I started as a rather ugly human in the city of Gilneas. The first quest was handed to me by "Prince Liam Greymane", son of King Genn Greymane. The city seems to be in a civil war kind of state, as there are Worgen fighting the citizens everywhere.
(Prince Liam handing you the first quest.)
Liam explains how his father already warned him of Arugal's creations running amok. As you progress you get to know that many supplies were already destroyed and Gilneas wouldn't be able to get through any longer if you wouldn't save some supply crates.
While progressing into the military district you meet King Greymane, who tells you to rescue his old friend "Lord Darius Crowley" from prison as he might be a powerful ally in fighting against the Worgen threat.
(King Genn, Lord Godfrey and some soldiers.)
(Godfrey talking about how he doesn't like the idea of having a traitor among his men.)
He once lead a riot against Greymane, that’s why he’s a con right now. As you rescue him Crowley tells you about rebel arsenals which you and your allies might utilize against the enemy forces.
(You and Crowley fighting worgs. The buff is provided by him, heals you constantly and makes you hit harder.)
(The arsenal's guard being like crazy. A second later he turns into a Worgen & Crowley's daughter rescues you.)
Now that you've found cannons and such, you might believe you're able to send those Worgen straight to hell, but there are some remaining tasks. King Greymane asks you to rescue a civillian called "Krennan Aranas", but he's not only a civillian but also one of the most talented Alchemists in the Kingdom of Gilneas. Again, you do as you're told.
(You and Crowley rally up some Worgen to kill them on the Cathedral square.)
The grand finale takes place in the cathedral district. Wiping out wave after wave of Worgen with a cannon provided by Crowley, you finally escape into the cathedral, because most of the ammo is drained. After killing some more worgen, you jump 1 year ahead.
(Pew Pewing some Worgen on the Cathedral square with Crowley's artillery)
(Worgen invading the Cathedral.)
--- 1 Year later ---
By now you've turned into a Worgen and are hanging out in a pillory, in the city of Duskhaven Althoug you're a relentless & bloodthirsty killing machine, the Alchemist & Greymane didn't give up on you yet & feed you the double dosage of a potion Krennan mixed.
(the pillory & the beast)
After consuming it you seem to be finally able to oppress your inner demons. You're told that a therapy is needed to keep you in the state of clear mind. In order to obtain some more potions Krennan wants you to get some of his ingredients.
As you try to get them, you notice that the vials are broken & one of the guardsmen was slain. Looking to the sea, you see some ships of the forsaken, which are obviously invading Gilneas.
(the picture says it all
)After killing some of the invasional forces and even one of their leaders, you report back to "Lord Godfrey" (Who's a confidant of Greymane, but dislikes the idea of working with you, as you're a Worgen.)
(Throwing gunpowder barrels on abominations and letting the prince shoot them is much fun.)
(Killing one of the invasion leaders with a bunch of dogs, lol.)
The ground is shaken by an earthquake (obviously first signs of the Cataclysm) and as you get out of the building, you see that a strip of the coastal area has sunken into the sea. Good: the ships have sunken as well. Bad: noone knows, whether there will be further quakes that wreak even more havoc.
(earthquaaake)
(the map is open to show how much of land was shattered)
You're tasked to evacuate some people (e.g. Lorna Crowley, whose dad "Lord Crowley" seemingly died in the Worgen siege) and finally take a carriage to the next village of Gilneas.
(Greymane manor)
(Genn showing you that another quake destroyed Duskhaven)
As if there wasn't enough bad luck your carriage breaks down & your trapped between some Ogres, an Ettin (it's the result of an ogre & a giant having a good time :]), and some Forsaken. You lure the Ettin right to the forsaken and are able to finally escape to the next ville.
(Yaaay, killed two birds with one stone!
)Lorna (Crowley's daughter) put some clues together and sends you to an old mill, where you meet a nightelf which then sends you to a tree. Under it, you find an old friend. Crowley obviously survived the worgen siege, but has turned into a worgen himself. He and the Nightelves have found a (partly) cure to the Worgen curse. After you obtain an artifact, which was stolen by the Forsaken, you are finally cured and able to turn into a human, whenever you want.
(Uncovering where Crowley is hangin' out.)
(You drink from three wells & are cured from the curse.)
King Greymane and Lord Godfrey arrive at the scenery and Crowley is ordered to serve in Greymanes army by Godfrey. Crowley who's unsure of Greymanes real intentions asks him whether he comes as a friend or a tyrant & Genn reveals that he's a Worgen as well.
(OMG! Greymane's a Worgen! :O)
As Godfrey believes that the Forsaken stop their siege, as they get King Greymane, he holds him as a hostage, but as you kill Godfreys supporters he surrenders and spares Greymane.
(You saved Greymane & Godfrey kills himself.)
Greymane & his son lead a small army, that wants to eradicate the Forsaken forces in the city of Gilneas. After fighting through hundreds of soldiers and abominations and even a small boss (Rotface model says hello!) you arrive in the court district, where Sylvannas is to be found. She stuns all the forces (including you) & tries to kill King Greymane, but his son jumps into the way of the poisoned arrow and dies.
(the battle for Gilneas begins)
(Rotface or Festergut [mixing them up all the time] wannabe.)
(We almost killed Sylvannas! :[)
(Liam sacrificed himself to save his dad. ): )
Although he's bitter as hell, Genn sends you to do one last task - eavesdrop on Sylvannas in the cathedral. As you eavesdrop on her, she is told to cease the application of plague bombs in Gilneas by one of Garrosh's generals. However, as he leaves, Sylvannas tells her High Executor to continue dropping Plague bombs. (Well wtf, since when is Sylvannas more of a baddy than Garrosh?)
(Psst.)
(the log.)
After fulfilling this last task you're sent to the coastal area of Gilneas, where you eradicate the last horde attackers with your nightelf allies.
(Genn crying over the death of his son.)
(You need to cross a tunnel full of agressive critters to reach the coast.)
(Yay, Glaivethrower action.)
As the last quests are not ingame yet, you're just ported to Rutheran in Darnassus & continue questing as everyone else.
Characters
- Liam Greymane: Prince of the kingdom of Gilneas
- Genn Greymane: King of Gilneas and Liam’s father
- Lord Darius Crowley: Old friend of Genn Greymane & former leader of a rebellion opposing Genn.
- Lorna Crowley: Darius’ daughter
- Krennan Aranas: Developer of the antidote that oppresses your inner demons.
- Lord Godfrey: Genn’s Ally, later the one who betrays him in order to stop Forsaken siege
Westfall
Upon entering Westfall you’ll notice that Furlbrow, his wife & Old Blanchy are missing. On a second look you notice that the cart they were standing in front of is right in your way & behind it you’ll find Horatio Laine and two Stormwind Investigators looking at the corpses of aforementioned people/animal.
You get to know that all of them were killed & Horatio Laine wants you to investigate on the Jansen Stead, were many homeless people are lurking around, as Deathwing destroyed their houses in Stormwind & Varian doesn’t care about them.
Years ago this field was invaded by the Defias-Brotherhood, but you get to know that they were wiped out.
They give you different clues: Someone heard human voices yelling. The next could smell someone “rich”. The third person is accusing Varian of the murder, as he doesn’t care about his citizens, he then adds that he saw some Gnolls leaving before the investigators arrived. The fourth and last clue tells you something about Murlocs, which fled when Laine arrived.
Laine then tasks you to investigate the Murloc- & Gnolltrail. After killing some Gnolls you find a tattered and torn piece of red cloth. The Murlocs drop a letter which is missing some words.
Laine tells you how those 2 clues are of no use (idiot he is. ) He then sends you to two-shoed Lou, who’s an informant of him.
He hands you a crate, which once was his house (lol (: ) and points you over to the Jangolode Mine, where you bear witness of a meeting between an Ogre and a shadowy figure (clearly a woman, but well, nothing but a shadow.) As the shadowy figure angers the Ogre (who seems to be a mage, judging on his outfit) he threatens to kill her, but she explains how he would fail miserably. Instead she offers him wealth and power if he joins her. He accepts & she says that she calls him “when the dawning is upon us.”
As you return to Two-shoed Lou, he has another bit of information. Behind the barn right beside you, there are four thugs conspiring & it might be of use if you eavesdropped their conversation. As you listen to them you hear them talking about the shadowy figure & how she is grateful, that the four gangsters killed the Furlbrows (woohoo, we found the murderers!) They notice you, but stand no chance and so you’ll kill them.
Returning to Two-shoed Lou, Horatio Laine cowers over him, as he was assassinated & had his shoes put on his head (haha... ).
Horatio Laine aware that we’re missing some essential information sends you to Farmer Saldean and his wife, who might provide some additional information. After killing some Harvest Watchers & helping Salma Saldean cooking her world-famous Westfall Stew, they tell you that they adopted a girl years ago, which suffered off amnesia, so they just named her “Hope”. This (by now) young woman is very close to the homeless people in Westfall & is to be found in the Sentinel Tower at Sentinel Hill. Arriving there, you see that Sentinel Hill is now surrounded by walls and none of the homeless people are let in.
At the tower you witness a conversation between Laine & Gryan Stoutmantle (who was deployed in Northrend for some time & has returned to Westfall, after the Lich King’s Fall) Stoutmantle ensures Laine any support he could provide. Our investigator then notices a worgen in a pillory and asks Stoutmantle what’s up with him. This worgen just killed some sheep in the countryside and is highly dangerous.
Talking to Hope, she asks you to help some of the homeless around Sentinel Hill by feeding them Westfall Stew, you do so. Stoutmantle wants you to kill some Gnolls, as they are up to something.
You find an attack plan which mentions someone called Helix & is signed with just a “V”. Stoutmantle remembers that Stormwind’s SI:7 was tracking a Goblin called Helix Gearbreaker for quite some time. He then sends you to an SI:7 agent, called Kearnen, near Mortwake’s Tower (back in classic you had to do your rogue-poisonquest over there).
As you approach Kearnen, she explains that the tower is heavily guarded by mercenaries, but she’d snipe them down if they attacked you. Upon entering the tower you consume a stealth potion and walk up, where you again eavesdrop on a conversation. This time it’s between the shadowy figure and Helix Gearbreaker. Gearbreaker explains how the gnolls failed rescuing “the admiral”, but the figure doesn’t seem to matter much, she explains how they’ll free him as soon as “the dawning” begins. In the end she asks Gearbreaker to organize a meeting in Moonbrook.
Stoutmantle sends you to a small Alliance outpost near Moonbrook, where you are asked to collect some propaganda material. In addition to an issue of the Moonbrook Times, an informationl Pamphlet and mysterious propaganda. You find a secret journal, which says something about how a “Brotherhood” will rise again and “wash across this land as a flood to cleanse it of its filth and corruption”. Again, some of the propaganda material was signed with a “V”.
You are then send to the meeting between many of the homeless & the shadowy figure. She calls themselves the “abandoned, orphaned children of Stormwind” and how Varian needs to be made accountable, as he doesn’t care about their plight. She declares that they all are reborn by today – “as men and women, not nameless faceless numbers!”
When returning to the outpost, it is suggested that you ask a shaman, who’s nearby, for some help. He hands you some incense and wants you to go into the deadmines (the dungeon, not just the place). As you progress through the tunnel’s you’ll notice that even there are no Defias to be found. After entering the dungeon you use the incense and have a vision of VanCleefs death 5 years ago. After the Alliance heroes left the dungeon, a small girl, named “Vanessa VanCleef” approaches VanCleef and says “Daddy...”.
As you return to Stoutmantle and Laine and tell them about VanCleefs daughter, Hope walks towards you and says “You bastards will burn for what you did.” Stoutmantle is clearly confused as she continues “Hope? Is that what I was supposed to feel when I saw my father decapitated by your henchmen?”. Helix as well as some stealthy Defias join the scenery as Hope drops her disguise. Stoutmantle as well as the investigators are stunned, but you are spared, as Vanessa explains that you helped her cause, although not intentional. She frees the worgen from his pillory, who then turns into a human & is introduced as “Admiral Ripsnarl”, part of the brotherhood.
As a last question, Laine asks why Vanessa let the Furlbrows be assassinated & she explains, how they always knew that she was the daughter of Ed VanCleef. She then lets her henchmen thow torches at everything in Sentinel Hill & Stoutmantle requires you to tell Varian of the new Brotherhood threatening Stormwind. As you tell Wrynn about everything, he orders some troops to Sentinel Hill and sends you back there. After arriving there you’re a witness how the troops are hopelessly fighting the Defias Brotherhood, as the whole Sentinel Hill is burning.
Ashenvale
The sick child
Upon entering Ashenvale from Darkshore, the first outpost you’ll visitis the “Blackfathom Camp”, they’re handing out the to-well-known “Kill some Nagas, please” quests along with many (I think it’s been 5 or 6) Blackfathom Deeps quests. A little questline includes gathering some statues on the beach for some sort of archaeologist, he later on requires you to kill a Naga and get her ring, as it is the key to decrypt some inscriptions in the statues.
I then wandered off to “Orendil’s Retreat” where I met Evenar Stillwhisper, tells me something about a sick child in Astranaar and how I might help by collecting a herb, called “Bathran’s Hair”. A sentinel right beside him explains, how ,at the place where I am to gather the herbs, there are many grunts & apothecaries of the horde. As I approach the place I notice a huge scheme, which resembles an Ancient (those huge nightelven trees), he explains that he’s Bathran and how he was lumbered by the horde in order to harvest his hair. He asks me to burn his corpse, so the Horde wouldn’t profit of his dead body & the herb. I did as I was told, killed Horde, collected herbs & burnt the dead tree. After delivering the herbs to him, Evenar Stillwhisper explains how he wants us to join forces at Maestra’s Post, as it is heavily under siege.
Arriving there, I helped the local forces to thwart the Orcish invasion. A man called Orendil Broadleaf helped me in finding a cure for the sick child, as he made a potion out of the herbs I collected. But as I thought I might leave for Astranaar now, he added that the drink needed to be bathed in the light of Elune, so he advised me to get deeper into the forrests of Ashenvale, where I would find the light. Returning to Orendil he explains how the potion is finally ready to be consumed, he sends me off to Astranaar where I would meet the child and her father.
As I got there, I saw how there were Windriders flying all over the village & setting buildings afire. Kind as I am I helped the nightelves with this matter right before I got to the sick child. I handed her father the potion and he made his sleeping girl drink it. Although she wakes up for some seconds, she falls asleep again, as the potion was not able to cure her mysterious disease. Her father tells me that he and Orendil talked about another possible cure, the so-called “Elune’s Tear.” A stone which was to be found in the Iris Lake, which was completely destroyed by a volcanic eruption at Thunder Peak. After walking there I see some water and jumped into it, as I believed the stone may be down there. After desperately trying to find something, I walked into the direction of the volcano & finally found Elune’s Tear, but it was not quite as I imagined, as it was covered by dirt & a little tarnished.
The girl’s father put the Tear into a bowl and cooked a stew with it. Feeding the stew to his daughter, you watch her struggling in her sleep. Although the cure didn’t work, her father had an idea how the whole thing could work. He returns Elune’s Tear to you & asks you to visit the Moonwell of Purity, where you would cleanse it from the corruption, which was infused by the volcanic eruption. As I put it into the moonwell a huge ray of light irradiated from the moonwell and the Tear and I heard a tingling in my ear. After some seconds the tingling turned into a voice which told me how I was able to finally heal the girl. I was sent to a Satyr called Avrus Illwhisper, who was to be found at Raynewood Tower. The voice told me, that Avrus himself was looking for redemption & he achieved his goal, I would achieve mine too. When I talked to him, it was clear that he hates being a Satyr & that he wanted to help me healing the girl. He explained how his brethren possessed some corrupted Moonstones which he could cleanse & use for curing the girl. So I was off to kill some Satyrs to obtain five of those moonstones.
As I returned to him, he explained how that there was one additional objective to be met, in order to cleanse the moonstones: a sacrifice of life. Before I could say something, the Satyr ripped his own heart out of his chest & put it together with the moonstones. Instead of watching him die, I watched a light both cleansing the stones & turning him into a Nightelf. Avrus then thanked me for redeeming him & handed me the stones, which I again brought to the childs father who crushed them into a cup of tea. After the girl drank some of the tea, she miraculously wakes up & seems completely vivacious again.
Well, that was the first big questline in Ashenvale, a write-up of the others is soon to follow.
I’ll post some screens of the area as well, later I’ll put them in the right order concerning the story.
Stonetalon Mountains
Since the Alpha-Servers are currently down, here is the first batch of Stonetalon Mountains Screens. More to come, as soon as the servers are back online & I'm awake again.
Remember that it's just a small part of Stonetalon Mountains as I just started questing there.
Some word on the screens. There are some Elite-Mobs having a flamethrower, they carry a gas-tank on their back which is attackable. By killing it, it explodes and kills the mob.
I got to ride a Zeppelin, with a huge bomb hanging from it, more details on that as soon as I start talkin' bout the storylines. Killing some flying mobs with the cannons was fun as well, the first time they fall from their flying mount a glide down with a parachute, so you'll need to shoot them again, that's when they fall apart into piles of meat :]
In the Windshear Crag Horde and Alliance are fighting all the time. On one of those screens you see Gnomes & Gnomish Pummelbots fighting against Goblins & Goblin Shredders.
Concluding, I may say that I have high hopes concerning this zone.
Some random Darkshore & Ashenvale impressions
Deathwing, Ysera, Ragnaros, Baron Geddon, Cenarius, Jarod Shadowsong! ;D
Don't ask me why Deathwing's floating in the air right in front of a raid portal, I don't know. He's not aggroable, and doesn't emote or anything.
Random stuff:
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