Tales from Azeroth 5: Succubus and Felhunter Quests

Playing a Warlock in World of Warcraft has treated me to some very enjoyable Class-specific quests.

Every ten levels starting at level 10, Warlocks are able to summon a new demon minion. However, before acquiring the skill to summon the minion, the Warlock must complete a quest in order to acquire the skill. This involves consulting other NPC Warlocks and collecting materials and/or demonic knowledge needed to summon the minion. Because of the Warlocks’ ties to demonic magic, they are shunned by most people in both factions. As such, some of the Warlocks the player needs to speak to are located in out-of-the-way spots. Both Horde and Alliance Warlocks speak to some of the same NPCs for their demon quests, but unfortunately for Alliance Warlocks, we have to go into Horde Territory to speak to some of them.

Succubus

At level 20, it was time to start on the quest line that would enable me to summon my Succubus minion. This involved me going into Horde territory to speak to the Warlock NPC who could tell me how to summon my Succubus.

Now, I know a couple of people playing Horde on my server. One of them, whom I will call “Mr C,” has a couple of level 60 characters. Mr C was one of the folks who were pestering me for the longest time to play WoW, and to come join him on Horde on his server. He was a bit disappointed when I created an Alliance character.

I was chatting to him via IM, and I said that I was on my way to the infamous Barrens (Horde Territory) to talk to an NPC about my Succubus. He decided to escort me through with his level 60 Tauren Druid, which was really nice of him. I was nervous about venturing into enemy territory on our PvP server. After getting directions from a level 60 Dwarf, who said that it would have been easier if I had taken another route (but no matter), was on my way. I met Mr C along the road in Ashenvale, which is a contested area north of the Barrens. Alliance characters and Horde characters cannot communicate with each other — speech comes out as gibberish. We communicated mainly by MSN Messenger and by emoting at each other, which was entertaining. At a couple of points, I accidentally attacked him a couple of times, which gave him a great laugh.

There were some mishaps resulting in my death. I wasn’t paying close attention to Mr C’s emotes, and accidentally ran the wrong way into some NPC Horde guards, who killed me. I was having fun though. We came across another Tauren. As the other Tauren approached, I saw Mr C running around and talking to him a bit frantically, presumably telling him not to attack me. That was fun. After that the other Tauren joined us.

I wasn’t exactly sure as to where my NPC was, so Mr C consulted an external resource. We finally found the location of the NPC, and I completed the next leg of my quest. I went to MSN and thanked Mr C for his help. We mucked about a bit more — dancing and doing other emotes. Then the two Tauren killed the Warlock NPC for a laugh. Mr C then killed me in about two hits. On MSN, he messaged me, “Welcome to PvP. :-)” Horde and Alliance are enemies, but circumventing the Horde/Alliance faction division created by Blizzard made my quest much more entertaining.

Felhunter

The next demon a Warlock is able to summon is the Felhunter at level 30. Like other Warlock quests, this one requires Alliance Warlocks to venture into enemy territory to speak to an NPC. There are a few ways to get to the neutral town of Ratchet, in The Barrens, for an Alliance Warlock. The easiest way is to take a boat from the neutral town of Booty Bay. The problem for the lowbie character is that Booty Bay is located in the contested mid-level territory of Stranglethorn Vale.

So, I could either run from Ashenvale (Contested Territory, but relatively safe) through the Barrens (Horde Territory) to get to Ratchet, or I could somehow find a way through Stranglethorn Vale (Contested Territory, unsafe and full of griefers) in order to reach Booty Bay (Neutral town) and take the boat to Ratchet (Neutral town). The last time I was in the Barrens, running from Ashenvale, I had two high-level Taurens escorting me. I might not be so lucky this time.

I did some research on the internet, and I discovered that some enterprising Alliance Warlocks had swum all the way from Alliance Territory in Westfall, south to Booty Bay, without ever having to set foot in Stranglethorn Vale. Because Warlocks can cast Unending Breath, I wouldn’t have the need to surface at all during the long swim. Surfacing for air would potentially endanger me because there were much higher level enemies swimming around the shores.

I love exploration and I love adventure. Though this isn’t exactly sequence breaking, it does involve the same sort of exploratory problem-solving that I enjoy about the Metroid games.

Apart from spotting a couple of high level sharks and steering well clear of them, the swim was uneventful. I checked my map very often to make sure that I was headed in the right direction, and tried to stay away from the shore as much as I could. I had to remain alert at all times. I was venturing into unknown and uncharted (uncharted by me, anyway) territory. The swim took about 15 minutes. Despite the uneventful journey, it was a very exciting one.

I made it to Booty Bay, took the ship to Ratchet, spoke to the NPC, and was ready to begin the next leg of the Felhunter quest. The Felhunter quest chain is an example of the sort of quest in World of Warcraft that I enjoy immensely. This quest requires the Warlock to travel to distant lands to collect two pieces of an ancient book, and three pieces of a summoning rod. Acquiring the pieces of the book requires the Warlock to go into the Hillsbrad Foothills, which is Contested Territory. Hillsbrad is almost as full of griefers as Strangelthorn Vale. I also had to travel to Thousand Needles, which is Horde Territory — very dangerous for an Alliance Warlock such as myself. This bit was particularly fun, as I had to be alert for Horde players. Acquiring the pieces of the summoning rod was less dangerous and more straightforward; although the Wetlands is Contested Territory, there is an Alliance port there and there isn’t too much griefing. I was able to solo this entire quest, despite my travels into Horde Territory.

After collecting the items, I went back to the NPC in Ratchet to summon and defeat my new demon minion. When a Warlock learns to summon a new demon minion, she must defeat it in combat. When I got there, I saw a level 32 Undead Warlock. He didn’t attack me, which was nice. I think maybe Warlocks of both factions feel some sort of solidarity towards each other from time to time. The Undead Warlock stuck around for me to complete my summoning and acquisition of the new spell, and applauded me afterwards. He didn’t attempt to kill me after that, but I didn’t want to stick around in case he changed his mind.

The Warlock demon quests have definitely been a major highlight of the game for me. They involved me in my character’s development more than any other of the quests in World of Warcraft. These quests also gave me opportunities to explore that I normally would not take.

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