After handing the four deeds over to Weldon Barov, Gabryell received the follow-up quest, The Last Barov.
The objective was simple enough: travel to The Bulwark, assassinate Alexi Barov, and bring his head back to Weldon.
Alexi was a level-60 elite with more than thirty thousand health. Gabryell certainly wasn't going to solo him, but fortunately, he didn't have to.
He had an entire group with him.
Once David, Susie, and Nightlord's parties had gathered at Chillwind Camp, they all joined Gabryell's raid.
"We're going to The Bulwark."
That was all he had to say.
Everyone immediately perked up.
"Ogabs, are we going to hit the Horde?" Coldhands asked excitedly.
"Kill the Horde."
"Wipe out The Bulwark."
"Should we call more people?"
"Bring the whole guild. Let's remind the Horde who runs Western Plaguelands."
Gabryell stared at the raid chat.
Every reply was more bloodthirsty than the last.
These people clearly weren't thinking about a quest anymore. Given half an excuse, they would happily turn Western Plaguelands into another Southshore and start a war involving hundreds of players.
Dangerous.
Very dangerous.
"Looks like everyone's been itching for another big fight."
It had already been more than a month since the massive battle at Southshore. Even with the Honor system active, they hadn't organized another war on that scale. Most PvP lately had been small skirmishes, with a few dozen players at most getting dragged into messy open-world fights.
Gabryell suddenly had an idea.
"We should raid Orgrimmar sometime."
Molten Core progression would begin next Tuesday. Once that started, the guild's schedule would become much tighter, and there wouldn't be nearly as much time for large-scale PvP.
So why not use the next couple of days?
Maybe they could pay Thrall a visit.
And, while they were there, send him to the grave.
"We'll do it sometime in the next two days."
Gabryell checked the guild roster.
Fearless already had well over a hundred players at level 58 or higher, possibly closer to two hundred. By tomorrow, a large portion of them would probably hit 60. Add in everyone already above level 55, and within another few days the guild would have several hundred players capable of joining the raid.
For a city assault, the level-55-plus players didn't have to carry the fight. They could come along, contribute where they could, and add bodies to the push.
The level-60 players would be the real force.
With enough preparation and the right timing, breaking into Orgrimmar and killing Thrall wasn't impossible.
And they didn't need to fight the entire city head-on.
If Orgrimmar's defenses were too strong, one force could create a disturbance at the main entrance while another group slipped around and hit Thrall from another direction.
As long as Thrall died, Gabryell would consider the raid a success.
The more he thought about it, the more tempting it became.
The timing could actually be perfect.
Madhouse, Haralei, and several other medium-to-large Alliance guilds were preparing to begin Molten Core progression within the next couple of days. The Horde's larger guilds would undoubtedly be doing the same.
And guilds pushing progression rarely sent only forty people.
Any guild with enough level-60 players would try to organize multiple raid groups, pulling as many geared players as possible into Molten Core.
Once both factions had hundreds of their strongest players locked inside raid instances, open-world defenses would suddenly become much thinner.
That sounded like an excellent time for Thrall to have a very bad evening.
"They can bring as many raid groups as they want," Gabryell thought. "They're going to wipe anyway."
He wasn't worried about other guilds racing ahead over the next couple of days.
Molten Core would teach them humility soon enough.
"Ogabs, should we start calling people over?" David asked.
When it came to fighting the Horde, David never needed much encouragement.
Gabryell pulled himself out of his Orgrimmar plans.
"Not today. We're only here for a quest."
He quickly laid out the plan.
"Your three parties stay outside The Bulwark and provoke the Horde. Get them to come out and keep them busy for as long as possible. My group will circle around the side, hit the back of the camp, and kill the quest NPC. The moment we're done, everyone heads straight back to Chillwind Camp."
Trying to assassinate Alexi while a crowd of Horde players stood around him would be needlessly difficult.
They needed those players somewhere else.
David sounded disappointed.
"So we're letting them off easy today."
Coldhands laughed. "Dragging Horde players around the map? That's my specialty."
OldSeven immediately joined in. "We'll dance outside the gate until they come out, then take them for a nice long walk around the farms."
Dancing in front of The Bulwark was basically the PvP equivalent of standing outside someone's house and yelling, Come get me.
Sooner or later, somebody would take the bait.
And Coldhands and OldSeven were perfect for the job. Both of them loved showing off, irritating people, and turning simple PvP into something far more annoying than it needed to be.
Once they reached the outskirts of The Bulwark, Gabryell took Carlos, Danielly, Smooch, and DeathScum up the mountainside to circle around the camp.
Alexi Barov was a level-60 elite with roughly thirty-four thousand health and enough melee damage that trying to rush him without a tank and healer would be asking for trouble.
Meanwhile, the distraction had already begun.
"Hahaha! They took the bait!" Coldhands shouted over voice chat. "A whole bunch of them came out!"
OldSeven sounded equally delighted.
"Perfect. Let's take them for a walk."
Gabryell ignored whatever disaster was unfolding at the front gate.
His group had already reached the rear of The Bulwark.
DeathScum went ahead in Stealth to scout.
A moment later, he whispered back.
"Ogabs, the back's clear. Everyone went toward the front."
Perfect.
"Then we do this fast."
They couldn't afford to drag the fight out.
This was Horde territory. The moment someone noticed what was happening, reinforcements would start coming back. If enough Horde players returned, there would be no chance of finishing Alexi off cleanly.
"Smooch, pull him over here."
Alexi was essentially a Rogue-style melee elite with a large health pool. Rather than fight him in the open where passing Horde players might notice, Gabryell had Smooch pull him away from the camp and toward a secluded corner near the mountainside.
Carlos picked him up.
Danielly started healing.
The three DPS opened up.
With a full five-man party, Alexi didn't last long.
He died before the Horde realized what was happening.
Gabryell picked up Head of Alexi Barov.
"Done. Everyone back to Chillwind Camp."
There was absolutely no reason to stay around and celebrate.
They climbed back toward the mountain route and began circling away from The Bulwark.
Then the reports from the distraction team started coming in.
"Damn it, I died."
"Me too."
Apparently David and the others had kept the Horde occupied a little too successfully.
Several members of the raid were already dead.
That was open-world PvP for you.
Once the other side had more people, eventually someone was going to hit the floor.
"Use the Spirit Healer and come back with Resurrection Sickness," Gabryell said. "I'll cover the repair bills."
There was no point wasting another fifteen minutes on corpse runs and trying to regroup inside Horde territory.
The dead players took the sickness and headed back.
By the time everyone reunited at Chillwind Camp, almost half the raid was standing around with Resurrection Sickness.
At least the quest was done.
Gabryell walked over to Weldon Barov and handed him Alexi's head.
Weldon was ecstatic.
"A glorious day! At last, the disgrace to House Barov is dead and my fortune is secure. Take your reward and get out of my sight."
With his brother gone and the four deeds supposedly back under his control, Weldon clearly believed he was now the rightful master of the old Barov holdings.
Caer Darrow.
Brill.
Tarren Mill.
Southshore.
Gabryell almost felt bad for him.
Almost.
Those deeds were little more than worthless pieces of paper now. House Barov had already collapsed, Lordaeron had fallen, and half the land Weldon believed he owned was controlled by entirely different powers.
Let him enjoy the fantasy.
Gabryell wasn't here to argue inheritance law with a ruined nobleman.
He was here for the reward.
Barov Peasant Caller (Rare)
Binds when picked up
Trinket
Use: Calls forth 3 servants of the House Barov that will fight, cook, and clean for you. (10 Min Cooldown)
The three servants didn't have much health and certainly weren't going to win fights by themselves.
That wasn't what made the trinket good.
Against casters, three extra bodies hitting at once could cause brutal spell pushback. Against Hunters, the servants could even run into traps and trigger them before the player did.
It was one of those items that looked like a toy until someone actually understood how much utility three disposable summons could provide.
"Coldhands, if you're planning to solo Princess, you should get this too."
Gabryell sent him a private message.
"I'll send you the quest chain later."
The Barov Peasant Caller was particularly useful while soloing Princess Theradras. The servants could soak an interaction and help bait out Dust Field, giving the player another opening to maintain distance and continue the kite.
With only a ten-minute cooldown, the trinket would be available again for practically every Princess run.
For that particular job, it could be even more convenient than something like Ancient Cornerstone Grimoire, Onyxia's off-hand that summoned a skeleton on a much longer cooldown.
Coldhands quickly replied that he would get it.
Gabryell switched back to raid chat.
"Everyone fly to Menethil Harbor. We're taking the boat to Theramore, then heading north to Azshara."
When Gabryell had originally posted his Molten Core attunement guide, he had deliberately left out Duke Hydraxis and the later Hydraxian Waterlords quests.
He also hadn't explained the rune-dousing mechanic inside Molten Core.
There had been no reason to.
No other guild was anywhere close to reaching Majordomo Executus yet. Whether those guilds knew how to extinguish the runes made no practical difference if they couldn't clear far enough into the raid to need the mechanic.
Fearless was different.
Gabryell had never seriously considered the possibility that the raid he personally led would fail to reach Majordomo forever.
Maybe they wouldn't make it that far during their very first reset.
That was fine.
After another week or two of gear and practice, they would.
And when that happened, he wanted the Hydraxian Waterlords chain finished and the guild ready to douse the runes immediately.
There was no point discovering a progression blocker after they had already reached it.