Memories of Vanilla #15 - Storming the Scarlet Monastery, Part 4

Hey dudes. Silvite Soltis here today to finally conclude my Scarlet story.

Last time, we went into the Library to obtain Scarlet Keys. Along the way, we killed Houndmaster Loksey, got me a new dagger, and experienced the most epic soundtrack in World of Warcraft. Well, today, we're going to finish off my first trip to Scarlet Monastery with a trip to church. That's right, it's time to head in and face the final challenge - the Cathedral.

Before getting into it though, remember to follow my blog so you get more updates when additional stories are added here. With still roughly half a year until WoW Classic releases, it'll be lots of fun to keep the hype train going.

But for now, on with the story!

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Today's Targets

Our group ran back out of the Library, making our way over to the entrance of the Cathedral wing of the dungeon. Now that I had my key, I was looking forward to using it on the door. However, just as we approached, a group that was leaving the Cathedral opened the door and ran out, leaving the door open for us as I was about to click it. Oh well. So much for using my key!

SM Cathedral Map

Anyway, we entered the final wing of SM, ready to take out the baddies within and finally complete the quest. The first hall, while fairly long, was pretty straightforward. We'd learned to be careful of fleeing mobs as we killed each pack, thanks to the Armory, and so managed to clear it out without much trouble. One thing I noticed, however, was that this dungeon was a big step-up in difficulty for our group of 37-39 characters (a couple of us had leveled up through the experience), and I knew I'd have to bring my healing A-game.

When we reached the end of the first hall, the tank carefully looked ahead. This was apparently his first time in here as well, so he wasn't sure where the mobs were. Running a little way into the next room - where the fountain was located - he was greeted with a pack of mobs on each side, and one patrol, all of whom wanted him dead. We did our best to recover, but it was too much. We wiped.

Ok. Not the best start, but things happen, right?

We ran back and tried again. This time, he carefully used LoS to facepull the pack to the right of the doorway while not aggroing those on the left. The mage sheeped one add and we managed to get that pack squared away. We rinsed and repeated for the rest of the entryway until all was clear before actually stepping out into the gardens beyond. Now was the fun part.

See, the gardens were not only full of packs, but also patrols if I remember correctly. So as we made our way over to the fountain to climb the stairs, killing the packs to the left and right as we went, we had several instances of unintentional chain-pulls - where one mob would flee just close enough to a patrolling Scarlet soldier, or the next pack of mobs, and we'd have to improvise. We must have wiped at least 2 more times here, and my gear was starting to turn red from all the deaths. But nevertheless, we pushed on.

The Cathedral

Through careful vigilance and positioning, we slowly progressed up the stairs and over to the Cathedral's entrance - the gigantic doors looming in front of our party as we approached. The warrior made a point to clear out everything in front of the building, as he wasn't sure what would happen when we went inside, and before long, we stood there, ready to swing those huge doors wide open.

I don't remember who actually opened the door, because a bunch of us clicked it at around the same time, but then it happened. The doors opened and we saw, for the first time, the inside of the Scarlet-infested church.

SM Cathedral (Inside)

Our warrior took note of all the enemy packs, and quickly decided that the best way to deal with them would be to, as before, use line of sight to pull them out into the open space. We also agreed that the best course of action would be to clear out the right-hand side of the Cathedral, leaving the enemies on the left up. It was starting to get late and we were getting tired from sitting in this dungeon for what must have been over 2 hours at this point. The bosses were just up ahead, so surely it shouldn't take too long, right?

We pulled the first pack out, getting aggro on a random patrol that we'd somehow missed before opening the Cathedral doors. Our hunter, who had been standing in the back, lay dead and I had to resurrect him before we continued our assault. Well, so far so good.

Slowly, but surely, we progressed along the right-hand wall, clearing the rightmost and center-right packs as we did so. One by one, they fell and before long, we faced Mograine himself. Running up to the back wall along the right-hand side, we carefully positioned ourselves for battle.

Now as you probably guessed, especially if you know anything about SM, things didn't go as smoothly as we expected. Pulling Scarlet Commander Mograine triggered THE ENTIRE CATHEDRAL! Mobs ran out from every room, from every corner of the church, and within seconds, we were obliterated.

Seriously?

Now, my gear was all red at this point, but I wasn't about to let this stop me from finishing my quest. Sure, I had no idea where Inquisitor Whitemane was, but at very least I wanted this guy dead. So, we ran back, made the intelligent decision to clear everything in the building BEFORE attacking the boss, and began our renewed assault.

Scarlet Commander Mograine

With so little gear left, my heals barely did anything, so progress slowed to a crawl. Mob by mob, pack by pack, and room by room, we cleared. We even found this one undead guy in the back behind a hidden door who dropped some shoulders (lucky!). Eventually, however, it was time. We returned to the main chamber, rebuffed, and engaged the final boss.

I remember being thoroughly unimpressed with him, as he did pretty low damage to our tank and didn't seem to do much else throughout the fight. Eventually, he died, and I was excited to see my quest light up as complete, but it didn't. Instead, we were greeted by the back door of the chamber swinging open, and High Inquisitor Whitemane charging out at us.

Whoa!

Ok, so that explained where the final boss was for my quest. Now we just had to kill her. As before, she wasn't particularly challenging, and I thought maybe this would over fairly quickly. But, of course, I was wrong.

AoE stun! Resurrection! Didn't expect that!

High Inquisitor Whitemane

We were all a bit shocked when she stunned all of us and ran over to Mograine's lifeless body, and even more so when she rezzed him to full. Now I knew why these two weren't that challenging - this was the real boss - fighting them both together. Unfortunately, I had used all of my mana at this point, and we wiped from me being unable to heal at all.

"Guys, I have to go," one of the DPS (though I don't remember who) said in chat.

"Dude, it's the LAST boss! Let's just get it! Come on!" we begged. He must have agreed, because we made our way back inside just in time. As we ran through that first hall, respawns began appearing behind us. This really was the last chance we had.

We got back up to the Cathedral, faced Mograine and, now that we knew what to expect, were ready. Our warrior charged, and I wanded, hoping to conserve as much mana as possible over the course of the fight. The Scarlet Commander fell, and out came Whitemane. Again, knowing not to use my mana needlessly, we carefully took her down.

The stun went out, we all sighed. I had somewhere around 60% mana left at this point. This was it.

The two attacked and we focused all of our damage on Whitemane. Within seconds, she fell. My mana was running out, but I knew that we had this. Mograine hit the floor, and my quest lit up. All four bosses were defeated.

We had conquered the Scarlet Monastery!

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I hope you enjoyed my short saga of my Scarlet Monastery adventure. I'm sure you'll be happy to know that Whitemane dropped her hat, though the mage in our group ended up winning it that first run. I did eventually get it on a later run though, so things all worked out for everyone.

It's funny, but one of the clearest memories out of all of these stories was how our group almost fell apart at the very end of the dungeon. But through our joint camaraderie, we decided to stick it out and managed to achieve something great, even in a mid-level dungeon. That's something I really miss from the game nowadays, and something I can't wait for in WoW Classic - that feeling of obligation to your group-mates as you go through these challenges and trials. You can't just duck out right at the end, even if real life is pulling you to. You've got to be in it for the long-haul.

Anyway, if you enjoyed this story, or the other stories in this blog, let me know by leaving a comment. Follow me here, on Facebook, or on Twitter for more updates in the future, and check out my YouTube channel for more content. There's still a lot more to come, especially approaching that big level 4-0, so be ready for more.

Until next time, take it easy!