Last weekend, The One with a few friends took a little trip down memory lane and popped off to Karazhan for an evening of high culture. We dressed up in our best and attended the Opera, where Wicked was playing. We had the best "seats" in the house. OK, they weren't seats. It was standing room only, but how much better does it get than on-stage standing?! Unfortunately for us, both the audience and the actors took exception to our fine viewing points and, without provocation, viciously attacked us! OK, a little starfall may have been involved in agitating the audience, but surely that's no reason to rush the stage en-masse, is it?

I think they must have been really upset, as we were forced to defend ourselves not once, but twice. They tried to trap us in the fold of the curtains, smother us actually. A little hacking and slashing and some sweet talking to the stage manager and the curtain was lifted. We could see! And then we let them have it, especially that old crone. Take that!

We didn't stop our cultural tour at the opera. No sir! We headed off to the chicest hall in the castle for coffee and chess. The men smoked cigars and the ladies daintily sipped white wine from chilled goblets. OK, maybe that's not quite the way it happened, but there was chess! Each person took a chess board piece and re-enacted Harry Potter for the win! Granted, it's hard to lose at chess and, no matter how hard we tried, we didn't manage to fail either.

We tried to visit Nightbane but we couldn't entice him out of his airy (or should that be aerie?) lair. Nobody had brought the urn with which to summon him but you weren't supposed to need the urn anymore. However, it turned out that you still needed to have someone who had completed the quest chain with you. We were a bunch of new-generation characters. Nobody with us had completed the chain. No matter how much we threw taunts in the sky, he would not come. Accursed is Nightbane and the dragon he rode in on!

We had a bit of revenge though on another dragon. Through the secret passage behind the bookshelf, we found Netherspite just hanging around. He was trying to beam one of the guys, but it wasn't working. We weren't fooled. Zap! Zap! Zap! You have your laser beams, Netherspite, well, we had The One force! Success!

After our opera, after dinner chess, and a BBQ snack with Netherspite, we were granted an audience with royalty, the Prince himself. Within a few minutes of meeting us, he suddenly wasn't feeling well and sort of fell to the floor. Oops. We're sure it's purely coincidence. We were just in the wrong place and the wrong time. The fact that we danced on his grave should not be taken as a sign of joy or guilt, but as shock. Yes, it was shocking. That's it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Thanks to everyone who joined us. We had Foxglove as tour guide, Elshzweindra as the starfalling moonkin, Khiro the Kicker, Secrettrust the Saintly, Capamaron the Cunning, Sathem the Slasher, and Faei the Frightened (first raid and all!). We were joined by a few friends: Jambat the Juicy (and refreshing) Mage, Polgaraii, and Jeremakos, a friend of Capamaron's.

Image from WoWWiki. Image copyrighted to Blizzard Entertainment Inc.