Quite a few players had accepted The First and the Last questline, but most of them were stuck on the step that required finding the three missing agents.
Gabryell gave everyone the coordinates of the three corpses, and in the end, they formed a thirty-nine-player raid to kill the Blightcaller together.
The thirty-nine players gathered at Chillwind Camp, then marched toward the Eastern Plaguelands in a grand procession.
Scattered Horde players along the road saw them coming and went quiet.
"Haha, look at them. The Horde are scared."
"We kill them?"
"No need to be polite with Horde," Gabryell said. "Kill them all."
Like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, they cleared every Horde player they met along the way and fought all the way to the Blightcaller's location in the Eastern Plaguelands.
"Leader, there are more than ten Horde players around the Blightcaller," the Rogue scouting ahead reported.
"End it fast," Gabryell said. "The main tank picks up the Blightcaller. Healers keep the tank alive. Melee stay on the boss. Casters kill the Horde."
They had to clear the Horde players immediately. Otherwise, they would not be able to kill the Blightcaller in peace.
As long as no Horde players interfered, thirty-nine Alliance players could bring him down very quickly.
In Gabryell's raid, Mages and Warlocks made up nearly half the group. Their AoE was absurdly strong. If they dropped it properly, they could wipe those dozen or so Horde players in no time.
"Go!"
At Gabryell's command, thirty-nine players pounced like hungry wolves.
There were around fifteen Horde players beside the Blightcaller, all working on their own questline. When they saw a full Alliance raid charging at them, they froze for half a second.
"Holy crap, the Alliance are here to kill the Blightcaller!"
"Run!"
"Fight!"
When multiple Blizzards came crashing down, the Horde players finally snapped awake and realized the Alliance's goal.
By then, some wanted to run, while others wanted to fight.
That was the problem with scattered players. They were not from the same guild, they had no unified voice command, and their reactions were completely split.
There was no way loose players like that could withstand a raid led by Gabryell.
"Leave none alive."
They were all Honor.
Kill as many as possible.
Gabryell had already reached Rank 6, Knight. If he wanted to climb higher, he would have to wait for Alterac Valley to open.
A temporary rank cap did not mean Honor was useless.
The more Honor he built up now, the better his chances once battlegrounds opened. If things went well, he might even jump several ranks at once.
The disorganized Horde players collapsed at the first touch and were quickly wiped out.
"All damage on the Blightcaller."
The Blightcaller was their real target this time.
Killing this fallen Alliance hero would earn a generous reward from Bolvar.
The Blightcaller was a level 62 elite. A normal party would have a terrible time trying to kill him, but against a full raid, he was going to be drowned under numbers.
With more than seventy thousand health, the Blightcaller still did not last long under the pressure of thirty-nine players.
This former first and last human ranger lord had once been a hero of the Alliance. Now he stood as one of Sylvanas's most trusted champions.
"Teacher-student romance," Gabryell muttered.
Only he knew that after Sylvanas became Warchief of the Horde, Nathanos Blightcaller would step fully into the public eye as the Dark Lady's champion.
He was one of the few people in the Horde whom Sylvanas truly trusted. Missions personally assigned by Nathanos often represented the Banshee Queen's own will.
Blizzard would later even release the official short story Dark Mirror to explore their relationship.
The story made it clear that their bond had never been simple. Sylvanas had visited Nathanos's home often when he was still alive, and after his undeath, she went as far as using Val'kyr power and a grim ritual to restore and reshape his ruined body.
No matter how players argued about the details, one thing was obvious.
Nathanos was different to Sylvanas.
He was not just another servant.
"Heroes really do have a weakness for beautiful women," Gabryell thought. "Nathanos probably lost to his own teacher long before he lost to undeath."
"He's dead!"
Someone cried out in surprise.
Under the raid's attacks, the Blightcaller finally could not hold on and fell.
"Holy crap, what is this? A level 62 boss doesn't drop gear?"
"So poor. Are Horde NPCs all this broke?"
"Undead really are undead. Nothing left but bones."
The Blightcaller was a quest NPC and had no proper fixed loot table, leaving the players deeply disappointed.
Gabryell was disappointed too.
You were a level 62 elite, Sylvanas's trusted champion, and the only human ranger lord in history.
Could you not at least carry a Teebu's when you went outside?
"The Horde players will start resurrecting soon," Gabryell said. "Everyone portal back to the city."
The quest was done.
There was no point staying and getting tangled up in a larger fight. The dead Horde players would definitely call for help. If the Alliance raid stayed here, this would turn into a chaotic brawl.
Gabryell opened a portal on the spot, and everyone returned to Stormwind together.
When the resurrected Horde players saw the empty cabin and the dead Blightcaller, they were furious.
"Holy crap, the Alliance killed our quest NPC!"
"Damn it, those disgusting Alliance. They're deliberately blocking our quests."
They did not know that the Blightcaller was the target NPC for the Alliance quest Order Must Be Restored.
"Then let's go to Chillwind Camp and kill one of their NPCs too," someone said. "See how they like having their quest blocked."
With players' current levels, killing the NPCs at Chillwind Camp was already possible.
"Call more people. We'll go to Chillwind Camp together. I've been sick of the Alliance for ages. This time, we wipe them out."
"I'll call people too. The Alliance has gone too far. If we don't wipe Chillwind Camp this time, I'll write my name backward."
The Horde players began calling friends and gathering people for an attack on Chillwind Camp.
Gabryell, who had already returned to Stormwind, had no idea that completing Order Must Be Restored would trigger a war between the Alliance and the Horde.
The Horde wanted to massacre Chillwind Camp, and Alliance players would never let them succeed.
A large-scale battle between both sides was bound to erupt there.
It was even possible that Alliance players would retaliate by attacking the Horde's Bulwark, eventually turning the whole thing into an even larger conflict.
This was no longer the open beta period. Everyone's levels had risen.
As long as enough players gathered, NPC guards were no longer something to fear. Camps across the world were no longer completely safe.
None of that had anything to do with Gabryell for now.
He returned to Stormwind Keep, found Bolvar, and told him the Blightcaller was dead.
Bolvar was shockingly easy to convince.
He believed Gabryell without demanding any proof.
No wonder Onyxia had managed to fool him for so long.
"I now have reason to suspect that after Bolvar became the Lich King, Sylvanas's solo assault on Icecrown Citadel wasn't only about the Helm of Domination," Gabryell thought. "Part of it — maybe a large part — was revenge for the Blightcaller."
The order to kill Nathanos had come from Bolvar.
Debts had owners.
Even though Sylvanas would later restore Nathanos with Val'kyr power, she would definitely still remember who had sent people to kill him.
Once Bolvar became the Lich King, Sylvanas had every reason to go after him. Better yet, killing him would not directly violate the Alliance-Horde balance or immediately start another war between the two factions.
Bolvar, completely unaware that future disaster would one day come knocking, asked Gabryell to choose his reward.
Order Must Be Restored offered three blue items.
Gorewood Bow.
Stormrager.
Sacred Protector.
Gorewood Bow was not only useful for Hunters. Warriors and Rogues could also use it as a stat stick. Its +9 Stamina in particular made it attractive for Warriors.
Sacred Protector, ignoring the Intellect and looking only at its armor, block, and Stamina, was also a decent shield for Warriors who had just reached level 60.
As a Mage, Gabryell naturally chose Stormrager.
Stormrager
Rare
Binds when picked up
Ranged
Wand
57 - 106 Nature Damage
Speed 1.30
62.7 damage per second
+8 Stamina
+5 Intellect
With its 1.30 attack speed and both Intellect and Stamina, Stormrager was one of the best PvP wands available.
Even for solo farming, as long as the mobs were not Nature-resistant, it was worth equipping.