April 24, 2016 Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (4)
Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV,
Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, Lenwe-(V)/perseid28, Varda Valar/VardaValar1 (presiding)
Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
Tolken Site / Art
Gaming
Tolkien:
Topic : Weather
After-meeting:
Rainbows, moonbows, Olórë Mallë
Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.
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Before-meeting
Session Start (ArPharazonV:!aol://2719:10-4-valarguildmeetingplace): Sun Apr 24 22:59:15 2016 0200
arpharazonv: Aiya!
Varda Valar: Yay! Aiya Phar :-)
Varda Valar: This computer tends to slow down and quit. May not have gotten all the Trojan viruses off.
arpharazonv: Hmm, ouch.
Varda Valar: Wow, already meeting time
arpharazonv: Last week's transcript was workable? It seems pretty
reliable, though it seems I can only access it while in the room, and I
still haven't found a way to enter it myself. Probably not doable
in Trillian, because it doesn't identify as a separate room.
Varda Valar: Pouring rain here
Varda Valar: yes, it was better than mine, which was still full of spaces that have to be edited out.
arpharazonv: Had a bit of rain and thunderstorm earlier today, not sure
about now. Got music playing, so I can't hear anything ;)
Varda Valar: Part of the dramatic music sound-effects. :-)
arpharazonv: hehe
Arien V: Aiya all :-)
arpharazonv: Aiya!
Varda Valar: Aiya Sunshine :-)
Varda Valar: Invites sent. Dropping into LotRO to remind folks there.
Varda Valar: It's what, around 10pm for you two?
arpharazonv: 11 for me, 10 for Arien I think.
arpharazonv: But I'm free, early raid-ending, and was doing some other WoW stuff until about 10 minutes ago :)
Varda Valar: This is 4pm here, lot of others it's 5, or 3pm, so they're
in the middle of real life or some are gaming. Hard to drag them in.
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Varda Valar: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Varda Valar: Membership:
Varda Valar: In great news, Eonwe
has a new computer. It arrived early, expected on the 28th, so he
didn't have a monitor. Now he has a monitor (not sure if it arrived or
is on order) and will be loading programs sometime soon.
Varda Valar: Aiya Lenwe :-)
Varda Valar: We're in Membership news now. :-)
perseid28: Aiya everyone :)
perseid28: Ok great
arpharazonv: Aiya!
arpharazonv: And good to hear from our Gaming expert :)
arpharazonv: Oh, and
arpharazonv: I saw Fladrif last night, as well.
Varda Valar: Cool. Hearthstone?
arpharazonv: Talked a bit, observed some of his Hearthstone matches. He's doing quite well in that, yes.
Varda Valar: Yay!
Varda Valar: Fangorn says Hi!
arpharazonv: Hi!
Varda Valar: [Kinship] Brilanthir: Hi meeting-persons :-D
Varda Valar: That's from Elwing in LotRO. :-)
arpharazonv: Also Hi!
Arien V: Aiya Bilanthir :-D
Arien V: Aiya Elwing :-)
Varda Valar: I'm back early, huzzah, all good. Expected to be in internet range again Tuesday.
arpharazonv: ..You're not on the internet now?
Varda Valar: Fangorn's brother retired and is moving into his log cabin that he's been building, along with his wife.
Varda Valar: I wasn't until late yesterday. :-)
Varda Valar: No reception where we were.
Varda Valar: Been gone since Thursday.
Varda Valar: Back last night.
perseid28: That sounds like an amazing retirement
Varda Valar: We were surprised by tons of family and friends, neighbors showing up to help, some on both sides of the journey.
Varda Valar: and one kind neighbor loaned a huge trailer nearly as big
as the U-Haul truck, making it one long trip instead of back and forth
a few days.
arpharazonv: Very efficient!
Varda Valar: So, we're all very happy. :-)
Varda Valar: Any other news?
Varda Valar: We did not completely flood out over here at our house. :-)
Varda Valar: We're in a high spot so the flooding was more around us than on top.
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Varda Valar: Web:
Varda Valar: Tolkien Site has new art from DeepGroover-(T):
Varda Valar: Here's just the finished model alone:
Varda Valar: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/DeepGroover/Conan/Conan_complete.jpg
Varda Valar: Here's the page we have it on that also has more detail shots and the work in progress:
Varda Valar: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/DeepGroover/Conan/Conan.htm
Varda Valar: Taking suggestions from you all on who that could
illustrate in Tolkien's works. :-) Or a type of person if not a
named person.
Arien V: these are amazing
Varda Valar: He's an award-winning model painter, does a lot of
personal extras, and plans to try his hand at sculpting a whole model
in the future.
Varda Valar: He enters the nationals, normally doing only a display table at the locals.
Varda Valar: He's Elwing's brother, long-time family friend of ours.
arpharazonv: Sculpting does seem the more difficult part.. but then again I can't paint either ;)
Varda Valar: So, any suggestions how we can use this?
Varda Valar: He considers sculpting more difficult, but both are tough and take different skills.
arpharazonv: Let him sculpt a miniature of Minas Tirith.. or is that too difficult? ;)
Varda Valar: A good sculptor may be a rotten painter and loves to have someone like DeepGroover do this sort of thing.
Varda Valar: There are such around
arpharazonv: Hmm, that's true.
Arien V: does he makes game boards?#
arpharazonv: I was never very good at playing with clay either...
Arien V: i ve seen amazing landscape boards for miniature games
Varda Valar: He has painted a Pathfinder tabletop gaming figure for me, fantastic work on such a tiny figure.
Arien V: :-)
Arien V: hmmmm .. the Argonath? Has he done them already?
Varda Valar: His specialty is figures, but he does amazing bases. He
used to do nothing but cars and other vehicles, so it changes over time.
Varda Valar: The model has to be available to paint
arpharazonv: Not if he sculpts them himself!
Arien V: oh he doesnt do them from scratch .. yes thats what i meant
Varda Valar: Good point. That would be an amazing sculpture!
arpharazonv: Ahh, the beauty of out-of-reach dreams... I just got an idea to craft a miniature Numenor as a sort of 3D map.
arpharazonv: With paper mache or however you spell it in English.
Varda Valar: It's not out of reach for him.
arpharazonv: No, but is for me ;) Feel free to suggest it though!
Varda Valar: Why not give it a go, Phar? Could be fun.
arpharazonv: It seems a bit advanced for me!
Varda Valar: A piece at a time. Try beach sand for your first Minas Tirith, if you like. :-)
arpharazonv: heh
Varda Valar: Or just the outer circle and add the inner over time
arpharazonv: A single grain of sand...
Varda Valar: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/Aerandir/minastirithtop.jpg
Varda Valar: Aerandir did it in beach sand. That's in our art site. :-)
arpharazonv: Ooh :D
Varda Valar: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/Aerandir/caveAerandir.htm
arpharazonv: Now, see, I could certainly make a crude Numenor out of sand.
Varda Valar: There you go.
Varda Valar: Lots of fun stuff on our site to enjoy looking at and to spark off ideas. Enjoy!
Varda Valar: Elwing reminds me that DeepGroover did a model display yesterday, lots of figures at the show. :-)
Arien V: :-)
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Varda Valar: Gaming:
Varda Valar: LotRO:
Varda Valar: The LotRO anniversary started.
Varda Valar: We have special presents according to how long your account has been online
Varda Valar: and party fun such as in Bree, lots of people enjoying it
Varda Valar: Some Devs have been hanging out live and I expect they will pull stunts at odd moments as they do sometimes. :-)
arpharazonv: show-offs? ;)
Varda Valar: It's stuff that is fun for the crowds, like giving us a bunch of surprise monsters invading the Bree area
Arien V: ah right
Varda Valar: or lots of rabbits or squirrels suddenly all around
Arien V: what kind of levels are those usually?
arpharazonv: Rabbit invasion, hmm...
Varda Valar: Rabbits and squirrels are like the ones in the landscape, level one.
Varda Valar: The monsters... depends, and they can be different levels.
Varda Valar: Anything from spiders to flying dragons.
Varda Valar: or they may do fireworks, other effects.
Varda Valar: From Eonwe's site:
Varda Valar: The Ninth Anniversary is going.
Varda Valar: From our News page:
Varda Valar: Happy Anniversary, LotRO! The festival runs from April 22 - May 8. Also, receive special anniversary gifts according to how long ago your account signed up.
arpharazonv: Does it reset if you have a subscription break?
Varda Valar: I think it goes from when you started. Might not count the time unsubscribed, not sure.
Varda Valar: As a 9th year, I got the emote /orb_blue
Varda Valar: That gives something like a palantir that keeps changing color, swirliing patterns.
arpharazonv: Nice!
Varda Valar: I also got a sputtering dud firework. :-)
Varda Valar: Ok, LotRO got a lot of meeting time there, pardon. :-) On to
Varda Valar: WoW:
Varda Valar: The release date for Legion has been announced: August 30th!
arpharazonv: 4 months, wooh!
Varda Valar: New Toybox Tuesday Blog: Into the Jungle.
Varda Valar: Pardon, what was 4 months?
arpharazonv: 4 months from now until release date.
Varda Valar: O right, Quite a while, but at least they have a goal and told us!
Varda Valar: See the art updates.
Varda Valar: Check out the latest in the Legion alpha test.
arpharazonv: I don't mind, still got stuff to do in this one.
Varda Valar: :-)
Varda Valar: Diablo 3:
Varda Valar: Get your first look at the Season 6 journey.
Varda Valar: StarCraft 2:
Varda Valar: New patch released: patch 3.2.2.
Varda Valar: See the Call to Action.
Varda Valar: Hearthstone:
Varda Valar: Whispers of the Old Gods release has been announced: April 26th!
Varda Valar: Check out the blog Keeping Hearthstone Fresh.
[Note discovered during the After-meeting, patch is live.]
Varda Valar: Heroes of the Storm:
Varda Valar: New patch released. See the notes.
Varda Valar: Overwatch:
Varda Valar: The closed beta ends April 25th. See the announcement.
Varda Valar: There's a new digital comic: "Train Hopper".
Varda Valar: The Overwatch pre-order goodies are now available.
Varda Valar: End of the Games Site news. :-)
Varda Valar: Any additions of general info to Gaming?
Arien V: Warcraft the Beginning out in the uk 03.06. ^^
Arien V: cant wait
arpharazonv: I don't go to the cinema, but I can't wait for a dvd release :)
Varda Valar: Hah, the comic has a train going to Houston. We'll watch for it. :-)
Varda Valar: Any other gaming news, suggestions for our gaming (including LotRO), website, etc?
arpharazonv: Will give mine at the end as usual :)
Varda Valar: Okie dokie
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Varda Valar: Tolkien:
Varda Valar: This may sound funny, but let's discuss the weather!
Varda Valar: This relates to the Valar, Sauron, and even during the War of the Rings.
Varda Valar: Can you think of anything weather related in the stories?
Varda Valar: Take a minute and you'll find a lot!
arpharazonv: Clouds and rain were a cooperation between Manwe and Ulmo, as I recall.
arpharazonv: We've got the cause of sunshine right here, as long as there are no clouds along the way.
Varda Valar: And where do those clouds come from?
arpharazonv: Manwe and Ulmo, as I said :)
Varda Valar: Right-o! Pardon.
Varda Valar: With the addition of cold from Morgoth, we got snow. Courtesy of Eru making it all work to his plan.
Arien V: theres also clouds from Morgoth .no it was Ungolianth who made the darkness to conceil their march on Valinor wasnt it?
Arien V: but thats not exactly weather
arpharazonv: I think so, she spun some darkness around. Not exactly clouds, no.
arpharazonv: Akin to clouds, perhaps, but ground-based.
Varda Valar: Ungoliant spun Unlight, aye, as camouflage for her and Morgoth in Valinor.
Varda Valar: Akin to that, Morgoth and Sauron made reeks that overcast
the sky, keeping it dark for themselves and their minions.
arpharazonv: "Hmm, what's that patch of darkness doing there, moving towards the tree? Oh well, probably nothing."
Varda Valar: They were busy with a wedding party too. :-) Probably better camo than Ungoliant's!
Varda Valar: Don't guess mountains being turned into valleys and vice versa would be considered normal weather.
arpharazonv: Is an earthquake "weather"?
Varda Valar: Not really. :-) Think it's more atmospheric effects
arpharazonv: Now, a meteor dropping, or a volcano spewing ash into the air might qualify.
Varda Valar: JRRT carefully figured phases of the moon to time what was happening to whom in the story line
Varda Valar: Mount Doom count? :-)
arpharazonv: Sure :D
Varda Valar: That weather was central to the story. Hot enough to melt the One Ring
Arien V: Hmm there were the storm giants
arpharazonv: I meant the effect Mount Doom would have on the outside. The conditions inside, perhaps...
Arien V: when the hobbits came near goblin town#
Varda Valar: It added to the reeks that Sauron made, most likely, helping the orcs to move around
Arien V: or the dwarves i mean with Bilbo
Varda Valar: Aye, Arien. Thunder was pretty solid
Varda Valar: Giants throwing boulders, like the old legends, cause of thunder.
arpharazonv: Hmm, that always did seem a bit difficult to fit in.
Varda Valar: Not even interested in the tiny things walking around nearby
arpharazonv: Giants throwing boulders, are those responsible for thunder all over Middle-earth? :)
Varda Valar: but it made the party want to take shelter. In the gobin cave entryway, oops.
Arien V: The Fellowship and their try to the Redhorn .. Snow fell heavy and prevented the "safer" way
Varda Valar: Aye. And the mountain Caradhras seemed almost to be doing
it on purpose, as the snow ended just away from them quite neatly
Arien V: yep thank you thats what i meant ^^ , i still dont do names . especially at this hour *dry*
arpharazonv: Which is why they made Saruman do it in the movie. Having
the mountain itself be making the storm looks a bit silly on film,
perhaps.
Varda Valar: Hey, make us come up with them. :-)
Varda Valar: It could have been done the same as in the book, but I
think they were trying to make it all fit more closely in the limited
time of a movie. Keep the same villain as much as possible.
arpharazonv: That's true.
Varda Valar: JRRT was giving us glimpses of legends that the party was traveling through, making the story even deeper
arpharazonv: Mountains that fight back, octopus-monsters that guard ancient gates...
Arien V: what did Gimli say ? or was it Legolas in the book i forgot
"The enemy's arm has igrown long if cares to throw snow at a little
mountain" or some some such ^^
Varda Valar: and Aragorn answered, "It has grown long"
Varda Valar: Sauron was wily. He knew how to use evil things to his advantage even if they weren't trying to serve him.
Varda Valar: He knew their habits and locations
Arien V: yes
arpharazonv: Leading them to a Balrog, stuff like that? :)
Arien V: hmm what else weather related? They used storms to defend Valinor after Pharazons unhidden approach to invade
arpharazonv: Morgoth used dark clouds himself, I believe, coming from Thangorodrim.
Arien V: but yes Phari, like that
arpharazonv: Some with plague included.
arpharazonv: And Sauron made the sky so dark, the day looked like night.
arpharazonv: Those villains really liked black, didn't they?
Varda Valar: They had a problem with light, painful for them.
Varda Valar: Saruman liked a lot of colors though. :-)
Varda Valar: Maybe because it was like taking over the colors of other wizards for himself?
arpharazonv: Or perhaps those colors are as far from white as black is from them?
arpharazonv: Saruman enjoyed sitting somewhere in the middle.
perseid28: Occasionally the heroes fight creatures of the night with
fire (Nazgul and Wargs in the FotR), but it seems that they don't have
a way to change the night's darkness on a larger scale
arpharazonv: Only the Valar could do that, and did; for example, when a lone star was visible when Sam and Frodo were in Mordor.
Varda Valar: A sign of hope to them that the Valar were still with them
Varda Valar: Frodo's phial
Arien V: Varda's stars were meant as protection against creatures of darkness
Arien V: yes that
Arien V: the ray of light on the fallen statue of the king at the crossroads near Minas Morgul
Arien V: a beam of sunshine ^^
arpharazonv: A fine job you did there, Arien!
Varda Valar: Gandalf forced the flying Nazgul away from Faramir with light from his staff
Varda Valar: At the walls of Minas Tirith, Faramir and Eowyn saw the
reeks of Mordor lightening up and knew the fortunes of war were
changing in their favor.
Arien V: hmm the huorns came to Helms Deep in the dead of night and were gone in the morning
arpharazonv: Not only evil uses the cover of darkness.
Arien V: .darkness and despair fell over Minas Tirith but the light returned early and the hosts of the enemy didnt like it
Varda Valar: Some question of whether there was a hint of evil to the huorns, but true.
perseid28: Aye, it is dark in both Fangorn Forest and the Old Forest,
and though some of the characters are fearful in them, places are not
completely evil
arpharazonv: Winds from the west helped there, Arien. Manwe's influence again, no doubt :)
Varda Valar: Arwen Evenstar, part of her function was to take away the dread from the night and bring back beauty.
Varda Valar: Every time we hear of a West wind, we know it's an oblique reference to Manwe. Fun to see all the little hints.
Varda Valar: *picks up a hammer*
Varda Valar: *the handle bends, sort of flops*
Varda Valar: *swings it so that it flops on the hammer pad on our round table*
Varda Valar: *fwooooooshhhhh*
arpharazonv: You have an actual pad?
Varda Valar: Happy breezes swing all around us, swaying the chanderlier prisms to make traveling rainbow light
Varda Valar: *and it is calm again*
Varda Valar: *replaces the pad for time number 42*
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Varda Valar: After-meeting!
Varda Valar: Free chat :-)
Varda Valar: Aye, I have a gavel pad. It has a good bit of wear and tear, frequently replaced.
arpharazonv: Prevents cracking the table, I guess.
Varda Valar: Most of the time.
Varda Valar: Not all those marble patterns are marble patterns. ;-)
arpharazonv: Heh.
Varda Valar: Aule sends apprentices over here now and then to repair the tables and chairs and other fixtures.
Varda Valar: He could make them stronger but he thinks its funny and keeps his apprentices practiced.
arpharazonv: Maybe that sort of thing is what made Sauron rebel. Thinks it's below him to fix a table.
Arien V: i llke rainbows!#
arpharazonv: Well you do have a part in making them!
Arien V: true
Varda Valar: mmm rainbows
Varda Valar: There are moonbows. I wonder if it's possible to have starbows, maybe very faint, maybe greenish?
Arien V: Olore Malle .. i loved that "original function" of rainbows in Tolkien :-)
arpharazonv: moonbows...
Varda Valar: O yes! and that's a weather effect too
Arien V: was it in the Unfinished Tales or something? [Note: Olórë Mallë "Path of Dreams", "Way of Dreams" BoLT 1 & 2]
arpharazonv: is that moonlight shining through the rain?
Varda Valar: Aye Phar
arpharazonv: *googles images*
Varda Valar: Not as bright as a rainbow with the sun, but very similar. Enjoy. :-)
arpharazonv: Hmm, very nice.
arpharazonv: I'm a bit of a lunatic myself, I wonder why the concept never occurred to me.
Varda Valar: Sooo many concepts, so little lifetime. :-)
arpharazonv: So true.
arpharazonv: Right, for my personal gaming.. I'm checking what flashgames I want to give you today.
arpharazonv: Right, 3 smaller games from the Onemorelevel site this week.
arpharazonv: http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/maze_eye
is a puzzle game where you have to move through levels to get the key
and the exit in an old-school "move into a certain direction until you
hit a wall" playstyle.
Varda Valar: A different game spot this time, interesting.
arpharazonv: Well I check both sites regularly, and if I find something
on this site that's also on Kongregate, I tend to give that one instead
because of the possibility of regular updates and badges.
arpharazonv: In this case, none of the 3 appear to be on there :)
arpharazonv: http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/castle_rush
is a rather different than usual defense game where you not only have
to defend your castle.. but your castle actually moves forward to take
revenge as well.
arpharazonv: and http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/this_is_amazing is a puzzle game where you have to.. how shall I put this...
arpharazonv: you have to move a certain shape by certain corners to cover another shape.
arpharazonv: It'll make sense when you try it :)
Varda Valar: :-)
arpharazonv: Okay, blizzard gaming!
arpharazonv: Not done any Diablo 3 this week, though I really should get preparing for the new season next week, by cleaning out the in-game mail etc.
arpharazonv: For Heroes of the Storm I've gotten Zagara, my new specialist hero, to level 5. The rest is also slowly chugging along.
arpharazonv: In Hearthstone,
some of my classes have been playing catch-up, especially with this
week's brawl, for which I had a quest to win 5, and which can really be
done with any class you're in the mood of; the gimmick this week is
that you get 30 "raven idol" cards which gives you a choice between
either 3 random spells or 3 random units, which is also up to you to
decide, but the units and spells are appropriate for your class.
arpharazonv: It makes for rather slow gameplay, though, because
everyone takes a longer time deciding between cards. So the games take
longer than usual.
arpharazonv: But still I prefer it over those that require you to make your own deck.
arpharazonv: WoW:
arpharazonv: With the release date announced, and my archeology
probably taking longer than usual, I've decided to speed up some other
projects too; now, for each pristine artefact I find, I will also do
part of another project, in this case working on the achievement to
collect 5000 blackfang claws in Tanaan Jungle.
Varda Valar: Multi-tasking :-)
arpharazonv: I've also been levelling my troll druid a bit more, who is
level 19 now, and finally has access to his moonkin form!
arpharazonv: Well, I'm not doing them at the same time, I just
alternate pieces between them :) So a kind of multitasking perhaps.
arpharazonv: Also I realized that I had the mount from the
heirloom-achievement, which also works for low level characters, so now
he moves around a bit faster.
arpharazonv: And when he's 20, he'll be able to ride normal mounts too, I already have a specific raptor in mind.
arpharazonv: So now I've got a level 19 druid and over 1000 claws collected, which are both projects that are still in motion.
arpharazonv: Raiding.. I'm one upgrade away from maxing out my second
legendary ring, which will require one normal or heroic Archimonde
kill, but because people are tired of heroic and we just don't seem
able to recruit enough people for Mythic, we've decided to pause our
HFC raiding for now, focusing on older, more specialized targets, like
Mythic Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry.
arpharazonv: We finished a reset-extended Highmaul raid for those of us
who still needed the final boss on mythic, and then started practicing
a tough mythic bossfight in the Foundry. But making progress!
arpharazonv: As for my last upgrade, I'm sure we'll get back there some
day if other people want stuff too, or we get a new recruit.
arpharazonv: From the last HFC kill, I did however finally get the
necklace I want, completing my gear for both specs, so now I only need
more stuff if it has unusual augmentations like a gem-socket.
arpharazonv: Oh, and garrison achievements too! I finished the
achievement for 50 treasure missions, and then used all my followers to
chase down all 13 different exploration missions in one go.
arpharazonv: There are 13 different exploration missions you can buy
for (generic) restored archeology artifacts, but the ones you get are
random. The only restriction is that if you already have a mission sent
out, you can't get that mission again; however, you cannot have more
than one mission available unless you send a follower out on it first.
arpharazonv: So if you want to be guaranteed the achievement for all 13
missions, you need to send all of them out at once; preferably at 100%
success-chance.
arpharazonv: Which is something I managed to complete today, so now I've got that achievement too :)
Varda Valar: Yay
Arien V: gratwsss
arpharazonv: After that bit of fun, it's back to business as usual for
all my followers, and I don't see any significant changes coming for
them while this expansion lasts. Basically, I'm done with them, and am
indeed only missing a few more achievements for the garrison itself.
arpharazonv: And that is it for me this week!
Varda Valar: Thank you, Phar
arpharazonv: Oh, looks like Hearthstone patch 5 is here. I guess that's the end of buying GvG packs.
arpharazonv: ...and it introduces a Shadowmoon Valley card back for the May season? Oh I am very interested in seeing that.
arpharazonv: A, no, the GvG packs are still available. Perhaps that's only from the 26th.
arpharazonv: A couple of cards have been changed, but the rest of the
features don't seem to be there yet, probably unlocked on the 26th.
Arien V: Namarie for now
arpharazonv: namarie!
Arien V: Namarie :-)
arpharazonv: Saving and sending transcript.
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