(63) - Plagued By The Scourge

Griffonclaw was not in Alliance territory when the first hints of the Plague attacked. He was in Brill.

Some weeks ago, he had been contacted by an ally within the Steamwheedle Cartel; a sin'dorei healer, in new possession of the Light granted the Sin'dorei race by the Na'aru
after their ruler, Kael'thas, was revealed to be in the service of Kil'jaeden, and strove to summon his demon-lord to the world, abandoning his people for his own ambitions. During the chaotic days that followed in Silvermoon, the healer had come to the deserts of Tanaris to study what tomes and scrolls he could find, ultimately engaging the goblins to find him a teacher from the Alliance in the arts of magical and non-magical healing. Griffonclaw had spent some weeks with the sin'dorei Blood Knight.

Being a creature of habit, Griffonclaw had taken the opportunity to obtain some hair samples from the fellow. When he had discovered he needed to travel among the Horde to take word to them of a horrendous plot to assassinate Cairne Bloodhoof, he had sought out the Orc assassin Borak in the Shadowmoon Valley. He had done a favor for the orc some time past, in which Borak had disguised Griffonclaw as a sin'dorei; Griffonclaw had prevailed on Borak to do it again.

In the form of Dayn Farstrider, Blood Knight Healer of the Sin'Dorei, Griffonclaw had traveled to Brill, only to find the Forsaken town under siege. A new Plague had been launched by the Scourge. Crates of Plague-infected grain had been sent to Stormwind and Orgrimmar through goblin merchants; in some cases, the crates were opened and the grain consumed; in other cases, insects and vermin ate the grain as it rotted, and carried the contagion to those around them.

The Argent Dawn dispatched healers to the major outbreaks, but many areas were not so fortunate. The Plague infected the Alliance and the Horde alike, and those who could not get to a healer in time became shambling undead zombies, carrying and spreading the contagion to the living. In Goldshire and Westfall, in Brill and in Razor Hill, the zombies roamed freely, marauding across the lands of Azeroth.

Brill became an aid station, and it was into this chaos that Griffonclaw rode from Chillwind point. He had rolled up his sleeves and gotten to work, taking his orders from Zamboozle, known to both the Horde and the Alliance as The Medic. Griffonclaw had served the Horde that day, traveling to Orgrimmar, destroying pockets of the Plague Zombies and healing those infected; whether Horde or Alliance, he could not let Arthas destroy any who might stand against him.

He had met with his contact in Northtide Hallow, at the farm he had inherited after his mother's death, and returned to Stormwind.

The Plague was evolving; the time it took for an infection to kill, and then raise the victim up again accelerated as Arthas' Necropoli began to appear over the lands. The Argent Dawn sent notices of recall to those who had served them in the past, and Griffonclaw wore their tabard once more.

The Scourge secured landing points, establishing Necrotic Shards as foci for those in the necropoli to transport their minions to the surface. As hastily-assembled forces of mixed Alliance and Horde conscripts assaulted each landing point, the Plague itself became more and more virulent, as Alliance healers and Horde necromancers both sought cures.

One by one, the Argent Dawn and their agents destroyed necrotic shard after necrotic shard, only to find that another had been established elsewhere. Flameshockers and Pallid Horrors wreaked havoc in Stormwind and the Undercity. Other agents of Arthas appeared in the dark places of Azeroth, inciting and strengthening Arthas' reach; Tenris Mirkblood‎, one of the Darkfallen, took up residence in Karazan, the liche Balzaphon took up residence in Stratholme, and others.

The heroes of the Argent Dawn were bloodied and battered, but the Horde and Alliance auxillaries were relentless and implacable, and slowly... painfully slowly, the tide began to turn. New landing spots in Eastern Plaguelands and the Burning Steppes, in the Blasted Lands or Tanaris, in Azshara or Winterspring, all were destroyed almost as fast as the Scourge could appear. A cure for the Plague was found, and widely distributed.

While the Argent Dawn fought its difficult and dangerous holding action against the Scourge, preparations in Stormwind continued; the work that Tirion had set Griffonclaw months ago, to prepare for a crusade to Northrend, was now no longer covert. The stacks of provisions, weapons, and other supplies that the Universal Exports company had stockpiled in warehouses were released, openly stacked on the docks of the Stormwind Harbor. Merchant ships thought lost had been re-fitted with dwarven technology as ice-breaking steamships, ready to transport the brave across the waters to the shores of Northrend - to take the fight to Arthas, to make him divert his forces to his home ground.

Griffonclaw leaned against the dockyard scaffolding, exhausted. There was more to do until the ships launched, and no rest for the weary; and yet, he smiled through his fatigue. The man who had broken the Order of the Silver Hand, the man who had declared Uther Lightbringer and his army traitors, the man who had killed his own father to usurp the throne of Lordaeron, awaited his final judgement in Northrend.

The paladin smiled, and in a barely audible voice, whispered.

"We're coming"