"Oh no! Grom'gol Base Camp has been wiped out by the Alliance!"
Bloodwind, who had escaped back to Durotar by zeppelin, arrived at the gates of Orgrimmar, hoping the players dueling there would go help.
No one paid him any attention. Furious, he started cursing. "You people duel here every day and think you're PvP gods. If you're really that good, stop acting tough in your own backyard and go fight the Alliance."
The self-styled PvP gods ignored the rant. Why would they care what some random Warrior scrub thought?
"Damn it, bunch of trash."
Seeing that no one was coming, Bloodwind gave up too. He went straight back into Orgrimmar, headed to Grommash Hold, went AFK, and left to eat.
"Idiot."
The duelers watched him leave with contempt. As far as they were concerned, a Warrior scrub who was not even worth dueling had no right to lecture them.
Dueling outside Orgrimmar carried on as if nothing had happened. Nobody cared that Grom'gol Base Camp had been wiped out.
...
Half an hour later…
"Haha, let's give those Horde duelers a little surprise."
When David and the others saw quite a few Horde players dueling outside the gates of Orgrimmar, they were immediately eager to join in.
By "join in," of course, they meant forcing their way into the duels and sending those players to the afterlife.
Durotar was Horde territory, but anyone dueling outside the gates already had PvP enabled. That meant Alliance players could attack them freely.
The Horde players dueling there still had no idea disaster was upon them. They were too busy admiring their own plays.
Then a Frostbolt came flying in. A wave of Warriors Charged right behind it, followed by a group of Rogues suddenly appearing at their sides. Before they could even figure out what was happening, they were all sent back to the Graveyard.
"Holy crap, the Alliance is attacking Orgrimmar!"
It wasn't until they appeared as ghosts at the Graveyard that they realized what had happened. Remembering the Warrior scrub they had mocked earlier, they suddenly felt as if they were the real idiots.
"That was no fun. They died before I even touched them." Carlos had only Charged halfway in when the Horde duelers were instantly killed by a barrage of ranged abilities.
"Hahaha, I was the smart one. I fired a shot right away." David laughed loudly. He had not actually Charged at all, but fired from range and tagged some damage, which still counted as contributing.
"These Horde can't take a hit. I hadn't even gone all out, and they were already down." RedAce had only landed one Backstab before his target died.
Gabryell said, "See that city ahead? That's the Horde capital city, Orgrimmar. There are more Horde inside than you could ever kill."
"Haha, this Horde capital is such a dump. Compared to our Stormwind, this place is a backwater."
"What do a bunch of Orcs know about architecture? They piled up some stones, called it a city, and figured that was good enough."
"When are we charging in? I can't wait to snatch some Orc girls."
"Holy crap, OldMan, you'd seriously go for an Orc? Orc women are huge. Think you can even handle one?"
Hearing their filthy banter, Gabryell laughed. "A frontal assault is definitely impossible. Horde players aren't pushovers, and the NPCs inside are more than enough to make us suffer."
The real nightmare on the route from Orgrimmar's main gate to Thrall was High Overlord Saurfang. In Vanilla, Saurfang was practically a bug: his physical damage was absurd.
His normal swings were not the real problem. The moment someone crit Saurfang, Saurfang's Rage would trigger. He would lock onto whoever landed the crit, Charge straight at them, turn into a blender at full speed, and hit them for 7,999 damage—an instant kill.
He was killable, though. AoE abilities and DoTs did not trigger Saurfang's Rage, so those were safe. A Hunter's Multi-Shot also counted as AoE, meaning even a crit would not set him off.
Priests and Warlocks would do most of the work, loading Saurfang with DoTs and wearing him down.
Then there was the elusive "epic" patrol NPC Farun. He was only level 62, basically an ordinary boss, but his aggro was linked to Saurfang. Touch Farun and Saurfang would already be on his way.
If they forced the main gate and killed Saurfang through sheer numbers, they would probably lose most of their own force doing it. Once the Horde organized, Fearless would be surrounded and wiped out.
"Still not as strong as our legendary guard dog Crithto." Gabryell thought of the level 112 elite Crithto in Stormwind Gardens back in the level-90 era. That was the real untouchable monster. Once it got fierce, it bit Alliance and Horde alike.
"So we're not going in?" David sounded disappointed. If they did not go in, what was the point?
Gabryell said, "Of course we're going in. How else are we supposed to kill Thrall?"
Fortunately, Orgrimmar had a back entrance. Only two elite guards watched the bridge and five more guarded the door, and the route from there to Thrall had very few elites to avoid.
A strike through the back entrance would bypass Saurfang and put them almost straight on top of Thrall.
"How do we get in without charging through?" David had never been to Orgrimmar and did not know there was a back door.
Gabryell said, "You'll know soon enough."
As he spoke, he saw quite a few Horde players rushing out of Orgrimmar. He raised his voice. "Everyone, block the gates of Orgrimmar. If one comes out, kill them. If a group comes out, wipe them."
Right now, the officers of the major Horde guilds were all in Molten Core, so no one was organizing them. The Horde players rushing out were all people who had heard the Alliance was raiding the city and rushed out without thinking.
With no organization, they were just disorganized stragglers and no real threat. As long as Gabryell and the others stayed grouped, the Horde couldn't dislodge them without at least twice their numbers.
"If someone dies, healers pull back, drop combat, and resurrect them. If you can't drop combat to resurrect, Druids use battle rez. Warlocks, bind all your Soulstones to the healers."
In a city raid, healers came first. Once the two sides clashed, whichever side still had healing support would simply outlast the one that did not.
More than a hundred Horde players charged out. Unfortunately, they had not formed raids and were all fighting on their own. Without healers backing them up, many died on the way before they even reached the Alliance line.
"Haha, watching my Honor climb feels amazing."
Kills made by teammates also granted Honor. Split among forty people, each gain was tiny, but with enough kills, the total Honor was still quite impressive.
"It looks like the Horde is gathering inside the city. They're preparing to form raids and launch a counterattack."
After a while, someone on the Horde side finally started organizing them. It probably would not be long before they formed several raids and charged out.
There were still plenty of Horde players with enough pride to fight back. With the Alliance already at their doorstep, if they still did not organize a counterattack, the Tichondrius Horde would be completely humiliated.
Once the bait had done its job, Gabryell gave the order. "Leave three raids at Orgrimmar's gate to keep the Horde busy. Everyone else, follow me."
If they did not leave anyone at Orgrimmar's gate, there was no way to draw the Horde away from outside Thrall's room. That was the area around Orgrimmar's bank, one of the city's main player hangouts.
Gabryell named the three raids that would stay behind. "OldMan, FirstDate, OneShotCrit, your three raids stay here. Remember, don't clash head-on with the Horde's large groups. Use the terrain outside to keep them occupied. Your goal isn't to kill them. It's to stall them. Ideally, lure them as far from Orgrimmar as possible."
The three replied at the same time, "Don't worry, Ogabs. We guarantee we'll complete the mission."
To overwhelm three raids, the Horde would need to send at least five or six of their own. That would tie up roughly seventy or eighty percent of whatever force the Horde could scrape together on short notice.
When it came time to kill Thrall, as long as those raids could not return to reinforce him, they could use the narrow entrance to Grommash Hold and have the Mages drop Blizzard to seal it off. Any Horde players still inside Orgrimmar who tried to push through would funnel in one by one, straight to their deaths.
"The rest of you, mount up and follow me. We're going to send the Horde's leader, Thrall, to the afterlife."
With that, Gabryell led the rest of the guild around toward Orgrimmar's back entrance and Grommash Hold.