Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Mar 23, 2023 16:57:26 GMT
March the Twenty-Third
It was another busy, noisy morning in the workshop-hangar combo in the first sub-level of the House-On-The-Spire. Tools and parts littered the workshop and the floor alike, creating a maze on the latter in which Dor’dieb McCullough-Ebonlocke the molten corgi enjoyed navigating and sniffing around. Clanking, cranking, whirring, and whacking noises filled the workshop, and the smell of tar, machine oil, and coffee flooded out the usual smells of the Krasarang shore.
The project causing all the ruckus was immediately clear to anyone that might have entered the workshop: The MUTT stood in the center of the room, the converted, rebuilt goblin shredder’s torso and arms all opened, wires and parts hanging out in a full-on disaster of a mess. It was splattered in tar, in dire need of cleaning. One particularly sinister-looking bit of tar on the back of the MUTT’s legs looked as though some large monster, larger than a tauren even, and covered in tar had tried to grab the handy vehicle from below.
Celeste stood in front of the MUTT, most of her top half out of view as she leaned into the massive vehicle, unhooking more wires and bringing them out to dangle as well. Penelope Boltbucket, mechagnome of Mechagon Isle and close friend of Celeste and Nat, sat straddling the MUTT’s right shoulder, her mechanical legs holding on while her mechanical arms performed precise movements as she unbolted a tiny mechagnome-sized seat from the upper arm. Both were covered in tar smudges and grease smudges alike as they worked.
Off to one side of all the mess, on one uncluttered end of the workbench, sat Nat, her diary open in front of her. Gone were her old ravenfeather quill, cherrywood quill case, and inkwell of purple ink. The only thing that now sat by her diary (besides her favorite hazelnut coffee) was yet another gadget that, at first glance, looked like more of the MUTT mess, invading Nat’s writing space. Yet this device was devoid of all tar and grease smudges. Indeed, it appeared to be immaculately clean, and even emitted a smell of some strange, foreign flowers to boot!
This device appeared to be some sort of gallon-sized vial of liquid cobbled together from scrap metal and bits of engineering parts. Nat smiled at the device fondly, stroking it as though remembering something, then pressed a switch on the side that opened the top of the vial with a soft, mechanical whirring noise. The sweet fragrance of the strange, foreign flowers became a little more noticeable, able to counter the heavier smell of tar about the workshop. When the cap finished opening, a spring-loaded device popped a pen out that was just right for Nat’s hand!
Nat’s warm smile broadened, and she took up the pen, opening her diary to the next blank page. Applying the shiny new pen to the page, she began to write, the new ink coming out smoothly, though darker than her old ink.
Dear diary,
My GOSH, what a week of ADVENTURE! There have been really happy moments, really intense, scary moments, really sad moments, and moments so intense, I wasn’t even able to maintain consciousness through them!
First, there was the fishing contest! We had a preparation day the day before, stress-testing the Wave Dancer and the fishing gear we were bringing aboard. It was a really lovely day for it, and we had Turtle Bay all to ourselves for the testing, too!
The Wave Dancer bobbed gently over Narsong Trench. Though the outing had started like any other morning of easy fishing, the activity on the boat was hardly peaceful... at least for Celeste.
Celeste moved around the boat, pulling on this or checking that, wanting to make absolutely sure she stress-tested EVERYthing. With the fishing contest scheduled the next day, she wanted to be sure everything was in perfect condition. Hopefully, the sha of misfortune wouldn’t have be able to mess up Fo Fook’s fishing too much!
The hozen hadn’t readily agreed to the idea of the fishing contest. Most hozen didn’t like water and certainly not being ON the water. While Fo Fook was an oddity for his kind, he didn’t mind fishing while standing on terra firma, but stepping onto a boat was another matter. Having Fo Fook on the Dancer was integral to Celeste’s plan, though. Luckily, the hozen angler had accepted to try when Celeste had presented him with his lucky lure, perfectly restored! It’s SO good we got that back for him!
It took all of Celeste and my diplomatic talents combined to convince him to fish WITH the sha on the boat, though! Eventually they convinced him that his skill would counter anything the sha would throw his way. That and quite a few Elder Charms of Good Fortune!
So now Celeste busied herself around the ship, Dordy making it a game to follow constantly on her heels. My ''job'', apparently, was to test the fishing rods and lines... by fishing! Comfortably! In my chair with a fresh drink whenever she needed one! Or at least that's how Celeste had insisted it should be done. This is why she is the Catch of My Life! I LOVE Celeste!
So it was that I focused on my job, stress-testing the fishing rods and lines. Half-serious and half-wondering whether Celeste had set me up for a relaxing day after my workend while Celeste handled the hard stuff, I nevertheless took it in stride, sipping at the drinks Celeste brought me. It wasn't long before the rod set to dance the bait along the bay floor tantalized a reef octopus into biting! Stress test on one rod was completed after my fish fight and reel-in!
"Gosh," I said with a playful grin, settling back into my chair with another sip of a margarita. "Stress testing these things is a hard job, but someone's gotta do it!"
Not wanting to leave Celeste to do ALL the hard work all by herself, however, I did keep an eye on my Sun and made sure to help her with any heavy lifting or corralling Dordy if he was getting underfoot and preventing Celeste from being able to accomplish a task. Teamwork!
“I know, thanks for being such a champ,” Celeste said, leaning down to kiss me and fluff my cushions before refilling my drink. “Catch another octopus or three, and I’ll get Other Nat to come grill ‘em for us later today. I’ll be done in a bit. I need to open the motor’s housing and make a few adjustments while it’s idling.”
"Ah, you want octopi specifically?" I said, blushing a bit from the kiss and thanking Celeste for the cushion fluff and drink refill. "Coming right up! And be careful putting your hands inside an operating machine!"
“It’s just the throttle that I’m checking. Seemed to stick instead of being smooth!” Celeste called out as she neared the running engine. “It’s in neutral, the propeller isn’t engaged and yes octopi! That first one was a great catch! You’re using the dried fish right? Lure near the bottom? Should be a few more of those nearby!”
"Dried fish, lure dancing along the bottom, yep, just like you taught me!" I said, now putting another rod in another holder, baited and sunk the same way. "What are you checking in the throttle? For the thing that's making it stick, I guess?"
Celeste shut off the motor and examined the motor’s housing before removing it “Yeah there’s some rust here. The throttle wire is actually a bit loose, so it doesn’t respond as well. Salt water seems to have seeped onto the wire from a thin crack in the housing. Probably the sha at work. I checked the motor a few days ago and it was fine.”
"Oof," I replied. "Do you have the parts aboard to fix it? And do we need to put that trillium box further away?"
“I’ll just brush the wire and oil it. I can weld the small fracture from the inside of the housing, it won’t be noticeable and it’ll fix it right up. Gotta do that once we’re docked though…” She replaced the top on the motor then dusted her hands.
“I think that’s the best the sha can do right now though we’ll have to get it early tomorrow before the contest. That octopus you caught gave me an idea. We’ll make the contest about catching mimic octopi. They are rarer and harder to catch. Everyone will enjoy the challenge”
"Alright, that sounds great!” I replied. “I'll get these octopi up, and tomorrow, it's MIMIC OCTOPI TIME!"
I kept an eye on my fishing rods and another eye on Celeste, watching and learning as the master engineer did the maintenance work on the Wave Dancer with ease.
"The Dancer looks and sounds so great, Celeste! Brilliant work! I bet we'll be in great shape tomorrow, sha or no!"
“Let’s hope so. That sha is really starting to annoy me.” Celeste moved to my chair and looked in the cooler at the octopus that was caught. “This one is a nice size. Must’ve been an interesting fight, bringing it up. I’m done with the checkups for the Dancer. How about we work on catching dinner together. I have some red wine at home I was hoping to surprise you with that’ll go great with grilled octopus.”
"Ooooh, red wine and grilled reef octopus!" I exclaimed, my eyes lighting up. "And yeah, this one nearly got away from me a couple of times, but, thanks to a few maneuvers you showed me from your iceberg a couple of years ago, I got it reeled in!"
The rest of the day passed peacefully. We sure had a great time!
There was a festive air on Turtle Bay the following day, as the fishing tournament was in full swing! Anglers and even a few Pandaren from elsewhere in Pandaria were participating. There were a few other boats over the water aside from the Wave Dancer. Most were simple rowboats like Other Nat’s or makeshift bamboo rafts cobbled together for the occasion. Some people simply stood on the shore and cast their lines as far as they could, hoping to tempt the octopi crawling around the bottom of the trench.
Shouts and cheers could be heard as people reeled in one catch or another. Laughter drifted over the water. In true Angler spirit, despite this being a contest the participants were mostly just glad to be together and have fun! I LOVE Pandaria!
The mood was altogether different on the Dancer. So far the boat’s propeller ended up clogged with seaweed, which made it stall just as it left the wharf. A seal on the glass bottom has apparently been chewed on by some tiny sea crustacean and started leaking. Two fishing rods were already broken due to various reasons and Celeste had stopped counting the number of lures lost to snags on the bottom of over-combative fish.
Nevertheless, no one aboard was giving up! Celeste, pocket full of tools, busied herself with fixing mechanical problems or fishing rods. That was her current task. One of the rods had suddenly lost three of the eyelets that guided the line along its length, the thin wire holding them in place having frayed and snapped.
Everyone was here as well! Penny was also on mechanical repairs, and currently working on the sonar which had started beeping erratically despite the Dancer being anchored in place.
As for me, I had been given the task of supporting, in any way I could, our current guest onboard: the hozen Fo Fook!
I was hoping to give off sort of an upbeat personality, optimistic outlook on life, and easy smile to keep everyone from giving up. The contest was still on and they had a sha to get rid of!
Fo Fook was perched on the front of the Dancer. So far he had lost a lure or two (not his lucky lure, thankfully), and his line had become hopelessly snarled earlier. The hozen, used to fishing by now, had simply weathered the trials, started over, and continued fishing. It was working in our favor, as Celeste was hoping that Fo Fook would realize that sometimes things didn’t work out when fishing, but that all it took was a little determination to keep going!
The hozen was having a grand time of it so far! The Dancer was perfectly positioned to reach the bottom of the trench where the octopi generally lived. We had caught quite a few so far, and even a few of the rare mimic octopus!
I went around from rod to rod, from angler to angler, and even Dordy, doing my job of angling and cheerleading. I marveled at Celeste's ingenuity and engineering innovation. I praised Penny's deep mechanical knowledge and prowess. I particularly hammed it up in Fo Fook's case, marveling at not only his catches, but even his form, cheering for his skilled casts and his powerful reeling. I placated Dordy with pats, a bit of play, and food from time to time, and fetched new eyelets for the fishing rod Celeste was repairing. It was a warm, tiring morning, so I was wearing her purple Shal'dorei silk bikini given to me by me bestie Nah a couple of Winter Veils ago, but I still was having lots and lots of fun!
With a particular emphasis on keeping Fo Fook happy, encouraged, and being dismissive of mechanical issues, I was doing my best to keep Fo Fook confident in himself and his luck!
It was just before noon when the fishing rod Fo Fook was using suddenly bent sharply towards the water. The reel ZINGED as the line was pulled down. The hozen angler had caught something BIG! Celeste and I both turned to look at our guest, who was screeching and hooting in desperation, holding onto his rod with both arms while gripping onto the side of the boat with the long articulated toes of his feet.
Everyone’s excitement was doused with a bit of dread when Penny, who was watching the sonar, uttered, “Uh-oh,” and Dordy started barking madly. The pup was looking through the boat’s glass bottom, running to and fro, growling and barking!
I missed Penny's "Uh-oh," over the sound of all the cheering I was doing!
"YEAH!" she called to Fo Fook. "YOU GOT 'EM! Pull! PULL! REEL! YOU'RE DOING IT, FO FOOK! YOU'RE DOING IT! YAY! GET 'EM!"
I mistook Dordy's mad barking for the pup's typical wild enthusiasm, giggling at him and returning to cheering for Fo Fook. I was on a mission, and I would not be deterred! But if it's a fifty-food shark, I had no idea!
Celeste moved to Penny’s side, peered at the sonar, then hustled to the storage where the extra gear was stowed. She started digging out tools and tossing them to the floor of the boat. Long gaffs with steel hooks, a harpoon, rope and a buoy used when trying to catch and tire large fish.
“NAT!” she called out. “GIVE FO FOOK A BREATHING SPELL, QUICK!” She shouted urgently just as a large shape swam underneath the boat. It didn’t have the slender shape of a shark, but rather, the thicker form of a grouper. Judging by its size, it was easily over a hundred pounds and powerfully built! OH GOSH!
At the tip of its mouth, scintillating in the sunlight, was Fo Fook’s lucky lure…
I, alarmed by the sudden tossing of the storage box and withdrawal of big fish stuffs, did what I was told before I even fully registered anything. A quick incantation later, and Fo Fook had a breathing spell on him! Then the startled feeling passed, and I pieced together what was going on, especially with the alarmed look Penny was giving the sonar!
"OHMIGOSH WE CAUGHT A DADGUM WHALE!"
“Yeah, or close enough!” Celeste said as she tossed the rope to me. “Nat, if you could tie one end of the rope to the buoy and the other end to the gunwale, that would be great. Penny! Start the boat! We’re landing that dadgum grouper!”
Celeste, harpoon in hand, moved to Fo Fook’s side.
“Alright, my friend. This is it!” she said to him, and helped him hold onto his rod. “That’s the biggest grouper I’ve ever seen, probably that anyone here has ever caught! Sha or not, we’re going to prove you’re a true Angler, so let’s get that dooking ooker!”
"OH GOSH GROUPER!"
I, beginning to get frantic with excitement, darted to the buoy with the rope, tying one of the knots Celeste tied her, then gets a running hitch going to the gunwale, like Celeste taught her for shark hunting, while Penny got the boat revved up.
"FO FOOK! FO FOOK'S SAKE! OOK GROUPER DOOKER IN THE OOKER POOKER GET ITS KOOKER!" I screamed incoherently, not really knowing what I was saying, or even was TRYING to say, feeling like I was going out of my mind. Fo Fook, riled up from all the excitement himself, jumped up and down a few times, screeching his hozen head off while Dordy ran around him and me, yip-yipping as loud as he could. The great fish fight was ON!
“Alright,” Celeste called out, “keep that line taught, but let it get its head if it wants to swim away. We’re going to tire it out; it’s the only we’re winning this!”
Celeste raised the harpoon and watched the shape of the grouper as it moved in the clear waters. Tiring such a big fish with only a fishing rod would take hours. We needed that buoy as soon as possible!
Around us, other anglers started noticing the commotion and looked on curiously, not being sure what was setting off the crew of the Dancer. Fo Fook was holding on to his rod and keeping the fish hooked as best as he could. It was then, of course, that the sha of misfortune made a last attempt at manifesting its power!
Fo Fook's rod BROKE IN HALF, though the line still held! The Dancer's motor suddenly whined loudly, then there was a loud BANG. The engine started sputtering and finally just died out, leaving Penny scrambling to fix it while a thick plume of black smoke streamed out of it. Meanwhile Celeste hurled the harpoon when the grouper came close to the surface. The weapon was stuck fast in its hide! Unfortunately, in the commotion, the rope got tangled around Celeste's ankle, and she was pulled overboard when the grouper darted to the bottom of the trench!
"CELESTE!" I shouted as Celeste was pulled overboard. Shouting an incantation, I got a water-breathing spell off on Celeste as she cleared the craft's railing. Eyes brimming with tears, I dropped everything and DIVED OVERBOARD!
Looking around, I tried to reorient myself. Turtle Bay was quieter under the surface, and what sounds could be heard were distorted quite a bit under the water. Looking around frantically, I couldn't see Celeste, so I looked straight downward. THERE! A large grouper was swimming deep, deep into the bit pit in the center of the bay: NARSONG TRENCH!
Diving deep myself, I chased after the grouper, wondering where it might be going. It was swimming fast, and I soon lost it in the corral, sea plants, and rocky outcroppings of the trench. Oh, no!
Luckily – contradictory to the sha of misfortune's presence – LUCKILY, the harpoon was still in the grouper's side. All I had to do was follow the rope to see where it had gone!
Following the rope, I quickly encountered Celeste, who was trying to remove the rope from around her ankle. Unfortunately, the wounded fish had desperately fled to the bottom of the trench, and was keeping the rope pulled tightly down, leaving no slack at all!
I could see that Celeste’s ankle was turning purple from the constriction and friction of the rope. Celeste had managed to find a screwdriver in one of the pockets of her pants (most of her other tools had been lost when she went overboard) and was jabbing the rope to try and break it.
When she saw me, she pointed at a large clam nearby and made a sawing motion against the rope. I knew what she meant instantly: if I could find a smaller shell, its edge could help!
A trail of blood tainted the water from below and I could see glimpses of the white buoy that was fixed to the rope, close to the harpoon. Even if we cut the rope, the buoy would force the grouper to the surface eventually!
A smaller shell didn't actually immediately occur to me, panicked as I was when I saw Celeste's purple ankle, and I swam straight to the large shell, pushing and shoving and making no progress, as lacking in physical strength as I is. I did eventually spy a smaller shell and, abandoning the larger one, I made for it. Lifting it up, I went back to the spot on the rope Celeste was trying to break with her screwdriver.
I sawed frantically. Celeste may have had a water-breathing spell on her, but her ankle was quickly turning more and more purple! I sawed quickly, severing the rope at a speed that surprised me! I then took one of Celeste hands, pointing toward the surface. Swimming upward quickly, Celeste and I soon broke the surface, finding ourselves quite some distance from the Wave Dancer. I waved and waved, calling out to Penny, but Penny, focused on fixing the engine and making noise herself, didn't hear or see either of us!
I suddenly felt cold underneath me next, and then felt myself rising as Celeste drained the heat from the water, creating a plate of crystal clear ice that raised us to the surface of the trench. Celeste remained sitting on the edge of the ice, wincing at her ankle, but waving and smiling at our angler friends. Her sudden disappearance into the water had made the onlookers anxious, but they now cheered her rescue!
Looking at the Dancer, Penny continued to work on the engine, which still issued out black smoke. Dordy was up on the pilot’s seat barking at them, happy to see us.
And all the while, struggling mightily but holding on, Fo Fook, now perched on the very tip of the Dancer, was still very much trying to land that giant dadgum grouper! Even with only half a rod left, and just inches from falling into the water himself, the hozen was pulling, howling and hooting away!
“Thanks for saving me.” Celeste finally said after the adrenaline started washing away. “I think we’ve done all we can for our hozen friend. The rest is up to him. He needs this victory for himself.”
I had felt relieved as the iceberg lifted her up, knowing the ice would help Celeste's ankle, and also get us up to the surface faster. I nodded at Celeste's words, beaming with the glow of Celeste's thanks.
"Of course!" I said. "I'm happy I was able to get to you and help!"
I peered across the bay at Fo Fook, realizing the wisdom in Celeste's words. Here was Fo Fook, faced with what was probably the biggest challenge in his angling career yet, far from our help, with Penny unable to assist as she frantically tried to fix the Wave Dancer. If Fo Fook could manage to wrangle this grouper with that harpoon and half a fishing rod, without our help, he'd HAVE to acknowledge that he was skilled, that sometimes stuff happens when fishing, and that he has the talent and strength to push past such things and land the big catch anyway!
So it was that the first Angler’s Wharf fishing contest would forever remain the stuff of legend.
The young Pandaren aspiring Anglers, Marri and Rai, used an innovative type of bait (leftovers from Other Nat’s Mushan stew) to win the contest by catching a whopping 14 mimic octopi (and releasing more normal ones than they dared count)!
Meanwhile Fo Fook had fought, hooted, and howled like a maniac for several hours until the giant grouper finally gave up. In true Angler spirit, he told and retold the tale of his epic battle throughout the evening. The story grew more and more outrageous as it was retold, of course! HA!
The grouper was spit-roasted on the beach. It was big enough to feed everyone who had attended the contest. Any mimic octopus still alive and well enough to survive were released back into the sea (no one wanted to make them locally extinct). The ones that didn’t survive were grilled and tossed in with a mix of farm fresh vegetables and spices. It was so delicious!
Celeste had brought the MUTT down from the House-On-The-Spire to spit-roast the grouper. Several locals brought kegs from the Stormstout brewery and the party lasted well into the early hours of the next morning.
As for the sha, well, the shade gave up long before Fo Fook finally landed the grouper. It had been dispelled forever! YAY!
It was easy to tell when the sha went poof: Penny, her face black with soot, had suddenly managed to get the engine working. Two anglers near the Dancer who had gotten their lines snarled together got them unsnarled without even trying and, they each had a mimic octopus on their lines. There were enough Elder Charms of Good Fortune about that everyone realized the sha was gone when good luck started cropping up everywhere!
It was decided, of a common accord, to use the (now inert) idol Fo Fook had made so many years ago to capture the sha of misfortune that plagued him as the official trophy for the contest! The names of Marri and Rai were etched onto it with the year and the two young anglers were allowed to display it until the contest next year!
Worn out from the ordeal in the water and from doing my own fishing while Fo Fook dispelled the sha with his epic battle with the grouper, I relaxed on Turtle Beach with Celeste, Dordy, Penny, and Fo Fook, giggling each time the retelling of his tale got more outrageous. I particularly enjoyed the bit about the grouper climbing a tree hozen-style, with its tail, that was growing in the water, picking "water bananas" off of it to pelt Fo Fook with while he tried to reel it in.
I cheered for Marri and Rai as they won the jade monkey trophy, excited about the brand-new tradition of fishing Turtle Bay with all anglers for the trophy annually and aspiring to one day win it with Celeste, Dordy, and Penny. We’ve already marked it on our calendars for next year!
The contest was so much fun, and the after-party as well, that I found myself exhausted afterward, and a quiet retirement to the House-On-The-Spire for a peaceful evening with her little family hit the spot just right!
So that was a relaxing, peaceful Monday, and an exciting Tuesday! The next morning, Wednesday, Celeste announced that we were going back to Un’goro Crater, and that she and Penny had outfitted the MUTT with a tar-gathering device for the tar pits, though she wouldn’t tell me what we were gathering heckin’ TAR for! It made me soooo curious!
“We’re just about there!” Celeste said sometime later, as we cleared the rim of the crater and angled for the tar pits. “Remember, I’ll need you to hover over the tar pit while I bring the MUTT down.”
Celeste shouted to me over the comms, the sounds of the FB’s rotors and the MUTT’s engine forcing her to shout.
Below, bubbling tar pits dotted the ground. Most of the denizens of Un’goro avoided the area. There isn’t really much of anything edible there, and the smelly tar pits were enough of a hazard by themselves!
Penny and Celeste were aboard the MUTT which had been modified for the occasion. The mechagnome was strapped in a seat on the right side of the MUTT. The arm there was converted to what looks like a short, fat cannon. Penny’s seat was perched on the MUTT’s right shoulder, at a large chamber or reservoir behind the stubby gun. Several power cells were fixed to the reservoir.
The MUTT’s left arm was also converted. It was now a coil of rubber tubing, a pump and another reservoir, larger than the one on the right.
The goal of the day’s adventure was simple, harvest some tar. It was something Penny and Celeste needed, though they STILL wouldn’t tell me why! Gosh! I was getting more curious by the minute!
My job, and Dordy’s, was overwatch. We would warn the others if the now quite colorful Grumpy-pants made an appearance, or if tar monsters were coming close.
I peered around searchingly, keeping an ear out for Dordy starting to go nuts and another ear out for Celeste's movements. I went into a circular flight pattern around the tar pits, throttle back, flying slowly to be able to really look into the treeline around the tar pits and keep an eye out for Big Grumpypants or other threats.
My plan, should a threat emerge, was to quickly alert Celeste and Penny, then fly in circles around the threat, just out of its reach, distracting it until Celeste and Penny could get that big cannon on it.
If all else failed, I still had my magic...
On our fly-by earlier, we had seen a few rainbow-colored spikes cresting over the trees. Big Grumpypants was on the opposite side of the crater and unlikely to venture closer anytime soon. There were no devilsaur tracks near the tar pits as well. All looked well and hopeful!
Celeste landed the MUTT right next to one of the larger, bubbling tar pits. There were a few tar monsters wading in tar pits further away, but the coast seemed clear, for the moment.
Celeste blinked out of the MUTT and pulled the rubber tubing down to the tar pit. Once the nozzle was in the tar, she moved to the MUTT’s torso, opened a panel, and activated the pump on its arm.
Meanwhile, Penny swiveled the gun arm around. The gun was actually a cryocannon, as she called it, shooting a jet of supercooled air meant to slow down or freeze tar monsters in place. Ingenious!
“Starting the pump” Celeste told me over the comms.
"Copy," I replied. Celeste’s voice had been crystal clear over the comms at this range. "All clear out here."
I continued flying my circular patrol around the tar pits, teaming up with Dordy for perimeter watch and seeing naught but the Un'goro jungle. I had memories here, memories both fond and frightening. Gathering colored crystals with my Sun and my Bestie, healing Nosebleed, fleeing Big Grumpypants, taking him down and pranking him with paint. Memories here brought a giggle or a shudder to me, depending on which one. I was determined that, whatever response I'd get out of thinking of this mission in the future, we'd at least get out of it safely!
With that in mind, I kept my eyes on the treeline, an ear out for Dordy, and kept my circular pace slow and steady, hoping for nothing, but ready for anything!
I could hear Celeste and Penny chat to each other over the comms (left open to include me; they’re so thoughtful!) about the operation of the tar pump, which apparently was doing great despite the thickness of the tar it needed to suck into its reservoir!
A tree swaying in the jungle caught my attention, but it turned out to be a large pterodactyl taking wing.
When Dordy started growling, then barking, though, that was a sure sign that trouble was brewing! Peering in the direction the pup was watching, I noticed a pattern of bubbles in the tar pit that was moving in Celeste’s direction. From time to time a black lump crested the surface of the equally black sludge. It was undoubtedly a tar monster, but it was being stealthy enough that the girls below hadn’t noticed them! Oh gosh! My position with Dordy, high up, gave us the opportunity to see the slow movement in the tar!
I gasped, keying my comms immediately!
"Celeste! Penny!" I called out quickly. "Tar monster below you, at your three o'clock! Heads up! Want a hand from the air?"
I shifted my glance back and forth from the treeline to the tar monster, keeping an eye on the treeline and on the creature, not wanting to come off of task unless directed to do so. Anxiously, I awaited the inaugural use of the cryocannon...
“I got this!” Penny gleefully shouted, turning the arm cannon off to her immediate right, as I had indicated. Celeste blinked back into the MUTT and removed her rifle from its holster, but mostly kept an eye on the gauges for the tar pump.
Maybe sensing that its presence had been detected, the tar monster stood up and lurched out of the tar pit, arms stretched out and black sludge slowly oozing down. It ws so WEIRD-looking!
Penny aimed the gun and activated a trigger. A stream of cold gas issued from the gun, covering the monster. The tar monster immediately hardened and stopped dead in its tracks! Celeste and Penny cheered and gave each other a high-five! The cryocannon had WORKED!
I cheered when Celeste and Penny cheered, and Dordy was heard over the comms, yip-yipping in celebration as well (or so it seemed; the pup may not have understood precisely what happened, but the joyous glee was infectious to him!).
"Way to go, guys!" I called out over the comms. "Keeping an eye out still up here... good luck with that tar! I'll keep an extra eye out for tar monsters and for that one to start moving again. Excellent shot with that cannon, Penny!"
I banked the Flying Nosebleed enough to wave and give a thumbs-up at the others when my next lap around the tar pits brought me in front of them. This was going swimmingly!
The tar monster, standing in the hot sludge, defrosted quickly. Penny shot cold air at it regularly to keep it away!
Fortunately, when the power cells on Penny’s cryocannon ended up depleted, Celeste announced that the tank of tar was full!
Blinking out of the MUTT, Celeste managed to coil the tube back onto the pump arm and Blink back before the monster lurched forward again. It slapped uselessly at the MUTT’s legs as it took off!
“We’re done! Great work guys!” Celeste said into the comms as the MUTT hovered over the crater.
“One portal to Pandaria coming up. After that I’ll get to work distilling this goop but it’ll be worth it!”
Celeste concentrated again and a shimmering portal to Pandaria opened in front of the MUTT. She waited for me to fly through before crossing with the MUTT.
I cheered each time Penny got a successful shot off on the tar monster, calling out over the comms what a genius Celeste was for her latest design as well. I was worried when Penny called out that her power cells were depleted, but it didn't matter – Celeste had the tar tank full!
I whipped the Flying Nosebleed around as the tar monster lurched toward the now-ammo-less MUTT, divebombing the tar monster, using the wake from the plane speeding through the air to throw it off its path, cheering when all it managed was a messy slap to the MUTT's legs. I'd clean that off later! For now, there was a portal to get through!
I swooped low again, whizzing through the portal this time, arriving in Pandaria in short order. Another circular holding pattern here for a brief moment allowed me to wait on Celeste to appear as well, and then I took up position off Celeste's right wing to fly home.
Curious what the tar was for, I enjoyed trying to pry it out of Celeste that evening, suggesting it must be from everything to a new mud bath formula to something to fingerpaint with. My curiosity sure was piqued!
The MUTT and its container full of tar made a mess of the workshop, even if Celeste had put down reed mats to absorb any that fell on the ground. Unfortunately, both Celeste and Penny grinned, but remained tight-lipped concerning the reason for the tar. The two engineers busied themselves in the workshop after that.
A horrible smell of burning tar wafted up from the workshop sometime later, but it was quickly gone, though a buzzing, continuous drone was heard coming from downstairs.
I noted the mischievous grin from Penny, instantly realizing she knew what it must be for as well. I tried bribing. I tried reverse psychology. I tried flagrantly begging. Nothing worked! Penny cackled with glee in keeping Celeste's secret, and I, laughing in defeat, playfully pretended to trudge upstairs so she and Celeste could work. I brought Dordy up with her, not wanting him to mess up the tar or set the reed on the floor ablaze if the tar were to light on fire from the molten pup.
I tried to distract herself with one of my novels, luxuriously laying stretched out on the couch, but the smell of burning tar made me wonder where Dordy went, or if that was from something different, and the buzzing drone sound was also distracting. I wriggled in place; oooh, the SUSPENSE!
Penny and Celeste eventually emerged from the workshop, their clothes and limbs stained with gunk. They met me on the Veranda, and Penny presented me with what looked like a vial made from scrap metal and bits of engineering parts. It was really weird-looking at first!
She and Celeste explained to me what it was, showing me around the device. Pressing a switch on the side made the cap open with a soft mechanical whirring sound. From the vial, a sweet familiar fragrance wafted out, though I couldn’t quite place it just yet.
When the cap finished opening, a spring-loaded mechanism popped out a thin metal pen that was just right for my hand!
Celeste handed me a piece of paper, saying, “We made you ink. Purple, like you prefer. The color and perfume comes from those purple flowers I found in the Swamp of Sorrows during my contract with the Explorer’s League. Remember those? Try the ink; there’s still a surprise.”
Once I dipped the pen in the ink and wrote something, I immediately realized that the ink instantly dried! No more waiting for it to do so!
“Most inks use water,” Celeste explained, “or some other compound like diluted alcohol that takes a while to dry. Boiling the tar allowed us to extract different compounds that dry much more quickly. No chance it’ll smear and no more waiting for dried pages. There’s even a timer on the ink well built into the mechanism for the cap. It closes automatically after a while. Right now it stays open for about twenty minutes, though it’s easy to change if you’d rather the delay was longer or shorter. It wasn’t hard to extract the essential oils from the flowers and add a perfume to your ink.”
I just... boggled at the invention and the new type of ink, holding the pen in my hand, my mind blown. I listened intently to how everything works, unable to find words. When I finally had time to catch up to all the amazing things that the new little machine has, I smiled and threw herself into Celeste's arms, then kneeled down to give Penny a hug as well.
"WOW!" I said, wiping a tear away. "And it's not even my birthday, or Winter Veil! You guys are the BEST! I LOVE it! Thank you SO SO MUCH!"
I immediately went for a scrap of parchment, rushing back down to test it out. I smelled the perfume, then doodled a few things. Duskroses, fish, a tar pit with a tar monster in an ice block, Big Grumpypants roaring with tar monsters all over him, playing as though he's a great big jungle gym. Giggling all the while, I happily played with my new stationary... thing, then realized... it doesn't have a name that I’m aware of yet!
What is this called, anyway?" I asked, looking up at Celeste and down toward Penny. "Any cool names? Acronyms? What IS this thing?! It's so COOL!"
Celeste and Penny looked at each other and both laughed.
“Sometimes a cool inkwell is just a cool inkwell…” Celeste said, and leaned down to give me a kiss on the head. “We managed to refine about a gallon of ink, so you should be all set for a while.”
"Goodness gracious!" I said, giggling at the kiss on my head and blushing a little. "Yep, a whole gallon will keep me going for eons, especially when I only need a few drops of this kind of ink per entry!"
After that, however, it was time for an altogether more grim sort of adventure… It was time to go with the Whitewind Company back to Hearthglen and bring the murderer, Lisa Stanley, to justice!
It was me, my bestie Nah, Lora, and Annasanna Moonblossom, the Gilnean worgen druid that had helped us last week. We met out front of the Hearthglen town hall, intending to go in and see the mayor and the constable and be shown to Lisa’s cell to present her with the charges against her. I don’t think I ever anticipated bringing to light the charge of murder to someone who’s already IN jail!
Weirder still, through some shenanigan Nah still hasn’t gotten around to telling me about yet, Nah was there wearing some sort of PANDAREN illusion! She was even talking like a Pandaren, in their language and everything once in a while! It was SO WEIRD!
When we met out front of the town hall, however, I had the strangest feeling that I was being watched… my mind instantly flew to the fact that there had been that one red-masked guy, the one Nah caught spying on us over a year ago at the Stormwind Royal library, now following us around and spying on us during nearly every mission we worked!
I dunno whether he was there again this time, but something else strange happened as well… there was a very small girl hopscotching down the cobblestone road toward us, clutching a brilliantly-colored rag doll. She waltzed right up to us, looking surprised to see us all there. She stopped, taking in our appearances, her eyes lingering on Nah the Pandaren and Annasanna the worgen in particular. Seeming to do some hard thinking, she then asked us if we were the “Wing-Wings.”
The others seemed annoyed, not knowing what “Wing-Wings” were, and assuring the girl that they were not, encouraging her to be on her way. But the girl insisted that we WERE Wing-Wings, that Norma had told everyone all about us, and that we were from outside town. I realized then she must be referring to the Whitewind company name, mistaking it for this Wing-Wing business she had in her head. How adorable!
Then, out of nowhere, she started babbling, the way very small children do. She is Emily Baker, she said, and she lives at 21 Shop Street above the bakery. Her parents are Tom and Jill Baker, and they’re… wait for it… bakers! HA! She has a brother named Jared, she continued, adding, “but he’s really icky, don’t you agree?”
The group was now groaning and trying their hardest to get the kid to scram, and Lora was even going to the length of giving her a silver coin and suggesting she go buy some candy, but then the little girl said something that made us pause and pay closer attention…
”If you’re the Wing-Wings,” she pondered, “and you’re from out of town, then that must mean you’re here to catch the green lady that hurt Major Hammerhead, right?”
”Excuse me?” asked Nah. “…Emily, was it? Green lady?”
Emily, however, having after all the mind of a very small child, was already on to the next train of thought… holding the silver coin in her tiny hand, she was looking around everywhere, asking her rag doll, “Gloria, do you remember the way to the candy store?” and then, looking up at Nah the panda, she giggled and said, “Wow! You’re even furrier up close!”
Nah chuckled and thanked the girl, and then said, “Emily, did you say, ‘Green lady?’”
Emily immediately looked scared, clutching her rag doll close, nodding and replying, “Uh-huh… the green lady… she hurt Major Hammerhead a whole whole bunch!
”Can you tell me about this green lady, Emily?” asked Nah in a motherly tone. “Pretty please?”
”The GREEEEEN lady,” answered Emily in a low, hushed voice, nodding seriously at Nah. “She had peas mashed all over her face!”
”Emily,” asked Nah in that motherly tone. “Did you see the green lady BEFORE she mashed peas on her face, by chance?”
”No,” replied the girl, shaking her head and causing her light brown pigtails to flap around. “Only when I was walking by the back kiss (I think she was talking about the blacksmith) and later, when she came out of the mines.”
Through a bit more persuasion, we got her to tell us that the “green lady” had hurt “Major Hammerhead,” meaning Marvin “Hammerhand” Jones, of course, I think, then gone to the mines, then come out and ran around behind the tower, and that she’d been all dressed in bloody black robes.
This was a major break in the case! We knew the killer had worn black robes, had gone to hide the murder weapon in the toolbox of a miner to try and frame someone else, and had come out from the mines, been spotted by the approaching miners heading to work for the day, and had went around behind the tower and come out across from the lumber mill. What we did NOT know was that it was a woman, with something green smeared all over her face! That ruled out Jon Gerard and Alric Sunrise! Now we were just down to Lisa Stanley and Jess Burton! And, with the bloody, black robes and bloody, black gloves being found in Lisa’s house, hidden, we were able to bring even more proof to our accusations against Lisa! What luck!
It was then decided we should take one more look around where the killer came out from around the tower after fleeing the miners, just to make sure we hadn’t missed anything.
We got to the site, peering around, finding no hint of any green peas or other kind of paste dropped along the area. And, according to the miner and the little girl, the killer had come this way and disappeared somewhere. But where could she have gone? Disappeared into traffic? Not likely, being all covered in blood! Into the air? Not many flying mounts here. Into the tower itself, or, perhaps, the lumber mill?
We decided to search the buildings, starting with the lumber mill. Walking in, we saw lots and lots of stacks of planks and logs, all of which would be a good hiding spot… if it weren’t for the fact that these were all lifted up and moved regularly!
It was Anna that found our last clue.
Sniffing around with her worgen nose, she smelled the usual smells of a lumber mill: wood, machine oil, machinery, even the sweat of the workers who had been there that day. Yet something didn’t belong… she smelled something bitter, she said, beneath the floorboards some way right behind me! Lora, who had suggested loose floorboards earlier, had been right!
Nah spotted one floorboard with only one nail in the end, and that one looked loose. She went to the corner behind me, all the way into the corner, and lifted the floorboard. We gathered around, and, sure enough, there was something there, in the shadows! Anna lifted it out…
It was a jar of some sort of green paste! The others recognized it as a standard Alliance-issue military camouflage makeup, designed for masking soldiers during missions in the wild. Then, on the top, was the most telling bit of evidence of all…
The initials L.A.S. had been etched into the lid, as though by a knife!
”Lisa A. Stanley!” Nah said suddenly. This was it! The evidence against Lisa was now piled as high as we could get it!
We decided to immediately get back to the town hall, bringing Emily’s testimony and the green paste back to Mayor Sanford and Constable Alan. If not for that girl, we’d never have known to give one last look around, and never would have found the makeup in the lumber mill!
We arrived back at the town hall to find the mayor and the constable already in conversation in the front lobby, their backs toward us, talking to Secretary Ethel, the elderly secretary lady that we’ve talked to before at that desk. When we approached, she saw us and pointed us out, and the mayor and constable turned, looking relieved. We’d come at last, late perhaps, but we were there!
Nah presented the new evidence to the two men, talking about the conversation with young Emily Baker and about following the trail the killer had taken from the mine to the lumber mill and finding the makeup hidden in the loose floorboard in there. The mayor had the constable immediately lead us to Lisa Stanley, who was in the cells in the dungeon below the town’s small keep.
Once there, Constable Alan left us to it, citing a promise he’d made to the mayor to remain close until the killer was definitively identified and in custody.
We thanked him, descending into the dungeons. We found Lisa down there in the dark, lying in a tiny cot, low to the floor. She was shivering in her sleep; it was cold down here beneath the surface in this dark, dank stone room. The cell she was in was tiny, barely enough to get up and pace a bit in. A bucket for a privy and a pipe coming out of the wall leaking water into a second bucket showed her sink and water supply. It was altogether dismal.
Lora, still angry at Lisa from past run-ins, showed no pity for Lisa’s predicament. She stalked right up to the tiny cell, clapping her hands loudly, then, reaching the bars, rattling them noisily.
Lisa bolted upright in bed, peering at the noisy woman and the rest of us with irate, yet wary eyes. Lora had a few choice words for her, and, in response, Lisa leaped off of her cot, throwing herself at the bars and giving it right back to Lora. Oh gosh!
Nah got the two to settle down, then presented Lisa with the evidence: bloody robes and gloves, the robe’s sleeve torn to match the fragment found in the blacksmith at the scene of the murder, found in Lisa’s own house! The testimony of an unnamed villager that it was a woman that had attacked Marvin Hammerhand, a woman who’d painted herself green. The green camouflage makeup, with Lisa’s own initials on top, found in the lumber mill, where the killer had disappeared right after being spotted by the miners. Lisa’s own turbulent, violent past, including an attack on the murder victim himself, detailed in the blacksmith’s own diary!
Lisa sneered at first, but, as more and more evidence was presented, her sneer faltered, and she began to look genuinely worried. When the camo makeup was presented, a look of recognition had flashed across her face, and she even admitted it was hers!
Lisa then began to protest, saying she’d never killed anyone of any Alliance race. Sure, she’d been in the military, and had prolonged the suffering of some horde, but they’d done the same to us, she explained, and those rivals in the Alliance military that had mysteriously disappeared? She’d been in a special operations unit, she explained, and those sorts get sent off on missions no one knows about all the time, sometimes never to return. She’d never killed anyone not in the horde, she insisted over and over… not even among the Scarlet Crusade!
She then pointed at the raised welt scars and the deep gouge scars on her right cheek that ran from there to the corner of her mouth, detailing how the Scarlet Crusade’s dreaded Inquisitors had done that to her when she was seven years old. It got worse…
She next lifted up her black-and-white-striped prisoner’s shirt, showing a deep, ugly gash across her abdomen. There were several other scars there as well. She lifted up her shirt further, causing me to blush and look away, but my Bestie explained later that there were even more grotesque scars higher up her chest, and quite a few horrific burn scars on her back. Then Nah said she’d removed her pants as well, remaining silent all the while she disrobed, turning back to face us after. Her legs and other areas had been gouged, slashed, burned, and mutilated, and there was even a really, really deep gouge out of her inner right thigh, deep enough for her to put three of her fingers into and run then along the full foot-long length of it. A whole chunk of her thigh was missing, Nah said, an ugly scar in its place! OH MY GOSH!
I could hear Lisa putting her prison uniform back on, and turned to look again after the rustling of clothes ended. There was silence for a time, as Lisa looked us each in the eyes.
”Do you know,” she asked softly, “of any seven-year-old child that has had this done to them? That had to watch the same done to her parents, until they died from the torture? I’ve never killed anyone of any Alliance race. Not even those horrible Scarlet Crusaders. Not even after what they did to me as a child. Not even after what they did to my parents. Ask anyone. I have never even left Hearthglen, except for my brief time in the Alliance military. I refuse to do that to our own people.”
”And,” she asked, pausing briefly. “And… if I won’t even kill a Scarlet Crusader, why, then, would I kill a gentle giant like Marvin? Yes, I attacked him once, but that was because of him acting like I WOULD kill our townsfolk, and even then, I had no intent to kill. I just wanted to raise a couple of lumps on the guy.”
”I ask you again,” she said, quietly again. “If I refuse to kill even a Scarlet Crusader, why would I kill Marvin?”
There was a very long pause, and then Nah, not able to find a definitive answer, returned to the enormous pile of evidence stacked against Lisa. We all felt troubled by the scars covering Lisa’s body, and her story, and her question certainly had merit, and yet… all that evidence, though!
Nah was about to proceed on with the charge of murder against Lisa Stanley, when suddenly, we could hear Secretary Ethel outside, screaming in terror loud enough for us to hear her all the way inside and all the way down in the dungeons! Nah quickly changed gears, getting us all up the stairs fast and outside to investigate the scream.
There were guards everywhere out there! And they were all running into the town hall! The mayor! The constable! Oh, NO!
We ran – well, my friends ran, I just tried not to fall on my face too hard – to the town hall, hurrying inside to find a large crowd of guards there already, gathered around something at the stage end of the meeting hall. The mayor and the constable could be heard on the other side and, spying us, directed the guards to clear a path for us. We went forward…
…And there, lying on the stairs to the stage, head at the bottom and feet at the top, was Alric Sunrise… lying in a POOL OF HIS OWN BLOOD!
The violently zealous elf that had accosted us just last week, speaking of war and death and returning the breastplate to his people, was now down on his face!
Annasanna, being a healer, quickly rushed forward to render aid, checking for vitals. With a sad, slow shake of her head, she looked up and told us what we suspected, judging from the massive amount of blood on the stairs running down like a waterfall…
Alric Sunrise was dead.
Annasanna inspected the body next, reporting that the elf had been stabbed in many places, a kill that had sloppily missed all vital areas of the elf, causing him to bleed out slowly instead of dying quickly. That was just like how the murderer got Marvin Hammerhand! But… but Lisa Stanley had been in a cell in the dungeons all this time! What the heck was going on here?!
Nah next turned to Secretary Ethel, asking her what she’d seen when she’d screamed. The little elderly woman said she’d come in to place some files in the mayor’s filing cabinet, when she saw a woman, hooded and robed all in black, attempting to pull something from beneath Alric Sunrise, who was down on the stairs, just like we see him now! When Ethel came in and screamed, the woman abandoned her bid to pry something out from under Alric, bolted for the window, and jumped out, running off!
Anna, upon hearing that the killer had wanted something that was under Alric, lifted the body a bit, reaching underneath him…
Then she promptly dropped him, leaping to her feet and snarling like a wolf! She was shouting battle shouts, and FOR GILNEAS! and stuff, as though something had suddenly stirred her heart to do glorious battle for some noble cause!
Nah, Lora, and I, having witnessed this phenomenon, knew what must have happened… the breastplate of Princess Ariel Sunstrider must be under Alric!
Nah lifted Alric’s body, reaching underneath him and pulling something out. I braced myself, ready for it, but I still found myself shouting, “FOR STORMWIND! FOR THE ALLIANCE! FOR MY FAMILY! FOR MY FRIENDS!” and so much other stuff, then, “TO BATTLE! ONWARD TO BATTLE AND GLORY!” and all this stuff that had me SO embarrassed afterward! Lora and Nah were doing the same, but Nah, having been through this several times now, managed to wrestle the beautiful blue breastplate with the intricate truesilver seam into her pack and secure it shut, causing the effect to wear off from us. GOSH!
Well, now we were in a pickle! Back to square one on the investigation! If Lisa Stanley hadn’t committed the murder, who had? Jess Burton? I was about to suggest that we quickly find Jess Burton when Nah suddenly led everyone from the building, stating she knew who killed Marvin Jones and Alric Sunrise. Oh my goodness!
She led us out of the town hall, making beeline for the LUMBER MILL! But a stately woman like Jess Burton wouldn’t be hanging out there, surely?
We arrived in the lumber mill, peering around. Nah was certain we should be there, and she’s very wise and has the most amazing instincts, so we looked around for the second time that evening, but finding nothing but quiet, as everyone in town seemed to be gathered around the big scene at the town hall.
Suddenly, Lora’s head turned to her right, and Nah was already darting in that direction! There was a scuffle of feet, and someone could be hear running around the corner outside, coming back around my end of the lumber mill.
Then, without warning, I was GRABBED FROM BEHIND, and a KNIFE WAS PUT TO MY THROAT! Oh my gosh, that was SO SCARY! Terrifying memories of Tomlin McCullough in a dark alley in Darkshire went through my mind, and then…
I looked down, seeing the bloody sleeves of a black robe wrapped around me. Whomever it was, they were a lot stronger than I am, though that isn’t saying much...
Anyway, Lora had her flintlock pistol out and pointed just past my head, Anna was growling and snarling, and Nah was trying to talk sense into my captor.
Then I heard a young woman’s voice asking how we had known!
”You said it yourself,” my bestie said, looking oddly sinister there in her weird Pandaren illusion or form, whatever it was. “You ALWAYS come here when you feel threatened or unsafe… just like now, after you killed Alric Sunrise. Just like the morning of Marvin’s murder, when you came her after killing you and were spotted by the miners after trying to frame them for the murder. But my question is… why?”
”Didn’t I tell you?” the young woman’s voice said. “I’ll do ANYthing to get my husband the prestige he deserves. I didn’t WANT to kill either of them… but they got in the way of me getting the breastplate for Jack!”
The killer was NORMA HECKIN’ SANFORD ALL ALONG!
With that, she shoved me forward HARD, and I fell over! Looking back as I got up, I saw her duck behind the controls of some sort of gnomish technology. She handed a couple of levers after pushing a few buttons, and the whole dang lumber mill sprang to life! The huge saw, taller even than Nah, began spinning, chains began moving around overhead, and this huge claw on the end of a gigantic arm started piling logs quickly around Norma, giving her a log fort we couldn’t get to her through!
But we had more immediate problems… the chains were flailing at us, slapping and flailing and whipping us mercilessly. The claw came for us next, but we were able to avoid it! I got knocked down, but Nah and Lora quickly sprang into action. Nah used a subtlety rogue ability in which shadow blades, called “gloomblades,” can penetrate armor. We heard Norma cry out in pain from within the fort – Nah had landed a hit! Then Lora decided to try to end it all right then and there, tossing a whole dang GRENADE into the fort from the opening overhead! Norma screamed again, throwing it out, but it blew up behind her fort and caved that part in on her, causing her to scream in pain again! Meanwhile, the claw was still trying to grab for us, and it eventually got ME! OH, NO!
I screamed for help as the claw got me… and took me right toward the giant, spinning saw blade!
Lora immediately unslung her rifle, emptying an entire magazine into the claw, slowing it down. The claw had me INCHES FROM THE SAW BLADE! I WAS SO DANG TERRIFIED! I wanted to tell the others turn away… Norma had won… I was about to hit the saw… Turn away; you don’t want to see this…
Suddenly, Norma GASPED! She spluttered out, “YOU?! NO! GET OFF ME! GET OFF! NOOOOOOOO!” and then the claw STOPPED! I was INCHES AWAY from the spinning saw, and it STOPPED!
Then we could hear another voice from behind the hole in the back of Norma’s log fort, the voice of another young woman!
”I’ve never killed anyone in the Alliance before,” the voice said. “But girl… you are REALLY pressing my f***ing buttons right now!”
”That voice…” managed Anna. “…Miss… Stanley…?”
Lisa Stanley’s voice was coming from inside the log fort! I have no idea how she got out of her cell, how she knew where to find us, or what she was doing, but gosh, I was surprisingly glad she was there!
There were the sounds of an absolute knock-down, drag-out CATFIGHT coming from inside the tiny closet-sized space within the little log fort, and then Norma started screaming about killing Lisa, and we could hear the sound of a KNIFE going into FLESH! Lisa grunted several times after several stabbing sounds, and then Norma was like, “LET ME GO, or I’ll STAB MORE!”
Anna sprang into action, using druidic magics to try and heal Lisa, but, without being able to see where she was, she wasn’t able to make it work! She lucked out the second time she tried to cast a spell – we could hear the sounds of floorboards breaking in there, and the creak and groan of wood, and the sound of what sounded like LOTS of snakes slithering around! Annasanna had just used a druidic ROOT spell on Norma!
After that, there was a massive amount of appalling profanity out of Lisa, followed by violent threats, and then, SNAP-SNAP! Two loud breaking sounds came from the log fort, followed by the same loud sobbing and wailing we’d heard Norma make after Lisa bounced her face off the cobblestone street last week!
”MY ARMS!” we heard Norma wail. “OOOWWWW!”
All the while, Lora was trying to shoot the claw down, and Nah was trying to wrestle me free of it, though all she managed to do was get too close and lose her favorite fancy suit coat to the saw! Oh gosh!
Then Nah changed her approach. She pulled out an arclight spanner from her pack, headed to a panel on the wall, and opened it up. Messing with something inside, she got the claw to move me away from the saw, lower me to the floor, and release me.
And that’s all I remember…
I woke up on Nah’s bed in the Whitewind’s Grace, Nah there with me, still a panda. First Mate Nate was there, working on something at Nah’s alchemy station. I was covered in gauze and bandages, and Nah was trying to talk to me.
After I got the chance to wake up, Nah explained to me that I’d blacked out! Then she started filling me in on what I’d missed. While Lora and Nah worked to get me free of the claw, Anna had climbed the log fort and dragged Lisa free, healing several stab wounds to her abdomen as quickly as she could. She’d need more healing, she said. She’d then grabbed Norma out, dragging her free of the roots, tossing her to the floor. Nah had put a leash and collar, of all things, on her, and picked me up. Anna grabbed Lisa, and Nah dragged Norma out.
To hear my bestie tell it, there was quite the crowd gathered outside! They were seeing Norma on a leash and collar, Lisa, all bloody in a prisoner’s uniform, and me, all battered and bruised and bloodied, tossed over a pandaren’s shoulder like a sack of grain. They were all talking at once, speculating, gossiping, talking about how Lisa must have escaped from prison and attempted more murder, starting with poor Alric Sunrise, and others contradicting those saying that Alric had died while she was still in prison, and she’d been freed by the mayor himself with apologies, and still others going on about why Norma was all beaten to a pulp and being dragged on in a leash and collar! Gosh, it must have been quite a crowd!
They’d gotten back to the town hall, Nah said, and she’d broken the terrible news to the mayor about his daughter-in-law. The mayor refused to believe it at first, but the constable, schooled in investigation even if inexperienced, pointed out how the story made far more sense than it having been Lisa, and that it was quite, quite true that Norma always goes to her husband’s mill when she felt threatened.
The mayor was apparently still dubious, from what Nah was telling me… until Norma herself blurted out something akin to a confession after Nah and Lora were talking about how she wanted her husband Jack to be mayor instead of the oldest brother, and Norma said she never wanted that; that she’d only meant to get Jack the breastplate for more prestige, and had never intended to hurt anyone. She realized, horrified, what she’d just blurted out, but it was too late! The damage was done! Mayor Sanford sent Constable Alan to find Jack then and break the bad news to him while the Mayor consented that the Whitewind Company had completed its task, and could keep the breastplate Nah had taken earlier. A moment later, Jack could be heard outside, screaming his grief and dismay, causing a tear to come to the mayor’s eye. He thanked us once more, insisted he must excuse himself, and left to go to his youngest son. Oh my gosh, that’s so SAD!
Lora, meanwhile, had said, during the explanation of the break in the case, that she wanted Emily Baker’s family to get her share of the pay, citing that she had gold for years and wanted them to be rewarded for raising such a brave child. The mayor had been surprised but agreed to it.
She also announced her intentions to apologize to Lisa for her awful treatment of her, to take her back to the Leeward Pauper, her ship, to heal her, and to offer her a position among her crew, as Hearthglen might not me friendly to Lisa for some time, with most of the town believing her to be a murderer. I suppose we’ll see what Lisa says when she’s well enough!
After the mayor left, Lora took her leave, as did Anna, and my bestie flew me back to the Whitewind’s Grace on Onyx, where she laid be down and she and Nate worked on me with bandages, gauze, healing salve, and a crimson vial that rogues use to heal themselves.
All caught up, we talked a bit more, and then we were all exhausted from the evening’s events, so we went to our homes. Gosh, what an action-packed day… and what a sad ending! My goodness, the things we go through to keep this enchanted armor out of the wrong people’s hands!
For now, though, the cleaning and conversion of the MUTT back to its usual parts continues, and I better go and help. After all, we gotta get it ship-shape for the next time we take it out on an adventure and mess it up good and proper!
The only thing missing from this week was a good Deathrolls game, with everyone having been busy that night. It was a real bummer to not get to play this week. But hey, maybe next week!
With Deathrolls looming in the coming week, the sad, sad tale of the murder mystery behind us, and a new adventure sure to come up, what with the SI:7 rumors of a noble couple being behind the procurement of other bits of Princess Ariel’s armor, next week is shaping up to be just as action-packed… and I can’t wait for it to get here! YAY!
Nat smiled at that happy thought, moving to tap the excess ink from her quill… then grinning as the habitual movement was stopped short by the fact that there was no excess ink, as she held a pen now that would refill itself straight from the vial of purple, perfumed tar ink! She poked the pen back into the vial, grinning at her diary next – no more having to wait for ink to dry, either!
Nat gathered up her diary and mechanical inkwell, grinning again at only having to carry two things instead of three this time, taking them both upstairs to her office. The inkwell, big as it was, sat at the back center of her desk, under the window overlooking Turtle Bay and Turtle Beach. The diary went back into its spot on her bookshelf left of her writing desk, which still got used often, though the diary writing tended to happen while hanging out with Celeste.
Heading back downstairs, dressed already in work clothes of her own, she joined in with the MUTT work, doing what work she knew how to do, performing tasks that were familiar by now to restore the MUTT to its standard state.
When all was restored and all was cleaned up, the trio went outside onto the veranda for a lunch of sandwiches and veggies with a dressing dip, along with a refreshing lemonade. Following that was a hop down to Anglers Wharf to fish from the docks and hang out with Angler friends, spending the afternoon and evening relaxing after a busy, action-packed week.
Their catches were dinner last night, and, over fish steaks and salads and Stormstout brews under the darkening sky and gathering stars, they listened to the latest rendition of Fo Fook’s giant grouper catch retelling, this time with the hozen shrieking and hooting his insistence that the grouper had dragged the Wave Dancer so far out into the ocean, no land was in sight, and he had to trick the grouper into pulling him back home before catching it, dodging sharks along the way, and narrowly dodging a kraken sighted off in the distance!
It was with a happy, tired smile that Nat returned home with Celeste and Dordy after bidding Penny and their Anglers Wharf friends goodnight. Nat got cleaned up and headed to bed, chatting animatedly with Celeste about their week, and what might happen next week. As the chatter quieted to sleepy whispers, Celeste drifted off to sleep, and Nat soon followed, thinking of the week to come. It was sure to be fun, whatever it would bring!