Into the Fiery Core

Avar:  My brothers!  Gather around, for we must discuss what awaits us at the entrance to the Fiery Core.  Upon our entrance into the fiery abyss, we will be met with the guardians of one of the Four Walkers of the Flame.  We must be weary, as what lies ahead is a challenge unlike anything we have seen before.  The minor guards are of little concern, but we must be careful of the vicious Guard Dogs that protect the first guardian.  Novo shall give you an account of what we face.


Adventurer:  BAH!  Mangy mutts?  What do we have to fear?  Toss a bone to them and there will be nothing to fear!


Novo:  You naive fool!  Silence your tongue and listen to my words.  In my studies on the Fire Lord, I have gathered some information on these dogs, and have learned a very troubling secret.  At first glance, no one would wonder why it is that these dogs always travel in packs of four.  However, therein lies the problem.  The dogs have the ability to raise their fallen pack members, but-


Adventurer:  ...Rai-Raise themselves from the dead?!  What monstrosity does such a thing?  How can we defeat such a foe?!


Avar:  Cease these interruptions!  We will have order.  Novo, please continue.


Novo:  As I was saying, there is a weakness.  The dogs cannot revive their brethren instantaneously.  Rather, they require 10 seconds in order to revive a fallen ally.  If we can manage to even distribute our attacks among the four dogs and take them down all at the same time, the dogs will be unable to revive their fallen allies.


Adventurer:  Sir, what about the other packs of dogs?  Would we have to separate them from the felled beasts as well?


Novo:  No.  My research tells me that a special bond is made among the dogs at birth.  This bond is different for each pack of dogs.  Therefore, only dogs within that specific pack may revive their fallen allies.


Avar:  Vesica and Rasuka will split up their charges evenly among the four beasts in each pack.  We will be careful not to cause too much harm to one dog so as to keep the party moving.  We must clear that area out and make camp for the night, as it is one of the cooler zones within the core, or so our scouts tell us.


Vesica:  And my scouts are never wrong, fearless leader.  We have among us 5 melee combatants.  I ask that our Shaman join me, and the remaining of our rogues split up evenly among the remaining hounds.  Remain behind the beast, and use your frost spells, Shaman, as the beasts are weakened by it.


Rasuka:  The Aqualords have given a gift to all of us.  My closest advisers are currently bringing in a large chest.  Inside each is are some pieces of armor that will provide minor protection against the flames inside.  This should give us all an edge in combat against our fiery opponents.  I have also conjured some potions that shall increase our resistance to the flame as well.  Use them wisely, for they are limited in duration and in number.


Avar:  Perhaps it is important to now explain what greater evils await.  The first of the four Walkers of the Flame, Fron.  *laughter is heard.*  Sure, you may think the beast has a funny name, but do not be put at such ease.  He watches over the Flame Lord's chief Guard Dog, whom I will get into later.  


Research and scouting tells us that he has the following abilities.  This is a terrible foe, capable of casting a curse that can sap the stamina from those that stand near him.  He also has the ability to place a highly damaging curse on his enemies.  Our spellcasters will have to get rid of this stamina-sapping curse quickly, and our healers will need to ward off the damage curse or we will quickly fall.  His two elite guards will cause much trouble, and must be killed first.  They have the ability to brainwash our allies and turn them against use for a short period of time.  I will distract Fron and draw him away from the main attack unit, while my understudies distract the elite guards for the attack force to kill.  Once they are dead, we shall converge upon the main target.  As he grows weaker, we shall have our spellcasters focus all their power on him, rather than the removal of the stamina-sapper.  


Rasuka:  To me, my advisers and understudies!  We shall assign who is in charge of decursing who.  


Novo:  Come, my brothers of the light, for we must do the same as well.


Vesica:  My scouting detail and I have discovered a flaw in the enemy's strategy to turn our allies against us.  It seems that there is a small alcove that Fron can be brought into, where he will be unable to see his charges. The mind control requires a special psychic command from Fron, but he must be able to see his allies.  Perhaps we can use this to our advantage and limit the charges' use of mind control?


Avar:  Excellent work, Vesica.  But this night shall not be as simple as taking down this fiend.  No...we must also kill the Prime Guard Dog, Mag.  As Novo has informed me, the beast is extremely savage.  Our hunting group will need to using some form of a taming shot, or else the beast will tear me to shreds and kill the rest of our party.  It is important that the rest of this party stand behind the beast, or else he will spew lava onto all of you-a technique observed by Vesica's scouting party, where the beast burned 5 small creatures to a cinder with one spit of his flame breath.


Vesica:  If I may interrupt, sir.  The beast also has a terrifying roar-two of my scouts were nearly scared out of the Core itself.  We must position ourselves in a way that the fearful bellow will not cause too much discord.  Also, the beast may have caught some glimpse of us, and it hurled a massive ball of fire from its mouth.  The ensuing fire lasted for a short time, but burned with such intensity that we were forced to retreat before we could complete our scouting duties.


Avar:  This is our mission as it stands tonight.  We must slay the dog and capture Fron.


Rasuka:  Capture Fron?  But why?


Avar:  We do not know what dangers lie ahead of us in this cavern.  Fron is a high-ranking officer in the service of the Flame Lord.  We shall coax all the information we need out of him.  I also hear that the Four Walkers of the Flame are constantly looking for ways to one-up one another.  Perhaps we can trick Fron into telling us what we want to know by using this information.  Either way, this is the only way we shall find out more about what awaits us in the deeper parts of the Core.  So, again, we must kill Mag and take Fron prisoner.  Are we ready to embark?


Rasuka:  The fire protection gear and potions have been distributed.  We are prepared.


Avar:  ONWARD, TO GLORY! *draws sword, charges forward*

Rest of Party:  FOR THE GLORY OF THE LEGION!  *charges*

In the Beginning...

Avar: We stand outside the gates of our enemies.  The Fiery Core looms.  If any man among the twenty-five of us is too afraid to continue on, let him speak now!


Others: We are with you, Avar!  Glory to our leader, and glory to the Indomitable Legion!


Avar: That is the enthusiasm I expect to hear from my fellow adventurers! Now, let us discuss what lies ahead.  I hope everyone followed my instructions I sent to the letter.  There is much to fear in this place.  Enemies that can melt the flesh from your very bones.  Roast you like a holiday ham.  Beings capable of such terrible magics that could explode your body from within.


Rasuka:  Pardon me, my liege, but I bring a report from the Aqualords.  They give us a gift-vials of enchanted water.  They instructed me to use it on the seven runes of the Flamelord.  There are four vials in total.


Avar: Excellent, Rasuka.  Hand one to me, keep one for yourself, and distribute the other two to the other Prime Lords when they arrive.  Did the Aqualords accept you kindly?  It is not often that humans are even allowed to hunt in their lands.


Rasuka: Thankfully, my lord, I am quite revered among the Aqualords.  They did require a demonstration of my magic before they trusted me with this substance.  Their reaction to my slaying the Hydra that threatened their shores with a few simple frost spells took care of that.


Avar: I was right to send you to them.  As skilled as I am with a sword and shield, I fear that a show of defensive prowess would not have been enough to impress those creatures.  Unlike you, I know no fanciful magic.  Ah, but here come Vesica and Novo now.


(Enter Vesica and Novo)


Vesica: Vesica of the Shadows and Novo of the Light reporting, sir.


Novo:  My lord, we apologize for our tardiness.  I know you wanted to get started on time this evening, so as to delay the need to make camp and rest for the night, but I was held up back at the Dwarven encampment in the highlands.  They had many wounded which I had to attend to.


Vesica:  I remained with our venerable healer to make sure that no harm would come to him.  I also scouted the area for possible reinforcements for the armies we are set to face.  I was not seen.


Avar:  Your tardiness shall be forgiven, seeing as how there was a just cause.  Rasuka here will provide you each with a vial of the enchanted water.  We, apparently, must put out the magical runes that we shall encounter in this area.  What are they for exactly, Rasuka?


Rasuka: The Aqualords had but this to say to me.  "You must halt the return of the Great Fire Lord.  Put out the seven cursed runes, and slay the beast that comes forth before he can bring about the chaos that is the Lord of all Flames."


Novo:  My research has told me much about this Fire Lord.  It would take me hours to explain to you every detail, but here is a short synopsis.  He is an elemental creature, capable of bending fire to his every whim.  A massive creature that existed long ago, but was banished from our world in a great battle.  I'm not entirely sure that we can defeat this foe as it stands.  We would need to ward his fire abilities, somehow, or else we would be easily defeated.  As adept as you are with the shield, Avar, you would stand no chance.  He would crush you in mere moments.


Vesica: Bah!  Every enemy has a weakness.  Give me a minute with the creature.  I'll find it.


Avar: Enough, brothers!  We have a crew to lead.  Let us do our proper duty.

Welcome!

Welcome to "Diary of a Raider!"  This blogspot shall feature dramatic writings and recollections of raids and bosses from the ever-so-popular World of Warcraft! I am, myself, a retired player, and had this idea to begin this blog a little while ago.  The blog shall feature dialogue that one would hear over Vent/Teamspeak/etc., full descriptions of boss encounters, and other related material.  I hope everyone enjoys!