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))
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