Addikus’s Second Challenge: Dangerous Company

The stories and lives of the Grim. ((Roleplaying Stories and In Character Interactions))
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Atticus
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Addikus’s Second Challenge: Dangerous Company

Unread post by Atticus »

A new hue smeared into the stains already coloring Addikus’s fingertips as he wrote. The ink was midnight dark and it spread over red and green clouds – the blood of delicate flowers drawn into the cold skin. Addikus set the pen down and looked at this coloring. His right hand was decorated by herbs of healing and vitality; his left hand, colored by substances of death and disease.

His wedding ring shone on his left ring finger.

Addikus looked from his hands back to the page, where he had made notes about five Grim. It had taken some degree of concentration, considering that Addikus was so unaccustomed to writing, but he was fairly confident that he had managed to get the words right. Though his speech was usually colored by the low patterns of peasantry and labor – he could speak properly if needed. So it was with his writing.

He read his notes.

Khorvis
Covered in scars both old and fresh. Graying. Drinks swill that ought to dissolve his insides. Has served under four warchiefs. Was a Kor’kron for a time. Blackrock heritage, mildly distressing. Enslaved by the Alliance and forced to work in their mines until liberated by Doomhammer and Thrall. Introduced to The Grim by Tuskinar. Believed The Horde grew fat and lazy under Thrall’s command. Sickened over Garrosh’s use of arcane powers to destroy Theramore; the thoughtless waste of Orc life it caused.

Khorvis embodies what it means to be an Orc. What it means to be a member of The Horde. He has suffered the taint of demon’s blood. He has been enslaved by the Alliance and liberated by the warchief. He is a proud man, and he pursues the mandate with fervor. He has seen the truth of The Alliance, and means to dismantle it one life at a time.

I think the man would rather die than soil his own sense of honor. He doesn’t have the stomach to fight dirty. I sense his contempt for thieves, spies, assassins. He’s vocal about his distrust of the arcane and of necromancers. Foolish, then, that he is a member of an order founded by Maledictus, the necromancer, and run by Greebo, a conjurer of demons.

He believes in such a thing as honorable combat. Honorable death. Perhaps a dose of the plague would dissolve his delusions. I digress.

The man is likeable. I will mourn his inevitable death.
Mohan
Tauren hunter with a long history in The Grim, dating back to before the opening of the Dark Portal. A serious man, but approachable. Open. I sense the properties of a leader, and teacher, in him

His family was slaughtered by a Kal’Dorei they mistakenly trusted. Mohan buried his tribe and set out; his quest for vengeance brought him to the horde, and the clarity of his goal compelled him toward The Grim.

Surprisingly, I find much kinship with the hunter. We have both suffered betrayal, we both seek a specific revenge. We each made vows – should one find the object of their wrath, the other would assist in the killing.

If I’m correct, he does not know the name of his Kal’Dorei. The man could already be dead and buried. The Tauren could be trapped in a battle that never ends, seeking something he will never find. I do not envy him, and for a moment I almost find myself grateful for the fact that Mathias Shaw still lives.

I asked would he kill human farmers, merely because they were human. Opinions vary – Khorvis might argue that their farm could sustain the Alliance, and so they must be destroyed. Others might argue that if the Mandate’s purpose is peace, we should stay our hand from the peaceful. There is no clear answer, and Mohan could not give me one. There is wisdom in not knowing.

Leaned on him about his pursuits. Khorvis fights our greatest threat – The Alliance - while Mohan leads Grim against other, often less significant, enemies. Mohan debated the point, saying that The Alliance is a large enemy and will continue to exist for many years. If the Grim were to focus all their efforts on The Alliance, we may leave the horde vulnerable to more immediate enemies.

The Sha come to mind.

Is Mohan correct? Or could he be daunted by the larger war, purposely avoiding it so that he may enjoy the spoils of lesser battles?
Abric
Perenolde allowed me five questions and most of his answers were worth less than the dead air rotting in his scrawny lungs. He refused to answer anything regarding his past. He did not tell me why he believes in The Mandate. I asked him about Maledictus, and, again, the rogue shut me down. The two answers he did give me were disappointing.

How do you, as The Enforcer, further the mandate? I asked.

He spoke of doing tasks for the various groups on the unveiled continent. He spoke of “monitoring” the Alliance’s movements, while doing nothing about them. He may as well monitor Khorvis’s bowel movements.

Why did Lascivious and the others call you the peacock? I asked.

Finally a straight answer, as useless as the question. They called him that to get a rise out of him. They failed much as I did.

Although the man seems to have taken a step backwards from our various fronts, Abric is an exceedingly deadly rogue. He is cold as stone, does not suffer idle speech, and has an impenetrable mind. He has all the utility of a mute headsman, and so it is that he’s become The Grim’s Enforcer.

I can’t help but consider just how little separates him from the scourge.
Greebo
We met in the plagued forest, Felwood. The warlock idly sent its demons to slaughter mewling alliance kittens while it spoke to me.

What could be said of the Twice-Made that makes any sense? It is not human, but a creature of the nether cast into the dead body of a warlock. Raised by Sylvanas and sent to spy on the Grim. Greebo’s loyalties shifted and it became a proper member – then it rose through the order to become its leader.

It unsettles me.

It woke in the same danger as all other forsaken; climbed the steps of Deathknell and bent knee to the dark lady - but it never was alive, in the usual sense.

Greebo may have inhabited a living body at one point - but could it ever be said that it was alive? It never suffered the betrayal – one’s friends, family, and colleagues taking up arms for no other reason than one’s resemblance to the scourge. It hasn’t borne the loss that the rest of us have.

What can it know of the word, forsaken?

These notes become less about the mandate and more a litany of reservations regarding The Grim’s leadership.

But, the Mandate. What of the Mandate?

I can remember when Greebo was less seasoned than I. A time when I led the fight against the Alliance. Greebo earned its frostwolf under my command; I watched it cast deadly magics upon our enemies with a kind of glee in its eyes.

Greebo is a sadist. There is madness in it. A passenger screams and withers in the far corner of its mind.

Greebo makes me think of Grim from the old school. The peace-at-any-cost Grim. Those for whom questions of right and wrong were of secondary concern – or of no concern at all. Greebo is an agent of the mandate such as few Grim are.

But why? What drives him? If he hasn’t borne the full suffering of undeath that we Forsaken have – what compels him to pursue the mandate with such single-minded force?

Perhaps The Mandate is its excuse to do what he would have done anyway. Greebo channels its sadism down a sustainable path, but had he not been brought to Azeroth during the war, how easily may he have turned his demonic energies against other forsaken? Against anyone and anything?

I wonder.

Greebo said something about my wedding ring just before we parted. I almost unsheathed my blades.
Maledictus
The founder of our order. He who brought us The Mandate. He who gathered two fists of dedicated horde and submitted ten signatures for the guild’s formation. There are few remaining Grim who were members in Maledictus’s time. Fewer still, are those who know much about him.

He was a necromancer. I wonder how much that distresses Khorvis.

There are some who believe he was mad. Am I pledging my life to the faulty ravings of a madman? Am I just as insane as those that surround me? Or is the Grim’s purpose the single beam of clarity in world of chaos?

I have chosen vengeance above all else. I must suppress these moments of doubt if I am to exact revenge against Shaw and the others.

Anyway.

I think the tale that most characterizes is Maledictus is this: Some time before the opening of the dark portal, Maledictus led the Grim to Alcaz Island. While there, they stumbled across none other than Varian Wrynn, the king of Stormwind, who was trapped in a magical prison. The Grim did not hesitate to kill and dismember the man – then they watched as his parts moved along the ground, even out of their own mouths, to reassemble back into the man.

Maledictus, a member of The Royal Apothecary Society, recognized this as an opportunity: Here he had the ultimate test subject. One on which he could work to achieve the perfect balance between lethality and contagiousness for new strains of the plague. If the plague killed him, the man would return to life. If it didn’t, Maledictus could adjust the plague’s potency.

From then and until Varian was liberated from his prison, Maledictus paid the king regular visits.
Addikus gathered his pages into a neat stack, then warmed them over a candle. The heat cured the ink and the lettering vanished. The rogue grinned – his notes would be a secret that only he knew how to reveal.

He took a fresh page and scribbled:


Inquisitor,
I have sought and learned from four current members of The Grim, and I have studied what I could find regarding one member who is no longer with us. For confirmation, you may speak with Khorvis, Mohan, Abric, or Greebo.

If this satisfies the second challenge of The Mandate, I will move toward the next step.

- Addikus
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Awatu
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Re: Addikus’s Second Challenge: Dangerous Company

Unread post by Awatu »

A short letter makes its way to the Forsaken.

"Addikus,

You have sought out members of The Grim and learned of The Necromancer. But not only that. You have learned of who we fight, and why. It is not always as simple as "because they are our enemies".

This task is complete, and I eagerly await your sacrifice.

Awatu, High Inquisitor."
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