After Hours

The Headless Horseman terrorizes citizens every night at eight o'clock

By // October 25, 2007, 12:40 AM PST // markwkaelin

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  • By Mark Kaelin<br />Technologia

    One of my favorite things about the World of Warcraft is the way Blizzard (the company the created the online world) keeps things fresh with in-game world events. For what is known as Hallow's End (Halloween out here in the real world) Blizzard has unleashed the Headless Horseman on an unsuspecting player-base. This demented demon terrorizes the small towns where players first start their characters. I took some snap shots of the event to use as motivation for Technologia. Perhaps the guild will accept the challenge of vanquishing the Headless Horseman and ridding the World of Warcraft of this menace -- at least until 8:00 pm.

  • A dark and stormy night

    This is Brill, home to early undead adventurers in the World of Warcraft. After reaching level 10 or so, most undead will catch one of these Zepplins to leave this place and not return.

  • Headless Horseman

    The Headless Horseman swoops in uttering a very eerie poem and laughing manically.

  • Brill in trouble

    As the event begins, the Headless Horseman flies around the town a few times spouting poetry about our impending demise.

  • Incoming

    The Horseman makes his final approach.

  • Flaming pumpkins

    The Headless Horseman begins throwing Molotov Cocktails at the buildings in Brill in the form of flaming pumpkins.

  • Fire brigade

    Even though most players are level 10 or less they can help put out the fires. There are tubs of water and buckets available.

  • A quest

    By participating in the event, these younger players will get a reward, but first all of the fires must be put out.

  • Again

    The Headless Horseman continues to fly around and will start more fires from time to time.

  • Leave us alone

    The Headless Horseman has a complete set of poems he has to read before the event will end.

  • Let&apos;s end this

    The event lasts about five minutes -- we are near the end now.

  • One more pass

    One more attack.

  • Having fun

    The low level players are joined by a few higher level players.

  • The final sequence

    The fires are almost out and the end sequence is starting.

  • Swoop

    The Headless Horseman is perturbed that his plans to burn Brill have been foiled.

  • He is landing

    The Headless Horseman lands in town threatening to lay waste to the inhabitants, but we have a plan.

  • Throw water on him

    That's right -- throw a few buckets of water on him and like the Wicked Witch of the West he will shrivel-up and fade away.

  • Don&apos;t forget the head

    The Headless Horseman's last bit of poetry reveals that his body cannot be destroyed. The only way to stop him is by destroying his head. That is where the next quest begins. We'll need a full compliment of high-level Technologia to complete it.

    As he leaves he drops a final flaming pumpkin which contains some treats for those that participated in the event.

By Mark Kaelin
Technologia

One of my favorite things about the World of Warcraft is the way Blizzard (the company the created the online world) keeps things fresh with in-game world events. For what is known as Hallow's End (Halloween out here in the real world) Blizzard has unleashed the Headless Horseman on an unsuspecting player-base. This demented demon terrorizes the small towns where players first start their characters. I took some snap shots of the event to use as motivation for Technologia. Perhaps the guild will accept the challenge of vanquishing the Headless Horseman and ridding the World of Warcraft of this menace -- at least until 8:00 pm.

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By Mark Kaelin

Mark W. Kaelin has been writing and editing stories about the IT industry, gadgets, finance, accounting, and tech-life for more than 25 years. Most recently, he has been a regular contributor to BreakingModern.com, aNewDomain.net, and TechRepublic.