The fellow known as Jon Chess had discovered Dashel Stonefist in the Lakeshire Inn in the Redridge Mountain town of Lakeshire.
Jon had gotten a lead from a Stormwind City guard that the Dwarven criminal had been seen leaving Stormwind City with the nine-year-old Kaldorei girl Korynna "Kori" Starwind, heading towards Goldshire. Jon had gone to Goldshire, where the itinerant merchant Remy "Two Times" (so named for his penchant for repeating the words at the end of his sentences) had seen them turn east on the road.
"Yeah, I remember seeing him before... before," Remy had said. "Usually he was alone - he likes to drink here with friends from Jacob's Landing... Jacob's Landing." Jacob's Landing was a nearby smuggling dock operated by the Defias Brotherhood. "This time he didn't stop though, just bought some provisions from me and headed towards Eastvale... Eastvale."
Jon had thanked the fellow, not stabbing him for his annoying verbal tic, and followed the road to Eastvale. He had shown the sketches of Kori and Stonefist to enough people in Eastvale to be certain he had not stopped and continued down the road to the next town in the Redridge Mountains - Lakeshire
Lakeshire was a pleasant-enough human town that sat on the bank of Lake Everstill. Under the watchful and often worried eye of Magistrate Solomon, the town was considered a pretty quiet and serene.. well, except for the large nearby gnoll infestation, and occasional incursions by the Blackrock Orcs. So...by quiet, Jon clearly was stretching the definition. The biker gang the Onyx Jackals had once used Lakeshire as a base of operation but had moved on to Boralus (or so Jon had heard).
Jon's first stop was the Lakeshire Inn, to speak to the barkeep, a old balding warrior named Daniels. Jon showed him the pictures of Kori and Stonefist, and was surprised when Daniels had not only seen them a week or so ago, but that Stonefist had returned last night, and was still asleep in his room upstairs. Jon thanked him, discretely bribed the Daniels to forget that Jon had ever been here, and left the Inn.
Outside the Inn, Jon turned away from the entrance and turned the corner on the side of the building opposite that of the sun, where the shadows of the blocked daylight formed shadows. With a quick guttural invocation, Jon entered the shadows and into the Shadows, vanishing from sight. Re-entering the Inn, Jon made his way, silently and unseen, up the wide stairway which led to the sleeping rooms. It was the work of seconds to Shadowstep the short distance into the room.
Jon smiled nastily. Stonefist was slumbering deeply, masking any possible sound Jon might make with mighty snores. The canny criminal had set up a loaded crossbow on a chair and rigged it to fire should someone open the inn room door unexpectantly. A small spread of caltrops had been scattered in front of the door and beneath the window to the outside. Jon approved of the precautions - he would have wagered that the caltrops were poisoned, too.
Jon cleared the caltrops and disarmed the crossbow, just in case, and then approached the recumbent Dwarf, Jon drew both of his daggers and put the cold steel tip of one to the Dwarf's left nostril until a half-inch of the blade was nestled inside. The cold of the steel made Stonefist twitch and might have been enough to wake him, but Jon was impatient and ore the knife sideways, through the sensitive flesh of the nose. Dashel Stonefist awoke with a scream but stopped when he felt the other dagger pressed against his throat.
"Morning, 'Fist," greeted Chess with a pleasant voice.
"Wha' thae bloody hell are ye doing, ye poltroon!" asked Stonefist in a furious whisper.
"We're going to have a chat, and I have no patience for your usual recalcitrance, so I thought I'd make clear that if I do not like your answers, you won't be leaving the room in one piece. I trust I've made my point?" asked Chess.
"I'm going tae kill ye, ye son of a split-legged whore! When I get oot ... yeeaaargh!" Stonefist began, interrupted my Jon's ist breaking his already injured nose.
"Let me repeat - I have no time nor patience to do this the long way, where I beat you to a pulp like the last time," explained Chess, his voice a model of patience and restraint.
Stonefist glared murder at the human but kept his mouth wisely shut.
"The girl... where is she now?" asked Jon.
"Wha' girl... no wait!" pleaded Stonefist as Jon placed the dagger point in the other nostril. "I sold her, okay?"
"To whom did you sell her?" Jon asked patiently. pushing the dagger point a little further into the nasal cavity.
"I sold her to a Dark Iron slaver named Khorgheld Blaxeaxe over in Shadowforge City," answered the Dwarven thug.
"Thank you... and now, one last question... why?"
"I owned that bookstore bitch some payback is why..." grumbled the Dwarf. "She and some other bitch - a Worgen, so a real bitch... did me dirt for no reason, and you know I never let the scales go unbalanced. I saw that the kid had been hanging out around the shop and that Whisperleaf had begun to like her, so I thought I could pay back the bitch and turn a bit of coin at the same time... the Warchief has a bounty for Kaldorei slaves, ye ken."
"True, true... I am not saying you did wrong. I know how important it is to balance the scales... so let's balance ours, shall we?" asked Jon rhetorically. "So... for the kidnapping.." Jon ripped the other nostril open with his dagger. Stonefist screamed like a stuck pig. "For the selling of a child to the Dark Iron bastards... " Jon snarled as he grabbed the Stomefist's hand and held it to the wooden side table. His eyes flared with a savage rage as he drove his dagger through the center of Stonefist's outspread hand. Another guttural scream ripped from Stonefist's throat. "And for reparations to the child... I am confiscating your ill-gotten gains."
"Fine, fine!" screeched Stonefist. "Just let me alone!"
"So you admit the judgment is fair, and the scales balanced?" asked Chess.
"Yes, yes, anything, just stop!" beseeched the dwarf.
"Very well..." began Jon, and then grabbed Stonefist by the throat. "By the authority of the Uncrowned, "Jon showed the dwarf his Uncrowned insignia, "know that if I ever see you again, or if I find out that you even whisper, even think of crossing me again, this will seem like foreplay, if you catch my meaning? Van Cleef owes me a favor, and you are not well-loved by the Defias."
Stonefist's eyes went wide; even though the pain of his wounds, he recognized the gravity of the threat. The Uncrowned was a secret organization of rogues, spies, and criminals who claimed to be "the slayers of kings, the downfall of empires, the unseen blades that write the true history of this world." Their leaders formed the Council of Shadows, and they had fought the Burning Legion during the demons' third invasion. Ravenholdt, SI:7, the Defias Brotherhood, the Bloodsail Buccaneers... all were represented in the leadership of the Uncrowned. Several of the Council of Shadows were personal friends of Jon, and others - including Vanessa Van Cleef - owned him blood debts.
Jon turned to go and changed his mind. Before Stonefist could react, Jon's boot came down sideways on the criminal's left knee joint. Jon snarled as he felt the kneecap slide off the joint in what would be an especially long and painful healing. "That was just for me, you boiling pustule on the penis of a diseased goat... feel free to come after me, if you want to balance that scale."
Jon took the rather large sack of gold Stonefist had gotten for selling Kori, and left the Inn. he headed to the flight point to go make an interim report to his client before heading to Shadowforge City.
Jon had gotten a lead from a Stormwind City guard that the Dwarven criminal had been seen leaving Stormwind City with the nine-year-old Kaldorei girl Korynna "Kori" Starwind, heading towards Goldshire. Jon had gone to Goldshire, where the itinerant merchant Remy "Two Times" (so named for his penchant for repeating the words at the end of his sentences) had seen them turn east on the road.
"Yeah, I remember seeing him before... before," Remy had said. "Usually he was alone - he likes to drink here with friends from Jacob's Landing... Jacob's Landing." Jacob's Landing was a nearby smuggling dock operated by the Defias Brotherhood. "This time he didn't stop though, just bought some provisions from me and headed towards Eastvale... Eastvale."
Jon had thanked the fellow, not stabbing him for his annoying verbal tic, and followed the road to Eastvale. He had shown the sketches of Kori and Stonefist to enough people in Eastvale to be certain he had not stopped and continued down the road to the next town in the Redridge Mountains - Lakeshire
Lakeshire was a pleasant-enough human town that sat on the bank of Lake Everstill. Under the watchful and often worried eye of Magistrate Solomon, the town was considered a pretty quiet and serene.. well, except for the large nearby gnoll infestation, and occasional incursions by the Blackrock Orcs. So...by quiet, Jon clearly was stretching the definition. The biker gang the Onyx Jackals had once used Lakeshire as a base of operation but had moved on to Boralus (or so Jon had heard).
 |
| Lakeshire Inn |
Jon's first stop was the Lakeshire Inn, to speak to the barkeep, a old balding warrior named Daniels. Jon showed him the pictures of Kori and Stonefist, and was surprised when Daniels had not only seen them a week or so ago, but that Stonefist had returned last night, and was still asleep in his room upstairs. Jon thanked him, discretely bribed the Daniels to forget that Jon had ever been here, and left the Inn.
Outside the Inn, Jon turned away from the entrance and turned the corner on the side of the building opposite that of the sun, where the shadows of the blocked daylight formed shadows. With a quick guttural invocation, Jon entered the shadows and into the Shadows, vanishing from sight. Re-entering the Inn, Jon made his way, silently and unseen, up the wide stairway which led to the sleeping rooms. It was the work of seconds to Shadowstep the short distance into the room.
Jon smiled nastily. Stonefist was slumbering deeply, masking any possible sound Jon might make with mighty snores. The canny criminal had set up a loaded crossbow on a chair and rigged it to fire should someone open the inn room door unexpectantly. A small spread of caltrops had been scattered in front of the door and beneath the window to the outside. Jon approved of the precautions - he would have wagered that the caltrops were poisoned, too.
Jon cleared the caltrops and disarmed the crossbow, just in case, and then approached the recumbent Dwarf, Jon drew both of his daggers and put the cold steel tip of one to the Dwarf's left nostril until a half-inch of the blade was nestled inside. The cold of the steel made Stonefist twitch and might have been enough to wake him, but Jon was impatient and ore the knife sideways, through the sensitive flesh of the nose. Dashel Stonefist awoke with a scream but stopped when he felt the other dagger pressed against his throat.
"Morning, 'Fist," greeted Chess with a pleasant voice.
"Wha' thae bloody hell are ye doing, ye poltroon!" asked Stonefist in a furious whisper.
"We're going to have a chat, and I have no patience for your usual recalcitrance, so I thought I'd make clear that if I do not like your answers, you won't be leaving the room in one piece. I trust I've made my point?" asked Chess.
"I'm going tae kill ye, ye son of a split-legged whore! When I get oot ... yeeaaargh!" Stonefist began, interrupted my Jon's ist breaking his already injured nose.
"Let me repeat - I have no time nor patience to do this the long way, where I beat you to a pulp like the last time," explained Chess, his voice a model of patience and restraint.
Stonefist glared murder at the human but kept his mouth wisely shut.
"The girl... where is she now?" asked Jon.
"Wha' girl... no wait!" pleaded Stonefist as Jon placed the dagger point in the other nostril. "I sold her, okay?"
"To whom did you sell her?" Jon asked patiently. pushing the dagger point a little further into the nasal cavity.
"I sold her to a Dark Iron slaver named Khorgheld Blaxeaxe over in Shadowforge City," answered the Dwarven thug.
"Thank you... and now, one last question... why?"
"I owned that bookstore bitch some payback is why..." grumbled the Dwarf. "She and some other bitch - a Worgen, so a real bitch... did me dirt for no reason, and you know I never let the scales go unbalanced. I saw that the kid had been hanging out around the shop and that Whisperleaf had begun to like her, so I thought I could pay back the bitch and turn a bit of coin at the same time... the Warchief has a bounty for Kaldorei slaves, ye ken."
"True, true... I am not saying you did wrong. I know how important it is to balance the scales... so let's balance ours, shall we?" asked Jon rhetorically. "So... for the kidnapping.." Jon ripped the other nostril open with his dagger. Stonefist screamed like a stuck pig. "For the selling of a child to the Dark Iron bastards... " Jon snarled as he grabbed the Stomefist's hand and held it to the wooden side table. His eyes flared with a savage rage as he drove his dagger through the center of Stonefist's outspread hand. Another guttural scream ripped from Stonefist's throat. "And for reparations to the child... I am confiscating your ill-gotten gains."
"Fine, fine!" screeched Stonefist. "Just let me alone!"
"So you admit the judgment is fair, and the scales balanced?" asked Chess.
"Yes, yes, anything, just stop!" beseeched the dwarf.
"Very well..." began Jon, and then grabbed Stonefist by the throat. "By the authority of the Uncrowned, "Jon showed the dwarf his Uncrowned insignia, "know that if I ever see you again, or if I find out that you even whisper, even think of crossing me again, this will seem like foreplay, if you catch my meaning? Van Cleef owes me a favor, and you are not well-loved by the Defias."
Stonefist's eyes went wide; even though the pain of his wounds, he recognized the gravity of the threat. The Uncrowned was a secret organization of rogues, spies, and criminals who claimed to be "the slayers of kings, the downfall of empires, the unseen blades that write the true history of this world." Their leaders formed the Council of Shadows, and they had fought the Burning Legion during the demons' third invasion. Ravenholdt, SI:7, the Defias Brotherhood, the Bloodsail Buccaneers... all were represented in the leadership of the Uncrowned. Several of the Council of Shadows were personal friends of Jon, and others - including Vanessa Van Cleef - owned him blood debts.
Jon turned to go and changed his mind. Before Stonefist could react, Jon's boot came down sideways on the criminal's left knee joint. Jon snarled as he felt the kneecap slide off the joint in what would be an especially long and painful healing. "That was just for me, you boiling pustule on the penis of a diseased goat... feel free to come after me, if you want to balance that scale."
Jon took the rather large sack of gold Stonefist had gotten for selling Kori, and left the Inn. he headed to the flight point to go make an interim report to his client before heading to Shadowforge City.
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