(2024-08-11) Everything is Hard to Pronounce (S14 E6 - White Squad Log)

Details

Author:	inkie
Summary:	White Squad goes clamming and experiments with fish pheromones before being dispatched on a military scouting mission that turns into a tour of ancient elven history. Did you know that a group of stingrays is called a fever? Did you know that there are anglerfish murlocs? Did you know that the plural of Vashj is Vashesses? One of those things is untrue.
Rating:	M for Mature 17+

Arc: Season 14

Ben is seated on the sand sharpening his sword. His sword is super sharp. It has been sharpened so much in the last week. His sword is tired of being sharpened. Ben needs other underwater hobbies.

Almeiria is staring distantly into the water, her expression hidden within shadowform.

Florande comes over to sit next to Ben, and considers Kyris's sword, which she is still carrying. "Do I need to do that, if I am not using the sword?"

Ben glances up and smiles at Florande. He sets his sword aside, probably to the sword's relief. "No, I don't think so. Only if you are gonna use it."

Florande nods. "I have been trying to keep it safe from saltwater with salves and magic, but I do not know what else to do for sword maintenance."

Niksi wanders up. "Actually, the most important thing is to keep polishing your metals. The sodium chloride in this environment will exacerbate corrosion."

Florande smiles at Niksi. "That, I am trying to take care of. I will not return a ruined sword."

Ben squints at Niksi. "Sodium chlor– wait, that's the one that is just salt, yeah?"

“If you want to call it just salt… then yes." Niksi does not want to call it just salt.

Ben nods politely. "I would prefer just to call it 'salt,' ma'am."

Niksi's shoulder's droop as if she has somehow failed.

Estel is quietly trying to cheer up a soldier who has not yet recovered.

"What kind of bird works on a construction site?" Estel asks the wounded man.

The soldier stares at Estel. "Uh…"

"A crane," Estel says, and snorts.

Captain Taylor, on the other side of the fire, glances toward Admiral Dvorek and then gets to his feet to approach the Cobalt group. "Cobalts?" he asks. "Can I ask a favor of you?"

"What did the–" Estel looks up. She bounces to her feet, wandering over to her group.

Ben glances up, instantly alert. "Yessir. 'Course, sir." He gets to his feet.

Florande clambers to her feet as well.

The Captain glances over at Admiral Dvorek again. “Some of our survivors have already begun attempting to bolster our supplies by heading down into the gorge to dive for clams. We’ve been receiving reports of attacks by some kind of… murlocs, down there."

He lowers his voice. “The Admiral has to stay here to… plan our offensive against the naga, so I’m having trouble convincing him to send any muscle down to help the divers. If you’d be up for it, I’m certain they could use the backup.”

"I would expect sharks, too. We tossed dead naga down the gorge," Florande says matter-of-factly.

Estel puts on her goggles while Captain Taylor is still talking, bouncing restlessly on her feet.

Ben surveys Admiral Dvorek narrowly. He nods at Florande.

Captain Taylor smiles wearily. "Yes. I expect there may be… all kinds of things down there. I also expect you can handle them." He steps back. “Come back and let me know if you can get the situation under control.”

"Let's go, can we go?" Estel asks Ben. "Oh, yeah, Light, do the thing." That seems to be a Power Word: Fortitude prayer. A classic.

Florande hastily gestures herself, calling nature magic to support the team.

Before the group can head for the water, though, Wavespeaker Valoren approaches. She smiles sympathetically at Captain Taylor, then turns to the group. “These poor people are starving while their leader plots war. While it’s true that we have much to attend to, and the naga are not the least of them, we need to get some food in the soldiers’ bellies before we can do anything else.

“I don’t know what the naga fed them during their captivity, if anything, but many of them are definitely still in no shape to fight. Perhaps while you are aiding the divers in the gorge, you could join in with the harvest? The more meat we have for them, the better.”

Niksi makes puppy-eyes at Ben. "I've been itching to explore that gorge! I'd love to examine the bivalve molluscs down there."

Florande nods at Niksi. "And then eat them?"

Niksi grins at Florande. "If they're edible!"

Ben nods seriously to Valoren. "Yes'm. We will bring back some clams with us too."

Captain Taylor says, "A man called Birmingham's in charge. Report to him when you get down there."

Ben salutes and heads for the water.

Almeiria glances at the others, then returns her gaze to the water. The shadows around her intensify.

Niksi tugs her diving helmet on.

Estel hurries on in.

Flroande pauses to admire the Alliance banner outside the cave.

The water of the gorge grows steadily, eerily darker as they descend. It has a strange reddish tinge. Enormous, alien-looking anemones and corals grow in profusion from the steep walls of the gorge and from its pitted, uneven sandy floor.

Ahead on the sand, by the half-decayed wreckage of a ship, stand a man and a gnome in diving helmets.

The human in the dive helmet is tethered to an air tank. He stops drifting and plants his feet on the floor of the gorge as the group approaches, waiting for them.

"Are you the clam divers?" Florande asks.

"Divemaster Birmingham, supervisor," the man confirms. "You are?"

"Florande," she says, her gaze following an interesting crab.

"I'm Estel, hi." Estel settles her feet on the sea floor and gives him a wave.

"Salutations. I'm Niksi Knockfathom. Nice helmets!"

"An' Lieutenant Ben Hazan. We’re with Cobalt Company. Here to help," Ben tells him.

“Superb!” says the man. "We can use all the help we can get, I’ll tell you that much.” He gestures around the eerily twilit waters. "There are plenty of clams for the gathering here. Load up!”

The gnome tethered to the same air tank as the Divemaster bobs over to them. “Hello! Yes! Cobalts! Alliance Engineer Hexascrub, at your service! Or, actually, hoping you might be at mine.” Within the glass faceplate of his helmet, he makes big, hopeful eyes.

"Yessir?" Ben asks politely.

"How can we help, Engineer?" asks Niksi.

“Splendid!” The gnome claps his hands together. Slowly and ineffectually, because they’re underwater. “I’ve had an idea. A brilliant idea! Around the red anemones on the walls of the gorge, there is a distinctive species of fish lingering. I believe they have formed a symbiotic defense relationship with the anemones.

“Having dismissed the possibilities of anemone-disguise for protecting our men down here, I believe I’ve uncovered the chemical attractant that lures the fish. I happen to have some gyroscopic thermascrub extractors with me that you can use to take samples. Use them to extract the chemical attractant from several of the anemones, then bring the samples back to me for rapid synthesis and deployment!"

Florande stares at Hexascrub. There is a nonzero chance all of that just flew right over her head.

Ben looks at Niksi, hoping she knows how to use a gyroscopic thermascrub extractor.

Niksi nods along as if she understood every word… because she did. "We'd be more than happy to collect your samples."

"What is this supposed to… do exactly?" Almeiria asks.

"If my theory is correct, we will be able to deploy the attractant to lure piscine symbiotes to our divers for their defense!" beams Hexascrub at Almeiria.

Ben considers this in brow-furrowed silence for a moment. "You wanna give 'em… attack fish."

Niksi sighs. It's the salt thing all over again.

"Defense fish! But yes!" Hexascrub beams.

"Okay," Estel says. "Gimme a thing and we'll do the stuff."

"Just tell me what to bite," Florande says with a smile. "Maybe Niksi can handle the chemical thing."

Niksi nods, accepting the extractor. "If you insist." As if she would have it any other way.

"Okay, y'all. We are killin' murlocs, collectin' clams, and… doin' a chemical thing to amennonies." Ben leads White Squad out into the gorge. "Amemo– anemno– anom– them seaweedy things."

Estel skips off along the seafloor to scoop a clam into her net.

Ben nods to a Glimmerdeep Diver as he passes.

The group has not proceeded far along the trench when they are ambushed by a pair of… murlocs? Maybe? They dispatch the creatures.

"Oh, shit. What is with these murlocs?" Ben gapes at one of the corpses.

The murloc’s scaled hide is nearly black. Vicious needle-teeth jut from its prominent lower jaw. Its eyes are opaque, glowing with some milky phosphorescence, and a stalk that protrudes from its forehead dangles a little globe that glows with the same sickly light.

"They have little glowballs," Florande peers at the stalk on its forehead.

"Their eyes is glowballs, too. An' look at them fucken teeth." Ben paddles back a step.

"Oh, it's like a lure, right? An underwater light, and then the fish swim into its mouth," Estel guesses.

"If the fishes like lights, why don't they just live up higher?" Ben puzzles. "Where there is light."

"Because they're adapted to this environment,” Niksi informs him. “Also, many plants and animals of these depths are bioluminescent. They likely believe they are about to get a snack… and then they become the snack."

"Ohh, that's tricky," Florande says, musing. "I wonder if I could try something similar. Stormcrow until animals come after me and then BEAR."

Almeiria focuses on killing the murlocs, and seems way too happy about it.

Niksi delicately applies the extractor to the central pods of various scarlet anemone. Each time, it gives a satisfying little clickity-click, indicating a successful sample.

Ben swears as he fends off a swarm of bitey little fish from one anemone.

Estel sticks together with the group, scooping up clams where she can.

Florande stays mostly in cat-form, kitty-paddling from murloc to murloc.

Another murloc ambushes Ben from the deeper darkness behind a coral. He reacts reflexively, and then looks apologetically toward Niksi when he accidentally also kills a crab that was minding its own business.

Niksi gives a little sigh… then gathers up the crab's remains. More meat is more meat.

Ben eyes the murloc corpses floating around them. "We fill up the gyroscrubber, Niksi?"

"We killed good amount of murlocs, at least," Florande says cheerfully.

Niksi pushes a button on the scrubber, and it makes another click-clickity-click sound. "Indubitably!"

"Okay." Ben nods at her. "Let's get these clams back to the Divemaster, then."

"Sir." Ben salutes Divemaster Birmingham and presents him with a sack of clams.

The Divemaster peers into the sack, and looks expectantly to the others.

Estel feeds her seahorse a pocket shrimp (this is defined as a shrimp that was in her pocket) and pets it before emptying her net of clams into the sack.

Niksi presents another sack full of clams, and some crab.

Florande is carrying a clam in her mouth. Other than that… maybe the group effort averages out.

“Well done indeed! This is an entirely unshameful amount of clams to have gathered. The survivors will certainly be grateful.” Divemaster Birmingham sets about tallying the harvest with satisfaction.

Estel mouths 'entirely unshameful'.

Niksi hands the scrubber back to Hexascrub. "We've gathered a full batch of samples from the local actiniaria."

Engineer Hexascrub does a slow-motion victory dance. “Superb! Chemicals abound! My instantaneous chemical synthesizer is already pre-tested and prepared. Time to make some science!”

Niksi cannot help but wiggle excitedly at the notion of making some science.

The gnome gleefully bounds (in slow-motion) over to a boxlike device set up nearby, and inserts the extractor within. He punches some buttons.

Florande watches to see what will happen with the magic gnome things.

There is a hideous grinding noise and the box sputters and jumps a few times before sighing and opening again to reveal the extractor flask. It now has a spray-top affixed, and the compound within has shifted from red to mauve.

"That is a less angry color," Florande says, tilting her hear to look at it more closely.

Engineer Hexascrub removes the bottle to hand it to Niksi. “Marvelous. Marvelous. Ready for deployment! Simply spray the divers with a bit of the chemical, and they will soon be accompanied by a protective piscine pal. You can even spray yourself to similar effect, if you so desire.”

He pauses. “Speaking of desire… I would highly recommend that you moderate deployment of the attractant. Large doses could result in undesirable effects. Undesirable for you, anyway. Likely very desirable to the fish.”

Niksi nods exaggeratedly to make it clear with the helmet on.

Ben blinks. He looks uneasily at Niksi.

"Is this a fish love potion?" Florande asks bluntly.

"It's a bit more like really tasty seasoning for fish food,” Niksi ventures.

Hexascrub smiles patiently at Florande. "It is a chemical attractant, my dear. A pheromonal cocktail."

"Okay. Well, let's go attractant some fish," Ben says.

"Right," Florande says, but she sounds far less confident.

"So it's not actually a love potion," Estel says to Florande. "There's no love involved. It's basically like spraying them with perfume that fish find really sexy." Estel shrugs.

"If it is seasoning, that is another thing entirely," Florande says to Estel. "I do not want them to be eaten by fish. But also… will fish be angry when they realize the sexy thing isn't another fish?"

"Angry? No, not at all," Niksi explains. "They're just having an instinctive response to chemical stimulation."

They bound along the gorge floor in slo-mo, and Niksi sprays clam divers as they go. Colorful frenzies* flit out of nearby corals and linger protectively around the divers.

*Frenzy as in the Azerothian species of fish.

Glimmerdeep Diver says: A fish? For me? It's adorable.

Glimmerdeep Diver says: Oh come on. As if I haven't been through enough.

Glimmerdeep Diver says: Do I want to know where this stuff is from?

Glimmerdeep Diver says: I don't want to be ungrateful, but was that absolutely necessary?

Glimmerdeep Diver says: Hexascrub, right? Of course.

Niksi uses the attractant on herself, and one of the frenzies swims up to hang around her. "Aw, look Glub, you have a friend! Don't get eaten."

Ben surveys the disgruntled clam-diver corps and their toothy fish friends. "That is… all of 'em?" He turns and sees Niksi's extra fish friend, and stares at her. "Let's, uh, get goin'," he says. "Before, uh. Before."

Estel heads on back to Hexascrub.

Engineer Hexascrub is already doing his slow underwater victory dance again. “Well done! Well done, my odorific associates. You are both swift and assiduous, if I do say so myself. May your future travels be rampant with inspiration and opulence!”

Niksi blushes.

"Thank… you…" Florande says slowly, still eyeing Hexascrub like he's speaking a different language.

Ben repeats under his breath, “Rampant with opulence.”

Divemaster Birmingham straightens from where he has been packing clams into crates. “And if you’re ready to head back up — grab a few of these to take with you, eh?”

Ben nods with something like relief. That is a sensible, practical task.

"They'll be happy to have food, up in the cave," Florande nods.

Estel pats her seahorse. "You can carry that, right, Buddy?" Pocket shrimp! She is absolutely bribing the seahorse to do menial labor.

As they travel back upward out of the gorge toward the cave, the scent of their cargo (or possibly of lingering chemical attractant) appears to lure a shark.

Make that sharks. Several sharks.

"Shit." Ben surveys the shark corpses. "Everyone good? Clams all good?"

"Well, that was exciting," Almeiria says.

"All mine are safe," Florande nods.

Estel checks on her seahorse. "Yep. All good."

"Hungry hungry hammerheads,” says Niksi cheerfully.

"Okay. Whew,” Ben turns his seahorse back toward the cave entrance ahead. “Let's get 'em in."

Estel unloads the clams and drags the crate towards the captain.

Ben sets his crate down too and nods at Captain Taylor. "Sir. We took care of the murlocs — they are real nasty down there, by the way — and brung up some clams from Birmingham."

Florande sets her batch of clams on top.

Captain Taylor nods with relief. He turns to survey the rag-tag group of soldiers recuperating on the sand behind him. “Thank you for stepping up to take care of this, Cobalts. I know there are a lot of concerns swarming us right now, but the well-being of our survivors is paramount.”

Admiral Dvorek has been standing by his table impatiently. He turns now and strides toward the group. “Cobalts!” he barks. He turns a cold eye on Captain Taylor. “These men don’t need coddling. They need blood. They need to make the naga pay for what they did to our brothers and sisters in arms. They are trained killers, and they are ready to kill. That’s the boost to morale we all need.”

Ben opens his mouth and then closes it again.

"They also… um… need to stay alive," Florande whispers, looking at the ground.

Dvorek turns on the group again, and gives no sign he heard Florande. “I’ll give you the situation straight: This cave is our only refuge. There’s no help on the way. Whatever happens, this cave has to remain safe or we’re all going to die down here. That means we need a forward post to launch our attacks from, some place away from here. Some place defensible. I’ve picked some promising locations.

“You’ll find some massive ruins to the west of us. The naga seem to have nests of their own there. Head down and scout the north end of the ruins, the passage to the northwest that leads under that main structure, and the cluster of buildings to the southeast, under the bridges. Bring me back any information you can. Oh, and take out any naga patrols you encounter. That should probably go without saying.” He eyes the group like he suspects they might be a little slow.

"Sir, yessir," Ben says as coolly as he can.

Florande shrinks back a little at all the anger.

"Sure," Estel says. "Also, there's clams for you and the troops to eat now." She seems utterly unfazed by the Admiral's attitude.

"Oh, brilliant idea! I thought we might just let the naga swim by or invite them to tea,” says Niksi.

Admiral Dvorek snorts and turns his back to return to his table.

"Hmm… inviting them to tea… might be interesting," Almeiria murmurs.

Niksi stifles a snicker.

When the Admiral has turned away, Captain Taylor steps closer and lowers his voice. “I’ve taken the liberty of doing some preliminary scouting myself. The naga may not be aware of our position in this cave yet, but they’re not unprepared for intruders.

“It’s not just the patrols. They’ve also got magical sentry devices set up — you’ll see them, they look like warlocks’ eyes — to warn them of unwanted guests. If there’s some way for you to get to them unnoticed and shut them down before they sound any alarms, your lives will be much easier. Not to mention longer. Be careful down there.”

Florande nods silently at Taylor.

"Aye aye, Captain." Niksi salutes.

Estel gives Taylor a thumbs-up.

The dark-haired kaldorei woman who has been watching these exchanges waits until Captain Taylor has moved away before hurrying over. “Florande!” she calls, soft but urgent. “Florande! Wait!”

Florande pause, and then turns to bound back over to her. "Yes, Levia?"

Levia Dreamwaker pauses to check over her shoulder that she’s not being overheard. When she sees Admiral Dvorek glaring narrow-eyed at her, her lips tighten and she straightens her shoulders and addresses Florande and the group firmly.

“I know that almost everyone in this cave thinks we’re not in a position to be worrying about anything but our own hides right now, but I don’t think we can dismiss our ancestors and the history of this place so lightly. The nagas’ history is ours as well, and there may be insight for all of us here.”

"An excellent point," Niksi nods emphatically. "The seas contain vast troves of historical value.”

Levia smiles with relief at Niksi. "All I ask is that, while you’re down there on the military mens’ tasks, you keep a watchful eye out for objects of significance. And if you could get a look at the statues in the central gardens, those are of especial interest.”

Florande nods, staring at Levia intently. "I will look. If there is anything for us to learn from the past, we will learn it."

"Thank you! Thank you." Levia beams at Florande. She lifts her chin and stalks back toward her fire without a look at the Admiral or Captain Taylor.

White Squad proceeds to travel a further distance than they actually travel, because not everything in the ocean is right next door.

Ben stops his seahorse to stare at the expanse of ruins ahead. He gives a low whistle, which doesn't really work underwater.

Florande gazes at the algae-covered structures. "This was a city once."

"There. One of the magic eyes," Almeiria says, pointing.

Florande stares at it. "It's green, like a warlock thing."

Ben nods to Almeiria. "Can you get it from here?"

Almeiria dispatches the eye. "Clear."

Ben nods to her again.

"I'm gonna have a look," Estel says, and closes her eyes.

Florande turns to stare at Estel. "What do you see?"

Estel opens her eyes. "Okay, there's a ton of them, and I can tap into their vision. They're spread out pretty well, though."

Ben nods curtly. "We’ll go in quiet and take out them eyes. Sneak up on 'em."

Estel whispers cheerful Shadow Magic things like, "Death," at the eyeballs.

"Damn, will you look at this place?" Ben asks rhetorically. They are all looking at it.

Florande swipes at a naga patroller. Then she pauses. "Look, there are statues."

Ben alights on the ground of the garden ruins, among the giant statues.

Estel swims in front of a statue with a head about as tall as she is.

"These two are in good shape. Even the ears are not broke." Florande peers at the two statues.

"You know who they are?" Ben cranes his neck.

"Who? Hm," Florande considers. "They are boys. I was not there so long ago. Maybe Caspis or Anareline knew them."

Estel grabs one of the statue's stone ears and swings around it like some sort of weird underwater pole dance before rejoining the others.

"There is more over here," Ben calls. "This one got a plaque, Florande, but I can't read it."

Florande wipes away some algae and reads the plaque. "High Priestess Siralen."

Niksi peers up at the statue. "Who was she?"

Estel swims around the base of the statue and snipes an eyeball with a ray of holy light.

Florande frowns and scans through the text. "She nurtured Quel'Dormir Temple into a glowing beacon of faith."

"Is that what this place is? Quel'Dormir Temple?" Niksi looks around.

Florande reads on, "Then it says she's got newfound service under Queen Azshara. I guess yeah, that's this place. She was a Highborne."

"I do wonder if she survived and is a naga now," Almeiria says.

"It is possible, but hard to imagine," Florande says. "So many memories in only one mind.”

Ben again tries to whistle, and again fails. "Hey, 'nother plaque," he calls.

Florande swims over to read it. "High Ranger Valarian, this one. But he… is dead. The statue is in his memory." She reads through. "He must have died doing something impressive. It says 'by life, granted us beauty and tranquility in our city streets' and 'by death, banished fears and created long-lasting peace. May his sacrifice never be forgotten.' I wonder what he did?"

"Damn, fellow." Ben gazes up at the statue respectfully.

"He, uh, created long-lasting peace, I guess," Estel says. She does an underwater shrug.

"You would think, if they did not want it forgotten, they might have written what it was?" Almeiria says.

"That would have helped, with the memory,:" Florande agrees.

Ben looks around. "There any more? Let's head north, maybe?"

"And we gotta find those places that asshole wanted us to look at," Estel says. "Niksi, which way is north?"

Niksi checkes her wrist compass, then points. "This way."

Florande nods and gets swimming.

"More in here!" Florande calls. "Two more ladies."

Florande peers at the statue. "Okay this one is Azshara. Before nagafication, clearly."

"The Queen Azshara?" Ben peers up in awe.

Florande nods. "She was supposed to be really pretty."

"I can see that," Ben says solemnly. It helps that from his vantage he is staring directly up at her well-chiseled underboob.

Niksi peers at the statue. "Is that an attractive elf?"

Florande shrugs.

Estel swims up to the face of the statue to evaluate. She then swims around behind the statue to see how long Azshara's hair is. It seems to meld into her cape, both of which are covered with moss.

"I guess?" is Estel's unenthusiastic evaluation.

"A statue wouldn't do anyone justice. Just look at the ones in Stormwind," Almeiria says.

This is an extremely valid point.

Florande swims over to the other statue. "Oh, this one has a name, but not a title. Wait. I know this name. Lestharia Vashj."

Ben mouths Lestharia Vashj. Not well. It's a mouthful.

"Vashj. That was a name in Outland, wasn't it?" Florande asks, then focuses on the plaque again.

Ben knits his brow. "Yeah, she was a naga lady who went with Illidan. She was under the reservoir? Tryin' to drain it?"

"Yes, yes! The naga lady in Zangarmarsh," Florande nods.

"Is this her?" Ben peers up dubiously. "Or there is other Vash…esses?"

Florande wipes at the plaque and reads, "'This monument stands testament to the benevolent leadership of our beloved Matron Lestharia Vashj. For a hundred years, she has ushered the people of her gleaming city, Vashj'ir, into an age of prosperity.'"

She frowns, and mouths Vashj'ir. "That word was on one of the others, too," she says. "Maybe it is… this place? It was a city."

"A city? Vash-jeer?" Ben turns to survey the ruins around them. "An' the temple was called what?"

"Quel'dormir," Florande repeats.

Niksi practices, "Vasheer…Vash…ir. Vashj? Vashj'ir. And Quel'dormir." The latter is much easier on the gnomish tongue.

Florande nods. "And then it says, 'May she and her daughter, radiant Lady Vashj, continue to light the way for our people in out darkest nights for a hundred years to come.'"

"Is that her name? Lady?" Almeiria asks.

Estel snort-laughs.

"So this is not — okay, this is a different Vash-ej. The mom of the other one? And also… yeah. Was it?" Ben squints at the statue.

"It does not seem like a good first name for a noble," Florande says thoughtfully. "Would she be called Lady Lady? But people did call the one in Zangarmarsh Lady Vashj, yes, so maybe the statue is her mother."

"Maybe Lady is her title an' it is somethin' under Matron. Like if you are the daughter of a Matron you are just a Lady." Ben contemplates ancient elven noble hierarchy.

"Maybe," Florande frowns. "We did away with all the noble stuff, after the Sundering. So we don't use those titles anymore."

"Maybe it translates weird." Estel shrugs.

"But to ignore the poor girl's actual name…" Almeiria shakes her head.

"Living in the shadow of Lestharia," Florande shrugs. "At least she got a mention?"

"An' this shit is all before the Sundering." Ben looks around in awe again. "This is a whole city sunk."

Florande nods. "It would have been amazing once."

"Weird tablet," Estel calls.

In a terrace chamber to the north — one of those to which Admiral Dvorek directed them — there is, indeed, a weird tablet. It is inscribed with a glowing reddish rune.

Florande glances at the tablet and then is distracted by a school of fish swimming by.

Ben swims up the ruined steps after them. "This the building to scout? The one of 'em?" He approaches the weird tablet.

"Some kind of rune stone? What do you imagine it's for?" Niksi peers at it.

Almeiria reaches out, as if to touch the rune on it.

"Hey!" Ben says sharply. "If you ain't know what that is, Miz Fey, do not touch it please."

She stops. "How else would we find out, Ben, dear?" Almeiria asks. "But, fine." She pulls her hand reluctantly away.

"What if it turned you into a naga, Miz Fey?" Florande asks, wide-eyed.

"If it were that easy, they would be converting all their slaves," Almeiria says.

"Would they want their slaves to be like them?" Estel asks.

"Maybe this is not a good place for a camp," Florande says, returning her attention to the weird rune.

"Doesn't seem defensible. Super broken. Lotta ways for naga to surround us." Estel shrugs.

Ben nods at Estel. "Yeah. I don't like this one." He turns away from the rune. "Let's go an' see if the other places the Admiral mentioned are better."

"Careful. More eyes." Ben points.

Estel blasts the eye with a holy laser.

They find their way into the western tunnel the Admiral described. It is… a very large tunnel.

"This place is pretty open, too," Florande says, glancing back and forth.

Ben looks around. "Yeah. Uh. A big open place?"

"It looks good," Estel says. "Two entrances an' that's it. They're large entrances, though."

Ben nods to Estel. "They are fucken huge entrances. We would have to have a lot of people to hold both ends of it."

"If we had enough people to watch both sides, maybe…" Florande looks around dubiously.

"But I don't see anything like holes in the ceiling or the walls." Estel gets distracted by a fever of stingrays passing by. Fun fact! A group of stingrays is called a fever!

They move back out of the tunnel on their way to find the final site, to the southeast.

"Horde flag on that ridge," Almeiria says.

Ben wheels around — which is to say, he turns at a normal rate, because underwater — to peer at it. "Shit. Sure is."

"More enemies to worry about than naga, then," Florande says with a sigh.

"I'd have to go closer to get eyes on it," Estel says, frowning.

"Hey." Ben points. "'Nother weird rune."

"Oh. This one's yellow. Last one was purple." Estel moves on. "Huge structure over there," she says.

Florande ducks her head at the next naga they kill and says, "Wait, I see something here."

Ben pauses and swims back a little. "What you got?"

It is an ornate but weathered and slightly cracked stone inscribed on every surface with seeming-ancient, indecipherable hieroglyphs.

"This isn't in any elvish language I know," Florande says, turning it over. "Or if it is, it is a different system of writing."

Ben steps over to peer at it. "You reckon it is important? Your friend will want to see it?"

"We should take it to Levia?" Florande asks. "She might recognize something, yes."

Ben nods. "Okay. Let's have a look at that last place an' then head back."

"Maybe it's like a soup recipe," Estel says, grinning.

Florande grins, "If so all the more reason to translate. We need variety."

"Okay, here is that last spot he mentio– what the hell?" Ben rides closer to look.

All around them lie the remnants of a fierce battle. The naga skeletons are no surprise, but the weapons and remains of their apparent opponents are somewhat less expected.

"Lotta big dead skeletons," Estel says.

"Fucken huge ones," Ben agrees.

"Fascinating,” says Niksi.

"What are they? Vrykul?" Florande stares at the giant skeletons.

Ben eyes the fallen axe beside a giant skeleton. "Uh. This kind of axe look familiar, yeah."

Niksi examines the axe. "You don't suppose these are vrykul skeletons?"

It is definitely a vrykul axe.

Estel sighs. "Is this that other place? It ain't defensible at all. Well, shit."

"Not only ain't it defensible but it is full of… some kind of vrykul bones," Ben observes.

"Perhaps your ancestors were more far-ranging than we previously thought," Niksi speculates.

Amidst the bones, a strangely prominent shard of metal juts from one of the giant skulls. It’s difficult to tell what sort of weapon it might have been part of.

Ben moves over to tug at the metal shard. It comes free easily. He turns it in his hands.

"The vrykul did have a focus on the sea, I think… at least, the kvaldir…" Florande frowns at the damaged skull.

"Indeed,” says Niksi. “And the kvaldir only returned to Northrend with the rise of the Lich King. They had to be somewhere before that."

"Well, let's report all this back, yeah?" Ben looks up at the others.

Florande nods. "Maybe Levia or someone will know more."

Ben nods at her.

Estel pulls her goggles off as they emerge.

Levia Dreamwalker is sitting by her fire with her head down, her cheek resting on her drawn-up knees. She stirs and looks up at the group’s approach. “Oh, did you see the Admiral throwing me dirty looks and decide to toss some sympathy my way? I’ve pretty much lost hope of making him understand that these ruins offer us some opportunity to — wait. What’s that you have there?”

Estel gestures at Florande. "Ta-da. A soup recipe! Or something."

"We found this tablet," Florande says, holding it out. "I can't read it. Can you?"

Levia accepts the etched stone reverently and looks up at the group, her gaze shining. “Brilliant! Elune be praised, this is precisely the sort of find I was hoping for."

"It is? Great!" Florande beams. "What is it?"

Levia laughs at Florande and hugs the tablet-fragment to herself happily. "I don't know! It could be a soup recipe. But it's a start! It's history. And did you… see the statues?" She lifts her ears hopefully.

Florande nods. "Statues of a Ranger we should never forget but we don't know why, Lady Vashj's mom, Azshara, and a priestess."

Estel nods. That is exactly correct. "The ranger was, uh, Valarian, and the priestess was… I forgot." She smiles apologetically.

"Siralen," Florande supplies. "The priestess was."

Levia’s eyes widen. “Other members of the Vashj family? This must be our first definitive proof that there were any! Remarkable. And I’d never heard of the other two figures you mention until now.

“So much of our history was lost in the Sundering. It’s amazing to have this chance at reclaiming some of it.” Levia gazes into the flames of her campfire for a moment and then smiles wistfully.

“If we — when we make it back to the surface, the knowledge we gather down here may be invaluable to my people. I cannot thank you enough for taking this seriously.”

"I hope more people can come down here and learn more," Florande nods earnestly.

Levia nods and smiles radiantly up at the group. "Thank you. Thank you!"

Ben nods respectfully to Levia. "I am gonna — we got to report to the Admiral, though."

Captain Taylor is standing impatiently nearby. As soon as the group moves away from Levia, he intercepts them. “Did you take care of the monitors?”

"Yessir." Ben straightens and nods at him. "The eyeball things? Yessir."

"Yeah," Estel says. "We were thorough in the region we were in. There's an absolutely huge building we didn't enter."

Captain Taylor lifts his eyebrows. "A huge building? There's clearly still… plenty to be explored down there. I'd hate to think we were going in blind." He looks warily toward the Admiral.

“You took care of those eyes just in time, anyway. The Admiral’s already started sending men out. Strong sword arms they may be, but I doubt the Admiral’s finest possess quite the same… awareness and finesse that you do. … Don’t tell him I said that. But we’re lucky you were here with us when things went south, Cobalts. We’d never have lasted this long otherwise.”

"We are all lucky to be together," Florande says. "We will help each other get home."

"Wow," Estel says, looking past Captain Taylor at the Admiral.

Ben approaches Dvorek and clears his throat. "Sir? We scouted your places."

"Sir, none of the locations you had us scout were defensible," Estel says briskly. "The passage was the closest, with only one entrance and one exit, but those were absolutely massive entrances and exits, taller than this cavern." Estel isn't slouching. Weird.

Admiral Dvorek nods without looking up from his table. "That's fine. Another scout team I sent out reported a place under the terrace at the far end of the ruins that we'll use." Now he looks up. "I'm sending men out immediately to prepare for our repositioning there."

Almeiria shakes her head, but says nothing.

Ben blinks at him. He makes a fist with one hand slowly and then releases it, one finger at a time. "Yessir."

Florande just stays quiet.

Admiral Dvorek straightens to eye the metal shard in Ben's other hand. "What have you got there?"

"Oh. Uh." Ben may have forgotten he was holding it. He offers it to the Admiral. "We found this down there with some… it looked like some giant skeletons? Like maybe vrykuls? There was a fight of some kind and this was stuck in one of the skulls."

Admiral Dvorek considers the shard in his hands warily. “Interesting. Giant humanoid remains? I wonder if they’re related to those sea vrykul we encountered in Northrend.”

"Kvaldir," Florande says very quietly.

The draenei shaman Wavespeaker Valoren has gotten to her feet and come down to the beach’s edge to stand nearby, shifting from hoof to hoof impatiently.

The Admiral shakes his head at White Squad. “I doubt we’ll be forming an alliance against the naga with the likes of them, though. Let’s just hope we don’t end up with another enemy at our backs. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.” He nods curtly and starts to turn away, but pauses as Wavespeaker Valoren approaches.

Wavespeaker Valoren says: Let me have a look at that shard, would you Admiral? I could feel its power radiating from the other side of the cave.

Admiral Dvorek says: Of course. It's all yours.

Wavespeaker Valoren says: Thank you.

Wavespeaker Valoren says: Erunak, take a look at this. This looks like a sufficient focus for the vision magics I was speaking to you about.

Erunak examines the shard and nods in agreement.

Wavespeaker Valoren says: This may finally shed some light on the means and intentions of the naga.

Valoren approaches the group again, holding the jagged piece of metal carefully. It has an oily sheen in the firelight. “This appears to be of naga origin. I had hoped to find a strong focal object like this for a spell I have been working on that will allow us to glimpse the recent past. The spell is not yet complete, but I will find you when the blade has been enchanted, and perhaps we can uncover more behind what the naga are doing here.”

Ben nods respectfully. "Yes'm. We will be ready when you are."

"Sure," Estel says. She gives the Wavespeaker a thumbs-up.

"A direct look into the past?" Niksi hmms. "That just takes all the fun out of it."

"I think it sounds interesting," Florande says. "But we will see what we find!"