Otek
10-31-2007, 12:29 AM
((Realized I posted here without an introduction! Well, this is less an introduction of myself, than it is an introduction of Otek, but in this case I shall come second.))
"Fer the record, jus' so ye can' say tha' I ne'er told ye anything. 'Ere is me story, well a piece o' i' anyway."
*looking down at the parchment, you notice from the hand of the writing it must have been a scribe.*
I grew up in Anvilmar in Coldridge Valley, Dun Morogh. My father, Ardghal was a blacksmith. Who married my mother Aoife. He sometimes traveled with his father, Ootek, whom I was named after, into Ironforge , Menethil, and even Aerie Peak to sell their wares. Only on very special occasions were my brother, Kath, and I able to go with them.
The trips to Aerie Peak eventually became vacations when the coffers were full. Ootek and my father would leave my mother, Kath and I in Thelsamar while they went on to do their business.
We spent the long days swimming, or in my case, usually wading. In the loch, and exploring the surrounding landscape.
Kath and I were still young when the first war started, we were old enough to fight of course, but both Ardghal and Ootek were joining the humans in defense of Azeroth. And my mother wanted us to stay. Someone had to run the business, right?
My elders joined part of a small contingent of dwarves, mostly sharpshooters, in the vastly human armies.Though they did their part did not gain any particular recognition from the generals who fled to Lordaeron.
It was with trepidation that my father and his stayed behind in Azeroth while the humans fled to Lordaeron, but their duty first was to Khaz Modan, and their family.
I could never get my father to talk very much about that war. Besides the notches in his hammer, and a few stories about some bar brawl or another. It seemed to have scarred him.
The one time I did get him to mention anything, he trailed off after he had mentioned Medivh, which until later would mean nothing to me.
In the time after the war we worked the forge. Created armor and gadgets. I did the dirty work. Feeding the fire, shovelling fuel. I learned a lot, but not the actual craft itself.
It was the second war six years later that drew my brother and I. When the call was raised we both signed on to join the Riflemen the alliance would need to defend our homeland. This time we fought along side the elder Ironhands.
We joined the grand alliance that would throw the orcs from Azeroth and into Draenor.
We fought skirmish after skirmish. Until the end of the first year of the war.
We were on a mission to protect a convoy, our company of riflemen, along with a squad of footmen. When we were attacked.
We had not heard of it.. Of this, treachery. We were caught unwittingly amidst a blossom of undeath. A field where a small settlement once stood, was littered with bodies.
We wandered in amongst them, as they lay along the way to Andorhal, and the path around them through rough terrain, and inhabited by beasts would be dangerous with a caravan. When the bodies began to rise, their flesh falling from them, as skeletons!
They advanced on us but we fought them back, taking a few wounded. As we thought we may have the upperhand they were joined by more, coming in over the hills -I wonder still who they had been- and closed in around us.
As we fought tooth and nail to hold the skeletons back, Ootek took a wound and fell. Ardghal ran to and stood over him as the skeletons pressed upon him, and was lost from view.
We saw a flash of light from down the road. There was no time to look, all seemed lost.. but... for that flash, which somehow seemed to give us hope! Though we took more wounds as we tired and our numbers dropped. We felt bolstered.
Skeletons around us, unafraid of axe, hammer, fire, even arcane magics turned and began to flee. A path was cleared behind us. A pair of Lord Uther's Paladins had joined the fray.
Battered, we gathered our fallen allies, and quick as we were able made our way through this opening. And as we did. The paladins rushed the other way, astride their war steeds they fought the skeletons, crushing and cleansing them. It seemed anything was possible as the skeletons fell before them as darkness fades at dawn.
They turned to us, their deed done. And eased Ootek's pain, they could not save my father. They escorted us into town with our goods. Where we parted.
My brother and I were granted leave to bring the body of our father, to Ironforge where our mother had been staying.
*this area of the paper has been blotted out and re-written a number of times*
At the death of her husband, and the following death of his father. The stoicism of the dwarves failed her. And she too passed into the Great Dark Beyond.
And so my brother and I. Were alone. Our immediate family was lost, and despite a clan gatherings when we were younger, our ties were lost to the horde, to memory or plague.
We searched our relatives out through connections in Ironforge and found, Kelomir Ironhand. He could not keep us for long however. The wars had left him far more bitter than he had been already.
It was during our stay with him that one of the Paladins who had preserved us that day came to seek us out. He was looking for recruits to join the Knights of the Silver Hand, I told him I would join, remembering the feat they had achieved that day, allowing my grandfather a few more days to see her daughter. But the requirements of the riflemen held me back.
Kath, decided after that visit with the paladin to seek out the priests of Ironforge. Energetic, though not quite like me, he joined their ranks instead, but went immediately to them. The riflemen, were ready to give one of their own to the priests, for the higher good.
We fought through the third war, seeing one another rarely though as often as we could. I followed the generals closely to the frontlines as well as any might, by joining the 1st Ironforge Riflemen. And after fighting through many a horrible battle, by good or ill, found myself at the foot of mount hyjal at the end of the war.
*takes back the piece of parchment*
Well tha's tha'. Tha' is me story, well mos' o' it, through the end o' the third war.
*sighs as he looks it over wistfully.*
I 'ave another appointmen' with me scribe.. I'll bring ye tha' one as well when i' is done.
*nods*
*as you peer at the opened letter you can almost hear the voice of a dwarf echoing through your head* ((*making you scream out loud before curling into a ball and rocking back and forth* or *making you smile uncontrollably*))
'Ello there Fabled Order, been a while, eh?
I jus' figured I'd finish up where I'd lef' off with me story before goin' on me way.
Like I said, I found meself a' the foo' o' moun' Hyjal, a' the battles beginnin'. In amongs' the hastily gathered riflemen, standin' behind the ranks o' footmen, all aligned ter give tha' Malfurion enough time ter lay 'is trap.
The firs' wave o' demons surged upon our defenses, Jaina 'erself runnin' forward unleashin' 'er magic upon the forsaken.
We 'ad fired naugh' bu' two volleys when a gian' rock fell from the sky, an infernal 'ad battered mos' o' the company on impac' and no doub' continued to wreak 'avoc afterwards.
Meself, I found ou' later, along with news o' the victory, 'ad been flung into a heap underneath me comrades in arms.
No' ter awake until many weeks later in a warm clean bed in Anvilmar. With me brother Kath, near a' 'and, 'elpin' with the 'ealin' efforts.
Later tha' month I took a walk ou'side and me' with Baros Grummner, the local recruiter fer the Silver 'And. Who 'ad come ter me bedside more than once while I was there.
Sa' and 'ad a pin' with 'im, talked fer quite a while, joined by a couple o' the priests, priestesses, doctors, nurses who were on their breaks from treatin' the wounded and celebrated like true dwarves! Har!
I began slowly, workin' with me injuries, Kath 'elpin' when 'e could. Tryin' ou' the new techniques Baros taugh' me. Vowin' no' ter pick up me rifle e'erafter. I also took the time ter practice engineerin' which our neighbors the gnomes brough' into fashion in Ironforge, no' wantin' ter go back into the family business quite so soon.
I grew in confidence with me trainin', and me strength came back with i'. I made the trek ter Kharanos, unescorted, and me' with a young gnome named Wilo.
We me' with another dwarf tha' day as well, Gart Helmdar.
We became fas' friends, 'avin' los' many friends, or becomin' separated in the years followin' the war.
'E was joinin' the Ironforge Mountaineers, a supplemental group fer those green hooded dwarves wanderin' e'erywhere.
I was no' truly battle ready jus' then, bu' I figured upon i' bein' an easy commitmen' until I could come ter wield the ligh' mos' effectively.
I' was 'ere tha' I me' Dessa Grimmsdottir! Ah.. Aye. Har! Me line o' though' jus' go' disrupted, sorry. *you can almost see the dwarf grinning through the ink and paper*
Dessa, aye. Well, she 'appened ter be engaged to the second in command o' the Mountaineers..
I actually me' 'er on their weddin' day. Bu', as fate would 'ave i'. Tha' lad, Hammur by name, became beligeran', perhaps lettin' the bottle go ter 'is 'ead more than mos' dwarves, and eventually wen' missin'.
And remains so.. I still keep me eyes open, and 'e 'as been spotted from time ter time. Hrm.. *the letter trails off there*
So, time passes.. and the Mountaineers were disbanded ter be replaced with The Sentinels of the Light. Which I meself were the leader o'.
And we thrived fer a good while. Bringin' Wilo, Gart, Aelm, Lyda, Sekel, Khalis and others with us from the Mountaineers.
We had our ups and downs, all of us. There was the time in gnomeregan, Wilo sent the big gnomish spider machine sprawling off it's platform and little under a minute later, there was nothing we could do but to stand and watch, as a army of gnomes, and gnomish machines drove down on top of us.
But most things pale in comparison to this. And I still don't have all the facts straight. The archbishop, needed help, he was the target of a assassination and Dessa was to protect him. She ended up having her soul stolen by the Scarlet Crusade, she became a shell of herself, not speaking, hardly acting. And it had to be retrieved from Lady Tremaine in the Scarlet Crusade's Cathedral. She was being stored inside her amulet, and could only be released by an encantation that Gart had been blessed with the knowledge of.
Meanwhile, there was an infestation of the Scarlet Crusade in our ranks, creating much division amongst all of us and tensions were high, they were over come in time, but I do not think they could ever be glossed over entirely.
It was about this time while I was recovering from the wound in my thigh that Dessa Grimsdottir and I were engaged. Soon, too soon in fact for it interrupted the ceremony I had to leave for healing purposes and took a large amount of time in Loch Modan, Dessa became the leader of the Sentinels, and thus started the decline.
Tensions, built, disagreements flared and Dessa left the guild. Once she had gone, the Sentinels spiraled down, members leaving, gone missing, and the guild became inactive.
This was almost two years ago...
((to be continued))
"Fer the record, jus' so ye can' say tha' I ne'er told ye anything. 'Ere is me story, well a piece o' i' anyway."
*looking down at the parchment, you notice from the hand of the writing it must have been a scribe.*
I grew up in Anvilmar in Coldridge Valley, Dun Morogh. My father, Ardghal was a blacksmith. Who married my mother Aoife. He sometimes traveled with his father, Ootek, whom I was named after, into Ironforge , Menethil, and even Aerie Peak to sell their wares. Only on very special occasions were my brother, Kath, and I able to go with them.
The trips to Aerie Peak eventually became vacations when the coffers were full. Ootek and my father would leave my mother, Kath and I in Thelsamar while they went on to do their business.
We spent the long days swimming, or in my case, usually wading. In the loch, and exploring the surrounding landscape.
Kath and I were still young when the first war started, we were old enough to fight of course, but both Ardghal and Ootek were joining the humans in defense of Azeroth. And my mother wanted us to stay. Someone had to run the business, right?
My elders joined part of a small contingent of dwarves, mostly sharpshooters, in the vastly human armies.Though they did their part did not gain any particular recognition from the generals who fled to Lordaeron.
It was with trepidation that my father and his stayed behind in Azeroth while the humans fled to Lordaeron, but their duty first was to Khaz Modan, and their family.
I could never get my father to talk very much about that war. Besides the notches in his hammer, and a few stories about some bar brawl or another. It seemed to have scarred him.
The one time I did get him to mention anything, he trailed off after he had mentioned Medivh, which until later would mean nothing to me.
In the time after the war we worked the forge. Created armor and gadgets. I did the dirty work. Feeding the fire, shovelling fuel. I learned a lot, but not the actual craft itself.
It was the second war six years later that drew my brother and I. When the call was raised we both signed on to join the Riflemen the alliance would need to defend our homeland. This time we fought along side the elder Ironhands.
We joined the grand alliance that would throw the orcs from Azeroth and into Draenor.
We fought skirmish after skirmish. Until the end of the first year of the war.
We were on a mission to protect a convoy, our company of riflemen, along with a squad of footmen. When we were attacked.
We had not heard of it.. Of this, treachery. We were caught unwittingly amidst a blossom of undeath. A field where a small settlement once stood, was littered with bodies.
We wandered in amongst them, as they lay along the way to Andorhal, and the path around them through rough terrain, and inhabited by beasts would be dangerous with a caravan. When the bodies began to rise, their flesh falling from them, as skeletons!
They advanced on us but we fought them back, taking a few wounded. As we thought we may have the upperhand they were joined by more, coming in over the hills -I wonder still who they had been- and closed in around us.
As we fought tooth and nail to hold the skeletons back, Ootek took a wound and fell. Ardghal ran to and stood over him as the skeletons pressed upon him, and was lost from view.
We saw a flash of light from down the road. There was no time to look, all seemed lost.. but... for that flash, which somehow seemed to give us hope! Though we took more wounds as we tired and our numbers dropped. We felt bolstered.
Skeletons around us, unafraid of axe, hammer, fire, even arcane magics turned and began to flee. A path was cleared behind us. A pair of Lord Uther's Paladins had joined the fray.
Battered, we gathered our fallen allies, and quick as we were able made our way through this opening. And as we did. The paladins rushed the other way, astride their war steeds they fought the skeletons, crushing and cleansing them. It seemed anything was possible as the skeletons fell before them as darkness fades at dawn.
They turned to us, their deed done. And eased Ootek's pain, they could not save my father. They escorted us into town with our goods. Where we parted.
My brother and I were granted leave to bring the body of our father, to Ironforge where our mother had been staying.
*this area of the paper has been blotted out and re-written a number of times*
At the death of her husband, and the following death of his father. The stoicism of the dwarves failed her. And she too passed into the Great Dark Beyond.
And so my brother and I. Were alone. Our immediate family was lost, and despite a clan gatherings when we were younger, our ties were lost to the horde, to memory or plague.
We searched our relatives out through connections in Ironforge and found, Kelomir Ironhand. He could not keep us for long however. The wars had left him far more bitter than he had been already.
It was during our stay with him that one of the Paladins who had preserved us that day came to seek us out. He was looking for recruits to join the Knights of the Silver Hand, I told him I would join, remembering the feat they had achieved that day, allowing my grandfather a few more days to see her daughter. But the requirements of the riflemen held me back.
Kath, decided after that visit with the paladin to seek out the priests of Ironforge. Energetic, though not quite like me, he joined their ranks instead, but went immediately to them. The riflemen, were ready to give one of their own to the priests, for the higher good.
We fought through the third war, seeing one another rarely though as often as we could. I followed the generals closely to the frontlines as well as any might, by joining the 1st Ironforge Riflemen. And after fighting through many a horrible battle, by good or ill, found myself at the foot of mount hyjal at the end of the war.
*takes back the piece of parchment*
Well tha's tha'. Tha' is me story, well mos' o' it, through the end o' the third war.
*sighs as he looks it over wistfully.*
I 'ave another appointmen' with me scribe.. I'll bring ye tha' one as well when i' is done.
*nods*
*as you peer at the opened letter you can almost hear the voice of a dwarf echoing through your head* ((*making you scream out loud before curling into a ball and rocking back and forth* or *making you smile uncontrollably*))
'Ello there Fabled Order, been a while, eh?
I jus' figured I'd finish up where I'd lef' off with me story before goin' on me way.
Like I said, I found meself a' the foo' o' moun' Hyjal, a' the battles beginnin'. In amongs' the hastily gathered riflemen, standin' behind the ranks o' footmen, all aligned ter give tha' Malfurion enough time ter lay 'is trap.
The firs' wave o' demons surged upon our defenses, Jaina 'erself runnin' forward unleashin' 'er magic upon the forsaken.
We 'ad fired naugh' bu' two volleys when a gian' rock fell from the sky, an infernal 'ad battered mos' o' the company on impac' and no doub' continued to wreak 'avoc afterwards.
Meself, I found ou' later, along with news o' the victory, 'ad been flung into a heap underneath me comrades in arms.
No' ter awake until many weeks later in a warm clean bed in Anvilmar. With me brother Kath, near a' 'and, 'elpin' with the 'ealin' efforts.
Later tha' month I took a walk ou'side and me' with Baros Grummner, the local recruiter fer the Silver 'And. Who 'ad come ter me bedside more than once while I was there.
Sa' and 'ad a pin' with 'im, talked fer quite a while, joined by a couple o' the priests, priestesses, doctors, nurses who were on their breaks from treatin' the wounded and celebrated like true dwarves! Har!
I began slowly, workin' with me injuries, Kath 'elpin' when 'e could. Tryin' ou' the new techniques Baros taugh' me. Vowin' no' ter pick up me rifle e'erafter. I also took the time ter practice engineerin' which our neighbors the gnomes brough' into fashion in Ironforge, no' wantin' ter go back into the family business quite so soon.
I grew in confidence with me trainin', and me strength came back with i'. I made the trek ter Kharanos, unescorted, and me' with a young gnome named Wilo.
We me' with another dwarf tha' day as well, Gart Helmdar.
We became fas' friends, 'avin' los' many friends, or becomin' separated in the years followin' the war.
'E was joinin' the Ironforge Mountaineers, a supplemental group fer those green hooded dwarves wanderin' e'erywhere.
I was no' truly battle ready jus' then, bu' I figured upon i' bein' an easy commitmen' until I could come ter wield the ligh' mos' effectively.
I' was 'ere tha' I me' Dessa Grimmsdottir! Ah.. Aye. Har! Me line o' though' jus' go' disrupted, sorry. *you can almost see the dwarf grinning through the ink and paper*
Dessa, aye. Well, she 'appened ter be engaged to the second in command o' the Mountaineers..
I actually me' 'er on their weddin' day. Bu', as fate would 'ave i'. Tha' lad, Hammur by name, became beligeran', perhaps lettin' the bottle go ter 'is 'ead more than mos' dwarves, and eventually wen' missin'.
And remains so.. I still keep me eyes open, and 'e 'as been spotted from time ter time. Hrm.. *the letter trails off there*
So, time passes.. and the Mountaineers were disbanded ter be replaced with The Sentinels of the Light. Which I meself were the leader o'.
And we thrived fer a good while. Bringin' Wilo, Gart, Aelm, Lyda, Sekel, Khalis and others with us from the Mountaineers.
We had our ups and downs, all of us. There was the time in gnomeregan, Wilo sent the big gnomish spider machine sprawling off it's platform and little under a minute later, there was nothing we could do but to stand and watch, as a army of gnomes, and gnomish machines drove down on top of us.
But most things pale in comparison to this. And I still don't have all the facts straight. The archbishop, needed help, he was the target of a assassination and Dessa was to protect him. She ended up having her soul stolen by the Scarlet Crusade, she became a shell of herself, not speaking, hardly acting. And it had to be retrieved from Lady Tremaine in the Scarlet Crusade's Cathedral. She was being stored inside her amulet, and could only be released by an encantation that Gart had been blessed with the knowledge of.
Meanwhile, there was an infestation of the Scarlet Crusade in our ranks, creating much division amongst all of us and tensions were high, they were over come in time, but I do not think they could ever be glossed over entirely.
It was about this time while I was recovering from the wound in my thigh that Dessa Grimsdottir and I were engaged. Soon, too soon in fact for it interrupted the ceremony I had to leave for healing purposes and took a large amount of time in Loch Modan, Dessa became the leader of the Sentinels, and thus started the decline.
Tensions, built, disagreements flared and Dessa left the guild. Once she had gone, the Sentinels spiraled down, members leaving, gone missing, and the guild became inactive.
This was almost two years ago...
((to be continued))