Burne Atherton was a man in his forties, a worgen, but a worgen who was in control of his curse. Spending time with his daughter in the wilds, teaching her to hunt, to survive and how to live with the curse she too suffers.
One evening a few weeks ago Burne was visiting Stormwind. Burne was not a man who often goes to the big city, his young daughter told us, but now and then he visited to shop supplies for their trips into the wild. That night was one of those trips. Just a quick trip to the city. A few nails, some bullets, a couple of animal traps, some fishing gear. The usual, just re-supplying.
But nothing about this night turned out to be as usual. Sometime during the night Burne ended up in the Harbour area with the killer. We most likely will never know exactly how it happened, but at some point during the night, Burne was attacked. He was stabbed in the chest with what is most likely a void infused dagger, and his head was removed from his body. The killer took it with him.
At a far to young age Mariella Atherton lost her father. A loving and caring man who spend most of his time raising his daughter, minding his own business, and living off the land.
The fact we even know this is something of a miracle. Shortly after Burne died, his daughter contacted Echo Company, she identified the body as her dad. Yet when we talked to Echo Company they had no idea who the woman on the picture was, mentioned nothing about knowing the identity of the man who had the picture, and was happy for us to bring the picture of her in the paper in an attempt to identify her. It worked.
Unfortunately, that also put Mariella on the serial-killers hit list, and she has now been kidnapped. If the Echo Company had not somehow lost the information, her picture would never have been printed. She would not have been taken; she would not currently be in danger in the hands of a serial killer. 0-1 to the guards.
Last night, we received a cut off head from a teddy-bear, and another letter from the serial-killer. In the letter they clearly state they have Mariella, and states some demands we must abide by if we want her to not be killed. Having had bad experiences with how Echo has handled the case - we went to First Company. Hoping - partly due to the previous success of First Company in the case of the Stormwind Strangler - that they would be able to help with the situation, help figure out how to handle it, and... catch the killer.
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Unfortunately, all we got out of that was Lieutenant Patricio Silva blaming us for the kidnapping of the woman. Not a word of admittance of the fact they have gotten nowhere in three weeks with the case, not a word from Captain Thodim, who himself, the night before admitted that we - reporters - know far more about the case than they do. Not a single suggestion that they would actively try to help us out, just the Lieutenant blaming us, despite the Captain the night before suggested a joined effort to catch the killer. If they had done their job to begin with, along with Echo Company, this woman would not be kidnapped, who knows, maybe the serial-killer would not be up to 9 victims either. We offered to help, we offered to share everything we know, but it takes two to tango, and First Company clearly does not want to dance, their own incompetence and ego gets in the way of catching a serial-killer. 0-2 to the guards.
A draft of this article was delivered to First Company last night, given them a chance to comment or contact us. They have done neither. 0-3 and we stopped keeping score.
It has been three weeks, nine killings, and now a kidnapping. Neither guard unit is any the wiser, and one even refuses help from the people who knows the case the best - and who are in contact with the killer. Incompetence? Too much of an ego to admit they need help? Either way, The Lion's Roar officially asks anyone with information about the Decap-killer or their victims to approach The Lion's Roar before going to the guards. If guards cannot be trusted to do their job, us citizens must stand together to protect each other and root out this monster who threatens the very people the guards are paid to protect.