So close I can smell it!

Last night was a mixed bag... to say the least!

Started off quite well, finding a couple of quest chains I hadn't finished off in Darkshire while handing in all my completed quests. Must have skipped over them as a level twentysomething to move onto bigger and better things - or maybe because I died too much... so, that knocked another 6 or 7 quests off my Eastern Kingdoms total.

Decided to bite the bullet and go hand in cloth in Ironforge and Stormwind, as the initial hand in of 60 wool, silk, mageweave and runecloth all count. Don't waste individual stacks of runecloth though unless you're grinding rep - but I'd guess if you were as close to Loremaster as I am, your alliance rep would have been exalted for quite a while.

Sadly, I'd already handed them in with the gnomes - probably to get some easy XP. Had a VERY quick blast into Uldaman for the last leg of the Hammertoe quest and cursed when (again!) it didn't count. Almost abandoned the "Return to Ironforge" quest he gave me out of sheer frustration, but glad I didn't. Not only did I get a point for it, but he also gives you a "talk to the bloke next to me" which counted, followed by a "go back to the bloke next to me for your reward" which also counted.

Next was a trip to the Blasted Lands to hand in a medallion. This led to the location of Sharpbeak (Don't eat Sharpbeak) and another couple of points for saving him.

Then, the guild called and requested a little DPS for Heroic Violet Hold. How could I refuse? Afterall it's only 20 minutes or so, free shards and badges... well, with a bugged portal we had to 4-man it, with an offtank managing to control continually spawning dragonflights. We ALSO got (in my opinion) the hardest boss, which almost wiped us. The healer ended up killing it with dots, but almost died himself! After ressing everyone and rebuffing, we then had 2 portals open (one of them bugged, remember) and about 15 seconds before the next spawned.

Pulling two groups and heavy AoE, we controlled the situation and managed to sit and drink quickly before the next boss appeared... Not having done him before I didn't know that taking out a guard would enrage him - darn nearly wiped us, but the GM shouted me to switch DPS back to the boss only and we took him out without issue.

Finally, we got back to the portals and noted that there were now 3 open and had to again get control of the place. Looking back, it was fun - but we sensed a heavy repair bill and having to do it all again looming ever so close. Long story short, we wiped. Not without a fight I might add. So we decided we'd go back in and have one more crack at it, and if any portals bugged we'd just make our own Dalaran portal and leg it.

What we saw when we instanced back in was quite a shock:

• Portal spawning dragonflight [check]
• Guards fighting dragonflight [check]
• Woman that starts the event [not check]
• Bugged portal still spawning mobs [check]
• Cyanigosa stood in the middle of the room looking menacing [What the heck?]

Turned out the bugged portal which caused our wipe also held the instance open, so with none of us in the guards reset, but with the event started, it spawned the boss "as usual".

So, after much debate we pulled her, expecting a pretty much instant wipe. She trotted over and took a beating - I think the guards even helped! So we looted and legged it.

I legged it all the way to Un Goro Crater... filled a few vials with slime then fell foul to the server reset - leaving me "close enough to smell it" - Eastern Kingdoms 699/700 with 1x quest (completed)!