Blaedy

Undercity greeted me with a sleepy yawn, some pretty decent mail, and that same extremely putrid smell. "What a great day," I told it anyway. Maybe positive thinking works better if you say it before breathing too deeply.

I asked Auctioneer Cain to help me sell a few more things, waved goodbye, and decided the day needed sightseeing. You know, fresh air. Or at least different air.

The Undercity Guardian at the ruins did not exactly support this plan. "You guys really need a shower," I told him. Nicely, though.

Tirisfal had fog, general decrepitness, and Cold Hearth Manor, which I finally found after apparently already finding it. It was not much for a manor, honestly. There was no one there to help either, unless the Rotting Dead were secretly asking for hygiene advice.

So I went on to Deathknell. "It's a zombie town!" I wrote that down because it felt important. The people there said they were Forsaken, not zombies, which is a little confusing when the mindless zombies are also right there. Are Forsaken just zombies with brains? I was still working through that when I met Shadow Priest Sarvis, a fellow priest, and asked, "Need any help?"

Sarvis explained that the Forsaken were fighting the Lich King's Scourge, and that Mindless Ones had overrun the northern part of the village. Former brothers and sisters or not, they were slaves of the Lich King now, and they were endangering everybody. That was sad, like, very sad—but I could help, so I said, "Sure, I'll kill some zombies."

The first crowd came close enough that Holy Nova was the safest answer: light bursting all around me and catching more than one of the horrible things at once. When it was over, Sarvis paid me a little and handed over Flax Gloves.

Flax. For saving a town from zombies. Okay, fine. Gloves are useful.

Then Sarvis wanted proof I could handle pressure: Rattlecage Skeletons. I did have to ask how skeletons walk without muscles. "Black magicks, that's what," I concluded, which seemed to cover it.

They were tougher, but I had Holy Nova, Fade to make them lose track of me, and my Desolation Rod. "Can't see me now, can you?" I said after fading away from their attention. Then the Rod did its thing. I informed the skeletons that it was from the Outlands—"FROM OUTER SPACE." They did not seem impressed, but they did stop rattling eventually.

Sarvis gave me Flax Boots for the work. So I was fully equipped for heroism in matching plant material.

I waved Sarvis goodbye and declared myself the savior of Deathknell, which was maybe a tiny bit dramatic but also not untrue. Then somebody bowed to somebody else. I had just done all the dirty jobs! I may have had a little cry about it.

Mostly because, after all that work, I had gloves and boots made out of flax.

Still, I put Power Word: Fortitude on another adventurer in Brill before carrying on. A savior has responsibilities, even when she is feeling a little flaxed over.

At Gallows' End Tavern, I asked Innkeeper Renee for food, corrected myself from zombie to Forsaken, and discovered a menu that was mostly mushrooms and mold. I bought some anyway, because bedtime food is bedtime food. Then I looked around and wished, "If only there was a wolf or something I could cook some BBQ."

A Decrepit Darkhound appeared almost immediately. I stared. "Would you look at that." I cooked its meat, and then an adventurer I did not even know gave me 13 Charred Wolf Meat for nothing.

"Wow, what a provider!"

The dried mushroom was disgusting, but the mold was weirdly okay, and the wolf meat was honestly lovely. I fell asleep fed, with flax boots on my feet and somebody else's kindness in my bag.

I went to the Canals to sort out my auction things properly, because I did not want to be careless with the Elixir of Greater Agility or my money. I listed 4 stacks of 5, then spent 98s 40c, and I kept trying to make the prices make sense in my head. My go-to auctioneer, Cain, just looked at me bleakly with his ghoul face. He won't even give me a sympathetic nod. “You're killing me, Cain!” I said, and gave up. "These prices are ridiculous.”

I went back to the Trade Quarter and stopped with Innkeeper Norman, who was there at the inn. I told him a joke, though I was still thinking about the auction house. I blurted, “Can you believe they're charging 37 silvers for ONE goldthorn?” He just shrugged and went back to staring listlessly at the wall. Undeads are like that.

After that, I fell asleep in one of the coffins. It's not that bad if you bring your own blankets. I roll up my cloak and it acts as a nice pillow too.

Mograine’s blade had gone into Meho’s shield so hard that I felt my hands move before I had properly thought. The warmth found her arm, and I was so relieved it held. There had been candles and smoke and Whitemane watching us, and I kept thinking: please, everyone stay close. Is that too much to ask in a chapel full of blades?

Afterward, the tombs seemed a perfectly good place for a shop. Arrowyy wanted a kebab, but I only had bread, and Meho came up as a skeleton in armor for it. I made ten warm rounds anyway. Bread is not a kebab, but it is something warm to hold when the garden has been all graves and fighting.

I began in Undercity and later found myself in Shattrath City, then Terokkar Forest, and finally Zangarmarsh. I was trying to keep the route straight, because it is much safer to know where one is going, but the marsh took up all my attention. After I killed a Fen Strider and then a Frog, I told the others, "this guy is nuts".

Then I killed a Darkcrest Slaver and a Darkcrest Sorceress. I kept thinking everyone ought to watch their footing in that marsh.

I began in Undercity, made my way across Tirisfal Glades, and reached Silverpine Forest. There was no sense hurrying along just to arrive sooner; what good is that if one gets oneself muddled on the way?

In Silverpine Forest, I found Grimson the Pale, the foe waiting out in those woods, and killed him. Then I went back through Tirisfal Glades to Undercity, taking the way home carefully.