A Kalimdor Ghost Story, Part 4 - It’s Just Business
The orcs had been based in the seedy, polluted hub of Bilgewater Harbor for five nights now and besides lighter coinpurses and mild food poisoning had little to show for it thus far. A clue as to the cultists’ location would land in their lap with suspicious convenience however, as a messenger blew his bugle and summoned them to meet a Commander of the Bilgewater Battalion with a deal too good to refuse.
As the orcs entered the “mitch sitch” room of the Harbor, the Commander opened negotiations - he knew the orcs were looking for cultists, and he had priceless intel. But they would need to earn the information - an experimental research complex had recently lost communications and the Battalion were too short-staffed to investigate. The Commander was slippery on what exactly the orcs were signing up to do, but Gosh’kar Bashul Starsong defined clear terms and Clan ally Arhnum Wildbranch insisted they shake on it.
With the deal sealed, the orcs took wyverns south where they rendezvoused with the Commander’s assistant, who spoke in panic about the lab being in flames, and the reactor core being close to hitting critical temperatacity and resonating into a meltdown cascade! Understanding at least some of those strange words, Bashul and Gul’rok equipped Fireliminator X-21s while the others protected them from whatever dangers might be present at the lab.
Soon the group was busy putting out fires on the buildings and unpaid interns, and investigating the strange sights of the lab - including a teleportation building where a goblin had accidentally merged himself with a fly that landed on the teleport pad, creating a hideous monster; and talking raptors whose intellect had been augmented by a series of experiments. The orcs were moved by the super-intelligent raptors’ plight, helping them gain access to engineering plans held in the Laboratory Archives - but found a twenty-foot tall mutant goblin covered in tentacles to contend with first!
Finally, the orcs finished their mission by reporting in on a communications terminal to their handler, who walked them through flushing the central reactor, dumping the reactor core and placing it on a mine cart. As a hulking labgoblin pushed the superheated core out of the complex, Bashul and Gul’rok had to continually use their Fireliminators to prevent the core from going critical! In the end, they returned to the core to the safekeeping of the Bilgewater Battalion, their mission complete.
The Commander proved a goblin of his word, telling the orcs that cultists had been spotted by his men just past the Northern Rocketway, amassing near an ancient half-sunken mage tower. The orcs were shocked to realise the Bilgewater Battalion had been holding such critical information back from the Horde, simply sitting on the intel until they could extract a helpful favor. Cross words were exchanged, but goblins will be goblins and the orcs had other matters to now tend to.
The Commander spoke of a small army of cultists, and if the orcs rode out without the right preparations, disaster might strike. The Paths of Strength, Wisdom and Cunning will all now have roles to play if the Clan is to be fighting fit for the final offensive.
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An Offer You Can’t Refuse
The Commander of the Bilgewater Battalion offers information to the orcs in exchange for investigating an experimental research complex that has gone silent.
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Clever Girl
The orcs, moved by the super-intelligent raptors’ plight, choose to help them gain access to engineering plans held in the Laboratory Archives.
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Going Critical
Equipped with Fireliminator X-21s, the orcs set out to extinguish fires and interns alike and to take down mutant goblins in experiments-gone-wrong.