The Legerdemain Incident, part 7 of 11

In the left hallway of the inn's second floor, two of the four tragic deaths that day occurred, though my previous sources only mentioned one in that link in the chain of events. The second is more or less connected to the incident in the right side of the hallway. The chain link in the right side, however, demands telling beforehand. What occurred there was perhaps the most significant failed assassination of the decade; had SI:7 succeeded, there no doubt in my mind that a full-scale factional war could have broken out between the two factions. Instead, their failure led to the four deaths involved and the riots which occurred thereafter. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that the way things unfolded, as embarrassing and harmful as it was, was probably the least damaging way the whole event could have occurred.

Let us move in to the main catalyst, which was also the least reliably observed portion of the incident.

Trivoram of Auchindoun, 205, Kirin Tor sentry:

"As soon as I got the ogres to calm down and lock themselves in their room, I heard a whole lot of banging in the other hallway. Even without knowing exactly what it was, I correctly predicted that my day was about to get a whole lot worse. The upstairs consists of two hallways; at one end there's the stairs, and the other there's a doorway connecting the two sides. I chose the doorway; the two second delay in that choice is probably what caused me to miss what had really happened.

"I turned around the corner just long enough to see the aftermath. Two dead pandaren and two humans who I mistakenly thought were dead all laid on the floor. There was a lot of blood, and I paused for a second too long in shock. I heard the sound of one of my people hurrying away, and I recognized draenic blood mixed with the other types of blood in the hallway. One of the doors was hanging open, and I entered without knocking in hope of finding someone alive.

"Inside, it was pretty bad. Growl-Greta Gar was there wearing just a bath towel around herself, and she was covered in blood that wasn't hers. Her boyfriend or whatever was dead on the floor, also naked, and appeared to have had his throat slashed. He was also covered in more draenic blood, and I noticed the severed hand of a woman of my kind on the floor. I began to panic, and Gar noticed me due to my breathing. She yelled something about us being out to get her, and then her bodyguard jumped in front of me. I hadn't seen him there before and I ran right out. He slammed the door behind me and there was more shouting.

"They seemed alright and there was little I could do for her dead boyfriend, so I ignored all the bodies in the hallway and ran downstairs."

Miriam from Gilneas City, 36, cast iron ware importer:

"I'd returned to my room since I was working on split shift for my time in Dalaran. My sister was taking a nap with her earplugs on so she had no idea what was happening, but I was on edge because of that Horde Warband staying at the inn. Unfortunately, they were sharing out hallway, and their leader had her goon stand outside her door while she shagged some bloke half her age inside the room. I didn't care about them, but I was bothered by the thing she'd posted in the hallway. Everybody has to use that hallway and it didn't seem right that she could send one of her guys to just occupy most of the corridor and scare everybody. So I kept watching from the peephole because sleep was out of the question.

"At one point I got drowsy and closed my eyes, but then I heard the floorboards creak like they were going to give way, and I noticed the goon walk around the corner. He must have heard a noise because he didn't come back immediately. Just as I was about to open the door and threaten to call the sentries on him for hooliganism, he runs right back in front of the peephole too fast and I screamed. He didn't hear me because I heard what sounded like a cricket bat hitting a moist Winter Veil turkey, and then there was shouting in weird foreign languages. I just took another pair of my sister's earplugs and waited until my shift. Of course, the riots had started by then, so we ended up staying in that inn room for a full sixteen hours without leaving except for the loo."

Peter from Southshore, 43, day shift janitor at the inn:

"Well, I passed out when I sawed this gigantic axe cut one of the panda people's heads clean off. When I woke back up, I sawed that the other panda fellow was also dead and cut to pieces, so I passed out again. I woke up in the city infirmary next to miss Sally-Mae and that's all I can tells you."

Top Dollar from Kezan, 38, venture capitalist:

"I was in Dalaran to inspect a few inventions an associate of mine was working on. I'd taken them back to the inn for privacy purposes, which turned out to be a big mistake. Everybody says Dalaran is safe, so I didn't hire any security despite having a lot of expensive prototypes I was testing out in my room. Some tusker was marking the hallway with a scent that reminded me of ozone and damp firewood, and I had half a mind to take my business elsewhere. I should have, but I was working with some expensive radio equipment so I couldn't exactly just pack up and leave in two minutes.

"I hear a lot of thumping out in the hallway, and I'd finally had enough. I was about to bribe the guy making all the noise when I hear a sound like a brittle coconut being cracked open. I open the door long enough to see a black and white furbolg going at it with a forest troll. I just closed the door, packed up and left out the window in two minutes."

Willhelm from Theramore, 15, Kirin Tor scholarship candidate:

"My bunk at the academy wasn't ready, so they put me and a few other students up in that inn for a few days until we could move in. The place seemed pretty cool, but the people were all loud and drank a lot. I'm not really used to that and it started to seem kind of lame after a while. We were studying when all the problems started, and I drew the short straw so I had to go see what it was. When I saw like a real live battle I called everybody else over to watch.

"This one guy got an axe to the head and just died right there, I almost vomited but it was also kind of awesome at the same time. The others came just in time to see this pandaren stab a forest troll in the stomach, but the troll cut the other guy's shoulder like a butcher. It was really gory and one of the other students actually *did* puke, and it went everywhere. I mean, the pandaren's shoulder was just hanging by this red stuff but he stabbed the forest troll in the ribs a few times while the troll started hacking at him like a tree until he, like, came open. It was the nastiest thing I've ever seen but I couldn't look away, sort of like a zeppelin accident. Then there was yelling up the hall and the troll guy kicked the door to a room open. One of the other boys went to the bed in our room and started crying that he wanted to go home but I say, this is why we became mages. I totally want to join the army and blow bad guys up now."

Rusty Shackleford from parts unknown, 40s, tavern patron:

"Everybody in the bar and tavern stood up like a bunch of tools and started staring at the kitchen, as if gawking would help them fix the situation. A few sentries showed up and then a few more, and I don't trust pigs so I pretended to be taking a serialized trade magazine up to my room at the inn. I didn't actually rent a room at the inn.

"On my way up, this draenei woman runs by with a missing hand and a bloody stump she was clutching in her hands. My policy is don't ask, don't tell, and I ignored her and all the dead bodies as I jumped out the window to avoid being implicated in any plots. I hit the ground with a goblin guy carrying gadgets and we just gave each other the silent nod as we ran in opposite directions. These two worgen also jumped out a window and started whispering 'abort the mission' as they left. I'm convinced that they were planning to assassinate me."

Targ Slicedice from Blackrock Mountain, 22, adventurer:

"I was trying to get some shuteye in my room at the inn, but I got woken up by this couple doing it next door. Eventually they finished conjugating the verb and I started to fall asleep again only to hear more banging around in there. I thought they were having an argument after doing the deed, but it wasn't my business so I just wrapped my pillow around my head. Then I heard them fighting in the hallway.

"Or maybe it was the other way around. I was really tired, so I can't remember if the shouting started in the inn room first or the hallway. Oh, and some worgen lady screamed too, but I'm not sure if she was a part of whatever was going on out there or if she was also arguing after doing somebody."

Martha from Ironforge, 183, personal assistant:

"I'd just walked into my room to change my clothes because I had an occasion to attend late afternoon. Some weirdo was standing around in the hallway glaring at everybody, but I just ignored him and went about my business. By the time I walked out, there were a bunch of dead bodies in the floor and a lot of blood. I assumed my friends were playing a practical joke on me because there simply wasn't any way for such a horrible scene to unfold in the amount of time it took me to get dressed.

"I walked around all the colored water and found people rough housing downstairs, but the tavern had been like that when I entered. I passed a few sentries on my way out; I assumed they were there to break up a fight. I went about my business as usual and didn't leave my friend's party until after the riots had stopped. I figured out, by then, that the dead bodies had been real. I'm probably not going to visit Dalaran again."

I will leave you, dear reader, to draw your own conclusions about what occurred on that side of the second floor. I must admit that the temptation to draw my own conclusions is strong, but I can not do so in good faith while claiming this study to constitute primary source material. Suffice to say that, although this was probably the most significant link in the chain, the exact details have proven elusive. There is not a single witness to what happened near Growl-Greta Gar's inn room escpr that I either collected their comments, or spoke to them and was unable to secure the witnesses consent to publish their testimony.

However exactly the botched assassination attempt unfolded, what happened next is a little more well-known.