The Legend of the Flying Dutchman

It's been a long time since my guild had taken a serious crack at One Light in the Darkness, the last Ulduar achievement many of us needed for Glory of the Ulduar Raider and the Rusted Proto-Drake that goes along with it. Last night one of the officers, Mhoe, approached me wondering if I would be up for a few attempts. Being that it was an off night and I had no plans I happily accepted.

Upon joining the raid and plowing headlong into all the trash bosses standing between us and Yogg-Saron Mhoe mentioned that "There was a Flying Dutchman sighting, good things are going to happen."

I had no idea what he was talking about, and as I joined the ventrillo channel late I assumed I had just missed a part of the conversation and went about the night of clearing. As circumstance would have it, I was not the only one who was as yet unaware of The Flying Dutchman; And once it was mentioned a second time the inevitable questions arose from the raid and Mhoe imparted the tale of the shadow guild member, the Flying Dutchman... Hephaestus.

Hephaestus has supposedly been in Prime for longer than any other and yet, not even the founders know who he is. His logins are rare and silent, coming online for only a short time once in a great while and then disappearing back from whence he came once again. However, these logins are greeted as a boon! Much like carrying around a four leaf clover or rabbit's foot, the guild believed that a Hephaestus showing was a good omen.

Said Mhoe, "When there's a Hephaestus sighting, good things happen."

Superstition aside, this was something of beauty. My guild had it's very own legend!

The night went on fairly normally clearing a handful of lesser hard modes that made the kills faster and having a few frustrating wipes on 1 Light Yogg due to some bad RNG... although we did have several attempts that made it look as though the achievement was definitely within our grasp; And rightly so, as we were terribly over geared for the goal at hand. But the fact that a group was put together and made it to Yogg was, in and of itself a slight miracle so I wasn't about to karmically expect anything more...

Low and behold, on the last pull of the night, pushing 20 minutes past the normal raid end time, we break into phase 3 with only one trip to the brain room. With nine and a half minutes left on the enrage timer and all raid members up we easily slew the old God of Death, netting a good majority of the raid group their achievement... and a rusted Proto-Drake.

"In Hephaestus we trust!" exclaimed Mhoe. I think next time I see him online I'll hit Zul'Gurub once more... I've always wanted a raptor mount on my Alliance shaman!