Week #4: War of the Worlds:
I stood near the far end of the small town Astranaar which
was placed continently in the middle of Ashenvale, the zone south of the dank
and gloomy Darkshore. In front of me, my party member Kastlen directed my
attention to the Local Defense channel. At first its bright yellow text signaled
“Ashenvale Is Under Attack”, but within minutes, the message quickly changed to
“Astranaar Is Under Attack”. The horde had made its first impression upon me as
several Taurens and Orcs entered the town. Hope was small, as only a ragtag
group of level 25 and under stood before the force that ranged from 35-50. Many
scrambled, not knowing exactly what they could or should have been doing. Quite
a few NightElves ran, leaving their naïve comrades behind to meet a quick death.
Some came on mounts, while others simply stormed in. I
gained a little satisfaction in knowing some higher level alliance members had
arrived, but their numbers were too small, and the amount of underdeveloped
NightElves would surely cause confusion. I simply stood my ground. While others
think it wise to do “all you can to help”, I knew the reality of the situation,
I wouldn’t last a minute. So I did what any self preserving level 17 character
would, sit, watch and learn.
Little by little the horde force moved into the small town,
not doing much of anything except eyeing their prey. The battle started when a
mounted alliance character attacked one of the Taurens heading towards Maestra’s
Post (Small area on the way to Darkshore). It had begun, and as soon as it did,
the chat room filled with low leveled players complaining of how little they did
and how they would try again. The sky lit up as spells on both sides began to
flare. Fire and light came down from the sky smashing into Horde and Alliance
alike. I looked around a bit to find Kastlen gone. Another team member, Shadriza
had already attempted to fight and her corpse was on the ground towards the
center of town. I looked on my map and it seemed that Kastlen was hiding out in
or behind the merchant area. I could do nothing to provide assistance, even if I
could, I would be of little help.
As my attention waned, I saw the battle dissolve, and the
Horde make their victory cheers in an incomprehensible language. On that main
road, I saw dozens of corpses, over half of them were of the NightElves. The
innocence of the environment around me was forever gone, and PvP had taken its
toll on my mind. Kastlen came out of her hiding spot and for reasons I no longer
know, our group came to an end. I thought it was all over, so I proceeded to
walk through the town, until a level 50 Tauren spotted me. The chase was on.
I made a quick turn and backtracked toward the road out of
the town. Heading to Darkshore was the only way to be safe from the Horde
invaders, or so I thought. I jumped into the small stream outside the town and
tried to swim to the other side where the road continued. The Tauren managed to
perform some type of attack on me and my health almost hit zero. I have no idea
what kind of luck pulled it off but it wasn’t important to me. I ran a bit
farther and the Tauren lost interest, disappearing into the fog of night.
As I started to run back, I noticed that a large group of
the Horde force was moving in my direction. It hit me immediately that they
didn’t just come here to play around, they were here to show they weren’t
kidding. They would try to take more. I ran back into Astranaar from the side
and noticed a hippogryph service. I hopped on and headed to Auberdine, my old
home. The quests, the levels, the items, it wasn’t about any of that anymore. It
was all about the ride. As I entered Darkshore, the channels were filled with
people saying “They won’t get here” and “We can hold them off”. While I
commended their “bravery”, it was a little too late to be expecting much
victory. I reached Auberdine the second another character sounded that Darkshore
was under attack. They were coming, and there was that.
I ran to the Inn and immediately began telling everyone to
either run or stand up and fight and stop complaining. Everyone continued on,
ignoring my comments and within minutes, the Taurens and Orcs (some on mounts)
stormed into Auberdine. The slaughter was even faster this time and all the low
levels could do was provide the Horde with some quick kills to slow them down. I
noticed the one area that was completely empty. It was the dock, the dock to
Darnassus, our homeland. They were going to try and hijack a boat to Darnassus.
It became utterly simplified in my head. I asked that any and all forced defend
the docks. Once again they ignored, but some brought themselves over there
anyway. The dock was officially a battleground. I ran to help as much as I
could, and saw the boat to Darnassus arrive. As I was fixated on the boat
running towards it, from behind I saw what looked to be a sword, and in that
moment, Melm, “I” was lying dead on the ground.
It was all over.
For that night anyway.
Written By: Joseph Bennett
