User:Joshmaul/Artimus Devaneaux/Dead Man's Service

Baron Artimus Devaneaux managed to make it through the war in Northrend, returning to the south to a future that concerned him. After the fall of the Lich King, the Knights of the Ebon Blade were mostly disbanded, with only the trainers and troops in Acherus remaining, and the death knights forced to make their way in the service of the factions they had served in life. For three years, Artimus remained at the behest of the King of Stormwind, but was allowed a relatively peaceful retirement. With Saavedro of Stratholme dead, Artimus moved into his house on the outskirts of Goldshire and remained there in seclusion, until fortune - ill or otherwise - called him back into service...

The Liberation of Gnomeregan


Like Vol'jin in Durotar, High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque, leader of the Gnomeregan exiles, planned the liberation of his homeland for many years while he remained within the dwarven capital of Ironforge. Finally coming up with a plan to neutralize the armies of his trusted advisor-turned-mortal enemy, Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg, Mekkatorque called on the forces of the Alliance - still celebrating their victory over the Lich King three years before - to aid him in retaking Gnomeregan and ending years of exile from their own kingdom. While he was in Stormwind, Ambassador Jaeden'laek - a comrade from the war in Northrend - approached Artimus about travelling to Dun Morogh and offering their support to Mekkatorque's plan. Artimus, skeptical of the gnomes' abilities in personal combat but appreciative of their engineering skills (and, in some cases, their magical prowess), agreed.

First, Mekkatorque required gnomish volunteers, and so gave Artimus a "Motivate-a-Tron" to rally the troops. Artimus admitted (privately, of course, to avoid harming the sensibilities of the High Tinker or his troops) that he found the effects of the gnomish device highly amusing at times, as - like most gnomish inventions - it tended to have strange side effects, such as turning the volunteers into rabbits or increasing their size. Once he had enough, Artimus led them - riding their mechanostriders to keep up with Artimus' deathcharger - to Steelgrill's Depot outside Kharanos, where Mekkatorque was rallying his support. With his recruits, he underwent "basic training" - basically involving battle roars, saluting the commander, so on; still highly amused, Artimus played along, even though he could easily crush them beneath his feet. With the troops trained, Artimus moved on to more useful tasks - testing the spider tanks that would be used in battle. There were three prototypes - one that tested the ejection system, one testing its hydraulics, and the last testing its weapons.

With the spider tanks tested, the Baron was then dispatched via flying machine to Gnomeregan itself, where he was to deploy a radiageigatron device at the radiation vents outside the city to determine the safety limits for the gnomish infantry forces. Upon his return, the "amusing" duty returned - this time, showing holographic playbacks of speeches written for Mekkatorque to give to the troops. With that duty done, he was at last dispatched to the staging area outside Gnomeregan, where Mekkatorque gave the order to advance. First, the troops attacked the airfields on the surface, eliminating Thermaplugg's air superiority and anti-air defenses. Then came the attack on the surface command post and the destruction of the tankbusting cannons that defended the main entrance. But as they approached the gates of Gnomeregan, Thermaplugg - via a "brag-bot" - declared that Gnomeregan was his, and drove forth every trogg in the city to stop them - the eventually ending with the destruction of the giant trogg Gasherikk. With the elevators offline, the entire force parachuted down to the bottom, where they entered the Train Depot. Mekkatorque noted how quiet it was...until coming across a strange radiation device at the end of the hall. It was then that Commander Boltcog and his leper gnome forces struck, but like the troggs, they did not last for long.

Screaming in fury at the defeat of his forces, Thermaplugg activated the radiation device - a fully-functional irradiator, twenty-six times more powerful than the venting of the radiation that had caused the fall of Gnomeregan. At first, it was set on "factory settings" of ten minutes and a confident Mekkatorque went to disarm it, but Thermaplugg grabbed the controls from an unseen assistant and set it to ten seconds instead. Panicking, Mekkatorque called for an emergency teleport out of Gnomeregan, just as the irradiator went off. Gnomeregan was once again alive with radioactive gas.

Despite the failure to take all of Gnomeregan, Mekkatorque was satisfied with the outcome that had been achieved - the surface was now in the hands of its rightful people, and it would only be a matter of time before Thermaplugg met his just end. With the duty done, Artimus departed for Stormwind...where once again, things became much more troublesome.

Vashj'ir: Ghosts of the Abyss
After surviving the elemental invasions and the eventual Shattering, Artimus set out by sea to a strange island off the coast of Khaz Modan, known as Vashj'ir. A vessel captained by Samir - who Artimus had met in the Grizzly Hills, and who had known Saavedro and Ketiron from Zul'Aman - and crewed by his mercenaries, including Budd Nedreck (clearly brain-damaged, in Artimus' opinion), arrived in Stormwind Harbor to transport Alliance troops and Earthen Ring shaman to the location. Shortly after arrival, the ship was suddenly enveloped by huge tentacles, and the ship was brought to the bottom of the sea...