"Mushy, can you turn into one of those big-ass bears?"
After the Horde had been killed several times and still refused to rez, a bored Smooch wandered over to MushroomHunter, who was picking mushrooms.
Startled by her enthusiasm, MushroomHunter replied timidly, "I can."
Smooch's eyes lit up. "Do it!"
MushroomHunter shifted into a brown bear and lay down.
Smooch excitedly cast Tame Beast on her.
The result was obvious: failure.
Smooch sighed in disappointment. "Seriously? Hunters really can't tame Druids? I protest. Druids should be Hunter pets."
Terrified, MushroomHunter hurriedly shifted back into human form. She suddenly felt that Smooch was scary. This girl actually wanted to catch her and turn her into a pet. Instinctively, she shuffled farther away.
Lunatori gave MushroomHunter a deeply sympathetic look. In her heart, Smooch was terrifying too.
David noticed MushroomHunter's embarrassment and said, "I protest too. Warriors should learn how to heal."
Susie traded him a bandage. "Here. Go sit in a corner and heal yourself."
"These Horde guys are pathetic. They only died a few times and already don't dare rez."
DontPanicHealz scoffed. "We died thirty or forty times and still kept rezzing to fight."
SevenDays snorted. "The Horde are all talk. Brave when they outnumber you, cowards the second they don't. Without a numbers advantage, they don't even have the guts to fight. All they know how to do is bully smaller groups."
"Do you think they'll call reinforcements?" Intriguing asked worriedly.
This place was close to Horde territory, so the Horde could bring people over faster than they could.
"Let them call. I'm more worried they won't," David said. "It'd be boring if they didn't bring more people. I haven't killed enough yet."
David still had a bellyful of anger and needed more Horde corpses to cool off. With the guild backing him up, he wasn't afraid of the Horde calling reinforcements at all. Worst case, it turned into a guild war. Then they would see who came out on top.
"I'll scout the entrance."
DeathScum stealthed out of the Yeti Cave to keep watch outside and prevent a Horde ambush. The Yeti Cave's position wasn't great. If Horde reinforcements blocked them in while they were unprepared, things would get ugly fast.
Gabryell said, "Twin, stealth over near Tarren Mill and keep an eye on the Horde. If you see any sign they're gathering a large group, report back immediately."
Gabryell told TwinBleeds where Tarren Mill was. Rogues were the best scouts.
"Whatever you do, don't go into Tarren Mill. The guards there are high-level. Without improved stealth, they'll spot you."
Gabryell made a point of warning him, just in case TwinBleeds got tempted to sneak in and ended up getting discovered and killed by the NPCs.
TwinBleeds left the Yeti Cave and headed toward Tarren Mill.
"Are we still camping here?" DesertWanderer asked.
Gabryell said, "We hold here until their reinforcements arrive."
Leaving now would mean letting down David and the others after they had died more than thirty times. They would use these Horde players as bait, lure in more Horde, and kill them. That would let David and the others vent their anger, show the Alliance's strength, and secure the Alliance's advantage on the server.
Securing the Alliance's advantage was extremely important. Only with faction dominance could they claim more open-world resources and gain the upper hand in future dungeon and raid progression.
After all, no guild chasing a first clear wanted to be on a server where they had to corpse-run through Blackrock Mountain just to enter the instance. Corpse-running into the raid meant losing world buffs, and going in without world buffs was a built-in disadvantage.
In World of Warcraft, there was only one way to seize faction dominance:
Kill.
Kill until the other faction couldn't take it anymore and started transferring off the server.
This wasn't some wild fantasy. Ashenvale-US had originally been an Alliance-dominated realm, but HarvestKing had practically killed it into becoming Horde-dominated.
One decisive battle to establish dominance.
That was Gabryell's real intention in using this incident to provoke a massive Alliance-Horde war in Hillsbrad Foothills.
"Leader, we've finished gathering at Menethil. We have around two hundred people, organized into five raids."
Over at Menethil, Gabryell had assigned a Gnome Mage named OldSeven to organize everyone. OldSeven was level 28, ranked first among the guild's second wave, and was also a friend of DesertWanderer, making him a good fit for the job.
DesertWanderer had already become one of the guild's officers. Gabryell had been observing him for some time and intended to promote him to deputy guild leader. He had noticed that DesertWanderer always got first-hand information about other guilds before anyone else. He had a wide circle of friends and was naturally suited for diplomacy and intelligence gathering.
"What about Madhouse?" Gabryell asked.
OldSeven said, "Madhouse has about as many people as we do, and they're all above level 20. I haven't seen their guild leader, Dreamshade. He probably took their elite team to Southshore ahead of time."
OldSeven reported the situation at Menethil in full. "A lot of other guilds showed up after hearing the news too. I did a quick scan, and at least seven or eight guilds are involved. Besides those guilds, there are also plenty of random players who came to watch the chaos. All together, there are probably seven or eight raids' worth of people."
"Holy crap, won't Menethil lag itself to death?" Igor said in surprise.
Guild chat instantly filled with complaints.
"It freezes every three steps. I swear my computer's about to explode."
"It's lagging like crazy. I can't even move."
"You guys are lucky if it's just lag. I'm watching a slideshow over here."
With 2004 computer specs, plus Blizzard's servers that practically needed air conditioning running around the clock, having seven or eight hundred players packed into tiny Menethil Harbor without layering and not crashing the server outright was already impressive.
Gabryell thought for a moment and said, "Everyone from the guild, leave Menethil first. Head to Refuge Pointe in Arathi Highlands and stand by."
Gabryell had the guild raids leave Menethil first to reduce the strain on everyone's computers.
"If we leave, the other guilds will probably follow us," someone said with a frown.
Gabryell said, "Then turn your game settings all the way down. Prioritize performance and forget graphics quality for now."
Even in WoW Classic more than a decade later, hundreds of players gathering in one place would still cause lag, let alone in 2004. Since there was no way to make Blizzard add more servers, they could only use the most basic method: lower the graphics settings and squeeze out as much performance as possible.
Fearless's five raids left Menethil, immediately stirring up the other guilds.
"Where are you right now?" Gabryell took the initiative and messaged Dreamshade.
Dreamshade said, "We're at the Southshore inn."
Gabryell asked, "How many people did you bring to Southshore?"
Dreamshade said, "Only ten. The rest are still at Menethil. I heard from my people that your guild has already left Menethil. Are you heading to Hillsbrad for a decisive fight with the Horde?"
Dreamshade didn't mention Madhouse's main force setting out.
That guy was cunning as hell. He clearly wanted Fearless to act as the vanguard and fight the Horde until both sides were exhausted, then bring Madhouse in to reap the benefits.
The incident had started with Fearless, so Fearless had to be the first to go in. However, Gabryell didn't believe their side would get dragged into a stalemate with the Horde.
As someone who had lived through this game once before, his command ability was far beyond players who had only been playing for a few days. As long as he led properly, he was confident he could win even if the Horde had twice as many people.
Dreamshade offered a friendly warning. "The Horde players whose corpses you're camping are in the Horde TeamSpeak right now, calling you despicable, shameless, disgusting, and every other insult they can think of. They're trying to rally Horde players against you."
"A lot of Horde players are already fired up. They're heading to Hillsbrad to come after you."
"At least a hundred Horde are already on the way to wipe you out. Be careful. Don't let yourself get counter-camped."
Dreamshade added meaningfully, "With us gathering this many people at Menethil, the Horde's major guilds must have heard the news too. I'm sure they're gathering as well and preparing for war."
"Leader, it's raining."
DeathScum, who was scouting outside, suddenly shouted in raid chat, "Heavy rain, and fog too. Visibility is getting bad."
Another rainy day.
A storm was coming.