They circled around the left side outside Orgrimmar and arrived at the city's back gate.
Most Alliance players at the time had no idea Orgrimmar even had a back gate unless they had Horde friends in real life.
"Whoa, Orgrimmar has a back door?" David finally understood why Gabryell had brought everyone here. He had thought they were going to climb the mountains and jump into Orgrimmar.
Gabryell looked at the two elite guards on the bridge and the five elite guards at the entrance. "Kill these guards, then everyone mount up. Once we enter the city, don't ride too fast, and don't fall behind. Whatever you do, don't get clever and dismount on the way. If you get knocked off your mount, find a way to protect yourself and catch up."
If someone got knocked off their mount by patrol guards along the way, they absolutely could not stop to save them. Stopping for one person could bog down the entire raid and give Horde players time to react and surround them.
Surprise was everything in a raid like this. They had to rush from the back door to Grommash Hold as fast as possible and seize it before the Horde players could react.
Once they entered Grommash Hold, they would immediately have Mages cast Blizzard at the entrance and seal the door, preventing Horde players from coming in as reinforcements.
As long as the Horde remained disorganized and didn't overwhelm them with sheer numbers, once the Alliance occupied Grommash Hold, Thrall was basically a dead man.
After killing the elite guards at the back door, everyone mounted up. Gabryell rode his epic mount at the very front, leading everyone in a swift charge all the way to the entrance of Grommash Hold.
"Everyone in. Ignore the Horde outside."
There were quite a few Horde players idling outside. Some had joined the earlier battle at the main gate and had PvP enabled, while others did not.
Before the Horde players without PvP enabled could react, Gabryell had already led everyone into Thrall's room.
Inside Thrall's room, there was not only Thrall, but also several elite guards and NPCs. The guards and ordinary NPCs were irrelevant. Only two targets really mattered.
One was Vol'jin, and the other was Thrall's advisor, Nazgrel.
"Carlos, pick up Thrall. The Warriors in my raid stay on him and build threat. If you go down, next tank takes over."
"David, take Vol'jin. Your Warriors stay on him and interrupt any heals he tries to cast on Thrall."
"Susie, take Nazgrel. Your Warriors stay with you. If you go down, next tank steps in."
Gabryell was already planning around tank deaths. If the healers fell behind or ran dry, there would be no chance to sit down and recover inside Grommash Hold.
"Mages, cast Level 1 Blizzard. Hunters, place traps at the entrance. The main goal is to stop the Horde from getting in to reinforce."
Stack enough Rank 1 Blizzards and the entrance would turn into a kill zone.
"Healers, focus whoever is currently tanking Thrall. As long as the tank doesn't die, we can take Thrall down."
"All other DPS, ignore Nazgrel and Vol'jin. Focus everything on killing Thrall. Once Thrall dies, we win."
Thrall had 790,000 health, Vol'jin had 530,000, and Nazgrel had 640,000.
Together, the three boss-level NPCs had nearly two million health—about as much as Onyxia and Ragnaros combined. Killing all three would waste time they did not have.
So the plan was simple: burn Thrall, grab the screenshot, and get out.
After they entered, all the NPCs inside were pulled into combat, but thanks to Gabryell's preparation, everyone stayed calm.
Four or five raids made it inside. The other raids were stuck outside, which worked out just right, since they could keep the Horde players outside occupied.
The Horde players would have to break through the raids outside before they could rush into the room and save Thrall.
At the door, the Horde would run straight into walls of Blizzard and Hunter traps. Without anyone coordinating them, they would feed into the choke point one by one.
"Holy crap, Thrall has so much health."
Carlos had successfully picked up Thrall, but even he was startled by the size of his health pool.
Gabryell said, "That's normal. Doesn't Bolvar also have hundreds of thousands of health? If a capital city leader didn't have high health, people could just solo farm him."
Carlos thought that made sense. If Thrall only had tens of thousands of health, any random stealth team could come in and take him down.
"Bad news, guys. The people outside accidentally pulled Saurfang!"
The exact thing Gabryell had wanted to avoid had happened. The people outside had pulled Saurfang into combat.
"It's fine. Hold on a little longer, and whatever you do, don't come inside," Gabryell said. He did not want anyone bringing Saurfang's threat into the room. If they had to die, they could die outside.
Gabryell reminded them, "Don't attack Saurfang. Just kill players."
As long as they did not attack Saurfang and trigger him into endlessly Charging and one-shotting people, Saurfang's own attacks would not instantly kill anyone. There were over a hundred people outside. They should have been able to hold for a few minutes. Even if they could not win, they could clog up the Horde.
"Leader, the Horde outside already knows you're killing Thrall. Looks like they're trying to come back to reinforce him," said OldMan, who was holding off the Horde's main force at the main gate.
Gabryell said, "Don't give them a chance to get away. Even if you all die, don't let them come back."
OldMan said, "No problem. If it comes to that, I'll use Divine Shield and tank them myself."
All Gabryell needed was another ten minutes or so.
Word that Fearless had broken into Orgrimmar and was attacking Thrall spread across Tichondrius almost immediately. Every guild progressing Molten Core was stunned.
"Fucking awesome!"
When the main raid of the Madhouse received the news, their Main tank, Gorak, wished he could go to Orgrimmar and kill Thrall with them.
Dreamshade could only sigh. "I can never predict you. Every time it matters most, Ogabs finds some new way to shock everyone."
Windwalker, leader of Hall of Fame—the Horde's top guild—now had a decision to make. Orgrimmar had been ambushed, and Thrall was under attack. Should they abandon progression and return to support?
"Leader, what do we do?" someone asked.
After thinking for a moment, Windwalker made his decision. "Continue progression. Have everyone in the guild who isn't part of progression return to Orgrimmar to support."
It was the sensible call. By the time his progression raids got back, the fight would probably be over anyway. Sending everyone else in the guild was enough to show that Hall of Fame had answered the attack.
The other Horde guilds progressing Molten Core made the same choice.
How could Thrall be more important than progressing Molten Core? If they secured the first kill of Molten Core, their guild would make its name, becoming the top guild in Tichondrius, perhaps even the top guild on the entire server.
"Everyone, push harder. Kill Thrall."
Seeing that Thrall had only 17% health left, Gabryell encouraged everyone.
Only about half the players who had made it into Grommash Hold were still standing. David and Susie were already dead. Somehow, Carlos was still tanking.
"Most of us are dead. It's all on you now."
Everyone outside Grommash Hold had been wiped out too. At least they had died without dragging Saurfang into the room; if he had made it inside, the raid would have been over.
"We're all dead, but most of the Horde is dead too. It'll probably take them a few minutes to run back to their corpses in Orgrimmar."
A few minutes was all they needed. Players rushing back from elsewhere would need at least that long to arrive. Once they got back, with no unified command, they could only charge in blindly.
"Mages, you must hold the door. If necessary, Blink forward and bomb them. Whatever you do, don't let the Horde in."
Inside the room, at the entrance, and outside it, bones already littered the ground.
"Out of mana!" Danielly typed in the raid channel.
"Anyone with Innervate, throw one to Snowy."
Gabryell said, "Druids, use all Innervates on Priests and Paladins."
By now, they had already chugged two or three major mana potions each. The fight had reached its final moment.
"11%. Push harder!"
"7%. Thrall is about to die!"
Even if Thrall was wearing plate, he could not withstand this many people.
"3%. We're going to win!"
More and more Horde players were gathering outside. The Mages had all run out of mana, and the defensive line was about to collapse.
"1%. Hold on!"
At that moment, the Mage line was broken. Many Horde players charged in, and the Mages had no choice but to block them with their own bodies.
Lag.
Lag beyond belief.
The whole thing looked like a slideshow.
Gabryell's command was based entirely on experience and the scenes he imagined in his head.
But the lag was exactly what they needed. It slowed the Horde players rushing in to save Thrall.
"Everyone, only hit Thrall. Ignore the Horde."
With the last 1% of health remaining, they had to finish it, even if every last one of them died.
Thrall's health kept falling. Everyone tunneled him through the chaos until the last sliver vanished.
Thrall was dead.
He was the first faction leader in World of Warcraft history to be killed by players.
"Hahaha, we won!"
The moment Thrall fell, everyone's emotions erupted at once, and their tightly wound nerves finally released.
They were out of ammunition and supplies, and there was no longer any chance of fighting their way out. But Thrall was dead. Whether they could escape no longer mattered.
Gabryell exhaled as the late-arriving Horde flooded in and retook the room. He grabbed his screenshot, took his hands off the keyboard, and let them kill him with a satisfied smile.
"For the Alliance!"
Gabryell roared at the top of his lungs as he turned on Ventrilo open mic.
"For the Alliance!"
In an instant, Ventrilo was drowned beneath countless voices shouting, "For the Alliance!"