Journals, The

The Journals, Part 1
 * - ''by Errik

The air of Gadgetzan hung sluglishly, the sun roaring down upon the battered desert of Tanaris with all its might. But heat never stopped a goblin, now did it? The servants of the Steamwheedle Cartel continued to invent, tinker, trade, and most of all, profit. After all, that was the life-blood of the goblin world, for without wealth, you were nothing. And if some of those profits were made in less...reputable ways, who was to judge? Gold could be spent, morals couldn't.  And this little piece of profit..well...it held information, the most ephemeral commodity of all. If it was true, the knowledge contained within was a blasphemy, a monstrosity deserving of utter destruction. But it could just be fiction.....couldn't it? Books could lie just as easily as that merchant who told you the teleporter was absolutely safe. The name stamped in gilt upon the front, however, gave it a vestige of credibility. Lord Errik Von Lossart III..now that was a name that sounded important. Talking about a book was all well and good...but what was the meat of it? What did it contain? And so the Goblin opened the tome, and found, at first, what appeared to be a prayer.  ' It is to the Lord Sargeras that I give my thanks, and my devotion. Power untold courses through His being, and I am humbled and in awe of Him. Without the Burning One, I would be shattered and mindless, my Will long since fled the frail ruin of my body. I shall give my all for my People, and my service will be repaid with their ascendance. Praise to the Burning God, His crusade is mine.  This world, He and His servants have revealed to me, was impure from the start. Shaped by the twisted might of the Old Ones, Azeroth was presided over by abominations of matter known as the Elementals...Lord Sargeras and his former comrades put a stop to that. But, what the Great One realized was, a world born in impurity will always be impure. Tainted, as the worlds of this universe were, Sargeras set about to fix this tragic mistake. And yet there are those who would stop him...heathens and idolaters all. They serve no purpose but to die before the Holy Fire of Lord Sargeras."  The goblin shivered, thumbing through a few pages of odd, disturbing anatomical sketches. Figures of Kaldorei men and women in various stages of vivisection filled the pages. One macabre item even showed a Kaldorei skeleton, the muscles splayed out from it to form odd runes and symbols. The captions and descriptions were more disturbing still.  'Subject #28 displayed unusual endurance and Belgorg held her down and began to apply and tighten the restraints. He had to eventually break both of her arms, shattering the bones with a few jerks to and fro. Pity...I wanted to see how the musculature looked on an adolescent.  Three hours after removing the subject's eyelids, lips, and facial skin, she stopped speaking in her gibberish language. Now she only tilts her ruined face to and fro, moaning softly in what I gather to be pain. I would have thought the sedatives Tomain supplied me would work better.'  'Subject #68, named Thealash Starbreeze, or some nonsense like that. I immediatly began flaying him as soon as the restraints were in place. Didn't bother to apply sedatives, wanted to test the pain threshold of a fully grown male.'  'Subject #75 was an aged druid, caught trying to help a paid servant in a Trollish ruin. Three casualties as a result. The families of said casualties will have to be eliminated at a later time to quell any leaking of information. <BR> <BR>After five hours of exuastive research, the druid died. Still haven't discovered the font from which they draw their powers, and if it can be harnessed via a machine. Troubling. Further research needed. Have resorted to disposing of the bodies in the Murloc-infested Vile Reef. Belgorg reccomends eliminating the servants used to bring the bodies to said locations. I will consider it.' <BR> <BR>He closed the book, for now. This would require a much more indepth reading than he first thought. If it was true, that was. And if it was...well....some people would pay well to know these things, wouldn't they? <BR>