World of Warcraft®

Jeremy Slater removed his helmet as he flew out of Astranaar. The cool night wind felt good in his sweaty hair. It was peculiar, but something so small as lowering the temperature of one's head could result in such relief.

The attack on Hellscream's Watch had gone quite well. It hadn't been a traditional military engagement, but it was the kind of tactics with which he was most familiar as a former Argent: Move quickly, strike soundly, leave before the enemy knew what had just happened.

It was a justified attack. Hellscream's Watch is an invasion outpost. It has the high ground over Astranaar and Maestra's Post, and the Horde was using it to make life a living hell for the night elves in both locations. They were sitting on Darnassus' sovereign soil, and meanwhile killing night elves and anyone else who didn't chant "lok'tar ogar" along with them.

And two Argent Dawn paladins. They had killed two Argent Dawn paladins, whose only crime had been being there when the warlock-led invasion force rolled into Maestra's Post. He'd known those men. (His personal feelings on the matter weren't relevant, of course, but it didn't make their deaths any easier to take.)

All in all, he'd felt pretty good about the speed-strike. The small task force had done very well, and everyone got away safely and unharmed, as far as he knew. They had also defended Astranaar against the inevitable retaliation, with great ease. Very professional, and it would send a message to the Warchief. The men and women he'd ridden with were consummate warriors, and they'd done good.

And meanwhile, just for tonight, Astranaar would be safe from those wyvern riders, and some kaldorei children could sleep in peace.



((I want to congratulate the folks who participated in the event tonight! Great job, well handled, lots of fun working with you and I hope we can do it again!

((And as for the Hordies who showed up to answer, you guys gave us a serious challenge. Special kudos to Krohvall and Truxxick of Homeland, who went out of their way to flag when we came through, despite that they were very outnumbered. Thanks for making it that much more exciting!

((Awesome times, and let's do this again some time--next time with more Allies and especially more Hordies!))

((Very well run, Jeremy! Thanks for doing this. It was a lot of fun.))

"Where the fel are they?" A soft murmur in Gutterspeak, directed to the former Ebon Knight at his side. He'd received intel, some days back, that Ragefang and the Presidium were planning an assault on the Watch sometime this afternoon. He didn't much care about the outpost itself, truth be told - it was created to spy on the elven homeland, after all - but he could hardly leave Horde forces undefended; especially when the attack was a message from those that sought to erase his people from this world. He didn't intend to leave it unanswered.

And so they watched.

And waited.

For hours.

The two were getting restless, having been called away over the course of their vigil to varying alarms ringing out over the Hearthstone, signaling attacks across the world. The cowards in Feralas that had butchered the Freewind refugees and fled before the two could show up, in specific, had left a sour taste in their mouths. It didn't help that moments before, the two had gone over a war map, deciding which territories they considered "acceptable targets," and which ones to consider "sacred," so to speak. The areas that served no purpose for them to strike against.

Feralas was on the second list.

Not to say the slaughter was likely to have been committed by the hands of the local Kaldorei - that kind of butcher work was generally reserved for the mercenaries only partially on the payroll of the Orgrimmar and Stormwind armies.

Wrynn's men.

Its with that - and an attack against the Apothecaries trying to clean up the Plague left behind in Southshore - that the men took a momentary respite in their roles as defenders to go for some of the aforementioned acceptable targets, the military bases or forts used as staging points against Horde territories.

Refuge Point and Menethil Harbor, in specific. Neither provided much a defense - but the men didn't exactly stick around all that long, in either case. The strikes were brutal and efficient, swift jabs to weaken the forces of those that would assault his homeland, or those that would ferry the troops across the sea that would butcher women and children - target them, even. That message sent, and having knocked Gentyl down to the tavern floor in the process, they were out a portal and off to continue their watch over the Watch, hoping to catch Ragefang and his ilk before they were called away to unavoidable business.

No one ever showed.

It wasn't even an hour after their work began that the cries came over the 'stone - of how the Alliance had shown up to attack finally, were murdering any they saw, without discrimination between guard or innkeeper. Bastards had waited for them to be called away. Clever. Dirty. Cheap. Not much they could do about it now, though - folks were depending on them to be where they were, when they were. It would have to wait til a pause in their ordeal, a moment to breathe.

It came far too late, and even then was only a gust of air - only Arothand and Raoul could be spared, the rest still preoccupied. They portaled in to the aftermath, no Alliance in immediate sight - the forces were already gone. That wasn't a good sign, generally they stuck around. The least the men could do was check for survivors - no, this was the Presidium they were dealing with.

Prisoners.

Raoul was the first to go off in search, and little to his surprise, it didn't take him long to find a Worgen cornering an injured troll. The Worgen may not have seen him coming, but he surely felt the flames as they engulfed his fur. Caught by surprise, there wasn't much the wolf could do against him, and soon enough the troll was making his getaway.

Raoul didn't stick around to hear what he had to say.

There was still the matter of finding the rest of the attackers, and any others they may have made off with. It didn't take long to spot the attackers, the Alliance outnumbering them by at least a dozen. Neither man could tell if they had injured Horde with them or not.

All it took was a glance between the old friends before they both dived in with a yell, attracting the attention of damn near every Sentinel and mercenary in the town - even managing to take a few down with them before they were overwhelmed.

No sign of captives, at least. A few rather painful pushes against other parts of the town confirmed it. While they couldn't bring back the guards lost, at least they could make sure that none of the handful of defenders that showed up were to be taken as prizes to be paraded around or kept locked away.

It was about time for them to leave. Their co-workers needed them, and had already activated the dimensional ripper. No matter. The two had done all they could - he made a promise to his source that there would be no retaliation, no civilian homes burned to the ground in response to the actions of a bloodthirsty Worgen or those he could convince to join his cause.

He wasn't about to become the monster underneath some child's bed.

((Ah, ooc note, now.

We seriously did wait for hours for folks to show up, heh. Sadly, Horde-side Friday evenings (especially after 6 server) are honestly the worst time to ever do any sort of cross-faction event, if you're looking for mutual participation. S'raid night for the vast majority of guilds on that side, including the 'talons. Only two of us could show up during our 10 minute raid break :*(

Just something to keep in mind for future events. At least, so long as you actually want Horde defenders to show up ;D

On that note, do let us know when the lot of you raid, so we can avoid doing the same, hm?))

((All I will say Ra, is "oh god ow". That first Pyroblast crit HURT. The sad thing is, at that point Jon had been getting ready to go, his offer of a healing potion having been rejected.

Overall, it was fun. Jon even got a chance to beat up a Modas!))

(((Hahaha, yeah, oocly I figured you probably weren't even bothering the dude, but I couldn't well leave without killing at least one Alliance :3

and lol nice.))

(( I feel like I keep missing these, and it makes me quite sad. :-( ))

((Khovall agreed to RP through RealID, and he said something along the lines someone killed the innkeeper. Our reaction:

o.o >.> <.< o.o ))

((Hey, Raoul, we were scheduled for 6pm server time. Not our fault you showed up early to the party. In fact, if you'd been there, it would have been even more fun, but when we started forming our raid group, you were dancing with Gentyl in Menethil. :P ))

Rumors were not Slater's friend. Either they exaggerated his exploits to elevate him to unearned heroism, or they blackened his reputation to the point that everyone was sure he was the worst thing since Sargeras.

Today, it was the latter--and what made it harder was that the men and women who'd gone with him into Hellscream's Watch were being injured, too.

Before he went into the shop in Booty Bay, he noticed the hard looks from the non-goblin merchants and workers. They didn't usually care who came through, so this was not good. Still, he couldn't do anything about it, so he ignored them.

Slater removed his helmet as he walked into Zazzik Powderburn's shop, smoothing his hair unconsciously. "Morning, Zazz," he greeted the goblin. "May the gold flow like rain into the hands of the deserving." It was a custom between them; he'd bless the shop and Zazzik would cheat him less assiduously.

But instead of the usual response, he got: "Oh. Slater. Hello." Zazzik looked rather off-balance, though he'd surely been expecting the paladin's visit; it had been scheduled.

Slater paused, listening for any odd sounds under the usual racket. Nothing; nobody was lying in wait for him; so he squinted up one eye at the goblin. "That's a fine greeting. What brings this on?"

Zazzik hesitated, then took a deep breath and plunged. "Word on the street is that you and some other folks went to Ashenvale and killed a bunch of unarmed orcs. Civilians."

Slater sighed heavily. Here we go, let the slander begin. "You should know better than that by now, Zazz. In any event, we hit a military outpost. Armed guards. The Horde launches attacks on Astranaar and Maestra's Post from it."

"Yes, but...they said you killed an innkeeper."

"Innkeeper? I saw no inn. All any of us saw was orcs running at us and trying to kill us."

"But how do you know?"

"Why should I doubt?" Jeremy shook his head. "The Horde does not have a sterling reputation for honesty, especially considering the Forsaken. For that matter, the Forsaken even lie to their own allies. I see no reason to take the word of someone who has a stake in making us look like the villains in order to justify the atrocities they've already committed--"

He stopped short as a brilliant idea took shape in his mind. He was only somewhat aware that Zazz was goggling at him silently as he turned the idea over and over. Adinas would love this, and it would be right up the alley of the other Crusaders.

He suppressed a wicked smile and returned to the moment. "Well, is my money still welcome in your shop, or is the gold in my pocket now tainted by my aura of pure evil?" he asked humorously.

Zazzik Powderburn was not known for excessive scruples, and the mention of gold was enough to make him forget the accusations for the moment.

But Slater didn't forget. He wouldn't forget. Perhaps it was time to fight the Horde not just with steel, but with truth...

((I'm so sorry I was unable to make it last night; I was supposed to be leading this thing, but unexpected real life commitments cropped up that I just couldn't get out of, and I had to bail. I want to thank Jeremias for leading this, and apparently doing an excellent job.

As I plan on putting together future events of this nature, mostly 'cause I like tweaking the Horde's nose and I know y'all're a fun bunch of people to play with, let's talk about a time that's good for more Horde participation. Fridays don't seem to work due to that being Horde raid night. Earlier in the week can be problematic, just 'cause, as much as I might wish otherwise, I have a job that saps my energy, and it's rough to get me to do anything on a weeknight after I've gotten home from work. I also had a busy week this last week because I had an appointment at a local television studio for a taping for a story they're doing, had social engagements, etc.

Saturdays are typically bad for me, as we have a regular social gathering that happens IRL. Sundays can work for me if we can work out a good time to do it. Tuesdays tend to be Raid Finder night for me, with the second half of that happening "at some point later in the week" depending on how things go. So how does a Sunday afternoon/evening thing work for folks?))

((Raoul and Arothand. I'm sorry about not engaging more. Part of Pia was raiding, part was getting ready for Rage's hit. I answered the alarms and tried to get some support, but everyone was busy. I had already taken pain meds and was on my way to bed when I heard the alarms, so it was fruitless to just keep dying to you two, who make me weep on the best of days.))

((I'm actually really bummed I couldn't participate in this more than Drake's twenty-second cameo. I had to return to running dungeons with someone I'd agreed to help earlier. It's too bad I couldn't attend...this event was right up Drake's alley. Meh. There will be other battles! And they will be GLOOOOORIOUS.))

((Shame I missed out. Stupid having to work.))

((Sunday evening should be good for me and Adinas; we have kids, so we have to get them to bed before any real commitment of focus happens. I can't speak for others in the guild, though.

((And thank you, Ragefang, both for the compliment and especially for putting this thing together. We're looking forward to more excitement!))

((Hey, Raoul, we were scheduled for 6pm server time. Not our fault you showed up early to the party. In fact, if you'd been there, it would have been even more fun, but when we started forming our raid group, you were dancing with Gentyl in Menethil. :P ))

(( As a recommendation, forum posts very much help to avoid this in the future - I know Horde side, we were told that this was Ragefang's idea and event. As such, we made a request of someone with an Alliance alt to tell Ragefang that Fridays, specifically starting at 6 server, are bad for not only the Razortalons but most Horde players in general. Just a communications flaw, is all. I imagine, in the future, communication with both factions might help to drum up support and attendance to events.

And not a problem, Gen. Ra and I were just trying to figure out who was online, and what was going on, mostly - after a few hours of watching at Hellscreams watch, largely around the usual time Ragefang's attacks had occurred in the past, we were just trying to see who was online and actually /doing/ anything before we had to raid. ))

((Ah, my apologies for not having received the Alliance notification for when the attack was. I'll have to level an Alliance alt and infiltrate your ranks to find such details out in the future. Do expect me! :p But, yes, what Vanyris said, largely. We were under the impression Ragefang was still going to be leading it, and that the message had been passed along. Miscommunications, and all! To be honest that was the first I'd seen of you, so I had no idea you were even in charge of it, heh.

For me, personally, literally any night wit the exception of that Friday raid should be good, I tend to work in the mornings.

Also, no problem, Gen. We actually didn't expect anyone to show up at all, honestly, as things had seemed quiet A-side, and when you showed up, it was ten minutes before our raid time, heh, so we couldn't exactly stick around to play long.

Also, tsk. I wonder what pesky person is going about shouting about inns in booty bay.

((Well, maybe we'll all get our act together by next time. I for one look forward to butting heads with you guys again, Raoul.

((Also, I don't know what the deal is with the rumor mill. Apparently someone's a blabbermouth. When I find out who, I'll know what they're trying to accomplish. I have ways of making them talk--involving a looped track of "Copacabana" and Crystal Pepsi. *evil*))

((Copacabana is a guilty pleasure, but crystal pepsi, no D:

Are people actually talking about that on alliance side, though? If so that's a tad surprising haha, the bit about the innkeeper was just some minor comment from some guy that wasn't touched up on again.))

((Copacabana is a guilty pleasure, but crystal pepsi, no D:

Are people actually talking about that on alliance side, though? If so that's a tad surprising haha, the bit about the innkeeper was just some minor comment from some guy that wasn't touched up on again.))

((Our troll ICly gave the Alliance a talking to about slaughtering innocents, and while the Alliance argued back that the only people who had gotten killed were guards, the place's innkeeper "somehow" got caught in someone's AOEing...))