Let the Mighty Elwynn Soar!

[Octavius]

East Elwynn Sluice

Jervand swallowed the aspirin in his hand and followed it with a heavy drink of water. The headache was getting worse, and now it had begun to throb.

Doolis, his coworker at the Sluice Monitoring Station, glanced over at him as he sat back down. She leaned over and asked, "are you okay?"

Jervand nodded. "Yeah. Just a bit of a headache. Maybe it's allergies."

"Aspirin doesn't help with allergies, genius." She said, leaning back.

Aspirin was all that Jervand could find in the medicine cabinet in the kitchen. It was continuing to get worse. He could swear that he could hear his heart beating in his temples, feel the blood thrusting through his arteries. He drank some more water, and did his best to direct his attention to his work.

"Barge 23 is approaching the Turn." Doolis said, noting it in her log book. There was a convoy of government supply barges heading downriver. With the crisis in Alalehzamin, Eliria was pulling out all the stops and sending whatever equipment, personnel, supplies they could to combat the cabbage. This was the 23rd barge of this convoy, the first 22 having safely made it through the Turn and proceeded through the locks and down through to the lower East Elwynn. Two more waited behind it for their own turn through the locks.

It was much more dangerous now, with the Sluice completely closed, because the lower East Elwynn was now so much lower than it would be under normal circumstances, and the upper East Elwynn was now so much higher. Additionally, with the Sluice completely closed, navigating into the Turn was more difficult because the river no longer flowed properly. Barge masters were used to compensating for the Elwynn flowing liberally through the Sluice. Instead, most of the water flowing downriver was going through the lock.

"Barge 23 is at the Turn." Doolis reported.

Jervand's mind lost its focus. The throbbing was too much for him to direct his attention properly to his monitoring duties. He struggled. His eyes drifted across his monitoring board, until it hit a gauge. This gauge measured the pressure of the river pushing on the Sluice. A piece of paper had been taped next to it, labelled "IGNORE". They were supposed to ignore the fact that the needle was in the red. With the Sluice closed, that was to be expected. Under normal operating procedures, however...

"Pressure on the Gate is beyond the safety level. Emergency purge! All ships, clear the Sluice Zone." Jervand announced automatically. His hand reached out and operated the emergency release, which would open the Sluice's gate and allow the pressure to fall back down to normal operating levels. The Gate snapped open and a wall of water began to pour through.

"Jervand, what are you doing!?" Doolis shouted, leaping from her seat and onto Jervand's controls, attempting to undo what he had just done before it was too late.

On the radio, the master of Barge 23 called out, "Monitoring Station, Barge 23 -- we're being pulled out of the Turn! What's going on?"

Jervand and Doolis looked out through the station's windows at the Sluice. Water had begun to rush past them. To the far left in the distance, Barge 23 was being pulled sideways along with the water. The mouth of the Sluice raged as water, having built up beyond its design limitations, pushed to be released southward. On the other side, the lower Elwynn, placidly flowing at a much lower level, was devoured by the stampede of raging white.

"Monitoring Station, Barge 24 -- requesting status."

"Monitoring Station, Barge 22 -- we're near capsizing, what's happening!?"

The throbbing attacked Jervand's mind anew, and he collapsed on the floor. Doolis struggled free of him and tried to issue the necessary commands to reclose the Sluice. Barge 23, now rolling around among the river water, was quickly approaching the Gate.

Doolis pressed one last button, and the Gate began to close once more. She then radioed to the barges. "All barges, clear for safety. The Gate was accidentally opened, but it is being closed. All barges, clear for safety."

"Monitoring Station, Barge 24 -- attempting to maintain position at the Turn."

"Monitoring Station, Barge 22 -- we've been beached. Requesting a tug."

The status board showed that the Gate was still closing, struggling against the weight of so much additional water. Doolis looked back out the windows in time to watch Barge 23 come crashing through the Gate and tear it wide open, before a piece of debris smashed through the Monitoring Station.