[Event Campaign]The God from the Machine

The God from the Machine

Chapter 1: The Wall of Blood

The war against the Iron Horde has been a horrible affair. From the onslaught at the Dark Portal to the many skirmishes held across Draenor’s lands in the months following the invasion. Although the Band has moved away from the forefront of the battle against this threat- news of the Blackrock Clan’s method of taunting the Azerothian armies did not go unnoticed. Upon the walls surrounding the Iron Docks, the Iron Horde had put on display all those that defied them. Prisoners, hundreds of them, were lined up and chained to the wall. Challenging anyone to come and look at their ‘might’.

The Band of the Brave, hearing these horrifying rumours, did so. Scarcely guarded by the arrogant orcs, James Clarke's rifle and Nykiax Vendrich's bow made short work of the few guards. Clearing the way so they could get up to the wall with relative ease. They had hoped to find prisoners to free, but what they actually found was mortifying. The prisoners had been left to their own fate, wounded and abused, and left without food or water. Almost all of the bodies upon the wall were rotting, being picked apart by vultures. The dead were never taken down, serving only to state the Iron Horde's harsh message. The stench and sight of it was overwhelming.

Pushing through their shock, the Band searched through to find any survivors. They only found three. One was a nameless human soldier on the brink of death. The second was the former Minister of Magic; Elizabeth ‘Calamity’ Taragon-Tollemache who was kept heavily chained up, to an almost ludicrously degree. And lastly, Dr. Ariane Harding- a human woman, was freed and unchained from her ghastly predicament as well. The harvest witch Helana Summersbough did her best to tend to all the wounded.

Tygos Thunderfist the dwarf shaman, felt the presence of the undead souls near the wall weigh heavy on him. Many restless spirits called out to him, begging for release. One of them manifested before him, an orc shaman wearing the Iron Horde’s own colours. He lashed out against the dwarf, crying out that they would never yield. But as Tygos deflected his attacks- his wailing tone changed. Where the other spirits' voices begged for salvation, this orc besieged the dwarf to find 'the engineers', and to stop them at any cost.

Meanwhile, Littlepip acted on orders of Rinoi Du'nai as she drew fiery red runes all along the line of the dead. Her hands smeared with the blood and rot that covered the gruesome wall as she stepped near to apply them. They were fire runes. If people could no longer be rescued, then at least they would be granted rest. A burial could not be held, not so close to the Iron Horde’s base of power. But a giant funeral pyre could. Backing off when the horns of the Iron Horde started to sound, signalling that they had little time left, Pip stepped back and started the incantation to burn the whole ghastly wall down.

Shaken by what he had seen earlier, Tygos turned to the wall as the runes started to glow, heating up quickly. However, with a keen eye, Rinoi and he saw a small group of Iron Horde, hung up besides the enemies of their own kin. Hastily deciding to investigate before the fire would burn everything to a crisp, they released the body of an orcish engineer. Taking from him a leather mapcase, that would soon prove to be of vital importance…

The fires slowly swelled to an immense, blinding heat. All that hung there on the wall vanished in its blaze, filling the sky with a black acrid smoke. The Horde’s thundering horns shook through, and as they rushed in, they found their savage trophy wall burned clean, with only ashes remaining. The Band had hastily retreated back to sea, out of reach of the Blackrock’s retribution, for now.

BLUEPRINTS TO DESTRUCTION

When the Band had regained their composure, drinking away the sights of the cruelty of their opponents they opened the mapcase they had recovered. Filled with half crumbled, half-singed blueprints with crude- but intricate orcish designs. So complicated, foreign and incomplete, it looks completely unintelligible for the average person.
However, with the diverse knowledge the Band possesses, they leaned over the table, setting aside their ale and sausages to decipher the plans. Alekszander the death knight, with his history in siege warfare soon realised the intent of this device. In a mix of awe and dismay, he rifled through the papers realising it described a siege-arbalest of massive proportions. Unlike the Iron Horde’s roaring cannons, the slingshot could deliver explosive payloads of an even larger size and over a great distance. When the draenei shaman Thelania peered at the papers, she saw that, surprisingly, draenei technology was also incorporated in its design. Targeting gems used by Shattrath’s defenses were depicted on the schematics- and although the exact nature of their implementation could not be read, the implications alone were terrifying.

Till deep in the night, various members of the Band gleamed at the papers, attempting to understand what they could mean, and lending their various expertise’s to figuring out what this machine would do, if it had been made yet, and if it could still be stopped…