Bellon had to admire Arbeth's stamina. She was up and moving, bright and early the next morning after tying one on the night before.
They returned to the tavern to break their fast. The crowd was much subdued from the night before but the food no-less delicious.
"Enjoy it while you can, Billy. Even with the horses, it will take us a couple of days to reach The Sludge Fields."
"That sounds appealing," Bellon rolled his eyes. "Why are we going there?"
"Warden Stillwater sent out a distress call that his guards were rioting. We've been asked to go help him out," she explained. "I got us a couple of other jobs to do along the way. That will increase our cash flow," she grinned.
"That does sound appealing. So what are the jobs?"
"To kill the Yeti lord, Yetimus, and bring his horn back."
"But we don't want to come back here, we want to get to the Sludge," Bellon pointed out.
"We can fly back on Bats. Oh, and save some fawns from being eaten. That should be easy."
"So what do we know about this Yetimus?" he asked.
Arbeth shrugged. "Other than he's big, nothing. We'll find out."
"I'm not very accustomed to taking on a task and not having details," Bellon told her. "At least something more than he's big. What sort of weapons and defenses does he have? Does he have support? Where is he the most vulnerable?"
"Picky, picky, picky. Hi Torque."
"Hey, Mamma jamma." A goblin trotted up and slapped Arbeth's hand. "This your main squeeze?" He stared at Bellon expectantly.
"No," Bellon snarled glaring back.
"This is Billy. Billy, you didn't have any of that information when those Worgen attacked and look how well you did. We'll be fine. won't we Torque?"
"He's going with us?" Bellon asked surprised.
"Well, if she's not your girl, you won't mind if I put some of my irresistible slick moves on her." The goblin plopped his oversized green hand on Arbeth's knee. "Is the stiff any good?" He jerked his head at Bellon.
"He's an assassin, yup, he's good."
"You said you weren't going to tell anyone that," Bellon hissed.
"Torque's our new partner. He has a right to know."
"So what can you do, Shorty?" Bellon demanded.
Bellon was suddenly on four tiny hooves, covered with thick wool, and standing on his chair. When he tried to speak, he bleated.
"Put him back, Torque!"
Bellon gasped when he was back in his Forsaken form. He never thought he would think it felt good. He gripped the edge of the table and calmed his rattled nerves. Never, ever, at any time in the history of the Jedi or the Sith had anyone been able to do what apparently just happened. He didn't dare move or speak until he stopped shaking.
He glanced at his hands. His Transmutator wasn't Force driven; it manipulated the DNA so fortunately had not been affected. This was going in the next report.
"Torque is a mage." Arbeth announced. "Now you two have to learn to play nice. I know you both find me sexually irresistable, but just get over that because I'm the boss of our little group and I decide who my bed partner is. Have you eaten Torque? It's going to be a long, busy day, and you need to store up mana."
"Yeah, yeah, I ate, Mo-o-om. Sheesh."
It turned out that Torque was the goblin who roared in on the trike the day before. Apparently, he had built it himself; he was a skilled engineer in addition to being a mage.
Spot and Black weren't sure they liked the noise of his trike but seemed to accept it after a couple of miles. Bellon figured Dr. Nope really didn't like the noise; the spider shadowed the group rather than trot along at his master's side.
They travelled cross-country instead of following the road. This route took them along the base of two promontories. There were a lot of animals and Arbeth took the time to do some hunting and skinning. It turned out that she was a leather worker and had made the armor she wore.
Bellon was quite surprised at the amount of leather she amassed and how it all fit into her backpack with room for other equipment: change of clothes, weapons repair kit, hole puncher, needle and thread, cooking pan, fishing pole, an oblong stone, leather and meat from the ten animals she killed, wild fruit she had gathered, flint and steel, several glass vials with red liquid, eating utensils, and bandages.
Logically, all that should not fit in the backpack that looked large enough for only a change of clothes and her frying pan.
When they stopped for the evening, Torque took off to "do some shopping," as he put it. It turned out he went looking for useful metals and gems for his engineering projects.
It was a beautiful night. Bellon found a quiet place away from the campfire and prying eyes. He transmitted a short brief to 2VR8, Report Two: Day Two, Goblin Mages. It detailed what Torque did to him that morning and asked someone to research any such occurrences. He then stretched out in the grass looking at the night sky.
He took a deep breath and scanned the stars. He could pick out the dim, persistent blinking light that was his X70-Phantom. That was reassuring. He guestimated where Dromund Kaas and the Chiss homeworld, Csilla, were in relation to this planet. Csilla was actually much closer than Dromund Kaas.
If it weren't for this assignment, he and Loa would be preparing for a trip to Csilla and a visit to both their clans. Though his immediate family were dead, Bellon's extended family and clan were alive and well and pestering him to visit and take a mate. He felt the weight on his heart and missed Loa. He should have posed the question of marriage before he left. He would have before their visit home; maybe even tonight as they sat on the couch together watching the holofire and sipping Alderanian wine.
"Yo, Billy," Torque's strident voice broke his reverie. "We're sharing campfire stories. You gonna join us or be a party pooper?"
Bellon heaved himself to his feet. "I'm coming. Just enjoying the night."
Bellon listened to Arbeth and Torque share their stories but didn't add much. When he curled up to sleep, they were still chatting away.
He felt a body, not particularly warm or soft, settle down beside him. He knew that for some reason Dr. Nope had chosen to sidle up to him for the night. He suppressed the urge to shudder and fell asleep.
The morning sun in his eyes woke him. He was the second to wake up; Dr. Nope was the first and apparently had gone hunting. He kicked the fire back to life and heated up some of the meat Arbeth had started cooking the night before. The smell and sound of sizzling meat woke the other two.
Torque pulled a pot and some ground beans out of his backpack. He put the beans in a bag to boil in water in the pot. It was a good repast and the bitter drink was enervating. Torque said it was Kava.
"So how do we find this Yetimus?" Bellon asked as they broke camp.
"Won't be too hard. He's like 60 feet tall," Torque announced.
"Never fought a rancor," Bellon muttered unhappily.
"What?" Torque asked.
"Never mind. Let's go; onward to death." Bellon threw sarcastic enthusiasm into his words and leapt onto Spot.
They came broad grasslands where deer and fawns were trying to fend off a pride of big cats. Arbeth announced that their job was to cull the pride.
It was the first time he used the blunderbust. He knew he had to get close to hit the beasts; he hadn't realize how ineffectual the weapon would be. Though he would hit the animal with what should have been a killing shot, the pellets didn't penetrate. More often than not, he resorted to his knives to finish off the big cats.
He had the opportunity to watch Torque take a couple out with ice and lightening, typical Force attacks and quite effective. Suddenly the ground was shaking and all the animals scattered.
"Here comes Yetimus," Torque shouted cheerfully.
The huge creature he pointed at walked on all fours; its front legs were long arms and it leaned on its knuckles. It had massive horns on its head, very large canine fangs protruding from its mouth, and its stomach nearly dragged on the ground. From its horns hung what seemed to be decorations. It had very small eyes.
Bellon would have liked to plan a strategy to attack such a large opponent, but Arbeth took a long-range shot that seemed to bounce harmlessly off the giant yeti's forehead. Yetimus noticed and let out a roar; it began lumbering their direction.
Torque threw ice at the beast, which slowed it some. He then attacked with ice bolts while Arbeth peppered it with arrows.
Dr. Nope scurried around and attacked Yetimus with poisonous stings and bites to its heels and lower legs.
Bellon moved in as close as he dared and fired the blunderbuss. He cursed at the seeming ineffectuality of its scattered shot. When the creature became fixated on Torque, Bellon ran around to the creature's side and fired a shot at its bulging midriff. To his horror, he saw the yeti leap and land near Torque then pound the goblin with its heavy fist. That meant he and Arbeth would have to up their attacks. Dr. Nope was still going for Yetimus' heels; that gave Bellon an idea.
He pulled out the knives and dipped them in poison then ran around behind the creature. From behind, he could get under its sagging gut and slash it. Yetimus roared in pain spinning to see where the attack came from. Bellon grabbed hair on one of its hind legs and climbed up to the base of its spine. He drove both daggers deep into its neck.
He sat on the dead creature's back and caught his breath as Arbeth started sawing off the horn.
"Sorry about Torque," he told her.
"Aw, gee, it's nice of you to care." Torque stood up, shook himself and studied his crumpled remains. "I hate it when that happens. So, let's see what this beastie has on him."
Bellon stared at Torque. He looked fine, in fact he looked great as if they hadn't spent the night sleeping rough or just battled big cats and a giant yeti. Torque looked like he had just arrived by speeder from Tarren Mill. Tonight's report would be quite long.
"Torque, you get to keep anything Yetimus has on him. Billy, you and I will see what the cats we killed dropped." Arbeth, unimpressed by Torque's miraculous recovery from death, headed toward the nearest cat's body.
"What do we do?" Bellon asked.
"Cut 'em open. I'll take the skins so don't do a hash job."
Bellon shook his head and picked a cat to gut. To his shock, the cat had in its intestines an old leather boot, five silver pieces, a fork, and a letter.
"Don't throw it away, someone will buy it all. You never know what an alchemist or blacksmith can use," Arbeth said when he was about to leave everything but the silver pieces.
He nodded his understanding and set the items aside to clean up before going into his backpack. He blinked; they were clean with no gore or guts on them. He saw Arbeth and Torque happily stuffing items in their backpacks. He shrugged and did the same.
He cut open the next cat and jumped back; a large, green orc's head rolled out of its guts, and it had a complete chainmail hauberk in its anus. When Bellon first saw it, it was quite tiny; as soon as he picked it up, it was large enough to fit him.
"Nice," Arbeth admired it. "Oh dear, Commander Hronk. Wondered what happened to him. You should wear that; it's much more protective than the chestpiece you got off the Worgen."
"It just came out of that cat's ass," Bellon stared at it.
"Yup, now it's yours."
"How did armor end up in a cat's ass?" Bellon stared at it.
"Cause the cat ate Commander Hronk," Arbeth explained.
"You want me to wear this?"
"It's really good armor. Hronk might have been a douche bag but he had good equipment." Arbeth began looking around. "Other cats must have eaten his other gear."
"This just came out of a cat's butt!" Bellon shuddered. It was pristine clean, however, as if he had picked it up off the shelf in an armory.
"Wa, wa, wa. You ain't gonna wear it, give it to me. I'll be happy to sell it." Torque wandered over after gutting the yeti.
"No, I'm not giving it to you." Bellon held the hauberk protectively. "I found it; it's mine." He stalked off to another cat. "Maybe one of these beasts ate a decent rifle."
It took several hours to clear the site of all useable refuse. Dr. Nope was lying near the horses, which were grazing contentedly amid the carnage.
The three sat down near Torque's trike to eat and assess their haul. Bellon noticed that Arbeth and Torque were trading items they found that were of more use to the other. Torque took anything vaguely mechanical, gems, and metals, while Arbeth took cloth and leather, claws and teeth.
"You're an engineer, right?" Bellon asked Torque.
"Yeah." Torque was tidying up items to go into his back pack.
"Can you make a bronzium tube?"
"You mean a bronze tube? Easy, peasy. Why?"
Bellon glared at the blunderbuss. "I need a much more reliable rifle than this."
"Oh, I can make you a rifle; I just need to gather the materials." Torque puffed his chest proudly. "For a price, of course."
"No, I can assemble the rifle; I just need certain items and materials."
Torque's eyes widened and his ears perked forward. "You're an engineer too?"
"Uh, yeah, of a sorts. Tell you what; you help me gather the materials and assemble the parts and I'll give you the schematics for the rifle I make." Bellon offered. "There is a condition, however: no one but you will ever have access to those schematics; you can't sell or trade them to anyone. That would give you a monopoly."
"Deal!" Torque spit on the palm of his hand and shoved it toward Bellon.
Bellon stared at the proffered hand with his arms folded across his chest.
"What? You don't trust an honest Goblin's handshake?" Torque pretended to be hurt but there was something knowing in his tone.
"A wise man once told me, 'Trust no one.' That advice has kept me alive," Bellon responded.
"Okay, okay, I'll write up a contract." Torque dug into his backpack and pulled out parchment, engineer's ink, and a quill pen. He wrote up the contract with Bellon leaning over his shoulder to ensure it said what Bellon wanted. It took a couple of tries to keep Torque from sneaking in money-making deals for himself; but they finally had a contract the two agreed upon. They signed it and Arbeth witnessed it.
"So, what do you need?" Torque asked preparing to write Bellon's list on the back of a used parchment.
Bellon began listing metals and items he needed. With Torque's knowledge of materials available, they created the list: bronze tube, iron tube, gold power cores, copper wiring, silver contacts, and a trigger mechanism
"I need to do some hunting and Torque will need to do some mining. We better get moving if we want to reach the Sludge Fields before dark," Arbeth announced once the list was complete.
"I don't know how to make all that stuff," Torque said as he secured his backpack to his tike. The schematic involved several precisely gauged tubes and strange wiring.
"I know how to make it; I'll teach you," Bellon assured.
They set off westward again traveling close to the rock outcroppings. They stopped frequently. While Arbeth was hunting or Torque mining, Bellon filmed them for his report.
It was late in the day, when they could see greenish smoke rising from the direction of the Sludge Fields. The breeze was toward them. Bellon fought the urge to gag at the smell. As they got nearer, the wind carried the sound of many voices moaning.
The eastern gate into the compound was blocked by a Tauren standing next to a gaudily colored Kodo. "Halt adventurers." It was a female Tauren.
"What's wrong?" Arbeth asked riding to the large creature's side.
"That!" The Tauren pointed at a plowed and tilled field with human heads sticking out of the dirt. "I realize the humans are our enemies; but that is an affront to the Holy Light." She spit into the ground as if to expel a bad taste.
Bellon shuddered. It was the cries of the humans they had been hearing. "What are they doing here?"
The Tauren growled. "An apothecary asked me to check up on a friend, Apothecary Lydon. Apparently he was sent here to investigate and report on the progress of Warden Stillwater in regards to pushing the humans out of the Hillsbrad Foothills. Lydon's friend said that he hasn't been heard from and that was unlike Apothecary Lydon. His friend asked me to come find Lydon." She gestured at the field. "This is what I found."
"Why?" Torque asked.
"To 'grow' humans to be turned into Forsaken?" The Tauren shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine; I arrived only moments before you."
"Can we help them? Can we put them out of their misery?" Bellon asked.
"Let's do as Billy suggests; put them out of their misery," Arbeth suggested unslinging her bow and notching an arrow.
"Murder the helpless?" The Tauren was horrified and shook her bovine head. "I cannot. We can release them. At least then they will have a fighting chance."
"I like that better," Bellon agreed. This Warden Stillwater sounded like a true Sith. "Then we can deal with this Stillwater chap."
"I like that idea. I'm with the paladin and Billy." Torque shut off his trike and dismounted. He pulled a shovel out of his backpack and headed toward the field.
The others followed suit. Bellon found a shovel in a garden shed and the four set about digging up the hapless people. As each came free, he or she thanked them profusely and fled the Sludge Fields.
They were about one-third of the way through when a towering, skeletal being shuffled into the area. It saw the four and charged.
Torque dropped his shovel and threw an ice ball that caused the creature to hesitate. The Tauren unslung her shield and flung it at the beast's neck. That made it stagger back; however it was not a killing blow. Arbeth was firing exploding arrows as Torque continued peppering it with ice.
The Tauren had drawn a sword and was charging in when her shield returned to her hand. There was a blinding flash of light shaped like a hammer, which struck the beast squarely on the top of its head. It fell to its knees. Bellon darted in as the Tauren had its attention.
Dr. Nope was at Bellon's side. The two attacked from behind with poisonous blades and fangs.
Shortly, the beast lay still. Several humans had been crushed in the fight and its fall.
"The Town clerk," the paladin Tauren explained. "Stillwater's doing."
"That guy is whacked!" Bellon spit angrily as he picked up his shovel.
"You said it, Billy. Let's take him out. The Horde doesn't need his type of whacko." Torque leaned on Bellon's leg. "Back to work?"
"Back to work," Bellon agreed.
It took a couple of hours to free the survivors and finish burying those that hadn't survived the fight. In that time, they saw Town Clerk wandering through another part of the Town, but it didn't come back to the field. The fact it didn't STAY dead was frustrating for Bellon; he wasn't used to death not being permanent.
"Now what?" Torque asked wiping sweat off his brow.
"We find any survivors and confront Warden Stillwater," the Tauren snarled.
"Before we go any further," Bellon stopped her. "I think introductions are in order. I am Billy Dekidt."
The Tauren took a calming breath. "Civility should never be ignored. You are correct, Master Dekidt. I am Luxraina, Sunseeker Paladin of the Blackhoof clan." She bowed her head.
"Arbeth Williams."
"Torque Sparkshiv."
"Luxraina means Queen of the light," Bellon noted with a smile.
The Tauren nodded returning what passed for a smile on a Tauren. "Let us clean up this mess."
"Wish we had you, a paladin, when we were fighting Yetimus," Torque said.
"You might not have gotten squished," Arbeth cheerfully countered.
"Ah, another abomination accounted for." Luxraina whistled and her Kodo trotted up to her.
Bellon wondered at that. If the Town Clerk hadn't stayed dead, what was to say Yetimus hadn't as well.
They retrieved their mounts and the paladin led the way through the Sludge Fields. In a field of mushrooms just to the north, they entered a small chapel. A Forsaken Apothecary was locked in a cage while a Blood Elf wailed in mourning at the death of his mount, Twinkles. They freed the apothecary who turned out to be Lydon, the investigator sent from Undercity; he explained Stillwater had imprisoned him to keep him quiet. The Blood Elf was a Paladin, Johnny Awesome, sent here to help Warden Stillwater quell his so-called riot.
They had to fight several more mutated towns people and guards before they reached the western end where Stillwater had his headquarters. He was waiting outside for news that his problem had been rectified.
"You are the monster!" Luxraina seemed to be of the same tactical training as Arbeth, attack on sight.
Against six angry beings, Stillwater didn't stand a chance, and he had few loyal guards to come to his aid. One shield to his chest and the apothecary, Lydon, wrapping him in binding made it a very short fight.
The Blood Elf, who was not very good at being a paladin, wanted to kill Stillwater in revenge for the death of Twinkles. Lydon stilled the elf. "I will take him to Lady Sylvanas Windrunner. There will be retribution for his crimes. True-death awaits you, Stillwater."
"Well, that turned out to be quite an adventurous day," Bellon announced collapsing exhausted on the ground. His report tonight would be quite long.
Report Three: Day Three, Cat-butt Armor and Human Seedlings. Death is little more than a painful inconvenience in this world. Torque was squashed to a pulp; I swear on the Emperor himself, he was dead as dead could be. Not 20 standard minutes later, he stands up hale and hearty and hungry. We had been hunting before we battled this Rancor-sized Yeti with a temperament to match. It squashed Torque.
We had been culling big cats that were decimating the deer population. While gutting the cats, I came upon a chainmail hauberk in a cat's anus. This world also has a passing acquaintance with physics as well as death. The hauberk was smaller than my hand as it lay in the anus; as soon as I picked it up, it expanded to fit me. I'm wearing it now, at Arbeth's insistence. There was no gore, no decay due to digestive juices, nothing; it looked like it had been lying in shop, not gone through a digestive tract.
We traveled to a farm now called the Sludge Fields (I'm trying to figure out what 'sludge' is). As we approached, we heard crying. In a two-acre field humans had been buried up to their necks. Apparently, the supervisor of the Sludge Fields seemed to think that was how to get more humans. We freed as many as possible at the insistence of a Tauren paladin (Image 2). She's very large so I don't think anyone wanted to argue with her. We also had to fight former residents of the farm and guards that had been mutated into monstrosities. As with Torque, these too refused to stay dead.
A paladin is an "agent of the Light," according to Luxraina. It doesn't seem to matter which faction a paladin fights for as long as he or she promotes the Light. I think she believes her power is divinely bestowed. Wherever it comes from, her power is prodigious.
Tomorrow, we are going to someplace called Southshore at the insistence of an apothecary who says he directly reports to the Forsaken leader, Sylvanas Windrunner. An apothecary or archmage is their equivalent to a Darth, comparable in Force power. Torque is a mage, the equivalent of a Lord of the Sith.
He attached the videos he had taken surreptitiously and sent it all to 2VR8.
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