“Ragnaros’ fiery crotch! Could you make these bonds any tighter?

“If ye’d like, Ah could leave ye untied, and jus’ shoot out both yer kneecaps.”

“Who in the Twisting Nether are you, anyway? Since when do mountaineers use freezing traps?”

“Jus’ a mountaineer, like all the rest. We’re havin’ a wee bit o’ a fox problem of late. They reckon if we don’t get a handle on it soon, they’ll overrun much of this here territory.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Now, then: It’s me turn to ask a few questions, startin’ with what ye lot were blowin’ up in the middle of the night. It shook me right out of me own bed, it did.”

“Nothing. We gave up on attacking the dam years ago.”

“Then what was that last night?”

“An earthquake …”

“Loch Modan donnae have bloody earthquakes!”

“Then, I don’t know, mountaineer. It had nothing to do with me and mine.”

“So what are ye doin’ here, then?”

“Reconnaissance mission, getting the lay of the land. Things are … unsettled in Shadowforge since the emperor was assassinated. The queen regent and the senate are in a power struggle …”

“‘Queen regent?’ Ya mean Princess Moira? She’s still alive?”

“Aye, no thanks to the emperor’s assassins. She’s alive, and as the mother to the heir of Shadowforge – and Ironforge, for that matter – she rules as regent in her child’s name.”

“That’s a bloody lie.”

“It’s not. She may not rule for much longer, though: Blackrock orcs keep meeting with members of the senate, talking about some prophecy of a time when the mountain will be united into a single army. The queen regent chases them out whenever she discovers them in the city, or has them thrown into the arena, but there are many of my people who would love to return to our past glory.”

“So that’s why ye’re here? Scout out our weaknesses before the attack?”

“There are others of us who think our best hope is to unite the dwarven people again under a new leader, even one still in diapers. Shadowforge and Ironforge, and even those sister-humpers in Aerie Peak, together again, with no dragons, no orcs, no elemental lords telling us what to do, ever again.”

“Ye do see why Ah’d have trouble believin’ this, Ah trust. Ye tried to blow up the bloody dam …”

“Bygones.”

“And ye helped o’erthrow Gnomeregan when the troggs invaded.”

“It’s high time to move past pointing fingers over who tried to blow up whose dam or who helped overthrow whose city or who’s responsible for the murder of whose emperor.”

“Ah cannae figure ye out: Ah donnae believe ye, but if ye were lyin’, Ah reckon ye’d come up with somethin’ better than this.”

“You’re letting me go?”

“Ye get a pass for tellin’ a good tall tale, if nothin’ else. Ye cannae get into too much mischief disarmed and behind enemy lines. Run on back ta Shadowforge, now.”