Allied
05-06-2004, 02:33 AM
Kalimdor.
A Warcraft 3 story by Dave Smith, aka "Allied".
Disclaimer: I do not own the creative rights to Warcraft 3: Reign of Choas or Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. I am writing this story not for sale or profit. Warcraft 3 and all related products are property of Blizzard Entertainment.
Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End
The glory of nature was all around. The trees flowed in the cool spring breeze, as always, for the proximity to the world tree kept the forests of ashenvale in a state of constant rebirth. There was no winter here, only the soothing warmth of the spring sun and the moon, the ever-graceful symbol of Elune, the moon-goddess. The tranquility of the forest let no invader guess the might that slept within, for although the forests of Kalimdor seemed unihabited, the eyes of the Sentinals were everywhere...
The scene changes to the Trisfald Glades, north of the capital city of Lordaeron...
"How long do we have to wait here?" asked Daniel.
"As long as the Captain wishes us to, and you know that!" answered his comrade, for the tenth time. He was starting to get annoyed, for the last three hours Daniel had done nothing but complain about how he had waiting around for nothing.
"And where are we going we he gets here?" asked Daniel for the fourth time.
"I already told you, damn it! We're going to the outpost north of here, we have to keep an eye on the merchants coming in, obviously the disease from the north is in the food they bring." snapped his comrade, for the fourth time. He was getting oh so tired of this conversation, and hoped his Captian would arrive soon to shut Daniel up already.
"I'm hungry!"
"So am I."
"Well, I think this is pointless!"
"So do I."
"My feet hurt!"
"OH SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY!" He screamed. He couldn't take it anymore, one more word out of this kid and he'll go insane. Luckily, it didn't come to that...
"Men! Sorry I'm late, but the commander of this area needed to talk with me, so I had to take a little detour" called the Captain, who was jogging up the road towards them.
"No problem captain, we send the others to the outpost already, and waited for you as you ordered." answered the tall, burly man who had led daniel here.
"Very good!" exclaimed the captain pleased, he had expected the troops to be still gathering when he arrived, seeing them already on the way was good to hear. He looked to the shorter, younger man next to his sargent. "You must be Daniel, I knew your father well."
As did every commander from here to Dalaran, thought Daniel. "Yes, he spoke a few times of you, captain Herold."
"Really? A general speaking of a simple man such as myself?" asked Herold sceptically. "Well, no matter, we must be on our way. Keep an eye out, there are bandits nearby, I have heard, but I doubt they will show themselves to seasoned troops such as ourselves."
"They would regret it." grinned the Sargent.
And so they were off, marching over the roads of Trisfald. It was a rather uneventful journey at first, for they were all alone on this road, since most merchants weren't allowed this far south out of fear of the spreading plague in the north. The journey would take almost three days, and was comprised of nothing but walking. In the breaks to eat and rest, daniel learned much of his comrade, the Sargent named Garrel. He told daniel of his youth in the southlands of lordaeron, and how his village had been close to an orc internment camp. Daniel was surprised to hear he had actually seen orcs before, he himself only knew they were big, green, violent creatures. His own youth had been spend in the splendid mansion of his father, a great, since retired general of the army. He knew little of the world around him, but was determined not to live in the shadow of his father, and show his own worth.
On the third and last day of the journey to the outpost the three men came to an interesting find on the road. An old merchant caravan lay burned on the field nearby, obviously it had been attacked by bandits. Immediatly all three left the road, knowing full well that, although they were seasoned, armed soldiers, bandits wouldnt mind killing them too if they outnumbered them enough. From the safety of a bush thicket near the road, the three stopped to discuss their plans.
"We should continue on, and send a message from the outpost back to the commander, informing him that he should send a patrol here to take care of the problem" mused the captain, thinking more outloud than anything.
"That would probably be for the best" agreed Garrel.
"What? We should find the bastards that did this and deal with them accordingly!" exclaimed Daniel. How could they be thinking of moving on when this threat was here? They couldn't just leave the murderers of this innocent merchant unpunished!
"No. They are probably many more than us, and we have been marching for the past two days. We will move on. There is no reason for any of us to die when others can deal with the problem much easier." answered the Captain, slightly annoyed that one of his men would diagree with him so easily. "The outpost is nearby, we will be there soon."
The men moved on, though Daniel was not at all content with the decision.
From a thicket on the other side of the road, a gangly humanoid creature watched with red eyes as the three men moved off. It then turned to the bloodied body of what looked to be a rogue of some kind. It was hard to tell who the person was exactly as it's body had been ripped open and large amounts of flesh and been gnawed off the corpse's bones. The creature, seeing most flesh already consumed, turned to the other four of it's kind, growling somethng that almost sounded like speech, they ran off on all fours into the forest nearby...
The men reached the outpost an hour later, abd were greeted warmly by the commander.
"Ah! Captain! Your men have already arrived, and we will be ready to begin our mission tommorow. We will find out what is spreading this plague yet." pledged the commander.
The diease had been spreading throughout northlands of Lordaeron ever since Prince Arthas had left on his mysterious quest. Eventually, his father the King was forced to quarantine the entire northland, stopping trade with the south. This itself didn't have grave effects on the local economy, but the cause of the plague had to be found before too many people suffer.
That night was comprised of the men preparing their gear for the coming mission. They were to search the towns, as it seemed the mages of the Kiirin Tor believed that a enemy, a cult of some kind, was magically spreading the diease.
"Why? Why sicken the towns if they want to attack us? What good is killing the people they wish to rule?" Daniel heard one solider ask another.
"Who knows? Maybe its just some sick-minded fool who has gone mad, and doesnt care about lordship," answered the other.
"A mage gone mad? Maybe it's that Kel'thuzd fellow, he was banished from the Kirin Tor a long time ago, and nobody has seen him since. He wanted to research necromancy, I heard."
"Yes, I heard that too. Maybe he has been gone insane, and is seeking revenge now."
"Well, we will find him and end this madness. No crazed mage is gonna keep me from home too long, I will tell you that!" the two solider nodded to each other, certain that this misson wouldn't take more than a week at most. Find the mage, kill him, and end this plague. That's all there was to do...
The men ate their dinner of salted meats and dried vegatables, and then lay down to rest in the small forts barracks. Only the night's watchmen stayed awake, taking posistions along the 3 meter tall stone walls of the fort. The sun was setting, and the night's watch routine came to pass as it did each night!
"The sun is setting! Close and seal the gate!" called the commander from his private office and home.
The two guards came down from the two smalls towers on both sides of the gate they had held lookout from, and closed the wooden gate, sealing it with a large wooden beam. They then turned around to go back up the towers....... and then turned around again to the gate.
"Strange," said the first guard, moving next to the gate, and inspecting the wood the gate was made of.
"You felt it too? Maybe the wood is getting old and rotting in places," thought the second guard outloud.
"Must be. Doesn't seem to be any open spots though," said the first. The two looked at each other again, and then shrugged, and returned to their spots on the towers. It was only a cold breeze flowing by them, nothing to worry about....
From the middle of the courtyard, where all guards were in view, a silent whisper, like that of one beyond the grave was heard, but no guard noticed.
Daniel slept uneasy that night. There was much to do tomorrow, and he had never seen combat, although there was no real reason to believe it would come to bloodshed, something inside told him...
Daniel sprang to a sitting posistion on his bed as an alarm was heard. There was yelling, and the sound of a bowstring releasing a arrow. A cry, high-pitched and almost inhuman is heard. A crash of something organic hitting wood, and more crys. The men around him were running around, quickly putting on their breastplates, grabbing their swords and shields from the stands near the doors and running outside. Daniel scrambled to do the same, already he was the only one left in the barracks. He donned his breastplate, and ran to the door grabbing his sword, leaving his shield.
Choas reigned in the courtyard. Strange, horrid beings were running through the gate, they had no weapons, but seemed to fight the soliders with their claws and teeth. Already two soliders lay dead near the door to the barracks, their legs and faces were slashed and bloody.
"Form up! Take formation! Archers, open fire!" yelled the commander. His face showed the same surprise and horror of his underlings, but he tried to stay calm. The soliders slowly stopped desperatly running and fighting alone, and formed near a corner of the fort, while the guards on the walls had finally sheathed their swords and took the bows from their backs.
A moment later, several bowstrings were heard being let go, and a volley of arrows whizzed by overhead. Some flew into the middle of the courtyard, were a large concentration of the strange creatures were gathering, preparing to assualt the soliders now in a defensive posistion. The rest of the arrows landed in front of the gate, where more of the creatures were entering the fort. Only half found a mark, calling forth more of the high-pitched crys Daniel had heard before.
What I would give for elven archers on those walls now, thought the commander. Elves never missed their mark.
The creatures, now gathered, charged towards the formed soliders.
"Fight! The light will have at these unholy creatures!" yelled the commander, hoping to lessen the fear shown clearly in the faces of his men. As he yelled the creatures slammed into the front line of soliders.
The solider were scared, yes, but far from defenseless. The years of training of the men took over, and as the creatures came within reach of their swords, they struck out from behind their shields. Since the swords were conceled almost until the moment of impact, the monsters couldn't predict the stroke and evade it. The first line of attackers fell quickly to the flurry of well-guided swords. Legs and arms, and even heads of the creatures flew backwards into the coming creatures, who clumsily tripped over the bodies of their just fallen breathen. The next wave was not so easily killed, and they reared up and used their claws to slash and cut, to little effect. The breastplates and shields of the soliders rendered the effect of simple claws to nothing. The second wave went down quite fast also, and when all of the attackers lay dead, the commander noticed the next wave to still be off on the other side of the courtyard, closing fast.
"VOLLEY!" yelled the commander as loud as he could. The soliders all immediatly went to one knee, holding thier shields infront of them, forming a wall. A line of archers stood behind them with bows drawn and arrows fitted. They released the arrows over the heads of the soliders, hitting the creatures, sending many of them to the ground. The men stood up again, preparing for yet another onslaught.
The third wave advanced no further. The creatures stopped the attack, and the soliders dared not charge, so great was their fear still that they refused to leave the safety of the formation. Then, as if they all heard a command or voice in unison, they ran through the shattered gate, and into the forest. The solider remained in the formation for another moment, as if waiting for some greater evil to strike out at them, but nothing happened. They then left the formation, and the commander ordered several men to improvise re-sealing the gate.
"What in the holy light was that?" cried one man. "Was that the plague we are to destroy?"
"It would seem so," answered the commander.
"We can't kill them all alone! We need reinforcements," he cried, almost pleading with the commander.
"Yes, we do. We will remain here and send for more men, then we will find out what those.... 'things' were!" he agreed, he didnt know what those monsters were, what they were doing here or where they had come from. He would not risk their lives, not until he knew what they were fighting against.
The men then spent the night gathering the bodies of the fallen creatures. Closer inspection showed the creatures to be almost human-like, but somehow... changed. Their skin seemed to be slightly decomposed, and their teeth had grown to insane proportions. Looking upon the dead body, it seemed as if they had already been dead for quite some time.
The bodies were piled rather quickly outside the fort, since the soliders were nervous about leaving the improvised repaired gate open, oil was poured over them, and they were set on fire. The guard on the wall was doubled, and the other soliders spent the rest of the night beside a large fireplace in the corner of the courtyard, speaking quietly of the horror they had just been witness to.
Daniel spoke little, but silently ate the food that had been passed around, and tried in vain to find comfort in the warmth of the fire. Those creatures were like nothing he had seen.
"I don't see what was so bad about them. Sure they look horrid, but what can claws and teeth do to steel armor?" exclaimed one solider at last, as if he had been thinking about it for the last two hours since the attack.
"I wouldn't go that far" answered another, as a murmur of agreement went through the men. "Those things got two of us."
"They weren't wearing armor and were in panic. Once we were together, they didn't stand a chance! Hell, I have seen orcs, and these... things aren't nearly as tough as them" answered another. The crowd seemed to be growing more confident that this threat looked alot more worse then it actually was. A few more troops and they will march onto this enemy, and destroy it.
The next day was spent completly repairs on the gate, and sending a messenger back south, to call for more men. Daniel, Gerrel and Herold all found themselves with nothing to do, so we sitting around and doing exactly that, nothing. It didn't last for very long though, as the commander called a small group to perform a patrol in the nearby area, to find out if those creature were still nearby. Daniel and Garrel were amoung that patrol. They were thankful for something to do, but still, this was not what they had expected.
The patrol left the fort a short time later, taking to the forests almost at once, not daring to stay exposed on the street. They traveled north, as that was the direction the attackers had fled to. They found trails right away, and decided the best course of action was to follow them, and see if the enemy had set up a camp nearby. They traveled for several miles, following the trail of the enemy...
*** ***
At the fort, the commander read the message from Dalaran that had just arrived per messenger.
Commander of the Northland defenses,
Jaina Proudmoore has discovered the plague in the northlands to be, in fact, an undead army.
"Undead? What the...." the commander said outloud as he read on.
Stay within the safety of your fortifications. Paladins of the silver hand are on their way, as well as elven preists. Do not, under any circumstances, engage the enemy before they arrive, for the enemy has eyes and ears everywhere. Meeting them alone on the field of battle would be foolish, and entirely in vain. I must implore you to practice patience, and await our arrival.
"By the light, the patrol...."
*** ***
The patrol examined the trails renewed, and found them to be newer than a few miles back. They were gaining on the enemy. They did not know, that the enemy already knew where they were, however.
The reached a clearing a few hours later, and found what seemed to be the camp of the enemy. They stayed hidden within the trees, and wondered at what they saw.
The ground around the camp was dead. All plant life such as grass was gone, and the trees had no leaves anymore. The buildings in the camp where ornate and decorated, and it seemed impossible to build such things in less than a few months. They heard a rumbling sound, like that of a dwarven machine drawing close, and what they saw was beyond thier imaganation.
A machine of some kind was entering the camp. It looked to be some kind of catapult, but they couldn't imagine that the small lever that would normally fire the stones was strong enough to do so. It moved to a fenced off area of the camp, which had some kind of green mist rising from the ground within, and three men in robes with staves moved toward it. They gave out some orders, and the same creatures that had attacked them came near. They opened a part of the machine, and the creatures started carrying objects from the machine to the fenced-in area.
"Corpses, my god..." said Garrel
"What?" asked Daniel, not believing what he heard.
"They are carrying dead bodies" said Garrel.
"My god, we need to get back to base and report this" said Daniel. Was it just him, or had it just gotten alot cooler?
"There is no need to go anywhere, you can join your comrades," said a voice behind them. At first, Daniel wished not to look behind him, for he had heard voices of old wizards and generals before, but this voice sounded like nothing like what he had just heard. The voice was evil, and he expected to see a nightmare when he turned. However, he still did, and wished that he had not, if only to end it quickly.
Behind him was something that was not at all natural, and not even alive. The men turned to see a being that floated from the ground, for from their crouching posistions they could see it nothing underneath it. It was wearing robe, which seemed unbelievably old and worn, and the most noticable characteristic, was the fact it had no skin or muscles. It was a skeleton, and looked to be some great evil which had been chained for ages under the earth, only to have escaped.
The men stood frozen in fear, not knowing what to do. Garrel seemed also so, and though he looked at be frantically looking for an escape route, he was in fact searching for other enemies nearby, for the strange being seemed to be alone. Garrel looked over the being again, trying desperatly to calm the fear that threatened to overcome him. Looking at it he came to a impossible conclusion.... this..."thing"....was an orc. The horns coming from where his mouth would be be, the bodily structure was of that of an orc, not a human being. So, this new threat was from the orcs, he should have known.
"Out of the way, demon, or I will destroy you," threatened Garell, the monster looked at him with what almost seemed surprise, and the men beside him snapped back out of thier fear, drawing their swords, preparing to attack the thing.
The Lich chuckled inwardly, it had been long since a being had threatened him. These humans were amusing, and would make good servants for ner'zhul. First, of course, he would have to end their lives. We couldn't have them leave alive, of course. He pondered if he should call his servants to him to end these living creatures, but decided that they were no threat to him, and he had lost enough already in that foolish attack on the fort. Arg, what had he been thinking? He should have directed the attack much better, he had heard ner'zhul displeased with the foolish and unnecessary waste of freshly gained soliders. They were at a critical point in the mission, and such losses were unacceptable, even if also unimportant.
The Lich wondered who to kill first. The solider who had dared challenge him? No, he should die last, so he may understand his foolishness of not fleeing in terror the first moment he had seen one of the ghouls. He would have pondered longer, but some madness actually possessed one of the lifelings to attack him.
Daniel charged. He knew not why he did it, or how he gathered the strength to, but he did. He brought his sword up, dropping his shield and grasping it with both his hands, he brought it high over his head, and charged the skeleton-thing. He was within a few feet when something strange happened. The air around him radiated with cold, seemingly coming straight from the being he was attacking, and the air grew thick. He ignored it and striked, which sealed his doom, for the sword glanced away before even reaching his target, and Daniel fell to the ground, in agony.
His sword was covered with ice, and the guantlets of his armor which covered his hands were also. The stroke never even met its target, and Daniel couldn't stand up, for the cold spread into his entire body, crippling him, and leaving him on the ground, shivering like one who had just been pulled from the waters of a frozen-over lake.
The other five men charged after seeing him drop, in a desperate attempt to live. They too, did not even reach the being, for it brought its boney hands infront of himself, and then quickly raised the to the sky. An explosion followed, centered right in the middle of the group, an explosion of icy, freezing cold, not of fire. The men all fell to the ground, Garrell and Daniel shivered uncontrollably, while the other four died almost immediatly.
The Lich looked apon the two men still alive, impressed at their strength, knowing full well they would not live. He smiled inwardly, moved closer to them, and said quietly:
"Embrace the cold...."
A Warcraft 3 story by Dave Smith, aka "Allied".
Disclaimer: I do not own the creative rights to Warcraft 3: Reign of Choas or Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. I am writing this story not for sale or profit. Warcraft 3 and all related products are property of Blizzard Entertainment.
Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End
The glory of nature was all around. The trees flowed in the cool spring breeze, as always, for the proximity to the world tree kept the forests of ashenvale in a state of constant rebirth. There was no winter here, only the soothing warmth of the spring sun and the moon, the ever-graceful symbol of Elune, the moon-goddess. The tranquility of the forest let no invader guess the might that slept within, for although the forests of Kalimdor seemed unihabited, the eyes of the Sentinals were everywhere...
The scene changes to the Trisfald Glades, north of the capital city of Lordaeron...
"How long do we have to wait here?" asked Daniel.
"As long as the Captain wishes us to, and you know that!" answered his comrade, for the tenth time. He was starting to get annoyed, for the last three hours Daniel had done nothing but complain about how he had waiting around for nothing.
"And where are we going we he gets here?" asked Daniel for the fourth time.
"I already told you, damn it! We're going to the outpost north of here, we have to keep an eye on the merchants coming in, obviously the disease from the north is in the food they bring." snapped his comrade, for the fourth time. He was getting oh so tired of this conversation, and hoped his Captian would arrive soon to shut Daniel up already.
"I'm hungry!"
"So am I."
"Well, I think this is pointless!"
"So do I."
"My feet hurt!"
"OH SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY!" He screamed. He couldn't take it anymore, one more word out of this kid and he'll go insane. Luckily, it didn't come to that...
"Men! Sorry I'm late, but the commander of this area needed to talk with me, so I had to take a little detour" called the Captain, who was jogging up the road towards them.
"No problem captain, we send the others to the outpost already, and waited for you as you ordered." answered the tall, burly man who had led daniel here.
"Very good!" exclaimed the captain pleased, he had expected the troops to be still gathering when he arrived, seeing them already on the way was good to hear. He looked to the shorter, younger man next to his sargent. "You must be Daniel, I knew your father well."
As did every commander from here to Dalaran, thought Daniel. "Yes, he spoke a few times of you, captain Herold."
"Really? A general speaking of a simple man such as myself?" asked Herold sceptically. "Well, no matter, we must be on our way. Keep an eye out, there are bandits nearby, I have heard, but I doubt they will show themselves to seasoned troops such as ourselves."
"They would regret it." grinned the Sargent.
And so they were off, marching over the roads of Trisfald. It was a rather uneventful journey at first, for they were all alone on this road, since most merchants weren't allowed this far south out of fear of the spreading plague in the north. The journey would take almost three days, and was comprised of nothing but walking. In the breaks to eat and rest, daniel learned much of his comrade, the Sargent named Garrel. He told daniel of his youth in the southlands of lordaeron, and how his village had been close to an orc internment camp. Daniel was surprised to hear he had actually seen orcs before, he himself only knew they were big, green, violent creatures. His own youth had been spend in the splendid mansion of his father, a great, since retired general of the army. He knew little of the world around him, but was determined not to live in the shadow of his father, and show his own worth.
On the third and last day of the journey to the outpost the three men came to an interesting find on the road. An old merchant caravan lay burned on the field nearby, obviously it had been attacked by bandits. Immediatly all three left the road, knowing full well that, although they were seasoned, armed soldiers, bandits wouldnt mind killing them too if they outnumbered them enough. From the safety of a bush thicket near the road, the three stopped to discuss their plans.
"We should continue on, and send a message from the outpost back to the commander, informing him that he should send a patrol here to take care of the problem" mused the captain, thinking more outloud than anything.
"That would probably be for the best" agreed Garrel.
"What? We should find the bastards that did this and deal with them accordingly!" exclaimed Daniel. How could they be thinking of moving on when this threat was here? They couldn't just leave the murderers of this innocent merchant unpunished!
"No. They are probably many more than us, and we have been marching for the past two days. We will move on. There is no reason for any of us to die when others can deal with the problem much easier." answered the Captain, slightly annoyed that one of his men would diagree with him so easily. "The outpost is nearby, we will be there soon."
The men moved on, though Daniel was not at all content with the decision.
From a thicket on the other side of the road, a gangly humanoid creature watched with red eyes as the three men moved off. It then turned to the bloodied body of what looked to be a rogue of some kind. It was hard to tell who the person was exactly as it's body had been ripped open and large amounts of flesh and been gnawed off the corpse's bones. The creature, seeing most flesh already consumed, turned to the other four of it's kind, growling somethng that almost sounded like speech, they ran off on all fours into the forest nearby...
The men reached the outpost an hour later, abd were greeted warmly by the commander.
"Ah! Captain! Your men have already arrived, and we will be ready to begin our mission tommorow. We will find out what is spreading this plague yet." pledged the commander.
The diease had been spreading throughout northlands of Lordaeron ever since Prince Arthas had left on his mysterious quest. Eventually, his father the King was forced to quarantine the entire northland, stopping trade with the south. This itself didn't have grave effects on the local economy, but the cause of the plague had to be found before too many people suffer.
That night was comprised of the men preparing their gear for the coming mission. They were to search the towns, as it seemed the mages of the Kiirin Tor believed that a enemy, a cult of some kind, was magically spreading the diease.
"Why? Why sicken the towns if they want to attack us? What good is killing the people they wish to rule?" Daniel heard one solider ask another.
"Who knows? Maybe its just some sick-minded fool who has gone mad, and doesnt care about lordship," answered the other.
"A mage gone mad? Maybe it's that Kel'thuzd fellow, he was banished from the Kirin Tor a long time ago, and nobody has seen him since. He wanted to research necromancy, I heard."
"Yes, I heard that too. Maybe he has been gone insane, and is seeking revenge now."
"Well, we will find him and end this madness. No crazed mage is gonna keep me from home too long, I will tell you that!" the two solider nodded to each other, certain that this misson wouldn't take more than a week at most. Find the mage, kill him, and end this plague. That's all there was to do...
The men ate their dinner of salted meats and dried vegatables, and then lay down to rest in the small forts barracks. Only the night's watchmen stayed awake, taking posistions along the 3 meter tall stone walls of the fort. The sun was setting, and the night's watch routine came to pass as it did each night!
"The sun is setting! Close and seal the gate!" called the commander from his private office and home.
The two guards came down from the two smalls towers on both sides of the gate they had held lookout from, and closed the wooden gate, sealing it with a large wooden beam. They then turned around to go back up the towers....... and then turned around again to the gate.
"Strange," said the first guard, moving next to the gate, and inspecting the wood the gate was made of.
"You felt it too? Maybe the wood is getting old and rotting in places," thought the second guard outloud.
"Must be. Doesn't seem to be any open spots though," said the first. The two looked at each other again, and then shrugged, and returned to their spots on the towers. It was only a cold breeze flowing by them, nothing to worry about....
From the middle of the courtyard, where all guards were in view, a silent whisper, like that of one beyond the grave was heard, but no guard noticed.
Daniel slept uneasy that night. There was much to do tomorrow, and he had never seen combat, although there was no real reason to believe it would come to bloodshed, something inside told him...
Daniel sprang to a sitting posistion on his bed as an alarm was heard. There was yelling, and the sound of a bowstring releasing a arrow. A cry, high-pitched and almost inhuman is heard. A crash of something organic hitting wood, and more crys. The men around him were running around, quickly putting on their breastplates, grabbing their swords and shields from the stands near the doors and running outside. Daniel scrambled to do the same, already he was the only one left in the barracks. He donned his breastplate, and ran to the door grabbing his sword, leaving his shield.
Choas reigned in the courtyard. Strange, horrid beings were running through the gate, they had no weapons, but seemed to fight the soliders with their claws and teeth. Already two soliders lay dead near the door to the barracks, their legs and faces were slashed and bloody.
"Form up! Take formation! Archers, open fire!" yelled the commander. His face showed the same surprise and horror of his underlings, but he tried to stay calm. The soliders slowly stopped desperatly running and fighting alone, and formed near a corner of the fort, while the guards on the walls had finally sheathed their swords and took the bows from their backs.
A moment later, several bowstrings were heard being let go, and a volley of arrows whizzed by overhead. Some flew into the middle of the courtyard, were a large concentration of the strange creatures were gathering, preparing to assualt the soliders now in a defensive posistion. The rest of the arrows landed in front of the gate, where more of the creatures were entering the fort. Only half found a mark, calling forth more of the high-pitched crys Daniel had heard before.
What I would give for elven archers on those walls now, thought the commander. Elves never missed their mark.
The creatures, now gathered, charged towards the formed soliders.
"Fight! The light will have at these unholy creatures!" yelled the commander, hoping to lessen the fear shown clearly in the faces of his men. As he yelled the creatures slammed into the front line of soliders.
The solider were scared, yes, but far from defenseless. The years of training of the men took over, and as the creatures came within reach of their swords, they struck out from behind their shields. Since the swords were conceled almost until the moment of impact, the monsters couldn't predict the stroke and evade it. The first line of attackers fell quickly to the flurry of well-guided swords. Legs and arms, and even heads of the creatures flew backwards into the coming creatures, who clumsily tripped over the bodies of their just fallen breathen. The next wave was not so easily killed, and they reared up and used their claws to slash and cut, to little effect. The breastplates and shields of the soliders rendered the effect of simple claws to nothing. The second wave went down quite fast also, and when all of the attackers lay dead, the commander noticed the next wave to still be off on the other side of the courtyard, closing fast.
"VOLLEY!" yelled the commander as loud as he could. The soliders all immediatly went to one knee, holding thier shields infront of them, forming a wall. A line of archers stood behind them with bows drawn and arrows fitted. They released the arrows over the heads of the soliders, hitting the creatures, sending many of them to the ground. The men stood up again, preparing for yet another onslaught.
The third wave advanced no further. The creatures stopped the attack, and the soliders dared not charge, so great was their fear still that they refused to leave the safety of the formation. Then, as if they all heard a command or voice in unison, they ran through the shattered gate, and into the forest. The solider remained in the formation for another moment, as if waiting for some greater evil to strike out at them, but nothing happened. They then left the formation, and the commander ordered several men to improvise re-sealing the gate.
"What in the holy light was that?" cried one man. "Was that the plague we are to destroy?"
"It would seem so," answered the commander.
"We can't kill them all alone! We need reinforcements," he cried, almost pleading with the commander.
"Yes, we do. We will remain here and send for more men, then we will find out what those.... 'things' were!" he agreed, he didnt know what those monsters were, what they were doing here or where they had come from. He would not risk their lives, not until he knew what they were fighting against.
The men then spent the night gathering the bodies of the fallen creatures. Closer inspection showed the creatures to be almost human-like, but somehow... changed. Their skin seemed to be slightly decomposed, and their teeth had grown to insane proportions. Looking upon the dead body, it seemed as if they had already been dead for quite some time.
The bodies were piled rather quickly outside the fort, since the soliders were nervous about leaving the improvised repaired gate open, oil was poured over them, and they were set on fire. The guard on the wall was doubled, and the other soliders spent the rest of the night beside a large fireplace in the corner of the courtyard, speaking quietly of the horror they had just been witness to.
Daniel spoke little, but silently ate the food that had been passed around, and tried in vain to find comfort in the warmth of the fire. Those creatures were like nothing he had seen.
"I don't see what was so bad about them. Sure they look horrid, but what can claws and teeth do to steel armor?" exclaimed one solider at last, as if he had been thinking about it for the last two hours since the attack.
"I wouldn't go that far" answered another, as a murmur of agreement went through the men. "Those things got two of us."
"They weren't wearing armor and were in panic. Once we were together, they didn't stand a chance! Hell, I have seen orcs, and these... things aren't nearly as tough as them" answered another. The crowd seemed to be growing more confident that this threat looked alot more worse then it actually was. A few more troops and they will march onto this enemy, and destroy it.
The next day was spent completly repairs on the gate, and sending a messenger back south, to call for more men. Daniel, Gerrel and Herold all found themselves with nothing to do, so we sitting around and doing exactly that, nothing. It didn't last for very long though, as the commander called a small group to perform a patrol in the nearby area, to find out if those creature were still nearby. Daniel and Garrel were amoung that patrol. They were thankful for something to do, but still, this was not what they had expected.
The patrol left the fort a short time later, taking to the forests almost at once, not daring to stay exposed on the street. They traveled north, as that was the direction the attackers had fled to. They found trails right away, and decided the best course of action was to follow them, and see if the enemy had set up a camp nearby. They traveled for several miles, following the trail of the enemy...
*** ***
At the fort, the commander read the message from Dalaran that had just arrived per messenger.
Commander of the Northland defenses,
Jaina Proudmoore has discovered the plague in the northlands to be, in fact, an undead army.
"Undead? What the...." the commander said outloud as he read on.
Stay within the safety of your fortifications. Paladins of the silver hand are on their way, as well as elven preists. Do not, under any circumstances, engage the enemy before they arrive, for the enemy has eyes and ears everywhere. Meeting them alone on the field of battle would be foolish, and entirely in vain. I must implore you to practice patience, and await our arrival.
"By the light, the patrol...."
*** ***
The patrol examined the trails renewed, and found them to be newer than a few miles back. They were gaining on the enemy. They did not know, that the enemy already knew where they were, however.
The reached a clearing a few hours later, and found what seemed to be the camp of the enemy. They stayed hidden within the trees, and wondered at what they saw.
The ground around the camp was dead. All plant life such as grass was gone, and the trees had no leaves anymore. The buildings in the camp where ornate and decorated, and it seemed impossible to build such things in less than a few months. They heard a rumbling sound, like that of a dwarven machine drawing close, and what they saw was beyond thier imaganation.
A machine of some kind was entering the camp. It looked to be some kind of catapult, but they couldn't imagine that the small lever that would normally fire the stones was strong enough to do so. It moved to a fenced off area of the camp, which had some kind of green mist rising from the ground within, and three men in robes with staves moved toward it. They gave out some orders, and the same creatures that had attacked them came near. They opened a part of the machine, and the creatures started carrying objects from the machine to the fenced-in area.
"Corpses, my god..." said Garrel
"What?" asked Daniel, not believing what he heard.
"They are carrying dead bodies" said Garrel.
"My god, we need to get back to base and report this" said Daniel. Was it just him, or had it just gotten alot cooler?
"There is no need to go anywhere, you can join your comrades," said a voice behind them. At first, Daniel wished not to look behind him, for he had heard voices of old wizards and generals before, but this voice sounded like nothing like what he had just heard. The voice was evil, and he expected to see a nightmare when he turned. However, he still did, and wished that he had not, if only to end it quickly.
Behind him was something that was not at all natural, and not even alive. The men turned to see a being that floated from the ground, for from their crouching posistions they could see it nothing underneath it. It was wearing robe, which seemed unbelievably old and worn, and the most noticable characteristic, was the fact it had no skin or muscles. It was a skeleton, and looked to be some great evil which had been chained for ages under the earth, only to have escaped.
The men stood frozen in fear, not knowing what to do. Garrel seemed also so, and though he looked at be frantically looking for an escape route, he was in fact searching for other enemies nearby, for the strange being seemed to be alone. Garrel looked over the being again, trying desperatly to calm the fear that threatened to overcome him. Looking at it he came to a impossible conclusion.... this..."thing"....was an orc. The horns coming from where his mouth would be be, the bodily structure was of that of an orc, not a human being. So, this new threat was from the orcs, he should have known.
"Out of the way, demon, or I will destroy you," threatened Garell, the monster looked at him with what almost seemed surprise, and the men beside him snapped back out of thier fear, drawing their swords, preparing to attack the thing.
The Lich chuckled inwardly, it had been long since a being had threatened him. These humans were amusing, and would make good servants for ner'zhul. First, of course, he would have to end their lives. We couldn't have them leave alive, of course. He pondered if he should call his servants to him to end these living creatures, but decided that they were no threat to him, and he had lost enough already in that foolish attack on the fort. Arg, what had he been thinking? He should have directed the attack much better, he had heard ner'zhul displeased with the foolish and unnecessary waste of freshly gained soliders. They were at a critical point in the mission, and such losses were unacceptable, even if also unimportant.
The Lich wondered who to kill first. The solider who had dared challenge him? No, he should die last, so he may understand his foolishness of not fleeing in terror the first moment he had seen one of the ghouls. He would have pondered longer, but some madness actually possessed one of the lifelings to attack him.
Daniel charged. He knew not why he did it, or how he gathered the strength to, but he did. He brought his sword up, dropping his shield and grasping it with both his hands, he brought it high over his head, and charged the skeleton-thing. He was within a few feet when something strange happened. The air around him radiated with cold, seemingly coming straight from the being he was attacking, and the air grew thick. He ignored it and striked, which sealed his doom, for the sword glanced away before even reaching his target, and Daniel fell to the ground, in agony.
His sword was covered with ice, and the guantlets of his armor which covered his hands were also. The stroke never even met its target, and Daniel couldn't stand up, for the cold spread into his entire body, crippling him, and leaving him on the ground, shivering like one who had just been pulled from the waters of a frozen-over lake.
The other five men charged after seeing him drop, in a desperate attempt to live. They too, did not even reach the being, for it brought its boney hands infront of himself, and then quickly raised the to the sky. An explosion followed, centered right in the middle of the group, an explosion of icy, freezing cold, not of fire. The men all fell to the ground, Garrell and Daniel shivered uncontrollably, while the other four died almost immediatly.
The Lich looked apon the two men still alive, impressed at their strength, knowing full well they would not live. He smiled inwardly, moved closer to them, and said quietly:
"Embrace the cold...."