A Gladiator's Log

[Hawk]

(( These posts may contain swears or brief mentions of sexual interactions. Hawk is blunt. ))

Hawk sat at the Earthshaker Campfire in the very early hours of the morning. Most of the others were fast asleep, others were having difficulty resting like he used to in the Gurubashi's chambers. A large blue palm was clutching onto a quill and he occasionally dipped it in ink as he scribbled Orcish writings into a brown book. The title had yet to be filled in.

Alright then...

Normally, I'm not some wimp who has to write down personal thoughts for him to be at peace or whatever, but in my life I've gone through some crazy shit, and right now it's just becoming more bizarre. I've likely gone through more than a load of people put together... and yet I live. Well, right now I do, anyway. I figured when I do die some bugger will hopefully collect it and read it so that at least someone remembers me and my acts. If in fact, you are reading this and I'm dead, you feel like publishing it feel free. But don't steal credit for it else I'll be coming for you.

So, what is my name? I've had many. Hawk, The Bloodsail Butcher, Captain, Goretalon... but my real name is Mokaku, and I'm a Troll of the Darkspear Tribe. Why am I writing in Orcish? More people know Orcish than Zandali. At least, people who give a damn.

Let's start from the beginning. I was born on the Darkspear Isles like all Darkspear Trolls. It was an alright life, I guess. My mother was just a cook and a sextoy whilst my father was a fisherman, which brought both him and me deep shame. Fair enough, SOMEONE had to be the fisherman, but I didn't see why it had to my father. He and I were both mocked, as I was the one helping him. Most of the other adults in our village were hexers or shaman or strong hunters. It just made me feel... useless. Though one day, I was called into my father's tent. He looked a little ill so I was curious as to what was wrong. I remember the words my father said to me as if he were whispering them to me right now...

"Live your life, my son. Don't become like me - a man who was never free. I want you to do whatever makes you happy..."

I was confused at why he was saying this to me all of a sudden, but the next morning my father was dead. Theories were brought out, but none of them proven. I was taken in by a hunter who was shocked, nearly even appauled, that I had no knowledge of how to hunt. The man quickly told me all he knew. Tracking was... not easy. There was usually other tracks in the way or they were very faint, and my eyes couldn't tell them apart. But what I lacked in that, I excelled in combat, and so I just became a warrior for the village instead.

Hawk quickly snapped his journal shut and looked up. People were flooding to the Earthshaker Camp all of a sudden, and he was the only one who was suspicious of it...

[Hawk]

So I became a Warrior, and life seemed much easier. People respected me, and I was even given a mate. As we were walking into the jungle, out of fucking nowhere a throwing axe just plants itself into her back. Then Murlocs came at me! After getting some wounds I cut them down and picked up my mate and went to take her back to the village for healing, but the entire damned village was being invaded by Murlocs as well. My mentor quickly dragged me into the battle and we took them down. Little did I realise that it was the entire island as well. Just to note though, the Murlocs weren't the tiny ones like the Humans get in Elwynn. These ones were over six feet tall, some of them nearly as tall as us. We even had Human scum on our backs as well.

None of us were making progression to each other. I joined scouting parties from time to time but I was usually in the frontlines. But I had enough. I'll admit, I was losing hope. Everyone I knew was dead and it was a war going nowhere. As I was about to leave, I saw Orcs sailing onto our shores. I was one of the first to meet them, and I'm damn glad they were here. They have honour and they are a worthy ally. Their Chieftain and ours even befriended each other, and Thrall was there for Sen'jin's final moments. So I hear, anyway. I didn't have the privilege to be in their presence. Together we thwarted both the threats and left our sinking home.

I would have assisted in helping the Tauren rid themselves of the centaur threat with the Orcs, but I was too badly injured and couldn't even stand. The shaman had a hard time keeping me down. Then something much bigger was knocking on our doors than weak pinkskins and fish people. The Burning Legion, an enemy that was unknown to me at the time, had made their appearance. As a debt to the Orcs, I decided to join in the Third War... and let me tell you, once you're in that kind of war, there's little than can make you feel fear... I was nervous. Wouldn't you be if you see an army of demons for the first time?

Still. I roared the same warcry as everyone else and joined the charge. Demons are not to be trifled with. I remember nearly every moment. Every swing, every cry, every drop of blood. And that moment of victory. Your beaten, bloodied and exhausted... but you still stand, holding your weapons into the air with a wide smile on your face and a long bellow with your brethren. After the Third War... I found myself with nothing to do. So I decided to go to Ratchet, and man, THAT is the place. Casinos, Troll women, booze, parties and brawls. After about a week in Ratchet I was approached a Troll telling me he had a crew and was looking for arms to help him. The pay was pretty damn good and I was a sucker for coin, so I thought, why not?

The first few weeks weren't easy... there was barely any Horde for one thing. Pink Elves, Humans, short people with beards as large as them, and midgets. There was a large variety of different races, and I didn't trust them one bit. Especially the Humans. But it had it's benefits. We were recognised by the Cartel for getting rid of Bloodsails, and seeing as how much loot THEY get, it just added even more to ours! Living was easy, and I eventually got used to the people on the ship. Not that today I'm a dipshit Elf lover...

[Hawk]

A few months later, and we were shipwrecked. In a typical cliche manner as well. You guessed it, there was a storm and our ship collided with the rocks. You'd think after hearing a ton of stories about how sailors are shipwrecked from storms and rocks that people would avoid it, but in a storm a ship doesn't seem to want to go the way you want it to. She goes where the wave goes, and in the chaos the rudder may as well be a fork. And so, we were stuck in an island.

We were lucky though. The rocks had only gouged a hole in the hull, and somehow even turned the ship onto it's side and we washed upon the shore - as well as the ship. At the time, repairing it was out of the question. The only trees that were around us was palmwood, and it doesn't float. So we really were stranded. The good thing however was that food and water were in high supply. Not only did we have the ship's food but there were beasts that could be hunted, coconuts in trees, and there was even a fresh spring for endless supplies of water. It felt like a holiday except for the ridiculous amount of rain. We had break barrels and tables apart because the wood in the jungle was too wet to burn, more often than not.

Then strange things began to happen... firstly, it was only raining every third day. At the exact same time, and it always lasted for what felt like 10 hours. As the rain continued, my crew were reporting hearing voices in a tongue they didn't recognise and they saw disturbing visions and hallucinations. I never heard voices, but I did see hallucinations. I saw dead and bloodied Kul Tiran Humans and sometimes I saw my father in a fishing boat out in the ocean. None of them ever spoke, and usually when we spotted them they dissapeared. The crew began to get uneasy, some were near to having a heart attack. Some Human clung onto me for dear life... were we at sea I'd tell her to get some other Human to solve her problems, but hell, she had that pout you can't say no to. b***h...

The rest were very reluctant to follow them, but I had enough. If we just did nothing then eventually all of us would face the same fate as they did. We still had guns and grenades, as well as our swords. I told everyone to get into the most subtle armour they could and we crept through the valleys. There was no opposition save for whispers I heard in my head, and they were in my own native tongue, but translating was the least of my worries. I peered through some branches and saw there was indeed a village of Trolls, but... they were mummified, and risen from the dead. This was something I didn't expect. There was TONS of them... but I had a feeling Sam'di was watching over us that day and granted us the chance to get rid of the undead.

They were performing some sort of ritual and were too focused on it to think of a possible ambush. We saw our crew in cages, no longer possessed, and they were about to be sacrificed. Fortunately we had the elememt of surprised, and bombs. Lots of bombs. I yelled the order and a volley of grenades, bullets and explosives rained on them. The damage was cataclysmic! We wiped out at least 70 of them and there was only about 20 left. We may have wasted all of our explosives, but it was decision that had to be made. I drew my swords, as did the rest of my crew, and we full out charged into the undead.

The shrieks of Undead and the cries of my crew were all that could be heard. The Undead were frailed after being here for so long. One punch made a hole. The dust and severed pieces of the Trolls were left on the sands after a long battle. We would have celebrated with rum, but the rum was gone...

Sam'di rewarded us for our efforts. As we explored the camp and set free our captured crew, we found another marooned ship. Whilst it couldn't be used, it too crashed here within the month and the wood was usable. We salvaged the parts we could and got to work on repairing our vessel. It took a few days, but with no risen Troll tribes to get in our way, progress was smooth. We finally left the island and got back to Ratchet for some rest.

EDIT: I need to preview what I write more often.

[Hawk]

Two years later, and I was no longer a second in command. I was the Captain. I made port in Ratchet as we were low in supplies. As I was paying for some booze and leaving the tavern... some sick motherfucking Human comes up to me and asks me if I want to buy a slave. And that slave was just a Human girl no more than 5 years old. A KID. I don't know what came over me, but I just beat the living shit out of him. Kids don't deserve something like that. But the problem then was she wanted to come with me. She saw me as some... well, f**k if I know. I wasn't and never will be good with kids, but leaving a 5 year old girl in the middle of Ratchet? That's something I can't do. There's dodgey assholes in Ratchet.. so she joined the ship.

She had a sort of crooked spine, so we decided to call her Crookie. Which she didn't seem to mind. Just as long as she was safe. Strange thing is, her back somehow straightened itself out over time, but we called her Crookie anyway. Her birth name was Natasha. A year later, and we were pretty close. I don't want to say I felt like a father, but she saw me as one, because sometimes she called me 'Dad'.

Dad... even now that name seems alien to me. I heard rumours of Proudmoore's forces attempting to take over Durotar. I guess I was pretty sick of Humans getting in my brethren's way all the time, so I let my crew take a break and I went to war once more. There wasn't much of it to speak of. We were told to kill as little Humans as possible, which was a b***h, simply put. They're the ones who drew first blood, it's only right that theirs be shed. But I listened to my orders and lived. I returned to my crew with more war wounds, and we sailed off. We were sailing to Feralas as we heard some Dwarf was paying people to go excavate some ruins. And on that day... we were shipwrecked AGAIN.

Well, you can't exactly call it a Shipwreck. In fact, I don't even know how it happened. The waters were calm and Shango showed me no signs of his wrath. One moment we're sailing, the next moment, darkness. Before we know it we're waking up on the shores of Feralas with nothing more than a few scrapes and our ship gone. We soon discovered who took our ship - the Dwarf who hired us, and he had a bunch of goons with him as well. Admittedly, it was a clever con, but the fucker still stole MY ship. But he was already sailing away, so we had to trek the whole way back to Ratchet. Again. It took a few days and the new recruits kept complaining that their feet hurt. One of them was a female Blood Elf who asked me to give her a foot massage. I told her to go to hell. I'm not touching some sweaty Elf foot! I have more pride than that.

We arrived at Ratchet and saw our ship. So naturally, we took back what was ours and we sailed off once more. If you think that there couldn't possibly be anymore crap I've lived through, you haven't heard anything yet...

[Wuvvums]

((Oh, I like reading these. I didn't know that Hawk had so much history to his character. Keep up the good work c: ))

[Hawk]

(( Thanks Wuvvums! :>

This next post is actually based off an event I was going to host, but things got in the way. It took a good deal of thought and I really wished it was done so I could see if it got any positive feedback. ))

The Archons of Paradise

This was one of the most memorable events of my life... I decided the crew deserved a break. As well as Crookie. Despite being a kid she's gone through a lot. More than most. So we decided to have a break for a while. We stormed the town and drunk the days away. Including Crookie. Drunk children are pretty fucking hilarious. We did limit her so she didn't throw her guts up. When we were sober, we heard rumours of ships dissapearing without a trace. Apparently 8 ships were lost in a week. So, along with other Cartel ships, we decided to investigate... little did I know what shit I would put us all through.

The plan was pretty simple. Finding these guys wasn't going to be easy, so we would have to just be bait. Let them attack us, then kill them. I've seen my fair share of strange crap, but this one takes the cake. Half way through the voyage, objects begin moving by themselves. Kind of felt sorry for the cook using the boiling saucepan. Some of them attacked, but only when the crew freaked out. We heard frantic noises coming from the cartel ships at both sides of us. Then a voice mumbles in the air in what can only be demonic or something. I'm no linguist. But then we're invaded. And not by pirates, no. By clones of OURSELVES. It was an illusion, but it felt so real. I was actually striking at myself... and I even killed him. But then darkness took us all and we were stranded on an island. By technical terms this is the second shipwreck, but as far as how many times we've been totally screwed? It makes 3.

Most of us managed to survive, including the Cartel ships. They were shitting themselves and their Captains had either seen too few winters or too many. So it was down to me to lead the crew and this rabble. I couldn't describe what Crookie was feeling... but she never left my side. I felt sorry for her. I considered escorting her to the Rebel Camp and letting her be taken to Stormwind where she could live her days in peace, but... I couldn't. That, and she hated the idea. I guess she didn't want to leave her 'father'...

We had problems. Unlike the first time we were shipwrecked, our boats were truly destroyed. Meaning no food. Or water. He only had a small area to go, as our exits were blocked off. Behind us was a giant swirling portal, presumably where we came from, but going into it had no affect. To our left and right were colossal sized spiked barriers that were at least 30 feet tall. Climbing them was out of the question, as they had bodies strewn on them and on the ground beneath them. Some were still decomposing, others were nearly dust. And infront was a giant gate that wouldn't budge at all. A day passed and suddenly the gates opened themselves. As we gazed through... we couldn't believe what we saw. Crashed zeppelins, ships, statues, campsites, crates... everything that was reported missing was here. They were just sitting there in the middle of the island. But they looked as if they were here for years, not months. And then things got even worse... things aged quicker on this island. Including us. Crookie looked nearly 12. Even my hair was greying.

We were ambushed by a wolf pack, but we overcame that with only 3 casualties. Their meat didn't taste that good, but it gave us some strength. Some of us drunk their blood out of desperation to quench our thirst... but we soon found a ship that was transporting wine. Luckily, aged wine is still drinkable, and it was particularly weak, so we managed to drink a decent amount before becoming tipsy. Well, they did. I was fine with the blood... however bad it tasted. If I was going to command these guys, I needed to concentrate, and being drunk isn't a good idea here. We survived for a couple more days before suddenly a group of Magi appeared to us. Before we could assault them... we were being teleported away. We traveled through the void itself and landed in a completely different location...

[Hawk]

The Archons of Paradise - Part 2

On the bright side, we were no longer aged more than we should've been. We were back to normal. We woke up in a dragon skeleton, and there's a giant portal before us. It looks similar to the dark portal, but nowhere near as powerful... but powerful enough. As we got out, we saw a Blood Elf in dark crimson robes. He let out some babble about how "they" are going to reforge the word for the better and they are looking for worthy champions. And then monsters came flooding out of the portal. This was a fight for mere survival... I commanded warriors to take most of the blows and hold the line and for gunman to remain behind me. Some of the monsters were weak, but they were in vast quantities, but there were even stronger monsters coming out. We all stood as we watched them march towards us. Charging straight into them would be suicide. Sheer numbers would overwhelm us. We had to narrow them down. With little space to move though, this wasn't easy.

The ranged behind carefully aimed their guns for the Felguards, whilst the rest were waiting for them to approach.

"Hold... steady lads..." I was pretty damn glad I had people who knew how to follow orders... it made my task of getting everyone out alive seem less challenging as it appeared to be.

"FIRE AT WILL!" I yelled and the booms of rifles pierced the air behind me. A few of the Felguards toppled over as the steel projectiles ripped through their skulls. Other minions such as felhounds or naga quickened their pace to serve their masters... whoever the hell they were. A naga took a swing at me with a trident. I brought up my sword and blocked them and wrenched the weapon out of the lizard-guy's grasp. His head was rolling onto the floor before we advanced in line. With the combination of accurate gunman taking out the greater enemies and the frontline cutting down the weaker monsters, this was now a game of endurance.

"MORE WHELPS FOR THE DEATHTOLL!" I heard an Orc yell and he let out a long roar which energized us, our hearts pumping with adrenaline, our weapons sewing death across the wasteland. The Orcs were always willing to fight, and something about them gave everyone who fought alongside them spirit to keep fighting on. It was a bloody fight, but we conquered this Elf's task. Once he saw his minions blood being all that remained of them. he slowly clapped in an applause. As I went to shoot the bastard there and then, I realised that we had to do what this guy wanted until we could find a way to escape this madness. Hell knows where we were, and we'd just be travelling in circles until we die of starvation. I lowered my gun and he teleported us away...

We were taken into a... well, I don't even know what to call it. All we saw were corridors with runes flashing onto the walls. The thing seemed to be made of both ice and metal as the entire place around us took on a blue glow. There was only one path, and it lead to a dead end... or what seemed to be. Runes eventually appeared when someone touched the wall, and a voice in the air translated it.

"To escape these dungeons you must answer 6 questions correctly with either "yay" or "nay" unless wish to remain here forever... Do you understand?"

"Sure thing, boss!" A Goblin said smugly... the next moment, the life was drained from him, as were the others near him. 5 Goblins drew their terminal breath. The voice laughed.

"Consider that question one."

I could only assume we were being taken through some sort of intiation... I sure as hell wasn't planning to get us in a cult with some crazy pixie dust wielders, but hell, what else could we do...?

[Hawk]

The Archons of Paradise - Part 3

I guess I've rambled on about this a lot, and I'm sure if you are reading this that you want to hear about something else. I'll try shorten this, but hell, it was a long event... one of the most bizarre. Right now, in the year 33, it's the second strangest. I'll tell you the first later. Most of the questions that were asked were trick questions. We no longer had to answer yay or nay. The door opened and infront of us was that asshole Blood Elf who I was dying to throttle. He introduced himself as Calimath and called himself an Ambassador for 'The Keeper'. He gave us an offer to join him, or else he would do it by force... we refused, and battle commenced.

This guy was wielding some damn powerful magic. He kept making illusions that turned him into several forms and made avatars of himself. There was little we could do for strategy... kill his avatars and then kill him. He was finally defeated and fell into a bloody heap on the floor. What we didn't expect was his spirit to rise from his body and speak to us. He told us about how the lord is just a madman and thanked us for allowing him to rest. A mirror floated towards us like one of the Naaru at Shattrath and it showed us what was to happen if this guy was to succeed. Needless to say, the results were ugly. The mirror then morphed into a portal. We thought if we killed 'The Keeper' then we'd be finally able to escape this nightmare.

So, the mirror was in fact, a bad idea. We not only suffered a bit of damage, but we were teleported right infront of the bastard! Turns out it was his mirror, not Calimath's. We were in a group with all of his minions, who were eager to kill us after "daring to disturb The Keeper's experiments". They were heading towards us until the room began to tremble slightly. Calimath's ghost and others were also here and they abruptly assaulted the minions. This probably sounds like the biggest bullshit ever and sounds like something made up. After writing it, it sounds like make-believe even to myself. Feel free to interpret as you will, but I'll just say "f**k you", and that it happened. We were in the middle of the battle, watching Calmiath fight 'The Keeper' whilst we were killing his minions.

We found ourselves victorious and where we first landed. The barriers and the gate where there, but in the portal's place was our old ship. Calimath nodded at us before he and the spirits dissapeared. And really, I need to stop rambling, but shorter story short: We were hunted down, shipwrecked again, fuckton of Undead under a curse, small army of Makrura, found a tunnel on the island and it took us to Tanaris, and it was fairly close to Gadgetzan. We had to walk the entire way surviving on water we stole from Wastewalkers. Lost a couple more crew... but we were back.

... I need to be a more convincing story teller, but deal with it.

[Hawk]

The next few months were peaceful, thank the Loa. We did what we usually did. Sailed, stocked up in Ratchet, destroyed Bloodsails and took their loot. I took care of Crookie, and life was easy once more. We thought we repaired the ship, but the Goblins obviously forgot about the rudder and it broke whilst we were sailing. With no control over the ship, we eventually landed on the shores of Stranglethorn. A man who dived overboard to collect the rudder was now swimming back and gasping for air. He was a good sailor, that man, even if he was Human. Determined and obediant. So we repaired the rudder any way we could. Whilst we were doing that, there was already a group of Bloodsail planning to kill us. We didn't realise they were lurking to the east, and they had recognised our ship's flag and couldn't miss the chance get us at our weakest. I was taken by surprise and knocked out with a dagger in my gut.

When I opened by eyes, my ship was a flaming wreck, as I saw the trail of burnt gunpowder in the sand. I saw my entire crew dead... every last one. I felt something in my hand. It was Crookie's, but she wasn't beside me. My heart felt as if it was in my throat and I dropped the hand, which also held her wooden necklace, which was stained crimson. One of Bloodsails, an Orc, noticed me writhing and stomped over to me. He held a flintlock pistol at my head and smiled coldly. I wasn't afraid to die... but I was in shock from what had just happened. Suddenly gun shots were fired and the Orc collapsed to the floor with a groan. The Goblins of Booty Bay had heard my ship explode and came over to see what happened. After seeing me they dragged me across the shore and took me back to town.

I was in a medical ward when I next awakened. The necklace was around my neck, and I wasted a month of my life on booze, Troll prostitutes, and mourning. I was a wreck. I couldn't do anything except chug down rum and screw some broad. Eventually, the amount of booze and women I frequented came to a slow stop after seeing a trinket that belonged to my father and remembered his words. I went from being a miserable pile of rum to some crazy person. I was paying people to fly me to some random part of Kalimdor that wasn't Alliance protected and I was walking back, training myself to survive. I often took part doing dangerous stunts for shows and all in all... I was, or rather, still am, seeking thrills and putting myself in danger. Why? Because I can.

I soon began to want something else. Sure, being forced to trek back to Ratchet from a random location without using paths was fun, as was beating people up, but I felt I could do something more. As I sat in the tavern of Ratchet, I saw a Goblin come in and he was accompanied by 2 Ogre guards. He gave a speech on how he can make people -real- Gladiators, and not just those guys who occasionally participate in an arena match. It was convincing enough to make me join him, and I was on a new journey. Once we got there, we were told to get some rest and that we were going to be put through a gauntlet. Naturally, because it's a Goblin business, you've no idea what the hell they were going to do, so I was a bit on edge on what was going to happen next.

[Hawk]

The gauntlet was... impressive, to the say the least. It wasn't exactly complicated, but the fact it's so simple is what made it difficult. ... I doubt that made any sense, but I have no ink correcting fluids or whatever, so I don't care.

As I looked down the far end, I noticed a pit and some zombies in a cage infront. I've no idea if this was part of the task or anything, but I just got out my rifle and shot open the cage. The mindless dumbasses just walked straight into the pit. As I walked further, I didn't notice a rope that was on the floor. Stepping on it triggered some device and some huge stone fist was heading my way. I'm glad I dived out of the way and not just stepped to the side, as I would've had my head lopped off from some saw blades that jumped out from the walls. I crawled prone until I reached the pit and jumped over it. Then some... fucking alien creature came trying to kill me. I didn't even see it before, but hell, it saw me. After a brief struggle I killed that thing too and went on.

Then there were a bunch of pillars sticking out of the water. But the water cackled with electricity, so yeah, falling in wasn't a good idea. But this is easy shit for Trolls, even in plate armour. We're not Tauren. I lept from pillar to pillar and then reached a barbed fence where more zombies where. It was kinda cheating firing at such a close range so I thought "What the hell." and cut them down. Gurubashi needs to get some less frail zombies. At the end there was a wooden sign that said 'FINISH'. Thinking the gauntlet was done for obvious reasons, I just went on walking. Suddenly I fall through the floor and there's spikes at the bottom and a ton of chains hanging from the ceiling. Out of instincts I grappled onto the chain, which thankfully escaped a rather painful death. I climbed back up and assembled where a couple of others were. Out of 10, only 5 remained.

Later on we had a match. A team match. With some guys called... Extermination Nation. I know, sounds fucking mediocre, right?To me it sounds like a bunch of kids overstepping their boundaries, which is a dangerous thing to do. So we fought them, I was against some...hyperactive drugged up guy who just looked like a total nutter. Naturally he'd be in a mental home but you know, Goblins are Goblins. He was a pain to kill, but I finally got him. One of our team died, but eh, he was just lucky in the gauntlet. There's not really much to say about it, so I guess I'll just move on.

[Wuvvums]

((Boy, does every gladiator have to go through training like that? Or just the ones training under goblins? I know there's another gladiator on CotH but I am not sure how well a human would do at this training :B ))

[Hawk]

(( Oh no, they don't. Buuuut I wanted to be more creative than mine rather than just fighting in the arena, heh. By the way, if anyone wants to read the whole version of Hawk's prestige storyline, feel free to give it a read. It's 22 posts long though! It's located in the Prestige Titles subforum. ))

So, day or two later, and after a couple of matches, all of our next ones were solo ones. Hell if I know why they did that, but someone was probably trying to find a way to make more money. So I was given this wooden sword, and told to go kill whatever I was against. I only found out that I was against 4 enslaved Bloodsails when I heard the commentator yell about it in his booming microphone. I don't know what came over me... but I just grew furious. I lost it completely. I didn't know I was capable of such things when really worked up, but hell... those pirates were ripped limb from limb. It was brutal, but I'm glad I was in that match. Not only because I got to kill Bloodsails, but the crowd fucking loved it. They went wild when I killed the last guy.

Because I had originally entered myself as Hawk, people got a new name from that after my match. They began calling me Goretalon. It started with my team first. They just... called me Goretalon. Then everyone did. My next match was against a pair of harpies... they were pretty easy to kill. It was over quickly. But in the crowd I noticed this one guy... a Blood Elf. He was just staring at me as if I were his nemesis or something. The odd thing was he just looked so familiar, but I knew I hadn't met the guy in my life. There was just something about him. After that much I was being taken into the wild, along with my team, by Mosh'grokk. He had an unusual way of training Gladiators, but if it made me into a better fighter, then I was all for it.

Our plans were cut short though. We were ambushed by Grimtotem and captured. I was given some fucked up drug and... I can't even describe what I saw, but apparently I was going nuts. Along with that, a Goblin manned a chopper and followed us. Once he caught up to us, he gave a message to Mosh'grokk. Apparently we're not allowed to leave the arena for 'no decent reason', but it's just so they can get more money. We all knew it, they just thought we were dumb brutes. I could barely open my eyes yet alone walk, so I was carried back. In all fairness, why the f**k do Grimtotem have Forsaken Apothecaries giving me experimental drugs or whatever? And it was going to be someone else, but the dice they used to decide who was going to get it at the last minute rolled a final time - and not in my favour.

I managed to recover, and then I was to take place in one of Mosh'grokk's trials.

... Who's Mosh'grokk? I thought I wrote this down. He was my Battlemaster. A mentor, if you will. But anyway...

[Hawk]

The concept of the trial seemed pretty easy. Kill whatever the hell came out of the gates. The guys were pretty weak. A monkey could kill them, but the task was to see how many you could kill them in a certain time... 2 minutes in the arena goes by pretty damn quick. You can't waste a moment.

Most of them... I had never seen before in my life. Some of them were blue floating worms, others were lost or something. Wait, I think that's their name. Lost Ones. Others were these mutants, apparently from Draenei lands. The mutants were slow as hell, but the worms were fucking fast. It was impossible to shoot the buggers, so I had to wait until they were close up before having to cut them into ribbons. I managed to get 36 kills in total. I dunno how many there was, maybe 70? 80? So I passed that one. I fought in a few more arena matches, then it was time for my second. Well, second AND third. Mosh'grokk decided to combine them both.

I had to go around punching boxes, in the dark, and kill whatever was inside... some were harder then others. I saved the big one until last. It was a fucking dragonspawn! How the hell was it just... standing there? You'd think it'd bust the thing down itself. But hey, it actually helped. When it tried to scorch me he lit up the room, burning the corpses and splintered wood. When I could see my enemy, I dodged out of the way of it's talons and lept onto it's back. I pounded into it's skull a bit too hard, but it was dead. As I was walking back after I was done, we were ambushed by Skullsplitters. I found some pretty sweet axes they had, and decided to take them too. A souveneir, if you will. But when I get back to the arena, I'm fucking arrested! For nothing! I couldn't believe this bullshit. I battered up an Ogre pretty good but the second one got me. Hey, I was tired and I had no weapons at all on me.

Then I was... a slave. A SLAVE. I hated every moment I was under that bastard Tauren's command... I was fighting in HIS arena matches, I was tagged along like some... mongrel pup! I was breaking free, that's for sure... There was this Human broad in the tavern. She was probably attractive to Humans as I saw a pair of them oogling her tits from across the room. But anyway, after paying her a ridiculous sum of gold which I now regret, she busted open my cuffs and got me out. Some Blood Elf kept trying to stall me, which was a pain in the ass. Fuckin' pinkies don't know when to keep their nose out of a Troll's business.

[Hawk]

Haven't written here in a while. Guess my matches have been getting in the way...

Anyway. I got out of Ratchet and boarded a ship... which was helpful in someways, and not so in others. I wasn't boarding a Cartel ship where I could pretend I was a crewman, I was aboard some... party boat or something. The ship was full of scantily-clad women drinking wine and laughing. Some were kissing in the corner, some were puking over the railing, others were flirting with mercs who passed by the ship. I'd like to say I was one of those mercs, but there wasn't a single Troll woman in sight. Fucking unbelievable. How can you have a... whatever party they had without Troll women in tight loincloth? Every other woman of a different race looks like they've lived under a rock. Save for Draenei... they've gotten a bit of air when they were living under their rock.

As I was 'being a merc', I saw the same Tauren that enslaved me. Somehow, the bastard got onto the ship as well. Fortunately for me this Tauren was one dumb fucker. I could tell he was looking for me, but he was looking in crates that I couldn't even fit in when I was 6. Some call it dishonourable, some call it seizing the opportunity. I call stabbing the fucker who enslaved me in the back and decapitating him sweet revenge. Naturally, women freaked the hell out when they saw some Tauren collapsed in a puddle of his own blood. Luck struck me again, as the other mercenaries on the ship actually recognised me and let everyone know who I was.

As if it made a difference that the commotion I caused was suddenly forgivable, but hey, drunk women are easy to convince that stupid theories make sense. After some idle chit chat with various people and signing autographs (which included faces) I got off at Booty Bay. I couldn't remember the last time I needed a drink so badly. I hadn't eaten in 2 days and all I had to drink was small cups of water. But then I saw someone who I had occasionally ran into - Zealaya. You know I mentioned Troll women in loincloth? She's someone who I wanted to see without loincloth at all. I looked like a mess though. My hands were bloodied, my wounds untreated and my stomach was growling like a pissed off mastiff. I got a drink and some grub and told her my story. She touched my hand and I could tell she felt sorry for me... not that I would've tried anything, considering she had a mate-to-be named Kaz. Who I met actually, and he's pretty cool. We had a spar.

Kicked his ass badly.

But he gave me a shrunken head. He said it brought good luck, and I think it did. We were ambushed by Bloodsails who were easy enough to kill. I let Kaz have the last blow. He needed something to redeem himself after whupping him.

Once we went our seperate ways, I was halfway to the arena. In fact, I even SAW it's serpent columns, then some bastard knocked me unconscious. When I woke up? Well...

[glockalopogus1]

(( Suspense..! Haha sorry if it seems random for me to be posting here. But I actually read most of your other thread about Hawk and I though this was it as I was planning to read the rest. I just wanted to say that I enjoy these quite a bit. ))