Wizard101 Year In Review

2014 wasn't the most eventful year in my gaming career. But it was all worthy enough for a blog post, especially since I'm still catching up. :P

Note: Dates come from the day I took the screenshots, not when I actually included them in certain blog posts.

January 1st, 2014: Ghost Dog goes down to ring in the new year. A brief wait for Khrysalis pt. 2 begins.

February 14th: On Valentine's Day, the Sirens were serenading Warehouse baddies. Many levels later, I effectively earned my revenge against a 2010 archenemy.

February 24th: The Sirens got even more action when Mycin and Sophia began Azteca. It's been fun, dinos.

April 25th: A day after Khrysalis pt. 2 opens, Arlen crossed the sea on a giant bug.

Annoyed by the lack of trees on the other side, Arlen then turns his farm into a strange forest of everything from pines to palms.

April 30th: Five days and many boss battles later, Arlen hits the level cap!

May 3rd: Morganthe goes down! And Old Cob does something weird. Nevertheless, only joy is felt when the Spider Queen plummets into space.

July 11th: Mycin and Sophia wrap up Azteca with their new level 88 spells! It's the end of the world, but they're feeling fine.

July 22nd: Chase impersonates another Ravenwood student and almost gets away with it (if it weren't for those meddling noobs...)

August 7th: A month after wizards started casting their reels, Tarlac finally finds that last pesky Silver Streak for his collection.

October 3rd: The BOXES make a sudden appearance around the Spiral, and Arlen gets to save Halston from a life in Newgate -- over stolen jewelry (surprise surprise).

October 26th: Dugan blazes through Wintertusk and sends honorable bear warriors to... somewhere over the rainbow, presumably.

November 24th: Mycin and Sophia begin Khrysalis with a surprising amount of allies -- namely, Mary and Morgrim Dreamshade and Dyvim doppelgangers.

December 26th: In the House of Scales, being turned down results in an afterlife of misery, but that doesn't stop Arlen and Mary from going all "turn down for what" to the new member emotes.

December 31st: More dancing highlights the New Years Eve festivities as the Commons celebrates the coming of 2015!

Here's hoping there's a lot more to dance for in 2015.

Happy Resolution-breaking!

End of Khrysalis - Shadow Palace Showdown

So it shall be, that I finally wrap up this post series a month after actually finishing Khrysalis. It's been almost four years since Celestia and my quest-posts began, and it's gone from Morganthe's introduction to her defeat. All things come to an end, though, including the presence of the Shadow Lady.

The defeat-warlords-again dungeon was particularly frustrating. But it does prevent the Spiral from being rewritten, after all.

 

That's reassuring *sigh*

'Final Countdown' for Malistaire, 'Final Challenge' for Morganthe. Time to tell Morganthe she can't sing.

Yeah, she gets beyond creepy here.

Cue the battle pictures!

 Very appropriate that a level 22 spell should kill the final Morganthe.

No idea where that leaves my dead memory..

Go figure - Morganthe and Malistaire are both floating in space now. 

Posing over what I shall call Morganthe's Nebula :P

"From the shadows I strike, and the skies will fall" seems to have backfired...

Dyvim was definitely the best part of Khrysalis ;)

lol, not sure how I feel about Arlen bugs.

"We"? I haven't been locked up for eons like you, man.

Ohhhh. Gross. How did so many creatures fit under that hood?

Obvious Third Arc clues. I'm most excited for Polaris, honestly. Seems like a frozen Celestia with penguins.

Ambrose's indifferent demeanor is odd. Did he anticipate Old Cob's weird awakening or just downplay it? Unlike the end of Malistaire's saga, there are a lot of specific questions that follow the end of the Second Arc. The biggest one, though - will it be over a year before the eleventh main world comes out? :P

Once again, the community settles in for an inevitable wait, hopefully equipped with teasers. Another side world like Grizzleheim (which came out between DS and CL) would be nice, too...

For the last time until whenever,

Happy Questing!

Khrysalis - Where The Shadow Things Are

Home to the alpha-arachnids of the Spiral, the Hive's "dark and twisted nature" is pretty apparent throughout, from the towering Magi to the mutation machines. The farther into Khrysalis, the weirder the creatures, apparently (even more so than this title's Maurice Sendak reference).

  

To start off the various references..

I finally realized that Taylor Coleridge has been quoting from "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" all this time. Samuel Coleridge probably wouldn't be amused with being portrayed by a rat :P

*Ding* new level cap :D

In the second arc, the level titles kind of fell off track. After Grandmaster, levels 60-100 would go better in this order: Archmage, Exalted, Transcendent, Promethean, Legendary. You can't really go much higher than that without sounding like a supreme being.

(Fun fact: The original title for level 80 was Omnipotent in Avalon's Test Realm, but was changed to Archmage, as the former basically means "god-like").

I get to celebrate my Exalted-ness by going down a spider web into subterranean depths. Cool.

Shrouded in secrecy - literally and figuratively - Old Cob appears to be a very complex and, well, ancient figure. The Khrysalis Orbs history quest expounds on this guy a bit --

In just two moving pictures (100% credit of Swordroll's site), the shroud becomes a little more transparent, yet more questions appear. As Grandfather Spider seems to be Old Cob, will Grandma Raven play a prominent role in the next arc? Will Shadow Magic be connected to Khrysalis as Astral/Sun/Moon was to Celestia? Will we have to battle even more spiders?

The clueless un-morphed bee best expresses 3rd Arc curiosity in five words.

Well that was... odd. I guess Coleridge will live out the rest of his days back in Scrimshaw as a crazy old guy no one bothers with.

Might as well bring a Valencian dude into this.

aaand an allusion to Pirate101's Hydra boss. The references have come full circle :P

As expected, The Hive didn't go without a shortage of colorful cheating warlords.

As if the new school wasn't volatile enough, Shadow has its own tree to guard the Palace -- and a Celestial Archway. Ravenwood can't live up to that.

Moros' roots are even more twisted than harpies, somehow.

And he falls.

Thus setting up a dramatic finale for the last questing post.

Happy Questing!