[Horde] Chapter Four: Session Thirteen

Appearing Characters: Arthak Saurfang, Azgadaan, Azuka Stormbreaker, Halno, Khadgar, Lantresor, Levia Blackflight, Nyxxa, Raliq, Rexxar, Sadras, Sal'salabim, Shaarubo, Vaerux

Outland Day 13

The group gets their bearings in the new locale, now finding themselves in the expanse of the Terokkar Forest with the mushroom caps of Zangarmarsh behind them. There are broken skeletons of draenic society, stone and glass being reclaimed by the creeping wilderness. Now it’s like the entire zone is frozen in time. There are glowing crystals impaled into the bark of the petrified trees, but the trees still seem to be living even so. The whirling nebulae of the skies overhead are choked out by motes of crystalline light and dust which seems to be suspended in the air, swaying only with the wind or with the passage of creatures.

There is still wildlife, but it seems like the rest of the world is frozen while the living denizens move.

Sadras nods. She explains that Auchindoun was an important site to the draenei, but it was destroyed in the war against the draenei. Through the process of the seize a powerful holdout of priests fought to the last there, and whatever conflict emerged caused the entire area to be destroyed. Arthak also provides that, while he doesn’t know exactly what happened, he can be certain that the Shadow Council was responsible for the destruction of the area. In addition, he also notes that one of the three naaru that was used to open the Dark Portal was likely extracted from Auchindoun.

There also may very well be Shadow Council still active in the Bone Wastes.

Halno nods.

The group agrees to head south to look for Stonebreaker Hold and then move forward from there once they learn more. Nyxxa starts helping Sadras navigate the area. While she had never been there, she understood enough about wilderness and general civilization that she could point out optimal routes along the lakes and through the countryside. Rivers that once met the Zangar Sea had now become waterfalls that spill into Zangarmarsh.

Nyxxa and Sadras were pretty confident they weren’t going to get lost.

About halfway through the day, as the group settles down for a brief rest to stretch, Arthak goes to take a smoke break. He catches some movement through some of the low crystalline branches, and he looks skyward. He sees the hawk, Karand, again, this time perching on a low branch.

It peers down at him, and Arthak peers up at it.

Sadras notices him staring and approaches.

Sadras looks up and squints.

She gestures for Nyxxa to come over, and Nyxxa limps over.

Nyxxa looks up and she sees it as well.

The hawk peers down at the trio, but then they suddenly hear something: the unmistakable sound of a wolf’s howl. Summerpaw’s ears go up, and she also howls as she looks northeast. Arthak attempts to keep his attention on the hawk, and it takes off and heads in the direction of the howl before disappearing into the trees.

Summerpaw is already standing up and already looks like she wants to investigate.

Halno waves a hand.

Sadras hops on top of Summerpaw, and Azgadaan polymorphs himself as a small group heads to investigate. Nyxxa manages to find a trail, and the group works to triangulate the wolf with some other howls. They eventually arrive in a clearing, and they see a dire wolf that is a bit bigger than Summerpaw. It has long grey fur. Its paw seems to be trapped in a giant, metal contraption that is some sort of hunting trap that consists of a steel jaw with three sets of teeth. It is clamped on its rear leg, and the fire wolf is presently chomping at the bloody mess of its leg and the trap itself.

The wolf initially growled at the group, but Sadras calms it, and Arthak notes the hunting trap was made somewhat shoddily out of spare parts and has no real makers marks. The mechanism seems to be broken.

Sadras gets low to the ground and her eyes start to glow with a faint magic, and wind blows through her hair. She starts to mimic the sounds of a dire wolf as she casts a spell. The defensive position of the dire wolf starts to relax, and its ears flatten, and it starts to whimper.

Sadras starts to speak slowly, trying to comfort the wolf as Arthak goes in to try and remove the trap. The beast watches cautiously, but it doesn’t seem to be struggling, and Summerpaw also approaches to lick his head to help calm him.

Sadras gives Arthak a nod and casts rejuvenation on the beast to expedite the healing process as Arthak works with his smithing tools to dismantle the trap. With a fair bit of care and knowledge, Arthak is able to successfully release the wolf’s leg. The wound looks pretty bad, but at the very least, they did not exacerbate the injury.

Sadras and Nyxxa are then able to bandage the wound, and within the better part of a half hour, they are able to get the wolf to a good place.

The dire wolf starts to growl and looks off into the distance, toward the northwest. It starts to move.

Sadras finishes casting speak with animals, and she briefly speaks with it.

Sadras looks back to the group.

Sadras asks the dire wolf, and the beast looks to the group, and there is a slight bow of its head.

She asks a few questions.

Azgadaan uses alter self to go through a few different forms, and the wolf growls as Azgadaan takes the form of a broken draenei.

Azgadaan shifts back to his normal form.

The wolf is receptive to the group getting their allies--the rest of their “pack”--and they opt to double-back to get them before heading forward. Sadras explains the rest of the wolf’s own pack is with his master.

Sadras also gets the wolf’s name, and he provides that it is Huelo. The dire wolf is nursing his leg as he travels, but he seems to be walking alright. Summerpaw is sticking to his side.

Levia gives her an eyebrow raise, but opts to believe her, and uses lesser restoration to make sure the wound doesn’t get infected.

The group travels with the wolf, and it continues to try and push forward. Sadras tries to get the wolf to slow down a little bit, but it wants to go for at least another hour, and Huelo then relents to crash for the evening. They pass through some ancient battlegrounds, but they note campfire smoke in the air.

Nyxxa scouts through the trees, and she notes a cowled figure at a small campfire. There is a small tent-like shelter that looks somewhat familiar: it's more sturdy than a tent, but still easily collapsible, but it’s more reminiscent of the shelter that Virdius had on Gramgun’kur, but more temporary. There is a long weapon across the lap of the figure, and there is a circular object with a violet flame that is burning with an artificial sense. It’s giving off a soft violet light.

Nyxxa regroups with the rest of the warband and reports what she saw. He seemed to be alone.

Azgadaan uses an enhance ability on the pair of them, and the duo heads off.

As they get a singular step closer than Nyxxa was before, there is a loud sound as something unburies itself from the ground nearby. It’s a long cylinder with a crystalline light at the top. It starts to flash and make noise. The figure swivels around and points the weapon in their direction. It’s definitely an ethereal.

However, as soon as he points the weapon, the weapon starts to lower, and his voice emanates as it adjusts. There is something familiar about the man. Arthak notes the markings on the weapon, and recognizes them as one of the Netherwind Agents.

The ethereal presses a button on his arm, and the alarm is deactivated.

The ethereal nods.

The duo returns to camp and informs the rest of the warband about what had been discovered and arranged. Azgadaan asks Levia if she could divine the ethereal’s intentions, and she agrees to prepare something the next day.

Outland Day 14

In the morning, Levia uses augury to check on the ethereal, and she gets no negative nor positive result.

Some sort of celestial body looms in the sky ahead, and the air is very hot and humid--more than it had been. Arthak makes companionable small talk with the Netherwind agent as they travel. The ethereal talks fondly about the battle he had fought in under Arthak’s pay, as it was quite invigorating, though he was happy he didn’t get dispersed.

Arthak does find out that the draenic ruins appear to have become some sort of shanty town, and the ethereal had seen a fair amount of people there. As they get closer, they see people occasionally. They are mostly orcs.

As they emerge from the trees, they see the ruined city proper. The bright celestial body is shining a melancholic orange-goldish hue over the ruins, and they can see the smoke of bonfires and cooking fires. Some of the trees are growing between the shattered rooftops and broken down architecture.

The Netherwind agent bows his head.

The agent thinks for a moment.

The agent bows his head and takes his leave. In the distance, they can see some prefab shelters that appear to be the same sort that he had.

Huelo, meanwhile, continues to press forward, and the warband travels for the better part of the day. After most of the day has passed, the group sees broken spires and shattered sections of this once-glorious city. Now much of it has been overgrown, and the group finds themselves in what had once been a park of some sort. Huelo stops, his ears perk up, and he howls.

As Arthak looks out for any more omens, he once again sees the hawk perched on the broken remnants of what was once likely a statue. It is staring down at him, and Karand then takes off again and flies in the direction Huelo is moving.

Halno occasionally hears hints of conversation in ravenspeech, and at one point he does see two arakkoa watching them, but they disappear as soon as they note Halno had looked at them.

Azgadaan gets an acrid smell that reminds him of the swamp, and he can see architecture reminiscent of the sporelings, and he actually sees three sporelings with bright purple bioluminescence gathered around a large mushroom that pulses out humid air.

Then Huelo stops and howls again, and a few other howls return not far ahead, and Huelo takes off running. The group follows without too much difficulty as the dire wolf heads toward the edge of a stone wall. Two other wolves come out of an unnatural cave formation that had been formed by the crumbling buildings--one jet black and a chocolate brown, smaller one--and they all start to nuzzle against each other.

A few other rocks--or rather a clefthoof--starts to move as it was disturbed by the howls. The hawk then flies down into the same recess. At this point, Arthak is following the hawk, and the rest of the party follows after Arthak.

There is the strong scent of beasts as they enter the ravine-like series of tunnels. Arthak sees a familiar figure who is knelt down. On one of his arms is Karand. He’s a mok’nathal, but a familiar one. He is nearly 9 feet tall. It’s Rexxar, who glances over to Arthak as he enters.

Behind him, a pile of feathers opens its eyes, and a dread raven reveals itself. There is also a boar nestled in a muddle of mud, and there is a wary clicking sound from the jet black dread raven.

He is speaking more to the hawk than anyone else.

Rexxar looks to Arthak.

Rexxar scoffs.

Rexxar straightens.

Rexxar nods.

Rexxar furrows his brow and moves Karand onto his shoulder.

Rexxar chuffs.

Rexxar sighs.

Rexxar glances at the rest of the group, and he takes note of the demons in the midst, but he doesn’t seem to mind too much.

He looks to the bird. Sadras looks amazed.

Rexxar chuffs at whatever the bird chirps back in response.

Karand takes off from Rexxar’s shoulder and lands on Sadras’s arm right next to Arthak. He looks at Arthak, and then to Sadras.

There is a breeze of wind that blows the group, and Karand moves up to Sadras’s shoulder.

Sadras looks down bashfully, and Karand then hops over to Arthak’s shoulder. Rexxar looks to Sadras.

Rexxar looks at Sadras, and then to Arthak.

Nyxxa then noticed that Mischief had relinquished herself from the pocket dimension, and her eyes are focused on the nesting bird nearby. Nyxxa immediately scoops her up before she can pounce, and Mischief sinks her claws into Nyxxa’s arm.

Rexxar chuffs.

Nyxxa looks down to the cat.

She lets the cat scramble onto her shoulder.

There is a hint of a smirk from Lantresor, given he was also originally from there.

He looks at Azgadaan and Nyxxa.

Nyxxa’s face lights up.

She tries to describe a dragon.

Rexxar thinks for a second.

Nyxxa nods.

Rexxar thinks for a moment.

Nyxxa briefly explains the Sinestra situation and her experiments.

Nyxxa looks to the group.

Rexxar considers.

She gestures to the animals.

Rexxar smirks.

He looks to the dread raven behind him.

He gestures to the boar.

He raises his arm and reveals a small white rat.

Rexxar smiles fondly as he introduces the animals, and Nyxxa eagerly says hello to all of them nearby. Keepers wiggles his nose at her before retreating back into Rexxar’s leathers.

She holds her hand out for an animal to sniff, and Nisha approaches and makes a crooning noise as she places her beak on Nyxxa’s hand. But then the boar nudges Nyxxa in her bad leg and nearly knocks her over. There is now mud caked in her fur. He starts to sniff around in Nyxxa’s pouch, and Mischief starts to hiss.

Nyxxa gives Puffer some food but also gives Mischief some as well. Rexxar furrows his brow.

Nyxxa nods.

Rexxar nods.

Nyxxa nods.

He looks to Arthak.

He looks back to Azgadaan.

Rexxar turns back to his beasts. Sadras talks to him a bit about his wolves and his other beasts. He also winds up going out to meet Summerpaw.

As the group moves into setting up a camp nearby, Nyxxa gets a sending from Khadgar.

Nyxxa uses see invisibility, but she sees no scrying censors.

Meanwhile, Arthak approaches Rexxar in private. Rexxar acknowledges Arthak’s presence, as well as Karand’s, who is perched on Arthak’s shoulder.

Rexxar was skinning some sort of game, and he stops.

He gestures to Karand.

Rexxar looks to the hawk, and then back to Arthak.

Rexxar laughs.

Rexxar nods.

Rexxar furrows his brow.

Rexxar chuffs.

Arthak is aware the exact location of where it was made is up for debate, but most people believe that it was the same place that made Blackhand into a living legend, and that is the deepest part of the Blackrock Foundry. However, many of the volcanic mountains in the area are interconnected.

Rexxar considers.

He reaches up to scritch Karand, who accepts them with dignity and pose.

Rexxar sighs.

He looks incredulous for a moment.

Arthak nods and gets up, however, Rexxar stops him.

He picks up the creature he was skinning and continues to skin it, allowing that action to speak for itself.

There’s a hint of a grin across Rexxar’s face.

Nyxxa opted to gather Azgadaan and Halno along with a few NPCs to talk about the new mission from Khadgar.

She looks to Halno and Azgadaan.

Sadras nods.

At that moment, Arthak returns.

Nyxxa cheers.

Nyxxa nods.

As the group settles in, Nyxxa goes to investigate the strange “inn” that Rexxar had sighted the mo’arg at. It’s not that far from where they are camping.

She finds an old, rundown ruin. It’s the most dilapidated place she had seen in her life, and it seems to be build out of what may have at one point been a tavern. There is some wood and stone stacked up to try and solidify it. It’s not bustling, but there seems to be music sung in orcish.

She peers in through the window, and it looks like a bar fight happened, but there’s no evidence of a bar fight. A table has a broken leg and is supported by only a rock, and it looks like a dive bar that got wasted. There are about a dozen people in the building.

She can see a krokul, and his tendrils look like they were carved off and capped with bone. He seems to be the man in charge, a man named Shaarubo. There are a few other people in the area, including an orc who is singing the song while drumming on some sort of stage that is actually just broken ground. There are three arakkoa in a corner and drinking out of small cups. There are a few other orcs and krokul as well.

Slumped over in a corner, snoring, is an ogre with a giant empty stein, and in the far corner is a mo’arg demon. Her tongue almost gets a film on it as she can almost taste a greasy aura from looking at him. He has a very portly stomach, and most of his mechanical arms are unscrewed and laying about. His face mask and eye piece are also off, and he is drinking with his solitary fleshy arm. He has a sweat and oil stained cloth nearby. He looks pathetic.

Nyxxa returns to the group and asks if anyone wants to come with her.

Azgadaan opts to use alter self to look like a satyr, and Sadras drags Arthak along. He looks back at Azuka and Lantresor sadly as he leaves, as they opted to remain behind.

They enter the bar, and all the sound stops for a brief second as they acknowledge the new group.

Everyone then goes back to what they were doing.

Arthak opts to go to the bar directly as the orc singer is currently singing the tale of Orgrim Doomhammer and the tale surrounding him and Blackhand. Arthak was halfway through asking for water.

The krokul passes him some sort of liquid in a chipped draenic cup. Arthak sips it very slowly while smoking a cigarette.

Nyxxa also approaches the barkeep.

She points at the mo’arg.

He pours the same thing for Nyxxa and Nyxxa puts a small pile of silver pieces on the “counter”. The krokul grabs one, bites it with his sharpened teeth, and then shrugs.

He pockets the silver and places three bottles in front of Nyxxa.

He shouts to the bar.

He goes through a hole behind the building that may have once led to a kitchen, but now it’s just outside, and there is firelight.

Nyxxa grabs one of the bottles and heads over to the mo’arg with Azgadaan, and sets it on his table. She has a wide smile. The mo’arg was murmuring to himself in eredun, and a large, glassy eye looks in her direction--his other eye is missing. He clumsily grabs a small device he affixes to his one good eye.

He blinks.

She presents the alcohol to the demon.

The mo’arg was almost trying to back into the corner, scrambling for his things. However, he looks down at the bottle, and then to Nyxxa, and then back to the bottle again.

The mo’arg takes the small glass piece over his eye and hastily breathes on it before wiping it off on a greasy cloth and affixing it. He probably made it even dirtier than it was before.

Azgadaan uses prestidigitation on the glass, and the grease vanishes.

He hiccups.

He reaches out and grabs the bottle.

Both Azgadaan and Nyxxa know that most mo’arg are immune to poison anyway, as are many other demons.

He hiccups again.

He reaches for a small vial which he uncorks. He sprinkles a bright green powder into the alcohol and knocks it back with his one good arm.

She gestures to her tattoos, and Sal looks at them.

The mo’arg looks between Nyxxa and Azgadaan.

Sal glances over to the snoring ogre.

The mo’arg looks around suspiciously and leans in.

Nyxxa and Azgadaan discuss for a bit, and then Nyxxa saunters over to the ogre. She is immediately met with the stench of body odor. Even while sitting, the ogre is nearly the size of Nyxxa, and he is taking up the better part of the corner. He is dozing, and his hand is on a large snuff box.

Azgadaan uses prestidigitation on the ogre while he is sleeping to get rid of the stench.

The ogre laughs in his sleep.

He jerks awake and snorts, puts one big finger over a nostril, and shoots something out of his nose and onto the group. The ogre looks at the pair of satyrs.

Azgadaan fishes around in his bags and pulls out a rezzi coin.

He looks over to the box his hand was on, which was likely more of a chest that he had looted at one point. He pops it open, and there is a strong aroma of things. There is a collection of scraps of cloth, what appears to be a large bone, all sorts of coins and valuable trinkets and baubles. Some of it is rezzi, some of it is gold, and there is even some Azerothian gold in there somehow. There is also a pipe that is likely used to smoke something.

The ogre looks at Azgadaan, and then at the box, and pulls it closer.

He cautiously moves back from the box, but is still holding onto the side of it. Azgadaan looks closer, but without sifting through the trinkets, he is uncertain if he can see the coin they are looking for.

The ogre reaches into the chest and starts to pull out the rezzi coins. He holds the first one up.

He puts it down and fishes out another one, which he looks at closely.

He reaches in and grabs a third one. Nyxxa is waiting patiently.

As he continues to pull each individual coin out, the pair of them hear the story about him smashing a wyrmtongue about three dozen times. He apparently has smashed a lot of wyrmtongues. One coin apparently he found stuck to the bottom of his foot one day. Another one he found in a big pile of “doo doo” on the side of the road.

He continues for about twenty minutes.

He points at the mo’arg.

The ogre looks at Nyxxa.

The ogre thinks for a moment.

He starts to shuffle through the rest of the coins.

He pulls out about ten coins.

Azgadaan examines the coins more closely, and he sees one of the coins has a chip on the edge--likely the specific one that Sal had referenced.

He points at the coin.

He pulls the coin out and holds it up to his eyes. He closes one eye, and then the other.

Azgadaan pulls a rezzi out of his bag and casts prestidigitation on it to make the coin even shinier. The ogre looks at it.

Azgadaan chuckles.

Azgadaan pulls out 100 coins.

Nyxxa gets a snicker in her head from Vaerux.

He spits on his giant hand and holds it out to Azgadaan, who promptly starts to mutter under his breath.

Azgadaan spits in his hand, and he shakes the ogre’s giant, disgusting, saliva-covered hand.

Raliq heaves himself to his feet, and they head outside. There are plenty of stones around.

He goes over and finds two rather large stones that are between 2-3 feet around.

Raliq laughs.

Raliq grunts and he picks up the rock and hurls the rock as far as he can. He gets a fairly good distance, about 15-20 feet away. He claps his hands together.

He points to Azgadaan and one of the other nearby rocks.

Azgadaan smiles and snaps his fingers, polymorphing himself into a giant ape. He picks up the rock and he gives it his best pitch. He throws it so far that it goes over 100 feet away and slams into the side of a building. In the distance, there is some sort of squawking sound and a puff of feathers, as he had managed to hit an unfortunate bird that was flying by.

Raliq’s jaw drops, and then he looks up at Azgadaan.

Nyxxa is laughing hysterically.

He backpedals on the accusation as the sheer size of Azgadaan settles in, along with the realization that he could probably beat the ogre into a pulp if he wanted to.

Nyxxa throws two coins to Raliq for the trouble. He completely fails to catch them, and they fall to the ground.

He bends over to pick them up.

She pats Azgadaan, who then picks Nyxxa up and puts her on his back. She chuckles, and pockets the coins that Raliq had handed over. Raliq ambles off, mumbling in ogrish about a giant hairy man.

She pats Azgadaan on the head, and he drops the concentration on polymorph, and then uses alter self once more to transform himself back into his satyr disguise. They head back into the tavern.

Sal had reattached his arm, and he cackles as he approaches them--apparently having been watching.

He hiccups.

Nyxxa hands all the coins over to Sal.

As Sal takes the coins back, he pockets all of them except for the special one. He then comes closer to Nyxxa and grabs her by the arm with his mechanical one. He pulls her very close to him and holds the coin up to her eye.

She didn’t notice before, but this close up, she can see the sign of the Illidari in the center of the coin. It faintly glows, likely only visible to Nyxxa’s special vision.

Sal’s vice-grip on her shoulder tightens.

Azgadaan sees a few tools come out of his mechanical wrist, as if the mo’arg was preparing to defend himself if he needed to.

Sal’s grip loosens a bit.

Sal takes the coin and places it into Nyxxa’s hand.

Sal nods.

Sal seems unsure.

Nyxxa nods.

Nyxxa smiles.

Nyxxa nods.

Sal nods.

Nyxxa smiles genuinely, and Sal nods.

Sal blinks, surprised, but nods.

Reluctantly, Sal agrees.

Sal also looks at Azgadaan-satyr, nods, and then leaves. Nyxxa looks appreciatively up at Azgadaan.

He starts spamming prestidigitation on his hand.

Nyxxa pockets the coin somewhere secure.

Meanwhile, Halno had started to approach the arakkoa that were sitting in a corner, and all three of them stop talking, their eyes on the strange man. One of them casts a spell, and in orcish, one speaks.

All the arakkoa’s feathers bristle, and they quietly chitter amongst themselves.

He gestures for Halno to join them around the table, and Halno grabs one of the bottles Nyxxa bought with a mage hand as he approaches to sit down.

This page was last edited on July 15, 2023, at 11:39 AM

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