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| The Deadmines |
A pier jutted out from the crinkled grey rock that made up the shore, the wooden planks and supports jutting at odd angles showing the signs of hasty construction. It lead to a ship the likes of which I had never seen before: an ugly and grotesque war machine. Cannons jutted from every available orifice, which bulged out of the ship like tumours. It rocked slowly on the water, appearing rather unstable.
I turned and sat down, with my back against the cool rock, sucking in the damp musty air deeply. I looked at the trail of destruction we had left through the heart of Edwin Van Cleef's base. Hidden under the human village of Moonbrook, it had served as the headquarters for the Defias Brotherhood. The officials at Stormwind City, the capital of the human empire, had finally had enough, and we were to be the tools of their wrath.
I adjusted the bandage on my right arm, which covered a small wound where I had been nicked by a sword, and looked at my companions. Four there were; immediately to my left was Chaspal, a calculating look crossed his usually stony features, to his left was Aldassia, another Night Elf rogue, who was busy applying fresh poison to her daggers. On my right was crouched Zacker, the human warrior who had dragged us all into this. She was crouched rather uncomfortably - understandable, given the thick metal armour that she wore. Beside her was the final member of our party - Lochraine, he was a paladin, a knight of the Order of the Silver Hand, and was dedicated to following the creed of the Holy Light. He sat with head bowed, evidently murmuring a blessing.
Needless to say, the last week since I had joined the Revenants had been an eventful one. Barely had I become settled in Auberdine had I been whisked halfway across the world by the needs of the Guild, and now, I was sat with dirtied robes, facing the prospect of storming Edwin Van Cleef's ship, which seemed to me to be all but impregnable, given the array of cannons on show.
The story of Van Cleef was a sad one. He was a genius architect, and was one of the chief Stonemasons responsible for the reconstruction of Stormwind City after it was razed in the Second War. However, after ten years of arduous labour, culminating in a grand new capital for the human empire, the House of Nobles refused to pay the Stonemasons for their work. Van Cleef was enraged and felt betrayed, and thus he took those workers who felt the same and left the city and formed the Defias Brotherhood.
He rallied looters, rebels and malcontents to his cause; the ultimate goal of being to get the money that he felt he rightly deserved. His men began to waylay merchants bringing goods to Stormwind, and pillaged the local villages which supplied the capital with food. They began to terrorise the local countryside, and the limited resources of the still recovering city guard meant that they could not be dealt with. He quickly crossed the line where no reconciliation with the authorities would have been possible, and thus, the order was sent out to bring about his assasination.
"What's the plan boss?" asked Zacker.
"From what info we've been told, Van Cleef keeps a company of around twenty men," replied Chaspal.
"So add the six that are on the pier, twenty six," said Aldassia, who carefully tucked her poison powder away in a sealed pouch.
"Twenty six, we can take 'em, come on!" said Zacker, rather to my alarm.
The two rogues exchanged a glance. Zacker rolled her eyes.
"Enough with the sneaking about already! I can't swim in this armour, and the two of you can't take down that ship. There's only one way in."
Chaspal shrugged. He drew his weapons. "Ready?"
We all nodded affirmative. Zacker stepped out from behind the boulder, armoured boots clinking against the stone floor. She let out a cry of war, and charged at the nearest Defias member on the pier, a mere ten metres away. It was here that I learned that Zacker had no sense of self-preservation, perhaps aided by the fact that she was cocooned in metal. I however, in my cloth robe, felt decidedly more vulnerable.
"Shield!" I muttered, invoking the Power Word as I ran several steps behind Zacker, forming a shield around her charging form. She barrelled into the first Defias member, who had barely had time to shout an alarm and was bowled over and then quickly run through with a sword. The rogues loosed throwing knives, which found their mark in the throats of two more Defias.
We ran up the pier. The wooden planking creaked under our crashing steps, my heart hammered in my chest as alerted Defias Brotherhood members began pouring off the ship and onto the pier. I saw an archer draw.
"Pain!" I shouted, invoking another Power Word. I could feel the summoned energy leave me and enter the target of the spell, could almost see his nerves being ripped apart by shadowy hands. He collapsed on the deck of the ship, screaming in agony.
We met Van Cleef's men at the end of the pier, Zacker, letting out a blood curdling screech, threw herself into the line of enemies. My shield deflected the first of their sword thrusts as she began to hack at the throng of Defias members. Lochraine was next to barrel into combat, his mighty war hammer swinging, crushing through armour and flesh alike, crunching through armour with the sound of tortured steel and flesh with the mush of crushed bone. The two rogues opted for a more graceful style of combat, slipping through the fighting throng like liquid steel, stabbing and slicing with precise abandon.
I skirted around the edges of the bloodbath, my mind becoming finely attuned to the state of my companion's wellbeing. It was an intimate connection, as I could feel the ebb and flow of the energy within them - could feel the burn of their exertion, and an odd disconnected pain as they were injured. I drew upon my inner pool of mana, healing energy shimmering a kaleidoscope of blues and purples around my hands as I kept my fellow fighters on their feet.
The bloody brawl was over in less than a minute. Van Cleef's men lay now as corpses. Their blood coated the five of us and was soaking into the wooden supports of the pier, dripping through to form clouds of red in the otherwise pristine water below.
"Van Cleef!" shouted Zacker, walking up the gangplank, "Show yourself!" Her voice echoed around the cavern.
We followed her cautiously onto the deck of the ship, walking slowly, as our footwear were slippery with blood.
A door swung open, slamming on it's hinges. Van Cleef appeared, clad in the brown leathers, with the signature red bandana of the Defias Brotherhood tied over his mouth.
"He's mine!" growled Zacker, motioning for us to stand back, her voice laden with emotion and intensity.
Van Cleef took a look at the pile of corpses that were once his men, he snorted.
"Worthless. Come then, young warrior. Show your strength to me!"
Zacker leapt at him recklessly. Van Cleef side stepped and swung his cutlass, it glanced off Zacker's armour, a fraction above the vulnerable hip joint, where a small gap existed.
I stepped forward, but Chaspal held out his hand to stop me.
The clash of their swords settled into a sequence of rhythmic rings, as each tried to out-manouevre the other. We watched on, intently. I could feel the tenseness in my companions. Suddenly, Zacker slipped and fell to one side, undone by the blood on her boots and the wet deck. Van Cleef rushed towards her, sensing his opportunity, his cutlass stabbing for her throat. She dropped to one knee, letting her sword fall onto the deck and grabbed a small dagger sheathed in her belt. She twisted to avoid the point of Van Cleef's sword, and in one brutal jerk shoved her own weapon deep into his chest. He fell sideways onto the wooden deck, breaths coming in gasps and gurgles.
Zacker leapt to her feet, grabbed her sword and without a moment's hesitation beheaded him. Blood gushed out of his body as his faltering heart pumped in vain, and then, the gushing slowed to a trickle, and stopped. She held up his head by the hair, his face was a mask of pain. Her expression was indistinguishable behind the visor of her helmet, but I thought I saw tears.
"Time to leave," said Chaspal, after a moment's silence.
We picked up what loot we thought would be useful for the Guild and departed.
Later, I would learn that the Defias Brotherhood were responsible for the death of Zacker's family, sparing no one as they raided an isolated farm in the Westfall. It made me happy that she was able to exact her revenge.
"Not now Mum, I'm busy!"
This was a phrase that was beginning to be heard more and more in the Zhao household as I began to sink my teeth deeper into the World of Warcraft, and as my career as a priest moved on from simple solo questing to dungeon running.
"Can't you pause?" would come the inevitable question.
"No!" would come the reply, flung distractedly as I battled to keep my party alive in whatever dungeon we were in.
I think this fundamental co-operative aspect of MMORPG's is something that is misunderstood by a lot of people, in lieu of their views that "it's just another game". Most dungeons require multiple players, five in World of Warcraft's case, and not just any five would do.
The game system was designed around the concept of having a "tank", which was a party member that had a lot of health and defences that could survive damage from the enemies, a healer, who would be able to keep the tank alive, and the damage dealers, who would in turn kill the enemies.
It sounds simple in concept but in reality, executing a flawless dungeon run wasn't easy - if the tank wasn't good enough, then he/she would be unable to keep the enemies focused on themselves and they would start attacking other party members, then suddenly the healer's job becomes impossible - people would start dying and eventually, the whole party fails (known in MMO parlance as a wipe). Alternatively, if the healer was inadequate, then the tank would die, and thus the party would wipe, or, if the damage dealing wasn't sufficient, then the healer would run out of mana and could no longer cast healing spells, which then meant the tank would die and would again lead to a wipe.
Why is this important to know? Because this was the system that the players were trying to beat. Blizzard were crafty game designers, and they made each pack of enemies in each dungeon challenging (and the bosses especially so) so that the party would have to play in a very co-operative fashion in order to succeed, and this leads me back to the original point - "Not now Mum, I'm busy!", because if I stopped and didn't concentrate, then the party I was responsible for healing would wipe. Not a huge deal, some would say, and I would agree if it was a single player game, but, when you've four other players with you who are working well together, there is a team atmosphere, and good team members don't let each other down.
The Revenants were a guild who definitely made a good team and it felt awesome to be a part of that, and probably because of that reason, I made it my mission to be the best priest I could possibly be.
The levels flashed by as our guild slowly grew in size, from the initial seven member strong force to more than twenty members in the space of a few weeks, however the core group stayed more or less the same, and a really stable and strong family-like atmosphere developed amongst the members. My habits in real life began to slowly change too, as I became more and more immersed in the game - apart from playing Badminton, going to school and the occasional party, this was pretty much the only other thing I did.
Somewhere along the way, I was promoted to being a Guild officer, and I was eager to contribute, helping to set up our first website and forums, evaluating new recruits and generally planning the future steps of the guild.
That period of the game holds quite a few good memories: some funny incidents from dungeon runs, where we wiped in spectacular fashion, the feeling of being part of a close-knit, like-minded group of people and the feeling of being part of a game which was revolutionising the industry as a whole with it's spectacular success, and the looking forward to the next challenge, the next level, the next cool spell, the next awesome quest, the next dungeon, the next evening spent just chilling out and chatting about anything and everything with fellow guildies, who hailed from all around the world.
Before I knew it, I had hit the maximum level, and had my eyes firmly set on the next step of progression within the game: Raids.
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