Investigating the Past

So, after a little discussion today, Pizzy and I totally decided it'd be fun to go back to Southshore and take a look at the Ashbringer thing! So we teleported over there, hopped a dragon, and BAMF! There we were 7 years ago. Cool, huh? We went to the inn where I had seen these guys chatting before and we hid behind a couple kegs. It's really good that we're gnomes and not something like a Tauren or whatever.

Anyway, we totally got there just in time. Right as we found our hiding spots, Highlord Mograine and the gang totally started chatting. he busted out this evil looking crystal, and they zapped some holy energy into it, and it turned from an evil crystal into a good one! And then it totally healed Mograine's hand, even! How sweet is that?

As soon as the conversation was over, we hightailed it outside to the docks so we could sit and make sense of it all. We tried to think of if there were any more gems hidden in Blackrock Mountain that could be similar to the one that he found. There were the gems for the seal of ascension, of course, but Vael didn't do anything wacky to them to make them useful, so obviously they're not an otherworldly source of evil. There's Father Flame, but it's kind of large and burny and not so much small and voidy. And it's totally been for-EVER since I explored Blackwing Lair, so I can't really remember if there was anything gemmy in there.

Then Pizmo thought there might be something in the Depths of Blackrock, and we both remembered that there was this thing called the Heart of the Mountain! There's this goblin guy who wanted it, but he didn't say why he wanted it, only that the dwarves didn't want to sell it to him. And it occurred to me that I totally knew how to make something called the Smoking Heart of the Mountain, which I would suppose to be similar. We debated about which of the two would be better.

But you know what, I didn't even KNOW if we should be looking for a gem. I mean, it was one thing when we were thinking of a void thinger just like they used to make the Ashbringer, but just any old gem? I don't even know if it would work. So Pizzy started talking about a modified potion injector, which seemed like a good idea. He's so clever. We got a little bit distracted discussing ideas for a contingency plan if we were unable to save the arm, but I think we have a good plan. I'm gonna go get the gem and he's gonna build the injector. Together, we'll come up with the best plans ever known to gnomekind!

Then things got a little more serious. He told me he'd received my letter (the writing of which was pretty much the hardest thing I've ever hard to do). He let me know that no matter what horrid things had happened to me in my past, he'd still love me. And if Tiggs ever came back, he would make sure he suffered for what he did. It was amazing to see him so angry and determined... for me. He was so passionate when he described how he'd be my protector and avenger if ever given the chance. And I just felt like my heart was totally going to explode out of my chest. He's AMAZING. I'm such an incredibly, totally lucky woman.

Demonic gems are serious business

OK, so, I couldn't get the nanny to come early this morning, so I had Wynni for just a little bit until she showed up. Pizzy had something really important he wanted to show me, so he was a little disconcerted by her presence. But he is SO GOOD with her. He showed her how to feed copper bolts to her little mechanical squirrel I built her, and she just thought that was the coolest thing EVER. I know what I'll be making in the workshop the next several weeks.

Anyway, Naliina showed up and I handed Wynni off to her, and after greeting me properly he led me into one of the Aldor laboratories. There was this totally bizarre THING sitting on the table. It looked like an upside down lamp or something. The bulb of it was filled with all these weird swirling fel energies, and it was being supported by this gauntlet that had gems sticking out of it, and it looked like the energies were being siphoned into the gems.

Pizzy explained to me that Branwynne (a friend of his and a gal I met a waaaaaaaaaay long time ago) came into his workshop. She had this crazy mechanical glove on her that was helping to contain some kind of demonic infection - the device was pumping out the fel energies into the gems, but it wasn't really well made, so eventually it caused the device to fail. So, Pizzy made her a new one, better than the last one, and was charged with the dangerous responsibility of disposing of the gook that had accumulated. He built this globey contraption around it to contain it for the time being, but now THAT was failing, so we had to figure out some way to totally get rid of it.

Then he told me that he had been asked to build a device that not only sucked out fel energies, but injected holy energies, so the infection could be cured for good. I told him it kind of sounded like the Ashbringer - it started off as an icky void stone, but all the holy guys shot energy into it and it became this amazing thing of light that even healed Mograine's hand. He totally had missed that on his visits to Old Hillsbrad, so we resolved to investigate that sometime. Now, though, we had to get rid of the gems before they started leaking! I suggested we just pitch them in the lava in Shadowmoon Valley, because really, what's a little more fel energy in that place anyways? So, feeling very much like the bracelet gnome the humans joked about, we headed to the Hand of Gul'Dan so we could be sure it melted well.
Originally, we started off on foot and let my voidwalker carry them - Pizzy figured a demon carrying demonic things would probably be the safest way to go. Well, that worked as we walked through Terokkar Forest, but when we reached the border of Shadowmoon Valley, we were totally ambushed by infernals! Pizzy and I were OK, but my voidwalker was totally toast. So much for good demonic help these days! I thought about bringing him back, but we figured we were close enough that we could just fly. So, we rigged up a way for my soul bag to hang from one of the skis of Pizmo's flying machine, and we took off for the volcano.

We got up there, and Pizzy tried to just fling the whole bag in. ACK! He was unsuccessful, thankfully, so I was able to pull out my soulshards and dumped the gems into the lava - saving the bag. (That thing was expensive.) Those gems totally melted into the ooze like chocolate on a fire!

So, I guess now we go back to figuring out what to do about the original problem, that of neutralizing Branny's infection. I hope we can garner some good ideas from our trip back in time.