Death of a Dragon Killer

And so we found ourselves face to face with Gruul. His cyclops features scanning the cave for our presence, he could not have failed to hear our progress down the tunnel to his lair and the screams of the dying ogres we met there; soon enough we faced each other down. As we weighed each other up we 25 brave and true against the might of one solitary monster we reminded ourselves that this creature kills Dragons for sport. We were here to show him that not only had we killed dragons, but taken on a God and won. Any bravado was soon extinguished as Gruul raised one mighty fist and sent it crashing into the cave floor. As the reverberations bounced around the room, small chunks of the ceiling began to fall around our heads, it seemed that even the cave itself was against us this fight. With final preparations made, the order to charge was given. With Gwythyr spearheading the attack and Rugan and Daxu just behind we poured into the cavern, spreading around the place so that we might minimise any area damage he could bring to bear. Within seconds of the fight beginning what we feared was proved to be true. Huge chunks of the cave ceiling rained down upon us, forcing us to constantly move for fear of being crushed by the huge boulders that cascaded down. The second thing that we noticed was every now and again he would briefly focus his attention on one of the other Warriors and deliver such a blow that the shock of the impact could be felt yards away; Rugan and Daxu were in for an encounter of pain and suffering. We continued to warily attack for a while, ready to react in a second should he do something unexpected when all of a sudden he leapt slightly into the air and drove his fist straight down into the ground. Those of us stood close to him were flung into the air and away. As soon as we hit the ground again, a strange malaise crept over the entire group. Our limbs grew heavy and difficult to move we slowed rapidly, becoming statue-like until in no more than a few seconds we stood there, unable to move. Fortunately as soon as this began to happen, I sensed a powerful magic may be at work and surrounded myself in shadow. As soon as I did this I had full control of my limbs once more and could move freely again. Casting quick glances around the cave it seemed that the rest of the Rogues had the same thoughts. What our cloak did not protect us from was what Gruul did next. Perhaps my colleagues had only been wrapped in stone rather than turned to it as after the rest of the unit had become immobile the skin of stone around them shattered into thousands of shards flying around in all directions. Like 25 living grenades anyone standing within 20 feet of another person was hit by razor sharp pieces of rock. Those unfortunate to be held too close to one another really took a beating, but fortunately we were all still standing.

Running back in to the fight, I and several of the other Officers noticed something. Something was definitely different about Gruul. Had he grown taller? Our worst fears were confirmed when Rugan took a slap that if he were not made of sterner stuff probably would have broken him in two. The race was now well and truly on we had to finish him before he could get to the size that would finish us and the order to unleash hell was given. All the fury of Covenant was brought to bear upon him as mysterious artifacts obtained in the depths of the strangest and most dangerous of places were used. Secret techniques reserved only for the most desperate of times were employed and we prayed to our Gods that it would be enough. I myself had already activated one of my trinkets, a curious counting device that enhanced my speed greatly for a short period of time, and had released a tide of adrenaline into my system when I felt a great rage upon me. The Unraveller had awoken from its slumber and added its strength to mine. A mere second after this a felt a charge go down both arms almost simultaneously as both maces powers also awoke to lend even more speed to me. Within a mere 2 seconds, my arms were a blur as I poured everything I possibly could into the hide of this beast. Of course all this added haste and rage do wonders for your fighting prowess, but on larger creatures it also tends to draw their attention. Only just in time did we see it as first my compatriot in the arts of stealth, Raath, managed to raise his sword in time to barely deflect a hefty blow, then your faithful narrator saw only just in time the blow aimed directly at him and barely managed to throw himself out of harms way. We deemed it prudent that the beast think we were gone and vanished momentarily in a flash of powder. We continued our attack, dancing our way between the cave ins and praying that he did not notice us once more.

Thinking we had his abilities figured we continued for a short while until a strange reverberating sound began to echo around the room. It got louder and more painful until our casters could not concentrate on their spells. In a final last ditch attempt the healers threw all the timed healing spells they could at Gwythyr in the hope that they would keep him alive long enough for the effects to subside. It worked, but only just.

Again Gruul leapt into the air and again we were thrown back, though not as much as before because at least we knew what he was up to. As we fell back to earth, I noticed several people standing on rocks at the edge of the cave. They hadn't moved! Perhaps this was the key to restoring some order to an already chaotic fight? Again as I felt the clutches of the stone upon me I became one with the shadows and managed to find a space where there was nobody within many yards of me. As the crack of the exploding rocks filled the chamber I found myself unscathed and once more charged in to do combat with a much larger beast than the one we first attacked. Time was growing short for us to end this and again we did everything we could to end the struggle. For long minutes the battle raged as the cave ins became more frequent and the rocks much larger. Again Gruul grew to an even bigger size and again the created the reverberation that made spellcasting impossible. Eventually we saw in him that he was readying for another ground slam and in that instant all but a few ran to the rocks around the edge of the room. Those that made it in time were spared being hurled through the air and had more control over where they could go to avoid the deadly shower of sharp rocks that was about to rain down upon us. Once more we managed to get to places where we would take the minimum of damage and again we ran back in to carry on the fight.

Time was running short now. The blows that were raining down on Gwythyr were beginning to take their toll. Our healers were starting to tire also and we did not think we could keep it up for much longer. We estimated that we had a minute, maybe 90 seconds at most before people started dying, but we also noticed that Gruul for all his power and size was looking decidedly worse for wear; we went for it again. Using anything that had recharged its power from previously, we coaxed leaden arms into swinging that little bit harder. Everything that we had left was thrown at him in grim determination that he would fall before we did, after were we not the ones who had just cleared out Karazhan of the demon taint? We had slain not one but 2 Dragons and we had already dispatched Maulgar and his cohorts. In the furious effort to end his miserable existence, some casualties were inevitable. A few casters were caught unaware by a large rockfall, such was their concentration on the job in hand. I again was subjected to one of his vicious strikes but was too tired to get out of the way in time. His fist slammed into me, knocking the fight right out of me and left me, and several others, in a crumpled heap by his feet. It was a close run thing as we knew that any minute he could again leap into the air and cause us all to go flying back across the cave. In 30 seconds we knew that one way or another this fight would be over. In a last desperation move, Gruul did indeed leap and once more people were scattered to the corners of the room. This time we knew it would be the end and people were bunched up in ways that meant no one would be safe from the shredding that would take place when the shattering occurred. As people stood motionless, making peace with their Gods they awaited their fate...and waited and waited some more. With a groan that shook the cavern Gruul's legs gave way underneath him and sent him crashing to the ground. Whilst people were waiting for the end it seemed that the amassed curses, continuous spells and poisons did the job for us. All it took to push him over the edge was a Pyroblast from a diminutive Mage, Melyanna to finish the job. We were victorious but not without a price. Half the group lay dead or dying and the other half were frozen in stone, a precarious situation indeed if nothing happened soon. Fortunately for us the paralysation did not last forever and soon those surviving Priests, Paladins et al were bringing the souls of the fallen back to their mortal shells.

The mountains of Blade's Edge are a safer place once more, I hear there's a demon in Hellfire Citadel that threatens the air. Some demon called Magtheradon apparently, perhaps we'll go pay him a visit.

Death to the Servers!

I sit here, several hours after maintenance was due to end to find I cannot feed my addiction to my drug of choice. Server instability is the proffered excuse, but I claim different. They've gone off down the pub and forgotten to switch the buggers back on, that's what's really happened. They'll come back at about 3pm stinking of Kronenburg 1664 and realise that they've not plugged the servers back in from when the cleaner unplugged them to do the weekly hoover.

I defy anyone to prove me wrong!

No Progress...Denied!

Typical, you spend all day looking forward to spanking a brand new encounter in the game and what happens? Along comes a bug that messes everything up. It seems that Covenant were foiled by a very rare bug in the Raid ID that meant that only one or two people were saved to the correct instance after downing Maulgar. Those who weren't there could also get in, but more that half of the raid (myself included) either went into a dungeon with full respawn (including Maulgar) or were told that we weren't saved to the in instance and got booted. After a fruitless hour long wait for a fable GM response we gave up and did other things.

So the Curse of Covenant continues, with nefarious and eldritch powers giving the bosses another respite. Every single time we have faced off against the main boss of a place this has happened. Hakkar in ZG, Ragnaros in MC, Nefarion in BWL and Ossirian in AQ20 all glitched in some way or the server threw a wobbler making attempts impossible. Now Gruul has obviously joined the cartel and is mocking us from the other side of the maintenance break; I swear they do it on purpose.

Patch of the Day

Now that patch day is upon us, we finally get the rest of the content we were supposed to get in January, plus a few extra tweaks to the game in general. I am sitting here thinking happy thoughts at all the Karazhan gear I have that is going to be improved and how much more damage I'm going to be able to do with that and the changes to glancing blows AND the fact that I'm going to get Imp. Sap for free now and all the other gubbins...then I realise one thing. It's a Wednesday...23rd May...I'm sure that there's something else going on tonight...something more important than squeezing out a couple of extra DPS (if such a thing is possible). Yes folks the patch can wait until later for me, I'll be at home but my heart with be in Athens. Here's looking at number 6 :)

When you walk through a storm,
Hold you head up high,
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm,
There's a golden sky,
And the sweet silver song of the lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown.

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never walk alone.

This is Covenant!

And so it was that last night found us in the murky depths of Gruul the Drakonkiller's lair. For several weeks now we had been slowly building up our assaults, though disappointing to say, with mixed results. But this time we were better prepared, our recruitment drive had swelled the ranks of those willing to put their lives on the line in the pursuit of righteous judgement. Guild craftsmen had worked overtime in creating those items that could tip the balance of power in our favour; we prayed that it would be enough. Hungry for the victory that had eluded us for so long, we set out to bring the pain.

After summarily dispatching Maulgar's meagre defences, we quickly set up in our attack formation. Against us stood 5 Ogres, all different and equally dangerous in their own ways. Aside from the High King himself stood Krosh Firehand, a particularly angry mage, Olm the Summoner, master of the dark arts, Blindeye the Seer, a fanatical priest, and Kiggler the Crazed, a shaman whose grasp on reality seemed to have slipped long ago.

At the appointed hour Asahina, decked out in equipment that boosted her health far beyond the norm called our army into action. A second before Asahina unleashed a burning frenzy at Firehand, Hunters littered around the room fired a salvo of misdirecting arrows, causing the remainder of the Ogres to run at our Warriors and Druids. As the melee of Ogres and attackers was pulled throughout the cavern we set about our first target. With a snarl of fury to let the others know he was ready, Throndil let the rest of us know he had Blindeye firmly under control. Falling upon him like a pack of wild Banshees, myself and my fellow Rogues leapt from the shadows at his back and attempted to see what his insides looked like. Hunters unleashed volley after volley of arrows, each one deadly accurate and each one aimed to cause maximum damage. It was quickly clear that our enraged assault was having the desired effect as very quickly the Seer decided that healing himself would be prudent. What he didn't bargain on was 3 hyped up Rogues all deciding to kick him in various painful spots to interrupt his casting. With a Warlock's Curse of Tongues causing him to fumble over every word of his incantation, he stood no chance of healing. Soon resorting to more desperate measures, he shielded himself in an attempt to heal all his comrades at arms. Again with the curse slowing him, his shield was crushed within a mere few seconds and his spell was stopped by a timely counterspell from one of the Mages on hand. In the end there could be only one outcome. Blindeye the Seer was the first to fall and without a healer we just levelled the playing field.

Our second objective was Ohm the Summoner. Whilst the battle with Blindeye had been raging, Tinchena had been keeping herself busy. Not only was she supplying curses to other targets, but she was also keeping the Summoner's pets under control. Turning them against him to not only cause even more damage but to help turn aside some of his magical abilities, Ohm suffered the same fate as his Priestly counterpart. Try as he might to damage our efforts, without healing he quickly succumbed to the combined weight of the extra attackers from Blindeye. Objective 2 was completed with a minimum of fuss. We were still 25 strong and they had lost 40% of their forces.

Objective 3 required a different tactic to the previous. With his ability to knock back anyone close to him, we had given the task of keeping Kiggler the Crazed occupied to 2 Hunters, Ienina and Ramocheese. Decked out in Nature resistant clothing, they squared off at 30 paces and hurled arrow after arrow, receiving bolts of lightning in return. By the time the rest of the assault force brought their arms to bears on Kiggler, he was half dead already, a hundred or more arrows turning him into a ghastly, upright porcupine. With the added salvo from the rest of us, his defiance ended in a lethal crossfire that literally tore him to shreds. 0-3 to the away team and we hadn't even broken for oranges yet.

Other than Maulgar himself, this just left Krosh Firehand to defeat and again due to his far reaching blast waves we had to attack at range for fear of a quickly but extremely painful fiery end. Again due to the time that had passed since the opening salvo from Asahina, Krosh was in a fairly bad state, but we had no room in our minds for sympathy. For too long we had been beaten back by this ferocious follower of the flame and we wanted revenge. Again the cave momentarily darkened as the first volley blotted out what little light there was and a cry of surprise and pain was heard when it met its target. A few more salvos and the fight was done. There was but one opponent remaining and we were still 25 strong.

It is at this point that I must mention our brave Warriors and the efforts that they put into keeping their targets under control. High praise indeed must go to Gwythyr who from the very beginning stood bravely against the unending assault of Maulgar without fear or doubt. For some moments the battle had raged across the cavern and with no one to turn to for aid, Gwyth stood in front of the mountain...and made the mountain blink first. Of course this also would not be possible without the aid of those healers who stood to one side constantly raining down a barrage of divine magic to close the wounds that would ordinarily cut a person in two, praying that the next heal would arrive in time to save Gwythyr's life. Though exhausted the Priests were forced onto more and more with a ready supply of Innervates.

Our time had come. For weeks we Officers had envisioned this moment; High King Maulgar alone against 25 highly motivated and highly dangerous individuals. With a cry that would unnerve Illidan himself we ran forward, united in the knowledge that our destiny laid in our own hands. For some moments we attacked like a pack of wild dogs heaping pain and misery upon his ugly, deformed head. His wild spinning attacks were something we were aware of though and at the first sign of him winding up, we all ran out of his range. Two or three times this was accomplished until he managed to maneuver himself slightly and in the blink of an eye myself and my two fellow Rogues were crushed by a single swipe that put us into a world of hurt. By this time Maulgar had got himself into somewhat of a state and started to charge into the remainder of our forces. Though gravely wounded and fighting to remain awake through the pain, I could just make out several heavily armoured shaped darting in and out, taunting Maulgar, forcing him to turn his attention away from the group. Though he managed to put poor Melyanna down not once but twice in the ensuing melee, there was always a friendly Druid on hand to bring the broken Gnome back into the fight. As the battle raged and Maulgar sought to cause more devastation and hopefully snatch victory from our grasp.

As I slipped in and out of consciousness the battle raged for what seemed like days. For every blow that landed on a Warrior, a Priest healed it. For every blow we landed on him, it seemed to do little damage. But little things added together soon become small and small become large. In the war of attrition we were slowly beating him back. Piece by piece High King Maulgar's health was robbed from him as the dedicated assault continued unabated. Maulgar threw another whirlwind attack in an attempt to break our resolve, but like a parting of the waves the remainder of the group moved aside and let him through. Once over the waves came crashing back down upon him and as the tide erodes the shore, so did we chip away at his health; there could be only one outcome.

Not since the days when Covenant first went against the might of Razorgore in Blackwing Lair had a battle stymied us for so long, pushed us to the limit of our reserves and threatened the foundation of our brotherhood. But in one almighty grinding of gears the Juggernaut that is Covenant had wrenched itself free of the mire. Once more Covenant stands ready to take on everything that this land can throw at us. Again we can stand shoulder to shoulder, staring into Death's grinning face...and grin back.

We are Covenant and we are one.

On the Current State of Play

It's high time that I grace these hallowed pages once more with my munificence, truth be told I've been struggling mightily for something to say.

As our corpulent übermenschlich, Krinthor stated in his previous post progress has begun to speed up again; Prince Melchazzar has now bent his knee in fear of our mighty war machine. Illhoof and the rest of his cohorts have also tasted our steel and though we have been temporarily beaten back, it is only a matter of time before they fall. Even Gruul's Lair has felt our presence and whilst the final key to unlocking victory dangles tantalisingly out of our grasp, we make steady progress with each attempt on the place.

We've even managed to squeeze some new blood out of the old rickety server that is Khadgar. We welcome back to the fold Delafunk and the Space Goat, Donale, to the Covenant bosom. Also joining are Raath and Mel who came through their heroic trials with no problems; let's hope that their trial period is as fruitful for them.

That's not all the recruitment we are doing however, oh no! More trial runs are planned for the next few days and now that I'm in charge of this whole recruitment malarky (pay rise in the offing then Krin?) I hope to be speaking to many, many new people who want to join us.

Space filler:

Because I have nothing further to add to this post (see, still nothing to talk about) here are some funnehs.

http://http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.html You'll be wanting pages 252-266
http://www.lfgcomic.com/ If you've not already read this, WHY NOT DAMMIT??!?

Progress, progress, progress!

Yes, Aran has died and finally the wheels of the Covenant War Machine have begun to turn once more.

Recruitment is open, the guild is a thriving community once more, and we have begun to sweep aside the obstacles which once stood immoveable before us. Not only have we now defeated Aran, but last Kz reset, we swept him aside in a single attempt, the next day we did the same thing with the Prince.

Loot is flying, morale is high, and the world has been set to rights as I have finally returned to my shadowy former self, and Harddrinker is once again a healing tree.

Lets keep it up guys, and soon no one who opposes us shall do so and survive!

Krinthor.

The shade of aran....

Well after what seemed likes years of wipes on Nielas Aran we finally got him last night! Was a great raid, we where quick on getting to him and when we did we gave it our best shot, getting him down to -40% on all trys. But we did get wiped by one of out hunter lovely snake's.

But as it came round to repop time we had our best try yet. With the thought of us having to clear all that trash again the raid sprang into action and kicked the living poop out of the shade. The positioning of the raid was perfect, no one ran into the blizzard nor was flame wreath triggerd.

So well done that the raiders and ofc to the guild.

Now the real question is...who is next?

Rugan.