Sophia had a bitter taste in her mouth as a result of what happened in the Deadmines. It was bad enough to kill a little girl’s father, Edwin Vancleef, it was far worse to kill the father in front of the daughter. It was also irresponsible to leave the daughter to fend for herself with her father dead. Unfortunately, she had to be the irresponsible one this time because according to Thanatas, this was supposed to be the moment to motivate her into becoming one of the most talented rogues on Azeroth.
With Vancleef dead, the rest of the Defias were quick to retreat. Getting off the juggernaut was easy, though instead of backtracking through the mines again, Bella discovered another tunnel in the back of the cove. Following the path up to the tunnel, the passage narrowed and dropped sharply in places but it wasn’t long before they reached the end and were greeted by daylight once more. After what felt like days underground despite it being hours, the group was able to breathe fresh air once more.
The salty sea breeze told the group that they were near the west coast of Westfall. Stella took out her map and used an enhancement spell on it to enlarge the Westfall region. She spotted Moonbrook on the map and after some calculating, determined their current location. “Looks like we came out near the Dagger Hills southwest of Moonbrook. Sentinel Hill is a long walk from here.”
“If you wouldn’t mind darling, would you be so kind as to create a portal to Sentinel Hill?” Bella asked.
“We can’t just be relyin’ on Stella’s magic to get us all over the place, Bella,” Jaqueline argued.
“The sun is beginning to set and traveling at night is never recommended unless absolutely necessary. Also, we lack the necessary supplies to set up camp and as dry as this region is, starting a wildfire would be very easy,” Bella countered. “Once we deliver news of Vancleef’s demise to Stoutmantle, we shall return to Stormwind to rest while we plan our next move.”
With no further arguments, Stella opened a portal to Sentinel Hill for everyone. Once there, Bella presented the guild master’s ring of the Stonemason’s Guild to Stoutmantle which surprised the paladin. “You brought me Vancleef’s signet ring? I would have thought that you would bring more definitive proof like his head or something.”
Bella cringed in disgust, “Of course not, we’re not barbarians!”
Stoutmantle gave a small smile and a nod, “Probably for the best. It pains me to condemn such a man to his death but countless innocents would have suffered if he were allowed to continue. Anyway, The People’s Militia thanks you. We can handle any stragglers who don’t feel like dropping their bandanas. Get some sleep, you’ve earned it.”
“We shall do just that,” Bella then turned to her mage companion. “Stella?”
Stella created a portal to the Mage Quarter in Stormwind. Once everyone was through, Stella closed the portal and traveled to the Trade District to rent a few rooms for a few days while they worked out their next plans.
Bella, Stella and Jaqueline were confused because Sophia continued tagging along despite the matter of the Deadmines being concluded.
“Is there a reason you’re still followin’ us?” Jaqueline asked.
“Hmm?” Sophia hummed. “I’m tagging along because I have a feeling that you three are going to get into a lot of interesting adventures soon and I want to get in on that.”
“If by ‘interesting adventures’ you mean me spending the next few days crafting Jaqueline a new set of armor since her old one is ruined, then by all means,” Bella offered.
“That’s fine, I’m going to check out this letter I found on Vancleef’s person. Looks to be addressed to someone named Baros Alexston.” Sophia looked at Jaqueline and Stella. “What are you two going to do?”
“Ah’m gonna visit the Dwarven District, see if they can’t craft me some better weapons,” Jaqueline said. “Ah’ll see if SI:7 lends their training dummies to the public. Ah’d be a fool ta leave the city without some protection.”
“I think I’ll tag along with you in following the lead on the letter,” Stella offered. “I don’t have much else to do and I can’t complete my mission while Prestor is stonewalling me.”
“She did say that she would help you gain an audience with the regent, did she not?” Bella asked.
“She said she would be able to get me in to see him at an earlier date but she didn’t say that she would do it. I highly doubt that she will though, especially if she really is manipulating the regent.”
“So what will ya do?” Jaqueline asked. “If ya can’t prove she’s guilty she will keep you away from Bolvar until you give up. With King Varian missin’, you can’t override her authority neither.”
“I don’t know, maybe the letter might lead me in the right direction and I don’t have any other leads to follow right now.”
“Very well, good luck to you both,” Bella bid. “If you need my help for something, don’t hesitate to ask.”
The quartet spent the next few days in Stormwind. While Bella spent many hours working the metals she collected into Jaqueline’s new armor, the warrior paid a dwarven blacksmith to forge her a new pair of swords.
During this time, Sophia and Stella asked around the city for the whereabouts of Baros Alexston. Thankfully the man was in a respectable profession as a city architect so the citizens were able to point them in the right direction.
Alexston’s business was located in the Cathedral Square near where the Church of the Holy Light was located. It wasn’t hard to find the man’s business after that and they soon found themselves in his office.
“Yes? Is there something I can help you with?” Baros Alexston asked.
Sophia presented the sealed letter to the architect. “This was found on Edwin Vancleef’s body.”
“Edwin Vancleef, you say?” Alexston repeated. “I would as much expect a letter from my dead grandmother.” He sighed. “So you killed him then?” He paused for a moment. “Very well, let’s see what he finds the need to write to me about after all these years.” He broke the seal on the letter and opened it to read it. After a couple of minutes he placed the letter on his desk and shook his head in disappointment. “Edwin…I see the years haven’t changed you a bit, an idealist as ever, and a romantic. He didn’t care who he hurt. Revenge had consumed him, not that I could blame him.
“Me and Edwin used to be part of the Stonemason’s guild. Our main project was rebuilding Stormwind after the First War. When we finished, the nobles swindled us and offered the senior members governmental jobs instead. Vancleef refused out of loyalty to the guild and led a riot in the streets, swearing revenge.
“If anyone knows about Vancleef’s plans, it would be Bazil Thredd and he’s locked up in the Stockade right now. Before you go visiting him though, perhaps you might be able to help me with something. Every now and then I visited Thredd in the Stockade. He told me about a mysterious visitor who went by Maelik. I don’t know much about him and neither did Thredd, but perhaps Master Mathias Shaw of SI:7 might know.”
Alexston wrote a letter and a description of the visitor for the duo to take to Shaw at the SI:7 headquarters in Old Town. They found the spymaster on the second floor of the headquarters. They handed the letter to Shaw to look at before he raised an eyebrow at them.
“I do know who this man is, but his name is not Maelik,” Shaw said. “Nowadays he goes by Marzon but I doubt that's his true name either. Regardless, he’s an assassin and he’s under the employ of Lord Gregor Lescovar. He’s shady even by the corrupt standards of the nobility.”
“Baros Alexston said he got this information from Bazil Thredd,” Stella said.
Shaw shook his head, “Even if Thredd were to testify, Lescovar is a noble and is well connected. He’s effectively above the law.”
“So what if Lescovar was killed by Marzon while someone eliminated Marzon?” Sophia offered hypothetically.
“As long as nobody suspects that such an attack was staged, the killer of the assassin would be seen as a hero.”
“Would that hero be granted an audience with the regent?” Stella asked.
“I’m afraid that would be up to Lady Prestor. Even if such a scenario happened, Lady Prestor could end up being the one to reward the hero. And then it would be a token reward at best.” He paused and narrowed his eyes at the two. “Now answer me this, why do you want to see Bolvar?”
“Because I’m on assignment from Dalaran to inspect him for signs of magical mental manipulation,” Stella explained. “Unfortunately, Lady Prestor is being uncooperative with me in that matter.”
“In that case, allow me to help you skip the legal proceedings and inform you that he is being controlled by Lady Prestor. Though even knowing this we can’t take action against her because she has Crown Prince Anduin hostage. She has her own agents ready to assassinate him if she detects the slightest hint of treachery and she’s very paranoid.”
“So what can we do?”
“There’s not much we can do unless we find out where King Varian is. He attended a summit at Theramore but disappeared on the way. The only one who might know what happened might be Bazil Thredd.”
“Looks like we need to pump Thredd for information if we want to get anywhere with this investigation,” Stella thought out loud.
“So we have something of a plan on that end. As for the Lescovar problem, I can make it look like they turned on each other and make sure both of them die together,” Sophia offered.
“If you can do that, I’ll be very impressed. I’ll even owe you for saving me the resources,” Shaw said.
“Put in a good word for me with King Varian if he returns and I’ll call us square.”
“Heh, looking for the king’s favor huh? So who are you anyway?”
“Let me save you the trouble of research and tell you that you won’t find my name on any records in the royal archives. My name is Sophia Craft and I am a very skilled assassin.” She paused for a moment and returned to the previous subject. “So when are the two expected to meet?”
“One of my agents found out that they will be meeting in the keep’s courtyard in a few days. That will be your window.”
Sophia nodded and left the headquarters with Stella following. With nothing else to do but wait, they decided to check out what goods and services Stormwind had to offer.
The next few days were spent exploring Stormwind City. Bella looked through the various clothing stores that involved either fabric clothing, leather armor, scale armor or plate armor, looking for inspiration, all the while working on forging Jaqueline’s new armor.
The warrior in question paid a significant amount of gold coins to commission a dwarven blacksmith to forge her a pair of mithril longswords. Bella insisted that Jaqueline used the mithril bars from her bank’s safety deposit box to have the weapons crafted to reduce the cost. During the time that the swords were being forged, Jaqueline practiced her technique on the training dummies near the SI:7 headquarters using the swords she stole from the Defias.
Stella and Sophia explored the Mage Quarter checking out the apothecary and other stores that sold magical wares. Stella figured that if she was going to be putting herself in harm’s way for a while, she might as well make sure the enchantments on her robes and staff hadn’t worn off. She also made sure to learn some enchanting techniques for her…friends? She wasn’t sure how they thought of her. Still, it didn’t hurt to make sure that her allies had the best chances of survival by making sure their items were enchanted.
Once the time of the forewarned meeting had come, Sophia snuck her way into Stormwind Keep again under the cover of night and waited in the garden near the throne room where Katrana Prestor stood as smug as ever.
Sophia waited two hours invisible to everyone thanks to her Shadow Walk ability before an elderly-looking man in black and light red robes exited the library. He ordered the guards in the area to leave him while he “meditated”. Once the guards were out of sight, an assassin in black leather crept out of a bush near the man’s position. The elder addressed the assassin, his hands behind his back. “There you are. What news from Westfall?” Lescovar asked.
“The plan has gone awry, we discovered Vancleef’s body atop the juggernaut. Some adventurers invaded the Deadmines and assassinated him along with some of his top lieutenants.” Marzon informed.
“I see, then that means that fool in the Stockade is no longer of any use to us. I will order his execution once I get back to my manor. We’ll have to find some other idealistic fool to carry on with the plan. Only contact me again when you’ve found someone we can manipulate.”
“Very well, I will return to Westfall and wait for further developments.” Marzon turned to leave.
“Very good, and one more thing,” Lescovar said. Marzon turned to the noble again just in time to feel a sharp pain in his gut. He looked down to find the noble had stabbed him with a dagger. The assassin’s instincts kicked in and immediately realized that his benefactor had betrayed him. He quickly unsheathed his swords and ran the noble through with them. Lescovar coughed up blood and quickly collapsed but not before using the last of his strength to widen the wound with his dagger. The assassin coughed up blood which splattered all over his black bandana.
With the noble dead, Marzon tried to make his escape but with his gaping wound he was losing blood too fast. By the time the guards returned, they saw the escaping rogue and made the assumption that the assassin had killed the noble. Marzon lacked the strength to fight back and was helpless before the onslaught of the guards.
“Inform Highlord Bolvar of what transpired!” one guard ordered.
Sophia stood atop the roof surrounding the garden with a satisfied look on her face. “That was a fun puppet show. All it really took was controlling the old man’s mind into attacking his associate and watching the fireworks.”
With the deed done, Sophia returned to the inn.
The next morning, Bella was handing Jaqueline her new armor. It was mostly green since it was made of thorium, a strong metal that was found in the more dangerous regions of Azeroth. The armor was bordered with gold with red apples painted on the shoulders, gauntlets, boots, helm and the belt.
“I figured that as a Pomerton, you would like armor that would symbolize your place in such a family,” Bella explained.
Jaqueline was taken aback as she saw the armor. She ended up inhaling and smelled apples that reminded her of home. “You made it smell like apples too?” Jaqueline asked.
Bella nodded, “The smell is only temporary, I’m afraid. I sprayed the scent on it to ease you into this new suit so you would have an easier time accepting to wear it.”
Jaqueline rubbed the back of her neck and chuckled awkwardly, “Wow Bella, you didn’t have ta go through all that fer me. Ah woulda worn it with or without the scent.” Jaqueline went into a private room to change into her new armor. She came out fifteen minutes later with the armor on and her new mithril swords sheathed.
Bella then handed Jaqueline one last item. It was a fairly large round shield with matching gold border and green center with three red apples in the center.
“Shucks Bella, where’d you get the idea to design this thing?” Jaqueline asked.
“It just came to me for some odd reason,” Bella replied.
Stella then approached the door out of the room, failing to hide her impatience. “Are you two finished? We need to head to the Stockade and get some information out of Bazil Thredd.”
The four nodded in affirmation then exited from the inn in the Trade District and headed west to the canals and across a bridge where they followed the canal north to a large tower, the depths of which was where the Stormwind prison known as the Stockade was located. The four could tell something was wrong as they approached, there were a lot more guards than usual guarding the Stockade and many of them were in a combat stance facing the inside of the prison.
The group approached the first set of guards who blocked their way. The guards wouldn’t move so Bella approached first. “Greetings soldiers of Stormwind, may I ask what is going on?”
“There’s been an incident in the Stockade ma’am, we can’t allow civilians inside. Unless you want to help deal with a bunch of escaped Defias prisoners, I suggest you take your leave.”
It was then Stella’s turn to speak with the guards as she approached. “I’m special agent Stellaglim of the Kirin Tor. I need to interrogate one of your prisoners, one named Bazil Thredd. I believe he may have info that will help me with my investigation.”
The guards looked at the mage incredulously, “You’ve gotta be joking ma’am, Thredd’s the one leading this prison riot! I’ll get the warden.” He then yelled into the building, “Warden sir, we have a Kirin Tor investigator here who needs to speak to our main problem!”
Not even a minute passed before an angry looking man exited the tower and gave a disapproving look at the group before he sighed. “As if I didn’t have enough problems, now I have to entertain someone from Dalaran and her escort,” he grumbled. Jaqueline was about to say something but a touch on the shoulder from Bella along with a shake of her head discouraged that. “I’m Warden Thelwater, warden of the Stockade. You lot look tough so if you help us quell the riot, I can make sure your audience with Thredd goes undisturbed. Bring me his head when you’re done.”
“His head!?” Bella gasped. “You can’t be serious! What do you take us for? Orcs? We’re adventurers, not barbarians!”
“Alright, alright, look, just bring me something from his person to prove that he’s dead, okay?” The group nodded in acceptance of the terms before Thelwater ordered his guards to let them through.
The inside of the tower had a few crates of supplies and weapon and armor racks strewn around the area with wooden spikes narrowing passage to a wide staircase leading into the basement where the prison was located. The guards kept a vigilant eye on the staircase to keep any prisoners contained below. Four stone pillars acted as supports to keep the floor from collapsing. At Thelwater’s command, the guards parted to let the group through so they could descend down the staircase and into the prison.
The prison was dank and run down. Cobwebs ran along the ceiling to show that the Stockade was not properly maintained. The sound of cell doors opening on squeaky hinges could be heard in the distance.
Straight ahead were a number of humans wearing leather pants and white shirts carrying improvised prison shanks, wooden planks with a nail in it and large wooden mallets.
The Defias were more densely populated in the prison than they were in the Deadmines which meant that they would be facing numerous thugs at a time. Thankfully with Jaqueline’s new armor and weapons, she was better equipped to handle the crude weapons of the prison escapees. Her hard shield shattered shanks and turned the makeshift nail bats to splinters and nails. Stella set the vulnerable Defias on fire while freezing others before shattering them with icicles. With the narrow corridor they were walking through, Bella was content to stay behind Jaqueline and act as healing support.
At the end of the main corridor stood a room that contained two prisoners and an ashen-skinned orc with red markings and wearing a harness, loincloth and a leather shoulder armor on his right shoulder. He also wielded a pair of shortswords.
“Targorr the Dread, executioner of the Blackrock Clan of orcs who operate in Redridge Mountains, Burning Steppes and are headquartered in Blackrock Spire inside Blackrock Mountain,” Thanatas explained through the link.
“I would have thought the Alliance would have this guy killed on sight, not left to rot in a prison,” Sophia guessed.
“Blame Prestor for waylaying the bureaucracy. Seems she wants to keep the orc alive for some reason. Seems suspicious, huh?” Thanatas teased.
“Instead of teasing me about mysteries you already know the answer to, how about doing something useful like finding out where Crystal Silicon is. If three of her allies are here on some mission, she can’t be far away.”
“I have a pretty good idea where she would be if she followed the pattern of her cohorts. Just need to sneak away from the warchief and his advisor so I can find a portal to the Undercity.”
Jaqueline charged in to face Targorr and his Defias allies. While all of their attention was on the warrior, Sophia snuck in and stabbed both thugs in the back to leave the orc alone with the group. Targorr’s attacks were fast and fierce and he tried slashing at Jaqueline from many angles but the warrior’s shield blocked most of the strikes while she blocked others with one of her swords. Stella bombarded the orc with waves of arcane bolts which pushed him back as he lacked resistance to magical attacks, let alone a flying hammer of light from Bella aimed at his head.
Targorr tried attacking Stella but Jaqueline clanged her shield and sword together near his head which dazed and unbalanced the orc, leaving him vulnerable to a sword through the chest, a sword of light from below and a bombardment of fire, frost and arcane magic for good measure.
Targorr coughed blood as he fell to his hands and knees and soon fell to the floor, unmoving.
“Any idea why Stormwind captured this guy in the first place?” Sophia asked.
“From what I heard, he was captured by the Stormwind army and would have been executed on the spot had Lady Prestor not intervened,” Bella said.
“Sounds ta me like she’s protectin’ the orcs, question is why?” Jaqueline added.
Deciding to continue the conversation later, the four left the room and proceeded into the western cell block, dealing with more of the same Defias prisoners like before. They took care to make sure each cell was cleared, thankful the corridor only had four cells.
They soon reached the end of the cell block and cleared out three more rooms. All but one of them contained more Defias where the exception held a man with black hair and wore a dull red vest and green pants and a black shirt.
“It’s a shame that you have to kill this guy,” Thanatas said. “His name is Dextren Ward and he’s here because he got caught selling corpses to a necromancer in Duskwood. I bet he charged a fair price too. Oh well…”
Like before, Sophia made sure any of Dextren’s Defias guards were dealt with while she left her friends to deal with the corpse seller. Dextren’s hits were slightly heavy with him wielding a halberd.
As he tried fighting through Jaqueline’s defenses, Dextren tried throwing them off balance by unleashing a terrifying shout which stunned the trio momentarily. He then tried dealing a grievous blow to the warrior but Sophia, who was unaffected by the shout, kicked the man into a wall. The time it took Dextren to recover was enough for the other three to resume their attacks.
Dextren soon found himself overwhelmed by the spells and blade of the warrior, mage and paladin. Jaqueline eventually broke his guard and stabbed the corpse seller in the chest, leaving him to bleed out on the prison floor.
With the west block secured, the group returned to the central corridor and prepared to engage the east block where Bazil Thredd was most likely to be. As they prepared, a number of prison guards moved in and secured the central and west blocks of the prison.
“At least once this is over, I’ll have plenty of room for more prisoners…after I get some funding to get these cells repaired,” Thelwater said as he approached, bitterly grumbling about the last part.
The group left the guards to their procedures and proceeded into the east block, dealing with more Defias prisoners. Among them was a dark iron dwarf, a type of dwarf with ashen skin and burning red eyes. The dwarf proved to be a hassle to kill, not because of his attacks but the fact that he was skilled in protecting himself with a shield. Defeating the dwarf was more taxing to the group’s stamina because of his shield’s durability. Once the trio surrounded him on three sides, he didn’t last much longer after that.
The quartet soon reached the end of the east block and the end of their trek through the prison. Standing in the center of the area was an ogre with two heads. One head had two eyes and a horn while the other had one eye and a broken horn. The ogre only wore a blue loincloth and blue bracers with blue markings on his arms. In his right arm was a bloody cleaver.
“Me gonna fry you and cut you up!” the ogre cried before electricity began dancing along his fingers. Before he could unleash a bolt, however, Stella struck the ogre with a Counterspell to interrupt his cast. He then roared in fury before he called out, “Don’t just stand dere puny humies, kill dem!”
The Defias in the room barely moved two steps before Sophia decapitated them with her blades.
Meanwhile, the others dealt with the ogre. He succeeded in throwing a bolt of lightning at Jaqueline which was blocked by her shield. Soon he found himself surrounded by the three as they began to assault him with magic. Seeing that Stella was the only one without a shield, he tried to cleave her with his cleaver only for Bella to throw her shield which bounced off both of the ogre’s heads, completely dazing him. Jaqueline moved between him and Stella and bashed the head with two eyes with her shield while the other head was blasted by a Frostbolt.
The ogre couldn’t figure out who the bigger threat was and that led to hesitation which was all Jaqueline needed to reduce the head count on the two-headed ogre’s shoulders to zero.
Once the ogre fell, a Defias in black leather armor and red leather pants entered the room with his swords sheathed. His hands were in the air. “Alright, I surrender. I know I’m not walking out of here alive, especially with Thelwater nearby.”
Jaqueline and Bella kept their weapons trained on the Defias who they figured was Bazil Thredd. Stella was the one to approach him. “I want you to tell me what you know about Lady Katrana Prestor,” she demanded.
“Sure, and if this information can lead to that bitch’s death, it’ll be worth dying for. I kept track of Vancleef’s dealings while he was off playing revolutionary. Prestor had been a secret benefactor behind the Defias Brotherhood. She hired us to intercept King Wrynn’s vessel on the way to Theramore. Not sure what she was planning to do to the king, but whatever it was got interrupted when a bunch of naga came in and attacked the boys and forced Katrana to flee somewhere. One of my boys reported that the king escaped into the sea to flee from the naga. Don’t know what happened to him after that.”
“You call her a benefactor, does this mean that she knew about the orc juggernaut Vancleef was building?”
“If you knew that then you are probably one of the people who killed him,” Thredd sighed. “I knew we were mere puppets dancing to Prestor’s tune but Vancleef was too focused on revenge to see that. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was behind every decision the Defias made.”
“If you have any kind of lead for us to follow…anything…please tell us so we can finally bring her to justice.”
“Well, this is a long shot but you might want to take your investigation into the Burning Steppes, north of Redridge. Prestor seems suspiciously adamant about not allowing the army to engage the Blackrock Clan or the Dark Iron Clan. Seems to me like she’s protecting Blackrock Mountain from any assaults from Stormwind. I have no idea why but that’s for you to find out. As for me…” Thredd drew both of his swords but held them in a suspiciously underhanded position with the blades facing down. Bella and Jaqueline tensed as they prepared for a fight while Sophia closed her eyes in sadness, knowing what he was about to do.
“I go out on my own terms!” He yelled as he ran his swords through his stomach, coughing up blood and collapsing on the floor. The specter of death claimed him in seconds with his body in a pool of his own blood.
Thelwater entered the room and saw the body of Bazil Thredd. He sighed and shook his head. “You put me through a lot of trouble only for you to go out like this.” He punched a wall with his iron-gloved hand. “Dammit!” The warden screamed in frustration as this was not the satisfying ending that he wanted after all the good men who gave their lives to stop the riot. His eyes softened slightly but still gave a slight glare to the group out of misdirected anger. “You four got your information, now get out of my prison!”
The group didn’t need to be told twice and quietly left the Stockade from where they entered from. That night was going to be a restless one. It was stunning how one so evil and manipulative could lead Stormwind around like a dog on a collar and get away with it. The one hope they now had of putting a stop to the evil witch was to follow the lead Thredd gave them.
With the Blackrock army holding Burning Steppes and encroaching on Redridge, the group was going to have a tough time making their way to Blackrock Mountain.
However, that was for tomorrow and they needed their rest for the harsh and perilous journey they would soon take.