Brakara's Journal of Beasts ((Very Image Heavy))

[Kamalia]

Agreeing with Tyger - very touching. I love Masha's namesake. It suits her.

[Lupis]

((I have no life! D-: I managed to get another 5 levels done. Why must I have no life?))

Journal Entry 6

Drakka is recovering well, and Brosk's wound is closing. It was in a good mood that I left Orgrimmar, Masha perched comfortably on my shoulder. The journey to Souther Barrens was easy on the back of a windrider and I was soon under the command of an orc. He was stationed at a small tauren camp in the mountains, overlooking an alliance base. At one point it was a Horde tower, but it had been taken over. He explained the situation to me: I was to enter the area, find the tower the humans were using as a prison, and re-arm the prisoners. On my way, I was to kill any human I saw and leave the bodies to be found by guards. Terror tactics.
The prison tower was fairly well guarded, but Masha made short work of them, clawing their hands so savagely that they dropped their weapons. We entered the tower to find it completely filled with orc prisoners.



Many of them were quite ashamed of themselves, and for good reason - most of them had been captured out of cowardice. However, my respect for them was raised when they eagerly took up arms to get revenge against the humans. Only one of the prisoners refused, an older, blind orc. He explained that the captain of the tower, a cruel, vicious man, had been practically torturing them and had to die.



I gladly accepted the challenge, expecting the human to be stronger than the others... I was mistaken. He was the cowardly sort that only attacked helpless prey, and he could stand pain no more than any other. I'm surprised the entire ordeal didn't attract even more guards.



The old orc was quite pleased with the deed, though he refused to be a burden and remained at the tower. I returned to the mountainside camp and was sent to kill a surveyor named Zykes. He was wandering near the road.



He was frail and I was quickly on my way to Una'fe, a tauren encampment nearby. To my surprise, it was filled with wounded and grieving refugees.



There were even a few young tauren children in a tent, being cared for by a tauren woman.



When I asked why they were all here, I was told about the sacking of Taurajo. They explained with passion how the camp, made up of only a few hunters and many innocent civilians, had been mercilessly attacked and burned to the ground by the Alliance. There had been no reason for it, and it was only by the graces of the spirits that some of the civilians had been able to escape. Many had died.
I know that the Horde committed a similar act with the bomb, but the Alliance didn't seem to care that such an act had happened. At least we had the spines to punish ourselves.
To make matters worse, fleeing civilians had been captured by nearby Quillboar. As if I hadn't delt with enough of them before!



Then I was sent to kill their leader, in supposedly "one on one" combat.



Apparently he didn't understand the meaning of "one on one" and called upon the "Boarpocalyps".



Many dead boars and one dead quillboar later, I was sent to hunt the nearby tallstriders. I've never seen such... bright... creatures. Despite that, they were fairly strong. Masha showed her true skill here, which I suppose is fitting. Her namesake was a huntress, after all.



We attempted to cure a few of the tainted wildlife as well, having been directed by a druid... But it didn't work out as planned.



Thankfully most of them were only enraged - a couple of them simply exploded in a cloud of gore! Poor Masha won't be clean for weeks.
After that, the druid had us accompany him to a rift in the Emerald Nightmare. Apparently that was keeping the area so lush and tainted. He tried to close it while Masha and I killed the escaping Nightmare monsters. The first and second waves weren't bad...



The third one was disturbing, though. I hope I never have to see such a beast again.


((Argh, I hate damage numbers.))

The tauren in Una'fe then sent us to a camp right by the ruins of Taurajo. They then sent us to defend a hill against the Alliance. It was quite the fight, and I was surrounded by a pile of human corpses by the end. I have Masha to thank for getting out mostly unscathed - humans can do little damage when their hands are bloody wrecks.



On the way to Taurajo we took some time to demolish a few war machines. They were aimed at Mulgure, and I will never let the Alliance into that land. They've done enough, burning Taurajo to the ground.



The area was a wreck, swarming with thieves and looters. The thought of them defiling the lost camp made my blood rise to a boil.



To spare the spirits of the fallen any more time trapped, I released them. They said a few words before departing, mourning the loss of the camp.



After cleaning up the wreckage of the camp, my anger had already risen - it only got worse when I was told of another corrupt leader in the Horde. A warlord this time. I was sent to the stronghold to the south to warn him that Bloodhilt, the competent orc, was coming.



I learned something about the inner workings of Horde politics. When Bloodhilt came, he fought the corrupt warlord. The opponent tried to yield, a cowardly act, and Bloodhilt threw him out of the window of the tower. Good riddance. Bloodhilt is a powerful and tactical leader.
He sent me to the battle scar to the east, where I was to find the alliance banner and burn it. It was replaced with a Horde banner, and I must admit it was impressive.



Nearly his first task was one I was dearly wishing to complete - ambush and slay General Hawthorne, the Alliance General that ordered the attack on Taurajo. The Butcher of Taurajo. I met up with a few orcs near the road to wait.



It didn't take long for him to appear on the horizon, escorted by two guards. The orcs with me attacked the guards, and I was left to kill the General - a task I was rather glad I didn't have to share.



This world will be a better place without the Butcher. We left his battered corpse swaying in the wind for the Alliance to find. Even Masha seemed to enjoy the task, screeching loudly. I can't save the spirits of those lost at Taurajo, but I can avenge them.



After reporting to Warlord Bloodhilt of out success, I headed back to Una'fe to tell them that the General was dead. A strange sight awaited me - one of the pink tallstriders bravely attacking a writhing vine. Such vines usually strangled even raptors.



The vine was cut in half by the determined Tallstrider. Impressed, I challenged it myself - but I didn't want to kill it. After a fairly short fight, it kicked me away and stopped the attack.



A new respect shone in its eyes. He will be joining me, and Masha will stay in the Barrens for a while to act as my eyes. Gol'Kosh, named after the orcish saying "By my Axe" and fitting the mood of this area quite well, will go with me to Dustwallow.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Beautifully written as always.
Camp Taurajo is one of the most upsetting sights in the game and for me, was a pivotal point in Roxíe's story by getting her to see that not everything the Alliance does is necessarily good.

Poor Brakara; I just want to reach out and give her a hug.

I just got to thinking about how doing a journal might be interesting to do with Rose; not necessarily a challenge like these ones are. Sorry, don't mean to derail your thread. XD

[Lupis]

Yeah, Stonetalon Mountains was the turning point - so to speak - of Brakara's absolute trust in the Horde. She still has an iron loyalty to them, but seeing so many corrupt leaders is getting her a bit nervous. She watches herself more now. It could have expanded out more, but the attack on Taurajo somewhat reset her trust in the Horde - better them than Alliance!

Doing a journal for Rose would be very cool! I'd enjoy reading that.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Next to Indi, Rose is my favorite character to RP here. I'm curious to see how some of these events would pan out in her eyes.

Anyway, before I derail too much! I look forward to your next installment.

[Azunara]

I almost wish I was doing Kalimdor on Sol. Stonetalon and Camp Taurajo would mess with her a bit, I'd imagine.

Anyways, awesome as per always! I love how much life her pets have.

[Lupis]

Her pets have life? Awesome! I've been worrying about that because she's been going through so many of them.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Your pets have more personality than Roxíe's do I think. I think Sherman was the first pet I made sure to actually include in my journal posts--I love that wind serpent's personality.

[Azunara]

I'm honestly impressed at your guys' quality though. I can shell out lesser work in a longer time period. I'm only on my second pet, and I'm bending the rules-(Pet per zone instead of five levels, I'm just outleveling way too fast. Helps me see all the content, and I get to spend more time with them.)-already.

[Lupis]

That sounds like it'd work too, Azu.
I'm always *just* getting by on levels. I completed perhaps two or three quests after completing my "zone goal" (killing Hawthorne) before leveling to 35. O.o In Stonetalon, I had to stay after level 30 to get the climactic part done.

As for quality... I dunno. I love thinking about my character's thoughts as I quest, so it can come naturally. But sometimes it can be hard - I know Dustwallow will be a challenge. It feels like such a boring zone, there's not much for her to think about.

[Lupis]

Journal Entry 7

Dustwallow marsh. I wasn't really looking forward to visiting the area. It sounded far too moist and moldy for my tastes. I was to find a camp called something like Stonemaul Refuge or Stonemaul cave, but I'll refer to it as the Stonemaul camp. The name made me think "Ogre" and, to my surprise, I was right. It was filled with friendly and stupid ogres.



I accepted a few tasks from the one or two orcs there, and many tasks from the numerous ogres. The first thing they wanted was for me to go out and slay human spies. That got my interest. I waded out towards a dry hill, nearly losing my foot to a crocolisk's jaws in the process. Luckily Golkosh jumped the beast and pecked it until it stopped moving.
To my joy, there were indeed humans. Swarming the area, in fact. Several were on hills or in trees, most likely to escape crocolisks. I had been wondering why there were so many human-sized bones around.



Golkosh was not impressed by their fighting finesse. He did have fun stealing their weapons to look at his reflection with, though, and I swear he lifted a wing to smooth down his downy feathers at one point. He looked very smug.
Our next task was to kill spiders. They were intriguing - I'd never seen them that size before. I was starting to get impressed by the area. Not many could harbor such beasts.



At the very end of their cave was the Broodqueen, a simply hulking arachnid. Golkosh, that vain, stupid tallstrider... he ran circles around its legs and squawked loudly throughout the entire fight. Didn't strike the spider once. Kept its attention, though.



On our way back to the Stonemaul camp we came across a few roadside tents. Each of them was occupied by elves and humans. We killed our way down the road.



The tents led up to a tower, well guarded and watched. A well-armed human attacked us as soon as we got near. As disrespectful as ever, Golkosh squawked tauntingly as he dodged just about every attack the human threw at him. Bloody bird is going to get in trouble for that someday.



The tower was filled with guards and we had to be careful to keep a few occupied with other things - frozen limbs or heavily bleeding wounds, usually - while we killed them off one by one. Once safe we found an elf captive.



Once she was free, we headed back to the Stonemaul camp. They sent us to check on a home on Witch Hill.
I wish they had told me it was occupied by humans! Bah, how I itched to kill them when I saw them. However, it turned out that they were the ones I was supposed to be helping.



What they wanted me to do was fairly simple... Kill undead and gather questionable cooking ingredients. I carried out the tasks without motivation. The undead died easily, and I already had experience killing spiders.





To my surprise, some of the undead turned into human ghosts when they were killed. They muttered insanity about demons before disappearing.



It didn't bother me much, but it really upset one of the humans. He wanted me to go out and gather some sort of plant for a summoning ritual. What do I look like, everyone's favorite green servant? Bah.



I admit, though, summoning the "demon" was interesting. It was in the form of a bat like creature, and charged directly at Golkosh, who was taunting it. Golkosh headbutt it right into the water. Funniest thing I'd seen in ages.



The insane food-obsessed human - the one that wanted me to kill spiders - then ordered me to kill some murlocs. I was going to refuse, but Golkosh started to run off without me and I was forced to comply.



Well. Well then...
Murlocs, I learned today, tend to swarm massively around their enemies.
Golkosh merrily kicked them around before staring in amazement at a cooking fire.



That was all those humans wanted, and I gladly left. The Stonemaul ogres wanted me to look for a burned out inn anyway. It was a human inn, so I don't see why they cared in the least.
Needless to say it was uninteresting, though I got in a bit of an argument with the local human.



Apparently the orc that was most interested with this already had a suspect, some human deserter. He had me help an ogre confront the human.
A deserter and a coward, apparently.



While the ogre was busy trying to get any sort of answer out of the human, a group of soldiers moved up. I yelled a warning, but the two didn't seem to notice. Idiots. They payed for it.



The humans shot an arrow through the deserter's chest and attacked us. I was happy to get rid of them. The shot human didn't seem too healthy, though, and wouldn't stop groaning. It's a wonder that humans have managed to survive when they can't handle a simple arrow wound. They must breed like rats.



He couldn't even finish his sentence when he was trying to tell us who burned down the inn, forcing me to return to the Stonemaul camp. The orc wasn't happy. He then sent me to gather venom to wash off some of the evidence from the inn.



My respect for the swamp grew yet more. It has near everything you need for life - humans, giant poisonous bugs, dangerous orc-eating beasts, and an overall unforgiving environment. It's a shame it's so wet, and I haven't seen many furry creatures around.

In the end, the trail of evidence lead us to the Grimtotem. Them again! I didn't feel so guilty killing them now, perhaps because I'm used to it. Distinguishing them as enemies instead of oddly colored tauren brothers is something that takes experience, I suppose.



They died quickly, often swearing loudly as Golkosh ran around them cheekily. I had no idea what I was getting into when I befriended the beast.
Dragons were my next target. Apparently they had burned down the Stonemaul's old home, and I was getting revenge. I'd never fought a dragon before, and looked forward to it.


Is this supposed to be a dragon? I'm not impressed.


What the heck is that?! If the stories I've heard of heroes slaying dragons are referring to these, I'm going to have to rethink my childhood goals.]


THAT'S a DRAGON!

I dragged the body over to the mouth of a nearby cave, hoping to bait out larger prey. Unfortunately a small drake flew out to attack instead.



Hmmph. I didn't get any real dragon slaying done, but I had to move on. I had been told that there was a bounty on a large local raptor called Goreclaw, and I was to kill him. The thought of raptors in the area was amazing. It made the swamp almost feel like home.
Sure enough, there was a raptor colony nearby. Even the smallest raptor there was twice the size of the ones I knew in Durotar.



The true monster, though, was Goreclaw himself. Simply awe-inspiring.



By the grace of the spirits we managed to slay him, though I still wonder how my bullets even punctured his scales. Of course, Golkosh was uninterested...

When I returned lugging one of his massive claws, a tauren called out to me. She explained that help was needed in Thousand Needles, and expressed a hope that I would be that help. I left the town to think about it.

((Continued))

[Lupis]

((Continued))
On my way, I was ambushed by a human guard. She was quickly slain, but a crocolisk approached soon after. It gave me a lazy, grinning stare and tried to nudge me away from the kill.



I tentatively offered the body and it gorged itself, rasping and wagging its tail happily. Once full, it plodded over to sniff at my feet, then lied down.
I returned to Orgrimmar with Trk'hsk at my side. "Bloodshed in Battle" - it seems to fit him, despite how lazy he is.
Golkosh was happy to have a rest, and I discussed with the local worg trainers. They saw that I had improved in my skill in riding and offered to give Goshlok a set of armor. Impressed, I accepted.



Now well equipped, I headed to Thousand Needles, hoping for a fairly restful day.



Well.... Fel.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I loved it! Golkosh had me giggling over his antics. Gotta love tallstriders.

[Azunara]

Aaaw, Golkosh! *hugs him.* Really awesome.

I did feel a bit sad you killed Lukas, though. Alliance side, he's a quest giver if I remember right. So while it's not that big a deal (He's bound to respawn stupidly fast, or I'm remembering wrong.) I did feel a bit D:.

*Shrugs.*

Still, very awesome!

[Lupis]

Yeah... I've killed him... A LOT. >.> He spawns really fast, so in one run through of the tower he'd spawn and attack four times. And, of course, he's so close to the road that he likes to attack every time I pass.
Poor guy. *Pats*

[Azunara]

Okay, that's not so bad then. Fast respawn is good.

(*totally doesn't have this thing against opposite faction killing your quest givers. Course not. Why would you ask?*)

[Lupis]

Oh don't worry, I can relate. xD I hate it when people kill my quest giver.
Although I've never actually seen any alliance players in that zone. >.> It's pretty unpopular with all the new zones out.

[Azunara]

I was doing Redridge for Sol's report and saw like, several different allies running about. I'm like, "O_o Go away."

Same with Westfall, lots of people cruisin' about. Had one or two get in my really awesome shots and was upset. xD

[Lupis]

I know what you mean. That's happening in Thousand Needles. SO MANY PEOPLE. Go away! If I wanted to see other people in this MMO, I'd be a friendly person!

[TygerDarkstorm]

Yeah, one of my shots in Thousand Needles, the Hive Controller one, I had to try and plan it out so you couldn't see the dead body (of the hive controller) from the previous person.