Sunstrider Isle to the Ghostlands

[MongoJerry]

With the Amani threat temporarily stopped, Neriad headed south along the main road toward the Ghostlands. Near the border, Neriad found two surviving runestones that guard Eversong Woods. Neriad was asked to help repair one of the runestones and had to fend of a series of Scourge attacks in the process.



That accomplished, Neriad made to leave Eversong Woods and cross into the Ghostlands. On the border, she found a surprising sight. What was a Forsaken doing in Blood Elf lands -- and standing over a dying blood elf no less?

UP NEXT: Ghostlands

[Pantalaimon]

<snip>Since the Deeprun Tram is still accessible to all whether or not they have the Stormwind/Ironforge path active, this is the least likely of the two solutions

I wouldn't draw too many parallels to the tram - the tram works out nearly exactly how you'd like the orb to work out, e.g. pretty much only lowbies use it. Most higher levels simply use a gryphon because with connecting gryphon flights it's usually faster to fly than run to tram -> take tram -> run to gryphon at your destination -> take off

And don't get me started on how zepps >>> boats, especially on a PvP server since zepps get guards >.> And now hordies get to teleport, and we get... another boat. *sigh*

[NiteFox]

And don't get me started on how zepps >>> boats, especially on a PvP server since zepps get guards >.> And now hordies get to teleport, and we get... another boat. *sigh*

Don't worry. You can easily gank from Lordaeron courtyard. At this time, no guards have been posted there and small Alliance packs heading to the Scarlet Monastary are so common nobody really pays attention to them until they start gathering a few heads.

[MongoJerry]

Don't worry. You can easily gank from Lordaeron courtyard. At this time, no guards have been posted there and small Alliance packs heading to the Scarlet Monastary are so common nobody really pays attention to them until they start gathering a few heads.

The courtyard is Horde territory, so Horde players won't generally be flagged there, even on a PvP server. Occationally groups of Alliance will try to taunt Horde into attacking them there -- with stealthed and shadowmelded friends nearby to join in the ambush when the Horde players attack. But generally, it's not the best place to try to gank people.

[MongoJerry]

THE ADVENTURES OF NERIAD: Entering the Ghostlands

With only one day left until the Burning Crusade is released, there's no possible way I can do The Ghostlands justice. However, I'll do what I can do show you a few highlights and some new things that will be introduced to the game. Maybe next time Blizzard will know to give me a beta key more than a couple weeks before the release of a game. Regarding the Ghostlands, I will simply say that it was the best level 12-19ish zone in the game -- and that includes the new Dreanei starting zone. Hopefully, what I show you here will give you some desire to go explore it for yourself.

The first person Neriad met when she crossed into the Ghostlands was Apothecary Thedra, a Forsaken, who told Neriad that the blood elf courier at her feet was infected with the plague and would be consumed by it if Neriad did not get her some plagued blood samples from some of the infected beasts nearby.



Neriad dutifully returned with the samples, and I received a shock. Neriad had gained 1000 reputation points with some group called Tranquillien. Who the heck were these people, and what was a reputation grind doing in a starting zone?

Well, the first part of the question would be answered quickly. The courier asked Neriad to carry a letter down to the town of Tranquillien, which apparently was the main blood elf enclave in The Ghostlands.



Not far down the road, Neriad found Tranquillien nestled in some hills in a state thoroughly surrounded by enemies. Neriad found Arcanist Vandril and delivered the letter. He explained that the Forsaken have been aiding the blood elves in the Ghostlands and even says, "Trust me when I say this, without them the Ghostlands would be lost and the Scourge would already have overrun all of Eversong Woods!" He then sent Neriad to speak to the local leaders -- Dame Auriferous, the lead blood elf, and High Executor Mavren, the lead Forsaken.



High Executor Mavren explained the reason for the Forsaken being here -- besides the usual desire to thwart the Scourge. He explained that Dar'Khan, a blood elf traitor, is leading the Scourge in the Ghostlands and Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, who was once a blood elf, wants revenge on him for his treachery. This desire to defeat the Scourge and kill Dar'Khan is a theme that runs through nearly all the quests in the Ghostlands. Even when you are seemingly fighting another group, it's always with the aim that this way troops would be spared for the final assault on Dar'Khan.



But what was the purpose of the reputation grind with Tranquillien? It turns out that as one earns reputation with Tranquillien, you get to purchase some fine magical equipment from a local vendor named, Provisioner Vredigar. As you can see, compared to Neriad's white Satin Lined Boots, those green Apprentice Boots one can purchase with merely Friendly reputation are quite an improvement. This reputation system gives a reason to complete the quests in the area, because the only way to earn reputation with Tranquillien is to do the quests.

Incidentally, the Dreanei starting zone doesn't use this system. I, for one, loved it.

The town had a few of the usual hunt and kill quests plus the requisite quest to have you deliver orders and/or supplies via the bat -- which only connects Silvermoon and Tranquillien. I don't think there are any plans to have blood elf flight points connect to other flight points, because Blizzard doesn't want people who don't own the expansion to be able to get to blood elf lands.



The first main quest Neriad was sent on was to head over to the ruins of Suncrown Village to check up on some blood elves who had been sent there to drive out some crypt fiends that had settled into the place. Once Neriad got there, though, she learned from a dying blood elf that the crypt fiends had a boss leading them named Anok'suten that the blood elves hadn't counted on. As you can see, one of the new features in the expansion is hints in the quest log suggesting the number of players one should have in one's party in order to complete a certain quest. Usually, you can get by with less than the number that the quest suggests, however.



Just in case, though, Neriad teamed up with a nearby paladin by the name of Devilwolf. While Neriad probably could have killed Anok'suten herself, it was probably a good thing that she had grouped up, because Anok'suten called for help from nearby Nerubis Guards. Teaming up made what would have been a difficult fight easy.



Completing that quest seemed to open up a lot of other quests. (Admittedly, in the beta, there was a bug that made it so that the !'s and ?'s sometimes didn't appear over quest givers' heads, so it was hard to tell whether some quests had just opened up or whether some of them might have been available all along).

There was the quest to collect Crystalized Essences from the arcane creatures that spawned from the ruins of the Sanctum of the Moon.



There was the quest to investigate a camp of night elves and find out what they were up to. Neriad killed lots of night elves, but there was no helpful information given about what they were up to.

[MongoJerry]

And there was the quest to recover stolen goods from a wagon that had been raided by some ghouls.



But most importantly, we got a quest from the Wanted poster to kill two particularly nasty Scourge minions -- Luzran and Knucklerot -- who patrol along the roads and down the Dead Scar. This quest was very highly red to Neriad at her level and said it required three people to complete. However, a group asked in general chat if anyone wanted to join their party to kill them, so Devilwolf and I joined the group. As you can see, Luzran is a level 21 elite, and except for the level 18 paladin who tanked him for us, everyone in the party was level 14 and below. However, a party of four paladins and one priest can outlast just about any fight.



Luzran soon died (as quickly as a group of paladins and priests can kill anything), and after searching the Dead Scar and wandering the roads for a bit, we ran into Knucklerot and took him out, too.

The reward was a fantastic ring... whose screenshot apparently didn't turn out. But it had some int and stamina and some crit rating which at Neriad's level was equivalent to about +2% spell crit. There was also an equivalent melee ring as a reward, too.



By this time, Neriad was already Honored with Tranquillien, so she picked up a +2 int +2 spirit sash.



Back to those pesky night elves, since Neriad couldn't find out exactly what the night elves were up to, Dame Auriferous sent her to the island just off the coast where the night elf ship lay to see if some documents could be found there that would shed some light on the matter.



Neriad and her partner, Devilwolf, did indeed find some documents. More interesting, though, was that they found that the night elf ship was of a new design not seen prior to the expansion. Interestingly, as fancy as the design was, there was no way to go below its deck.



By this time, a lot of the map was starting to be revealed.



Neriad and Devilwolf left the night elves' island (the one just north of Windrunner Village), and swung around to kill some plagued murlocs (no, you can't get away from killing murlocs) and then helped clear out some of Goldenmist Village.



By this time, both Neriad and Devilwolf were long overdue for some training, so they both flew off to Silvermoon, but they agreed to meet back in a few minutes, because they had finally figured out what the night elves were up to.

UP NEXT: Night elves, trolls, and zombies, oh my!

[NiteFox]

I don't think there will ever be a flight between them, because the whole idea is that you can't access blood elf lands if you don't own the expansion. There's also a portal looking gate between blood elf lands and the plaguelands. Obviously, it's there to stop anyone who doesn't have the expansion from crossing over into blood elf lands.

Things that Only Occur To You at 6am In The Morning For No Damn Reason #317: There will probably be a flight between UC and SM, and it will still be impossible for players who don't own the expansion to activate the flight between any EK point and Silvemoon, since they can't actually walk up to the bat handler outside the city and click on 'em:)

[MongoJerry]

THE ADVENTURES OF NERIAD: Night elves, trolls, and zombies, oh my!

It's a couple hours before the expansion, so I unfortunately can't give you all the details I want to give, but I will do my best to at least give you a flavor of what awaits you in the Ghostlands. (Note to any Blizzard folks reading this: Send me a beta key earlier next time!).

Neriad had discovered what the night elves were up to -- they were setting up moon crystals on key ley lines that would allow them to be able to spy on all blood elf troop movements. Neriad raced to An'telas, another key ley line, and was just in time to stop a night elf raid on the small encampment of blood elves there. Then, the leader of the blood elves at the camp sent Neriad to deactivate the last moon crystal on another key ley line just to the south. The night elf incursion was thwarted!



Next, Neriad was sent to Dawnstar Spire, where Dar'Khan had lived when he was still a blood elf himself, to search for clues involving his past. Neriad found a book.



Then came lots of excursions against the trolls in the area. This group was a relatively low level group of trolls to the north in an area called Zeb'Sora.



On the island in the middle of the lake was a ghost who asked Neriad to free his companions' spirits and defeat Aquantion, a water elemental who had enslaved the local blood elves. Of course, from Aquantion's point of view, the blood elves had only gotten their just deserts, since it was they who had chained Aquantion in the first place.



It was then learned that the local trolls were raising mummified trolls from the grave to attack the local blood elf town of Farstrider Enclave! Neriad was sent to burn the bodies of dead trolls so that they couldn't be raised.



Inside the mausoleum, Neriad and her party found a captured blood elf, and they escorted her back to Farstrider Enclave.



After that, there was a series of quests involving the bigger Amani trolls to the south.



Kel'gash the Wicked, the main troll boss, is supposed to need three people to kill, but Neriad and a paladin managed to kill him just fine.



The really exciting discovery here, though, was the discovery of Zul'Aman. It's a massive structure with a massive green portal behind the gate.



It's obviously intended to be a future instance of some kind, since it even has a waiting stone. Will this be Zul'Gurub II, perhaps?

[MongoJerry]

The instance may not be implemented, yet, but the outdoor area is awful pretty.



After dealing with the trolls, Neriad and party headed back west and cleared out Windrunner Village and Windrunner Spire.



Lady Sylvanas used to live in Windrunner Spire, and Neriad found a necklace that appeared to have once belonged to her.



After killing a lot of stuff in the Dead Scar and clearing some gnolls out of some mines (I'm really skipping some stuff here), it was time to enter Deathholme -- Dar'Khan's citadel!



The citadel is massive and there are several things to do there. One of them is to rescue a set of blood elves and forsaken who had been captured by the Scourge.



The other one was to kill some key Scourge lieutenants. (Sometimes the lieutenants and the people needing to be rescued were in the same building -- sometimes not).



Like I said before. The place is massive. There are dozens of buildings scattered all around the citadel.



Finally, in the center of the citadel, we found Dar'Khan Drathir, the big cheese himself. The quest says we need five people to kill him, but we only had three -- two paladins and a priest. We potted and buffed up completely before starting the fight as you can see. In addition, the blood elves at the Sanctum of the Sun had provided each of us a special weapon to use when fighting Dar'Khan -- an item that would silence him for five seconds and damage him for 500 health over that five seconds. At level 18ish, 500 damage is a *lot* of damage. However, the items have a cooldown of 10 minutes, so they can only be used once each during the fight.



Periodically, Dar'Khan cast fear on us. I'm so glad that Blizzard is making fear less important in encounters so that Fear Ward won't be the unbalancing power that it has been in the past. (Said *very* sarcastically).

One time, my partymates were feared but I wasn't, so Dar'Khan started up spells to shoot at me. It was a perfect time to use my orb that silenced him. By the time he reached me to melee me, my partymates broke their fears and regained aggro. *Whew*



After an intense fight, Dar'Khan Drathir was taken down.

[MongoJerry]

The rewards for killing Dar'Khan included an incredible staff -- which Neriad couldn't use yet, because she hadn't yet made a trip to Orgrimmar to learn how to use staves.



Most importantly, killing Dar'Khan gave a whopping 8000 Tranquillien reputation and pushed both Phrostknight and Neriad over the top to Exalted. It is possible to skip a couple of quests in the Ghostlands and still get Exalted, but I don't think it's possible to get Exalted without doing this quest to kill Dar'Khan. That seems appropriate.



The reward for being Exalted with Tranquillien was the ability to purchase a blue +7 stamina cloak, which is just godly for that level. By comparison, Neriad's previous cloak was a +2 int +2 spirit green cloak.



For kicks, Neriad followed the main road south out of the Ghostlands toward the Plaguelands to see what would stop a low level character from entering a place as dangerous as the Plaguelands. She discovered Thalassian Pass. So far, nothing had impeded her way.



Aha! Neriad had found a portal. I figured that this would have some kind of level requirement preventing a low level character from going through it.



Nope! It let Neriad right through. I assume now that it's a portal designed to stop anyone who doesn't own the Burning Crusade from getting into blood elf lands. There is a blood elf NPC who stands on the other side of the portal, who I assume is supposed to warn young blood elves like Neriad not to go any further. However, he didn't have any text when he was clicked on.

Neriad rezzed-died-rezzed-died-rezzed over to the high elf enclave in the Plaguelands but as expected, high elves don't like blood elves, so the inhabitants there kicked the snot out of Neriad. She then made her way back to the Ghostlands.



Having finished all of the quests in the Ghostlands, Neriad hopped on the bat to Silvermoon for the last time.



Neriad was asked to deliver Dar'Khan's head to the local leader of the blood elves, Lor'themar Theron. He is shocked and pleased to see the head of Dar'Khan and he says that this changes everything as it relates to the blood elf application to join the Horde. As you may remember, the orc, troll, and tauren factions were pretty cool on the idea of allowing the blood elves to join the Horde and as of the moment that one joins the game, the blood elves are not yet members of the Horde. Lor'themar asks Neriad to deliver the head and a letter to Lady Sylvanas in Undercity.




Here is the letter.

[MongoJerry]

In Undercity, delivering the necklace found in Windrunner Spire at first causes Lady Sylvanas to get angry. She says, "You thought this would amuse me? Do you think I long for a time before I was the queen of the Forsaken? Like you, it means nothing to me, and Alleria Windrunner is a long dead memory!"

However, she then thinks it over a while and starts singing a beautiful song. There are many videos of the event available.



When given the letter from Lor'themar, Lady Sylvanas adds her seal to it and tells Neriad to deliver it to Thrall in Orgrimmar.



In Orgrimmar, Thrall reads the letter with great interest. The news that the blood elves have dealt a major blow to the Scourge and have thwarted Darnassian attacks gave credibility to the blood elf application to join the Horde. I have to admit, I got chills when I read Thrall's words, "Welcome to the Horde, elf."



Neriad then returned to Lor'themar to give him the news, and he was pleased to say the least. I was just awed by the entirety and richness of the blood elf starting zones, and the ending was a fantastic capper. What other level 12-19ish area has a character making such a difference in matters of world affairs?



For her efforts, Neriad had a fantastic looking new outfit. She wore two blue items and the rest of her outfit was made of good quality green items for the level. A good storyline, richness of quests, and richness of, well, riches. What more could you ask from a zone?

Thank-you all for reading this. I had a blast playing the game and enjoyed writing these journals for you. See you in the game!

[NiteFox]

In Orgrimmar, Thrall reads the letter with great interest. The news that the blood elves have dealt a major blow to the Scourge and have thwarted Darnassian attacks gave credibility to the blood elf application to join the Horde. I have to admit, I got chills when I read Thrall's words, "Welcome to the Horde, elf."

Y'know, this actually says an awful lot about relations between the Blood Elves and the Horde. Even the Forsaken are readily (but warily) accepted automatically into the Horde, but Blood Elves have to bust a gut to be recognised.

I wonder if it'll truly be a stable alliance.

[Warlock]

Y'know, this actually says an awful lot about relations between the Blood Elves and the Horde. Even the Forsaken are readily (but warily) accepted automatically into the Horde, but Blood Elves have to bust a gut to be recognised.

I wonder if it'll truly be a stable alliance.

Great series of posts as usual, Mongo. Thanks.

It'll be stable. Just imagine the screaming if millions of players log in one day to find that their forsaken and elf characters were no longer part of the horde:)

[ima_nerd]

It'll be stable. Just imagine the screaming if millions of players log in one day to find that their forsaken and elf characters were no longer part of the horde:)

Should team up with the Goblins and be a third faction imo:)

As usual, an excellent write-up, Mongo. Thanks for a peek into content I won't even try to do for a few weeks or so. Spawn camped quest mobs ftl.

[MongoJerry]

Y'know, this actually says an awful lot about relations between the Blood Elves and the Horde. Even the Forsaken are readily (but warily) accepted automatically into the Horde, but Blood Elves have to bust a gut to be recognised.

I wonder if it'll truly be a stable alliance.

This rings true with history. To be accepted as a full partner in an alliance, you have to show that you can bring something to the table and make the alliance stronger by your admission. The blood elves, meanwhile, had just been decimated by the Scourge and were fighting for their lives. The question that kept being asked by the other factions was essentially, "We know you need us, but why do we need you?"

[NiteFox]

Things that Only Occur To You at 6am In The Morning For No Damn Reason #317: There will probably be a flight between UC and SM, and it will still be impossible for players who don't own the expansion to activate the flight between any EK point and Silvemoon, since they can't actually walk up to the bat handler outside the city and click on 'em:)

And now I can admit to being wrong. The bat handler is just for travel between Ghostlands and Silvermoon.

The bat flight seems slower than usual too, I wonder why.

[Quark]

I wonder if it'll truly be a stable alliance.

Over the course of WoW, you can probably guarantee it:P Past it, though ... not much is stable in the Warcraft world.

[ima_nerd]

not much is stable in the Warcraft world.

Not even that which has already happened:whistling:

[Arnulf]

Wonderful report. Made me to create a bloodknight instead of going right to Outland.:D

The bat flight seems slower than usual too, I wonder why.

On purpose. Now you have the leisure to survey Eversong Woods. I think Blizzard has outdone themselves with that starting area. Just marvellous.

[NiteFox]

However, she then thinks it over a while and starts singing a beautiful song. There are many videos of the event available.

Brilliant. No substitute for actually seeing it for yourself and (incidentally) drawing a few newbies in to watch.

You never mentioned it, and nor have I heard it mentioned since I first heard of the subject, so perhaps it was added into retail, but after Sylvanas finishes her song, the Blood Elf ambassador standing nearby (I forget his name) whispers to you that he has something for you: It turns out to be a book containing the lyrics (In Thalassian and translated) of the same song Sylvanas just finished. A neat little memento. I was fortunate enough that, while inspecting the book, a newbie Blood Elf triggered the Lament event so I got to read along with the words.

The book title is Lament of the Highborne (Quel'dorei), even though the words only reference the Blood Elves (Sin'dorei). The emote text before Sylvanas begins her song cites the Lament an "ancient song of the Blood Elves", which since the term only became into being after the Third War I found pretty odd. Also strange considering Sylvanas was never a Blood Elf.

Maybe the original lyrics used Quel'dorei, or perhaps Sin'dorei had some meaning in Highborne culture before Kael started calling his people that.