A Dragon’s Whimsy Pt. 22

The contents of a letter recently delivered to the Wyrmrest Temple:

My Queen,

Since the expedition to the catacombs beneath Wyrmrest Temple I have learned that the true reason for Tilby’s excursions are to decipher a mysterious scroll the death knight found in Silithus. The next part of decoding the scroll required locating an ancient book of magic located in the abandoned dwarf library in Grim Batol.

I accompanied Tilby on this expedition in part to keep an eye on him and in part to take the opportunity to spy on or reach out to the Black Dragonflight depending on what I would find there. My apologies your majesty if I took too much upon myself. However what I DID find there I believe you will find of much interest.

Tilby led us to a cave system located in the Wetland hills. After passing through a series of smaller caves we passed around a large underground lake and eventually we came to a back entrance to Grim Batol though it was located high above the cliff face. Luckily it was no trouble for me to shift into whelpling form and carry a robe up for everyone else to climb up.

We emerged into a large cavern with buildings carved into the sides. It reminded me very much of Ironforge. Tilby knew the library was on a higher level however so we began a search for a way up.

I checked out a vent on the ceiling and unexpectedly found myself covered in a strange dark goop for my trouble. Luckily someone caught me or I’d have fallen and broken my neck before I could recover. Future agents should avoid the vents. Also the goop stinks and feels icky.

Just saying.

While investigating one of the buildings we heard sounds outside and knew we had attracted unwanted attention. Attention of the black-scaled variety. We shut the door and tried to find another way out… but there were no other doors nor were there windows either. We did however find another method: the old (and thankfully not used for hundreds of years) sewer drain.

Down and down we tumbled until we reached the bottom, which did not improve our situation any as the bottom had a very large dragon of the black-scaled variety. At this point I must emphasize the word large. Possibly as large as your majesty’s consort, or even your majesty.

It was big. Just saying.

And it was fiery with lots of heat and flames. And metal. It was covered in armor plating. I think you know who I’m talking about. Yeah. HIM.

I was scared. Anyone would be.

Luckily for us he was also asleep. We tiptoed out of there but not before Tilby picked up one of it’s scales that was laying there. We emerged into another large city-cavern and there it was… the library. Not on an upper level after all. So much for Tilby’s supposed knowledge of the layout. However he DID know about the back entrance so I won’t hold it against him.

We distracted a pair of Wyrmkin guards and slipped inside. There we encountered… books. Lot’s and lot’s of books. As we began our search I had a brief scare when I thought a black whelpling was attacking me but it turned out to be merely a large bat that I had startled.

Finally we found the tome we were looking for and I managed to make sure it was in my possession. We teleported back to Ironforge and there we found ourselves in a standoff as I did not trust Tilby enough to give him the book as I still found his intentions murky at best.

I thought it might actually come to violence until Tilby offered to give me the black scale from… HIM… in exchange for the book. I accepted, as I believed proof of what we had found in Grim Batol was more important than whatever it is that Tilby is up to. And perhaps the scale might even come in useful.

And that ends my report on the expedition to Grim Batol. However I did make another deal with Tilby: in exchange in my help on an expedition to Capital City in Lordereon in order to find the next key in deciphering his scroll he would allow me to read the scroll when he was finished decoding it. This trip was successful though not without watching two idiots almost catapult themselves into Capital City’s outer wall, two encounters with the Forskaen, and a run-in with an exploding barrel filled with the Forsaken plague.

The final result of this latest expedition is that we now know the scroll creates something or is describing an item that creates something.

I also got to visit his lab afterward. I found nothing that would require its incineration at this moment. Unfortunately.

In summary: Deathwing is alive and well.

Your faithful servant and daughter,

Rublestrasza.