Day 46
"About time we made it to Ratchet." Elisa stated loudly. Many chuckled as they called their mounts. It was nearly a race to get of the ship. The town of Ratchet was full of players getting supplies or wandering around. Some bragged by wearing their Viper set. I put on my full Defias set and that got a few angry stares. I wondered how many went to Deadmines only to find it full of normal miners and a twisted burnt wreck of a ship at the end. That and knowing I had something to do with it. Like many groups we didn't stop and thirty of us followed the dirt path all the way to Wailing Caverns. I didn't think that there were to many here, but I was wrong as the entire oasis was full of tents instead of mobs. There seemed to be a line going in and one coming out of the cave entrance.
"Wow, for a low level dungeon they sure are a lot of players here." Harold stated.
"I don't see why? Most of them are over level." Jake added. I looked at Jake and it was strange to hear him talk.
"They are balance leveling." Elisa stated. "Most guilds had a pretty even level, but since we joined End Game Raiders this changed the guilds and it was a race to balance by classes instead of by level, so some guilds have a large gap between their tanks and healers or that their dps is low level so doing WC is a way to bring that balance up."
"I see that as well." Petrel added. "Are we not doing the same?"
"Yes and no. Some groups are trying to balance out, but others are already set like ours." I stated. "But I want everyone to experience every dungeon five times for teamwork balance. Which is why we crowd control, focus target, and follow a set kill order. All of this leads to training as a team, but shakes out all the dust of the last ten years."
"So we are dusty?" Elisa quipped. "Dusty bunch make way." We laughed as we got to the cave entrance.
"Not so fast the line is back there." a dwarven warrior growled as he pointed to a small flag.
"There is no limit on how many can be in a instance." I replied. "Why is there a line?"
"There just is one, now get in it." he growled again. "Shoo!"
"Don't mind him, but it is true there is a line." an elf added. "The mages think it is a magic limit where the gnomes think it has to do with the quantum theory on the multiverse coexisting in one place at the same time. I personally believe it might be server lag, but then again I am not a hundred percent." We walked to the end of the line.
"Did anyone understand that?" Harold asked. Fifty groups could be in the instance at one time we later found out, and the reasons why were in the thousands. The line went quickly as it had been worked out over the last week. We got one full run in before night fell and three more the next day. On the third day we didn't run as we helped other guildies get in their runs and to get them not to forget the last boss who was overlooked by many. Rumors of an entire party wiping on the last boss made many nervous and this slowed the line down, but it was never confirmed. So many guilds and groups came and went another fear ran rampant through the camp. The number of players in one area might attract the horde and the trail here did go near Four Corners. I for one wondered if there were any horde players. No one had ever seen a horde player or heard of another seeing one. This made me wonder why? Did no one pick horde that got sent here? If they did but got changed to the Alliance side, what would be the reasoning? After the four runs I was level 23 and the others a lot closer to level twenty four. With our fifth run I expected that they would be twenty four and that I would be very close as well. Do to most being higher level then needed many teams got tired of waiting and moved off. SFK and BFD called to many for the next one to go to, so you either saw them hearth back to Ironforge or Stormwind, or hearth to Darnassus or port there. Elisa made a little bit of extra gold as she knew the portal to Darnassus. A select few headed north to quest or farm mobs until they got there. Our guild stayed the longest and in the end as I had planned we were the last ones in.
"About time we did our fifth run." Jake complained.
"Hey we are not on a race." Elisa countered understanding his tone.
"Still we could have gotten in a few more trips and I still don't know why we never did the last boss?" Elvel wondered.
"Because we didn't. The extra boss takes time and the fight is simple. The gear drop is not anything we need." I countered. "Most groups I heard only did it for the experience. This time we are going to clear everything nothing will be left alive in there. Let's burn this dungeon." They cheered and we went to work. Like I wanted we skipped nothing not even the yellow mobs. I didn't want to kill the turtle, but it finally dropped the shield that Jake could use for an upgrade. Lady Anacondra, Lord Cobrahn, Lord Pythas, Lord Serpentis, Verdan the Everliving, Kresh, Deviate Faerie Dragon, and Skum were taken out in decent time. We followed the druid and started the fight for Mutanus the Devourer. When he came rushing out of the water Jake had trouble gaining aggro, but we knew to back off and kite a bit until he thunder clapped a third time. After that the boss got torn to pieces literally. The amount of gore was nearly sickening and Jake being in the thick of it wretched as he crawled into the water. We barely heard the druids talking, but I knew they were saying a few things they never had before. This kill was like Stockades all over again, but this time no city guard came to restore order. We got to the entrance and my friends stopped as they didn't see the instance portal.
"It is as it used to be." Naralex stated before he turned into a bird and flew out.
"What did he mean by that and why is the portal gone?" Petrel asked. "This feels right, but I am not sure."
"Balance was restored permanently." I stated. "The effect of me being here." They looked confused, but gained understanding as I explained it as we work our way out of the cave system. There were still mobs to fight as all of them had respawned and this vented any anger they had for not being told earlier. Though it was a short pause.
"I can't believe this. The whole time you had the answer to why Deadmines and the Stockades are shutdown." Harold growled. "And now Wailing Caverns too."
"Why you of all people?" Elisa asked. "Why none of us. What is so special about you?"
"I don't know I didn't really believe it was me until we captured VanCleef instead of just taking his head." I explained. "We ran Stocks many times, but it was only when we cleared it fully five times did it stay cleared. I wasn't sure it would work this time but it did."
"Is this going to happen all the time? Will we be then maybe doing a dungeon just once?" Harold asked. "I for one like this world just the way it is. I can't believe you want to change it, but not telling us is pretty low."
"I couldn't really tell you. I didn't know it would work every time. It was better that you experienced it for yourselves." I explained. "Bron and the others feel differently and they expect that not everyone will see this as what has to be done. Time is at a standstill here. None of you were leveling but a few. Now everyone is in a leveling frenzy. There will be no one coming after me I can feel it. What use is a low level dungeon with no new players?"
"That is not the issue. What happens when we finish the last dungeon? The last quest? Kill the last Mob?" Elisa asked. "What then?
"It will be a long time before we complete the last quest and there is the raids themselves." I stated. "I don't want there to be an end, but at one point I believe the next expansion will come and if we are still low levels when it does we will have a dangerous threat that we can not face."
"This is something we are not ready to do." Petrel stated. "As long as we can run dungeons a thousand times at least it is something to do. Plus we want to go home some not so much but a bit of homesickness is in all of us. If you say there is another expansion and another after that, when does it end?"
"Maybe never maybe sooner I don't know, but I feel this is what I have to do. Its why I am here." I replied. "Why else would I be the only player to join you after ten years?"
"I don't want this I'm sorry. I am finding another guild." Harold stated. I was shocked as each one left the party and the guild. Elisa looked sad as she waved her arm to do the same. Then I faced Jake alone. I was crying and I sank to my knees. Bron, Ginny, Elvel and Fizzle had all accepted this with not a single question.
"Jake you can go with the rest. I know that you don't want to be around me. I get it. I came here and shit on everyone's cake. Their content lives upset." I cried. "What are you waiting for?! Leave me! Go! Let me fail as I always do. I don't need any help. You all don't need me." I was in no condition to know how much he understood as I balled out every emotion. Betrayal was at the top. Three people that over the weeks I had felt closer to then anyone in my life just left me. Jake made it worse by just standing there in his armor, his Gnomish Mind Control Helmet. He didn't move for a long time. Then I heard a clang as his helmet dropped to the ground. I looked up through my tear blurred eyes to see he was crying just as much as I was. Then he smiled such a sad smile just before he hearthed. I jumped up and looked for him knowing in my mind that he was gone, but I still looked. It wasn't until later did I notice he had left the group and the guild. He had also figured out how to ignore me. This hurt, and the only reason I didn't completely break down was the spawning of a mob nearly on top of me. I stealthed and moved away only to have to avoid other mobs. Most I would have had no trouble killing, but I was in no condition to fight. I hearthed myself hours later after wandering the Barrens alone. My hearth was in Theramore not the best place. I should have reset it in Ironforge, but I felt at the time it would be easier to move on to BFD next. Now it wasn't possible and every team was built. I took the next ship out of the harbor and not a single player was on board. This represented my loneliness in such irony. I had ignored guild chat since they had left and it was going made with requests to me and others. No one had the addons that I had. I could see every member in the guild and where they were at on the map. Concern over my whereabouts waxed and waned over the two weeks I was at sea. I didn't answer a single message. I had no answers only questions. What now?
