Grumpus... What the heck is a Grumpus?

Great Father Winter arrived in Orgrimmar the other day and brought along tons of gifts for the good little Horde patrons of Azeroth.
Christene was putting some Hexweave Bags on the Auction house that Deadskully gave her to sell. She Saw the big tree and went to see the presents and saw Great Father Winter. He stopped her and asked if she could help
"Look Great Father, As much as I want to help, I can't. I just help my friends with light duty work and flipping Auction House goods.  But don't worry I do have some people in mind that can help you out. I'll send them your way."

"Thank you so much Blood elf mage, I will be here waiting"
__________________________

I was in my Garrison just pootin around that morning. After sending some followers on missions I went to check my mail box.
Hmmm Christene usually send me dust for enchanting or gold from the items that I send her but this time she actually wrote something. My first thought was that something happened to Medelys her sister, and my best friend, but nope.
After I read it, it looks like I'm on my way to Orgrimmar to see what she's volunteered me for. I wonder if it pays good or in the Spirit of Winter Veil, I should just be a good samaritan and do a good deed. Bah humbug.... We'll see what it is.
I roll up the letter and I turn around, "Zhar'gak, you ready to go on an adventure. This might be interesting"
 Zhar'gak let out a creepy snarl... "I'll take that as a yes... lets GO!!!!"
I take out my Orgrimmar teleport cloak and off we went to see Great Father Winter!
Do I bow?
Do I curtsy?
Do I kiss his hand?
Do I bring HIM a present to put under his tree?

"Hi Great Father, my name is Deadskully and my friend Christene tells me that you need help with something.
"Oh yes young Warlock, indeed I do"
"Take these bushels of hollies, they will disguise your riding mount to look like a reindeer. Grumpus can't resist the taste of reindeer. You ride to where he lives and he will smell the reindeer, and that is when he will be at his most vulnerable and then you attack it."
"Grumpus huh? alright, we'll do it."
"Thank You so much Deadskully, I will notify Pizzle and her sister right away and have them meet you at your Garrison in Frostfire Ridge. They will let you know what else they need help with and answer any question you have about the task."

As we left Orgrimmar I couldn't help but think to myself, Great Father Winter sounds like a douche. Why the heck did I just agree to go find this creature and kill it for no reason? lure it out with it's favorite meal only to say 'just kidding!' and throw a couple of Shadow bolts in his face until it dies. That's not right. There's gotta be a good reason to this and hopefully this Pizzle person will tell me a logical reason or I'm gonna bail on this rubbish task.
I arrived at my Garrison and found Pizzle.
"Deadskully! Great Father Winter just let us know that you are here to help us defeat Grumpus."
"Hello Pizzle, yeah but before I go, can you tell me what Grumpus is and why we have to stop him? I didn't ask Mr Winter why, but now I think I should have asked more questions before I said yes."
"Alright, sweetie... sit... The story tells of a mean-spirited brute that would come in the night, in the dead of winter, and kidnap children that misbehaved. Back at his lair, he would present them with awful toys, and use their tears to spawn his minions. So there is a little more you have to do then just defeating Grumpus. The children need to be rescued from cages they are kept in. The horrible presents need to be destroyed with these bombs I will give you, And finally the minions of Grumpus needs to be killed as well. They are the ones that do the dirty work for Grumpus. They are the ones going to the towns and villages and taking the children."
"Oh Cripes, that is terrible!!!! Yeah kids will be naughty but, there's no reason to snatch them from their homes... Of  course we'll help!"
"Go now hun, there will be others there helping as well."

I got on my White Raptor, grabbed out the bush of holly and waved it above her head. hmmm, nothing happened. I got off and whacked it on her head a couple of times... nothing. plucked off some berries, smushed it in my hand and rubbed it on her... still nothing. I got back on her and just as I was gonna give up, she snatches the bush out of my hand and eats it. Snowy sparkles swirl around her... and she turn into the reindeer!!!. SWEET!!!! we ride to the mountains where Pizzle says Grumpus lives.
"What the....?!?!?!" That's Grumpus!?!?!? He's fricken huge!!!"
Looks like others were trying to kill Grumpus before I got there but right as I rode up he turned his attention to us, I'm assuming when he smelt my reindeer.
Ohhh crap I got off and my raptor turned back into a raptor. Grumpus saw this and started to get even more aggressive, probably he realized that there was no actual reindeer. "Zhar'gak GO!!!"
I dotted him up with corruption and agony and I needed to look around at where the cages of children were so I just cast drain soul on him so I didn't need to keep my eyes on him.
I also saw others coming to help take Grumpus out. Oh geez not only did I have to fend off Grumpus, I might have to take out some Alliance as well. Nightelf hunter stood next to me while his corehound pup fought alongside Zhar'gak and in the back of us was a human mage tossing arcane missiles at Grumpus. What are the odds one comes flying my way as well. As I'm still casting drain soul I feel Grumpus getting weaker and as long as those Alliance are attacking him, I can summon my Infernal or my Doomguard to attack them even before they know it.

No I can't, they could attack me easily right now if they wanted to, but they're not. We're all here for the same reason, Save the Children and stop Grumpus and his minions. so I decided against my urge to summon help to kill Alliance.
Grumpus was finally defeated, we all cheered and I looked back at the two. The hunter put his bow to his side and nodded, and the mage waved. I waved back at both of them and we all scattered towards the cages.
There's the kids in the cages. So much cages. I come upon a cage with 2 Draenei children. I break the lock with my scythe and gesture for them to run. If I said "RUN!" I don't know if they would understand. They followed me and we stopped when we saw the bags of evil presents that I have to destroy as well. I let the kids have fun blowin' those up themselves. Just my luck one of them would blow off one of their digits.  "Alright kids that's enough, you see those Alliance right there (I point to the hunter and mage)... stay with them and they will take you all back home to your families" I guess they understood because they ran to them."
"Ok Zhar'gak lets blow this joint!"

We found a calm quiet path out of there, but we had to pass sleeping minions. I got out my raptor and was beginning to run when she turned back into the reindeer. I completely forgot she was still under the holly effects. The jingling of the bells on her saddle woke one of the minions. It chased us and I thought we were all clear when another jumps down from an over hanging cliff and knocks me off of my reindeer "Ahhh! Zhar'gak help!!"
Grumpus' minions were 10 times smaller then him and much easier to kill but they do get overwhelming with several are attacking you at the same time. luckily we only had to deal with 2.
"Let's get the heck out of here now!"
We made it back to Pizzle and let her know the good news.
"Oh thank you so much Deadskully, go back to Great Father and he will give you a gift."
"Alright, Thanks Pizzle." and back to Orgrimmar I went.
"Great Father!!! we did it!!! Grumpus is no more and the Children are free!!!"
"Good job Deadskully, for your brave efforts take some gifts from under the tree before you leave. and have a Merry Winter Veil!!!"
"Thanks Great Father" I say as I grab some gifts from under the tree.
I sit down and open my gifts.
Red Wooden Wagon, fun!
Green Winter hat, cute!

Crashin' Thrashin Flamer Controller, awesome!
Merry Munchkin costume, huh? for one of my pets? Perky the Pug? alright...
I got out perky and was about to put the costume on him when he starts to do his butt scootin' thing.
"PERKY, quit it that's gross!"
he stopped
"NO! don't sniff it!!!, oh geez you're so gross dog. This is why I like rats better *wink*.

Alright dog, stay still... you got a present this year."
OK I put it on him and I will have to admit he does look extremely cute.
Red Winter hat and a light-up red nose.
Happy Winter Veil everyone!

Saving my Rhino

My initial mission to Storm Peaks got sidetracked. I went there to hunt for the Timeless Proto Drake that flies the skies.  After about an hour of flying around, I figured to ask Grom'arsh Crash-Site patrons and see if they can give me better areas to search. When I land, I go in the broken zepplin now used as shelter for the camp,
Moteha Windborn was at the nose opening. He greeted me and asked what I needed, As I was about to speak I hear a horrible beastly cry coming from the gulch .
"What the heck was that!?!?" I asked extremely startled.
"Down in the valley behind us are Wooly rhino herds. In the mountains surrounding them are blue proto drake nests.." explains Moteha.
"Oh goodness, ok I get it, that's terrible! Why don't you stop them?"
"It's not our place to stop them, young one. That is life, that is what nature intended...."
"I guess" I say all mopey as I walk out of the Zepplin to the edge of the cliff.
More depressing cries echo throughout the valley. I let out a sigh. Dags grunts to get my attention. I look up at him and he motions to the valley like he wants to do something about it as well.
I'm gonna get so busted for this if anyone finds out, but oh weeeeeellll.
"Dags, lets go rhino saving!"
 I take another look back to make sure no one is out watching, and I mount up on Windy, my West Wind Drake and we head towards the cries. I really don't know what I expected to see. The last time I was around this area I wasn't really paying attention to the wildlife that lived here. But even if I did, I don't think I would remember caring if I did see rhinos getting eaten by proto drakes. I didn't care about much back then. My heart was freshly dead I guess. But anywhos....
"OMG RHINOS!!!! they are so cute!!! I want one! Dags get me a rhino!"
He looks at me like I'm insane. Maybe I am, but still, I'd love one to ride around. I'm not a hunter so I don't have the ability to tame one with ease. So I will have to work my charm, I can do it... maybe.
"Come on Dags, lets go run with the rhinos!"
As Dags and I ran towards the rhinos, they were startled and I almost got trampled, so I had to be careful, because if I got trampled and hurt, Dags would not hesitate to kill them and that would not be my intention.
Just as I was about to stop running with them a Drake swoops down and snatches the biggest bull rhino up. Dags and I stood there, stunned. The Rhino's cry snapped us out of it.
We tried to run after it, but it was to late and too high for any of my spells to reach. My heart broke for the rhino, still alive, still trying to struggle free, but the Proto Drake's claws were just to powerful.
"Geez... nature sucks!"
I know it's taking the rhino to feed it's babies, but still... it's sad.
I was about to leave and just let nature take it's course, but in the distance I saw another travesty happening, This time it was a smaller rhino.
"Come on Dags ruuuuuun! we gotta stop this one!"
The drake was putting frost breath on the rhino to incapacitate it for the snatching, and we ran as fast as we could.
"Noooo!!!!" I shouted as if it was actually gonna stop.
It got too high for Dags to reach so it was up to me. I didn't want to kill it, because it does have a family and all so I just tagged it with Corruption, maybe the painful ticks would make it drop the rhino.
Cripes!!! it didn't work... Shadow bolt, one shot and it dropped the stunned rhino and it falls back to the snowy floor. The drake was still alive, but sadly corruption was still on it and the next couple ticks were strong enough to kill it. Dags stood in front of me as the drake plummeted to the ground. 
*sigh*
As bad as I felt, I was glad I was able to save the young rhino. I got the rhino up and started to back away thinking it was gonna attack me and Dags. But for some reason it didn't. It came towards us and we turned to run away and it followed us. Ummm ok little guy you wanna come with us. And it let me pet it.
While that was going on I didn't notice a Proto that crept up on the rock behind us. The drake let out a sharp scream... "Holy Crap!!!" The rhino knelt down, Dags helped me up onto its back and we booked it out of there. The Proto gave chase for a bit and then gave up when sadly it's attention was caught by another poor rhino that became it's next meal.
We were able to find a trail through the mountains and make it down to K3 with no issues. The goblins there were shocked to see someone actually on a wooly rhino.
Shizzle Slickslide the flight master in K3 asked where I wanted to go. As I thought about it, I declined her flight offer and figured I'd take me Garrison hearth.
My rhino needs a home to recoup. What better place then the Stable in my Garrison.
"Tormak, can you please take care of my Wooly Rhino." 
"Deadskully, it's very rare to see an adolescent wooly rhino tame enough to be ridden. How did you get him?" Tormak asked.
So I had to explained what happened to him all over again. I might have exaggerated how big the Proto drake was, and some other minor details that made my rhino saving effort seem super heroic. But anyways.
"Alright Wooly, you'll be safe here. Tormak will take good care of you, and you can make friends with the rest of my mounts. I'll see you soon"
I petted Wooly and Dags and I left my stable.

Rexxar, Rylaks and the Roost

I was in my Garrison and flight master Bron Skyhorn called me over to him. "Deadskully, I got news from Darktide Roost. Rexxar needs help. Not sure what he needs help with, but if you could go, I would quickly get you to there".
"Of course!" The first time I met Rexxar was in Gorgrond and he helped me kill Crater Lord Igneous. I ran into Igneous by accident and Dags and I couldn't get away so killing him was our only option and Rexxar came to the rescue.
"Alright Bron, send me to Darktide Roost"
"Right Away" says Bron as he brings down his Grand Wyvren from it's perch and proceeded to give it flight directions.

Dags and I landed and Rexxar was there to greet us. "Thank you so much Deadskully" says Rexxar as he shakes my hand and gives Dags a nod. "The Darktide Matriarch requested my help with stopping the Goblins from eliminating her whelplings on this island. The Goblin clan controls the Rylakinator-3000 bots that decimate any Rylaks that come near them. I need your help to stop them."
"I will Rexxar, any idea on where we should start looking?" I asked
"Down on the South end of the coast is where the Goblins have their camp... Nisha come!"

Nisha is Rexxar's loyal Dread Raven mount. Rexxar helps me up onto her back and gets on behind me. We fly to the south end of the island. We land on a cliff overlooking the Goblins. We see mind controlled Rylak whelplings, Rylakinators killing defenseless rylaks and the Goblins building more bots. Rexxar sends Nisha away and we continue down the hill.
"We need to fight off the goblin guards first then it would be easier to get to the engineers, let's go!" says Rexxar.
Dags, Rexxar and I get to killing. The difficult part was not the fighting of the goblins, but having to be careful not to kill the mind-controlled rylaks that are attacking us. Once the goblin riders are killed it releases the rylaks and they fly away. I had to make sure Dags didn't do Wrathstorm. It would have injured the rylaks far beyond healing and that would defeat our mission here.
We got close enough to the Goblin engineer buildings and Rexxar finds the Head engineer. Rexxar snags him by the throat and demands to give the order to release every rylak, destroy every Bot, pack up their operation, get back on their ship and leave the island or we will kill him and every goblin here.
"Never! we will never stop. You might as well just kill me. We do not take orders from an Ogre/Orc mutt and a weak Undead girl. You will never defeat us... we will.." *snap*
"Oh geez!!! you killed him!" I really don't know why I though the goblin would cooperate.
"I'm sorry but that was a waste of time, now back what we're here for... kill them all!" Yells Rexxar.
We cleared the coast from baddies and freed most of the rylaks that we could, but there were some whelping casualties.
I heard a weak howl coming from a rylak we thought was dead. So much blood poured out as it flopped around clearly in pain. I knelt down beside it and took out some bandages from my bag, I called Rexxar over and he helped me wrap up the wound. Some goblins that were on the coast wanted mercy and agreed to leave if we spared their lives.
I took Dags to the buildings and asked the goblins to help the Rylak. They agreed and Rexxar stayed to make sure they helped it and that they would leave after the whelping was fixed.
Nisha flew me back to the Matriarch. I told her that her island was safe from the Goblins for now. But I will always come back if she needed to get rid of them again. Pesky Goblins!
Just as I was about to leave Rexxar flies back on a Rylak equipped in armor and rocket boosters.
"Rexxar! what is that?" It's pretty cool.

"Deadskully, I'm glad I caught you before you left. This is the injured whelping that you had the goblins fix. It was far beyond help, and I ordered it to be put out of it's misery, but they insisted they could help it. And they did. Goblin black steel armor and rocket boosters to assist it with flying. You demanded it's life to be saved, it is now yours to ride". explains Rexxar.

"Oh my goodness, it's amazing!

[ I didn't know how to introduce my Garrison or Draenor or this expansion so I didn't bother making starting story for WoD]