Under the City and Through the Woods

I was spending a bit of time at the Stormwind auction house today, trying to find myself a better blade, when I was approached by a dwarf asking if I could offer some help.

Well, of course I was willing to try to help if the task was reasonable, and I asked what he needed of me.

As it turned out, there had been some sort of jailbreak in Stormwind's prison, and he already had a few people interested in quelling the rebellion, but was wondering if I could lend my crossbow as well.

Going into a prison seemed dangerous! But I'd be with four others, and Kisha would be alongside me as well... and I'd been practicing with both my crossbow and blades recently. I could defend myself!

So I agreed to help out. We met up at the entrance to the Stormwind Stockade; besides myself and the dwarf, there was another draenei woman, and two human men. The guards near the entrance had some tasks for us to complete, and a few of my companions told me of people who'd be glad to pay me for certain tasks in there as well. We had a lot to do, so we descended as a group into the prison.

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the torchlight; once they did, I swallowed a gasp. I'd been told that some prisoners had escaped, but the scene before my eyes showed that the jail was basically no longer serving its intended purpose. Prisoners were simply milling around, and I didn't see a single set of intact metal bars — they'd all been broken open. This might be even more challenging than I'd expected. None of my companions seemed outwardly fearful, though, so it must be alright. These prisoners were bad people — otherwise, why would they be in prison? — and there was no way this prison could hold them any more, so the five of us (and my cat) had a responsibility to put them down.

Once we actually got started, though, I could see why nobody was nervous; they must have worked together before, and the convicts were no match for us. One of the humans was heavily armored, so the prisoners' improvised weapons had almost no chance of hurting him, and he managed to keep them focusing on him so that those of us not quite so protected were in no danger. For the most part, I was able to sit back and shoot, while Kisha ran up and attacked. Of course, with several of my companions up near what I was shooting at, I had to be careful with my aim — but my dad had always been impressed with my accuracy when I'd practiced my crossbow with him, and none of my bolts even came close to hitting any of my friends. Having bad aim would be wasteful of ammunition, even if I didn't have to worry about hitting anyone else!

It did not take us very long to clean up the Stockade; we'd completed the tasks we'd been given, which involved, oddly enough, bringing back the hand of one of the convicts in particular, and the head of another. The one we had to behead was an orc! My companions told me the people that had requested our services would require proof, but bringing back body parts (particularly an orc head) seemed a rather morbid way of proving what we'd done. But I wrapped them up well, and planned to deliver them immediately; I didn't want such a parcel on me for any longer than necessary.

I said my goodbyes to my companions as we emerged. The head was the more distasteful of the things I was carrying, and it had to be delivered to Lakeshire, so I decided to submit that one first. I caught a gryphon to the town I'd left not a few days ago. I gladly turned the [Head of Targorr] over to the guard who wanted it and accepted my reward.

The [Hand of Dextren Ward] had to be delivered to Darkshire, which the Lakeshire guards told me was to the south, in Duskwood. I hadn't been there before, so flying was not an option — instead, I had to walk.

Upon entering Duskwood, I immediately realized why it had its name; even though it had been bright daylight in Lakeshire, the sun could barely penetrate the thick roof the trees provided, creating a very surreal lighting effect.

And spiders. There were spiders. Fortunately, these ones weren't as big as the ones Daari and I had fought on Bloodmyst Isle; if I'd had to, I'm sure I could have handled fighting them without ill effect. However, they were still sufficiently large — about as big as Kisha — that I felt the desire to avoid them if I had no good reason to go near them. I stayed on the road and went straight to Darkshire.

Once again, I gladly gave up the dismembered appendage to the Councilman who had wanted it, although I idly thought that it would probably be rather odd if I'd picked the wrong person to give it to. I mean, after all, if someone I'd never seen before came up to me and gave me a hand that they claimed I wanted, I'd probably be rather confused!

Anyway, after my delivery was complete, I talked to the town's flight master, and managed to get myself a ride back to Stormwind.