(2026-05-22) A Very Exclusive Club (Shado-Pan Dailies)

Details

Author:	inkie
Summary:	A Cobalt Company team assists the Shado-Pan with their mantid problem(s). There is a surprising amount of art criticism involved. Also goop.
Rating:	M for Mature 17+

Ben Hazan is waiting, arms folded, in the middle of the Shado-Pan Garrison camp, gazing around him with interest.

"Lieutenant Hazan," Arric says respectfully, giving him a practiced salute.

Shun shadowsteps from his tree and nods once at Ben with a low grunt.

Erixa trots up to the garrison, waving casually to the pandaren. She spots Ben and heads over toward the group.

Arric nods to Shun and then turns to Erixa with a warm smiile. "You're Erixa, right?"

Shun nods back at Arric.

Erixa's smile brightens. "Yes, that's me! Erixa. Have we met?"

"I don't believe so, but I follow the Company's activities closely," Arric says, "and by process of elimination I imagine you must be she."

"Everyone else here met each other? Erixa, Shun? Y'all know each other?" Ben looks between the two.

Shun glances at Erixa and shakes his head.

Erixa laughs. "I guess there are not so many draenei here in Pandaria. I would not be insulted if you mistook me for any others, they are lovely," Erixa beams at him. "You are… human… nobleman? You seem very polite, very fine."

"Shun is a man of few words but deadly precision," Arric says warmly to Erixa. "And yes, I am a nobleman of Kul Tiras, now a citizen of Stormwind and the Alliance. Lord Arric Falrevere. You may call me Arric."

Arric's armor is rather ostentatious, but not would not be out of place on an honored Pandaren marksman. His confidence almost makes it work, though he does look as though he is being swarmed by baby wind serpents.

"Arric Lord," Erixa nods cheerfully. "That is, Arric. I will call you Arric."

Erixa’s armor is not very local, but probably that's the difficulty with getting things made to draenei shape.

"Shun, Erixa, Erixa, Shun," says Ben, who does not introduce as gracefully as Arric.

Shun grunts.

Erixa glances over at Shun and raises an eyebrow.

"Oh, an' here's Lady Kenelly," says Ben.

Arric smiles warmly as Kenelly approaches, but there's the slightest hesitation in his body language, and his brow knits slightly.

Kenelly approaches and bobs a curtsey to all gathered. She gives Arric an awkward…apologetic?…smile. "Good day to you all."

"Hello! Many new human people today," Erixa says happily. "Good day, Lady. I am Erixa."

"Hey, afternoon," Ben says genially, and nods to Kenelly.

"It's lovely to meet you, Erixa. Please, in circumstances such as these, you can call me Kenelly."

Erixa smiles at Kenelly and nods agreement.

Ben looks around. "Reckon this is who we got for today. Everyone ready?"

Shun nods once and rolls his shoulders.

"All right," says Ben, and turns to survey the camp. "Reckon we are looking for…."

“Hey there!” calls an armored woman standing before one of the tents. “Cobalt Company, right?”

Shun turns towards the voice.

"Yes'm." Ben heads toward her.

“Great, that’s great. I’m Ling. Let me fill you in quick: Some of you have been helping out with the mantid invasion south at Gao-Ran, but while that’s been going on, they’ve been amassing unchecked on the island to the west, past the temple. We’re well aware there aren’t enough of us to launch a full scale attack on them there. What we can do, though, is send you lot over to do some dirty work. Sound fun?” She grins at them.

Arric grins back.

"Yes'm." Ben nods and looks over his shoulder at the others. Sound fun?

Arric looks ready for anything!

"It does not sound fun but it shall be done," Shun says.

"Fighting mantid," Erixa nods. "I have not really done that yet!" She sounds like it might be a treat.

Ling eyes Shun dubiously. "Right… okay." She clears her throat.

Erixa tilts her head at Shun.

“Here’s what we’d like you to do. First of all, the mantid are smart. They’re not just a swarm. They use bombs, alchemy… and they’ve got siege weapons. We’d like to remove those from play. Think you can handle it?”

"Of course," says Arric. "Cobalt's Blue Squad has become quite familiar with their ways."

Erixa nods. "The best thing to do with siege weapons is make them not exist anymore."

Ben nods again. "Yes'm."

“Great,” says Ling, and grins. “They’ve also got these statues they’ve built on the island. We don’t know if they have some religious significance or if they’re part of that whole… sonic communication network they use, but either way it’ll probably be a blow to their morale to lose them.

“And while you’re over there — a thing we’ve learned about the mantid over the years is that it’s like their size is directly proportionate to their rank and importance, kind of like pauldrons are in other cultures. Kill any big ones you see, and that ought to disrupt their operations for a while. Got it?”

Shun grunts.

Arric straightens so his pauldrons stand out more.

"Kill the big ones," Erixa nods, noting down the critical info.

"Thank you. We'll see it done," Kenelly says.

"Here," says Ling helpfully. "There's explosives and stuff in that bag you can use."

"Oh! So generous," Erixa says, helping herself.

Ling grins at Erixa. "That's me!"

Erixa hops on a glider and leaps off the cliff.

Arric hops into his personal flying machine.

Shun goes to borrow a kite so he can follow.

Ben urges his gryphon into the air and heads west.

Erixa lands and folds up her glider, tucking it away.

Arric lands his machine in an easy to find, safe spot and turns it off.

When Kenelly lands and shifts out of her bird form, she doesn't look quite so human anymore.

"Okay," says Ben when they land. He dismounts and shoos his gryphon off to circle. "Some of y'all know the fight against these things better'n I do so far. You good to go?"

"I am happy to learn," Erixa nods.

A striped red raptor comes running up from the wilderness — possibly alarming to those who don't recognize her — and stops just short of the group, bobbing her head as though in a slight bow.

Erixa looks at it in amazement.

"This is Rica," Arric says, gesturing to the raptor. "She understands Common fairly well and is well behaved, so don't mind her."

Ben looks over at the raptor. "Oh, hey," he says. He nods.

Rica nods back at Ben. !

Shun grunts, "Try not to get poisoned. I have some of the remedy from the Shado-Pan but not a lot."

"Understood," Arric says to Shun.

Erixa nods her understanding.

"I can deal with poisons on people," Ben says. He nods at Erixa. "So can she."

"Yes," Erixa confirms. "But I would like to check this particular poison, just to make sure."

"I can get you a sample later," Shun says.

"Ah, thank you! So kind," Erixa says. "Do you like poisons?"

"I work with them often," Shun states.

"Okay. We ready to go introduce ourselves?" Ben asks.

Arric salutes.

Shun applies his own personal poisons to his weapons, then vanishes.

"I prefer axe for the introduction," Erixa says, getting hers ready.

"Shun is still with us, by the way," Arric informs them. "He is just very skilled at going unseen."

"Ooh, so he likes being hidden?" Erixa asks curiously.

"He does his best work when he can pop out of nowhere and say boo!" Kenelly chuckels.

"I do not say 'boo'," Shun objects as he reappears to suprise a mantid.

"It's true, he does not," Arric says with amusement.

Kenelly giggles.

Erixa laughs and gives Shun a thumbs-up.

Ben points. "Siege thing?" He squints at the hulking object dubiously.

"That looks like no siege weapon I've ever seen," Arric says uncertainly.

"Well. Let's go check it out?" Ben heads in that direction. Mace first.

The sharp reports of Arric’s rifle are heard as they clear the area around the siege weapon.

Erixa peers at the siege weapon. "What does it do, do you think? Maybe… giant bug inside, to move it?" Erixa muses. "For smashing."

"We could blow it up and see what it doesn't do," Ben suggests.

"Agreed," says Arric.

Erixa nods agreeably.

"Okay. Let's move west," Ben says.

Arric follows close behind, rifle ready.

Ben whistles. "Reckon that's a statue," he suggests.

"It looks like some kind of idol," Kenelly says.

Shun tilts his head as he looks it over.

"Fucken ugly, is what it looks like," says Ben, who does not appreciate Cultural Art.

"What is it even representing?" Arric squints at it.

"I suppose all people have their… particular art?" Erixa says, tilting her head to get a better view of it.,

"It looks like the mantid is… praying?" Shun muses.

"Maybe, a contortionist mantid," Erixa considers. "Oh, or prayer, maybe prayer."

Arric chuckles.

It becomes even less clear what it was meant to represent once they blow it up.

"You know, I have not seen many raptors around Stormwind," Erixa says, and from her tone she seems to be imagining in shops and restaurants, together with the rest of the Alliance races.

Arric laughs softly. "I found Rica in Stranglehtorn when she was just hatched," he says. "They are not normally… so civilized."

Rica narrows her eyes at him.

"Ohhh," Erixa nods. "I understand, then. She is closer to us, by familiarity with you."

"Big one," says Ben, and points.

"… It has large pauldrons," Shun mutters.

"Shit!" Ben sidesteps a mine.

As the large group of mantids attacks, Arric takes a vial from his belt and breaks it on the largest Mantid. A flock of nearby birds goes bananas and starts attacking.

Erixa blazes with wings of Light, which she mostly uses to strengthen her axe.

Rica is ferocious in battle, occasionally leaping up to lash out with both of her cruelly-clawed hind feet at once.

"The trees here," Erixa says, looking around. "I do not think I have seen the like elsewhere on Azeroth."

Beautiful, aren't they?" Arric says.

"They the amber trees I seen in the reports?" Ben asks.

"They are. They look like someone painted them into existence," Kenelly says.

Ben nods approvingly.

"This whole continent seems to be a work of art," Arric says enthusiastically.

"It is really somethin'," Ben agrees. "Those mountains in the Jade Forest ain't look real."

Erixa nods at Ben. "I almost believe it is a backdrop, just a big painting on a wall!” She looks at the trees again. "And I love how they twist, like they are frozen, caught in the wind." She nods at Kenelly. "Like a painting! Do you paint?"

"Sometimes," Kenelly says to Erixa. "I'm not very good. But I was taught when I was young."

"Noble households value such skills," Arric explains to Erixa. "Also basic combat skills, geography, all manner of education. It's a point of pride for such families."

"Oh! How nice," Erixa says to Arric. "So you get well-rounded learning in many things. Draenei are very fond of learning. This place may be good inspiration to paint more," she smiles. "Brush up childhood skills."

"And you have much time in which to learn things!" Arric says to Erixa. "Ah, how wonderful that must be. You could learn nearly everything there is to know, with such a lifespan."

"Maybe someday," Erixa agrees. "I have only a millenium so far, so not yet enough time for everything."

Ben wipes mantid goo from his armor and makes a face. "They all gotta spit like that? Damn."

Arric, standing back at rifle range, laughs.

It is not the grossest thing Ben has had on his armor at work.

Erixa eyes Ben's armor. "That may not be poison, but also not good to touch."

"I got gloves on," Ben says equably, and then examines one of his gloves curiously.

Despite treating this outing like a social occasion, Arric is actually making himself quite useful with that rifle.

"Speakin' of art…" Ben says in a tone that makes clear he does not find the next mantid idol that Arty.

"Do you make sculptures, Ben?" Erixa asks curiously.

"No, ma'am, I do not," says Ben. "I just judge 'em."

Erixa laughs. "Judging is an important skill." She smacks a nearby mantid with Judgment.

Arric actually gets some of the spit this time. The look on his face is epic.

Rica looks at the disgusted Arric and makes a series of chittering sounds that are very like a laugh.

Kenelly covers her mouth, trying not to laugh at Arric's misfortune…or the look on his face.

"It'll wash," Erixa says encouragingly to the both of them. She's been lucky so far.

Arric looks around at the path they've cleared so far and nods approvingly. "We're cutting quite a swath, Lieutenant," he observes.

"Cobalt Company work," Ben agrees genially.

Arric beams proudly.

"Still plenty more where they came from," Shun grunts.

"And we have plenty more fight," Erixa nods.

"They got more of those things over there," Ben points. "Siege shells." He pauses, repeats siege-shells to himself, and laughs.

This time, Erixa is not so lucky with the spray of caustic spit. She grimaces. "I join the club."

Arric gives her a sympathetic look.

"Not the best club I been in," says Ben.

Arric laughs.

Erixa laughs.

"But it's a very exclusive club, Lieutenant. A great honor!" Arric teases.

"The more we fight, the more exclusive," Erixa says with a grin.

"Pass," Shun deadpans.

"I will let you know how exclusive I feel after I get my armor cleaned," Ben says dryly.

Arric grins.

"I will also pass, please," Kenelly adds.

Erixa gives a friendly laugh at Shun and Kenelly's words.

"Hey look. Art." Ben nods at the hill.

"I still see legs twisted up by head," Erixa says, peering at it. "But also hands in prayer. Maybe praying contortionist."

"I reckon that's done that," Ben says. "Let's report." He whistles through his teeth and his gryphon glides down.

"As a native of Kul Tiras, I can assure you that some cultures' prayer traditions are… indeed strange," says Arric.

"Oh yeah? Kul Tiras prays different?" Ben looks suspicious.

Erixa shakes out her glider. "Kul Tiras people twist up like pretzels to pray?"

Arric activates a remote that sends his machine sputtering and soaring toward him from where he parked it. The racket prevents him from expressing his opinions on Kul Tiran prayer.

Ben salutes Ling. "All took care of, ma'am," he says. The goop still staining his armor attests to their work.

“Great work,” says Ling. “That ought to cool them off for a few days. I don’t suppose you’d be willing. And while they’re scrambling — I don’t suppose you’d be willing to strike an even bigger blow?”

Shun raises a brow.

"Yes'm," says Ben.

Ling grins. “That’s the kind of attitude I like. The Sra’thik Hivelord is holed up in a network of caverns above the ocean, on the eastern side of the island. If you take him out, that’ll give us some real breathing room.”

"Of course!" Arric says readily.

"That sounds like our kind of work," Erixa nods.

"Good luck!" says Ling cheerfully.

Rica makes a long grating sound.

Ben whistles for his gryphon again.

Erixa already has the glider out.

Rica hops into a little sidecar on the flying machine.

Rica really does not like this.

One of the ornate, hive-like entrances to the mantids’ underground burrows is visible in the cliff at the island’s edge.

"I, uh. Do not love this," Ben observes.

Arric is silent, for once.

"Ooh, this is very interesting architecture," Erixa says, looking at the gothic arch. "Reminds me of… oh, uh… right let's kill mantid."

In the central chamber stands an enormous armored mantid in an elaborate headdress, wielding a cruel-edged amber polearm.

"Oh, I love him less," says Ben, and readies a fistful of the Light to throw.

"This reminds me of where we fought the Sha of Hatred," Kenelly says with a slight whimper in her voice.

Rica makes a Raptor Aggro Sound and charges in.

Shun grunts.

Erixa's expression grows harder and more serious as she charges in.

Ben steps back from the mantid corpse and catches his breath. He looks over at Kenelly. "You all right?"

Arric watches Kennelly with quiet concern.

"This was like the sha?" Erixa asks, looking at the chamber, and then to Kenelly.

Kenelly shakes herself off like a dog. "Are there any more on me?"

"We… had rather a difficult time with the sha of hatred," Arctic explains to the Lieutenant.

Shun says nothing.

"It was… fairly recent," Arric goes on, "and I think some of us are still a little shaken up." He glances toward Kenelly as though he means only her. It's definitely just her.

Ben nods grimly. "I read the report. I am sure Lieutenant Atley conveyed what he could but I am guessin' it was worse even. Like a Old God, maybe?"

"They get into you," Erixa says quietly. "I was not so far away, and I felt… Sunday evening, it felt like a storm had passed, when I did not even know I was in a storm. That was what you did, for everyone."

Ben nods respectfully at Erixa, and then to the others.

"The Old Gods," Arric muses, "From what I hear, are voices that speak to you in your mind. This felt like… my own voice."

"The Sha…as we got closer to it, it made is feel things…even see things that weren't real," Kenelly explains. "But it's gone now. So…yes…we are fine. Just fine."

"I am real glad," Ben says.

"Sometimes your own voice can be the hardest," Erixa says quietly. "But if fake, then… that must have been difficult."

Ben salutes Ling again. "We took care of that fellow."

“Well done!” grins Ling. “I could get used to having you around. That’s all I’ve got for you today, but I’m sure the mantid won’t stay quiet for long.”

"Feel free to call upon us at any time," Arric says with a bow.