Deadmines Tour, Part One of Three

 Hello all, Zyrena here. 

Last evening I decided to check out the reports of a Defias hideout in Moonbrook.   The first step was a gryphon ride into Sentinel Hill.   Sentinel Hill is the Alliance outpost in the Westfall area.   It garrisons the local militia, a sawmill, a forge and a trade caravan where the local farmers can find a few of the essentials and an occasional luxury.

The “official” military presence is housed in the tower.   Gyran Stoutmantle is up there along with the Quartermaster and a couple other stalwart military men.   They are always looking for assistance with the Defias infiltrators.   This is where I first learned of a “Defias hideout” in the area.   Through some investigative work, it has been determined that there is more to “The Barn” in Moonbrook than it appears.   So I travelled to Moonbrook to see for myself. 

Moonbrook looks like it was a very nice little town at one time.   The buildings are all run down now, however.   It seems the maintenance skills of the Defias leave a bit to be desired. My guess is that they were not chosen for their abilities with hammer and saw or their expertise in the application of whitewash. 

At the far end of town is a large barn.   Current intelligence is that this barn is a front for some sort of Defias operation.   When I got to the front of the barn, I could see why it had gone so long unnoticed; other than the Defias operatives all over the town that is.   When I went into the barn, I didn’t find any animals at all.   In fact, I think it was the cleanest barn I’ve ever walked into.   Even old barns usually have some stray straw laying around somewhere.   This one doesn’t.   After making my way to the very back of the building through the inside I found what it did have:  a hole where the wall should have been and a mine shaft entrance. 

Being the intrepid explorer that I am ~smirks~ I made my way down the ramps and steps to see what I would find.   I wasn’t expecting a whole mine complex.   But something seemed a bit off about the whole thing.   The ore was not being hauled to the surface, but farther down into the tunnels.   I decided to continue on to see what I could find.

At the first real fork in the tunnels, I chose to go left.  This branch took me over a bridge with miners working in a pit below.   I stopped to look over the side and I caught a glimpse of a lady who had been reported to have fallen in with the Defias, and with Edwin VanCleef in particular.   Marisa du’Paige does indeed seem to have joined with them here. 

I continued on down the branch I was exploring and was stunned to find a bunch of ghouls and skeletons running around.   They seem to be former miners and foremen as they are continuing in un-death the jobs they must have had in life.  Near the end of this branch I found a former foreman.   I believe he has a brother still alive in Stormwind that is looking for information on his whereabouts.   Thistlenettle is the nondescript…err…chap…at the back in the middle of this particular picture.   I can understand why his brother is having a hard time getting information.   Not only is it hard to recognise anyone after their skin has rotted away and is covered with bandages to try to hold it in place, but upon trying to talk to him I found him less than friendly.   Makes it kind of hard to pass on messages when you are being beaten upon. 

Back to the main branch, there is a bridge from which you can see the main mine entrance. I’m told that’s where the most secret operations are being carried out and thus, it is my main goal to get in there and see for myself exactly what is going on.   The main mine entrance is to the right of the bridge and the bridge is heavily guarded.   Behind me is the tourist I brought with me into the mines.   I think it was his first time and like all tourists, he kept getting into my pictures . 

I cleared the guards off the bridge and then just jumped over the edge to the floor.   It is possible to cross the bridge and then go around to the left and back under the same bridge and then left again to the main entrance.   I just decided to do things a bit faster. 

Now that we’ve managed to make it to the deep entrance with our tourist intact, I’m going to stop for now.   But please come back for the next part when we continue on into the deep mine to see what the Defias are up to.

 –Zyrena

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Tags: Deadmines, Defias, Gyran Stoutmantle, Marisa du'Paige, Moonbrook, Sentinel Hill, Thistlenettle, WoW

The Graves of Westfall

The following article has been generously translated from Sarracenia-talk to Common by Zyrena.

Back again with the promised report on Westfall graves.

The Moonbrook graveyard is an interesting place indeed. We went there to take a peek around and there were vultures infesting the graveyard. I never saw the like. Zy says that there are sometimes vulture birds hanging around exposed carcasses, but this is the first time she has seen them hanging around respectfully buried bodies. Zy took a picture of me looking at all the birds before we rid the place of them.

We went back that night to take another look to see if more birds had come back. Imagine our surprise to find not vulture birds, but ghouls. I took a picture of Zyrena standing stunned by this spectacle. We asked around with the locals and it seems that after sunset, all the birds leave for their night roosts and the ghouls climb out of their graves and prowl the graveyard. I put some thought into this whole thing and decided that maybe the vultures are actually cleaning up after the ghoulies. After all, those rotten bodies aren’t the most stable things. I’m sure there are bits left over after the ghouls lay back down in the ground. That would be good picking for the vultures. We decided to leave everything be for now and travel on to see if there were any more interesting sites.

We traveled up the road towards the shore and wandered down to the Jangolode Mine. The mine had a small graveyard out in front of it but that spot was being guarded by Defias Smugglers and Trappers. They seem to think the mine is theirs now and Zy suggested we just move along since the grave yard did not look particularly interesting. But just up the road, heading back towards Moonbrook, was a little plot with a fence around it and a tree. There were two graves with nice stones, but one had a casket sticking up out of the ground with a skeleton showing. Rather odd for people what seem so concerned with making sure all their dead people are usually covered. This bothered me enough that I bugged Zy to take me back after dark (She bugged me a LOT — Zyrena).

Well when we got there again, we saw another ghoul. This guy was big and mean and lookin for a fight (Especially after Sarra poked him with her sword a couple times — Zyrena) and he had two friends with him.

Maybe that’s why the Defias people were keeping such a close eye on the graveyard outside their mine. They were worried about catching ghouls there too! (She says that like “ghouls” is a disease…it’s more of an infestation — Zyrena).

Well after having to deal with that guy, I decided I was done with graves for a bit. So the next time, we’ll be telling you all about something different. Maybe we’ll go someplace with waterfalls or something.

Zy, can we go look at waterfalls or bunnies or something?

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Tags: Leprithus, Moonbrook, Westfall, WoW