Aside from Gabryell, none of them had ever been to Winterspring, so none of them had the Everlook flight path.
"We'll wait for David and Susie."
They stayed in Stormwind while David's and Susie's groups finished the story event exposing Onyxia. After that, they would form a raid together and head to Winterspring.
The final step of the Onyxia attunement chain required going to Upper Blackrock Spire and killing the final boss, General Drakkisath. Since that was a raid quest, all fifteen of them could go together.
To repeat it one more time: at this point, Blackrock Spire still allowed fifteen players. If they entered Lower Blackrock Spire as a raid, they could not complete normal party quests there, so unless people were only farming gear, they usually went in with a five-man party. Upper Blackrock Spire, on the other hand, allowed raid quests, and with fifteen people, the difficulty dropped sharply.
Blizzard would not reduce the Blackrock Spire cap to ten players until Patch 1.10.
Of course, before they could enter UBRS, they first had to go through LBRS and make the Seal of Ascension.
What a scam.
To squeeze more subscription time out of players, Blizzard really had thought of every trick in the book.
With Gabryell guiding them, David's and Susie's groups successfully killed Emperor Dagran Thaurissan and completed The Princess's Surprise.
After returning to Ironforge to turn it in, they immediately flew to the Burning Steppes, reported back to Maxwell, and then headed to Stormwind.
To save time, the two parties merged into one raid and completed the Stormwind event together.
Stormwind erupted into chaos again, especially among players who had just logged in. Some of them foolishly followed Marshal Windsor all the way to the keep, and when Onyxia summoned her elite black dragonkin, another batch of curious newbies got sent straight to the graveyard by Cleave.
This would probably keep happening until Gabryell posted the Onyxia attunement guide on the Azeroth National Geographic forums.
"Anyone with the Everlook flight path, type 1," Gabryell said.
"1."
"1."
Only two people responded.
Gabryell was pleasantly surprised. "Desert, Milo, come with me to Everlook. Once we're there, we'll summon everyone."
If they could avoid running, they would avoid running.
Going from Felwood to Everlook meant passing through Timbermaw Hold. If everyone wanted to go that way safely, they would have to grind Timbermaw reputation first, and that would waste far too much time. If they tried to fight through instead, their Timbermaw reputation would tank, and they would only screw themselves over later.
"The rest of you wait in town for summons."
Ogabs, Desert, and Milo headed to Theramore Isle together. Flying from Theramore to Everlook was a little faster than flying from Darkshore.
One of the happiest things in World of Warcraft was getting summoned.
It was the favorite privilege of countless lazy players. Every raid had at least half the group typing "1" in raid chat, hoping the Warlock would summon them. If there was no summon, they simply would not run.
They never seemed to realize that in the time they spent waiting for a summon, they could have already reached the instance on their own.
Once Gabryell and the other two arrived in Everlook, DesertWanderer began casting Ritual of Summoning and pulling everyone over.
"Every time I go anywhere, half my bag is Soul Shards," DesertWanderer complained while opening portals. "I can barely carry food or water."
Every Warlock felt that one in their soul.
"The first thing I do after logging in every day isn't leveling. It's farming shards. I'm more consistent with Soul Shards than some people are with breakfast."
The bitterness poured out of him.
"I demand compensation. Three gold per summon. Labor fee."
"What is this, Desert Airlines?" Carlos said.
Gabryell nearly laughed.
Desert Airlines, direct flights to Everlook. No frequent-flyer miles, no monthly pass, three gold a ticket.
At that price, the airline would go bankrupt before lunch.
Of course, DesertWanderer was only venting. He did not actually charge anyone. He obediently summoned the entire raid over.
Once everyone arrived in Everlook, Gabryell said, "Go grab the flight path first. Alchemists, find Evie Whirlbrew and buy Recipe: Major Healing Potion. Enchanters and Tailors, find Qia and check for Pattern: Mooncloth and Formula: Enchant Chest - Major Health."
"As for everyone else, look around for your own profession stuff. Everlook has a few surprises."
Gabryell did not remember every vendor detail, but he knew one thing for certain: Pattern: Mooncloth came from Everlook.
"Danielly, go buy Pattern: Mooncloth," he whispered specifically.
Danielly replied at once. "On it."
After she bought and learned it, Gabryell added, "From now on, make Mooncloth every time your cooldown is up. If you don't have Felcloth, buy it from the Auction House."
"Got it."
Once everyone was done with their own business, Gabryell began gathering the raid again.
"Everyone follow me. We're going to Mazthoril."
He mounted up and led the group out of Everlook, heading southwest toward the blue dragon cave.
Haleh was on the mountaintop above Mazthoril. There were two ways to reach her.
The proper route was to fight all the way into the cave and use the teleportation rune at the back to reach the summit.
The other method was to climb around the left side of the cave and abuse the terrain until they reached the mountaintop directly. That route skipped the elite blue dragonkin inside and was better for solo players.
Right now, nobody knew that mountain-climbing path. It would only be discovered later by WoW's wall-jumping maniacs after they had nothing better to do than break the terrain.
With fifteen people, they did not need any of that.
They could just fight their way in.
"So many elites."
When they arrived at Mazthoril, they saw that aside from the small dragonkin, almost everything in the cave was an elite blue dragonkin above level 55.
"Kill our way in," Gabryell said. "Push to the back."
Level 55 elites that a geared level 60 could solo had no chance of stopping fifteen players.
They cleared straight through and made their way deep into Mazthoril.
"There's a named blue dragon back here."
Someone spotted Scryer flying near the back of the cave and immediately perked up.
"Named elite. That has to be a boss, right?"
"Ogabs, want us to kill it?"
The raid immediately grew restless, eager to jump on Scryer.
"A boss? Of course we—"
"No need," Gabryell said, cutting them off. "That's not our boss. Scryer is a Horde Onyxia attunement mob. Killing him won't drop anything useful for us. Leave him alone."
Scryer was part of the Horde attunement quest The Test of Skulls, Scryer. He had no proper loot table worth caring about and was only level 60. Killing him would not even get them a souvenir shirt.
Gabryell had no interest in wasting time.
"Don't aggro him. See the glowing rune circle up ahead? Step into that, and it'll teleport you to the mountaintop."
A level 56 Cobalt Wyrmkin was blocking the path forward.
Gabryell fired a Frostbolt and pulled it over.
Everyone attacked together and quickly killed it.
"Wait, purple drop!"
No one knew who shouted it, but the raid instantly stirred.
Purple again.
Mature Blue Dragon Sinew
Epic
Unique
Requires Level 60
"What the hell is this?" someone said. "Why isn't it gear?"
Everyone stared at the purple item in confusion.
It was not equipment. It was just something called Mature Blue Dragon Sinew.
"Seriously? If it's not gear, why is it purple?"
"Quest item, maybe?"
"Looks like one, but there's no quest prompt. How are we supposed to use it?"
The raid argued back and forth.
Gabryell's eyes lit up the moment he saw it.
The others had no idea what the item was for.
He did.
Mature Blue Dragon Sinew was required for the Hunter quest Ancient Sinew Wrapped Lamina. Hunters could turn it in to Hastat the Ancient in Felwood and receive the only epic quiver in the Vanilla era.
Ancient Sinew Wrapped Lamina
Epic
Binds when picked up
Unique
18 Slot Quiver
Classes: Hunter
Requires Level 60
Equip: Increases ranged attack speed by 15%.
The drop rate for Mature Blue Dragon Sinew was extremely low. Under normal circumstances, a group could farm Mazthoril for a week and still not see one. Its Auction House price would be ridiculous once people understood what it was.
Ancient Sinew Wrapped Lamina was a must-have quiver for serious Hunters. If a casual Hunter could not stomach the cost, they could use Harpy Hide Quiver from Alterac Valley reputation instead. The attack speed bonus was the same, but it had two fewer slots.
"Without Ancient Petrified Leaf, nobody knows what Mature Blue Dragon Sinew is for yet," Gabryell thought. "Right now, this thing is just like The Eye of Shadow. Completely undervalued."
Without Ancient Petrified Leaf, Hunters could not begin the ancient tree questline in Felwood. That meant most players had no idea Mature Blue Dragon Sinew had any use at all.
If someone looted one now and did not know what it was, they might even throw it onto the Auction House for cheap.
Gabryell immediately found another bargain-hunting path.
The Eye of Shadow was the same. Without The Eye of Divinity, Priests would not know it was part of the Benediction questline. Once people started looting these items without understanding their value, he could buy them cheap and sell them later when everyone finally realized what they were.
The Eye of Divinity and Ancient Petrified Leaf both came from the Cache of the Firelord after Majordomo Executus in Molten Core. One led to Benediction for Priests. The other started the Hunter epic weapon quest for Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers.
Aside from Fearless, the other guilds would probably need at least another month or two before they reached Majordomo.
Until then, Gabryell had plenty of time to quietly buy up the things nobody understood yet.