Guild Mission: Supply and Demand, Part III

(Co-written by Lynesia's player, with thanks and gratitude!)

Jon Chess used the telepathic link that Lynesia had long ago established with her magic to contact her.  "Querida... I have a mission to go and locate a smuggling route through the Elwynn Forest that the Defias Brotherhood is using to assemble war materials for use in Westfall, and destroy it.  Would you be interested in joining me? We can meet for dinner, perhaps, and discuss how to proceed?"

Lynesia blinked and sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes.  "Jonny?" she murmured aloud before standing and wondering over to pick up a cup of hot tea. "Jon?" she responded through the telepathic link. "I am surprised anyone wants to overtake Westfall... it is such a down and out area. Sure I'll help you. What do you need?"

"Finding a smuggling route through the Elwynn is like finding a needle in a haystack - the Defias Brotherhood are as thick as fleas on a mangy dog," Jon replied.  "I am going to become Stavros DarKoven again - Stavros has done some business with the Defias before," Jon informed Lynesia.  "Maybe I can get a lead on the route from the Dockmaster at Jerod's Landing... that place is where the Defias distribute food and ale to their brethren.  If we can find one of the links, maybe we can follow the chains in both directions, and find the destination and the source.  Once we do that, we can shut them down - hard."

Lynesia tapped her cheek in thought as she let out a soft sigh.  "Alright.. what do you require me to do? I doubt I could go in disguise as some slave following you around again," she said to him in an amused tone. She debated getting food, but instead, she just laid back in bed and closed her eyes. "Just tell me what to do, beloved."

"I was thinking that perhaps you might watch the docks at Jerod's landing from the other side of the river,  while I sell the Defias a few small kegs of Azerite grenades I ... liberated from the Ashvane docks in Boralus.  I was thinking that if they are smuggling arms through the Landing, that the crate I sell them will end up on it, and we can follow the shipment downstream and see where it goes, and then track it upstream to see if we can find the source"  Jon wanted to smash the whole route and pull this particular fang from the Defias viper.

"Maybe Phred could make a tracker that is undetectable to anyone but us,"  Lynesia spoke softly. "I could be on the other side of the operation and once I make a map of the areas and with enough time so they couldn't trace it back to Stavros." She rubbed her face. "This.. mind link is making me nervous. When can we meet up?" she asked, her tone a bit worrisome.

"Why don't you explain what you want to Phred - I bet you she'll make whatever you ask because she "adores* you, not because you trade her refugee recovery operations in Gnomeregan..." Jon chuckled.  "We can meet in Goldshire, where the Darkmoon Faire usually sets up their portal?"

"...I haven't seen Phred in a while. W-Would she recognize me?" She sounded a bit anxious.

"Querida..." Jon said, using the Kul Tiras endearment. "She knows you, and although you wear leathers and carry a blade instead of soft robes and a book, she will welcome you... she may not ever let you leave again, for fear of losing you again, but she will rejoice that you have returned from the Void." Jon snorted.  "Sometimes I think she likes you more than she likes me!"

"...I seriously doubt that. Sometimes I think she is in love with you," she admitted before finishing getting ready. "I'll meet you in an hour at Goldshire then?" She cleared her throat.

"In Goldshire in an hour "Jon confirmed.

Guild Mission: Supply and Demand, Part II

Outside the cavern that was the home to the Scout's Den, Jon invoked his ring which allowed him to teleport to Dalaran, the city of mages, and made his way to the residence of his friend, Phredaria. he let himself in, Phred's magical locks having been set to allow entrance at any time, and found his diminutive Gnome friend in her workroom.

"So... I'm about to go under again, Phred. What do you have in the way of some explosive devices?" Jon asked his friend and forensics mage. Phredaria was also a gifted spark of a Gnomish tinkerer and had in the past had supplied Jon with numerous devices that had saved his life in the field.

And a few which had also endangered it, like the rocket-powered boots that had exploded. Or the parachute that had only opened on impact... Phred had sworn that she had fixed the release mechanism, but Jon remained suspicious.

"How about some Organic Discombobulation Grenades? You throw it at the enemy, and it spawns five miniature mechanical sheep. Each of the sheep will change anyone who touches one into a sheep, preventing them from following you?"

"...seriously? How about something more... incendiary? The objective is t destroy some munitions depots," informed Chess, grinning in anticipation of her reaction.

"Boom? Let's see what I have... Seaforium charges? Too small... Wait, I know... how about some F.R.I.E.D. grenades! Those need to be tested... ah, they might be useful in the field!"

"Fried grenades?" asked Jon, his voice dubious.

"No, not 'fried' - "F.R.I.E.D.' - A 'Fast-Roasting Incendiary Exploding Device'. Everything in a five-yard radius goes fwoooosh!" Phred crowed.

"That sounds perfect... umm.. they are stable, right? Not going to go off in my pockets or something?" asked Jon.

"Of course they are stable - well until you pull the locking pin. Then you have about five seconds before the blasting cap sets off the Azurite powder," Phred confirmed.

"Azurite powder?" asked Jon. He had seen the destructive power of the substance before.

"Just a pinch! And it makes them marvelously small - I added some lead casing to fragment as shrapnel just so the grenade would have a proper heft to it. If the grenade was too light, it wouldn't fly true, and
a little extra shredding power never hurt anyone... well, except the enemy, and that was the point, really.

"Sounds great... how many do you have?" asked Jon.

"I can let you have ten? Is that enough?"

"It'll have to be!" enthused Jon.

"Oh, and Jon?"

"Yes?"

"Trying to cook with these is definitely contra-indicated!"

Guild Mission: Supply and Demand, Part I

The fellow known as Jon Chess was gratified to find his the commander of the Scouts in the Scouts' Den. "Scoutmaster Slaiyn, may I have a moment? There is a task on the Mission Board I in which I should like to engage - apparently the Defias are building a stockpile of munitions and supplies, being smuggled through the Elwynn and into Westfall. I would like to be assigned to this mission, along with Lynesia Deh'lorei. "

Slaiyn looked over at Jon, nodding his head. "Oh, smuggling. What skills do Lynesia possess, for I already know yours."

Jon remained silent, not sure how Slaiyn could know *all* of Jon's abilities, like his cantrips for impersonating Orc or Blood Elf, but said nothing - it was always good to have a few surprises handly.

"She's what the Void Elves call a Ghostknife - a silent, ruthless killer," said Chess, "Plus, she's smart - scary smart, and has forgotten more about shadow magic than I'll ever learn in my lifetime. And most of all, I trust her to guard my back."

Slaiyn looked at the mouth of the cave, flipping open his Spellbooks and teleporting outside to the entrance. He looked at Dare and sighed.

“Oh, hello Dare," he said. "I see you aren’t comfortable with a second paralysis. Come with me.” Slaiyn grabbed Dare’s shoulder, teleporting them both inside. He returned to his conversation with Jon. “So you’d like an intelligence operative and a shadow assassin assigned to smuggling some goods across regional borders?”

"Well, more like preventing it - the Defias create enough mischief as it stands. Giving those bastards some serious armor and weaponry, not to mention, say, a ballista or a mangonel, or maybe even some light cannon or [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconet_(cannon)]falconets[/url]? The assignment is to locate the supply chain, and shut it down... permanently." Jon grinned. "I've got a few... aliases I've established for certain activities. Stavros DarKoven is a smuggler and a slaver, operating out of Booty Bay. He's worked with the Defias before. And Phred - my forensics mage - has supplied me with a half-score of F.R.I.E.D. grenades, which are ideal for this kind of mayhem. Lynesia and I can blow their supply caches so high the seagulls will need breastplates."

Slaiyn thought about it for a moment to himself, then waved his hand to Jon and nodded. "Yes, that'll be fine by me. Just...don't fuck it up? I don't want to have a mess with our name on it right now, much less one that could act as a crime against the Alliance."

Chess nodded his acknowledgment and departed.

Nightmares in the Void, Part 3

(By Lynesia's player)

The fact that Lynesia wore dark clothes did not help at all in attempting to locate her. The elf was face down a few yards away from a nearby inlet. Her entire body was covered in mud, grass, twigs and other nearby fauna that saw the elf as nothing more than a source of nutrients once the body started to decay.

IF the body was to decay that is.

Lynesia was barely conscious enough to send out for any help, though when she was awake she spent hours using her hands to pull her body a few more yards.

While she was unconscious her mind would search out for Jon.

She dreamt of Jon, the man being so far away that even if she reached out to get him he always out of reach. “Jon...Jon, please don’t leave me... Why did you forsake me?” she cried out towards him. She reaches out to get his hand. “Jon.. please look at me! Come find me.”

Nightmares in the Void, Part 2

"You thing Lynesia is alive?" Phredaria asked Jon Chess, her voice squeaking in the middle of her question with excitement. "But for the last three weeks, you were convinced that she was dead! What changed?"

"I had a dream," said Chess, sheepishly. He had teleported from his apartment above the Scribes & Nobles bookstore and woken Phredaria from a comfortable, warm bed so he could find out if she could use her arcane abilities to create a locator charm.  Phred had been grumpy until Jon had mentioned it was for Lynesia Deh'lorei.  Phred had never before taken to any of the women that Jon had romanced over the years - until she had met Lynesia, who, like Phredaria, was a mage for the Kirin Tor. She had immediately bonded with the Ren'dorei woman, and they had become fast friends. When Lynesia had vanished after the burning of Teldrassil by the Horde, Phredaria had still held out home - until Jon had told her that the mind-link that Lynesia had forged with Jon had not only been silent but had apparently been broken.

"A dream?  Jon Jon Jonny, maybe... maybe you just really miss her" Phred asked, her voice softening. "I know that you really loved her, despite... I mean, she loved you too, Jonny.  And I know you loved her.  Maybe it was just a dream?"

"Well, Phred, my darling little dove, there are two possibilities.  Imprimis, you are correct, and it was just a dream, spawned out of the gaping chasm in my heart that her absence has caused..." Jon began.  "Or... Secundus, Lynesia is alive but has been prevented from contacting us.  Maybe contacting me in my dream was the closest she could get?"  Jon's voice took on a pleading tone. "It may be a wild goose chase... probably IS a wild goose chase... but how would we feel if it was a call for help, and we dismissed it?  I'd rather waste my time and look like a fool - hardly a new experience for me, after all - than have the regrets born of not trying. So... help me?"

Phred looked at Jon's face, a mixture of hope and resignation that it had been just a dream, and that Lynesia was really gone, and sighed. "Of course, I will help, Jonny... do you have anything of hers, something as personal as possible? A lock of hair, a piece of clothing she wore?"

Jon blushed, having anticipated the question. "I brought something..."  When a few days had gone by with no word from Lynesia, Jon had gone to her house in Dalaran, and picked the lock.  Lynesia had several animal pets that needed care; Buttons the cat-form voidling, and Shadow, the Light and Void shadowfox among them.  Jon had cleaned up the messes they had made, and taken them with him back to Boralus.

On his way to Phredaria, he had stopped there long enough to obtain a garment from her dirty clothes hamper. He handed the piece of lingerie to Phred, who gave Jon a look that was half disgusted and half amused. "Well, I suppose it doesn't get any more personal than that... Go make us lunch, and I'll get started."  Phred disappeared to her workshop, and Jon went to make them lunch.

Not too much later, Phred reappeared and handed Jon a small Truesilver Kul Tiras anchor pendant on a fine mithril chain, like the golden one Jon wore, a present from a friend. "Say the usual invocation phrase, and this will point the way, Jonny.  And uh... take these, as well?" Phred handed Jon a half-dozen smoke grenades and box of high-explosive demolition charges.

Jon grinned.  In the places he went, he would have been dead several times over without Phred's tinkering "toys".

"Thank you, Phred."

Jon Chess microhero, Lynesia microhero