Trixie Tinkwrench huffed in annoyance as she checked the battery on her Poultryizer. It was unfortunate that the battery required sensitive internal components that were highly sensitive to temperature. Already the cold of Northrend had rendered one of her favorite gadgets useless.

There was nothing Trixie loved more than turning her enemies into chickens and watching them run around in panic, but it seemed that she would have to rely on her trusty Shrink Ray until she returned to the Eastern Kingdoms. She had hoped that the new components would stand up to the cold better than they did, but unfortunately, they did not.

With a sigh, Trixie put away the useless gadget and began preparing herself to disembark from the ship. They had almost reached Moa’ki Harbor, and she was one of the few people who spoke the tuskarr language, so she would need to be ready to greet the natives as soon as they arrived.

Trixie moved over to the mirror and quickly tied her pink hair into two pigtails; pink was not her natural hair color, but one of her little brother’s gadgets had malfunctioned and changed her hair to the color it was now. She didn’t mind the color and reversing it would be too much trouble, so she had just left it the way it was.

Once that was done, Trixie put on her tinker goggles and quickly tested their functions so that she could be sure they wouldn’t fail her when she needed them most.

Taking a look in the mirror and deciding that she was ready, Trixie exited her cabin and made her way out onto the deck.

The first thing she saw was Malzie Stonehallow standing at the bow of the ship and looking through a spyglass toward Moa’ki Harbor.

Trixie weaved her way through the Lordaeronian sailors who were rapidly preparing the ship to dock and made her way to the only other member of the Explorer’s League on the ship.

“How’s everything looking, big man?” Trixie asked the middle-aged dwarf man. “Does it look safe to continue approaching the village?”

“Aye, lass. Everything looks fine,” said Malzie as he put away the spyglass. “The tuskarr have a few of their warriors waiting to welcome us at their port, but that’s nothing special. Chieftain Ko’nani’s there waiting for us as well.”

Trixie hummed before flicking a switch on her goggles and turning her gaze to the tuskarr village. Her vision instantly zoomed in on the port as if she were looking through a spyglass.

As Malzie said, there were several tuskarr warriors patiently waiting by the port alongside their massive Chieftain. One of the tuskarr was waving a large green flag signaling that the ship had their permission to dock.

Trixie didn’t notice anything different about this from the previous times she had sailed to Moa’ki Harbor, so she switched her goggles back to their normal setting and turned her attention back to Malzie.

“So have you had any luck in convincing the merchants to stick around any longer? The more time I have to scout, the better.”

Trixie’s role was to survey as much of Northrend’s land as possible in preparation for a larger expedition that would take place sometime in the future.

The Bronzebeards were keen to explore the continent for lore about dwarven history and had instructed the Explorer’s League to plan an expedition, but such things took time. Logistics and funding for the expedition were currently being planned and argued over in Ironforge’s Senate, but the Explorer’s League thought it prudent to gather as much information about the continent as possible beforehand to make things easier.

Given how quickly they managed to find evidence of ancient structures, it seemed that there was something worth studying in this frozen hellhole at least.

Unfortunately, without that funding, she and Malzie were forced to travel with merchants who did not share her goals. The Lordaeronian merchants occasionally sailed to Northrend in order to trade relatively cheap metal ores for exotic furs, whale oil, waterproof hides, ivory, and alchemical herbs with the tuskarr and the native humans.

It would likely be a very profitable venture if not for Northrend’s extremely hostile environment.

“Nay, not much luck there,” said Malzie with a wince. “The humans just want to trade and leave as quickly as possible. Not much appetite for adventure amongst them.”

“I guess that’s to be expected,” said Trixie. “Maybe if we’re lucky, you’ll find a gold vein. That’ll have the continent completely covered in humans and we’d be able to come here whenever we want.”

“Ha! You’re not wrong, lass, but I doubt we’ll get so lucky.”

Trixie and Malzie spent the next few minutes making plans so that they could scout as much as possible within the limited amount of time that they had.

Their discussion was interrupted by the loud bellow of the ship’s captain.

“Prepare to dock!”

Experienced human sailors got to work as they prepared to tie down the ship as they approached Moa’ki Harbor’s port. Trixie did her best to keep out of the way of the Big Folk as they went about their business. She had learned the hard way soon after leaving Gnomeregan that humans did not often look down, especially while they were distracted.

Soon enough, the ship was pulling into a dock and the human sailors were throwing ropes to the tuskarr so that they could tie them around the dock cleats.

The whole process took quite a while to complete, but the ship was eventually docked and the captain was approaching Trixie after leaving the ship’s helm.

“Good evening, Explorer Tinkwrench,” said Captain Stanton Prescott. “Will you be handling the translation for the negotiations between the walrusmen and the merchants?”

The man was hired by a noble family to captain their trade ship and was competent enough to learn the language of the natives, but Trixie could tell that the man preferred to interact with ‘primitives’ as little as possible.

Prescott was supposed to be the one responsible for handling the translation, but once he found out that Trixie and Malzie could speak tuskarr, he was more than happy to pass on the duty to them. Trixie was the more diplomatic of the two, so the responsibility was effectively all hers.

“Yes, Captain Prescott,” said Trixie, hiding her annoyance with the human. “I will handle the translations.”

“Very good,” said Prescott, turning away and leaving without another word.

Once the human was gone Malzie muttered a dwarven insult under his breath that had Trixie struggling to hold back laughter.

Once the gangway was lowered, Trixie did not hesitate to leave the ship alongside Malzie and the human merchant who was a young man named Oscar Smythe. The rest of the ship's crew would need to wait for them to finish greeting the tuskarr Chieftain before they could be given shore leave.

“Greetings, Chieftain Ko’nani,” Trixie said politely in the tuskarr language as their group approached the Chieftain and his warriors. “I am happy to see you again. Thank you for allowing our ship to dock in your village’s port.”

“Greetings, Explorer Tinkwrench,” said Chieftain Ko’nani, struggling to pronounce her name. “Much has happened since the last time you visited our shores, but I am glad to see you as well.”

Much has happened?

Trixie was just about to ask the Chieftain what he meant by that when she was interrupted by the human.

“Ask the walrusman if he has prepared the trading goods for the ores.”

Trixie huffed in annoyance but translated the merchant’s words, although a tad more diplomatically.

Her curiosity only grew when Chieftain Ko’nani hesitated for a moment before speaking. “I’m afraid we will need to renegotiate our current trade agreement in regards to your ores.”

Trixie couldn’t help but widen her eyes in surprise. She knew that the tuskarr dearly needed metal ores in order to make weapons that they could use to fight off tribes of wolverine people and those giant four-legged marauders who regularly attacked their villages.

What had changed since the last time that they were here?

Predictably, the merchant puffed up in outrage the moment Trixie finished translating the Chieftain’s response.

“Renegotiate?! Why should we have to renegotiate after traveling so far? Ridiculous!”

Trixie barely held back an exasperated sigh. Even if the Chieftain did not speak much Common, he would still be able to understand the human’s body language and tone of voice. Nonetheless, she did her best to relay the human’s question as diplomatically as possible.

“Our village has made a trade agreement that has opened up another source of metal ore for our people,” Chieftain Ko’nani said evenly. Trixie was impressed that she could only see a small amount of smugness in the Chieftain’s expression. “Our new trading partners are able to offer us sufficient amounts of ore for our village more cheaply and regularly, so if you like to continue trading with our village, then we will need to renegotiate.”

Trixie and Malzie looked at each other with wide eyes.

Who else could possibly supply the tuskarr with large amounts of ore? Goblins?

“Chieftain Ko’nani, if I may ask, who has your village started trading with?” Trixie asked without translating for the human. She wanted to figure out what was going on before the merchant had the chance to say something stupid. “As far as we are aware, there are no other merchants traveling to Northrend from the Eastern Kingdoms.”

“That’s because they are from Northrend,” said the Chieftain. “Our new trading partner is a large kingdom by the name of Azjol-Nerub.”

Once Trixie finished processing the Chieftain’s words, she could barely hold back a gasp and had to resist the urge to jump up and down in excitement. She could tell that Malzie was similarly enthusiastic.

As far as the Explorer’s League knew, the only intelligent life that inhabited Northrend were the tuskarr, a few scattered villages of humans, some kind of bison people who the tuskarr referred to as taunka, and the ice trolls.

There were also the wolverine people, the giant marauders, and villages of murlocs, but those could hardly be considered as ‘intelligent life.’ There were also the occasional sightings of Naga, but that had yet to be proven.

But if this ‘Azjol-Nerub’ was a large kingdom, then where did they come from and why had Trixie never heard of them before?

“Just to be clear, Chieftain, are the people of Azjol-Nerub of a race that you had never met before?” asked Trixie, giving voice to the biggest question on both her and Malzie’s minds.

“Yes, they are.” Chieftain Ko’nani confirmed with a calm that Trixie currently envied. “Their people are called nerubians, and according to them, they live in an underground kingdom that spans most of the continent.”

This time Trixie was unable to control herself as she let out an involuntary gasp and her eyes grew wider than they had ever been. She turned to Malzie and sure enough, he was in a similar state to her own.

If what the Chieftain said was true, and there truly was such a large underground kingdom on Northrend that was civilized enough to trade with outsiders, then the implications would be… massive.

Trixie was quiet for long enough that the human’s patience wore out and he started making a fuss about being ignored. Once she finished explaining the situation to him, however, he quickly quieted down as he understood the significance of the situation. Trixie could practically see little gold coins dancing in the merchant's eyes as the human thought about the possible trading opportunities this previously unknown kingdom could offer.

For Trixie and Malzie… this was the kind of thing that would get their names written down in the history books.

“Quick! Ask him to tell us what we need to do in order to speak with these ‘nerubians.’”

Trixie eagerly relayed the human’s question.

“As it happens, the nerubians wish to speak with you as well,” said the Chieftain. “Once they learned that our village traded with people from lands across the ocean, they became quite interested in meeting you.”

No sequence of words could have made Trixie more nervous than the ones that just came out of the Chieftain’s mouth. She had come to Northrend to scout out the lands for a future expedition, not to lead a diplomatic meeting with a powerful kingdom that she had never heard of before!

She wanted to turn the responsibility over to Captain Prescott, but it only took a moment of thought to realize that would be a terrible idea. Not only was the man undiplomatic in the extreme, but it was unlikely that the man would agree anyways. If Prescott were some kind of ambitious noble, then he might take over the meeting so that he might gain as many benefits as possible, but the captain was a retired antisocial navy sailor that barely cared about anything aside from his ship.

She didn’t even consider leaving the matter to Oscar. The only thing that the merchant cared about was money.

I’m not trained for this! I never took any diplomacy courses at Gearshaft University! I only took engineering and combat classes! What if I do something wrong and I make them hate us? What if I get us all killed or imprisoned?!

Trixie turned a panicked expression to Malzie

“It’ll be alright, lass,” Malzie said reassuringly. “I ain’t going to lie to you and say that this ain’t a big deal, but I’ll be there with you every step of the way. You’re a clever one and you’ve got a natural talent for talking to people. I’m sure everything will be alright.”

Hearing the older dwarf’s words reassured Trixie enough for her to take a deep breath and begin calming herself down.

He’s right. I’m Trixie Tinkwrench! I’m a badass who graduated top of my class in combat and I’ve been an Explorer for nearly a decade! I can handle talking to people.

After giving herself a little pep talk, Trixie turned her attention back to the Chieftain.

I can do this. I can do this.

“If the nerubians would like to meet with us, then we are more than willing, Chieftain,” Trixie said with a tone of confidence she didn’t truly feel.

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Chieftain Ko’nani. Trixie didn’t like the sudden glimmer of amusement that she could see in the large tuskarr’s eyes. “There is just one thing that you should know before I take you to meet with them. The nerubians have an appearance that I suspect you will find to be… greatly unsettling.”

Trixie could feel her growing resolve stutter at the Chieftain’s words.

“Oh? How so?” Trixie asked hesitantly.

“The nerubians are a race of giant spiderlike people.”

I can’t do this. I can’t do this.

“I see,” said Trixie, mustering all of her courage for her impending meeting with a race of giant spider people who belonged to a kingdom that allegedly spanned more land than any civilization in the Eastern Kingdoms. “Are they… friendly?”

Chieftain Ko’nani hummed in consideration as Malzie translated for the human. In any other situation, she would have been amused by how quickly his face paled.

“They are more friendly and diplomatic than some outsiders I’ve met,” said the Chieftain, glancing unsubtly at Oscar. The human had remained quiet once Trixie started to ask about the nerubians, but it was obvious that the Chieftain had not forgotten his previous outburst.

“I understand, Chieftain,” said Trixie. “I would like to meet with these nerubians.”

Chieftain Ko’nani simply nodded and started leading them into the village. One of the tuskarr Elders went to tell the sailors that they could leave the ship and then followed after them a moment later.

The walk to the Chieftain’s home, where the nerubians were presumably waiting for them, was not long enough. As the Chieftain ushered the three of them inside, Trixie did her best to suppress her fight or flight instinct as she prepared to meet the giant spider people.

It turns out that was probably for the best since she simply froze in terror when she laid eyes on the nerubians. If she hadn’t prepared herself, Trixie was certain she would have already fired her Shrink Ray and tried her best to smash them with her wrench.

The two nerubians were nightmarishly large creatures with the lower body of a spider and an upper body that was shaped similarly to a gnome’s, if one ignored their terrifying faces. One of the nerubians was wearing a full set of armor that was well designed for their body and the other was wearing a set of robes that would not seem out of place in Dalaran.

Trixie was used to living in a world where most things were bigger than her, but she couldn’t help but feel like spiderlike creatures should not be allowed to grow so large… and she had seen actual giant spiders!

Trixie was suddenly the focus of sixteen eyes as the creatures that she wished did not exist turned their attention to her.

“It’s so small,” said the large armored spider thing. The armored spider held up one of the toys that she had left for the tuskarr children during her last visit. “Greetings tiny creature. Do you have any more of these amusing devices?”

Before she could even hope to formulate an answer, the robed one started speaking with an overenthusiastic voice.

“Hello!” said the robed nightmare in the tuskarr language, opening and closing their giant terrifying mandibles as they spoke. Their accent was strange and their voice was too cheerful in Trixie’s opinion. “My name is Krivax, and I’m happy to meet you. What’s your name?”

Trixie tried her best to muster a response, but all that left her mouth was a terrified whine.