So, we were right about Ji heading down here to the Burning Steppes. Only trouble is, by the time we landed at Flame Crest, he’d already come and gone. (Boy, it sure is a shame we didn’t get down here faster, like, say, if SOMEBODY hadn’t wasted shitloads of time fucking doodling.) And yeah, he hooked up with Eitrigg’s son Ariok when he got here, and I guess the two of them took off to check out Blackrock Mountain. And yeah, that’s one MORE thing I might have to smack Eitrigg around over when we get back home, because fucking hell.

I headed over to Blackrock Mountain with Spazzle and Gurtash, and after some initial ohh’ing and ahh’ing from the noobs, we headed into Blackrock Spire. It was a weird thing — I’d poked my nose in here once before, back when I was rounding up the Blackrock orcs (Malkorok included) when I brought them into the Horde, but this was different. Now the place was like the haunted house version of Blackrock Spire. Every few rooms we ran into these reanimated, undead versions of the drakonids and dragonspawn that used to hang out here back in the day, back before the Black Dragonflight got cleaned out. Well, they were back for an encore now, at least some of them, at least in fairly diminished form. Don’t know what’s causing it, but I can tell you it’s creepy as well.

Mind you, none of that really mattered once I chopped them into pieces every time any of them got in our way. But still.

We poked around the spire some, and finally, a fair ways in, we finally stumbled onto the guests of honor themselves — Ji and Ariok, poking around in some kind of summoning chamber. Apparently they found some kind of ritual altar there that Lunchbox seemed sure had some connection to…you know, I’m still not even sure about the details. Something about the dragon guy that was in the middle of Mokvar’s whole deal. I wasn’t in much of a mood to listen to that crap, but Ji was focused on the damn altar like he thought it was a pork chop, and then Ariok started chiming in with HIS two coppers, and hoo boy were we off to the races then, what with the bitching and the complaining. You know, the Anytime Somebody Talks to Garrosh These Days special.

Anyhow, we went round and round a few times, and to tell you the truth, I was just about to throw my hands up and let the idiot poke around the damn altar just to shut them up, when we started hearing more snarling and growling from those dragon-zombie-whatever-the-fucks from down the hall. Then sounds of combat, and general rattling around, and then, before we even had a chance to go check out what the hell was going on, well…

You know, I’m not sure if I want to kill her or if I’m starting to like her.

Anyway, by that point, Shayari was already right there, so I figured I might as well let her go ahead and see if she can figure anything out about the damn altar, and maybe satisfy everybody’s morbid curiosity about the whole Mokvar thing. Plus, you know, good luck getting her to NOT do something, because, hey, maybe I’ve mentioned this already, fucking hell.

[Notes and Notables: As I announced a few posts ago, I’m going to be taking a short break from posting, but rest assured that I will be using a not-inconsiderable portion of that time getting things lined up for the next sequence of posts. The always preposterous and sometimes exciting adventures of everyone’s favorite some people’s favorite the Warchief will continue with “Scene of the Crime” on Wednesday, May 21.

Also, a Shayari fashion note: The sharp-eyed among you will recognize Shayari’s outfit in this post as the “Indiana Shay” outfit submitted by Malauch in the Transmogs for Shay contest. Malauch was one of our five voters’ choice contestants; I’d never actually announced a final winner on that front, but that was in large part because the polling ended up being an endless back-and-forth between Maualch’s entry and Khizzara’s “Scarlet Sindorei Robe.” So, since I’m only too happy to have a wealth of mage looks (and happy readers!), I’m going to go ahead and (belatedly) declare both Malauch and Khizzara winners in a dead heat. Grats to all our winners, thanks to all who submitted and voted, and by all means keep an eye out for more stylish looks from our resident half-draenei mage in training!]