[Alliance] Session Eighteen

The teleportation via gravestriding had felt like being trapped in a coffin and shaken. Zap and Vittoria express they never want to do that again.

Gil confirms that they are in Zul’Gurub after a moment of looking.

Vel steps aside, and starts to use sending to contact a few people.

"Rhonin. We found Zalazane. Arator is here. Zul'Gurub. Alert anyone in Lordaeron. Reinforcements needed. Coronation imminent. We have two days max."

Rhonin’s response: “Shit. Shit! I’ll do what I can, and I’ll get there as soon as possible with as many people as possible. Don’t. Die.”

Meanwhile, Gil uses his ranger-pulse to sense humanoids. There is one humanoid in particular about 30-40 feet to the south. There is also an abundance of them to the North, and a LOT about half a mile to the West. Even more are approaching in their direction from two or three miles out - about 50 more.

Gil alerts the group while Zap dramatically mounts his new gear.

Zap: “I’ve been hard at work too! Tess, observe this watch. Can you tell what time it is?”

Tess hesitates.

Zap: “Well, trick question, it’s time to sleep!” And he takes it off and fires a tranquilizer at a nearby inanimate object.

However, a voice calls out from the nearby ledge, and a troll necrolyte steps forward and greets them as the “honored guests”. He holds out his hand, and several skeletons and zombies arise from the piles of bones and corpses.

They are accompanied with spirits of warriors as well.

Then, as the necrolyte laughs, there is a flash of red, and the necrolyte is struck by a short-sword before he is kicked off the ledge. There is a half-elf standing up there, and on his studded leather armor is a symbol of a Golden Blade - reminiscent of a mercenary company in Silvermoon.

Gil: “...Hey Uther, I think he’s with your aunt’s mercenary company.”

Uther: “My…. OH!”

Meanwhile, one of the mages hurls a dagger of ice at Tess and it grazes her. It then explodes into a shower of ice.

Vittoria: “Uther, it may be best we practice the better part of valor. We may need to cut our way out.”

Caylum: “Well as much as I would like to stay around and fight, it may be best we leave. My camp is this way.”

Vel: “Lets just go!”

She hurls a ray of frost at a spectre and it seems to not be resistant to it despite them being so ordinarily.

Gil fires off two arrows into a skeleton archer, and it crumples to the ground.

A skeleton strikes Uther, but its blow rolls weakly off a shield of light.

Zap hurls a stick of dynamite into the undead’s midst, and it goes off with an explosion. The skeleton it was closest to gets blasted into oblivion, and the shrapnel blasts through another one. He then charges forward, followed by Vittoria. She misses the first strike, but follows up with a second one that does a substantial amount of damage to the zombie.

Uther switches to his maul and busts through a skeleton before he runs up behind Vittoria and shoulder-tackles the zombie she is fighting.

Several enemies attack Vittoria, but only a skeleton archer’s arrow slips through her shield.

Another skeletal mage conjures an ice knife and hurls it at Gil, but it is completely ineffective as both Tess and Gil jump out of the way.

A spectre of an elf mage hovers forward and strikes at Vel, but she dodges as Rai also dodges out of the way of another arrow.

Rai shouts “GET AWAY” in Zandali, and a surge of energy rushes over the undead. Several bodies almost jerk as if controlled by puppet strings, and start to flee.

One archer fires at Zap, but misses.

Tess runs forward and stabs at the zombie that is fighting Vittoria. It crumples to the ground. She follows through and stabs into a skeleton.

Arrows rain from above, but they prove to be incredibly ineffective.

Two zombies are successful in hitting Tess and Vittoria.

Several more undead flee. A spectre disappears into a wall. A skeleton clambers up the wall and runs.

Tess whirls around and kills two more skeletons.

A spectre strikes at Zap, but misses, likewise a spectre strikes at Vel and also misses.

Vittoria presses forward, and Zap explodes a skeletal archer with his gun. He then whips out his Decanter of Endless Water and shouts “GEYSER” to propel himself away from the spectre toward Tess.

Vel and Gil exchange looks. Gil is grinning at the sight of Zap, but Vel looks completely incredulous.

However, the remaining mage hurls a mote of fire at Gil and catches his clothes on fire. He quickly combat rolls to put out the fire and then casts zephyr strike on himself and then zooms up ahead. He fires his bow at the mage twice, and it crumbles to dust.

Gil: “Hey, are you guys going to catch up, or what?”

However, as he looks ahead, he sees more skeletons and zombies heading in their direction. Even so, he suddenly sees flaming lances blast forward. They slam into a zombie, and as the third one hits it, the creature goes flying and lays still.

Caylum dashes down from the ledge and runs forward. He crashes through a skeleton, and his blade passes through the spectre behind it.

Uther conjures a bolt of fire in his hand and hurls it at one of the archers.

Vel causes a flurry of ice to erupt around several undead far ahead, and they are battered with shards of ice as she hurries to catch up. However, as she turns to flee, the spectre brushes her and she is momentarily overwhelmed by shadow damage.

Several more blows are exchanged. Rai also runs ahead and heals himself.

A spectre runs to touch Zap, but a shield explodes from a mechanism on his person and turns the blow to the side.

Gil zephyr strikes again and darts across the water to appear next to Theo. Theo double-takes for a second when he notices Gil.

Theo: “Gil? What are you doing here?” Gil: “Shooting zombies.”

He fires an arrow into each of a zombie’s eye sockets. It’s somehow still moving.

Gil: “I should ask you why you are here.”

Theo: “We were investigating troll activity in Zul’Gurub. That makes sense. Why you are here doesn’t.”

Gil: “We stepped through a grave.”

Theo: “Yeah, that makes perfect sense.”

He turns around and blasts another zombie.

Several more attacks are exchanged, but the enemies prove ineffective as they all miss.

Theo hurls several scorching rays at the zombies, and one crumples to the ground.

Uther drops another skeleton with another flamebolt.

Vittoria misses her swings at a skeleton as she runs by, but they are ineffective at trying to strike her back.

A skeleton fires at Tess, but it misses and instead hits one of its zombie buddies.

Another spectre tries to attack Vel, but she blasts the ghostly hand to the side with a shield spell.

Tess thrusts her rapier through a spectre and it starts to dissipate, but it’s still there.

Rai tries to help finish it off, but his mote of flame is not effective and he continues running ahead. The same spectre touches Zap, and a surge of shadowy energy momentarily overwhelms him. Caylum finishes off the dissipating spectre and then fires with a crossbow.

Caylum looks at Zap: “I’ll send you the bill.”

Zap looks down and sees a single grey hair in his bill.

Zap: “Thanks whipper-snapper, but first I need repay these ghosts with lead!”

However, he turns around and blasts a skeleton with his gun. Vel withdraws the dagger she got from the Raven and stabs the spectre hard, pushing it aside , and then darts back to catch up with the rest of the group.

A zombie scrambles through the water at Theo and connects, but he explodes it with a surge of fire.

Vel releases another snowball swarm on the enemies blocking their way up ahead, and a skeleton gets blasted apart.

Tess stabs one of the spectres, and Zap brandishes the Royal Decree Enforcer Mark III (a piece of wood with a nail in it.) and strikes at the spectre. He smacks it in the face with a shout, and the spectre dissipates.

Gil hears footsteps distantly in the background.

Gil: “Oh, is your mom there?”

Theo: “Everyone is if they can break through. They have a camp there. We should be safe if we can get through.”

Gil dashes up on a hill and fires arrows at the zombie, but they miss.

Caylum pings one of the skeletons on the ledge with his crossbow, and he takes its head off before he scrambles up the ledge and starts to contend with another archer.

More undead minions miss. However, Zap gets hit by a zombie.

The remaining spectre strikes Tess, but she manages to duck away from the majority of the shadowy touch.

Uther releases a surge of holy energy, and most of the remaining undead turns and run away.

Rai once again tries to heal himself.

Vittoria shoves one of the undead aside, and breaks through the line.

Gil finishes off the zombie that’s attacking Theo. He then runs up and appears next to Theo again as he hears more footsteps. A bunch of the Aurum Blades break through and bring backup in tow. Thaxdorlin blows off the head of a fleeing zombie, and grunts at Gil.

Gil: “Good to see you, friend!”

Thax: “Aye. Can’t say I was preparing to see you here though.”

Gil: “I can say the same.”

Finnall and four identical copies appear next to Caylum and strike down the skeleton he was targeting.

Caylum: “I had that.”

Finnall winks. “Not this time.” And she then blinks down below.

Caylum: “Then watch this!”

Caylum jumps down on the skeleton that is blocking Zap, and immediately kills both the skeleton and the nearby zombie. He then turns around and flips Finnall off.

The spectre gets a final strike at Tess as the party flees into the safety of the mercenary group, and the group crashes against the hordes of undead. They manage to break out into the jungles, and the trees look to be less dead, but more and more undead are emerging from the foliage. They continue to to amass in a huge army - far more than they had anticipated.

There is always more.

Up ahead, they see a small clearing, and they break into the camp. The rest of the mercenaries are all fighting as their camp is also under attack, but they are able to take a defensive formation.

Vel and Gil are able to approximate at least 100. Thax holsters his weapon and takes a drink from his flask.

Finnall: “You might need that.”

Thax: “Aye. You think so, eh?”

And then there is a horn, and the thunderous sound of hooves. Dozens of armed men, armored, on horseback with the sigil of Stormwind ride through and cut down the skeletons. Uther immediately looks to the head of the formation.

Andruin Wrynn dismounts, and then touches the ground. A symbol of the Holy Light appears on the ground, and a ton of the undead army explode into radiant fire just as a wall of fire erupts around the camp.

A necrolyte starts to chant a foul incantation, but before it can finish, an armored knight with the symbol of the Silver Hand erupts forward and cleaves it in two as Turalyon leaps forward and dismounts.

The perimeter is secured.

Anduin brushes a strand of hair from his face and looks at Uther. “Well, when we got news about the trolls in Stranglethorn Vale, you were the last one I expected.”

Uther: “Really Andruin? The last?”

Anduin: “Maybe not the last.”

Uther and Anduin share a bro-hug.

Finnall:”You got here just in time.”

A figure that is less-armored also rides up - a woman with black hair and a red dress with a staff appears. Uther recognizes Katrana Prestor.

Katrana: “And it’s a good thing we did. You would have been in a situation otherwise.”

Uther: “Would of been implies that we weren't already.”

Turalyon: “We got here as soon as we got the missive from the Aurum Blades. We thought Zalazane’s activity may be here… the fact you are here confirms that.”

Uther: “Without any doubt. This is the beast. Brain, belly, and heart.”

Finnall: “And us with maybe `00 men.”

Gil asks Vel if she contacted anyone else, and Vel says there wasn’t time. She reiterates that they have two days at most.

Uther adds it’s prudent to find information. Finnall says she has a few men to do that, and the party has Gil and Tess.

Vel asks Finnall if her mother is still in Silvermoon. Finnall says yes, and agrees it would be a good idea to get reinforcements from her.

The group takes a “quick” long rest.

Vel’s messages: Location: Silvermoon City, Quel'Thalas "Magistrix Kilnar. Zalazane is in Zul'Gurub. Word needs to reach the Convocation. Coronation imminent. We strike tomorrow. Captain Alleria's son is here. Reinforcements needed."

Kilnar: “Don’t worry, dear, your word has already reached us. We are doing what we can, and hopefully some help will be there before it’s too late. Good luck. Make your mother proud.”

Location: Zul'Gurub "Arator. We are here. Reinforcements incoming. Don't die, you righteous idiot."

She then shares what intel she has on undead with the others in the camp.


Gil and Tess investigate with the more sneaky of the Aurum blades. They take out a few skeletons.

As they are able to sneak through, they investigate the “cache of madness”. As they do, they notice an abundance of necrolytes and a bunch of crypts. They are pulling out a large number of mummies.

They set up a disruption using flaming arrows, and deftly sneak away. They set some of the foliage on fire, and it catches a few of the mummies on fire as well. However, there are a few different varieties of mummy - green skin, sandy skin, and blue skin. The sandy skin ones are unaffected, but the green skinned ones spew toxic clouds as they burn.

They then go to “temple of Bethekk” which is a ritualistic temple. There are a lot of live trolls. As they approach, walking up the stairs, they see two living troll witch doctors. One is green skinned, and another that is an ice troll. Both are wearing witch doctor masks, and they are obviously important.

Gil: “Do you think you’re a good enough shot that you can take one down and get out of here?”

Caylum: “One way to find out.”

Another guy mentions that assassination may not be a good idea as they are just scouting. Gil expressed that it is something he is just used to pulling off, but they are also not with a bunch of of Farstriders and they are in the middle of a troll capitol city.

They decide not to do that, and opt to fall back.

They then check a massive pyramid at the center, and this place is even more heavily guarded and one of the bridges leading to it has been demolished. It is clearly being fortified, and there are malevolent magics at its peak. It’s likely where Zalazane is.

Gil suggests scouting out more, but the other mercenaries decide to report back and leave Caylum, Gil, and Tess to it.

The trio sneaks by super stealthily and get to the top of the pyramid. They see a foul alter, and at the altar is the “egg” from the ruins. It’s hovering above the altar, and Zalazane and two necrolytes are performing some sort of ritual.

Caylum asks if that’s the guy, and Gil confirms. Caylum expresses that it’s nice to have people that can keep up.

They then fall back and sneak back to the camp to report in.


Zap cooks a meal for the camp. He almost forgot the salt. That would have been terrible, but he caught himself.


Uther gathers together with the other members of the Silver Hand and Anduin, and they work to increase the morale via a holy ritual in preparation for battle.

Anduin introduces himself to the rest of the group as well. Gil comments about Lianne’s affection for him.


The group awakens some hours later (in between watches) as they hear shouts of “SHE’S HERE! THE QUEEN IS HERE. REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED.”

The knights have gathered, and in the middle of them is Jaina Menethil - whirling her staff around herself in an intricate pattern. She draws it around herself, and it arcs around in a 20-foot radius. Appearing in whorls of arcane energy are people appearing. And more. And more. A lot of people.

As they warp into existence, there are over 50 knights and paladins. Directly next to Jaina appears Arthas. And to Arthas’s left is a familiar knight - Falric - and to Arthas’s right is another knight adorned with symbols of hawks and lions - Varian Wrynn.

And next to them is the blonde-haired mountain king warrior, Muradin Bronzebeard.

Six more people appear: Rhonin, Vereesa, Alleria, Galadin, Giramar, and Lirath.

Jaina looks at the group with a smile: “I heard that you all needed some reinforcements.”

Next to Jaina is another familiar face - Rowan.

Jaina: “You know Uther, undera ny other circumstance, I would be cross with you. But what you did may save hundreds, if not thousands, of lives, so maybe, just maybe, I should give you a pass thanks in no small part to your father’s influence. I’ll have to take my anger out on this undead horde. I hate to resort to violence, but they have earned my ire.

Uther: “That’s agreeable. I’ll just have to get Ashwynn to forgive me.”

Arthas: “That one is on you. Speaking of which, is Ashwynn?”

Uther: “Ashwynn and my recent vassal are in the process of building diplomatic relations with those who did not join Zalazane.”

Jaina: “Ah. That must be the rest of your friend’s group.”

Alleria: “Did you find where Arator is being kept?”

Gilveradin gives her the rundown of what they found while scouting.

Alleria says she’ll plan to break off during the assault and find him.

The group banters about who is going to kill the most trolls, and keeping count. This seems to be the final battle of a war started 20 years ago.

The adults add that it’ll be like several years ago, but this time they’ll be fighting alongside their children.

Alleria and Turalyon hug and Gil and Vel look in disbelief.

Arthas explains the base plan.

Uther is to take the vanguard, as he started this. Uther sets his jaw and nods. Uther chooses Anduin and Vittoria to accompany them. There is some banter.

Rai wishes them to be safe. Giramar and Galadin say they will watch out for Rai, and there is more banter. Vereesa shoots them a look.

Falric tells Uther that, after this, he is to tell Marwyn everything that happens in excruciating detail.

Rown: “Uther, you need to write to your mother more.”

Uther: Had their been postage I certainly have! Vel: Technically I can send messages anytime I want.

Uther: That is a recent development

Rowan thanks Vel for the Hearthstone deck. He was able to win a tournament with it. It was really good.

Lirath hugs Gil. It’s a mutual hugging. He expresses that he can’t be more proud.

He then looks at Vel and asks her to look out for each other. Vel reassures that she’d been doing that since they were born.

Lirath hand over his longbow to Gil, saying he fought with it the last time they fought Zalzane. He has a spare, and this one enchanted by their mother. He knows she wanted Gil to have it. (Longbow of Warning).

 Gil immediately hugs his dad again.

Tess hangs out in the back, as she’s not good with interactions. Vittoria encourages her, and says they’ll watch each other’s back.

Uther and his father share a moment. Uther assures he’s going to succeed. “I’ve come too far to fail. I swear I will be worthy of the name you gave me.”

“Don’t worry Uther, you already are. Let's make him proud.”

Uther chokes back a tear. “Lets.”

He asks him to sound the call of battle and hands him the horn.

Uther has been dreaming about this. He takes a deep breath and sounds the horn. It’s joined with horns and warcries.

They run through, cutting down undead after undead. They make it through the gates. As soon as they enter, the trolls are waiting. Trolls as far as the eyes can see.

Tess uses the power of the coming full moon to invigorate herself. Gil slings out arrows left and right. Vel uses a rune of icy energy and swallows undead with snow and ice. Uther hacks and slashes through the army, faking out a troll. Then calls out to Anduin, “Whatever happened to age before beauty?” Anduin embalses some undead with holy energy. Vittoria cuts the shit out of the undead. Zap shoots any trolls or undead that touch his friends in a way that makes them uncomfortable. Muradan saves Zap from an errant troll berserker. Rowan crushes a troll’s head with a gauntlet. Arthas says they’ll lock down this area and Uther should move out. Uther agrees. Skeletons launch arrows at them. Ths is blocked and Jaina annihilates them with her magic.

As they are moving through, a voice calls after them. It’s Katrana Prestor. “May the fire that burns within all of you lead you to victory! I imagine my brother would be disappointed if you met your end here of all places, Uther.” (Everyone got Inner Fire)

Uther expressed he will probably be disappointed he missed it, and Katrana grins as she hurls a huge fireball at a squad of undead.

Up ahead is Rhonin, Vereesa, Galadin, Giramar, Rai, and Lirath, and there are a horde of mummies barring the path. As the vanguard approaches, there are more groans, and more undead come to flank the group.

Rhonin: “Don’t worry, we’ll hold these ones off! You focus on cutting a path through!”

Lirath and Vereesa knock arrows, and Rhonin holds out his hands as their arrows are coated in fiery energy that they then fire in a conflagration of fire. Galadin and Giramar prepare to attack, and Vereesa tells them to stay out of danger.

Tess runs forward and strikes at one of the mummies, and is successful. However, she is walloped in the side, but manages to duck away from most of the damage. Even so, as Tess smirks, her tongue suddenly feels dry as Gil fires two arrows into the farraki mummy.

Vel holds out a hand and a flurry of ice shards whirl around the mummies and buffer them with ice. She smirks faintly as she observes they don’t seem to be resistant.

One of the mummies holds out his hands and his wrappings start to wrap around Tess, but she ducks out of the way. However, it does strike her with its claws.

Uther runs forward a bit and fires off a flamebolt at the amani mummy. It starts to burn and emits a toxic cloud, however, his tongue also feels rather dry as the toxic cloud grows.

Zap also approaches and shoots the farraki mummy with his gun. It crumbles into dust and sand, and Vittoria runs forward and attacks the gurubashi mummy.

Anduin: “May the Light guide your strikes!” He coughs as he casts magic weapon on Tess’s weapon.

Tess winks and thanks him.

The amani mummy swings at Tess, but it misses. Gil puts an arrow in its head, and it drops. He then fires at the gurubashi mummy, and it isn’t looking too hot (unlike it’s now re-dead companion). Anduin, still coughing, looks at the last mummy and cries out “THE LIGHT WILL BURN YOU” and three quick blasts of flaming energy blast into the remaining mummy and it crumples into fiery ash.

As the others continue to fight behind them, they usher the group forward and they push on.

Up ahead, several members of the Aurum Blades are locked in combat alongside Jaina and Rowan.

Jaina: “Rowan, make sure they can through.”

Rowan: “Understood.”

Just then, barreling at the group are massive footsteps from dire troll bersekers. Another one barrels through the wall behind them.

Finnall notices Jaina sending reinforcements, and comments about not getting one-upped, so sends Theo and Caylum to help as well.

Anduin holds his hand out, and holy fire appears in his hand, which he lobs at the two berserkers in front of the group. They manage to dive out of the way of most of damage. Theo also holds his hand up and fire courses around him as he whirls out several scorching rays.

One of the berserkers charges at Anduin and swings in as it tries to gore Anduin, but Anduin ducks out of the way of both its strikes. A flash of light erupts from Anduin with the last strike, and it misses a third time as it plants its fist in the ground.

Tess runs at the berserker and vaults up on its back, and stabs into the back of the troll.

Another berserker runs at Gil, but Gil also ducks out of the way of all its strikes.

Gil rapid-fires two arrows into the berserker Tess is atop of, and it strikes it hard in the side of the skull. He then darts out of the way using zephyr strike.

Rowan runs at the uninjured berserker. He hops over Zap (carefully) and goes for a swing. He hits it in the chest, bashes it in the face with his shield, and then stabs it in the liver with his second strike.

Uther runs at the berserker Tess is repeatedly stabbing, and in a ferocious arc he slices clear up through the troll with radiant holy energy. The creature collapses to the ground.

Caylum runs at the lone berserker in the distance, and strikes hard at it as it roars in pain.

Zap runs under Rowan’s legs and attempts to beat the berserker back with his club, but it is ineffective.

Vel hurls a fiery chromatic orb at the berserker that Caylum was fighting, and she drops it. Caylum argues that that is his, but Vel claims it as her’s as she hurls another fiery orb at the remaining one. Caylum, however, runs up and finishes that one.

Uther, Caylum, and Vel are tied on berserkers.

Jaina runs forward and conjures a mana potion that she flings at Vel in case anyone needs a pick-me-up.

Finnall and her people continue to fight back the rest of the horde. There is a small amount of banter between Jaina and Finnall. Finnall has a knowing look, but Jaina looks confused for a moment.

As they press forward, Rowan , Theo, and Caylum hang back to secure the area. They bid their farewells and good-lucks. They find themselves at the temple.

As they head up, there are five trolls. On the far left there is a female sand troll, then next to her is a drakkari garbed in deep-blue robes. Then there is an unusual troll who is standing tall and proud. His eyes are glowing gold. Then there is one banging on drums.

Zalazane is in the middle of the group, over an altar draining silvery energy from Arator.

The trolls alert Zalazane of the group’s presence.