The Blightskull Mission

This is a cooperative story written by:

• Dunderholm of the Cult of Shadow
  
• Daeyna of the Cult of Shadow
  
• Shrika of the Sixty Thieves
  
• Siennah of The Third Way
  

Done:

• Part 1 - The Journey
  
• Part 2 - Demonfall Canyon
  

Upcoming:

• Part 3 - The Chase
  
• Part 4 - ???
  
• ???

Part 1 - The Journey

The sun crawled slowly over the hills in the west. Three silhouettes could be seen by a small campfire. It is a party of two forsaken and an orc. The orc seemed rather drowsy as it was just waking up. The two forsaken were already hard at work, gathering their supplies and disposing of the small campsite.

The forsaken didn’t sleep since their dead bodies had no need for it. The only reason they stopped was to allow the orc in the group some rest and avoid some of the wildlife that would come out at night. A masked male forsaken turned towards the others in the group. His black mask was obscuring most of his face and he was wearing a dark purple suit of leather armor. Two skull ornamented blades were hanging from his side.

“Sister Daeyna, let’s move. And you too orc”

The Female Forsakens face was also obscured by a strange helmet. It is clear that both of them didn’t want to be recognized. Strange red eyes loomed behind the mask, her orange leather armor crackled as she moved. She turned to her brother and responded.

“Yes brother Dunderholm”

The male forsaken then turned to the lone she-orc in the group, he looked at her rather annoyed. The orc blinked at the forsaken. It responded with the simple words

“Dabu!”

Dunderholm still looked the orc dead in the eyes and glared. He was still clearly annoyed, as they had to halt their hunt to allow the orc some rest. He was inclined to leave her behind as she was merely holding them back, but the she-orc might prove useful if they should cross any patrols let alone reach their end-goal.

“Don't give me that look orc, you should have known better then leave you post even when asked by my sister”

He made a motion at the orc to start walking. The orc sighed slightly at the remark made by the forsaken and muttered slowly:

“Yes, sir... But, I can't always be around. I need to care for my children.”

The orc nonetheless did as she was told and followed the two forsaken towards the Mor'shan Rampart at the borders of Ashenvale forest. But then Daeyna suddenly spoke up, looked at her brother and sighed.

“I'm not even sure I will be able to track ‘her’ for long... But alright, let’s try.”

Dunderholm turned towards his sister and looked deep into what remained of her eyes. For some strange reason he always seemed to do that when he looked at her, he isn’t sure why he does this himself. None of his other brothers and sisters seemed to notice- or spoke about it. He spoke to his sister in the tongue of the forsaken.

“How much time can there be between tracks? As in the time you see them and the time they are made. For you to follow them that is ...”

Daeyna looked at her surroundings, almost inspecting every detail.

“Well, tracks are tracks, I cannot precisely tell when they were made. Sometimes if a track is fresh you can still smell the person's scent around, but...It depends on the weather as well, if it has rained, tracks could have disappeared. And scents washed away.”

Dunderholm, who had been listening closely to the words of his sister, nodded slowly in agreement.

“How right you are sister ... I see it wasn't unwise to take you with me on this mission”

Daeyna continued her story, seemingly ignoring the remarks made by her brother.

“And if more people walked there, I cannot tell who’s tracks they are... I mean, Shrika was there as well, she walked around the canyon after Rhonya left. So her tracks there should be the easiest ones to follow, but we don't want to follow Shrika's tracks.

Dunderholm nodded slowly at the words uttered. He eyed his sister up and down and addressed her in their own tongue.

“Maybe you can get your old rank back now ...”

“Maybe. We shall see.”

Daeyna kept her gaze fixed on the road ahead, she seemed somewhat serious. The she-orc kept following the forsaken in front of her. She kept her lips well sealed as she did not wish to interfere in their discussion. She glanced around by herself but cared less of the environment as she is not a well-trained tracker. The male forsaken looked over his shoulder at her to make sure she was still following, but then faced the road again as soon as he saw she does. He turned his attention back to his sister and kept talking in the tongue of the forsaken.

“You have changed a lot sister ... since the eh- incident”

The female forsaken peered at the male for a second, than faced the ground in front of her again. She responded in their language.

“What do you mean?”

Behind them the orc scratched at the stump of her missing lower, seemingly distracted and annoyed by the itch distractingly she grunted. She muttered lowly to herself and seemed to have her mind elsewhere but glanced at the two Forsaken. Pretending she listened. The male forsaken looked at his sister for a moment. His facial expression changed to a rather serious look. He kept to their language.

“Not sure ... you seem ... different ... more ... I'm not sure haven't figured it quite out yet”

The female shrugged and kept her eyes focusing on the road ahead. Her face and empty eye sockets were still covered by a rather strange helmet. She responded yet again in gutter speak.

“Well, let me know when you’ve found out, because I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Dunderholm made a dismissive notion at his sister and spoke his tongue.

“Forget I brought it up...”

He fixed his gaze back on the horizon, on the job at hand. Where could this Rhonya have gone? Surely she was tipped off, or this Morkosh was more cunning then one would have expected.

As the group continued their journey through Ashenvale they finally came to their destination, Demonfall Canyon. Home to the Blightskull Clan, or at least it used to be if the reports handed to the forsaken by the she-orc Shrika were correct. Dunderholm turned to the rest of the group and made a notion as to hold position.

“Ok, we are almost there ... it would be wise to hide from now on.”

He slipped a comment in forsaken to Daeyna and eyed at Shrika while doing so.

"It could always be a trick"

Dunderholm then vanished in the shadows after he made his point. The female forsaken looked at the spot where her brother was standing moments ago and spoke into thin air hoping he will still hear it.

“Hide? You realize I’m not as good as you in hiding, hm?”

A voice came out of the shadows and spoke very softly, it was the male forsaken. He heard his sister talk.

“Good enough, those Death Knights didn't see you at the tower now did they?”

A soft chuckle from Dunderholm can be heard coming from the shadows, it was close to Daeyna but where exactly she couldn’t tell.

“No that was because I stood still behind a tree... Ah well.”

Daeyna crouched down and blended in with her surroundings anyway. She used her skills as a hunter and tracker to become nearly invisible to the eye and kept walking slowly towards the Canyon. Her undead wolf Kyra who was next to her blended in as well, pressing it’s canine head against the Forsakens’ leg just a little.

The she-orc who had been silently following the two forsaken, blinked. She noticed that the group prepared themselves to sneak into the canyon. She melded with the shadows and followed. Daeyna seemed to be a bit troubled and thought the situation over she muttered mainly to herself.

“Hm... I can try to let Kyra take in her scent, but I would need something that was Rhonya's or a place where she slept, some blankets with her scent on it”

But Dunderholm seemed to be more close to his sister then she thought, and whispered to her from the shadows.

“That can be done”

As he kept walking towards the entrance of Demonfall Canyon he looked around. A strange and foul aura emits from this place, some lesser demons wandered around but they were too far away to be a problem. He reappeared and made a notion for the others as to wait, he added a soft command to it.

“Wait here for a moment ...”

He then melded with the shadows again and slipped as quite as shadows into the canyon.

Part 2 - Demonfall Canyon

The rest of the group waited outside the canyon. The female forsaken took position into one of the nearby brushes and commanded her wolf to join her. The animal growled softly and obeyed its master. At the same time the she-orc took position near the entrance, she was very skilled at hiding and only a master tracker would be able to find her. After what seemed to be more than an hour the male Forsaken reappeared from the shadows and walked out of the canyon.

“Deserted ... except for some lesser demons, but they shouldn’t pose much of a problem”

The female forsaken dropped her camouflage and laid her hand on the head of the wolf next to her.

“Alright, let's get in then.”

As the she-orc appeared from the shadows she looked between the two forsaken with a slight doubting gaze and lifted a hand, as if asking for permission to speak. The female forsaken looked at her and sighed, slightly annoyed.

“What is it Shrika?”

Shrika who seemed rather insecure looked at the Forsaken and lowly spoke.

“Ehm, why am I here, sir? I’m only thinking as... uhm… I’m not able to track. And if we manage to find her, I’m pretty sure she'd expect it to be a trap if I managed to find here whilst hidden.

The orc rubbed her neck, some marks can still be seen there. The marks seemed to perfectly fit that of a forsaken hand. Small imprints of boney fingers circle around the green neck. It so happens that the night before they left Dunderholm had nearly choked her for defying and failing him.

“I’m just... wondering what the plan is.”

The female Forsaken shrugs and looked at her brother who was still standing in the entrance of the canyon.

“Well, I'm not the leading one here.”

Dunderholm looked by back simply replying.

“The apprentice does seem to trust you ...”

He then muttered some words in forsaken and showed an eerie grin on his face that seemed to scare Shrika a bit as she frowns deeply and cowers, lowering her hand again.

“And if she does not, we’ll be rid of you. Brother Morthimus will finally have his stew ingredient.”

He turned his head to Daeyna again.

“Let's continue dear sister, I can show you where it slept”

He took the lead and walked through the canyon and turned left up a hill and proceeded to walk until the group came at a small campsite.

“There .... the big tent on the right ...”

The Forsaken pointed with his boney finger to a rather decorated tent sitting just on the edge of the camp. His sister walked up to it. She inspected the surroundings of the tent before she stepped inside.

“Right...let me see…”

She moved around some furs that are on the floor and raised them up to her face. She sniffed, nodded once and held the blanket out towards Kyra, who sniffed it as well. In the camp Dunderholm turned to Shrika who was aimlessly looking around, playing with stones.

“And you... go make yourself usefull ... stand guard or something.”

Shrika looked at Dunderholm and blinked.

“Err... aye.”

Daeyna kept searching through the stuff found in the tent.

“This is hers alright. Though I faintly smell another Orc as well, but that smells more like a male...”

Dunderholm turned to his sister playfully he tapped on the hilts of his daggers. He responded with a grin.

“That would be Morkosh ...”

He paused for a moment and seemed to think the situation over.

“So they do sleep together … that is very interesting”

In the meanwhile Daeyna worked further on the contents of the tent. She carefully inspected each of them.

“Ah yes, now I remember this smell, indeed Morkosh's. It’s been a while since I stood next to him.”

“You think you can do something with this sister?”

“Well it has been a few days since she slept here, but I shall take the blanket along for Kyra. She has the best nose here, best able to tell wich of the many scents here is most recent.”

Daeyna held on to the fur blanket and proceed to walk towards the canyons entrance. Dunderholm looked at her and followed. As the entrance of the canyon looms close by, Daeyna stopped. She handed the blanket back to her pet for her to smell. She leaned in to it, scratched it softly behind the ear and whispered something to it. The wolf Kyra growled softly, and then started to sniff the grass around her, it moved slowly over the grass towards the way they had come from. Dunderholm looked at the pet and followed its direction.

“According to your pet it headed towards the barrens?”

Daeyna peered at her wolf Kyra as she indeed moved further back towards the Barrens.

“It would seem so...”