Lost Shores Weekend - Friday

So a disappointing start for the Lost Shores weekend for me. I was all ready to participate in the kick-off event at noon server time yesterday, was logged into L.A. and chillin' with my guildies, hanging out and admiring other players' outfits. Then an over-excited Asura ele starting spamming fire spells and I got the dreaded Yellow Blocks of Doom, and crashed. It was 15 minutes to the event. I tried and tried to get back in but was unsuccessful. Big sigh.
When I finally reconnected several hours later (had to work and all that), I asked my guildies what I missed. Hartak said, "You missed a 3-second cut scene and a 30-minute lag fest." Ooh, thrills. Then they said that they killed some "crabs with penis legs". Interesting.
Due to ongoing crashing issues, I declined their invite to do the new Fractals dungeon, but had a blast listening to Dezi, Pol, Hartak, Kjarri and Chazdy work their way through a bunch of them. They all seemed to enjoy the new dungeon, and liked that they were short, varied, and gave good rewards. It seemed appealing that the dungeons were randomly chosen and all sufficiently different to be interesting. It was neat to hear their comments on RaidCall, yet not be able to see what they were doing. They all laughed out loud at a scene where apparently bound human captives were pushed into a volcano. (Sick-ohs!) They laughed even harder when they all got turned into Charr and Hartak was wearing only a loincloth. :D

While being amused by their banter, I puttered around on Spiral, talking to the NPCs, dumping junk in the Mystic Forge, trying to complete the scavenger hunt, and discovering all the new cooking recipes. Dezi laughed at me cuz this big exciting weekend thing is going on, a new dungeon, new DEs, new PvP map...and I'm COOKING. Hee hee! But I just had to discover Apple Passion Fruit Pie! And of course, Salad a la Consortium. (Who knew they spoke French?)

I giggled at Zommoros, the genie who lives in the Mystic Forge, who described the quaggan as "fubsy blubberfolk". Ha! His interpreter/keeper/guard, Miyani, also amused me by saying, "'The Mighty Zommoros has spoken' is his way of saying I'm bored now. Go away.' He's a bit of a snob." Nice.

I took a brief glance through the new cash shop items but was not really tempted by anything other than the Sailor's Beanie. YES! Maybe it's the Canadian in me, but damn, I want a toque! I need to keep my leafy ears warm when I visit Norn-Land. :)
I was a tad disappointed that the Consortium Chests were basically a cash-grab item. As far as I know,you can't get them in-game; only by gems. I have enough gems to buy one, but I'm not going to, kinda out of principle. It's just cosmetic stuff anyway, and the speed at which I get bored with my skins, it wouldn't be a wise purchase.

I also found the dudes selling the Lionguard weapons, which I might buy just for the skin. Not sure if these are new or I just never noticed them before. There is a Consortium person selling the low level skins for 50 whatsamadewies. (The name of the event currency escapes me right now.) But on Claw Island there are three NPCs selling the three tiers of the same weapons for karma. Lots of karma. Not bad stats though.

I'm itching to get back in game and see Phase 2, so I'm gonna leave you with some helpful links for the Lost Shores stuff. Have fun and see you in there!  :D

GW2Guru: Updated recipes, achievements, fractal weapons and Lionguard weapons.
Dulfy: Consortium Chest skins, minipets and weapons
Phasestrikes YouTube video on the scavenger hunt.
WolfsGoRawr YouTube video on the new Fractals dungeon.