[Alliance] Chapter Four: Session Forty-One

Appearing Characters: Acteon, Aramar Thorne, Arugoo, Makasa Flintwill, Malus, Maraad, Medivh, Menelaous, Remnii, Seria, Tol'vas Moonshadow, Uther Menethil, Velameestra Windrunner

July 31st

The group had once again returned to Azure Watch and manifested their humanoid forms on the outskirts. They head in and are promptly recognized by the draenei there. However, there is a notable thing that catches their eye--there are two furbolgs speaking with Acteon and another draenei scout. One of the furbolgs has bright white fur, while the other has black fur, and both have a variety of trophies decorating their fur.

Acteon notices the group as they start to approach. He was speaking quite slowly to the furbolgs, and he seems to be understanding them as they respond back--apparently possessing one of the translation devices they had seen the draenei use before. The furbolgs accompany another rangari into one of the shelters.

Acteon looks at Aramar and Makasa.

She looks at the rest of the party.

Acteon nods.

Acteon repeats the phrase.

The scout gestures to the main tent, and the group approaches. He is, in fact, pouring over more paperwork, and he looks up as the group enters.

He gets quiet and glances about.

Menelaous quickly jots the name down.

Remnii also asks Menelaous if he has any other information on the Exodar crash site, and he expresses all he knows is that it is incredibly hostile. The salvage teams do not typically stay more than a few days. Remnii thanks him.

Menelaous nods.

He taps the pile of missives.

The group turns to leave, but Menelaous speaks up again.

He retrieves a small vial with a pinkish-red liquid in it. He looks at it, and sighs, then hands it over.

He closes Remnii’s hand around it.

He gestures to the potion.

The group heads out of the shelter and once more takes their cloud forms, taking off in the direction of the wrecked Exodar. It takes them about four hours to arrive at the crash site. The weather is warm, and muggy, and the druids are able to tell that it will likely rain later in the night. As they fly, pockmarking the abundant trees, they see other pieces of wreckage and crystals are scattered around the impact site--spearing both ground and water. Much of the wreckage had started to get reclaimed by nature, creating a strange dichotomy of nature and destruction.

They even see a small group of harpies lounging on some of the larger crystals, eating some sort of catch. Their feathers seem to have taken on a purplish-blue hue.

As they get closer to the Exodar, they quickly realize most of the mountain peak they see is the crystal-and-metal vessel itself. Then they start to descend about a mile out from the bulk of the crash. Many of the largest crystals are several stories tall, their height all the more obvious as the group reforms on the ground.

Remnii looks around the immediate area, a bit shaken. She shakes her head.

Uther remembers seeing the Violet Star streaking through the sky when Lianne was born. It’s an interesting experience to see the source of that celestial event.

Maraad nods and furrows his brow.

She looks at the rest of the party.

She looks at Uther, who nods.

Remnii sheepishly ducks her head.

The group starts to move closer, and Vel is able to note some instances of thieves’ cant language. Most appear to be tally marks of sorts, and markings of passage. The area has been traveled in recently. One of the larger crystals, which almost resembles a claw that buzzes with energy, has a crack through the crystal. Periodically, there are sparks of energy coursing around it. The ground in some places seems to be crystallizing.

Remnii takes the time to walk through the wreckage in contemplation, accompanied by Maraad.

Maraad looks off into the distance.

Remnii follows Maraad’s gaze and notes a patch of ground that he seems to be looking at. There are several markers in rows--simple stone monuments that are clearly grave markers. Remnii sighs shakily and continues to walk, praying quietly and trying not to cry. She moves closer to the grave markers and reads as many of the names as she can.

As Vel finishes casting [Detect Magic], she senses an abjuring presence around the cracked crystal--specifically focused upon the lightning that emerges from it. Both she and Uther notice the energy quaver, pick up, and as Vel moves closer, a beam of light shoots out and connects with Vel’s magic. She experiences a surge of pain, and she drops down to her knees, the energy swirling around her.

The energy fades from the crystal, but seems to be manifesting around her.

She gets back to her feet starting to examine her hand and arm, noting the abjuring presence around her. Uther reaches out and touches her hand, and magic sparks off it.

She starts to walk and quickly realizes that it’s like walking through heavier gravity.

She starts to cast [Identify], and Tol’vas finishes casting [Commune with Nature]. He doesn’t sense any powerful fiends, but there is influence from other planes of existence literally all over--reading as influence from the Twisting Nether and the plane of Light itself. He also gets prominent reads on other crash sites and bodies of water in the immediate area. He fills Remnii and Maraad in.

Medivh chats with Vel about some theories about what the magical effect might be, and her identify goes off that the aura is some sort of protective magics that is now clinging to her. The abjuration field is fading very slowly, likely over 24 hours or so, and seems to be a small expression of the magical wards on the outside of the hull of the Exodar that would have kept the vessel pressurized.

Remnii ducks her head, for some reason feeling somewhat responsible.

Maraad looks up at one of the crystals.

The group agrees, and Aramar offers Remnii a shard of crystal he had managed to find. Remnii smiles softly and thanks him.

Remnii freezes for a moment, and then nods. She holds the crystal and fidgets with it.

Aramar shakes his head, and Remnii starts to explain the process. Vel picks up on the conversation, and notes it’s similar to using a machine to replicate the [Fabricate] spell.

Before too long, they make it to the boundary of the crater where the Exodar crashed. One of the ingresses had been opened to allow people to get in and out, and there are panels of metals that have been arranged into walkways. They enter into the wide hallways of the Exodar, and the floors are crooked and flat. Vel opts to walk along some of the walls to make more room on the more solid ground for the rest of the group. Vel is the first one to notice a humanoid figure--a draenic scout, but they seem to be slumped against the edge of the wall.

Everyone else sees it a few moments later, and Remnii pushes ahead. The draenei is not alive. The wounds that were on the priestess were on this scout as well, but much worse. They are Rangari, but they are covered in similar wounds. Part of their flesh is burned away, and it seems to be a much more extreme version of what was seen on the night elf.

Maraad stops, and they turn. Down the hallway are about another half-dozen bodies, each one more damaged than the last, and all of them Rangari.

Remnii shuts her eyes and says a prayer.

Vel investigates the closest body. It seems they had been dead for about three or four days.

The bite marks were not present on the priestess, but they don’t seem to be all the same size.

They travel for a bit longer, passing by the rest of the bodies, and they enter a large atrium that’s even more crooked. There is a spiraling ramp, and a large pink crystal that goes down into a large chamber. There are no natural lights, but the crystals offer some amount of illumination.

As they look down and around, they see another figure. This one is not slumped, and seems to be pacing back and forth along a crystalline platform beneath the massive crystal that is jutting from the ceiling. They are wearing a long coat, and they appear to be a male human with middle-length dark brown hair. He is unarmed, pacing, and looking about.

The man stops pacing, and then turns and looks up at the group.

The man smiles.

The man holds his hand up and beckons for the group to come down.

He looks very similar to the man named Malus that Aramar had sketched, and Aramar’s hand tightens on the hilt of his sword.

Vel brings up the rear as the group starts to head down and she notes a flicker in the man’s form.

Malus grins.

Aramar’s hand grips on his blade.

He takes his raven form and takes off into one of the halls. The group had arrived at the end of the ramp. Malus looks Aramar up and down.

Makasa spits on the ground.

Malus clicks his tongue.

He looks over the rest of the group.

Malus smiles.

His eyes flicker back to Aramar.

Malus smirks.

Aramar grits his teeth.

Aramar holds the diamond blade out.

He activates the blade and flips off the projection of Malus. His shouts echo through the Exodar, and there is a sound that answers back--a howling, screaming, agonized cry that is joined by several others. Malus looks up.

He shakes his head and clicks his tongue again.

The group starts to hear the plinking of liquid falling and impacting on the ground nearby. They look up and see eyes glowering down from up above, and there is another howling, screeching, agonized scream. There is the rattling of chains, and several creatures leap down--and Vel hears the incantations of a [Feather Fall] spell.

Vel hurriedly casts [Sending] to Medivh.

There is an ogre with two heads, and a shivarra--each of her six arms holding a chain which she relinquishes. There are large hound-like monsters with them, which have distended claws that scrape into the ground--one large maw making up the lower central part of them, but in a pillar of flesh above it is a misshapen creature with several different faces. They all look like draenei and night elf faces, which include some orcs and furbolgs as well.

The monsters immediately leap at the group in a fury.

Makasa nods and gets into a defensive position in front of Aramar. Seria fires off a [Wrath] at the ogre magi and shatters one of his mirror images. Tol’vas casts [Gravity Sinkhole] over the shivarra and her ur’zuls. The sink hole brings them all together and sends them spilling onto the ground, crushing one of the ur’zuls. However, the one that managed to avoid the brunt of the attack rushes for the group, and Makasa swings at it. Her strike glances off its gnarled flesh as it yowls. Maraad runs for the ur’zul that had closed, and strikes his hammer into the creature--bringing it low.

Cold energy starts to crackle in Vel’s hands.

She casts [Freezing Sphere], her voice reverbing with power, and the ogre magi tries to [Counterspell] it, but the orb bursts through the abjuring magics and explodes in a wake of bright, roiling, freezing magic that coats the far side of the room with frost--blasting all the enemies.

The frost had pierced right through his molten armor, and Vel then activates her bladesong.

Vel smirks.

Vel starts to nod but Remnii speaks up.

Vel also looks confused at the outburst from Remnii, but Uther nods and casts [Thunder Step], taking Remnii instead. They appear right next to the shivarra, and Uther swings into her with a bright flash of holy light from his hammer.

One of the wounded ur’zuls run for Vel while another bites Uther--acid piercing through his armor. Another ur’zul bites at Remnii, but she is able to duck out of the way. She grits her teeth and casts [Psychic Crush], twin spelling it to affect both the shivarra and the ogre blood-magi.

She had started to cry at some point and she screeches out.

Her eyes are dark, both hands out, and smoky tethers waft around Remnii’s head--her rune purple and dark. She pulls her fists closed, and there’s a snapping sound, her tears going dark as they become smoky.

The shivarra drops to the ground, dead, as the ogre mage staggers around. Remnii drops to the ground and starts to cry more fervently. Another ur’zul leaps on Uther while Aramar helps flank the ur’zul that had closed on Vel.

The Shattered Hand ogre blood-magi staggers around, and the ur’zul that had attacked Vel strikes at her, but she deflects it aside. She then drives her blade into the ur’zul with a [Heart Strike], opening a massive, bleeding wound in its side with two deft slashes.

Aramar nods and backs away from the ur’zul, blocking a strike from its claw as he runs to back up Remnii and Uther. He then uses [Aetherslip] and runs to help flank the rest of the enemies--driving the diamond blade into the body of the ur’zul which then falls dead.

Tol’vas casts another [Gravity Sinkhole], killing another ur’zul as a second one is pulled away from Uther. However, it runs back at Remnii, its claws narrowly missing her. The ogre blood-magi remains stunned by Remnii’s spell, and Seria casts [Moonfire] on him. She then casts [Wrath] on the ur’zul engaged with Vel.

Makasa backs away from the closest ur’zul, and steels herself against the fear. Meanwhile, an ur’zul bites at Remnii, gnawing on her arm. The acid burns through her flesh, and her energy is sapped away.

Maraad ignores the injured ur’zul next to Vel and charges for one of the ur’zul’s next to Remnii, smashing his hammer into it with a flash of holy light. The ur’zul crumples.

She sniffles and gets to her feet as she looks at the still-stunned ogre. She casts mind sliver which drops the ogre to the ground, dead. Uther strikes into the remaining ur’zul next to him, destroying it in a smite of holy light. He starts to run for the last ur’zul next to Vel, but it slumps down from the bleeding wound Vel had inflected--dead.

Medivh flutters back down as Vel prepares to harvest some of the creature’s venom.

There is an imp in his clutches that is quite dead. He throws it on the ground.

He casts [Conjure Woodland Beings], calling for aid, and a magical flickers of energy materializes, forming into small fox-like creatures with wispy, blue-green fur. They are blink foxes, and they shoot off--looking for any signs of these explosives.

Vel does a quick survey, looking for any core structural integrities that bombs may be planted on. Medivh helps her, and they quickly wager that there would have to be at least several devices if they were going to bring the entire thing down--however they would have to be spread out and there wouldn’t be more than two in a given area. She also conjures Arkha’din so he could help her sense magic in the area.

Remnii tries a divine intervention, and she senses they are with her, but they don’t know how to disarm these contraptions.

Aramar and Makasa nod and run off to the Vault of Lights to try and isolate any of the explosives. Uther, meanwhile, looks toward the Crystal Hall.

He uses [Polymorph] to turn himself into a giant eagle and flies off. The hall looks partially renovated, but it had seen better days. Tol’vas tries to harvest some of the venom from one of the ur’zuls. However, it’s complicated.

Maraad heads off after Uther to help him search, and Seria opts to head down to the Traders’ Tier. Medivh, meanwhile, flies off after Aramar and Makasa.

A blink fox starts to look around the Seat of the Naaru and starts to lead Remnii towards an area. She looks around, and there is a rumbling that shifts things around underneath her. However, she keeps her footing. Vel also scopes around, running up and down the walls--all the structural weaknesses don’t seem to have any tampering. There are no explosives in the Seat of the Naaru.

Tol’vas moves over to a different ur’zul corpse and manages to successfully harvest the acid from the fiend---though his hand was burned.

Uther sees a few things that suggest the crystal hall had people moving around it. There are several things knocked over. He has confirmation there is an explosive in the Crystal Hall, but he isn’t sure how many. He screeches that he found something.

Vel then gets a [Sending] from Aramar.

Seria casts [Find Traps] in the Traders’ Tier, and she identifies the location of one charge. Maraad continues to help Uther looking around. They are pretty sure there is something else.

Medivh starts to look around for one of the charges and Vel sees a flash of light as well as a shifting and rumble coming from the Vault of Lights.

Vel casts [Dimension Door] and takes Remnii with her to start to look for one of the charges in the Crystal Hall. One of the foxes also sniffs around after coming out from under Remnii’s skirt, and the small fox leads Vel to some wreckage. Vel pulls the rubble away and sees a fel device that is pulsing with fel magic--it almost looks like a glyph of warding on some sort of spike.

Seria manages to find a series of rudimentary blades attached to a curtain that would fall down on the entire area if the curtain was pulled aside. Seria is able to dodge around the trap and finds the same sort of device.

Remnii uses [Locate Object] and gets a read on the other side of a wall.

He pushes some wreckage around and reveals a stream on the other side of a breach. There is another of the charges, and there is a surge of fel fire that rushes into the room--the movement triggering a [Glyph of Warding]. However, they are fairly confident there are no other charges in the Crystal Hall.

Vel takes a look at the device, and it appears to be a combination of area corruptor and a sophisticated conversion of a spell scroll and glyph of warding. It seems like it replaces the caster--and the glyph itself is a very powerful [Pyroblast] spell.

Vel calls out to Remnii and relays what she uncovered so she can disseminate the information.

Makasa finds the rough area of another explosive.

Seria tries to dispel the glyph on the bomb that she had found and she needs to push her magic further. She puts more magic into the spell, and then she breaks through--leaving the glyph inert. She sighs in relief.

Uther picks up Remnii and takes off to the Vault of Lights, where Remnii is able to find both explosives with her locate object spell. Medivh leans in close to one of the charges, and a dark cloaked eredar emerges from the shadows with a dagger--however, Aramar promptly kills it before it can harm him.

Vel works on trying to disarm the first trap she had found, but as she interfaces with her magic it starts to spark and burrow in deeper.

Seria looks around the Traders’ Tier with more [Find Traps] spells, and she finds no more of them.

Tol’vas shifts into an eagle and flies up to the Crystal Hall. Vel sees him as he transforms back.

Vel points and Tol’vas sees the big hole that Maraad had made.

Uther does a quick sweep with Remnii in the Traders’ Tier and they also identify there are no other traps. Uther swoops through the Exodar as Remnii passes the information along, and then he lands at the charge near Makasa--transforming back into his human form.

Medivh slaps his hands together. He looks at Aramar.

He casts [Dispel Magic] and successfully dispels the charge. He then transforms back into a raven and flies over to Uther and lands on his shoulder.

Maraad squints and suddenly runs toward the device and brings his hammer down, cleaving an invisible imp aside that had tried to tamper with it. Uther focuses and uses [Dispel Magic], managing to blast the glyph and fizzle it out.

Tol’vas also casts [Dispel Magic] and he also pushes his magic forward, breaking through the enchantment and fizzling it out. The charge next to Vel swirls faster and faster, and she interfaces with it and struggles with it, but then her tattoos flare with energy and she shuts it down. The spike jettisons out of the ground and impales itself in the ceiling. Vel tenses for a moment, and then sits back in relief.

Everything is still, and they pray they didn’t miss one, but nothing goes off.

This page was last edited on June 19, 2023, at 05:00 PM

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