[Horde] Chapter Five: Session Four
Appearing Characters: Arthak Saurfang, Drak'thul, Euryale Vashj, Eurydice, Gramgun Laughingeye, Hooktusk, Murky, Naj'tess, Neri Sharpfin, Nyxxa, Okani, Rokara, S'theno Vashj, Sol'chi, Volrath, Yayo'jin, Zar'jira, Zar'Kaa, Zuni
October 27th
The warband gets ready to get moving, surrounded by petrified murlocs and naga in the frigid cavern in which they had met Euryale Vashj and her companions.
Euryale smirks, and S’theno chuckles at the pun Zar’Kaa had made.
Nyxxa had taken a few steps away to take a smoke break to calm some of her nerves. Arthak decided to join her for a smoke as well.
Nyxxa clunked her head against the stone wall.
Nyxxa smiles and shrugs.
Nyxxa put away her pipe and pat Arthak on his shoulder.
The three other vessels had started to make their approach, protected by the wards that they had managed to replicate. Some chunks of ice battered against the sides of the ships, and Gramgun was at the head of the juggernaut navigating the massive ship across the treacherous seas.
There was a chorus of battlecries and everyone rushed to their stations. The juggernaut burst through the ice and started to disgorge orcs and other forces that charged to engage the naga.
On another ship, Rokara barked to her fellow Frostwolves.
The ship carved through the ice with the winds at their back. They stopped 50 feet away from the ice shelf and several of the coldspeakers gathered the ambient water from the air and created a boarding ramp of ice that allowed the Frostwolves to slide down straight into the fight.
Hooktusk laughed.
Her crew cheered, but not loud enough for her satisfaction.
Her crew cheered louder, and Hooktusk grinned as the Gral’s Tooth sailed into the ice. Hooktusk held up her cutlass.
A translucent shark fin appeared on the back of the entire crew’s heads and they dove off the side of the ship into the frigid water. They emerged on the shore, seemingly completely unaffected by the chill as they charged into the conflict.
Zar’Kaa climbed back onto the Reuniter and addressed the crew.
The Darkspear shout out a series of battle cries and whoop and holler as they raise their weapons.
Nyxxa moved ahead to scout and she was able to find an entrance that had not actually been mapped by Euryale and the others.
While Zar’Kaa was getting everyone hyped up, Arthak was going through and handing out individual marching orders and getting them ready for the assault.
Sol noticed that the glacier was actually not a glacier. It was actually frozen magma. The entire island was volcanic, and the roads that were being used were lava floes that had been frozen over. He took a look around, and in the cavern he found that some of the walls appeared to be a bit narrow–he had some of the orcs clear it out and found some old lava tunnels which could offer cover and a passage for quicker extraction.
The war band quickly and efficiently snuck into the secret entrance that Nyxxa had found and officially entered First Home. The dense undergrowth that they passed by was completely flash-frozen, but it was believed that there were ancient caverns and catacombs that many people would delve into in order to experience visions of the loa. Some of the old rites to become shadow hunters would have taken place in some of those places.
Zar’Kaa got the acute feeling that many had walked this path before, and there was a flash of anger that this once sacred place was being used for Zar’jira’s schemes.
They found caves that couldn’t decide whether they wanted to be volcanic or frozen. They were frigid, but they would periodically feel a stray blast of heat. The ground was slick, and they didn’t find much in the way of resistance, though they felt that would quickly change.
Nyxxa looked around for some animals that could have potentially survived the flash-freezing, like small island mammals or birds that had sought a refuge from the cold. She managed to find a den with a family of moles.
The mole dug into the earth and before too long a small group of moles had gathered to help guide the group toward where the prisoners were.
Zar’Kaa moved ahead to try and assassinate some singular guards and other targets, and Sol cast [Invisibility] over him. He was successful in eliminating those in the immediate area. Arthak managed to make several predictions about the response of the naga with the aid of Zar’Kaa, Nyxxa, and the moles, and nearly every single one of them was right.
Sol disguised himself as a naga and maneuvered in to steal what he could find that would be useful in a guard post. He managed to find one of the master key rings. He then looked for any arcane traps, and he was able to find more than a few. He was able to dispel them or mark them so that no one triggered them.
They also found a collection of prisoners of all shapes and sizes. Some were humans, some were sea creatures, and one of them was another forest troll, a woman, who they freed from her bindings.
She goes over to the body of a killed naga and retrieves a charm.
Sol was able to identify the charm as a charm of cold resistance. It was promptly handed over to Zar’Kaa to use, and the troll thanked him before he headed over to a group of prisoners that were particularly anxious and tried to calm them down. Several of them were survivors of the Darkspear that had been on their own for a while.
He got them to take a few deep breaths. At first they were clearly chilled and frightened, but one of the younger trolls spoke up and encouraged his fellows as well. The group gathered up what few belongings they had and made a break for the exit. Arthak directed them in the right direction and gave them quick instructions.
The group broke into another sector and continued to carve down the guards and secure the area. But then Arthak saw a familiar face in the chains: the shivering, emaciated form of an old orc. It was Drak’thul.
Arthak noticed his singular good eye had a dead expression, and he clearly had no desire for anything and had fully given up.
Arthak broke him away from his chains.
Drak’thul started to hobble away. Arthak placed a hand on his sword, and his desire for this orc to have some spirit rekindled in him was just met with the ice around them. He hesitated for the briefest of seconds, but he continued to move.
Nyxxa found some murlocs and lobster-folk that were shivering in a cell. They begged Nyxxa not to hurt them, and she quickly explained the circumstances and gave them her coat before she then moved on. She then found another prisoner that had a cell to herself: she was chained with magical, pure-icy chains, and she was a beautiful woman with long, finned elven ears. She also had hooves, but her body was not furred. Instead, her body had a fish-like form that terminated in a fin. She was an oceanid, one of the dryads that lived in streams and lakes or beneath the ocean in the vast coral beds and kelp forests.
Nyxxa stood agape for a moment.
The oceanid’s eyes flickered open.
Nyxxa stepped forward and sliced through the chains, which melted. The oceanid winced.
Nyxxa was having trouble keeping eye contact with the oceanid.
Nyxxa points in the direction she needed to go, and the oceanid began to cry.
The woman giggled quietly.
The oceanid took Nyxxa’s hand.
The oceanid placed a hand on Nyxxa’s cheek, and she gave her a gentle kiss on the other one. There was a pulse of magic, and the oceanid smiled.
The oceanid left the cell, but Nyxxa felt the magic waft around her as the natural glow around the dryad faded. The dryad had temporarily transferred her magic resistance to Nyxxa, who was now internally screaming over the telepathic bond.
The oceanid quickly gathered up some of the murlocs to guide them to safety as well.
Nyxxa started to sob as Sol offered her a hug, quite overwhelmed by the entire ordeal. As Nyxxa took a moment, Sol noticed that the majority of the chains had been on the prisoners so that they couldn’t escape. He found runes on the chains and shackles that seemed to be in the script of the naga–it was a brief incantation that translated to “drown in despair for you will never see the sun again”. It seemed to represent the feeling that someone would get when they realized they were going to drown. The shackles didn’t have a magical enchantment, but there was magic in the rune, which served as intakes that fed the despair to whatever created it. Functionally, the naga had been farming the hopelessness of the prisoners.
Sol blew on his horn of Valhala in order to summon the warriors to aid them before they began the actual full assault. They surged in and saw two sea giants and many murlocs and naga as well as two mud golems that were roaming like sentries. Some heat was present, as magma had seeped into a chasm and continued to burn.
They hear a ruckus that came from inside one of the cells as the fight broke out, and the sound of bones snapping and steel breaking. A peculiar creature emerged between the giants, who resembled a fish-like humanoid, though taller than the murlocs. The naga turned to him and tried to bring a blade down on him, but he brought his chains up to block, and the weapon broke his chains as he continued to spin around and take out several of the nagas through a mixture of martial arts and weapons he had stolen from naga that charged him.
Another smaller creature followed the suit of the fish-like humanoid. She was also blue, but she resembled a goblin, aside from her fin-like ears. The fish-like humanoid withdrew a long blade from one of the guards and dropped into a ready stance.
Nyxxa darted forward and knocked the closest murloc out before she jumped over and knocked out a second one. Volrath followed after her and swung his blade into the nearest naga. Zar’Kaa snarled and followed after to engage the other naga. With two devastating strikes, the naga crumbled to the ground and started to bleed out. He continued through to engage with one of the sea giants.
Zar’Kaa seize the opening and slammed his spear into the giant’s calf.
Arthak backed Zar’Kaa up by cleaving into the nearby murloc sorcerer. It seemed the spellcaster murlocs were entirely on board with the situation, and were commanding the others. A quick exchange over the telepathic bond confirmed that the spellcasters should be removed, but the non-magical ones could likely be knocked out.
Arthak was speaking quietly to himself as he then rounded on the sea giant with Zar’Kaa.
Sol pulled out a small elekk-shaped figurine and threw it to the ground as he shouted “Glacier!”. As the figurine expanded into a full elekk, he jumped onto its back. Arthak called out an opening to Volrath, and the troll warrior carved a straight line through the naga, killing him.
Volrath and Arthak exchanged nods.
The elekk charged into the sea giant and knocked him over, then reared back and slammed onto the sea giant’s chest, killing him. Meanwhile, Sol had summoned his owl familiar, Hooty, who was flying around interfering where he could.
Nyxxa knocked out another murloc and continued through to the murloc shaman. She unleashed a flurry of strikes and then slammed her skull into the shaman’s skull, which left the shaman dead on the ground. She then darted back to get out of immediate danger from retaliation.
Volrath hurled a battleaxe at one of the mud golems, and the weapon struck, but then just sank into the thick muck.
He ran over to one of the murlocs, but the mud golem moved with surprising speed and clipped Volrath’s foot, which forced him to roll and interrupted him getting a solid strike.
Sol used [Mind Sliver] on the other golem, but the creature seemed to be completely unaffected.
Arthak turned to the large naga jailer that seemed to be in charge, as he had barked a threat in his direction. Arthak grew larger as he stepped forward and brought Var’gosh down on the naga. The naga deflected the first strike, and Arthak cleaved into his side, but the third strike was also parried away.
They could hear the sound of success as the first wave of prisoners seemed to have arrived back at the ships.
The jailer reared back and snapped at Arthak, who was able to parry the bite and also the claw strike aside, but the naga’s tail whipped around and slammed into Arthak’s side. The naga shrugged off some of the bruising, but Arthak saw his opened and drove Var’gosh into a gap in the serpentine creature’s armor, which worsened a bleeding wound that had started.
The second sea giant brandished his massive anchor and swung it down on Zar’Kaa. Zar’Kaa jumped onto the anchor and as the giant twisted the weapon around to swing again, the troll vanished and teleported behind the lumbering creature. Volrath called out an opening, which Zar’Kaa took advantage of as he pierced his spear into the back of the giant’s leg. Zar’Kaa rode the opening and continued with a flurry of other attacks into the back of the giant.
The mud golem hurled itself at Arthak and began to ooze into the orc’s armor as the golem enveloped him and tried to suffocate him.
The fishfolk blademaster spun around with the blade he had secured and swiftly decimated one murloc and left a second bleeding and nearly unconscious. He then hurried up to the naga jailer. Hooty continued to soar around and was ordered to harrasas the jailer.
Sol, on Glacier, came charging in and slammed into the jailer, who was knocked on his back under the barrage of massive, stomping feet.
The murloc tidepriest started to chant as he looked over at Zar’Kaa, and icicles began to creep up Zar’Kaa’s legs. Zar’Kaa broke the ice and spun around to look at the murloc, who’s eyes widened.
The murloc started to run, but he ran straight into Nyxxa. One of the murloc tidehunters tried to find a weak point in Volrath’s armor, but was unsuccessful and instead decided to follow the tidepriest.
The goblinoid woman ran over to the giant and managed to successfully stab the creature with her urchin-spine shortsword. The nearby murloc shorestriker slid under Zar’Kaa’s legs and managed to get a good hit on the troll before. The other shorestriker that was on Volrath decided to abandon the attack and instead back up his fellow on Zar’Kaa.
The second mud golem slurped over to Volrath, and like Arthak, it began to engulf him.
Nyxxa closed on the tidepriest and with several deft strikes, the tidepriest fell dead. She then looked at the murloc tidehunter that was nearby.
The murloc swallowed and held onto his weapon, but he didn’t seem to know what to do. Nyxxa indicated the way was open if he wanted to run, and she instead ran over to the mud golem and sliced into it with her glaives. Her weapon momentarily got stuck, but she was able to rip it free.
Arthak was completely covered by the mud golem, but he decided to focus on the prone jailer. Despite being blinded and restrained, Arthak was able to land a devastating blow on the jailer, and blood was actively flowing from a series of gaping wounds.
Volrath managed to still call out an opening to Zar’Kaa despite him being engulfed in mud, and Hooty dove over to the sea giant. One of the shorestrikers tried to attack Zar’Kaa, but the troll was able to deftly avoid the attacks.
The murlocs seem to have started to panic as the battle was very much not in their favor. One of the murlocs ran over to the jailer and stabbed him, which gave him an opening to nab something that he threw up at Sol. The murloc shouted at him to use it to control the golems, and Sol promptly ordered them to stop fighting and release Arthak and Volrath.
The murlocs looked at the group hesitantly, and Nyxxa thanked them and told them that they were free to leave. The murlocs promptly booked it, and the remaining naga were swiftly dispatched.
The fishfolk blademaster sheathed his katana.
Nyxxa started to translate using [Minor Illusion].
Sol tossed the key and it was grabbed by the gilgoblin, who unlocked the shackles on the fishfolk.
She hurried over to free the rest of the prisoners.
Okani bowed.
Arthak also bowed, and Okani clearly took a measure of Arthak. He nodded in recognition, and then he, the gilgoblin, and the prisoners headed off following a route that was offered to them by the war band that the other prisoners were using.
The remaining sea giant was seemingly making himself as small as possible, and he had not spoken in common. However, he was using a different dialect of giant.
The sea giant raises a brow.
The sea giant took his opening to leave as he was otherwise unimpeded. Zar’Kaa went over to patch Arthak up.
Zar’Kaa wrapped some quick bandages around Arthak’s wounds and they continued on. Sol opted to stay on the back of his elekk. It wasn’t long before they could hear the sounds of battle again, and it felt like they were below sea level as they traveled deeper into the caves and entered the lowest caverns. There were ancient stairs that seemed to have been made by the Darkspear ancestors long ago, and the group found themselves at the edge of an ancient ritual site. At the apex of the massive shrine was Zar’jira the sea witch, and she had the scepter in one of her hands. She was conducting some sort of ritual as she channeled energy into a massive, icy shard.
At either side of the sea witch were icy, floating suits of armor, and a stone golem. Down below there were hordes of naga and skeletons that were trying to prevent other forces from getting to their mistress. Euryale Vashj had already arrived, and she was battling skeletons and rime-coated skeletons, which were of all different varieties, including orcs, trolls, and humans. Another naga seemed to be commanding them.
Sea water was pouring down into an underground lake that was well below sea level.
Further down, they could see S’theno and other members of the orc, troll, and pirate crews fighting off even more naga, and another contingent of naga started to approach the group that had just arrived.
Volrath launched himself into the new unit of naga and crushed a skull beneath him as he started to fight his way toward the other Darkspear. Zuni broke away from the defensive line and started to run forward to back of Euryale, who had drawn her bow to take aim. He hurled his spear through a naga that had risen up to try and attack Vashj.
Sol’chi called for his fellows to get on Glacier.
