[IC] Hit on Orcs of the Red Blade (+[OoC] explanation!)

(the letter is unsigned and kept in a blank envelope)

We may have retaken the territories we lost during our last campaign in Northrend, but the ripples of our severest defeats threaten to undermine our position. The morale of our troops has been shattered and this is a weakness the Horde might exploit in the front of Pandaria to gain advantage over our forces. Most of our army has been diverted to the new continent, and the last events in Durotar have pushed us to the limit by forcing us to strengthen our presence in Kalimdor. A large offensive at this point would be disastrous, and the High Command discourages open action. I'm confident this matter will be dealt with appropriately.

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'So?', a deep voice said. The darkness of the alley was briefly broken by a spark, which ignited the piece of paper just as it was leaving the rogue's hand, disintegrating in the air and leaving nothing but ashes over the pavement.
The whisper of the second figure was barely hearable but the tenuous light projected the silhouette of a woman before disappearing again in the shadows.
'Well, we could send a message.'
'Do we know any recipients?'
The woman hesitated. 'We did recover some bloodied tabards. Most detachments are now scattered all over Horde territory and beyond, but still got some leads and names. And I do mean beyond.'
'Expenses are not a problem. However no big fish, way too risky. They must know, but still need room for plausible deniability.'
The woman pondered for a second, exhaled and conceded.
'I suppose. Too bad. So, anything will do, then?'
'No, not too low profile either. We want to unsettle them. Shock them. Oh, and take souvenirs.'
'I thought this wasn't official business.'
'And it's not, but we need something tangible to start the rumours from this side too. A few insignias or weapons for the right people should be enough to kindle it. Call it revenge, propaganda, whatever.'
'Doable. I'll keep you posted.'
The man chuckled as he started to walk away. 'I know you won't'.

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*the script and language of the letter are Orcish, yet the calligraphy is unusually stylized*

It has come to my ears that my last visit to Stonebreaker Hold has caused outrage among some members of your clan. As amused as I am, taking it as proof of the success of my endeavour, I have also heard this was considered the lucky and disgraceful work of a lowly aficionado. This, however, I cannot tolerate, as it has become a matter of professional pride.

First of all let me assure you it is your fallen warrior to blame. Sleeping outdoors during what I can only assume was guard duty was a display of indiscipline that deserved nothing but a dishonorable death by having her throat slit. If anything I did your clan a favor.

Secondly, labeling one of my finest jobs with such poor wording is an insult to my career.

To your eyes it may seem like an effortless task, but it was in fact the result of observation, risk assessment, target selection and, finally, -if I may- virtually flawless realization. You may dismiss it as simple, but only if you purposely ignore the difficulties of analysis, infiltration, timing and execution. You criticize my ways, going after a resting warrior. Resting, yes, but also experienced, fully armed, in the middle of the town, surrounded by guards trained to detect infiltrators, below bat riders preventing any aerial incursion, and barely a few yards away from a hutt where a shaman, a rogue, another warrior and a hunter were gathered -oh yes, I had been spying on those too-. A warrior who was slain just as the cloud of smoke dissipated because of her overconfidence and that of those around her.

Maybe I should've interrupted that meeting instead. Or perhaps I should've stricken at the bridge, just as one of your regiments was arriving town, since I'm confident I would've been able to slay that unarmored hunter among the crowd and disappear in the shadows before a drop of blood had touched the grass. But no, because none of those targets had any strategic value. Without doubt, a formidable warrior right next to her brethren to watch her die was the perfect choice.

If you can't take care of your own people and they are unwilling to accept the risks or simply unfit for the task, I suggest you tell them to leave your ranks and seek asylum in Shattrath instead.

Make no mistake: I am in the business of assassination. When I strike I send no warning and definitely don't ask my enemies if they're asleep or just resting their eyes, as there is only one way to know if it's too late for them to wake up. If it is honor that you seek, you may find none. Do not, however, stain my reputation by discrediting my work as unchallenging only because I choose not to bleed when I don't have to.

May our blades cross again. That is, if I give you the chance to unsheath yours.

Sleep tight.

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(OOC)

In the last week or so I've had a couple of encounters with some Orcs of the Red Blade. What I thought was some pseudorandom WPvP (in a couple cases taking out alt+tabbers) was taken as rude and gratuitous attacks. Getting a message through a third person that was misinterpreted as a sort of joke didn't help. I did send in-game mail, got ignored so I assumed it was fine (?), and then an additional attack sparked once again a reaction. I already explained myself to Krogon, but I'll summarize it here because although I don't have to explain myself I'd like to do so.

No, I'm not going after Orcs for any reason in particular. I'm not going after them at all, actually. When I'm not hunting in cities or doing battlegrounds I mine between pet battles (yeah I do that), so when flying over Terokkar (where I did learn some people were playing these days), if there's someone in the area "accidents" can happen.

Before anything else let me say to do this I need no IC justification whatsoever. In fact I could deliberately hunt orcs and all I'd have to say is "PvP, man. PvP.". However, although I'm not that active RP-wise I do enjoy it occasionally (why else would I be here!) and have no interest in preventing other people from doing the same. You won't see me spamming FoK and vanishing or mind controling people during these events. This doesn't mean I won't attack groups, because I'm not a telepath and I'm not gonna send a warning before attacking every time ("duuuude, PvP realm!"), but I'll leave after the rare kill (or death); people are free to pretend it didn't happen or RP about it - and if they start chasing me or swapping gear I'll take that as an invitation.

Speaking of gear; again, not that I have justify myself, but I very rarely kill people in RP gear. They must have done something atrocious like deserving punishment or ignoring warnings. Example (real example, as it happened this evening). I see a target and check armory: good gear and some PvP experience. I yell. I distract. Target moves. I distract again. Target moves, but stands there. I do this again a couple times, yelling included. No RP going on, just the target. What do I do? Exactly: I collect my HK. (For the record, that was going to be my only HK but a hunter accepted my invitation while I was standing on top of a mountain nearby, which made the second one).

I don't attack anyone that can't defend themselves (level 20 are not a challenge exactly), but AFKers are also a good exception. If you AFK when you can hide, hug some friends to defend you, or just find holy ground, and you don't... Well, then if you're dead when you come back from your non-playing and spend a couple seconds running, you had it coming!

I told Krogon all this and also that, even though I don't know anyone from Orcs of the Red Blade, I like what they do (I've also watched them in silence way more than I've actually attacked them, because I enjoy it), so I agreed to offer an IC justification for a rogue occassionally (very very occassionally, really) spying and attacking them there. I was under the impression I was doing something harmless (3-4 kills in a week??) and maybe even welcome (I do know a lot of RP-PvPers that love playing hide and seek), so in all honesty if it's that annoying you guys don't even have to like this post (actually the third text is slightly contradictory with the other two, but I had fun writing a story about the encounter from the other day anyway); I can just leave Terokkar alone.

So, my apologies for any misunderstanding, but if it seemed like I wanted to bother you it was actually quite the opposite. I have nothing but respect for what you do and I have no intention of ruining that.

Regards,

Kyph

PS: I like to think I'm a reasonable person so if anyone ever gets into a similar situation with my guild please let's just discuss it first. Otherwise you may not get anywhere, and you don't wanna get blacklisted by an all-rogue guild either!   

It is an RP-pvp server and if people are in a contested zone then, killing is going to happen regardless if you rp it or not. There was a rogue guild on Horde side called Vile Thorn that did the same to Alliance. Perhaps you should get in contact with them and have stealth rp!

You are just playing the game. If you role-play in contested territory, you open yourself to attack, through game mechanics, and narrative.

Actually we are still around, recruiting again, 
and we are aware of the existence of the Stormwind Assassins   

Sticca, shadowhunter of the Vile Thorn

3-4 kills in a week is nothing.  That sort of thing (being attacked by a rogue whilst IC) has happened many times to guilds I've been in in the past, and it's either RPd as a member being injured by an assassin, or a nameless new member being slain.  Either way, it adds flavour, interest and depth to events (because who wants things to run to plan?).

The Red Blades are good guys and role players though, I doubt they're taking this as seriously as it seems.  Though a lot of people (all over the server) are starting to take anything (even IC actions) they don't want or agree with as OOC and/or simply ignoring it, rather than playing it out, but meh.  Regardless, there's nothing wrong with what you're doing.  I used to do it to ally guilds on my rogue all of the time. Stealth RP is fun.

I saw the title and thought this was a thread for orc dating.

Lexgrad wrote:I saw the title and thought this was a thread for orc dating.

Well, I guess it is, sort of

Haha.. I honestly wouldnt mind anything like this if I still were actively RP'ing.. And if the old Champion were there I'd of kicked your arse! ;D

LOL. Haters gonna hate.

Keep doing your stealth-RP/PvP if you enjoy it, bro(/sis?).

If you don't like PvP and you RP in a contested area, you gonna have a bad time. An easy fix is to stay in safe non-PvP areas.