Despite assurances from Marshal Windsor that he would be fine, Bella, Jaqueline, and Stella couldn’t help but feel some worry for the soldier as he intended on exploring the rest of the detention block of Shadowforge City by himself. Sophia didn’t care either way, if he was as good as he claimed then he would have her respect, if not, it didn’t really matter as long as she got the intel from the Dark Iron generals.
With all but two paths explored in the central area of the detention block, the group decided to pick one of the remaining paths to check out.
As they neared one of the paths, they heard a deep booming voice roaring not far ahead, “Is that all you have to send at me Grimstone!?”
“Somethin’s going on ahead!” Jaqueline said.
The group proceeded down the path and dealt with a few dark iron patrols before they spotted a closed portcullis. Peering through, they spotted a human in the center with dark brown hair tied into a ponytail. He wore scarlet plate armor on his arms, legs and one shoulder with brown leather padding. In his hands were a pair of curved longswords with spiked handguards. The large buckle on his belt had the relief of a lion’s face on it. The man’s face and body sported a number of scars, most likely mementos of past battles.
It took a few moments to recognize him. Jaqueline and Bella remembered seeing him around Stormwind, Stella recognized him from the Kirin Tor reports on the leaders of the Alliance while Sophia recognized him from the three thousand page report on the key individuals of Azeroth that Thanatas wrote for the family. Even Sophia’s mind felt overloaded from reading that report that she wouldn’t have been surprised if her head had expanded in some evolutionary reflex.
“By the Light, it’s King Varian Wrynn!” Bella exclaimed.
“Sure looks like him,” Jaqueline agreed. “But what’s he doin’ here?”
“We need to find a way to get to him, fast,” Stella said. “Looks like he’s being forced to face wave after wave of monsters. There’s no telling when his stamina is going to give out on him.”
“That’s the Ring of Law that the Dark Irons use to carry out their punishments of those who committed any misdeeds against the clan. There are no records of those who survived this arena since they often call it a death sentence,” Thanatas informed. “Also, until the crowd gets their fill of blood sport, they will be pretty riled up so until then going into the stands would mean fighting the crowd as well. Interfering with this match would probably be a good idea since the stands offer the only route to one of your objectives since the other way requires having that key you’re looking for.”
“Which objective are you talking about?” Sophia asked. The undead didn’t respond, meaning she closed the link again. “I hate when she does that…”
With the king in danger, Sophia decided that now was the time to reveal one of her secrets to the others. Channeling her infested heritage, Sophia enhanced the strength and durability of her arms and hands to inhuman levels while avoiding any significant external changes and punched hard on the portcullis. One punch left a huge dent, two knocked it loose from the opening and three sent it flying into the giant crystalline spider that was skittering toward Varian.
The three were stunned by the display of inhuman strength. They couldn’t help but wonder just who the mysterious rogue in blue really was. It was Bella who managed to get any words out. “Where did you get such strength?”
“I have a lot of secrets, Bella,” Sophia deflected. “I may tell you one day, but right now the king needs help.”
The gladiator jumped back in surprise so he had some time to think about what just happened. In the heat of his endless battles, a flying gate was the last thing he expected. He turned his head toward where the portcullis came from and saw four figures enter the arena. Unsure whether they were friend or foe, he took up a stance in preparation to fighting more enemies. Hearing the outraged cries from the crowd made him second guess that thought so he decided to give them a chance to explain themselves. “Who are you?” he demanded.
“Greetings, Your Majesty,” Sophia said. “As much fun as you appear to be having, we have things to do and we need to take our turn here so we figured that we would share this time slot.”
Just then, a dark iron dwarf in dark gray and white robes appeared at the edge of the arena. “What is the meaning of this!? Intruders dare interfere with this human’s death sentence?” It was then that he pressed a hidden button on the arena wall. “In that case, ye can all die together!”
All but one portcullis in the arena suddenly opened. A growing rumbling was heard soon after that. As it became louder, the group noticed a menagerie of creatures, composed of giant bulky lizards that shot lightning, scorpions, worms, spiders, beetles and large bats, emerged from the cells and flooded into the arena along with tougher-looking prisoners such as a bulky-looking troll, a spider-like creature that seems as if its forelegs were actual arms, a worgen, an ogre, another giant spider and a Blackrock orc. They figured that they were all the majority of creatures and violent prisoners they captured over the years.
Stella decided to unleash a cloud of green mist toward the creatures which put them to sleep. Sophia moved in and slaughtered each creature one by one with her blades, using a technique that bisected large groups at a time with a single slice and a razor-sharp shockwave.
Grimstone appeared in the stands screaming for the guards as the last portcullis in the arena opened and allowed a large number of dark iron guards and a few fire elementals to file into the arena. Bella, Jaqueline and Varian lined up side by side with their weapons ready. Bella switched to a more protective stance to take enemy aggression while Jaqueline and Varian took on more aggressive stances with a sword in each hand.
Bella ran in and sanctified the ground around her, causing the Light to burn the skin of the dwarves who endured the burn to attack the paladin. Jaqueline and Varian charged forward and cut through the first line of guards with their blades. Both were skilled fighters in their own right and while Varian’s weapon slashes were heavier than Jaqueline’s, the female overpowered her enemies with strong kicks which unbalanced them and allowed her to capitalize on that to cut down many dwarves.
Everyone in the stands were stunned by the display. Sophia and Stella easily dispatched the monsters and violent prisoners by themselves while between the paladin and two warriors, the guards were practically walking into a meat grinder with how efficiently they were slaying the guards. Their strikes damaged and shattered the elementals’ bracers, destabilizing and banishing them back to the Firelands from whence they came.
It wasn’t long before the only living people left in the arena were Varian and the four invaders. High Justice Grimstone didn’t like what he was seeing but since he had nothing left to send at them, he made a hasty retreat by teleporting away in a fiery flash.
When no more guards entered the arena, the group proceeded up the ramp that the guards came down from and entered a rest area with chairs and tables with mugs of beer that would sadly go to waste. Large kegs of ale were lined against the back wall. The place was now completely empty thanks to their prior actions. Feeling safe for the time being, the five decided to explain things to Varian so they each took a seat in one of the numerous chairs in the area.
Varian took a deep breath to calm his nerves which took a couple of minutes due to his life as a gladiator leaving him on edge. “First, allow me to thank you for getting me out of that situation. Even I was uncertain that I would get out of that without my former teammates by my side.” Another breath, “But tell me, why are you four here? I wasn’t sure Stormwind had sent any parties to come rescue me.”
“Ah hate to break it to ya, Yer Majesty, but we had no idea you were here,” Jaqueline answered. “All we knew was that ya went missin’ and nobody knew yer whereabouts.”
“I am afraid she is right, Your Majesty,” Bella said. “We actually came here originally to find Marshal Windsor and we found him. He tasked us with finding his notes on the Blackrock menace and a pair of tablets which are in the hands of a pair of Dark Iron generals in the west garrison.”
“Any idea what these notes entail?” Varian asked. “If they were only about the orcs then that wouldn’t be any significant loss. There would have to be something more important on them.”
“Windsor claims that they contain proof of Lady Katrana Prestor’s treachery against Stormwind,” Stella said.
“So that’s what’s going on…” Varian had a thoughtful expression on his face. “I already know that Prestor isn’t who she claims to be. I briefly saw her true form.” His thoughtful expression then turned to great concern as a growing fury burned inside him. “How is my son? Has she harmed him?”
“He seemed to be alright for the time being, though Bolvar is with him, he is most likely under her control through a spell. Prince Anduin may likely be aware that he is being used as a hostage.”
“I need to go back to Stormwind to put an end to this madness,” Varian declared.
Before the king got up from his chair, Sophia placed a hand on his shoulder. “With all due respect, Your Majesty, that would be a bad idea. If Prestor finds out that you’re in the city, she will keep Prince Anduin close and leave him in harm’s way when you confront her. I have a plan to confront her on our terms. If you can be patient with us, we can keep Anduin from being harmed.”
Varian was silent for a few moments as he considered Sophia’s proposal. “Are you certain that Anduin won’t be harmed?”
A confident smirk graced the templar’s face, even if nobody could see it through her mask. “Prestor is arrogant when she believes that her plans are still on track, typical of her kind. With you and Marshal Windsor, I believe that this plan will work.”
“Very well, what would you ask of me?”
“We have a few things to do in this city before we execute the plan. We need to go into the west garrison to get Windsor’s notes. We also need to find a way to get into the west garrison. After that, we need to pay a visit to Emperor Thaurissan since he appears to have captured Princess Moira Bronzebeard and we need to rescue her. We would appreciate the help.”
“I see, I had no idea that a member of the royal family of one of our closest allies was being held hostage here. We may be her only chance of rescue. Let’s move out!” Everyone nodded in agreement to Varian’s declaration and rose from their chairs.
The group explored the garrison for any clues on how to connect the east and west garrison. They soon came across a giant mechanism that looked like a massive gear with an anvil emblem on it. The gear appeared to be held in place by a large locking mechanism in the form of a raised stone bar. They examined the locking mechanism and saw what appeared to be a small uniquely-shaped keyhole.
“Ah think this is where we use that key that Franclorn Forgewright fella talked about,” Jaqueline guessed.
“I think you’re right,” Stella agreed. Now was the matter of finding out where the architect who was wielding a legendary hammer was along with the statue that Jaqueline described.
Stella found a rolled up map of the city on one of the tables. She unrolled it and examined it. She located the detention block and the ring of law. Tracing her finger on the parchment from where the arena was, she figured that they were in the east garrison. It wasn’t hard to figure that the door next to the one they came in from led to the arena stands. She traced her finger across the arena again and noticed a doorway on the other side. From there, a path to the right led to a dead end, which might be where the shrine that Jaqueline mentioned was located.
The left path from the arena stands appeared to lead through a dormitory into the center of the city where the city bank was located. That didn’t interest her. Beyond that was a crafting hall where she suspected the dark iron dwarves chiseled the constructs that they were famous for building.
She wasn’t sure where to find Fineous Darkvire, the architect with the hammer they were looking for, but she figured that the crafting hall would be a good place to look.
With a new lead, Stella led the group into the arena stands which had cleared out since the earlier battle. She led them around the ring to the door on the far side of the arena.
From that point, the battles resumed. Once again, they had to deal with dark iron guards, hounds, cultists and fire elementals. Between the warriors’ brutal attacks, Bella’s skills with the Light and Stella’s magic, the enemies were easily brought down. They cleared the way to the shrine that Forgewright’s ghost mentioned and dealt with a tauren pyromancer who was a little tougher than the average cultist, but not that much.
Stella then led the group toward the dormitory which was past a long stone bridge guarded by four fire elementals, two on each end. Stella blasted one pair with frost magic which banished them back to their realm.
As the group reached the middle of the bridge, a pair of dark iron guards thought they could ambush them from both ends of the bridge where they appeared via a fiery teleport spell. Sophia appeared behind one guard and roundhouse kicked him in the head and over the edge of the bridge while Stella put the other to sleep and made him sleepwalk over the edge. She then dealt with the second pair of fire elementals and everyone moved forward.
Once they entered the dormitory, they had to deal with more guards who appeared as if they were on break as well as a few fire elementals. The hounds in the building were of a stronger, more ferocious breed which made overpowering them a little more difficult for the warriors. There also appeared to be dwarves in civilian clothing, but they still tried to cast fireballs or shoot at the group with their guns so they were still fair game. The close quarters fighting, however, gave Bella a small advantage in that she could sanctify a large part of the stone floor and have the Light burn the ashen flesh of most of the enemies in the building. Stella unleashed an icy bombardment to deal with the fire elementals.
Once the dormitory was cleared out, the group explored the small building to find it a typical dwelling for any dwarf. There were a few large kegs of ale by one wall, a few tables loaded with bottles of varying sizes and a couple of murals on the wall: one being a dwarf mining and the other a fire elemental. A couple of bookshelves decorated one wall. In a separate room were a few gun racks filled with dwarven blunderbusses. A couple of other rooms were bedrooms with some dwarf’s personal effects.
After going down a small staircase, the group exited out the back of the building and entered what appeared to be a circular area that appeared to serve as the center of the city. The area was split into two halves with what appeared to be a couple of lowered bridges that served to connect the two halves. However, with no obvious way of raising the bridges, they would have to find another way to get to the other side at some point. Below where they were was a platform that held a giant black anvil that was being guarded by a rather large fire elemental.
The half of the center they were walking into had a few groups of dwarves and cultists who were discussing something only to be interrupted by the intruders. The dwarven soldiers, cultists and civilians who the group suspected had been converted into cultists attacked the group in vain. Between Varian’s and Jaqueline’s skills, Stella’s magic, Bella’s Light attacks and Sophia making sure the enemy doesn’t try anything sneaky, the enemies were becoming less of a challenge to the group. Another group came out of an open building but were dealt with all the same.
They moved forward, taking a brief glance into the open building to find that it appeared to be a bank. This didn’t interest them so they moved toward the other side of the city center. Where another open doorway was.
They soon entered another roughly carved passage. The first thing they saw were a few humanoid stone constructs that appeared inanimate. The Dark Irons were famous for their sorcery and stone constructs. This was probably the place where the constructs were crafted. Up ahead, they spotted a few groups of dwarven craftsmen who were being protected by a few active constructs.
“I’m going to scout ahead, wait here,” Sophia ordered.
Sophia concealed herself with her Shadow Walk ability to scout ahead. The cavern was on a downward slope that looped back to the central area, most likely toward the anvil platform and the large fire elemental. One of the constructs was patrolling up and down the cavern.
Sophia’s attention then fixed on one particular dwarf with black hair and wearing a fancy black suit and a monocle. He was also carrying what appeared to be a well crafted ornate white stone hammer. A peek into his mind revealed the dwarf to be Fineous Darkvire, which meant that the hammer he was carrying was Ironfel.
On a whim, she decided to peek further into the dwarf’s mind to see what designs ran through his mind. It didn’t take long for her to discover that the architect was a complete fraud who presented Franclorn Forgewright’s ideas as his own to the emperor. Even worse was that he wasn’t the one who had the idea to take credit for the true architect’s ideas but rather his daughter was the one who stole the plans. He was covering for her.
Since she needed a place to lure the “architect”, she proceeded into the lower part of the central area. She then threw stealth out the window and revealed herself to the fire elementals guarding the area. With nobody of consequence watching her, Sophia changed her weapons to her energy blades and slashed through the bracers of the elementals, banishing them. She then turned her attention to the large elemental near the black anvil.
She decided to quickly and quietly deal with the elemental. The group was still just outside the city center and any noise might send them back and look below.
The elemental wouldn’t go down quietly though as he unleashed fire all over the platform and forced the templar to back away. “You face one of the greatest servants of Ragnaros, insect! I am Lord Incendius!”
Of course, as he declared that, one of his bracers was sliced in half. The elemental looked at his arm in shock then back at the templar in rage. Only, she wasn’t where she was. Incendius looked around the platform for his prey but failed to locate her before she sliced off his other bracer, banishing him back to the elemental plane of fire.
“Why are so many enemies so overconfident and blinded by their arrogance?” Sophia muttered to herself. With a shrug, she put her plan into action.
She returned to the cavern and spotted her target approaching her end of the cavern. She placed a psychic compulsion on the false architect to come to the anvil platform. The dwarf couldn’t resist the compulsion and obeyed it. By the time the compulsion wore off he was on the platform with the bunny templar before him. “What’s this then? Yer not taking me without a fight!”
“Actually, I’m here to relieve you of your hammer,” Sophia said, a false smile of innocence gracing her face. “We can resolve this peacefully or I can get underhanded.”
“You’ll have to pry it from me cold dead hands,” Fineous said coldly.
“Really? Surely you wouldn’t want your family name to be completely sullied upon your passing, would you?”
The dwarf raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What’re ya talking about?”
“I know your daughter is the one who stole the plans of Franclorn Forgewright and planned to steal his credit.”
Fineous’ eyes widened and he took a step back from the templar. “I-I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re planning to sully my daughter’s good name?”
“All it would take is an investigation into the matter. It shouldn’t be too hard to compare the style of your ‘plans’ to the stylings of Forgewright to make the emperor suspect plagiarism. If he finds out, I’d say your family name will be tarnished for many generations to come.”
Fineous thought desperately for a way out of the situation. He thought about killing the person before him. However, Sophia read that thought and leapt all the way up to the upper level of the city which was about a thirty foot jump. He watched her perform the stunt with ease. There was no way he was going to be able to shut her up without giving in to her demands.
Signing in resignation, Fineous tossed the hammer to the base of the anvil where the templar quickly jumped down and picked it up. Her deviously innocent smile never left her face. “There, ye got what ye wanted. Just don’t tell His Majesty.”
Sophia casually walked past the architect while twirling the hammer in her fingers. Before she went back into the cavern, she paused and turned her head to glance back at the dwarf. “I suggest you resign from that position before someone finds out the truth for themselves. Preserve what little dignity you have and all that.” With that, she blended into the shadows to quietly return to her allies.
Darkvire fell to his knees, stunned in disbelief that someone found out about his daughter’s scheme. He could only pray that his blackmailer was merciful.
Sophia returned to the group with the hammer in hand. She casually walked past the others and headed back in the direction they came from.
“Wait, what’s that hammer you got there?” Jaqueline asked.
“It’s Ironfel, the architect was so nice to give it to me so I spared his life,” Sophia answered.
Stella suspected that there was a lot that she was leaving out, but she didn’t care enough for the Dark Iron dwarves to really care how she got the hammer so she let the matter lie.
The group backtracked through the dormitory, across the bridge and returned to the shrine that the ghost of Forgewright mentioned. Sophia inserted the handle of the hammer into a slot in the statue’s closed hand. Once the hammer was in place, the statue glowed for a moment and the hammer was transmuted into the same material as the statue. At the base of the statue a small compartment opened and within that compartment was a black key. Sophia collected the key and the group backtracked some more to the east garrison. There, they returned to the lock holding a large gear in place.
Sophia inserted the key into the lock and turned it. As she removed the key, the stone block holding the gear began to shift and grind a little against the metal gear before it fell onto the base, releasing the gear.
As the gear spun, the rattling of chains was heard. Looking through the window, the group observed a massive pair of doors closing.
Once the gear stopped spinning, the gate was completely closed. With hope that the action did what they wanted it to do, they proceeded into a hallway in the garrison which led to a small metal tunnel.
Upon reaching the other end of the tunnel, they emerged into another narrow corridor where they encountered better armored dwarves and two larger fire elementals. The elementals were not as large as Lord Incendius, but were still more powerful than the usual ones. Some dwarves wore red chainmail armor and carried battle axes and blunderbusses. They preferred to shoot from a distance if they could. Others wore gray armor and carried stone warhammers. Making the new soldiers more irritating was the fact that the gray-armored ones were paladins as they used the power of the Light to protect their allies.
The paladins charged their hammers with Light while Bella did the same with her hammer. The fire elementals bombarded the group with balls of fire which forced Stella and Bella to put up shields to protect everyone. Bella gave the mage a look to which Stella silently acknowledged before she dropped the shield and showered the dwarves and elementals in the hallway in shards of ice.
Stella unleashed more ice magic from waves of cold air to freezing all enemies ahead of her but the elementals took the hits and melted the ice quickly. Varian blocked a strike from one of the paladins and slashed through his armor, dealing him a mortal wound. The paladin attempted to use the Light to heal himself but Jaqueline saw the attempt and ran toward him where she kicked him in the jaw.
With so many dwarves in the narrow corridor, the elementals became impatient and began indiscriminately unleashing their fire around them. Bella unleashed an aura of protection that gave the group some resistance to the elementals’ fire attacks. Most of the dwarves were incinerated in the attack.
While Varian, Jaqueline and Stella took some burns from the attack the pain was much more bearable thanks to the aura. Bella proceeded to heal the group of their burns while Varian and Jaqueline finished off the dwarves whose numbers were now more manageable thanks to the elementals’ mistakes.
With more room to work with, Stella conjured a water elemental through her ice magic ahead of the warriors and had it engage the two fire elementals. She knew it wouldn’t be enough but it would buy her some time for her to conjure a lot more ice and condense it into an arctic blue sphere. In the time it took the elementals to evaporate the water elemental, Stella released the ball of frost. Surprisingly, the ball was slowly drifting toward the elementals. At that time Stella warned everyone to retreat to the other end of the tunnel. The others were unsure why she suggested that but obeyed to be safe.
The elementals moved to pursue the intruders and one of them tried to slap away the sphere. This action proved their undoing as the sphere exploded in a huge icy blast that coated the entire corridor and half the tunnel in ice. The blast proved too much for the elementals’ bodies to handle and dissipated.
Once the blast went off, the group cautiously returned to the corridor and advanced into what appeared to be another break room like the one in the east garrison. This further confirmed that they had now entered the west garrison which meant that the dark iron generals may be nearby.
From where they entered, they spotted a staircase which led into a pit area where they saw a dwarf with a red beard in a double braid. He wore a black and light blue chestplate and legplates. He also wore bright red shoulderplates, and navy blue gauntlets and sabatons with a red flame design. His belt was of a similar design with a red skull on the buckle. He also carried a double-bladed battle ax that had a motif of embers on a black background. He was also surrounded by several soldiers.
“You probably already know this but that is General Angerforge,” Thanatas said through the link. “There’s not much to know about this guy. He commands troops and fights like a veteran warrior but that’s it. I also heard that he wrote a critical treatise that infuriated Emperor Thaurissan.”
Upon closer inspection, they noticed that the dwarf was examining a stone tablet while holding on to a folder. Sophia figured that the folder was part of Windsor’s notes and the tablet was likely what they were looking for.
There was the possibility that the general might call in more troops if he was threatened and everyone was still recovering from the intense battle against the dark iron officers. After thinking about how to approach the situation, Sophia decided to try something clever.
“Hey Stella,” Sophia whispered. “See if you can flood the pit with your sleep cloud. I’ll move in and get the notes.”
“Won’t you get affected too?” Stella whispered back.
“Not if I hold my breath.”
Stella nodded with some uncertainty but went along with the templar’s plan. She channeled a large cloud of green mist into the pit area and the general and his subordinates were completely unaware.
General Angerforge started feeling sleepy which he figured was because of the boring work he was doing at the moment. He was completely oblivious to what was happening as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Sophia took a deep breath and held it before leaping over the staircase into the pit and swiping the tablet and folder before returning to the group.
“One down,” Sophia quietly cheered. “Now to find Argelmach.”
The group didn’t have to look far as they moved toward the next room beyond the garrison. It turned out to be a small construct assembly plant where a large number of gnomish technicians and dwarven mages assembled and powered their constructs. The hallway separated two large rooms that were both dedicated to the same tasks. Large hooks hung from the ceiling and some held golem parts. Tools and toolboxes were strewn all over the floor and a few chemistry lab tables could be seen.
Standing at the far end of the hallway beside a number of constructs, all but two of them unpowered, was a dark iron dwarf in a full set of brown and yellow leather armor and wielding a dagger. He appeared to be overseeing operations. It wasn’t hard to tell that this would be Golem Lord Argelmach. They could barely see from a distance that he was also looking at a tablet with a folder on hand.
“This is a dwarf who does not die easily,” Thanatas said. “Argelmach was actually killed ten years ago but apparently he found a way to transfer his soul to his constructs in the event of his death. It seems to be a similar method to how the Equestrian Liberation Front have been maintaining their ‘immortality’. It doesn’t seem like he will stay down unless you find out where he keeps his stash of spares.”
“Well in the least I can destroy this one and take the notes long before the next one is prepared and sent here,” Sophia offered.
“We’re gonna have a real fight on our hands if we start a ruckus in there,” Jaqueline warned.
“Perhaps Stella might be able to put them to sleep like with the last general?” Bella offered.
Stella shook her head, “The enemies are too spread out and there’s too much ground to cover in there for the cloud to be effective.”
“I would prefer to resolve this with as little bloodshed as possible,” Varian said. “These technicians are only doing their jobs and we are not at war with the Dark Iron Clan so I would prefer a solution that does not risk us going to war with them.”
Sophia sighed as she had a solution but it would require her revealing more of her secrets. “I have a plan. Hide around the corner and I’ll lure Argelmach here.” She moved back to the staircase and into the pit that was now cleared of the mist. She stood next to General Angerforge who was still in a deep sleep. She peered into his memories and gained a fair enough idea on the dwarf’s personality profile before returning upstairs.
To her friends’ surprise, they witnessed Sophia shrinking to a dwarf’s size before her skin darkened to an ashen gray and her features became masculine with a long red beard growing from her face. Her equipment also transformed into an exact duplicate of the general’s gear, right down to the battle ax. Soon she was an exact copy of General Angerforge.
“Varian, be ready tae end Argelmach with one strike,” she said in a voice of that of a male dwarf, right down to the accent. Varian was confused about what just happened but shook his head as he regained his focus and nodded with grim determination.
“Angerforge” strolled into the manufactory like a dwarf on business. The gnomish technicians and dwarven arcanosmiths stared at the general for a brief moment before continuing with their business. The “general” reached the end of the hall where Argelmach stood with two active constructs. Sensing his presence, Argelmach stopped staring at the notes and glanced at the general.
“What do ye want, Angerforge? I just finished decoding my half of these notes and goin’ over what I just learned.”
“Then we can compare notes, then. Come with me tae the garrison so we can go over them.”
Argelmach raised a clay eyebrow, one of many features of his new artificial body that he had to get used to after his prior death. “An’ why did ye not bring yer half of the notes here so we could go over them?”
“Because I don’t trust those gnomes ye keep company with. I’m not trustin’ those little blabbermouths tae keep quiet about what we learned here. No tellin’ if one a’ them might be a spy from Ironforge.”
Argelmach thought about the possibility and while he didn’t believe that any of his technicians were working for the enemy, he didn’t get where he was today by being trusting. “Alright, let’s go.”
As they returned down the hallway, “Angerforge” noticed the constructs were following behind their master. He figured that the golem lord didn’t want to be away from his escort. He had to do something about that.
“Jus’ one moment Argelmach, I’d like tae take a moment to admire yer craftsmanship. I can never get over how impressive these things are. If we had enough of these centuries ago, we’d have conquered Ironforge and Grim Batol.” He began rubbing his hands on the two golem escorts for a few moments before he resumed walking back to the garrison. Argelmach was beginning to feel suspicious of the dwarf’s behavior and decided to ask him about that once they reached the garrison.
Within moments, the two dwarves exited the hallway and entered the garrison. The moment Argelmach entered, the last thing he saw before his world went black was the edge of a sword flying for his face.
The constructs began to react to the aggression but their actions were overridden the moment “Angerforge’s” eyes glowed blue. Within moments, the constructs twitched repeatedly as some sort of organic growth began wrapping itself around the golems, taking control of their systems. Once the twitching stopped, the golems returned to the manufactory.
A few moments later, the panicked screams of gnomes and dwarves were heard as the golems went on a rampage throughout the facility. The group decided to ignore that and paid attention to the tablet and folder that the headless golem lord dropped. Varian picked up the notes. “I think that’s everything. Let’s get back to Windsor.
Everyone nodded in agreement and backtracked to the detention block.
Once the group reached the detention block through a door in the east garrison that had to be unlocked with the black key, they found Marshal Windsor in the central chamber fully equipped in his old armor and a sword in hand. The marshal heard the approaching footsteps and turned to face the group.
“Did you get the–Y-Your Majesty!” Windsor nearly shouted in shock. “What are you doing down here?”
Varian smirked as he walked up to Windsor. “Glad to see you’re still doing well Reginald, my old friend.” The two gripped each other’s hands in fellowship. “These champions found me in the arena and helped me out. They also told me that they have a plan to deal with Prestor while ensuring that my son is out of danger. Perhaps they can enlighten us about our roles in this?”
Sophia had everyone gather into a huddle where she informed everyone of the plan. It was a sound one though the chance of damage to the keep was high. As long as Anduin was safe, Varian would go along with it.
Once the huddle ended, Varian moved beside Windsor while the others stood in their own group. “Alright, we’ll head to Stormwind and begin our preparations,” Varian offered. “The rest of you will head for the throne room and rescue Princess Moira Bronzebeard. When you’re through, meet us at Stormwind.” With that, Varian and Reginald Windsor headed to the entrance of the city.
Once the two left, Jaqueline turned to the mage who had the map. “So how do we get ta the throne room?”
Stella took out her map and examined it. She spotted the throne room but it would be a long walk there. She traced her finger along a possible route until she came to a familiar location. “Looks like we need to go through Argelmach’s manufactory and head into a place called the ‘Grim Guzzler’. I think that’s a tavern. It will lead us back to the center of the city where we couldn’t access before. From there we head into a place marked the Chamber of Enchantment followed by the Mold Foundry. Beyond that is the Summoners’ Tomb where the patriarchs of the Dark Iron nation are entombed. From there we enter the Lyceum where the citizens hear speeches from the senators or the emperor himself. Once we get past that and the Iron Hall, we will be in the throne room.”
“Well, looks like we have a long walk ahead of us,” Sophia said. “Let’s get moving.”