Melasahnd's Training Part 4 (redux)

2008-11-25 - Melasahnd's Training Part 4 (redux)

Note: Melashnd's past is being revisited with a re-post of the finale of her training to become a full fledged death knight. It took four huge posts to document the full extent of that mind and body searing struggle.

Introduction:
Melasahnd was born on 20 November, 2008, just over two years ago. As a new class of player originally called a "Hero Class," she was created to become a minion of the Lich King and began her life like no other class before her - at level 55. Wildshard was level 72 at the time, not all that far ahead of her.

Melasahnd, like all Death knights, was "made" in Acherus, the floating City over the Eastern Plaguelands. It's a small, somewhat suffocating place of just two levels, just the kind of place favored by the Lich King, who spends a lot of his time there making sure his death knights learn to do his bidding. Melasahnd preferred to be called "Sond" (that's Sond, not Sand, not Sandy, and definitely not Mela). Melasahnd would later reject the nickname, Sond, and all others, preferring now to use her full name. But to the Lich King, she was known as Sond. The following is the final steps to her emergence as a death knight.

Melasahnd's Training Part 4:

After Sond had finished the dagger quest for Prince Keleseth, I thought that she might be getting toward the end of the training. Sond was chafing under the heavy hand of the Lich King and getting a bit claustrophobic being cloistered away from the rest of the world. It was not to be.

The Scourge had all but secured their foothold, but knew that the Scarlet Crusade had not yet been vanquished. What were their plans? Sond was sent deeper into New Avalon, where the soldiers of the Scarlet Crusade still held on and defended their base of operations, Scarlet Hold. The Scourge had already infiltrated the area, securing the Scarlet Tavern not far from the Hold. Although heavily guarded inside, enemy troops still periodically stormed it, trying to root them out (and maybe snag an ale). Sond arrived at the doorstep of this house in time to help beat back one such assault. On the second floor two Scourge leaders plotted among the decaying corpses of the interrogated.

Ordaz Bloodbane welcomed Sond to the tavern. "Don't bother me, or would you like to join the pile of corpses?" he growled. Sond shoved the orders from Mograine under his pointed nose. Bloodbane saw Mograine's seal.

"Hmmph. So, this is the best he can do? You?" Bloodbane shrugged. "Take this disguise. Infiltrate their camp. Find out what they're doing. If you fail the Scarlet dogs will kill you and Mograine will just send another. If you come back without what I want, I'll kill you and Mograine will send another. Makes no difference to me. Go!"

Sond accomplished her mission. The Scourge learned of a massive incoming assault and began planning an ambush.

In the mean time the final subjugation of New Avalon was underway. A favored Scourge leader was captured and imprisoned in Scarlet Hold. Thessarian, working with Bloodbane, sent Sond to rescue him.

Finding him proved more than a little difficult. During all the time Sond has been questing in this phased instance, the coordinates system has not worked. Using either of two addons that should mark coordinates on the map, neither functioned properly. Sond must have had a better sense of direction than Wild, because she was fairly good at figuring out where to go and how to get there from the quest tips, but in this case she was having a hard time finding a staircase to a basement room where the prisoner was being held. There were other DKs roaming the Hold on the same or other quests, but they appeared equally confused. The fast spawning soldiers in the hold were probably getting whiplashed and dizzy as they would no sooner spawn than a DK would kill them.

Sond finally located it. The doorless entry was under the second floor stairs and it was so dark under there Sond had walked past it several times without seeing it. She took the stairs two at a time, and found the single room empty. Hmmm. A few seconds later two soldiers spawned. Sond attacked, and was joined by another DK that had come down the stairs. We killed the mobs. Sond waited some more. The other DK left. After a minute or so the prisoner respawned, chained to a cot in the corner.

Sond tried to free him, but the man, Koltira Deathweaver, stopped her. He was too far gone, he said, and the alarm had already been sounded. Kill my Captor and take his head back to Thessarian, Koltira demanded.

That's when the Inquisitor and a rather impressive army of acolytes stormed into the room. Koltira provided some spell based help from his cot, but the sheer numbers were still threatening to overwhelm Sond, and she wasn't making a lot of headway against the Inquisitor, either. Two DKs poked their heads into the room and joined in the fun. Between the three of us we managed to finish off the remaining acolytes and the Inquisitor. Sond hacked the head off the Inquisitor and returned to Thessarian.

Sond didn't know if Koltira managed to escape or not, but Thessarian felt he had done enough and that Koltira would have been able to escape once the Inquisitor was out of the picture. Sond's reward? A promise of more mayhem. Thessarian sent Sond to the nearby Chapel of the Crimson Flame, which the Scourge were in the process of burning down. Not sure why she was needed there, Sond talked to the on scene Commander.

"Ah, yes," he said rubbing his hands together in obvious pleasure. "Next door is the prison house. Some of the prisoners have managed to survive, to my surprise, and I'll get around to killing them soon." He paused. "But! I have a prize for you. One of the prisoners is an Argent Dawn blood elf. You're a blood elf, eh?" He stared at Sond's prominent ears. "You have the honor of killing that one."

Sond entered the long bunkhouse like building. The whole length of the building had prisoners sitting or standing on both sides of the narrow room. Sond walked the length of the room. Some of the prisoners were crying, others praying to their gods. The fight had been taken out of all of them, it seemed. Sond found the blood elf. Her name was Lady Eony, and Sond knew her. And she knew Sond. And could see what Sond had become.

Eony spoke. "You were a champion of the Sin'dorei once, Melasahnd. Don't you remember the magnificence of Silvermoon City, where you were born?"

Sond could only stand there and listen, knowing what she had been told to do. Eony tried again. "You must fight against the Lich King's control! Don't let him destroy our world! "

Funny thing is I really didn't want to kill her. Sond stood there, I don't know for what.

The local Commander poked his head in the room. "What's going on in here! Get on with it, Deathknight!"

Eony spoke again. There was much pity in her eyes, pity for Sond. And just maybe a sliver of hope at what she saw in Sond. "I'm done for," Eony said. "You must kill me or the Commander will kill us both." Sond drew her sword, seemingly unable to remember how to use it. "Remember Silvermoon City, Melasahnd. Remember the things that are worth saving."

Sond didn't move. I couldn't do it. Footsteps sounded outside, the Commander returning.

"For pity's sake, put me out of my misery!" Eony pleaded.

Sond slew her.

Sond returned to Thassarian and reported the deed done. He must have seen something in her eyes, because he hesitated before acknowledging her report. He couldn't help adding, though, "You're one cold-blooded monster, Melasahnd. I salute you, sister."

Sond said nothing.

"Well," he said. "I'll open a portal directly to Ebon Hold. Report to Highlord Mograine immediately!"

Once more, I thought Sond had reached the end of her training, but Mograine turned Sond around and sent her to the Lich King, who had moved to Death's Breach to take personal command of the ambush about to be sprung on the advancing Scarlet armies, who thought they had surprise on their side.

The Lich King stood on a tall platform overlooking Havenshire and New Avalon. In the distance Sond could see that the Scarlet Crusade had reached the town and the Scourge attack was already in progress. The Lich King gave Sond a horn to call a gun equipped flying mount called a Frostbrood Vanquisher. Sond mounted up and headed into battle.

The Frostbrood could be manuevered like any other flying mount, and had a pet bar with two commands - one launched an AoE attack on whatever it was pointed at, and the other - well, if the bird gets low on health, you can swoop down on an enemy, get close enough and the bird will eat him.

What Sond wasn't expecting was just how hard the Crusaders would hit back.

Sond started high in the air, and then manuevered toward the ground to get in range of the running mobs. While chasing small clumps she quite unexpectedly came up on a whole phalanx of bowmen. Sond's whole screen lit up with purple shaded negative numbers showing the incoming damage. Sond fired at the mass of bowmen, and the purple was replace with yellow damage numbers statistically recording the carnage happening on the ground. There were also ballista about, many on the New Avalon castle walls. Sond closed on one of them. It took several rounds to take it out, and all the while that ballista was taking out chunks of the bird's health. And she was still in range of bowshots continued to stream up from below.

The bird was shockingly low on health and Sond tried to gain altitude to get out of range. But her turn put her in range of another ballista, and when it began a chaingun attack, Sond's mount died. Sond fell to earth, trapped on the dead bird, and died on impact. Died? Yep.

Sond has an Unholy spell that automatically resurrects her - as a ghoul. About a dozen elite soldiers swarmed her and killed her again.

Sond made more attempts, and here is what I learned. To complete the quest you have to kill 150 soldiers, and destroy ten ballista. Obviously, you and your mount can be killed. If you die, you will appear at the graveyard and have to run back to retrieve your corpse like normal. If you died in a bad spot, like Sond did, where elite soldiers are constantly running around; well, you may die a few more times until you can get to a safe spot.

The good news is that the flying mount can be re-summoned as many times as you need to. Find a safe spot, rez, re-summon mount, and get back in the air. The bad news is that as soon as the soldiers spot the bird they start shooting again. The aggro radius is pretty large.

Sond again found herself running low on health and the eating thing didn't seem to work too well. Another trick was to land in a safe spot, jump off the mount, and then re-summon it back with full health. When Sond tried that I discovered that there were no safe places. The Scarlet armies knew what to look for and they followed after Sond wherever he went, bathing him in a constant rain of arrows. Sond died again.

How do I get out of this? You don't. A DK cannot progress any further until she completes this quest. Just because you are getting killed doesn't allow you to run away from the fight. Back into the breach, Deathknight!

Finally, buried about 15 posts into a discussion of the fight, Sond got a strategy that looked like it would work.

It was pretty simple, too. Don't fly.

Sond mounted up again and flew from the Lich King's perch right down to the ground. With his cannon aimed directly in front, Sond ordered his mount forward, killing everything in my path. The damage was still coming, but the ferocity was much toned down; one, because at ground level Sond was obliterating whole armies of soldiers before they could turn their bows from pointing at the sky to pointing at Sond; and two, the ballista on the towers only shot at flying mounts, not those on the ground. Sond plowed through bodies in search of the ground based ballista, and soon had her quota of both corpses and wreckage. The latest bird was pretty dinged up, but it made it back to the Lich King with Sond still in mostly one piece.

The Lich King placed [Greathelm of the Scourge Champion] on Sond's head, it's black visage completing Sond's armor.

So it's over then, Sond thought. I am a trained Deathknight.

The Lich King spoke. "There remains one final task . . . "

Here we go again. The Scarlet armies were defeated. But the Argent Dawn still remained. It was against them the Lich King now focused.

The Lich King commanded Sond to go swiftly to a Scourge outpost in the Eastern Plaguelands called the Noxious Glade. There, Sond was directed to head for a small settlement at Browman Mill.

Sond felt a bit of elation at being out under the sun again and on open ground not already soaked in blood. And out from under the direct scrutiny of the Lich King. She gave her deathcharger his head and his hooves flashed in blurred motion as he galloped south.

Sond met up with other deathknights, and we headed for Light's Hope Chapel on the quest [The Light of Dawn] to annihilate the Argent Dawn defenders.

We rallied around Highlord Mograine to get us our final orders. And we marched on Light's Hope Chapel.

The battle played out over the next ten minutes, and was a sight to behold and participate in. After a fierce fight the Argent Dawn Highlord Tirion Fordring defeats Mograine. For the first time Sond saw the Scourge fail. The power of the Light at this hallowed place seemed stronger than the darkness of the Lich King, who sent his army, but feared to come himself.

Mograine was visited by the shade of his father, and there is a re-enactment of past actions that led to Mograine wielding the great sword Ashbringer, which he carried into battle as a deathknight but which refused to deploy it's power against the Argent Dawn.

And I was wrong about the Lich King. With Mograine bowed to the ground in shame, the Lich King appears. Mograine denounces the Lich King, promises vengeance, and the Lich King laughs at him.

Fordring also curses the Lich King, who Fordring knew as Arthas, the first deathknight. And Arthas reveals his true plan. The Lich King did not care if his army failed. He wanted the great paladin Fordring, and now he was within the Lich King's grasp.

The Lich King attacks Fordring, and with a single word kills the defending Argent Dawn. All appears lost, but with the last of his strength Mograine tosses Fordring his Ashbringer. In Fordring's hand the sword blazes into life, cleansed of the Scourge touch, and when Arthas sees that he begins to retreat. Fordring charges the Lich King, who flees, promising that the next meeting would not be on holy ground.

Fordring promises all that the fight against the Lich King would continue. Mograine stands and swears that while deathknights could have no place with the Light of the Argent Dawn, he promised that all those that followed him would also vow to fight until the Lich King falls.

Mograine's final words to the deathknights around him, and I quote, "There will be no atonement for us, deathknights. We are forever damned to walk the earth as monsters. While the Lich King may have loosed his grip upon us, the specters of our past will forever haunt our memories.

We must make amends in the only way we know how: Death...

I ask you now to join me in Acherus as a Knight of the Ebon Blade. Together we will destroy the Lich King and end the Scourge."

Highlord Mograine had broken from the Lich King. We deathknights had a chance to redeem some small part of our souls. Melasahnd thought of Lady Eony.

Sond raised his sword in salute to Mograine. We may all die in the attempt, but at last there was a true cause to fight for.

Melasahnd was free of the Lich King. The training was done, yes. But there still remained yet one more task.

With the completion of the battle Sond received a Deathgate, which opens a portal to Acherus, our floating city. That city was held by the Scourge, but with the Lich King abandoning the place Mograine intended to take back the floating city.

Sond and other DKs were sent down to the second level of Acherus to kill abominations that had been left as a little surprise by the Lich King, and those abominations were led by Patchwerk, a dangerous boss from Naxxramas. Given a super damage and health buff, Sond killed her way through the elite abominations to Patchwerk. Other DK's were already fighting him. That was a good thing because a single DK would have a heck of a time with this monster even with the buffs. Patchwerk took a long time to die, but die he did. Acherus was secure and the Knights of the Ebon Blade had won their first battle against the Scourge.

So NOW is the DK quest chain over? Come on, do you really think so? There is still more.

After securing Acherus, Mograine hands each DK a letter to be delivered to his respective King. In Sond's case, to the horde leader Thrall. A portal to Orgrimmar is provided. The purpose of Sond's audience with Thrall is to gain the acceptance of the Ebon Blade knights, for otherwise all deathknights would forever be outcasts.

Sond entered Orgrimmar with Unfriendly rep. The npcs inside pelted her with rotten fruit, cursed her and spit on her. She could not use her mount and had to walk through the central square of Org, down the long Cleft of Shadows walkway and into Thrall's chamber. The hatred was further reminder of the horrors Melasahnd had committed. If you are ever in Org and start hearing the orc guards cursing and throwing things, you now know what is happening. It's a deathknight on his walk of shame.

For many reasons, Thrall, who has a terrible temper and was as like to slay those who came before him as to grant a boon, considered the request. And since there is history between Thrall, Mograine, and Fordring having to do with Thrall's lost love, Taretha, Thrall granted Melasahnd's wish.

Sond was granted enough reputation to become friendly with Orgrimmar.

And at long last, Melasahnd was both a level 58 deathknight, and free to roam at will.

For those planning a deathknight, I took probably more time than most to complete the whole thing, so here is an easy time to beat - total game time from creation of Melasahnd at level 55 to completing the quest with Thrall at level 58 was five hours and four minutes. Have fun!