Level 11: Sunday, February 6, 2011

When we last left our Worgen friend, we had just witnessed the destruction of Duskhaven due to the COMBO of Deathwing's emergence from the earth, and a barrage of fire from Forsaken gunships. After a few quests where you salvage supplies from the flood, and save drowning villagers, you move onto the village of Stormglen, on higher ground and farther away from the coast.

There, we find out the next part of the escape plan. All of the survivors will make for King Greymane's manor, located high in the mountains overlooking Gilneas, and safe from the floodwaters.

Once you arrive, you meet with Gilneas in his observatory as he looks out on the wreckage, and sees that the survivors are still threated by the range of the Forsaken ships' guns. He calls for another evacuation, much further inland to the forest of Blackwald.

In the forest, the survivors meet up with some Night Elves, who give them the backstory on the original Worgen that were summoned to help fight off the Forsaken. This is all a little Poochified, but as it turns out, they were originally druids who couldn't maintain the balance between their human and beast forms and were banished to sleep under the tree in the forest, but not before their curse began to spread. Then they give you some potion that lets you control your shapeshifting. At this point, that racist Gilnean Godfrey shows up and gives you a little attitude, but King Greymane shows up shortly afterwards and reveals SWERVE that he's been affected by the curse as well. Godfrey isn't happy, and puts in motion a plan to take control. He secretly kidnaps Greymane, hoping to hand him over to the Forsaken in exchange for mercy for the rest of the pure Gilneans. You thwart his plan, however, and save Greymane, and Godfrey, unwilling to serve a "tainted" ruler hurls himself off a cliff.

Not MY lycanthropic ruler

That ends his portion of the story in the Worgen starting area, but if you play as a Forsaken, you discover that they raise his corpse from death and turn him against the Worgen. Meanwhile, the Worgen, rallying behind the rescued Greymane, and invigorated by finally overcoming the curse, appear to be ready to take back Gilneas. However, Greymane's son, Liam, is killed by Sylvanas Windrunner during the battle. Following her, you discover that she has countless batches of the Forsaken plague ready to level Gilneas to the ground. Greymane has a choice: avenge his son, or save his people. He chooses to honor Liam's memory by evacuating the Gilneans that he fought to protect, and after a series of quests that has you slow down the advancing Forsaken, Night Elves from Darnassus arrive to ferry you across the sea to safety, with promises that you will return to Gilneas, backed by the full forces of the Alliance.

This marks the end of the Worgen starting experience. When the player regains control, they are in the Night Elf capital city of Darnassus.

Level 4: Sunday, January 30, 2011

Up until this point, I had been doing my workout every evening. In an effort to get it to my preferred early morning time, I did not bike on Sunday so that I wasn't doing one workout Sunday night and another Monday morning. (Any kind of lingering fatigue could have stopped me.)

"As long as neither of us is bitten, we'll be fine!"

"..."

Back in the Worgen starting area, you manage to make your way through the packs of wild worgen to the cathedral in the middle of the city, escorting some VIP's and still feeling the effects of your bite. After commandeering some cannons to clear out a large pack outside the building, you and one of the Gilnean leaders begin your final stand inside. Unfortunately, just as the final attack starts, you undergo a transformation into a full-fledged worgen and wake up days later in the stocks that you might see in Liberty Square at Disney World.

Come on, quit fooling around, we have Soarin' Fastpasses

You are told by Lord Godfrey, an unaffected Gilnean leader who hates Worgen, that you went Charlie Sheen-crazy and attacked Crowley, and that Gilneas was lost. The survivors fled to the nearby town of Duskhaven, where you become a guinea pig for an elixir that attempts to curb the Worgen curse. It seems to work, and you are released from the stocks and make your way into town.

While on a mission to gather materials for more elixir, you are attacked by a Forsaken spy, and after fighting him off, see that he isn't alone, and that the town will soon be under attack.

Despite still not trusting you, Godfrey recognizes that your Worgen curse makes you stronger in battle, so he sends you out to counter the Forsaken attack. After some quests where you sabotage the Forsaken boats and kill their leader, you return. Just as it appears that you've saved the town, the incoming bombs from the ships, combined with the already weakened terrain from a giant dragon recently popping out of the earth and wrecking everything, sink the entire town.

George Bush doesn't care about wolf people.

Level 2: Thursday, January 27, 2011

We had another foot of snow in the morning, and I hurt my back while shoveling, so I took the day off from the bike to recuperate. Still, I did almost an hour and a half of shoveling, so not a total loss.

Boys becoming men, men becoming wolves

One of two new races introduced in the Cataclysm expansion, the Worgen had previously only been seen a handful of times as hostile enemies to players. With the Horde getting goblins, the Worgen backstory was fleshed out, and their reasons for joining the Alliance are explained in the first few levels. Long before the action of WoW, there was a city called Gilneas that was involved in a war with the undead Scourge. (More on them later.) To keep out the enemy, the Gilneans barricaded themselves behind a giant wall and cut off all contact with the outside world as cabin fever grew.

Get in.

In a desperate effort to fight back, one of the Gilnean leaders used magically-summoned wild wolf beasts against the Scourge, not considering that they might turn on their masters. When the action picks up in media res, the character is in the middle of an attack from the wild worgen as they are tasked with saving trapped citizens from buildings and getting supplies to hold off the beasts. In the midst of these quests, you are bitten by a feverish man, but don't worry, it's probably nothing to worry about!