I have Krog’s latest report from Pandaria, and considering I’m going to be on my way there sooner rather than later, this intel he’s gathering is going to start becoming pretty damn important. Before I get to that, though, let me address a couple other items quickly, since everybody seems to have been having a low-grade freak-out the last couple days. Specifically, about Mokvar.

So before everyone starts rolling out their full-on crazy over this, yes, Mokvar is okay. A little banged up, yeah, but he’ll be fine. I’m just giving him a little time to rest up and get his head together before I have him back on the job, seeing as I figure it must do a number on you when, y’know, you die and shit. I’ve got a regular guard keeping watch on his place, and I know Ji Firepaw has been dropping by regularly to check on him. He’ll be fine as long as everybody doesn’t start coming on like gangbusters, so please put your panties back on and try to calm the fuck down.

I’ve got Malkorok looking into this business. I don’t much like the fact that something like this went down, not least of all because it means somebody was able to get into Orgrimmar and target one of my aides. I’ve seen a few other reports the last few days about a shadowy figure or something being seen sneaking around the city, which doesn’t exactly make me bubble over with good feelings about security around here. Frankly, if Krog weren’t down there in Pandaria, I would probably have him do some extra sleuthing up here. I may have to look into a few investigative options as it is.

Anyway, speaking of Krog, let’s get back to the man himself. You all voted to have him get back to business and check on whatever happened with the original landing party out of Garrosh’ar Point. (Man, I still really do like the ring of that name.) So, with no further ado…

shokia accompanied me from grookin hill and we made our way south. en route we passed a cottage that shokia says had been occupied by a ‘jade witch’ who had turned sergeant garrok into a jade statue; eventually garrok was restored and brought back to grookin hill to recover.

Huh. Now that’s some weird business, turning living people into minerals and back…might want to look into that later. Could be handy in a few different ways…

also en route passed pandaren settlement at paw’don village. village had formed ties with alliance; passed a bit too close; these pandaren markedly less friendly than the wandering isle lot.

Now that I think of it, these pandas might possibly have been crankier than the Wandering Isle pandas because they were mad about not getting to go on the turtle ride…

horde forces had withdrawn to nearby fortress called twinspire keep; find attached schematic outlining fortress layout and grounds. upon arrival, discovered remaining landing party had been killed by alliance aerial attack.

Side note here before I get too pissed off about the good people we lost there – from the looks of it, this Twinspire Keep place is pretty much identical to Thunder Hold, the base that the initial Alliance force had taken over, the one Nazgrim and his people took out when they first arrived. And… I mean… what are the odds of that? The first wave of each side’s troops set up shop in identical fortresses, only to be neutralized by the SECOND wave of the OTHER side’s forces, with a soon-to-be-friendly panda village right neaby? Seriously, is that freaky coincidental or what?

no survivors, by all indications. shokia and i took a few hours to tend to the bodies; alliance had left them to rot on the ground.

Of course they did. Because they’re so pure and noble and honorable. And they call us savages.

was able to identify bodies of commander dalgan and bellandra felstorm. also appears that warlocks had summoned demonic beholder, body of which was also found. note: burnt rotting demon corpses smell very, very bad.

inside keep, found body of warlock ga’trul along with his journal; will hold for your inspection at next opportunity. while body was identifiable, also appeared to have been corrupted somehow; entire body had taken on dark gray hue, hands and arms had morphed into claws, further deformations of body. inconsistent with metamorphoses usually observed with warlocks.

gist of journal: ga’trul assumed command of fleet after captain krug was killed during initial engagement with alliance. ga’trul seemed to grow increasingly hostile and paranoid during time in keep. then again, he ended up being killed, so maybe not so paranoid. he attempted to barter with paw’don pandaren without success; took forsaken suggestion to abduct pandaren cubs to use as bargaining chips; eventually there appears to have been a sharp rift between orc and forsaken forces within the keep.

Okay, so…wait, what? The what happened? The what times like five? They had a frigging insurrection within the group? How the hell did that happen?

shokia has expressed intention to return north to check on garrok and rejoin nazgrim and others. awaiting further instructions.

Which leads us to our two main leads we could have Krog follow up on: that surprise expedition that Baine had sent to Pandaria, or the creepy-ass similarity between Ga’trul’s body and these sha creatures. Or, hell, I’ll toss another option into the mix, since I was just talking about this a few paragraphs up…