Officially, the sunday gathering of the Grunt Foundation begins at 6:30am server time (pst). At 5:45am all four of the group who could make it were in game. The warlock, Kon, could not make it. On saturday Philly posted on the Scryers realm forum, asking for a fifth player interested in running Wailing Caverns with us. We got no takers. Sunday morning we canvassed those in game and got one taker - a level 17 druid named Jal. Better him than no one, commented the mage. In a group of two level 22s and two level 21s, the druid should be fine, and if he dies a lot, well, the rest of us can handle things. It was also kind of cool being on the receiving end of the druid Mark of the Wild buff, instead of being the one to cast it. Of course, Philly also has a group buff, "fort", which adds stamina. The pallies have the most complicated buff requirements, as they have several types to choose from and they only last ten minutes instead of the thirty minutes of most other group buffs.
Before the start Philly had to vendor a lot of stuff in order to make room for more "stuff" on this long run. I even abandoned a couple of quests Philly was partially done with, easy ones I could go back and do again if necessary. I would later regret selling off all that linen Philly had, but I needed the room in my bags. We assembled at the Summoning Stone and started about 6:15am. Philly was 94% of the way to level 23.
After speeding through the trash outside the instance, and then doing the same on the initial trash inside, we paused for our first group of hostile druids of the fang and the inevitable shamblers that were with them. The druid player started off in bear and stayed in the form for most of the run, popping out as needed. He seemed to know what he was doing, and quickly caught on to our group's way of doing things. He even joked that we were "gettin fancy" when the warrior began marking targets. But he obeyed the kill order, didn't break crowd control, and rarely pulled the main target off the tank.
With three melee in the group (warrior tank, bear druid, and paladin) Philly stayed out of DPS mode initially until I was sure how the damage spread was going to look. As the healer I had no complaints, though. Most heals went to the tank, with only a sprinkling to the other melee on most fights. Brae, the mage, would Ice any mob that he pulled aggro on, which worked most of the time to keep him out of trouble. A few times Philly dropped a Shield on him just so I wouldn't have to worry about him when things got a little rough. Sometimes Philly had to use that Shield on herself, which gave the melee plenty of time to come help.
We mowed through mob group after mob group, a steady diet of mark, attack, kill, loot, and march on. Philly remembered to use Dispell Magic when someone was hit with Sleep, and even remembered to use the racial spell to break Fear the one time that Philly was hit with it. I'm learning.
WC is multi-level with seeming endless stretches of passageways. All of the boss elites are level 20+ and are scattered throughout, and there is more than one way to go after them. Last week the one boss we faced, Lord Pythas, was a tough fight for the four of us. This week we were all at least a level higher and now had a full group. When we faced Pythas this time he died. Lady Anacondra, who could be at any of four possible spots, was found next and she also went down.
Up to that point no one had died. There is a passage in WC that requires a leap from one ledge, across a drop off, to a lower ledge. It's not a difficult jump (not as hard as the balcony leap in Blackrock Mountain for example) but the angle has to be right. There is also a waterfall that strikes one edge of upper ledge. We were all aware of the jump we'd need to make. The mage happened to enter the waterfall, which if it reacted like most water in WoW, would not have affected the mage at all. This one, apparently, swept the mage off the ledge and down to the level below. We had already been through that area, but mobs were beginning to respawn. Brae knew the way and said he could work his way back to where we were headed. He was already taking damage, though. Philly got as close to the edge of the drop off as I could and tried to heal him. No dice. And at the same time, unknowingly, Philly picked up a shadow from that ledge.
Brae got past the first couple mobs and headed away from us, then got tangled again. "I'm ok," he said. Right before he died. So we all jumped down to the lower level to go retrieve our friend.
Philly noticed that her health was down to half. Hmm, how did that happen, I wondered? The fall damage wasn't that bad. Shrug. Philly healed up and then rezzed the mage. Philly had performed her first resurrection.
The next group of mobs to get by and get back on course was just around the corner. We engaged quickly and Philly got caught on the wrong side of a large rock and out of healing range. I focused on getting to the tank, who was not in extremis but who was probably missing his healer, and settled into the fight. That's when I noticed that Philly's health was at 23%. The pally noticed it at the same time, and we both cast heals. What's hitting me? I asked. Philly started getting hit again. There was nothing there.
"Let's get out of the area," said the pally. "Must be a bugged druid mob. Maybe from the other side of the wall or something." But for the next ten minutes and countless fights, the unseen attacker stayed with Philly, draining health before, during and after fights, bolts of light appearing out of thin air to strike her.
Philly just dealt with it, and somewhere along the way the shadow finally went away.
More druids of the Fang died. We found Kresh so that the pally could get his turtle shield. Kresh drops one of two types, one with a lot of stats, and one with a lot of armor. The warrior had gotten a stat laden shield last week, which is what the pally wanted, too. But he got the other one. Oh well, they are still both nice shields.
Meanwhile the druid was having the time of his life. He was the only leather wearer, so of course every blue drop off of the mobs was leather. I think he ended up with four blues that should last him through his level 20s. He also made level 18 about halfway through. It was his lucky day.
In addition to a total of four Fang lords, the group took out an elite thunder lizard called Skum, and a giant shambler called Verdan the Everliving, a misnomer because he did not live for long.
We had cleared Wailing Caverns. But the run was not quite over. With all four of the Fang and Verdan dead, we were able to do the "Naralax Event." We all ran back to the start of the dungeon (using the shortcut near the corpse of Verdan) to talk to the Disciple of Naralax, who had greeted us on our arrival.
The Event is an escort quest. After talking with the Disciple, he begins a long walk (very slooooooowly) to his sleeping Master, Naralax, to awaken him. There is an easy pair of raptors to kill first. Then he does an encantation at the "circle of vipers" which of course brings on a bunch of vipers. One spawned right in front of Philly. I Shielded and backed away and let the druid have him. The disciple finally gets to Naralax for the ritual of awakening. He does an incantation that's so long the warrior started up some dancing. What follows are three waves of mobs. After dispatching the first two waves, Mutanus the Devourer appears: an extra large, albino murloc. He died as well, completing the Awakening and delivering a shard that begins another easy quest outside the instance that many folks forget to pick up.
A couple of the quest turn ins have to be done in a cave that is located above the entrance to WC. Many a player has wandered about this area, able to see the question mark that shows there is a quest to turn in but unable to figure out where it is. I knew where the cave was from Wild's time in WC, but had only a vague idea how to get up there. The pally, Arq, was already up there somewhere, and I'd seen the direction he'd gone, so Philly followed and took a guess at which upward rising slope would get me to the top. I guessed right, and climbed that slope (located past the graveyard at the Crossroads) to the very top of the mountain. From there Philly made her way toward where the entrance to WC would be below her. Then drop to the ledge below, being careful not to miss it, and then drop again to the entrance to the cave. Collect two quest rewards, and start the quest given by the shard. It's one more mountain climb to complete the shard quest.
Philly made level 23 early on in WC, and then made level 24 while turning in the many quests completed at the end. Another dungeon completed along with every quest offered. A random blue drop also went to Philly early in the fight, a wand. Us three casters have been using a rotation to award blues and it was Philly's turn. The wand was [Firebelcher], a fire damage wand with some very nice damage. Have I mentioned how much Philly loves wands?
Philly also received the quest reward [Crescent Staff], a better blue than the [Staff of the Sun] Philly had only recently earned.
Philly also got a present from Arq, who has been spending his free time fishing up deviate fish from the area around and in Wailing Caverns. The food made from a rare recipe using this fish has very high demand. Arq got the recipe, and apparently has been making a lot of gold. Philly checked the auction house and the dish, Savory Deviate Delight, is selling for almost a gold apiece. Arq passed Philly 10g to help me get all my spells and skills purchased. Sort of hated to do that, but it's all being earned by the guild, and Philly has a lot of herb farming in her future making potions for the guild as we level up.
Tired and satisfied, Philly called it a day. Just another awesome day with the Grunt Foundation.
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