As they approached Darrowshire, the scenery grew darker and more desolate.
At last, they found Pamela in a ruined house on the edge of the village.
Her small, transparent body shimmered faintly in the air.
Pamela was already a ghost.
"There's a ghost," Coldhands said.
Naturally, he started acting up again.
"A child ghost asking us to help her find a doll? Come on. This is straight out of a horror movie. That doll is definitely possessed. The evil spirit used the little girl to slaughter the whole village, and that's why this place turned into a ghost town."
He kept going, more convinced with every word.
"No, think about it. The child ghost wants us to find the doll so we can become sacrifices. Then the doll gets stronger, escapes Darrowshire, and starts terrorizing all of Azeroth."
With an imagination like that, it really would be a waste if Coldhands never wrote novels.
"We are righteous Mages of Azeroth," he declared. "We cannot let this ghost child have her way."
For a second, Gabryell thought he was about to put on a heroic act and go exorcise the doll.
Then Coldhands swerved hard in the other direction.
"So let's leave. If the doll can't eat us, it can't grow stronger. By running away, we protect Azeroth."
As he spoke, he actually looked ready to abandon the quest and get as far away from Pamela as possible.
Gabryell nearly spat out the water he was drinking.
He finally understood.
He had overestimated Coldhands. This guy had no bottom line at all.
"What a damn talent."
A perfectly good questline, one of Azeroth's most touching stories, had turned into a Japanese ghost movie the moment it came out of Coldhands's mouth. Little Pamela had become a creepy child controlled by an evil doll, and Darrowshire had become the village she supposedly massacred.
"What the hell goes on in your head all day?"
Gabryell gave him a look. "Watch fewer horror movies. Try something healthy for once."
"Japanese movies can be healthy," Coldhands said seriously. "Depends what category you—"
"Stop. Don't finish that sentence."
Gabryell's understanding of his shamelessness had just been refreshed again.
"Just do the quest. You're a Mage trained in Frost, Fire, and Arcane. Are you seriously scared of a doll?"
Coldhands immediately cast Cone of Cold near Pamela, followed by Flamestrike and Arcane Explosion.
"The Frost-Fire-Arcane Archmage has arrived! Demon, reveal your true form! Do not force this Mage to act, or I'll scatter your soul across the Plaguelands!"
What a clown.
Gabryell ignored him and went to search for Pamela's Doll.
Pamela's Doll had to be assembled from three parts: Pamela's Doll's Head, Pamela's Doll's Left Side, and Pamela's Doll's Right Side. The pieces were scattered through the ruined houses of Darrowshire, each guarded by ghostly mobs that had to be killed before the parts could be looted.
"See? I told you she was evil. There are ghosts waiting for us."
Coldhands had somehow become even more convinced that Pamela was trying to lure them into a trap.
"Hmph. A few trash ghosts dare act up in front of the Frost-Fire-Arcane Archmage? Watch this Mage erase you."
His usual idiot mode kicked in again.
"By urgent command, mali mali hom—Frostbolt!"
Gabryell continued ignoring him. Getting dragged into the same mental state would lower his own IQ.
After searching the three houses, they found the doll's head, left side, and right side, assembled Pamela's Doll, and returned to Pamela to turn in the quest.
After handing the doll back to her, they received the follow-up quest to return to the Ruins of Andorhal and find her aunt.
"Only a little over 2,000 XP?"
As they left Darrowshire, Coldhands kept muttering to himself.
"So stingy. We helped her defeat the evil doll controlling her, and this is all we get?"
This was probably what people meant when they said idiots had more fun.
Back at the Ruins of Andorhal, they found Pamela's aunt, Marlene Redpath. What followed was a long chain of searching for quest items and killing mobs, with each step gradually uncovering more of the truth behind Darrowshire's destruction.
The entire chain was extremely long. Impatient players would quit halfway through and curse, wondering what kind of miserable questline they had stumbled into.
The most iconic part was The Battle of Darrowshire, where players returned to the night before the village's destruction and witnessed the truth behind its fall.
"This quest is exhausting."
It was the first time Coldhands had run into such a long, drawn-out questline. They had spent half the day on it and still had not finished.
"There's only one step left," Gabryell said. "The Battle of Darrowshire. But with just the two of us, we probably can't clear it."
The Battle of Darrowshire was a story event where players had to protect friendly NPCs from dying. Normal mobs were not the problem. The issue was the elite enemies. With too few players, clearing them quickly enough became difficult, and if the protected NPC died, the quest failed.
Under normal circumstances, a full party of level 60 players could complete it without much trouble.
Unfortunately, there were only two of them here, and Coldhands was still level 56.
If a solo player wanted to finish The Battle of Darrowshire, they could leech it the same way people leeched Araj's Phylactery. Wait nearby while another group did the event, hide until they completed it, then hand in the quest once the NPC spirit appeared.
Leeching always felt great.
The problem was that Gabryell was the only level 60 player around. If anyone was leeching today, it would be other people leeching off him.
"With you here, we still can't do it?" Coldhands asked in surprise. "You're already level 60."
"We'll try," Gabryell said. "If it works, great. If not, we lose nothing."
At level 56, Coldhands could only count as half a player. If they wanted to finish The Battle of Darrowshire, Gabryell would have to carry most of it himself.
With the mindset that there was no harm in trying, they returned to Darrowshire.
By this point in the questline, Coldhands no longer believed Pamela was a ghost child controlled by an evil doll. He finally understood that Darrowshire's destruction had not been caused by spirits or curses, but by the Undead Scourge.
At this stage of the game, players could only sense the Scourge through the undead mobs scattered across Eastern and Western Plaguelands. Only after entering Scholomance and Stratholme would that presence grow stronger.
Once Naxxramas opened, players would truly begin to understand what the Scourge represented. Its influence would reach its peak in Wrath of the Lich King, when players marched north to Northrend to bring down Arthas.
Azeroth had many armies, factions, and disasters waiting in the dark. The Scourge was only one of them. Compared to the Burning Legion, it was not even on the same level. The greatest threat to Azeroth was still the Burning Legion led by Sargeras.
When they arrived in Darrowshire, Gabryell placed the Relic Bundle in the town square.
"Keep Davil alive," he said. "Stay on him and ignore everyone else."
They did not have enough people, so Gabryell could only focus on protecting Davil Lightfire. As for the other NPC defenders, they would have to fend for themselves.
Coldhands saw several NPCs appear, quickly found Davil Lightfire, and took position beside him.
"Got him. Frost, Fire, Arcane—three schools, one Mage. Davil's not dying on my watch."
In The Battle of Darrowshire, players first had to keep Davil Lightfire alive until Horgus the Ravager died. After that, Captain Redpath would appear, and players had to protect him until Redpath the Corrupted showed himself.
Once Redpath the Corrupted appeared, killing him would complete the battle and allow Joseph Redpath's spirit to be saved.
The quest itself was not difficult when enough players were present. With a full group, everyone could split targets, keep the NPCs alive, and burn down the elites before things got out of control.
With only one or two players, however, the difficulty rose sharply.
To be honest, Gabryell was not confident they could succeed on the first try. He could only do his best. If they failed, he would stop wasting time and come back once Carlos and the others reached level 60.
There was no way to change the history of Darrowshire's destruction.
But at the very least, he could give Pamela and her father's spirits one more chance to reunite.
The most touching part of the Darrowshire questline came after The Battle of Darrowshire ended, when Pamela happily handed Joseph's Key to the player. Seeing that poor little girl smile after everything she had suffered was the kind of moment old Vanilla players remembered years later—not because the reward was amazing, but because the ending actually hurt.
The NPCs appeared.
The Battle of Darrowshire had begun.