World of Warcraft™

Rocks fell from the ceiling and landed with a plop! into the drink of a dwarf with a golden beard and a very ornate breastplate.He was leaning forward in his chair as if asleep. He had 2 axe sheathes, one of which was embedded in the wall on the other side of the room inside of an orc's head. Blood was splashed all over the Thunderbrew Distillery alongside a rampant parade of dead dwarves and a few orcs with evidence of their deaths, from death from axes to being beaten to death by tankards. Groaning came from the kitchen of the Distillery and an orc came through looking to see if any dwarves had survived the attack. The dwarf with the gold breastplate turned and threw his axe in a single, fluid motion. The orc, who was standing behind the counter of the bar, knocked down the airborne axe with his massive axe. He strided towards the dwarf and killed him in a swift blow.
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The attack on Kharanos had occurred when the Council of Three Hammers had just started a meeting. Khroy stood guard otuside the High Seat to make sure no one entered while the kings and queen had their meeting. Around 30 minutes after the council started a very tired out gnome stopped in front of him and struggled to regain his breath while reporting. " Sir Khroy! An attack on Kharanos has occured and the orcs killed everyone there! The fo-"

Khroy leaned forward, put his hand on the gnome's shoulder and said, "Okay just regain your breath then tell me what happened. Don't want you to pass out on us." The gnome nodded gratefully and sat down next to the large dwarf.

He waited then continued his report,"As I was saying the forge was deystroyed by siege engines. As far as we can guess there are ten of them."

As he was talking Khroy nodded his head and then spoke,"I'll inform King Muradin immediately, you can take a break now." The gnome ran off towards Tinker Town while Khroy pushed the doors to the High Seat open.

Delilah sighs to herself as she slams another book shut, irritated. She had so far found nothing valuable to her personal studies. Deciding a walk would be good for her, she gets up and stretches. The 5"10 female brushes a strand of black hair back into the bun that is falling apart on top of her head, and looks down at her robe. It is a dark purple, with golden and black accents. Finding herself fairly presentable for anybody else to see, she steps out of the library.

Humming, she walks around Ironforge, thinking about the attack on Stormwind. Her mother and father were okay, thank goodness, and so was her best friend Alyss, as far as she knew. Fondly patting the locket that rested on her chest, she continues walking.

Coming across the High Seat, door open slightly, she pokes her head in the door. Quickly withdrawing it, she steps back, curious. A dwarf - a guard or something she supposed - was talking to the Council of Three. She had read enough about them, but had never seen them in the flesh as it were. Resolving to ask the guard-looking dwarf what he was doing, thought it was none of her buisness, the priest stood against a nearby wall.

Attix stood laying covered in snow as his sniper rifle was adjusted onto kharanos. He has on a hill completely disguised, and was ordered to leave no survivors left that he or the orcs havent already killed. He stood patiently and waited as the sheering cold started to slowly blister his face. Frost had come over his mail armor and the chill started to creep down into him like it was crawling into his skin. He would much rather be in a desert where he wouldnt have to worry about forstbite. His monkey twinkles was beside him with a white wool coat that was thick enough to keep him slightly warm. "Dont worry, once i get the signal the town is completely cleared we can go and sit by a fire." Twinkles let out a small shriek of enjoyment. Listening carefully there was a soft noise. It wasnt the falling snow, or the near soundless movements of him moving. It sounded like a crunching sound, more like feet. Attix froze in place as he realized that someone was near him, behind him in fact. It was a dwarf that was sent to scout what was left of Kharanos.

If it wasnt for Attix's expert in camouflage the dwarf would have seen him and split his skull with his axe. About twenty feet away the dwarf crouched down, looking through a telescope. He let out a gasp of disbelief of what was left. Corpses of dwarves and orcs were scattered around the lot. After a few minutes of studying he got up and started to walk back to ironforge quietly. Attix slowly lifted his massive gun and positioned it to where the dwarf would be walking towards. After he was half a mile away attix pulled the trigger and a large gaping hole appeared in his chest in a matters of second, his heart and lungs being completely obliterated. He died instantly and fell to the ground in a puddle of blood. "Ill leave a wolf to come scavage that mess. Dont have time to deal with it." Getting up from the cold, damp ground he walked to the dwarf and scavenged his telescope, then walking back to his position and looked through it. An orc was waving a torch that was to signal the small dwarven town was clear and ready to advance into. "Perfect....about time." He muttered.

1 hour later

Attix was conked out beside a fire place, warm cozy and didnt want to be disturbed. Twinkles was also beside him, both their chests rising and falling as they soundly took a nap. An orc grunted as he saw the two acting like they were kings of the place. "Like they did any work...." Another orc came up behind him and whispered "Do you know who that is? Hes Attix, a largely known sniper for the horde. Id recomend not getting on his bad side, or you might have your head blown off the next day." The other orc stared at his companion and nodded his consent and they both walked away, leaving the goblin and monkey be.

Dunzmarr was just walking down from his house above Ironforge, a cave. The cave was fairly large in size, about the size of any normal house in Ironforge. The people there composed of Dunzmarr and five sledders. Dunzmarr always allowed sledders there, for a price at least. The mountains on top of Ironforge were perfect for sledding, the only problem was there was a risk of falling. Dunzmarr was worried, but didn't mind too much. If they fell, they would fall down the side with the hill, hopefully preventing all major injuries.

He exited the entrance of the cave, the blinding light shining onto his face as he exited the almost lightless cave. Dunzmarr winced, he still wasn't used to it. Even after twenty-years of living there, he still wasn't used to how the light shone onto his eyes in the morning. Once he adjusted to the light, he took a nice, deep breath in. He liked how it smelled up here. There wasn't much that would interfere with the fresh smell of the soft snow around him. He smelled everything he normally did, but there was something else this time. He didn't know what it was, but it wasn't normal. What in the world am I smelling? It's almost as if there's a fire, but I dunnae see one up here. He thought to himself, searching above the cave and around. He couldn't see anything, so he thought maybe there was a hunter who was camping near the bottom of the mountain.

He walked over to his ram and mounted it. "Snuffles! Come here boy!" It took a couple of minutes, but Snuffles finally came. He was a small, snowy-white bear. He stood no taller than Dunzmarr, but he was definitely stronger than he was. The bear could easily tear a humnan if half, but that would be a rare sight to see. Snuffles was a very friendly bear, he wouldn't hurt a fly unless Dunzmarr told him to. Even then, he would look at Dunzmarr with his soft, innocent eyes before actually doing it. This almost got Dunzmarr killed a couple of times. He didn't like the habit, but he knew Snuffles past, and he understood where the bear was coming from.

When Snuffles finally arrived, he tapped his ram in the ribs with his heel and was off down the mountain. Dunzmarr knew they had to be careful, but he had done it almost half of his life, so he wasn't too worried about it. After about five minutes, they finally reached the base of the mountain. He looked around the immediate area to see if there were any tracks or signs of a fire. He was puzzled though, there wasn't anything except the fresh tracks just left by his ram and Snuffles. This is strange, why am I smelling smoke when I normally dunnae? He decided that maybe he was just smelling things, and made his normal journey into Ironfoge.

As he had normally done, he went towards the path to Kharanos and went full blast. If I remember right, my record from here to Ironforge is fifteen minutes, let's see if I can beat it! He thought to himself in a very enthusiastic manner. As he sped towards Kharanos, he noticed something. There's smoke over there, maybe that's what I wer smelling? As he grew closer, his guess grew more clear. That was what he was smelling. He wished it hadn't been though. All he saw was buildings on fire and dead townsfolk. He looked with horoor at the sight. What in Khaz'goroth's name happened herNae, I ce? He didn't know what to do. Should he go back to his cave or go check for survivors. nae, I cannae look for people. Even if it ain't the right thing to de, I shoold go to Ironforge an' tell them aboot this. Without any second thoughts, Dunzmarr sped towards Ironforge faster than he ever had before. This time, it was important that he make it as fast as he could. If there were survivors, they needed all the help they could get...

When Khroy entered the room all eyes turned towards him, expecting important news for his intrusion. He began to speak, "My Kings, and Queen, just know a messenger informed me that Kharanos has been taken by the Horde. Not a soul left the place with a beating heart. Would you like us to move our defences into position?" Falstad nodded and turned towards Muradin, "Yes, I believe Muradin here has the defence system set up. Am I correct?" Muradin spoke slowly as if thinking about his words before he spoke,"Yes, Khroy move the dwarves into position. The gnomes have Tinker Town covered incase any Horde manage to get through the blockage at the end of the Tram. Tell Felbomb to get his men moving." Khroy bowed and hurrriedly spoke,"Yes my Lord. Felbomb's men are ready to go." Moria made a shooing motion with her hand and started to whisper to Muradin. Khroy turned around and jogged out of the High Seat. He closed the door and ran to the Commons to get the army in place.

Khroy reached the commons and shouted "MEN! MOVE INTO FORMATION!" 10,000 dwarves moved into ten collomns and marched towards Ironforge's gate. The stamp of feet and jingle of weapons against chain mail was deafing. Khroy marched with his men as they neared the gates. He turned and then spoke to the 4 collomn from the right," Engineers step forward and get into the Steamtanks! Gunmen get into your perches! FOR THE ALLIANCE!" The ensuing roar was enough to make a deaf man cringe. Collomn 4 headed for the steam tanks while half of Collomn 3 headed to hidden perches in the mountain. "The rest of you get into you defensive formation! Felbomb's men wiil be with us shortly!" Khroy let the yelling dwarves pass him then sprinted to the Military Ward.

Del looked slightly upset at being ignored, but as she saw the dwarf yelling orders around, that feeling vanished. Instead, she wanted to help in any way she could. So the priest sprinted after the dwarf, and soon caught up to him, due to her legs being longer. "Excuse me...er...sir?" she asks, not expecting him to turn around to acknowledge her. "May I inquire as to um, why you are running around? I couldn't help but see you organizing your troops and shouting out orders. I was wondering if I could help in any way..." she trailed off. "If it has anything to do with that attack on Stormwind, I want in." she added. Hoping she wasn't being terribly annoying, she continued following the dwarf.

Field Marshal Smallsword Felbomb stood amongst many eager gnomes who were tugging at bomb straps and various other devices they had on their person. He had ordered them all to dress in their battle gear 50 minutes earlier and now he waited for the word of his superior: Khroy Stonehammer. Smallsword knew that the dwarves would be setting up right now, gunmen getting up in rocky alcoves and steamtanks postioned inbetween rocky walls built just a few days before. As he thought this Khroy came running straight toward him and screamed "FELBOMB! LET'S MOVE!" At the sound of the Grand Marshal's voice all his men snapped to attention and obeyed. 500 gnomes ran in a dead sprint towards the entrance to Ironforge all the while keeping their eyes on the dwarf ahead of them. When they reached the entrance to the gates Smallsword had trouble not gasping at the defences. Nearly 600 dwarves where half-hidden above the gates with guns focused on the winding road to Ironforge. Around 9,500 Steam Tanks were humming loudly with dwarves running around shouting orders to others. On top of that nearly 9,900 dwarves stood behind their wall with weapons at the ready. The postion for the gnomes was obivous. Along the ramparts there was no one, but there were many stacks of ammo, fast-fire guns, and bombs. Smallsword shouted over the general clamor, "Men! Get onto the ramparts and blow the Horde to pieces for our cousins! Let the orcs taste the mud!" All the gnomes lifted up their various weapons and moved forward to the ramparts. Smallsword whipped his gun out and ran after them. He woudln't use a fast-fire gun, he trusted his pure Cobalt gun much more. Also he was going to use his own Fel Iron bullets. He loaded his gun and aimed towars Kharanos to shoot the first orcs he saw.

Dezarron awoke in his residence in the Military Ward to the sound of many footsteps, running, and shouting. He despised Ironforge because of its many loud noises and its disconnection with nature but this day was different then all the rest. As a ambassador from the Cenarion Circle it was his job to keep relations with the Council of Three Hammers strong no matter what and following the attack on Stormwind this amount of noise could only mean an attack on Ironforge itself was imminent and it was Dezarran's duty to help protect it. So Dezarron threw on his armour,grabbed his staff, and marched out the front door to join the defense effort.

"FOR THE ALLIANCE!" That's all Dërrik heard as he exited the auction house in Ironforge. The sound alone could've taken down the whole city, He was surprised anybody was actually able to walk after a sound of that magnitude. What in the world is going on here? He thought to himself, carrying around his new staff he bought with pride. It was a very well-crafted staff, somebody put hours upon hours of time making it. It was an ivory staff about five-feet-tall. There were many fine-detailed carvings along the side of the staff, though he couldn't tell what it read or what they were.

He realized he was parched, so he walked over toward the tavern to get a drink. As he neared the entrance, he about got ran over by a Dwarf on a whitecoated ram, followed by a snowy-white coated bear. He was enraged and was about to throw some words at the Dwarf, when he noticed the bear. "Is that a b-bear?! Everybody, get out of here! There's a bear!" Dërrik, being very frightened at the sight of a bear not even five feet away from him, ran out of Ironforge.

As he neared the hill that could take him to Kharanos, he stopped. When he was on this path, he normally was able to see Kharanos, but he couldn't see it this time. No, all he saw this time was smoke and burned down buildings. "What the hell is going on here?" He thought about it for a couple of minutes. Wait a second! didn't Stormwind just recently get sacked by Orcs? If Orcs sacked Stormwind, why wouldn't they come to Ironforge? They were connected, it would only be a tram ride away. It would also explain why there was such a big shout! He didn't know what to think, but he figured that it would be safer in Ironforge. Maybe they would have the place barricaded enough?

Khroy turned his back to the makeshift wall in response to a voice he had heard. "Eh girl? Ye said you could help us? Well then we got some options for ye, either be a medic which we need a few more of, pick up a gun with the gnomes or you could help me fight. When you make your decision come back to me and tell me it." He turned on his heel and yelled at a gnome "Hey! It' ain't no wrench! Hold the thing with both hands or you'll break somethin!" Khroy shoke his head and cursed. Many of the gnomes were not fighters but just builders that were working in the Great Forge or were at Gnomergon attempting to take it back. He jogged off down the line to make sure everyone had their equipment ready. He oiled some Steamtanks then settled down against the rock wall, close to he human priest. Khroy called her over as he toke out some bread, "Ey you want something to eat?"

Del shook her head. "No thank you. As to your earlier question, I'll help out as a medic. I'm a priest you see." she said. She gazed up at the high vaulted ceiling. "And I'm pretty spectacular at throwing stuff at people who need stuff thrown at them." she added. To prove her point, she pulled out a small marble and wound her arm back. Then throwing it, the marble hit the ground a a few yards off. The priest winced as it broke into about a billion pieces. "Um...never mind about that."

As Dunzmarr got into The Commons, he couldn't help but to notice the thousands upon thousands of soldiers in there. Does this have something to de with the attack on Kharanos? As he tried to manuever around what seemed to be like millions of Dwarves and Gnomes, he came upon a woman who had just thrown a marble to the ground. He figured this would be the best time to say something. "Excuse me laddie, coold ye tell me what's going on here? I just came from aroond Kharanos, and the whole toon wer burned doon!" He looked around at all the soldiers, then replied, "Something tells me that there's aboot to be a fight... De ye need any help?"

"You think..." Del mumbles sarcastically to herself, before looking up. "Yeah. Unfortunately, I really don't know much about what's going on, myself." she says. "You might want to uh...talk to this guy to get your information." she continues, tilting her head towards Khroy. Sitting down, she doesn't tower over everybody. Well...at least they can't misplace me. As to whether or not that's a blessing or a curse...well...that reamains to be seen. she thinks to herself, cracking half a smile. "So yeah, you might want to talk to him instead of me."

Khroy turned to the dwarvern hunter to his right and spoke in an unintentional bellow, "YES WE COULD USE YOUR HELP, YOU GOOD AT FAR SHOTS OR DO YOU WANNA JOIN THE INFANTRY?" All the soldiers around Khroy covered their ears as his bellow reverberated in the hallway. He looked around and saw how the soldiers had their ears covered and then said in a normal volume, "Sorry bout that....workin' with these brutes makes you use to yelling at tee top of your lungs." Khroy then turned to nodded towards Deletion and pointed to a group of robed gnomes who were resting near the Auction House. "Those fellows over there are our current medics, so they'll help you heal our men." Khroy nodded to the priest and walked to the stone wall and selected a collomn of men in the back of the Infanty's formation,"Ye there! I need you to build up more of this wall. We have some stone back at the bank. Just pile it up until we run out our we get a sign of the Horde's advance. With his command done Khroy turned around and rested near a wall. He opened a glowing book and quickly started to write under a section called Ironforge his writing was not in the Common language and the title was also Dwarvish.

Dunzmarr showed a faint smile before responding to the Dwarf. "I'll join the sharpshooters, shooting is my second favorite hobby, behind drinking of coorse!" Duznmarr managed to get a good chuckle out, and managed to get a group of people laughing. He was glad that he got something stirred up as good as laughing in all of this madness. Soo, there's going to be a big fight eh? I'll shoo those Orcs nae to burach with a thirty-first legionnare! He thought about the Human he almost ran over on the way here, "Um, what ur we going to de aboot civilians? I almost ran over a Human on the way here, an' I'm pretty sure he's in nae way at all capable of fighting..."

Outside Iron Forge

The path outside Ironforge is winding and the frosty air crisp. Siege engines, steam tanks, soldiers, gunmen, mages, priests and scouts all wait, all watch the horizon, looking for the appearance of The Enemy.

A mass appears in the distance, large and moving fast. It is an Elek, a Draenei mount, riderless, laden heavily with ore and metal, and it is moving with purpose. It is not unheard of that a mount, when trained, will instinctively return to it's stable when it's rider is lost, and indeed this one bears all the appropriate marks of a Draenei champion. The Draenei do not give these mounts out lightly and the lines part slightly as the massive and impressive animal moves in, approaching from the direction of Kharanos.

It passes the defenses and into the gates, then more soldiers and refugees alike, making a straight line for the stables. At an intersection not far from the stables a relatively small mass of metal is ejected from the back of the Elek, it lands and marches in the form of a miniature humanoid towards the throne room while the Elek continues to the stables.

Upon reaching the throne room, the metallic figure removes the helmet revealing a clean shaven Gnomish head with a red head band and a conservative smile. His confident posture and upright manner does not waver in front of the questioning looks of the larger Dwarven guards who's gazes do not leave him as he by-passes them and enters the main chamber. Upon entering, the Gnomish warrior Hicombat noticed the Council of Three in the presence of ambassadors, military advisors, officials from Kharanos, officials from elsewhere... actually, pretty much everyone that is anyone in planing a war. The room goes quiet as they look expectantly to the new comer.

"Oh...", Hicombat says, in the sudden cavernous silence of the room. "You already know... um, I'll be up front..."

One foot at a time he slowly backs out of the room, the second the door clicks shut the commotion in the room resumes. The Dwarven Guards look at Hicombat dumbfounded but somehow not surprised. He walks off into the commons of Ironforge, eager to forget this last encounter.

((so im gonna sound dumb but how do u make your letter ittalic?))

(Wildaxe use the sign-ups to ask us that, won't go into any detail cause I'll ruin the thread with instructions.)

Grumdur walked amongst the soldiers his black hood covered all but his red beard his rifle in on hand fang beside him a white wolf convinced he was lost grumdur stopped next to a human girl and stood there leaning in his rifle nodded to her under his hood.