World of Warcraft - Interbellum (IC Thread)

[MrAbdiel]

Captain Evencane's expression gathers a little despair, as he surveys the group - and he raises and drops one hand in limp surrender when the remainder of the applicants withdraw leaving four (four point five, maybe?) willing and able. The precipitous withdrawal of offers to serve came in two waves - one with the announcement of the territory the quest required them to enter, and then another seemingly in reaction to the troll and ogre committing to the deed. A generous onlooker might sympathise, that many of these sailors had lost friends and family in skirmishes with Thrall's new Horde in the Third War; and plenty had taken part in nautical duels against ogre juggernauts and troll destroyers in the Second War. While the people of Theramore were rarely outright rude or confrontational with these exotic guests, they might be forgiven for having reluctance to work along side them. A less generous onlooker might simply see a rash of the xenophobic reflex practiced by cowards craving a world simple enough to divide into friend-or-foe.

The Captain tracked his eyes across the remaining applicants, and hardened his expression in acceptance. Mor'Lag's bargain draws a furrowed brow from the captain, but no sharp response that might alienate his volunteers. "The recompense goes to your group, and you can divide it however the lot of you see fit when the deed is done; four ways or five, that's your business. But not until the cadets are back safe, or - ... Or back, atleast."

The troubled Captain shoos a card game from one table, callously sweeping empty mugs and gambling chips to the floor. His urgency, or his rank, seemed to abjure any possible reprisal, and he flags the four would-be-rescuers over to join him. He unfurls a map of the Dustwallow Marsh, at the level of abstraction common to standard issue renditions.

Spoiler: The Map

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He indicates the icon of a watchtower at the north west most point of the brackish Dustwallow inlet; and looks through the tops of his troubled eyes to Isaera, pursuant to her question earlier. "They didn't have a mission. They shouldn't have been out there at all. They were delivering supply to North Point tower - a two venture down a patrolled road, and two days back. But for reasons I can't bloody fathom, they took it upon themselves to head further south west into Horde patrolled roads." He drags his fingertip left, to a red inked X. "There's a fifth cadet, Lidus, who sped back on a horse the troops at North Point gave him to give the bad news. Rode the horse to death then ran for nine hours before collapsing into the arms of the marines at the front gate. He was barely able to indicate where the other four were located before they got ambushed in the dark and seperated; he's passed out in the infirmary now. Healers have stabilized him, but he won't be awake for atleast six hours, they say; and I'll be damned if I wait that long before dispatching someone to look for the others."

His eyes swivel conspiratorially around the table to the eclectic applicants. "I can't sent marines in uniform, or they might provoke a direct Horde response. I can't send them out of uniform because if they get captured, they'll be considered spies, and hanged or piked. You'll follow the medical team I'll dispatch for the two days up to North Point. Then you'll strike out toward Brackenwall, find those Cadets, and bring them back to the tower. No conflict with the Horde if you can at all avoid it. Be discreet; this doesn't need to be an incident. You'll get twenty for each cadet whose body you recover; fifty if they're still alive. But that'll be going on five days hiding, wounded in the swamp; I'm tempering my expectations. That's a neat two gold pieces if you're smart, fast, and lucky, divided up between you however you want. Payment on completion. If you fail, then we never had this conversation. Understood?"

Ten copper will buy a decent meal and a room for a night in many an inn; and with a hundred copper to a silver and a hundred silver to a gold piece, the reward isn't life changing - but it's breathing room, that's for damn sure.