Yesterday I briefly mentioned how the weekly ICC raid quest was Residue Rendezvous, which required at least one raid member to return to the quest giver while "infected" with the disease debuff from both Festergut and Rotface. The debuffs last 30 minutes, so the simplest way to do this would be killing both bosses within that time, and also ensuring that someone gets infected in both fights and survives to preserve the debuffs.

We decided that because it was getting late, we wouldn't be able to down both bosses regardless (and plus since we were new to the fights, there was almost no chance of us killing both bosses in a single go.) So instead we decided we would go fight Rotface until one or both of the hunters had the debuff (another hunter had joined us for Saurfang), at which point we would feign death while everyone else died. We would then head to Festergut and get the debuffed hunters Festergut's debuff, then all die/feign death, and run back to get our 5 frost emblems and ~25g reward.

A good plan. IN THEORY. What actually happened was about an hour of hilarity. Every time the hunters would get Rotface's debuff, and then things would go horribly, horribly wrong.

One time we feigned and then before everyone else could die, green slime gushed out of the nearby walls, murdering us. Another time we feigned, and someone nearby got targeted by the slime spray, killing us both in the process. Still another time the hunters had the debuff and were safely feigning, everything was going good and only the tank was alive, facing away from Rotface...and just couldn't die. Eventually more slime erupted and killed us again. WE WERE FAILING AT WIPING.

The funny thing is, no one was getting annoyed or frustrated. Everyone was having a blast, laughing and cheering in Vent. Most of the DPS and one of the healers had stripped down naked to die faster, and in fact only one tank, the two hunters, and one healer were actually wearing gear. It was like some bizarre opposite world...the hunters were getting Sanctuary from the paladin, eating +Stam food, and not bothering with their pets. It actually became a contest among the "meat decoys" as they were coined, to see who could die the fastest.

We also had plenty of ghost-run time to come up with and ponder loophole methods like hearthing as soon as we got the debuff, a warlock getting the debuff then warping to his teleportation circle outside the room, or accepting a lock summon to outside the gate that had been initiated before the pull. I was intrigued by the possibilities, but we didn't end up trying any of them. I did, however, switch specs and gear to my soloing build for about 8.5k more HP.

Finally, I got the debuff (just me! not sure what happened to the other hunter) and got myself to a safe spot, and we screamed at everyone to quickly die. Our tank was slowly getting mauled to death when the green ooze came out towards me. However, the tank died at that exact moment, and as soon as Rotface despawned I chugged a pot, jumped up, hit rocket-boots and hauled ass out to the hallway. HUGE cheers broke out over vent, as well as a good amount of laughter at the rocket boots desperation. Success! Or at least...halfway success. There was still Festergut.

I was pretty nervous when we headed in for Festergut. If I screwed up and got myself killed, I'd be letting down 9 other people. We went over basic strategy, and on our first attempt it was disaster! People were all over the place, vomiting on each other, spore clouds were stumbling around...fortunately, I realized it was deteriorating and called for huge HoTs before feigning, and I survived the wipe, preserving the debuff. A very close call.

Our next try we went over positioning etc. more clearly, and we all held our breath when the spore clouds came out. They appeared...I ran in...got the debuff, the healers stacked as much healing as possible onto me and then everyone tried their damnest to suicide before the pulsing raid gas took me out. Boss despawned, another rocket-boot sprint out, and - SUCCESS!

Everyone lost their minds and had we been in the same room, much high-fiving would have commenced. Instead, we had to settle for our delicious 5 frost emblems, which never felt so good.

Our victory in completing this quest actually brought us more excitement and joy than downing Saurfang. And it was much, much harder! It's funny how that works sometimes.