Author out,
~Ary

One of the nearby villages in the mountains turned out to be a base for a human group called the Syndicate, who have been causing trouble for the Horde in the Hillsbrad Foothills. They’re a nasty bunch, attacking me on sight, and sometimes even from within a stealth cloak. I ended up rescuing an orc being held by them with the help of a sin’dorei paladin. It turns out the orc was wrongfully captured by them and has now returned to Tarren Mill to meet up with another orc there. At least I thwarted the Alliance with this act.

My explorations took me to Dustwallow Marsh as well. Kind of unpleasant, really. There are giant alligators roaming the swamp, waiting for anyone, anything to come close enough, and then they lunge at you. Again, not a pleasant place. I managed to run to a Horde town, and took a wyvern flight back to Orgrimmar. There wasn’t much in the marsh, to tell the truth.

Finally, today, I managed to find someone willing to create a portal to Shattrath, a city filled with portals, for me for 4 gold pieces. The city is populated by the Draenei, a Satyr-like race that don’t really like us Blood Elves too much. But apparently the whole city is off-limits for fights of any sort. I passed a Night Elf, our dark-skinned cousins aligned with the Alliance, and a gnome too. There’re a lot of humans in the lower parts of the city, refugees from some sort of catastrophe. When asked, the guards told me I was in the Outlands, where we and the Draenei came from. It’s a dangerous place, so I figure I’ll just stay in the city and rest for a while before taking a portal to Orgrimmar or some other Horde city.

So instead of looking for it immediately, I went out into the forest to collect the rope and oil. The Satyrs (who I think I’ve mentioned before) had stolen the oil and were using it for their rituals, so of course I went and stole it back. Some Furbolg to the southwest apparently had the right kind of rope, so acquiring it was just a matter of killing as many of them as possible until I found the one who had it. hehehehe….Furbolg make pretty fires. Anyways, so I got the rope, and then had to fly to Orgrimmer by wyvern so that I could take the zeppelin to the Eastern Kingdoms. The shipment of axes was being held in Booty Bay, which is a major port for both major factions in the world: Horde and Alliance. It wasn’t terribly busy, so I didn’t have a problem locating the right crate and grabbing the axes. On my return to Orgrimmar, I managed to find someone who was selling the right gun that the goblin wanted, so I purchased it and flew back to Splintertree Post. I gave the gun to the little goblin, received the shipment, and turned the supplies in. I’m finally done and free of Splintertree. The forest was beginning to unnerve me.

As a bonus, here’re some picture I took while questing:

Anyways, if I can manage it, I’ll try and get close to Satyrnaar and snap a picture of one of the Satyrs, but there’s no guarantees–they’re a pretty twitchy lot.

At the Crossroads I ran into an orc who said he had lost his wife in the South Barrens to some sort of boar-like creature. Since I don’t normally help people out of the good of my heart, the orc was offering a few silvers to find her and beat up on the boar-creatures. The creatures were pathetically easy to kill, despite the occasional poisoned spear thrown in my general direction by them. I did find the orc’s wife, albeit in a very not-alive sort of way. He took the news like any member of the Horde would–stoically vowing revenge on the creatures to the end of his days. Upon my return to the Crossroads, a Tauren asked me to find and collect the eggs of some kind of scorpion–I don’t remember which particular kind. Finding the eggs was easy; the hard part was actually harvesting them from the pods they were stored in. It seems that approaching the pods causes the rest of the hive to attack you, which is quite painful. Nothing a few well-placed Shadow Bolts can’t handle, though. I killed my fair share of the scorpions and collected the requisite number of eggs. The Tauren was honourable enough to give me a fire-resistant cloak in addition to nearly twenty silvers, which I of course immediately swapped in for my old cloak.

Once I get back into a major town, or find someone in a helpful mood, I should be able to post a more recent picture of myself for you to see.

The warlock wished to train me, she said, but first I would have to find two Pure Hearts. She listed a couple acceptable “donors” and I set off to find and kill them. By the Sunwell, that was a long journey. I had to pass through the Silverpine Forest into the Hillsbrad Foothills, a territory still being fought over with the Alliance scum, in order to find the first candidate and slay him. The second candidate required me to travel mere yards south of the edge of the foothills, and was a great deal more dangerous. A member of the Alliance, a human I think, attacked me as I finished killing the candidate, and forced me to retreat to (relative) safety.

Upon delivering the hearts to the warlock, she taught me to summon a Succubus demon. I am not sure yet if I like her, but time will tell as I get used to controlling the demon. I have also been busy doing more slaying for the Forsaken. With the help of others, I haved killed the Archmage Arugal, based out of Shadowfang Keep, and helped decimate the Alliance members within Hillsbrad.

I must rest now, but I leave you with this parting phrase: “For the Horde!”

With the help of the Orb that the magister at the Sanctum of the Sun had given me, I defeated Dar’khan fairly easily. As proof of my kill, I tore Dar’khan’s head from his shoulders to show to the magister and the officials in Silvermoon. The magister proclaimed me a “hero” of the Sin’dorei and sent me to Silvermoon with my proof. Upon showing the traitor’s head to our leader, I was told to bring the head and a letter to the Dark Lady in the Undercity–the city of the Forsaken. The trip took a while, but it was worth it to hear her congratulate me (I’d had an earlier, and less pleasant, encounter with the Lady). She kept the head as a trophy, opened the letter, and affixed her seal to it. The letter was to serve as a gateway for my people to join the Horde officially. Apparently the troubles with the Scourge were giving our would-be allies some doubts about our abilities as a people.

I took a break for a day and half to explore the areas near the Undercity; more specifically the Silverpine Forest, which was quite pretty. Although I like the Eversong Woods quite a bit better. I helped out a few people in the Forest, and journeyed briefly into the Hillsbrad Foothills to deliver a request to the Apothecary at Tarren Mill. The flight master there kindly allowed me to use a giant bat to fly back to the Undercity so that I could then travel to Orgrimmar. The Dark Lady had asked me to give the doubly sealed letter to Thrall, and hopefully it would convince the orc leader that the Sin’dorei had a place in the Horde.

The zeppelin ride there was completely uneventful, except for a breathtaking flyby of Northrend. Locating Thrall in Orgrimmar was fairly easy, and with my task thus completed I asked our Ambassador if there was anything she needed of me. She asked that I help out in Arvendale, the path to which lies through the Barrens and into the Nightsong Woods. The Barrens were, for lack of a better word, barren. Very little plant life lives there, it seems, and the animals wanted nothing to do with me, for which I was grateful. I’m sure Grimvhug was glad for the respite as well. I had been asked to report to Splintertree Post in Arvendale, and talked with the blood elf advisor located there once I’d arrived. He said that I was more than welcome to help out around the post, so I think I’ll stay here for a while before exploring some more.

Oh, and here’s a picture that I took whilst in the Barrens; I find it rather pretty.

the Barrens at night

However, I must rest now, for tomorrow begins another long day of searching for the right group to help me destroy the traitor.