A few weeks ago a man was pushed down from the ledge near Stockade and into the water below. Luckily he did not hit any of the large rocks down there, and besides being wet and shocked then the man was alright.
This is not shocking in itself, or particularly newsworthy, similar stuff happens in Stormwind all the time. But in this case, the situation escalated. A couple of Dark Iron dwarves decided to help the poor man who was pushed out and got involved in a fight with the worgen who did the pushing, and - according to herself - the worgen’s owner.
For a few moments, the street was echoing with the sounds of battle. The clash of magic, weapons, and shields. The harrowing flash of a death-grip spell. It was a mess, and I stayed well away from the fray.
Eventually, the woman and the worgen seemed to lose their enjoyment as they found themselves on the losing side, and in an attempt to rein in the worgen, or her mutt - her words, to safety, she death-gripped him too forcefully and caused them to collide. Both tumbled into the water below. Wet and dripping but with time to escape they managed to flee the scene.
Left behind was the victorious Dark Irons - who seemed more frustrated their opponents got away than injured. I had a brief talk with them about the incident:
"I saw this lad here get pushed into the water, then he ran back up to push the worgen in only for them both to get pushed in, after running back up he asks for my help. I be unsure why but he looked scared, next thing ye' know the woman shot him with magic into the water. So after putting him in the recovery position and telling my friend Bhael to gat get the guards, next thing ye' know the worgen tries to lie through his teeth and say how the lad asked to see magic. Sadly, the guards could nae arrive fast enough and they got away."
"Aint justice without a box at the end. Would've been better with more shooting."Article continues after the ad.
An hour or so later - while talking to Eugene Ross in Lion's Rest I heard yelling from the same spot up top and lo and behold, the worgen and woman was back, and so was the dwarves. Another fight broke out and eventually the dwarves restrained the worgen. Okay more like knocked the worgen out with a solid headbutt to the groin and he was all ready for delivery to the guards.
Unfortunately, this was yet another busy evening for the local men and women in blue and gold and it wasn't until Dame Halliday, secretary of Internal Affairs, Army Officer and member of the Royal Court showed up that something was done. Dame Halliday spent the better part of the next hour interrogating the woman and the two dwarves, taking their statements, and eventually reached the conclusion that all three of them had broken the law, and fines were issued. The worgen was thrown into the stockades for Echo Company to deal with later.
It took me a few days to find the information about the worgen, but turns out, surprise, he was not an arcane wielding feral worgen as the woman had claimed and he had been let out after a night in the Stockades and a hefty fine.
Four people, four lawbreakers, four fines. This made me wonder - where DOES the money from fines go. The arresting guard? the guard company? is it channeled back to the King? what is it spent on, and perhaps more importantly, who has an interest in fining criminals when other options could be available?
I am not pointing fingers at anyone, and I certainly do not think Dame Halliday and Echo maliciously fined these four people as part of some moneymaking scheme, but without answers who can really know? It left me to ponder the question and led me to formally ask the Royal Court for an answer.
Unfortunately, now almost two weeks later the Royal Court has replied or answered. This means your guess is as good as mine. What does happen to the money from fines?