They opened a portal back to Ironforge and flew to the Eastern Plaguelands.
At the lake south of Corin's Crossing, they found the plagued water elementals and used the Aspect of Neptulon on them.
The Aspect fought against the corruption inside the elementals, driving them into a frenzy and transforming them into Discordant Surges. Once killed, each could drop the quest item they needed: Discordant Bracers.
There simply weren't enough elementals for four parties to farm efficiently at the same time, so the groups had to take turns. Any party that finished collecting all 12 Discordant Bracers waited by the lake for the others.
"Done, done."
"Finally. There are way too few of these things. Not nearly enough to go around."
"Once everyone's finished, we're going back to Azshara together."
When the last party finally collected its twelfth bracer, the raid headed out.
They flew to Menethil Harbor, took the boat to Theramore, and from there made their way back to Azshara.
Once they reached Duke Hydraxis's island, they turned in the two prerequisite quests they had completed. For Poisoned Water, they handed over the 12 Discordant Bracers along with the Aspect of Neptulon.
Duke Hydraxis then gave them the next quest.
Eye of the Emberseer: Bring the Eye of the Emberseer to Duke Hydraxis in Azshara.
"Ember... Ember-whatever."
OldSeven stared at the quest text.
"Why does that name sound so familiar?"
DesertWanderer immediately mocked him. "You fought him two days ago. Your memory is already gone?"
OldSeven looked genuinely confused.
"I did?"
Smooch stared at him. "OldSeven, are you an idiot? The fire elemental in UBRS. The one we freed after clicking that damn altar."
Understanding finally dawned on him.
"Oh! That guy. We freed him, and the bastard thanked us by trying to burn us alive."
"Smooch, language," Danielly said.
Smooch didn't care.
"OldSeven doesn't mind, right?"
OldSeven wisely chose not to argue.
Everyone else just shook their heads.
"We're going to UBRS."
Gabryell opened a portal to Ironforge right there on the island.
Everyone had already unlocked Thorium Point, so from Ironforge they could fly straight to Searing Gorge and head into Blackrock Mountain.
They barely stopped moving the entire way.
Ever since the major attunement routes had started spreading among the playerbase, Blackrock Mountain had become one of the busiest places on the server.
"Damn. Look at all those skeletons."
They hadn't even entered the mountain proper yet, and the entrance was already littered with piles of bones.
"How many people died here?"
Even David, who normally loved PvP, clicked his tongue at the sight.
"These past couple of days must've been nonstop fighting. Morning to night, killing each other on sight."
"Don't chicken out."
Susie immediately shut that down.
"If we run into Horde, we charge."
That was the Warrior philosophy.
Either die charging in, or die after getting far enough in to Whirlwind something.
Once they entered Blackrock Mountain, however, the bloody Horde blockade they had imagined was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, around the central routes leading deeper into the mountain, they found a large number of Alliance players.
The Alliance had clearly taken control of the area for the moment.
"Madhouse, Halalei, Westreach, Freedom, War Angels... there are players from every major guild here."
Carlos looked around.
"They probably stationed people here specifically to keep the Horde from interfering. Everyone's working on attunements, so they've basically turned Blackrock Mountain into Alliance territory."
That made sense.
A lot of Alliance guilds were working through their raid preparations right now, and nobody wanted Horde players camping the routes into the instances.
The Horde had fewer reasons to concentrate such large numbers here at the moment. Their Onyxia attunement route still wasn't widely known, so most of the Horde players coming to Blackrock Mountain were there for Molten Core or the regular dungeons.
They were badly outnumbered.
Any Horde player trying to get through had little choice but to die, resurrect farther ahead, and slowly corpse-run toward the instance entrance.
"Ignore it," Gabryell said. "We're here for UBRS."
He opened his friends list.
Dreamshade, Smoke Touch, and several of the other guild leaders were all busy farming instances rather than joining the fighting outside.
If they weren't interested, neither was he.
"Boring."
David watched a few Horde players resurrect only to get flattened by a crowd of Alliance almost immediately.
He lost interest on the spot.
David liked fights.
He didn't care much for twenty people dogpiling three.
Susie had bigger ambitions.
"Raiding a Horde capital would be more fun."
That lined up perfectly with what Gabryell had been thinking lately.
He smiled.
"There'll be a chance."
He certainly wasn't going to announce the Orgrimmar plan ahead of time.
A city raid worked best when the other faction didn't know it was coming. If word leaked and the Horde prepared in advance, then on a relatively balanced server, forcing a large raid through the front gates and killing the faction leader would become vastly harder.
Surprise was half the battle.
They continued toward Blackrock Spire.
This time, Igor successfully made the jump without embarrassing himself.
"There are twenty of us," Gabryell said. "We'll split into two ten-man raids."
Ten people were more than enough for what they needed.
"With ten, killing the first boss is easy."
In fact, a decent ten-man raid could push much farther than Pyroguard Emberseer. Rend was entirely manageable, and a sufficiently geared group could continue beyond him as well.
Less prepared groups were safer bringing fifteen.
"Nightlord, your party comes with me. David and Susie, combine your groups."
Nightlord's party consisted of Igor, Hugo, Lunatori, and Coldhands, which fit neatly alongside Gabryell's five-man group.
"We'll go in first," David said.
David and Susie's players left Gabryell's raid, formed their own, and entered Blackrock Spire.
There was another reason Gabryell had divided the groups that way.
David had already collected the three gems and completed his Seal of Ascension the day before, so he could open the way into UBRS himself.
At the moment, Gabryell and David were the only two among them who had the key.
Naturally, they needed to be in separate raids.
"Are we going in too?" Nightlord asked.
"Not yet."
Gabryell turned to Danielly.
"Snowy and I are going in first. Nobody else enter until I tell you."
Carlos frowned.
"Why?"
Igor immediately became suspicious.
"What are you two doing in there that the rest of us aren't allowed to see?"
Smooch understood instantly.
"I know. Secret date. They don't want us third-wheeling."
Gabryell ignored all three of them.
"Snowy and I are going in first to fish for Jed."
There was no reason to run UBRS without checking whether Jed had spawned.
Carlos looked curious.
"How do you fish for him?"
"Make a /target macro, then use the Priest's Mind Vision to check for Jed. If we can't find him, he didn't spawn. We come back out, reset the instance, and try again. If he's there, then the rest of you come in."
Carlos nodded.
"Fine. You two go."
Gabryell and Danielly entered Blackrock Spire.
Once inside, Gabryell walked her through the process.
"Snowy, use Mind Soothe on the mobs to the left and right. We're going straight to the UBRS entrance."
"Okay."
Danielly actually had Mind Soothe on her action bar.
That already put her ahead of plenty of Priests who learned the spell and then forgot it existed.
She soothed the mobs on both sides, reducing their aggro range enough for the two of them to slip through without pulling.
Gabryell led the way carefully.
"Remember, Mind Soothe can be resisted. If it gets resisted, the mob can aggro you immediately. Never use it assuming it's guaranteed to work."
"Got it."
They slipped past the remaining patrols and reached the UBRS door.
Gabryell then showed her how to set up the target macro and use it together with Mind Vision.
"Stand near the door and use the macro. See if you can pick up Jed."
The macro targeted Jed.
Danielly moved into position and tried it.
Nothing.
"I can't find him."
No Jed.
Gabryell didn't hesitate.
"All right. Soothe the entrance mobs again. We're resetting."
The two of them left the instance.
Gabryell reset it.
Then they went back in and repeated the exact same process.
Mind Soothe.
Slip past the mobs.
Reach the UBRS entrance.
Check for Jed.
Nothing.
Out again.
Reset.
They repeated the routine several times.
On the fourth reset, Danielly stopped.
"Wait."
Gabryell immediately looked over.
"You found him?"
"Yeah."
Finally.
Gabryell let out a breath.
They had successfully fished up an instance with Jed.
"Carlos, you guys can come in now."
As far as Gabryell was concerned, a UBRS run without Jed felt incomplete.
He had one particular reason for caring.
Briarwood Reed.
Gabryell stared toward the depths of the instance.
"Jed, you'd better drop Briarwood Reed for me."
Otherwise...
He could always come back.
Ten times.
Fifty times.
A hundred if necessary.
Gabryell fully intended to farm enough Briarwood Reeds to equip everyone in the guild who needed one.