[Alliance] Chapter Four: Session Twelve

Appearing Characters: Aramar Thorne, Baine Bloodhoof, Belysra Starbreeze, Broll Bearmantle, Doru Thunderhorn, Elissa Cross, Li Li Stormstout, Magatha Grimtotem, Makasa Flintwill, Mera Mistrunner, Remnii, Reno Jackson, Riff, Samaara, Seria, Syeori Sunwalker, Tae'shara Sunwatcher, Tol'vas Moonshadow, Uther Menethil, Velameestra Windrunner, Wulf

June 7th

As the group prepares to return to Camp Taurajo, Vel looks back to the corpse of the dragon after some consideration.

Vel looks over to Wulf.

Wulf approaches Uther and holds his hand out for his hammer.

Uther hands it over, and Wulf hefts it around, and then brings it down on the dragon’s skull, shattering it. He takes a few other swings and pulverizes it even further. Wulf looks at it, nods, and then hands the hammer back to Uther.

Elissa had turned away from the violent display, and the group goes back to finish up other business before beginning their journey to Dalsh-Beran.

June 8th

The next morning, Vel had awoken from her rest to further analyze one of the vials of blood she had acquired. She looks at it with some degree of focus, but as the spell finishes, her eyes widen, and she looks up from the vial of Wulf’s blood she was analyzing, her eyes still containing traces of the magenta hue, and she looks first at Wulf, then to Uther, and then back to Wulf again.

Vel looks to Uther, and then back to Wulf again.

Vel looks at Uther, and then to ‘’’Arthas’’’, who looks whopping confused as he has no idea what this name means.

Vel’s eyes flicker back and forth for a moment.

Seria nods.

Uther stares intently at Wulf, but it’s hard to say. There’s a lot of grime in his hair, and his has a beard. But his eyes are the right color. Vel also looks for specific features she recalls, but she couldn’t say for certain unless Wulf cleaned up.

Wulf’s mouth opens for a moment, and his brow furrows.

Wulf grits his teeth, unable to refute her completely rational point.

Vel subconsciously puts her hand on Uther’s arm. He responds by placing his hand over hers and giving it a small squeeze.

He walks a distance away from camp, and then drops to his knees, screams, and starts crying.

Elissa goes over to Vel, looking after Uther.

Elissa glances back over to Wulf, who is packing up his stuff with a sort of mindless quality. He almost seems to be triple-checking his things, which is something he has not done before.

Elissa puts a hand on Vel’s shoulder and looks out after Uther, and there is an unspoken question of “but what does this mean for back home?” The lower half of Vel’s face had disappeared beneath her hand, as the same question is clearly on her mind.

Vel also looks after Uther, seemingly considering for a moment.

She breaks away from Elissa to go after Uther. He was alone for a few minutes, but as Vel approaches from behind, she puts a hand on his back. At this point, it seems that Uther had calmed down a bit.

Vel walks around in front of Uther and crouches down.

She holds up her hand and she starts making rhythmic, practiced motions, almost as if she was casting a spell, or doing some sort of sign language. Uther had seen her do it before, normally when she was stressed, and it was frequently accompanied with illusory runes that she seemed to be manipulating, but now it was simply the motions.

Uther sniffles and holds up his hand to mimic the gestures.

Uther gets through a repetition or two before the tears come back and he just reaches out and pulls Vel into a big, tight hug as he starts to cry again. Vel hugs him back, just running her hand over his back as she allows him to hold onto her for as long as he needs.

After a few moments, Uther lets go and pulls back.

Vel offers a humorless smile and stands up, offering Uther a hand to help him up as well. He takes it and stands with her, and the two start to head back to camp.

As the duo returns to the group, the rest of the party gathers up their things and starts to head into the grasslands. Uther is very quiet, and Wulf, similarly, is traveling a small distance from the group.

They pass tauren on the road, astride kodo beasts and the like. They look at the group curiously, and some offer them a friendly greeting.

The cliffs open into the broad plains of Mulgore, and they hear a trickle of water along a small waterfall that goes from the cliffs and mesas above into a small stream. The group opt to take their lunch here so Wulf can shave, and without a word, Wulf does go off to ride closer to the stream. He dives into the water.

Tol’vas goes into some detail explaining to Remnii how to tell if someone is infected with the worgen curse, as well as the window of time it can be treated.

Remnii takes the information in and thinks hard about the wound she had seen on Wulf. In the meanwhile, Vel had joined them at the urging of Remnii.

Remnii’s eyes shift over to the weary Uther and also Wulf in the distance.

Tol’vas shakes his head and Vel runs a hand down her face.

Tol’vas sighs.

Vel sighs in exasperation.

Vel looks over to Remnii, as if gauging if Remnii is going to say anything, but Remnii just silently looks back to Vel.

Tol’vas grits his teeth hard, as if snarling.

Vel’s lips tighten.

Vel glances at Remnii again, who continues to watch carefully.

She points off in the direction Wulf had disappeared into.

Tol’vas nods.

Vel turns to leave.

Vel’s ears flick faintly in tired acknowledgement.

Vel stops and turns again, looking quite irritated.

Vel turns again and leaves to take a walk.

As Tol’vas and Remnii come back to the group, Seria catches Riff looking at Tol’vas, and he tilts his head to the side.

Riff is looking at Tol’vas and he tilts his head to the side.

Seria doesn’t see anything, but she grabs her staff and uses truesight. She feels her eyes adjust and become almost draconic for a moment.

Lo-and-behold, she sees a small mote of light following behind Tol’vas. She recognizes it as a scrying censor.

Seria approaches.

Tol’vas sighs.

Tol’vas sighs again.

Seria looks at it and uses dispel magic, and the sensor vanishes. Seria then looks to Riff.

Riff nods.

He starts to look around at everyone rather conspicuously. He then gives Seria a thumbs up and goes back to looking around the area for other weird things.

Remnii tugs at her amulet of proof against detection.

Remnii looks to Seria and Riff.

Wulf then comes back, and he scratches at the back of his neck. He tosses a partially used bar of soap back at Elissa.

He had shaved off most of his beard. Though his skin is darker and covered with more calluses and dirt that might take more scrubbings, his hair is golden in the sunlight. If there were any doubts before, they were dispelled. He is clearly Arthas Menethil.

Wulf approaches Uther and sighs.

Uther sets his jaw and nods his head.

Wulf shrugs.

The group heads off again towards Dalsh-Beran. Wulf is mostly quiet as Uther tells him stories about Arthas Menethil, and his family and loved ones, and he seems more attentive than he had ever been. There does not seem to be any recognition, but he occasionally chimes in.

There is a certain ‘you gotta be kidding me’ vibe to Wulf given he distrusts magic of any sort. Other key things Uther mentioned were the time he had saved Uther from wolves when he was younger (which Wulf found quite ironic), and what Arthas told him about Invincible, and the fact that when Uther took his own vows, he almost flubbed in the same spot Arthas had.

There is something nice about talking to a man wearing Arthas’s face. Because he can brag about him to him directly, but it’s also simultaneously sad.

Before too long, they are within view of Dalsh-Beran.

They see some fishing boats on the horizon on a wider stream, and the settlement itself is surrounded by sharpened wooden palisades. Each of them seem to be a mural depicting a story of one of the clans.

Elissa’s eyes are wide in amazement.

They see a gate as they approach, depicted with a single rolling meadow. They hear tauren calling back and forth to each other through taur-ahe.

Thick hempen ropes strain, and the massive tree-like pillars of wood are lifted rather quickly. They see some other braves that appear to be on watch, and they have shoulder pads with colorful feathers, as well as a matching armband. It’s almost like a uniform.

Within the gates is a bustling bazaar of tents and stalls that are of dozens of different colors and designs. There are tauren walking between all of them, and there is a circle that goes off in each direction where tauren seem to live. They hear laughter and music, and there are different tribes and families coming together and sharing their culture. There are children with different painted markings on their faces, all running together.

And the largest structure in the center is a massive wooden totem that towers far above the palisades. There are smaller totems in each of the four corners of the settlement.

The guards look at the group curiously, as their group is the only non-tauren individuals in the place.

But they are welcomed in passable Darnassian and broken common.

One of the tauren blinks, surprised and not understanding the intricacies of her magic.

They continue into the busy paths, and they see more of the tauren with multi-colored armbands which seem to be peacekeepers of sorts.

Broll bumps into a few people accidentally.

He apologizes as he bumps into someone else.

Tol’vas explains that most tauren do in fact speak Darnassian as it’s effectively the common of the continent before he goes off on his own.

Vel and Uther go off together, and Remnii uses tongues on Uther so he can understand as well.

Seria opts to go after Broll and wait for the group to reconvene.

The group disperses.

Remnii and Samaara allow themselves to be washed with the crowd, and she also notes some non-tauren. Namely, some goblins who are trying to trade with some tauren. Eventually, she is pointed towards a supplier who is a bit of a drop-off point for a lot of different supplies. His name was Doru of the Thunderhorn tribe.

He had dark chocolate-colored hair, and slightly lighter fur. Remnii and Samaara wait a short while before approaching.

She sidles further into the tent and she sees all sorts of supplies.

Doru scratches his chin.

He looks to Samaara.

Remnii translates for Samaara and the tauren belly laughs.

Doru snaps two of his fingers.

Doru goes behind his counter and starts to dig around.

Doru returns with a beautiful sheet of pure white cloth.

Remnii smiles and runs a gentle hand over the cloth.

Doru shrugs with a laugh.

Remnii beams up at him and gentle folds the sheet and puts it carefully into her belongings with her most precious possessions.

Doru clasps Remnii’s hand in his massive hands.

Doru gets a dumb grin on his face, and Remnii and Samaara leave. However, Samaara looks to Remnii.

Remnii sighs and doesn’t look.

The duo manage to arrive at the base camp, and they don’t see Riff--here, he had gone and turned into a tauren child to go play with the tauren children nearby. Samaara glances back.

Meanwhile, Vel and Uther navigate on their own. Vel notes another grave space near the massive totem in the heart of the town. It is well patrolled.

As they go about, they come to some similar pieces of information. Unfortunately, no one has heard of the Shrine of Dormant Flame, but it sounds like something shamans would know of.

However, as they are speaking to one of the stall owners, an old, old tauren man approaches.

Uther is listening with rapt attention and the elder tauren stands and is scolded by the younger shopkeeper for straining himself, however the elder tells him to not tell him how to live his life. After all the, oracle had told him he would outlive his mate by 50 years, and he still had 10 to go.

He points at Vel.

The older tauren scratches his chin.

They head off together, Uther watching them with some degree of endearment. They then also head back to the group.

Tol’vas, meanwhile, is led towards a tauren named Mera of the Mistrunner tribe. She has a fur pattern that is mocha light brown with patches that get more white down her arms and legs. Her upper torso is mostly cream, and she has darker horns that droop off to the side and down. The scent of delicious cooked meat hits his nostrils.

She looks up at Tol’vas.

Tol’vas smiles, and Mera nods eagerly and welcomes him in. She offers him a hearty meat stew with vegetables and the like.

Tol’vas offers a brief outline of what he was looking for, specifically wolfsbane.

Mera thinks for a moment.

Mera thinks some more.

He uses minor illusion to make Jarod Shadowsong’s face.

Tol’vas smiles.

Tol’vas asks a bit more about the swiftthistle cliff, and she points to a series of mesas to the north. With the setting sun behind it, it’s quite beautiful. It’s called the Bravewind Mesa, and it makes up the northern half of the protecting mountains around Mulgore. It’s said that it is named so because only the bravest of people climb those mesas, as the winds in the area are so dangerous that only the bravest of creatures would possibly wish to fly in the area.

Tol’vas suppresses a laugh.

She smiles and stands up with pride.

As Tol’vas heads back to the group, he notes he is being followed by a young adult female tauren with cookies-and-cream and deep black fur. She is making an effort to be inconspicuous, but she was definitely following him.

He ducks around a bend, and then catches her.

She turns and walks away.

The tauren doesn’t stop, and instead moves faster. Tol'vas opts to let her go and continue returning to the group.

He arrives around the same time as the others, though he is laden with a good deal of food. Broll and Seria had unloaded the group’s belongings in a small section near the outer wall.

Makasa also comes back with some alcohol, which she passes around to any interested parties.

A few others, however, did mention they noticed tauren tailing them.

Remnii looks to Samaara.

Tol’vas explains what he found.

Tae’shara nods and takes a swig of alcohol.

He looks over to Remnii.

Remnii blinks.

Remnii nods with a smile.

Syeori runs her throat across her throat from behind him, indicating not to do that.

Seria pulls out her bowl and attempts to scry on Brann, but suddenly it shuts off. It seems it failed.

He looks to Syeori.

Syeori actually looks to Vel.

She looks to Broll and Wulf.

He looks to Wulf.

Syeori smiles and gives Broll a big hug, which he returns.

Li Li bows her head.

Samaara looks at Remnii.

Samaara closes her eyes and sighs.

Tae’shara looks up at the cliffs.

Aramar and Makasa look at each other.

The group opts to take Broll and Wulf with them while Tae'shara, Elissa, Aramar, and Makasa try to get more of a read on the area.

Elissa offers a salute.

As the crowd starts to die down around them, a tauren is walking towards the group. He is walking with no small amount of purpose.

As he comes into the light of the torches in the area, they see a gunmetal gray tauren with brightly painted red markings under his eyes, and some dyed red and black leather on his person.

He speaks in common.

Uther looks to Remnii, and Remnii shrugs.

The tauren nods.

Remnii nods, and Tol’vas, Vel, and Elissa also follow along with Samaara. They make their way through the settlement toward the center of town.

They see a number of tauren there. Most have dark fur with a smattering of white. There seems to be guards or adjutents, and in the very center, there is an imperious looking black-furred female tauren. There are wisps of silver in her hair. She watches with intelligent and sparkling eyes.

She is leaning against a tall staff with a number of charms and feathers.

He bows his head to her, and she looks to the group.

Remnii offers a small bow of respect.

She looks specifically at Vel, Uther, and Remnii.

Remnii offers what they were doing in Mulgore in full detail.

Magatha looks Remnii up and down.

Magatha glares at Tol’vas.

In the building behind her, the curtain pulls back, and there is another tauren. It’s a younger tauren with bright chestnut fur. His eyes are big and green, and they see a smile on his face.

This tauren is much younger, and he does not have a feathered crest, but there are two totems across his back which are painted with figures and such. There is a simple headband with trophies on it.

He smiles.

Magatha waves it off and goes back into the building.

He looks to Vel.

He looks to Remnii.

He checks to make sure there are no other Grimtotems around.

He then looks to Uther.

He looks to Tol’vas.

Together, Baine and Tol’vas are able to piece together that he wielded a great spear, Talonclaw, blessed by the eagle wild god Onara. And they offer some other legends about this larger-than-life hero.

Baine greets everyone as he gets back, and he shares in food and drink with the group.

He looks smugly at the rest of his small group as he takes a swig of alcohol. Baine looks back to the group.

Makasa pours him more drink, which Baine drinks graciously.

Tol’vas continues to share tales of the War of the Ancients with Baine. Remnii also listens intently.

Baine is also enraptured by the tales of dragons that his new companions had seen.

Vel looks intrigued.

He looks in particular to Uther and the other armored individuals.

Uther goes into some stories of the holy Light. Vel also offers that her own people had adapted such a worship into a veneration of the sun.

He claps Uther on the shoulder.

Baine sputters and coughs.

B->Baine Bloodhoof says:I should head to bed! I’ve got a long day of protecting the caravan!

He looks a bit embarrassed.

Baine stands up, unsteady, and takes a gulp of water.

Baine staggers away, and it’s quite late.

That night, Vel tries to dream Victor, but as expected, she is unable to reach him, and eventually she is blasted by the lightning and jolted out of the dream. She then opts to go for a walk to clear her mind.

However, Tol’vas, meanwhile, finds himself falling into a dream. He comes to rest on a thin layer of water, and in an endless beacon of darkness, he sees a single lit area. It appears to be white stone with dozens of sharp brambles. There is a figure standing within it.

It’s a night elf with shoulder-length violet hair, red markings on her face, and a simple robe. It’s Belysra Starbreeze. In her hand is a staff that looks like the scythe of elune, and in her other hand is the fang of Goldrinn.

She is chanting a prayer to Elune, and he witnesses the creation of the Scythe of Elune as the vines wrap around her, and merge the fang and staff together. Then it stops.

Her voice calls from behind him.

He turns around and sees the woman. Her hair is much longer and collected back behind her in a long ponytail. Her robes are more regal than they were before, and they have leaf-like patterns along the upper and lower parts of it.

She steps across the water, her bare feet brushing the water’s edge.

Tol’vas’s mouth flaps.

The dream shifts and shows the great tree that the worgen were imprisoned beneath. The sentinels and druids and priestesses that were gathered put the worgen into an eternal slumber, and leaves fall upon them as they are drug into the earth.

Tol’vas offers what he can, recalling how he came to when he was summoned by Alpha Prime. And how he took the scythe and ran. He had fled and killed some of the other worgen, and explained he stowed away on the vessel back to Kalimdor with the scythe.

Belysra sighs.

She conjures the image of Velinde Starsong.

Belysra asks for more details, and he offers what little he has.

Belysra grins.

She smiles.

Belysra winks, and with the sound of a drop of water in a pound, everything fades and disappears.

June 9th

There is a soft drizzle the next morning, but over the mesa is a rainbow, and the sun is shining down from the mesa to the north. There’s not a single cloud.

This page was last edited on September 21, 2021, at 09:23 PM

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