No Static at All.
"And who might you be, oh great one?" Falstad asked, but he feared he already knew what or who he had inadvertantly crossed.
"I am Al'Akir, the Windlord, Rule of Skywall, the elemental plane of air." The colossal swirling mass of air announced with pride. "And you have poluted my realm with these noxious fumes."
"We did not mean to earn your ire, oh great Windlord, that was not our intent." Falstad dropped to his knees in supplication. "We were just trying to get to the one behind this gas attack."
"This poison is not of your making?"
"No, great one." Mekkatorque quickly jumped on the opportunity. "One of my people created it to kill Troggs, but it has instead irradiated them and driven us from our home."
"Where is the one responsible?"
Falstad glanced down, and saw that at the base of the swirling tornado that was his form, Al'Akir's presence was creating a small blizzard and revealing the earth beneath all the snow.
"Hiding inside there," Falstad pointed at the gates of Gnomeregan.
"He's no doubt holed up deep within working on his next insane weapon of mass destruction." Mekkatorque added.
"We would be very grateful if you were to..."
"You are in no position to make demands of me, Earthen." Al'Akir's voice became the roar of a storm as his rage grew, and there were visible lightning flashes within his body. "Your foe hides in the bowels of Therazane's domain, far from the reach of the four winds."
"Aye, he is..." Falstad hit upon an idea, but knew one wrong word would result in a painful death at the hands of a giant lightning bolt. "But he's surrounded by machines, wires, and metalwork; all of which conducts electricity."
"Speak plainly."
"If ye were to hit that door, or this vent, with a big enough lightning bolt, it should either kill him, give him one hell of a shock, or at the very least, give us an opening to get in there and end his madness."
"We would of course be eternally grateful for your assistance, oh great Windlord," Mekkatorque said quickly. "And I can promise that my people will not create anything that befouls your almighty domain."
Al'Akir fell silent, the only sounds that followed their proposal was the sound of the winds swirling around the elemental lord.
"Is there more you would ask of us?" Falstad asked to break the silence.
"Were you the ones to bring down the traitorous Ragnaros and his greatest lieutenants?"
"Aye, I was a part of the group that put an end to him," Falstad puffed his chest out with pride.
"Then you have earnt one favour from me, Ragnaros was no friend to me after his minions slew Prince Thunderaan."
Before Falstad could ask, the Windlord summoned a large, white lightning bolt as he raised his arm up high. The bolt grew until it was perhaps equal to the height of Ironforge's front gate, before the elemental lord threw it at the large metal door of Gnomeregan. There was a blinding flash and an earth-shattering bang as the bolt struck the gates, and Falstad could feel the electricity surging through the earth.
"Know this mortals, if yo should dare to pollute my realm again, the might of the four winds will be unleashed upon your people, and not even your greatest defences will hold back the storm."
Al'Akir began to dissipate, but Falstad acted without thinking it through;
"One moment, great one, there is something else I would ask of you."
The Dwarven shaman could feel the elemental's anger at his comment, but he pressed on, knowing that Mekkatorque was also intrigued by what he had to say.
"Can ye see what's happening to the south?"
Al'Akir's head glanced south, as if he could see what was happening like it was just over the nearest mountain range.
"The Legion's returned to conquer this world, and while we're trying to unite the mortal races to protect our world, we're not the only one's that call Azeroth our home."
"You wish for me to aid you against the Legion?"
"Not necessarily," Falstad evaded the question, quickly asking; "you don't actually want the Legion to destroy everything, right?"
"No."
"Then if you're unwilling to help us, there's nothin' stopping you from hindering the Legion from spreading beyond the Blasted Lands by air."
"I shall consider it." Al'Akir said after a long, tense silence, before dissipating into thin air before anyone could make any more requests of him.
With the elemental lord's departure, all attention returned to the gates of Gnomeregan, where they could see that the lightning bolt had burnt a large hole in the once smooth metal surface.
"Did things just get easier, or harder?" Falstad asked the Gnomish king.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile...
"Stay this madness! If we do not unite now, our people will fall before the Legion's onslaught!" Cairne roared at his opponent, keeping his focus there as he could not afford to be distracted.
"The Grimtotem will survive!" Magatha laughed, pressing the blade of the ax against the back of Baine Bloodhoof's bowed head. "You stand alone, Bloodhoof! My people have the backing of the true Earthmother!"
Cairne allowed himself to glance to his right, where he could see where one of the mighty bluffs, atop which stood Thunder Bluff, had crumbled into ruins. The rined bluff provided a fitting throne for the Stonemother, Therazane; the Earthen lady of Earth had been summoned by Magatha in an attempt to summon an elemental to aid her in overthrowing Cairne to rule the united Tauren nations. The Chieftain remembered hearing how an ancient Dwarf had commited a similar act long ago, accidentally summoning Ragnaros in an attempt to defeat his foes. Cairne only hoped that Mulgore would not suffer the same fate as Redridge Mountains; but given that a bluff had already collapsed, and the others could have been weakened, he wasn't entirely hopeful.
"Yield your position to me, Bloodhoof, or watch your infant son die." Magatha commanded.
Cairne's son was bound by the crone's twisted magic, and held in place by displaced earth, which entombed the young Tauren's legs to the ground.
"You've been used, Magatha! The Lich King sent out agents to undermine and cripple the peoples of Azeroth before the Legion's return."
"Lies! The Legion are gone, and the name 'Lich King' means nothing to me!"
"If I were to guess, Magatha, your decision to attack Thunder Bluff was at the suggestion of another? Perhaps an intermediary that helped build your alliance with the Stonemother?"
There was a pause, before the elder Tauren laughed.
"No intermediary allied Therazane to my cause, I called upon the elements to aid me in overthrowing you, and she came."
Hamuul remembered the Dwarves telling him the tale of the Dark Iron dwarves nearly annihilating themselves when they summoned Ragnaros into the world. He also personally seen what had happened to the land around where the elemental lord had been summoned, and he hoped that the same fate would not befall Mulgore.
"Therazane! What made you chose to help a one mortal in a civil war?" Hamuul asked the elemental behemoth, who had been looking around from her improvised throne with relative disinterest.
"I have no interest in your 'civil war' Tauren, I was impressed by the crone's ability to summon me from Deepholm, so I offered a 'favour' in return for liberating me."
'Then where is the Lich's agent in all this?' Hamuul cursed in his mind.
"Why destroy Hunter's Rise?" Cairne bellowed, his anger getting the better of his other emotions.
"Demoralise your warriors and show we Grimtotem will be cast aside no longer, now surrender Bloodhoof, or you will live long enough to see your only son die, and your precious city crumble beneath you." Magatha laughed maniacly.
Suddenly electricity surged across Therazane's enormous stomach, originating from a point to the right of her belly button. When the lightning faded, the Stonemother looked beyond enraged with what had happened, but it quickly became clear that her anger was aimed elsewhere.
"How dare he strike me in such a fashion!"
The ground opened beneath Therazane and she was quickly swallowed by the earth, her elemental servants following their mistress and disappearing before any Tauren could grasp what was happening. Once all the elementals were gone, the ground around Baine's feet receeded, allowing the young man to escape and run to his father's side while Magatha was distracted by the Stonemother's sudden departure.
"What? Why? She promised to help me..."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Al'Akir's lightning blast had fried the locking mechanism for the gates of Gnomeregan, allowing them to easily open them up and enter the city. Falstad's shamanism had greatly reduced the levels of noxious gas inside the city, and what little remained had been ignited when the electricity had surged through the city. However, the Windlord's help had also come at a great cost; most of the city's systems were critically damaged by the surge of power, if not completely destroyed when they overloaded, but the lightning had also cooked all organic matter in its path, leaving a foul odor in the air in place of the poisonous fumes.
"Oh lord, I'm never gonna forget the smell o' cooked Trogg anytime soon..." the Dwarf complained, as he and Mekkatorque led an expeditionary team into the city.
"It's not just Troggs that were burned by the electricity surge," the king said sadly, gesturing from his mechano-tank to the charred remains of a Gnome. "While I am thankful for his 'assistance', I fear what price we have paid for such an intervention."
"Jus' remember how many might of died if we had stormed this place by force," Falstad countered, smoothing down his beard as the latent static in the air was causing his hair to stand on end. "You worried yourself that all who were left behind were lost..."
"I know what I said, but as the leader of my people justifying or excusing their deaths does not lessen the guilt I feel." Mekkatorque cut in. "Let's just make sure Thermaplugg is dead, and then we can turn our attention to the Legion."
"Aye, the sooner we're back outside the better, I'm havin' a hard time keeping me lunch down." Falstad said, half-jokingly.
There was a long silence as they descended further into the city, the level of electrical destruction slowly reducing as they went.
"Do you think Al'Akir will really assist in battling the Legion?"
"I dunno," Falstad admitted with a sigh. "He's got no love for us or the Legion, and if things go south he'll have committed himself to a lost cause. Perhaps he will, but only when its clear to him that there's hope o' victory."
"You ignorant fools!" A voice yelled from somewhere ahead, the sound amplified in the empty corridors. "Did you really think I wouldn't insulate myself against electrical overloads?"
"Thermaplugg!" Mekkatorque said through gritted teeth. "He survived."
"Face me cowards, if you truly wish to dethrone Gnomeregan's rightful ruler, you'll have to pry control of this city from my dead hands!"
Falstad leapt on to the back of the Gnomish King's mecha-tank, allowing them to move faster toward the heart of the city, where they found a bald, green-skinned Gnome hurriedly working on a large mechanical creation.
"How did you do it? You couldn't possibly generate such power yourself, you lack the intellect to create a device capable of generating it." Thermaplugg continued to insult the king while working on his creation.
Falstad's attention was drawn away from Thermaplugg by the hairs on the back of his arms standing on end, and his connection to the elements warning him of movement all around them.
"The city's ventilation is pumping your poison into the air, which enraged the elemental lord of air." Mekkatorque smirked. "He was only too happy to aid us in stopping your villainy by blasting the city doors with a colossal lightning bolt."
"Elemental lords? Pah! Minions of greater evil, once I've dealt with you I'll work on a device to capture the meddling wind lord so I may harness his power."
"You're more of a fool if you think yourself capable of enslaving Al'Akir," Mekkatorque laughed. "Your technology already failed to iradicate the Troggs from our city, what chance will you have to capture the Windlord?"
Mekkatorque went to enter the chamber, but Falstad raised a hand, quietly gesturing for the Gnomish King to keep his distance from their opponent. The shaman could feel the earth around them shifting ceaselessly, and while he did not feel that they were in danger, he could not say the same for the mad, irradiated mastermind behind Gnomeregan's troubles.
"I am the greatest mind in our people's history, one small mistake will not set me back from writing my name in the history of the world!" Thermaplugg yelled, sounding as deranged as he looked.
"You will be remembered, but not as a hero." The Gnomish king vowed. "Sicco Thermaplugg, the traitor who almost destroyed our way of life with his arrogance and vanity."
"Vanity?" Thermaplugg finally turned to face them, as the creation he had been working on began to power up behind him. "You cannot accept that I am smarter than you, and should have been named High-Tinkerer instead! Your inability to accept the blame for your mistakes are..."
Falstad felt it before it happened, summoning a wall of earth to protect himself and the king just before chaos erupted in the chamber before them. The six pillars that surrounded Thermaplugg suddenly closed in on him, the deafening sounds of shearing metal preceeded the deafening roar of the ceiling collapsing on top of the mad gnome. In seconds the Tinker's Court was wholely consumed by the earth, leaving the two witnesses too stunned to comment on what had transpired.
"This is the fate of all who would think themselves above the fury of the elements." A booming female voice said, the sound echoing from the collapsed chamber and reverberating inside Falstad's head.
"Did you cause that collapse?"
"That was ne a collapse, your majesty," Falstad said slowly, as comprehension dawned on him. "It looks like the Windlord was not the only being Thermaplugg crossd with his vile mechinations."
"Who or what..."
"The elemental lady of the earth." He replied simply. "I felt the ground shifting around the chamber before it happened, that's why I signalled for ye to not enter, but I did not expect... That. I would not advise trying to reclaim anything from in there..."
"Indeed, the smell of this place has tested my resolve already, I doubt I could stomach whatever remains of my old friend in there." Mekkatorque swallowed. "Let us return to the surface and inform my people of what has become of our home."
"Aye." Falstad couldn't argue with the logical next step, but did ask; "Do ye think it'll be safe to use the tram now? Or should we find another way to get our forces south?"
"It's hard to say, but since this little coup has put us on bad terms with the air and earth elemental lords, I cannot think of another way to get our people to the Blasted Lands aside from the tram or by air."
"We should return to Ironforge and consult with Magni, before deciding how we're gonna help push the Legion back." The dwarf said after a long silence. "I'll try communing with the elements when I'm not distracted by the... Aromas currently assaulting my nose."