"An associate of mine, Ginro Hearthkindle, is looking for assistance," spoke the Night Elf, "concerning the location of a courier and the parcels he was carrying." He moved over to the balcony, staring out with Griffonclaw. "It has been a week or so since the courier went missing; our own searches have proved fruitless, and we're at an impasse. Unfortunately, I have had to declare the courier as missing in action."
He turned to look at Griffonclaw. "If you have the time and resources to spare, please speak with Ginro. He should be here in the Stronghold - perhaps in his quarters."
Griffonclaw thought for a minute before nodding. With Valentia in a Cathedral of Light conclave in Stormwind for the better part of three weeks, he was somewhat at loose ends. The battlegrounds where the Alliance actively fought the Horde had slowed to a stalemate while each side took breathers, re-assessing their strategic and tactical importance before the conflicts heated up again. Griffonclaw had come here originally looking for Hippogriff eggs for an associate in Tanaris, but had stayed for several days, taking a much-needed vacation.
But the time for resting was over; while the Hammer of Magni was an Ironforge guild, they had members from all factions of the Alliance, and they had not, in recent times, restricted their activities to only those which concerned Ironforge. This would not be the first time that Griffonclaw undertook to assist the Kaldorei, nor would it be the last.
Griffonclaw left Moonspear, and - with the directions from one of the Kaldorei sentinels - found himself entereing the study of Ginro Hearthkindle. "So, Latronicus sent you, did he?" inquired Ginro. "Are you hungry? Thirsty? May I offer you some moonberry juice?" Griffonclaw accepted a mug with the chilled liquid gladly, and sat with the Night Elf has he made his request.
"It's been about a week since Raschal, the courier, set out for Thalanaar. He knows Feralas well; he's been with us since General Feathermoon led the expeditionary forces here." Shandris Feathermoon was one of the most celebrated of the Night Elf military command, and commanded the Sentinels from the Feathermoon Stronghold.
Ginro continued. "I know his plan was to take a row boat down the coast and try and traverse across southern Feralas to avoid the Horde camp, but our searching parties didn't turn up any sign of the boat." He sighed heavily. "Of course, with the giants and water elementals that patrol the coastline, almost anything could have happened to the boat by now... but that is the only direction I can give you."
Griffonclaw finished the moonberry juice and rose. "Well, I will start there and see what I can find, and soonest started is soonest finished."
"Thank you, Griffonclaw. If you uncover something, please let me know." Ginro bade Griffonclaw a farewell, and turned back into his study.
There were three ways from the Feathermoon Stronghold to the mainland of Ferelas; the first was in the comfort of the ferry, another would be a shorter - but far more uncomfortable - hippogriff ride, and the third would be to swim the channel itself. Griffonclaw opted for the slow, comfortable way - a slight delay would be unlikely to make a difference in the missing courier's fate one way or another.
The docks on the mainland were not in the best repair, and Griffonclaw picked his way carefully across the well-trod boards. The elves of the Feathermoon Stronghold periodically refurbished the docks, but the coastline was rife with sea elementals, charged with magic and as violent as a sudden storm. The only merchants to traveled to Feathermoon were heavily armed, and even some of them failed to make it through.
At the base of the pier was a small tent encampment, with a sole occupant, a goblin merchant associated with the Steamwheedle Cartel named Zorbin Fandazzle. Griffonclaw avoided the tent, and its green-skinned occupant; how one small goblin managed to remain safe in the middle of Sea Elementals and giants, and he didn't particularly want to know.
He headed south, following the coast... sea elementals were plentiful, but given the stark landscape of the beach and the... unsubtle nature of the elementals he found it easy to avoid conflict. The elementals whipped up and down the coast with the noise and fury of a crashing wave - it didn't take much to hear them coming and get out of their way.
Subtle, they were not.
Just before sunset he saw something in the crests of the waves... when the tide pulled the water back, he could see broken wood. While not conclusive, it was the first sign of anything even remotely possible pertaining to his mission he'd seen all day. Stripping out of his armor and boots, and laying his Truesilver Champion aside, he strode into the surf and dove beneath the waves.
He opened his eyes, and thanked the Light that he had always been particularly fond of swimming. Under the surface of the water he saw the remains of what had once been a rowboat, although little of the sides were left. Half-buried in the mud, only the spars and ribs seemed intact, and that was what Griffonclaw had seen from the shore. Griffonclaw swam closer, carefully approaching the wreck; he was aware that currents could suddenly sweep the unwary far from shore. When he reached the boat he surfaced, taking another deep breath, and submerged himself once more.
He examined the wreck as throroughly as he could in the murky water, his hands dredging though the muck for something, anything. His fingers grazed something hard and roughly cylindrical - something manmade, not a rock or shell. Gripping it tightly, he headed again for the surface. He treaded water while he examined what he had found - he had touched the smooth handle of a Kaldorei knife. It looked well-cared for, and the blade was clear of rust, indicating that it had not long been in the water.
A sudden roar cut off all speculation as the water around him began to churn, spinning the paladin in a whirl. Griffonclaw struck out for shore, but the water seemed to grow a million fingers, all of which seemed dedicated to pulling him under. Too late he remembered that while Sea Elementals were not particularly stealthy on land, they were virtually invisible in or under the water... down it dragged Griffonclaw, his eyes blinded by the mud-churning waterspout... and then even that grew problematic as he lost consciousness, his last thoughts cursing himself for his carelessness.
"I'm not dead?" he thought some time later, as something cold and wet nudged against his face. Opening his eyes, he found himself face-to-face with the muzzle of a wolf... one with one blue eye and one green eye.
"Nikita?" he questioned, and was rewarded with a rought, wet lick.
"Nikita, I fed you just an hour ago..." came the mock-stern tones of Nikita's companion. With the furry muzzle occupying the majority of his field of vision, he couldn't see her, but he knew that somewhere the platinum-tressed Kaldorei hunter was standing nearby, her eyes flickering over the landscape looking for threats while Nikita woke him up.But he'd had enough lupine affection - and breath - under the circumstances.
Getting to his feet, he saw that Keala was dry, but that Nikita still had matted fur.
"We were hunting some giants to shrink when we saw you go under" Keala explained. "Nikita went to pull you out while I shot the thing full of holes... not that it did much but annoy him enough to charge me. But by that time Nikita had you on the beach, and between the two of us the elemental didn't last long."
Griffonclaw put aside the knife he'd found in the wreckage - apparently his hand had clutched the dagger in his struggles that he hadn't relinquished it upon unconsciousness - and began putting his armor back on. "Shrinking giants?" he asked, amused.
"The goblin Fandazzle is paying me a bounty" she replied. "He's been working on a variant of a gnomish shrinking ray, but but using "superior" Goblin technological advances in its construction. So, he's paying me to test it on the giants, and collect any miniaturization dust so he can study it." Keala shrugged. "He pays well, and the look on their faces when they go from 60 feet to six feet is amusing..." Griffonclaw shrugged. Keala had a strange sense of humor, but then, she was Kaldorei.
"So what were you doing, besides drowning?" she asked.
Griffonclaw swiflty told her of his mission, and how he was now planning on returning to Feathermoon Stronghold to show Ginro Hearthkindle the knife he had found, to confirm that it had belonged to his quarry.
"Well, Niki and I are almost done here - would you like some company?"
Griffonclaw happily agreed. There were few people in Azeroth he liked better than the svelte hunter, and he envied her ability to form such a close bond with her wolf. Griffonclaw had always held a secret desire to have an animal companion like Nikita, a closeness and bond that humans couldn't seem to obtain.
Fortunately, Keala let him play with Nikita a lot - even if she did frown when he snuck her the occassional treat. Griffonclaw waited until Keala had turned to retrieve her riding animal - a huge Nightsaber - before reaching into his belt and tossing a large hunk of cured ham to his lupine friend.
Who... well... wolfed it down.
Keala waited for Griffonclaw at the Inn while he visited Ginro.
"The Stronghold's resident druid, Quintis Jonespyre, has some... unusual skills. One of them involves psychometry - the ability to reveal an item's history by touch. Don't ask me how he does it; I chalk it up to magic I do not and choose not to understand" he informed Griffonclaw when he'd been shown the knife and confirmed that it did indeed belong to the missing courier. "I do know, however, two things: one, I've seen it work and two, the bum owes me."
He smiled at Griffonclaw. "Please take the knife up to Quint in his little tree-house here, and tell him for me that his Kalimdor Hold 'Em debt will be paid if he works his mojo on that knife."
Griffonclaw had heard of Kalimdor Hold 'Em, but had never learned to play; however, he was leary of asking Ginro as he was obviously quite good, and played for silver. And given that Quintis Jonespyre had ran up a debt playing the game, he doubted he'd care to learn from him, either.
Maybe Keala could teach him. Or Telamir.
He put card games out of his mind, and went to see Quintis, who seemed overjoyed to see him - or at least once Griffonclaw gave him a way out of his card debt, he seemed overjoyed, although whether it was with Griffonclaw or the debt relief was unclear.
He gingerly took the knife from Griffonclaw, and laid it on a folded swatch of pale pink silk. He went to a shelf, and opened a small, carved wooden box, removing six cones of a dark green incense, which he carefully placed equidistantly around the knife, and then lit.
Standing over the table, he began to chant in a language that Griffonclaw couldn't understand. "Afia reabu ncho floo thore sdumi!" he intoned in an eerie voice, very much unlike his speaking voice. He repeated it, speaking faster each time. His eyes closed, and still he continued, his voice growing louder with each repetition. A green nimbus surrounded the knife, and slowly expanded, until the glow encompassed both knife and Quintis. Griffonclaw stood watching, and rushed forward to catch him when suddenly the druid collapsed, the glow fading into numerous sparks of arcane energy.
Griffonclaw caught him before he it the floor, and slowly the druid regained his senses as we came out of the trance. "I'm a little wobbly still, sorry. Anyway, I received some useful visions" said Quintis in an unsteady voice.
"I saw him beach the boat, and quickly grab two large leather backpacks from his boat and headed inland. Later, I saw him returning to the boat... I saw gnoll scalps... he ran into some gnolls - Woodpaw I think they're called. He's very worried - almost terrified - about something. So much so, that he is not paying attention to water elementals forming behind him. The images... stopped there. "
"I need to rest now, Griffonclaw..." he said, and Griffonclaw led him over to his pallet in the corner of the room. "Tell Gin what I've seen. He needs to know."
Ginro was quite disturbed when Griffonclaw relayed his tidings.
"Our 'friends' the Woodpaw might have gotten Raschal in the end, but something tells me that's not what occurred. Still, they're the best place to start looking" he said, his agitation clear in his voice. "I wish I had clearer insight as to what to do, but all I have right now is 'Search the Woodpaw camps - go.' I do know that gnolls will keep items they scavenge and fight over them; maybe they ran across the backpacks Quint mentioned. I hadn't risked a head-on fight in past searches, but with Quint's vision on this I say rip into them."
A tight smile spread on Ginro's face as he looked over to the paladin before him. "You're OK with ripping into them, I hope?"
"Quite" answered Griffonclaw with a feral grin. If the Woodpaw gnolls were similar to their counterparts he'd encountered in the rest of the world, not only would he be acquiescent with Ginro's directive, but sleep at night assured that he had revenged any number of merchants and other travelers - from both Alliance and Horde - in the process. There was no such thing, in Griffonclaw's opinion, as an innocent gnoll.
And the had forged the Truesilver Champion he bore for a reason.
Griffonclaw joined Keala at the inn, ordering a quick roast meat sandwich and replenishing his supply of Moonberry Juice and cheese. He was fortunate in that the Inn stocked both Alterac Swiss and some delicious Aged Cheddar. He paid for both his and Keala's lunch (before she could object), and "accidentally" spilled the bulk of his sandwich on the floor.
Nikita helped clean the floor before Keala could stop her.
"Oops!" declared Griffonclaw with a grin.
"Aroo...woof" confirmed Nikita.
Keala struggled with keeping a smile off her face. "BAD Griffy!" she scolded, shaking a mailed finger at him. "Nikita is going to get fat if you keep feeding her like that!"
The wolf shot her a "Worry about yourself first" look, and padded off towards the docks while Griffonclaw and Keala retrieved their mounts. Keala's riding cat had been freshly brushed, and they waited patiently while Griffonclaw saddled and buckled the barding plate protection on his warhorse, named Stormwind.
"Why did you name him Stormwind?" Keala asked, curiously.
"Because both of them are pretty but tough... and because both of them leave behind a lot of road apples" responded Griffonclaw with a grunt, tighening some of the cinches to his mount's armor.
The next few days that followed quickly fell into a pattern of successive battles. Nikita would lead them to a gnoll encampment. Keala would set a fire trap or a frost trap in the easiest line of approach. Keala and Griffonclaw would step away from the trap and make there presence known - usually via the sniper scope and a round of mithil shot from Keala's rifle. The gnolls would charge with deadly intent... one would die in the frost or flames from Keala's trap, Nikita would charge from hiding and first hamstring and then savage the throat of another. Keala's rifle would drop one... two... perhaps three on the approach, before they would reach them.
And then the dance would begin. Keala's lithe form would spin and her two blades would shimmer and flash, leaving crimson trails in their wake. Griffonclaw's style of combat was less graceful, and more brutal; he'd snap kneecaps with his heavy boots, weave a deadly cage around himself with his willow-light greatsword, while its razor edge and icy enchantment crushed its way through armor and flesh. Keala's kills were elegant and clean, Griffonclaw's kills were brutal and messy - but the gnolls' bodies fell to become predator fodder either way.
Searching the encampments often took much longer than slaying the occupants.
Hours later, they would seek another gnoll enclave, and the cycle would begin again.
"They fall for that whole 'charge straight into a trap' thing every time" Keala noted, after awhile. It was true. Gnolls were not the sharpest blade in the armory.
It took three days of what Keala euphamistically refered to as "pest control" for them to locate a sign of Raschal; in one of the gnoll warchief's camps they found a pair of leather satchels of Kaldorei manufacture. The bags looked in good condition, and still contained wrapped parcels of goods bound for Thalanaar. There was also what looked to be a hastily-written note, which read:
"To Whoever May Follow After,
The Woodpaws remain as they ever are - stupid and viscious, but open to communcation provided that a sufficient bribe comes withal. However, some of their hunting lands to the south have recently been declared 'taboo' by their mystics. Naturally, I felt the need to explore the taboo lands, and discovered a nest of insidious giant bug-like creatures, the likes of which I have never before seen.
The mystics declared that I must die for my transgressions, but they can't an orc amongst a pack of gnomes, so I discount their threat. An extra large bribe should work to make them happy again.
However, I am not sanguine as regards these new creatures - they feel wrong. I am therefore going to scout their "hive" area, and see what more I can discover about them.
Raschal of Feathermoon"
Keala looked at Griffonclaw, who had gone white.
"Bugs. Giant, flying, crawling bugs" he responded to her interrogative look. "Do you have any idea how much even normal bugs make my skin crawl? Those tarantulas near Lakeshire still frighten me. And we won't even talk about the spiders in Darkshire..." Griffonclaw shuddered. "Why does it have to be bugs?"
"Don't worry too much, my friend" reassured Keala. "Nikita and I will come with you to investigate, and keep you safe from the slimey, creepy-crawling..."
She stopped when Griffonclaw went from "pale" to "green". It was not a good sign.
"Well, lets go then" he said a few minutes later, struggling to fight down his nausea and apprehension. Soonest begun is soonest done."
"Dou you always have a saying for everything?" she asked, arching one eyebrow.
"Sure I do. Even if I have to make it up on the spot..." he joked weakly.
As they headed south they found few of the wolves and bears which roamed Ferelas... and the further they headed, the less animal life they found. Now Keala was as disturbed as Griffonclaw; something was very, very wrong.
After another half-day of traveling, they discovered why. They came to the edge of a rise to overlook the base of the south mountains, only to discover that someone - or something - had been very busy in the valley below. Griffonclaw had never been here before, but he assumed that at some point the area below had looked like the areas all around - moderately heavy woods and hills, and not what had been done below.
The valley below had been denuded of wood, and the area levelled - except where excavations had been done. There were three pits in the ground which looked like they led into a serious of tunnels, and altogether they covered the same area as a small town like Goldshire or Lakeshire. There were at least three main type of insect-creatures, all of them the size of ponies or larger - a worker-type which seemed to be very much like a wood tick of gigantic size, hauling and continuing the subterranean building, a warrior-type which seemed vaguely arachnid-like, and a flying guard/hunter which seemed like nothing so much as a fat mesquito. A really, really large, fat mesquito.
None of which made Griffonclaw feel any better, and his anticipation of further dread was confirmed when Keala looked over and said "You know we have to go down there, right?"
"Yes, I know" said Griffonclaw quietly.
"Because if Raschel is still alive, he'll have valuable information. And if he's not alive, we need to finish that scouting trip he was doing".
"Yes, I understand. I understand completely" he responded, never taking his eyes from the nests below. "I fully comprehend the importance of going down there, finding our way in, and fighting our way out against a horde of vile, insect-ish carnivorous fiendish thingies. So I'm going in there, gross bug-like things or not. And we're going to find Raschal or what happened to him, find out how extensive those hives are, and make our report, no matter what disgusting, slime-covered things slither in our way." He glanced over towards her. "There is only one thing I want you to do."
"What's that?"
"Talk me out of it..."
Nikita sat down on the forest floor and covered her eyes with her paws, while Keala snorted.
Keala and Griffonclaw left their mounts on the hill - both being trained to not wander far, and both aggressive enough to defend themselves if need be - and descended into the valley slowly, cautiously, being careful to avoid most of the wandering guard- and hunter-bugs. However, when they reached the lip to the largest hive, they could see that they wouldn't be able to infiltrate any further by stealth.
From the lip a causeway spiraled down to various entrances that led underground, and virtually all of them had some sort of insect thing working or patrolling nearby. With a shrug Keala threw herself over the lip, landing lightly on her feet. Griffonclaw was slower and more...solid in his landing, but no sooner had he joined her than one of the flying hunters came to attack, its five-foot long needle-like stinger heading for Nikita.
Griffonclaw invoked the Light, and sent a spell of Judgement upon the creature, which burned briefly with the Holy Light before turning its angry attention to Griffonclaw. It came straight at the paladi, who easily leaped aside, parrying its stinger with his greatsword, and pivoting the sword on its balance point brought it down heavily in an overhand chop to where the creature's wings joined with its thorax. The mithril blade clipped through chiton cleanly, and the crippled thing fell to the earth, its vestigal legs slowly moving its body. Nikita and Keala didn't give it a second chance to make an assault, and blade and fang ended its threat.
Griffonclaw scratched Nikita behind the ears. Nobody hurt Nikita while Griffonclaw was around.
While Griffonclaw was thanking Nikita, Keala had gone a few paces forward, and set another one of her flame devices. A small cannister of some Gnomish liquid was set in a shallow pit she swiftly dug with her knife, and covered back over. A thin wire was stretched from the device to one side, secured with a small metal piton, and then stretched over the trail, angling to the other side of the causeway, about six inches off the ground and almost invisible.
Backing away from her handiwork, she took aim at a worker-bug down the slope, and fired. The report of her gun summoned Griffonclaw and Nikita to stand with her, while three worker-bugs and one of the warrior-bugs chased up the path towards them.
"Well, at least they aren't smarter than gnolls..." commented Keala before she began to shoot the lead insect. All three hit the tripwire all at once, and the explosive charge detonated, covering many of them with flaming liquid which burned ferociously. Nikita charged forward with Griffonclaw only slightly behind, and each of them engaged a different bug. One of the bugs - the one which had taken the brunt of the explosion, and many of Keala's shot on its way to wrend her limb from limb died before reaching her, leaving her with one of the worker-bugs. She slung her gun across her back and drew blades, their edges glimmering in the sunlight.
Griffonclaw had barely finished with the worker-bug he had engaged when he heard a loud yelp from Nikita and he turned towards where she was fighting the warrior-bug. Green liquid coated the thing's mandibles, and Griffonclaw could see that some of the wounds marking Nikita's body were extraordinarily swollen and discolored. Griffonclaw closed his eyes and visualized the Light and Nikita, and prayed. Holy Light manifested itself and channeled through Griffonclaw into Nikita, and the discolorations receded. Griffonclaw changed his chanting prayer, and the wounds themselves began to close. He finished his prayer, and snarling to turn his nausea at the insects into something resembling rage, he attacked Nikita's opponent with enthusiasm. By the time Nikita and he had finished it, Keala had already killed her second opponent, and was busy reloading.
And thus ended the first of several battles. They descended into the darkness, the icy light of Griffonclaw's blade and the Kaldorei enchantments of Keala's swords lighting their way. The walls had been dug to accomodate the horse-size creatures, and the sides of the tunnels had been coated with a slime that hardened into something approaching and iron strength. Time and time again they found clusters of bugs - and time and time again they destroyed them with fire and blade, bullet and claw. They came to dead-ends and cul-de-sacs, but with each turn they moved lower and lower, until they hit a huge chamber, with a bug they hadn't seen before.
This one was as long as a human, but it was laying down amber-orange egg sacs along the chamber wall, securing them to it with the hardening mucus. Others were busy building encapsulations, into which they thrust still-living wolves and bears. Other bags already sealed showed that they were storing these for the hatchlings to feed upon when they hatched - apparently, these things prefered live food. Griffonclaw was noisly sick on the cavern floor.
The egg-layers took no notice of the intruders, but continued their work placidly and unafraid.
Keala pointed. "There!" Against the wall of one of the stalagmite supports of the cavern was one of the preserving bags, but in a vaguely Kaldorei shape. Crossing over to it, Keala gently sliced open the sac with her knife, and helped the Night Elf out, the preservign jelly slithering slowly from his body to the floor.
"I think he's alive!" commented Keala and she began chivvying his arms and legs. His breathing became more regular, and his eyes opened. Griffonclaw laid his hands upon the fallen fellow, and chanted a prayer to the Light, once again using his body as conduit. He felt the Light leave his body and travel into the Night Elf, cleansing the preserving toxins and poisons from his system.
"Thank you..." stammered the scout when he ragained the use of his senses. "They captured me, and their poisons slowed me down until they could... bury me in that muck..." Griffonclaw's imagination took hold, and he barely avoided emptying what was left in his stomach at the thought.
"I must make a report... back to the General" demanded the Scout. "You must help me!" No words were spoken in response - Griffonclaw might have kissed him for giving them an excuse to leave. "We'll make a run back to the mounts" planned Keala, and Griffonclaw nodded. If they could get Raschal to Keala's nightsaber, he could race back to Feathermoon while they followed at a more sedate pace.
"Griffonclaw, you lead... Raschal, you follow him up. Niki and I will follow shortly - since we're leaving, I want to leave them a few more presents..." She grinned, her eyes dancing with a feral fire. Griffonclaw grinned in return, and supported the scout while they hobbled as fast as they could to the caverns that led to the surface. All the upward-slanting passages all led to one of the entrance-passages from the main causeway, and as Griffonclaw and Raschal went along Raschal grew in strength. They were fortunate in that they had encountered none of the insect things until just before the surface... when they heard Keala and Nikita running up behind them.
"Lets not waste any time... " Keala panted. "The bugs are going to be quite busy."
"What did you do?" asked Raschal.
"Well, since I didn't need any of my traps anymore, I planted them all down in the egg hatchery... and detonated them" she answered, a chuckle in her voice. Nikita and Keala led the way out at a dead run, and all of the bugs they encountered ignored them; instead, they were heading into the hive to help put out the fires and repair the collapsed tunnels. Huge gouts of smoke followed them from the pit, until it resembed an infernal hell.
They reached their mounts, and Keala sent Raschal on his way, the saddlebags full of Griffonclaw's Moonberry Juice and cheeses. Griffonclaw swung himself up on his mount, and Keala swung up behind him. Turning his horse north, they began to head for the major east-west road that would see them to Feathermoon.
"You had a lot of those firebombs!" Griffonclaw commented.
"Well, a few... but you know that slime they coat everything with?"
"Yeah?"
"Flammable. Very flammable."
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