I sent a letter to Sentinal hill of my plans to gain the aid of the people of Duskwood to the east. Gryan Stoutmantel would handle the Gnolls well enough in my abesence, and he knew as well as I did we needed more bodies.
I withdrew my Harvest Golems from the mines, and in the body of the newly named Marcus Moonbrook I made my way down the twenty mile stretch of lightly paved road to Duskwood.
With the Defias cleared, and the Gnoll conflicts focused around the border to Elwynn forest, our travel went largely unimpeded, the closest thing to an enemy the large carrion birds flying overhead, probably used to Harvest Golems leaving corpses in their wake.
I brought with me a dozen skulls covered in arcane and voodoo markings, and wrapped in black silk. They were a more sophisticated design, but ultimately held the same purpose as my totems inside the Deadmines.
They were a tool for fighting the restless spirits I knew would be waiting for me on the other side of the land.
Eventually my procession came to a stop at my command just outside the barrier into Duskwood. The change in the land was as visible as the barrier between Eversong and The Ghostlands.
The Golems, lined in two rows behind me, marched just past me at my mental command, all of them were recently added magical matrix carved on their cores connecting them to me through a scar I carved on my shoulder.
It was a relatively simple relay, but worth me not having to preprogram a task for them.
My procession marched over the bridge crossing the river boundary, and I witnessed for the first time Duskwood.
The magic in the air was different from the Ghostlands, not a direct result of scourge magic in the air, but even in my less attuned human form I could parse out the evil within the land.
Our passing went similarly unimpeded as we traveled the unkempt road of Duskwood that led directly to the largest still active settlement in the province, Darkshire.
Our passing however, did not go unnoticed.
I could feel the eyes of Worgen on my back when they thought I wasn't aware, hungering after my seemingly vulnerable flesh
They weren't aware I was the most dangerous thing on the road.
I knew they wouldn't attack unless provoked, even to their bestial intellect I was too well protected to risk challenging.
We stopped at a fork in the road, leading to the abandoned village of Raven Hill.
The people of Westfall accepted my aid because I had freed them of their plight.
largely from me removing their problem in one fell swoop.
The people in this land had problems from four major areas, and all around the land itself.
One such area was Raven Hill, where the disembodied spirits of the dead haunted the town.
Just past the town was the cemetary of Raven hill, a grand cemetary once filled with thousands of corpses.
Corpses that now wandered this land largely unimpeded.
We reached the town in two hours. I saw the darkened form of hundreds of buildings, all nearly collapsed from years of neglect.
My deadend soul could feel each and every spirit bound to the sorrounding land.
A thousand ghosts forced to watch their land decay, and their bodies attack their loved ones.
I licked my lips as we closed in. Eager.
Whispers erupted around me as the spirits gathered around me, hoping to punish me for having the gall to approach.
We stopped at the center of the town, just in front of once magnificent fountain, its waters murky.
I shut down the golems, before I reached behind me, pulling the pack away and setting it into the earth in front of me.
I placed the skulls around me in a layered circle just around my body. Ignoring the ever louder chanting begining to erupt around me.
"Die." "Suffer." "Die"The chanting built and built until I could hear nothing else. Reaching down into my very soul, hoping to find fear and regret.
"Die." "Suffer." "Die" They found nothing but greed.
The whispered chant ended in an instant as I began to chant in turn.
The ancient Amani tongue quickly carried throughout the woods, and I felt as the souls tried to escape me.
The skulls, wrapped in their black velvet began to glow red as the spirits, one by one, drained away into them.
Countless thousands of hungered spirits trapped in a whirling miasma around me, screaming as they realised who and what they had challenged.
My arms opened into the sky and I laughed freely and madly as I spoke the words. This, This, was power.
In only thirty minutes each and every soul in the town of Raven Hill belonged to me.
For a moment the air around me filled with golden light, as the sun shined truly down upon my posistion for the first time in six years.
It faded as quickly as it came. I quickly gathered the skulls on the ground, their eye sockets now lightly glowing red, echoing the souls now held within.
At my mental command we marched past the town proper, and as we crested a large hill I saw the Scourge in all its glory.
Thousands of shambling corpses wandered just below me, accompanied by skeletons carrying rusted weapons and armor.
Inside the horde below I saw abominations of flesh standing twelve feet tall, wielding meat cleavers, their eyes constantly searching for more prey.
I wasn't impressed. It was scary but unimaginative. ineffective in its waste.
I grasped one of the skulls in my pack. I would show them what real magic was.
I whistled, loudly and shrilly, the sound echoing throughout the shaded woods.
As one the army halted, looking to me in perfect unison.
I ordered my Harvest Golems to attack, and in my palm a thousand souls screamed as I pulled on their energy.