There’s been enough going on lately that I haven’t really had a chance to follow up on that wolf — Golmash — that Ogunaro Wolfrunner’s been having issues with. (Now don’t start getting after me about time I’ve spent since then at things like the Pandaren Noodle Festival  — I have to have some down time, don’t I?) After the last time I was there to see Golmash, I knew it was going to take some research — into both shaman and warlock matters — to get to the bottom of the situation, but the research in question was going to go way beyond anything I could do easily.

The first shaman I would think to talk to would be Thrall, but he’s not an option at this point for at least half a dozen reasons. Given my recent career change (re-change?), I doubt anyone else in the Earthen Ring would be especially eager to talk to me, and anyone from the… well… garden-variety range of shamans simply wouldn’t know enough to be able to help very much with this.

On the warlock end of the spectrum, I’m not in much better shape. Again, what I really need is someone with a fairly high level of expertise and experience, but good luck finding a viable candidate there. Pretty much anyone down in the Cleft of Shadow is out of the question, if only because anything I discuss with any of them is sure to make its way back to Neeru Fireblade, and why give him any more to gnaw on? He already has enough of an unsettling interest in what I’m up to because of the Nether Prism, and the last thing I need is for him to start getting curious about even more of what I happen to be doing with my day. And while we’re thinking along Nether Prism lines, I would even be half tempted to try to find a remaining members of the Council of the Black Harvest, but I don’t know if that would go over so well in light of how things played out with me and Kanrethad. The only one of them that I figure would be very receptive at all would be Jubeka, and I figure she already has enough on her hands because of me.

For a while, I thought I might have an in with Xorenth down in Ragefire Chasm — since he’d been a warlock himself until fairly recently, when he became a shaman… of sorts… it seemed like he might have an ideal range of experience. I started to try to discuss my suspicions about Golmash with him, but I realized pretty quickly that that wasn’t such a good idea. He started getting way too interested way too quickly; it made sense, I suppose, given what he’s been up to with his shamans down in RFC. Still, I didn’t want to open the door for Golmash to become another one of his pet projects, at least not until I knew for sure what we’re dealing with. Luckily, I think I was able to maneuver my way out of the conversation without giving away too much or inviting too much suspicion from Xorenth.

At least I hope so. It’s hard to tell. I have to say, it’s hard trying to talk about your extracurriculars, while also keeping them classified, when you’re already in the middle of playing everyone against everyone else.

Sometimes I wonder if Jubeka got the better end of the deal back at the Black Temple.

Any way you cut it, I guess I’ll be going it alone on this one. Guess it’s time to hit the books until I come up with a better idea.

Mokvar