Katsuko: Guardian of Dalaran

A pall has fallen over Northrend. A nameless dread, a constant reminder of what we had and what is no longer. So much joy, so many celebrations, so many friends made and promises kept.

Naxxramas is destroyed.

Ulduar lies in ruins.

Even the Lich King, our hated nemesis, has been bested.

Now...

Now there are only memories of faded glory. A ghost of the greatness that was, and what never will be again.

The heroes have moved on, left the once-glorious floating city to its own devices. In their place, only the desperate, the corrupt, the forgotten remain. Organized crime, petty thieves, rapists, murderers...they are legion within the city, now.

My city. My beautiful, wonderful metropolis. I spent so many happy hours here. Yes...happy. Me, of all people. I was happy here. Content. At peace.

But now...

I cannot look at the shell of this place and not feel...rage. Rage against the people who sully it. Rage against those who abandoned it. Rage for all those that must remain and deal with the daily despair of life.

And that rage needs victims.

So while you heroes of the frozen north run back to Azeroth...

While you succumb to the consumerism of the Bilgewater Cartel...

While you quibble over useless theological debates between Thrall's followers and Hellscreams'...

I will remain as I always have. I will stay and defend those who cannot defend themselves. I will be the guardian they no longer have.

I am a poor champion, I admit. But if I am all they have, then so be it. The darkness that rules Dalaran now has an enemy. The people have a guardian.

Because for them I can be what I never have been. What I never tried to be. What I never wanted to be.

A hero.

(with apologies to Batman, Daredevil, and The Maxx)

New Feature! Random Screenshot Thursday!

Because, "Work sucks and I have no idea what to post and Rembrancer: Part II is still at the shop getting new tires, so I can't do that," didn't have the same catchy marketing title to it.



Yes, a 40-man raid defense of Orgrimmar from the forces of elemental destruction infesting the world; because that's how we Silver Hand Horde roll. If there's a problem, yo, we'll solve it.


Having never been in a 40-man raid, I really don't know how you old-school folks did it back in the day. It's total chaos...but with more running and screaming.

'Cheeves!

I must thank Ratshag for the cool addon he linked from his blog, even if it was just peripherally. I suspect it will make my life a lot easier. Plus I can catch important moments in the Corps' life much more grandly, like this:

Ginawa got a horse!

Or this:

DK Space Goat levels right in front of King Varian Wynn. Courtiers aghast. Film at 11.

And action shots like this:

That's a lot of fwoosh.

But I am very glad I was able to get this one. Kats would have never forgiven me if I'd missed this huge milestone in her quest for vengeance:

Teaser alert! More on Kats' first journey into ICC to come!

No One Puts Belfy in a Corner

Not much of an update this week, I fear, but I had to share the following pics.

First pic is Katsuko and her new favorite tank, Alvi. Why is she her new favorite tank, might you ask? Because she tanks in a dress! Yes, that's right. She tanks like a girl, and I dare you to make fun of her. Keristraza did, and look where that got her. Yes...dead.

Awwwww, she even gave our hate-filled little burninator a hug. How nice of her. Only problem with Belfs tanking in dresses? There were two other dress-wearing Belfs in the party...follow the wrong one at your peril.

Pic #2 is from the recent retaking of the Echo Isles from good 'ol Zalazane. Yes, Zalazane...the same asshole we all killed at level 10. Well, he's back and officially beating ass. Er, at least he was. Now he's so much protoplasm being played with by the benevolent Troll voodoo God of death and vengeance; which seems to be a contradiction in terms to me, but hey...I guess if you smoke enough of the really green, stinky, crunchy peanut butter, wicked voodoo God worship starts sounding like a pretty good idea.

Anywho, in the process of assisting said dark voodoo God (for Darkspear rep and gold, of course...it's not like we do this for free), Katsuko discovered she was a pretty good recruiter. Now, if only she could get them into OUR Army instead of Vol'Jins.

That' all for this week. I will try to be less lax about posting than I have been. Remembrancer Part II is on the way, as is another Army SitRep, all within the next two weeks. Promise.

2010-08-26 2300 Zulu; Battalion SitRep

Report Filed By: Gen. A. Kusamoto
Priority: Moderate

Classification: Secret

Batallion Status: Green

**Begin Trans**

Col. Katsuko deserves congratulations from the rest of our company on her latest achievement, namely promotion to the highest levels of Azerothian competence. However, since this milestone earlier in the week, she has only slowed down long enough to pull some new clothes, a knife, and a strange-looking orb (which, she informs me, has already been replaced with some terribly boring book) out of her footlocker. She seems absolutely driven to make it to Icecrown and Arthas' Frozen Throne in support of the rest of the battalion. While her singleminded zealotry is admirable, we all find it vaguely terrifying. Col. Tsurii even baked her a cake and had signs printed up ("Congratulations, Slacker") as a celebratory gesture, but she begged off saying something about the "twice-damned sons of Ho'Dir" needing her to do something. I swear I heard her mutter something about "waxing their helmets," but I really didn't care to listen past that. Tsurii just seemed amused in a knowing way.

Speaking of , after being unceremoniously stopped cold in his ICC advance by an entity known as the Blood Queen, Tsurii has performed a temporary retrograde action back to Dalaran in an effort to rally his boys and support Katsuko's drive. He did, however, manage to requisition new gear from an officer of the Ashen Verdict, as well as raid the Alliance's resupply and assault frigate for these. One of the creations of the Lich King's Lieutenant, Professor Putricide, apparently had no further use for this, either. While the remainder of his equipment is strictly standard issue, allied forces have reported that his conduct and performance under fire have been exemplary.

Sadly, the pressures and resposibilities of command have left me more-or-less stationed in Undercity for the foreseeable future. This is a delicate time for the Army, and I cannot ignore my post to go gallivanting off to the Arathi Highlands like some common mercenary. There are campaigns to plan, supplies to distribute, families whose loved ones Katsuko has set on fire to apologize to (cultists have mothers...huh...who knew?), then those same families to apologize to again after Tsurii ate a few of their cousins- ["OMNOMNOM! heehee!" "Dude, shut up! I'm recording here!" "Sorry, boss...say, does this clown taste funny to you?" "*sigh*They don't pay me enough for this..."]...where was I...oh, Dalaran city guardsmen to bribe...err...motivate, and plenty of new recruits to interview (although the Tauren that is convinced she is a Paladin and the very devout-if eccentric-Goblin flummox me). Our Army strengthens, and soon we shall be strong enough to not only push the last remnants of the Lich King's forces from our world forever, but also survive the cataclysm you have often spoken of. **END TRANS**