Slain by Elf

I found Grimbor drinking his favourite tipple in Lakeshire, and asked if he would mind helping out his old chum again. He agreed, like any Dwarf of good breeding would. Well, that and I offered to pick up his bar tab for the day. I had made nearly 1 gold in adventuring that day, I could almost afford it.

I had to venture up to a tower in the Redridge mountains to recover an item from a powerful mage, a task given to me by a mage in Elwynn Forest. I told Grimbor of this quest and he was happy enough to come along, knowing that he too would be rewarded for his help. The route to the tower was simple, with a few beasts to kill along the way. The tower itself was a different matter.

The tower was guarded by some strong enemies. They weren't inherently powerful, but it was clear that they had undergone far more training than mere grunts, and that we would have our hands full fighting more than a couple at a time. Nevertheless, we were tasked with a quest, and a quest we would complete. That's what Grimbor said, anyway. I suppose he was right, and I wasn't just thinking about what sort of reward I would get for such a dangerous task. Nope, not me.

Fighting our way to the top, whilst treacherous, was probably no more hazardous a battle for us than anyone from the guild finds themselves in on at least a weekly basis, so I shall spare you the gory details of fighting off hellhounds and well-trained guards. Once we were at the top though, things got a little more dangerous.

Waiting for us was the mage and several of his best guards. We managed to despatch the guards without attracting his attention. The mage was studying some tomes of his with amazing focus. Also, we fought on the other side of the tower, some thirty feet away, which must have damped the sound a bit. Nevertheless, we still faced the mage. We made sure we were prepared, and made our way around to him.

Then, we struck! The mage was taken by surprise, but quickly regained his wits and proved to be a difficult opponent in battle. It probably helped to have my demonic minion face him in hand-to-claw battle, distracting him from some of his spells, as both Grimbor and I specialise in spell-casting. Nevertheless, the mage was able to cast his spells, albeit impaired slightly. This was not too much concern for my Dwarven friend and I, as we have faced spell-casters before.

That was, until the mage realised that perhaps we had the better of him, and feared for his life. At that point, he summoned his own minion: a huge and ugly brute that was clearly far more inherently powerful than both Grimbor and myself. The tide of the battle had turned against us, and we were fighting for our lives again. Even when the mage dropped to the floor, there was barely a scratch on his minion, and we had expended most of our resources fighting the mage alone. What could we do?

We did what any resourceful adventurer would: I called out in my loudest and most commanding tone to grab the mage's body and find the magical item we were tasked to find. Grimbor did this, as did I, while we were beaten from the huge minion of the mage, clearly upset about the death of its master. We found what we were looking for! At this point though, we didn't look like making it out of the tower alive. Screaming like girls, we came up with a new plan of escape: forget the monster, JUMP!

So we turned and jumped over the bannisters, there for the protection of anyone at the top of the tower. Sadly, Grimbor found that they were too protective, as his smaller Dwarf legs would not carry him over the top of the bannister, and he was struck from behind by the minion, taking the last essence of his life. I had more luck though, as I was able to clear the bannister in one leap. I heard the last cry from my friend, something I never want to hear, and did my best to make it out of the tower to tell our story.

However, the fireworks caused by a battle of spell-casters that were seen coming out from the top window of this tower must have been quite a spectacle, as when I landed, with a heft thump, on a landing below me, I was greeted by a hellhound probably attracted by the colourful magic lights. The fight and the landing had taken most of my life out of me, and it was a single bite from the hellhound that finished me off.

I awoke in spirit form in front of the lady of the graveyard, and pleaded with her to give me life once more. She gracefully agreed, and I found myself corporeal once more, with Grimbor waiting for me on a fence nearby, a huge grin on his face. That was odd, for the inn was on the other side of the lake. Why was he smiling so? Grimbor reached inside his tunic, and out he pulled the magic item we had grabbed from the dead mage! A miracle! We hadn't made it out of the tower alive, but we had been blessed with some luck indeed.

Feeling a little ill from dying like that, we headed to the Lakeshire inn for refreshments before heading back to complete our quest. And, yes, I picked up the tab.

This entry was posted on 24th February 2005 at 5.06 pm and is filed under World of Warcraft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.