Lance Beckett

Art by Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

General

Species: Undead Human (Ghoul)
Gender: Male
Eyes: Glowing yellow motes
Hair: Red, longer on top with a shaved undercut and sideburns
Status: Undead

Known Languages Common

Lance Beckett was a native of Venetia that worked for Capless Feather Grains as a courier. Unbeknownst to him, he was plagued when he was sent with a shipment of plagued grain to Andorhal, and was then raised as a ghoul when he died. He was killed by Liadrin Everpost, but was later raised into undeath once more in an awakened state by Velameestra Windrunner.

Description

While Lance was a conventionally good-looking man, his death, raise into undeath, and the few days of decay his body had underwent before being risen again had ultimately done a number on his appearance as his skin had become sallow and tight with spots of early decay, and he had lost his nose, which left nothing but an open hole in his face. He had a prominent chin and cheekbones, which became even more pronounced. Despite this, he had managed to preserve his bright red hair, which still remained in good condition when groomed. As a ghoul, he had uncharacteristically sharp teeth, an elongated tongue, and pronounced claws, though had largely retained his humanoid appearance. His eyes had decayed away, but upon his reanimation they became replaced with glowing yellow motes of magic.

Even after his death, Lance remained someone with big dreams, as he still desired to sing and eagerly latched on to the opportunity to be potentially scouted by Hedanis Poisonbloom. He was generally cheerful, but aware when he was in over his head, and he was prone to bouts of vindictiveness and hunger for flesh. He was aware his ravenous nature was uncharacteristic for humans, which resulted in him hastily questioning if such inclinations were "weird", even if he was still more than receptive to those urges being sated.

Biography

Lance was born in Venetia and had long held a dream to become a popular singer. He had taken a job with Capless Feather Grains to carry him over before he reached his big break, but the position eventually led to his death as he was considered a disposable asset by his employers. Unbeknownst to him, he was plagued and sent with a shipment of plagued grain to Andorhal as the first step in a series of experiments orchestrated by Heigan Capless in his pursuit of creating a mass plague of undeath.

Chapter Five: Civil War

Following Lance's arrival in Andorhal, he had been ordered by his employers to take a vacation and enjoy himself before he returned to Venetia. He eagerly welcomed the opportunity to relax, but fell ill soon after and eventually perished from the sickness. This had been a planned course of action, as the Cult of the Damned wished to monitor what would happen alongside the outbreak of the plague of undeath that resulted from the plagued grain.

Lance reanimated as a mindless, ravenous ghoul soon after, but he was slain by Liadrin Everpost and other members of the Torchbearers when he attacked them. The Torchbearers had brought Lance's body to Annibeth Lansing, the governess of Andorhal, and both the Torchbearers and Lansing's own chirurgeons opted to examine the body to see if they could find any evidence of what had caused him to become undead. The results of their own examinations were inconclusive, but when Uther Menethil and his companions arrived in Andorhal and were informed of the undead attack, Velameestra Windrunner chose to steal Lance's body before it was burned so she could do her own examinations. She was quickly able to assess that it seemed his initial death had been caused by his illness, as there were severe burns in his throat that were indicators of repetitive vomiting.

She utilized her necromantic magics to commune with Lance's spirit, and he was able to offer information on who had sent him to Andorhal, as well as the circumstances leading up to him getting ill. He was in a state of shock upon realizing he had actually died, become undead, and then been killed again, and he expressed that he wasn't ready to die as he still had so much left he wanted to do, including sing. When the communion spells ended, Gilveradin Windrunner noted that Lance's shade in the ethereal plane was just staring at his dead body, but Vel noted that bringing him back now would just restore him to his mindless, undead state.

However, following Velameestra's successful creation of spells that allowed for the awakening of feral undead, and the triumphant awakening of the feral undead of Andorhal, she was able to return Lance's body to the site of his original death and reawaken him into a lucid, but still undead state. He reacted to his existence surprisingly well, as having a body and still being able to hold a note was better than being a disembodied spirit in a weird gray world, though it became apparent he was still in a state of mild shock and was using the questions of the group as a means of distraction. He was ultimately receptive to bringing them to Venetia and offered a quick overview about the nature of the city, though he interrupted himself by asking Vel if she was going to finish the half-eaten remains of his dead horse and promptly dove into breaking open the bones and eating the marrow when she expressed she was not.

Lance also offered that he could likely introduce at least a couple of them to a foreman if they wanted to get into the grain production warehouse, but he could do little to get them an audience with Heigan Capless himself.

Tehd Shoemaker hastily stepped forward to also help Lance adapt to his new existence, and Hedanis Poisonbloom wasted little time in scouting out the newly arisen ghoul due to the voice he still seemed to have on him despite his undead state (even if he was a bit disgusted by the shameless consumption of a corpse).

When the group stopped to camp in Velameestra's conjured mansion outside Hearthglen, he mused that she could likely become a Venetia mage lord if she wanted, though also started to dance around a request for some of the food in the manor to taste like human flesh. Velameestra reminded him that she was ultimately a vampyr, so he had no need to dance around such things, and he hastily acknowledged the statement and awkwardly mentioned they had similar dietary inclinations before also thanking her for accommodating them. Shortly after, Hedanis grabbed Lance so that he could see what kind of singing he was capable of.

After they arrived in Venetia and their base of operations was established, Lance, whose appearance was disguised with an illusion, took Uther Menethil to the Capless Feather Grains warehouse, where he introduced him to foreman Toren Snapjoint. Uther was masquerading as a strong-but-not-so-intelligent commoner, and swiftly managed to secure a job on the night shift. Lance also expressed that he was willing to return to work despite him being given a vacation, and he set off to find out where he was needed.

However, Lance did not return to the conjured mansion they were using as a base the next morning. Worried, Velameestra and Seria utilized scrying magic to try and find where he was located, and they found him strapped to a table in a lab in the custody of an undead scientist named Professor Putricide, who was eager to discover how he had managed to retain his lucidity despite the fact the plague of undead had taken hold. Unfortunately, the professor swiftly noticed the scrying sensor and dispelled it before the group could get a read on where Lance was located.

Several days later, Lance was found in the Plagueworks laboratory of Professor Putricide in Naxxramas following the destruction of the undead mad scientist and his creations. Lance had been the subject of rampant experiments where Putricide had attempted to utilize focused dosages of the plague to overwrite the curious sapience that Lance had been seemingly bestowed. Using some of Putricide's concoctions to bolster Lance's mind, Remnii was able to purge the excess plague from the ghoul's system, which allowed the lucidity Velameestra had initially bestowed to return to him.

Lance was completely flabbergasted that the group intended on taking the fight to Heigan as he believed they didn't understand the full extent of the machinations in Naxxramas, but he relented that he wouldn't stop the group from continuing. He was sent back to regroup with one of the other raid teams of the sprawling facility so that he could safely escape Naxxramas, and he was accompanied by Hedanis Poisonbloom so that he could ensure no one would mistake him as a mindless ghoul.

Appeared In

Chapter Five: Civil War

Quotes

While speaking to Velameestra via her communion magic: Well… at least I died at the sword of a pretty cute dame. After vomiting up my guts. So what questions did you have?
Oh… but I was so young and handsome. So especially handsome.
Concerning the Freemen around Venetia: Uh… my first instinct was that we would get to eat them. And that’s weird. Isn’t it?

Trivia

Coming soon.