World of Warcraft®

"Bedtime!" cried Orphan Matron Fairchild. Within minutes, all the children had been tucked into bed, Miss Fairchild herself settling into a nice comfy rocking chair, perhaps getting some knitting done before going off to bed herself. But before she could raise a needle, there was a knock at the door. The Orphan Matron opened the door to reveal a tall, skeletal-thin form of a man outside. "Greetings, my dear.." the form spoke, the voice a low, raspy tone. "I've come to collect the children for a party." Miss Fairchild tried to close the door, but before she could move, everything went dark as a foul stench filled the air.

Only when the guards patrolled in the morning was the ragic fate of the Matron and the Stormwind Orphanage discovered. Surrounding the building, decapitated heads were on long wooden stakes, a horrible smile carved into each and every face, heads that belonged to all the orphans who once lived inside. Arms and hands, sticking out alongside the staked heads waved in a sort of "hello" motion, animated by foul necromancy. The orphanage itself was in flames, the inside gutted and burned. What remained of the bodies of its occupant were beyond recognistion. The head of the Orphan Matron herself lay in the palms of what looked to be her own hands, sticking out infront of the frame of the front door. In her mouth lay a scrap of paper, written neatly in lovely pink ink.

"Dear late-comer, you missed a wonderful party! There was cake and punch and all sorts of wonderful things! Maybe you'll make it next time-a-round. -- Signed, ~A~."

Genevra made her way to Devotions as she did most nights, stopping in her steps as she saw the atrocity that was the orphanage. This had been Genevra's first home before the Cathedral. She was shaken to the very fiber of her being. The Priestess collapsed, falling to her knees before the ashes and the visages of youth that had been made to mockery.

Crayauchtin gazes at the building, mouth ajar.

Genevra buried her head in her hands as she could not longer bear to look upon the sight of the Orphanage. It had been her home after her parents fell, the first place she knew care before entering into the priesthood.

Genevra had tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

Cray mumbled, "What did they do?"

Genevra looked up at the familiar voice, "Such atrocities within our own city...." She stood slowly, shakily.

"He has to be dealt with."

Genevra moved to stand next to Cray, "How could none have stopped them..."

Cray asked slowly, rubbing his jaw, "Are you alright, Genevra?"

Genevra wiped away her tears and shook her head, "No... I am not alright Cray."

Cray rubbed his injured jaw, speaking of suspicions, "I had tried to have the Ocheliad handle that monster after what he did to my squire. The whole lot of them have no sense of responsibility and no respect. This is the price we pay.... and I for one will not be paying any more." Cray's words came slowly but with thought.

"Nor should these children have to, nor should the Matron have had to... He's a mad man who must be brought to justice, completely and utterly."

"Imperon says he is impossible to punish. In which case, he must be destroyed."

Genevra nodded looking up at the faces of the innocents, slaughtered by another's hand. "I will not know peace until they do." She closed her eyes, blinking away tears.

"We can't count on Imperon to do anything about this atrocity."

Genevra looked up at him, the fire of the Light burning within her eyes, "Then we must take the fight to them, for this is unacceptable. I will have vengeance for these innocents Cray."

Crayauchtin rubs his bruised, tender jaw. "I am not sure we can follow through on that threat at the moment."

Genevra shot a look at him, her eyes still burning bright, "I've made the promise to Cyrus, why not add another to that list." There was no sarcasm in her voice.

"We will be inviting the entire wrath of the Ocheliad."

Genevra shifted her weight from one foot to the other looking to Cray, "Tell me Cray.. Shall we stand idly by while many are injured, innocents are sacrificed and killed simply because it may incie the Ocheliad?....That only invites them to force more death and decay upon us.......No... I for one will not be standing idly by."

"Of course not. I am simply saying it must be handled carefully. The situation is complicated."

She balked at him, " Complicated?! Tell that to those children! I will accept nothing more than his surrender or death Cray. The line must be drawn, and Light Damn me but someone has to draw it. Enough is enough!"

"Genevra, you are of no use to the children if you are dead."

"Cray, some things are worth dying for, and this... "she pointed to the grotesque sight that was the Orphanage, "Should not have been allowed to exist."

Cray nodded in agreement, rubbing his jaw, "I agree wholeheartedly And it will be dealt with, but in a method that doesn't force Cyrus' and Imperon's hand. Something quick and subtle."

Genevra continued to speak sharply, "Nothing will be quick enough lest you plan to murder them in their sleep this night Cray. For this makes my stomach turn. No parent... no one should have to live through this. Speak quickly and plainly if you have some means to stop them, lest I act."

Cray spoke slowly, his hand dropping, "Let the Holy Guard do our part. We will act, and you will act with us."

"Two days Cray... That is all I can give before I act. This disgusts me and I will not sleep until this act has been avenged."

"Nor will I."

Crayauchtin turns to look at the Orphanage, absently pursing his lips and tapping his finger to them.

Genevra sighed starting to take down the fallen bodies, to lay them to rest within the orphanage, tears flowing freely down her cheeks once more as she prepared rites for the fallen.

[Edited and corrected to prevent knowledge.. I hope]

((When you say "all the oprhans" do you mean literally *every* single one of them? Also, there's two orphan matrons in the Stormwind Orphanage in game -- neither being named Fairchild -- should we assume they were not at the orphanage at the time and therefore survived? Or should we assume they were also killed?

Just clarifying. Thanks!))

[ Exactly. I made her up. And no not all. Simply think of it as some were off visiting.. Yesss. ]

Why were no orphansss sssent to Abominusss, yesss?

Genevra was enraged.
Alister was enraged.

This tragedy had not just infuriated Cray, but the allies of the Pia Presidium as well. The Sepha was understandably cautious in most situations, but this.... this was the sort of thing the Holy Guard existed to prevent, and to bring justice for when it could not be prevented. Tensions were high as it was, but it was time to go to the Sepha and figure out the next action of the order.

The meeting in the Argent Dawn office proved brief -- and was joined in the midst by Catrella. Gentyl was cautious as ever, unwilling to take what little evidence there currently was, but granted Catrella and Cray leave to investigate apart from the Stormwind City Watch. She agreed that Cray's suspicions of Ardam were reasonable, however, and that was not such good news. With no alternative theories... the tensions with the Ocheliad were only going to grow. As if Cyrus was not enough.

The two investigators met Alister at Westbrook and, after a short meeting, the trio traveled to the orphanage. All the Holy Guards were able to see -- without magical needs -- were the horrendously maimed bodies of children whose bodies had not yet been removed while investigations took place, and burned corpses and body parts within. And there were body parts, too, that were completely missing. Alister, however, had other means to look...

What was discovered painted an even darker image of the events that had taken place. A trace of some disease that had been inflicted on the matron. The bodies outside had been animated with necromantic magic.

He'd have to report back to the Sepha before any more action could be taken -- this wasn't the work of a mere lunatic. This was going to require more of the Presidium's resources than just two Guards.

Kaellar stalked home, his face shadowed.

He covered his face with his gauntlet. He had gone to see the damage for himself, to make certain that it truly had happened. He had thought himself hardened by wars, by the Lich King's grasp. But seeing what had been done...

The burned, maimed bodies, the fallen innocents... They had reminded him of the terrors he had faced in the plaguelands, but it was different this time. This time he had not committed these atrocities.

The draenei stabled his Death Charger, the beast tense with his master's stilfled rage long after the man had limped through the logging camp to his home. His bad leg ached under the weight of his armor, but the discomfort merely seemed to make the man angrier.

A small, dark haired draenei met him at the door, her soft smile fading upon seeing her husband's marred, badly scarred but normally benevolent face shadowed with anger. "...What's hapened?"

Kaellar shook his head, covering his face and limped inside past her.

She followed him, frowning. "Did you meet the little boy I told you about?" She asked softly.

Kaellar sighed heavily, and turned back to face her. "Lenda... I'm sorry."

His wife stared at him, eyes wide. The large, scarred man sank into a chair, his frame groaning.

Temperius sat in the Pig and Whistle, reading his paper and sipping a cup of tea. He was a regular there in the mornings. He'd occasionally flirt with the barmaid Elly when she came by to top off his drink, but usually everyone left him in peace. Most people in Stormwind's Old Town minded their own business.

Today however, everyone seemed on edge when he entered. One of the regulars at the bar eyed him as if he wanted to pick a fight. When he sat down in his usual spot, Elly didn't even bother to pretend to flirt. She poured his drink and left to the other side of the common room. Temperius frowned, then looked at the paper.

"Orphanage burned."

He read further into the article, as the writer described the scene and the attrocities. Temperius folded up the paper, downed his cup of tea in a gulp, then left, dropping a few coins on the table. This is not good, Temperius thought to himself. While the writer hadn't made any direct accusations, he had implied that someone evil was behind this tragedy. And for most people, the group to start interrogating were warlocks. Why do people always assume that warlocks are responsible for every orphange fire? Temperius strode to his rooms, and began packing his bags. While it was true that most warlocks weren't conspiring to advance the causes of evil, Temperius secretly was, and couldn't afford the extra attention. Time to relocate to Darkshire, he thought to himself, it's close enough that I can still look after matters in Stormwind, but without the extra attention just being a warlock brings.

He knew now.

It had been Ardam. At least, Cray thought as he lay in his bed at Hearthglen -- too wounded to do much other than lay there and think -- this proved that his investigation had been heading in the right direction.

Having this confirmed by Imperon was invaluable, despite the circumstances.

And Imperon had said that they could do whatever they wanted with Ardam -- although the leader of the Ocheliad had said he had his own punishment in store for the monster. It was curious that a punishment could be cooked up for Ardam after he destroyed children, and the orphanage, but that when pressured to punish Ardam for attacking the Presidium without cause Imperon shrugged it off and said it was impossible to do so.

Cray shook his head slightly on his pillow. Kixek's wounds were healed enough that she had returned to life as normal. She was probably going to keep Cray from killing himself by worsening him multitude of wounds.

Once he was healed though.... Cray would gather those who wanted retribution for this heinous crime... and they would get it.

The end of Ardam was nigh.

"You're back! Stupid girl. Let me out. Give me my dust! Give me my KEYS!" the old man barked at her. He wiggled around in the ropes that restrained him.

Jalou stared with her glowing eyes at the prisoner, and picked up speed as she moved toward him. The blow to the forehead she gave was just enough to knock him unconcious again.

She sighed, and tossed the hammer to the ground. She slunk down against the wall of the cave and pulled her helmet off. It had a ghostly look to it, and that was the point. She tossed it on the ground near the hammer.

She reached over to the backpack against the wall, and rummaged through the stuff that had managed not to be ripped apart by the madman. Luckily, her journal was one of these things. She turned to the latest page in the journal:

To do:
-Finish with Victor.
-Work with "Mystery".

She thought about this, and just what she would do after this was finally through with. She looked up at the dark helmet on the ground, and back over to the man who was to be her work for the next several days. "Necromancer? " The words painfully echoed in her head. Could she have lost her friend, over that? Necromancy was a powerful thing, but she felt it had it's good uses.. And it's bad uses..

"Animated by foul necromancy.." The words floated through her mind, with grotesque images of what that must have looked like.

She took ink and a quill, and added more to her list.

To Do:
-Finish with Victor.
-Work with "Mystery".

-Ardam.

((I meant to post this a while ago, so... sorry for the necro? XD))

Cray's injuries had been severe, so he'd sent Kixek and Ria to get word to Genevra and Alister. Imperon had confirmed that Ardam had burned down the orphanage. More to the point, he'd said that any punishment would be allowed without retaliation from the Ocheliad. Before too long afterwards, both of them came to Hearthglen.

Alister, of course, sought vengeance. It was a narrow line from justice -- and in this case, the end result appeared to be the same: Ardam's total destruction. The meeting was brief enough, but it was good. It was... vindicating -- even if Alister was a warlock, his moral compass did not seem totally askew. The meeting left only one concern: if Ardam truly was a lich -- where would they be able to find his phylactery?

Genevra raised more concern. She was infuriated, of course, but Cray was not certain she would acede to destroying Ardam. She was a priestess after all. When she arrived in Hearthglen, Cray invited her into his office and shut the door. He relayed the news and what little semblance of a plan they had pieced together.

At first, Genevra was satisfied. The two discussed at length how to get the phylactery. She suggested that the best method would be to get it from Imperon, telling him they meant to imprison him in the phylactery as his punishment.

Almost simultaneously, the idea struck them. "Can you actually do that?" Cray inquired.

There seemed to be no greater punishment than to derive the lich of anyone else to harm, save himself. An eternity inside his own phylactery. A punishment fit for the very worst kind of monstrosity.

A punishment fit for Ardam.