((UBER LONG JOURNAL INC. I got to 60, and I went through three zones to do it. xD))
Journal entry 11
It has been a very, very long day.
It started well. I was sent to find a man named Itharius at the entrance of the sunken trollish temple. After hearing his name, seeing him, and speaking briefly, I understood that he was in fact a green dragon. I seem to be meeting a lot of dragons. Rutilus was very curious, and I explained to Itharius how I had come about befriending the dragonling. I think he already knew about the purified black dragon egg, though - it seems like it's fairly important.
Regardless, he had tasks for me. He first asked me to find ancient trollish relics at the bottom of the lake so he could create an Oathstone, letting him speak in my mind and see through my eyes. At first I thought it'd be easy, but the surface of the water deceived me into thinking it'd be clear. I was wrong. Swobu didn't have any problem, but I was completely blind in all the muck and mud. He had to do most of the work.
When we finally gathered enough relics, Itharius created the Oathstone and bound it to me, then mentally instructed me to enter the temple. It was a cold, wet place that was as welcoming as a dragon's cave.
As I ventured through it, he told me about how the trolls were capturing his kin. He told me that the trolls would create a seed of evil within the dragons, then let it grow and harvest it by slaying the dragon. Understandably enraged, he asked me to kill each of the leaders of the trolls. First was a priestess - she had many followers, but they couldn't hurt Swobu. I easily picked them off one by one.
The next leader was the slaughterer of the dragons. His chamber was littered with bodies and skeletons, which greatly disturbed poor Rutilus. He hid his head in my cloak as I dealt with the troll, and I had to carry him out of the room before he'd fly on his own again. Swobu helped cheer him up by letting him ride on his shell.
Lastly we were to kill their true leader, a prophet. I was very unimpressed with his power until he suddenly created a shield around himself, taunting us before teleporting away. Itharius and I were extremely irritated by that.
He thanked me regardless, taking back the Oathstone and turning it into an enchanted amulet for me to keep. Then he redirected me to Stonard, telling me in a rather condescending way that the Horde was fighting the Alliance there. Apparently his kind is "above" these "mortal conflicts". I headed to Stonard while urging Goshlok to move quickly. When I arrived, I saw that I had underestimated the scale of the fighting.
The commander ordered me to kill humans. I gladly accepted that task, slaying any and all I came across. They, like the trolls, couldn't hurt Swobu at all. He simply deflected the blows with his shell and bit gaping wounds in their legs. They didn't stand a chance.
Some of my Orc brethren weren't so lucky, though. Many had died. I placed flags at each body to honor their memories, and perhaps to let the Alliance know that we don't shy from death.
When I returned to Stonard, I found it under attack. The commander yelled for me to fight them back. I did so, taking the humans down one by one. Our footmen held out and we managed to force them back.
The commander praised my efforts, then sent me to the west to find a tracker that needed help. That was the low point of my day. The tracker, Neeka, was kneeling over a wounded orc man, crying. She explained through her tears that he was her mate, and was dying after being attacked by humans.
There was nothing she could do to save him, but she asked me to go out and gather several items to ease his passing. First was flowers and silt - not the most heroic of tasks, but I completed them without argument. She deserved as much, at least.
She also asked me to kill his lifelong prize, a large panther named Duskfang, and bring back the pelt. Her reasoning was that if he died with the pelt of the prey in his hands, then he would be able to fight the panther in the world after and achieve his lifelong goal.
He didn't last long after I brought back the pelt. I sat by Neeka's side and watched him breathe his last. Even Rutilus watched.
We did not, of course, get time to stay long. The Blasted Lands waited for us, and before long I was on my way there, Swobu in tow. The orc town was under attack by ogres and I helped fend off an attack.
Seeing that I was rather experienced in killing ogres, they sent me to the ogre base nearby. I killed a great many of them before returning. Rutilus had a very good time watching the ogres puzzle over how they could attempt harming Swobu - they ended up just hurting their knuckles on his spiky shell.
They also wanted me to scout out a nearby Alliance-controlled mine and find their scout, Dane. Finding him was easy - he was surrounded by dead humans.
He explained the situation. The mine was too well defended to capture, and even if it could be captured, Nethergarde was too close for comfort. Instead, the Horde was intending to ruin the economy of the mine via tactical strikes. This meant killing their workers, as apparently it takes a great amount of gold to train each worker.
Dane was pleased with my work and told me to visit his troll friend nearby. The troll, too, was easy to find due to all the dead humans. These scouts aren't very well hidden.
He pointed at the workers in that part of the cave. They were all cowering in fear, babbling. He explained that they had probably dug up something that had scared them. A cockroach, maybe, or a spider, most likely. He wanted me to check it out.
Ah. That's a bit bigger than a spider. I think I understand why the workers were afraid now.
The troll was overall unimpressed. I suppose he's fought hundreds of massive, tentacle-clad, many-eyed, gaping-jawed demons. He was probably just trying to look tough in front of the only woman he'll ever meet. Hmph. He had the brains of a flee, too, coming up with the brilliant plan of hiding under a box and walking through the mine to stay safe.
Luckily, the humans there didn't even think twice about a walking box. If he has the brain of a flee, they have the brains of of a slug. It got the job done, though, and I managed to "sneak" all the way up to their leader and kill him.
When I returned to the orc stronghold, it was back to slaying ogres for me. Now they wanted me to fight through an ogre cave and find some blood elves camped out in the back. Apparently a demon hunter had passed by, mentioning the need for aid before going to visit the elves. I was to find the demon hunter.
The blood elves weren't doing a very good job of hiding, but nothing blood elves do is subtle. There was no sign of any demon hunters around.
They explained that they were Blood mages, and asked for help with several menial tasks - collecting food and blood. The food was Ashmane Boar steak. I was quite surprised to see the mild-mannered boars turning into spine-clad beasts after being attacked.

((Continued))