the Temple of Ancestors, there might be a chance. The idea was to close the portal deep within the temple and cut off the invading Ulvari army. Since the Ulvari were using the hobgoblins as pawns, it was further suggested that this might bring a full peace to the lands of the Isle once and for all.

If only a brave adventurer would face down the dangers of the overrun temple and seal the breach... But who?

"I'll do it!" I said cheerfully, wondering if Magistrate Bonkers hadn't rubbed off on me.

From there, I grouped up with a Massively reader, Orin, and after clearing the front of the Temple, we headed in to see whether or not we could close the portal and save the Isle. Surprisingly, we did fairly well for being two level 8 characters flying largely by the seats of our pants, considering neither of us knows the area. Truthfully, the hardest "mob" we had to fight in there was an incredibly difficult wind "elevator" that floats you up or down depending on which side you choose. As there's no real "tutorial" (or even hint) for that thing, you can get caught on poles in the middle, bars across the chasm, and the walls of the chasm. You can even simply become stuck floating in the air for several minutes at a time. (Seriously, watch the video below from the 52 minute mark on. You'll see what I mean.)

We also were counseled that we'd have to seek the favor of the Aspect of Zalaz if we had any hope of closing the portal and slaying the end boss. Yes, the same one I'd beaten the snot out of a couple of days earlier.

Oops.

Thankfully, realizing that he was taking the blame for -- as well as being used as a pawn by -- the Ulvari, Zalaz agreed to reason this time around and granted us his blessing. But as we learned, not even that was enough. We landed in the path of a nasty mob train, a named mob, and a lag spike. The next thing I knew, I was dead. Shortly after that, Orin was also dead.

"Ah well," Orin commented, looking on the bright side. "I wanted to go train my new abilities anyway!"

After a quick break and some training, we headed back to the Temple of Ancients on freshly rented pegasus mounts. (One word: awesome!) Once inside, we found a friendly druid named Mojo who agreed to team up with us. What was fairly easy before became ridiculously easy, as we tore through that place like a house on fire. It was also fun to group with Mojo as -- aside from having a rope that could get us out of that horrible wind-tunnel-elevator thing -- she had some interesting pets, including one that would make everyone dance at random. Our wonder-trio powers combined, we tore through the rest of the Temple of Ancients, closing portals and slaying the bad guys, with Mojo teleporting us out afterward. We added each other to our friends lists and said our goodbyes for the evening. I'll definitely be on the lookout for the both of them as I continue playing Vanguard!

With the Isle done now, it's time to put things up to another vote. Where, oh where shall I head next, readers? Does Apseth the Raki disciple save some more people from the Ulvari? Head for the land of the rat-people? Or pick the place with great connections but tons of threats all around? That's what you get to decide! This poll will end of Friday, October 8th at 11:59 p.m. EDT, so get those votes in quickly!

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In the meantime, I'll finish up those last straggling diplomacy, crafting, and miscellaneous quests and get ready to take the plunge first thing Saturday on the next livestream. You can catch me streaming Choose My Adventure on Saturday mornings from 8 to 9 a.m. EDT, as well as from 8 to 9 p.m. EDT on Sunday evenings. I'm looking forward to seeing what you pick for the next leg of this journey!

Join Krystalle as she makes her way through strange lands on a Choose My Adventure directed entirely by you, the Massively readers! If you'd like to play along, you can add Krystalle in-game or on Raptr, Xfire, or Twitter. Once the two months are up, we'll put the adventure to a vote -- and you'll choose what Krystalle plays next.