#83

Pasted to the pages of her journal is a photograph of the deserts of Vol’dun, held in the grip of a sandstorm. Dark clouds loom overhead as grit flies through the air. 




We suffered a real blow to our operations in Vol’dun. We have become too lax in guard duty - Two of our team, and a kodo were slain in an attack that took out a wagon in the middle of the night. The caravan, a joint operation of vulpera and our people were on the way to the Temple of Akunda, were situated on a typically safe road way for the night. It was a mix of alpaca, kodo, goblin and vulpera - good company. To my knowledge no one had recently offended the attackers, so this feels like an antagonistic event, instead of a retaliation.

They were a kind of dwarf I hadn’t seen before, with dark skin and glowing eyes.  I am so against slaying anything more than beasts but this was such a hurried, dangerous moment I slew two of them, injuring a third with Bhenta and Sufa. Ginja and the team, with the vulpera, slew an additional three before the rest finally abandoned their efforts. The losses became more apparent in the morning. Explosives were used to take out our last wagon, the supplies there and the kodo it was attached to lost. The goblin sleeping there is also gone, now buries in the sands. He was supposed to be watching our rear in the night. Another, and two vulpera were slain outright in the confusion, also buried. So much death, and for what? We are just traders. We don’t work in shady dealings, our supplies are honest. This was purely antagonistic.

None were taken alive to question, but they yelled frequently ‘For the Alliance!’ which tells me this was a factional thing, not because we offended anyone. We did trade recently with a human and a nightelf that did not seem specifically angry or nasty - alliance were, for some time a rare sight in Vol’dun. But clearly that is changing. We are thinking of hiring dedicated guards now, maybe from the exiles - there is no shortage of interested folk, eager to begone from their life in the sands.

I have sent letters home for our slain companions, and Ginja is looking for replacements in the goblins visiting Zandalar. We have had several applicants in the vulpera, as well as the exiles of Vol’dun - even one of the Akundas, though Ginja is keen to keep us a goblin operation she is looking in to others as options. I reasoned that opening us up to others might open up our trade work, though for now we are keeping it horde friendly. We had a human applicant, but politely turned him down as he’d have a hard time traveling in Zuldazar, or gaining access to ships back to Kalimdor.

We traveled through the early hours to the Temple, leaving the remains of our caravan to investigate in the morning. Ginja and I, several vulpera and Akundas went back to start the clean up process and burials - this was a well used road, leaving the dead and wreckage behind would have been a disservice to both us and the dead. It was there we found signs of the explosives used - no shamanic fire here. The wreckage reeked of powder, and nearby we found signs of a something Ginja called a mole machine, meaning they traveled here with a mechanical device and crept up on us from a distance.  Ginja and I are calling this an utter loss, and will keep our caravan to just three wagons for now. Maybe four was too much? maybe the spirits are sending us a sign, or this was just rotten luck.

The priests here at the Temple of Akunda are saying to take this a sign of a new begining - that a new opportunity will arise from this tragedy. I made the token offerings at to their loa here but I feel bitter. No calm restorative feelings here. We run honest trade here, but I’m afraid that finally our horde affiliation is attracting nasty intentions. We might stick to the safer regions for a while as we recuperate and bolster our ranks. No one is allowed to hunt at night, and our dealings with alliance members will be strictly monitored if not stopped altogether. For once, I am angry at these Alliance. I think I have been too trusting.