[Alliance] Chapter Four: Session Twenty
Appearing Characters: Aramar Thorne, Arthas Menethil, Broll Bearmantle, Ebru, Elissa Cross, Makasa Flintwill, Muyani, Muyoh, Nalpak, Remnii, Riff, Samaara, Seria, Tae'shara Sunwatcher, Thrud, Thunderaan, Tol'vas Moonshadow, Uther Menethil, Velameestra Windrunner
June 17th
The fight is raging on, and Thunderaan raises his blade to the sky.
A peal of thunder echoes through the valley, nearly deafening the party aside from Vel and Riff--who are in the dome of silence. Tol’vas shifts into his worgen form and roars bolstering his allies with the magic of the spell.
The air elemental next to Vel and Riff swirls into their space and uses its whirlwind ability, but Vel and Riff are both able to resist.
Thunderaan, with extreme speed, strikes at Uther with his massive weapon before the huge elemental shoots into the sky. With two fearsome blows from his axe, Arthas is able to cleave through the air elemental nearest to him. He rounds on the second air elemental with another successful strike.
Thrud follows up on the second air elemental, her eyes sparking with lightning. She brings it down to critical condition.
Thunderaan shoots skyward, but Uther is able to connect with his hammer as he moves. Seria also manages to land a hit.
He starts to cast storm sphere, but Vel enhances a counterspell so she can counter it with a quick motion of her hand. Thunderaan pauses, and then laughs.
He floats down closer to the battlefield.
The critically-wounded air elemental hurls Remnii towards the edge again, but as she stumbles off, she is able to grab on to the edge of the cliff. She shrieks, and both Tae’shara and Samaara call out to her. Thunderaan looks down at her curiously, interested to see what she might do.
Riff holds his hands out as he jumps out of the silence bubble. Vel sees his eyes glow as they roll into the back of his head. Remnii instinctively resists, but her body still jolts upward and over the top of the cliff. She swings with her staff at the air elemental, and it whips through the elemental.
Then the control fades. Riff gives her a thumbs up, and then darts back into the silence bubble. Vel brandishes her sword as she dances around the air elemental, striking the air elemental with her frigid blade. A whirlwind of snow erupts around her, but the elemental is able to narrowly dodge around her second strike.
Remnii uses mass flash of light and then clenches her fist in the midst of the air elemental, using mind sliver. The elemental immediately dissipates, destroyed.
Uther drops righteous defense and then looks up at Thunderaan and kneels. He quickens the fly spell, and wings of light burst from his back. He launches into the air to start sparring Thunderaan in the sky.
He swings in with his hammer, holy light radiating around it. His second strike connects, another explosion of light radiating in the stormy sky. Thunderaan pivots around Uther, swinging Thunderfury.
Uther attempts to block the strike, but the elemental’s strength is overwhelming. Lightning and wind courses around Uther, chilling him to the bone.
Seria barrels through Vel’s cold snap and swings at the elemental with her fist. The first attack misses, but the second connects.
Arthas also charges straight into Vel’s cold snap and strikes with a battle cry, cleaving through the elemental and causing it to dissipate. He then calls to the sky as he backs out of the cold snap, invigorating the allies that can hear him.
Remnii uses mind whip, flicking her wrist through air. There is a ripple of darker energy through the air, though it doesn’t strike as true as she may have desired. Cold wind also forms around Thrud, and she casts sleet storm, causing a storm to blot out Thunderaan’s face. Thunderaan laughs, clearly enjoying the contest.
Uther connects with another smite, and then quickens a green flame blade, connecting with another smite.
Tol’vas uses sunfire, and a pillar of radiant light shoots through Thunderaan--it doesn’t seem to have a profound effect, but it does hurt him. Tol’vas then uses his bear totem, bolstering his allies.
He casts chain lighting and fires it down to the group on the ground. Tol’vas uses absorb elements, but he loses concentration on his spell--the primal fury enacted on Uther fading away.
Riff darts around Vel’s cold snap and a red mist of shadowy energy coalesces around his hand. He uses shadow word pain on Thunderaan, but the elemental is able to resist the spell.
Thunderaan flickers and slashes through Uther, cleaving through him as he moves. Uther’s wings break, and starts to plummet down--but then a small twister breaks his fall, and he lands on the ground.
Vel jumps out of the silence bubble and casts frost nova, the explosion of ice bursting around Thunderaan, before she darts back into the silence bubble.
Seria takes a dodge action as she runs to the edge of the cliff in anticipation.
Tol’vas uses rejuvenation on Uther, the druidic magics starting to knit his wounds together.
Thunderaan flies downward and starts to laugh.
There is another thunderous blast, and everyone that heard it is deafened--except for Uther and Seria, who are immune, and Vel who was in the silence bubble.
Thunderaan pivots around and brings his blade down on Vel, knocking her to her knees.
Thrud casts a frostbolt at Thunderaan as she darts into the silence bubble, and Arthas follows up after her. He runs up Thunderaan’s sword and cleaves his axe down the side of the elemental’s arm. Thunderfury is flung into the air, and pierces into the ground between the group.
Riff drops his silence bubble, the battle finished.
Thunderaan laughs again.
He is starting to fade away.
Thunderaan laughs, his body unraveling as the storm is calmed. Within moments, he is gone--leaving his blade behind. The blade is almost twice the size of Thrud. She steps forward, and places a hand on it. A bolt of lightning strikes it, and the blade is now sized for her as she draws it from the earth.
Remnii goes about healing the injured members of the party as the storm subsides.
The other members of the party come rushing up.
Uther approaches Thrud, who is now holding both her hammer, and the large sword.
Thrud smiles.
Thrud nods.
She drives the Thunderfury blade into the ground and holds her hand out for a handshake, which Uther accepts.
Vel notes a glint of something near where Thunderaan had dissipated and she starts to investigate. She grabs her harvesting kit and captures what was left of the spark. As she holds the vial to her eye, she sees a snake of lightning rippling and twitching in the vial. She also finds another shard, which is glowing with primal lighting. It sparks as she extracts it. She isn’t sure what it is, exactly, but she was able to successfully retrieve it.
Tae’shara also looks eagerly at the items that Vel had extracted.
Vel is completely monotone, but Remnii chuffs at the pun.
Vel hands them over to her, and Tae’shara uses identify while the party rests.
The shard is a bit less fantastic, but it’s an entropy shard. It’s something that forms inside an elemental when they form, and it’s a fragment of primal power that was released when he was summoned.
Samaara and Makasa also help patch up some of Vel’s wounds. By the end of the rest, the wind had mostly died down.
Thrud packs her things together, the Thunderfury blade slung across her back.
Vel mentions that if Thrud encounters any elves in Northrend to say that she is an ally of Velameestra Windrunner--hopefully it would lessen the chances of any misunderstandings. Thrud nods and thanks her for the ability to use her friendship.
Thrud bids farewell to the group, and whistles for her wolves to follow her as she sets off down the ridge.
Samaara looks to the druids.
Aramar pulls out the map that he’s been working on.
He notes the oasis the group had stopped at one night, and the area where there might be another one.
The group takes their wind walk forms and they start to fly. They travel for about two hours, passing over the Southfury River once more. There is a collection of mountains wreathed in thorns ahead--indicative of quillboar territory.
They opt to veer around the quillboar territory, following the Gold Road. They occasionally see individuals traversing the road below. Near a cluster of tall trees, there are strange quadrupedal creatures with long necks that are feeding off the leaves. Occasionally there are roving bands of centaur, as well as camps.
Then suddenly they hear drums begin to beat. They watch as tents are rapidly torn down, and a few outriders start to run off in every direction--waving massive torches in the air. It’s unclear what they are doing.
But then they hear the wind start to pick up around them. They are blown around, and they sense the wind is coming from a large cloud. There are massive wings that burst from the cloud, huge talons extended as it dives right by the group. It’s a huge bird, similar to a hawk or a falcon, but much, much larger.
It dives toward the centaur camp, and arrows are loosed at it. The massive bird grabs two centaurs and takes off into the sky again. The centaurs try to fight back, but then as it soars upward, it drops the two centaur. They plummet and crash limply. The huge bird circles around, then plucks the corpses from the ground before disappearing into the sky again.
Tol’vas knows it’s an incredibly rare creature. It’s not a wild god, but it is probably very close. It’s called a roc--a massive bird of prey. No one is totally sure what their origin was. Some claim they are distant relatives of the ancients, or spirit beasts, but most seem to come from a place that teems with natural energies.
The group keeps moving, and thankfully they don’t see it again.
They find a spot off the Gold Road to camp for the night. Tol’vas continues to insist on resting outside the tiny huts, but he enters the dream so he can look for any druidic activity. He finds none, but the dream is quite lush in this area.
June 18th
The next morning is very hot, and it is only going to get hotter throughout the day. The sky is cloudless, and the sun unrelenting as the group takes to the sky.
They spread out, looking for signs of other oases before meeting at a specific mountain. Uther and Seria note an oasis towards the west. Tae’shara and Vel see the end of the Barrens far to the north where it expands into a lush, green forest and mountains. Tol’vas finds an oasis to the south which is surrounded by a large abundance of tropical trees. It’s almost too many. The sand is nearly not visible beneath the lush vegetation, and the rippling pools of the oasis seem to be uncomfortably brighter.
After they meet up, the group heads south to the oasis that Tol’vas had found. They travel for about three more hours, heading straight through the mountains to circle down. However, they see a figure sitting on a rock that’s not too far away from one of the many small pools. It’s a large creature with mostly bare flesh, and it has a horn protruding from its head.
It looks like an ogre, and Remnii just stops. Vel and Uther also recognize it.
The ogre scratches his head and seems to be eating some sort of fruit.
The group lands a distance away from the creature.
Elissa and Tae’shara go with the party while the rest of the group gets into a more advantageous position in case things go south.
The party starts to approach, and Seria and Tol’vas notices messages written in druidic. There are druidic indications that seem to state the barrow den of the Druids of the Fang is located here, and they are marking the direction to the entrance of that barrow den. However, it has been partially scribbled out and replaced with another message in druidic.
Seria reads what it says.
Tae’shara looks at the writing on the side of the tree.
Tae’shara whistles to Samaara, who pops her head out of the greenery. Tae’shara makes a few signs at her, and Samaara nods before disappearing back into the brush.
The party steps out to head towards the ogre, who appears to be scratching his head. His back is to the group, and he doesn’t seem to have noticed them.
The ogre stops and looks around, a finger in his nose. Vel’s nose wrinkles in disgust. The ogre has a weapon nearby.
Remnii opts to cast tongues so the rest of the party that can’t understand orcish can at least hear her side.
He points at the trees.
Remnii looks, and she notes a large box near where he was sitting. It looks to be goblin in make. Remnii blinks, getting her head around what’s going on.
Remnii folds her arms.
The ogre scratches his head.
He looks in his loin cloth and pulls out a sheet of paper. He starts trying to read to himself.
He looks between Remnii and the paper a few times.
He points at Uther.
The ogre nods, and the switches to bad common.
The ogre looks at Remnii.
The ogre squints at Uther.
Suddenly, there’s a sound, and a rope of flesh wraps around the ogre’s neck and drags him into the pond. The water starts to darken blood red. There’s a splash of water, and several heads erupt from the water--more ropes shoot out, each one like a long snake that changes color into a bright red. Long sinuous tongues shoot out from the three heads that emerge and lash out at Remnii, Uther, and Elissa. Elissa is able to narrowly evade the tongue, but the tongues wrap around Uther and Remnii and pulls them right off their feet to drag them closer.
It tries to bite Remnii but her bracers activate, deflecting the attack aside.
Tae’shara draws her dagger and runs forward.
She flips into the air and attacks with a booming blade. However, her dagger is deflected off the scales.
Tol’vas tries to use phantasmal killer on the hydra, but it doesn’t seem to have the effect he would have hoped for. It seems to have an innate resistance to being frightened, and there are also multiple heads.
Elissa also runs forward to try and help Remnii.
She draws her sword and draws it across her shield. The sigil of Lordaeron shimmers, and she strikes the ground. A grid appears on the ground beneath her, and an aura of energy manifests. Suddenly, Remnii is safely on the sand, and Elissa is now grappled and restrained in her place.
Remnii is clearly concerned.
Vel activates her bladesong and reaches her hand out. Necrotic energy wafts over the hydra, and its skin seems to shrivel momentarily, it’s skeleton showing beneath its flesh as the curse manifests, changing its creature type to undead.
He calls back as he is dragged forward by the tongue. He wrestles free, stands up, and then quickens a green flame. The hammer crushes into the hydra’s skull, splitting it into a bloody pulp with a surge of holy energy.
In fear, the hydra attempts to bite Uther, but its jaws glance off his arm. Two other heads bite at Elissa and Tae’shara, but it is also unable to connect. The creature moves back, dragging Elissa into the pool. Uther tries to land a hit, and he hits its already dead head.
Seria transforms into a bear and charges forward, closing on the hydra.
The hydra attempts to grab Uther with its tongue again, but it fails to get a good grasp. Remnii gets to her hooves and tentatively moves forward, using mind whip. It seems to be strangely resistant to the psychic attack. It then bites Tae’shara.
Vel sees Tae’shara start to incant. She draws a small glyph in the air, and cast her hand forward--casting the hex spell on the creature. She slashes with her dagger, using booming blade, and destroys one of its heads.
However, as it continues to bite, its flesh starts to split apart, regrowing another head.
Elissa points her ring at the hydra.
There is a blast of light as she casts faerie fire, the light manifesting on the hydra. Remnii casts spiritual weapon, which smacks into the hydra, and she uses mind sliver. One of the heads looks at Remnii and its tongue shoots at Remnii, coiling around her legs.
There is an echo of a banshee’s scream as Vel uses toll the dead, an after image appearing on one of the hydra’s heads as the spell manifests.
Uther moves forward and strikes again, exploding one of its heads. He quickens a green flame blade, the fire searing over the wounds. Tol’vas casts sunfire, and a blast of radiant light explodes on it, though it seems to be resisting the damage.
Seria claws and bites at the hydra, tearing into the creature’s guts. The blood in the oasis expands even further as she rips it apart, getting the killing blow. She then grabs Elissa to swim her back to shore.
Tae’shara swims back to shore and pulls herself out.
However… none of their party members had emerged to aid.
Remnii is clearly worried, but not to the point of freaking out. She casts sending.
A moment later, Samaara appears out of the thicket, her bow drawn.
She sees the hydra.
Remnii nods.
She looks to the box, which Vel had gone to investigate. They are able to pry open the box. Inside, there is some straw, and there is a small case as well as munitions like gunpowder and ammunition as well as alcohol and a pistol.
Vel hands the case wordlessly to Tae’shara.
She starts to work on picking the lock while the others look at the pistol. It doesn’t have a grip. It’s just a trigger and weird metallic bits, and it’s not clear how it would be fired. It’s also heavy and unruly. It looks like it can be bolted to something, potentially something like a large ogre forearm.
After some consideration, Remnii recalls that the Shattered Hand tradition of removing a hand does not stop at orcs.
She looks at the pond.
She had popped open the box. Inside are bags of white powder.
Vel goes to examine the contents and rubs a bit between her fingers.
Tae’shara whistles, then looks at Uther as she closes the box again.
They follow Samaara to the site of the other battle, and they see another dead hydra with the other members of the group. Broll is looking around the cave entrance, where there are more warnings about it not being safe.
He gestures down, and there are footprints.
Vel suggests they take a moment to prepare given the caves were supposedly fed by an underground river and she ritual casts water breathing. Tol’vas takes that opportunity to cast commune with nature. He can’t extend his reach too far, but it’s overwhelming with influence from other planes of existence--unsurprisingly, the Emerald Dream. There is no presence of elementals that he can detect, at least in the immediate area. However, he does pick up four prevalent people not too deep within the cave. It’s just a few hundred feet.
Makasa takes the alcohol from the box and puts it in her bag.
She holds up the powder horn.
However, the arm-graftable canon is dropped into the oasis. Then she looks at Remnii, and grins. She puts a small cannonball in Remnii’s hands.
Remnii tries to throw it, and it just rolls a few feet into the water.
Makasa laughs, and the rest of the cannonballs are dumped into the oasis. Samaara looks to see if she can get anything from the hydra while Vel finishes the ritual casting of water breathing.
They then start to head into the cave. The entrance almost looks like eyes and a mouth, at least, from what Vel had glimpsed. She can’t help but wonder if that was intentional. Tol’vas takes the lead with Seria and Broll. Tae’shara and Vel take up the rear.
It’s very damp inside. There is very little that is dry, and there is a certain slickness to the earth. The sound of water can be heard dripping, and they find a winding path deeper inside. They can see an indoor river, and there is another pool that the hydra had likely lived in.
There is foliage growing here, and sparse holes in the ceiling can allow some small beams of light to get inside, causing abundant forms of life.
Tol’vas catches the scent of campfire smoke.
Remnii looks to to Broll and Tol’vas.
Samaara and Tol’vas opt to creep forward, and Tae’shara casts invisibility on them. The pair goes very quietly, and they can barely even hear their own footsteps as they sneak around the corner.
They see a tent, and hear some quiet conversation in darnassian. Some voices are coming from the tent, which is kaldorei in style. It is made of dark, violet cloth, and there is the flickering of a campfire. There are also bushels full of supplies stacked up nearby.
As they creep closer, they see two tauren. One of them is bandaging a wound, and druidic magic washes over the injury. The two of them continue to speak back and forth in taur-ahe. Both are male, and one has cream and white fur. He seems to be less injured, wearing leathers in a robe. The other tauren has black fur with auburn flashes.
They continue to converse, mentioning protecting the area of deviants. One suggests collapsing the entrance, and the fact they won’t be able to cleanse the cavern without Ebru’s aid.
Inside the tent, a female tauren is applying a splint. She also looks to be a druid healing the leg of the last individual, who is not a tauren. They are a very androgynous-looking night elf, with skin the color of quicksilver as well as long, green hair that is pulled back into a messy braid that is dirtied with blood.
Samaara taps Tol’vas on the shoulder and whispers.
They head back to the group and Samaara whistles softly.
Tol’vas gives the group the gist of what he had gathered by listening.
Tol’vas nods, invisibly.
They opt to move forward into the camp, and Tol’vas sheds the invisibility from himself. Broll announces their approach in darnassian. One by one, the tauren peek around the tent.
Then she notes the druids.
He gestures for the group to enter the camp.
The night elf had also emerged, leaning on their crush. They look at the group, and then opts to switch to common upon noting the strange collection of people.
The night elf looks to Broll, noting the antlers.
They all look like they had been recently injured, with Ebru being the worst for wear.
The group goes around and introduces themselves. Ebru does not seem to have any sort of recollection of what Remnii might be.
The night elf tries to stand more solidly.
Nalpak sighs.
Ebru looks to the rest of the group.
Ebru looks down and away.
Seria notes that the description sounds like a loa she is familiar with. It goes by the name of Dambala, a snake loa, who is known for many things and has many aspects and faces. Usually it has one associated with independence, treachery, and the like. She isn’t sure if it’s the same entity, however.
She smiles.
Nalpak looks to the group.
Broll nods.
Remnii looks to Samaara.
Samaara nods.
Tae’shara nods.
She steps forward along with Arthas.
He pulls his axe off his back, the one with the blade of crystallized blood.
He pulls his other axe off his back and ignites it.
Tae’shara, Aramar, Makasa, and Riff settle in with the camp, but Riff looks nervous as he looks at Seria (who is still in her bear form), reaching out to her telepathically.
He gives Seria a hug.
The group gathers their things and starts to head deeper into the caverns. It narrows, and the sweet smell of fresh rainfall hits them. Pockets of fungus occasionally light the way. The group is largely silent as they creep into the darkness.
They hear some sounds. As they curve around the corner, it sounds like chewing, and flesh being torn.
The time light of a torch lights the edge of a cavern up ahead, and there is a small leg bone. On top of it is a saurid, its scales beautiful and vibrant red. It is digging into the thigh muscles of the dead raptor.
It then stops, and looks at the group. There is a glow in its eyes, like an unfocused, feral rage. It starts to click, and there is more clicking in the room as more emerge.
