Rhoach

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 Grulg wiped his blade on the corpse of the now-headless human, grinning. “Pushdug oomie no see zult. Gud muv, olog!” he yelled to Rhoach. The wary troll waved back at him cautiously, having no idea what had just been said. Now what? Rhoach wondered to himself Uglutz came stumping up to Grulg and whispered a few things in the other orc’s ear. Grulg raised an eyebrow, nodded back to Uglutz, and the pair approached the flighty troll still perched upon the mage’s ruined breast. On the way, Uglutz knelt and severed the paladin’s leg just below the knee, placing it in a filthy boarskin bag he unhooked from around his waist. “Wer lat frum, olog?” Uglutz asked Rhoach, tossing the bag near the troll’s feet. Rhoach shrugged, not understanding the question. “Hmph. Lat blah oomie blah.” Pointing to himself, Uglutz said, “Me Uglutz, Vuduboss Clan Skullcrusher. Dis Grulg, Warboss Clan Skullcrusher.” Grulg grinned down at Rhoach. “Lat?” Uglutz asked, pointing at Rhoach. After a couple seconds of silence, Rhoach realized that he was expected to introduce himself. “Oh, uh… me Rhoach.” The shaman nodded, leaned down close to Rhoach’s ear and spoke conspiratorially. “Skullcrusherz prob’ gunna’ be on own sun. Cud uze gud olog. ‘specially ash whu blah oomie…” Uglutz looked down at the troll to see how his audience was listening. Rhoach was picking his nose, looking bored. Uglutz sighed, then noticed the young troll’s hand lingering on one of the dead mage’s baubles, a gold necklace. “Hmmm…” Uglutz wondered aloud. “Dis ash sneek’r…” He snapped his fingers and reached into a pouch at his side, withdrawing a handful of silver and gold pieces he had looted from a merchant’s stall during the last Horde plunder. “See dis?” He smiled in satisfaction as he saw Rhoach’s eyes widen slightly and gain a covetous look. “Menny shineez wid uz. Lat go tu ORGRIMMAR. Ax fer SKULLCRUSHER CLAN. Be wid uz, git SHINEEZ.” Uglutz practically shouted these last words, as he figured those would be what the troll understood. The troll was covering his ears and squinting back at the eccentric shaman, but repeated, “Orgrimmar. Skullcrushers… shinies?” Rhoach pondered the orc’s words, looking down and screwing up his face in concentration. He nodded to himself and locked his gaze with Uglutz’s. “You saved my life. I’ll be there.” Uglutz nodded in satisfaction, not totally understanding the little troll’s language, but taking the response as a positive one, nonetheless. Gesturing at the bag he had tossed at the troll’s feet, he said, “Take. Eet. Oomie meat gud. Lat luk lyk skinee elbzie. Go.” The sound of more orcish voices came from the east side of the clearing. After one last questioning glance, Rhoach picked up the bag and swiftly skittered into the dense vegetation of Stranglethorn Vale.

Well damn, looks like I missed the contest

Silly gerbil.

Alliance vs. Horde mainly, I think. New Screenshots

Hah! That paper subject is ironic... keep up the good work! >8]

Nice. Looks like an attack of the Goths!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 As Rhoach neared the battle, he took stock of the situation. Both combatants had slowed down considerably from their initial fervor. They were circling each other guardedly, each not daring to take his eyes off the other for a second. Their movements were slow and halting. It was clear they were both at the point of exhaustion. The mage lay on the ground twenty paces or so away from the fight. Rhoach could not tell if she was dead or just unconscious. He decided to find out. Skirting the fighters, he made his way over to the still form. Unnoticed by either of the meleers, Rhoach knelt down beside the mage. After poking her a few times with no response, he decided to check her heartbeat. He started to put his head to her chest, then realized something was in his way. It was an axe, embedded in the mage’s sternum. “That'll have to go,” Rhoach muttered to himself. He tugged on it. Nothing. He pulled harder. It didn’t budge. Frowning, Rhoach hopped up onto the mage’s chest, locked both hands around the axe handle, put his feet against her stomach, and heaved with all his strength. After a second of straining, the axe ripped free of the mage, and Rhoach found out the messy way that the axe had been keeping the mage’s blood inside her. A spray of crimson hit Rhoach in the face, startling him and causing him to lose his grip on the axe as he was falling back. The axe sailed behind Rhoach and flew in between the nearby duelists, making both fighters jump back and peer warily around them. Rhoach looked down to discover that if the mage hadn’t been dead before, she was now, judging by the gaping hole in her chest. Chorich looked and saw that little scab of a troll crouched over Marianne, her chest a bouquet of blood and splintered ribs. The paladin’s face turned a deathly white as he stood, eyes transfixed upon the sight. It felt like the bottom had dropped out of his soul as he unconsciously stretched out his arm to his beloved. Then the world seemed to turn upside down, everything was black, and he knew no more. Rhoach watched the human fall, a blank expression on the young troll’s face. Once more, his mentor’s words tumbled through his mind like sand through an hourglass; ‘Lesson six: a turned back is no defense against an assassin’s blade.’

If you're looking for info on beta, check here. Wow-ra has several people that made it into the beta, and are generous with screenshots. Elsewhere on their site, they have 'wow-tv', sort of a webcam of sorts, so you can watch people playing the game through a series of refreshed screenshots. I think more of us Skullcrushers should make themselves a presence on Wow-RA. I'm pretty active there. If a lot of us start talking around there, we could have a lot of great RP guilds to interact with!

You're lucky you never have any money to make it worthwhile for my army to massacre your troops! *giggles evilly and scurries off into the shadows*

Saw this... I like the part where what's-his-face comes screaming out of the screen

######, dude. Give those books hell! :axes:

Nope. *kicks the dead pet around a bit*

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 Part 6 Meanwhile, Uglutz had lackadaisically ambled his way over to where Rhoach lay, still twitching slightly. Grulg knelt down next to the wounded troll and stared at him for a bit. “Don’ wanna go ta lockpickin’ practice…” the juvenile troll was muttering feverishly in his comatose state. “Hmm…” Uglutz pondered to himself. “Dis olog blah oomie blah…” Nodding to himself, Uglutz called upon his shamanistic powers to heal the jagged scar of charred flesh running down the length of Rhoach’s back. Gradually, Rhoach stopped muttering as the magic did its work. The shaman’s powers restored the blackened skin and scrambled muscle the way Rhoach’s natural powers of regeneration could not. Rhoach’s eyes fluttered a bit, then opened fully. When he saw Uglutz crouched over him, he sprang backward and would have sprinted into the forest in a blink had the shaman not called out to him. “Ug! Lat der!” the orc called after the starved, but still spry, troll. “’less lat stup, me vudu lat!” Rhoach froze upon hearing the word voodoo, if he understood nothing else. He had witnessed the power of Uglutz’s magic. He did not wish to be hit by lightning twice in one day. He turned back slowly to Uglutz. The shaman grinned and tapped his fingernails together, out of which sprang large dragonflies. Rhoach stood, not daring to move. “Olog. Lat hep Grulg. Dat Grulg.” The shaman pointed at the field of battle. Rhoach assumed that this strange being was referring to the other orc, now in the action of parrying a strike from the human’s warhammer. “Clomp da oomie.” Uglutz pulled his lips down to cover his jutting teeth in an impression of a human, then mimed hitting himself with a large axe he unstrapped from his back, wearing an exaggerated expression of fear and speaking in a high falsetto: “No! Dun’ clomp me, me jus’ liddul panzee!” The shaman looked over to Rhoach, who wore a befuddled expression on his face. He was trying to figure out if the orc before him was playing some kind of trick on him, wanted him to do something, was mentally unbalanced, or perhaps all of the above. Uglutz interpreted the befuddled look as complete understanding. “Gud. Go. Clomp. Or me vudu lat.” Rhoach cocked his head to the side. He understood what the shaman wanted of him (after a little pondering), but he didn’t know what he would get out of it. The privilege of being allowed to remain in the world of the living? A particularly loud clash sounded from the center of the clearing. Uglutz poked him and pointed sharply towards the duelists, his patience at an end. Rhoach shrugged and slinked off in the direction of the combatants, keeping low to the ground and fingering the dagger strapped underneath his forearm. His smart aleck attitude had been the cause of several scars from Kzar. He wasn’t fond of making himself appear meek, much to his former mentor’s chagrin.

I don't think The Silmarillion is for most people. It's much more dry than the LOtR trilogy. I, myself, didn't enjoy it that much. But that's just me.

Farewell! I'll take good care of your gold while you're gone!

Awesome. Thanks for making my idea a reality, Wolf! *saves the pic to his hard drive*

Hahaha.... wheee!

I posted another part of Rhoach's story in the Fire Pit two days ago, Nokk.

Geez, people. I thought people would think it was funny. It was well-received over at wow-ra.com anyway. Well, except for the moderator who locked the topic

Does anybody else get these? When I used to use ICQ, I got this ###### from time to time.... I'm 'Libra', by the way. Read and enjoy 140071179: (5:19 PM) hi.... Libra: (5:19 PM) ploo. julie huchinson: (5:19 PM) asl? Libra: (5:19 PM) ploo. julie huchinson: (5:19 PM) 23/f/ny Libra: (5:19 PM) ploo. julie huchinson: (5:19 PM) so waht are you up to libra? Libra: (5:19 PM) having sex with my hamster. julie huchinson: (5:20 PM) well, i nevr had it with a libra;-) Libra: (5:20 PM) .... julie huchinson: (5:20 PM) you wana cyber me! im kinda in the mood if you know what i mean Libra: (5:21 PM) do you have any cousins? julie huchinson: (5:21 PM) great! can you jst get it started.. Libra: (5:21 PM) Snip. You're not a real person. julie huchinson: (5:22 PM) so tell me how you would do me! from behind? Libra: (5:22 PM) sorry. My hamster would get jealous. So would my dog, my goat... can't disappoint 'em, you know? julie huchinson: (5:22 PM) yeah, give it to me from behind sweets Libra: (5:22 PM) I didn't say that, robot. julie huchinson: (5:22 PM) what?? what is a bot? Libra: (5:23 PM) I didn't say that, android. julie huchinson: (5:23 PM) keep going.. im getting.. you know.. excited Libra: (5:23 PM) no, I don't know. My mom says I shouldn't do such things. Mother knows best... *bites backs of hands* julie huchinson: (5:23 PM) Libra: (5:24 PM) snood. julie huchinson: (5:24 PM) brb... getting my toy Libra: (5:24 PM) I wonder how long this b*t will talk. julie huchinson: (5:24 PM) im back. still there? Libra: (5:24 PM) what the ###### do you think, b0t? julie huchinson: (5:24 PM) so do you have a big one...? Libra: (5:25 PM) It's half a centimeter long. Is that big? julie huchinson: (5:25 PM) good...why dont you drop your pants? Libra: (5:25 PM) what are pants? julie huchinson: (5:25 PM) ... are you stroking it? Libra: (5:26 PM) if by "it" you mean my hamster, then... no. julie huchinson: (5:26 PM) Libra: (5:26 PM) . julie huchinson: (5:26 PM) so libra what would you like me to do? Libra: (5:26 PM) sell me some real estate. julie huchinson: (5:26 PM) go on... Libra: (5:27 PM) no. julie huchinson: (5:27 PM) ohh yeah!!! my panties are all wet. i think ill take them off... Libra: (5:29 PM) Are you sitting in gravy? Libra: (5:29 PM) I sat in gravy once. Libra: (5:30 PM) aw, the B0T stopped. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 Part 6 Rhoach had taken off as soon as he had recovered from Ulrich’s boot in his ribs. It was well, as the paladin had gotten up soon after and chased Rhoach with surprising speed for one who was wearing chain armor and heavy boots. As the incensed Chorich gained on him, Rhoach feinted left and doubled back around the surprised human. Rhoach darted past his pursuer… straight into the raging Grulg who was running the other way. The startled troll had enough wits about him to tuck himself into a ball and roll in between the orc’s legs, who appeared to see only his foe in the deepening twilight of the forest clearing. Rhoach came out of his roll and hit the ground running. Free! He thought to himself. As he neared the clearing’s edge, he heard the mage speak a sharp command and a crackle sounded behind him. Before Rhoach had time to wonder what it was, electricity suddenly surged through his body, causing him to hit the ground and twitch convulsively, little arcs of light dancing through his teeth. The paladin immediately gave up chasing the wretched troll and steeled himself to meet his opponent’s charge, this time slinging his shield from his back and holding it close to his body. Now the orc would flail uselessly at the wall of metal, allowing Choric to choose his blows as he pleased. Or so the paladin thought. His look of smug satisfaction turned to one of surprise as Grulg planted his feet and hurled a throwing axe from his belt faster than Chorich could blink. It whistled by the startled paladin’s face by mere inches. The human’s surprise turned to relief… and then he heard a groan behind him. A horrible feeling growing in his gut, he turned around slowly, his worry making him heedless to his foe. Marianne lay on the ground, the axe embedded in her sternum. Her life’s blood was quickly spilling itself into the rich soil of the clearing. “Mari!” Chorich cried out tearfully, hurrying to her side and kneeling. He laid his hands on her, crying out to his god to heal her. Her bleeding slowed to a trickle. He felt life flow from his limbs into her body, and urged himself to give more. As he desperately worked his craft, he heard the heavy, clomping steps of his hated foe closing in quickly. Cursing, he gave up healing Marianne for the moment and hastily readied his shield and hammer. Grulg came at him with a bloodthirsty yell, and soon the two were locked in combat.

RP QUIZ I was: You are the Rogue! In spite of the criminal tone of the name, you are simply one who prefers to do things by stealth, subtlety and strategy. You're the adventurous type, best suited for scouting ahead for enemy ambushes and traps, or resolving a situation quietly and quickly. Though covert, you aren't neccessarily faithless, and may have strong alliances or personal codes of honor.

All very interesting articles. Thankya!

Heheh, no problem. Might want to delete your post over at wow-ra if you can, though.

*grins* I was thinking it would be cool if I worked in something about how one of the horns on Uglutz's helmet got broken. And so I did.