Memories of Vanilla #3 - Liverless Boars and Defias Pillagers

What's up again dudes!

Silvite Soltis back again to continue my "Memories of Vanilla" series. Today, I want to reminisce a bit about my time in Westfall. Though I don't explicitly remember when I finally made my way into Westfall, I distinctly remember a few bits and pieces of the zone. In particular, I remember getting the quest to pick up bags of oats near the starting zone for Old Blanchy, then dying several times to the Defias and harvesters in that first farm, right on the border of Elwynn Forest. Even now, I'm not really sure how I managed to die there, but it happened.

Anyway, after that, I made my way to Sentinel Hill since that's where my friend told me all the good quests were. I met up with Gryan Stoutmantle and began my journey to kill Defias, loot masks, and journey all over the farmlands. However, in my noobishness, I again forgot to set my Hearthstone (more on that later).

Unsure of exactly where to go, as I didn't really pay too much attention to quest text yet, I moved north and found a farm with a bunch of Harvest Golems. Being level 12 or so, I was terrified by these level 15 monstrosities. However, by the house there was a guy with a quest, so I carefully moved over to him, trying not to aggro any of the robots outside. Of course, he wanted me to kill those tough mobs, so I'd have to come back later when I was a bit stronger. I also grabbed the quest from his wife inside, who asked me to gather a few materials for "Westfall Stew" and "Goretusk Liver Pie." Simple enough.

Where's Your Liver?

And so, my adventure in Westfall truly began - hunting Goretusks for livers and snouts that don't exist. As I ran across the zone to the coast (where my friend told me the murlocs were), I killed every boar, vulture, and coyote along the way. Now I must have killed at least 15 boars as I crossed the map, but by the time I reached the murloc camps, I only had about 3 livers and 2 snouts. And the whole time I was running, I only came across 2 or 3 vultures. I figured this quest would probably take a while.

But one thing I will say is that I enjoyed every minute of it. Even after I'd played for over an hour running back and forth across the zone, slaughtering all manner of wildlife, I never got bored. Eventually, I completed the quests, having leveled up to around 15 in the process, and decided to make my way back to Farmer Saldean. I hit my Hearthstone and...

I was back in Goldshire.

The Bane of my Early WoW Existance

My friend laughed hysterically, my brother called me a noob, and I facepalmed before getting on the westward road and began the long run back to Westfall. 10 minutes of nonstop running later, I got back to the farm. And my God, it felt so good to get those two damn quests out of my quest log.

After that, I don't remember much of Westfall to be honest - the different Defias mobs all blended together, the gnolls were pretty much a copy+paste experience from Elwynn, and there were lots of corpse runs in the process of getting through the zone. But, of course, there's one quest that I'll never forget - escorting the Defias traitor to the Deadmines entrance.

It should be mentioned that the precursor to this quest, the one in which you have to track down the Defias Messenger, is usually remembered by most people for being particularly tedious. For me, though, I remember getting the quest, running to the road, and just getting him right away. So it wasn't really that much of a hassle for me. The escort quest, however, was another story entirely.

The Defias Traitor

The first time, I failed spectacularly. Not knowing what an escort quest was, I just blindly accepted the quest
that he had after finishing the previous part of the quest chain. Suddenly he started running off into the distance. I scrambled to keep up, but along the road I was attacked by a gnoll or something. We killed it, naturally, but as I sat to drink and regain my mana and health, he kept walking, got out of range, and I "failed" the quest.

Oops!

I didn't know what to do. I'd never failed a quest before - I didn't even know you COULD fail one. Turning to my friend, I asked what I could do now. His response was to go back and try again. So I ran over the hill to the north back to town, made my way over to the tower, and was shocked to find that there was no Defias Traitor. I waited and waited, but he didn't spawn.

I didn't get that quest done that session, but when I came back to the game the next time, I was determined to complete that quest. I made my way out from the inn and saw that he was there! However, I had no way to interact with him. He just stood there. Eventually, however, I got a whisper from someone nearby. I don't remember his name, but he was a level 17 warlock.

"You need the Defias Traitor quest?"

"Yeah."

*Warlock has invited you to a group.*

I was excited! As the NPC began running, we followed close. I wasn't going to make the same mistake as last time! We were going to get this quest done right!

Moonbrook

We moved with the traitor as he ran along the road to Moonbrook, where I'd killed Defias Pillagers and Looters at some point earlier. Carefully, we killed each mob and moved through the town, slowly. Hoping not to get too many and die. Eventually though, we made it. The Traitor stopped just outside a broken down building and told us it was the entrance to the "Deadmines". I was so excited. However, I noticed that nothing had changed. My quest still said failed.

"Thanks!" my new warlock friend said as he began his Hearthstone cast.

"But, my quest says failed!" I responded.

Confused and frustrated, I asked my friend what to do as I too hearthed back to Sentinel Hill. He asked if I'd abandoned the quest before doing it again.

Double oops.

Well, luckily for me, my warlock friend agreed to do the quest with me again since I hadn't gotten credit. This time, I went to my quest log, abandoned the quest, and we made our way back to the quest giver. I accepted as soon as he spawned and again, for a third time, I ran along that path to the Deadmines entrance.

I cannot express the nervousness I felt as we cleared the enemies of Moonbrook that time. I felt like any mistake I made would cost us the quest and I feared I'd have to repeat it a FOURTH time! Luckily, however, a random level 60 mage appeared and blew up all the enemies in the town on his way to boost someone through the dungeon. The traitor walked up to the entrance without issue, the "Complete" text appeared on my screen, and I sighed in relief.

"Got it!" I typed to my party and said aloud to the others in the room. And honestly, I don't know if I've ever been as relieved to finish a quest as I was back then.

For a new player, Westfall was a huge step up from the trivial kobolds and fuzzy forest creatures of Elwynn. It was challenging, and really made me think as I moved through the quests. But even as I turned in that quest, there still loomed one more challenge for me - my first dungeon. The Deadmines.

I hope you enjoyed my tale of my adventures in Westfall. Next time, I'll tell a short story recounting what I remember of my first dungeon experience. Man, that's a doozy! But for now, I'll leave the story of Westfall here in its own right. Let me know of your own experiences in Westfall - or whatever your second questing zone was. I'd love to read your comments or hear your stories.

Until next time guys. Take it easy!