About sixty percent of Fearless was level 55 or higher, with another twenty percent between level 50 and 55. Half of the remaining members were between level 40 and 50, while the rest were newer players who had joined after launch and were still fairly low-level.
The Fearless had reached its membership cap of one thousand, with an average online rate of over half.
The moment the call went out on the TeamSpeak server, the online rate shot up to sixty or seventy percent. Among players level 55 and above, nearly four hundred were online.
"There's an event? What kind of event? Does anyone know?"
"Please, someone tell me what the event is. Are they giving everyone a girlfriend?"
"Keep dreaming. No girlfriends, but do you want a Princess?"
"Princess Theradras. You deserve her!"
"I heard other guilds have already started progressing Molten Core. Now that our guild is gathering for an event, are we going too?"
"No way. Didn't the guild leader say we wouldn't form the first raid group for Molten Core progression until next Tuesday?"
Guild chat was flying so fast that any message vanished under the scroll within seconds.
There was no way to command hundreds of people through guild chat, so Gabryell moved everyone to Ventrilo.
"Guild officers, each of you open a raid group. Try to get everyone grouped up."
They could probably form around ten raids. This was the strongest force Fearless could muster. In Tichondrius, only the Madhouse and the Hall of Fame were comparable to Fearless.
The Madhouse and the Hall of Fame had each organized three level 60 elite raids to progress Molten Core. Compared with Fearless, their elites were actually a little weaker. Even if they gathered every player above level 55, they could form seven or eight raids at most.
Fearless Guild's level 60 players alone should be enough to form five raids.
"Everyone get on Ventrilo. I'll be in overall command. Only the raid leaders get mic privileges."
With hundreds of people online, open mic would have been chaos, so only the raid leaders got mic privileges.
Gabryell's own raid was the main force. Everyone in it was level 60, and most had at least some blue gear from the three major level-60 dungeons. They were the players he was focusing on and planned to take into Molten Core progression.
"If I named you as a raid leader, type '1' in Ventrilo chat."
Guild chat was moving too fast, so they used Ventrilo text instead.
David, Susie, Nightlord, TwinBleeds, FirstDate, ServerHeals, RedAce, OneShotCrit, and OldMan.
These nine were the raid leaders Gabryell had chosen.
Oldman was a Paladin and a real-life friend of DesertWanderer and OldSeven. Rumor had it the wheelbarrow was his favorite position.
All nine typed "1" in Ventrilo chat.
"Look through the guild for players level 55 and above and form your own groups. Try to fill every raid. If there aren't enough people, one or two levels lower is fine," Gabryell said. He wanted to put together ten full raids if possible.
All nine answered at once: no problem.
Gabryell's raid filled first, because its members were the initial roster he and Desert had discussed and tentatively chosen for next week's progression.
Once the raid was formed, Gabryell issued the assembly order. "No matter where you are right now, fly to Darkshire and gather there."
To get to Orgrimmar, they obviously could not take the ship from Booty Bay to The Barrens, then travel from The Barrens into Durotar. When the Alliance attacked Orgrimmar, they usually gathered at Darkshire first, then pushed toward Grom'gol Base Camp in Stranglethorn Vale.
They would first slaughter Grom'gol Base Camp, seize control of the zeppelin, and take it to Durotar.
Taking the zeppelin station had another advantage. After hitting Orgrimmar, if they wanted to slaughter Undercity next, they could take the zeppelin straight there.
Everyone in the guild chat was asking where they were going. If they were heading to Molten Core, they should have been gathering at Thorium Point, not Darkshire.
Gabryell did not answer. This was not the right time to expose the plan to slaughter Orgrimmar.
A frontal assault was pure stupidity. Whether it was Orgrimmar or Ironforge, on a server where they did not have the advantage, it was extremely hard to break through head-on. City raids in World of Warcraft were all about infiltration. Nine times out of ten, success came from a surprise attack, striking when the enemy was unprepared.
Hundreds of players flying to Darkshire made a huge scene and drew the attention of many players.
"Ogabs, are you guys going to progress Molten Core?" Dreamshade had received intel that Fearless had organized its players and left Ironforge together.
He did not yet know that Gabryell and the others were flying to Darkshire. Otherwise, he would not have asked that.
Gabryell said, "Our guild won't progress Molten Core until next Tuesday."
Dreamshade asked, "Then why are you organizing so many people? Are you going to Blackrock Mountain to kill people?"
Gabryell said, "Killing people in Blackrock Mountain is boring. I'm planning to go somewhere with even more Horde to kill."
"Where?" Dreamshade was genuinely curious. He could not think of anywhere with more Horde than Blackrock Mountain right now. Orgrimmar never even crossed his mind.
Gabryell did not want to say yet, so he changed the subject. "How's your progression going?"
At the mention of progression, Dreamshade sighed. "We've wiped several times. The two giant mobs at the entrance hit way too hard. They stomp our Main tank to death in just a couple of hits."
A few seconds passed.
"Damn, forget it. We wiped again. I'm going to run back to my corpse." After that, he stopped replying.
Gabryell laughed at the last message. Every guild progressing Molten Core tonight would be living the same routine as Madhouse: wipe, corpse-run, rebuff, repeat.
"Whoever kills those two giants first wins."
He did not expect any of them to get far. If a guild managed to kill the two Molten Giants at the entrance tonight, that alone would count as a win.
For all he knew, none of them would even get past those two gatekeepers.
After reaching Darkshire, they waited for a while until all ten raids had gathered. Then Gabryell gave the second order. "Everyone mount up. Target: the Horde camp in Stranglethorn Vale, Grom'gol Base Camp. Those on epic mounts, don't ride too fast. Stay with the main force. Once we reach Grom'gol Base Camp, don't rush in right away. Gather at the entrance."
Although Grom'gol Base Camp had civilian NPCs, since they were going to slaughter a city anyway, who cared about a few Dishonorable Kills? Besides, battlegrounds had not opened yet, and the higher ranks had not been unlocked, so the impact would not be significant.
"Damn, you're going to slaughter Grom'gol Base Camp?" David said excitedly. Slaughtering the Horde was his favorite thing.
Susie said, "It's about time. It'd be best if we drove the Horde out of Tichondrius entirely."
Right now, only Gabryell's dorm mates and DesertWanderer knew that the target of the raid was Orgrimmar. The other officers knew nothing, which was why David thought they were going to slaughter Grom'gol Base Camp.
Hard to blame David. No one in this era expected an entire guild to raid an enemy capital. Across WoW's servers, no capital had been sacked yet, much less had its faction leader killed.
If they pulled it off and killed Thrall, Fearless would make history as the first guild to sack an enemy capital and kill its leader. The stunt would put their name in front of WoW players everywhere and show people that city raids were even possible.
Hearing that they were going to slaughter the Horde camp in Stranglethorn Vale, everyone grew excited. They had long hated the fact that the Horde had a camp in Stranglethorn Vale and used it to kill Alliance players leveling there.
Whenever the Alliance players who had been killed finally managed to organize a counterattack, the Horde would immediately retreat back to Grom'gol Base Camp, leaving everyone furious and helpless.
Now they finally had a chance to vent, especially those who had been killed by the Horde and corpse-camped while leveling in Stranglethorn Vale. They were the most excited of all.
"For the Alliance, raze Grom'gol Base Camp!"
The Fearless Guild chat channel was flooded with this line.