User:Jormungand01/Skirmishes in Silverpine Forest

While the Forsaken ambassadors were instructed to act normally so as not to alert the other races, in secret the Lich King prepared the rest for war on the humans to the south. As a prelude to this he sent small raiding parties into Silverpine Forest to try and disrupt the activities of Pyrewood Village and Ambermill, the main Alliance settlements in the area. To begin with nothing exciting happened. The odd cartload of supplies went missing, as did important messages. But the governors reported nothing out of the ordinairy, as things like that happened all the time.

Then the attacks began to increase in frequency. At one point Pyrewood received no supplies for a month, and the inhabitants were forced to venture out into the forest to get what they needed to survive. Only a handful ever returned. Travellers too began to disappear on the road. Starting to become alarmed, Henry Maleb, Magistrate of Southshore, ordered guards to accompany the carts. But it seemed to make little difference, and those few that made it through were reluctant to speak of their journey.

The reason why soon became evident. Those who ate the imported grain fell sick and died, only to be raised in undeath. The guards too turned out to have been long dead, and together they attacked the village from within. The villagers gained a temporary reprieve come sundown, when they transformed into worgen and were able to drive the undead off, but when dawn arrived it revealed a massive army waiting outside. Not one of the defenders survived.

The Scourge roamed freely through the forest, killing wherever they met one of the living. A large group went towards the south, and there indulged their lust for blood by slaughtering the refugees outside the Greymane Wall. Some even attempted to climb the wall itself, but were driven back by a volley of arrows. Eventually, when he was sure that no-one had escaped, the lich Abrakkar the Wretched, commander of the Scourge forces, ordered his army to march on Ambermill, one of the last refuges of the wizards of Dalaran.

The inhabitants fought back fiercely. Soldiers rained storms of arrows down on the undead, and the mages cast bolts of fire to burn hundreds to ashes. The ruling archmage caused great cracks to open in the ground, swallowing entire batallions whole. For a while it seemed like they could win the day. But eventually, when the Scourge army was in ruins, Abrakkar unleashed his secret weapon - the abominations.

Enormously strong and difficult to kill, the abominations soon battered down the walls and smashed the defenders apart, ready for the main army to destroy them. When his defeat was clear Archmage Ataeric came out, duelled Abrakkar one on one, and died a heroes death. In his last moments he incinerated the entire town so that those who had given their lives would not be raised to serve their enemy.