07-30-2010, 11:45 PM
((This was a story I started a long time ago starring my Paladin Seth Michaels. I'll be continuing it with the restart! =D))
Part I: A faint tune flutters through the air as night falls upon a small Argent Dawn camp on the border between the Eastern and Western Plaguelands. Some men tell tales of battles past and others obnoxiously sing songs from taverns back home. The paladin Seth Michaels is among them, silently smiling and eating a bowl of stew freshly cooked over the camp-fire. The Plaguelands always put Michaels on edge, not being able to sense whether undead are close or not isn't his favorite thing.
The talking dies down when the men go to sleep. It is not Michaels turn for watch, but he volunteers since he would have been up anyway. As he patrols the campsite, Seth begins to reminisce about his last visit to his home city, Stormwind. The smell of freshly baked muffins filled the air; children laughed and ran through the streets; and having an odd conversation wit a fellow Argent Soldier about "Gnome loving". Michaels mind is brought back to reality by the sound of snapping sticks near the camp. Quietly drawing his sword and creeping toward the sound, ready to strike at any moment. As it turns out it was a soldier who needed to urinate. With an odd sensation of disappointment Michaels re-sheathed his blade and pat the man on the back. "Be a little quieter next time." A few hours later a Dwarf came to relieve Seth of his post. The Dwarf handed Michaels some bread and after exchanging a few words he was off to sleep, well, read in his tent.
Loud cries and the all too familiar sound of swords ringing off swords woke Michaels, he had fallen asleep in his chair whilst reading. The Paladin grabs his claymore and runs out of his tent. Muttering a quick blessing for protection, Michaels charges into the chaos, blade tearing through ghouls and the limbs of abominations. Michaels was caught off guard when a sword met his own on a back-swing, he whirled around to face his new opponent only to be struck with awe. What stood before him was a pale man with eyes that shown like water in the moonlight, the mans sword couldn't have been any smaller than Seth's own yet his opponent swung it as if he were wielding a knife. The Death Knight charged at Michaels, taking advantage of the shocked Paladin and arcing his sword down with a powerful thrust. Seth broke out of his star-struck state soon enough to block the attack. The Paladin shot his most powerful bolt of light at the Death Knight, barely leaving a scratch on him. Michaels charged at the Death Knight, arcing his sword toward the Knight's neck, only to be parried and get an armored elbow to the cheek. He thrusts back to a safer distance , drops of blood falling from his cheek. The Death Knight stands straight "Do you actually think you can defeat me?!" The undead raises his hand, an eerie green glow forming around his gauntlet. "You will die, Paladin scum!" As the bolt of unholy magic erupts from the Death Knights hand, Michaels creates a bolt of holy light which counters the Death Knights unholy bolt in a joining of the two blasts. The Death Knight is distracted for a few seconds by this and Michaels takes the opportunity to charge yet again, this time his sword manages to pierce through the man's chest. The Death Knight simply laughs at this. "Did you believe a mere flesh wound could har-..." Before he could finish Michaels blasted him in the face with another holy shock, the majority of the Death Knight's head was gone, but the back of the skull and a few chunks of brain remained. "Cocky fucker."
Michaels kicked the body off of his sword then peered around, seeing that only a few undead remained. A Dwarf stood not far from him trying to remove his axe from an undead's skull. "Oi! This 'un wa's fun, eh, Laddie?" Seth chuckles and looks down at the Death Knight. "This is the second one I have seen. Where are they coming from?" The Dwarf shrugs "Yeh might wan' teh ask a higha' offishul, Boyo. Eh bet teh commanda's half got a repor' frum Lard Fardrin' ar sumthin'" Michaels returns his sword to its sheath "I'll do that." He grabs the Death Knight's runeblade "I better give this to the commander, too." He then grabs the body and hauls it to a pile that the other members of his squad stacked. With a quick nod to his comrades, Michaels walks off in search of his commander.
Part II: James Alson was sitting on a stump smoking some pipe weed. His armor was covered in blood and guts, his face was the same, but he didn't mind. The Scourge had attacked them during the night, though he had no guess as to why. They were fairly far from where the Argent scouts usually spotted the undead. James sat there smoking his pipe weed and contemplating the days events when he was interrupted by one of his Soldiers. It was Seth Michaels, a good friend of James' who had saved his life on more than one occasion."Commander, I was wondering if you knew the reason for the recent Scourge attacks and the sudden influx in Death Knights." James' facial expression grew stern, he glanced at Seth's hand which held the Runeblade. "So, there was another leading this group of undead, eh?" Michaels gave a slight nod. "And you managed to kill it. Impressive. You are a valuable asset to this squad, Seth. You fight with passion and you are a true friend. But I must warn you...Don't get cocky. You may have managed to kill this Death Knight, but next time I doubt you will be as lucky." Seth's gaze doesn't leave James, the look in his eyes makes the Commander a bit uneasy. "Seth, to answer your question, I do not know. I have not heard anything from any of the other Commanders." Just as he finished speaking a small boy, looking about seventeen, ran up to the two men. "Sir,...I bear...word from the...Bulwark." One glance at the boy and one could infer that he had ran a great distance to find James. "What news do you bring, boy?" The boy bends over with his hands resting on his knees, trying to catch his breath before speaking again. "The Bulwark..There's an army located just outside of it...." James and Michaels looked at each other for a second. "What army?! Has it begun attacking?!" The boy nods. "I would guess so. They sent me off to inform all of the nearby squads and camps when they saw the army of Scourge on the horizon." James looked toward Michaels. "Inform the men. We march to the Bulwark by nightfall." Seth nods and runs off to the rest of the squad.
The night was silent of all but the constant beating of the soldiers making their way through the Western Plaguelands. After a few hours of marching they find a clear area to set up camp. While at the camp, Michaels began to feel a malicious power from within the Runeblade. He uses some of his most powerful blessing to turn his cloak into a shield from the darkness of the Runeblade. "Smart move, laddeh." It was the Dwarf from this morning. "Those thengs are pure evul." Michaels nods and wraps the blade in the cloth and tying it as tight as he can.
By mid-morning they had met with another squad who was heading to the Bulwark. The increased numbers boosted morale and the overall mood of the militia was cheery. The men joked and told stories about each other laying with another's sister. This mood lasted for a short while, once they reached a hill overlooking the Bulwark, the company fell dead silent. "What madness drives them to assault the Bulwark in such vast numbers?" cries James. Michaels pats his shoulder. "It's not that bad. We have the light on our side and the support of more of the Dawn fighting on the other side of them." James stares at Michaels, the Paladin's optimistic outlook improving his own. "Aye. This battle will be nothing!" James had a quick chat with the other squad's Commander, then they raised their weapons in unison ad charged the Scourge. Everyone grabbed their weapons and ran into battle with very optimistic battle cries.
The clash between the two armies is a fairly nice spectacle to watch. Since the Undead had no clue they were coming(except the loud battle cries), the Dawn was able to hack away at the first few lines of undead with no problems. Michaels hacked away at the undead with his very familiar Dwarf companion screaming obscenities by his side. Seth points to an abomination and the Dwarf yells "Toss me!" Seth immediately tosses the Dwarf at the abomination and runs after. The Dwarf latches onto the abomination's shoulder with his axe and swings himself up while Seth is distracting the beast by slashing at its limbs. The Dwarf pulls his axe from the shoulder then cleaves the abomination's head in half from the ear up. Michaels chuckles as the Dwarf jumps off the body as it falls to the ground. "Tha's how we do it in Ironfarge!" The duo run farther into the chaos, slicing at everything in their path. About an hour or so into battle, Michaels and his Dwarf friend can see the top of the Bulwark and see the number of undead diminishing. Not much longer into the battle there was no trace of the undead, except for a few Forsaken.
"Great fight, Boyo!" Michaels smiles "You, too." The Dwarf returns the smile "Name's Siegefreid Firebeard, beh teh way." Seth shakes his hand and pulls his sword from a ghouls gut with his other "I'm Seth Michaels." The two spent the rest of the night piling and burning the bodies of the dead, after they were done there Michaels went to tend to wounded while Siegefried got a bite to eat for himself and Seth. Near midnight Seth sat down and had a long chat with an Orc stationed at the Bulwark, though he was unable to acquire information about why the Scourge attacked the Bulwark. It looked like no one really knew why all of the sudden attacks had been happening, but Michaels got the feeling it had something to do with the battle in Northrend. After a long night of thought he came to the conclusion that he would have to find a way to go to Northrend to stop the Scourge and finally get some peace in the world. It also occurred to him that it would be the best place to rid himself of the damned Runblade he wore on his back....
Part III: Seth was eating a bowl of porridge in the early morning, accompanied by Siegefried. They had not heard word of what time they would head back to the Eastern Plaguelands, but they knew something was up when Commander James Alson walked up and called his squad to finish their breakfast then gather around him. Once there was a large group huddled around him, James read a letter with the seal of the Argent Crusade on it.
As James finished reading the letter there were many outburst among the crowd. "You can't leave us Commander!", "We need you!". Few kept their calm, among these were Michaels and Sigefried. James had locked himself in his tent(metaphorically) for the next few hours as he tried to decide who would be best suited to command this squad.
When he finally walked out of his tent he announced that he was going to put it to a vote. There were load roars of men screaming their own names until James heard someone shout "I vote Seth Michaels becomes our new commander!" Seth stood up and looked at James, both had astonished looks on their faces. The person who shouted walked forward, it was Siegefried. "Seth Michaels is eh gr'at chois' fer commanda'. Heh be a strong one. I watch'd him take down eh Death Knight on his lon'sum. In teh pas' few dehs eh hav' gotten to know him well. And eh tell yeh, he is a nat'ral barn leader." No one seemed to shout protests, they all just watched Michaels standing with the wrapped Runeblade across his back. Finally James said, "Seth, do you object to this?" Michaels simply shook his head. Siegefried let out a smile and watched James and Seth stare at each other for a good long moment. "It is a good decision." James said, then he turned and shouted to the rest of the squad, "Hear that men?! From now on you answer to Commander Seth Michaels!" Alson turned back to face Seth. "I'll be gone in the morning, so in the mean time I'll tell you all you need to know about being a commander. After that the squad returned to their regular routine while James led Michaels into his tent....
Part I: A faint tune flutters through the air as night falls upon a small Argent Dawn camp on the border between the Eastern and Western Plaguelands. Some men tell tales of battles past and others obnoxiously sing songs from taverns back home. The paladin Seth Michaels is among them, silently smiling and eating a bowl of stew freshly cooked over the camp-fire. The Plaguelands always put Michaels on edge, not being able to sense whether undead are close or not isn't his favorite thing.
The talking dies down when the men go to sleep. It is not Michaels turn for watch, but he volunteers since he would have been up anyway. As he patrols the campsite, Seth begins to reminisce about his last visit to his home city, Stormwind. The smell of freshly baked muffins filled the air; children laughed and ran through the streets; and having an odd conversation wit a fellow Argent Soldier about "Gnome loving". Michaels mind is brought back to reality by the sound of snapping sticks near the camp. Quietly drawing his sword and creeping toward the sound, ready to strike at any moment. As it turns out it was a soldier who needed to urinate. With an odd sensation of disappointment Michaels re-sheathed his blade and pat the man on the back. "Be a little quieter next time." A few hours later a Dwarf came to relieve Seth of his post. The Dwarf handed Michaels some bread and after exchanging a few words he was off to sleep, well, read in his tent.
Loud cries and the all too familiar sound of swords ringing off swords woke Michaels, he had fallen asleep in his chair whilst reading. The Paladin grabs his claymore and runs out of his tent. Muttering a quick blessing for protection, Michaels charges into the chaos, blade tearing through ghouls and the limbs of abominations. Michaels was caught off guard when a sword met his own on a back-swing, he whirled around to face his new opponent only to be struck with awe. What stood before him was a pale man with eyes that shown like water in the moonlight, the mans sword couldn't have been any smaller than Seth's own yet his opponent swung it as if he were wielding a knife. The Death Knight charged at Michaels, taking advantage of the shocked Paladin and arcing his sword down with a powerful thrust. Seth broke out of his star-struck state soon enough to block the attack. The Paladin shot his most powerful bolt of light at the Death Knight, barely leaving a scratch on him. Michaels charged at the Death Knight, arcing his sword toward the Knight's neck, only to be parried and get an armored elbow to the cheek. He thrusts back to a safer distance , drops of blood falling from his cheek. The Death Knight stands straight "Do you actually think you can defeat me?!" The undead raises his hand, an eerie green glow forming around his gauntlet. "You will die, Paladin scum!" As the bolt of unholy magic erupts from the Death Knights hand, Michaels creates a bolt of holy light which counters the Death Knights unholy bolt in a joining of the two blasts. The Death Knight is distracted for a few seconds by this and Michaels takes the opportunity to charge yet again, this time his sword manages to pierce through the man's chest. The Death Knight simply laughs at this. "Did you believe a mere flesh wound could har-..." Before he could finish Michaels blasted him in the face with another holy shock, the majority of the Death Knight's head was gone, but the back of the skull and a few chunks of brain remained. "Cocky fucker."
Michaels kicked the body off of his sword then peered around, seeing that only a few undead remained. A Dwarf stood not far from him trying to remove his axe from an undead's skull. "Oi! This 'un wa's fun, eh, Laddie?" Seth chuckles and looks down at the Death Knight. "This is the second one I have seen. Where are they coming from?" The Dwarf shrugs "Yeh might wan' teh ask a higha' offishul, Boyo. Eh bet teh commanda's half got a repor' frum Lard Fardrin' ar sumthin'" Michaels returns his sword to its sheath "I'll do that." He grabs the Death Knight's runeblade "I better give this to the commander, too." He then grabs the body and hauls it to a pile that the other members of his squad stacked. With a quick nod to his comrades, Michaels walks off in search of his commander.
Part II: James Alson was sitting on a stump smoking some pipe weed. His armor was covered in blood and guts, his face was the same, but he didn't mind. The Scourge had attacked them during the night, though he had no guess as to why. They were fairly far from where the Argent scouts usually spotted the undead. James sat there smoking his pipe weed and contemplating the days events when he was interrupted by one of his Soldiers. It was Seth Michaels, a good friend of James' who had saved his life on more than one occasion."Commander, I was wondering if you knew the reason for the recent Scourge attacks and the sudden influx in Death Knights." James' facial expression grew stern, he glanced at Seth's hand which held the Runeblade. "So, there was another leading this group of undead, eh?" Michaels gave a slight nod. "And you managed to kill it. Impressive. You are a valuable asset to this squad, Seth. You fight with passion and you are a true friend. But I must warn you...Don't get cocky. You may have managed to kill this Death Knight, but next time I doubt you will be as lucky." Seth's gaze doesn't leave James, the look in his eyes makes the Commander a bit uneasy. "Seth, to answer your question, I do not know. I have not heard anything from any of the other Commanders." Just as he finished speaking a small boy, looking about seventeen, ran up to the two men. "Sir,...I bear...word from the...Bulwark." One glance at the boy and one could infer that he had ran a great distance to find James. "What news do you bring, boy?" The boy bends over with his hands resting on his knees, trying to catch his breath before speaking again. "The Bulwark..There's an army located just outside of it...." James and Michaels looked at each other for a second. "What army?! Has it begun attacking?!" The boy nods. "I would guess so. They sent me off to inform all of the nearby squads and camps when they saw the army of Scourge on the horizon." James looked toward Michaels. "Inform the men. We march to the Bulwark by nightfall." Seth nods and runs off to the rest of the squad.
The night was silent of all but the constant beating of the soldiers making their way through the Western Plaguelands. After a few hours of marching they find a clear area to set up camp. While at the camp, Michaels began to feel a malicious power from within the Runeblade. He uses some of his most powerful blessing to turn his cloak into a shield from the darkness of the Runeblade. "Smart move, laddeh." It was the Dwarf from this morning. "Those thengs are pure evul." Michaels nods and wraps the blade in the cloth and tying it as tight as he can.
By mid-morning they had met with another squad who was heading to the Bulwark. The increased numbers boosted morale and the overall mood of the militia was cheery. The men joked and told stories about each other laying with another's sister. This mood lasted for a short while, once they reached a hill overlooking the Bulwark, the company fell dead silent. "What madness drives them to assault the Bulwark in such vast numbers?" cries James. Michaels pats his shoulder. "It's not that bad. We have the light on our side and the support of more of the Dawn fighting on the other side of them." James stares at Michaels, the Paladin's optimistic outlook improving his own. "Aye. This battle will be nothing!" James had a quick chat with the other squad's Commander, then they raised their weapons in unison ad charged the Scourge. Everyone grabbed their weapons and ran into battle with very optimistic battle cries.
The clash between the two armies is a fairly nice spectacle to watch. Since the Undead had no clue they were coming(except the loud battle cries), the Dawn was able to hack away at the first few lines of undead with no problems. Michaels hacked away at the undead with his very familiar Dwarf companion screaming obscenities by his side. Seth points to an abomination and the Dwarf yells "Toss me!" Seth immediately tosses the Dwarf at the abomination and runs after. The Dwarf latches onto the abomination's shoulder with his axe and swings himself up while Seth is distracting the beast by slashing at its limbs. The Dwarf pulls his axe from the shoulder then cleaves the abomination's head in half from the ear up. Michaels chuckles as the Dwarf jumps off the body as it falls to the ground. "Tha's how we do it in Ironfarge!" The duo run farther into the chaos, slicing at everything in their path. About an hour or so into battle, Michaels and his Dwarf friend can see the top of the Bulwark and see the number of undead diminishing. Not much longer into the battle there was no trace of the undead, except for a few Forsaken.
"Great fight, Boyo!" Michaels smiles "You, too." The Dwarf returns the smile "Name's Siegefreid Firebeard, beh teh way." Seth shakes his hand and pulls his sword from a ghouls gut with his other "I'm Seth Michaels." The two spent the rest of the night piling and burning the bodies of the dead, after they were done there Michaels went to tend to wounded while Siegefried got a bite to eat for himself and Seth. Near midnight Seth sat down and had a long chat with an Orc stationed at the Bulwark, though he was unable to acquire information about why the Scourge attacked the Bulwark. It looked like no one really knew why all of the sudden attacks had been happening, but Michaels got the feeling it had something to do with the battle in Northrend. After a long night of thought he came to the conclusion that he would have to find a way to go to Northrend to stop the Scourge and finally get some peace in the world. It also occurred to him that it would be the best place to rid himself of the damned Runblade he wore on his back....
Part III: Seth was eating a bowl of porridge in the early morning, accompanied by Siegefried. They had not heard word of what time they would head back to the Eastern Plaguelands, but they knew something was up when Commander James Alson walked up and called his squad to finish their breakfast then gather around him. Once there was a large group huddled around him, James read a letter with the seal of the Argent Crusade on it.
Quote:Dear James Alson,
I am sure you have noticed the increased amounts of Scourge armies led by Death Knights in the Plaguelands. This was all part of some plot that the Lich King has created, I think he means to take over the world. This is unacceptable, and so I will be expanding my army here in Northrend. I have chosen you and a few other commanders in your region to report to the Argent Crusade Vanguard here in Icecrown. I don't care who, but you must appoint a member of your squad to become the new commander. I trust you will make a wise decision.
Sincerely,
Tirion Fordring.
As James finished reading the letter there were many outburst among the crowd. "You can't leave us Commander!", "We need you!". Few kept their calm, among these were Michaels and Sigefried. James had locked himself in his tent(metaphorically) for the next few hours as he tried to decide who would be best suited to command this squad.
When he finally walked out of his tent he announced that he was going to put it to a vote. There were load roars of men screaming their own names until James heard someone shout "I vote Seth Michaels becomes our new commander!" Seth stood up and looked at James, both had astonished looks on their faces. The person who shouted walked forward, it was Siegefried. "Seth Michaels is eh gr'at chois' fer commanda'. Heh be a strong one. I watch'd him take down eh Death Knight on his lon'sum. In teh pas' few dehs eh hav' gotten to know him well. And eh tell yeh, he is a nat'ral barn leader." No one seemed to shout protests, they all just watched Michaels standing with the wrapped Runeblade across his back. Finally James said, "Seth, do you object to this?" Michaels simply shook his head. Siegefried let out a smile and watched James and Seth stare at each other for a good long moment. "It is a good decision." James said, then he turned and shouted to the rest of the squad, "Hear that men?! From now on you answer to Commander Seth Michaels!" Alson turned back to face Seth. "I'll be gone in the morning, so in the mean time I'll tell you all you need to know about being a commander. After that the squad returned to their regular routine while James led Michaels into his tent....
![[Image: glarfieldiator_gif_2_by_el_cid_84-d5ebmb1.gif]](http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/253/e/8/glarfieldiator_gif_2_by_el_cid_84-d5ebmb1.gif)