Blast from the Past

Sometimes I wonder if being so apathetic to world-threatening villains really pays off. I mean, the general idea is that if I leave them alone, they leave me alone and maybe I can profit from both sides. Usually that wouldn’t work only on villains that are bent on world-destruction, like the Burning Legion or the Scourge. So when there are issues like “that angry mogu from legendary times” or “a bunch of bored orcs”, you expect them to just pass you by or make business with you. Take those satyrs that have been acting up in Kalimdor – they’re good customers. But this Iron Horde? These people are jerks. And they’re your regular mortals too, they just don’t know who to leave alone. So what did they do when they saw my tower? They decided to attack on sight. Are signs of civilization offensive to orc sensitivity or something?
But the best part wasn’t that we merely got attacked by a bunch of orcs. Their leader was the same orcish general that exterminated Veil Krasha and personally killed my other brother and father. Or at least, his alternate self. The one I knew and wanted to kill was dead for twenty years now, but this was his counterpart. Just as vicious and dumb as the other one, he sent a group of orcs against the tower. Luckily, we had not only the Greenhearts and my security personnel, but also some visitors – Shazaad’s interplanetary servant Horahk Shadebeak, Big Ahuora and even a now-free Xa’tac revenant that’s hanging around for who knows what reason. My people were fighting quite capably, but as soon as the general noticed they’re losing, he tried to leg it. So much for “victory or death”.

So I quickly shifted into flight form and flew after that guy. I wasn’t going to let that butcher go free again. I don’t care if he didn’t destroy whole veils in his timeline, or if he wasn’t guilty of killing my family – the fact that he was the same person was enough. I caught up with him at the entrance to the grove and grabbed his wolf with my flight form’s talons. And well, I hate dogs (or wolves, same thing) with passion so I just threw the beast against a rockface and smashed its brains. The orc jumped off and tried to fight me, but he was no match for the experience I have now. I did what I do best while fighting – I gouged out his eyes and mangled his legs, to make sure he wasn’t going to go anywhere. We then stuffed him in the dungeon. If I feel merciful, he will only be fed to ‘Gath and then used as mulch.

So we dealt with the attack without much problem, but it made me think. First, I decided to finally build a wall around the perimeter. I have teleportation wards that prevent mages from just teleporting in, but warriors could still just walk in, like these did. At first, I didn’t think a wall would be necessary – after all, it’s just a potion production facility, right? Turns out, no. We keep getting attacked, regardless of what we do, so it’s about time. But as we started the construction again, I thought about expanding. Not just producing different type of products, but building new facilities and pursuing further research. Of course that would need quite a bit of money, but we’re already stocking up on potions from Draenor that the adventurers will buy tons of in a few weeks, so gold shouldn’t be a problem.

Now I just need to find the right place where my people could conduct research and development in peace, unburdened by hostile creatures or pesky things such as law. One idea that comes to mind is finding some small, unpopulated South Sea island that lies far away from shipping routes, to which we would get by portals. Of course, finding such place would not be easy and there’s always the risk of finding ancient elven ghosts or smoke monsters, but I think we can deal with that. Or, we could go to some habitable but uninhabited world out there in the Twisting Nether and use that for our new garrison. Now that one would certainly be left undisturbed by Azerothian forces.

I don’t know, I still haven’t made up my mind. One thing I know for sure is that the Iron Horde is not making business with me after that attack. I don’t care how much gold they have, putting the life of my employees at risk is not worth it. They even killed one of the Greenhearts who I had to replace with a former naga myrmidon. And the worst part about that is having to deal with “the Boogey’s” candidacy again – you know, the stack of three pygmies who claim to be one person. We all know that without my help that Iron Horde is certainly going down soon.