Kahlee's 12th Journal Entry

So much for easing me back into duty.  There is so much going on in Zangarmarsh.  The Naga is up to something in the lake.  While I was clearing out a settlement, I found a schematic near one of their pump stations.  It showed their plans for pumping the lake dry.  I don’t understand what they are up to or why they would want do that.  I took the plans with me and when I returned to the Enclave, I turned them over to Ysiel.  She’s in charge of the Cenarion druids there.  She was very interested in it and thanked me.  I knew I was dismissed and I went to grab some food and to get some rest.  There is much activity right now.  I think they are planning a large strike against the Naga.  I will not be involved with it as my orders have sent me to Orebar Harberage to help the Broken there with their Ogre problems.

The ogres are harvesting mushrooms for some reason and they have set up an operation on the outer edges of Zangarmarsh harvesting ore.  My orders are very simple.  Harass them anyway I can to try to get them to move out of the area.  That is right up my alley.   However, I have noticed that power seems to be diminishing and this worries me.  I haven’t said anything to anyone and since I am working alone, no one has noticed.  In the past my strikes have been strong and true and lately my strikes have been weaker.  Is the Light deserting me?  Am I no longer worthy of the Light?  Thinking like this weakens the soul and I have to be strong.  I thought after the months of mediations and working with the trainers and all that I had gotten past this crisis of faith.  I guess there is more to it than just meditating and working through it.

My superiors have not noticed anything amiss and after months in Zangarmarsh they have sent me to Nagrand to help out Telaar there.  They were so impressed with my skills at killing ogres, they thought I could apply those skills to this new area.  I will do my best and hopefully the Light will not fully desert me before I can the reason behind this new weakness.

Kahlee

((currently Level 69))

Korafay - Journal Entry #1

How in the hell did I end up in this place?  Fighting in a war I did not ask for, for a world that is not mine.

I’ve come a long way from being the pampered daughter of an apothecary.  Damn Arthur and his scourge.  I still remember those days, of seeing my friends and family killed and resurrected to aid the Lich King, of the destruction of the Sunwell and the dark days afterward.

With my family dead, I was left to fend for myself.  Who knew that my hobby of stealing would come in so handy?  Who figured that I would pick up the skills of a rogue and thief that easily?  The death and destruction I had witnessed, along with the withdrawal pains from the destruction of the Sunwell, gave me enough incentive to never want to go through that again.  I toughened up.  I learned my lessons well and I thrived.

I did not involve myself with the goings on in the rest of the world.  Those matters were what got my family killed.  Silvermoon City was my world and I knew it well.  Oh, I heard the news of what was going on out there in the world.  Information is always valuable to the right buyer.  What did I care about the Cataclysm and Deathwing almost destroying parts of Azeroth?  Why should I care that one orc, Thrall, stepped down as Warchief of the Horde and another, Garrosh, stepped up?  None of that touched Quel’Thalas.  Then I heard about a new land that was discovered within a mysterious mist.  The new Warchief wanted to claim that land for the Horde and he almost managed to destroy it.  The new Warchief was now the old Warchief and we had another new Warchief; this time it was Vol’jin, a Troll.  The goings on across the oceans did not affect me; it was not my business or so I thought.

I had heard that Garrosh had managed to escape his prison and elude recapture.  I noticed the number of sin’dorei seemed to be less after all this had happened.  Then I heard that a new threat to Azeroth had come through the dark portal.  A portal that was changed from the dark portal we were used to.  Through this portal came a group of orcs calling themselves the Iron Horde.  This Iron Horde was tough and intent on killing everyone.  The Alliance and the Horde found themselves fighting side by side yet again to stop this threat.  The leaders of all the Horde called for volunteers to help fight and I suddenly found myself right in the middle of this mess.

Sometimes being good at something can lead to a bad end, especially when being good leads one to being overconfident.  Yeah, that’s what happened to me.  I found myself in custody.  I had two options – a long incarceration or help with the Iron Horde threat.  I opted for the latter.  My reasoning was that in the confusion of the fight, I could slip off and escape.

So, I found myself on the field of battle and doing pretty well for myself.  The Iron Horde are strong and tough, but I’m lithe and quick.  My knives found openings in their armor to slide through and the poison on the blades made sure they didn’t survive.  We pushed them back to the dark portal and then through it.  We followed them through and found ourselves faced with more orcs than we could count.  The mage Khadgar wanted to destroy the portal so we worked towards that end.  Scouts found the power source and we destroyed it.  This shut down the portal, but that wasn’t good enough for Khadgar and Thrall so we found ourselves fighting toward the war machines.  This was not as easy as I just made that sound.  Once we reached the machines, we actually managed to use them to destroy the portal and that’s when it dawned on me.  The portal was destroyed and we had no way to get back to Azeroth; we were stuck here.

I found out that this land was an alternate version of Draenor that the original portal had led to.  On this Draenor, the orcs had not drank the blood of the Fel Demon and were not tainted.  These orcs made up the Iron Horde and they seemed to have one goal in mind – kill everyone who was not part of the Iron Horde.  Not all the orcs we met on this side of the portal was part of this Iron Horde.  Some clans were enslaved by them and we helped free them, thereby gaining their trust and aid. 

The Horde and Alliance forces separated in the hopes of being able to take on the Iron Horde on several fronts.  The Alliance forces went with the Draenei of this world to Shadowmoon Valley and the Horde forces went with the freed orcs to Frostfire Ridge.  There we met the Chief of the Frostwolf clan who was organizing the resistance against the Iron Horde.  He agreed to work with us and gave us land on which to build our garrison from which we could work. 

And this is where I find myself.  In this forsaken land of snow, cold and ice.  I don’t think I will ever be warm again.  I have continually found myself sent out on missions of intelligence gathering and I find myself taking the opportunity when it arises to cause trouble for our foes or to kill key figures when I’m able.  I have heard that other areas of this land are warmer and I’m hoping to be sent there sometime in the near future.  I have decided that since I’m stuck here until we can destroy this Iron Horde and find a way to open a portal back to our work, I will make the best of it and hone my skills even more. 

I have also decided to keep a record of my journey.  I have to do something to keep my fingers limbered up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Korafay - Level 90

(Trollbane)

Kirith's 8th Journal Entry

Once again I found myself behind enemy lines.  The fighting is becoming intense.  I am having to be a lot more careful in my sneaking around.  I was seen by a couple of orc scouts.  I ended up having to polymorph one of them into a cat while I dealt with the other one.  I was able to keep him off balance by icing him in place and blinking away in order to give me room and time to cast my spells.  Fortunately for me, all he managed to do was cut my robes up a bit.  Once I had killed him, I turned my attention to the other one.  My spell was still in effect.  I’ve gotten better at that polymorph spell or maybe it was the fear that made it stronger.  As usual, the recipient of that spell was sort of wandering around dazed at finding himself in another form, but he was starting to come out of it.  He hissed and jumped at me with claws extended.  I used my cloak to catch him and then snapped his neck.  I was nearly crushed when his true form returned with death.  I have to stop forgetting the important parts of my spells!  Like, death undoes the polymorph. 

It’s the results that count and not how much I screw up getting there.  I made my way further into the mountains and found another encampment of orcs in a valley.  These were better dressed soldiers and I saw many warlocks.  Then to my horror, I saw a black dragon with an orc dragon on its back.  I crept closer and saw several more.  I knew this was not good for our side.  I am nowhere near strong enough a mage to take on a black dragon.  The troops needed to be told.  

Orc troops

Orcs and black dragons

 I started to head back when something caught my attention.  I made my way toward it and drew up short when I realized it was a man hanging between two posts.  The orcs had killed him and strung him up.  It wasn’t just that they killed him, but they had mutilated him as well.  I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he had gone through.  

Prisoner killed and strung up

 I looked about and saw several more like him scattered around.  The orcs had displayed the bodies so it would have an effect on morale on our troops when they came across them.  I started to wonder if they had more prisoners and, if so, what were they doing to them.  I made my decision to infiltrate the camp to see what I could find.  This was a nerve wracking experience for me.

It looked like this a more elite squad of orcs.  I guess they were letting the grunts take the brunt of the fighting and then they would swoop in and finish our guys off.   I saw many munition stores, but they were lax about guarding them.  They must have thought no one would be foolish enough to walk into their camp and do something about it.  They didn’t know me.  I finished scouting out the camp and found several enclosures in the back with prisoners.   

Found enclosures with human prisoners

 The warlocks were doing some terrible experiments on them.  I had to figure out a way to get them freed.  After some thought, I decided I would try to sabotage the munitions stores.  That should give me a distraction and an opportunity to free the prisoners.  I am by no means on expert on weapons, but I’m decent at fireworks.  I found some supplies that I recognized and managed to not blow myself up when I set the fuses.  I just hope I gave myself enough time and not too much time that it was discovered.  Each set of munitions I made my way to, I reduced the size of the fuses as I was trying to time it so they all went off at about the same time.

I did better than I thought I would.  They didn’t all go off at the same time, but it was close enough for me.  Pandemonium ensued!   

Munitions starting to explode

Munitions exploding

Pandemonium ensues!

Several of the black dragons were flying over the munitions stores when they went off and the dragons went down.  Those munitions were more powerful than I thought.  I was lucky I hadn’t blown myself up.  During the confusion, I made my way to the enclosures and with a few well placed spells, had the doors cage doors opened in short order.   

Freeing the prisoners

With the explosions and smoke as cover, I led the prisoners out of the valley.  We met our troops coming in and I quickly explained what was going on.  I left them to clean up the mess I had made as I led the released prisoners back to Lakeshire.

I heard later that our soldiers finished what I had begun.  A few orcs escaped, but a good many of them died that day.  I also heard that several squads wiped out the gnolls encamped in another valley in the mountains.  Messner and his friends were with that group and he told me that there was a mage who was working with the orcs and gnolls and were coordinating their efforts.  The mage got away.  They thought he might have retreated to Stonewatch Keep in the mountains and they and a squad went there to check it out.  What they found was the mastermind behind all of this.  They thought they were facing the leader of the blackrock orcs, but he shaped change into a black dragon.  Messner told me they lost many lives during that fight, but the dragon managed to escape.  For now it’s a victory as Redridge is safe.  The orc and gnoll army is severely depleted and the soldiers are checking the area and finishing off the ones they can find.

As for me, I think I’m going to make my way south and check out the jungles of Stranglethorn.  I hear they have a lot of good herbs that I could probably find some use for.  I am tired and a change of scenery will do me good as this was my first real experience with a war.  I didn’t like it.  The atrocities that were committed are still burned into my memory, but I will do whatever I can to make sure things like that doesn’t happen again.  I will get stronger.  I will hone my skills in both arcane magics and alchemy.  I will protect those around me and I will fight those who try to take the life and freedom of the citizens of Azeroth.  Those are things worth risking my life for.

Kirith

((Level 25))

Kirith's 7th Journal Entry

Finally a response from the King to the Mayor of Lakeshire’s request!  He is sending some troops.  I made my way back to Lakeshire arriving just ahead of those troops.  There were some strategy meetings with the Mayor and the head of the troops (sad to say, but I know nothing about the ranks in the army, shows how new I am to all this) which I sat in on.

The troops were going to hit the orcs head on and I and a few other mercenaries were going to infiltrate the lines and cause havoc in the rear.  I’m good at causing havoc.  As soon as the battle was raging, I snuck behind enemy lines.  I love my blink spell, I could kiss Garath for insisting that I learn it.  I was picking orcs off when I became aware of someone yelling for help.  

I heard someone yelling from the old lumber mill

  I was able to finally locate him; he was in a cage in an old lumber mill.  

Messner caged

 I made short work of the guards and one shot the lock freeing him.  He was in pretty bad shape, yet still insisted he wanted to help me.  He told me his name was Messner and some of his friends were taken off to another part of the encampment and he wanted to look for them.

It fit in fine with my plans as I was just trying to kill as many orcs behind the lines without losing my own life.  With his help I should be able to do more damage.  We slowly made our way around the camp looking for his friends.  

Looking for Messner's friends

 

Fighting our way to Messner's caged friend

 We found one of them, Jorgensen, held in another cage near a cave.   Messner went charging out there like a mad man.  Turns out he was a fire mage (a pretty strong one at that) and he was blasting everything that moved.   Casting like that can take a lot out of a mage and it took its toll on Messner as well.   

We found Jorgensen and freed him

 We released Jorgensen who told us that the orcs took their other two friends into the cave.  He told us that he had heard one of the orcs talking about a Troll who was going to perform some type of dark ritual on one of them.  We heard chanting coming from the cave and knew we were running out of time.

I led the way as I was least tired of our little group.  I know it chafed them, but I took my time and picked off the orc warlocks one at a time.  I was slow, but I was able to down them in one shot.  We made our way toward where the chanting was coming from and our eyes were met with the sight of a Troll witchdoctor chanting over a prone figure.  Messner and Jorgensen called out to their friend and that at least interrupted the ritual.  That Troll put up a fight, but we were able to kill him and rescue their friend, Krakauer.  

Killing the Troll witchdoctor and freeing Krakauer

 As Messner and Jorgensen freed Krakauer, there came from somewhere in the back of the cave a terrible scream.  Krakauer grabbed at his friends and told us that the person making that awful cry was the last of their little group, Danforth.  The orcs had been torturing him for hours before Krakauer was lashed to the altar and the Troll started his ritual.  The cry came again, but it was sounding weaker.

We knew we didn’t have much time, so we quickly made our way toward the back (or as quickly as we could with the wounded group we had).  Much of the killing fell to me and I was fine with that.  The atrocities committed by these orcs was too much for me to feel any empathy for him as I sent arcane shot after arcane shot at them.  It wasn’t as easy as I am making it sound as there were some very decent warlocks in that cave and by the time we reached the back of the cave, I was rather singed myself. 

 

We walked around the last corner in that cave and saw a man suspended by chains over a small body of water.  He was arms were stretched taught and a large orc was laughing as he pulled a lever tightening the chains even more.  If this kept on, the suspended man would have his arms ripped out of their sockets.  I heard the others gasp and whisper the name Danforth.   

Danforth stretched taught

 There were a few orc soldiers with this large orc and no way to pick them off without being noticed so we didn’t even try.  It was chaos in there.  Krakauer and Jorgensen had picked up some dropped swords and they engaged the large orc while Messner and I quickly downed the orc soldiers.  Then we turned our attention to helping the other two.  We were finally able to get him down.  I think sheer rage kept that orc up and fighting for as long as he did.

Fighting the orcs to free Danforth

 We turned to the lever and finally figured out how to release it.   

Freeing Danforth from the chains

The water wasn’t as deep as it looked so when Danforth fell into it, we were able to get out there and get his head above water.  Two small arcane blasts  removed the chains, but the wrist shackles would need a blacksmith to remove without hurting him.  He was in pretty bad shape.  Jorgensen and Krakauer supported him between them and we made our way out of the cave.  Some orcs had showed up and was looking around at the devastation we had caused.  Fortunately, they were in the part of the cave with the dead Troll so we quickly made our way outside and skirted most of the fighting.  I led them back to Lakeshire.  It took as some time as we had to stop many times to let them rest and I had to clear out some orcs a time or two, but we finally made it back to town.   

Clearing out some orcs between us and Lakeshire

 They were taken immediately to get some medical attention and then to meet with the Mayor and the leaders of the army for debriefing.  These last couple of days behind enemy lines tired me out.  I took the opportunity to grab a decent meal, a bath and some sleep.  I feel that in the next couple of days I will be heading back out there in the midst of the battle as this is not ended yet.

Kirith

((Level 25))