With all three gemstones finally gathered, they returned to Vaelan.
Vaelan helped Gabryell set the gemstones into the three sockets of the Unadorned Seal of Ascension.
"Go to the Wyrmbog in Dustwallow Marsh," Vaelan said. "Find the ancient drake Emberstrife and attack him without mercy until his will breaks."
Then he explained how the seal had to be forged.
"At that moment, you must place the Unforged Seal of Ascension before the dragon as quickly as possible. Then use the Orb of Draconic Energy to seize control of his mind and force him to breathe the Flames of the Black Dragonflight onto the seal."
Emberstrife was easy enough to find. His den was in the Wyrmbog, deep in Dustwallow Marsh, and the cave had only one mob inside: Emberstrife himself, a level 61 elite black drake.
Alliance players might not know him as well as Horde players did. He was part of the Horde Onyxia attunement chain, the old gatekeeper who tested dragonspawn seeking to become elite guards for Onyxia.
In theory, that sounded important.
In practice, he was the genius who let Horde players walk right through the front door in disguise and helped set up Onyxia's eventual death.
The Black Dragonflight really knew how to pick its staff.
"You have five attempts," Vaelan said. "If you fail, return to me and I will provide another."
He handed Gabryell the Unforged Seal of Ascension, which had five uses.
Then he gave him the Orb of Draconic Energy.
"Use this to control Emberstrife."
Finally, Vaelan waved him off.
"Go. I will await your success."
Once the quest was complete, Gabryell would have to come back and receive the finished Seal of Ascension.
Gabryell had done this quest before. He did not need five attempts.
One would be enough.
The quest itself was simple: place the Unforged Seal of Ascension in front of Emberstrife, beat him down until his will weakened, then use the Orb of Draconic Energy to take control of him.
As for exactly how low his health needed to be, players had argued about that for years.
Some believed the lower, the better. Others insisted that as long as the Orb worked and Emberstrife used the right breath skill, the seal would be forged just fine.
"Done," Gabryell said. "Dustwallow Marsh next."
With the Unforged Seal of Ascension in hand, there was no reason for his group to keep farming LBRS.
He opened a portal straight back to Ironforge.
David's and Susie's groups did not need to help with this part, so Gabryell let them continue running LBRS. Killing a few more bosses and picking up more gear was not a bad thing.
Once he got the Seal of Ascension, he would call them out and merge all three groups for UBRS.
After returning to Ironforge, they went straight to the flight master, flew to Menethil Harbor, and took the ship to Theramore Isle.
Taking the main road through Dustwallow Marsh was what first-timers did.
Gabryell was not taking the scenic route. That meant riding around half the zone for no reason.
"Jump."
Before the ship even docked, he jumped straight into the water.
Carlos, Igor, Hugo, and Lunatori froze for half a second before jumping after him.
"We're swimming?" Carlos asked.
"Exactly," Gabryell said. "From the docks, swimming down the coast is way faster than following the road. Later, when we start running Onyxia's Lair, this is the route everyone will use."
There was one universal truth about World of Warcraft players.
If the spacebar existed, they had to press it.
On land, they jumped while running.
In water, they jumped while swimming.
If they stood still for more than three seconds, they started hopping in place like something was wrong with their keyboard.
A player who never jumped had no soul.
They bounced their way across the water and landed on the coast near Dustwallow Marsh, then mounted up and rode toward Onyxia's Lair.
As they passed the entrance, Gabryell said, "That's Onyxia's Lair. Once we finish the attunement and get the Drakefire Amulet, we can go inside and make trouble for the Black Dragon Princess."
"I can't wait," Carlos said. "We're taking her down."
Igor immediately snorted. "Your tastes are getting dangerous. You want to raid the dragon in that sense?"
Carlos did not miss a beat. "You don't?"
Igor laughed. "Of course I do. I want to beat her until she hands over every piece of gear and treasure she owns."
Gabryell refused to let them enjoy the fantasy for even one second.
"With your current gear, the two of you would be dragon dental floss."
Carlos and Igor both went quiet.
What Gabryell actually wanted to say was much worse, but there were girls in the party, so he showed a rare moment of restraint.
They left the entrance of Onyxia's Lair behind and soon arrived at Emberstrife's Den, which lay off to the side.
Emberstrife was flying inside the cave. He was a level 61 elite, a little stronger than Overlord Wyrmthalak, the final boss of LBRS.
"Onyxia's biggest mistake was hiring this clown as her gatekeeper," Gabryell said.
In Nefarian and Onyxia's system, Emberstrife was supposed to test and approve dragonspawn worthy of serving as elite guards.
Instead, he had opened the door for Horde players and helped them get into Onyxia's Lair.
For Onyxia, who could manipulate Stormwind's nobles from the shadows, failing this hard on the Horde side was almost impressive.
Maybe she simply thought Orcs were too ugly to be worth the effort.
"This guy has breath attacks and Cleave," Gabryell said. "Don't stand in front of his head."
They did not need to kill Emberstrife. They only needed to weaken him.
"Luna, keep everyone healthy. He has AoE too."
With no trash mobs interfering, Carlos went straight in while Gabryell used the Unforged Seal of Ascension on the ground.
There was no need to lower Emberstrife's health too much. If they pushed too hard and triggered his enrage, they would only make the quest more annoying.
Once Emberstrife's health dropped far enough, Gabryell used the Orb of Draconic Energy.
The control took.
That proved they did not need to beat him down to a sliver of health.
Gabryell used Emberstrife's first breath ability and blasted the Unforged Seal of Ascension with black dragonfire.
The seal on the ground changed.
Forged Seal of Ascension.
"Should we kill him?" Carlos asked, ready to pick up aggro the moment the control ended. "He's a level 61 elite, after all."
"No need," Gabryell said. "He's a quest mob. He doesn't drop anything. When I cancel control, pick him up. I'll grab the seal, and we leave."
Killing Emberstrife was pointless. He did not have a loot table at all, not even random world loot.
Classic Blizzard: make players deal with a level 61 elite dragon for a key quest, then give them absolutely nothing if they killed it.
If they were talking about targets worth killing in the Horde dragon trials, only the green and red dragons had any real value. Those were level 62 elites with world loot tables, so they at least had a chance to drop something ridiculous like Teebu's Blazing Longsword.
Gabryell canceled the control.
Carlos picked up Emberstrife.
Gabryell immediately grabbed the Forged Seal of Ascension from the ground.
"Go," he said. "Run out of the cave. We'll drop combat outside."
The five of them abandoned Emberstrife on the spot, sprinted out of the cave, and left combat.
"All right," Gabryell said. "Back to LBRS."
He opened a portal to Ironforge, then they flew to Searing Gorge.
Gabryell's group had already unlocked the Thorium Point flight path, so there was no need to reach Blackrock Mountain from the Burning Steppes anymore.
They landed at Thorium Point, rushed straight to Blackrock Mountain, entered LBRS again, found Vaelan, and handed over the Forged Seal of Ascension.
Vaelan took the seal.
"Be cautious," he said. "I am about to cast the final warding spell."
His eyes flared like twin orbs of fire.
The Forged Seal of Ascension became the Seal of Ascension.
"You must understand," Vaelan said, "I have placed powerful wards within this artifact. At the most desperate moment, when all hope seems lost, the power of the Red Dragonflight will come to your aid."
With that, he handed the Seal of Ascension to Gabryell.
Gabryell examined it.
Seal of Ascension
Rare
Binds when picked up
Unique
Finger
+10 Fire Resistance
+10 Nature Resistance
+10 Frost Resistance
Dragon runes shift and shimmer across its surface.
So that was the so-called power of the Red Dragonflight.
Resistance.
It sounded grand, but in practice, that was all it was.
"With the Seal of Ascension, we can enter UBRS," Gabryell said.
He contacted David and Susie and told them to stop farming LBRS.
Everyone was to gather at the entrance.
The three parties would merge into one fifteen-player raid and head into Upper Blackrock Spire.