Current events in the Howling Fjord

Pizzy had to get back to civilization for some work today, so I spent the day just hanging out with Britta. I figured at the very least, I could get a feel for recent events in the Howling Fjord so I knew what to start gathering info about. She was thrilled to death to have visitors - I guess she quit her job at the inn a couple weeks ago, and she's been pretty bored and lonely at home by herself. Wynni had fun playing with the stuff she'd prepared for the baby, and Britta and I were able to just chat for awhile.

Evidently, the Vrykul - those guys who harpooned our boat - have been a serious problem lately. I guess they've been here all along, but have only become a threat in the recent years. She said that overall, Westgarde was a lot safer than Valgarde, but their activity has picked up a bit here too. Britta told me that she was thrilled that I was able to come up - evidently the only midwife in the region was killed in an attack a few months ago, and she's been scared to death about the upcoming birth ever since then. I'm like, you know I fall asleep, right? And she said that her mother would be here with any luck, and if not, at the very least Noodler could have poking rights.
Anyway, more stuff! Her brothers haven't always had to go all the way up to the Grizzly Hills for their logging stuff - there used to be plenty of forest right there around Westgarde for their needs. The Vrykul came in, though, with dragons, and burnt the forest all around, presumably to make way for ground troops. The dragon bit was kinda whoa - I asked if she knew what color they were, but she replied that she hadn't even seen what happened. All the women and children are ushered into the bottom of the Keep at any sign of danger. I'm curious and suspicious now - could it be more black dragons like the orcs use in the Spire?

The one bit of positive news that she had was that the Explorer's League was sending people up here in droves. I guess after Uldaman had been pretty thoroughly searched, they didn't have much left to do in Azeroth, and Northrend was the next frontier of choice. (Course, there's still freaking ULDUM down there in Tanaris that hasn't even been sniffed at, but maybe people were sick of desert after hanging out in Silithus for so long.) The prize site is, obviously, Ulduar up in the Storm Peaks, but they are digging in everywhere they can. There's a big operation in the Grizzly Hills, but they're setting up excavations all over the Howling Fjord because who knows what they'll find? And while they have an independent operation over on the eastern cliffs, they're also setting up one nearby and using Westgarde as a base.

She started asking me about Pizzy after that, and it's sure a lot easier to be candid when he's not wringing his hands beside me and Noodler's not giving me the protective big brother evil eye. I opened up to her a bit about the whole debacle in February; she was a bit concerned, of course, but she told me about a huge fight that she and Noodler had had during their courtship. I guess there was some problem between him and one of her brothers, and her brother had made some racist remarks, and she hadn't understood what had happened exactly and so sided with her brother at first. Just like between Pizzy and me, things got all out of hand, and neither was really listening to what the other was saying, and they ended up breaking up for a couple months. It took them awhile to smooth things over, and it was a long time before Noodler was really accepted by her family, but it all turned out all right in the end.

I summoned Pizzy back after dinner. (No mail for me, what gives? If I were still a major leader and I had someone offering herself as a spy, I'd be like, hook me UP! Information's what makes the world go round, after all.) While he worked on cutting a gem for his new wand, I told him the story that Britta had told me. I figured it'd be good for him to realize that everyone has problems and stuff, and to let him know that my brother's hardly a bastion of perfection himself. Pizzy's such a fretful person. I wish I could calm him a bit. Anyway, he seemed to at least appreciate the story, and we did make love afterwards, so that's something, right? I really wish he'd let me into that goggled noggin of his