The Island Expansion

What? No, we’re not talking about Azshara attacking the Alliance and Horde and beginning an expansion into the South Seas, although I did hear a troubling amount of people wishing that would happen. No, it’s about my little syndicate finally expanding into “the Island” – that quaint, little, dark island we found on the South Seas, far from the prying eyes of the authorities. When I got enough gold from the new raiding season starting up, I contacted my usual construction company and started work on the Island. I actually hired quite a few new employees to man the new stations – a bunch of new porters, and I’m still hiring research specialists. One of my new employees was my old “friend”, Balerok. It came to me as a surprise, as I’ve seen him throw his lot with Wrathion before.

I can’t say I really understand why Balerok decided to work for me, but I’m not going to complain. We’ve met before during my… freelancing time when I lived in Shattrath City. I had some demonic and warlock contacts and went around the Twisting Nether and even used it to go to Azeroth back when most of my people only knew it from stories. So that was when I began contacting some renowned alchemists from Azeroth – including Edwin Faranell and Balerok. Back then, the drakonid worked for Rend Blackhand and Nefarian. I’m told Nefarian created him as some experiment. Nefarian himself prefered Maloriak but I always knew Balerok was smarter than that stupid, incompetent and disappointing minion. So now he came to me and immediately began experimenting with mice and electromagnetism. Don’t ask. Genius cannot be understood by mere men.

A bunch of the stations are still under construction. The Swan, where Balerok works, is an alchemy research station, and it’s complete. The Falcon was just completed, and it has a greenhouse and environmental labs. What do we do in environmental labs? We create small, controlled micro-climates and check the influence of various conditions. It’s really far-fetched, and I’d need a specialist. The Raven is nearing completion, and it’s mostly for biological experiments. I know, alchemy and that greenhouse can do a lot of the same, but this is more about… breeding for specific traits, or checking influence of specific conditions on animals. There’s also the Crane, which is the furthest from completion because the krokul can’t enact proper safety precautions. It’s a psychology lab with two levels – upper for willing participants, and lower for… the less willing ones. Then there is the Owl, an enchanting station, and the Hawk, an engineering station. I’m not exactly sure about these two, as I had the least personal input on them.

But the Island is not all that was happening. ‘Gath kept bugging me about dealing with that Old God cult on Ivarind, because he’s got some kind of justice complex in his head as a side effect of my Clarity Elixir and wants to deal with his “corrupted brethren”. So I sent him away to that whiny duke Carcon of wherever, with the task of investigating some suspects he’s gathered. I’m told he insisted on visiting a certain baron that Carcon found suspicious, due to just not showing up a lot. I mean, I don’t show up to social gatherings either, but does that make me a threat? Anyway…

So ‘Gath went and checked out that baron. At first, his personal Renfield didn’t want to let ‘Gath in, but he just barged in and pushed through until he found the baron’s dining room. He was apparently eating breakfast after dusk, so that was weird, even in my opinion. But when Frlngath continued trying to interrogate the baron, he adamantly offered to be telepathically scanned to prove he’s not with the Cult. He wasn’t, ‘Gath assures me, but he was fascinated to learn this strange elf was in fact a disguise used by a Faceless One. They struck a bargain – for a sample of his blood, ‘Gath got a list of people the baron knew in the Cult. Oh yeah, he wasn’t an innocent person – he was some kind of occultist who used dark magic to prolong his life but had no sympathies with the Old Gods.

So with his new list, Carcon was satisfied and immediately began arresting people. ‘Gath was satisfied because he got to deal a blow to his archnemesis. I’m wondering how long it will take for the Cult leaders and creatures that lead Cult of the Star Gods to realize that they’re up against aliens and a turncloak Faceless One, but let me tell you, they’re not gonna be happy when they find out. And when they do, Carcon will be the only one to get burned because I’m pretty sure we’re out of their range.