#issy brumble

Shala'nir has been one of the most hazardous archaeological sites I've ever dug.  That includes tunnels full of undead Nerubians and canyons where I was chased by ogre artifact-thieves and mutated orcs.  This site in Val'Sharah has a lot wrong with it, starting with fel-tainted demonic relics in a matrix of Nightmare-infused soil, root matter, and fungal mycorrhiza.  The diggers the Explorers' League sent with me are well-armed veterans. They've already fended off two bands of satyrs without any casualties.  When one of the trees at the edge of the site “woke” and began lunging at us with its branches, they had it down in a matter of minutes.  That doesn't mean they're ready to handle the mental and metaphysical dangers of corruption.

We're only working three or four days at a time on site.  I've issued strict orders that no one is to remain in the afflicted area after sundown.  We have enough gryphons to get us all out in a couple of trips, and I've got them quartered at a bed-and-breakfast southwest of Lorlathil.  All the ancient demonic material we retrieve goes back to Ironforge every night through a portal, and I have a warded area in the Hall to secure it. Still, I'm just waiting for something to go really wrong.  The landscape tainted by the Nightmare is very different from the unstable sands of Silithus, and the air is full of the whispering of the trees instead of the buzzing of wasps, but it's very familiar. It also reminds me of that terrible pocket dimension that Effrem experimented with so rashly, the one that was supposed to be Gilneas, but wasn't.  We came so very close to waking that which slumbers nearby that I still don't want to go back to the real Gilneas, in case part of it is buried there too.

Dear Mr. Jim,

Please help me.  Mr. Sangnoir is gone. The Orphan Matron says he's been killed by demon'ss in Val'sharrah in the Broken Isles.  If that was so, they'd bring him back here for burying, like they did with Torrin Flamewing and Brinda Rockward who was digging with him.  Mr. Sangnoir's gone.  They never found him.  The Orphan Matron took me out of school, even though my friends were there.  I don't have friends at the Orphanage.  This was also cause the Council of the Black Harvest wants the king to let them take me away so they can make me one of theyrir apprentices.  The king said no be because I'm a kid, but why did they ask?  Mr. Sangnoir said the Council was nosing around his dig site and he didn't want them.  They Council has lots of demons.  Maybe it wasn't the legion who killed the people at the dig site.  Please help me find Mr. Sangnoir.

Winterveil in Draenor

Issy's stepfather died on the Broken Shore, so I applied to the Stormwind Orphanage again to adopt Issy.  Once again, they approved fosterage but refused to let me adopt her.  She's almost 12 now.  I went up to Hearthglen to collect her, and the stepmother was civil enough, but neither she nor Issy seemed too grieved about parting.  There was no sign of the other four children.  Hearthglen seemed empty; the Argent Dawn must have taken terrible losses.

Winterveil could have been worse.  I was hoping to avoid the whole thing, just work on my excavations in Outland, but Issy ran away from her adoptive family in Hearthglen.  She didn't get far, but she used shadow magic to hide herself.  I was able to find her; she's only 11 and barely trained.  Years ago, when I was a guerrilla in this part of the Plaguelands, I had no idea I was training to find runaway orphans. 

I made the Hearthglen constables agree to let me bring Issy back to Ironforge for a few days while they tried to figure out why she ran and what was going on with the adoption.  I felt a little bad for the would-be parents.  They seem like nice people, for paladins, and I get the impression they'd tried their hardest.  They just weren't cut out to deal with the child of Old-God cultists from Duskwood.  At least they didn't try to beat the devil out of her the way some of their neighbors would have.  But the Orphanage wants to give Issy back to them, see if it works out. 

Can I offer Issy a better life?  I think so.  She never ran away in all of the months I fostered her, and I wasn't living anywhere as scary as the Plaguelands.  What kind of a life does anyone who isn't a devotee of the Light have in Hearthglen?  They've had months to convert her, plus two years at the Stormwind Orphanage, right next to the Cathedral, and obviously, they've failed.  They need to admit that before she gets hurt.