This is one of those mornings when the content is just not flowing freely from my brain to my fingers and eventually onto the digital page.  Last night was completely set to be another good night of sleep.  I left Rift about 9:30 and we went on our walk shortly after.  Then while we were out walking we noticed a massive storm system coming towards us.  Ultimately while I tried to get to sleep the sheer severity of the storm kept me up.  This combined with the fact that I happened to check my email during this time… and there was an issue with one of the websites I manage… kept me up until roughly 1 am.

Air Rift

Last night was one of those odd flukes that sometimes happens in Oklahoma that produces tornadic style damage… without actually forming a Tornado.  When we were out walking we kept seeing the sky light up in the distance with massive amounts of cloud to cloud lightning.  It looked extremely eerie, and it was a struggle to keep focused on walking and not watch the electrical ballet in the sky.  My wife checked her phone while we were out on the loop we walk, and it looked like we had about 30 minutes or so before any of it hit us.  I attempted to go to sleep and then it hit all at once.

Instead of starting slowly we got hit with this wall of wind that started shaking our backyard gate and causing a tree to start thumping up against the house every now and then.  I put back on shorts and went out to investigate and it was just really odd out.  It didn’t feel like a normal wind storm… everything was blowing every which way but I didn’t feel like I was walking against the wind at any point.  I came back in because quite honestly it felt a little dangerous to be standing outside.  I figured we would have to deal with whatever happened anyways in the morning.

Currently the sun is still not up, and as a result I have no clue the extent of any damage that might have occurred during the night.  Looking out through the kitchen window and front door, it didn’t look like there was much debris in the front or back of the house.  After the wind came hurricane gale force rain for a bit… then as quickly as it had happened it just passed over us.  I went around the house to see if anything was leaking, figured that was as good a sign as any that we still had a roof.  Once I finish up this blog post it should be light enough for me to go out in investigate.

Guild Crafter

In Star Wars the Old Republic… we had an awesome guild member named Shyris.  She was the consummate guild crafter, and if you did not ask her for upgrades… she would hunt you down and force them on you.  I on the other hand have never really been that much of a serious crafter.  In every MMO I have maxed out whatever profession I chose to do…  but never really used it much other than to craft one or two items at the highest level for my character.  Something has changed deep down inside me… and I now take more than a certain amount of pleasure outfitting my friends in gear.

When Rift went free to play, I got a large amount of free store currency due to the longevity of which I subscribed.  I used most of this windfall to outfit Belghast my main with as much awesome stuff as I could.  Since Everquest 1, I have always been drawn to Smithing… having done a small bit of it myself in real life.  If given a choice, I always end up going for Armorsmithing in fact, so since release Bel has been one and had the two supporting crafts of Butchering and Mining.  With the ability to add extra tradeskills I have added on Foraging to complete the harvesting trio, and then added Weaponsmithing and now recently Artificer.

When you factor in Belgrave my rogue who is a max level Outfitter, I can essentially make all armor and weapons and I am slowly grinding my way through the Storm Legion levels of Artificer so I will be able to make the rest of the equipment slots.  I find something extremely satisfying about hooking up a character with a bunch of upgrades.  As a result I have spent a lot more time recently harvesting materials so that I can consume them making goodies for the guild.  I’ve been trying to make regular trips out to my cloth farm, and depositing the proceeds in the form of 24 slot bags in the guild bank.

Ironhide Rollout!

I have yet to develop quite the forceful posture that Shyris had in SWTOR, but I still want to see stuff get used.  Additionally I have developed a new obsession…  guild harvest quests.  Over the last two years, I have existed in guilds that were essentially already maximum level, or damned near close to it.  As a result I have never really put much focus on completing guild quests.  If there was a fun one up like closing rifts or killing planar creatures I would spend a bit of time helping out on it.  However it was never the focus that it has become recently.

When I found out there was a daily way for me to contribute guild xp and help us level faster… I have been traipsing around Ember Isle and Iron Pine Peaks harvesting all manner of lower level goods just to turn in for experience in the manufactorum in Meridian.  The bane of my existence and that of pretty much anyone doing this quest seems to be Ironhide.  It is supposedly a 5% chance when skinning level 50ish mobs in the world.  The problem is… this is very much dictated by your luck with the random number generator.  You only need 10 Ironhide per turn in… however you will likely gather up about 200 normal leather in the time it takes you to get those.

Personally I have found a nice little area of Ember Isle skinning crocodiles that seems to produce Ironhide fairly well.  Additionally Ember Isle has tons of Orichalcum nodes… which is another component to the turn in… and I will take any excuse to run around this zone because it is STILL really amazing.  Then I tend to pop over to Iron Pine Peaks… because I absolutely love that zone and finish gathering up the foraging that I did not get on Ember Isle.  For whatever reason Basilisk Stem does not grow on Ember, even though pretty much everything else does.  The end result is roughly 150 guild xp per turn in… and I can do four per day.  While this may not seem like much, it is a little bit that I can do personally to help push us forward.

Wrapping Up

It was a pretty chill night overall other than the wind storm.  I am just about to go out and look around our house for damage.  I hope that things are okay, and we still have a fence and a roof.  Since I was up crazy late doing work.. I feel zero obligation to get into work bright and early this morning.  That said I will still beat most of my office into work.  I hope you all have a great day, and that hopefully everything is safe and sound when I survey the damage.

This is the second day in a row where I woke up on my own automagically.  I find it more than a little spooky, but it furthers my general theory that my body seems to want roughly six hours of sleep.  Going over causes me to get completely groggy, and going under the same result.  This morning I sat up in bed, and had roughly five minutes until the alarm, so I just walked over to the other side of the room and shut it off.  Essentially this is my failsafe to make sure I get up… otherwise I would likely just turn the stupid thing off or hit snooze all the time.

Lanzan Hunters

Yesterday morning after the tips I had received I accepted the Guardian guild quest to close 100 experience bearing Rifts.  I had all intent of working on this when I got home.  Instead I logged in and a guild member, Tibuant asked if I could give him a boost into the Storm Legion content.  Essentially his account was hacked ages ago, and the hackers got it banned.  He went through the long and drawn out process of getting the account back and getting it unbanned.  Upon playing it he realized that they had deleted his cleric character, so he had to get that restored as well.

When they restored the character however they kind of just dumped some miscellaneous gear on him, which was not that amazing for leveling.  So I said sure… I can always use some time to farm more Lanzan as I like to keep a stock of 24 slot bags in the guild vault for various characters.  So I told him to meet me in Iron Pine Peaks, where we both took the port to Cape Jule.  We wandered from that Porticulum to Tulan and let him get that one… then finally on to our destination.

Tarne’s Perch is in the North Central area of the Cape Jule map and is pictured in the above screenshot.  So far this is the best place I have found for grinding out Lanzan cloth.  The area is loaded with Storm Legion troopers of various kinds, and each of them can drop between 2 and 4 Lanzan a piece.  The only negative is that it feels like roughly 1 in 3 troopers actually DOES drop the cloth.  So needless to say it involves a lot of slaughter.  They are spaced out far enough apart that it does not make the area an ideal AOE farm spot… but then again I have yet to find one of those.

Essentially by the time you work your way to the top… you can jump down to the bottom and the path will be fully respawned.  We did a few loops with Tib and I before I needed to afk for a bit and eat dinner.  When I returned Rae joined us, and the three of us wrecked the place several more times.  All in all we spent about an hour and a half farming.  I managed to get roughly 110 bolts of Lanzan in that time and crafted another 8 bags for the guild vault.  Additionally Tib managed to get from 48 to 50 and we were able to outfit him in some proper starting Storm Legion gear in the process.

Rift Wrecking

Once we had dinged Tib, I spent a little time crafting him a set of level 50 gear… or at least the pieces I could actually make.  Eventually I swapped over to Belglaive with the intent of closing some rifts to help push us over the guild quest of 100 total.  By this time a mixture of guildies had managed to knock out roughly 50 of the 100 rifts.  Over mumble I mentioned what I was doing.. and before long we had a long list of people aiding in the cause.  We mentored down to 20 and took to Freemarch, thinking it was easiest to move between tears in that zone and there was always a higher likelihood of a zone invasion.

Fynralyl and Psynister made it back safely from their trip, and even after driving for either hours… they were on and willing to help out the cause.  Longtime Stalwarts Atonal and Tibuant also chimed in pretty much ready to wreck anything.  So we wandered around the zone wrecking shit together.  I would set a way point and we would all barrel towards it.  Earlier in the evening Vox Populi…  which is neither original nor after Bioshock Infinite really a faction I would aspire to be as a guild… was roaming around the zone opening Fire rifts and abandoning them if they were not the special Invasive Species Defiance crossover.  As a result much of the evening was simply running around cleaning up their Fire rifts.

Additionally when we found an unopened planar tear, we started letting Tib open them since he had the Fire Lure.  I figured we might as well maximize our potential for getting people Hellbug mounts.  Unfortunately while we closed several… and pretty much everyone completed the Ark Hunter title achievement..  we only managed to get a couple of the Red pets to drop.  About halfway through the grind a Water invasion started up, and the above image is of us taking down the final boss.  Pretty much during the course of the evening every single member of the group managed to get a ding.

Twisted Artifacts

That is one of my favorite things about mentoring in Rift…  they have managed to make it worth while to both the person being mentored… and the mentor themselves.  Knowing everyone is going to get something from the activity really reinforces the benefit of dropping your level and running around en-mass, and then this also helps your lower level characters catch up.  By the time we had reached 87 rifts closed… we were all dragging a bit.  I was starting to do my sleepy talk thing where I jumble the words.  Additionally Fyn had driven eight hours that day and was just about beat.  We set our sights on hitting 90 and then calling it.

At that point I logged to go for my evening walk.  By the time I got back, I decided to go upstairs to cool off.  When I logged in they had finished out the last 10 rifts and were needing the quest turned in and the next one selected.  I grabbed the collect 100 artifacts quest, turned on Quantum Sight and decided to make a few looks of Stonefield.  I was online another thirty minutes or so, and in that time we had managed to collect roughly 50 artifacts.  When I logged in this morning, someone had stayed up and finished off the quest. 

Now unfortunately we have the win 20 Black Garden and 20 Codex quest… and I really do not see us completing that before the reset tomorrow.  Delevax was a juggernaut in grinding out the other one… but as a rule we are just not PVPers.  When I turned in the artifacts quest this morning it dinged the guild level 4, so I think that is pretty damned good for us only starting this branch of Stalwart last Thursday.  I did a count last night and we are a little over 20 actual people in the guild.  There are a few more people that I know will be joining us… but it feels awesome that everyone has gathered up so quickly.

Wrapping Up

I need to be wrapping this up.  Today is trash day, so I need to gather that, pack up the laptop and get on the road.  Last night was a complete blast and I hope we can pull that sort of thing together on a regular basis.  Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves as well, and based on the regular dings it seemed like everyone got benefit from it as well.  Additionally this last ding allowed us to purchase the ever nifty Cache Finder perk… that gives you bonus dungeon and rift currency.  Anyways… I hope you all have a great Tuesday and a great rest of the week.

It is an amazingly dreary day here in Tulsaland.  As we were going for our evening walk last night the thunderheads were rolling in, and it quickened our pace a bit hoping to make the loop before getting rained on.  Throughout the course of the night there were some extreme bouts of house rattling thunder.  So other than braving the rain to go grab some breakfast… this is the perfect kind of day to stay inside and hide.

Bring July Showers

As we slept apparently bad things were happening, and we awoke this morning to the sound of the bedroom window leaking again.  We thought this was past us… so it was a pretty major hit in the gut to hear it happening again.  Last year we put a new roof on the house after some “vandalism”… otherwise known as opportunists going up onto our roof and making hail damage.  After getting a reputable company to replace the roof the leak had stopped.  The thing is I think it has nothing to do with the roof.

We have a second floor deck, and I think somehow it is leaking in up there and running down the wall and finally finds its way in via the window.  This only seems to happen with particularly horizontal rains…  which sadly happens quite frequently in Oklahoma.  Ultimately we will need to call the roofers out… because while I don’t think they have anything to do with it… I also certainly have no clue how to fix it more permanently.  I figure the roofers are a good starting place.

So my solid sleep stopped about 5 am when after a really loud thunder boom we noticed the drip.  While we tried to ignore it… the drip drip drip permeated all attempts to sleep.  Eventually at one point I needed to run to the bathroom… and when I went to jiggle the handle my wife begged me not to.  Apparently the sound of the toilet running was greatly preferable to the sporadic dripping of the window.  Just add this to the long list of things that need to get taken care of soon.

The Guild Grows

Yesterday we added several more people to the ranks, and I have been amazed at just how smooth and organic the growth has been.  I think that is ultimately what killed the WoW Stalwart for me… the growth ceased to be organic… and with the changes in Cataclysm we diluted the overall culture of the guild too much by taking on far too many people.  I said the other day that our guild has a really strong culture, and with it a certain brand of ethics.  When we used to grow a person or two at a time… it was easy to keep these common shared values.

However when we enveloped all of the guilds that raided as a part of Duranub Raiding Company… we grew too large too fast.  I don’t necessarily feel like the size of a guild is what is critical… it is the rate of acquisition of new members that ends up causing problems.  If you double your size over night… you greatly damage your guilds common core.  So as we continue to grow I will have to be weary of this.  Always in the past I sought out like minded people and abducted them into my guild, and I think this method will work well going forward as well.

Simple Message

I think what also helps is that House Stalwart has a really simple message, and this is personified by our three simple rules.  It used to be two simple rules… but i added a third because I felt it added just the right flavor to the mix to help reinforce the shared values.

1 – To Be A Member, You Must Have a Member in Good Standing Vouch for You.

This is one of the most important tenants I think.  Essentially it assures that anyone that joins the guild is already grounded in the culture through at least one existing member.  Additionally it is explained that this is a two way street.  When you choose to sponsor someone, you are also putting your own reputation on the line.  If you do not feel like a person is a good fit for the guild, then simply do not invite them.  We have a social channel that is completely viable to let folks into without necessarily inviting them to the guild.

2 – Don’t Be A Dick

The universal rule of the internet… the Wheaton rule.  The phrasing is a little harsh but it is also fairly ubiquitous with internet culture.  Our interpretation covers pretty much everything.  Don’t be a dick anywhere at all.  Some guilds compartmentalize… so long as their members don’t start trouble in the guild they don’t care what they are doing in the greater gaming  community.  I care… I care deeply.  We expect our members to represent the guild well outside the bounds of guild chat.  It used to make my day when some random stranger would message me just to let me know how much they enjoyed grouping with a member of House Stalwart in a dungeon or out in the world.  The attitude of our members is the best recruitment poster we will ever have.

3 – Help Others, As Often As Possible

This is the newest rule but I feel it sets the tone for the shared values.  If someone needs help… help them if you can.  If a guild member is stuck on a quest, if a random stranger out in the world is about to die to a mob, if someone needs that one last widget to craft something epic…  help them out if you have the ability to do so.  This is not to say that you should bend over backwards and put yourself in harms way just so someone else can benefit from your pain.  But if it is in your power, and you have the ability to do so… lend a helping hand whenever you can.

Going Forward

The key is that wherever we are… my hope is that we continue to carry the same values.  The World of Warcraft guild has strayed a bit from the basic message, and it is in part because rule three never existed there.  So people are following rule 1 and 2 well, but without 3… and with me no longer tending the flock it felt like that shared ethic of helping others when they need it without thought of remuneration was lost.  My goal has always been to keep the rules super simple, because if you have to lift up the weight of your rule book in order to determine the correct course it means your rules will ultimately get discarded.

So far the Rift community has been pretty awesome, and the Rift guild feels like home with everyone pulling together for the greater good.  Here is hoping we can maintain this momentum and keep the three tenants in mind as we go forward.  I know we still have several people who have not been online since the move, and that we will be increasing our numbers slightly.  Additionally I am always open to awesome people joining our ranks.  I have always been one that cares far more about the character of the person… rather than the skill at performing some game related task.  I am completely fine if Stalwart is nothing but a social guild… but hopefully Rift provides us with more than enough group based activities that we can get together and hang out.

Wrapping Up

Well I didn’t really intend this to be a treatise on my guild believes… but it turned into that.  I have a grumpy cat trying hard to snuggle with me… but ending up moved regularly to type… so I am going to spend some time petting her after I wrap this up.  I hope you all have a good rest of the weekend… for me I am completely fine being “rainbound” of sorts… but i know we ultimately need to get out and go to the grocery store.  Here is hoping we have a break in the rain somewhere… and I have the “give a shit” to actually get up and around and go.