The following is the result of a collaboration between The Lion’s Roar and Media Frenzy.
Sunday night a banquet in Old Town turned into a deadly sacrificial summoning ritual when a human male only known as
"Tex" somehow convinced five people that standing in a pentacle and cutting their own hands was all normal for a banquet.
According to several witnesses then an invitation had gone out to people to take part in a banquet, exactly how this all went down we were unable to learn, but at some point five "guests" at the banquet and the man called
"Tex" ended up in one of the alleys in Old Town with the five people in a pentacle formation around the well in the centre of the alley. According to witnesses then "Tex" proceeded to instruct them to cut themselves and their blood as well as his own went into the well at the same time as he shouted out:
Cultist Tex:"And now, I call upon you, to gift what you have taken, it is high-time that our crimson blessings spread a rot into the roots of this city, our gift to its populace oh-so-gracious, let them applaud our generosity, and delight in their fate."
It is anyone’s guess if this was part of a summoning ritual and actually mandatory, or just the mad ramblings of a fanatic cultist leader, the results however cannot be denied.
Soon after a being arose from the well in the centre of the alley and the five people who – willingly or not – participated in the ritual turned into ghoul like abominations. We got several different descriptions from witnesses of the summoned being.
Henry: "Was an ethereal, blue-winged woman-lookin' thing tha' had traces o' darkness through it. Reached to abou' the bottom of those. "
Those being the windows on the second floor of a town-house building.
Another witness described it like this:
Bartender: "…this huge fuckin' winged thing. "
Citizen #2: "…Some called it a floating Valkyrie or such. "
After the being was summoned, all hell broke loose. As one witness describes it:
Citizen #2: "Then that big winged thing appeared with the cultist turning into this abomination like ghouls, attacking people."
A fight broke out, involving the local citizens and soon also the guards. The locals seems a bit split on their appreciation of the guards, one witness mentions how she saw Captain Stormblade of Golf Company
"blown up by a ghoul" and adds that
"That was fun" while another citizen had a more appreciative look on their work:
Natalie Wright:: "First and foremost, I would like to thank all the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives in defense of us, little men here in Old Town. It was a joy to my eyes to see the guards and the likes alongside paladins so quickly emerge and engage the threat to keep us safe. I find it utmost reassurin' to see 'ow they all preserved our lives on tha' night.
When I pressed about it - based on the experience that most people in Old Town think the only good guard is a dead guard - she went on to insist she meant it.
Natalie Wright:: "I seriously mean it, 'y really think I'm sarcastic? We'd be dead if not for them. I mean it."
But ultimately it seems most agree that the battle turned for real when "The holy lot" showed up.
We where told that the person responsible for getting aid from "The holy lot" was a man named Henry, a worgen who would not stop talking about a man named "Charlie".
Henry: "Charlie."
Henry: "A boss o' the downtrodden. Sort of. He's like a retired boss o' the downtrodden from th'times o' Eragorn Tempest and Duchess de Lordamere."
Hardhy Lester: "Those are names I have not heard in a decade"
Henry: "Yeah. He's from back then."
Henry: "S'funny. Charlie fuckin' called it bein' a summonin' ritual."
Henry: "Charlie called the summoning ritual. He called it bein' undead."
Henry: "An' yeah. Charlie was like standin' up on th'roof watchin', he said to th'guys that work here ta' get people back before anythin' even happened."
Hardhy Lester: "This Charlie sounds like a clever guy"
Henry: "Charlie's a great guy."
Henry: "Nah. I backed off t'make sure folks weren't gonna try and like, see how folk were coping. Charlie I think saw, not sure. Bu' the paladins started throwin' their Light at th'flying thing."
Fizz Frenzy: "Know where we can find him?"
Henry: "Charlie? He's elusive."
As a friend of his showed up he started to repeat himself to get her to corporate his story about how the amazing Charlie "called it", it gave us enough time to make a hasty retreat and start looking for this "holy lot".
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The only details we had to go on was "Paladins", "Holy lot", "Faithful" and "Sir Foy", so off to the Cathedral we went – even if I badly wanted a mug of coffee at this point. As luck should have it then it turned out to not be a long search, throwing the name "Faithful" around near the Cathedral quickly got us the attention of a group of battle-hardened paladins standing near one of the planters. One of them turned out to be Sir Victor Foy, of the Dawn of the Faithful, a holy order well known in the city and Azeroth as a whole.
Victor Foy: "Aye. I was the one leading the charge, at least with my own men."
Fizz Frenzy: "Great! You're all very brave. I can't fight for my life. So... how was it to fight against?"
Hardhy Lester: "And how would you describe.. it?"
Victor Foy: "As always, when fighting Scourge and anything related to it. It's a horrible experience, something that chills you to the very core. The magic can grow so foul and thick that it feels as if it gets harder to breathe."
Fizz Frenzy: "Sounds awful. What did it look like? "
Victor Foy: "No stories, no words written can come close to how horrid combating these types of wicked beings are. And well, it was... A massive floating phantom of some foul necromantic animation. Controlling the smaller abominations below it. Eyes hollow yet piercing through the late evening, shimmering blue with flickers of the necro magic it contains."
Fizz Frenzy: "How did it die? "
Here one of Sir Foy’s companions pitched in with a reply:
Floridius Lightclaw: "It died as it should have. Cleansed by the holy light we struck on it. It left an eery sound headed towards the graveyard."
Victor Foy: "Well. It was a combined effort, before we arrived the battle had already commenced. People using the usual instruments of war, alas the gunshots and arrows did little to hurt it. Bombs however, seemingly distorted it. With the Faithful’s combined efforts, we delivered the holy lights judgement. Which seems to have made a great success."
Victor Foy: "Luckily enough for us, the guardsmen cleared the area. Allowing us to combat this foul abomination on our own. As someone bombed the well it floated over. When done, we initiated a sealing ritual; then proceeded to cleanse the area. And set ablaze the corpses."
Floridius Lightclaw: "It wus a combined effort of everyone willin' to protect their city."
Which leads us to the last part in this story, the guards. We had a chat with Captain Stormblade of Golf Company, also known as The King's Footmen.
From the conversation we learned that guards suspect that the event is part of a string of events which has been happening over the last few weeks. From an incident in the Cemetery with waves of undead being led by a San'layn or a rogue Death Knight to a grotesque void monster near the Cathedral.
Tenebres Stormblade: "So far bigger picture causes more questions than it gives any answers. We've had, now, for quite some time - information and rumors about Drustvari magic slithering into our city that causes all sort of troubles. How they all are connected? It's hard to say at this point but there is one name, which I can't share as investigation is still going on, that may be behind it all."
Hardhy Lester: "And speaking of last night, what happened there?"
Tenebres Stormblade: "We received insider information about a banquet organized by one of the 'gang' parties. So we decided to focus primarily on this district for as long as that banquet would last, in case a 'gang war' would take place, considering... some complications between those people and inability to co-exist together. It was sort of trap to those who gathered around. As banquet was over, so was the ritual and undead began to spurr out of that well in the middle of back alley. We fought them off yet this time with a casualty. Frances Taylor, Private First Class of Golf Company died shortly after fight was over."
Fizz Frenzy: "It's sad. It's easy to forget the people out there patrolling have lives... families."
A district banded together, helped by guards and paladins, and a threat was neutralized. I think it is a reminder to everyone that when we stand together we are stronger. Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of Frances Taylor, Private First Class of Golf Company, rest in peace.