Bal’a dash, malanore.

Working alongside the Banshee Queen herself, our small force penetrated the outer walls of Icecrown Citadel in an effort to shut down the soul grinders. While the foes we met were relatively easily dispatched, there were a number of things the filthy, Scourge forces did to try to thwart our mission. It would appear they understand our abilities, indicating these new Scourge have developed some semblance of intelligence over the typical, brainless ghouls we have encountered in the past. Not only do they space themselves far enough away from each other to make it a royal pain to force them to attack me instead of attempting to devour the other members of my party, but I am also unable to reach more than one at a time with my Avenger’s Shield. While more frustrating than anything, I am still learning ways in which I can trick the bastards into charging me on sight so that I can clump them together nicely for my fellow adventurers to rain all sorts of physical and magical death upon them.

The first “boss” we encountered, assuming you can call this pathetic excuse for a soul keeper a boss given that I have met more formidable warlocks in my time, was Bronjahm. This human, or I suppose he must be undead, tries to drain the souls of party members and heal himself with their life force. It’s really simple to counter, since all I have to do is run him around the room while the remaining members of the party destroy the magical energy before it reaches him. You would think Arthas would have at least enlisted someone intelligent enough to move toward the life force he is draining, or at the very least stand still, instead of chasing after me and running away from the only thing that could possibly allow him to survive our assault. I suppose that’s about normal, though, when you think of how unintelligent Arthas’ decisions have been in general so far.

Anyway, as we continued on through the pesky Scourge forces littered inside the Forge of Souls we encountered the other “boss.” With a name like the Devourer of Souls, which I have to admit has a nice ring to it, I expected to really be challenged. This… thing… I actually have no idea what what it is… a floating head thingy… anyway, this clown uses an ability to link himself to a party member, transferring damage done to him during this linking to the party member instead. Oh wow, how ever will we beat that!? Oh, I’ve got it, we’ll just wait a couple of seconds for the link to go away before we beat the crap out of him some more.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy these new playgrounds (I’ll talk about the Pit of Saron and the Halls of Reflection a little later). Not to mention fighting alongside Sylvanas, even if she is Undead, is a treat. Between you and me, I’d even go against my whole “no fraternization with undead things” rule for her, and that says a lot. But if you’re trying to actually protect anything in Icecrown Citadel, Arthas, you really should enlist the aid of more intelligent subordinates. Oh… wait a minute… I bet that’s like saying that Varian Wrynn could possibly possess an intelligent thought…

I’ve rambled enough. I really need to get back to the front lines with the rest of the members of the Blood Knight Order. Without us showing our strength and determination those pansies in the other Paladin Orders start to get sentimental and hope that Arthas can be redeemed. Rubbish I say, but let them think what they want. If necessary our ranks will stand alone alongside Lady Liadrin and Lady Sylvanas in order to destroy Arthas.

Selama ashal’anore.