Grim Views

[OOC]
I'd received a message or two from other members to indicate that they were interested in joining in and developing more about the recent events of Astranaar. To accomodate, the events in this post transcribed prior to the preemptive assault and provide a bit more detail should other interested parties wish to continue on the thread. Please get in touch with me before posting first, so that we can coordinate efforts to advance a story in a fun and fair manner. Thank you.

Characters present or involved:
Elanderik Que'tinasi
Illithiriel Que'tinasi
Unnamed Female Sin'dorei
Unnamed Orc
Unnamed Sin'dorei
Unnamed Pandaren
[/OOC]

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The Que'tinasi siblings sat at a table in hooded robes as they awaited their contact, a Sin'dorei woman whom they hadn't bothered to learn the name of. Elek drummed his fingers along the surface of the table as the already precarious time they had slowly trickled by like the falling sands of an hourglass. His sister seemed less phased by the idleness and kept her head tilted downwards to help hide the more tell-tale coloring of her largely white-hazed eyes. Sure, there was a green tint to them, but up close, they paled in comparison to your typical Blood Elf and could stand to prove an identifying sign.

Illithiriel sighed and huffed a groan, folding her arms as she looked up enough to cast a glare at her brother, "how reliable do you think this woman is?" Elek paused, his fingers stopping upon the top of the table as he thought it over. He didn't answer the question before their contact arrived.

Their contact wasn't anything particularly other than average at a glance. A trained eye might have revealed she'd some modest training in use of a sword, but her stance and the way she carried herself suggested that she didn't quite take to the profession and opted to pursue other ventures instead. She'd always had a head for numbers and could map out logistics routes and meshworks like one might as easily scribble the alphabet. If someone needed to get something from point A to point B, she fancied herself as one who would get it done and rival the prices of the goblins who offered similar. An orc and an elf flanked the woman as she'd entered but stayed off to the side to let her take the table where the siblings waited.

"Your package will arrive on time and should leave the city within the half hour. Given its urgency, I'll oversee its delivery personally," the woman explained as she settled into a seat opposite of Elek.

With a nod, Elek set a pair of pouches of cut gems upon the table. "Everything on the list", he started, pausing briefly to ensure he had the elf's attention once she looked back up from the pouches they'd set out, "will be available, then? No issues, no omissions?"

"None," she replied as she claimed the payments for the work, "everything as requested."

"Good, but one more thing," the hooded knight called back as he took up a scrap of parchment and a quill to write with. The note he wrote was short, but the letters seemed to be nothing to the woman aside from scribbles that looked familiar but were otherwise indecipherable. To Elek, it was a simple message in Kaldorei script:

Residents of Astranaar:

The Grim come tonight.

You know what this entails.

He folded the letter once the ink was dry and handed it over to the woman that sat across from him. "Deliver this as well, have it tacked upon the frame of the archway of the inn if you can, but deliver it to the guards directly otherwise," the elf insisted.

"I'll use a Pandaren courier," the elven woman replied, "they'll be least likely to be attacked outright. I will need to up the price due to the need of another hand, of course." Illithiriel tossed a small pouch of coins to join the gems on the table but otherwise said nothing. The woman's brow perked as she caught a glimpse of the other elf's eyes, a faint something about them causing a double-take but dismissed shortly after. Her fingers prodded at the pouch and plucked it up to feel the weight. Oddly enough, she trusted the coins to be gold.

"Any other business, then?"

Elek looked over to his sister for a moment, then back to the woman at the table. "No."

"Very well. Everything should be on its way shortly and will travel with as much haste as we can afford. We'll deliver to the location we first discussed, and the letter as you described."

[OOC]
Reposted from "A Small Note" to bring the thread here.

Characters present or involved:
Elanderik Que'tinasi
Illithiriel Que'tinasi
Kiryx Bright-Blaze
[/OOC]

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Two elven women prowled the shadows along the outskirts of Astranaar while a male clashed arms in the center of the town. The attention of the guards had been pulled, and with the eyes focused to the center, they missed the actions of the stealthy pair and the cat that accompanied them.

Illithiriel spoke first, a whisper as they neared, "I'll take left. You get right."

WIth a leap, Kiryx was upon the guard as an arrow sailed back and pierced the throat of the other. Kiryx followed her target to the ground, easing the body to the floor, "the shadow dance begins." A questioning call is head, one guard had heard a stirring and started to come near to investigate. "Mine," the Quel'dorei stated as she dipped back to the shadows. One by one the guards along the southern borders fell and they made their way along the shore of the coast, clockwise towards the largest building in the town.

Kiryx paused when they made to the back of the dockhouse and looked to the fiery-haired elven woman, her body adorned in blackened leathers that made not a sound as she moved. "Tell no one," she insisted, her eyes firm even toward the other woman.

Illithiriel looked back as she began to make their approach to the bridge and begin their assault. "Who would you think we'd tell?"

"You're right, I'm sorry," came the reply.

A twang of the Ranger's bow called out the death of the house's keeper. A few guards rushed in at a quick, cut-off cry, only to be brought down in a flourish of blade and well-aimed death. "Do you understand why we're here?" she asked, yanking one of her arrows free from a felled Kaldorei.

It seemed the simple answer, "no witnesses." Though it wasn't the right one.

"No, not that," the Que'tinasi sibling responded. "Rather, do you understand why we're here, instead of waiting for The Grim?"

The look of confusion was obvious enough. Shrugging her shoulders, Kiryx looked to her and shook her head, gesturing for her to explain. "Let's make sure we're on the same page," she insists while they rush the guards up to one of the two level inns. Once inside, the keeper and a few assistants prove to be of little consequence and no delay.

She'd only just about replied before raising a hand and gesturing for quiet. "Wait... there's a druid ahead," she informs her counterpart, flashing a bit of sign as she peers around for a view. Wings fluttering, it took nearly a minute before the enemy landed, the pair of elves remaining as hidden as possible until he set feet to the ground and reverted to his elven form. Illithiriel's shot sent him into a stagger as her cat leapt for a pounce. Daze and surprized, he hardly had the focus to spare to fend off Kiryx's ambush as well. A few shots, a bit of singing steel, and down to the ground in death he fell.

The hunter looked to the Quel'dorei and flashed a wry little smirk. "Tell me your theory, then."

This time, her answer came a bit more elaborate, "no one wants to wade into a blood pool simply to murder children. If you hit the enemy first, you can avoid the conflict."

However, the hunter still shook her head. "You think we're here to spare them? We're not. Their fates have already been sealed," she explains, pausing as her nose twitches at catch of another scent in the air. "Another druid, he's near. I can smell his scent... above us." This one proved even less experienced and fell much more quickly.

"Then tell me."

"These lot were destined to die when Syreena gave her mission, regardless of Xaraphyne's decision. We're here for her," she tells her, "not to do the job for her, but because they deserve a cleaner death than is coming. Atticus will butcher these lot, and one way or another, I know the coming days will haunt her for a long, long time. This is preferable to what is in store, and the least we can do for a friend no matter how much we may all disagree on things." She delays again, squinting as the hunter looks towards a fleeing citizen, an arrow soon sailing out to intercept, "and I would very much like a clean death in return whenever my time is up some day."

The dance of shadows and death continued on as the bodies began to mount. Panic started to erupt as the besieged started to realize they seemed to be surrounded. Forcing their way into a smaller home as they worked to the center, Illithiriel spoke again while Kiryx leaned against a wall and wiped the blood from her blades against her thigh, "not many buildings left. Though... have you noticed? There's no children here."

"I did wonder about that," the rogue remarked.

"Only soldiers, some civilian logistics, and siege weapons. The intel was wrong."

"I wonder if that was intentional."

The hunter looked down at their latest victim, rummaging through his belongings to see who he was. "Who was it that made the initial reports?"

"I'm not sure."

Plucking several items to scrutinize more closely, Illithiriel shook her head. "A trap you think? You know neither Xaraphyne or Fhenrir are... stealthy."

Kiryx responded with a nod and the two pushed forth fromt he cover of the cleared building, bolting across the field to the next. "I am aware. Probably a test of mettle, more like," she called out in their rush.

Bow in hand, the hunter kicked a door from its hinges and drew a bead on an older Kaldorei. She didn't even give him a chance to speak, to protest... just a look of shock and surprise before an arrow pierced his heart. As he fell, the two elves noticed another on a bed not far behind. "This one's still asleep. Young for an elf, but doesn't look to be a child," she'd gone on to say. Kiryx came forth for a closer look in turn, admitting that she were likely not. "Well, let's be done with it. Shall you or shall I?"

Kiryx shook her head, "I care little for semantics."

With that, the hunter began to set a fire trap on a timer, brandishing it with a mix of her skills as a Ranger and some crafty engineering. "Fine; she's yours." The fire engulfed the house shortly after they left and a glance towards the center of town showed Elek setting torch to the others. There was a brief swipe of steel and a flash of red that sent the Kaldorei girl into a sleep she'd not awaken from.

"Sae?"

"Yes?"

For whatever reason, Kiryx declined to explain her wonder. "Nothing, let's move."

"Tell me later?"

"I will."

The exit of the town was largely uneventful, save a pair of Draenei who had come to investigate the reports of the attack. The both of them, a male and female, died to single shots fired from the hunter's bow. No challenge, no sport... just an emotionless look and a pair of arrows left in the chest of one and the back of the other. The elves turned to look back at the flames and paused upon a hill.

Kiryx broke the quiet that had followed, "a quick death is often a kindness."

Elek's voice rang out on the channel of their stone, asking the two to check in and say whether they'd cleared the town and made their escape. They both replied that they had. Turning her head to face the Quel'dorei woman, Elek's sister only gave a nod, "kinder than they'd get if we didn't."

It starts as whispers and rumors as uncertain reports begin to trickle in about some sort of 'event' that has ocurred at Astranaar. Mentions of an attack and casualties, of bodies in the streets and buildings being feasted upon by scavengers of the wilds.

The first responders and spies give mention that the streets are awash in blood and fires rage across the town. Astranaar, as everyone in the Horde had known, had been fortified as an Alliance staging point since the onset of the Cataclysm. The numerous siege weapons, so close to the Horde capital, burn in piles of rubble and the area around the vale is deathly silent.

[OOC]
Characters present or involved:
Elanderik Que'tinasi
Illithiriel Que'tinasi
Kiryx Bright-Blaze
Unnamed Female Sindorei
Unnamed Female Pandaren
[/OOC]

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It was her own curiosity that had gotten the better of her, a wretched wonder as to what her mysterious employers were up to and why they'd requested the items they had. Arms and armor deliveries were not uncommon in her line of work, but the specifics on them being non-descript and not to be bearing any insignia didn't quite catch her wonder as much as how the elven male who'd hired her didn't care so much about their quality. "They need only last one day," he had told her.

Even more curious, though, were the barrels of pitch and torches in the request as well. They were aiming to cause some trouble, surely, but the delivery location in proximity to Astranaar didn't let her simply shrug her shoulders and let it idly slide on by.

The delivery had been simple enough and she'd been able to cut through Horde-controlled lines to avoid the roads and patrols. The distance outside the outpost wasn't at all difficult to get to, but it was the courier's task that troubled her the most. Pandaren often proved to be eager, quick studies when it came to learning, and languages seemed to be almost a knack. At least, to the ones she knew, though she didn't know enough of them to say for sure if the same applied to the rest as a whole.

Atop a hill, she watched her courier through a spyglass as the pandaren woman entered Astranaar. There was some questioning by the bridge guards, but a satchel full of faux mail and a gesture to the box near the inn ultimately earned a dismissing wave and a disappointed sigh from the guards. Once the pandaren reached her assigned destination, she rummaged through the pack for the folded note and tacked it to the frame near the entrance, then slipped a few of the empty envelopes into the box before striding back out the way she came.

"Good, our work is done here," the Sin'dorei woman whispered to herself amid a sigh, sliding down the hill in a half-crawl. Yet still she couldn't simply leave. She had to know, absolutely needed to know what this were all about. A commotion at the outpost summoned her back atop the hill and again she peered through her glass to watch. It seems whatever the note had written upon it had caused a stirr, and more people gathered by the minute to discuss whatever it were it had brought up. Astranaar was a flurry of activity there and then, some people even scrambling about in a rush.

When she started noticing families flee the town, their children in tow, she really found that her inability to leave had only become much, much worse. Several hours passed like this, her boredom never reaching her as she could feel the thickness of the anxiety of the elves that remained at the outpost. A new commotion renewed her attention, and through her glass she'd seen a figure of a male adorned in the arms and armor she'd been sent to deliver. A fire raged from a building and burned in the street.

She couldn't help but watch in a state of awe while she watched him fight. With a sword and shield in either hand, he fought them several at a time. She'd heard of Blood Knights who could fight a group at once and hold them at bay, but never had she actually seen it for herself. Whoever he was, he'd made his trade almost out to be an art form. In fact, it was more luck than anything that she'd noticed the movement of two other elves along the outskirts of the lakes surrounding Astranaar. Stealthy and to the shadows with a cat in their company, the two females took down guards and civilians alike in a patrol around the outskirts before slowly moving inward.

The woman watched in marvel until the motion in the outpost had come to a stop and the fires were all she could see aside from the smoke. Now, she knew, it was time to leave.