[Alliance] Chapter Four: Session Two

Appearing Characters: Anice Erona, Aramar Thorne, Dabu, Deremos, Elissa Cross, Gotri, Kilnar Goldensword, Makasa Flintwill, Ox, Rai, Remnii, Riff, Samaara, Seria, Tae'shara Sunwatcher, Telagos, Tol'vas Moonshadow, Thrud, Trenton Lighthammer, Uther Menethil, Velameestra Windrunner, Zug

May 22nd

The group gathers in the Reliquary’s base of operations and are given a room for meeting purposes.

Remnii explains the situation at the Wavestrider, including the name of the “Hidden” and the fact there were arakkoa there and fel magics at work.

Tol’vas looks at Remnii expectantly.

He gives a general overview of the demigod. He’s never met Cenarius personally, though he saw him during the War of the Ancients. He is one of the most powerful ancients in the kaldorei pantheon, and supposedly he is the child of Elune and Malorne. He also gifted Malfurion with the teachings of druidism, and he was the source of that. However, he has no idea where Cenarius could be found. As the Lord of the Forests, he takes home in all of the forest, but a potential place to start would be the Moonglade. If he wasn’t there, perhaps someone there would know where he was. However, that would be dangerous territory.

There is a soft knock on the door.

She enters.

She leaves, and a few moments later Thrud enters, ducking into the doorway. She nearly strikes her head on one of the lights and she raises a brow, glancing at the light, before nodding to the group.

She looks to Uther.

She reaches into a large pouch and withdraws a fist-sized coal that seems to glow within with a rune on it.

She stashes the rune away again.

Remnii’s eyebrows raise.

Thrud nods and then turns to duck back through the doors. She mutters something in a language no one understands, but Riff snickers.

Uther raises an eyebrow.

Vel gets a sense that the language may have been similar to what she was interfacing with in the Tower of Ilgalar.

Vel is able to piece together a couple things as she had seen a similar giant woman speaking with Northrend, and she also recalled hearing of the ancient tomb Gil had unearthed when he was traveling with Northrend. She gets the sense that perhaps Thrud may be one of those peoples--some sort of ancient giant race.

Everyone starts to disperse, and Vel requests Uther and Remnii to keep their dreams open as she wishes to speak to them later, and then grabs Seria as she is also heading off.

Vel explained that she’s familiar with magic that is capable of changing someone’s form permanently, and she had noted that Seria had expressed dissatisfaction with her status as a half-troll and a desire to be a full troll instead. Given Gadgetzan was somewhere she could access the regents easily, Vel stated she wished to ask if that was something Seria would want to pursue so that the regents could be purchased before they departed.

Seria was stunned by the topic, and stated that there was no need for Vel to waste her time on such a thing.

To which Vel responded that allies were supposed to aid each other, and that if such magics were beyond what Seria herself could do, she was willing to research the spell needed.

After another bead of silence, Seria expressed that though she had her misgivings about what she was, she felt her mother would come back to haunt her if she changed--and she didn’t have time to learn to walk on troll feet.

There was another awkward pause between the pair before Vel opted to take her leave.

Meanwhile, Tol’vas. Elissa, and Remnii went to go hunt down the white tauren they had seen around Gadgetzan. They see him near a forge, hammering away at the anvil with an elf also working nearby.

They approach the forge, and the tauren looks up.

The tauren chuffs.

She smiles pleasantly.

The tauren stops with a final pound and wipes the sweat from his brow as he looks over to the elf.

The tauren quenches the metal in a bucket of water and lumbers over to Remnii and her small group, and then moves an anvil over to sit on it. He gulps down a mug of water and then puts his hands on his knees.

The tauren chuffs.

The tauren nods and crosses his arms.

He pats his legs.

The tauren snorts.

He stands up.

When they arrive at the diner in question, Remnii recognizes flapjacks as pancakes, and Ox looks at her.

Vel is able to find Anice at the Reliquary headquarters, and as she enters, she finds the mage in the process of educating the two skarvyn that were frequently in her company. At present, they were sitting at a table with blocks in various shapes and seemed to have been tasked with fitting them in the proper boxes. The larger one, Dabu, seemed to be having more trouble with the activity than his smaller comrade, Zug, who has seemingly mastered the skill.

She stops as she notices Vel.

She gestures absently to the heavily shaded windows in the room.

Her eyes shift over to Zug and Dabu and she switches to draconic.

Both of the skarvyn look up at her. Zug waves.

Vel offers a small smile.

Dabu looks at Vel and then over to Anice, who had been listening to the conversation. She nods, giving him a quiet assurance.

Vel straightens slightly as she starts to work the incantation of the magic, the arcane energy illuminating the tattoos on her arm. As she does, the atmosphere in the room almost seems to darken faintly, as if a faint shadow had been drawn into it and localized on the pair of skarvyn in front of her.

Anice cups her chin in her hand.

She walks over to one of the curtains and then also shifts to draconic, though her speech in the language is a bit more stiff, as if it was fairly recently learned. The pair of skarvyn look at her.

The pair continues to look at her, clearly confused as to why she would do such a thing. However, they nod, and Anice draws the curtain back. Immediately the pair of them instinctively cover their eyes, but then they blink.

The skarvyn blink again, and both stand up and run to the window to look out. They blink again and look at each other, and then back to Vel.

Dabu claps his large draconic hands together and looks at Anice.

She looks at Vel, a mixture of shock, appreciation, and astonishment on her face.

Vel fishes in her bag and produces the pristinely scribed notes, which Anice takes.

The two skarvyn had started to head for the door, but Dabu stops and approaches Vel and pulls her into a huge.

Vel pats his chest awkwardly as Dabu hugs her, the skarvyn much bigger and broader than herself.

Zug inches a bit closer as Dabu releases the elf, his eyes looking at the ground as he speaks in broken common.

The skarvyn gets a small smile, looking up at Vel, before he and Dabu scamper out through the door. Anice thanks her once more as well.

Anice smiles and then hurried off to supervise the two skarvyn.

Vel remains in the room for a moment, releasing a breath as she fixes her coat and recomposes herself, before heading out herself to rest before the start of their journey that night.

But there was one last thing to do, and as she settled into the room that had been offered her during her stay in Gadgetzan, she cast dream in order to reach out to Remnii and Uther for the much heavier conversation that she had asked them to leave their dreams open for.

As the dream materializes, she steps into the increasingly familiar, snowy landscape that she had started to use as her dreamscape. The trees stood barren and peaceful around the open grove, the lights of the mana wyrms twisting around their trunks and through their branches clearly visible in the dim light cast by the aurora borealis overhead. It's not cold, however. It's surprisingly temperate and her feet do not sink into the snow.

She had created a bench that seemed to have been molded from the drunk of a tree, which was where she was sitting as Uther and Remnii materialized in the dream after they had fallen asleep.

She stands up from the bench.

Remnii smiles gently and she and Uther sit on the winding bench.

The elf struggles over her words for a moment.

Remnii’s gentle smile instantly vanishes, and Uther’s brow furrows.

Remnii nods, direly serious.

As Remnii is speaking, Vel makes a gesture with her hand, and a replica of Frostmourne appears in the dreamscape, hovering before the three of them. Remnii frowns and nods at the image.

Remnii frowns again in consideration.

She looks back at Vel.

Uther also looks at Vel.

Remnii is nodding as Uther speaks.

Uther opens his mouth, then closes it, and lowers his eyes with a slight shake of his head.

Remnii looks concerned, but pensive.

Vel offers a faint, but grateful smile.

Uther looks perplexed for a moment, but the lightbulb almost seems to visually go off in his head.

Remnii’s eyes cross for a moment.

Remnii holds up a hand, referencing the sylvari in the Shadowlands that had been eager to drain Uther dry.

Vel looks to Remnii.

Remnii’s eyebrows raise.

Remnii blinks.

She beams, and then starts to think.

The draenei nods.

Remnii smiles sympathetically.

Vel then stands up again.

Remnii smiles.

Vel starts to let the dream fade, and the sky starts to darken, and the trees fade from the outside in as the mage turns away from the pair on the bench. Uther takes a moment to truly take in the dreamscape Vel had created before it fully dissipates.

Vel offers him a small, melancholic smile over her shoulder before the dream fades entirely

Seria also dreams Rai to ask for an update, and he’s pretty sure he may be able to set up a meeting between Seria and War Druid Loti, but he needs time to coordinate that more so. Riff had also told him all about the Death Adders.

However, Rai asks Seria why she wants go to Zandalar, and she’s unsure, but it’s something she feels like she needs to do. In addition, Rai was able to confirm that there are other druids on Zandalar.

Evening May 22nd

The group meets on the outskirts of the city at the northern gate, which is dimly lit by the gas lamps. Kilnar, Telagos, and some of the Ati-Kaso are also there to see them off.

Aramar has spoken to Telagos about the Hidden, and he said he would look into it.

Tae’shara and Vel start the process of conjuring the phantom steeds, and Tae’shara, upon seeing Vel’s, is vaguely jealous.

She tries different forms and manages a kind of derpy hawkstrider and an unnervingly beautiful horse. Uther and Elissa also summon Radiant and Daisy.

She gestures to her sending stone, and Kilnar smiles and nods.

Remnii says goodbye to Gotri and they tell each other to be safe.

He ruffles Remnii’s hair, and she laughs, fixing her hair. He then looks to Samaara.

Remnii and Deremos hug.

He flips his unactivated sword.

He pats Aramar on the shoulder, and the group mounts up and starts heading off into the desert. They hardly have an accurate map of where they are going, but Aramar is something of a cartographer, so he will be making a map as they go. It’s surprisingly chilly in comparison to the heat of the day, but they were fortunately able to prepare.

May 23rd - May 24th

The first evenings of travel are beautiful. On the night of the 24th, the desert starts to transition into a very different place.The sand dunes are replaced with a flat plain of salt, and the moonlight glitters on it. It’s almost haunting, as it resembles a tundra stretching as far as they can see in any direction.

Aramar approaches Uther.

He activates the blade.

Uther looks up at the moons and gestures vaguely to the northeast.

As they look over, they see Elissa trying to coax her animal, as Daisy has stopped to lick salt off the ground. The half-elf is laughing between words.

They stop, and Tae’shara looks cautiously down at the salt, picks it up, then stares at it for a long moment before she licks it. She then starts coughing.

She grabs her waterskin.

As Tol’vas looks up, and he notes the Pale Lady is waxing. There’s probably about a week until it’s a full moon. Approximately the 28th will be a full moon.

As they travel on the second day, they note something glittering in the distance about six hours into their travels. It appears to be a small lake in the midst of the Shimmering Flats. As they approach the lake, they also see old structures. They are nothing significant, but there is a strange, old, wooden, wind-battered device that seems to be constructed into the salty sand next to the lake. The stone base is solid, but the high covering has been torn into. It looks like an old, ancient abandoned camp.

Tol’vas starts to investigate, and he notes the architecture seems to be Tauren. There seems to be an old, toppled totem that has been covered by sand and salt. He is on the lookout for anything that is hiding, and initially, he doesn’t see any sorts of threats. But the sand seems to have been disturbed, and the ground is broken in ways that seems to indicate something had moved in the area recently.

He brushes the salt aside, and he finds deep divots in the sand. While he isn’t an expert on sand, it looks like something pretty big, and some smaller things, were here, and it looks like they moved northward in a similar direction. One of the wooden structures seems to have claw marks. There are easily over a dozen sets of tracks.

Tol’vas returns to the group.

Samaara looks to Tol’vas.

Tol’vas kneels down in the salt and he closes his eyes and starts to meditate as he uses commune with nature. He focuses on the tracks, and he feels himself moving through the earth as if he was one of these creatures. He gets the sense of what they’re dealing with. A precise name doesn’t come to him, but he sees a long creature with six legs, a long tail, and a crocodilian-like maw. They seem to be an offshoot of basilisk, and the smaller creatures seem to be accompanied by a much older matriarch.

He is also able to tell there is no freshwater within 3 miles. But then he gets a small blip indicating a very, very small source of fresh drinking water right next to him.

And as he spreads out his senses for other indicators of fellow travels, he is able to sense that there are no other travelers within 3 miles.

The fresh drinking water seemed to come from the dilapidated wooden structure nearby, which upon investigation, it seems to be a well. Tol’vas relays that info.

Vel suggests that they try to veer around the basilisks, especially if there is a matriarch among them and these basilisks have the same petrification abilities, it would be a concern. Remnii agreed.

Aramar looks at his notes and points out there seems to be a goblin attraction called the Mirage Raceway not far to the east.

Remnii thinks for a moment.

There are unanimous shrugs.

Elissa’s eyes sparkle a bit.

Tol’vas, Samaara, and Seria start to plot a course to the northwest, and they notice something interesting. Some of the patterns spiral in and back and around, and it takes them a moment to realize what’s happening. It seems the creatures seem to be setting false tracks. In the northwest direction, they could see massive skeletons, which seems to be where the true tracks were leading.

The group skirts around the skeleton and continues northward. However, it may not be safe to camp. Thus, they continue for an additional hour. The temperature is now starting to rise, and they opt to bed down for the time being. Vel creates a tiny hut that can encompass all of them.

As the group rests during the hottest part of the day, the watches come and go. On the last watch, Vel pokes her head out to keep an eye on the area, and she sees some shapes moving in the sand. There’s just a bit of movement on the opposite side of the dome.

Moving toward them, there seems to be the very edge of something large rustling the sand and moving directly toward them.

They quickly wake the group, and there seems to be a lot of movement around them.

Uther goes to move outside the dome.

Tol’vas uses summon beast to conjure a gazelle-like creature, and then sends it off. Two of the figures immediately pursue the creature, but as they watch, the sand breaks, and two of the large beasts leap from the sand, one redirecting the gazelle into the path of his fellow.

At that moment, many other creatures rise from the sand, and several go under the dome and start to press against the tiny hut.

The party works on contending with the large creature while the rest of their companions start to run off on distraction duty. Then the dome starts to collapse.

Tol’vas casts spike growth, and spikes of rocks erupt from the sand outside the dome. He then places a bear totem in the midst of them. It releases an echoing roar, and everyone feels emboldened.

Elissa turns back to the group as she starts to run.

She casts bless on the group before running.

Seria casts thorns, and then turns into a giant constrictor snake. The tiny hut shatters and collapses as Seria roils out to lunge at one of the dunalisks.

Uther uses his channel divinity in preparation for the emergence of the large matriarch that had burrowed beneath the former tiny hut. Vel follows suit after Uther, drawing her blade and triggering her bladesong as she starts to chant an incantation, readying slow in anticipation of the large creature’s appearance.

One of the smaller dunalisk jumps from the sand and exhales a superheated, arid breath at Remnii and several of the others. However, they are able to largely shake off the damage. Another dunalisk emerges right in the midst of the spike growth, and it hisses furiously, but attacks Seria.

But then the matriarch emerges right beneath Remnii as she staggers back. Spines burst from the sand, but Vel releases her spell. She pushes the spell, ensuring the spectral chains wrap around the matriarch and two of the smaller ones, slowing their movements.

It snaps its spines together but Tol’vas and Remnii are both able to dodge out of the way of the apparent trap. The creature’s entire body is covered in similar bony spikes, its tail ending in a clubbed tail.

One of the smaller dunalisks continues to rake at Seria with claws and fang, and she senses that there is some sort of venom in its fangs. She is able to shake off the bite, however, as the duo of dunalisks try to gang up on her.

Remnii uses guardian of faith, and a large spectral naaru appears along with the bear totem, a protector for those beneath its swirling form. One of the smaller dunalisks tries to chase after Remnii as she darts to the safety of the naaru, but as it does it gets blasted with holy energy. It hisses angrily, and snaps at Remnii, but she narrowly evades.

One of the slowed smaller dunalisks manages to break free of the spell with a triumphant hiss.

The group then hears a screeching sound from up above, and a massive creature with huge spiraling horns and large wings comes soaring down. It has the face of a saber-toothed tiger with a scar over one of its eyes. Its scorpion-like tail lashes forward, and it engages with one of the smaller dunalisks--wrestling it to the ground. They struggle for a moment, rolling around on the ground, but then the creature spreads its wings and takes off with the dunalisk.

Remnii’s cheek is splashed with blood.

Rem: ...oh. Oh dear.

She summons a spiritual weapon, which she tries to bash into one of the dunalisks. It connects with the creature’s skull.

Tol’vas uses conjure fey, and as he does he reaches his hands out to the rocks he had summoned with spike growth. As his concentration wavers on the prior spell, the rocks weave and coalesce into the form of a massive moth with an easily 12 foot wingspan. There seems to be a degree of sentience in its eyes, and with an intrinsic understanding, it looks at Tol’vas.

The moth almost seems to nod before it takes off further into the air. Tol’vas then moves away, evading a strike by one of the dunalisks.

The dunalisks that are on Seria continue to beat into her. This time, one of the bites connects and is able to pump venom into her veins, causing her to become sluggish and slow. The dunalisk tries to grapple her, continuing to rake at her snake body with its claws.

Another of the dunalisks exhales its arid breath on the party.

The matriarch cranes its neck at Remnii and snaps at her, but once more, the priestess is able to dodge out of the way.

Meanwhile, Seria is still wrestling with the dunalisks that are on her. Her body starts to seize up as she becomes paralyzed. The continued attacks blow her out of her form, and they converge on her now much smaller form.

The moth Tol’vas summoned beats its wings and sparkles appear across the sky. The sound of cicadas fill the air, and they immediately converge on two of the dunalisks. One of the other dunalisks strikes at the moth as it leaves.

Vel flips her sword around hold out a hand, and a blast of whirling, freezing air and ice surges through the locusts and hits the dunalisks inside as she uses cone of cold.

Uther follows up on the matriarch with a smite. The matriarch screeches in pain, not quite ready to retreat, but looking like it may keep that in its mind as a possibility.

This page was last edited on March 04, 2021, at 05:44 PM

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