Chapter 2 – Trouble in Astranaar
The trio continued north through the Barrens to the edge of Ashenvale. The area was still controlled by the Horde, who had built a well-fortified outpost along the road. The adventurers decided they'd had enough fighting for one day and chose to take a detour through the hills to the east. Soon enough they were back on the path and headed for the Elven town of Astranaar.
As they crossed a small bridge leading into the east side of the town they could sense that something was not right. There were no Sentinels waiting to greet them along the road. They didn't see any other adventurers milling about the paths and buildings. An uneasy quiet hung over the town like a fog. Ivan let out a slow, guttural growl and coiled back on his haunches, ready to pounce.
"Easy there, boy." Loderr reassured him, "Go easy."
"Ivan's right." Rogar said, his voice almost a whisper, "Something's wrong here. The sooner we catch a hippogryph out of here the better."
They continued across town until they came to the hippogryph master - or at least the spot where she should have been. But much to their dismay, she and all the hippogryphs were gone as well.
"What's going on here?" Lien asked. "Where is everyone?"
"I don't know, but I don't like this one bit!" Loderr said, "I say we just keep on moving 'till we get to Darkshore."
"Let's check the inn." Rogar drew his sword and made his way toward the building across the street. Lien and Loderr followed reluctantly behind. When they reached the inn it was more of the same. Not a soul in sight. It looked as if everyone had decided to pack up and move on. A faint voice came calling from up the stairs in the main hall of the inn. Rogar ran up to investigate. Loderr pulled out his rifle and cocked the hammer.
"I'll be damned if I'm gonna follow that fool Paladin to my death today!"
Lien didn't say a word, but she didn't follow Rogar either.
When he reached the top of the stairs Rogar found the innkeeper. She was lying on the floor, badly wounded and half unconscious. Rogar knelt down next to her. "What happened here? Where is everyone?"
"It's… a… It's… a…" The innkeeper gasped for breath between words.
"A what? It's a what?!?" Rogar began to recite a prayer, hoping to heal the innkeeper and get some answers.
"TRAP!!!" Lien screamed, finishing the innkeeper's sentence. A group of Horde, at least ten strong, started pouring in the doors of the Inn. Rogar lost concentration on his prayer and looked down the stairs to see Loderr and Lien surrounded. He cursed himself for not anticipating this obvious trap. He rose to his feet, drew his sword and jumped down the stairs into the fight.
"I told ye we shoulda kept movin'!" Loderr yelled over the noise of the fight. He fired off a shot from his rifle, hitting an Orc square between the eyes and dropping it dead in its tracks. "Fool Paladin!"
Lien called out the words to a spell, and instantly a wave of ice shot out from her body in all directions. The attackers found themselves frozen to the ground and unable to move. "Quick," she cried, "get out of the inn!"
They ran out into the streets, but the situation there wasn't much better. Another fifteen to twenty Horde were waiting outside the inn to block their escape. "This is going to get ugly." Rogar sighed.
"Wouldn't have it any other way." Loderr shrugged. "Get 'em Ivan!"
The bear charged into the crowd of Horde attackers as Loderr fired shots from his rifle. He used an old Dwarven trick to fire multiple slugs at the same time, trying to take out as many attackers as possible. Rogar called out a prayer and a faint, oval glow surrounded his body. He ran into the middle of a group of Orcs and swung a wide arc with his sword, striking as many as he could. The Orcs swung back at him, but the glowing orb around Rogar absorbed all their blows. A group of three Undead mages in the back of the fight noticed Rogar and began shooting blots of fire at him. But the holy shield around his body absorbed their spells as well.
"This shield won't hang on for much longer, you guys need to get out of here while you still can!" Rogar screamed back at Loderr. "Go! Get to Darnassus and get the others!"
"I'm not gonna leave ye to die at the hands o' these filthy mongrels!" Loderr yelled. "I'll see ye in Hell ye Bastards!" He fired off more shots from his rifle.
Lien called out another spell, this time unleashing a huge explosion in the middle of the group that Rogar was fighting. The Orcs screamed as fire engulfed them. Many of them fell dead on the spot, and those that didn't fled for cover or dropped to the ground in a vain attempt to douse the flames on their charred bodies.
The battle waged on for what seemed to Rogar like hours. Just as it looked as if the tide of the fight might be turning their way, another wave of Horde reinforcements came pouring into the city. "They're like cockroaches!" Loderr spat, "They just don't stop comin'!"
"I'm telling you, Loderr, get out of here!" Rogar urged him. He was covered in blood, only half of which was his own. "One of us has to make it to Darnassus and get the others. We're all going to die if we stand and fight."
The Dwarf hesitated and let out a long grumble. "I don't like this, Man! I don't like it one bit!"
"It has to be this way. We shall meet again my friend."
"Revenge shall be yours, good paladin." Loderr turned from the fight and ran for the road. A Tauren turned to go after him, but Rogar called out a prayer and stunned the Tauren in his tracks. It was just enough time for Loderr to slip past the Horde lines and run down the path to Darkshore as fast as his little legs could carry him. He looked back and saw Lien's body lying on the ground next to Ivan's corpse. The last thing he saw was Rogar desperately calling out a prayer to heal himself, but the words never finished. A dozen or more attackers poured over the Paladin in a wave, killing him.
Once he was clear from the battle and sure he hadn't been followed, Loderr stopped for a moment to collect himself. His heartbeat felt like the pounding of a blacksmith's hammer on the Great Anvil. He sat down on a fallen tree beside the path and took out a water skin. He rummaged through his pack for something to eat, but all he found was some jerky he had been keeping for Ivan.
Ivan.
Loderr's mind returned to the picture of his dead pet lying next to Lien and the Dwarf's blood began to boil. For a moment he almost grabbed his axe and his rifle and marched back up the path to Astranaar for some payback. But he knew that was pointless now. The battle was over. His friends and his beloved bear were dead. The only way he could save them now was to get to Darnassus and find the others. With the backing of the guild they would crush those damn Hordies like the bugs that they are!
Loderr finished his water and summoned his ram. He mounted up and headed down the path toward Darkshore and Auberdine.
* * * * *
This wasn't the first time Rogar had been in the Spirit World. Actually, he'd been here quite often early on in his adventures. But it was not a place he was accustomed to lately. He hadn't remembered how cold and gray everything was. The world looked whitewashed from this dimension. The wind whipped around his face, and the cold numbed his Spirit, yet he felt no pain. Being dead did have its advantages.
He thought for a moment what he should do. If he ran back to find his body it would probably be surrounded by the Horde. He could ask the Spirit Healer in the graveyard to resurrect him. But that would take a heavy toll on his body, leaving him sick and weakened for days. He didn't have that kind of time.
Worse yet, the Horde could be destroying his remains right now, while he sat in this graveyard waiting for a resurrection that would never come. Had Loderr managed to get away? Rogar was pretty sure that he did. The last thing he remembered seeing was the Dwarf running down the path… and the blade of the Orc that came slicing through his skull. Rogar was still amazed that he actually got Loderr to flee. Getting a Dwarf to run away from a fight is almost as hard as getting the stench out of an Orc – which is to say, it's damn near impossible.
Finally Rogar decided to make his way back to Astranaar and see if he could recover his body. The chances were slim, but at least he could keep an eye out until help arrived - if help arrived. He suddenly wondered what Lien was doing. He wondered if she had headed back to the town. He took a quick look around the graveyard and didn't see her anywhere. Maybe she had already headed back. What if she recovered her body and was surrounded by the Horde again? That sealed it. Rogar ran for Astranaar.
One of the unfortunate side effects of being in the Spirit World is that you cannot interact with the living. You cannot talk to them, touch them, or even see them. So as Rogar walked down the middle of town in Astranaar he saw no one. It felt eerily like when he, Loderr and Lien originally came into the town. He had no idea if the Horde was still under control of the elf town or if they had gotten bored and left. The buildings still looked intact, so at least they hadn't sacked the town yet. He looked around for any other spirits hoping he wasn't the only victim waiting to recover his corpse from the Horde ambush, but he saw none.
As he approached the site of their battle he saw Lien's spirit. She was standing over her body, but hadn't recovered yet. As she saw Rogar's spirit she moved toward him. They couldn't talk, but they could share thoughts.
"Should we recover?"
"I don't think so." Rogar answered back. "Not yet anyway. Let's give Loderr some time and see if he comes back with help."
"I think I can recover my corpse from that cluster of tress over there. If I did the Horde probably wouldn't be able to see me."
"For all you know, the Horde is hiding in that cluster of trees, waiting for the next poor sucker to wander into town. It's your call, but I'd highly recommend against it."
"You're probably right." Lien walked back next to her body and sat down looking very sad. Rogar couldn't help but feel responsible. This was the second time in one day that he'd let this poor girl die on his watch. The paladin wasn't used to that. Uther would not bless him for his efforts today. Rogar sat down and waited.
* * * * *
"Something's not right. They should have been here by now." The tiny gnome paced the floor of the inn, looking at the door at least ten times a minute. At first glance she didn't appear like much. The big, bright green ponytails coming off the side of her head looked more like something that belonged on a schoolgirl instead of a deadly assassin. But a closer look by a trained eye would notice the razor sharp daggers hanging from her belt. But what even the most trained of eyes couldn't detect was the deadly poison lacing those blades. Make no mistake - this was not a Gnome to be messed with.
"Relaxsh, Shiner." said a man sitting at one of the tables near the bar. "Have another ale and take it eashy for a change! It'sh Rogar for cryin' out loud. He'sh a Pally. You couldn't kill a paladin with a Dwarven Tank and an army of Ogersh."
"Jaye, you're drunk. Shut up, and sober up."
"Oh Hell, Shiner. You're no fun!" The Warrior stood up and practically fell over himself. He spilled his tankard of ale all over a robed man sitting next to him.
"Damnit, Jaye! If you can't hold your booze then take it somewhere else!"
"Shorry, Kryme. My bad." Jaye stumbled to the innkeeper at the other side of the room to get another tankard of ale to replace the one he spilled. The robed man, Kryme, a priest, tried to clean the ale from his stained robe.
Shiner stopped pacing the floor as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs to the inn. She turned toward the door and sighed as she saw the woman walking in. "Still no sign of them yet, Rose?" Shiner asked.
"Not yet." The woman, a renegade paladin known as Rosefire, walked into the inn and sat down at the table. She took her sword off her back and propped it on the side of the table. "Looks like Jaye's been at it again…" She wiped the ale off the table and reached for a mug.
"Yeah, I wish Rogar and Loderr would get here already so we could be on our way. If we stay here any longer Jaye's going to pass out completely."
"Hey!" the drunken warrior called from the other side of the inn, "I reshemble that remark!"
Suddenly a Dwarf came running up the stairs and into the inn. It was Loderr.
"Loderr, where the Hell have you been? Where's Rogar?"
"Dead. He's Dead." Loderr huffed and puffed, trying to catch his breath between words. "Ivan's Dead. The mage is Dead."
"The mage?" Rosefire jumped up from the table, spilling her ale all over Kryme. "Shauna's dead?"
"Hey! Watch the robes!" Kryme shook the ale off his clothes in disgust. "This is Mooncloth for cryin' out loud!"
"No, not Shuana." The Dwarf answered. "Her name's Lien. We ran into the lass on the Gold Road in the Barrens. She was travelin' with us when we got jumped in Astranaar."
"Astranaar?" Shiner asked, "That's an Elf town. How they Hell did they die in Astranaar?"
"Aye, it might have been an Elf town. But the Damn Horde's got control of it now. Ye can't walk five feet in that place without trippin' over an Orc or a Troll. The place is completely wiped out. We stopped there to catch a hippogryph ride and the place was empty. A total ghost town. But the Horde was all hidden. It was a bloody ambush. They jumped us 'afore we knew what was comin'. We put up a good fight, we did. But there were just too many. Rogar stayed behind an held 'em off. Told me to come here an get you guys. We gotta go back an find their bodies."
Rosefire and Shiner looked at each other in amazement. If Rogar had actually convinced Loderr to flee from the fight then the situation had to be serious.
"Well, if there's as many Horde there as you say, we're going to need some help. Rose, send a message to Shauna and tell her to bring the others. Tell them there's a change in plan. We're meeting at Astranaar."