[Horde] Chapter Four: Session Fourteen
Appearing Characters: Altruis Shadowsong, Arthak Saurfang, Azgadaan, Azuka Stormbreaker, Halno, Ithelios, Lantresor, Levia Blackflight, Nyxxa, Rexxar, Sadras, Shaarubo, Sylvos Windrunner
Outland Day 14 (Night)
After the mo’arg had left the “tavern,” Halno had managed to intrigue the arakkoa enough to get himself invited to their table. Halno places the bottle of booze on the table, and the nearest arakkoa immediately snatches it and fills up one of the cracked cups that he and the others have.
They pour the alcohol down their beaks and swallow. The one that had initially spoken to Halno looks back to him and nods.
Halno nods.
The arakkoa hisses.
The arakkoa shiftily looks around and scratches under his beak with a curled talon.
Halno fishes the fragments of his apexis crystal from his bag, and the arakkoa all immediately recognize it.
The arakkoa nods.
The arakkoa guzzles down the rest of his drink.
Halno recognizes the name. Terokk was the individual the Terokkar Forest was named after. He was a radiant king that lived hundreds of years ago, and the tale went that he was the last king of the arakkoa before the civil war that led to him being cast out by the adherents of Rukhmar. It was said he was cast down from the Spires of Arak and fled to the Terokkar Forest, and him and his followers were twisted and became the first followers of Anzu. There was a belief that he would return one day.
The arakkoa makes a clicking laugh.
The arakkoa laughs again.
The arakkoa’s eyes blink in a judgmental way as he watches Halno leave, and he drains his cup again and refills it once more.
Halno returns to the group just as Azgadaan and Nyxxa return. Nyxxa takes her seat next to Levia. The food had been brought out. It’s some sort of stew, and it looks like there is some sort of meat and egg in it, and other things that the broken had likely been able to catch or scavenge. Nyxxa thanks him, and the draenei grunts in response.
Another orc enters and looks around. She is keeping her head down, and she heads over to the orcs in the corner, and quietly, they talk amongst themselves. After a bit, the three orcs get up and leave, but they glance in the warband’s direction more than a few times. The warband doesn’t recognize any sort of clan iconography.
However, Azgadaan detects the unmistakable presence of illusion magic--as if they are disguised.
Levia continues to drink and is definitely getting a bit drunk.
Azgadaan opts to leave by himself. He looks around and doesn’t see anything. The rest of the warband follows soon after, and they head back, leaving the seedy tavern behind them. As they are going, they hear the crackling of stone moving and shifting, and they look up and see a ruin is toppling over. The group is able to stop a good 20 or 30 feet before they are in the path of the ruin. The dust comes up and flows all about them.
It’s hard to see, but Nyxxa can see the silhouette of a figure moving steadily but slowly and carefully through the upturned dust.
The figure keeps going for a moment, and gets low, but then she loses track of where they’re at.
Halno transfers his vision into his raven’s eyes overhead, but he doesn’t see anything notable. The dust settles.
Nyxxa uses see invisibility, and as she looks around, she sees the orc from before crouched low on the ground, unmoving, and not far from where she had seen the figure before. However, as she locks eyes with him, she recognizes him as one of the orcs from inside.
He scoops a rock from nearby and throws it in Nyxxa’s direction, and then sprints in the opposite direction. Nyxxa catches it.
The individual had disappeared. He was quite fast.
Nothing else happens on the walk home. They explain to Azgadaan what happened, as he had been ahead of them.
Azgadaan snaps his fingers and Ini appears on his shoulder.
The group begins their watches and Nyxxa’s watch goes by with no incident. Arthak’s is also uneventful. On Azgadaan’s watch, a strong wind picks up, shaking the tent and creaking the buildings and stonework. There is a groaning sound of ancient wood and rock, but other than that, there wasn’t anything notable.
Outland Day 15
The next morning, Nyxxa explains the coin she had managed to secure from the mo’arg.
They can see Rexxar’s beasts start to stir, and Rexxar emerges from his cave with what little belongings he has with him.
Rexxar nods.
He squints at the vehicle.
The group heads out, and they are able to easily navigate through the western half of Shattrath City with Rexxar’s help. They try not to draw any undue attention as they roll out. Before long, they find themselves beyond the city limits. The strong winds continue, sometimes taking on peculiar colors. The hair on the back of their necks tingles as the magically charged winds brush past, and pockets of bright, violet-green cloudy storms occasionally blow overhead.
They travel for the first half of the day and they get well beyond the city limits. The trees start to become more sparse, and instead are replaced by rolling plains in the distance. The sky is brightly lit by a combination of nebulae and fragments of atmosphere.
As they make their way into Nagrand, it could almost look normal, at least until they see the number of floating islands and earth motes of land hovering in the air. Some of them seem to have water dripping from them, either because of magic or otherwise. They can see for dozens of miles from the plateaus, but there is still evidence of the shattered world. There are fissures and scars, some full of water, others dry as an old wound. There are creatures figuring out their new migration patterns and feasting on the uncomfortably healthy grass.
The dread raven lands with Rexxar.
Nyxxa takes the moment to enjoy the breeze and scenery, and her ear twitches as she hears someone coming to join her on the precipice.
He looks up.
Lantresor laughs quietly.
Nyxxa shuts down as she tries to process what he’s talking about, and Lantresor raises an eyebrow with a subtle smile.
Nyxxa exhales.
Lantresor nods.
Lantresor gestures at Nyxxa with his hand and sits cross-legged at the precipice that overlooks the gorge.
Nyxxa sits down next to him.
She chuckles quietly.
Nyxxa nods along, and Lantresor sits and meditates along with her.
Nyxxa smiles.
The group packs up after their brief rest to continue to Nagrand, but Sadras approaches Arthak.
She looks out across the plains.
Sadras smiles.
She scritches Summerpaw behind the ear with a smile. From the edge of the ridge, Rexxar gestures.
Rexxar mounts the dread raven, and the group gets back in the vehicle and they head off down the ridge. Very quickly, they find themselves down a steep course, but one they are able to navigate without too much difficulty.
Rexxar is clearly finding it a bit annoying to deal with a vehicle and other people. Some of his other beats are starting to catch up, but he doesn’t seem concerned as the beasts will keep pace in their own time.
They end up traveling adjacent to a small stream that seems to be going in the opposite direction. It likely eventually will turn into a waterfall that flows into Zangarmarsh.
Rexxar flies low for a moment, and he gives a signal to hold. He lands nearby and dismounts the dread raven.
He gestures forward, and they can see about 300 feet ahead of them is a herd of talbuk. It’s a large herd of nearly three dozen, but one of them near the center is currently drinking from the river, and it is significantly larger than any of the others.
Azgadaan pulls out his binoculars to get a look at the large talbuk. It’s massive. It’s nearly 12 to 13 feet tall. His fur is dark grey, and his body is marked with dozens of scars. There are bits and pieces of broken spears and arrow sticking out of his hide. His horns are massive, and they break off into two extra sets of horns, and it has hard, bone-like protrusions that look like spikes.
As if to punctuate the statement, the massive talbuk turns toward the group and stamps his hoof once.
The talbuk stay for some time, and after an hour, the herd starts to move, but they are heading toward the group. Rexxar curses under his breath, and the massive talbuk gets in range of Nyxxa’s vision.
Azgadaan opts to grant the vehicle the ability to fly, and they get everyone out of the way. The herd moves past where the warband was at, and Gnarlhoof stops and looks up at the vehicle. He stomps his hoof two more times, and then moves with the rest of his herd.
They travel for a bit longer, and they get to an area of the gulch that seems to have stone that had fallen from the upper ridges. They opt to camp here for the night.
Nyxxa looks over the coin she had retrieved from the mo’arg.
Nyxxa shows her the coin.
Nyxxa opts to press the coin. She doesn’t sense anything happen, but the coin trembles, and the glyph glows just briefly before it fades.
Azgadaan, however, was musing on the orcs from the tavern. He asks Nyxxa about them further.
They go over to Rexxar, who was starting a fire.
Nyxxa agrees, and they gather the rest to talk about it.
During Nyxxa’s watch, the winds that had plagued the warband starts to slow down, and the temperature also starts to drop. The sky had started to shift into a gentle bluish color, and she notes the stars and worlds come into view. One large world takes up about a sixth of the sky. By the end of her and Sadras’s watch, it went from temperate to near freezing.
They throw on some cloaks, but by the end of the rest, it’s very cold.
Outland Day 16
In the morning, it seemed like they were accosted, but the group can see the massive, frozen world moving across the sky.
Levia had prepared the divination spell, and she approaches Rexxar.
Rexxar whistles and Huelo approaches, a small rodent in his mouth.
He points, and the wolf drops the rodent.
She takes the rodent, and then moves to prepare the ritual for the spell.
She thinks for a moment.
She removes a knife and cracks her muscles, and she starts the ritual. At the conclusion, she tears the knife through the gut of the dead creature, and its entrails spill out. Her eyes go jet black, and the entrails quiver.
Her voice seems to echo, and the entrails move about. The blood pools on top of the soil, and then stains the earth. Levia’s hand untenses.
It seems the blood had caked into the ground in the shape of the Burning Legion.
Nyxxa agrees, staring at the symbol of the Burning Legion in the blood on the ground.
Rexxar is personally biased towards the mountains, and that’s what they opt to head towards. They ascend into high cliffs, and they find abandoned remnants of what was likely former villages. However, they aren’t orcish: it appears to be saberon. Halno finds a skull, though this one is decidedly an orc skull. It appears this village had likely changed hands a lot before it was abandoned.
There is also a lot of brush that could be used for cover, and there is a rise that seems to be bordered by large stones, as well as dotted with small caves and burrows that may have once been used as homes and domiciles.
They could likely hunker down in the upper rises, and anyone that would approach would need to ascend from the lower sections. There is also a small spring that may have once been the village’s water source.
Rexxar takes some dirt between his fingers and rubs it together.
They get into position and wait. Several hours pass, but nothing happens until the end of the fourth hour. Nyxxa is the first to see, cresting over the ridge, a large figure flying overhead. They can hear its wings beat as the silhouette soars downward.
It’s a dragon. It has purplish blue skin, its body almost translucent and glowing, his face angular and narrow, and its tail ending in two fins. It’s large, probably close to 20-24 foot wingspan. A figure flips off the dragon’s back, and lands on the earth about 20-30 feet below where Nyxxa is stationed.
He stands up and looks up at Nyxxa. He’s clearly a night elf, and is very likely Altruis Shadowsong.
He reaches his hands behind his back, grabbing onto his glaives.
Nyxxa unwraps the scrim of the slayer from her wrist.
Nyxxa nods.
He looks behind him.
They watch and see nothing, but then a spinning disc fires at Altruis. He catches it, and he’s holding a glaive. Then, in a burst of flame, there is a female eredar sitting astride a dreadsteed. Next to her are two demon hunters.
Then two more eredar astride dreadsteeds appear.
They step forward.
Altruis whistles, and the dragon up above goes into a nose dive and slams down onto the ground behind them and roars. It spews air-rupturing energy, and the demon hunters jump out of the way before the dragon jumps into the sky again.
One of the demon hunters, Nyxxa recognizes as Ithelios--one of the Shadowsword that had gone missing. Others are recognizable, but others still are not. And then they hear a piercing screech overhead which Azgadaan recognizes as several felbats.
Rexxar chuffs.
Sadras looks to Azuka as Azuka jumps on Summerpaw, and they ride off after Rexxar to engage the others, along with Lantresor.
Ithelios runs forward and sprints directly up the side of the cliff and leaps at Altruis, his glaives out and ready to strike. His eyes glow a bright green, and his body starts to become wreathed in fel fire.
Arthak slides down the side of the cliff face, and he has a rough landing, but he does land. He continues to stroll past Altruis and Ithelios, and then slides down another cliff face.
Levia readies a spell, but waits for Nyxxa’s mark, and they can see the felbats overhead flying in pairs and seemingly carrying something, but they can’t tell what.
Azgadaan also slides down the side of the cliff and starts to follow after Arthak, and he gets clipped by Ithelios’s flames. He casts wall of force and prepares to release the spell.
Other felblood elves start to rush up with their weapons drawn. One of them slashes at Altruis, grazing the night elf with his glaives.
Nyxxa, seeing what Azgadaan and Arthak are trying to do, opts to look up at the felbats. The dragon had started to engage with the felbats.
The felbats seem to have massive boulders, and they are alighting with fel fire. They’re infernals.
Nyxxa looks at Levia, and then she drops down the side of the cliff. She withdraws her glaives, and activates the flames upon them. Another felblood elf approaches Altruis, and appears next to Nyxxa and slashes, his blades glowing a bright green as Altruis deflects one blow and struggles to parry another.
Altruis also uses immolation aura, and he slashes at Ithelios. Ithelios dodges the first strike, but the second strike connects.
He kicks Ithelios in the face, and Ithelios staggers--stunned--and his immolation aura drops.
The eredar looks down at Arthak.
The eredar seems to have no intention of filling Arthak in on her business, but the two felsworn demon hunters nearby look on. They seem to be watching Arthak closely.
The eredar looks to be readying a spell, shadowy energy licking around her hands.
Halno summons Sylvos.
Levia is mildly startled, and Halno commands his raven to soar around. A felsworn demon hunter continues to attack Altruis.
As this is all happening, some of the stones are unloaded and they begin to fall down. One of them slams very close to the group. All the brush gets roasted, and the pair of felbats starts to swoop in.
Nyxxa turns away from Altruis and rounds on the felsworn demon hunter at her side. He is surprised and staggered, and she strikes him two more times. She spins around, her glaives blazing, and decapitates the initiate.
Altruis looks over at Nyxxa, and he smirks as she kicks the neighboring felsworn initiate in the face. The fel fire that is wreathing around him scorches her, but Levia then unloads her exorcism spell on Ithelios.
Ithelios is blasted with holy magic, and Levia summons her spiritual weapon next to him. It smacks into Ithelios and sends his tumbling over the side of the cliff, landing heavily on the ground below.
She then looks at the felsworn initiate and uses toll the dead as her wings flare. There is a burst of shadowy energy that strikes the demon hunter, and his fel glowing eyes start to eek out black and white fire as he staggers back.
Altruis rounds on the same felsworn initiate and sweeps his leg out from under him. Altruis vanishes for a second as two slashes materialize on the felblood elf, and then Altruis reappears and looks back at Nyxxa, before he starts to run at the nearest felbat.
The eredar warlock notes the betrayal and turns her shadow bolt spell on Arthak.
However, at that moment, Azgadaan releases his wall of force, locking the eredar warlock, her horse, Arthak, and an initiate in a bubble.
Arthak rages and unloads into the eredar warlock as he spins with the shadow bolt. He carves into the eredar’s leg and some of the straps of her saddle, and with the second and third strike, he hews her into pieces as she falls off the dread speed. Her head goes rolling into the water.
The dreadsteed looks at Arthak with furious, raging eyes, and Arthak slashes into it. It slams into the invisible wall, and there is suddenly a twinge of fear in its eyes. It tries to stomp at Arthak in fear, but it is unable to connect.
A felsworn initiate runs to Ithelios and administers a healing potion.
Ithelios runs back up the wall and starts to use steel wind strike, however, everyone is able to spin around and block the attacks.
The felsworn initiate in the dome with Arthak tries to attack him.
However, Arthak is able to deflect both of the strikes.
Halno summons an arcane hand, though it is manifested as holy damage, and it punches Ithelios in the side of the face.
Azgadaan smashes his maul into Ithelios once, and then twice.
He smashes Ithelios’s head into his torso.
Arthak hears laughter from behind him and he sees the eredar warlock’s head move a bit.
Before it goes fully limp.
Infernals start to slam into the ground around them. With the explosion of fire and brimstone, Azgadaan loses concentration on his wall of force, and the infernal stands up. A second slams right on top of where the wall of force was. As it lands, the fire washes over the dreadsteed, but it takes no damage. And a third slams on top of the ridge, hitting both Halno and Levia. A felbat swoops down and releases an ear-piercing scream. However, Altruis and Nyxxa are able to cover their ears.
A second felbat lands near Arthak, and a cone of flaming felfire spews forth at Arthak. Some of it gets on his armor, and it starts to steam as the ground is coated.
Arthak is too busy with what he’s doing to respond.
Nyxxa swings into the infernal, and fire blasts back at her. It staggers, and seems to freeze up as the magic that controls it is disrupted for a moment. She carves into it with a second solid hit, but the creature is definitely sturdy.
She runs around the infernal and slashes into the felbat, slicing over its eyes. It screeches and flails.
As Altruis starts to run to aid Arthak, the infernal takes a swipe at Arthak. Its blows are very hot, and almost too much to bear. However, Arthak roars and gets big, and then grapples the infernal. He hurls it off the side of the cliff into the pool. Steam hisses up as the infernal splashes into the water. He then runs at the dreadsteed and also throws it into the lake.
The felsworn initiate looks up at Arthak, a look of “what the fuck ARE you?” on his face, but he doesn’t seem to be backing down. He attacks twice but is unable to land a hit, and opts to disengage.
The infernal in the lake stands up and starts to try and pull itself out of the water, but it is struggling.
Halno tries to slam his holy hand into the infernal, but it grabs it by the finger and tosses it aside. Halno shrugs and goes invisible, causing the hand to disappear.
The dreadsteed stands up and flaming wings erupt from its back as it emerges in a geyser of water to kick Arthak in the face.
The blind felbat starts to stagger away from Nyxxa. She strikes at it, but it blindly spews a jet of caustic acid which only manages to land on the infernal. Another felbat screeches and lands next to the infernal on the highest ledge. His ear wiggles, and he looks in Halno’s direction and screeche.
The infernal swings at Levia and sends her sailing over the side of the cliff. Seeing Levia on the ground, the infernal on the level below slams his fist into her, leaving her unconscious before he rounds on Azgadaan.
The felsworn initiate manages to nick through the weak points of Arthak’s armor, and he is left stunned.
The felbat nearby snaps and claws at Arthak, and he is just barely able to stay standing.
Azgadaan steps back and the infernal swings at him, but the attack goes wide. Azgadaan blows his horn, and ten spiritual berserkers manifest. He then quickens steel wind strike, and reappears next to the furthest infernal.
Altruis jumps off the side of the cliff, runs across the water, and appears next to Arthak--his blades out--and he uses steel wind strike.
The berserkers then charge into action. One of the berserkers grabs a potion at Azgadaan’s command and feeds it to Levia, who awakens to a large bearded man.
However, the berserkers’ attacks don’t seem to be doing anything to the infernals.
Nyxxa carves into the closest infernal, but she is unable to stun it. The heavily wounded felbat takes off and flies off into the sky in retreat.
The climbing infernal causes the cliffside to crumble into the pool, and it sends Arthak tumbling into it.
The felbat on Halno strikes into Halno, who is able to deflect an attack away with shield, and the felbat retreats.
Levia backs up behind Azgadaan to take some cover and swings her spiritual weapon at the infernal. The berserkers, seeing their weapons are doing nothing, tries to grapple the infernal.
The felbat that is surrounded by Altruis and the bersekers screeches, but is unable to stun none of them. It leaps into the sky to try and flee.
The infernal, seeing Arthak in the water, jumps back into the water after him and starts to swing. Arthak is knocked unconscious in the water.
Levia looses path to the grave so that Azgadaan can slam into the infernal, but then she notices Arthak.
Azgadaan swings into the infernal with an arcane smite, and it crackles with energy, but the internal is up.
A berseker jumps into the water after Arthak, and tries to grapple the infernal, but is unable to do so. Altruis also rushes over and tears his blindfold off. His eyes glow with an incredibly bright color, and a beam of fel energy emits from his eyes straight into the infernal.
Altruis looks at the bersekers.
He then jumps into the water to try and help Arthak.
The berserkers on the upper cliff shove the infernal into the water and cheer. The infernal gets up and starts to head towards Arthak and the other infernal.
There is a singular felsworn initiate that is still up and sparring with one of the berserkers.
A felbat screeches by Azgadaan and Levia, and Levia is able to resist, but Azgadaan is left stunned.
Halno twins polymorph and casts it on the two nearby felbats.
He turns them into regular bats, dropping his invisibility. One of the bats tries to fly away, which Halno attempts to grab it. However it screeches and flies away.
A berserker succeeds on grappling the last unsubmerged infernal and starts dragging it towards the cliff.
Nyxxa drops her warglaives and aims at the retreating felbat. She fires, and the felbat plummets out of the sky. She then fires down at the dreadsteed on Arthak’s unconscious body.
The dreadsteed snorts indignantly.
Sadras goes running past Nyxxa and plummets down with an angry scream on the second infernal heading towards Arthak. However, the infernal bats her aside and goes splashing into the water.
Levia runs to the edge of the cliff and then jumps off. However, she doesn’t fall. Her wings flare out and catches her. She seems as surprised as everyone else, and she flies over the pool and casts holy light on Arthak. His eyes glow with a bright white glow, and he comes back to consciousness, Levia sailing overhead.
She then has her spiritual weapon swing into the infernal that’s still on top of the cliff.
The flying felbat starts to dogfight with Levia in the air.
Another berserker managers to grab the remaining polymorphed felbat and calls out a battle cry.
Arthak gets big again and swings his sword through the dreadsteed and stabs it into the water as he rounds on the closest infernal. He swings into the other infernal, and it’s struggling to hold together.
Altruis dives onto one of the infernals, slashing and carving, but it remains up.
Halno continues to try and grab the fleeing bat, and he snags it from the sky.
The bat with the berserker struggles free, but then it gets grabbed again.
Seeing the battle turning against him, the sole remaining felsworn initiate disengages, and then flees.
The combat is starting to come to an end as the berserkers continue to dogpile the infernal. In the pool, one of the infernals swings through Altrius and Arthak. The second one, however, swings twice at Altruis, and slams him under the water.
The felbat that is dogfighting with Levia spits its acid spray at her, but she stays aloft.
The berserker that is grappling the infernal gets it to the edge of the cliff.
Arthak swings into one of the submerged infernals, but his second strike clashes harmlessly off its armor. Altruis spirals his way out of the water, and his warglaives carve through the heads and arms of the infernals.
And they start to crumble apart into nothingness.
Halno fires a necrotic lightning bolt from Sylvos’s location through the remaining felbat and infernal, and the felbat plummets to the ground, a hole burned in its chest from the deathly energy.
Azgadaan uses haste on himself and Nyxxa and they run off to try and find the felsworn initiate that had escaped.
The berserkers all shove the remaining infernal over the edge, and Arthak prepares to hit. He jumps up and brings his blade down, and puts his weight behind it, and then he carves straight through it. The berserkers all cheer from up above, and the ones in the water pat him on the waist.
Meanwhile, as Azgadaan and Nyxxa dash into the cliff to hunt for the felsworn initiate. Nyxxa catches the felsworn dash through the shadows, and she dashes toward them. In a flash of steel, they meet each other, and there’s a moment where she feels the haste fade, and the lethargy sets in. However, the wounds open, and the felblood elf falls, the last bit of life leaves.
Nyxxa reaches her hand out and starts to pull his essence into her, and her eyes emblazon with fel energy. She feels his soul empower her, and her tattoos flare. The lethargy overcomes her, and she drops to one knee.
However, the battle is over, and Nyxxa and Azgadaan walk back to the rest.
