Thunderhoof Hills

I was almost giggling with excitement when I logged on last night after uploading the huge patch for the first part of Chapter 3. I had read a bunch of the patch notes while I waited for the update so I was rip-roaring-ready to get to Thunderhoof Hills.

First thing I did was to check my map to find out where the entrance to TH was. But there were no hints. Usually when there's a new area, a path opens up from an old zone to the new zone. I checked Aotulia, Savage Lands, even Weeping Coast. Nothing.

So I asked my helpful guildies and they pointed me in the right direction. I had to first talk to a Mysterious lady next to Snoop in AV, then she sent me to a dragon. Eeps! Lucky for me, he was friendly and he just told me a story and sent me to Thunderhoof Hills.

The terrain looked pretty average when I arrived there. Ruins, grass, rocks, the usual. The first thing I killed was a Confused Deer. Not too sure why he was confused. Maybe he was trying to keep all the programmers' instructions straight in his head: stand like this, walk like this, and don't forget a dramatic death fall.
Oh and guess what the Confused Deer drops? A LINK RUNE!! Woot! Thunderhoof is freaking awesome.

But in all honesty, it's such a wonderful feeling to explore new areas! I was playing with a smile on my face and I was so excited to come up over a hill and see a fresh view. I guess I'm a born adventurer, a regular Dora the Explorer. Hola!
But new worlds are so thrilling to me. I found strange fanged hippopotomus beasts in a pen in Tomara. I think they are called Pangos. There were some wading in the river near a waterfall too. There were pretty pink deer, strange goat-dogs and, surprisingly, a huge Rhino dressed in armor sitting in a bar.

But best of all, there were Anubises! Anubi? More than one Anubis. Dog-headed people, you know, from Egypt? There were just sitting around like normal people. So very cool! And what's even more cool is that they have different faces...different doggie faces. Like some are hounds and some are retrievers. Can't wait to find a Chihuahua Anubis.  :)

Not too far into the wilderness, I reached a cliff that overlooked the main city, Dalanis. Wow. So stunning. I raced down the hill towards it, then veered quickly to the side when I saw there was a big fight going on in front of the main bridge. Snuck around that and at last enetered the beautiful stone city.

I wandered around the place, gawking like a tourist, for at least an hour. If it had been a real city, I'm sure I would have been arrested because I kept walking up to NPCs and zooming in on their faces. How rude of me!  But there were just so many new...breeds? Species? Races?
There were the Anubis guys, the Rhino guys, regular humans and...wait for it...cat people! They were freaky looking. So muscular that their heads looked kinda small. And they stretched and wiped their ears like real cats. I think I only saw two of them, but it was wicked sweet.

Dalanis had so many interesting details: laundry hanging overhead, people sweeping, goat-dogs wandering around, vendors haggling, lions etched in the stone walls, nobles and handmaidens and tourists, an usher to explain where everything is, and Lion Knights patrolling everywhere. I also found two weird NPC's called Man Dressed as a Knight and Woman Dressed as a Knight. "Dressed as"? Are they preparing for Halloween?

And the city center...wow. The Dalanis palace is right at the base of a huge semicircular waterfall and waaaaaaay above it there's a gigantic statue overlooking the whole city. Here are two pictures. The first one is looking at the palace, the second is looking away from the palace while on the steps.

Beautiful, isn't it? And I didn't even have my video settings at the highest level.

So after I finished my staring, I did a few quests and rejoiced at actually receiving XP for the first time in ages. My bar is moving again! Yay!
Then I went and found the Snoop, thinking he would take me back to the regular land, Candara. But Snoopsie was rude and said he couldn't, or wouldn't, transport me. Huh. Fine then. He told me to go find some Order of Dark Glory dudes and ask them.
So I did and they transported me back to the Obsidian Stronghold. I didn't have a choice where to go, that's the only place they send people, I guess. Anyway, in the OS there are guys who will send you back to Dalanis so I guess there really wasn't any need for me to talk to the lady in AV after all. Oh well. It's nice to know there's a free way over there so I can go whenever I want.

So a fantastic time gaming and many, many wonderful new areas to explore and beasties to kill and quests to complete. I almost don't want to finish the quests I have left in Candara. Boooooring. But I will cuz I hate having them sitting in my quest list, like undone chores.
So here's to the first part of Chapter 3, hip hip hooray!