Wrath of the Lich King:
Wrenne's Story

Part 1

 

As I checked my inbox one fateful night, I found a gold nugget that caused me to twitch with trepidation. “Congratulations, you have been selected to participate in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta!” I could barely believe it! It was time for my proud paladin Wrenne to trade in her plate boots for some fur lined garments to protect her against the harsh northern winds surging from the gaping maw of the continent known as Northrend.


World of Warcraft expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King screen captures.

Before traveling to Northrend you are given a choice of two locations to travel to- either Howling Fjord or the Borean Tundra. I decided to head to Howling Fjord as it sounded much howlier over there.
When you first arrive on a boat teeming with your factions bravest warriors, you sail steadily through closed in cliffs, with crashed airships and scorched rocks welcoming you to a brutal battlefield.


The sights and sounds in Howling Fjord were haunting, the music echoes in your eardrums like a cry with no one to offer comfort. You arrive at the town of Valgarde, which is besieged by the villainous Vrykul, a Viking-like group of humanoids. You are immediately given quests directing you to direct conflict with them. After a few repeated run-ins against the Vrykul you are given a concoction that will allow you to travel to the spirit world, and through it glimpse into the past.

On your journey to your destination should you decide to wander to Utgarde Keep you will find yourself face to face with the Lich King himself, Arthas. Should you come too close to him he will utterly incapacitate you and taunt you mercilessly, mocking your current lack of preparation for what lies before you. He will then release you back to your own affairs, and should you be foolhardy enough to return to him he will slay you instantly, using an attack known as The Wrath of the Lich King.

Eventually, through the aforementioned spirit journey quests, you will find that the local Vrykul village was home to a baby Vrykul that the village had deemed unnatural, and despite valiant efforts by the parents it is implied that the fate of the baby is less than desirable. I found myself incensed by this, and I decided to delve deep into the heart of the Vrykul territory, into Utgarde keep.


Utgarde Keep is filled with ravenous Vrykul warriors, their marauding dragon pets, and their mindless undead workers. As you trek through the keep you will come upon the first boss, a vampire mage named Prince Keleseth, whom you will recognize if you’ve played through the Death Knight starting area already. Prince Keleseth tosses wave after wave of skeletal soldiers at you, periodically encasing you or one of your compatriots in an icy tomb. He eventually fell to my group’s mighty blades, and we pressed onwards through the mining area, where the Vrykul were utilizing the tireless hands of the undead to extract precious materials from the Earth. At the end of the mining area you meet the second boss, which is actually two bosses. Skarvald the Constructor, a powerful melee fighter, and Dalronn the Controller. After Skarvald fell, Dalronn brought him back from the twisting aether as a ghost, temporarily adding to the chaos of the fight.


After both beasts were felled, our group traveled out onto the ramparts. Vrykul after Vrykul flew down from high in the heavens, raining destruction on our group. We persevered and made our way to the final encounter of the dungeon- Ingvar the Plunderer. Ingvar uses a staggering roar ability, which deals area of effect damage and silences the party. He has a few other tricks up his sleeve but the deadliest of the tricks is an ability called Smash, which deals a huge chunk of damage in a cone in front of him. The trick to this ability, I suppose, is to make certain to interrupt the cast on this ability so that he can’t crush your party. Ingvar eventually crumbled under the weight of our powers, but alas, he had a final trick up his sleeve. Or rather, the trick resided in the metallic sleeves of the Lich King. A booming voice echoed in our heads, bringing forth a dire malediction that resurrected Ingvar as an undead monstrosity, a figment of his former self. This severance of his humanity brought in an additional portion of dark power as his attacks became exponentially deadlier. Staggering Roar became Dreadful Roar, Cleave became Woe Strike, and Smash became Dark Smash. All of these abilities were more dreadful and deadlier, sometimes dealing half again the damage of his previous form. In addition, he gains a flying runed weapon that chooses particular party members to hammer blows upon. However, after a concerted effort on our part this dark aberration disintegrated. We were triumphant, and took both his equipment and his head as a trophy.

Upon my victorious return to Valgarde, the townspeople directed me to a new group of people in need of my aid- the peaceful Tuskarr village.


-Alex L.

 

© 2008 Rocket Llama World Headquarters, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama[1] is a webcomic starring "a high-flying llama, a sword-swinging cat, and a rocket as loyal as a cowboy hero's horse."[2] Created by Alex Langley while he was a student at Henderson State University, the comic first appeared in a comic book titled The Workday Comic. For the Workday comics anthology, a spin-off of Scott McCloud's 24-Hour Comics, comics creators each wrote and drew their own eight-page stories in eight hours in April, 2007, on Friday the 13th[3], which turned into an ongoing publication.[4]  Co-presenting with comics author and scholar Danny Fingeroth (Dazzler, Spider-Man, Superman on the Couch), the creators described the webcomic's evolution as members of a Comics Arts Conference panel at 2008's Comic-Con International in San Diego, California.[5][6][7]  Contents [hide] 1 Debut  2 Webcomic  3 References  4 External links      [edit] Debut The full title of Rocket Llama's debut story in The Workday Comic #1 (spring, 2007) was "The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama #112: 'Trouble in Paradise'".[8] The story introduced the taciturn hero Rocket Llama and his talkative sidekick, an anthropomorphic cat named Bartholomew Meowsenhausen, who find themselves stranded on an island after a battle with an enemy called Jetpack Dog. Spherical islanders capture them and then challenge them to combat. A villain named Böwser vön Überdog arrives with Jetpack Dog and, in a sudden Star Wars parody, summons a giant robot known as the Super Robot Dog Walker which blasts a volcano to bits. Before it can fire a second blast, Rocket Llama destroys it by getting it to swallow a pot of water and backfire. The story ends with Böwser tied up and the heroes using the giant robot dog head as a boat to get themselves home, with the promise of the next story to be titled, "Yuck! Yukon!"[9][10]  Whether despite the original story's childlike art or because of it, the Rocket Llama story proved to be the most popular in the 2007 anthology collection of the eight-hour comics.[11] After comic artist Stephen R. Bissette, an instructor at the Center for Cartoon Studies and comic book artist best known for his work on Swamp Thing with Alan Moore, read all of the stories in the first volume of The Workday Comic, he remarked, "That llama's gonna stick with me."[12]   [edit] Webcomic Nick Langley redrew the story with a less childlike drawing style in webcomic form for online publication[13] as the flagship title for the website rocketllama.com which grew into an affiliation of websites featuring webcomics, art, entertainment reviews, and scholarly studies of comics.[14] The online story featured a new cover[15] and omitted a one-page gag, a preview for an unrelated Stealth Potato comic, which had appeared as an intermission in the middle of the original story.[16] The original story also appeared online as the comic's "ashcan copy."[17]  The authors present the Rocket Llama stories metafictionally as the world's oldest comic book, established in 1916, which they allegedly rediscovered and are adapting into webcomics. "Deep underground, in an archaic vault we searched until we found the fabled tales. As both the current production team behind The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama and appreciators of such groundbreaking literature, we have taken it upon ourselves to restore these classic issues to a glory more befitting a modern, digital age."[18]  Although every "issue" is presented with panels and screens in the correct order for each story, the issues are presented out of order as if readers were discovering old issues of a classic comic book in a seemingly haphazard order, however they come to find them. After the redrawn number 112's online publication came the serialized time travel story #136-137, "Time Flies When You're on the Run," appearing one page at a time throughout each week.[19][20] Special Rocket Llama Says bonus features appear only in "ashcan" form drawn by the original creator.[21]   [edit] References ^ Rocket Llama World Headquarters  ^ You are here.  ^ Waddles, Joshua. (2007, April 2). Comic book club puts in a full day's work. The Oracle vol. 99 (25), p. 3.  ^ Beard, Sarah. (2008, August 25). Comic Arts Club offers excitment. The Oracle, vol. 101 (1), p. 5.  ^ T. Langley & R. Duncan, panel moderators, with respondent Danny Fingeroth. (2008, July). "Capes and Tights, Caps and Gowns." Panel presented at the Comics Arts Conference, Comic-Con International. San Diego, California.  ^ Recent and Upcoming Research Presentations  ^ Pannell, E. (2008, July 27). Comic communication part of professors' classes. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, T-1, T-4.  ^ Page 1.  ^ The Workday Comic #1. Spring, 2007.[1]  ^ The Workday Comic - online edition.  ^ Sorrell, M. (2008, April 14).Club produces second annual workday comic. The Oracle, vol. 100.  ^ Quoted in "The Workday Comic: Not Just One Third of a 24-Hour Comic." Comics Arts Conference, Comic-Con International. San Diego, California. July 27, 2008.  ^ The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama #112: "Trouble in Paradise." Script: Alex Langley. Art: Nick Langley.  ^ You are here.  ^ #137-Cover.  ^ Sneak Peak at Stealth Potato #75.  ^ Rocket Llama Ashcan Copy.  ^ Who Is Rocket Llama?  ^ "Time Flies When You're on the Run, Part 1." Script: Alex Langley. Art: Nick Langley.  ^ "Time Flies When You're on the Run, Part 2." Script: Alex Langley. Art: Nick Langley.  ^ e.g., "Tanks a Lot." Rocket Llama Says #8. Script and art: Alex Langley.