[Alliance] Chapter Four: Session Twenty-Three
Appearing Characters: Anacondra/Scarletleaf, Arthas Menethil, Elissa Cross, Makasa Flintwill, Pythas/Aryn, Remnii, Seria, Tol'vas Moonshadow, Uther Menethil, Velameestra Windrunner, Zap Rusthammer
June 18th
The battle with Lady Anacondra and the pack of deviate raptors. Seria attacks a deviate ravager, severing it in two with her claws. She then scurries forward in the water and lashes out with her stinger at the deviate guardian beyond.
More raptors dart along the far shore, heading for the bridge. The Child of Anacondra hisses loudly, its eyes focused on Arthas, and strikes. For a second, Arthas disappears into the massive snake’s mouth, but he shoves the mouth open again and shoves it aside. The giant snake then rounds on Zap, but as it tries to constrict the dwarf Nutters punches the snake in the gut--giving Zap enough time to slip away from its coils.
A deviate viper slithers down to Seria and bites, but she thrashes away.
Zap climbs up the side of the cliff, evading another strike from the Child of Anacondra, and he rounds his gun on the giant snake. He closes his eyes against the glimmer of scales and fires off two shots.
He then turns to Vel and uses the Get Better Blaster Mark 4, which successfully heals her despite her undead state. She nods in thanks.
Nutters pulls out what looks like a giant nutcracker and tries to crack part of the Child of Anacondra’s tail, but it doesn’t work.
Two arrows then fire at Vel, but they wind up getting redirected at Zap. The first one harmlessly plinks off his shield, and the second one just narrowly grazes him.
One of the arrows is sticking out of his armored arm, which Vel reaches over and tugs out.
The Child of Anacondra bites down on Arthas again, and this time a lump gets swallowed down the massive creature’s gullet as he gets swallowed. He then slithers to the side of the cliff and wraps his tail around Zap and pulls him back into the river.
A ravager leaps on Remnii, biting and snapping. Meanwhile the deviate viper’s fangs clatter harmlessly off Seria’s carapace.
Inside the Child of Anacondra, Arthas struggles and there is muffled yelling as he swings at the inside of the snake. Some smoke billows from the creature’s mouth, and then Arthas manages to pull himself out of the snake’s maw and tumbles back into the river. However, a deviate ravager sees its open and launches itself onto Arthas.
Elissa raises her shield into the air.
She stomps her foot on the ground and an ornate pattern traces through the ground beneath her feet as she uses consecration. Holy magic starts to burn the deviate ravager next to her.
A swarm of snakes slithers onto Arthas, writhing and biting, and a deviate guardian leaps up and behind Vel as the guardians start to surround her.
Seria starts to rip into a deviate guardian and manages to tear its throat out with her pincers. She then strikes the deviate viper with her stinger.
A deviate ravager runs straight into Elissa’s consecration, which burns him as he attacks her.
Uther runs along the cliff edge and then launches himself into the air over Zap, his hammer held high as he brings it down on the Child of Anacondra.
The snake looks at Uther just in time for the hammer to be brought down on the snake’s skull, which cracks in two inside its head. Zap casts feather fall with the Gravity Defier Mark 5, and Uther lands gently in the water while Zap is thrown into the water--the dwarf forgot to cast the spell on himself.
The snake is limp in the water, and Zap gives Uther a thumbs up from beneath the water.
Uther swims to the ravager next to Arthas and cracks it across the face.
A deviate guardian runs forward and pounces on Vel. He knocks Vel on her back and starts to bite into her. It tries to pin her down, but she worms her way out. She gets to her feet and casts sapping sting, bringing the creature down to the ground in turn as she drives her blade into its side.
Remnii casts guardian of faith on the bridge between the group and the approaching creatures. Tol’vas then uses roar.
Arthas slices through the snakes on him, and then cleaves into the ravager next to him. Seria finishes off the deviate viper with a flurry of claws. She then scurries over to back up Tol’vas, striking with her stinger and pumping the guardian with venom.
Lady Anacondra fires two arrows at Uther, but they instead get redirected at Zap due to his shield. However, as the arrow strikes into the shield, it starts to hiss and lashes at Zap, but its fangs get stuck in his shield.
The deviate guardian stands up and tries to bite Vel, but its jaws get deflected harmlessly off an arcane shield that flickers to life between them.
Remnii uses mass flash of light on Seria, Arthas, Uther, and Zap. She then uses mind sliver on the nearest ravager.
Anacondra’s wails of anguish ripple through the room and Seria’s mind, but she shakes it off, and focuses on the fight at hand. The deviate guardian starts to run away from Seria and Tol’vas, but Seria manages to grab him in her claws. Tol’vas swims out from under the bridge and strikes at the deviate ravager next to Elissa. His fangs sink in and he pulls it into the water.
Uther finishes off the deviate ravager and then sweeps around with his hammer into the other ravager.
Zap stabs the arrowhead snake with his spear, which then turns back into a broken arrow. He thrusts around and cuts down the ravager next to Uther.
Nutters scrambles up the cliff face next to Vel and a force beam shoots into the raptor that is attacking her. Another deviate guardian leaps at Vel, but Nutters interferes.
A swarm of snakes slithers next to the guardian of faith and the spell obliterates them.
Vel ducks under the jaws of the deviate guardian and tumbles beneath its feet before promptly disappearing as she uses steel wind strike--immediately killing the ravager that had started to approach and greatly injuring the other four guardians. A deviate guardians runs at Remnii, seeing an easier target, but is unable to land a hit as another guardian tries to bite Vel but knocks harmlessly off another arcane shield.
Arthas swings at the remaining ravager in the river, and it immediately falls down, dead. Seria manages to finish off the deviate guardian, driving her stinger into its chest. It convulses and falls limply to the ground.
Zap fires off at the raptors on the edge of the cliff. One falls dead and tumbles into the water. A second shot sends a ravager splashing down as well.
He starts to run down the wall of the cliff face in the direction of Anacondra--his spider climb still active. Meanwhile, Colonel Nutters attacks one of the remaining guardians and yeets him into the fire behind him. A deviate guardian looks around and charges at Vel, but his claws deflect harmlessly off her arcane shield.
Anacondra takes two shots at Arthas and Uther and then fades into the darkness.
Uther splashes through the water, heading for the stairs up onto dry land. Meanwhile, Tol’vas slithers up onto the cliff and bites the guardian in the firepit, killing him as he pumps venom into his veins. Once more, Tol’vas uses roar.
Vel nods and tumbles beneath the legs of one of the remaining guardians and runs. She leaps off the side of the cliff, taking some minor bites from the guardians. She reaches out and touches both Uther and Zap, and then uses an upcasted dimension door and they disappear on the other side of the river--right in front of Lady Anacondra.
Remnii uses mind sliver on a guardian, and Elissa follows up with two strikes of her own.
The deviate guardian next to Lady Anacondra leaps at Vel, but she deflects its jaws aside with her sword.
Tol’vas bites another guardian, pumping venom into its body. It falls over, dead.
Arthas blinks, seeing Uther, Vel, and Zap disappear.
He grumbles and gets out of the river and onto the stairs.
Zap notes that Lady Anacondra’s skin is partially covered in sharp, red scales, which looks very sharp, and the corrupted nightmare-like vines are growing out of the ground near her.
He pulls a lantern out of his pack and lights it, shedding the area into light with his lantern of revealing so any attempts at invisibility would be useless. Meanwhile Nutters attacks the last guardian with his buzzsaw, dropping the guardian into critical condition. In a panic, the guardian bites back.
Lady Anacondra turns her attention to Zap and fires point-blank. Both miss. She hisses and starts to move away. Zap fires his revolver at her, and the shot grazes her. Seria dashes up the wall to get behind Anacondra. The night elf sees the massive scorpid.
Uther swings twice into the deviate guardian. Vel follows up with a toll the dead and then flips her sword around and swipes into the side of the raptor’s throat--dropping it to the ground. She then runs forward, cutting off Anacondra’s last escape.
Remnii also starts to run after Seria while Zap approaches on Anacondra, firing twice. Both shots ricochet off her serpentskin armor. Colonel Nutters slams into the last deviate guardian, and it falls over, dead.
Uther manages to close on Anacondra and leaps on her. He slams into her side with his hammer, which blazes with holy energy as he lands a crit. Her concentration falters, and Uther swings again, hitting her a second time. With each strike, the thorny briars around her cut into Uther’s flesh. He sweeps under her legs, and she falls to the ground.
Arthas sighs, as he realizes he may not have time to get over.
Vel follows up with Uther, icy magic coating her blade as she drives it into Anacondra. Anacondra tries to use absorb elements, but it does nothing as Vel’s icy magic forces through, and she then follows through with a second strike--shattering her bow into two pieces.
Seeing the ground seems to have Anacondra handled, Elissa goes to join up with Arthas to see to some of his injuries.
In desperation, Anacondra gets to her feet and strikes at Uther and Vel with her scimitar, but they both deflect the attacks aside.
She tries to get around Vel, but Uther strikes her again.
Zap cuts off Anacondra’s escape and lines up a shot.
He blasts Anacondra in the chest, and she takes one more step, and then collapses to the ground. Anacondra reaches toward the passage.
She slumps over, and the chamber goes silent.
There are labored clip-clops as Remnii approaches, still sopping wet and panting from the exertion.
As the group reconvened, they see a lantern coming to the entrance of the cave. It’s Makasa, who looks around at the bodies scattered around the chamber.
Makasa sees Zap and cocks her head to the side curiously. Zap cocks his head to the side as well. Vel looks down at Zap.
Remnii drains a bunch of water out of her hair and Vel just wordlessly reaches out a hand to use prestidigitation to dry her off. Remnii looks at her.
Elissa tells Makasa there are other druids knocked out in the other chambers, and Makasa says she’ll get a few of the others to take care of them.
Vel examines Anacondra and finds a druidic focus that is a large fang, but she doesn’t have any notes or anything. However, there are a few things of interest. Her armor seems to be made of scintillating serpent scales similar to the Child of Anancondra’s. In her quiver are 20 more arrows that have a serpent head on them, and on her wrist is a peculiar bracelet which seems to be made of brass. She seems to be at peace in death.
Vel sets her against the cave wall respectfully.
She picks up the bow and sighs in exasperation, realizing too late she could have likely used it had she not opted to break it. Zap notices and quickly patches up the bow.
Vel drinks a potion of healing that she had taken from the crate in the other room and she immediately starts to cough and sputters, black liquid seeping from her throat and onto the ground.
She continues to cough and recognizes the effects of a potion of poison, though she had been able to resist the worst effects of it. Until she had drank it, it looked, smelled, and tasted identical to a potion of healing, but the effects were clearly not that.
She pulls the second potion she had taken from the crate and breaks it on the ground so no one else would use it.
Remnii starts to offer to heal Vel, but Zap steps in and offers as well, stating that he still has ample resources. However, upon noting the indicators of a cure wound spell being cast by Captain Cluckers, Vel stops it.
Vel blinks, but then looks at Remnii to accept healing if she is willing and able to offer it.
Remnii smiles apologetically at Zap and then pumps a death coil into Vel. As the shadow magic seeps into the arcanist, light seeps back into Remnii and heals some of her wounds as well.
Zap sidles over to Uther and whispers quietly.
Uther gets a sad smile.
The group starts to head towards the east and they are confronted with another tunnel.
Zap and Vel get up on the walls and the others start to wade or swim. Tol’vas pokes his head into a hole that seems to lead back to the surface--and he sees natural sunlight filtering in from it.
They emerge from the other side of the tunnel and continue on. Tol’vas notices the river seems to have risen half a foot, and there may be tides surging through everything. Suddenly, an aggressive surge comes through. Vel tries to get out of the way but some splashes her. She hisses in pain as it eats at some of her flesh, but she manages to not entirely fall in.
Everyone manages to grab onto something, except Remnii, who gets carried away another 30 or 40 feet.
Then parts of the water starts to bubble up, and ooze-like monsters start to materialize on the surface--carried by the tide. The largest has parts of a night elven skeleton in it, and it bubbles up next to Remnii.
The first of the oozelings attacks Seria, but it fails to make contact. Another one starts to seep onto the wall and pursues Vel. It starts to wrap around her leg.
He swings his super-heated axe around, but the oozeling ducks and dodges around it.
He growls angrily, unable to land a hit. Another oozeling splurches at Remnii and wraps around her legs. An oozeling attacks Seria and seems to start drawing the moisture from her form. Seria snips at it and grabs it in her claws. She then stings it, and upon pumping the ooze full of poison, it melts off.
Another ooze crawls up onto Remnii and it starts to wrap itself around her body, leaving her struggling and stunned.
Tol’vas bites the nearest ooze, also pumping it full of poison.
Uther starts swimming and uses firebolt, scorching the ooze on Remnii. Vel draws her sword and tries to pry the ooze off her, dealing some damage before she blasts it with toll the dead and starts to run along the wall back towards Remnii.
Zap seems to be gauging how to get Remnii.
Zap heads toward Elissa instead. Meanwhile, Remnii is struggling to get herself righted in the water. The devouring ecotoplasm also goes at Remnii and starts to hit her with its pseudopod, dropping her unconscious. Another oozeling attaches to Arthas, and yet another attaches to Uther while a third starts to splurch onto Zap.
Elissa casts king’s castle and switches places with Remnii in a surge of magic.
He uses his readied action to use cure wounds on Remnii just after an oozeling starts to try and absorb her. However another oozeling attaches to Zap. Seria starts to rip into another oozeling, and Tol’vas continues to try and strike at the oozeling he was occupied with.
Uther destroys one oozeling and then rounds on a second one with another solid hit. The oozelings continue to slurp around their targets, trying to absorb moisture from their bodies.
Remnii uses spirit guardians, and spectral nauru start to rotate around her.
Zap suddenly has a flashback to where he was adventuring with the party in the past, and he recalls dust of disappearance that they had found. Unfortunately, he recalls they found out it was actually dust of sneezing and choking instead of dust of dryness like he originally considered. Thus, much less useful.
Instead, he tries to pull an ooze off Remnii, letting his weapons float, and he manages to get both of them. They detach with a popping sound. Remnii shivers.
Nutters tries to beam the oozeling off Zap, and Zap also heals Remnii a bit.
Arthas swings at an oozeling, and Vel manages to obliterate the oozeling on her with toll the dead. She starts to move to help Elissa.
One of the oozes that Zap is grappling splurches and tries to attack, but fails. Arthas kills an ooze and then moves over to start going for the others near Remnii.
Remnii’s spirit guardians incinerate an ooze. Seria claws and stings the ooze on Uther, and it melts. Elissa swings twice at the ectoplasm, then disappears with a misty step and starts to swim.
Zap drops the ooze he’s carrying and shoots it twice.
The ectoplasm tries to follow them, but it’s very slow.
Tol’vas bites into another ooze and pumps it full of venom. He then starts to swim, and the combination of poison and spirit guardians kills the rest of the oozelings. They leave the devouring ecotoplasm far behind.
The water starts to slow, and they are able to get out of the main stream as the water flows mostly to the left. Beyond a large stone is a chamber filled with sunlight. The water becomes as shallow as 1 foot, and as Vel passes by, she casts prestidigitation to dry her off as Zap has Nutters activate hair dryer mode.
He strokes his beard.
Remnii and Tol’vas have a moment as the snake whips around to look at the dwarf in exasperation. Up ahead, Vel sees a massive turtle moving around some sort of nest in the sun.
Remnii groans quietly.
The turtle doesn’t seem to have noticed them, but there is a half-eaten corpse with the turtle that has a long, sinuous neck and a bulky body. Tol’vas gestures with his snake head up toward the bridge they passed under.
They head up, and Zap notices the bridge is very, very fragile, and likely shouldn’t be passed by more than one person at a time. To the north, the cavern turns and winds into darkness. They carefully cross to the southern side and peer into the cavern. They can see miraculous amounts of colors. There are dozens of mushrooms of every color that are glowing and dimming. There is a large amount of water that can be heard running.
None of the mushrooms seem to be anywhere near the light. Fortunately, upon closer inspection, Vel and Zap both note that they would actually be safe to eat, though they aren’t totally sure what would happen.
Vel chuffs in amusement, and they return to the group to report. They opt to try and scale up the side to the bridge after Zap sets up a rope they can use. Tol’vas gets almost to the top but then slips and falls. Zap casts feather fall, and Tol’vas lands safely. Tol’vas tries again, but once more he falls. Zap casts feather fall again. This time Elissa is cheering him on, and Tol’vas is able to get up to the top.
Zap beams at Tol’vas as he reaches the top.
Tol’vas just looks at Zap blankly.
Zap uses catnap to let some of the group take a short rest and Vel ritual casts telepathic bond again. Captain Cluckers and Colonel Nutters get some rainsticks out and do some ASMR. Tol’vas switches his form into a dire wolf. They then start heading towards the north. A degree of anxiety hits the group as they enter some winding chasms. Arthas extinguishes his axe.
Up ahead, they can hear stagnant water, and also more bioluminescence glimmering and dimming up ahead. More natural light comes to the west, as well as some sounds of battle and voices in darnassian.
Tol’vas runs ahead, and to the left he immediately sees the sunlit room. There is a group of night elves around a small camp. There are a few sentinels with paint on their eyes and arms. They seem to be practicing with a few druids--sparring against skeletons. Vel’s tattoo had also started to glow.
As Tol’vas rounds the corner, he sees a sentinel captain, which also sees him, and shouts to the rest of her group.
She promptly starts to cast faerie fire, and motes of light and energy float around Tol’vas and Zap. She then takes up her bow in preparation to strike.
A deviate sentinel shoots at Tol’vas twice with her longbow, and one of the arrows connects.
Seria scuttles to the front of the group and Tol’vas ducks down behind some low rocks as he roars.
A nightmare skeleton starts to close, brandishing a broken moonglaive. A bright red energy is coursing through his body, and he holds his hand out. Red energy courses around its head and thorns fire off at Tol’vas. An aura pulses around him, creating an uncomfortable aura of shadows.
A deviate cobra slithers forward, and they can hear the sound of heavy footfalls. A massive skeleton the size of a tauren starts moving through the bioluminescent algae--holding the remains of a massive druidic totem.
Elissa dashes to engage with the elven skeleton and the cobra.
Vel steps forward and uses sapping sting, dropping the nightmare skeleton to the ground as she draws her sword, and then backs off to clear the way. Arthas runs by her and swings twice into skeleton, and neither the slashing or fire damage strikes as true as one would like.
More sentinels close, as does an undead raptor. The raptor leaps at Elissa, but she blocks it with her shield.
Zap runs up behind Arthas and draws his javelin, which starts to spark as he hits a switch. It then starts to whir as bolt of electricity fires between Arthas’s knees when he throws his javelin, bursting through the skeletons, sentinels, and the druid before it explodes in an arc of electricity by the druid of the fang. He follows up with a blast from his gun, and the sentinel drops to the ground as a bullet wound opens in her chest.
Colonel Nutters, meanwhile, goes to set up a defense perimeter against the cavern with the bioluminescent algae.
Another sentinel fires off at Tol’vas, but the arrows clink harmlessly off the rock he’s hiding behind. Uther closes with the nightmare skeleton. It explodes in a blast of radiant energy, as does the ravager skeleton. A coronet of radiant energy appears above his head.
The other nightmare skeleton launches a series of darts at Uther, but Uther blocks it with the shield spell.
A sentinel shoots at Uther twice, but both attacks miss, as does the attacks of another undead ravager.
A druid of the fang holds out his hand and black vines erupt beneath the group. Only Seria is restrained by the vines.
Remnii casts spirit guardians as she joins the group behind Colonel Nutters.
Arthas runs up next to Uther.
He rounds on the deviate cobra and cleaves through it, cutting into the ravager skeleton and collapsing it into dust.
Uther holds up his gauntleted fist.
Arthas flashes a wild smile at Uther as he continues on to attack the deviate sentinel captain. He clips her with a strike.
A sentinel shoots Arthas twice and then backs up. The herald of the fang also runs at Arthas, slashing at him with an inky black ichor--but Arthas resists the effect.
Tol’vas rips into a deviate cobra and swallows it.
A sentinel fires at Remnii, as does a second one, but she maintains concentration.
Zap returns to support Remnii and fires off at a deviate sentinel, striking twice. She drops to the ground, dead. Colonel Nutters continues holding the line. Elissa strikes at the sentinel captain.
One of the sentinels shoots at Remnii again, but they redirect to Zap.
She shoots again, and once more it clinks harmlessly off Zap. The sentinel is clearly confused. The ravager skeleton runs straight into Remnii’s spirit guardians and holy damage courses through it. It tries to bite Nutters
The nightmare skeleton attacks Tol’vas, and the shadows around him dig into his body--knocking him out of his dire wolf form. However, he rolls out of the way of the skeleton’s second strike.
Remnii uses mind sliver on one of the sentinels, leaving her stunned as she clasps her hands to her ears and starts to scream. Stones and pebbles rise around her. A sentinel shoots twice at Elissa, but both blows miss.
Seria moves beside Remnii, clicking her pincers ominously. The tauren skeleton charges right at Zap, getting blasted with the spirit guardians as it tries to gore Zap--but Nutters interferes.
The sentinel captain strikes once at Elissa and once at Arthas, landing a hit on each of them
Vel runs along the wall and tries to sapping sting the sentinel captain, but she is able to resist. Instead, Vel drops her sword briefly and pulls out the bow, firing one of the magical arrows she had taken. It cuts into the druid of the fang, inflicting him with some poison damage. One of the sentinels, now seeing Vel, snipes at her, but she blocks the arrows with her shield spell.
Uther doubles back to destroy the ravager skeleton and then close on the tauren skeleton, striking with a powerful hit.
They then hear a roar, and far beyond the stagnant water, they can see a silhouette. A biolumenescent glow covers the back of a thunder lizard, and on top of the creature is a man with long, dark green hair. He has two battle axes which are immaculately made, but thorns have wrapped around their hilts and all the way up his arms to dig into his bare flesh.
He brandishes his weapons and charges for them.
His body is covered in blood, clearly a bit wounded. There is a silhouette of another figure behind him with two, curving horns that is whispering in darnassian and encouraging the man forward.
