When I was young and more noobish than I am today, I rolled a night elf warrior. On an RP server.
He was full of ambition to charge forth and slay this or that in defense of his homeworld, or hometree, or something.
He dutifully killed imps and spiders, dying several times along the way, eagerly lapping up the rewards and kind words of his quest givers.
And then came the fateful day that he left the relative safety of the Shadow Glen (not terribly safe back then with all the red mobs and me having less than half a clue of what the fuck I was doing) and headed out on the road to Dolonaar, carrying some satchel of goods for the innkeep there.
Lo and behold, I came by some poor, disagreeable fellow requesting my aid. He spoke strangely and seemed rather amused at the prospect of my aid.
But I carried out the tasks he set before me and graciously accepted his rewards.
Not wanting to keep the proprietor of the inn waiting any longer, I hastened to my destination.
Once there, I was greeted by even more people clamoring for my services.
All except one.
She was filled with disdain and contempt that one of our kind had stooped to aid a satyr. My actions weighed heavy in the eyes of my people and I needed to atone for my transgression.
Wait. What?
You mean not every quest giver is on my side?
Shut the front door.
Was I supposed to *not* take the quest?
OMG. This is going to be one of those games. One of those games where I just wanted to see what was sparkling on the bookshelf, I didn’t want to steal the book and why can’t I put it back now?!?!?!?!?!
I eventually came to terms with the tiny betrayal and realized that it was part of the normal flow of the quest line for the area. I was pleased to see that he eventually got what was coming to him and considered the chapter closed.
Subsequent characters would accept his quests, smirking the whole while.
Yeah, you think it’s funny now, bitch. Wait until I’m a few levels higher and we’ll see who’s laughing then.
And now in the present, with my Bizzarro stable of toons, I was happy to run across his familiar face after the Cataclysm.
I took his quests and chuckled to myself, knowing that I would be the instrument of his demise.
Proceed to Dolonaar and face the wrath of the related quest giver.
Yes, I helped the satyr. Yes, I am ashamed. Just tell me how to fix it.
And so a few fel pinecones later and he is an irritated amphibian with numbered days.
Or so I thought.
Many of the quests were eerily similar but most involved a LOT less running back and forth and to and fro.
Finally I get the closing quest to enter the city and present the moonwell water to Tyrande.
I look about in confusion.
But, but, but… that satyr… he’s still ALIVE.
There’s a moonwell and he’s splashing about in it and defiling it and I need to stop him…
I’M SUPPOSED TO KILL HIM, DAMNIT!!!!!
Head hung in shame at not being able to complete my vengeance against his trickery and deceit, I enter the city.
Tyrande is pleased with the offering and a nearby sentinel beckons me over.
She informs me that there is work for adventurers like me over in Lor’Danel.
I agree to travel there and offer what assistance I could.
But really, what aid could I offer? I can’t even wrap up a quest chain with a piddly satyr running amok in the cradle of Teldrassil. He’s back there. Laughing at me. Laughing… *sob*
I make the journey to Lor’Danel and I begin questing. I rescue stranded survivors and watch the breath slip away from others for whom help did not arrive in time. (Seriously, that area was kind of depressing.)
I kill crabs and rifle through clams. I fish for a hungry worgen (didn’t that used to be a dwarf by the name of Blump?). I massacre bears and pour their innards into familiar little buzzboxes. (Although the current operator of the boxes seems to be decidedly more sober. What a shame.)
Eventually I am sent to a cave to investigate what is corrupting the bears. Along the path, I am stopped by one that knows the source of the corruption and asked to slay him.
VENGEANCE SHALL BE MINE, MOTHERFUCKER!!!!
I was only level 14 when I took this quest, but with all the history I have with it, it felt just as epic as any that I’ve done at max cap in a raid.
Anyone else have an attachment to a silly little quest chain?
As someone whose first ever WoW toon was Night Elf (a priest who has long since met his demise from the bad end of a “delete character” button), I remember that quest well. Mostly, I remember feeling ticked off that the developers railroading me into helping someone I knew full well to be a villain (I had played past Warcraft games, so I knew that satyrs were nothing but trouble) by offering me XP and juicy rewards that I would lose out on by not doing the quest.
This is still a pet peeve of mine. I wish they’d either stop making us help villains or offer equally rewarding alternative quests for turning them in to the proper authorities.
I’m still pissed at the end quest for the new Thousand Needles that had me freeing Magatha Grimtotem, the freaking bitch that murdered Cairne freaking Bloodhoof. I hated every second of it, but, damn it, I needed those legs for my heal set!
But getting back on topic, I will agree there was much pleasure to be found when my Worgen made it to Darkshore and ol’ Zenn got what was coming to him.