Fury of the Twilight Clan

[Lupis]

Leaves rustled in a calm spring wind as the mage made his way down the road. The human's movements were tense, his steps robotic, face in a worried frown. Every movement in the forest around him made his eyes flick about, but the familiar green forest was as calm as it always was. Sheep bleated, wolves barked, and birds chirped. He knew he had been told to have caution, but he had grown up here! He knew this forest so well he could recall each individual tree.

He was worried, though. It wasn't that something was watching him, or some gut feeling. It was the state of the city. Stormwind was on edge, its citizens whispering of betrayal and mutiny. Had Darnassus betrayed them? Or was it simply the Horde? The current events had kicked the Alliance into a frenzy against the Horde, as if things couldn't get any worse. Stories were being told of orc scouts shooting taxi gryphons out of the air, and Blood Elves slitting the throats of messengers on foot.

What was worse was the disappearance of mages and other magic casters. Warlocks, priests, shamans, even druids were disappearing in disturbing amounts. Mages would teleport and never come out on the other side. Druids would go out to train and never return. There was no discrimination against weak or strong. That was worrying him the most. He had apprentices that were confined to the city because he didn't want them hurt, forcing him to carry out menial tasks himself. Getting reagents from Goldshire, for instance.

At least the road to Goldshire wasn't a long one. He was almost there, only a curve in the road blocking the town from view.

There was a wolf on the road.

That wasn't exactly unusual, but the wolf itself was. Bright blue fur covered it, and its eyes glowed a bright blue. The most worrying was its expression; it was grinning at him.

He wasn't going to take any chances. He began to take energy from a ley line, forming it into a bolt. He didn't have time to release the spell; Thunder cracked and a bright bolt of sparking electricity flashed through the air, connecting with his torso. Pain shot through his body, and a powerful shock burned through his mind. Gasping, he staggered back, only to find that a crossbow bolt was now sticking out of his arm. He blinked drowsily at it, suddenly feeling very exhausted. Maybe he could just sleep for a moment...

Faron smirked at the unconscious mage. The troll whelp holstered his crossbow, trotting forward to sling the human over his shoulder. Calm and confident, a smirk on his muzzle, Faron turned to the forest.

The Clan camp, nestled in the hills of Elwyn, was alive with activity. Wild caged beasts howled, roared and screeched, while insane, masterless element beasts snarled and snapped at the air. His growing pack was waiting for him, two lightning-infused beasts with eyes similar to his own. They ran and flew up to him as he approached. He grinned, letting Vallrok dump the unconscious human into one of three pentacles. The other two were occupied already, one by a cultist, the other by a beast.

A beam of dark purple magic spawned from the cultist's outstretched hand, linking to the mage, then the beast. Where it connected beast and mage it turned from dark to light, arcane power flowing from the mage and infusing itself into the beast. Faron watched quietly as the process continued, the beast - a grey owl - beginning to shift and change. Its eyes lit up to glow a dull blue, feathers tinting ice blue. As the link faded, the owl screeched, a haze of ice drifting from its beak. The human was hardly moving even to breathe, breath coming in shallow, frequent gasps. It was impossible to tell if he had woken, now that he was drained. There really wasn't much of a difference between unconscious and conscious for him now, anyway.

Faron smirked, turning to leave the camp again. The owl needed one or two more Ice mages to empower it completely. Most of the cultists and their pets were taking care of messangers trying to leave the city, so he helped out by capturing the magic casters they needed. This time, however, he'd take his pack. With a bark, the two beasts joined him. A large blue wasp and a lithe blue raptor, they fell in beside him as he headed out to the forest.

((And, commence! Please post your character's name and location on each post, thanks. Ex. "Faron, Elwyn Forest"))

[Saturo]

Saturo - Elwynn Forest

Saturo watched Faron from up in a tree, looking slightly amused. The wolf was dumb enough to let some pathetic animals keep the drained power, when he could just take it all himself. With a yawn, she stretched. It was boring to just watch, and that wolf would still be an awesome hat. Another yawn. Okay, she had to do something. She quickly muttered one of her less-oftenly used spells, having a little trouble remembering it without her spellbook. It was successful, however, and her vision bound itself to the summoned eye-like orb. With a flick of her fingers she sent it down to the ground, and once again sat down, bored, but slightly more active at least.

[Moonlost]

Jraak - Elwynn Forest

Jraak perched calmly atop a nearby rock outcropping, which lay just on the boundaries of the Clan camp, watching the transferal process with interest. He had seen the ritual only a scant few times before, the whole ordeal fascinated the Arakkoa. He clicked his beak excitedly as he watched, trying to sense the elemental energy as it flowed from the human to the owl.
The process was surprisingly quick to his eyes, considering the sort of power they were dealing with. He answered the owl's cry with his own, raspy screech; a cry to welcome a new brother to the flock.

[Kamalia]

Karzix and Glix - Swamp of Sorrows

Two shrieks, followed by the sound of splashing water, bounced among the trees. A female goblin spluttered and sat up, wiping her wet hair out of her eyes. She let out a yelp and jumped up as an explosion of bubbles erupted from underneath of her. Another goblin, a male, let out a ragged cough as he came to the surface.
"This -" Karzix gasped, stumbling to his feet. "- Is not Stonahd!" Glix scowled at him.
"Thanks for figuring that out. Something went wrong with that portal. We're in the middle of the swamp, it looks like." She wiped back her hair and glanced around as her companion stomped to the bank and went to work trying to wring the water out of his clothes.
"Middle o' the swamp. Great. See a road anywheres? Or can ya just make anothah portal or somethin'?"
"I only have one more rune, and that's our way back to Orgrimmar. These must be duds, anyway. Can't even get us to Stonard. Lousy, cheating orc. Could've killed us. I've heard about people screwing up their portals and getting turned into these awful, stuck together m-"
"Got it!" He put up his hands with a grimace. "Let's just... find a road. We'll sue the orc or somethin' when we get back." Glix frowned, looking somewhat put-out on the interruption to her story, but followed after anyway.

"Bogpaddle, huh?" Karzix peered at the sign, hammered into the post at a goblin's height. The pair had been trudging through the swamp, water up to their waists nearly the entire way. Standing on a real road felt heaven-sent at this point.
"It's not Stonard, but it sounds like a goblin town and probably has a place to get dry." Glix said eagerly, pulling up a lock of her still-damp hair as if to give an example.
"No need tah convince me." Karzix scowled at the mosquitos and other biting bugs hovering around him, his big ears flicking now and then to try and ward the pests off. "Let's go."

[rubybeam]

Gazz'nil, razznil swamp of sorrows

Light foot steps of webbed feet stepped into a greenish, blackish water. A crocolisk unaware of its surroundings sliently swam in the lake, turning its head around at a strange sound. The next secound a very bright green coloured raptor was flying at it, it felt a pain in its left leg hissing uncontrollably it attacked th unusal raptor only to get shot again. It simply fell back into the water its body sinking to the bottom.
"And...dead!" a female goblin cheerfully yelled out raceing into the water with her raptor following close behind, she scanned the crocolisk corpse quickly, pleased with the quality of its hide she dragged it to the edges of the lakes muddy shore "Hey razzy was that the last kill?" a panther like creature bounded out of the bushes, its body covered in various gear like decorations, it had troll like ears and tusks coming from its mouth. "I believe it is just let me get my skinning knif- what are you doing?" the female goblin smirked "I'll blow itd hide off!" her light some explosivees about to hmmer it into the corpses mouth when suddenly her raptor, not a bright orange colour with a look of worry on its face grabbed the explosive with its mouth and threw it into a nereby lake watching it explode, the panther sighed allowing her troll form to apper, "We can't blow the hide off of itas much as I would like to..., we need it in one nice piece" the troll sat down skinning knife in hand she started to skin the hide off also taking every last shread of meat, everything else she left, the goblin face palmed "Oh right, stupid person wanted 'only the top qualilty hides' HAD to remove the fun part with THE explosives" the druid frowned, looking away to not show it, gazz'nil had wanted to do the quest "Maybe we should just return to bogpaddle for now" The troll suggested, alreadly turning back into her cat form, the goblin grumbled jumping up top of her her raptor "Good idea.", the raptor flared into a neutral grey colour as it mood changed once again "Lets go sabatooth" the goblin pointed ahead and the raptor ran at her command the druid following in her cat form

[Kamalia]

Karzix and Glix - Bogpaddle, Swamp of Sorrows

"Civilization!" Karzix's face broke into a relieved grin as they crossed the small bridge leading into the goblin town. "If I 'ad tah spend one more hour out in that swamp I think I'd drown myself."
"We already look half-drowned." Glix pointed out, looking down at her squelching boots.
"That looks like an inn ovah there," Karzix said, gesturing to a large building. "Let's dry off and get some food. Maybe I can find the pahts I needed 'ere, too."
"The entire reason we ended up stuck in a swamp."
"It was your portal that dumped us off there."
"It was your stinking trike parts that made us go here."
"It was eithah go get the stuff myself or lose money on a missin' shipment. Like last time. Twenty gold, down the drain! Friggin' messenger and taxi problems. The heck would ambushers want with some engineering parts, anyways?" A few inn patrons glanced up at the squabbling goblins before returning to their food and conversations. Karzix took a table close to a fireplace. He scooted his chair closer to the hearth and huddled there, looking utterly cranky and miserable.
"Save me a seat, okay? I'm going to go check out the town and see if I can find anything useful. You can order some food or something." Glix shook her head as he grunted in response, then turned to leave the inn. Karzix simply sat there and stared into the fire as he sullenly and silently cursed mage portals.

[rubybeam]

Razznil, gazz'nil- bogpaddle, swamp of sorrows

Gazz'nil easily entered bodpaddle still whispering her complants about not being able to blow the hide off of the crocolisk, she didn't nodice the stares she had been getting. she was after all completely drenched, riding around on a grey spiny raptor from the lost isles and having a strange panther troll cat following her around, she soon arrived into the inn jumping off sabatoth, and stood near the fire warming herself and drying her leather clothes off, sabatoth gaurding her closely while razznil unshifted placeing the bag of hides down, and sat at the table wondering what to think, she didn't seem to nodice karzix

[Azunara]

Azunara and Kozri
Elwynn Forest

"I think this is a bad idea, Azu." The human informed his companion in low undertone, his knives at the ready, glancing about. The pair of them had been hired to protect a messenger on the way to Ironforge, and they had just left the city. Once the druid had gotten over her initial shuddering, (old habit and bad times, she informed Kozri.), she had cheered up. "I think you worry too much. What could go wrong? You, me, and we're probably going to pick up a few more mercenaries, after all. And the messenger seems capable."

Kozri shook his head, "Still nervous."

((Anyone is welcome to tag along on their escort here, best way I could think to get integrated. xD))

[Kamalia]

Karzix - Bogpaddle, Swamp of Sorrows

Karzix blinked and looked up as someone entered the inn. Another goblin, also drenched from head to toe, came in and stood next to the fire. She had a rather strange entourage - a raptor and a panther. His ears flicked up and forward in surprise as the panther shifted to the form of a female troll. He shook his head slightly. Druids. The troll sat down, but didn't seem to pay him any heed. Vaguely curious, he watched the odd trio out of the corner of his eye. It was better entertainment than watching the fireplace, at least.

[Moonlost]

((Not a bad idea Azu, think I'll have Zaruuk come along. A few questions though; they just left SW and heading to IF? Is the messenger with them currently, or have they yet to pick him up? Are you going to be using the Deeprun Tram, or some other way to get there?
Sorry, just want to figure out where to place Zaruuk. :S ))

[Azunara]

((Yeah, they're taking the long route, because...That's just how I roll. Totally. That, and the Tram is...not working right? *Shrugs.* I just wanted them in Elwynn for Cultist interaction. Messenger is with them. I think the route is Elwynn, Redridge, Burning Steppes, Badlands, Loch Modan, Dun Morogh, IF. Not sure. Haven't done that doom run in bloody forever.))

[rubybeam]

Gazz'nil, Razznil- Bogpaddle swamp of sorrows

Razznil looked over at her 'sister' curious "Y'know iv'e always wondered how your hair always stays in one piece through everything, it doesn't look abit wrecked from the swimming" the goblin touched her hair slightly Smiling devilishly "If it didn't stay in one piece I would always have to pay more to get it back anyways" Razznil went back to thinking "Is there honestly anything you can think of that crocolisk meat will taste good with? that we can get" Gazz'nil shook her head "i'm not wasting money for extra flavor, just add more meat or else sell it, there no way your going to be walking around again with spoiled meat" Razznil seemed to just shrug it off moving over to a fireplace, she had serveral pieces of the raw meat on a stick she slowly cooked it over the fireplace

[Lupis]

((D'OH Deeprun Tram! Forgot about that! Eeehhrrr... Yeah. It's broken. The Cult, they, uh, busted it!))

Faron, Elwyn Forest

Faron glanced up as the Arakkoa screeched. He flicked his tail, grinning. The Clan was getting all sorts of recruits. Good. They were making this much faster.
He trotted towards the road, his small pack at his side. ((He didn't notice Saturo)) Once he got near, he rose his head, sniffing the air. He had fell into a rhythm lately of sniffing out magic casters, taking them out, and bringing them back. He had gathered quite a few now.
And today, a smell caught his attention. His ears suddenly pressed forward and his eyes widened, a grin settling on his muzzle. It couldn't be, but it -was-. It had to be. He recognized that lizard roast anywhere. And where there was a lizard roast, there was a cat. A cat that he still wanted to kill.
But he needed to kill them fast, and as confident as he was, he wanted to eliminate the risk - however slim - that they would escape. Turning, he sprinted back towards the camp.

[Moonlost]

((Aye, that sounds about right. Thanks. ))

Zaruuk - Elwynn Forest

Zaruuk sat with his back to a nearby wall, his arms folded and his head bowed. He had been holed in the Lion's Pride Inn for the past few days now, what with Stormwind on high alert. From the rumours he had heard, the city was close to completely shutting it's gates from the outside world. The threat that was spooking the nobles differed with each person you asked. The Horde, the Twilight's Hammer, a ravening band of leper gnomes. Whether any of that was true or not, he couldn't say. Regardless, he he was stuck here with an ever dwindeling coin purse until the way was safe again, whenever that may be. Or if he were lucky enough to find a job.
The Draenei casually watched the entrance to the inn as he sat, keeping a close eye out for any prospective clientele.

[Kamalia]

Karzix - Bogpaddle, Swamp of Sorrows

Karzix's stomach let out a loud growl at the mention of food. He reached into his pocket, then frowned at the few coins he pulled out. He shook his head and stuffed them back in, then leaned back until his chair was balancing on its two back legs. He gave the girls' crocolisk kabobs a dubious look. He was hungry, but he seriously doubted that whatever came from a hulking, scaly creature with rows of sharp teeth could taste good. Come to think of it, he and Glix were lucky they hadn't come across any during their trek through the swamp. A bit strange, he thought. He had heard a lot about the swamp brimming with the things. Though judging by the amount of meat and skins the goblin and troll had, the swamp was free of a few crocolisks now. He drummed his fingers impatiently on his arm, wishing Glix could hurry up. The sooner they got out of this place, the better. The smell of cooking meat wasn't helping either. His grumbled to himself as his stomach made another loud complaint. Maybe crocolisk meat wasn't so bad at this point.

[Saturo]

Saturo - Elwynn Forest

From her perch in the tree, Saturo had noticed Kozri and Azu a bit further away, and had fished up some binoculars from her bags. Yep, it was them. As Faron ran back to his camp she dropped down, muttering the spell for Invisibility.

"I feel obliged to inform you two that Faron is staging an ambush.", her voice said loudly right behind the two as she let the spell go, becoming visible.

[rubybeam]

Gaz'nil, razznil-Bodpaddle swamp of sorrows

Razznil heard karzixs grumbling stomach, luckily Gazz'nil hadn't yet and she continued drying off beside the fire, when the first stick was finished the troll handed it to karzix "There plently so no need to worry about us having none" she smiled having sabatoth bark at her, gazznil finally nodicing "Well heck Razznil let us have some before handing any off to strangers" she looked at her hungry raptor and at her own growling stomach about to complain back when both of them were handed a kebob

[Azunara]

Azunara and Kozri
Elwynn Forest

Azunara jolted, squeaking. Kozri blinked, looking more confused than afraid. He wouldn't give the gnome credit to help them. He gave a smidge of grudging respect, and said, "Right. Complicates things a bit. If we could make it to Goldshire, we could try and recruit a few more mercenaries...Don't think Faron would give us the chance." Azunara tilted her head. "If only we could sneak past." The messenger was still walking, but he looked back and halted his steed, waiting for his guards.

"Any chance we could make a wide detour?" Kozri suggested, unsure of what to do. "How big an ambush?"

[Saturo]

Saturo - Elwynn Forest

"Him, Vallrok and some pathetic animals. A cultist or two too, maybe.", she said, with false disinterest. "I'm willing to help you guys! All I as in return is his head.", she said cheerfully. "Oh. Also, tell that bastard of a death knight you were travelling with that I want my spellbook back."

[Azunara]

Azu and Kozri
Elwynn Forest

Azunara drooped, "We haven't seen Decay or Indi in a while...." Kozri scowled, "Still don't like the odds. If it looks bad, we're running. But, I don't see we have much a choice but to keep going."