Legion of the Round Table

Legion of the Round Table

Chapter 1: The Threat of the Crushridge

Groik treaded threw the cold snow south of the ruins of Alterac, with the goblin explosive device in a pack at his side. His captain, Grel'borg, of the Crushridge Ogres, had approached him earlier in the day with a simple task. "Orc man will give Grel lots of gold! He say to blow up entrance to the valley! You do this for me, me give you gold!"

Groik, being a bit smarter then his dim-wit captain, had sent a well-trusted scout of his ahead to distract the guards in front of the valley entrance so he could sneak in and plant the explosive. Groik peeked over the hill towards Hillsbrad, takeing in all the scenery. He had never even been out of the ruins before, yet alone so close to such an amazing sight. He managed to avert his gaze for a few seconds in order to look towards the alliance camp outside of Alterac Valley. He saw a few dwarf guards wandering around, and even a human or too. He scanned around looking for his scout, before discovering his corpse not 20 yards from where he was, near the bottom of the hill. Groik quickly paniced and looked around for what could have killed him, the puny dwarfs certainly could not have killed such a large ogre. He scanned the mountains before seeing the glint of the sun on something shiny near the top. He stoped and stared for half a second before being shot threw the heart with a golden bullet.

Pepper, the black tiger, purred in patience at Samitian. The night elf smiled as he pulled his gun back to his side. The shot had been perfect, and the ogre had been foolish for wandering out so far from his hole of a city. Scanning the horizon and seeing no other ogres in sight, Samitian decided to go and check his kills. He gently rubbed Pepper's back and gave him a piece of fish to feast on, then jumped down from his perch on top of the mountain. He quickly looked over his first kill, a few silver and a tiny satchel, not bad for a 1 shot kill. He then walked over to Groik's corpse and looked at the ripped bag at his side. The bag was too damaged to use, but there was something inside…

He reached for the dagger at his side and slowly cut threw the weak linen fabric. He examined the black device. Samitian was in no way skilled in machinery, but he knew something was wrong with the device, and stuck it in his backpack, along with the copper the ogre had on it. He whistled for Pepper to come, and started back towards his guild base in the southern mountains.

The two guards in front of the large dwarven building gave Samitian a nod as he walked by. He walked straight to the hunter wing and placed his axe and gun in his weapon locker. Piren walked up to him and slapped him on the back.
"Out hunting more yetis Sammy boy?"

Sam glanced at his fellow night elf, one of the better hunters in The Round Table, and nodded.

"A bit more then Yetis today though, I caught a couple of the Crushridge wandering close to the base camp at Alterac Valley."

"Ogres? What on Azeroth were they doing there?"

"I don't know, but I believe it has something to do with this device." Samitian retrieved the explosive from his backpack. "One of the Ogres had it on him. I'm heading now to show it to Je."

"Ah… well, don't let me stop you. All these machines are honestly too much for me to understand." He let out a laugh and then walked back to his bunk, sharpening his arrows.

Samitian and Pepper headed down the stairs into the basement and the warlock quarter. Samitian always hated to come down here, demons had always un-nerved him, but he needed to show the device to an expert engineer, and the gnome warlock Je was one of the best he knew. He found Je in the nature pen, where captured beasts were kept for warlocks to steal their souls. It unnerved him, but Samitian knew that the souls of these beasts were required for some of the warlocks most powerful spells. He tapped Je on the shoulder.

"What's up Sam, I'm kind of busy at the moment."

Sam pulled out the device.

"I found this on an Ogre wandering a little too close to Alterac Valley, I was wondering if you could tell me what it is."
"Hmm… I cant tell just by looking at it, but I'll examine it a bit later."

"Thanks man, appreciate it"

Sam walked out of the basement with a swift step and headed back up to his room.

2 days later, Samitian was approached by a messenger.

"Samitian sir, I have a letter for you from Captain Rebbecah, he sounded flustered…"
He thanked the messenger and looked over the letter

Sam, Je has finished examining that device you brought back, and has some disturbing news. I need you to head down to the council of the round table as soon as possible.

-Rebbecah

Sam finished reading and stuck the letter into his pocket, and headed up the stairs to the council chamber. He knocked on the door twice, and then stepped in. The Chamber was fairly empty as usual. The Guild Leader Dweeb was always off in the outlands attempting to sabotage Illidan's efforts in any way he could, but he was surprised to note the absence of Villhelm and Belmarilly. They were normally here working on war efforts in the plaguelands to the north, and the dark manor of Karazhan far to the south. The round table only consisted of Rebbecah and Je…

"Ah sammy… good of you to come" Rebbecah's shrill female gnome voice stated.

"Je here has finished examining the device he said you brought him… it's a very high end goblin explosive"
Samitian's eyes opened wide as the news entered his ears, and thoughts flooded his mind thinking of what the Ogre could have possibly been doing.

"He also believes that the Ogre was planning on using it to blow up the alliance entrance to Alterac Valley… does this sound unreasonable?"
Sam shook his head slightly back and forth taking it all in. If the Ogre's were working with the horde, then they had to be stopped, and soon before they could find any other way to sabotage alliance efforts.

"This is a delicate matter sam… if the ogres are working for the horde, then we need to stop them… The leader of these ogres, Mug'thol, leads from the castle in the ruins of alterac… I need you to assassinate him..."

Sam stared long and hard at the gnome… he was a hunter, surely someone trained in assassinations such as a rogue would be better suited for this task, but who was he to disobey a higher up.

"Of course captain… I will get on this task right away."

Samitian and pepper were on top of the mountain west of the keep stareing down. The Ogre patrols were disorganized and dimwitted, and it only took Samitian 2 minutes of studying to find a flaw in the paths. He called pepper to his side and slid down the mountain, right as one of the patrols turned a corner from around the back of the castle. Samitian quickly stabed the blade of his sniper rifle into the wall. He used it as leverage as he used his large axe to stab up higher. He pulled out his gun and repeated the brutal climbing technique 3 more times before reaching the top. He tossed a small rope over to the mountain side and made a clicking sound with his tongue. Pepper obayed the command and bit into the rope. Samitian pulled his loyal pet over to the top of the building and looked down towards the back of the castle where he just was. The Ogre patrol had just turned the opposite corner of which he had left, indicating that he had done a complete 360 around the castle. Samitian knew that he would never be able to fight the army of ogres by himself, so he took a bit of oak out of his pocket and rubbed it on his hands. He placed his hands on Pepper's head and started chanting in ancient Darnassian. 3 seconds of chanting later, and Samitian's arms went limb at his side and he tumbled over. Pepper's eyes glinted with a sudden golden hue, and he made the slightest of purrs.

The panther Pepper quietly moved to the edge of the castle and hoped down. He stalked his way threw the halls of the castle, carefully avoiding the patrols, and made his way up to the top floor. He suddenly saw his target towering before him… Mug'thol was much bigger then the other ogres, and he carried a large axe. Fortunately, stealth was a panther's strong suit. The magic allowing Samitian to directly control his pet was fadeing faster then he would like, so he had to act fast. Pepper snuck around behind the ogre leader and was about to strike when the magic was suddenly bursted…

Samitian's eyes opened at the same time as his mouth. The Ogre towering above him had slammed into his ribs with a large club, and Samitian's first reaction was to scream in pain. He bit his tongue however, and reached for his gun. The Ogre slammed forward for another attack, but Samitian rolled out of the way, and slashed the Ogre's leg. He tumbled back and took aim. On his injured leg, the Ogre stumbled towards sam, but was not fast enough to stop the bullet to the face. He barely had time to sigh in relief when more ogres tumbled out from the entrance to the building, climbing up the shingles to Samitian's position. He stood and readied his gun, eyes watering from his broken ribs, snipeing 1 ogre after the other. He started to get into the easy kills, "Shooting fish in a barrel" Piren would have called it, when he sensed movement behind him. He didn't have time to turn more then half his head around when the club came crashing down, knocking him off the building and onto the rough rocks below… He tasted blood in his mouth as he drifted into unconsciousness.