the Mages’ Council

After a few days, the Underpowered Death Knight reported that she had collected twelve different pamphlets from the Doomsayers. It had taken her that long to be sure that she’d gotten them all, as after she’d gotten a handful, she started to get duplicates, but there didn’t seem to be any more than that. She gave them to Kaelinda to analyze. Flicking through the tattered, stained, crumpled, blackened, worn, damp, scrawled, scribbled, odorous, ominous, demonic, prophetic pile, Kaelinda quickly concluded that advice from other expert opinions would be valuable. She invited her Mage friends to study the pamphlets with her.

“The things that Kael’thas’ followers said about their plan to bring Kil’jaeden through the Sunwell,” Kaelinda said, “sounded a lot like this. There wasn’t actual death in that transformation, but the rest of it is more or less the same.”

“This drivel,” Kaprikka scowled, “is distressingly similar to the propaganda that Socrethar used to seduce the Sargerei.”

“I wasn’t there during the War of the Ancients,” Keriluna mused, “I was born a few decades afterward. My parents didn’t like to talk about that time, but when they thought I was old enough, they told me about it. These words… they are just like my parents’ memories.”

“Oh, I think I know what this one’s talkin’ about!” exclaimed Khrissalys. “Did yeh hear about how King Magni got turned into diamond when he went to commune with the earth just before the Cataclysm? Well, he woke up and I saw him with my own eyes walkin’ out of Ironforge.”

(the other two prophecies reference the second and fourth Legion comics)

Kaoling shook her head sadly. “The evaporation of the mists was enough of a shock, and then Pandaria was devastated by the escape of the great Sha, and especially the destruction of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. I think there are many Pandaren who feel like their lives were turned upside down who would be susceptible to this message. Those who were severely afflicted by the great Sha might be even more so.”

“There are many who are unhappy with the current state of our governments,” Kymberlea observed, “Those who ask, where is Lorna? Where is Tess? Where is Calia? It is bad enough that these people are… reluctant to fight in the normal conflicts of our nations. It is worse to think that those sympathies could be used to persuade them to turn traitor to our world itself.”

“Why,” Kenosha muttered disgustedly, “why are my people so stupid? After all that we have suffered because of our bloodlust in the past, why would they think that this is the most honorable way to deal with this threat?”

“Most of my family belongs to a sect of the Church of the Holy Light that has as one of its tenets being prepared for future misfortune,” Kaylynda explained, “I bet that’s where this list originally came from.”

“I’m not sure that this is actually related,” Kivrinne said, “This looks to me like a left-over Twilight’s Hammer flyer from before the Cataclysm. That, or poetry by a high level cleric of the Forgotten Shadow. I hear that priests who turn their backs on the Light are going not just into the Shadow, but all the way into the Void now.”

“Dem Darkmoon carnies are pretty clever,” said Kikimaia, “I wouldn’t trust just a suit, though. I’d feel bettah if it had a voodoo charm ta strenthen da illusion, too.”

“What a scam!” hooted Kermione. “We should put out some counter-pamphlets telling people not to trust this at all. Gallywix’ll just take your life savings and enslave you. Been there, done that!… Didn’t get a T-shirt, though… hmm, maybe I oughtta suggest the idea to Boss Mida.”

“Only two air fresheners?” said Kelilla, “They really think a demon invasion would be over that soon? But what’s more worrying is that they aren’t including any Trogg repellent.”

“Still, if there are folks trying to make gold off of this” — the Gnome waved her hands to encompass the pamphlets held by the Goblin and the Troll — “then this kind of stuff must have been going around for awhile already.”

Kaylynda shook her head in astonishment. “Just what has been going on on Azeroth while we were all away on Draenor…?” Her eyes widened and she buried her face in her hands. “Kairoz, you blithering idiot! Whatever you thought you were doing when you brought Garrosh to Draenor, you’ve gotten us into way more trouble than you were planning for!”

“You mean –” began Kaelinda, “Oh! Remember what the Black Prince said? What he showed us?”

All around the table, heads nodded.

“That is what this is all about.”

“You know,” Kaylynda said after a moment, “tomorrow is Tuesday. New and strange things always seem to happen on Tuesdays. Kaelinda, you had better tell your Death Knight friend to continue keeping an eye on these Doomsayers, just in case they change their behavior somehow tomorrow…”

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