Today will be the last day of the Festival of Forges, a three-day long festival taking place in Dun Morogh and Ironforge proper. While my colleague Gaedryel has been assigned the task of covering the main events, I found myself suddenly enveloped in a far more mysterious, shady, and clandestine meeting of three men.
The Council of Mikes. Despite it sounding silly and harmless, then I assure you it is far more foreboding once you dig into it.
Let us start out with the what. As most people were celebrating the Festival of Forges this weekend I kept being approached by individuals who told me of a clandestine meeting in one of Ironforge's many watering-holes. A meeting of three individuals, referring to themselves as
"The Council of Mike", a name apparently decided upon by the three people at the meeting. A young dwarf helping the proprietor with collecting used mugs to be cleaned amongst the patrons happened to hear the short exchange of words which lead to the name being decided upon. He also elaborated on how they kept calling each other "Mike".
Already you can see the cultist behaviour showing. Some cults refer to each other as "Brother" or "Sister" or similar, but here they have opted for the more innocent sounding, "Mike". Some may claim it is just three people named Mike having a meeting, but think about it? how realistic and likely is that? Not only does witnesses claim no one else took part in said meeting - except a dark-skinned woman who left quickly with a distraught expression on her face - but do you know three people who share your name? AND would you have a meeting with them randomly in the middle of a festival in a foreign city? I think not, this is no coincidence.
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Next up is the who. According to one dwarf, who despite a slightly slurred speech insisted he was not seeing things, then three men were observed at the meeting, a high-ranking politician and nobleman, a person known in law-enforcement circles and clandestine organisations, and an unknown worgen who seemed like the brains of the operation. The first two rumoured to have a lot of influence, contacts, and resources at their disposal, the last one said to be a genius who was once seen play 8 games of chess at the same time. Four of them backwards.
As the three men broke up their meeting, secret handshakes where observed. According to a witness then they looked a lot like a regular handshake, but that is the benefit of a secret handshake, it looks inconspicuous. Promises of keeping in touch were exchanged along with the handshakes, and one can only assume hushed words about dead-drop locations and ciphers had already been spoken through clenched teeth.
We don't usually cover stories like this with few facts and mostly hearsay and rumours, but it sounds like something the public should be made aware of - and hopefully the right governmental organisations can investigate this. For the safety of us all.
It sounds silly, not exactly foreboding, but that is how all secret societies start out. If you know or hear anything about this secret cult, who they are or what their goal is, then be sure to get in touch, but be careful, no one knows what resources or means they have at their disposal!