06/01/07 by Boom

This last may, a great friend of ours passed away. His name was Marc Mabry. But most of you knew him as Rockskully.

Rock was a great friend of mine. I have so many memories of him that I wouldn't know where to begin telling you about him. But I never met Rock. Not face to face.

When you play online games like WoW, great friendships creep up on you. One day someone is just an Orc, or an Elf, or whatever. The next, you suddenly realize how important that person behind that character is to you. You hope they're online each time you play. You want to know about their "Real Life", and want to share yours with them as well.

Rock was one of those players. He was just another hunter, who was more than a bit enthusiatic. But the more time you spent with him, the more time you wanted. Most of us have the same first membory of Rock. Heading into PvP to the yells of "TEAMWORK!
I played WoW with Rock for well over a year. He never ceased to entertain, lift spirits, and overall improve the fun we all had together.

A few weeks ago I was told in game, that Rock had passed away... I was angry. I didn't know why at first, but I was.

"This is sick. You shouldn't joke about this kind of thing. Who started this gossip? It's not funny."

Then my thoughts moved to the last time I had heard from Rock... it had been weeks. Maybe a month...

"How could I let this happen? Where is he? He has to be OK!... "

But Rock was gone. Marc had died a few weeks before, and I was just hearing about it. Like many other players on Argent Dawn, I was devistated.

Rock was a great guy. He loved his son, and never let us forget it. He talked about him all the time while we'd be pvping late at night. We were his hobbie... his son was his world.

On May 23rd, 2007, we organized a silent vigil for Marc in game. We all met in game at the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior. We asked that those who wanted to say goodbye to Rock, do so with us. We didn't RP. The vigil was for Marc, not Rockskully. The turnout was moving to say the least.

Rock always feared he had no friends. We would always asure him otherwise, but it was a concern of his anyways. Rock would of loved to see the group of players who showed up to say goodbye. I don't know exactly how many players were there, but what happend next, should give you a good idea...

 

Our Last Gift to Rockskully

After I thanked everyone for coming, and we all got a good "Teamwork!" out of our systems, I started my long walk down the mountain. I quickly swung my camera back around for one last glance, when something surprising happend. Everyone started to walk down as well. They were following me. I didn't think much of it at first. Everyone needed to leave eventually, why not now. So I mounted and rode into The Crossroads. I got to the bird, and was trying to decide where I wanted to log out, when I noticed that everyone else had ridden into Crossroads, and now they were gathered around me. They weren't done. We were all really hurt by the loss of Rock, but we all felt we needed to celebrate... not just mourn. So I got an idea. I started shouting to the rest that we weren't done. That Rock would want us to enjoy this night. So I suggested we give Rock one last gift.... IRON FORGE.

Everyone started yelling, and we formed a raid. Again... I don't know how many folks showed up, but we had a full 40 man raid, and folks waiting to get in the whole night. So in Rock's name, we stormed through Goldshire, then Stormwind, and took the tram to Iron Forge. We never planned on accomplishing anything more than getting there and yelling Rock's name, which we did. We all fell at the King's feet, and had a great time doing it. Tons of Alliance came out to face us, and many more came out simply to cheer us on. We were told later that there were many Alliance yelling "Rock for Horde" in his honor, while we ran through their city on our mounts. It was great fun, and a great way to say goodbye to a very dear friend. If you have your own screenshots (minus UI) you'd like to submit for this page, please email it to rsmith@quintonchandler.com. Sorry I don't have pics of Iron Forge. I was way too caught up in the fun to take screenies. If you have any of your own, email them to me! Thank you Argent Dawn. Thank you for being a great community. For being casual friends, who turn into so much more when I least expect it. Thank you for sharing this with me. Thank you for sharing it all with Rock. For Friends. For Fun. For Glory... FOR HORDE! Your friend... Rob "Boom" Smith

Memories of Rockskully (I'll be adding more as I collect them for our forums and the AD forums) "I remember this one time when we where still in FH marc and i were healing a ZG run as the only 2 priests and he was sitting next to me at the computer calling out heals and what not. And it got quite real quick and i turn to look at him and he had passed out hands still on the mouse and key board ready to heal. he was sitting stright up full asleep. i had to take one of my infamous smoke breaks and moved his key board and mouse put him to bed on the couch and finished healing the raid dual boxing his priest and mine. god that sucked but damnit it was one of the funniest thing i have ever seen anyone do. Falling asleep mid raid sitting straight up still perched to play. lol    One of the many reasons i loved the guy....... Another time is when we took 9 enshadowed and Boom and raced a FH group through UBRS. marc and i where so stoked on that run i had more fun on that UBRS run then i have ever had in that sh*tty zone.." - Tofaded   "The many times that I personally ran with Mark were fun as hell whether it was pvp or raiding, or just running a simply 5 man.  He brought so much to the table to entertain the group, and yet so much friendship was given.  He was worried about not having friends, yet I too tried to convince him otherwise by my actions, not just my words.  I remember running ZG with him as his hunter and my tank, and just having a good ole' time even though we'd wipe several times.  TEAMWORK! Yes i know Rock!  It's hard for me to put into words the friendship that I had with Mark, we spent close to 2 years pvp'ing and raiding together, it kinda still hurts knowing he's not around anymore.  But we can still have him around in spirit and by the things we do as For Horde!  Miss ya much Rockskully!" Your friend, Timothy "Timtimawni" Heisler   "Some people say that World of Warcraft is just a game, but there are certain traits that transcend online escapism, personality is one of them. If you are a fun guy in the real world, this translates into the game. If you tend to play well with others, this too translates. Rock was one of those people. No excuses, no complaints, nothing mean spirited or negative from him...ever. Rock brought out the best in all of us no matter what we were doing. Argent Dawn, for Horde, you and I have all lost an honorable confidant and a great friend. Thank you for doing what you have done to honor one of the Horde's quiet heroes." Eddie AKA: Bradius, Jeroabem, Sabrianica, Dranayuka, Sadiss

Love ya Rock.... - Boom