Aug

It was our first visit to Dr. Fuzzymoose Wongus to deal with our irrational fear of spiders. With his being a famed proponent of systematic desensitization in the treatment of phobias, we first expected to be taught some relaxation skills before being exposed to a hierarchy of increasing phobic stimulus. Instead, Dr. Wongus ordered us to Naxxramas to fight the freaking biggest spider anyone’s ever seen. Her name was Maexxna the Big Bad Spider, or MtBBS for short.

It was a scene taken out of our deepest nightmares — a huge spider (MtBBS) with little spider friends (MtBBS spawns or MtBBSs) that all do spider-type attacks involving spider webbing. Eek! But, alas, this was raiding time, and we knew that we could count on our guildies standing beside us to do their best — even if they were to be enclosed in a spidersilk cocoon most of the time. One thing: spider web in the mouth is just plain not cool.

In the end, after a few attempts, and even without the obligatory <5% freak-out wipe that Renaissance is famous for, Maexxna the Big Bad Spider was dead. To our surprised, we had needed no relaxation skills at all, just lots and lots of caffeine to keep us awake and benzodiazepenes to less our anxiety. Miraculously, we are all less scared of spiders now. Bye-bye arachnophobia and hooray Renaissance!

Pay attention to the box office for the chronicles of our exploits, in the summer blockbuster - “Spiders on a Cruise Ship.” And, stay tuned for our next visit to Dr. Wongus, where we shall explore the depths of our Patchwerkophobia.

Everyone standing around contemplating their former arachnophobia. And if you don’t think this was a good screenshot, all I gotta say is you don’t appreciate artwork.