Memories of Vanilla #24 - Moving on in Maraudon!

Hey dudes. Silvite Soltis here and today I've got another installment of Memories of Vanilla for your reading pleasure!

Maraudon Entrance

Last time, we dove into the dungeon known as Zul'Farrak for the first time. And while the adventures there were numerous, we eventually finished it up and headed out. Well today, we're going to fast forward a bit to another dungeon. After all, it's been like 13 years, and my memory of time is a bit sketchy anyway, so we might as well jump around a little bit, right?

Anyway, sit back, relax, and enjoy as I recount the tale of my first adventure in Maraudon. And, more specifically, the aftermath of my decision to tackle this massive cavernous labyrinth.


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It was spring break 2006 - a few days of rest between the third and fourth semester of my sophomore year of high school - and I distinctly remember that I didn't have work at the local pizzeria that day. Waking up at 10AM or so, as you do when you're 16 and don't have school, I immediately fired up my computer and logged into World of Warcraft. After all, Leika was at work and I had the account all to myself for the next 6 hours or so.

And so, I began my adventures - running around in some high-40s zone. I don't remember exactly where I was in the wide World of Warcraft, but I do remember that at some point about an hour after logging in, I got a whisper from someone...

Maraudon Map (This Place is HUGE...)

"Wanna heal Maraudon?"

Well, I had time to kill, and since I'd never done this particular dungeon, I decided it could be a fun experience. So, I agreed. And what followed was among the most painful and intense experiences of my early WoW career...

I joined the group of 4 other adventurers who had clearly all been waiting for a healer for some time. Noticing that they were all around level 50 or so, I figured I might be too low at around level 48. However, they reassured me - saying that it would be fine as long as I stayed around the back of the group. With a sigh of relief, I headed over to everyone's favorite zone - Desolace - and began the first portion of the adventure...finding the entrance to the dungeon.

I had a general idea of where this dungeon was located, having accidentally run into the entrance back when I was questing in this zone a few months back, but nevertheless I ended up getting lost and needed the warlock in our group to summon me. Yeah, I was that guy...but eventually we were able to zone in and begin the dungeon itself.

Now this particular part of the story is quite fuzzy, as there were so many different sub-zones and monsters in this dungeon, but as we progressed (SLOWLY) through the caverns, I distinctly remember three events - the slow-moving slimes, the Satyr boss and loot drama, and the larvae spawning tube. I don't remember exactly what order they came in (even now, the full dungeon is too big and confusing for me to remember), but here's how it went...

Noxious Slime

First of all, the slimes. As we approached this large pack of slimes in one cavern, our tank warned us all not to get too close to them, as they would completely demolish anyone they touched. I, however, tried to keep everyone alive as they broke this rule, and subsequently got healing aggro and died from the slimes as a result. Luckily I was soulstoned, so I was able to rez and we narrowly avoided a wipe, but this was definitely a first. Who puts overpowered, but super-slow moving slimes in a dungeon anyway?

Anyway, after getting considerably lost in this massive labyrinth we came across another room - this time a large purple area with satyrs and treants spread througout. We fought our way through the demons, eventually coming across a room with a single named satyr stood in the center - Lord Vyletongue. Our tank, likely one of the least experienced ones I'd met until that point (which was saying a lot) charged right in, pulling the stealthed satyrs in the process. Oops...

Lord Vyletongue

As a result of the unexpected chaos, we wiped, then made our way back to the entrance. However, in the process of running back in, we all followed one person and ended up in a completely different entrance than the one we'd already cleared. Being noobs, however, none of us really knew why it was different and full of mobs, so we simply began pulling the trash and moving forward - again, as slowly as ever.

Eventually, we made it back to that room with the treants and satyrs. We carefully moved up the stairs to where Lord Vyletongue was located, this time ready to take him on. Using cc, line of sight, and careful kill targeting tactics, we defeated him and were rewarded with a dagger that had some bonus shadow damage as a chance-on-hit effect. Being a shadow priest, I instantly rolled need. After all, more shadow damage was always a plus, right?

Well...not exactly. See, we had a rogue in our group who was less than thrilled when I received a melee weapon. After all, the chance-on-hit was for MELEE attacks, not spells. And while I didn't really know the difference, he clearly did. Calling me a ninja (which, I mean, is fair), he dropped group and we had to head back out to find a replacement.

The Larvae-Spawning Tube

We'd been in here for a while now - getting lost and fighting slimes for something like 2 hours, but hey, I was enjoying it. I still had plenty of time until Leika would be getting home, so I could play to my heart's content! Eventually we got a replacement and headed back inside, making our way into a large orange room with a bunch of larvae creatures. We passed through with relative ease, but as we continued toward the water elemental boss, we kept getting attacked by randomly spawning larvae spawns that we thought we'd already killed. After about the 4th time this happened, we decided to backtrack and found that they were coming from a strange tube structure hanging from the ceiling. Definitely weird, but right-clicking on it destroyed it, and we were able to progress.

Time was flying by as we made our way down to the waterfall and into the final stretch of the zone. It was around 3PM by the time we started working our way up the rocky slopes and caverns that marked the near end of the dungeon, and I was super-eager to see the ending to this amazing place. However, as we made our way up a massive hill, a message popped up.

"Disconnected from server."

Weird. Naturally, I immediately logged back in and was greeted with my character on the screen. However, within a few minutes, it popped back up again...

"Disconnected from server"

Uh oh.

The Entrance to the Final Chamber...

Yes, Leika had gotten home from work. I had spent all afternoon running around Maraudon with this group and would not be able to finish it...or COULD I?

I called him up, explained the situation, and begged him to let me finish the dungeon. He wasn't in a great mood that day, but after a few minutes of begging, he agreed to let me have another hour or so, just to finish it up.

Delighted, I logged in, explained to my group that I had had some internet issues, but that I'd solved it (smooth lying, buddy. Don't wanna tell people you're breaking ToS!), and we moved on.

The final stretch of the dungeon was brutal though, with all mobs being significantly more challenging than they had been until then. Somehow, though, we persevered - albeit very slowly. Eventually, the last room was all that remained - with Princess Theradras waiting on her island in the middle.

Suddenly, my phone rang. It was Leika. Another hour had somehow passed as we slaughtered crocolisks and rock elementals... I answered, saying that we were literally at the princess despite having 2 more packs of stone giants standing between us and he very angrily told me that he didn't care. But, being the bro that he was (and through my pathetic begging), I convinced him to give me another 10 minutes.

Princess Theradras

It was do or die...

I told my group that I had to go to work in 10 minutes and that we HAD to finish this up now. We pushed through with renewed speed and swiftly pulled to that final boss. Now, through sheer dumb luck or whatever it was, I managed to keep up our tank despite nearly being pushed off the island into the water below. 8 minutes after the phone call from Leika, the princess fell. Collecting our loot, I sighed and thanked the group for the fun just in time...

I hope you enjoyed my rather long story of my adventures in Maraudon. This story in particular, while a bit foggy in my memory, is one of my fondest memories of classic WoW. Back when I had the time and reason to adventure in a dungeon for hours on end, not knowing what to expect with each turn. Also, it is the single event that resulted in Leika giving me the second account, paying to transfer Silvite from the first account to it. I don't remember if that was a feature when the game first came out, or if it came later, but I do remember that it was possible then. After all, Silvite made it safely from Account 1 to Account 2 somehow. And it only took 72 hours! Blazing speed!

All joking aside though, I'm really glad that all this happened, as eventually it meant I could play with my friend and brother, but it also meant that I now had to pay for my own account. No biggie - I had my local pizza job to take care of that $15 every month! And take care of it it did!

But anyway, that's it for today! If you enjoyed this story, remember to follow my blog for more in the future. Check me out over on Facebook and Twitter, and watch my videos over on YouTube if you're interested in video content too! Thanks for reading, and as always...

Take it easy!