2008-02-04 Shadowfang Keep

Sunday's GF Shadowfang Keep run almost didn't happen.

Philly was anxious to get started (and I'd gone to bed at a decent hour on saturday night for once) and logged in around 5:30am server for the 6am start. Philly puttered about the Undercity for a bit and then headed on foot to the Sepulcher, which is a small horde outpost in Silverpine that is on the way to SFK. Philly still needed a lot of herbs to continue levelling Alchemy, so this would be a chance to collect a few on the way. Philly was the only guildie in game.

Knowing that Kon would not likely be able to make it, Philly checked the "Looking for More" option on the LFG tool. A level 22 rogue was listed as looking for an SFK group. I /whispered him, he was interested, and I told him to standby in case we needed that fifth player. Philly picked some flowers and after awhile, just out of curiosity, I did a /who for the druid who had come along last week. He was in game, and when Philly talked to him said he would be delighted to join us again if we needed him. The druid had been busy. In the week since he entered WC with us as a level 17, he has levelled all the way to 27. Philly let the rogue know that we would not need him this week, and thanked him for waiting.

Our mage finally came in game at close to 6am, and then a couple minutes later in came the pally. Philly was already parked at the Summoning Stone outside SFK. I let folks know the druid was standing by, and we went ahead and invited him. At 6am we were all waiting at the Stone. But no Huldu the warrior. There was some confusion last week as to the start time, so we figured he would be here no later than 6:30am.

About 6:15 his RL friend, the pally, called him at home. No answer. Only half jokingly, the pally said that he might still be asleep.

While we were waiting a bruiseweed node popped into existence down the road from where we were waiting. Philly trotted off, saying that she "Was just skipping off for a bit to pick flowers."

The druid deadpanned, "For me? You don't have to give me flowers." Philly came back with "Ah, but I wanna. You're worth it, ya big bear." When Philly picked the bruisweed and the collection showed up in the party log, the druid added, "Bruiseweed! My favorite!"

A level 62 galloped up to us on his mount, watched us a second, and then proclaimed, "The reason I gathered you all here today . . . " To which we immediately replied, ". . . is to take us through SFK. One at a time!" He laughed and rode off to farm the instance.

No warrior at 6:30. Or 6:40.

The pally went to call his friend again, and we asked the druid if he liked to tank. The druid didn't get a chance to answer, though, because the warrior came in game at that moment. He'd only gotten three hours sleep the night before and had slept right through his alarm clock.

It was close to 7am when the five of us finally entered Shadowfang Keep. The druid at level 27. Philly, and the pally, Arq, at level 25. Huldu the warrior and Brae, the mage, at level 24.

SFK is full of worgen, wolfmen summoned into the world during a battle of human wizards against the undead Scourge. Archmage Arugal commanded the wizards, and did the worgen Summons to aid in the battle. The Worgen weren't much for choosing sides, though, and slaughtered both armies indiscriminately. The battle lost, a maddened Arugal eventually made peace with the worgen and retreated into SFK with them and the remainder of those loyal to him. The Grunt Foundation has been tasked to root out the worgen and dispatch Arugal.

There are eight Bosses, including Arugal himself and his pet worgen, the massive Fenrus the Devourer.

The group made short work of the trash mobs inside the door and quickly came up on the first boss, Rethilgore, a level 20 elite. He lasted maybe ten seconds. That would set the pattern for most of this fight.

SFK offers a few more challenges than the earlier dungeons, with mobs that can Silence healers and tricky pulls that can bring lots of mobs down on the group. We had few problems, however. Brae casually asked Philly if she had "Dispell Magic" shortly into the fight. "Of course," I said, and then noticed my Decursive display lit up like a Christmas Tree. Oops, I'd better get hot dispelling those magic debuffs! We had some exciting moments in the stables handling about a half dozen very mad elite horses (part of the pally quest line), but Philly kept everyone up and killing. Bosses went down nearly as fast as the trash and we tore through the place, pausing only when we encountered a room with the first Son of Arugal. These tougher elites defend almost every room from this point on, and they (with their adds) can wipe the group if not prepared for them.

We were standing at the top of a stairway that headed down and then doubled back into a large room with a lot of mobs meandering about. Make a mistake and we could pull a dozen mobs up those stairs. Huldu pulled mobs like a surgeon excising cancerous growth without ever touching clean flesh. When we got around to the Son of Arugal he was alone, and an easy kill. Many more Sons died, and more bosses fell.

When we faced Fenrus, Arugal himself sends his worgen beast at us (along with four voidwalkers) before retreating back to his high chamber. The non-elite voidwalkers were easy prey and Fenrus barely got in a bite before he went down.

All that was left was Arugal. A vision from Wild disturbed Philly's thoughts. Wild remembered the Arugal battle. He had died just as Arugal fell, and could not make it back from the graveyard before Arugal's body disappeared, and Wild was unable to claim his head. A failed quest, never completed.

Arugal can Stun, and he can teleport himself around the room. This could be a real problem with a group that has three melee DPSers possibly trying to chase Arugal around as he teleports from one side of the room to another. We charged in and started the fight. Philly got off one heal and then was Stunned. I kept banging on the heal buttons waiting for the Stun to clear, and finally got off a Flash Heal with the tank at under 50%. But it didn't really matter. Archmage Arugal fell dead without ever getting a chance to teleport. At least the warrior wasn't faced with running back from the graveyard.

First it was Ragefire Chasm. Then Wailing Caverns. And now Shadowfang Keep has fallen.

The druid went home with a bag full of loot once again. Out of the two dungeons he's run with us he is now wearing eight blues. Eight. Everyone got at least one blue. Philly's was [Feline Mantle], a very nice +int shoulder. The four DPSers finished with almost exactly the same total damage, despite their level differences. Philly did a little damage, but some of the mobs were immune to Philly's fire wand so she mostly just dropped DoTs on them. Philly did 100% of the healing. No one even needed a bandage.

Speaking of levelling, for the first time Philly did not level in the dungeon. Even when the three quests for the dungeon were turned in, I came up just short at 98%. It was easy to push Philly over that to reach level 26, but it means that we are slowing down in our levelling pace as the amount of xp we need continues to grow.

Not sure where we will be questing on thursday. We still have quite a few quests to do in the Hillsbrad Foothills. On sunday, though, we will likely wrestle the next dungeon on our list, Blackfathom Deeps.