How to Hunt and Kill a Tentacle Monster.
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:39 am
PART 1
"Shadow priest, shadow priest, where do I find a shadow priest?"
Gwarg grumbled to himself as he treaded carelessly through the graveyard.
"HEY ANYBODY OUT HERE A SHADOW PRIEST!!!"
Gwarg blurted out in frustration.
A long quiet pause fell on the damp, fetid, cool air. It had been a day since the orc had arrived in Forsaken territory. Rather than rent a room at the inn in Brill or the Undercity, Gwarg decided to set up camp in the forested area between the two undead settlements. Avoiding both cost and the persistent smell of undead flesh; plus, the chance to see if any of the forsaken fishing grounds have anything other than rotten zombie fish was appealing to the warrior. So, after some sleep and time spent fruitlessly casting his hook, Gwarg began to look for the undead character he was told of while scouting information a week ago at The Broken Tusk, in Ogrimmar.
Picking up his stride once more Gwarg began to grumble again to himself.
"Join a guild, make some friends, have a couple laughs . . . yeah right. I mean, I don't mind killing Alliance, it can even be kinda fun, but this whole 'oh hey you know that thing you're scared of. . . go kill it just because.
The green skinned warrior kicked a broken rib-cage lying in the grassy mud into a few more pieces. "
Uhg, and now you're here bitching to yourself like a Night Elf in a forest fire" he muttered slumping his shoulders.
The air grew quiet again as Gwarg came to a stop and looked at how muddy his feet, and even his armor had become.
"What the hell am I doing here" he exhaled his exasperation through his nostrils.
"Hello" a low gravelly voice beckoned in the shadows.
The armor-clad orc jumped back and readied one of his axes and placed it between him and the shadow cloaked figure in the woods.
"SHOW YOURSELF!" Gwarg barked with tightened muscles ready to spring.
"Calm down." the male voice replied with a note of irritation in his inflection.
"You have got to be the loudest orc I have ever heard, granted, I guess I haven't heard to many orcs shout at me in the middle of the night."
Gwarg took a few seconds to glare into the shadows, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness hoping to catch a glimpse of the figure hiding there.
"I said show yourself, or the volume of my voice will be the least of your worries."
Choking up on the hilt of the axe Gwarg pointed it at the darkness while simultaneously reaching for the other axe strapped to his back.
"Warrior," the voice shifted to a grimmer and directed tone; "you are literally in my neck of the woods, shouting at the top of your lungs for a shadow priest, and when one shows up you threaten him with violence?"
"Wait, what?"
The candid response to the orc's threat took him by surprise.
"So, you are a shadow priest?" Gwarg sharply responded.
"I'm going to be gone, if you don't put down your weapon" the sandpaper like voice responded, but with this time a hit of boredom in it.
Gwarg lowered the weapon down to his side still clenching it, and using his wrist to angle the heavy bladed object slightly upwards. His other hand began to clench the hilt of the other axe strapped to his back.
"Make you a deal, voice in the shadows" Gwarg said speaking slowly, and with a obvious mocking tone. "I'll stow the weapons away completely if you'll show your face" Gwarg said letting the statement hang in the air while he awaited a response.
"Very well," the voice said suddenly.
Gwarg shot upright as a quick cool breeze hit him intensely on his cheek, as if something had moved right next to him. A smell hit the orcs nose less than a second after he felt the wind. The smell of rotten mushrooms and damp flesh made the orc almost wretch. "Did that voice just throw a stinky dagger," Gwarg thought to himself.
A impulse thought of whipping his body around while loosening his second axe occurred to him, right before he decided against it, remembering he was in Forsaken territory and on wet nights, like tonight, they could smell particularly awful. Gwarg turned around slowly. There, directly behind the orc, a ghoulish, particularly tall, forsaken male stood. Adorned in a black and red robe with a cloak and mantle draped over his side. The undead man stood, still as stone with eyes gleaming a soft yellow light. As the visage of the ghoul started to come into focus, Gwarg could see he had no nose, and his skin was pale with a soft, cool blue tint to it. A crack of lightning light up the sky, and for a brief moment the entirety of the Forsaken's features were made clear. The horrific image of a being, once human, stood before the warrior. He had an unusually full head of hair for a creature whose other features looked tattered on torn. Even with his hair matted down outlining a grizzly macabre face. Again, the lightning cracked in the distance showing Gwarg the Forsaken had no lips either, with skin coming down around the jaws, torn off halfway up the cheeks, giving this shadow creature the appearance of a soft gruesome smile.
"My name is Grin," the Forsaken said with a slight bowing nod motion, "and if you're looking for a shadow priest, you've found one."
"Grin huh," Gwarg repeated nonplussed, "is that some sort of morbid joke?"
Grin tilted his head, and Gwarg realized he wouldn't be able to tell if the ghoul in front of him was smiling or not, even though he got the distinct feeling he was.
"When you live life as a zombie," the low gravelly voice said in a clear, but almost delicate tone, "most things usually are."
Gwarg rolled his eyes.
The orc then let the moment pass as he fixed his gaze on Grin, he stepped forward and asked, "How'd you like to make a little bit of gold?"
PART 2
A loud thud echoed through the cavernous hallway.
"I hope this works" Gwarg muttered
The orc then proceeded to move at a jogger’s pace, letting the sound of his footsteps bounce off the walls behind him, and the caverns in the distance. It felt like months had passed, but in reality, it was only a week and a half since he had departing the Undercity. Stopping there only briefly after making a bargain with the shadow priest Grin. He had spent only a few hours in the Capitol of the undead. There he had picked up some supplies for his journey. A few tools for cave diving, along with some rope, iron hooks, and other various instruments. Gwarg wished he had thought to bother the goblins in Ogrimmar before he set out on his mission for The Grim, but what he found at the Undercity would be more than adequate.
Gwarg continued to move through the hallways of the the old kingdom, a place where spider like beings once roamed before and after their service to the Lich King. However, today he was not seeking spider beings to pick a fight with, his quarrel was going to be with something much more sinister.
"Why does time never move fast when you want it to?" the orc frustratingly pondered to himself as he moved down the hall closer to the staircase.
It had been a long time since his campaign in Northrend, and the former guild leader found himself reminiscing about his time with people he considered to be his friends. The instance where he picked up the guild's lead mage, the Blood Elf, Maijre, tossing him a good 10 feet in the air allowing the spell caster to freeze in place a line of Nerubian reinforcements; allowing the rest of the group to shatter their frozen carcasses as they moved through the cavernous sprawl of ruins.
One by one the memories came flooding back, as the warrior made his way through the hallway fastening the ends of rope to the iron staples he had produced. Allowing his mind to spend time back in those days, with his guild, his War Torn, had brought a smile to his face.
Gwarg slammed a blacksmith hammer hard on another staple pushing it up tightly against the rope.
"Two more should do it," the orc grunted.
"In all honesty, I'm surprised you haven't been discovered yet; your clanging is loud enough to wake the dead." Grin's voice echoed out of Gwarg's pack.
"You'd know" Gwarg said with a smirk.
"Oh, ha ha," Grin's voice sounded even more hallow from the reverb effect in the scrying orb the two were using to communicate.
Starting his pace up again the lone orc moved another twenty feet down the hall. When he reached his mark, Gwarg reached down and placed another iron staple against the wall close to the floor. Propping it up with his foot and placing the thick brown rope between the staple and the wall, the brawny green warrior reached back with his blacksmith's hammer once more, and then slammed it in to the staple this time pushing it right up against the rope with one swing.
Now in a hurry to be done the orc made another grunting statement, "Last one," he said.
"So, why is joining this guild so important to you; you'd pay a decent chunk of gold to possibly get yourself killed," Grin's scrying ball echoed once more.
Gwarg retorted quickly, "You want to talk about this now?"
"Well it's not like I'm doing much else, and since there is no telling how long this is going to take, we might as well pass the time," Grin said.
The orc's response was quick with a defensive tone, "Do you always question the people you do business with in such a manner?"
The shadow priest replied, "... eh, I'm bored." Grin continued on, "Plus, how often does one meet an orc who can hold a conversation.
"Ha," Gwarg blurted out his amusement, "You ever think most orcs just hate your conversations."
Silence fell on between the two as the orc banged in to place the last staple. The orc stood up and wiped the sweat from his brow. Setting his pack on the ground, Gwarg reached into the bag pulling out a canteen of water allowing the faint glow from the scrying crystal to emit a faint glow.
"Aww did I hurt the zombie's feelings" Gwarg said chuckling.
Grin Snapped back "Don't me that!"
Finishing the last of the water in the canteen Gwarg raised his hands up in a light-hearted gesture.
"I didn't mean to strike a chord Grin," Gwarg said plainly.
The hollow echoing came again from the orb ing Gwarg's bag.
Grin made and audible sigh; "I suppose I should. . ."
Gwarg interrupted the shadow priest in a quick whisper.
"Sh, shut up, we'll talk later. . . something's coming." Gwarg said turning his gaze away from the orb.
"I've set up everything but your orb and if everything goes off before . . ." Gwarg said stopping half way through his thought.
Securing the scrying orb inside his pack and hefting it over his shoulder, Gwarg began to sprint down the hallway he had been working in for the past few hours.
"What, Gwarg, what's coming?" Grin's muffled voice said in a half whisper.
"Shh, if you alert it to my presence I may not get another chance at this." Gwarg whispered again.
Grin responded in a soft yet clear whisper through the orb's echo, "Got it, I'll be ready" he said.
Approaching the entry to the hallway the orc climbed up above the ridge overlooking the entrance. Once above the entrance and hunched over balancing himself on the ledge, Gwarg pulled out the faintly glowing yellow orb he had been using to speak with Grin for the past week since he struck a deal with the undead and left his company.
"How's the view?" Gwarg whispered to the orb.
Grin replied still whispering, "This is a good spot, but I can't see the back end of the corridor to well, it's very dark."
"That should be fine," the warrior responded as he placed the orb carefully on the ledge.
Reaching back into his bag Gwarg pulled out a steel hook that looped downward into a half conical rack.
"Can you still see ok?" Gwarg said placing the ball on the hooked rack.
"Yes, yes," Grin said, "everything is still fine."
"Ok,"Gwarg continued to whisper at the orb, "when you hear my signal. . ."
Cutting off the warrior Grin pitched in ". . . That's when I'll begin, my part is easy, you on the other hand have a faceless one to slay"
Gwarg let the thought sink in. This task alone was going to be tough, but making sure the images of the action were recorded for later viewing added a level of complexity to the situation, Gwarg would rather not deal with.
The orc jumped down off the ledge where he had left the orb on the hook, landing next to his helmet and axes.
“I really hope this fear ward enchantment works.” Gwarg said still speaking under his breath.
Grin’s reply was still echoed but was much softer, “You still need to be careful that’s a new thing I haven’t had the time to properly test.”
Gwarg sighed. After placing his helmet on his head Gwarg clanked his axes into place on his back. Fully armored and standing firm Gwarg stood in place glaring down the hall where the shuffling thuds became more and more audible. Gwarg sighed trying to push the fear out of his head.
"What I do today I do for The Grim," Gwarg said just loud enough for Grin to hear through the Orb
The orc warrior stood as tall and straight as he could, pointing his axe at the orb, "Today a Faceless One found in the ruins of Ahn'kahet, the Old Kingdom, will know fear does not dictate action." he said.
Gwarg turned back to face the hallway securing his axe to his back, the sound of heavy cumbersome footsteps came out of the distance, and there he waited.
Part 3
The thick coarse rope felt hard in Gwarg's hands. Even through the leather padding in his gauntlets holding the rope somehow felt uncomfortable. Trying to blow out his frustration at his case of nerves through his nostrils, the orc took the slack of the rope and wrapped it around his hand.
"If I'm going to do this I need to do it now," Gwarg thought to himself.
The warrior started to recite the mantra his father had taught him long ago to deal with fear. First once in his head and a second time out loud.
"May my axe honor the Horde, may my actions honor my ancestors, and may my enemy remember my name." The orc's voice rose to a low roar, "Come get your throat cut monster!"
His insult was supposed to be the cue, but just to be certain he turned to the orb and gave it a nod.
"Your god hides in a shadowed hole, like a whelp whimpering in fear!" Gwarg's threat echoed in the distance.
"The days you walk this earth are numbered, and your kind is no different from the gunk I pick from my boot."
The orc continued to bellow his threats at the top of his lungs, "Come, face me vile demon so that I may use your skull to decorate my mantle."
The sounds of footsteps still shuffled towards Gwarg, the pace, however, began to speed up.
"Come on puke stain, move your rotten purple snot carcass down here!" Gwarg shouted.
The warrior's hand tightened a little bit more around the rope. He pressed his body against the wall as close as he could and continued his verbal assault. "Were you spawned by fish scat and squid mucus?" He shouted.
"You know what, I changed my mind, stay down there," Gwarg continued, "Your smell is so bad it could gag a maggot!"
The pace of the creature became hastier, and Gwarg could make out the shadow of the being cast on the floor. The warrior grits his teeth in anticipation.
"Once I pull this rope there's no turning back," he thought.
Gwarg gripped the rope with all his strength, knowing that one way or another his life was seconds away from making a significant change.
"If I live to see it," Gwarg muttered.
The creatures silhouette came into view. First its outline, humanoid with snake like appendages and a stubby head with no neck. Gwarg could see it's outline twist and writhe. Next the features of the creature became visible; the head a bulb like protrusion from the body with three tentacles protruding downward, with webbing connecting the upper portions of the tentacles. The creatures skin was scaly and glistening with a purple hue. All of the monstrosities appendages would curl and uncurl, making a slapping, wet, sticky noise.
The deformed abomination of life wasn't running, it wasn't even jogging, not really. The thing was moving more at a brisk walking pace, but the size of the creature and the length of its stride allowed it to cover ground quickly. The shadow thing was almost in place. Gwarg stepped out from his own shadow cast on the wall with the rope in hand, it's slack resting on the floor.
"Here I am vomit fiend," the orc warrior said standing tall and trying to sound much more confident then he currently felt.
Gwarg continued his blustering "I've come bringing retribution for comrades felled by your kind."
The faceless one tilted its head, as if pondering the warrior's statement. The orc took the moment of inaction to draw three ez thro dynamite from his side pouch. He knew they would do little damage to the thick-skinned squid faced thing in front of him, but he'd be damned if it didn't at least infuriate the hell out of every enemy Gwarg had ever had the foresight to use it against.
The faceless one narrowed its eyes and turned its head downward.
"He knows what's coming," Gwarg thought, "or at least he thinks he does."
"I'm gonna blow your stupid squid face from here to oblivion!" Gwarg roared with all the ferociousness he could muster.
The eldritch squid monster mid mouth tentacle started to undulate up and down, twisting and contorting as an unintelligible sound fell out of its mouth. Next, its arms rose and spun in a writhing and wriggling motion that looked painful to just watch. The spitting, garbled, bubble like speech of the faceless one grew louder. Gwarg blurted loudly interrupting the monsters incoherent babble; "DIE BARF FOR BRAINS!" The being raised what would be an eye brow in irritation. Biting the modified fuse caps Gwarg pulled his head back quickly lighting all three sticks of dynamite. "Thank you engineers," taking his time to think waiting for just the right moment before tossing all three sticks right at the creatures still wiggling face. The dynamite exploded in succession BLAM! BLA-BLAMMM! Three bright orange lights flashed up directly in front of the faceless one. As the smoke rose from the detonation, the warrior shot his neck backwards towards the scrying orb he had mounted just minutes earlier. First, he held up a shushing motion, placing his finger to his mouth, "be ready" he mouthed at the orb silently. Snapping his head back around towards the explosion just in time to see the tentacled, fish skinned, aberration charge through the smoke. If the creature’s roar was some kind of battle cry, Gwarg had no idea what it meant. It was loud though, and rage sounds similar no matter what language you speak. The warrior almost acted too quickly, controlling himself in the nick of time, Gwarg took a step back, now tightening all the slack in the rope. The faceless one's pace was picking up speed, and its shoulders had dropped.
"He's in a full out charge." Gwarg thought to himself.
The fish beasts rage filled roar started again, as if to signal a surge in speed and power. Gwarg eyed his foe carefully, using his free hand to ready an axe. Calming himself, Gwarg exhaled, "Ancestors be with me," the warrior said in a quiet and respectful tone.
"NOW!" Gwarg shouted as he sprang into action.
First pulling the rope he had been clenching in his hand, on what felt like an eternity. The rope slid out of bracket after bracket that Gwarg had spent all morning fastening to the brick corridor. As the rope pulled out of its holding brackets, so too did the large brick the rope was attached too. The brick held a spring-loaded blade fastened to the side of the brick corridor, and now it had been set free. A clanging, 'boing' sounded off as the crude rusty hastily fashioned blade lurched for the kneecaps of the faceless ones.
Without missing a beat, the monster dodged the blade as if a swinging blade had been a part of every hallway the creature had ever walked through. Seeing it happen would have been the only way to believe a creature this cumbersome and ugly could ever make a move that graceful.
Gwarg smirked. The sound of a second clanging "boing reverberated right behind the creature followed by the audible 'whoosh' steel makes when passing through the air at intense speeds. The creatures charge started to slow as it began to turn towards the 'whooshing' noise.
"Big mistake," Gwarg said as his smirk grew into a full-blown smile.
As the creature completed its turn, it was met with another crude steel blade. This blade had been leased once the first blade finished it's swinging motion cutting a second rope that held into place this blades spring.
The blade hit its mark. Although, it was not quite dead center like the orc had planned. The blade slammed into the faceless one from the top down. It hit the shoulder all the way down and through the lower abdomen, and sent the creature down on its back with a hard 'thud.' As it fell parts of the monster’s insides peeled off the blade falling onto the creature and where it fell. The smell of the creatures rotten and acrid insides penetrated the air around the warrior, where he was both disgusted by and reveled in it.
The faceless one, however, was not yet dead, and turned itself on its belly. Its viscous dark blood flowing on the brick tiled floor underneath. The monster stressed greatly to raise its head and arm up aiming it at Gwarg, cursing him in its broken and wretched tongue.
"Tell whatever god you see at the end of your miserable existence," Gwarg said towards the creature bring his axe up above his head; "that Gwarg's axe sent you there."
As the warrior began to place his strength in the swing, the dying squid faced beast spat one last curse, and a shadow fired up out of the creatures tentacled arm. Summoning all of his speed, Gwarg rotated his body as fast as he could, dodging the bolt of shadow fired at him. However, in the process the weight of the axe in the awkward position he turned to cause the warrior to fall to his backside.
"Uhhff," the orc grunted.
He sprang back up expecting to have a fight in his hands. His axe had spun away from him about 10 feet. Gwarg ran to it tumbling over it to pick it up without losing motion. As he rotated his body with his axe in hand, placing it in a defensive stance at his waist line, it added to his center of gravity, giving him the opportunity to spin around in a skidding motion. When his eyes focused back on the monster, he realized it had used its last bit of energy to try and land a magical strike to the orc. The vile thing lay there lifeless and almost completely severed in two.
"And here I thought I would get to land the fatal blow." Gwarg said frustratingly to himself.
The orc warrior shrugged his shoulders and clanked his axe back into place on his back.
"We got him Grin!" Gwarg shouted raising his arms up allowing himself a small sense of victory.
Turning his head to where he had placed the orb above the entryway, Gwarg's jaw could only drop as he stared at the orb with no glow and a small 'y’ shaped crack in it just off center.
Epilogue.
Gwarg shouldered the door to Grin's cabin open.
"Grin I'm here" the brawny orc said loudly.
The orc laid his pack on the floor and walked through the door way.
Today the orc looked clean. On his trip back from Northrend Gwarg had decided to trade most of the faceless one's body to a rather dubious looking warlock he met outside of Warsong Hold for a bit of extra gold. He had used the extra coin he had acquired to get himself a fresh change of clothes and a night at the inn. Once his zeppelin had landed back in Ogrimmar he stored his armor at the bank only taking with him a small axe, and a thicker bag to place the spoils of his kill in.
"Hey you here!" Gwarg blurted again.
He looked around the main room of the cabin guessing the forsaken shadow priest was out collecting mushrooms or whatever it is the undead do in their spare time.
"Guess I'll take a look around." the orc said under his breath.
He first moved to the back of the cabin, checking the back window to see for signs the cabin's owner was present.
Gwarg began to joke to himself "Maybe he sleeps during the day in a coffin, and fights crime by night."
Beginning to traverse back to the front of the cabin, Gwarg though he would go check the basement where he knew grim set up shop for their little operation. Making his way to the side of the cabin he found the stairs leading to the basement.
"If you're down here," Gwarg continued "tell me you at least got to where the blade cut that fowl monster in . . . two."
Gwarg's shoulders slumped forward and he let loose a heavy sigh. There Grin laid his face completely gone, and only skull remained. It looked so out of place too, the rest of his body had the normal spots of twisted flesh and bone that could be found on any forsaken. But Grin's face was just bone, his hair was even gone. The twisted ugly creatures final attack had hit Grin’s scrying orb, and rather than just break the orb transmitting his actions, the magic ball transmitted the spell the faceless one cast back onto Grin himself.
"The scrying orb," Gwarg thought. He dashed over to the alter across from Grin’s corpse; there had used his scrying orb to chronicle the images of his kill.
"Replaui," Gwarg said out loud holding the orb.
The images on the ball started with Gwarg nodding to the orb. The warrior watched the ball for the next 10 minutes, letting it show him his entire feat in astounding clarity. When the orb finished displaying its contents Gwarg smiled and returned his attention back to Grin's lifeless corpse his expression changing to that of grim resolve. Moving to the cabin's back yard, the warrior checked the shed he found for a shovel and started digging. An hour later he patted the last of the dirt on top of the mound. Breaking the shovel off from most of the stick Gwarg pulled out his axe and etched "Grin 36 ABP" and slammed it at the head of his grave.
“Thank you for your help Grin.” Gwarg said in a low sorrowful tone.
The warrior continued, “If it wasn’t for your fear ward enchantment you placed on my helmet, and your abilities with a scrying orb. . .” Gwarg thought for a second and spoke again “Well none of this would be possible.”
He finished saying his goodbyes and wishing his fallen comrade well, and left the cabin, where the forsaken shadow priest he might have one day called friend, rested.
His day was almost over and the warrior still had one more stop to make. The guild hall for The Grim was not too far away from Grin's cabin, and by the time he got here it would be Gwarg's usual late-night time where most of the guild had gone home, gone to sleep, or found a job elsewhere. Gwarg made his way to Syreena's desk, and arranged the spoils of his trial there. Taking care in arranging their display the orc mercenary warrior took a second to enjoy the moment. He first placed the skull of the faceless one upside down so its bowl-ish shape would cradle the scrying orb. Next, he placed the the orb inside the skull watching it rock back and forth gently before it settled. Finally, he laid the last 2 feet of the faceless one's tentacled arm around the skull, it served no purpose, but he had the feeling Syreena would appreciate the garnish to the final piece of his Grim application.
Gwarg stretched out his arms,and took in a deep breath of midnight air and then slammed his hands together making a loud boisterous clap and spoke, "Now what kind of trouble can I cause."
"Shadow priest, shadow priest, where do I find a shadow priest?"
Gwarg grumbled to himself as he treaded carelessly through the graveyard.
"HEY ANYBODY OUT HERE A SHADOW PRIEST!!!"
Gwarg blurted out in frustration.
A long quiet pause fell on the damp, fetid, cool air. It had been a day since the orc had arrived in Forsaken territory. Rather than rent a room at the inn in Brill or the Undercity, Gwarg decided to set up camp in the forested area between the two undead settlements. Avoiding both cost and the persistent smell of undead flesh; plus, the chance to see if any of the forsaken fishing grounds have anything other than rotten zombie fish was appealing to the warrior. So, after some sleep and time spent fruitlessly casting his hook, Gwarg began to look for the undead character he was told of while scouting information a week ago at The Broken Tusk, in Ogrimmar.
Picking up his stride once more Gwarg began to grumble again to himself.
"Join a guild, make some friends, have a couple laughs . . . yeah right. I mean, I don't mind killing Alliance, it can even be kinda fun, but this whole 'oh hey you know that thing you're scared of. . . go kill it just because.
The green skinned warrior kicked a broken rib-cage lying in the grassy mud into a few more pieces. "
Uhg, and now you're here bitching to yourself like a Night Elf in a forest fire" he muttered slumping his shoulders.
The air grew quiet again as Gwarg came to a stop and looked at how muddy his feet, and even his armor had become.
"What the hell am I doing here" he exhaled his exasperation through his nostrils.
"Hello" a low gravelly voice beckoned in the shadows.
The armor-clad orc jumped back and readied one of his axes and placed it between him and the shadow cloaked figure in the woods.
"SHOW YOURSELF!" Gwarg barked with tightened muscles ready to spring.
"Calm down." the male voice replied with a note of irritation in his inflection.
"You have got to be the loudest orc I have ever heard, granted, I guess I haven't heard to many orcs shout at me in the middle of the night."
Gwarg took a few seconds to glare into the shadows, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness hoping to catch a glimpse of the figure hiding there.
"I said show yourself, or the volume of my voice will be the least of your worries."
Choking up on the hilt of the axe Gwarg pointed it at the darkness while simultaneously reaching for the other axe strapped to his back.
"Warrior," the voice shifted to a grimmer and directed tone; "you are literally in my neck of the woods, shouting at the top of your lungs for a shadow priest, and when one shows up you threaten him with violence?"
"Wait, what?"
The candid response to the orc's threat took him by surprise.
"So, you are a shadow priest?" Gwarg sharply responded.
"I'm going to be gone, if you don't put down your weapon" the sandpaper like voice responded, but with this time a hit of boredom in it.
Gwarg lowered the weapon down to his side still clenching it, and using his wrist to angle the heavy bladed object slightly upwards. His other hand began to clench the hilt of the other axe strapped to his back.
"Make you a deal, voice in the shadows" Gwarg said speaking slowly, and with a obvious mocking tone. "I'll stow the weapons away completely if you'll show your face" Gwarg said letting the statement hang in the air while he awaited a response.
"Very well," the voice said suddenly.
Gwarg shot upright as a quick cool breeze hit him intensely on his cheek, as if something had moved right next to him. A smell hit the orcs nose less than a second after he felt the wind. The smell of rotten mushrooms and damp flesh made the orc almost wretch. "Did that voice just throw a stinky dagger," Gwarg thought to himself.
A impulse thought of whipping his body around while loosening his second axe occurred to him, right before he decided against it, remembering he was in Forsaken territory and on wet nights, like tonight, they could smell particularly awful. Gwarg turned around slowly. There, directly behind the orc, a ghoulish, particularly tall, forsaken male stood. Adorned in a black and red robe with a cloak and mantle draped over his side. The undead man stood, still as stone with eyes gleaming a soft yellow light. As the visage of the ghoul started to come into focus, Gwarg could see he had no nose, and his skin was pale with a soft, cool blue tint to it. A crack of lightning light up the sky, and for a brief moment the entirety of the Forsaken's features were made clear. The horrific image of a being, once human, stood before the warrior. He had an unusually full head of hair for a creature whose other features looked tattered on torn. Even with his hair matted down outlining a grizzly macabre face. Again, the lightning cracked in the distance showing Gwarg the Forsaken had no lips either, with skin coming down around the jaws, torn off halfway up the cheeks, giving this shadow creature the appearance of a soft gruesome smile.
"My name is Grin," the Forsaken said with a slight bowing nod motion, "and if you're looking for a shadow priest, you've found one."
"Grin huh," Gwarg repeated nonplussed, "is that some sort of morbid joke?"
Grin tilted his head, and Gwarg realized he wouldn't be able to tell if the ghoul in front of him was smiling or not, even though he got the distinct feeling he was.
"When you live life as a zombie," the low gravelly voice said in a clear, but almost delicate tone, "most things usually are."
Gwarg rolled his eyes.
The orc then let the moment pass as he fixed his gaze on Grin, he stepped forward and asked, "How'd you like to make a little bit of gold?"
PART 2
A loud thud echoed through the cavernous hallway.
"I hope this works" Gwarg muttered
The orc then proceeded to move at a jogger’s pace, letting the sound of his footsteps bounce off the walls behind him, and the caverns in the distance. It felt like months had passed, but in reality, it was only a week and a half since he had departing the Undercity. Stopping there only briefly after making a bargain with the shadow priest Grin. He had spent only a few hours in the Capitol of the undead. There he had picked up some supplies for his journey. A few tools for cave diving, along with some rope, iron hooks, and other various instruments. Gwarg wished he had thought to bother the goblins in Ogrimmar before he set out on his mission for The Grim, but what he found at the Undercity would be more than adequate.
Gwarg continued to move through the hallways of the the old kingdom, a place where spider like beings once roamed before and after their service to the Lich King. However, today he was not seeking spider beings to pick a fight with, his quarrel was going to be with something much more sinister.
"Why does time never move fast when you want it to?" the orc frustratingly pondered to himself as he moved down the hall closer to the staircase.
It had been a long time since his campaign in Northrend, and the former guild leader found himself reminiscing about his time with people he considered to be his friends. The instance where he picked up the guild's lead mage, the Blood Elf, Maijre, tossing him a good 10 feet in the air allowing the spell caster to freeze in place a line of Nerubian reinforcements; allowing the rest of the group to shatter their frozen carcasses as they moved through the cavernous sprawl of ruins.
One by one the memories came flooding back, as the warrior made his way through the hallway fastening the ends of rope to the iron staples he had produced. Allowing his mind to spend time back in those days, with his guild, his War Torn, had brought a smile to his face.
Gwarg slammed a blacksmith hammer hard on another staple pushing it up tightly against the rope.
"Two more should do it," the orc grunted.
"In all honesty, I'm surprised you haven't been discovered yet; your clanging is loud enough to wake the dead." Grin's voice echoed out of Gwarg's pack.
"You'd know" Gwarg said with a smirk.
"Oh, ha ha," Grin's voice sounded even more hallow from the reverb effect in the scrying orb the two were using to communicate.
Starting his pace up again the lone orc moved another twenty feet down the hall. When he reached his mark, Gwarg reached down and placed another iron staple against the wall close to the floor. Propping it up with his foot and placing the thick brown rope between the staple and the wall, the brawny green warrior reached back with his blacksmith's hammer once more, and then slammed it in to the staple this time pushing it right up against the rope with one swing.
Now in a hurry to be done the orc made another grunting statement, "Last one," he said.
"So, why is joining this guild so important to you; you'd pay a decent chunk of gold to possibly get yourself killed," Grin's scrying ball echoed once more.
Gwarg retorted quickly, "You want to talk about this now?"
"Well it's not like I'm doing much else, and since there is no telling how long this is going to take, we might as well pass the time," Grin said.
The orc's response was quick with a defensive tone, "Do you always question the people you do business with in such a manner?"
The shadow priest replied, "... eh, I'm bored." Grin continued on, "Plus, how often does one meet an orc who can hold a conversation.
"Ha," Gwarg blurted out his amusement, "You ever think most orcs just hate your conversations."
Silence fell on between the two as the orc banged in to place the last staple. The orc stood up and wiped the sweat from his brow. Setting his pack on the ground, Gwarg reached into the bag pulling out a canteen of water allowing the faint glow from the scrying crystal to emit a faint glow.
"Aww did I hurt the zombie's feelings" Gwarg said chuckling.
Grin Snapped back "Don't me that!"
Finishing the last of the water in the canteen Gwarg raised his hands up in a light-hearted gesture.
"I didn't mean to strike a chord Grin," Gwarg said plainly.
The hollow echoing came again from the orb ing Gwarg's bag.
Grin made and audible sigh; "I suppose I should. . ."
Gwarg interrupted the shadow priest in a quick whisper.
"Sh, shut up, we'll talk later. . . something's coming." Gwarg said turning his gaze away from the orb.
"I've set up everything but your orb and if everything goes off before . . ." Gwarg said stopping half way through his thought.
Securing the scrying orb inside his pack and hefting it over his shoulder, Gwarg began to sprint down the hallway he had been working in for the past few hours.
"What, Gwarg, what's coming?" Grin's muffled voice said in a half whisper.
"Shh, if you alert it to my presence I may not get another chance at this." Gwarg whispered again.
Grin responded in a soft yet clear whisper through the orb's echo, "Got it, I'll be ready" he said.
Approaching the entry to the hallway the orc climbed up above the ridge overlooking the entrance. Once above the entrance and hunched over balancing himself on the ledge, Gwarg pulled out the faintly glowing yellow orb he had been using to speak with Grin for the past week since he struck a deal with the undead and left his company.
"How's the view?" Gwarg whispered to the orb.
Grin replied still whispering, "This is a good spot, but I can't see the back end of the corridor to well, it's very dark."
"That should be fine," the warrior responded as he placed the orb carefully on the ledge.
Reaching back into his bag Gwarg pulled out a steel hook that looped downward into a half conical rack.
"Can you still see ok?" Gwarg said placing the ball on the hooked rack.
"Yes, yes," Grin said, "everything is still fine."
"Ok,"Gwarg continued to whisper at the orb, "when you hear my signal. . ."
Cutting off the warrior Grin pitched in ". . . That's when I'll begin, my part is easy, you on the other hand have a faceless one to slay"
Gwarg let the thought sink in. This task alone was going to be tough, but making sure the images of the action were recorded for later viewing added a level of complexity to the situation, Gwarg would rather not deal with.
The orc jumped down off the ledge where he had left the orb on the hook, landing next to his helmet and axes.
“I really hope this fear ward enchantment works.” Gwarg said still speaking under his breath.
Grin’s reply was still echoed but was much softer, “You still need to be careful that’s a new thing I haven’t had the time to properly test.”
Gwarg sighed. After placing his helmet on his head Gwarg clanked his axes into place on his back. Fully armored and standing firm Gwarg stood in place glaring down the hall where the shuffling thuds became more and more audible. Gwarg sighed trying to push the fear out of his head.
"What I do today I do for The Grim," Gwarg said just loud enough for Grin to hear through the Orb
The orc warrior stood as tall and straight as he could, pointing his axe at the orb, "Today a Faceless One found in the ruins of Ahn'kahet, the Old Kingdom, will know fear does not dictate action." he said.
Gwarg turned back to face the hallway securing his axe to his back, the sound of heavy cumbersome footsteps came out of the distance, and there he waited.
Part 3
The thick coarse rope felt hard in Gwarg's hands. Even through the leather padding in his gauntlets holding the rope somehow felt uncomfortable. Trying to blow out his frustration at his case of nerves through his nostrils, the orc took the slack of the rope and wrapped it around his hand.
"If I'm going to do this I need to do it now," Gwarg thought to himself.
The warrior started to recite the mantra his father had taught him long ago to deal with fear. First once in his head and a second time out loud.
"May my axe honor the Horde, may my actions honor my ancestors, and may my enemy remember my name." The orc's voice rose to a low roar, "Come get your throat cut monster!"
His insult was supposed to be the cue, but just to be certain he turned to the orb and gave it a nod.
"Your god hides in a shadowed hole, like a whelp whimpering in fear!" Gwarg's threat echoed in the distance.
"The days you walk this earth are numbered, and your kind is no different from the gunk I pick from my boot."
The orc continued to bellow his threats at the top of his lungs, "Come, face me vile demon so that I may use your skull to decorate my mantle."
The sounds of footsteps still shuffled towards Gwarg, the pace, however, began to speed up.
"Come on puke stain, move your rotten purple snot carcass down here!" Gwarg shouted.
The warrior's hand tightened a little bit more around the rope. He pressed his body against the wall as close as he could and continued his verbal assault. "Were you spawned by fish scat and squid mucus?" He shouted.
"You know what, I changed my mind, stay down there," Gwarg continued, "Your smell is so bad it could gag a maggot!"
The pace of the creature became hastier, and Gwarg could make out the shadow of the being cast on the floor. The warrior grits his teeth in anticipation.
"Once I pull this rope there's no turning back," he thought.
Gwarg gripped the rope with all his strength, knowing that one way or another his life was seconds away from making a significant change.
"If I live to see it," Gwarg muttered.
The creatures silhouette came into view. First its outline, humanoid with snake like appendages and a stubby head with no neck. Gwarg could see it's outline twist and writhe. Next the features of the creature became visible; the head a bulb like protrusion from the body with three tentacles protruding downward, with webbing connecting the upper portions of the tentacles. The creatures skin was scaly and glistening with a purple hue. All of the monstrosities appendages would curl and uncurl, making a slapping, wet, sticky noise.
The deformed abomination of life wasn't running, it wasn't even jogging, not really. The thing was moving more at a brisk walking pace, but the size of the creature and the length of its stride allowed it to cover ground quickly. The shadow thing was almost in place. Gwarg stepped out from his own shadow cast on the wall with the rope in hand, it's slack resting on the floor.
"Here I am vomit fiend," the orc warrior said standing tall and trying to sound much more confident then he currently felt.
Gwarg continued his blustering "I've come bringing retribution for comrades felled by your kind."
The faceless one tilted its head, as if pondering the warrior's statement. The orc took the moment of inaction to draw three ez thro dynamite from his side pouch. He knew they would do little damage to the thick-skinned squid faced thing in front of him, but he'd be damned if it didn't at least infuriate the hell out of every enemy Gwarg had ever had the foresight to use it against.
The faceless one narrowed its eyes and turned its head downward.
"He knows what's coming," Gwarg thought, "or at least he thinks he does."
"I'm gonna blow your stupid squid face from here to oblivion!" Gwarg roared with all the ferociousness he could muster.
The eldritch squid monster mid mouth tentacle started to undulate up and down, twisting and contorting as an unintelligible sound fell out of its mouth. Next, its arms rose and spun in a writhing and wriggling motion that looked painful to just watch. The spitting, garbled, bubble like speech of the faceless one grew louder. Gwarg blurted loudly interrupting the monsters incoherent babble; "DIE BARF FOR BRAINS!" The being raised what would be an eye brow in irritation. Biting the modified fuse caps Gwarg pulled his head back quickly lighting all three sticks of dynamite. "Thank you engineers," taking his time to think waiting for just the right moment before tossing all three sticks right at the creatures still wiggling face. The dynamite exploded in succession BLAM! BLA-BLAMMM! Three bright orange lights flashed up directly in front of the faceless one. As the smoke rose from the detonation, the warrior shot his neck backwards towards the scrying orb he had mounted just minutes earlier. First, he held up a shushing motion, placing his finger to his mouth, "be ready" he mouthed at the orb silently. Snapping his head back around towards the explosion just in time to see the tentacled, fish skinned, aberration charge through the smoke. If the creature’s roar was some kind of battle cry, Gwarg had no idea what it meant. It was loud though, and rage sounds similar no matter what language you speak. The warrior almost acted too quickly, controlling himself in the nick of time, Gwarg took a step back, now tightening all the slack in the rope. The faceless one's pace was picking up speed, and its shoulders had dropped.
"He's in a full out charge." Gwarg thought to himself.
The fish beasts rage filled roar started again, as if to signal a surge in speed and power. Gwarg eyed his foe carefully, using his free hand to ready an axe. Calming himself, Gwarg exhaled, "Ancestors be with me," the warrior said in a quiet and respectful tone.
"NOW!" Gwarg shouted as he sprang into action.
First pulling the rope he had been clenching in his hand, on what felt like an eternity. The rope slid out of bracket after bracket that Gwarg had spent all morning fastening to the brick corridor. As the rope pulled out of its holding brackets, so too did the large brick the rope was attached too. The brick held a spring-loaded blade fastened to the side of the brick corridor, and now it had been set free. A clanging, 'boing' sounded off as the crude rusty hastily fashioned blade lurched for the kneecaps of the faceless ones.
Without missing a beat, the monster dodged the blade as if a swinging blade had been a part of every hallway the creature had ever walked through. Seeing it happen would have been the only way to believe a creature this cumbersome and ugly could ever make a move that graceful.
Gwarg smirked. The sound of a second clanging "boing reverberated right behind the creature followed by the audible 'whoosh' steel makes when passing through the air at intense speeds. The creatures charge started to slow as it began to turn towards the 'whooshing' noise.
"Big mistake," Gwarg said as his smirk grew into a full-blown smile.
As the creature completed its turn, it was met with another crude steel blade. This blade had been leased once the first blade finished it's swinging motion cutting a second rope that held into place this blades spring.
The blade hit its mark. Although, it was not quite dead center like the orc had planned. The blade slammed into the faceless one from the top down. It hit the shoulder all the way down and through the lower abdomen, and sent the creature down on its back with a hard 'thud.' As it fell parts of the monster’s insides peeled off the blade falling onto the creature and where it fell. The smell of the creatures rotten and acrid insides penetrated the air around the warrior, where he was both disgusted by and reveled in it.
The faceless one, however, was not yet dead, and turned itself on its belly. Its viscous dark blood flowing on the brick tiled floor underneath. The monster stressed greatly to raise its head and arm up aiming it at Gwarg, cursing him in its broken and wretched tongue.
"Tell whatever god you see at the end of your miserable existence," Gwarg said towards the creature bring his axe up above his head; "that Gwarg's axe sent you there."
As the warrior began to place his strength in the swing, the dying squid faced beast spat one last curse, and a shadow fired up out of the creatures tentacled arm. Summoning all of his speed, Gwarg rotated his body as fast as he could, dodging the bolt of shadow fired at him. However, in the process the weight of the axe in the awkward position he turned to cause the warrior to fall to his backside.
"Uhhff," the orc grunted.
He sprang back up expecting to have a fight in his hands. His axe had spun away from him about 10 feet. Gwarg ran to it tumbling over it to pick it up without losing motion. As he rotated his body with his axe in hand, placing it in a defensive stance at his waist line, it added to his center of gravity, giving him the opportunity to spin around in a skidding motion. When his eyes focused back on the monster, he realized it had used its last bit of energy to try and land a magical strike to the orc. The vile thing lay there lifeless and almost completely severed in two.
"And here I thought I would get to land the fatal blow." Gwarg said frustratingly to himself.
The orc warrior shrugged his shoulders and clanked his axe back into place on his back.
"We got him Grin!" Gwarg shouted raising his arms up allowing himself a small sense of victory.
Turning his head to where he had placed the orb above the entryway, Gwarg's jaw could only drop as he stared at the orb with no glow and a small 'y’ shaped crack in it just off center.
Epilogue.
Gwarg shouldered the door to Grin's cabin open.
"Grin I'm here" the brawny orc said loudly.
The orc laid his pack on the floor and walked through the door way.
Today the orc looked clean. On his trip back from Northrend Gwarg had decided to trade most of the faceless one's body to a rather dubious looking warlock he met outside of Warsong Hold for a bit of extra gold. He had used the extra coin he had acquired to get himself a fresh change of clothes and a night at the inn. Once his zeppelin had landed back in Ogrimmar he stored his armor at the bank only taking with him a small axe, and a thicker bag to place the spoils of his kill in.
"Hey you here!" Gwarg blurted again.
He looked around the main room of the cabin guessing the forsaken shadow priest was out collecting mushrooms or whatever it is the undead do in their spare time.
"Guess I'll take a look around." the orc said under his breath.
He first moved to the back of the cabin, checking the back window to see for signs the cabin's owner was present.
Gwarg began to joke to himself "Maybe he sleeps during the day in a coffin, and fights crime by night."
Beginning to traverse back to the front of the cabin, Gwarg though he would go check the basement where he knew grim set up shop for their little operation. Making his way to the side of the cabin he found the stairs leading to the basement.
"If you're down here," Gwarg continued "tell me you at least got to where the blade cut that fowl monster in . . . two."
Gwarg's shoulders slumped forward and he let loose a heavy sigh. There Grin laid his face completely gone, and only skull remained. It looked so out of place too, the rest of his body had the normal spots of twisted flesh and bone that could be found on any forsaken. But Grin's face was just bone, his hair was even gone. The twisted ugly creatures final attack had hit Grin’s scrying orb, and rather than just break the orb transmitting his actions, the magic ball transmitted the spell the faceless one cast back onto Grin himself.
"The scrying orb," Gwarg thought. He dashed over to the alter across from Grin’s corpse; there had used his scrying orb to chronicle the images of his kill.
"Replaui," Gwarg said out loud holding the orb.
The images on the ball started with Gwarg nodding to the orb. The warrior watched the ball for the next 10 minutes, letting it show him his entire feat in astounding clarity. When the orb finished displaying its contents Gwarg smiled and returned his attention back to Grin's lifeless corpse his expression changing to that of grim resolve. Moving to the cabin's back yard, the warrior checked the shed he found for a shovel and started digging. An hour later he patted the last of the dirt on top of the mound. Breaking the shovel off from most of the stick Gwarg pulled out his axe and etched "Grin 36 ABP" and slammed it at the head of his grave.
“Thank you for your help Grin.” Gwarg said in a low sorrowful tone.
The warrior continued, “If it wasn’t for your fear ward enchantment you placed on my helmet, and your abilities with a scrying orb. . .” Gwarg thought for a second and spoke again “Well none of this would be possible.”
He finished saying his goodbyes and wishing his fallen comrade well, and left the cabin, where the forsaken shadow priest he might have one day called friend, rested.
His day was almost over and the warrior still had one more stop to make. The guild hall for The Grim was not too far away from Grin's cabin, and by the time he got here it would be Gwarg's usual late-night time where most of the guild had gone home, gone to sleep, or found a job elsewhere. Gwarg made his way to Syreena's desk, and arranged the spoils of his trial there. Taking care in arranging their display the orc mercenary warrior took a second to enjoy the moment. He first placed the skull of the faceless one upside down so its bowl-ish shape would cradle the scrying orb. Next, he placed the the orb inside the skull watching it rock back and forth gently before it settled. Finally, he laid the last 2 feet of the faceless one's tentacled arm around the skull, it served no purpose, but he had the feeling Syreena would appreciate the garnish to the final piece of his Grim application.
Gwarg stretched out his arms,and took in a deep breath of midnight air and then slammed his hands together making a loud boisterous clap and spoke, "Now what kind of trouble can I cause."