olivia-dove

[olivia-dove]

What can I do on Bloodmyst Isle without killing anything?

Since I was only able to tromp around Azuremyst for 5 levels, moving onto Bloodmyst Isle seemed like the next logical step.

First, I used my hearthstone to teleport back to the Exodar to clear out bags and get closer to the turn in point for Coming of Age—the last quest in my log. I learned mining and herbalism to be sure I’d reach level ten by the end of Bloodmyst, and also so I would have something to sell for gold.

Topside, Torallius the Pack Handler was throughly unimpressed with the Exarch’s pick for recruit (me). But he told me to report in at Kessel’s Crossing, just over the bridge on Bloodmyst Isle, anyway. Once there, I was immediately sent back to Azuremyst Isle to warn the settlements there of an imminent attack.

After a round trip on elekk-back, I returned to Kessel’s Crossing to gather some sand pears as a treat for the elekks. As I picked them up, I also gathered some herbs, and was chased off once by an angry bear—and then by an angry bearman.

With my share of sand pear pie in hand, I traveled north up the road to Blood Watch, which looks much like Azure Watch—but red. The zone hasn’t changed since its release in the Burning Crusade expansion and it shows—I was inundated with quest givers and filled up my quest log like a kid in a candy store. It’s a little overwhelming, but for a pacifist it’s preferable to the alternative of long chains that can’t be progressed. (An extreme example of which is Westfall.)

One Draenei was concerned about the threat the local satyr might pose and sent me to learn what I could from the monument in their settlement to the southwest, Nazzivian. Another found murlocs to be curious creatures and just wanted to learn more about them. She gave me a tagging device to mark them for study. Yet another needs crystal samples from around the isle and takes me with collecting one from the debris near Kessel’s Crossing, in the least corrupted area of Bloodmyst.

One Lady was looking for her husband, who worked in the Cryo-Core, and asked me to search the wreckage where it landed just west of Blood Watch. And one guy just wanted mushrooms for his collection, sending me out for four specific specimens unique to the isle.

A Dwarf from Odysseus’ expedition was hanging around town, and complained to me that he had to babysit a Gnomish prospector who was studying the local murlocs. Told me to go have a look inside the old turtle shell on the northern beach. Speaking of Odysseus, a messenger stopped me to let me know an urgent letter from him was waiting from me in the mailbox. Retrieving the letter, I read that Odysseus received a visit from the ghost of an old captain, who apparently haunts Wyrmscar island to the northeast, and asked that I seek him out.

A Vindicator got me up to speed on the current military situation and sent me over to the Exarch to talk about his plan, and also told me to report to Vindicator Boris for training. Since the Blood Elves have been using the remains of the vector coil and its corrupting effects against us, he wants to blow it up. He needs information from their elven prisoner to make that happen and, after casting a spell to make me look and sound like a Blood Elf, sends me in to get it. I pretend to be a fellow prisoner and get him chatting until he spills the relevant info. After which, the Exarch tells me to take the road north and west to reach Vindicator’s Rest and report to Corin. Harbinger Mikolaas also wanted me to go to Vindicator’s rest and talk to the hand Scout Jorli.

Finally, I was given a letter of introduction to take to the closest Alliance settlement. (Specifically he said Auberdine, but uh… Ah, I’m sure it will be fine…)

I start in on my massive to do list by picking a blood mushroom growing right on the cliffs of Blood Watch (why did he need help with this one?). As I make my way back south towards the crystal, I swim across the red river and collect a stinkhorn growing on the riverbed.

The crystal sample was just west of Kessel’s Crossing, and the area was crawling with ravagers. I managed to chip off a piece without alerting any of them, which was both a surprise and a relief because I had neither sap nor vanish yet.

Just across the bay from there were the murlocs I was supposed to tag. I specifically needed to tag the scouts, who were mingling with a great number of other (less interesting?) murlocs. It was a bit stressful to get within tagging range of a scout but stay out of aggro range of all the other murlocs, since using the tagging gun would break my stealth. But, I only had to run once. Well, twice, if you count the treasure chest I went back to steal out from under them.

I picked up a felcone fungus on my way north to the ruins of Nazzivian. I snuck through satyr camps until I reached the monument where I either took a rubbing of the plaque, or pried it off the stone entirely (it’s a bit unclear…).

Just north of the ruins, through a mountain pass, was the wreckage of the cyro-core and it was absolutely crawling with Blood Elves. It was nerve wracking to try to sneak through them while they randomly darted about—I thought for sure they would run right into me! I located Galaen’s body, but blew my cover while I was searching for his matching pendant to take back to his wife (read: turning in the quest), and had to flee through the entire horde of Blood Elves as they flung fire balls at me.

After escaping the elves, I went northwest to Vindicator’s Rest where I reported to both Corin and Scout Jorli. I couldn’t help the scout with anything, but I thought maybe I could help Corin. Or rather, watch Corin while he went into the Blood Elf infested vector coil to plant bombs. I was wrong. Even if he was lucky enough to get through the elves, he couldn’t handle their boss, Sironas, on his own.

With nothing left to do there, I uncovered the areas of the map north of Vindicator’s Rest, and then jumped down a waterfall to the beach where the Explorer’s League Gnome was staying. He was indeed camping out inside a giant turtle shell in the middle of a murloc village. Said murlocs had stolen some of his equipment, but he didn’t dare expose his presence and ruin his study, so he sent me to retrieve it.

His crate of supplies was smack in the middle of one of their hut clusters. I still didn’t have access to sap, so it took a few tries to pick up the crate before a murloc stabbed me and interrupted the action—and then I had to flee until it stopped chasing me and go back and repeat.

After returning the supplies, I kept going east along the beach until I discovered and warp piston. Then swam further east to Wyrmscar island, where I talked to the ghost of Captain Edward Hanes about the bloodcurse legacy. Unable to help him with that particular problem, I walked around the island and bumped into another ghost who did have a problem I could solve.

This Night Elf ghost told me the owlkin on Bloodmyst were suddenly stealing the bones of long dead dragons from Wyrmscar, agitating their spirits. So, I swam back across the water to the forest where they lived, which was just north of Blood Watch. I stayed on the outskirts of their settlement, sneaking in the snatch a bone and then darting away when I earned their ire. Once I had collected 8, I returned them to the Night Elf ghost.

I couldn’t help him with anything else, so I swam south out to Bloodcurse isle while it was (somewhat) convenient to discover it on my map. Then swam back east to the mainland and collected a ruinous polypore on my way back to Blood Watch. When I delivered the mushrooms, Maatparm told me to go right back out to Wyrmscar and bring him two more specimens…

Before I did, I turned in all of the other quests I completed after circling the isle. When I brought the crystal sample to Mikolaas, he told me the survey team he sent to the nearby ruins to the east had not returned, and asked me to go look for them.Those ruins where swarming with naga, and I found the corpses of the survey team in the middle of it all.

From there, I swam northeast back to Wyrmscar island to collect a couple of Ysera’s Tears. This time I remembered to climb the mountain in the center of the island to discover Viridian point.

By the time I returned to Blood Watch with those mushrooms, I was finally level ten and could collect candy from the bucket in the Inn—part of the Hallows Eve celebration. I also received a (telepathic?) message from Wraithon, telling me to use the dragonscale that was suddenly in my bag to teleport to Stormwind so we could go to the Dragon Isles.

[olivia-dove]

How much of World of Warcraft can I play without killing anything?

I wanted to jump right into all of the holiday events going on, but now they have a level requirement of 10. (I say "now" because I clearly remember being able to jump right in on a fresh character in the past... but maybe I'm imagining it?) So, I suppose I'll be tromping around Azuremyst Isle for 9 levels.

I’ve made a Draenei, because the first time I did this I played a Draenei Priest. I thought it made sense thematically. But this time I’ve chosen Rogue; their kit just makes my life easier.

How much can I do on Azuremyst Isle without killing anything?

I start the game amongst the wreckage of a spaceship crash. I'm greeted by an injured Draenei informing me I've just awoken from suspended animation and I should go report to some guy down the hill, who immediately demands I kill moths for their blood (apparently it makes a healing potion?). I give that a miss, and head inside the wreck of a space ship to sell off my daggers—I won't be needing them. A quick look around confirmed there was nothing more for me there. Ammen Vale is a valley almost completely surrounded by mountains, so I took the lone path out to Azuremyst Isle proper.

At the mouth of the valley, I spotted an injured scout who asked me to take his report back to Azure Watch. After fording the straight that separates the vale from the isle, I met an injured fisherwoman (I'm sensing a theme...) who wanted me to net some fish from said water. I disturbed a some murloc and had to leg it a few times. Thankfully, they didn’t chase me far, and I was able to return with 10 red snappers. She rewarded me with a fishing pole and offered to teach me how to fish, but fishing requires level 5 and I've only just ding'd 2 by turning in this quest. Then she hands me back a crate of fish and sends me on to Azure Watch with them.

After a short walk west down the path, I arrived in Azure Watch; where the injured were being treated instead of handing out quests. Here, too, the buildings were cobbled together from the wreckage. I dropped off the crate of snapper and was asked to hunt the local stags for their meat. I'll check the auction house...

I took reported to the inn, such as it was, and was promptly sent back out with a supply list bound for the main body of the crashed ship: the Exodar. I took a hippogryph flight there, handed off the list, accepted a box of supplies, and flew back to the inn with it.

Outside the inn, I took a quest to check on a missing fisherman. The local Exarch was trying to recruit me for the Hand of Argus and send me on to Bloodmyst Isle already, telling me to report to the elekk handler outside the Exodar. I filed that away for later.

A nearby scholar was learning to communicate with the local stillpine furbolg people, and was convinced everything about their language could be learned from their totems. I studied the basics runes from his primer, and used that knowledge to start reading a nearby totem. It seemed to spell Akaida, and maybe wanted me to go up a nearby hill. A furbolg ancestor spirit appeared to guide me to there, where I repeated the process on another totem, Coo, understanding a bit more of what I read.

This time the totem and the spirit seemed to be directing me back across the straight(no wait, the crystalbrook river? Isn’t that body of water is just a narrowing of the ocean? Oh, I guess there is a waterfall feeding into it…), to the foot of the mountains surrounding Ammen vale. The ancestor spirit cast a spell on me for slowfalling and waterwalking, so I leapt off the cliff—safely earning the Going Down? achievement—and walked across the water to the next totem : Tikti.

At this point I have a pretty good understanding of the language, and I think that it’s directing me down the river. Which the summoned ancestor spirit confirms by pointing the way and granting me water breathing and increased swim speed.

Once I’ve read the totem at the bottom of the river’s mouth, Yor, I have a perfect grasp of the Stillpine language and can clearly understand that my destination is Bristlelimb Village and how to get there. This time the spirit gives me speed and invisibility—by shapeshifting me into a cat. This makes running clear across the isle, nearly to the western shore, a breeze and I arrive at the last totem: Vark in no time.

Vark tells of a prophecy and wants me to free the captured Stillpine captured by the Bristlelimb. But the cages are locked. The aggressive Bristlelimb furbolgs have the keys, and the only way to get them is to pry them from their cold, dead hands. (At this point in time I didn’t have access to lockpicking or pickpocketing. But even if I did, I know neither would work. An L for roleplay.) So I drop that quest and head halfway back across the isle to Odysseus’ Landing.

There, three ships have dropped anchor off the coast and a small logging operation is underway to fortify the position. The eponymous Admiral Odysseus, of Alliance Navel command, informs me that goblin stowaways stole their navigation equipment and jumped ship, forcing them to make landfall here. He asks me to retrieve the stolen maps and compass. The Dwarven archaeologist was quite excited about the nearby Night Elven ruins and asked me to bring back some artifacts for him. The Night Elven priestess was more interested in exterminating the Naga living there (I silently declined).

First, I headed east along the beach, almost all the way back to the totem of Yor, where the Goblins and Gnolls set up camp. I snuck in, located the map, snatched it… and then ran like hell until they gave up the chase. I repeated this trick with the compass, which was a little spicier; I very nearly needed to use my racial ability to heal: Gift of the Naaru.

When I returned his equipment, the Admiral seemed convinced there was a traitor in their midst. Apparently, the Goblins wrote down their plans and left those documents with the maps—which I snatched. But they neglected to name the traitor and now I’m gathering piles of leaves and a hollow stump for the Admiral’s plan(t) to catch them. These are found right outside the landing, and once I have them, he informs me I will be wearing them to the secret meeting between the Goblin leader and the traitor.

On my way over to the secret meeting, I decide to grab those artifacts. I have time, right? I mean, Odysseus didn’t say when the meeting was, but it’s probably fine. Sneaking amongst the ruins, I grab several artifacts when the Naga aren’t looking. I didn’t even get caught!

From the ruins, I swim south a short distance across the water to Silvermyst Isle. I locate the Naga flag that serves as the meeting signal in a cove and set up my tree disguise. It’s quite convincing, actually. (Well, except that this “tree” is growing in the beach sand.) The Goblin and the (traitor!) Gnome he’s meeting don’t seem to notice, however, and talk all about their plan. Mostly Spark, the Gnome, just yells at the Goblin for nearly blowing his cover.

Eventually they leaf, and I shed my disguise to check on the missing fisherman who lives out here. Following the along coastline, I find him at the end of a pier in front of his house—which has been completely wrecked by a giant crystal that, presumably, fell off the Exodar. The local owlbeasts have been driven mad , presumably, by the crystal’s radiation and ate his family. That’s rough, buddy, but I won’t be cutting open any owlbeasts to find them.

My spidey senses tell me that there’s one more quest to be had on the opposite shore. Once I get there, I find the fisherman’s daughter hiding behind a fallen tree. She asks me to help her get back through the owlbeast infested forest to her home. I think it would be better to follow the eastern shore back around, but I don’t make the paths here. I follow while stealthed, hoping she can handle herself, when she veers off the path, runs over to an owlbeast, and starts punching it. The fight is close, but she loses it. I decide to give it one more go, and return to the quest’s start and await her respawn. It didn’t go any better the second time.

Returning to Odysseus’ Landing, I inform the eponymous admiral that his engineer, Spark, is the traitor. The admiral wants me to get information out of him, but this is another cold, dead hands situation, and so I’m out.

At this point, I’m out of quests I can do on Azuremyst. Time to report to that elekk handler and move on to Bloodmyst Isle. But, before I leave, I wander around the northern half of the isle, uncovering areas of the for the achievement and the experience points.

[olivia-dove]

This isn’t a novel thing to do in games anymore, but I still enjoy attempting to play a game as a pacifist, ie while not killing anything. There’s also a lot more "cozy" games these days, which never ask the player to fight anything. But that’s not quite the same. The fun comes from playing in a way the game developers definitely did not intend and the problem solving of finding alternate routes get achieve the same goals.

Like, the shrine puzzles in Zelda: BotW/Totk usually have a clear solution the player is intended to arrive at, and leads to a fun “ah-hah” moment. But it is also fun to reach the end of the shrine in a silly way you’re pretty sure the devs never thought of.

I guess I just like puzzle games? Or maybe I like over-complicating things…

World of Warcraft was the first game I started doing this in. I didn’t know it was A Thing yet, I was just tired of the masses of monsters I had to wade through and stubbornly decided I would play without fighting anything. I still had game time after all, and not enough allowance to just buy another game, so perhaps it was more frugal than stubborn? This was also just about the earliest one could play WoW in this way. The Cataclysm expansion had just added exp to gathering professions, without which I’d run out of quests to do and get stuck pretty fast. (This is much less of a concern today, when Chromie Time scales everything to your level and you can go anywhere, anytime…)

Since then the thought of "could I do this as a pacifist?" has crossed my mine—and lodged itself in there—while playing just about any game featuring combat.

...That was a long-winded way of saying I’mma start blogging about my pacifist gaming adventures, starting with my OG WoW.

As I've watched others in this space, I've noticed discrepancies in the definition of "pacifist" so, I'll just layout my particular rule set real quick. I'm not killing anything, with or without getting my own hands dirty. I'm not assisting, e.g. healing, anyone attempting to kill anything. I will use nonlethal force on NPCs, e.g. bring them into custody, spar or duel. When buying things from shops, I'm not gonna worry about if they had to kill something to get it. With the perhaps arbitrary distinction that I can't commission another player to go kill a thing for me. I will be catching fish because I enjoy it and I will not be taking questions about whether or not they're technically alive and if I have technically killed them by doing so.