[Horde] Chapter Three: Session Eleven
Appearing Characters: Arthak Saurfang, Azgadaan, Halno, Karim, Levia Blackflight, Nyxxa, Sadras, Samaara, Watcher
Appearing Creatures: Arcane Wraith, Book Mimic, Dreadsteed, Ethereal, Kyrian, Mana Surge Wyrm, Pale Orc, Paper Golem
Appearing Locations: Falthrien Academy
December 4th
The party has found themselves in the entrance hall to Falthrien Academy, and they head up into what is called the Hall of Fame. Some of the walls are damaged from the explosion, and stone work is broken from the sides, some stones twisting perpetually in the air.
They see broken glass broken outwards, and there are grand trophy cases along the left side of the hall. There are many banners of prominent high elven houses.
To the right, there is a hallway that leads to the Repository of Knowledge, which is a general archive of textbooks and spellcraft. To the left is another hallway that leads to a number of stadiums where many magical sports were once played. To the top left is a number of areas that leads to the auditorium. Forward are two ways: the main route leads to a number of causeways that goes to the living quarters, which also has another small chamber that is the Chamber of Transposition which should be an orb of translocation that can be used to teleport to the other various satellites. However, its status is unknown. There are three exits that lead to various causeways as well.
Halno only gave information relevant to stuff he was interested in as the group took a short rest. Azgadaan asked where the other routes go, and Halno just said that he didn’t know. Which is a lie. But Azgadaan doesn’t pick up on that.
He casts a high level false life, and he feels the corruption surge, but nothing notable happens.
Azgadaan asks if Levia knows anything about the building, and Levia shakes her head. She had never been there before.
Samaara quietly moves up next to Nyxxa and whispers in her ear.
Nyxxa makes a noise to herself and looks around, but she doesn’t sense anything.
Nyxxa uses see invisibility and looks around. Fading into view, she sees a humanoid figure that wasn’t there before. The entity is garbed in a dark red cowl that obscures the majority of their face. They are watching the group curiously, sitting atop some of the floating stones from the wreckage of the place. Their feet are wrapped in bandages, and they are kicking lazily in the air. The cloak and cowl only covers their head and face--this figure has ornate, beautiful armor that are interwoven by beautiful white bandages that cover any flesh. However, the midriff of the figure is exposed, revealing magic that swirls like moving starlight.
The strange woman’s voice can be heard by the entire party. However, she isn’t speaking. She’s speaking telepathically.
The woman glides down, and a few feet above the ground, she lifts her invisibility magic.
He nods at Halno.
Halno does an excited hand clap.
Arthak looks to the rest of the party for nonverbal confirmation of thoughts.
She pulls the hood down, and there is an intricate golden circulate around her bandaged face. There is no flesh, again, simply being a faceless form of dark, starry energy.
The ethereal leans in close to take a better look.
She then rolls her cloak behind her, and she delicately unravels the bandages around her finger. As Halno watches, the energy begins to disperse and become less concrete. As she unravels her entire hand, the inky, black shadow begins to dissociate as a hand--becoming a coalesced amount of shadow. The bandages float for a moment before she waves her other hand and it takes the form of a wrapped hand again.
He looks at Arthak.
She tosses the talisman to Arthak.
The woman chuckles.
She then bows, and swirls her cloak. As she does, her body disappears. Nyxxa still sees her, but she simply walks away, finding a vantage point to watch them curiously. Nyxxa has a feeling she might have been smiling if she had the capacity to do so.
Halno is much too happy to be here.
Halno stops.
Sadras starts laughing.
Samaara smirks.
As they head in, they see one of the arcane wraiths pass through a wall and keep moving through the other side of the wall. None of them seem to take a direct interest immediately. They also see one of the strange mana wyrms. It is much larger, and its body is a translucent arcane violet color. One is curled between the wreckage, nestled in dark energy and some sort of arcane dust and pulsing contentedly. It’s easily seven or eight feet long, thrice the width of a normal mana wyrm, and its tendrils twitch as it consumes arcane energy.
As they pass by, they are careful to not disturb the resting creature. However, Nyxxa sees eight sets of eyes open as the group pass. It doesn’t move its head, but its tendrils search the area.
The group alights some non-magical torches. The fire almost cuts through the non-magical haze, and occasionally, they see some non-magical lightning pass through the walls.
They arrive in the archives, and Halno recalls his latent memories that seem a bit stronger than they were before. However, it’s a bit different. Some of the book shelves and books are just… floating suspended by magic.
Halno whistles.
Arthak sighs and lights a cigarette off his torch.
A spellbook flies past their faces as they talk. More arcane wraiths are visible drifting through books and bookshelves alike.
Sadras’s nose wrinkles at the cigarette. Halno taps her on the shoulder.
He gestures at the library.
Azgadaan turns his weapon into a net and attempts to net some books.
Azgadaan throws his net, and he manages to net a singular book. It’s a book on the basic magic rituals in everyday life, which Azgadaan opts to keep.
As they look around, Arthak happens to grab a book with a sword on it, and they also note a book that has another book crushed into it. However, Nyxxa also sees another one of the giant mana wyrms snaking around, and she tries to hop up on the bookshelves to take stock of the area and get a better look at the strange book. One of the bookshelves gets tilted and several books fall off, along with the strange book.
Nyxxa grabs it before it falls.
However, she realizes she can’t drop it. And then suddenly, it opens up, and the book inside drops out, and the bigger book slams down on her hand. There’s a burn that begins to wash over her hand, along with what feels like the worse papercut she had ever received.
Piercing through the pages are sharp teeth that drip with an acidic ink.
Nyxxa jumps off the bookshelf and uses her monk slow fall to try and land on the book. However, upon realizing she can’t flip her body weight on it, she chooses not to use slow fall and instead slam the book into the ground.
Arthak moves in to try and slash at the book. With a surprising amount of precision, he brings the sword down on the mimic.
Nyxxa also punches the book, cursing, and it releases her. It starts to snap, looking around for another target, but Sadras then follows up and tries to smash it with her club. The book mimic sees Halno, and hops closer to him before leaping at him.
He says, as it gnaws on his arm. Nyxxa slices at it.
Levia’s eyes go black, and she speaks some words in eredun as she uses toll the dead. However, the book does not seem to notice as it happily chomps on Halno’s arm.
Azgadaan changes his pact weapon into a glaive. Azgadaan slashes the book mimic and bisects its spine. It falls limp to the ground and starts to dissolve.
They are able to get four vials of adhesive from the corpse of the book’s ink. The pages of the book have a weird texture. It has a give, like jerky or meat. They may be… edible. Azgadaan keeps them. It’s a about 6 days worth of rations.
Nyxxa holds up her hand, which is a bit scuffed up. Levia heals it for her, and Nyxxa thanks her.
Azgadaan grabs the books that fell, including the one that was inside the mimic, as they leave to head over the causeway. They come to a large chasm, and Halno blinks across, and Azgadaan tosses an end of some rope to him. Arthak also jumps over to secure that end.
Everyone else starts using the rope to jump across. Nyxxa’s eyes move to the skies, and they hear a hissing noise. One of the large mana wyrms flies through the air after an arcane wraith. It clamps down on it, and the wraith disappears in a shower of arcane dust. It seems to be heading in their direction, and its body starts to elongate as the arcane energy washes through it.
As Sadras and Azgadaan get ready to jump, two more mana wyrms crash through the causeway, fighting over another large arcane wraith and widening the chasm. The rope gets caught up in the fighting mana wyrms, and both Azgadaan and Arthak hold on to it.
One of the smaller mana surge wyrms darts for Levia, but she is able to shove it off with her shield. The other smaller one also turns downward to slither to the group.
Samaara shoots at the mana surge wyrm that attacked Levia, and the arrow seems to sink through the mana wyrm, but then it falls out, as if the creature is resistant.
One of the larger mana wyrms tries to shoot upward with the rope, and it drags Arthak along. Azgadaan is also dragged, but he releases the rope to try and keep from tumbling off the ledge. He manages to do so, narrowly.
Arthak, however, is about 60 feet above the chasm, and the arcane wraith the wyrms are fighting is obliterated as the two mana surge wyrms split directions.
Arthak scrambles up the rope.
Halno uses chill touch on the nearby mana surge wyrm, and Levia blasts the one near her with inflict wounds. However, it’s still writhing and snapping at her.
As Halno uses chill touch, the hand disappears, and tears a hole in reality. Then it tears another hole in reality, influenced by the effects of the unstable magic. There’s suddenly a blazing trail of fire, and a flaming horse erupts from the rift that Halno opened. It is running through the air.
A dreadsteed manifests, racing around the battlefield. A lightly armored hand, with blue flesh, also tears through the other portal directly before himself. It has beautiful, white feathery wings, and it points at the dreadsteed, calling out in a language he never heard before.
However, they can understand it.
The angelic creature soars through the air, and it drops the shortsword. It appears at its hip, and a lute manifests. It strokes a hand across the lute, and there is a discordant refrain as it plays some heartbreaking music. Azgadaan seems unphased, but the others stagger a bit from the sound.
As Halno feels this, he feels his body freeze up, and become hard to move. Then suddenly everything goes black. He can still feel everything happen, but his perspective shifts… like its coming from where his scepter is held.
The dreadsteed rides around and charges toward the angelic creature to try and stomp it out of the sky. The angelic creature recoils with a swipe of her shortsword.
Arthak is already long gone.
Sadras halts, nodding.
Nyxxa whirls around on the mana surge wyrm attacking Levia, and there is a small arcane backlash. It seems to be gushing pure magic. She then whirls around again, slashing once more, and then a third time, forcing it back from Levia.
The other huge mana surge wyrm charges in to try and attack Arthak, but its snap misses.
Azgadaan tries to polymorph Sadras and Arthak into drakon. Arthak doesn’t transform, as he resists the spell, but Sadras does. She transforms into a giant… winged snake of some kind.
Sadras looks around, confused, and Azgadaan gets up on Sadras’s back.
The mana surge wyrms continue to fight over Arthak, and the second one connects, wrapping its body around him. Arthak hangs onto the rope, but it snaps as he is now grappled by the other wyrm.
The critically wounded mana wyrm strikes at Nyxxa, and it laches to her arm. It begins to grow.
The mana surge wyrms overhead continue to fight over Arthak, aka their meal. Arthak’s body surges with arcane energy, and the mana surge wyrm’s body grows to a gargantuan size. It successfully tears him away from the smaller wyrm, but then its body immediately starts to rupture.
It then explodes in a torrent of arcane energy, blasting both Arthak and the other mana surge wyrm. Arthak goes flying, hanging onto consciousness and starting to plummet just in time for the other mana surge wyrm to also swell in size.
Arthak tries to grapple onto the volatile mana surge wyrm, hanging onto it at the last second.
Sadras, as a flying snake, darts up and tries to catch Arthak. Azgadaan helps ease Arthak onto Sadras’s back, and she then flees with them on her back.
Samaara fires at one of the smaller mana wyrms, but it misses, and Nyxxa also swings around at the one she is fighting. Two of her strikes miss, but the third one connections. However, it is still hanging on. She strikes again, but there’s another miss as it wildly squirms around.
One of the remaining mana surge wyrms strikes at Halno, and he sees himself shove the creature aside.
Levia casts beacon of hope as she notes Nyxxa get hurt.
The angelic creature and dreadsteed continue to duel.
Arthak uses second wind, and Azgadaan turns his weapon into a lance and holds his action to attack anything that comes close.
Halno watches as his body moves of its own volition. Halno is shouting from in his scepter to shoot the mana wyrm. His body steps back, and the mana surge wyrm strikes at him, connecting. Mana seeps from the wound, but there’s a wave and an incantation in Thalassian. A shimmering field of energy erupts around him, repelling everyone else out of it. It’s globe of invulnerability--a 6th tier spell that Halno himself does not have access to.
The body is looking around very confused. And there’s a muffled question of “where am I? What’s going on?” in Thalassian. He doesn’t seem to be able to hear Halno.
Samaara looks on, equally confused.
Levia heals Nyxxa with a sudden surge of healing energy and backs up Nyxxa. Nyxxa ends the mana surge wyrm, and its body breaks apart. It then explodes, and Nyxxa manages to duck out of the way and Levia blocks most of it with her shield.
Nyxxa then skirts around the globe of shimmering force to cut into the other mana wyrm.
Snake Sadras lands, and Azgadaan and Arthak both spill off her. Azgadaan stabs at the wyrm, but it goes wide.
Arthak holds his position and gets ready to dodge.
The angelic creature and dreadsteed continue to fight. The dreadsteed seems to be losing the battle, but neither seem to be looking too good.
The mana surge wyrm strikes at Nyxxa, and a surge of energy courses through her. She feels her eyesight fade, and she drops to the ground.
The gargantuan mana wyrm flies down at Halno and bites at him. As it bites into him, it continues to grow larger, and then it explodes.
The mana wyrm that had dropped Nyxxa absorbs the energy and grows to large size.
Halno sees arcane runes held in the air for a moment, and he pushes into the magic. Dispel magic is cast, attempting to dispel the magic that is causing the magic that is causing the mana surge wyrm to grow. Magic is torn from the wyrm, and it is now back to a small size.
All of a sudden, Halno is back in his body, and the magical effect is still around him, but he’s not concentrating on it.
The now small mana wyrm dashes down at Nyxxa, but she holds up her blade just enough to block it.
Sadras as a snake grapples the mana surge wyrm and drags it away, Azgadaan still on her back. The angelic creature and dreadsteed continue dogfighting in the background.
Azgadaan beats on the mana surge wyrm. He then quickens booming blade, and lands a third hit on it.
Samaara manages to get a hit on the mana surge wyrm, and it explodes.
Levia then runs to heal Nyxxa, and also uses spare the dying on Arthak.
After about 20 more seconds, the dreadsteed finally bests the angelic creature and slams it into the ground. The dreadsteed looks around, taking a special note of Azgadaan and the unconscious Nyxxa before it disappears.
His dispels the polymorph on Sadras while Levia is healing Arthak. Arthak grunts, and Sadras runs over to him.
Levia is also checking on Nyxxa.
Halno isn’t doing or saying much as they retreat into the Sanctum of Statics. It’s a large building, but it breaks off into the three major sections with a main atrium in the center.
Near the Hall of Divination, the ethereal materializes with a book in her hand.
They sort out watches. Azgadaan and Samaara take first watch. Sadras tries the book jerky. It’s quite tasteless.
During watch Azgadaan scans over the books he got. One is from a series called Precious Tables, which is a culinary book. It’s in common, and is quite extensive and specifically about goblin cuisine. Another book was about elvish clerics and was written by Vandellor. The next one was a book of prayers and rites for the dead, the next is the tale of the captain that discovered Quel’thalas. The next one is the Beast’s Memory, which is a traditional fairy tale about an ancient animal that supposedly had a perfect memory located somewhere in Quel’thalas. The next one is a book of information on Alterac. The last one is an ancient parody called The Ancient Darkling. The damaged book is Detestable Natives and Savagery which is an advice book with certain tactics to use against certain creatures. It’s quite extensively damaged.
Azgadaan goes through the burial rites book during their watch. However, as he’s reading it, two pages rip themselves free and start attacking him as they flutter in the air angrily.
Azgadaan sighs and attacks the paper golem. Samaara is looking on, somewhat cross-eyed for a moment. Everyone is woken up by the sound of it.
Azgadaan drops his glaive for a second, but then he swipes at them and they drop immediately. Everyone sighs and goes back to sleep. Azgadaan collects the pages and stashes them back in the book.
Nothing else of note happens on Azgadaan and Samaara’s watch. They then go to bed, and Arthak and Sadras wake to take the next watch.
Within what was referenced as the Hall of Divination, Arthak sees a bluish, violet flash. Sadras looks at Arthak, and he tells her to leave it be unless it proves it’s a threat.
Halno tosses an orc hand onto the ground, and it twitches, and then goes on its way. Halno then perceives the area around it as it tries to be discreet heading over.
As it creeps around the corner, a hand reaches down and grabs it. It’s another ethereal, but it looks different. The energy within them is much brighter, and the three individuals beyond the corner appear to be warriors.
It looks to the others, but Halno can’t hear anything they are saying. One draws a short sword.
Arthak grunts.
The one that grabbed the hand puts a hand up, and Halno has his hand wave. The one that isn’t carrying anything waves back, and the one with the shortsword elbows them in the side. The hand then does a thumbs up, and there appears to be some sort of laughter from the ethereals.
Halno doesn’t answer as he can’t hear her while perceiving through his familiar.
The one that’s holding the hand peeks out and looks at the group.
Arthak nods at it, and a voice appears in their heads.
The ethereal tosses it back, and the ethereal waves to them to come closer so they won’t wake their friends. Halno leaves his hand near Samaara before following Arthak and Sadras.
The other two ethereals aren’t particularly notable, but the one with a lance has bandages that extend down past his back in spiraling dreads. He appears to be the leader.
He conjures a small symbol from his armored vest that seems to look vaguely like a shield with serpentine images around it.
Karim nods and looks to his companions.
One of the others nods.
Arthak puts a bit of an emphasis on the top.
Karim nods.
Karim turns to the others, and the other two turn to head back into the hall.
He also turns to head back into the Hall of Divination.
He turns to walk back to camp, and his familiar crawls up his robes. They all return to their watch. Nothing further happens.
Levia and Nyxxa take the final watch, and near the end of it, Nyxxa hears strange sounds coming from the floor below them. However, she thought they were on the bottom floor.
Nyxxa shifts away from her spot.
Nyxxa tries to track the location, but she loses it. However, it’s getting quieter. Levia looks at Nyxxa, wordlessly asking if they should follow it.
As she watches, she sees crawling up on the side of the way that leads up to the Sanctum of Synergetics is a gangly white hand scrabble up the wall from under the side of the bridge. There are a set of eyes aglow with bright blue energy.
It sees Nyxxa, and it glares at her, hunched over. It looks like an orc, but it’s emaciated and hunched. Another one crawls up onto the bridge. They hiss at her, then a third, a fourth, a fifth, and then a sixth… but they start to walk away, heading across the bridge to the Sanctum of Synergetics.
During the night, Halno had been trying to communicate with Sylvos. For all his trying, it doesn’t seem to do anything. But, whatever it was… commanded magics he could not, and seemed to vanish as quickly as it appeared. Though interestingly enough, it seemed the moment that did was when he heard the strange, angelic song. When his faculties were forced from him. As soon as he allowed fear to enter his heart, it seemed to allow the moment to happen.
December 5th
The group starts to wake and prepares to set off again. For as much as they can tell, it’s super early in the morning on the 5th.
However, as Arthak starts to direct the group to go, four more arcane wraiths rise from the ground. One of them claws into Halno immediately.
Sadras tries to wail on it in retaliation, and she clubs it severely. Samaara also takes a shot, and the wraith disperses, dead.
Halno uses chill touch on one of the other wraiths, but a fourth claws at Arthak while another nabs Levia, drawing mana from her. Levia retaliates with toll the dead, but nothing seems to occur. She bites her lip angrily and braces herself.
Nyxxa whips around with her glaives, slicing through another one and dispersing it into glittering dust. She then runs for another and kills the second one. There’s only one remaining.
Arthak immediately fells the final one. Azgadaan looks around, not even having time to draw a weapon before the battle was complete.
