Monday, December 26 2022

Well…It has finally happened. Am not one hundred percent sure how it happened. But it has happened. Reese and Daivd would be laughing if they could see me now.

In fact I am sure they already know. Word travels fast around Old Town so I wouldn't be surprised if everyone at the Pig and Whistle knew.

My head is killing me and I feel like I fell down a flight of stairs.

I’ve asked Warden Thelwater for something to drink. But without breaking stride he replies “You should have thought about that before you decided to act like an ass”

I can remember Elly Langston telling me to slow down as she brought around another round of Mead and someone coming up with the bright idea of mixing skins of Dwarven stout with it. It was probably Bartleby. The cheap drunk.

I have vague recollections of stumbling through Old Town. I think I might have spewed in the fountain…or fallen into the fountain. Am not sure, but my clothes are soaked through and my boots waterlogged.

I remember someone making the suggestion we go down to Stormwind Harbour to see the fireworks. We must have gone through the trade district and stopped in at The Gilded Rose.

Am only guessing though, but this soggy lump of Sweet potato bread I found in my shirt pocket tastes like the stuff Allison makes.

There’s a lot of black nothingness after that and the last thing I recall is trying to open the back hatch of a Dwarf Steam Tank when something hit me pretty hard in the back of the head. I’ve got a lump to prove it.

Well. I don’t think I am going anywhere too soon and this is the last dry page.

So I am going to try and get some rest… but between these cold flagstones, that gnome in the corner snoring like a bear… and the creepy looking elf that looks like he’s sizing up a new mark…am probably not going to get any sleep soon.

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Friday, December 30 2022

Am home at last. After spending almost a week in The Stockade it is nice to feel the fresh air on my face!

I would have written more but unfortunately my notebook fell apart from water damage. Most of the pages were mashed together and I was unable to separate them. That will teach me for going out and buying cheap things. I think my next book will have to be a lot more…weather proof.

Things were pretty boring in the cell. I did learn the names of the gnome and elf though.

Nittlebur, a small green haired gnome is currently undertaking the studies to become a mage. Apparently he was caught messing about with the fireworks down on Stormwind docks. He said he had come up with a formula that would result in bigger explosive displays and he was going to use the Feast of Winter Veil display as a testing ground. But after a run in with the engineers guild who caught him tampering he was thrown in here.

I get the feeling this might not have been the first time something like this has happened to Nittlebur. No one came to see him, not once.

I don’t know if that means anything, no one came to see me either. But then, I am no fancy apprentice either.

And the elf. Anishar. Well he didn’t say much the whole time. But I got the feeling that he started to relax around myself and Nittlebur. I asked him if he was with those guys over at that big SI:7 building in Old Town, but he stared at me blankly. I guess if I was with them I probably wouldn’t say anything either. I don’t know, I am not really about that shady business.

Either way, he stopped looking at us like he was going to stab us in our sleep.

So I was happy with that…I did lose my pencil on the second day though.

Oh and one last thing.

There was this dwarf that was making regular passes with Warden Thelwater.

The two of them would come down, make checks on the cells. Exchange words with oneanother and then move on to the next cell. He didn’t show on the last day though.

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I also have no idea who paid for my release. Must be my lucky day.

Tomorrow I will go to the Pig and Whistle and ask the brothers if they did.

It’s going to take me a while to work that debt off!

Anyway, That’s tomorrow's problem, time for a bath.

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Saturday, December 31 2022

I didn’t even get a chance to see if the brothers had paid for my release this morning.

Before the sun broke the horizon there was someone thumping on my front door.

Half dressed and half asleep I answered the door.

There was the dwarf who had been doing rounds at the Stockades with Warden Thelwater.

I’ll be honest. Sitting here on the steps at my front door I never would have imagined that my life would have taken this kind of turn.

Over the last few years I know I have been horsing around. Spending my days scratching around Stormwind for a few coins doing odd jobs. Never begging though. And my evenings at the Pig and Whistle, joking around and listening to tales from Aedis Brom, Christoph Faral and even Bartleby when he was sober enough. I would hear news from places far away from Harry Burlguard and it all just seemed like a good story. I never thought I would leave Stormwind. Everywhere else seemed so far away and I had always thought that I had everything I could need here.

The dwarf's name is Valgar. He’s from Ironforge.

It’s strange how things that have been pretty obvious at the time never really are. Until someone grabs your head and makes you really look at them. I mean. I’ve never been to Ironforge. And the Deeprun Tram is right there in the Dwarven District. Right there! And it is free!

Over the years I have done countless tasks for the Gnomes and Dwarves working in the district and not once have I bothered to take a step outside my comfort zone and look around.

Valgar is here in Stormwind visiting the Cathedral of Light. 

He said that his service to the Light and Azeroth had brought him here.

He was honest and truthful. He said that he was a Paladin in training, that through service to the Light and those in need he believed that he could become a powerful force against the darkness. 

He said that he had been working with Lord Grayson Shadowbreaker over the last few weeks. Lord Greyson had spoken openly saying that these were troubling times and that Stormwind's resources were stretched thin and that there were elements who were taking advantage of this.

Valgar said that he had immediately offered his services and that the two of them had formulated a plan to ease the pressure on Stormwind’s defence force.

Valgar was to go to the Stockades and hand pick a team. The four that he chose would become conscripts of the Stormwind, he was to take them out and working with the local authorities beat back the darkness.

It all sounded a little overly dramatic to me, all this talk of darkness and the idea that Stormwind was overtaxed. I mean everything had looked and seemed to be operating fine to me. But sitting here watching the last of the sun’s light turn the sky a bloody orange I get the feeling that Valgar has done me a strange favor.

I spent today letting everyone at the Pig and Whistle know that I might be away for a while.

I showed Harry the brass palm sized token that Valgar had given me. On one side was the symbol of Stormwind, The Lion of Azeroth and the other was stamped with my name and the words “In service to the light”

Valgar had said that the token would mark me as a Stormwind Conscript. And while flashing it around wouldn’t earn me any free passes, it might get me a pallet and freshwater at any chapel, church, cathedrals or temples dedicated to the worship of the light.

Harry seemed to understand. Am not sure I do just yet.

He said it was good to see me doing something with myself. That he had often thought that I was wasting my potential slacking around Stormwind, hanging out with the could-have-been and has-beens. I reminded him that I wasn’t doing this because I wanted to, that I had been conscripted to follow Valgar.

Harry laughed. He said, my boy you have been like a ship drifting aimlessly around the Great Sea, no good to anyone. It will be good for you to finally have a captain. It will do you some good.

I’ve packed my meagre possessions into boxes and looking at them, Harry’s words hit home just a little harder. It’s all just junk, just a collection of someone wandering through life.

I think tomorrow before we depart I will donate everything to the Stormwind Orphanage.

I don’t think I will be coming back to this.

I find my hand straying to the token, the weight of it.

It feels good, it feels right.