They were still missing one deed: The Deed to Caer Darrow.
The group returned to the Viewing Room, took the other passage, and made their way into the Headmaster's Study.
The Headmaster's Study was divided into two floors. Three bosses occupied the upper level: Lorekeeper Polkelt, Doctor Theolen Krastinov, and Instructor Malicia. Three more waited below: The Ravenian, Illucia Barov, and Alexei Barov.
Only after clearing all six rooms would Scholomance's final boss, Darkmaster Gandling, appear in the center of the study to teach the players a lesson personally.
The white-bearded Oldman had plenty of nasty tricks, including Curse of the Darkmaster, which reduced a target's Strength and Stamina by 50 for an entire minute.
Gabryell still hadn't decided whether they were going to bother with Gandling today, so he ignored the three bosses upstairs for now. Their immediate goal was the Barov Family Vault on the eastern side of the lower level, where The Deed to Caer Darrow was waiting.
Alexei was one of the heads of House Barov. Even in undeath, he remained in the family vault among the remnants of the Barovs' former wealth, as if the fallen noble house still had some chance of reclaiming its old glory.
Two skeletal guards stood beside him, and both hit extremely hard. Alexei himself wasn't exactly gentle either.
"Snowy, Shackle one of the skeletons. We burn the other one first."
Having a Priest in Scholomance really was convenient. Shackle Undead was practically a VIP pass through half the dungeon.
Danielly opened with Shackle Undead on one of the guards.
At almost the same moment, Carlos charged in and picked up Alexei along with the remaining skeleton.
"Full damage on the add. Kill it fast."
Gabryell watched the party's health bars begin to fall.
Alexei wasn't dangerous merely because of his melee damage. He could cast Immolate, cover targets with Veil of Shadow, and constantly punish anyone standing near him with Unholy Aura.
That aura was the real source of pressure.
Anyone close to Alexei kept taking Shadow damage, forcing Danielly to heal through a steady stream of unavoidable damage while still keeping Carlos alive. The longer the fight lasted, the more mana it drained from her.
The plan was simple: kill the unshackled guard first, then burn Alexei down before Danielly ran dry.
"Snowy, dispel Immolate off Carlos."
Danielly reacted immediately and removed it.
"Whenever the tank gets a removable debuff and you have the mana to spare, clear it quickly," Gabryell added.
"Got it, Mentor."
Danielly took the advice seriously. She still had plenty to learn before she could call herself an exceptional Priest, but she was improving quickly.
A moment later, Alexei cast Veil of Shadow on Carlos.
The healing he received instantly dropped by 75 percent.
Gabryell reacted at once.
Veil of Shadow was a curse, so he removed it with Remove Lesser Curse almost as soon as it appeared. Leaving it on Carlos for even a few extra seconds while Alexei and the skeletal guard were pounding on him could easily have gotten the tank killed.
"I hate aura bosses."
Smooch watched her own health continue ticking downward.
"This is disgusting."
Danielly started applying a low-rank Renew to anyone taking steady aura damage, using it to blunt the constant health loss without wasting too much mana on unnecessary direct heals.
The moment the first skeletal guard died, Gabryell called the switch.
"Everyone on Alexei."
With the extra guard gone and Alexei's dangerous debuffs being removed quickly, Carlos was much easier to keep alive.
Now the only question was whether they could kill the boss before Danielly's mana became a problem.
Gabryell kept an eye on her casts.
She wasn't mindlessly using the same rank of Heal every time. When Carlos wasn't in immediate danger, she deliberately downranked to conserve mana and only used heavier heals when the situation called for them.
"Not bad."
Gabryell was impressed.
She had picked up the idea quickly.
Knowing when to downrank was one of the differences between a Priest who simply knew how to heal and one who could keep a raid alive through a long progression fight without emptying their mana bar halfway through.
Definitely teachable.
Gabryell was increasingly satisfied with his apprentice.
For someone who hadn't been playing at this level for long, Danielly absorbed new techniques frighteningly fast. If she kept improving at this rate, she had every chance of becoming Fearless's best Dwarf Priest.
She was absolutely going to Molten Core next Tuesday.
The guild's other two level-60 Dwarf Priests would be coming as well.
After the first guard, Alexei went down without any further disasters.
The remaining shackled skeleton was quickly cleaned up afterward.
"Haha! My favorite part."
Smooch immediately headed for the corpse.
Ever since she had pulled Alanna's Embrace from Ras Frostwhisper, she had started believing she had inherited Lunatori's legendary loot luck.
"Watch this. I'm getting us another best-in-slot drop."
She looted Alexei with complete confidence.
The loot window opened.
Lightforge Bracers (Rare)
Binds when equipped
Wrist
Plate
261 Armor
+7 Strength
+4 Agility
+10 Stamina
+8 Spirit
Durability 45 / 45
Requires Level 52
Lightforge Armor (0/8)
DeathScum stared at the item.
"Smooch, what kind of garbage did you just pull?"
Carlos looked equally unimpressed. "Plate again? I don't need that."
Gabryell walked past them and picked up The Deed to Caer Darrow.
"That's Paladin T0."
Smooch looked at the strange mix of stats. "Is it even good?"
Gabryell thought about it for a moment.
"Depends on what you mean by good."
Lightforge Armor was one of those early Vanilla sets that couldn't quite decide what kind of Paladin it wanted to support.
The individual pieces mixed melee stats, survivability, and Spirit, while the original set bonuses pulled in several directions at once. Three pieces gave a small healing bonus, five gave extra Attack Power against Undead and Demons, and the later bonuses focused on resistances, Fear resistance, and survivability.
It wasn't a dedicated Holy set.
It wasn't a clean Retribution set either.
It was simply very Vanilla.
"So basically Ret gear?" Smooch asked.
"Calling it Ret gear is probably the kindest interpretation."
Smooch sighed.
"So my lucky hand is gone."
Apparently Alanna's Embrace had used up all her luck.
At least the bracers were Bind on Equip, so they weren't completely worthless.
"Everyone roll for it," Gabryell said. "Whoever wins can throw it on the Auction House and see if some Paladin buys it."
Carlos glanced at him. "Not saving it for Igor?"
"No."
Gabryell answered without hesitation.
"We're starting raid progression. Igor is healing."
If Igor wanted to swing a two-hander and chase the damage meters, he could do that on his Rogue alt once it reached level 60.
Gabryell had no intention of encouraging his Retribution Paladin fantasies right before Molten Core.
Ret's face-roll era was still a long way off.
For now, Igor could put on a dress, stand in the back, and heal like a respectable Paladin.
Everyone rolled for the bracers.
Danielly won.
Nobody cared much.
There were still plenty of Retribution Paladins running around at level 60 right now, while everyone was exploring dungeons and experimenting with builds. Once serious raid progression became the norm, though, most Alliance raid Paladins would inevitably find themselves pushed toward Holy.
Carlos looked around the Headmaster's Study.
"So, are we killing the other bosses?"
"I'll check on the other three groups."
Gabryell contacted David first.
David's group had wiped once on Balnazzar, but everything after that had gone smoothly. They were currently escorting Taelan out of Hearthglen.
Susie's group had already finished Of Love and Family and was waiting at Chillwind Camp.
Nightlord's group had somehow caught up with David's. They were already in Hearthglen, waiting for David's group to finish its escort so Taelan could respawn and they could start theirs.
"I'm hard-carrying this run."
Igor sounded extremely pleased with himself.
The reason was obvious.
Stratholme's Undead side was packed with Undead mobs, giving a Retribution Paladin far more opportunities than usual to make use of his anti-Undead abilities and inflate his damage.
For once, Igor's Retribution build was actually having its moment.
That was a big part of why Nightlord's group had managed to catch up with David's.
Gabryell let him enjoy it.
There wouldn't be many opportunities once raid progression started.
"We're heading back to Chillwind Camp. We'll meet everyone there."
Gabryell decided against finishing Scholomance today.
They would have plenty of reasons to come back later. Igor would need access to the Alchemy Lab for Flasks of the Titans, and there was still plenty of useful gear to farm, including Witchblade and Bonecreeper Stylus.
There was no reason to force a full clear now.
Rather than waste time running all the way back out of Scholomance, Gabryell opened a portal to Ironforge.
The five of them stepped through, then took the gryphon back to Chillwind Camp.
Once all four groups had gathered, Gabryell planned to take everyone to Azshara and start working through the Hydraxian Waterlords quest chain.
The goal was to push everyone far enough that their next step would take them into Molten Core itself.
Next Tuesday was progression night.
They needed to be ready.