#maguuma jungle

[nerdybookahs]

Caledon Forest in Maguuma Jungle

Caledorn Forest in Maguuma Jungle #GuildWars2

[kuzi-the-hunturr]

Have I mentioned I love Guild Wars 2?

[photographs-across-tyria]

A sideview of The Falls in Auric Basin. The jungle branches combined with the easy waterfall make for some relaxing time - I suppose that a few Itzel sing and rest there. Fun! -Alstramer

[the-fresh-air-of-tyria]

Hide away where the silence rests as heavily as the humidity upon your skin.

Close your eyes, and hear the earth speak in whispers beneath you.

The things you learn you will not understand... for now.

[lensotyria]

Guild Wars 2 owned/developed by ArenaNet I do not claim ownership of the franchise

[vvardvarkk]

failed Tequatl is always fascinating

[adventuresofkartator]

Mount Maelstrom

[mamakanji]

I swear there are some sick ass views in this game.

[talk-of-tyria]

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Maguuma Jungle - Caledon Forest - Dominion of the Winds Hayato: Do you ever wish for something--a wave of krait, or a horde of undead--just to break the monotony? Caromi Scout: Have you ever faced a wave of krait or a horde of undead? Hayato: No. Caromi Scout: Learn to savor the monotony.

[missbadafker]

Getting some of my alts their elite specs and extra hero points (◠‿◠✿) 🌹

[squigglyv-blog]

[ofdragons-and-pinkquaggans]

Adventures in Maguuma

So being sick for the entire weekend had one perk, and that was being able to play Guild Wars 2 all day.

[alexiarrontell]

The Jungle Provides

"Fire."

The command rang out breaking the silence into shards, and before it had even faded from the air it was swallowed up by the chaos of gunfire. A cacophony of rifle, pistol, musket and blunderbuss shots let loose from  the boughs of a nearby tree. The sound was impressive, but even that did not drowned out the sound of the target below. Enraged at the attack the Vinetooth raged and screeched furiously.

Without mordremoth to guide it, this dragon spawn was left to its baser instincts, and it seemed to delight in only one thing, killing. Predators to the core, the Vinetooth are a dangerous and aggressive stalker of the jungle floor. Moving on four legs they were large, fast, and surprisingly nimble. Even the native saurians gave such creatures a wide birth, or soon wound up a meal.

The shots died off as the men worked to reload. Now the blasts came individually, in random sporadic bursts as men completed their reloads. The blunderbusses and muskets generally took longer to reload than the pistols and rifles. Below the creature thrashed and reeled about seeking anything it could take its revenge upon. I only prayed it would not find a way into the tree tops.

Raising the spyglass to my eye I peered into it again, studying the massive creature. Its thick hide was riddled with bullet holes and smeared with blood. It looked like some kind of demon. I wondered again if it was actually blood, or perhaps sap? It seemed that I had never quite gotten an answer to that question from the Asura. Whatever lifeforce it was that pumped through its cursed form, it was leaking out, but not fast enough. The blasts had been mostly superficial. Terrific, we had only pissed it off. I had been afraid this might happen, we had a second plan of attack, but we would have to face the thing directly.

Motion to the right of the beast caught my eye, and I adjusted the aim of my looking glass. Small shapes were  emerging amid the foliage. Pocket raptors, unwitting allies to our cause. I generally despise pocket raptors, they are a nuisance at the best of times, and to add insult to injury their carcasses are practically worthless. Drawn to the carnage and the smell of... I'll call it blood for the sake of simplicity... the creatures began to strike at the injured vinetooth.

Shots continued to ring out from the boughs of the tree, and the howls from the vinetooth continued. It was now rolling and thrashing raging against the pocket raptors with all the fury it wished to release upon its unseen foes in the branches. The pocket raptors died, but slowly, the massive creature could only focus on a single attacker at a time, and they did not stay clumped long. Dark shapes darted in and away with fresh blood marking their saurian maws. All the while the shots from above pelted the vinetooth.

Finally, after what seemed it must have been hours, the beast stumbled. Blood loss taking its toll. Most of the raptors were dead or dying at its feet, but a few continued on their frenzied attack, oblivious to their comrades. It was now or never. Lowering the spy glass I raised my arm high and let it fall.

"Now!"

The gunfire ceased, yet my ears still rang from it. Ropes dropped away from branches on all sides as armored figures repelled down. The scene brought back flashbacks of battles across tyria now years old, of clockwork machines clashing against the queen's forces and her allies. Only a couple year gone, and already it seemed a lifetime ago. With a willingness I dismissed the images and securing my spyglass to my belt, also joined the forms sliding down from the tree tops.

The engineers launched their nets, draping the creature like some giant moth caught in a spider's web, and then we set to it. Wounded now, the creature was still dangerous and it thrashed, tossing men who were not quite fast enough in their dodging. More than one came away bloodied. One of the maddened little raptors lept at me, its tiny mind addled by the smell of blood. I kicked it away and drew my pistol upon it. Two shots fired into its form, and it fell, blood drenched maw snapping uselessly. I mentally withdrew any appreciation I had offered them earlier for their support with the vinetooth.

Turning, I caught the motion out of the corner of my eye and ducked as the vinetooth's tail swung past. The size of a thick branch, it would have left me seeing stars or worse had it struck home. With practiced motion, I holstered my pistol and drew daggers. I took a deep breath, considered my footing. Measured the distance to my target, and then I launched myself. I felt the resistance as the pair of blades bit into the creature's shoulders then sunk in deep. In truth my attack wasn't that effective, the blades could not cut the creature that deep, but it turned its focus away from the bloodied men and onto me.

Perhaps not the wisest move in hindsight, I now found myself straddling the enraged beast, and unable to extricate myself from the fight or launch a new attack. It was all I could do to hold onto the hilts of my blades and not be thrown off. The men set to with a will, I'll give them that. And finally, the creature collapsed and I was allowed to retrieve my blades and dismount.

"Is it dead?" Someone ask, I wasn't sure who, but their voice was hoarse and tremulous. I knew the tone too well. For many among them this was their first fight, and no doubt some would desert at the next port. That was the problem with relying upon criminals, rogues, and mercenaries.

"Dead enough." I answered, and they seemed to take heart in that. Though why they thought I knew any better than they, was anyone's guess. I was the Captain though, and even when lost in a hurricane it was my duty, my honor, to keep my head and hold the line. A symbol as much as the ship herself, perhaps that is why they took their cue from that. I staggered a little, catching my breath from my impromptu ride.

"Well, open'er up, and get the Asura down here. Time is money, boys." I clapped my hands with more energy than I felt. That seemed to wake some of them from their daze, and a pallet full of glass cylinders began making a jerky descent from above. Bloody hell, if they jerked it about like that we'd have nothing but broken glass to deliver.

"Easy with that, those are GLASS. You bust those, and I'll bust you." I shouted up into the treetops, and the pallet gave one more jerk before lowering at a slower, more even fall. That was better. I glanced back at the carcass of the beast, already the team was rolling it over. I probably should have supervised the work, but if you have seen one mordrem harvested for organs you've seen enough. Biology was never one of my stronger subjects. My interest in the organs was purely financial. The egg-headed Asuran scientists were already bemoaning the damage to the creature, as if we could have harvested a live vinetooth without being as dead as the pocket raptors around us. "You!" I pointed to one of the hulking figures of the charr. He looked my way, grudgingly I think, but at least he looked. He was carrying a pile of raptors I realized. No less than four of the foul things were scooped up under his arm. He must have seen the questioning look on my face, or noticed the pause as I momentarily lost my train of thought.

"Meat." He responded, a little defensively, and gave the bunch a little jostle under his arm as if I might not have realized what he was talking about. I eyed the reptiles dubiously at a loss for words.

"Ah... ?" I managed, the captain mantle slipping slightly in my bewilderment at the notion. The thought of eating the blood spattered faces of the saurians with all those razor sharp teeth made my stomach turn just a little. The crewman took my words for permission, or perhaps acknowledgement, and went back to collecting up the still saurian forms.

"I'll be in the cabin, I've got some routing to plan." I called out to another crewman who was unloading the cylinders from the pallet. He responded with a vague "Aye aye Captain." his work taking his full attention, and given my orders only a moment ago regarding the contents of the pallet, I left him to it.

The hard part was done, now I just had to fly the fresh organs in their cylindrical vats across the Maguuma Jungles while dodging hungry wyvern, and avoiding all Pact, pirate, and Lionguard patrols that happened to be between here and our destination in Kessex Hills. Easy, right? I almost chuckled as I motioned for the rope ladder to be lowered.

[fivebrights]

Recent travels.

[nerdybookahs]

A prompt to make a blog post with screenshots? I’m in! So, this is part of the “Newbie Blogger Initiative”. You can find more information on what the Newbie Blogger Initiative is in a previous post of mine (as well as in the other posts I’m linking to there).

But let’s get to the prompt itself:

This week I was thinking “the new”. A moment in game you experienced something unexpected, learnt something new, or just a visual element or object you had never seen before.

I tried to come up with something good, funny, creative – and I failed. But then I remembered my recent rant about expansions and the new regions introduced and figured: This is just perfect, isn’t it? “The new” parts of the world that an expansion gives a player: Guild Wars 2 expanded its world by giving its players more of the Maguuma Jungle, called “Heart of Maguuma”, while Rift gave us the Nightmare Tide zones. So, one features a jungle with trees and several floors to experience. They also added gliding, so you can vertically explore the game while the other gives us nightmares in a mostly underwater world. In my personal case, this really is a nightmare sometimes because of my phobia of “deep dark water” and “the things that live there”. So in case you are scared as well, be careful!

Rift’s Nightmare Tide was released in October 2014 and Guild Wars 2 released almost a year later in October 2015, which also means that both expansions are not exactly “new” anymore. But back then, they very much were, of course, and that’s where I’m digging for screenshots. So the screenshots you will see were taken when I first played in those new zones.

Rift: Nightmare Tide

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Maguuma

NBI 2016: Screenshot prompt "The New" #nbi2016 #GuildWars2 #Rift A prompt to make a blog post with screenshots? I'm in! So, this is part of the "Newbie Blogger Initiative".

[talk-of-tyria]

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Maguuma Jungle - Mount Maelstrom - Breth Ayahusasca Researcher: Maybe the undead just want to eat. We should engineer new edible plants and try to feed them. Wyld Hunt: Have you gone crazy? That’s a terrible idea!