[Horde] Chapter Four: Session Seventeen
Appearing Characters: Arthak Saurfang, Azgadaan, Azuka Stormbreaker, Dornaa, Durak, Geya'rah, Go'el, Gordawg (corpse), Gurok the Usurper, Halno, Levia Blackflight, Nyxxa, Phaedra, Sadras, Sorak Thunderforged
Outland Day 18
The group takes their cloudy, mist-like forms and they ascend up to the Elemental Plateau. They peak over the edge and see what amounts to no small amount of elemental chaos. Hills and mountains glow bright red, and trees are ever-burning in the distance. There are clouds full of storms that break into torrential downpours of snow. There is almost every sort of elemental atmosphere represented in a relative small location, and across all of it are the sparks of battle. Icy cold water hits boiling water, and steam issues up, and beneath it entities war, weapons made of solid earth and stone, shattering each other to bits only for more to spring into existence.
A water elemental evaporates into steam before an earth elemental strikes the fire elemental in twain.
The group lands on the very edge to make a plan before they attract any attention.
She looks at Dornaa, Geya’rah, and Azuka, and she holds her hand out. There is a flicker of their skeletal structures beneath their skin for a moment. She had cast death ward.
To the northwest, they can see the thickest clouds, and there is a perpetual sandstorm. Next to it is the glow of fire and smoke. The next one over is snow-covered hills, mountains, and trees, and the far east side is just fields of large stones like monoliths.
Geya’rah places a hand on the ground.
She points in a direction.
He looks at Arthak.
The kids nod, and Phaedra steps next to Sadras, ready to do the same.
She casts gift of alacrity on Go’el, Arthak, Sadras, and Sorak.
Azgadaan gives Go’el one of his beads of water, and he nods in thanks and acknowledgement.
She casts a spell, and everyone feels a tingle in their throats.
Levia holds her hands out, and her hands start to burn with holy fire which leaps off her hands and jumps onto Nyxxa’s glaives as she casts holy weapon. Levia smiles.
Nyxxa admires her weapons with a smile.
Some of the conflict is starting to draw closer, and the group turns to start heading toward the engagement.
Halno grabs Arthak’s shoulder.
Levia looks at him.
The group heads north, and they see tumultuous water and steam.
He hushes with a finger to his mouth, and the sound promptly dampens around him as he casts pass without trace. They start to step around, the silence of the spell provides enough dampening that they are able to slip through and get into a more advantageous position.
Two earth elementals are beating a fire elemental to cinder, and there is a stone mannequin in the center, enshrouded with elemental energy and armor. A water elemental tainted with fire slushes forward, the elementals clearly focused on each other.
Nyxxa charges in first, targeting the nearest earth elemental with a dance of blades that carve through it, shattering the elemental into rubble. She then retreats closer to the group.
Go’el follows after and he gives Arthak a nod.
He uses bloodlust on himself and Arthak and then closes on the other earth elemental. Both of his axe strikes connect.
Several smaller elementals close on the geyser elemental, oblivious to the new threat that had arrived, and the rest of the elementals continue to exchange blows.
A bolt of lightning strikes the stone wall to the north, revealing more elementals across the battlefield and revealing the still hidden group.
Arthak rages and then charges at the gurgling mud elemental, and he slides. He catches himself, swinging his blade around. His first strike is a solid blow, as is his second. He stares it down, but the glowing orbs in the bubbling mud stare him down right back. Arthak carves in with a third hit.
Levia uses toll the dead on the earth elemental by Go’el, and then summons a spiritual weapon, which also slams into the earth elemental.
Halno scurries up on the rubble.
A radiant crackling line of energetic lightning fires from Halno's hands and strikes through five elementals. It burns his arms slightly, the purelife energy leaving them tingling and raw, but the spell is quite successful.
Most of the elementals are now alerted to the group’s presence and they start to converge.
Sorak withdraws a chain with a heavy steel ball at the end, and he uses rockbiter before he lashes the flail on the earth elemental next to Go’el.
Azgadaan uses haste on himself and Nyxxa and then he also closes on the earth elemental, smashing it to bits.
Sorak closes his eyes, and when he opens them, his eyes have seemingly rolled into the back of his head. Spectral forms appear around him as he casts spirit shroud, and then he attacks the revenant. However, both his hits miss.
Nyxxa closes on the earth revenant, and her first hit is deflected, but the second connects--however it seems the blade is blunted slightly on its heavy stone armor. She disengages and moves closer to Arthak.
Levia attempts to hit the earth revenant with her spiritual weapon, and it collides against it. She then uses toll the dead. Phaedra darts in and lands a kick on the head of the earth revenant.
Across the water, a fire elemental continues to attack the nearest water elemental. However, the geyser elemental surges forward towards the source of the bright surge of energy that had blasted through it. It washes onto the sure and into Halno’s space, boiling water splashing over him.
Arthak leaves the mud elemental with a party slash before running over to back up Halno. He strikes through it, boiling water splashing across his armor. He then gets giant, and smacks the geyster elemental with another strike. The elemental’s form seems to be faltering.
Go’el uses stormbolt and hurls his axe at the geyser elemental. It cracks as it connects and returns to his hand, which he then uses to swing at the earth revenant--but he misses.
A water elemental swings at Sorak twice, breaking his ice barrier, but also taking damage in the process.
The tempest elemental over the stream flies into the air and dispels the bloodlust off Arthak, leaving him with a wave of fatigue.
Wintermaw attacks the water elemental next to Sorak.
The steam elemental swirls into Go’el and Sorak, burning steam pouring out in every direction.
Halno uses a cold lightning bolt, killing the geyser elemental as well as one of the fire elementals on the far side of the stream. An air elemental flies at Arthak, but a water elemental smacks it out of the sky. The water elemental then follows up to close on Arthak. A lava elemental also wades across the water.
The earth revenant swings at Go’el, using a thunderous strike. There is a shockwave of strength that strikes the orc, but he is able to absorb some of the elemental damage as he holds strong.
The mud elemental tries to overwhelm Nyxxa, but she is able to avoid the wave of mud. A lesser air elemental swings at Go’el, but he is able to parry the blow aside.
Azgadaan uses blessing of kings and runs to try and help Go’el against the revenant. He swings twice, both miss, and then retreats, goading two of the elementals to uses opportunity attacks on him and take blowback damage from his ice barrier. He almost loses concentration, but is able to just barely hold it.
Sorak touches Go’el and uses thunder step, the explosive damage blasting the elementals before they reappear on the other side of the mud elemental. Azgadaan swings at the mud elemental, leaving it as little more than a mud puddle.
Sorak scoffs as Azgadaan slides by him, and Azgadaan slips on the mud and falls prone. Sorak starts to cackle. However, the steam elemental whirls after the pair of orcs, washing heated steam over them. Sorak uses absorb elements, dropping his spirit shroud.
Suddenly, there’s an earthquake and fissures start to open up. Arthak, Azgadaan, Sorak, and Wintermaw are knocked to the ground.
Go’el looks at the approaching lava elemental and a bolt of lightning crackles through the sky and cracks into its chest, banishing the elemental back to its plain of origin.
The tempest revenant flies at Arthak and strikes down with its lightning strike, but it fails to connect. The lesser air elemental spiral spins at Nyxxa, but it is also unable to connect as she dodges under its strikes. The water elemental is able to connect with Arthak, however, just as Nyxxa decimates the air elemental.
Nyxxa then closes on the steam elemental, nothing more than a blur of blades as she destroys it, and then rounds on the water elemental.
The earth revenant slams its mace on the ground and it casts erupting earth on Go’el, Sorak, and Azgadaan, but Azgadaan is able to counterspell it.
Levia turns to the tempest revenant and black veins run up her arm, which burn with fire as she casts a blast of grave energy at it. Her spiritual weapon then slams into the water elemental, killing it.
Halno kills the other water elemental with chill touch.
Nyxxa closes on the tempest revenant, and with two strikes it is crackling and starting to fall to pieces. From Azuka, a thorn whip slams the revenant to the ground.
Sorak hits the earth revenant, as does Levia’s spiritual weapon, and it crumbles to the ground in defeat.
Arthak gets to his feet after he impales the tempest revenant. Across the stream, the fire elemental tries to cross, but it can’t make it before the water extinguishes it.
The group takes a brief moment to rest and patch up some wounds. And then they start to barrel into the fight to carve their way through, Halno’s familiar offering an eye in the sky while most of the rest of the party smashes their way through and blocking paths of approach from other elementals. Up ahead, they get the smell of earth churned up and out, and they can see large stone cracks up ahead. There is a bright green crystal formation, and they can see the stones start to move. It isn’t just another rocky outcropping, and instead a humanoid-like figure that is about 50 feet tall emerges. It brings a handful of geodes to its mouth and crunches down.
Then they see Durak leap down from a rocky formation, and he brings an axe of pure flame into the back of the creature. It swings with an arm and sends Durak flying aside. He stands up again and starts to charge again.
Durak double-takes, and the massive creature turns in their direction. There are powdered geodes dripping from its massive, stone mouth--almost like blood. Its eyes pulse with malevolence.
It roars, and a secondary, smaller creature appears--a reflection of death as it grabs a staff in its hand. Arthak runs forward, past a small wooden carving in the rock. Durak looks at Arthak with a mixture of a lot of emotions.
He points at the totem, and it looks like there is magma boiling beneath it. Arthak looks at the totem, and then grabs Durak and scoops him up in one hand as he also hurls a javelin at the massive elemental and activates his fire rune. The chains burn into the massive, rock body, but it breaks them away.
Arthak then starts to drag Durak back.
Gurok charges after Arthak and bowls into him, knocking Arthak and Durak back. The massive elemental opens his mouth, steam flowing from his jaws as he stands back to his full height.
Durak coughs in the dust, and he sees the elemental is over his totem.
The totem erupts into a plume of fire, however, it didn’t do as much damage as he might have hoped to the massive Gurok, even if it did also blast the death revenant. He then goes back to punching Arthak’s arm.
Wintermaw starts to flank around the side of the elemental, snarling and ready to charge in as soon as others engage.
Phaedra points out an earth elemental that had started to approach to join the battle. The death revenant slashes at Wintermaw, but the strike goes wide.
Sorak strikes a wooden hungering spirit totem into the earth, which causes blood to quicken in fury, allowing his allies to exchange their vitality for extra damage. He then uses rockbiter on his flail. Go’el runs forward and uses his skyfury totem, which increases the crit range on attacks.
Nyxxa closes on the death revenant, but her first attack is deflected aside. However, her second strike hits true, carving through the creature for a large portion of damage.
Levia approaches and prepares to release her path to the grave.
Azgadaan casts jolt at the death revenant, but it fails to connect.
He gestures at the death revenant. Halno nods and hurls a thunder chromatic orb at the earth elemental that had started to approach, blasting several chunks off it. His raven lands on top of one of the large rocks.
Gurok pounds his fists on the ground, and the earth begins to shift and stones crumble. For a brief second, the holy weapon enchantment on Nyxxa’s glaives falters, but Levia is able to keep the spell up.
Gurok opens his geode-encrusted mouth and bites Arthak, and then slams down on top of him with one of his elongated arms. Arthak can hear the armor dent under the weight of the massive creature.
Sorak takes the moment of distraction and beats into the elemental with two critical hits.
Nyxxa continues to try and strike the death revenant, but it blocks both attacks.
Azgadaan had turned into a giant ape as he removed around the massive rock and started to climb to the top of it.
Gurok releases a very loud, angry roar, which causes many of the fighters to become stunned by the force of the roar. Gurok’s eyes glow, and the powdered geodes drip from his maw as his chest begins to glow.
Levia uses mass cure wounds.
Gurok causes more fissures to open up around them once more.
Durak uses his guardian totem while Gurok tries to gore Arthak by impaling him on his horn. He then roars again, and a massive earthquake shudders beneath them, the ground opening up as rubble crumbles down and buries them beneath it.
The death revenant looks at Nyxxa and blasts her with a death coil, sapping some of her life essence.
Halno uses dimension door, grabbing Durak as he gets them both out to safety.
Arthak strikes recklessly, attempting to hit Gurok from the rubble as the elemental looms over him. He lands a strike, chipping the weapon into his stony flesh.
Phaedra darts in and lands a hit on the earth elemental, scraping the blade on her tail down its back--stunning it momentarily.
Nyxxa tries to finish off the death revenant, one strike connecting, but unfortunately the second is deflected aside. The third hit finishes it off as she kicks his shield out of the way.
Gurok slams his fist into the ground, causing more quakes as Levia uses another mass cure wounds.
Sorak reaches over to Arthak and uses thunder step to unbury the two of them and teleport them behind Gurok, who is still beating on the ground, opening up more and more cracks in the earth.
Go’el holds up his hammer and the sky opens as he summons a whirlwind next to Gurok, which starts to twist and buffet him with bludgeoning winds. Gurok moves away from the whirlwind by stepping over Go’el, and he starts to stomp on the buried shaman, and smacks Arthak with a parting blow.
Wintermaw manages to unbury himself.
Azgadaan uses mind sliver on Gurok.
Arthak stands up and runs over to Gurok. He shoulder checks him, causing the massive elemental to drop down. Arthak grabs the elemental’s arm and pins him down. However, Gurok slams his forehead into Arthak’s, dropping Arthak to the ground as well, but he is still wrestling the giant elemental. As he hits the ground, the vibrations managed to shake the earth enough to free those who were still pinned.
Azgadaan uses fly on himself and soars upward and drinks a potion.
Levia uses another mass cure wounds and Go’el moves the whirlwind over Gurok and then darts away, baiting an attack from the elemental. Wintermaw then runs in and bites the still grappled creature.
Nyxxa goes to help Phaedra with the earth elemental, and manages to finish it off with two strikes of her glaives. She salutes Phaedra, who nods and prepares to follow her into the fray.
Gurok continues to wrestle with Arthak, and he is unable to land a solid hit.
Phaedra runs to try and help finish off the elemental. Her ki shines through its fault lines, but it seems it is immune to being stunned.
She uses flurry of blows to do as much damage as she can. Sorak uses inflict wounds and grab Arthak’s blade, shadows flowing through the sword. Arthak pulls it out of Gurok, and slices through the massive elemental’s head.
Go’el dismisses the whirlwind, and the group has a moment to catch their breath. Go’el immediately looks around, shouting for Durak, and he sees him with Geya’rah, his wounds nursed as he approaches from the safe point Halno had taken him to.
