The challenge: Loremaster of Kalimdor

Once upon a time a small, slightly bored gnomish tank decided to set out on an adventure to make all the people of the world love him. He whirlwinded through the forests of the islands off the coast of Kalimdor: Teldrassil, Bloodmyst Isle and Azuremyst Isle; travelled miles searching for other gnomes to help and eventually resorted to stealing runecloth from anyone he could and donating it to very grateful gnomes and draenei, who must have been making the worlds largest blanket. One day, many weeks later he woke up to find himself granted with the titles "Diplomat", "Guardian of Cenarius" and "The Ambassador", but while scrolling through a new book that he found under his pillow that very same morning, he read of the great challenge of becoming a "Loremaster" and while this particular gnome lives happily on a diet of chocolate; plenty of hugs and of defeating monsters with his friends, this particular challenge seemed to good to pass off. Plus, he had a week or two before he could venture into the new lands of Northrend.

Closer study of his new book showed that, he needed to do less than 100 quests in Eastern Kingdoms and over 200 in Kalimdor to complete the loremaster challenges that were currently accessible to him. And so, having tidied out some of his resistance gear into his bank; put his achievement book safely in his backpack and activated a rudimentary gps system he set off. With the typical unreliability of engineering his gps system seemed to fail each day when he awoke and had to be recalibrated, which he invariably forget to do.

From Southshore to Booty Bay; via the dungeons of Stockades and Deadmines he quested, finding a constant stream of people who needed his help. The odd person wasn't very grateful and didn't sign his book, but generally they were all happy to see the little adventurer and happy to offer him a quest to do. Along the way he collected some new gear, which he carefully packed and sold the next time he was in a city. He also gained mythical "Alliance" reputation and began to wonder if his reputation scroll might not be working as intended, since maximum exalted reputation didn't really seem to mean it, but ... within a day or two he had completed his Eastern Kingdoms challenge. That night he drifted off to sleep a very contented little gnome, dreaming of the giant gorillas he had slain and of fair maidens he had rescued.

But when the morning came he was back on the road and across the sea he travelled to Kalimdor. Starting in the very northern hills of Teldrassil he started re-tracing his footsteps of a few months ago. But now he was careful to travel on "roads less travelled by" searching out for people he may have missed the first time around. Late one night, he found himself in the wilds of northern Feralas, tired from several swimming trips backwards and forwards from the Island, and he was starting to fall asleep but there was a rumour around that a night elf had a quest that she would give to worthy travellers called "From the Top". He was so relieved when he finally found her that he accepted the challenge without reading it - what could Feralas offer him that he, a mighty gnome warrior, couldn't vanquish? Well, a few seconds later he was standing on the top of a very tall mountain and despite offering his netherdrake all of the chocolate he had remaining it refused to carry him downwards and with his teleportation device on the blink (again), he jumped and plummeted to his death.

However as a battle hardened tank he was used to dieing, and the corpse run was far prettier than many he had previously done, most vexing was the fact that the ungrateful night elf refused to sign his achievement book and he had to swim all the way back out to Feathermoon to find a comfy bed for the night. After a good nights sleep he was back on the road again, nonetheworse for the previous days adventures, although his trusty white pussy cat stead was starting to complain about sore paws. That afternoon with the southern coast of Tanaris within sight he pulled out his achievement book and counted up the signatures he had collected, and then double counted them, because he was still about 30 quests short!

Refusing to admit defeat it was time to call in reinforcements, and so over elevenses he consulted atlases, books and charts, plotting a return trip north and noting several possible leads in the Eastern Kingdoms. He also consulted with his new dwarf tank friend, who was also crisscrossing Kalimdor in search of the same elusive quests. Comparisons of weird quests found gave him a couple of leads and so he set off again, this time his trusty stead got more of a break as following up every possibility and rumour meant flying vast distances. During one trip through Moonglade he got attacked by a pack of ghosts, and with a very angry dragon throwing shadow bolts at everyone within range he notched up another death to his tally.

Slowly a creeping feeling of despair started to crawl into his soul, as goblins in Ratchet and night elves in Darnassus didn't appreciate his efforts in the dungeons of Razorfen and refused to sign his book but just as he was starting to get really depressed he fell over some quests for furblogs on Azuremyst Isle that hadn't previously been available to him. By now the end was in sight, and decided to bite the bullet and pay the outrageous auction house prices for a small bunch goldthorn and wild steelbloom. After the brief, but highly satisfying distraction of being fed, several times, to a dragon by the name of Kalecgos before seeing him fly off in defeat, it was back to Feralas and from there to the racetrack of Shimmering Flats. As the flags of the racetrack came into view, his gps system started beeping, with a quest mark, even hitting the gps a few times to make sure it wasn't on the blink didn't cause it to disappear and so before handing over the newly brewed elixirs of fortitude, he went to talk to the dwarf, who, for some really weird reason wanted to get gnomes drunk, and having done that wanted a message sent to Booty Bay.

By this time, the littlest gnome was getting really tired, his shield was badly battered from Kalecgos but he couldn't resist a quick teleport to Shattrah city and from there to the dwarven stronghold in the Hinterlands. The very nice dwarf who he needed to see happily signed his achievement book once and then offered the possibility of signing it again, if he was brought some wolf meat. Having been raised in Ironforge our little hero felt quite a home in Aerie Peak and rather than risk the dangers of facing the Hinterland wolves half asleep he snuggled up for the night.

As usual on a Monday morning his alarm clock didn't work and so it was passed sunset by the time he awoke, one final check of his achievement log confirmed that he still needed just six quests to go. Collecting wolf meat didn't take very long at all and after collecting a further two signatures he was the proud owner of a baby spritedancer, which he packed very carefully with his other pets making sure to keep it well away from Muckbreath's sharp teeth. After a quick trip to Booty Bay to see someone about some beer, he was down to just three signatures needed.

It was now time to follow up some elusive rumours: of a murloc by the name of Cruelfin in Bloodmyst Isle and of a lost book, which could be bought and returned to the library in Dire Maul. Cruelfin was quickly despatched and a copy of the "Codex of Defense" was bought for the princely sum of 7g from the Exodar auction house. On the way down to Feralas, rumour reached the little adventurer that the caravan that he had previously escorted passed the centaur camps of Desolace now needed further assistance in Mannoroc caverns. The demons proved no match for him and with his penultimate signature procured it was off to Dire Maul. There with a loudly beating heart he handed over the missing book and his achievement book and held his breath waiting to see if the rumour was correct ... and it was, the 730th and final signature was inscribed into his book.

A few minutes later his dwarvish tank friend completed the same challenge far away in the hills of Hinterlands, but no doubt they met up later in Ironforge to celebrate and share tales of of their epic adventures.