Truth or Dare and The Dead Mines

[Ellsbeth]

Written as my alt Dagnei with permission from the ever-entertaining Shimi. Just a warning... some OOC content due to paraphrasing non-rpers in game. Enjoy!

Oh I better make a clearer disclaimer. Pure RPers might not enjoy this story as it's in the style of how someone RPs -within- the game. Anyway... it's all good.

Truth or Dare and the Dead Mines

A great deal can be said for the bravado of youth. In fact, some words can be used to describe it: stupidity, idiocy, bullheadedness... you get the gyst. In any case, Dagnei emulated the idea of teenage bravado. Any truth, she'd tell (if it got her somewhere). Any kiss, she'd kiss. Any climb, she'd make (except she wouldn't look down because whooie...).

Any dare, she'd take.

Our story starts on a dreary day in Sepulchre. The acidic smelling rain poured down outside the crypt and Dagnei woefully stared out into it.

"I wish I could go to the island to beat Ravenclaw," she whined.

"Oh stop whinging, Dag, and come play some dice with us."

'Us' was a group of older undead. They'd had a few seasons on Dagnei and were planning a run on Shadow Fang Keep to put Arugal in his place. Again. Apparently he was known to pop back into existence a zillion times.

One was a mage and he smelled oddly of sulphur and fire oil. The other three were clearly rogues who embraced their Deathstalker image with gusto. All three wore red bandanas across their faces and spoke through them in muffled, but mysterious voices. The final was a bored looking, much older, priest who kept casting a greenish tinged spell on himself that made pretty leaves float up around his head.

Dagnei leaned over the shoulder of the lone female of the group. She couldn't remember her real name, but it was clear all of them deferred to her and called her, "Van'Cleef Killer." They claimed she had killed on thirty different occasions and that was why her and her rogue buddies were all outfitted in what they called "Defias Gear." Apparently it was "leet" but that was a word Dagnei didn't understand -- only pretended to know what it meant.

"It's great for PvP," Van'Cleef Killer had said earlier when she caught Dagnei staring at her shiny leathers.

Dagnei nodded dumbly and said, "Ohh..."

"Hey I remember you!" The rogue said, muffled by her red bandana. "You're the one who vomited on the zeppelin."

Dagnei paled a little, then stuck out her chest in a show of bravado. "That wasn't me! I haven't been on the zeppelin... ever."

"You sure?" She pursed her lips, not looking convinced.

"Of course I'm sure. I'd know if I took the zeppelin or not." Dagnei snarked at her.

"Right... what's your name anyway?"

"Dag."

"Right..." She spread out her arms so they encompassed the group she was with. "Come join us Dag" One of her friends snickered. "For a game of dice."

So they'd played a bit that morning. Dagnei made sure to lose only as much as she could handle since they weren't paying attention to her dice throwing ability. She knew that one of the dot-covered bones she'd been given was weighted so it would land low so she'd been compensating with the other three so they'd land high, but not so high as they'd catch her for cheating.

Clearly her compatriots were more about the killing and raping and pillaging side of being a rogue, rather than the subtle and tasteful side of stealing and gambling.

It was this moment, after she'd been bored, and it'd been raining for too long that they were losing their patience with Dagnei. It wasn't as if she could help it, but she really wanted to go out and kill that Ravenclaw guy across the lake. She really hated going out in the rain, though, it tended to make her remaining flesh feel jelly-like.

The others were hanging around, waiting for a "Tank" to replace one of the rogues who was about to go to school for the day. Dagnei was interested in finding out what kind of school he was going to, but he didn't speak much anyway. When he did it sounded as if he was speaking a foreign language.

"So Dag." Van'Cleef Killer leaned back, rubbing her chin. "Have you ever been to the Dead Mines?"

Dagnei's mind drew a blank. Dead Mines? She'd only ever been to Durotar that once and Mulgore to drop something off to an Apothecary. The Dead Mines didn't sound familiar, but no point in letting Van'Cleef know she hadn't.

With a little bit of teenager bravado, Dagnei puffed out her chest. "Of course I have."

"Oh yeah? So who's the main boss?" Clearly the group didn't look convinced, but Dagnei wasn't quite as airheaded as one would believe and had remembered a thing or two from earlier.

"Van'Cleef. Of course."

Van'Cleef Killer snorted. One of her rogue friends said, "I don't believe her. I think she -was- the one who vomited on the zeppelin."

"Hey!" The mage hissed as really young undead in ratty leathers came in out of the rain and some water poured off her cloak and onto his robe. "These are the Robes of Arugal, peon!"

"Sorry!" The rogue cleared her hair out of her eyes and then Dagnei shriveled in annoyance. It was Shimi, that hyper and excitable young rogue in her guild. She's helped her in the Mills, but in front of these older undead, Dagnei didn't want them to know she knew her. Shimi's pure and delightful voice rang out. "Didn't mean ta! Hiya Dag!"

Too late! Dagnei waved a little, but not enough to look like she cared. Her body said, "Go away, annoying little one and leave us cool kids alone," even if her voice didn't have to.

Shimi frowned a little, but shrugged and said, "Later Dag! Bye Dag's friends!" She disappeared down into the crypt.

"Who's that?" Van'Cleef Killer asked with obvious disdain.

"Shimi. She's one of Infection." Dagnei shrugged as if to say it was of no consequence.

"How old is she?" Van'Cleef peered down the steps.

"Ten seasons, give or take..." Dagnei's voice trailed off, then she asked, "Why?"

"You know. I did my first run of Dead Mines at ten seasons. It's how I got this." She shifted a little, showing the shiny weapon at her side. "It's the only good rogue weapon for PvP in the 10-19 bracket."

Dagnei shrugged as if that all made any sense to her. "Of course."

"Of course" Van'Cleef Killer mocked. "You don't sound convinced. But what does she know? She's only fifteen seasons! Hardly old enough to know anything!" The others of the group broke out in laughter and Dagnei swore that the Priest's eyes glowed with more intensity at her. Accusing her. Making her feel small.

Dagnei puffed out her chest in bravado. "I go all the time. ALL the time. I could get that stupid sword--"

"--Rapier."

"Yeah whatever. I could get that rape-r if I wanted. I just don't want to."

"Well, I dare you to get it for your little friend."

"Shimi?" Dagnei gulped.

"Oh yeah. For her." Van'Cleef Killer smiled which ended up more like a grimace.

The priest seemed interested now. He said, "Yeah. We dare you."

The others repeated over and over, "We dare you. We dare you. We dare you."

Youthfull, teenage bravado, being as it is means that even sometimes smart and resourceful young ones will do stupid things. It certainly was the case when Dagnei said, "FINE! We'll get her the stupid raper."

[Ellsbeth]

Dagnei clutched the boards beneath her, hating the feeling of the wind whipping past above and the knowledge that the Grom'Gol Zeppelin was flying hundreds of feet above solid ground.

Her stomach heaved. The leftover remains of that Scarlet Friar seemed about to fly up and out onto the deck.

"Are you okay Dag?" Shimi asked with concern written on her pretty face.

Dagnei nodded with her eyes closed and then asked, "Are we there yet?"

"Are we there yet?" Shimi called over to the older guildmates (who for their sake we won't mention names in this story because they certainly wouldn't want to let it known they were involved in this ... act of bravado).

The priest turned to them from his perch on the railing. Dagnei closed her eyes, unable to look at him standing so nonchalantly when certain death waiting hundreds of feet below. His voice echoed in her head, "We're jumping here."

"Okay!" Shimi ran across the boat, did a flip, and disappeared into nothingness."

"JUMPING?" Dagnei shrieked. "You've got to be kidding me!"

He looked at her as if she were a complete, utter moron. His voice again echoed in her head. "Did you think we were going to walk from Grom'Gol?"

Dagnei whimpered and felt a ghostly hand pull at her neck. It pulled and pulled until she stood and then yanked her towards the edge of the boat. Finally a ghostly footprint booted her right on her bottom and she screamed in full fright as she fell down into the ocean below.

"Mind control. Always works." The priest shrugged at the elder warlock.

They both dove eloquently off the boat into the greenish blue tropical waters.

Dagnei sputtered, glad she was in water because she'd definitely let that Scarlet Friar come up and she'd made a mess of her loincloth.

The warlock swam past, easily dispatching one giant murloc after another. He waved at her from under the water and dove up to the surface. Just as Dagnei was about to swim after him, she felt a heavy tug at her foot and then sharp pain as her whole body shook with electricity.

She had only enough time to scream out "Eaaarrrr--" which sounded more like "Bllblllblll" in the water then was swallowed by some giant creature.

Moments later she was at her corpse being healed by the elder priest with his disdain for her clearly on his face. He spoke under water in a clear voice that didn't bubble around her ears, "Can't even remain alive for five seconds."

Dagnei tried to respond, but her retort sounded more like, "Blurrble blurrb bluuuurrr."

"That's what I thought." He laughed, rose to the surface and as Dagnei kicked frantically after him she popped up for air only to see he was floating above the water, running above it.

"Hey!" She hollered after him. "How do you do that?"

"Levitation. Always wins." He yelled back. "Get swimming slowpoke."

Keeping to the surface, after all it was dangerous down there in the deep, Dagnei paddled as quick as her arms and legs could take her. Shimi came up alongside, hardly looking as though she were working at all. "I adore swimming," Shimi said, "Don't you Dag?"

Dag grumbled and paddled harder, trying to get ahead of the younger rogue.

Shimi laughed in delight and in no time was swimming in quick and able strokes ahead of Dagnei.

"Why I oughta..." Dagnei snarled, then grabbed a small bottle from her pouch and quaffed it. The webs spread out between her fingers and toes and the bones on her spine elongated into fins as the swim speed potion took affect. She easily whipped past Shimi and the warlock and the airwalking priest.

Right into a large scaled creature that ate her for its lunch.

She opened her eyes to see the priest leaning over her. "Try to remain alive, please."

Shimi kneeled down to help Dagnei up. "That's the second time you've died and I haven't even died yet!"

"Heh." Dagnei responded.

[Ellsbeth]

The area around the Dead Mines seemed familiar to Dagnei, but made no sense as she'd never been there in her entire undead life. Some of the other undeads mentioned they remembered bits of their living lives as elves or dwarves or humans, but Dagnei wasn't interested in remembering a past that clearly wasn't memorable in the first place.

Most of the leather-clad foes were easy for her to attack and kill on her own. The elder guild members took out ten or fifteen at a time while Dagnei pitted herself against one. Just as she dug in her dagger for the killing strike, the priest yelled, "Dagnei, could you please just collect their things off their bodies for us? You kill too slowly."

"Come help me please Dag." Shimi's clear and beautiful voice came from over a pile of corpses. "They've got tons of silver to collect. Look at this bandana!"

It was the red bandana of the rogues from Selpuchre. Dagnei stalked over and ripped it out of Shimi's hand, "That's for me."

"Okay?" Shimi looked a little hurt. She said, "You could have asked nicely. What's got into you?"

"Less talking, girls. More collecting." The priest tapped his foot impatiently from a bit further up the hill. "There are Alliance about."

"Stealth with me, Dag." Shimi said. "It'll probably be safer for us so you don't die."

Dagnei grumbled, but joined her in stealth, only to pop out of it when they collected items off the bodies of the dead men. When they reached a large wooden building and had pulled away or eaten most of the bodies in the town square before it, the warlock warned, "Stay back, you two. We'll clear the way and then you collect everything."

Shimi smiled at Dag while they cautiously stepped down the sconce-lit hallway. "I'm so glad you invited me along after you asked these two to take you to the Dead Mines. You've been a little distant lately."

"Just as long as you remember that when we talk to Van'Cleef Killer we came in here alone. Just me and you. Got it?"

Shimi shrugged. "Whatever." They came to a corner where the smell of metals, earth, and stone wafted up. Down the plankway, was the glow of some deep earthen fire.

One of the voices, it wasn't quite clear which one in the echo of the shaft. "Come on down. It's clear."

They came to the bottom and jumped down off a small causeway into a pile of freshly killed bodies. The warlock and the priest leaned up against poles, a little bored while Dagnei and Shimi cleaned up the bodies.

The warlock again warned, "Now stay back, you two. We won't be able to keep their attention if you show up. These humans love to kill stragglers."

Shimi nodded and Dagnei shrugged. Of course she knew that. Everyone knew that.

The rest of the mines passed in a blur of one body to clean up after the next. Dagnei almost grew bored of it as she picked up each weapon or piece of armour or personal item and weighed it or peered at it until she was sure it was worth keeping. In the end she had a heavy bag full of chain mail and a few schematics that would come in handy for someone else.

"Have you found a raper?" Dagnei asked Shimi.

Shimi paused mid-loot and raised an eyebrow at Dagnei, "You mean a rap-ier? A sword, right?"

"Yes. Right!" Dagnei snapped. "So have you?"

"No. I'd tell you because I know you like swords. I like daggers." Shimi pulled out her two side daggers and slashed at the air.

"Well tell me if you find one, okay? It's about this big." Dagnei spread her arms out and added, "It's really shiny."

"All swords are."

"Yeah well... yeah." Dagnei threw up her hands in frustration and jogged ahead to the next pile of bodies. They caught up to the warlock and priest after a few minutes. The cloth wearers both looked a little worn and sat down to drink some water.

"We need a bit of a break. That last room... I hate patrols." The warlock wheezed, while cracking back his shoulder into place.

They broke into stories of old battles where they'd almost died fighting things that were beneath their skill. Shimi sat down with them to start chomping on a leg of something. Dagnei shuffled impatiently while the little break turned into a full-on laze fest.

She stared at the door way beyond. Light flickered in and the sound of anvils clanging and metal whirring beckoned her. "I'm brave," she thought. She took a few steps, then stealthed and raced through the door.

"Dag! No! Don't go ahead without ---"

Her stealth didn't work quite as well as she had hoped when she brushed some tools and they fell down with a clattered. In the middle of the room, a giant shredder machine zzzzp'd around with a little goblin shrieking from above.

Stunned, Dagnei didn't allow herself time to enter in a defensive posture and it only took a few swipes before she was facedown and dead.

Many minutes later she came to, with the priest standing over her. He said, "When I kindly told you to remain alive, Dagnei, I meant it."

[Ellsbeth]

They traveled deeper into the abyss of the Dead Mines. Shimi quickly grew more powerful as she deflected one brutal human after another. She and Dagnei lay in the shadows, waiting back as the priest and the warlock despatched most of the foes.

Dagnei hefted her heavy sacks higher on her shoulders. She reached down to pick up another pile of linen scraps and groaned. "Shimi, I need you to start collecting... I just can't carry anymore."

Shimi grinned and said, "Sure thing Dag!"

Dagnei attempted to shift the collection of items, only to find room for a few things. Hopefully one of them would be this rapier that Van'Cleef Killer and company had dared her to find. For if Shimi didn't have it afterwards... Dagnei slumped a little at the thought. They hadn't come across a single sword that looked like the one she needed.

"Isn't this fun?" Shimi asked and jolted Dagnei out of her miserable thoughts.

"Chasing after them, cleaning up corpses? Uhh... sure."

"I would like to get a little more practice in." Shimi shouldered her pack on her offhand side and thrust her dagger into an imaginary foe in front of her. "Take that! And that!" She paused, leaning down to rummage through the body in front of Dagnei and showed Dagnei some copper coins. "Sometimes they hide them."

"Yeah I know." Dagnei asked, "Did you find that ra-- sword?"

"Not yet. Have you?"

Irritated, Dagnei snapped, "Would I be asking if I did?"

"Well I promise I'll tell you if I find it. No need to get irritable."

"I'm not irritable!" Dagnei snarled and hunkered down to speed up after the others, anything to get away from such cheerfulness in the face of possible disaster.

If Dagnei returned to Sepulcher without the rap--sword on Shimi, it would be absolutely humiliating. For one thing she couldn't rub it in the face of Van'Cleef Killer. For another thing, Dagnei wanted so much to be liked and part of a gang of thugs just like them. Oh the undeadity!

Around a final bend, they stepped out into somewhat less oppressively hot air. It was a cavern, filled with water and a large ship lay near the dock. She could hear the hisses of the warlock's spells and the delighted laughter of his succubus as they ripped through the ranks high up on board.

Shimi raced past and quickly scaled the gangway up to the deck above.

Dagnei chased after, her bag heavy and her footsteps heavier only to stop when she stepped foot on the ship. She lifted her nose and sniffed the air. While there was the metallic scent of blood and the acrid smell of leftover shadow spells, there was also something else on board.

"It's got to be here." Dagnei brightened up, assured that yes they would find the sword (Why even call a rapier a raper?) and yes she could get it on Shimi to claim the glory and the reknown of having beat ... a dare! Only the bravest (re: stupidest) won a dare.

"Dag! Hurry up! They're fighting Van'Cleef!" Shimi yelled down from many decks up above where she hung from the railings. She turned her head around and as she disappeared out of sight, yelled, "EAT IT HUMAN!" Her evil laughter rang in the high recesses of the cavern.

Dagnei ran up a plank to the next deck of the ship only to notice something out of the corner of her eye. All rogues, whether they are the raping and heartless kind, cannot help the desire to pillage. Which is why the best laid trap for a rogue is likely the kind that involves a large chest with the possibility of richness inside.

Dagnei adverted her path, turned quickly and raced towards the chest with singlemindedness. It was only while she knattered away at the lock and the scent of unwashed humand came over her that she began to wonder about her choice. She wa run through before she could even open the damnable thing.

Later, when they left the mines and the priest had admonished her once again for being a pain and dying, when they had been tailed by a Night Elf all the way back to the waters and even back to Grom'Gol itself, and they were safely on the zeppelin where Dagnei clutched the floorboards for sheer life, Shimi patted her on the back. "It's okay."

With teeth clenched Dagnei muttered, "I just don't like flying okay?"

"No. I know that. I mean it's okay we didn't get the rapier."

"WHAT?" Dagnei forgot her absolute fear of any kind of flying all of a sudden and cried out, "Oh no! We have to go back!"

"But Dag. We can't go in there alone. If we don't have a priest, you'll never get to the end again."

Dagnei fumed, hoping that if she ignored it, it would go away. Unfortunately it didn't. Shimi's sweet voice cooed, "But... we didn't get the rapier, but we got this." She went to pull a sword out of an elegantly decorated scabard.

"I don't care what you have if it's not the rapier!"

"You said it right!"

"SHIMI!" Dagnei snarled at her and Shimi backed off.

Instead of taking it this time, Shimi's face hardened and she glared at Dagnei. "I'm trying to be a friend and all you do is yell at me. Don't think I'll take it for another second. Just because you're older than me doesn't mean you can snap at me all the time."

Dagnei's sails dropped and she slumped. "It's just... I was dared to get the rapier for you by those folk in Sepulchre."

"The mean ones who wear those ugly red masks?"

Dagnei touched the red bandanna tied to her belt. "Uh... yeah those ones."

"We can go back if it means so much to you. I mean... I know how important dares are."

"No, Shimi. I think I have to own up that I didn't... do it." Dagnei lay down and shoved her face deep into the weathered wood.

"I can explain it to them. Maybe even tell them that we had it but I lost it!"

Mournfully, Dagnei sighed and stated, "No. I will own up to this and whatever comes ... comes."

"Whatever comes... I'll be there with you." Shimi patted Dagnei on the back as the zeppelin rode over the winds of the Eastern Kingdoms.

[Ellsbeth]

While there was no rain in Sepulchre, Dagnei felt as though she were soaked with the heavy weight of failure riding on her back. The Van'Cleef Killer gang were at the top of the crypt again, less a rogue and the mage, but had gained a rather scary looking orc who sharpened his weapon in slow, painfully shrieking passes. He kept laughing this dry laugh over and over.

Dagnei gulped, ready to bolt over the gravestones and jump down to where one of Arugal's millions of sons could gnaw at her bones, but she felt a reassuring hand on her back.

Dagnei looked to Shimi who said, "I'll tell them everything."

"Thanks."

The two young rogues approached the group. It was Van'Cleef Killer herself who cawed, "Why lookie lookie... here comes ... Dag!"

For some inexplicable reason her entourage broke into delirious laughter. Shimi hissed, "Why was that funny? It didn't even rhyme!"

Dagnei snickered and Van'Cleef Killer stopped laughing to glare. "Something funny, Dag?"

The laughter grew as the orc opened his maw and blasted out a gutteral, choking laugh that made it sound like he was dying.

"Leave my friend alone!" Shimi put her hands on her hips and shouted at Van'Cleef Killer.

Stunned, Van'Cleef Killer stood up and reached for her two swords. "So did she get you the rapier little cowardly brat? Hmm? Do you have this?" She pulled out the rapier, it glinted even with overcast skies. She sliced it through the air and jabbed towards Shimi's chest.

Dagnei pushed Shimi back and stood in front of her friend. "Don't call Shimi a cowardly brat. She's braver than all of you. Combined. Even the ugly orc."

The orc roared and Dagnei amended her statement, "Well possibly the orc, but as I don't know him personally I'm just ... Uhmm..." The blade of Van'Cleef Killer's sword came up to Dagnei's chin. "No we didn't get the rapier."

More laughter and few derisive comments that were wholly unnecessary so they won't be written here later, Van'Cleef Killer stepped away, put her rapier back where it should be in the company of other undead, and chortled, "Did you at least get something to prove you went to the Dead Mines?"

Dagnei reached for the bandanna still loosely tied to her belt. She yanked it loose and flung it at Van'Cleef Killer. "Yeah. That."

Van'Cleef Killer knocked the bandanna onto the ground. "So? It's fabric. Any tailor could probably fake one of those. That's not proof enough that you were there."

"Whatcho gonna do to 'er VC?" The one remaining rogue asked. "Since she didn't do the dare."

"You know, Dag, that failing a dare comes with a price. And I get to choose the price." She puffed out her chest. "Should I chose money or humiliation?"

Van'Cleef Killer's little gang shouted out which of the two words they thought were the most pertinent to the occasion. Van'Cleef Killer silence them with a wave of her hand. "It's too bad you couldn't prove you both went there." Magnamiously she added, "You see, I'm not completely cold-hearted. I would have given you the dare if you could prove you'd at least been there. Otherwise you're a coward."

"No she's not!" Shimi hissed. "We were there and Dagnei took them down all by herself. I was wounded and Dag bandaged me! I was scared and she made me feel that we could do it! At the end when we stood over the bloody corpse of Van'Cleef, Dag gave me ...this!" She pulled the sword from its scabbard and the gang's mouths dropped in awe and instantly turned to envy.

Van'Cleef Killer shrieked, "THE CRUEL BARB! Gimme!" She lunged at Shimi.

Dag blinked at the sudden change, but brandished both her weapons at Van'Cleef Killer's neck, just underneath the bandanna. "Don't move or the bandanna gets it."

Van'Cleef Killer's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."

"I already dared enough for one week. Thank you very much."

Van'Cleef Killer stepped back and Dagnei, with that very hint of teenage bravado chuckled. "So I guess I win. Don't I? Come on Shimi, we have better things to do than spend time waiting on ... whatever these guys are waiting on."

"Yeah. You're right, Dag."

The two of them laughed as they walked away, even though the sentence didn't rhyme and it wasn't really that funny.

So remember boys and girls, your true friends are the ones who get the Cruel Barb for you so you can stick it in the face of those who try to twink their gear.

THE END